Happy Happy

It was a beautiful weekend.
I want to remember it.

Some cleaning, some crafting... I've been working a good pace on Mary's tea cosy (though her birthday was Sunday, we'll deliver it when we're in New York at the end of this month) and have been working FEVERISHLY on the cat for Gramma's birthday.

This coming Friday, we will drive the ten hours to Memphis. We're scheduled to have dinner with my closest family that night and then, Saturday, Gramma's party is at the church with all of her people and a more extended group of the fam.
We ordered another number of cupcakes... Libi and I will spend some fun time this week crafting cupcake picks that describe each flavor. And we booked a hotel room in lieu of staying with LEV's friend, which is fine. We're planning to drive back Sunday but we've taken Monday off work, just in case and to recupe.

Mom's box of christmas gifts arrived late last week so, on Saturday, we enjoyed the belated opening of presents. We talked to mom for about an hour after that, giving thanks and making plans for this coming weekend in Memphis. Christmas for my birthday is fun.
By the time I went to bed on Saturday night, I'd baked the cat sculpture. Mid-project, I used the very last of our aluminum foil, so I ran to a nearby convenience store and barely beat some raging rain back to the house... I was delighted to find that the foil from our easy mart is a much lighter weight than what I'd begun using on the armature... I will have to make notes about how the different weights of foil play in to the sculpting process.
On Sunday, we slept in. First thing, I reviewed the cat progress; the figurine was ready for next steps. I used modeling paste to create a hairy texture on the little girl (it will be a calico cat) and began painting her later in the evening. While waiting for each layer of acrylic to dry, I've been crafting a "Happy Birthday" banner that the kitten will hold, as well as other little detail adornments... there will be a pom-pom for the birthday hat, a crystal-studded collar bow, ... stuff like that.

We went into Charlotte for my "birthday brunch" and left the house planning to visit a favorite bakery. We decided, mid-drive, to check out a different restaurant in NoDa. I called it an adventure.
We were so surprised by the food at The Crepe Cellar... and we ate SO MUCH! The meal there proved to be breakfast, lunch, and dinner - even though we'd had some coffee at home.
Delicious sweet chili shrimp with baguette for sauce-dipping, hangar steak and eggs with hollandaise, a spinach and mushroom crepe with goat cheese, french fries with pesto and brie, french press coffee and ice cold water, then, to really push us over the edge, the best marscapone and fresh berries crepe with Suzette sauce and vanilla ice cream.
We were there for HOURS and, considering that we'd gone in for brunch and didn't get home until nearly dinner time, it was perfectly suiting that we ate all three decadent meals at once. It was glorious to have a meal as delicious as we'd make at home on barstools in a restaurant with such an open and cozy ambience. All that amazing gourmet and not a single dish to wash!

Laura went shopping, for what I will discover tonight, while I fed the dogs and got back to work on the crafting.
Once she came home, we settled on to the couch, which I'd pulled out for 'birthday slumber party', and watched Love and Other Drugs while I embroidered. Cute movie. Cocky and romantic and funny and tear-jerking.

I slept like a baby.
And today is my birthday.
Happy New Year! :)

in progress

LEV is out of town, so I'm up all night :)
a day of gardening and errands.  a nice bath, a quiet hour that'd i'd wished to be a nap but wasn't, movies, crafting, pepsi!
i have tomorrow for a few more errands and additional moment-by-moment.

Jobs are currently stable if not ideal.  Stray dog(s) found home(s). 

Laura wrote all over our calendar for this month and I'm so glad. 
Asheville this weekend... research and easy-access inspiration.
Memphis the following weekend. 
Other stuff, too.  I can only really think so far in advance right now, in the foreground.  Lots of buzz in the background. 

We found a house that is Very Interesting.  We'll see where that goes, but I'm daydreaming about us being there, though it would definitely change other ideas I've been daydreaming about and taking action towards.
Thirty-Two one week from today.
More talk about biz-ness and a new/different proposal on the table.  Good gigs working up... gotta figure all that out, somehow.

I've done lots of good research and am taking this long weekend to catch up with some of my craft. 
Works in progress:  Mary's Tea Cosy (per request), Steph's Munky (per request ++), some hearts things, some felt things, a nicer make-shift-ish cover for the new giant bird cage ("Cage Mahal"), four new eggs.

trying for this color scheme.

fedorable.

"heart air" balloon basket.

headless felted elf.

two scraps of fabric will make one bird curtain.

how many will hatch?

Finished projects:

bird cage - assembled; spectacular!

lion-heart (felt + yarn)

toile heart with button flower.

young

I probably haven't told much of a story about ladybugs, but I have one...
Maybe it sounds silly to most people. LEV and I share a love of them for very similar reasons,
and I am endeared to my friend Stephanie in a way that is related to the little aphid-eaters.
Short and sweet, ladybugs have some other-worldly, spiritual significance for me... and that's my deal, cool?
What makes me laugh in today's every-day is that the room we've chosen as my "art" room in this house happens to be INFESTED with ladybugs...
Most of them, the poor buggers, are found dead; but on Saturday, I took two still alive into the yard for the roses.
Maybe they're tiny messengers of inspiration.  Or maybe they're LUCKY stuff.  heh.

Still crafting away.
I've, shamefully, put some of my crafting in front of a seamstress job I took on and am, tonight, setting myself right about that.
BUT!
I'm still SO SO excited about the ARC tree decorations and have begun a projects list for myself. I've already finished one ornament and am almost finished with a second. And then I'll have to return to some other priorities until mid-April - craft-related, nonetheless, but specific for precious beloveds.

so, I've determined that, besides the "heArt/felt" theme that The WoolGathering has chosen, I will pursue a separate interior theme : "International Xmas Symbolism." There are some surprising finds, darlings.
In Venezuela, many who attend the early-morning Mass roller-skate to church! There is such a thing as the Ukranian Christmas spider.  Many European countries are delivered gifts by Christkind, not Santa.  And Italians' gifts are delivered by La Befana, a kind witch complete on broom!
So much fun.

Really, tonight is occupied by dinner with LEV at a fellow woolgatherer's home... Judy has invited peers of hers who we've likely never met and all of us are attending this 'round table' to offer up our brains for Judy's picking.  Apparently, Judy has lots of ideas about something business-oriented and I feel exceptionally honored to be among those called to dish.

Pictures soon. 
I miss you.

O!  picture:
Here is the stray we're currently housing (we've really done everything we're supposed to about finding his forever-home... now we wait... and take good care of him!)

We're calling him Juneau, not that he listens to any of that.

...we all scream...

Robin arrives tonight. She's taking a gelato workshop related to her job and is bringing dessert. We've decided to take her for pizza... that should avoid a mess at the house and make more of our short time with her. She's only staying overnight, after all.

It has been such a stressful week from our j-o-b perspective.
LEV is super concerned about her stability at work, again. It's such a roller coaster. There are pros and cons. There are opportunities to be positive about a potential change and there are also great fears that no opportunity will pan out.
I had to confront my employer today about his habit of delaying payroll because he doesn't sign the paychecks on time. I have previously reported him to the department of labor for holding my wages. I'm not sure if he realizes or cares that some of us live paycheck to paycheck, regardless of what our 'household income' might be. I'm going to scramble to deposit my check on the way home and hope that it wires into my bank account fast enough.

Last night's WoolGathering was so much fun at Dale's historic home.
We followed our usual format and ate the miscellaneous appetizers each of us brought and then sat down for soup together... Dale made Hoppin' John. We opened a bottle of Lynn's home-vinted wine and loved it (I’m so impressed!)
After dinner, we conducted show-and-tell; we've all been pretty busy. And we're already discussing 2011's ARC Tree.
For 2010, we simply followed that all ornaments and gifts made for donation be handcrafted fiber arts; our group's sponsored tree won the award for being most community-minded. We have decided that the theme of this year's tree will be a "Heart/Felt" holiday and all ornaments will be either felted or feature the heart shape... I'm hot on the trail of projects to line up. Look at these cute inspirations!

(there is a familiar face among these, see?)

uhm...
So, yeah. It's, uh, February and my brain is already a little bit on the wicked about CHRISTMAS. But it's good. It's all good. I'm hopeful that I can keep my eyes on prioritize and finish some projects for beloveds in between my ARC ornament obsession... and what would be REALLY cool is if I would craft ornaments as gifts to those afore-mentioned beloveds in the meantime.
What would ALSO be really SUPER cool is if I could get my rear in gear to mail at least three specific packages from this past holiday, since I'm thinking about the one that's ten months away already. Yeah. Slack - err.
When do people find time to go to the post office?!

LEV has been officially inducted into the fiber arts group and she brought samples of the fleeces and roving purchases made at last Saturday's sheep shearing event.
She took some pictures of the day and shared those with all of us.

We saw that the sheep had been corralled.

They are laid down and, very specially cradled between the shearer's legs, then shorn.

The fleece sort of comes off in one big sheet.

And then it's taken to a table and "skirted", where hands discard unwanted pieces from the fluff.

Each fleece, which has its own name, is bagged for purchase or processing.

We brought home coats from Ariel, a young Corriedale, and Flower, a small Navajo Churro, for LEV to process and spin into yarn.
LEV has a biased love for the Navajo-Churro, and we learned some good information about the breed.

We've also learned, both from our friends at Wild Turkey Farms and from our adventure this weekend to Rising Meadow, that llamas are excellent shepherds... they will defend their flock viciously and, quoting Lee from WTF, will "stomp a kayoat into the ground."

But they also like having some snacks with the pack.




Moving right along to finished projects (those I'm ready to post about,)...
Well, here:

Laura's stocking is finally lined and was ready to pack away until she decided that it is fit for year-round hanging.


Also, I promised a best that I would make a sock monkey for her birthday.
While I was confident that I could follow instructions, I didn't want to screw up the good socks while I figured out exactly what my style is in regards to creating sock creatures, so I thought I'd dig through the recycle bins in our house for some socks I could fashion into a practice chimp.
Here we have the product of that endeavor.

This project may have started something much bigger than intended. I kindof love it. Even if it's still a little lumpy and doesn't have eyes yet... plus, that could make or break the entire look - if I rock or botch the adornments.
Updates to this little dude, who I'm officially naming Ham, will follow, I'm sure.
Ham will also soon have immaculately conceived cousins...



Last but not least on today's long-winded update,
Wilkey says hello. Well, Wilkey says "chirp" and mostly "squawk" - but that could mean anything!
The little bird and its sibling fledgling are both perching now and Frank Jr. was actually seen flying about the cage this afternoon.
Both baby 'keets are preciously frightened of this big wide world and both they and their parental 'keets are doing a fine job of letting us humans know that they object to our presence in their space, which extends beyond the bars of their cage into the general office space and sometimes as far out as the kitchen across the hall. Their protests are ridiculously loud and almost entirely effective.
But they're still REALLY beautiful and, Wilkey does especially, adjust quickly to being handled.



TTFN, darlings.

valentime

it's been an amazing day and i know it. i feel amazing. it's an amazing moment.

and it's entirely too late for me to be awake, but here i sit, on February 14, 2011, at nearly 1am, typing into my blahg.

but it could be so much worse.
and it's not. it's way better.

happy valentine's day, my love(s).

in passing

Wow. This week has flown by!

Days at the office have been moderately slow and surely productive.
Once home in the evening, we are hurried to get dinner together so as to abide by our commitment to eat before 7:30pm.
Laura has been teaching music to a couple neighborhood boys, children of our friends, in preparation for a talent show coming toward the end of the school year. I sit, as patiently as I can muster, working yarn and/or reading while those kids strum discordantly on the opposite side of french doors. I think that maybe next week I will remove myself to the upstairs and escape some of the racket... but they're very sweet, those kids... and I suppose the purpose of amplifiers is, for better or worse, to make sounds louder. Also, Laura saw definite improvement in their playing last night and I think that is pretty awesome.

I'm very excited about the weekend ahead. I'm so glad that this week has gone swiftly. I've been tired in the mornings and groggy from a certain amount of detox. Each day is another one under our belts or that's how I'm motivating some of my abstinences.

In the morning, we'll leave early. Taking our neighbor, Cherie, with us, we'll drive out into the country for Rising Meadow Farm's annual sheep shearing.
I can hardly wait to be at the farm among the animals. I'm very interested in the shearing process and perhaps spending time there will quell some of my desire to live that sort of goat/sheep-rearing life, myself. I'm also looking forward to buying some raw wool for Laura's new spinning hobby and for future felting projects.
I'm making some pastry-type desserts to carry with us, since the event posting asked guests to bring food-stuffs. I am still partially undecided about what to make exactly, but Laura thinks the sweetest of the sweets will go over best with the crowd (it's also the best thing to move OUT of our house, so I am thinking she may convince me).

Our weekend with Sherrie and Patch was so lovely. We didn't do much of anything, really. She arrived later in the evening on Friday and we stayed in ... we drank wine and exchanged gifts and ate dinner and jabber-jawed. The dogs fussed about and somehow managed to find an agreeable alignment of alpha order. On Saturday, we left the pups to nap in the house and took Sherry for a mid-day adventure to our favorite local gallery and then to one of our favorite local restaurants. The three of us were home by five o'clock! Some of our neighbors came by to meet and greet our friend. They had drinks while we watched miscellaneous television and chatted around. Some stayed longer than others, but once all had departed, we transformed the couch into an oversized chaise lounge, got into our pajamas, and tuned in to the Top Chef on DVR. It had been almost two years since we watched Top Chef together, the three of us. We reveled in the nostalgia and in the comfortable bliss of the moment. After that, we happily took ourselves to sleeping quarters. Breakfast on Sunday was pancakes (Sarah's delicious recipe) with yogurt and fruit and coffee, a bit of light chatter, appreciation for reunion and the changing season, then finally, mid-morning goodbyes. Sherrie texted us that her simple, five-hour drive put her home for four o'clock. We will definitely make the trip down before too long.

Next week, Robin is coming. She'll be in the area for work toward the end of the week and she'll stay with us through the weekend! Robin worked with Laura at Whole Foods and with us both at Veria. She's delightful and she's a dog-lover, too. We'll see what we can do to mix it up for her some... maybe we'll take her for pizza instead of to the Cuban restaurant.

There isn't much going on in this little town, but I really enjoy keeping it simple.
I visit the library often... We are preparing for gardening season already... The farmers' market will likely open again soon... I'm hopeful that we'll feel up for attending, if not participating in, open-mic night at a local "hip" hot-spot during the week sometime this year... I continue to apply for new work and we are still brainstorming about our own business...

ah - and finished projects! I intend to begin keeping track of my accomplishments - then later, I can read between the lines some about what I have been doing all this time.
To start this ambition, here's Joel, dancing around in the flappish faux-hawk I made him for Xmas.


And, both from boredom and because I'd wanted to make this little guy since I spotted the pattern last year, I crafted Henri (ursa mini) from the same organic cotton I used to make Isabella's sweater.





Hours pass:
I’ve decided on and baked/made candy cookie bars... but I’ll lovingly refer to them as "crack candy".
We’ve had dinner at the local pizza favorite where we saw and bantered with two separate neighbors.
Then, our next door neighbor (and one of our companions for tomorrow's escapade,) Cherie, has come and noshed and gone.
Laura is asleep and I’ve packaged all the little home-baked candy bars into smallish aluminum folds. I’m crazy to do it, but talk about commitment. It’s an experiment in baking bars... I’m studying for the bar exam.
I’d brought three narrowed-down recipes and, truthfully, what I thought this "magic bar" had over the others was ease and speed... I just knew that getting the ingredients into the pan would be quick and easy: what I hadn't considered was how, precisely, I would cut and get them removed from said pan - neither had I thought of how in the world people at a SHEEP SHEARING event might manage to get these crumbly, sticky-gooey bars into their mouths to enjoy them. Plus I cut them into much-smaller-than-suggested pieces, so I had to make sure no one would lose one of the two bites there for them to try.
I attempted to take pictures but the light of the stove hood is not-so-great for descriptive photography.

The dogs are long in bed, though jack has come to check for floor droppings.
The birds are quiet... those babies are growing, growing - frank jr. is bright eyed, wide awake, rambunctious and squawky... little whitey (I’d like to call it wilke, because that starts with 'w' like white and also rhymes with 'milky') is kindof quiet, but becoming more aware, for sure - the red in its eyes is only noticeable from certain angles, its feathers are growing in fuller now... each of them has less and less downy fluff every day.
Birds are crazy weird.
When I held them today, the little green one crawled up into my neckline and bit my finger when I tried to fish him out. wilke climbed into my shirt and snuggled up. They still like the dark so much. I wish we'd had a nesting box before budgie started nesting. And I’m reluctant to get one for her if we don't get a larger cage besides that I don't want budgie to lay too many clutches for fear of egg-binding.
So interesting.

I’ve felt inspired lately. And it comes and goes, of course, ebbs and flows; and still I’m noticing it more, and that is good.
I get that part.

getting together

knitting is such an evolution of learning.
so many things are.
it's been a really beautiful weekend.
we've spent lots of time outside, we've gotten fresh air and exercise.
there have been ample amounts of communication.
spring clean.

can you believe it? i finally packed christmas stuff away.
hA!
lev moved the drying tree into the back yard - i left the strings of lights on it and, until we decide to burn the smelly pine, we can plug it in to the outlet at the garage.

we've been gearing up, quickly. our weeks are getting busier and more active.
refreshing, again.
not that we don't already make plenty to do for ourselves.

Susan was here today and i showed her the first ribbon i've knit for the house blanket i'm making of gift yarn from lev.
we discussed the way i'm putting the blanket together; the design, etc... the method, construction. very interesting.
and enlightening. i've come out of the conversation with an improvement on my inital plan. i mean, i have a much better plan!

we've accomplished some many chores for the household and we took the dogs swimming.
Susan got stuck in the mud at the eagle preserve and we all laughed so hard... she was HOWLING.
the weekend with neighborhood friends was not without its own bit of drama, but coffee and cake eased uncomfortable conversation and then we all dispersed into our cozy corners to enjoy the remainder of a beautiful Sunday afternoon/evening.
almost 70 degrees here today.
and so much is much more tidy.

in the shower tonight, i stretched and sang...
i chanted and reminded myself, again after again, that yoga is in my near future.

a good friend of ours is coming to visit.
so wonderfully spontaneous.
we'd been wondering about the transition she's been travelling through these most recent months in her life... she relocated to Georgia from the DFW area.
this is the friend of LEV's who sheltered her from the fallout of her last breakup.
this is the friend who allowed me to move in only months later, when LEV and i were beginning to fall in love together.
we started our process of aligning our lives under a roof we shared with Sherrie and her two dogs and her one cat.
Sherrie embraced the little dogs LEV and I found abandoned on the side of a road. Sherrie didn't let us disrupt her low-key routines. Sherrie supported her friend fiercely and still took me in, too... open wide.
i am really looking forward to seeing her and the only pet she's got left, Patch, this weekend.

i think it will feel great to reciprocate some of the hospitality she so graciously gave us!

i hear a train blowing its horn and squealing its wheels along the tracks nearby.
we could tell time by the trains if not allowing them to become such a mere part of our background sound.

the good times are killing me.

hobbies

trying hard to kick this cold that's come on over the weekend... i should have known it would grab me. did i contract it from the travel, walking miles through the blizzard in new york, from the dog-sitter who was suffering when we last saw him?
the general course of things.

but down time has given me added opportunity for the indoor hobbies i enjoy. though i did see a quote i find very funny about all these new activities i'm spending so much time on :
"I don't have hobbies, I'm developing a robust post-apocalyptic skill set."

so, speaking of - i'd begun another blog about those anti-idle-hands activities, but now it seems silly to separate the things i do from what i'm thinking otherwise.
here we have it...


i was gardening during the spring and summer.



... and i wrote some stuff about canning, which i really enjoy and makes me feel less wasteful.
so far i've only made a few different things: fig jam with blackberries and cinnamon; strawberry jam with some figs and vanilla and black pepper; mixed berries with ginger; and cherries baked in pink wine. all delicious and individual learning experiences.
i look forward to making preserves.
next year i want to veer more into the "savory" side of preserves and try pickling okra and green beans... i know some folks with killer recipes.
(no photo-log this time)


... and i did some backyard-fixer-up-ing by way of stone work and "masonry".




... and i wrote about my introduction to knitting and other yarn work.
mom taught me to crochet a few years ago, but i didn't really get it until i went with my next-door neighbor to the local yarn shop and learned to knit.
i love it.





i made these cute things to hang on the ARC Tree.




this Saturday, i'll take my first class for the sewing machine we bought. i can hardly wait. i knitted LEV a stocking to hang on our mantle during the holidays... she chose an old pillow sham to use as a liner (so the knit won't stretch when the stocking is stuffed) and before we pack up our decorations, i'd like to stitch it all together as finished!


we're caught up now.
some other projects are still major works in progress.
we did finally finish erecting a metro shelving unit and a combination of work tables in the "arts and crafts" room, but i don't know where i'll set up the sewing machine...
classy and all, i'm still using an old dog crate as a makeshift desk - ha.
but hanging on to scraps and recycling gift wrap is certainly proving to be useful!

i guess i don't know just how purposeful my life feels, busying myself this way, or how professional my products are,
but it's the haps.