Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Moving Things Along

Some shapes for freeform crochet
A box of patterns I still need to get listed

A crocheted bag that I need to finish lining and add handles to. Did you notice the earthy colors? I'm ready for some bright summery ones now!


I'm sorting through all my stash for things to go up on my Destash Etsy. I have quite a few books, patterns, magazines, and not to mention they creative "stuff" that has been stashed away for years that I'm finally realizing I'll never use so I might as well see if anyone out there wants it.

I have been crocheting like a mad woman over the last couple of months. Lots of flowers and circle like thingy's to make into free form clothing, like vests and jackets. I was desperately looking for a book on making bullions and spent a good hour just surfing the web thinking that I would be able to track down a copy of Bullions & Beyond by Prudence Mapstone only to find that the book was out of print and almost impossible to get my hands on. As a last resort I decided to do a search on Ravelry. If you are into crochet or knitting this site is a MUST!! Not only did I find some excellent information on Bullions but I also found Prudence Mapstone and her website which sells a downloadable copy of Bullions & Beyond! Now I'm a happy camper!! Check out her site. She does some of the coolest freeform crochet & knitting! Anyway this was something I did a couple of weeks ago. Now I'm drifting into knitting too. I haven't knit in years but I like the idea of mixing the two together plus it gives me more variety with what I'm doing which does & doesn't feed that need to bounch all over the place.

Anyway that's it for today.

Monday, April 27, 2009

A Precarious Net Connection....


My Latest Plant Additions.....something low maintenance.....

Yummy!! From Trader Joe's and dirt cheap!!

My last batch from the kiln!


And a stamp I work on while I'm waiting for the internet to work! Cool isn't she!!


The internet issue has been going on now for about a week. I'm not calling again yet, because the outages are much less frequent, however if it doesn't stay on track soon I'll be back to the phone calls.

The weekend was extra busy between Chinese food on Friday, for 2 of my sisters Birthdays, and then dinner with the in-laws on Saturday. We always have a wonderful time visiting and the boys have a ball playing in their backyard with their cousin David.

The rest of the weekend was spent on the yard and house.

On the creative front I have been jumping all over the place. The good part is I'm actually finishing things that I've started. The bad part is that I'm still having trouble staying focused on any one thing for a long period of time. I'm beginning to think that this could be related to peri-menopause. I know that no one wants to hear about it but at 44 years young, I'm well into the throws of all the fun, with nights sweats, hot flashes, mood swings and a few other things I dare not mention. I'm really not apt to take any medications and am looking into natural remedies at this point. To say that I don't trust the medical community would be an understatement, since "they" almost killed my Mom several years ago and with drug companies pushing or being "pushers", to make, sell and get people addicted (or dependant) on their medications, I think I would be much better off sticking to natural medicine.

And on the word from my Aunt, both she and my Grandmother survived it just fine with out any manufactured hormones. I believe her words were "Isn't that what wine and chocolate were created for?". I do wonder if that was maybe the orgin for chocolate being created. So that men could give it to women during menopause, followed by some wine : D........

Speaking of wine. I intend to be conducting a little wine making experiment of my own. Since we have an abundance of dandelions, I thought I would try my hand at making some Dandelion Wine. The internet is full of recipes but I looked for one that was as basic as they come. No expensive equipment and kind of a quick make (1 month or more). The equivalent of Apple Jack if you know what I mean : ) I also found a recipe for some quick wine made from grape juice at the same site. Just click on the Dandelion Wine link. I'm hoping to get a batch started this coming weekend, I'll keep you posted on the results. Remember this is just for fun!

Anyway, I'm really trying to work on staying focused. I do remember a time when I was a child that I didn't have any problem working on things for hours as a time but since having kids of my own it's become an issue. Even when the kids aren't around I have trouble staying on task for more than 20-30 minutes except with lampworking. I can get in a good 2-3 hours session but don't last much longer than that. More recently (last couple of years) it has really become an issue and it's starting to drive me a bit crazy because I really want to start focusing on my art but seem to bounce around not quite finishing anything. As I said above, though.....this is something I'm really working on, so you should see me posting a bit more often.

Sooooo...... the pics above are recent events. Plants, wine, some lampwork and a stamp (in the process).

Enjoy your evening!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The Internet......

Not that I don't love my DSL connection, every 3 months or so it decides to start acting up. It's really subtle at first. A random outage here and there and then one after another, after another. It usually lasts about 3 days at which point (usually the 2nd day) I call our ISP and complain to which they seem to think I'm the one with the problem. Granted I've reset and rebooted everything at least a half dozen times. When I called yesterday, (and I find it ironic that when you call the automated voice tells you that you can find help on the internet, do they really think I would be calling if I could get help through the net!!!!) the system that tests your line found a problem. What do ya know!! I finally get a tech on the line and they end up booting me back into the main menu. At this point I figure that they know I've got a problem so they will get it taken care of.....so far, so good, today!!

Back later.....

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Spring Has Sprung!

After what seemed like a waayyyy too long Winter, it seems that the chill is finally starting to disappear. The ornamental plum is finally blooming and the Chinese pear is budding. I'm sure we'll still have a frosty morning now and then but Spring is definitely in site.

Sorting through the house is a slow process. According to this book (Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui). The first thing you should do is clear all of the clutter from behind your doors. This is a little easier said than done. What is interesting though is that I had started doing that exact thing even before I read this book. I still have a few doors to go though so we'll see what the results are later.

In the meantime while I sort through all the other "crap" my desk starts to accumulate things again! I swear that it's a paper magnet! So I'm back at that too. It's the nerve of my business so I NEED to keep it clear, no matter what.

I got one lampworking session in and haven't had a chance to sit at it since. I tried to post pictures, but Blogger is acting up tonight so no pics! Sorry! I'll see what I can do tomorrow though.

So for tonight I'll just make this a short post because I wanted to add pictures. So I'll be back tomorrow or this weekend!

Take care!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

He's On His Way!

It's been a heck of a week but the Easter Bunny is on his way!!

Happy Easter & Enjoy your day!

Friday, April 03, 2009

The Weekend Is Here!!

Not the week for Spring Break! It was probably 95% rain plus my middle guy (Duncan) spent most of the week sick. Next weekend will be Easter so I need to start preparing for that too. I don't have a single peep or jelly bean around. Give me a stale peep and I'm happy for at least a minute or two!

I still have lampwork sitting in a bowl of water.........crochet rings that are ready for Etsy.......and, well, the boys being home, proved to be a bit bigger of a distraction than I had anticipated.......

Next week will be a little more "even".

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Soooo.......



I did our taxes today. I'm so glad that's out of the way!!! It's one of those things that hangs over your head until you get it done and the closer it gets to April 15th the more stressed you (I) get.

It snowed again today. Didn't stick but it's back to burrrr!! Yesterday started with rain but ended up Sunny and WINDY!!! I was going to get on and post but decided against it after the lights flashed a few times.

Tonight I'll be heading to the store after Jimmy gets home. Have I mentioned that I'm carless (not careless) for the moment. This will hopefully be short lived but for now I make due and "steal" Brandy's when I can or wait for Jimmy to get home from work. It's not a big deal but it will be good when I do have a reliable set of wheels to use.

A little crochet ring above and I'll be adding inexpensive readers (Granny's) to my creative side (Etsy).