Fruity

I felt like I wanted some sort of homemade goodness this year, so the boys and I improvised a peach-raspberry jam that turned out oh so yummy. We couldn't resist & opened the first jar right away. So good with plain yogurt. They made cute lil' tags to go with the jam. My slice of being "homey" - a step towards the garden I have been manifesting for years. I think we'll make some more soon. They will be nice gifts for the "handmade Christmas" I'm envisioning.

In A Nutshell

Writing is a way for me to process things. I used to be a sort of "to the point" writer, but some readers were offended by that, so I decided that I would experiment with vague writing and have an open blog rather than continue with blunt writing in a closed forum. It's actually quite fun. That being said when you read the following, you might think you know what you are reading, but can you really be sure?

After a lovely, stimulating, exciting, thrilling, electrifying, sometimes just outright darn scary & leading to outbursts of tears roller coaster ride that lasted for a few months, I have decided that roller coaster rides are just not for me. I'm of the slow & steady type. The moments when you feel "on top of the world" - you know those moments when the roller coaster is rather slow, at a plateau of sorts - seem to pass in a flash & then it's back to the steep downgrades that make me want to pee my pants (in a bad way) & vomit.

I cannot deny that I immensely enjoyed portions of the ride, but at the end it was really rough.

As the roller coaster pulled into the station this past week, I decided to get out. Not without hesitation I must admit. Yeah, decisiveness is not my strength. I will take a pause now & eventually renew my search for a gentle boat ride with the occasional storm.

'Nough said.

Nana's Peas

My second lace shawl. Yes, I really like green. Yes, I really like O~Wool. The colorway is "Willow" to be specific. My third project with the same yarn. - Yes, I can be sooooooo p-h-l-e-g-m-a-t-i-c. This one is for my Mom aka Nana & she likes green, too! It has the traditional Danish shape to it. I used the Dane Shawl pattern. Very well written, easy to memorize the repeats. & I just love how the lace opens up when blocked.

Felt A Story

I taught "Stories-N-Felting" camp for three days this week. I know many (teacher) friends started school already. We're not going back 'til September 8th. The children attending camp were five to seven years old. The pictures you see are their creations. It's helpful to keep that in mind when reading about the projects.

In the first story I introduced a beautiful beach with a clear ocean. In the back rose rolling green hills that eventually gave way to snow-capped mountains. The story was about a fish happily living together with his fish friends. One day a shark disturbs the peace. The fish swim away fast, loosing each other in the process. The fish finds a lil' seashell and eventually makes two good friends, a crab & a seahorse. The inspiration for this came from an old issue of Living Crafts magazine.

Inspired by my friend Angie's post "Treasure Bag" (Thanks, Angie!) we felted little pouches. These pouches would later hold the felted little fish, the seashell & a small dyed silk. - Sort of a "mini puppet play in a pouch."

Felting the fish in one piece didn't quite work out as I thought it would, so we created a flat piece of felt, cut out fish & blanket-stitched two pieces together. We added a little loop so the fish can easily swim through the water as puppets. So cute.

Aubergine

When I came home, I noticed a wee lil' eggplant growing in one of the pots on the steps leading up to the porch. I didn't garden much this summer because of traveling to New Zealand, so I was rather happy to see that small thing!

Cloning

My children have been cloned. There is not other explanation for this phenomenon. They were secretly cloned while visiting their father for the summer. The children I picked up on Saturday are not the children I dropped off two months ago.

I am sure of it!

I was teaching "Stories-N-Felting" camp at school this morning. As I walked out the door I said, "Please clean your room while I'm gone & please don't say you forgot to do it when I come home." - Yes, I was obviously trying to cover all my bases. A tidy house does contribute greatly to my well-being & mood...

I returned home to two children sitting on the porch in the sun. It was pretty hot outside, 94 F. They said they had come out to make sure they wouldn't suffer from Vitamin D deficiency. (*) Hilarious! I thought they would use the Vitamin D deficiency story to tell me why they had forgotten to clean their room. I took a deep breath & went in. They smirked.

As I walked through the door, they told me that they had not only cleaned their room, but also vacuumed & dusted the entire house, put their bikes into the back, made my bed, organized the shoes & took the trash out. The house looked so neat!

Surely, my "real" children have been replaced by clones. I must admit cloning seemed against my ethics - until today. Welcome clone boys! :-)

(*) If you are wondering what's up with the whole Vitamin D deficiency thing, check out the article, "Vitamin D Myths, Facts & Statistics" by Mike Adams over at Natural News.

A Naughty Confession

It's been a secret of mine for a while now, but I thought I'd come out of the closet about it. I had a friend over earlier and she had brought a bottle of wine. I'm a bit tipsy right now - just the right time for a confession such as this one. I know that Brent reads this blog regularly & most of you know how much he means to me. I have tried to tell him about this habit in the past, but I just never built up the courage to do so. Men usually aren't as much into it as women are, you know. I wasn't sure whether or not he would understand. I was afraid he would think I'm crazy, so I never mentioned it.

The internet is so awesome! You can tell the world anything and everything without ever really saying a thing.

I know it will sound naughty to some, especially considering my profession. In case my Mom reads this, "Mom, I hope you will be okay with it & still let me have that antique cabinet in your will!"

A while ago I wrote a venting blog post that got me in a bit of trouble. I sure hope that some won't think that publishing this sort of confession is over the top.

Okay, you are probably wondering, "What is this naughty habit?"

Sigh.

Oh, this is not easy at all!

Yikes.

Much more difficult than I thought.

Well, the thing is - I like to swap.

I know that at this point most of you will gasp. Some might even decide they have read enough & click away, but I ask that you please give me a chance to explain, even if you are a rather conservative person. This blog post might very well convince you to start swapping yourself!

I'm not sure what about it fascinates me so much. Maybe it is the mystical quality of it all. You never really know what you will get. It's not that satisfaction is guaranteed. There's a possibility for disappointment, especially in regards to "size" & "quality." I know some say size does not matter... Well, maybe we can discuss that some other time.

I really felt the need to want to be at my best and satisfy my partner. I certainly did not want to disappoint my swap partner. It may seem sort of odd. We are strangers after all, but I just wanted to leave a good impression.

I have been very happy with my swapping experience so far.

You should give it a try.

I swapped this past week & it was so exciting. In this specific scenario I was very happy with what I got. It was much more than I had ever expected. It was as if the person knew me, knew what I liked, although they could not possibly have known, because we were complete strangers matched up by a 3rd party.

So much pleasure!

Yessss.

Oh my.

I love to swap yarn on Ravelry.

I'm A Soup Girl!

Yesterday I received some home-grown goodness from a friend. With the boys still out of town & being the soup girl I am, I decided to fix some cream of squash soup for dinner today.

1/2 onion sauteed in a bit of butter. Two yellow squashies & a russet potato thinly sliced. Added some water, salt & pepper. Boiled to softness. Pureed with blender stick. Added a bit of cream & some chives. Such a simple, good meal. This would easily be enough for the three of us!

That Unidentified Object

A few years ago I lived in a pretty lil' house with nice Swedish furniture. The children had beautiful, handcrafted wooden toys to play with and my knitting was neatly arranged in rainbow order in willow baskets. Outside the birds chirped. On the side of the house a meadow gave way to a majestic forest. The garden was any horticulturist's dream. A really nice place.

All would have been heavenly harmony, but one day I saw that there was an UO in the room. It was a small UO, but rather smelly. I tried to clean the UO to make it less smelly. It worked for a bit, but then it started to grow. It got to a point where it was pretty embarrassing when visitors would come over, but, determined to hang on to the blissful living, I found a way to hide it behind a neat, white linen curtain - until it got so big that it wouldn't fit anymore. I tried to shove it out the door, but it was just too late - it wouldn't fit. I pushed really hard to get the sucker out. It didn't budge! I was stuck with the UO. As the UO grew there was less and less room for us to breathe. It greedily sucked up most of the air. Then one day the UO had gotten so big that the house blew up with a mighty blow. The debris field was large. I'm sure you heard about it on reality TV.

I thought to myself that I will not ever tolerate an UO in a place again - ever. Although at first they seem small & manageable, they do grow for sure until they get so large that they don't fit in the room anymore. Breathing gets harder until one day you either suffocate or, as in my case, the place explodes emitting poisonous gases. The peculiar thing is that the UO is not affected by this. These explosions do not turn them into UFOs as one might think. They stay as if super-duper-glued.

For a few years I went through the world unsuccessfully looking for another place. Just as I started liking the nomad-lifestyle, there in front of me was a house. Beautiful curtains, fresh flowers, amazing art, exquisite china neatly stacked in cabinets... I looked around, marveling at the beauty, constantly thinking, "This is just too good to be true. Such a splendid home cannot possibly exist. Surely an UO must be hiding somewhere!" I searched in drawers and behind dressers; under sofa cushions and in vases. I inspected every nook and cranny. I could not see an UO anywhere.

So much happiness flooded through my being. There was no UO in the room! I sat down, relaxed, had some coffee, pulled out some knitting, sent some e-mails, cooked some beans. Weeks passed by. A month. Two. I happily skipped through town, visited friends for a backyard BBQ and... that night... when I came home... and... click... switched on the light... there... was... I am afraid to say... a freakin' UO in the room. Arghhhh!

I yelled, I screamed, I cried. I stomped. I pouted. I cursed. Bleep-bleep-bleepity-bleep. No! No! No! I didn't want an UO again! They are too creepy. I tried to talk to the UO to make it go away. I begged, I pleaded. I had wine. I went to sleep. When I woke up, I thought I had had an UO nightmare, but no! The UO was still there. It was real! It's the nature of the UO, you see. Once it has arrived, it never leaves. I pretended the UO was not there. It helped some at first, but the UO just has this horrible, putrid smell to it. I put the UO in a corner, sprayed it with perfume & thought I'd be okay with it. I wouldn't have to look at it often in the corner there, but it started moving around. It just didn't want to listen to me! And then it started to grow - first slowly... and then... at a crazZZzzy, insSsSsane speed.

Gasp. --- I thought I was the only one with an UO problem, but I just learned of a friend who has one, too. Sigh. What, oh what to do with UOs?

Any stories of successful UO Bonsai cultivation?

[Maybe to be continued...]

Sheepish

This was on my last weekend. We drove into the hills for amazing views in all directions. Steep. Slightly scary. Lots o' sheep.

The lambs just make me wanna go, "Awww. Awwwww." So cute.

The lil' path there in the background is the road & the sheep were very smart. They didn't want to be a Sunday lamb stew, so they quickly moved out of the way. But, with so many sheep all over the place, it was almost certain that there would be a sheep bum in the picture somewhere.

Well, in Kaikoura the cows had an awesome view. Here in the hills it was the sheep!

Kaikoura

I'm looking at vacation pictures & thinking about the great summer (ehmmm winter) I had. I have 300+ pictures, so I'm only sharing a few here. It's just such a nice memory. This is at the beach in Kaikoura. A beautiful destination on the South Island. There's no way a picture can capture how "purty" it all was, but the pictures sure help me remember.

This was a picture taken from the hills. Not terribly far up in the hills, but still in the hills. I remember there were cows grazing - just imagine what happy cows they must be to have an awesome view like this!

I've always been fascinated with fireplaces & wood-stoves. They remind me of when I was little. It would be cold at night in the winter, but in the morning in the kitchen where the wood-stove had been lit, it was always warm & cozy. Just imagine sitting by the beach at night by the fire.

Seals. Yes. This was not a zoo or a wildlife reserve. Just seals at home on this beautiful stretch of beach.

This is how close I got to... these birds :-) before they took off. Ahhh. Lovely memories.

Perfect Perfectionism?

For the last ten minutes or so I have been contemplating perfectionism. When I discover a mistake in my knitting, I *always* unravel. It must be perfect!

I'm thinking about abandoning that "philosophy" for just this one project. I'm in row 44 of a rather sophisticated lace pattern & I discovered a minor (or deadly?) mistake in row 10. I worked a k2tog rather than a ssk. It's not really noticeable, but then again I will always know it's there.

I realize that I could get much more accomplished if I would not always be so determined to have things perfect (or as perfect as I can get them).

I could stop blogging about the fact that this is happening & spend the time unraveling & re-knitting.

But, I think I will just let it be with the knowledge that it's the lil' imperfections that make life colorful & interesting.

Perfectionism is over-rated, right? (Is it not?)

Back to knitting now.

Baby Peas

I much prefer seamless knits such as this one. I can't decide on a button, though. Vintage forget-me-not ceramic? Rustic wood? A small, rough piece of amber? A lil' pewter bunny? - I like this O~Wool. It is so soft & green is a favorite color of mine.

Sheshe

It was so nice to see sheep roaming the hills seemingly without boundaries. I suppose each & every person traveling to New Zealand takes some photos of sheep. This sheep showing bum & the wee lil' lamb is my favorite sheep picture! When Noah was little, he called sheep sheshe - thus the title.

Pea Shawl Again!

There's a good side to this prolonged jet-lag thing. I finally had a chance to block the shawl. What a difference! I used the Yarn Harlot "method." & Noah's bed. - I just hope I didn't forget any pins. ;-) The lace looks so pretty now & I just *love* the edging. I'm officially hooked on knitting lace shawls.

Kiwi

This is a felted kiwi ornament I got in New Zealand - at the artsy kind of market in Christchurch to be specific. So cute. Hangin' in my window for now.

Desynchronosis

is another word for jet-lag & I got it. Third night in a row, wide awake after 3 a.m. , dozing off around 5 a.m., waking up at noon. "Recovery" is supposed to be at a rate of 1 day per eastward timezone. - In my case that means it may take 8 days to "recover."

I think all would have been fine had I arrived back home in the evening - tired & exhausted after 30+ hours of travel, but I had an 8-hours layover in L.A., caught a red-eye back east, arrived back home at 9 a.m. & went right to snoooozzzzzzing.

It's not a major nuisance, though.

I manage to get work done here and there during my morning hours, around 2 p.m.

I live in memories of the wonderful time I had. The beauty. The love.

I knit.

I drink tea.

And I'm looking forward to seeing my boys again in a few days. Two months has been a long time without them.