Sunsets and Ethereal Clouds

I am absolutely enamored with clouds.  This is two in a series I took the 2/15/11.  The shape and color of a cloud at sunset changes with such rapid speed.  Unless each photo is taken very quickly, what you get is an ever changing array of glorious colors and shapes-all painted by God.  I'm just the lucky girl capturing tiny little fragments of such masterful art.

:)

Energy?

What is this stuff.  The hubby, was not feeling well this morning, so he took the day off.  I got the little people ready for school and dropped them off.  I came back to the house and had my coffee/Frasier/knitting ritual. I don't like to miss that and it appears that I may be doing exactly that soon!  -More about that later though.  I proceeded to get up and start cleaning my kitchen. This job was long overdue.  I worked on laundry, installed a new ink cartridge in the printer, folded laundry... bla bla bla.  It's odd for me to have this much energy lately.  It's all part of the no/low motivation to do things creative or otherwise.  As I was in my cleaning frenzy, I remembered my outing to the YMCA yesterday. I took a friend's 'yoga stretch' class and afterward, walked about 3/4 mil on a treadmill. I wonder if the small amount of exercise I had is contributing to my slightly higher than normal, energy level... This is something with which I can ponder and experiment.

As the miles and miles I have to go pass by me ever so slowly, it's occurring to me that I will need to go find some type of employment.  Then I will have an even better excuse to not be creative.  Unless someone can come up with a way for me to earn a regular paycheck and be creative as well....  ;)

At least my house will be cleaner than normal today-and on any day, that is a good thing.

Happy Jumpin' Lambie. :)

Happy Thursday. I haven't made any diabolical plans yet for my loom. I'm not amused either.  I have frittered away yet another morning.   I've begun to wind a warp for tea towels.. But whole idea isn't really very exciting.   I think I need to use my little Happy Jumpin' Lambie as my mascot and muse.  Maybe she will help provide me with some direction. 

In the Spring, there will be a number of Fiber Festivals taking place.  I'm usually a vendor at two of them.  With the economy tanking, the festivals I attended last year were so unfruitful.  I'm considering dropping away from both of them.  If I manage to weave some interesting things and price them unreasonably low, I might have a little more profit.  Weaving is incredibly labor intensive.  There is no real overhead for me since I have so much fiber stored away.  So, I would be losing out on labor in the end.   :::shrug:::  Taking a negative view of all this so incredibly  counterproductive.  So, I need to get up from the computer, walk over to my warping board and get busy, right??!!  Yes!  So, it looks like some beautiful, reasonably priced, handwoven tea towels for me....!

A Winter's day

It's snowing again.  I really love that 'snowed in'  feeling on a Winter's day. (even though I know we're really not)   Each time we've had the opportunity to be 'snowed in' this Winter, I have thought of the song. "I am a Rock".   I'm not nearly as jaded as the person in the song.   It's not December and I'm certainly not shielded in my armor..@@  But some parts of the song resonate with me for some unknown reason. I do love this season.  There's not much snow here in the Mid-South, so I have to treasure what I get.  These days fill me with a longing to start and complete projects having artistic value.  So, as my children play a video game together and laugh wildly, I will sit with my glass of wine and computer and plan my artistic escape for tomorrow- when they're all home again-snowbound, stir crazy for the 13th time this school year....  So tune in tomorrow to see what diabolical plan I have devised for my own amusement...

 

 

A Winter's day

In a deep and dark December;

I am alone,

Gazing from my window to the streets below

On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.

I am a rock,

I am an island.

I've built walls,
A fortress deep and mighty,
That none may penetrate.
I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

Don't talk of love,
But I've heard the words before;
It's sleeping in my memory.
I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died.
If I never loved I never would have cried.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

And a rock feels no pain;
And an island never cries.

 

-Simon and Garfunkel

My friend Diana found a photo of a sheep in a garter belt, stockings and stilettos.  So naturally she sent it to me. I wrote the first line of this poem as a status update the other day when it was raining so hard, I thought I should be building a moat.  Diana in her creativeness wrote the rest..

There's a moat around my house - I didn't put it there....
I need a boat - so I can motor my way outta here ....

If sheep could fly, I'd have it easy - wouldn't have a care ...
But they wear heels and they're lazy -- so I'll shave them bare!

Diana's a funny girl...  :)

Restless!

Did you ever have so many projects in your head, you didn't know where to start..?  That's me right now.  I have 'projects in progress'  or "on needles', I have projects that have supplies purchased and are waiting in line right behind the p.p.'s   Then of course there are the projects that live only in my head... Who knows if they will ever come to fruition!

I also have Fiber Workshops and Classes to teach!  I'm really excited about these two things. It gives me joy to share my craft with like minded people.  Some students get it right away and spin yarns that I would have been proud to spin after a year or so!  Some decide after the first class they don't share the same enthusiasm or perhaps dexterity and they drift away.  I feel bad about these students.  I feel like I've failed them somehow and wonder what I could have done to give them that "Ah ha!" moment so many beginning spinners cherish!

I ran in to a friend yesterday who took my "Beginning Spinning" class last year and totally 'got it'!  She did very well.  I haven't spoken to her in a couple months as we have both been busy with the holidays, children etc..  She told me that she had purchased a spinning wheel! Students who take my class begin with a simple, rudimentary drop spindle.  It is an inexpensive means to and end.  If the student grasps the concept of spinning and enjoys it, then they can make the decision to spend more money on a wheel and produce greater quantities of yarn.  -There are many, quite proficient drop spindlers out there and they would argue this point.  Notwithstanding, I prefer my wheel for it's ability to produce!

I was excited for my friend as she talked about her new wheel.  As we talked, I realized- last fall this woman, whose excitement and enthusiasm I was sharing, would have been referred to as an acquaintance.  Now, she is my friend.  My journey to find exactly where I fit in the in the grand scheme of the fiber world, becomes clearer with each student and each bit of fiber secrets we share.  It's much more than just making yarn.  :)

Snowy Southern Day

It was a beautiful, Winter day.  The snow clung to every branch.  It was a wet, good packing snow.  The kind that are great for snowballs and giant snowmen.  We dont' get too many of these days in the South.  That was January 26th.

Today is January 30, the high was 68.  It was sunny and beautiful. The same is to be expected until Tuesday, February 1st... It will be warm again with *strong* storms later in the day.  Then, non-accumulating snow on Wednesday.  The ups and downs of the weather here can be annoying at best.  ::sigh::  Being that we cannot change it, I'll just keep the memory of this lovely day in my head and here on my blog.  :)

Irony and Premature excitement... @@

Hmm.  I spoke too soon!  I got quite busy knitting mug cozies and had completed at least 10 of them.  Last Friday I gathered all my cozies, business cards, display rack and headed to the cafe.  To my complete and utter surprise, the cafe was closed.  It wasn't just -not open- that morning, but closed for GOOD! 

I subscribe to the idea that all things happen for a reason.  Ergo, there's a reason my product didn't make it to the cafe. So, I will just keep looking for a place to peddle my wares..  But darn if that cafe wasn't the perfect place! 

Excited

I went to my new favorite cafe this morning to have a bagel, raspberry iced tea and do a little networking. The cafe sponsors local artisans by selling their art in the cafe.  So I brought some of my hand knit mug cozies to the lovely young woman who handles all this.  She was more than happy to carry my cozies and I am more than happy to let her have all she wants!  So now, it's time to get knitting!  Happy happy.

I have miles of yarn to knit before I sleep!

Anniversary

Today marks my 5th Anniversary of being cancer free.  I was diagnosed with cervical cancer on July 25, 2005.  The surgery was scheduled just 2 weeks after the diagnosis. I didn't tell my children at the time because they were so young.  8, 6 and 3.  We just didn't want to scare them with the word cancer.  Our 3 year old might not have even known what the word cancer means.  Hearing the word cancer fills me with dread.We didn't want to put that dread into our children.

This past Spring, our youngest son's Cub Scout Pack were participants/vendors in a Relay for life event.  I felt as though this would be the right opportunity to tell our children about my cancer.  My husband is also a cancer survivor.  He had thyroid cancer twice in the early 90's.  Telling our children about our experience was a very cathartic experience.  We assured them that we're now healthy and that having cancer is not as dark as it seems.  Since the Relay for Life, I have grown emotionally in relation to being a cancer survivor.  It's no longer a subject that cannot be discussed in front of my children. I see more opportunities for growth and fulfillment.  My husband gave me a cello and violin for my birthday this past June.  I've longed to learn to play these instruments for many years. It's sort of a 'Bucket List' item.  So, when I am done writing for today, I will play my cello in my quiet home and enjoy the moment.

Today is my Mom's birthday.  She would have been 83 this year.  She passed from this world October 24, 1983 from Leukemia.  I chose this day for my surgery 5 years ago, because I wanted her birthday to be a day of rebirth for me as well.  Happy Birthday Mom.  I love you and miss you so very much.

The first real day 8-9-10

Last night, sleep did not come easily.  There seemed to be so much to do before the first real day of school.  Last week, our 3 children only had 1 half day.  It was a mere 2.5 hours of getting used to where things are in school, teachers, classmates, etc.  When my husband and I  dropped them off that morning, not one of them looked back.  They didn't look back today either.  I wasn't surprised.

I went home to my empty house for the first time.  It wasn't as lonely and empty as I had suspected.  I needed to feed our horse, dog, bunny and then come back in to clean.  Oddly enough, cleaning is something I am sort of looking forward to in all these new beginnings.  For the last 100 years or so, my home hasn't ever been what I would call 'clean'. We will, for now, say it's messy and 'lived in'... I went about my farm duties with the horse and dog.  When I arrived at the bunny's hutch, I found he had passed away in the night. I've had little "Hoppy George Egore" for 5 years now.  He was a wonderfully soft and beautiful little bunny.  I had suspected that he was approaching an elderly status, but that did not take the sting out of finding him gone.  I went about the work that needed to be done in the 80 some degrees of the 10 o'clock morning heat.

When I finished my morose task, I walked soaked, into the house for the next of 'firsts'.  I hadn't realized it, but I have never taken a shower alone in my own home before.  There were always children or a husband buzzing about prior to this morning.  I've looked forward to having some autonomy in my day for some time now.  But this morning, it just seemed to be another depressing thing to face.  Being a grown up, I muddled through my solitude and went to my Chiropractor appointment.  After having dug a small, bunny sized grave in the hard, red clay, this appointment is just what I need. Spending too much of that time digging that grave in the ragweed laden August air has left me a sneezy, tickly and aching mess.  Currently, I sit in a cafe, pondering the events of my morning and calculating the rest of the day .

This isn't all what I had envisioned for my first 'grown up' day with my children at school and husband at work...  I honestly thought I would be sitting at my loom, joyfully weaving or sitting in a sunny spot, spinning alpaca with Tchaikovsky playing softly in the background.

It's a good thing I'm able to laugh at myself through my tears of loss for Hoppy, my empty home where my now, non home-schooled children used to be and the strings of sneezes that punctuate these moments. 

I truly have miles to go before I sleep... :)