This Is The End

Ok--I have actually moved to the new blog now:
I Am Still The KnittingJourneyman

It is still not 100% up to date -- but I am posting there regularly now... and will be posting there exclusively from now on.

Come join me. 

New Post Up

I am slowly moving things over to wordpress, so I can keep the continuity of everything I do.

Feel free to follow me over there.

Here's a link to the first real post...

Of course, the actual first post was more of an introduction.  See it here.

 Now, please do keep in mind, I do not have the new blog all set up as yet...but I am getting there.

I will probably post notices for the next week or so on this blog, and then everything will be on the new blog...just so you have warning!

Thank you!

Boy's Birthday

            I love rainy mornings.  Today is nippy and damp.  No rain as yet, but it is plain to see that it fell overnight.  I woke up early, because R’s alarm did not go off.  Not that that is why I woke up; that’s just the first thing I heard this morning, him telling me the alarm did not go off, after he finished with his shower.

            Today my son turns 7.  Seven.  I so am not going there right now.  If I start down that path, I’m going to boo hoo all the way to Atlanta and back…and I do have no desire to go to Atlanta these days (sorry, GA…no offense…you’re just not at my backdoor anymore…and the trip is a b*tch to make in high heels…)

            What did I accomplish yesterday?  I threw myself into a near asthmatic fit trying to find my doll face molds….I cannot stay in the basement for more than 5-10 minutes at a time.  And even then, I have to make sure I have taken my allergy pills before I descend, unless I am working on laundry.  Still, every trip downstairs has its repercussions.  It’s the rabbit hay…when my throat started to close and one eye nearly swollen shut, I decided then it was time to flee the basement and hit the showers…and try to calm my brain down enough to breathe.

            I never found my face molds.  I even looked this morning.  R says they are in a box.  Yeah.  Ok then.  Good luck with that.  I will go later today and grab a new mold, or a stamp, or something…

            What did I find? 

            Wow—did you know I used to paint?  On actual canvas?  So it is not exquisite canvas or anything…but I have two paintings, small 9x12in pictures, that I painted myself.  One is a collage and not for sale…if I remember correctly it was my first playtime with modeling paste.  It was also a dreamboard too, if I remember…it’s not right here with me, so I don’t know what I wrote on the back.

            I found a big stash of sewing supplies.  After assembling my sewing kit into one big place (which I still haven’t written about…yet) , I was sort of whiny because I had lost just so much stuff.  Now, I knew I had my scissors all together, but still packed away...but I found stashes of needles and of sewing notions, of measuring tapes and safety pins.  I have yet to find my original stash of safety pins, but no harm there.  They weren’t the good coil-less kind, so I’m fine.   

            I found so many things last night—not anything for which I was looking, but hey.  I found my other two spirit dolls…so now I can take pictures and have them up on the blog…Kerry the Glass fairy sparked a couple ideas about having online portfolios of my work…so there I need to go…

            I found some of my drawings and scribbling (as in pictures, not text).  I am thinking I may be ok at this sale in November.

            I got up this morning, feeling ever like the mermaid struck a bargain and now living on land, fighting every ounce of everything just to be able to move—don’t worry—once I get moving, everything is ok, except the pain in my feet…I took an allergy pill on an empty stomach—not always a bright thing to do…and went downstairs to shovel through some boxes.  Did I find my molds?  Nope.  I did find some stuff for the kids, some of the dream catchers my mother made, some examples of my key dolls that I plan to make for the sale…I am feeling well enough about that now.  Although I don’t really want to part with the one 9x12in painting of the tree…I think I really do need to bite the bullet and have some of the merchandise in my brain made up and offered for sale…

            What else did I do this morning?  Well, I did not finish seaming N’s Captain America sweater yet… I am not happy w my seaming.  There is the real reason I have hemmed and hawed and waited so long to seam the thing.  I did find the star for the chest last night during my basement search…the sweater will be done before N gets here this evening…

            I still need to wrap everything.  His blanket is not done, nor will it be.  However, my boy gave me the solution to my three skein dilemma the other day when we were all at hobby lobby, last Monday.  He does love to help pick things out.  While we were there, he handed me two balls of yarn, one red and one white.  I asked him what I was supposed to make for him with them and he said I don’t know.  Well, I put those two back, since I was only there for the yarn for his chain maille sweater…but the idea kept sitting there.  I know I have white red heart super saver in my stash…actually it’s more of an off-white, but still.  The second color stripe on his blanket is off-white.  His blanket will be white and red…and I know that will make him happy.

            Add into that I am now more determined than ever to find a dvd of finishing techniques for my knitting.  No wonder I prefer to work seamless items…to the point where I won’t even bother contemplating seamed projects, unless I feel a need to re-write the pattern for myself in the round…and so far, I have plenty of seamless patterns to choose from.  Writing it out for  myself is superfluous.

            His red chain maille sweater…I made the mistake of working on it while I was tired…I need to frog about 6 rows, and since I am wimpy about doing it…I’m stalling on that.  Not that I ever thought, not after Wednesday anyway, that I would have it done in time for his birthday or anything…but still….

            I need to run to the store yet.  N requires a red chocolate cake for his birthday.  We fluked into red icing at the store the other day—so woo hoo.  I keep thinking red velvet cake, red velvet cake…but I am thinking N won’t like red velvet cake…so I am making a combination of the two…plus lots of cupcakes….We’ll see how it goes.  I have to grab a red velvet cake mix.  The chocolate portion is already done.  That and I need to run to a different store to grab … doll face molds…I have a 50% off coupon for michael’s and I am not afraid to use it!

            And with that, I am going to get back to work…because I still haven’t even wrapped the boys presents yet…so…ciao…

This Week--The Week-end--A Little Last Week--Update

Well, I have already lost an hour cleaning out my inbox this morning.  And that is just going through and getting rid of all the stuff I won’t read (too many groups and newsletters, not to mention all the sales ads from various places)…at least my stove top is soaking to remove all the grime from last week when I was too tired to actually do more than wipe at it instead of clean it off well…the dogs are fed and well-petted…the rabbits are going to a new home soon (as much as I hate it, I have to take them to the House Rabbit Rescue, so thank you so much to Rescue people…)…small fry is still asleep, but I am not considering that a bad thing right now.  We’ll be up late tonight, so I am making sure she gets enough rest…we get to go to bowling league w R tonight. 

We definitely did get a great deal accomplished, not only this week-end, but last week as well.

Our composters have arrived…and are in need of being put together.  We should have assembled one this week-end, but we were all tired and raggedy and wanting to just spend time together…so we’ll be doing that Wednesday instead.

We finally planted the remaining outdoor plants, two pampas grasses and three azalea bushes…we also set up our raised bed ring around our tree in the front yard (there is still debate as to what sort of tree it is).  Instead of moving the hostas, since the ring turned out to be smaller than we had thought…although we still could have moved the hostas, we were really too tired to anyway…we planted the chocolate mint in the ring…

That was actually fun.  Both kids helped.  N helped spread the dirt and then walked around and around in the ring to tamp down the dirt…E put the rocks in (crystals I can’t throw away but won’t let in the house anymore) …we found two little green inch worms…I think they may have been on the mint and not on the tree, but they could have fallen off the tree while I was filling the ring with dirt.  I can’t wait until next year to see that ring over full of mint…

This is also the time of year when I am contemplating what other bushes we need to get and get into the ground asap before winter comes.  I know I want mock orange bushes and lilac trees…but E and I have decided we must have lots of flowers, especially sunflowers, after all the birds and butterflies we have seen this year…I may have to set her up an area in the front yard that is nothing but flowers…which for me means bulbs since I usually suck at raising flowers…but we’ll see.

We planted tomato seeds in one planter, the one we were growing garlic in…and though we forgot we did it, since we thought the seeds were old anyway, we now have a tomato plant growing on the front porch, with flowers blooming on it.  In the back yard, although one planter seems to have no more tomato plants, the other planter not only has strong plants, but the plants are flowering as well.  Another planter that had nothing in it that I dumped a bunch of salad seeds into does have lettuce growing in it.  Now that I have the rabbity garden goods growing again, the rabbits are going to go live elsewhere.  Seems rather sad. 

I did get N’s room turned around (so he wouldn’t be sleeping so close to the curtains).  All the extra bedding is finally out of his room…although the chest still needs to be moved yet.  At least all his broken nut cracker toys are on his dresser now (for the record, he breaks the nutcrackers…he loves to open and shut their jaws, but he also loves to remove the lever that you raise and lower to work the jaw…so I don’t think any of his nutcrackers have the levers in the back any more).  He was happy he had his nutcrackers and his bakugan stuff from the holidays last year.  I finally got his stars and his dream catchers up on the wall…now it feels more like his room…even though the closet is not yet 100% his yet.  It is at least progress.

I had my ‘office space’ cleared up…then I went to the library…then I needed to print something.  Now it’s a mess.  One day here soon I am going to have to do something else for a desk.  Technically, I have one waiting downstairs.  I need to finish off that space (and that will be after the rabbits leave).  I have a Green Tara plaque that cannot be hung from a wall that I need to put somewhere…but then if we go there, I have quite a few Mother statues that need a shelf or two…and these are the good ones, like the one from the monks in Italy…sigh…

We did go to lowe’s and look at wood…all we really need to do is figure out what style of bookcase we are going to build…I ordered all the wood-working books (and then some) this morning…I also ordered a wood-workers wooden toys that teach book as well.

We made it to hancock fabrics yesterday…and I am still hyperventilating a bit over that….but for what we bought, we did really well.  They had simplicity patterns on sale for 99 cents each (limit 10) … E found her Halloween costume.  She had been planning to be a vampire this year (N plans to be a vampire as well…) , but once she saw that mermaid pattern, it was all over.  I let her pick out her fabrics, with a little bit of help … and boy, does this kid owe me now.  I also picked up a good 10 yards of muslin so I can play with my one really old dress pattern…OR I can play with my Red Queen pattern…what?  Did you think I would be a mermaid?  I like my knitted mermaid pattern better.  

I bought plenty of supplies for the Glass Fairy’s purse I am making…I have a firm liner fabric, as well as enough matching thread to create a thread horse of epic proportions…I had help.  N helped me pick out thread.  It was on sale…I need thread…so I stocked up.  My original plan was to re-stock my sewing kit, since I cannot find half of it at the moment and haven’t seen it all together since at least 2006…all I need now is a bag or basket to stick everything in…although there are still a few little things I will grab when I get around to it.  Despite how much we spent, I am feeling rather good about things at the moment.

Hancock had mccall patterns on sale for 99 cents each (another 10 limit)…so I got patterns for the kids…well, N changed his mind on his…but E is in heaven.  Why the sudden re-interest in sewing?  Well, last week, I went through my closets yet again and tossed out a whole bunch more stuff…I had this major epiphany not too long ago (that I have not finished writing about yet, which is why you haven’t heard about it) and I found out…I can make my own clothes.  I can knit, crochet, sew…use duct tape and fallen leaves if I so desire.  It doesn’t help that I get stuck watching seasons of America’s Next Top Model (J Alexander’s book Follow The Model is so awesome, I am buying it for E—not for ‘modeling advice’ but for all the solid real life advice) and Project Runway, and so on, as different networks run old seasons during the day on week-days…and sometimes on week-ends.   I am inspired…not to mention, E still says she wants to be a clothing designer when she gets older…so I am trying to inspire her and help her learn different things…like all fabric is not created equal…much like all yarn is not created equal.  Just because it’s pretty doesn’t mean it drapes or moves…or that it is easy to work with…

I finally got my hands on Fairy Tale Knits by Alison Stewart-Guinee.  I had seen a pattern for free when the book first came out…and for some reason I kinda went meh and went on to something else…but with library access and too much time to scan for knitting books via the online library catalogue…I decided to borrow it… I ordered my own copy this morning.  I started the Modern Chain Maille sweater for N for his birthday this Friday.  The kid will be 7—he doesn’t really want anything for his birthday—other than two cakes…his dad has to get him the chocolate cake with chocolate icing—I have to make him the red chocolate cake with red chocolate icing…with no pictures or words on the top…just the cake.  That’s all he’s really asked for…except for the hat he asked me to make him awhile ago.  I started a scarf to match, but frogged it.  I started mittens, but frogged them.  I will make him mittens before too long here.  He likes them.  And probably a dragon scarf too…no clue as to which patterns I will use…yet.

But, I actually got very excited with the book…I am also planning to make him the crown hat, the princess version…the prince version looks too cluttered to me, not quite a crown…but there are other patterns too…they will both love the pirate stuff.  Not to mention, these patterns go up to size 8 (most of them) and they are worked in the round, rather than seamed, for the most part.  I am all about the seamless work these days.  There is a great deal to be done with this book.

I have to decide what sort of blanket to make our friends.  Their baby shower is coming up.  Do I make the normal ultra plush ultra fluffy baby loved and approved blanket that I always make…or do I make something else since we just gave a similar blanket to another couple for their new baby…and they are all friends, so is it impolite to give the same gift, even in different colors, just because they are both having babies, even though I know every baby who has ever gotten one of these blankets ends up loving the blanket to death and then some?  Hmm.  I have a little bit of time on that one…but not that much.  I may let R handle this one.

I haven’t picked up my cotton silk t-shirt this past week.  Too busy trying to come up w something for N.  Same goes for the silver bikini.  I only have about 50 more rows before I bind off the bottoms…but N comes first.  I did pull out my crochet hooks and work one whole panel (that’s one whole skein of yarn, btw) of a blanket just for N in his favorite reds…I am surprised by the lack of red yarn in my stash, but at least I had some…three skeins of red heart super saver.  Here is where I got the pattern.  I love the pattern.  It’s so easy even I can do it.  My crochet skills are rather lacking.  But this is fun.  I am not changing colors; I am simply starting at one end of the skein of yarn and going until I can’t finish a complete row anymore.  I didn’t measure a thing.  To start the foundation chain, I simply worked a chain as long as N is tall, or a little bit more so.  When I first saw this pattern, I had thought it would be a great pattern to make a blanket for our bed…I may as yet do that.

I have a blanket that my grandmother crocheted; my mother said it was the last thing she ever crocheted before Arthur got her for good (Arthur—come on, you know him…Arthuritis…arthritis…).  I covet this thing.  No one is allowed to touch it.  It looks as if it is all single crochet, done on a small hook…two panels crocheted together.  I have tons of knitted and crocheted blankets, most that I picked up at thrift stores or inherited from other sources (as in, this is what I kept after the divorce) , some from my mom that are in the same category as the one from G (no touchy)…but none that I made.  We have small throws I have knitted…and that N has usually pulled and yanked until there are fringes where no fringes should be—he’s very tactile—that I will take full responsibility for—I am extremely tactile as well...but we have nothing really more than a throw for over the back of the couch to keep your feet warm or something that I’ve made.  So, this blanket works really great here.  I may not get it done before his birthday…and I know I am going to need more yarn…one skein of red heart super saver does not very far go with this.  Right now…the blanket looks more like a long scarf…and I have three skeins of red in my stash…I used to have more…but I used it or I gave it away when I went through all my yarn last year…I can’t even find my own coveted maroons either…sigh.  Anyway, I want the kids to have a blanket, each of them, which I made for them.  Knitted or crocheted.  Although I am thinking this month, being National Sewing Month, would be a cool month to sew them blankets…I have a ton of fleece remnants and pieces downstairs.  I may not be able to make huge blankets, but I could make something.  That is totally back burner at the moment.  At least I have started N’s and we’ll see what I can accomplish by Friday.  I have to seam his Captain America Sweater…and decide about the star.  I have to finish the chain maille sweater.   Plus, I have to see about making him a red velvet cake…we’ll have to see.  I know him, the little pain.  Red chocolate means one thing to me and one thing to him.  I have to be prepared…

Today I need to run to the store and buy supplies for my craft show so I can get busy on that.   After I finish some of N’s stuff.  We are going to Branson next week, so I will be able to get a bunch of new ideas…maybe…what I want to do is get back into making my own soap again…but even if I made it today, the soap wouldn’t be ready by November anyway…

All right.  Enough of my own writing for now.  I have to get some work done.

Plans for this week?

Finish N’s birthday stuff.  Hopefully get some things ready for the November craft show.

Four to six articles per day.

Set up sewing kit…and hopefully sewing area.

Unpack and sort through the rest of the old kitchen stuff…yeah…that’s not done yet.  Did you think only books were left in boxes right now?  Nope.

Mop floor in basement.  Kids spilt milk and ice cream down there.

Mop up rabbit area.  I also need to clean out the hay bin before we send the boys away.  *sigh*  I hate to see them go, even though I haven’t been able to go near them for more than half a second in so long.

That covers that.  I have to go…too much to do today and it looks like rain.  I can’t drive in the rain.  Panic attacks ensue.

TTFN….you must think this in the original Tigger’s voice, or it does not count.

Monday Morning, First Thing

            I needed to hang out with some other 8-9-10 yos this week-end to really see how far behind E is.  Ok, I am more lax than I thought…and Waldorf pedagogy only goes so far to explain why we are so far behind.  A new crack-down is happening—thank goodness R is here—otherwise, E honestly would have to go to school…although I am not ruling out Montessori at this point—and Montessori is in her future.  As soon as I can find a good one that I can afford—that isn’t too far away.  Yes, yes, I know—criteria.  At least E has been put on notice and at least things here will be changing.  For that, I am very glad.

            And again---grr that I cannot get to the books I need…that too is becoming less of an issue as I spent a good bit of time re-arranging the basement last night.  I have a small little office area set up already … I have access to my yarns, to my fabrics, and now to my clays.  I can reach my paints, as well as my ATC papers and some other things drawing related.  I need to do three things…clear off the downstairs table (it has machines and boxes on it) and find all the pieces to my sewing machine (can’t find the cords at the moment)—and find a way to plug everything in down there when I need it plugged in.  Otherwise, we have to bring things upstairs to use them, the sewing machines, the serger…which is not as bad as it seems there either.

            September is National Sewing Month.  It seems very apropos to break E’s sewing machine out and get her going on that.  Knock on wood.  It’s not as if we don’t have patterns and fabric for her to play with downstairs.  And—I know where they are too.

            Goals this week:

 Write and submit two to four articles every single day.  (Thank you, Michele—more on this later).

Finish bikini bottom and start bikini top.  I have fifty rows of garter stitch left on the bottoms before I can bind off and seam everything.  I am actually very excited about this.  Not to mention, as I was reading over the bra pattern yesterday afternoon, I discovered a Yoga version of the top written at the bottom.  I am not sure which I plan to do now…I think I shall stick with the basic pattern first.  If I like it, I will make the Yoga top version.

Set E up her own blog—which will be available only by subscription.  I want some caring adults (Kerry) to be able to read her blog and offer criticism and pointers, suggestions.  Not to mention, I want to get some discipline instilled in her, not merely as a writer, but as a student.

I must check to see if I have the right yarn for the Hawkins House project.  I have a few more ideas, both knitted and otherwise, that I need to run down.

Decide if I am going to frog the baby blanket I have had OTNs for months and months now (for the twins) or finish it.  I am leaning towards frogging it even though we have friends in need of a baby shower gift coming up in September…but really it wouldn’t take all that long to finish the blanket anyway.

Cast on my friend’s birthday present.  I can’t find the original pattern I used to make my own shawl/wrap/scarf thingy (great name, huh?) –but I can wing it…and it might not be such a bad idea to wing the pattern anyway…even though it is nothing like the original pattern.  I do so prefer to be safe.

Find rabbits a home.  This is so mandatory at this point it is not even funny.  We switched from the knock me on my butt/knock me out allergy pills to a once a day type—but the new stuff doesn’t really work all that well.  Even though I am setting up the basement as a work space, with the rabbit’s downstairs the workspace isn’t applicable until I can get the air quality settled and ---mold? Or whatever free.  Good news is we are finally coming back down to the bottom of the hay bin…so this time I won’t buy hay until I clean that sucker out really well.  But R keeps reminding me, the allergy was there even before I had the huge reactions to it.  So, even as I say we can clean things up on one hand, the other issue is still likely there.

R set up the desktop pc last night.  Today I have to find out what it needs to get it to run and to see if it will run E’s new program.  Plus, I have to remind R we are going to Micro Center tonight so we can get hardware to update his computer.

Set up E’s excel sheet (thank you, Chott family)…her chart on her bedroom door is obviously not clear enough or detailed enough, so R and I are borrowing another family’s idea; we are setting up a fairly detailed excel sheet of chores and schoolwork assignments for E.

Having said all of this, let me also say things are moving along nicely on my t shirt sweater.  Even though I am working on size 7US needles and was expecting the progress to be very slow (compared to the tanks I’ve been making on 10 ½ US or 15 US needles), I am actually very impressed with the way things are moving along. 

            I have been holding back on casting on my seamless yoke sweater, only because I have so many other projects OTNs…but it shouldn’t be too much longer now before I cast on for that.

            BTW, the zombie doll came back this week-end.  Pictures will be put up on ravelry soon.  Now the poor little thing has arms, thank goodness. 

            Remind me—I actually need to block and seam N’s birthday sweater.  We had to go to hobby lobby this week-end to grab the yarn for the rest of his birthday ‘stuff’—his matching scarf and mittens to go with his hat.  I have the pattern saved in my ravelry queue for the mittens.  The scarf…it may look simply, but I am actually going to improvise this one, as I have not seen one like the one I am planning.

            My only other thing today is to clear off my work space and the dining room table…I could use a bookcase close to my desk, but that’s not going to happen—no space.  I’ll have to see what else I can do.

            And now…on with the show.

This Week--Reviewed

            Yes, I know it’s Tuesday, but it has been a long week since last week…so I am not necessarily talking only about this week right now…more like the past 7 days.

            Let’s see.  This Monday and last Monday were similar…running errands.

            Last Monday, the kids and I did all sorts of shopping: groceries, bought the chairs for the dining room table…I can’t even remember what day we bought the fish…but we have new guppies –even one male with a lovely double tail…now we have all sorts of new babies floating around too…

            Tuesday we spent the evening w friends while R golfed…Wednesday…I had a HUGE allergic reaction to the mold in the rabbit’s hay.  Last time we bought hay, nearly the entire middle of a 96 ounce bag of ‘premium’  Kaytee timothy hay was full of what looked like mud and mold…so I ended up tossing out more than half the bag (hindsight says I should have tossed the whole thing)…the next bag of hay I bought came from Petco, their store brand, which the House Rabbit Society people all told me was not good…and it isn’t…it’s the seconds or whatever, badly cut short straws, mostly dust…but I’ve never had a dirt/mold issue w them, so far…this past week, I decided we’d try a different store completely  in the hopes that that one kaytee bag was merely a fluke.  Apparently, it is not.  This time, the kaytee hay looks fine…but I had a very violent reaction to it.  I grew up wallowing in hay on various farms … clean hay is not the issue…we all agree on that one…so…moldy hay caused a very violent reaction.  It was awful…I was really making good time cleaning and organizing the basement…I had cleaned up the rabbit cages and pulled the bamboo rug to toss…I had some shelves up and was getting stuff put on them…I was finally making headway…when my neck started to itch.  Now, the problem is…I’ve had this little bit of a rash for awhile…nothing big; nothing major.  My neck gets itchy, especially when I sweat.  We originally thought it might be R, because …well…because…but then it moved up into my eyes about 2-3 weeks ago…again nothing major.  Dry, itchy, rough skin…not even a discoloration or anything…but then a few days after my eyes started to bug me, my scalp, just in one area, started to bug me…dandruff shampoo quickly got rid of the scalp itch… it also seemed to help when I used the shampoo on both my eyes and my neck as well…when my neck began to itch on Wednesday, I thought at first it was because I was sweating…and any sweat can make my neck itch unbearably.  I tried to stop myself from scratching a couple times, so I didn’t scar my throat or anything…but it dawned on me after about ten minutes…it was still really itching badly…and I now had skin under my fingernails… I needed to wash my neck to stop the sweat from making me itch…

            Now, no burning running eyes…no coughing or sneezing or wheezing…nothing but this horrible wasp-like itch…I walked into the bathroom and freak…my neck is swollen and covered with hives, from nearly the nape of my neck all around the front down to just below my collarbones.  When I first saw it, I wasn’t sure how much damage I had caused by scratching.  Since I hadn’t realized it was mold or anything by that point, I did what I normally do…I cleaned my neck…and the hives on the inside of my elbow of one arm and my wrist of the other arm…with sea breeze.  Honestly, it stung, but not as bad as it could have.  The problem was…it didn’t help the itching…at all…so I went nuts trying to find hydrocortisone cream, knowing we have three tubes somewhere in the house…because R had some before we moved in, E had her own tube for her itchies, and I bought a tube after we moved in because I couldn’t find his or hers at one point…after nearly tearing my hair out, literally, trying to find this stuff…I found it…and I applied it by the handful…but the itching would not stop…so…I took a shower and washed everything off…I used the dandruff shampoo as body wash…and that helped immensely.  I took an allergy pill before got into the shower, it just then dawning on me this may be an allergic reaction.  Hey, I had to deal with the itch first…R called while I was in the shower…the voice of reason and the only person who can really calm me down or reach me no matter what headspace I am in … he picked on me for the shower…and the sea breeze … he had me take a second allergy pill, knowing this would knock me out for the majority of the night … I can take one of these guys and be a little tired for the next 6-12 hours…but if I take 2 in a 12 hour period…I am toast…and the label says they last 4-6 hours… uh huh…I finished the call, finished my shower…and pretty much crashed on the couch for …the rest of the day and the night…and was still groggy the next day when I woke up and took another one, just to be safe…

            The allergy pills had the added benefit of making my hands and mouth swell a little bit…and my internal throat swell.  R wasn’t sure it was just the pills, but since these pills have done it to me before, I wasn’t all that worried.  I could breathe fine…I just had trouble swallowing, which wasn’t that big a deal after what I had been through the day before…R still says the allergic reaction is to blame for a lot of the swelling.

            Believe it or not, there were no marks on my throat at all from the scratching I did…I still cannot get over that one.  Not one mark the next day, after 95% of the swelling was gone.  The day after, nothing unusual at all.

            We went to Sam’s club on Saturday?  I think…  I think so; we had N w us.  There was a demonstration for this spa facial stuff, Avani…we bought it.  We brought it home.  I used it on my eyes and my neck, as well as the rest of my face.  The stuff on my eyes vanished…on my neck, you could tell the places I didn’t use it …I wanted to compare, so I left some skin untreated.  The next day, I did the places I had left undone the previous day.  Although the dry skin is trying to come back on my eyes, very slowly—since I was not anywhere near vigorous when I did my eyes—my neck is still completely clear and itch-free--this stuff is wonderful…

            We went out for a wonderful meal at Outback Steakhouse ... then we all needed to walk around some afterwards…so we went to Value Village.  We found this amazing king-sized comforter, with two pillow shams…it looks tough enough to suffer through the dogs…and pretty enough for me…and not-girly enough for R.  The colors are gorgeous…all autumnal and subdued, but still bright and engaging…when I saw it all I could think was both our colors, all mixed together.  It’s terrific.

            Sunday was busy…the whole week-end was busy.  R golfed Sunday morning, starting at 7:50am…he was home about 3p or so…which put us behind our ‘normal’ schedule…so I didn’t get to go to all the stores I had wanted to go to in that area.  We took the kids to eat and to play at McDonald’s playground…which we do every Sunday.  Then my poor patient R agreed to run the errands that we could run…which entailed a trip to TJ Maxx, two of them as luck would have it…walmart (fish food is cheaper there, sorry…I do try to stay away from them as much as I can) and a trip to Michaels since we had a coupon to use… dunkin donuts (drool, dribble dribble, drool)…there was more of the on-going saga w E, convincing her we do love her and that we are pushing her education for a reason…    

Honestly, I did not realize she was a far behind as she is academically…I knew her reading was slow, but I also know that she reads better than she lets on…her math work is third grade…but she balks at us pushing her past where she is now.  It’s not that the work is too hard for her…it’s that she’s afraid to continue, because it will get harder and we’ll expect more from her and what if she can’t measure up…so…we found a software program at sams club that may help stimulate her desire to work …and then I found a website online—it was recommended in one of my homeschool groups…the site is called Lesson Pathways.  From the looks of it, I like it, but we haven’t sat E down to use it yet…as yesterday was hectic in and of its own self.  Having said all of this, and having R to back me up and to help out w her, I know we can get E moving this season…we run homeschool all year round…w week-ends off here and there for visiting cousins and whatnot—but that can and will stop if she doesn’t start performing…

            I did have a great deal of fun though…E notwithstanding.  I had two different women, in two different stores, hours apart, stop and talk to me about my tattoos, both of whom told me how great they are and how good they look.  *Smile*

            Since we didn’t make it to all the places I had planned to go on Sunday, E and I headed out yesterday.  We went to world market.  E loves anywhere we can go that they give you free coffee.  They were out of tea samples when we were there, but the coffee was incredible, as always.  E loves that store, as much as I do.  I love the colors and all the neat things you can find there.  I went there in search of bells…strands of bells…I found them.  I have hung them up at home and the house is now good…not done yet, but at least I have my weird airy fairy air apparent all over the place now.  You cannot step in the door now that you don’t know that this is my home too.  I think I did a good job of keeping and maintaining all of R’s stuff…while incorporating my own.  He’s not upset or bothered by anything I’ve done…so I call it good.

            We then went to a couple other places right there to grab some small things…then we went to the BEST place of all…and the place that made me giddy and happy all day long: Kirkwood Knittery…oh, how I LOVE that store…the only store in the state of MO that carriers Habu Yarns (that we …or the Habu website…know of anyway)…I fondled much Habu yesterday…the paper yarn is incredibly tactile…I love it.  I will have to find a reason to buy some at some point…I ended up buying some of the beautiful silk and stainless steel yarns…and decided right then and there I would not order the wool and stainless steel from lionbrand ever again…I will always drive out to Kirkwood to my favorite yarn store…

            BUT…that is not why I am so happy.  I went through the $1 booklet and 50 cent magazine bins in the back…I also checked out the $1 a ball bin and the 30% off rack…but I stuck w booklets and magazines…I walked out w ten booklets and magazines…2 skeins of the silk and stainless steel yarn…for $38 (I know, I said yesterday $36…I was wrong….)…a stack of magazines that included no less than 5 copies of Rebecca, old ones, yes, but still gorgeous (I found out one is actually recent…so…big thrill there)…and as I told the fabulous Brooke when I checked out, if there is but one pattern in each magazine and booklet that I like, then I have wasted neither time nor cash in buying it.  I am a VERY happy woman today…very very very happy…I need to go back and grab some of the crochet magazines…they were all American ones, and I was really set on European magazines yesterday…not to mention, my knitting is far far better than my crochet most days…but then again, how else am I to learn?

            We also dropped by hobby lobby while it was actually open, since we were in the area.  Honestly, if I had walked out of there empty-handed I would have been fine…I didn’t though.  They did have yarn on clearance.  Weirdly enough though, there clearance bins were full of the exact same yarns, same brand, same color, same lot, everything—but you had to watch because if you picked up four skeins of the same yarn, each skein might be priced differently…I wanted to buy about six skeins of this one yarn, but could only find three the same price.  The prices ranged from $1.67 to $3.99…it’s all discontinued colors…why are the same colors not all priced the same?  I can almost understand why some different  colors are higher priced, almost, coveted colors maybe costing more to earn the store more money; uglier colors not so expensive just to get rid of them…but we are talking the same dye lot and everything here…I spent under $20 and came home w two yarns that I plan to combine into yet another modified ribby tank…then we walked into Hancock’s fabrics in the same complex…this store used to have such a great knitting/yarn section…I still have stash I bought at their store before the exodus to MD …  but they did have thread and fabric galore this time…which is why we were there.

             I’ve been commissioned to build a purse for my favorite Glass Fairy…as we await the arrival of her gorgeous fabrics, I thought I would scope out threads and notions a bit…since we haven’t really gotten down to brass tacks about the basics of design and construction…we didn’t really need anything at hancock’s yet…even though I really ought to grab 20+ yards of muslin to start working on my dress at some point…I am not going there until the house is all done and everything is unpacked and put away and we all feel comfortable in our own home again…

            We’re getting there.  At least we are happy together during the process…that counts for such a great deal.

            Now…I have all my measurements ready for my EZ seamless yoke sweater…I have EZ’s pattern in The Knitting Workshop…and a copy of Ann Budd’s The Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns….I now must sit down and write out MY pattern for this sweater…because all I really needed from Ann’s book was the 4 decrease rows on the yoke, so my sweater won’t pucker…and since this is my very first “real” sweater, I want it to turn out right…the numbers I have using EZ’s percentage system (EPS) do not match anything in Ann’s book …my gauge is 4.5 stitches per inch.  Ann has a 4 stitches per inch  and a 5 stitches per inch recipe, no halves or quarters or anything like that…I should be able to figure it out on my own though.

            I have not yet finished my second hanging mitered towel yet…since I only work on it while we are in the car…while R drives…usually only on Sundays…that is my excuse and I am sticking to it…the next one I make…because R does love them and we want more…I think I shall make a ballband towel…like this one, or maybe this one…

            What I am planning to do today though is start working on this bikini top/bra pattern…in preparation for doing the whole silver bikini, quite possibly a thong bikini….there’s a long camping, and campy, story behind this…but hey, anything for a laugh…I swear…  Anyway, at Michael’s on Sunday, with our 25% off coupon, I bought some loops and threads charisma simply because I liked the colors…it’s called ‘Sunny Day’ and is variegated blues and greens….

            I totally forgot about Michael’s there….not only did I grab the necessary silver yarn for the camping bikini (Vanna’s glamour in platinum—I should have enough for a 4 piece bikini—2 different tops and 2 different bottoms—if I did the math right….w plenty left-over In case I goofed or change my mind on what pattern to use….)…we grabbed a cool gift for my Dad (which we cannot in good conscious reveal here until after he receives it so it remains a surprise)…blood splats for Halloween decorating…my 9yo found a sign that fit so perfectly I had to have it…keeping in mind my Dad, and many others, call my kids my little monsters….the sign says “A happy witch lives here with her little monsters”…I want to keep it up all year long…mwahahaha…I love it.

            And since technically I am a member (or I was when we were in WV) of the Black Hat Society (I cannot find a good link now…but let me show you the blog that introduced me to the BHS in PA….HERE)…I amused the snot out of E by telling her we should get the sign that said “Black Hat Society member”, that we were members already, and that we should get one for my mother, who is far more into the Black Hat arena than am I…she and I share similar views, but walk different paths, that’s all.  E has had her “the witch is in/out” sign for awhile now…she is proud to have a sign so like her Granny’s own sign that says the same thing…when I hung E’s sign up this time, she took the ‘vampire’ sticker off the sign (her sign said the vampire is in/out, instead of the witch) …the vampire sticker is on her door…so she is still holding on to that one…but she is happy to be the witchy-poo here now…yes…strange child…from a strange family…and we all love her and we love each other…how much stranger can you get, right?

            I have more to say, more things to recommend, but I am going to stop here so that anything important does not get lost in the mass of verbiage that is my life.

            Enjoy your day.

            Peace.

Monday to Wednesday--Three Days Condensed

            It’s Wednesday—this week has been …hectic and all over the place…I started to write yesterday—and then my son shooed me away from the computer and lost everything I wrote for me, because he is always so kind and closes every application I have open after he’s finished…I am in mermaid on land phase today (which means it feels as if I am walking on daggers—which means this cave dweller is refusing to leave the house until I have things cleaned up enough around the house to actually feel human…)…so I am making the time to get everything I have put off done today…

            Let us begin:

This week-end was awesome for me.  Ok, only on some levels.  R had to spend the week-end elsewhere, helping out family…so on that level, it was a lonely week-end—except that he still had his phone w him and we were able to bother the snot out of one another often enough that it wasn’t too bad.

            I closed the old work blog for good, after transferring all the pages and posts to both Alyce and to my current work blog…I completely opened up Alyce again…I won’t rehash every detail here, but will let you read the reasons why here.  I haven’t made the time to go through each and every page there, since Alyce is actually the one blog where I have combined all the other writers blogs I have written that as I closed them I simply imported them into Alyce…so there are several about pages there on various subjects, not just on me…I still have some house cleaning to do there, but it is open again.  There are no new posts as yet…I have quite a few that need to be typed and edited…I cannot guarantee when I will start posting the new stuff…just be assured that it is coming.

            I did a great deal of writing this week-end…which had been hit or miss the previous week.  So I was feeling really good…

            We were all more than ready for R to return from his …visit… to his father’s this week-end…he and his brother-in-law dug up and replaced about 80 feet of sewer pipe.  The poor man came back with wasp stings and blisters, but overall, not in too bad a shape.  I find it amazing how both kids react when R isn’t here.  N actually gets worried about him and can’t wait for him to come back.  I think N is the one who tracks exactly where R is when he’s on the road, because N will start insisting we go home –and within five minutes of us getting home R arrives (we went to dinner w friends Sunday…so that’s where that comes in to play).  We all sleep better once he’s home…he may not think he is as loved as he is by these two small snotheads…but he is…

            Monday.  Talk about a busy day.  N is here with us all week… so between work and trying to get the house together, working on washing laundry after the week-end and so on, plus trying to get a box together for the Vietnam Veterans charity that came yesterday…I didn’t get much writing done.  By noon, we decided it was time to run our errands…get groceries, dining room table chairs, a few other things.  We actually had a very good afternoon…even if it was hot and not as leisurely as we wanted…and we only got half our projected errands out of the way…the rest of which we will take care of this week-end…

            We got home in enough time to unload the truck, put a few of the colder things away, and then R came home.  We were supposed to be helping a friend out at the produce co-op, since that was her first time in charge of everything, so we were supposed to be ready to go the second R got home.  (Way to go, Lori—you did a GREAT job…btw), but we were already running late as it was, since R had to change clothes…and there was traffic, and we of course got lost, although it turned out to be a good thing in the end, once we figured out where we were.  We weren’t early, as we should have been, but we weren’t all that late either…so no harm, no foul there.

            We have enough fresh produce to choke a horse at the moment.  I am very glad we have two refrigerators up and running.  We have both of them stuffed at the moment, between what the kids and I bought and what we got through the co-op.  All in all, very cool.  I am rather interested to find out what sort of things we’ll be getting through the winter with this co-op.  I already have a desire to experiment more with squashes.  I found some amazing recipes for pumpkin recently where we are not using mashed pumpkin or pureed pumpkin, but cubed pumpkin, which is something I have wanted to do for awhile now…even though the kids LOVE our pumpkin soup.

            Tonight we are grilling tomatillos and potatoes and fresh corn and onions…and I have no clue what we are planning for dinner…but we know there is a salsa in our future…if nothing else.  I need to remember to pull some of the garlic cloves out of the freezer so we can grill those too…just for the smoky flavor.

            We got home so late and so exhausted last night, after everything, we darn near went straight to bed.  The kids were exhausted.  They got to play on the playground while we were helping with the co-op stuff—and it wasn’t too long before they’d both had enough of the heat…poor little things.  We really wore them out.

            Tuesday.  Well, I started to type Monday’s stuff up…until N overtook the computer…which is not as bad as it sounds…because that meant I could turn Dog City off…we borrowed this movie from the library…we’ve watched it hundreds of times now.  N absolutely loves this movie…I still don’t get it and I still don’t want to get it.  I got to watch a bit of Primeval and eat chips and salsa for a few minutes undisturbed, while trying to flip through the latest edition of Hobby Farms that had arrived sometime last week…I have not been overjoyed by many of the magazines that have arrived on our door lately…I am actually sorry I have subscribed to the ones I did…but now I know…when it comes times to re-up our subscriptions, out of the five we subscribe to right now, only one is going to get renewed (Poets & Writers)…when I have time, I will be researching different literary journals to which to subscribe…I knew better than to subscribe to Writer’s Digest…but I did it anyway…it’s a good magazine (I guess) for its niche—it’s just not a good magazine/fit for me…I wish I could subscribe to the knitting magazines I like…but none of them are American…not even Vogue Knitting International is right for me…

            Speaking of knitting, I am currently in a flurry of trying to learn the best way to design…I have all these shawls and scarves and yada yada sitting here waiting to be test knit—or reknit so I have something to photograph—and the patterns written up clearly enough for anyone to follow (rather than my normal more like EZ style….)…but ever since deciding to knit my own seamless yoke sweater, I have been bombarded by the whole…there are not many patterns available, either online or in books, that I actually like enough to knit…I have been knitting the same ribby tank top all summer, trying to find that right balance of changes to the original pattern so that I really like it and will wear it all the time…I sort of have the same issue with my seamless yoke sweater…EZ on the video says that puckering occurs around the yoke with the rapid decreases…so instead of two decrease rows, there can be three…and that steaming will work out the puckering anyway (at least this is how I remember it)…but then I borrowed Ann Budd’s The Knitter’s Handy Book Of Sweater Patternsn from the library…and in the pattern for that yoke sweater there are four rows of decreases in the yoke…so I had to finally order that book—that book has been on my have to have one day list since at least 2006, when I bought her other companion book, The Knitter’s Handy Book Of Patterns…although that book is currently in storage at the moment, so I have no way to check any information in it to see where things lie.  So, I am waiting for my own copy of Sweater Patterns to arrive so I don’t mess up my sweater.  I love EZ, but I never said her directions did not often bring me to tears.  I want to start making sweaters, at least a couple, before I even think of branching out into sweater design.  I have no worries about my shawls or scarves or anything of that nature…but a full sweater?  Yeah…I want to make sure I know what I am doing and what I am saying before I start putting things out there for other people to buy…

            I do have a lovely shrug in the midst of planning at the moment…I simply have not decided which yarn to use…which is the only stall on a test knit…I have the whole pattern written out…once I decide on the yarn, I’ll work up a swatch (gasp—I know, right!) and write it up properly … what I have at the moment is the basic guide for the design I want to follow…not line by line this is how we do it…

            And now, off to work…I have plenty of house work, plenty of writing work, and plenty of children to nag and nag some more…so …here we go…

Wednesday Check-In

                                               (c) 2010 T Webber


This post was written yesterday, but I was in the process of editing/spell-checking when R got home from work...I didn't have time to quite finish...so it was done on time...but not posted on time...

            The happy dance continues here at home today.  It is a huge relief for me to be drawing again, even if the better stuff has not yet been posted.  It’s Wednesday.  I have four drawings done.  I went today and found where I had hidden all my colored pencils…or rather, where I have failed to unpack them from, the poor dears.  I found…everything and then some.  My prismacolor sets were in the tool box in the closet, where I had put them long ago to keep them safe…and of course I have to make a mental note: I must find a suitable container in which to keep them.  In their current condition, I can’t see all the colors at once, or clearly, so I tend not to use them.  This is my set of I think 132 pencils that when the kids broke in to the IL house, they ruined the tin box…hence the nowhere to store them so I can see them deal here.

            What I used, and what I plan to continue to use for the moment, are my dick blick colored pencil set…because I can see all the colors laid out at the same time and can see how they relate to one another in their open tin box…which is exactly what I need when I am working…I don’t want to have to dig through a pile of pencils to find the right color…I just want to be able to look, see, grab, and go.  This tin allows me to do that…only 72 colors, but way better than a 12 pack of crayola colored pencils, or whatever brand the kids have at the moment…

            I am drawing again and it feels SOO good…now I need to color the remaining pieces I have drawn up and start putting the better stuff up…maybe I can even start my ‘perspective’ ATC  series again…not that I can actually find a link to show you which ones I am talking about at the moment, but I did try…I keep the two best ATCs in my dayplanner, so I will be able to look at them and KNOW that I can do things and that I can draw well.  It doesn’t hurt that R is always there to support me and nudge me along when I allow the fears and insecurities to crop up.  I will have to scan them and post them here when I get the chance.

            Whilst scrounging around to find my colored pencils, I found…my SoulCollage ® cards…for some reason, the old external hard drive did not keep copies of every picture of them—which makes me nervous about the pictures of the kids it might have inadvertently ‘lost’ as well…but nothing I can do there…when I first started working on my SoulCollage ® cards, I always meant to take them to kinkos or somewhere and have them turned into my own smaller, personal deck, so that I could use them every day…the size of the cards is prohibitive for me to use them frequently (5in x 7in)…I need something closer to a regular sized deck of cards, or a touch larger, so that I can shuffle and sort and do what I do.  I also need something less tactilely demanding—every image has edges that my fingers catch and feel and notice, which takes too much away from the process for me.  I need everything completely one dimensional so I can focus on the spiritual side of things when I work with these cards.   No edges of pictures touchable, no difference in the weight of the papers on each card, all of that needs to go for me to genuinely use them effectively for me.

            I shuffled through my cards several times.  I have no real desire to create any new ones.  I haven’t had that desire in a long time.  Full Moon Dreamboards and other Dreamboards are more than enough to keep me happy and to propel me forward, over the stuck spots.  As I rifled through these images, however, it struck me again just how useful these cards could be to me on a more daily basis…so, on the list of things to do is to scan and upload each card…and get them printed out as my own deck of cards so that I can use them.  I am still very taken with the beauty and the imagery of these cards, even the ones that seem so plain and withdrawn.

            I updated my artistic exploration blog today, with a story piece, as well as a drawing, so I am feeling good.  After some rocky issues with family this past week-end, I am feeling a little overstressed about posting some of the articles and posts that I have in various stages of completion, lest anyone think I aimed anything straight at them.  R told me not to worry about that, or it, or them…and to just do what I do.  So, even though I will probably work on some revisions, I am going to start finishing off these drafts I have, fleshing out these outlines I have, and posting with my normal je ne sais quoi…and ignoring the existence of most people as I work inside my little vacuum…

            I had a healing touch client last night, in person, for which I am so thrilled.  I honestly forgot how much I enjoy the one on one, hands on interaction.  Soon I will be offering more of this sort of work.  Keep an eye on my work blog for details; they will be coming soon.

            I am also looking more towards personal mentoring sessions of late too…I hate to say life coaching for some reason…it makes me feel too mainstream…but with the work I normally do personal mentoring is such a better definition…so keep an eye out for that as well.  I am still working within the framework of the spiritual training program…I find it very interesting how so many pieces of my work keep flowing together.  The spiritual and the mentoring and the coaching…I pulled all my old files off my netbook today and set them up on my laptop…only to find some amazingly brilliant nuggets of information and delight awaiting me…I had no clue that over a year ago, I was in the process of developing these same programs to offer to the public…but I was.  I have the notes to prove it…I am …both stunned and ashamed…I love that it is all there, waiting for me, but ashamed because it took me this long to get there…but I won’t let that hold me back.  I have plenty of work to do yet.  I have only just begun.

            Last but not least, my favorite Glass Faery has been at it again, with the Musing and the prompting and the little nudge nudge wink wink thing she does…so expect some interesting fibery goodness to be flowing over at the work blog here soon as well…and you thought stainless steel yarn was going to be enough to tide us over for awhile, didn’t you?  *giggle*  Want a tiny hint?  I finally get to work with metals…not just of the yarn variety…there may even be a blow torch involved…which I have been waiting for for a very very long time…I am so excited!

            Have a beautiful day…peace.