Mad cats….some spinning too…

Greetings everyone! Coming at you from the bliss of having a day off in the middle of the week.  I don’t really like working on Saturdays, but it comes with an added bonus of taking my Tuesday off. So I plan to just chill out with my coffee and then get some stuff done today. On the list:laundry.Bleh.  I will probably take myself to the gym at some point for some torture and beyond that –who knows?

So I came here to the computer to blog and had to promptly remove the cat from my chair….Apparently it was warmer than her window seat and she wanted it. I stuck her in HER spot and this was the look i got…

This is an, “Excuse me, but what the HELL do you think you’re doing?” Oh well. She’ll forget as soon as i put the food bowl out.  Speaking of angry cats, i got a shot of a real happy one (not) at work. My co-worker had brought her cute calico in and if looks could kill, we’d all be fried….

That cat hates me.

On to spinning. Once again, i busted the camera out, people groaned and there was a rush of hurried primping. Ladies ran their fingers through their hair, covered up cleavage, checked their teeth, etc. I gave the camera to Kat and this is what she got:(this was a really hilarious time this week, i tell you, these women get DIRTY)

Who has the biggest balls?  Linda does!  BTW, no one falls for it when you stuff your bra, really…

Here’s Kat, i have been trying to get a good picture of her FOREVER, but its only a profile,

And i let someone get ME with the camera for a change. I am sort of hiding, but I do have my favorite baseball cap of all time on (GO TIGERS!)…

That’s my Alice in the picture with me. I love my wheel. She is an Ashford Traveller DT. Here’s what i have been spinning with her lately…Sorry shots are crappy, it was kind of dark.

This is actually Jenna’s batt from my last post. Yay! its so pretty!

What was on my wheel that night……

Coiled yarn and some spindle stuff.  Ending this for now, just to get it published. It has been drafted for almost a week!

Want AD – ;-)

WANTED: One hot bod for me to wear – must be sexy, blonde, lean and tan, with killer arms and butt. Optional accessories: I want the stamina of a person half my age, with the positive outlook and neverending optimism to go with it.  Willing to pay.

yeah, and people in hell want ice water too…..

It’s June Already! and other ramblings…..

Greetings Folks! Yay! Its JUNE! Hopefully that means its going to get WARM………..SOMEDAY!  Its kind of crappy and gloomy and damp and chilly right now, but the weatherman is predicting rain, but with highs in the 80’s. Lets hope so.  I always liked winter as a kid, and fall is still my favorite season, but I sure want the weather to get nice….er.

Anyhow, even though the weather hasn’t been everything I have wanted, I have managed to get out and enjoy it. For instance, i have taken my lovely wheel out back and spun in the sun on the deck, and while I babysat one weekend, it was so nice, the kids wanted to play outside. While the munchkins were running around, I got to sit on the grass and watch, and so managed to spin some on my spindle (which caught their attention and fascinated them to no end) and spun an eeny hank of yarn. It looks like this. After i spun the singles, i Andean plied….

  Nice and colorful. Not sure what I’m going to do with it, but i will go in the stash “destined for a bigger project, just don’t know which” for now.

As usual have been attending my SABLE group with regularity. I have gone back to kickboxing 1 night a week, but have forgone the first night of the week so i can get my fiber friends fix.  I find myself looking forward to talking with them all (be it online or otherwise) and Monday nights more and more often. They are the people who share my obsession and understand it, so who can blame me for ditching another 45 minutes of torture a week to pursue the really fun stuff? Don’t get me wrong, I want to be more fit but HEY! — this is FIBER ARTS BABY! YEAH!  So i will just drag myself to the gym to run like a hamster on an elliptical machine. (I did 3.5 miles yesterday, unbelievable)

Speaking of my fiber friends here is a shameless plug for my friends store Uniquely Yours! Creative style and Design on Etsy… she makes some great stuff, I recently bought one of her batts and it is COOL! I have spun it already and it is hanging in the shower to dry. (it is too damp outside, otherwise it would be on the clothesline – i set the twist on some yarn the other day and put it in the sun– it was dry before NOON)

Here she is with my precious darling batt, beautiful (I WANT ANOTHER ONE ALREADY!)

She really isn’t on drugs, I assure you, she is just blown away by the awesomeness of her batt, and it shows.(or she’s having an epiphany…hmmm…) She can be found on Etsy, Uniquely Yours Design. (THANK YOU GOD, I HAVE JUST LEARNED HOW TO DO A HYPERLINK! FINALLY!)

And of course we had our usual fun on Monday — here is Jenna looking absolutely normal…..

She does look extremely happy, with her new LENDRUM wheel, she has only had it for over a week or so. (in the corner you can see Lisa’s Majacraft. (it is such a pretty wheel). And of course, everybody is so happy to see me stalking them with my camera again…

Erica, (you can’t see her Joy – i wish i had one of those too, but i really want one of EVERY wheel). Here is some of her beautiful creativeness…..

You can’t see a lot of detail, but trust me, they’re Beautiful. Can you believe she MAKES these? Holy Crap. I am NOT that talented.

Here Kat will have to visualize a lovely picture of herself….I don’t want to be murdered. It was Not a Good Picture of everyone else. I prefer to be kind and flatter people if i can! 

Can’t wait for next weekend! We are having a group dyeing day of our roving. I have sorted out my goodies ahead of time and i have a pound of merino coming at me too! Yay! Wishing you all fun in life and whatever else you do! Done here for now!

 

Spring is finally here…..I think….

Yeah, maybe spring is here. I know that it has seemed like mother nature is playing with us, but maybe, just maybe this is the real thing. I hope so, cuz if not, my plants are all going to go down the drain. I spent part of my day today planting some lovely stuff in my brand new flower bed. This was fun. I have been wanting to tear up that particular chunk of yard for over a year and my hubby beat me to it. Surprised me one day after work, had it all ready for me, and some plants to boot!

I added to the plant stash (i bought some perennnials as well as the annuals he had me supplied with) so that next year I won’t be face with a big empty garden again.  So this is what i had to start with….

    Well, there are twenty odd tomato plants in there ( i like to can roma tomatoes and make pasta sauce and stuff and yes, i just like to eat canned tomatoes)and some zucchini and cucumbers and a squash or two as well, but this is what i managed to come up with when i was done planting. Keep in mind that this stuff will all grow in and the cement blocks and hoses and such will all be invisible by then. I will also have more rocks and will have mown my lawn by then too!

I did make one boo-boo tho’. I went to Lowe’s to get some fertilizer.  We have some miracle go on hand, but that is not my favorite. I really like this one stuff that comes in a red box made for tomatoes, but i can never seem to find it. But i did find one that seemed passable only to come home and get the tools out of our shed and find this:

Oops. Good thing I saved the receipt……I guess i can go return that and buy the trellis i was drooling over for my morning glories. At least Lowe’s is close enough for me to walk. I’m not wasting any gas, really.

Did some dyeing today too. As I write this, everything is in my bathroom hanging up to dry. So you are not going to see it today! you don’t need to see all that crap in my bathroom!  I may have to invest in some washfast or jacquard acid dyes. i am trying to mix stuff, and trying to embrace the fact that you may not always get what you expect, but i’m kind of tired of the candy bright colors i’m getting. i try to tone them down and i just get color barf. Maybe it just takes practice. anyhow, dyed some knitpicks bare merino sock yarn to make me some yummy socks. i love handmade socks. Here is the one i finished for mom: sorry about the terrible photography…

You can sort of see some of the detailing anyways, And yes, that is a wooden airplane skeleton hanging in the background, you are not seeing things. Dh’s crafty project.

Some pictures from my visit to mom and dad’s:

this is Ranger, the best dog in the whole world. Sorry, i think i got part of my mom’s dr. pepper bottle in the picture.

This is my dad’s wall of fame. For those of you who don’t know, my dad is retired from 34 years in the MSP. These are all awards and certificates he received during his career, and some things he received upon retirement. I helped him hang all this stuff up when i lived at home with mom and dad and it is one of my favorite things about their house.  It is definitely something to be proud of.

This is part of a stained glass lamp that my grandpa (my mom’s dad) was working on and never finished before he died. my mom had it made into a hanging, so she could put it in the window.  Another favorite thing. (i love sentimental stuff like that, its why i have stuff like that at my house too)

Well, this post is long enough, i will let you all know how memorial day turned out. Hope you have a good one and remember why we have it!

 

Back at it….

Sorry guys, haven’t posted so much lately, have been very busy. Of course the thing that gets dropped first is the blog. Sorry no pictures today. Buuuuuuuuut….i did get my camera fixed! For those of you who have noticed, every time i wanted to take a snapshot, I had to fiddle with it first. Now this is no more! Wahoo! DH fixed it for me. It is so nice to have your own personal Mr. Fixit. I sure do appreciate mine. So soon, there should be some more neato stuff on the way.

what have i  been doing?

1. Celebrated the anniversary with the hubby. Took some time off work and just vegged out together. that was great!

2.  Had a great time spinning and finished the first sock(finally) in my field of flowers socks for my mom. (picture later)

3. Worked, what else?

4. Had dinner with my nice friend Dana whilst i lent out my Mr. Fixit to fix her computer so it would last a little longer.

5. Showed off my new flower bed in the backyard prepared for me by my own Mr. Fixit  to previously aforementioned friend.

6. Spent time with my parents. Didn’t get to see Mom for mother’s day cuz she was leaving for D.C. that day so spent last weekend with them.  I LOVE YOUR BARBECUE DAD! YUM!

7. and spent the rest of the time sleeping, sniffling, sneezing, you name it, while i fight off this horrible cold. trust me guys, you think you need time off from work? you don’t want it. this is a nasty one.

O.K. that’s it for today, i gave you something to read for now. more later! Cheers!

 

Grrrr…….

You remember what it is like when you look forward to something? You think about it, you plan, you do little stuff to prepare. You are just happy that something nice is going to happen. It makes you smile, you think about it from time to time, the whole day looks brighter and it is always in the back of your mind even when you are concentrating on daily life.  The past couple of days have been like that for me. Excited happy, cheery. (i sure do hate it when i’m perky like that) Until i called my husband. “Why?’, you may ask yourself. “What could burst Chris’s bubble like that? That doesn’t usually happen.” The thing is…I actually allowed myself TO GET MY HOPES UP. Figures.  Crap.  Usually, my husband says something like, “I’ll be home on Sunday.” I say, “Okay” (deep in my head a little voice goes, “Yeah, SURE. right, uh-huh whatever”) and when he doesn’t come home on sunday and it’s friday instead and i have to WORK on Saturday I’m totally calm and okay and I have an okay week. BUT NO — This time in my head the little voice said, “YAY! I get to see my spouse! wahoo! what fun!” and i’m planning and scheming and i’m practically jumping up and down in my chair……..He was supposed to come home on Wednesday! Now, he’s not coming home until MONDAY. Dammit.(i actually went TANNING so i would look good. if i could have physically shaved 10 pounds off my body in two days without contracting a disgusting illness, i would have done it just to look better) So now I sit at my spinning wheel and spin and stare at Anthony Bourdain on the travel channel ogling busty blonde european beauty queens and plotting revenge against his Russian buddy Zamir. (not that i don’t think you’re awesome Tony Bourdain, but i HATE watching men stare at women) (if they’re not me, i guess)

Okay. deep breaths. Ordinarily without the DH I have a great time. I have plenty of time to myself, i get to have an incredible amount of hobbies, free time, peace, quiet, but i guess sometimes its fun to share it with someone–especially if you’ve been married 4 years and 5 days and haven’t spent your anniversary together yet. I suppose after a while it will not be such a novelty but we really only spent 1 anniversary together in the first place. Year one: DH was struck by salmonella (not my fault, a caterer at a gig was the culprit) and we celebrated (not really) in the emergency room between his trips to the bathroom and my running desperately to avoid watching my hubby barf. Year two: we did get to have dinner (at 8 pm)before he collapsed in bed to get up at 4 in the morning to go to work. last yer we did nave a nice time(finally) wejust hung out (seems boring but it really isn’t) shopped (my favorite) had dinner and the rest is nobody’s business(actually i’m not sure really but who cares). So it is still kind of new to us, and we like to make plans. 

Alright, alright, stepping off of the soap box. Concentrate on the positive: I did have fun last night — and i had a spinning success today too. So here are the pictures, i know the girls are waiting for them. (of course if you didn’t know, last night was our SABLE night, and we had a great time again)

     Lisa — this one is for you — you’re gorgeous, I should stalk you with my camera more…Her site is A Little Bit of Knit — blog on my blogroll on the right (i’ll figure out hyperlinks soon — probably when DH comes back, lets not go there)

NEXT!

  Obviously a great time was had by all!  I love getting photos like this!

   Sara, getting a spindle lesson from Sandy. I love it! This is exactly why i love all these women! They are all so willing to help each other. Its great. Sorry no spindle lesson from me this week guys, i was just having fun watching you all.

  Okay Ann — i put this in my post, but only under protest — I do NOT LOOK GOOD. I will have to temper this image later with better photos of me…..

I did have a great accomplishment today: When plying my yarn i was always having problems, it was super twisty and would get all tangled. However, after reading a little on spinning i considered this: i always ply my yarn right after i’m done spinning the last single of that particular yarn– the twist is still very active in the single — what if i let it rest? will it tangle less? It did! it sure helped a lot. letting it rest a while at least “deactivates” the twist in the single, but the twist is still okay, it is just dormant, but at least it lets my ply without turning into a huge mess. Rather than stressing me out, plying was lots of fun and i could spend more time concentrating on how i wanted the singles plied together rather than just managing them so they don’t become a total disaster. So this ws heartening.  So– i bid you all goodnight, i am going to stick my yarn in some hot water and spend some time on anger management ( like whacking the crap out of it when it is done soaking) have a great day!

Support Our Troops

Nope, no spinning or knitting here today either.  So let my first statement be: I don’t care whether or not you agree with the war in Iraq. To me, that is completely irrelevant.  But to face facts, our guys are over there right now, no matter how anyone feels, and the right thing is to support them. 

Why am I posting about such a hot topic anyways? I will tell you why. I am touching on this subject because my husband’s very best friend is over there RIGHT NOW. So this is important to me. I haven’t known Jake for as long as my husband has, but those two have been friends their entire lives, so someone who is important to my guy is important to me.  Jake and his family have been there for me a lot when I needed someone (esp. with DH gone sometimes)(they have picked me up when my car died more times than i care to mention!)(and dug me out of snowbanks…….) (AHEM, note to self: don’t drive through giant mudpuddles on roads after rainstorms and PAY ATTENTION when you are driving)

Jake arrived in Iraq one or two days ago. He had a chance to speak with DH and i guess he is still OK. We wait to hear from him again.  I believe he will be there for a year or so. Hopefully everything goes well. We are all wanting him to come home safe. ]SO- I was looking at some internet resources today and found some things I liked.. Good sites to visit, etc. Here are some…. (sorry if it is weird, i don’t know how to insert a hyperlink yet) The USO: www.uso.org or, alternatively, www.usocares.org. I also liked www.americasupportsyou.mil. Feel free to look around on the web, all kinds of patriotic stuff, but just be sure, if you decide to give money or something that you’re giving to a reputable organization. I noticed some weird stuff out there.

This is pretty much all i have to say. Just remember those people out there… even if you didn’t want to send them over there, we’re all still in this together and they need to know we care about them.

Happy Anniversary

 

It’s been four years baby, what more to say? I love you..

A fun Monday? Wow….

Howdy! Coming at you from EARLY Tuesday morning…why? Because I actually scared the crap out of myself and woke up!  Did you ever have that feeling that you overslept for work? I did…and then i woke up! Then realized it was Tuesday and I don’t have to be there yet…Oops.

Had a great time last night. Our S.A.B.L.E. group  changed locations and pace for one week. Instead of our regular meet,  we had a wine and cheese tasting along with knitting and spinning. Now, i don’t normally like wine, so i went dedicated to just have some cheese and crackers, but i tried some reisling (sp?) anyways — not bad! maybe this non-wine person can learn to like some. Did have a great cup of coffee tho’ – as a coffee freak i can always find one somewhere — a smooth Irish. it was very yummy. Ok. on to the pictures! yay!

 You can see Sandy, Kat , Ann and some of lisa’s hair and the back of Erica’s head!

  Jenna and Lisa….(jenna is laughing because i threatened lisa with a butt shot if she didn’t get her tushie back into the seat for a picture! Lisa was more than happy to sit back down for the picture!)

   Whew. Another group shot… I didn’t get a shot of everybody, for which i feel bad, but don’t worry, we meet once a week, so I’m sure i’ll drag my camera with me some more!  I have so much fun with these ladies each week. They are all dolls!

I had two protegees this week too, teaching them to use a drop spindle..i didn’t get a picture of Ann spindling(she is in the above picture knitting though) but I did get one of Sara (sorry if i butchered the spelling of your name) She is doing park and draft, which i just got to teach her!

 

That is all for today! I’m going to use my new niddy-noddy! Jenna made it for me, BTW — I love you Jenna!

 

What do you want to do when you grow up?

  Yep, that’s my chubby mug with a snake.  An albino burmese python named Maggie (the fact that i had a cat named Maggie at one time has not escaped me either). Her owner is a client where i work, and was nice enough to let me get my picture taken with her. She’s pretty nice. Since i grew up in mortal fear of snakes, I find this wonderful fun. Years ago, i would not have gotten near Maggie, but now, this can be kind of OK (yeah i’ve got that S.E. grin). I still don’t want to take one home, but I can say I’m brave enough to be around them(but only in zoos or work or something not in the woods!)  How did I run into Maggie in my everyday life?  At my clinic, we have a doctor who sees exotics. Yes, we see lots of dogs and cats (and sometimes i wish we could do things with large animals) but i get my share of lizards,rats, ferrets, bunnies and i even think i saw a chinchilla once (they are SUPER soft), and snakes like Maggie.  Its a lot of fun, adds some interest to life, especially when you get great stuff like this. Hats off Maggie, thanks for cooperating, had a great time- hope you’re doing better!

On another note….Thanks you guys for when i was down in the dumps.Kat and Lisa are too sweet.  Made me feel good to know people were thinkin of me.  But I cannot WAIT for this weekend. 1 more day — and I’ll have to days all to myself. Don’t know what to do yet, but you can bet it will be something fun…. want to see some of the dyeing I did last weekend? I know i promised i would, so here is some…   I overdyed some gray with autumny colors….i wonder how this will spin up?

And Next…..  gray again with pink and green…some neps tho’….

Another one….  This one looks a lot more green than it really is (mill ends from the sheep shed) Spinning these is going to be so fun! Me and Alice are gonna spend some quality time together.  Soon as i get my stuff together. Wahoo! Have fun! TGIF tomorrow!