I'm spinning! No, really, I am!

The old ways strike again and this time with a vengeance!  Serendipity is awesome!  Several years ago I watched a program called "Knitty Gritty" and they had a segment on learning to spin your own yarn with a homemade drop (suspended) spindle.  As will happen, I completely forgot that I wanted to try it and while walking through our local chain craft store last week I noticed a book about spinning with spindles on the cover.  (I know this was in an earlier post, so forgive me). Naturally I perused it and decided that I was going to finally try it.  After searching all over town and online, I managed to stumble upon a new fiber-arts guild that is starting locally and decided to join and make my own spindle(s).  I even got my poor over-worked Gomez to make me an incredibly ingenious bottom whorl spindle using a dowel, plexiglass and copper wire!  It has been named my "Smudge Spindle" after one of his other nicknames.  It will undoubtedly be my favorite spindle and so far, so good!  I really love spinning and while I still need to hone my skills, it is coming along nicely!  For basically teaching myself by watching videos online and reading about it I think I am ahead of the curve.  The third time (day) was the charm, as I had the breakthough I needed and figured out exactly how and when to pinch and let go of the roving to get the twist into it.  As promised in that earlier post, here is my progress...

                                                  Spinning Day #1

Not too bad for never having done it before.  A bit inconsistent, but worthy of at least a rug!  The roving I am spinning is from Lincoln Long-hair Sheep.  Probably not the best wool, but I bought it locally from a couple who raises the sheep and the price cannot be beat!

                         Spinning Day #2 - On "Smudge Spindle"

It is hard to tell, but the top layer of yarn is much more consistent. Yay!  I am still using the "Park and Draft" method, but I will be able to drop the spindle soon enough!

                                 Full view of my "Smudge Spindle"

My man is amazing!  He had to work some overtime because he had to be in the building while one of his projects was being tested and made this off the cuff!

                                         Homemade Spindles

These were so simple to make using dowels, wooden toy car wheels and, not shown, cup hooks!  To add some character I used some of my rubber stamps to decorate the tops/bottoms of the whorls.  So easy and fun!



On Turning Two Times Twenty

Where does time escape and why does it seem to be so absolutely, mind-blowingly fleeting?  Sunday marked the start of my 40th year on this amazing globe and, as I sit here blogging, I am remembering the original blogger, Doogie Howser, MD, and that I was just a kid when he entered his first thoughts into his computer.  Wow!  Tempus fugit!  30 was really no big deal and, honestly, 40 is no different except that I REALLY do not feel it.  When I write that I do not feel it, I mean not emotionally, mentally and not really even physically.  Plenty of the people in my life feel their age or older, especially physically, but I just don't and I guess that is the perplexing part of this event.  If I live to, let's say, 80, then my life is half lived and if I do not "feel" 40 now, will I "feel" 50, 60 or, if I am so lucky, 90?  This rant takes me to one of my very favorite, albeit anonymous quotes which simply asks, "How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?"  My answer?  25!!  I "feel" 25!  Maybe that is because by the time I hit that age, I got married, had my values and worldview and philosophies about life and being human in place.  I am much wiser now than at 25, but I am pretty much the same person now as I was then, although, if you ask my husband, I have mellowed out about a lot of things.  Thank goodness for perspective and having the ability to learn from my mistakes as well as those of others.  As long as I can continue to learn new things from this life then it will be full of wonder and elation.  Gomez gave me the most beautiful card with amazingly kind, poignant words in it.  One of the things he pointed out was that anything I decide to learn or do I master.  Well, I guess my life is mine to master!  On with the show!

     My beautiful card, "Tristan and Isolde" by Marc Fishman

Living in a small town can be sooooooo frustrating!

Have you ever wanted to try an old art/craft, such as, oh say, Drop Spindling, and you get so excited you cannot wait to get the equipment and supplies and start?  Me too.  However, small town living has thwarted me, yet again!  The local craft chain store does not carry Drop Spindles (but they sell an instructional book on how to do it), and the antique store mistook bobbins for spindles.  UUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHH!  If I ever get started I will post my progress.  Until then, I am off to search the internet!  Ciao!

Spring is springing...hopefully!

With Valentine's Day looming tomorrow, I look outside at our snow-covered mountains with the sun gleaming off of them and can hardly believe that Winter may actually be coming to an early end this year.  It has been unusually cold this year and temperatures have been in the below zero range for more nights than I care to count.  The dogs will be glad for warm weather so that their oh so favorite sweaters will be packed away until Autumn! 
I am hoping to get all the things done outside this year that have been put off every year for the last few years.  Hopefully I will actually put a timed sprinkler in the square foot garden if I replant this year, so there will be a harvest.  The front and backyards will get fixed up and landscaped in hopes of spending lazy evenings lounging in their glory.  Sounds good, doesn't it?  Here is to hoping!
If you have never heard of square foot gardening, Google it and learn a fun, easy, great way to garden!

Last spring's attempt at a garden.  Is that Sasquatch with his dog?!

                                          

Home is where you want to be...

Ahhhhh... Home and all of the images that the word conjures up.  I am away at my mom's for our monthly visit and it makes me wonder how and why my parents ever moved to the location I am presently sitting.  The answer is known, but still, I wonder, why here and how did I ever manage to survive growing up in such a tiny town?  Survival came from keeping to myself and my tight group of friends and learning early on, as one of my long-time childhood friends so succinctly put it, to stand up for ourselves and what we believe and not take any crap for it.  She is smart, that one! (You know who you are! ;-P) 

They say you can never go home and in some ways this is so true.  My childhood bedroom no longer exists and the room I now claim at my mom's house is not at all like the room I now share with my husband in our home, but as I look around its clutter, I am presented with objects and photos that bring forth amazingly vivid memories.  Some are unpleasant, but most are good, and maybe just a bit warm and fuzzy.  There are photos of those loved and lost too soon, weathered letters from amazing people who thought me alot about life and helped raise me in their own way, and momentos of past trips and happy moments.  I do not like to admit to being sentimental and tender, but, those who truly know me realize that is really and truly what I am like and that my somewhat tough and wisened exterior is a facade of careful construct so as not to be hurt or bruised anymore than I have to be.  See me cuddled up with my pups and it is a dead giveaway.  My daddy once told me that he often worried about me getting hurt because I feel and love so much and so deeply.  He was right and I sometimes wish it wasn't true, but more often I am thankful for it because it means I really, really get to have the "human experience" in this thing called life.

My home is not a building, but rather a feeling that I can wrap myself up in wherever I may be and happiness is self-made, and as Charles Schulz said, it is a warm puppy.

Gomez, CB, Lerler and Sammy, I miss you all, but I will be home Sunday!

Ahhhhh...Sunday!

Sunday, Anthony Bourdain No Reservations and being home with all of my boys and my girl.  What a fantastic way to spend a day!  I think I need to bake some brie and really indulge the senses.  Last week was long and difficult, but I must put it where it belongs, in the past, and look forward to a new, hopefully, much better week.  I am off to see my mom on Thursday and hopefully get a good couple days of work in while I am there. 
I could not have gotten this picture of Magnus and Samson if I had tried for a week, but the stars all aligned perfectly and I got this shot.  It is hard to believe that Samson barely tolerates Magnus based on this picture.  Enjoy!

How to Succeed in Business and not Die Trying

Any of you out there who have been in business for yourselves know that it is tough and challenging at moments.  There are alot of things that cause problems, but, in my humble opinion, accepting credit cards is the most nightmarish problem of all.  So you find a processing company you think maybe you can trust... it is okay, quite a bit more expensive than the salesperson led you to believe (he lied alot), but your clients love the convenience, so you grit your teeth and absorb the expense.  Then you stumble upon another company that is, by all appearance, a godsend, so you give it a trial run.  Saving money means not raising prices, right?  Then enter the hapless victim/client.  You charge her the amount for the item/service she receives, but the processing company hold extra funds to make sure the correct amount goes through.  The client innocently checks her bank balance and finds this extra "pending" amount and freaks out, calls her bank and reports the transaction as fraud.  She then calls you to find out what is going on and you explain the situation and that the processing company does this to secure funds.  Eventually she calls back, says the transaction went through before she reported supposed the fraud, so all is well.
The moral of this tale...Accepting checks is safer than credit cards and a whole lot less expensive!!  And have your Flying Monkeys ready and don't be afraid to use them!!

Happy Tuesday, everybody!
Tish