Middle Aged

Sorry for being off line for a few days but I have had a problem with the keyboard on my computer.... I think the connecting wire is not connecting any more. So for several days I have not had a keyboard on which to type. I am using a borrowed keyboard for the next few days until I get to town and buy a new one.

In two days I will be another year older. You would think that this would bother me but it really doesn't. I am happy to say that I went through my mid life crisis in my thirties and got it over with then. This decade has been a decade of shedding some of my obligations so that I can finally enjoy doing the things that I want to do without obligations hanging over my head. The problem is I don't know how to say no. That's a bad thing. I don't think I'm the only one. I hear many of my friends complain about having obligations that they don't want to fill. I shed a big one this week. I have decided to give up lay reading at the church and I am stepping down from all the positions that I hold there. It is a huge burden lifted off my shoulders and for the first time in years I feel free. I'm wondering if it is because I am middle aged.

One of my friends says that as she has gotten older she is quicker to say when things p--- her off, where as when she was younger she would keep her mouth shut and let things slide when it bothered her. Perhaps that is sort of what is happening to me... maybe I'm a little more testy about giving up my time, especially when it is taken for granted.

I want to get my business up and off the ground. I want to take pleasure in my family. I want to take vacations without having to worry about who is going to fill in for me while I am gone. I want to enjoy my deck more.... and stay home with Hubby on the weekends and sip tea till 11 a.m. if I want. I, in essence, want to retire. It is a good feeling to know that you can.

April 16th is my day. I'm looking forward to being another year older and maybe a little more wiser. All is good. Being middle aged is not so bad.

Scrambled Or Beaten

That's my brains today.... maybe even scrambled and beaten. I'm waiting for some herb biscuits to come out of the oven... and then I'm off to town for a day of spinning again. Hubby is away in Victoria and we miss him dreadfully... but while the cat's away the mice will play : ) Meanwhile, lack of sleep does not help my poor brain which has been fighting one of those ugly migraines for two days. Scrambled and beaten... yup that's me today.

At least the furnace is back on... propane in the tank and everything is fine..... no more whiffs of propane floating around the joint. All is calm cool and collected... except for me.

Have you ever gotten one of those days where you have so much to do that you don't no where to start? That's what's happening to me.... it all started with crawling into bed last night and having a dog to cozy with instead of a Hubby. Suffice it to say that a gimpy dog (for the last week) is not the best bed mate. Having woken several times because the wee bugger felt he should have tree quarters of the bed instead of the two foot square space alloted, and finally waking enough at 4:30 a.m. to heft said wee bugger off the bed altogether, doesn't make for a happy Frankie. So having tossed and turned for another hour, I finally got up and spun on the drop spindle for a while. At 6:45 a.m. I was feeling sleepy enough to go back to bed. Shortly after, I heard Daughter #2 get up to get her breakfast, probably because the wee bugger was now pestering her and trying to take control of her bed instead of mine. I drifted off into la la land only to be woken a short half hour later by a crumby cat meowing at the top of the steps in an effort to find a comfortable human to cozy with.

It was at that point that I had visions of a mad woman (me) in a rather thread bare nightie and very wild hair standing on the balcony outside her bedroom swinging a dog on the left and a cat on the right by their wee tails and sending them soaring through the air into space with a rubber L.L. Bean boot permanently sticking from their posteriors.... (I do have violent thoughts from time to time, but I try not to let it show...)

So I sit here waiting for my biscuits to come out of the oven (no I'm aware that they won't do that on their own) and then I'm heading off for my spinning and a day of relaxation....

If you see any wee buggers flying through the air.... well, you know that I lost it and my brains became completely scrambled and beaten....

Brrrr! It's Cold!

Me: Shiver, shiver!
Hubby: Brr... it's cold here this morning. Turn the furnace up when you go downstairs.
Me: !? Don't I always?!
I trudge downstairs and flick the furnace thingy..... nothing.....
Me: Dear.... (calling out in a sing song voice) the furnace won't cut in.
Hubby: Hmmmm....

(later) rattle..... bang...... clang.... rattle.... from under the house. The furnace cuts in
Me: sigh (of relief)
Hubby: (coming up from the crawl space)... Well the furnace is working but there's no propane...
Me: What?! That can't be.... I just had it filled Christmas time...... we usually get a whole year out of a tank..... I haven't even finished paying for the last lot..... argh.....
Hubby: I'll call and get a propane delivery..... we must have lost a lot with the leak a few weeks ago.
Me: Whahhhhhh!

So I sit and shiver while waiting for the propane truck to arrive.

Brrr!!!! It's cold!

The moral of the story is this..... get your leaks fixed right away... don't leave them....

The End Is Here!

It's not fair..... (whine)! The morning is beautiful, the sun is out, and the kids go back to school...... you would think that would make me happy. But there will be no relaxing till 10 a.m.... no drinking tea all morning,.... no pleasant and leisurely morning showers..... it's wham... bam..... thank you m'am mornings again with Hubby cursing on the food processor as he makes potted meat sandwiches for lunches as I trip over him while I'm making breakfast. It's yelling daughters as they vie for space in front of the upstairs mirror which is really small when there is a huge mirror in the downstairs bathroom. It is dysfunction on all sides again.

I did manage to get several skeins done for my level 3 homework, during March break though.... and I am proud to say that I am half finished my level 3 homework. Yeah!!! I have one skein that I am determined to get finished today which I really tried hard to get finished before I went to bed last night but I had been working all day and I was really tired so I gave up and went to bed.... I have one single left to do for a 3-ply yarn and it is still that blasted cotton/wool that I was having so much with. I decided that the skein which I thought was going to work really didn't work at all so I gave up and started again.... this is now the 7th try. Sometimes skeins are like that.

I've started walking each morning in an effort to lose weight. My weight loss program has not been aided by all the Easter chocolate. It's just too easy to get my hands on. Walking each morning is lovely though. The fresh air in your lungs... the vibrant colours and the bright light help to get you going.

Hubby and the girls just went out the door and all is quiet. CJ is coming this morning for some spinning and chatting, some lunch and maybe a trip to the Thrift Store for a little poking about. We will see. I enjoy these days and I usually want some mindless spinning to do so I will be working on my old friend the big j.c. Will I ever get that stupid thing done?!!! Oh yes.... it is coming right along. I'm plying weft today and then,... oh yeah.... I'm finished the spinning. And it is weave weave weave... all the way. Put the thing together and I'm done..... woo hoo!

Meanwhile Tootsie the wonder chicken herder bummed up his leg last night chasing his ball around the yard after it showed up semi frozen in a snow bank as the snow melted, so I have to carry him every where. Pinecone the crazy cat is sneezing like crazy, (I wonder if cats are allergic to mildew which might be in the hay after all winter). The sheep are looking like it won't be long before we are pulling lambs again. Yup.... it's spring!

So a day ahead full of things to do, friends to chat with, and it's sunny too..... how very lucky am I! There's much to be grateful for.... don't you think?..... Aren't you glad that the end is not really here, and that it's only the end of spring break......

Welcome Happy Morning

Easter... it seemed like two whole weeks of spring break leading up to the Easter weekend, would be wonderful and it has been, but it just flew by too fast. As I am writing Hubby is making one of his very delicious lemon meringue pies and the service for tomorrow is being spit out of my printer.

Flowers are everywhere in my house. Besides the Christmas cactus that is in full bloom, there are roses on my dining room table and there are daffodils on my coffee table and in the window are two swan shaped vases with a white rose, one each for the Daughters. I have purple mums in the fridge for my Mom and Dad and there are lilies and tulips in the outside fridge for the church. What would Easter be without a house (and a church) that looks like spring.

It has been a very busy few days. I have been spinning up a storm. After I finished the needlework sample, pictured in my last post, I got to work on the wool blending section. I finished a wool/silk blend on Wednesday night. Thursday morning I woke early and was really feeling enthusiastic about spinning so I got up early and started on my wool/cotton blend which sucked, so I tried again.... it sucked too.... I tried something else.... nah eh... another sucky sample. After 5 tries I was desperate to get a good cotton/wool blend that would spin nicely....
and nothing seemed to be working. What was I going to do?... I called everyone I knew in complete desperation and that just gave me a bunch of people who are sick of hearing about it.... but I was no closer to a solution..... finally it hit me that maybe I should try spinning my wool/cotton sample on my charkha..... woo hoo! Success at last. I now have two of my wool samples done and am working on my last wool sample.... I'll have it done tomorrow and I'm going to work on my novelty yarn on Monday.

Tuesday,Hubby and the Daughters go back to school and it's back to the big j.c. for me.... argh!..... : {

But in the meantime there are chocolate and flowers to enjoy.... and a service to staple together.... so I better get to it. Happy Easter to one and all.... hope your bunnies are not dust bunnies.... !

Too Cool, Two Cool Things

I've been working all day long. I started working on my silk for needlework sample for my level 3 homework and finally finished all the spinning last night just as I was going to bed. I was tempted to stay up and work on my needlework into the wee small hours of the morning but finally good sense won out and I decided that perhaps some sleep would make it better to work when I was fresh. This morning I woke up quite early and the first thing on my mind was my needlework.... I was excited to get started and so all day today I've been working on embroidery. This is the result......

I am really happy with my work. I think it is by far my best sample so far. The embroidery thread is spun in pure silk. The white is Bombyx silk and the ecru is spun in Tussah silk. I knew as soon as I found out that I would need to do a silk embroidery sample this year that I would use both Bombyx and Tussah on a black background though I didn't know what my picture would be then at Christmas time I received a catalogue in the mail from Northern Images and in it was an etched mirror with this picture on it and I knew in an instant that that would be my needlework sample.... I'm so proud.....

The second thing to tell you all about is the burl... I went to the guild member's house on Friday past to say my goodbyes since she is moving to New Brunswick which is way across country and I wanted to see her one last time before she left. In her living room was this really cool plant stand that was a burl that she and her husband had come across in the bush and dragged home. They had spent some time with a wire brush smoothing it down after all the bark had been removed and underneath, where it had gone through a fire in it past years, was this beautiful dark burnished wood. She put a base on it so that it would stand up and had it as a feature in her living room. I loved it and so I asked her if she was taking it with her or leaving it for the new people who are buying her house.... she said she hoped to take it with her but her husband was not happy about it and didn't want to.... that was it.... I never thought anything more about it.

As I was leaving she asked me if I had any fleeces that she could buy from me and I said that I had lots of fleeces and if she wanted one then I would send Hubby out with it in the afternoon and that she could have it as a going away gift.....

I left that afternoon for the Sock Workshop.

When I came home on Sunday there in my living room was the burl..... she gave it to me.... to ME... that was SO nice...... and it looks awesome in my living room..... at least I think so.


So there you have it..... two cool things which are too cool!

A Little More About The Workshop

Monday was a strange day.... I slept like a demon on Sunday night, and then Monday afternoon I conked out again. Still in between it all I did manage to get some work done on my level 3 homework. I have silk spun for my needlework. I still have to do a little more. But it is going better than expected.

Meanwhile I took some pictures from the Sock Workshop....

This was our manual.... full of excellent information...

We tried a superwash wool which I actually am dead set against since I really hate all the new fangled wools on the market that have been chemically tampered with. Superwash is wool that has had the scales removed by chemically treating it and then dipping it in plastic in order to change it enough to avoid felting.... thus making a washable wool. Would you want that on your baby.... I don't think so... and quite frankly I wouldn't want to put it on me either.... but I did try a sample and this is it.... it was quite soft but man, all those chemicals... why can't humans leave something perfect alone....

We tried wool blends with a nylon called Firestar and has a really amazing shininess to it.... still though it is nylon.... yuck!
I liked this sample the most.... it is a Blue Faced Liecester wool (BFL) and silk blend and felt lovely. The gold stuff has bamboo in it and also goes through a serious chemical process.
This was a self striping yarn where I used a Navajo ply method to keep the blocks of colour in tact...
This was a really harsh yarn that I didn't like the feel of but spun like a dream... Bamboo/Mohair/wool blend and would make an awesome sturdy yarn for a work sock in cool colours. Maybe it would soften with washing... hmm... maybe I'll have to try it...

And after all is said and done I now have the warp for the Big j.c. done..... woohoo.
I am working on a silk sample for my level 3 so that's what I'm off to do.... that and watch a movie.... see ya!