Starts with M
One of our cats is Mitten. He is a long-haired cat whom Marc adopted from the SPCA before I met him. His name used to be Mitch, but I didn't think that suited him, and he became Mitten. Marc always just calls him Kitty in any case!
Mitten is de-clawed. I know that makes a lot of people upset, but considering the costs Marc incurred for the damage Mitten did prior to the de-clawing, I can understand why he did it. A lot of curtains and furniture were damaged beyond repair, not to mention wood trim in the house needing to be repaired or entirely replaced. A scratching post was of no use in stopping the behaviour. I have to say, having an indoor cat who is de-clawed is very beneficial to the furniture! I did try using the soft claw caps on Izzy for a while, but they would come off within a few days no matter how many times I glued them back on. She would just work at them and chew them off. It was pointless, and she caused a lot of damage, but nothing like Mitten did when Marc first owned him. Mitten really is a beautiful cat and I am quite fond of him.
Cloth
I do some weaving, as some of you know already. Weaving on a loom is a way of making cloth. I recently did a piece of weaving that was testing the results of different weft yarns (side to side yarns) on the same warp yarn (back to front yarn). The pale green is the warp. The three sections of weaving are each done with a different weft.
This section was done with a chenille blend yarn. It makes a lovely cloth that is very soft.
This section was done with a brightly coloured variegated yarn with some gold sparkle to it. The pale green weft is more visible in this cloth.
This section was done with a novelty yarn that has a lot of texture. It creates a completely different cloth from the other two samples. You really don't see the warp in this one.
It is amazing how the same warp yarn can be used to create such different types of cloth.
Everyday Things
Before I talk about everyday things, I'm going to have a little rant about the word everyday. As a person who writes for a living, and a person who loves language, I am very frustrated by the misuse of the word "everyday" as a substitute for the words "every day."
Everyday: an adjective to describe things that are commonplace, mundane or ordinary
Examples: A hurricane is not an everyday occurrence. Doing the laundry is an everyday activity.
Every day: an adverbial phrase meaning each day
Examples: I eat at least 5 vegetables every day. I am glad I do not have to do the laundry every day.
So, in one sentence:
Doing the laundry is an everyday activity, but I don't do laundry every day.
An easy way to tell whether you are using "everyday" properly is to try replacing "everyday" with "ordinary" and see if the sentence still makes sense.
Doing the laundry is an ordinary activity. Makes sense. Thus, use everyday.
I don't do laundry ordinary. Makes no sense. Thus, use every day.
There is a lovely wool and fibre shop not far from me that has a motto "Create beauty everyday." I cringe every time I see that motto, which is included on her business cards and on a beautiful hooked rug on her website. I know what she means...but it's an incorrect use of everyday. She means "Create beauty every day." The phrase "Create beauty ordinary" makes no sense. I wish I could fix it!
Anyway, on to "everyday things" which as we all know means "ordinary things" and not things that we do every day...
Autumn is upon us, so leaves turning shades of red and yellow have become everyday things. I love autumn colours, but I am not looking forward to winter. Here are some everyday autumn sights from my yard.
Virginia creeper on the arbour.
Maple leaves turning colour
I love the not-so-everyday heart in this everyday leaf!
And here, just for fun, is some everyday laundry, which I don't do every day!
11 comments:
I am glad that there are still defenders of the English language.
I concur on language use; this old proofreader sees a lot of misuse and it is AGGRAVATING! Beautiful cat and cloth, Claire; the letter should have been "C" – hee!
I certainly understand the objection to improper use of words being an irritation. Your weaving is delightful.
That is a good way of explaing boht those words and I think you should let that lady know about her card and web site name. She probably would be pleased to know someone took such an interest. Love all the cloth that you weave. I am off to MAlawi again next week, visiting y family so although I hope to schedule all my posts in I wil not be commenting. Family comes first. Have a wonderful weekend.
Love your weaving!
Well Claire, it depends on where you come from, how one's language use is. I have taken on the American way of spelling, instead of the British English way.
So, it is arbor, not arbour, and it is color, not colour. And my goodness, I have never heard about a difference between everyday and every day. The difference is just one space!!
This is similar to when foreigners learn Dutch. The Dutch have made it a habit of combining two or three words, and making it into one. When we lived in the Hague, our address was Geversdeynootweg, not Gevers dey Noot weg! The Germans would be very upset, because they write every word seperately, and every noun is capitalized.
One last thing, on the internet it is okay to write names without a capital, and it has become common to start a sentence without a capitol. Am afraid, you're going to cringe a lot, when you're around me.
...Claire, thanks for the English lesson, I needed to be reminded now and then. My son is an English teacher and bails out now and then. I'd love to weave, perhaps when I retire.
I enjoyed your rant! Grammatical errors on signs drive me crazy and in turn, I drive my husband crazy, pointing them out.
Hi Claire, I really enjoyed reading this post. Your everyday laundry that you don't do every day is sooo colorful handing out there. It reminds me of my mom's when were on the farm growing up. It was fairly colorful as a lot of our clothing was made from feed sacks. Our fuzzy Farrah Faucet Minew cat (daughter, Karen, named her), a free one I also brought home, getting her as a kitten out of a box in front of the grocery store, wouldn't stop climbing our sheers. So she became an outside cat and lived in our back yard. She finally died of old age in the flower bed beside the garage.
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This was a great post. Thanks for the grammar lesson. I had to look back at my post and make sure I'd written it correctly. Thankfully, I had. :)
Mitch/Mitten is a beautiful kitty and looks so very soft!
Your weaving is beautiful. It is something that I'd like to learn how to do at some point. Our daughter has a loom, but I haven't been brave enough to give it a try.
Have a blessed day. :)
Hi Claire,
Totally off topic, I just want to thank you for that wonderful roasted tomato recipe you posted a year or so ago. It is delicious! I roast at least 3 bushels of tomatoes using your recipe. My freezer has a whole shelf devoted to it!
Again, thanks so much!
If the cat never goes out declawing is forgiveable (nearly) but for an outside cat it would be the death. Mitten is a beautiful cat ! My cats are all going in an out like they want and that's why they forget about the furniture ! But when Arthur was little he attacked also everything. What I did I bought a water pistol and shot on him ! That helped, lol !
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