Back to spinning, back to dying

Well this last month has been interrupted by first a trip to Las Vegas to visit my brother and mother, and then coming home to my family getting some sort of gastro-intestinal flu. I've become way too familiar with my washing machine, but in that time that my Whirlpool front loader and I have had together, I've made a discovery you would think that I would have already known.

My washer has a spin only cycle.

Yep. I will now be able to process more wool at home (oh I can hear my husband groaning over that now...) and I can spin out the fiber that I've dyed.

The drying time has been an issue here as we just don't have space, but it now appears that we will be able to get more dying done, and I won't have to worry about my nosy neighbor calling the city to say my house is covered in an odd stringy substance.

It is April, and there are Daffodils showing signs of being ready to bloom all over the place and the weather is just getting so beautiful out... I am fielding more interview calls for QA Manager positions, and I've taken on some new clients for web-design. At the end of the month is the CT Sheep and Wool Festival that I will be going to with Sunny. In between all this I'm working on getting my Etsy shop re-stocked, and consider getting a production wheel.

That would make 4 wheels for those who are counting...

I'm actually considering selling my Colonial Wheel. I don't have space to set it up and it really deserves the room to be on display. I guess I'll have to give that some thought. I know that I really want the jumbo flyer for my HitchHiker Roadbug from the Merlin Tree and hope to pick one up at the CT Sheep and Wool fest.

In the mean time, since I've discovered this new setting on my machine, I will be stocking the Etsy shop with hand dyed, locally processed sliver! I'll announce when I've done my latest updates there.

It's really nice, with my daughter getting ready to start homeschooling in earnest, it's been a relief that we have the Etsy shop to supplement income. Homeschooling can be done very inexpensively, but we're making sure we can provide our kids with the tools they need to succeed in the world - as it takes money to make money, I am hoping we can cover some of her foundations costs this year with the profits from TGTreasures.

New England Spring - Festivals begin!

So - we're home, it was a heck of an adventure and my kids are happy to be home, and I even got back to my Thursday evening spinning - something that just hasn't happened in a while due to my spinning partner in crime being in her first trimester of pregnancy (she's out now and finds out tomorrow if she has a baby boy or girl in there *grins*.)

If you are around Bristol CT on Thursday night and want to come spin with us - please do! We meet up at about 6:30 PM and are there until they close up. This week is iffy as to if we'll be there or not, but other weeks you can definitely find us there.

So that silk and merino/tencil I promised pics of? My hands area bit rough but somewhere I read a trick about salt and olive oil exfoliation... it's also supposed to smooth hands for working with silk. The silk will be fun to work with though - I have several silk hankies that I've spun up and just loved working with.

I had hoped to post more when I was in Las Vegas, but my little Diva didn't get as much done on her homeschooling programs during the days like we'd have liked, so before bed at night this became a frequent visage in the window...



She's a bright little cookie and has figured out how to use my cell phone as well. She has started texting folks, not content to work on her homeschool website, - no she also wants to Text Daddy, Auntie Reesa, Grandma, and a few others. It makes things a little challenging as she's got my phone figured out better than I have.

So it's spring, shearing season is upon us, and more than likely I will be going back to the same farm in June to pick up more fleeces. Sunny and I are going to wash them out in her backyard this time though, so when we send them off for processing we're not paying an arm and a leg for processing gunk out that we could do ourselves. We also hope to do a bit more dying together than we did last summer. We'll be doing as much as we can outside in the shade as she'll be getting rather large by then...

I am really excited for both she and her husband - this is their first baby, and my Husband was best man at their wedding. As her husband's a police officer in the next town over, there are very few odds that we'll ever have pictures of him posted here, but for future reference, I'll just call him Kel here. Kel's a pretty good guy and I've known him for ages... I don't think he really grasps what we're doing yet with the spinning though. *grins* When his house is overtaken with yarn, as well as all the baby paraphernalia I'm sure I'll get partial blame.

I am looking forward to the CT Sheep and Wool festival as well. It is the 100'th anniversary of it, but I can't find a functioning website for it anymore. Which completely stinks. I know it is happening though - and on April 26, Sunny and I will be there. I'm hoping that Claire can make it too - it's a small enough venue that we may bring my little Diva and if Claire brings her daughter, I expect they will play well together, leaving the adults to be able to oggle spinning wheels and fiber as well as let Sunny get a chance to try out several types of spinning wheels to see if she likes one over another... until then she's using mine and really enjoying it - when she's not having tension problems. ;-)

And speaking of Tension - I'll have a whopper of a tension problem tomorrow if I don't get to sleep now. I'll be bringing a wheel with me to my daughter's dance class, so I should get some sleep now.

Until later!

Fiber Shop

Really Sick of his car seat

Enjoying the cactus garden together

Springs Preserve

Terraforming at Lake Las Vegas

More Photos later... kids awake now.

Vegas, day 4 complete

Ok - today was just busy.

• Breakfast at mom's
• Finish laundry/fold and bag to go back to hotel
• Springs Preserve with all 3 little ones.... wow can I have some of their energy?
• Back to Mom's to check on step dad and grab anything we left earlier.
• Off to Coldstone creamery - 3 quarts custom blended for us, Tessa had to have strawberry gummybear as one of them.
• Lake Mead for a Sunset Dinner cooked by my uncle Paul who really is a bit of a gourmet. He makes Spaghetti and Meatballs something amazing... and OMG home made cinnamon buns, from a yeast dough. All this in a 5th wheel camper - wow.
• Post dinner Kids went for walk with Uncle WegasWingnut and Grandma Oulin fretted when it was post dark and they weren't back yet.
• Kids and Uncle return - Garret has soggy shoes - someone danced in Lake Mead while wearing Sneakers, and Tessa was hungry.
• Tess and Liam fed again, and then we headed out...
• 10 minutes on the road Garret starts crying that he's broken his mouth. Interpreted as teething, those nasty 2 year molars, we stop at the first CVS we see and pick up some children's advil. Once dosed he's a happy camper within 20 minutes and is singing his favorite song - the Boobie Song. His own composition.
• Mom dropped off at her house, we come back to hotel. I panic - can not find hotel key, do not want to treck across casino with bag of folded laundry, tired preschooler and shoeless toddler just to get to front desk. Hotel laid out inconveniently unless you are a gambler.
• Key found in crack of passenger seat - mom drove to Lake Mead, so I must have lost it out of my pocket. All is well again.
• Upstairs again, kids skip bath tonight in favor of feet in sink while teeth get brushed, while I scrub assorted body parts of kids with washcloth while they sit on edge of sink and giggle.
• Kids dressed in night clothes, put in bed and within 10 minutes of heads to pillows they are OUT.
• Mommy (me) now laughing to self as it's before 11 on a Sat night in Las Vegas, and I'm looking forward to going to sleep more than anything else.
• Unemployment filed for electronically and now I'm going to finish uploading pictures and then go to bed.

Vegas, Day 3 complete

I actually took pictures for day 3 day. I can't upload them right now for fear of waking the kids with the noise of trying to find the memory card adapter for my new cell phone camera's memory card, but they really do exist.

It's 6am local time in Las Vegas while I write this on day 4, but I fell asleep last night so I didn't get to write it.

Friday was a busy busy day for us. I started out the day with a shower while the kids were still asleep and while trying to blow dry my hair the blow dryer popped and caught on fire in my hand. Unplugging it and holding carefully, the flames went out quick, but that was an experience. After the kids were up and dressed I contacted the front desk to request more towels and a replacement for the blow-dryer... one that wouldn't catch on fire please...

Post Breakfast (and Tessa discovering why we we are careful when walking past cactus and not INTO Cactus - or else you end up with spikes poking holes in you) we checked out a local fiber shop where I was able to pick up silk caps for spinning, for a song... as well as Tessa picked out some Merino/Tencil blend. I didn't even spend 10.00 there and feel like I've really gotten a good deal. The Store owner was a lovely woman and has invited me in for her saturday spin/knit day today, but I think I'm going to have to skip it. We have a full day ahead of us. But that is skipping ahead my self here... I have to say that I've never felt that comfortable in a yarn/spinning/weaving shop and if I lived out here, I'd have to be pried out of there with a crowbar frequently.

Following the trip to Wolly Wonders, we went to the Ethel M chocolate factory. Tessa thought it was pretty cool to watch them make little candy bars, and loved the chocolate sample we got at the end of the tour. We picked up something for Daddy, who the kids miss terribly, and then went on to walk their Cactus Gardens. Tessa loved it, and Garret loved the ability to practically run about - it's been a long winter back home with very few days that were really good for playing at the park in comparison to the weather they are experiencing here.

At this time everyone was ready for a late lunch. We piled back into the SUV and headed north towards the region where our hotel was - Gas, Grub, and then Naps were in store for us. Tessa worked on a homeschooling reading site on my laptop, and Garret and I slept with the door bolted and unable to be opened from the outside, nor by little girl if the Starfall games got too boring for her and she decided that in the hour I was going to lay down with Garret that she wanted to do something else. She didn't and when Gaelon called us to make sure I got up on time to get to Mom's for dinner, she answered the phone like a big girl and brought it to me.

Dinner at Mom's with my brother and his family, and my Aunt and Uncle was wonderful. The kids had a blast together, and all three are close enough in age to really enjoy playing together. Liam was more verbally expressive when playing with my kids, so I think his quietness is just because his big sisters do so much for him. Seems to be a family trait - as my brother and my cousin Nick both were the same way as small kids.

Following dinner (and my brother's bunch leaving a little early due to an allergic reaction by his middle girl to construction dust and pollen - and we're talking severe reaction, the poor girl) I loaded the kids up into the SUV while my mom got ready to take her sweetie out to Lake Mead for the night in the rig.

Tessa had requested that we drive the strip at night time as she wanted to see all the lights. As it was a friday night - well I was a little concerned about traffic on Las Vegas Blvd, but it was early enough that we could start out on Fremont, and make our way south. I had expected Garret to sleep through this, but he was awake, and giddy over all the lights as well.

The Spinning Shoe, and Martini Glass made of lights up at Freemont Street really blew her mind, and made Garret babble in the back seat. They were chanting "Glitter Gulch" and having a blast over what they were watching go by. Tessa kept seeing all the chapels and gal's in Wedding Dresses and she wanted to know if the white dresses got dirty from all the pollen and dust... I told her that I bet they did. All the lights, and the fountains impressed them, but the big point that caught their attention was the fountains at the Bellagio - all in patterns with music in an amazing light/sound/water show that both wanted to come back for. I told them when it wasn't Mama alone and they were bigger that we'd discuss it and likely walk around on the strip instead of driving on it.

They were highly amused by the Luxor yet again, and Excalibur blew Tessa's mind as there was a big story book castle in the middle of this sea of lights... driving on the highway back to the hotel, we got to see the other side of the hotels and Tessa told me she was greatly impressed with all the flash and color. She thinks it's very pretty and is very much a grown up playground. I told her she was very smart and that's exactly what it is.

She still isn't really understanding what a casino is - other than that they don't let little kids in there, and people come in to lose their money so they go home with an empty wallet... I have told her I didn't get the allure either so we are sharing a case of "I don't get it's" and she is happy with that.

Completely exhausted she was in bed and asleep before Garret, and he and I followed shortly afterwards. I'm going to grab a bit more sleep my self for now before we go back to my mom's and finish laundry and begin our Day 4 adventure.

Vegas, Day 2 complete

We were supposed to get together with my Sister in Law today, but she didn't realize the plans were firm and when her sister came into town from Ohio unexpectedly, she spent the day with her. No harm, no foul. We had a nice restful morning and mid afternoon we went out to Walmart for more pull ups for Garret, and Ensure for my Stepdad and then over to my mom's favorite shop, where my beautiful diva had a nightmarish moment that made me take her outside and threaten her with us coming home to Connecticut on the first airplane that would take us home. She didn't like that threat at all and after we discussed it further she was apologetic for her behavior, and she actually contritely gave her "I'm sorry's" to my mom, and not because of what I had threatened her with, but because she was in the wrong. It made me very proud of my little girl, although I was mad at her for her poor behavior for a little while.

We went back up to my Brother's house for dinner, the kids all had fun with each other and I got time to talk with my brother and his wife. She's really a lovely woman, and I have to say a spectacular mama. Liam was a little cutie-pie, and the three littles were all over the place... at one point Garret snuggled up on the couch with Nicole - the middle girl, and was watching TV with her, and happily chirruping to her. They've stolen their cousin's hearts, and the admiration is mutual.

It's tough seeing how hard things are for my mom with my step dad. You take the normal Mother/Daughter dynamic and then factor in a man that you've never liked being an emotional and physical drain on your mother. Next add in the fact that once upon a time he used to make her so very happy, and now he's an invalid and mentally/emotionally not the man he used to be and see the toll on her health and center and it's heart breaking. I want to scream at his children "Where the *F* are you, as he's *YOUR* Dad."

Mine is gone, both my brother and I greatly grieve that he doesn't get to his lovely three little grandchildren playing together and getting along as wonderfully as they are. I'd give anything to have him in our lives, and they are squandering what life their own father has left.

It's not even that they are off-put by his physical state - they would have to see him to actually know what he looks like. No - they just aren't there. This means his grandchildren aren't either. So - Tessa, Liam and Garret are the surrogates for his affection as the Step Grand kids, and Tess is still in that really shy zone with him as he's just not able to be an interactive grand dad. I may not like the man, but I will not refuse him the joy of wee ones to call grandchildren, and Garret has laid claim to him in a way that is very sweet and special.

I am feeling better today compared to yesterday, and tomorrow will be a big walking day for me with the kids. We're going to the candy factory, and maybe over to the strip to see the water show, there's a family dinner with my Aunt and Uncle who will be driving in from parts south, as well as my brother's family and then I have promised Tessa that if she is still wide awake after dark we will drive down the strip so she can see it lighted up like she sees when we watch CSI. As it was her request, I will do my very best to honor it.

Garret is just as sweet as can be, and pure boy. It didn't take him long to get dirty in his cute little clothes today, and he even managed to get some soil (Literal dirt/earth from the flower garden) on my mom as well. The doting on eachother - Mom/My kids/Liam is just wonderful and I hope Tessa retains the memories of this trip.

Well - I'm tired, I should get a drink of water and go to bed. I'm not drinking enough and need to make sure I stay hydrated as the desert just pulls the moisture out of me like a sponge, my lips are feeling chapped and that happens when I get sick or dehydrated, and I'm certainly not sick.

May all who read this have a good night. Rest well, as I know outside of missing my Husband (who is back in CT,) I will be sleeping pretty hard my self tonight.

Vegas, Day 1 complete

What can I say - I'm whipped. Traveling about 10 hours with two small children (Including my layovers) has me ready to collapse, but at least I can do that in a sunbeam.

My kids are having a blast with Grandma Laney, and my son has of course stolen my mom's heart - like that was any question that it was likely to happen. "Grandma, Grandma, Grandma" has been Garret's mantra. Tess has asked my mom to be her schoolteacher for the week and both children are madly in love with her. (Oh it's quite mutual as well...) Even my step-dad has gotten some Garret Lovin's - he thinks that Grandpa is just the bee's knees, and my step dad who is bed bound seems to be amused to no end by a small child toodling in to see him in his bedroom and chirruping at him.

This trip has been awesome on the heart and hard on electronics.

My cell phone and our video camera both have given up the ghost. I have an extended warranty on the camera and the phone had insurance for repairs, but I'd be without it for the time I was out here, and that would certainly be a hardship as I'm still looking for work out here and am taking calls from recruiters.

I ended up at the Sprint store tonight, and renewed my contract ( it was up for renewal anyhow, so I ended up with a pretty sweet deal on a new phone as well as with a new plan that is less per month than the old one.) I ended up with a Samsung Rant, to replace my MotoQ. I think I like this one more already, but there's a lot of bells and whistles to learn on it. I can pull up YouTube on it, but that sucks down batteries like you wouldn't believe. I'm going to let it charge tonight and we'll see where it is in the morning.

Our hotel - aside from my kids finding drugs on the floor when we came in, is actually a rather nice one, and I have a view of the strip from here - all the hi-rises in a single row, coloring the sky in multi hued brilliance, complete with the Luxor calling the Mothership home...

We had breakfast with my mom, and then went grocery shopping. My kids were awesome in that they asked for fresh fruit and veggies, and not candy nor junk, although for the fun of it Tessa did the "Can I have colored cereal" thing - which if you know my mom you know it will elicit a "I don't think so." I had major issues with the artificially colored and preserved cereals when I was a child and it's left an indelible stamp on my family due to it.

I'm blessed - the kids have healthy appetites for healthy food. They could prefer junk, so I'm very content to know they don't want garbage.

After lunch we headed up to North Las Vegas to see my brother and his family.

Spending time with my brother today was just a wonderful thing. I can't say enough about how that household feels, there is warmth, and love there, and while my nephew seems to be behind the 8 ball linguistically, it seems to be only in verbalization, not comprehension. I think he's going to be one of those big guys that doesn't say much but when they do it's profound some day. And good grief - for a 3 year old, he's almost as big as my 4 year old daughter. Tess is fairly tall for her age, and is often mistaken for a 5 -6 year old physically.

The kids all had so much fun playing together today, and they truly enjoyed each other's company. That to me is priceless. My daughter and son are madly in love with Cloudy - for those who remember, Cloudy was my dad's puppy, and my Brother currently has her, although there may be a war over her as she's just the sweetest thing in the world and a great example of what Daisy was supposed to grow up to be like. :-) (I think I forgot to blog this, but Daisy passed away in January due to a heart defect.)

My brother's step daughters were darlings - well the two who interacted with us. The eldest got time with my kids as my daughter demanded to go see her, but as she was doing homework, she opted to stay upstairs the entire time we were there this afternoon. She's in honors classes and doing well, so I'm not going to fuss. I know it's not personal, it's being a Teenager, and it's homework.

Liam gave me hugs before we left, and was fairly talkative to me - something I'm told he just isn't... but then again my kids are chatterboxes and my daughter was certainly engaging him in conversation while they played. He so looks like my brother when he was that age, and has the jawline from our paternal family line. He and Garret have similar structure in the eyes and noses though - and you can see the resemblance clearly enough to know they are family. Garret however got the peanut genes, where Liam will be a tall drink of water.

We're back at the hotel, where I can write this, recharge my laptop and self, and the kids are asleep. There is a 3 hour time difference between here and home, and I'm still on Eastern time, so it's fricking late for me. I just am enjoying the quiet time and am contemplating taking a bath my self before crawling into bed - the OTHER one in the room that doesn't have small children sprawled out in it. I wonder if they'd notice in the middle of the night that I wasn't there in the bed they were in...

Cheeky Monkey

So my little monkey girl is starting with the "mom said ____" to her daddy so she can get her way.

Needless to say the fact that we have computers on each floor is not something she finds helpful at all as it means we can IM with each other and we tend to catch those tricks pretty quick..

Last night she asked for another sibling again, and wanted to know how long until we had a new baby in the house. I told her that we probably weren't going to (although both Gaelon and I are receptive to the idea in the future, we're not actively planning on one right now) and that if we did she wouldn't be any younger than 6 - if not older, which was NOT met with much happiness.

Upon telling her she'd need to share her things more she started listing the toys she had that she couldn't wait to share. Hrm. That wasn't what I was looking for LOL.

An unfriendly city to small children, and I'm bringing two of them.

Do you remember the kingdom where no children are welcome in the movie "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang? I will have 6 full days (the 7th is lost in transit) that I will have in Las Vegas with a 4 year old and a 2 year old. Based on my prior visit there, I have concluded that Las Vegas was indeed the inspiration for that City/State and unless you are 21 or older that city is not anywhere near a playground.

I've been doing research on things I can do with the kids that are free, or as inexpensive as I can find (if they get bored I don't want to have to worry about having laid out a mint on entertainment - or my mom being the generous grandma who's already paid enough to get us out there and doing the same...) and I have come up with some ideas.

I would love to have input from others on this subject however...

Ethel M Chocolates tour and the Botanical Gardens (seriously - a candy factory - Tess loved it at 13 months, at 4 years she's going to be over the moon.)

Fall of Atlantis and Festival Fountain Show at Caesar's Palace

Sunday - Thursday, every hour from 10 a.m. - 11 p.m - no charge and whoo hoo a mythology lesson included.

"You might wonder or not notice at all the statues at the middle of the fountain, but every hour from 10 am to 11 pm, the statues move amidst the stunning special effects of fire and water. It recounts how King Atlas children's greed made the gods destroy Atlantis. A winged beast appears behind the throne as fire and water consume the entire kingdom. A mesmerizing view and a learning experience for the kids." - From the Las Vegas with kids website.

The Aquarium at the Silverton Hotel

Springs Preserve (not free... yipes.)
Las Vegas natural history museum (not free but not that expensive)

Mandalay Bay Aquarium - Shark Reef

Bonnie Springs, Old Nevada (Last time we were there Tessa took a major header and ended up with a major bruise on her head for the rest of the trip.)

Red Rock Canyon - thank god my children love going for scenic drives.... and it's on the way to Bonnie Springs ;-)

We're staying in a relatively nice hotel, but I can't find info on it on the web, as face it - they want people in the casino's not the hotel rooms. On the "Cheapo Las Vegas" website I found the following review for their in house child care. "Dump your kids in this supervised play area. You can drop them off while you do sinnerly adult things, but you have to pick them up in less than four hours, not when they are eighteen. For permanent dropoffs, you need an orphanage."

It made me laugh. I don't plan on using their services, especially after reading another Mom's review on Casino Childcare a few months ago. My son is still in diapers, and I'd like them checked every now and again, and both kids fed, not plopped down in front of a TV...

I expect that I'll have a lot of time spent with family and I'm really looking forward to that. My brother's family will be wonderful to get to know and I plan on taking tons of pictures of my nephew Liam... and of course his sisters, my sister in law, my mother and my baby brother. Tessa thinks it's funny that the big guy she saw on Skype the other night via video conference is my BABY brother. She says he can't be my little brother, as a little brother can be picked up and played with, as well as picked on. I told her that the picking up part ends when they grow bigger than you, but that sibling rivalry never goes away.

She asked me at bed time tonight if when we have _(insert prospective name of considered third child not on its way currently, and not sure if it will ever be)__ would she still be my love, and would love her and Garret as much. I told her that I will always love both my Diva and my Peter Pan, as they are what makes my heart go thump thump in happiness, and if we ever had another baby it would add to the happiness and increase our families love. She liked that description and she snuggled in and told me "I will always be here for you Mommy," with the most serious of tones.

She can drive me up a wall and down the other side, and she just makes my heart melt and forget all about when she's driven me nuts when she does that. She really is my little Princess. She has asked to learn to knit, so tomorrow I will see how she fares with a knitting loom in her hands.

Peter Pan has continued on his path of "I Flying!" and tried to go down the stairs again today - without assistance nor using his legs. I was half way down when he leapt on to me. Oye. My hands are full with these two.

I am going to close up now but again, any suggestions of places to check out with two small kids while in Vegas is appreciated.

Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust

Tonight was a rough one for leaving Tessa at my mother in law's house... after spending a typical Wednesday there and getting some spinning done, some site promotion for the Etsy shop and an update to the WoolWytch.blogspot.com site, as well as teaching my MIL how to actually post in her blogspot account again, I bid goodnight to my beloved 4 year old daughter, and took my two year old son home.

A typical sleep over night for her, and time for him to get some one on one time with Mommy and Daddy - something every child should have, and something we believe in fully.

He let out the most pitiful of cries as we left - wailing his sister's name in grief, as if we were separating them forever, and she in turn started crying too. After reassuring her that we were only a phone call away, Garret and I came home, had dinner with Gaelon and the little guy got some one on one time with both parents. I called and checked on her, and while she was subdued, she was pretty much over it. The little man had a blast, as previously expected and forgot that his sister wasn't home..

He's been more verbal lately, and his imagination has been on overdrive - this morning he covered himself up with a blue blanket and roared at me, causing me to shriek out "oh no! it's the blue blanket monster" to which he roared more and giggled profusely.

He's growing up. It doesn't mean we always understand him though.

So after dinner and while we were watching TV, he stands on a Rubbermaid bin I had situated at the end of the couch with hand spun/dyed yarn in it. He leans on the arm of the couch, standing on one leg and puts the other leg in the air, and lets out with gusto the following

Mumma! I PEEPANTS

I look at him and wonder if he's trying to tell me he peed his pants.

So I ask him this and he says vehemently "NO"

Mumma, Dadah, I'm PEAPAH!

Ok - I was completely not sure what he was saying but I said back to him "Oh you are, are you" in that humoring voice a mother can get...

He smiled and said "Yes!"

and then said again

"I'm Pea Paaaaaaaaaaaaahhn"

I repeated it over and over and over in my head - trying to figure out what my little boy was saying when it struck me.

"You're Peter Pan?"

This was met with an ecstatic and joyous shout of "YES!" and again he repeated "I'm Pea Paaaaaaaaaaaaahhn"

"I'm Pea Paaaaaaaaaaaaahhn"

"I'm Pea Paaaaaaaaaaaaahhn"

"I'm Pea Paaaaaaaaaaaaahhn"

"I'm Pea Paaaaaaaaaaaaahhn"

With such glee and delight while pretending to fly, that all I could do is giggle and be proud of him.

Tessa didn't start pretending she was Lara Croft until she was nearly 4. Garret's only 2 and the creativity and imagination he has just astounds me.

I guess it is true - all you need is faith, trust and pixie dust and you can do/be anything/anyone.

Oh the joy of a child. It truly is bliss.

Work Day Wednesday

So it looks like we're settling into a schedule of Wednesday's are my work days and shipping days and Mondays are my stocking days - which works as it keeps people coming into the shop on a weekly basis to see what's there. When we're not being helped by our little helpers that is... Garret wanted to have a hand in uploading photos today, but we decided it was better to let him just be in the photos. ;-)

Today I'm working on a custom order for a Mama in Canada who wants to have a heirloom created for her little girl. I've had the order forever, but haven't started on it, and now that I know I'm going away for a week the end of the month, I need to get started on it before that precious little girl goes to kindergarten.

Speaking of that - the kids and I'll be in Las Vegas the 17-23rd, but my Mother in law will be handling all shipping for orders during that time, so don't worry about things not getting out - we'll just be missing a work day, vs work and shipping, and I'll be bringing a drop spindle on the airplane. Two small kids on an airplane for an over 9 hour trip with a change over. I'm a little nervous there... Any advice on carting the car seats while traveling without another adult would be appreciated.

I got a big surprise this morning when I came back from taking the Diva to dance class... a foreclosure notice stuck in my front door.

Thank goodness it wasn't for us - which is good as we're not behind in the mortgage, but for an individual who lived there years ago - for a property the next town over. Needless to say however it was good for pumping the adrenaline. I called the attorney on the paperwork who was glad to know that the document had been served, but unhappy to find out it was to the wrong individual/address.

Also happening today is teaching my mother in law how to blog, and insert photos etc. She's capable of learning, but often knocks her level of intelligence and really shouldn't. Any woman who produced as smart as a man as I married, can't be what she tries to claim, and in no time she'll be posting with comfort and ease.

She's been increasingly partnering with me over at tgtreasures.etsy.com and is an incredibly creative woman. I came in today to find she'd made fully articulated bunny rabbits, in both country and Americana prints. They are absolutely adorable and will be stocked in the online store on Monday.

So while going out to the post office to drop off yarn orders from the past couple of days I learned something new.

Did ya'll know that it's illegal to take photo's inside the post office? Well I was told this when I was there today - not that I took photos of anyone's address or faces without permission, but was told I just can't take pics inside, so you dear reader will have to be content with an exterior shot. Although I did manage to snap a couple inside anyway.

It's been very cold here and my inlaw's christmas decor is embedded within a foot or more of snow/ice so they've not been able to get the decor out of the front yard yet.



The neighbors have had some melt today - but they got creative with their decor. Have I mentioned how much I love New England? We just didn't see stuff like this when I was growing up in the Desert of West Texas and Arizona.

Kiddos and an Etsy update!

Well it was a quiet weekend. Saturday was a hang about the house day and Sunday was Garret's second birthday party. Pics to come soon I promise.

In the mean time we had a lovely time, and got some cute videos, and are now getting socked with a winter storm. Blech. Even worse - I left my spinning wheel in my trunk of my car and I think that with weather like we're going to see tomorrow, I will be spending a lot of time inside over the next couple of days. New England in our region is supposed to get over a foot of snow. YUCK!


This is a video of our first snow in Dec, this winter - Complete with escaping polarbear club wanna be. My Toddler will be safely baby-gated inside however when I get the next video of snow. We're supposed to get something like that again tonight. BLECH!

I'm working hard at making Mondays my Etsy shop stocking day - so tomorrow I will go outside on the porch in natural light and the cold, and get some updated pictures of yarn and roving that I'm listing. Then I'll get some new items up in the Etsy shop. I took several pics tonight for listing, but my camera just doesn't do well with this florescent light and it's not got a balance feature. So - I'll just wait until the morning, and when the kids are still asleep I'll get some morning light provided it's not too grey out.

In the mean time - as it's been asked for - there is some Tunis Roving in my Etsy shop - this is undyed/unspun, and is for a particular Tunis fan I have, and I plan on dying a bunch more roving tomorrow - as well as seeing how the drain/spin function works on my washer with some roving that I won't be heart broken over if it felts up. On top of that, I seem to need to make more dryer balls as they've been a big hit of late. One never knows what's going to sell, but hey I'm all for it. The Etsy shop is making a difference for us financially right now and I'm not going t complain.

and on that note - take a look at what I'll be getting a better picture of tomorrow - and posting



Delilah does not come with the Finn Handspun ;-) She's Hobbs to my son's Calvin.


Ohhh Yummy - and only a small amount of the hand dyed/spun that I have to re-shoot and post.


And finally - My little helper... My Diva.

Some pics from the weekend.

So as I previously wrote, on Saturday a friend, my daughter and I all went to a local farm and picked up 10.5# of fleece, and then dropped it at the processor to be made into roving.

We picked up all told 4# of Southdown, and 6.5# of Tunis - both good for teaching a new spinner in my opinion. We held back a half pound of the Tunis so sunshyn689 could learn the whole process from start to finish.

Jerimiah from Twist of Fate was awesome, and gave us the tour allowing both Tessa and sunshyn689 to see how roving is made on a larger scale than our little drum carder. Tessa was delighted to see how it all was done and was awestruck by all the bags of fleece waiting to be washed, dried and picked and carded.

From my daughter's perspective, it's always been done in a tub in the sink or bath tub with a little dish soap with as hot of water as Mommy can stand and repeated until the water was clear. We then hang it out on a rail on our porch to dry, and later it is brought and flicked out by hand and then run through the drum carder to be made into a batt.

Those Bats get torn down into strips and then I spin them into yarn, so for Tess to see it all on an industrial capacity was pretty impressive - especially when she got to see the spinner. She was pretty stunned to see that it wasn't a spinning wheel making the yarn. I have to laugh as she see's yarn at places like AC Moore and is convinced that it's all made by people in their living room watching TV while they spin.

The carding machine they have is a smaller machine as mill machines go, but that's not a bad thing. It allows them to do batches as low as 2#, making my 4# (Pre wash weight) of Southdown a sure bet to make it through after it loses at least a fourth of it's weight to the wash bin... There was much more than just the machine you see to the right, but I forgot my camera so you get what I nicked from their website... that said, if you are looking for a really nice processor - these guys are awesome.

The wool was pretty well skirted so when it gets to the stage of sitting on that conveyor belt there should be very little vegetable matter that makes it into the roving.

I have to say I like how close the spinnery is to where I work too - as I have a couple more fleeces to drop off for processing and I'll be doing that this week after work. Probably on Tuesday or Wednesday - allowing the fleece to sit in the trunk all day to kill any thing that might be living with the fleece... like say - moths or anything else that they could have been exposed to during the past 6-8 months in my sun room with a busted screen window...

While I won't get the roving back until October, I've been saying for months that I was going to drop the fiber off to be made into roving and I've just not done it.

Will I keep some back to process and blend at home? Probably. But I've decided that at 6.00 a pound to be washed and carded, that I'm just ready to have it out of my house as I don't know when I'm going to get it all processed. Their price as listed on the website is a bit more than I'm being charged, and I'm not really sure but as my stash is all pretty much low grease wool then I don't feel too guilty for the discount.

Jeremiah is a sweetie too, and the time he spent explaining to Tessa was appreciated. He also gave us a brief tour and Tess got to see the Goats and Alpaca they have as well as a couple of Ewe's and Rams they have... and the poor guy was flustered when sunshyn689 asked why he wasn't shorn down low in the back. "That's his balls ma'am." I think she was pretty embarrassed/mortified too... but it was a very funny moment. I wish I'd have gotten pictures when we went to both the farm and spinnery, as the farm was something out of my brightest and most desired dreams... oh well some day.

Anyhow - after we got back sunshyn689 started on the scour of the Tunis we held back. I don't know if she's taken any pics of it yet, but I know it's not dry yet as we got a heck of a thunderstorm yesterday which soaked the heck out of everything - including the freshly washed fleece. Next Saturday morning we'll be running it through the drum carder and then spinning it up before dying it.

On other fronts - this weekend I got some merino I've been working on finished spinning up - it came out beautiful.

The photo's not so hot, but that's ok - the single twisted up nicely without over twist, it's going to be allowed to sit on the bobbin a week or so before I run it through the yarn winder so I can create a center pull ball to ply. After measuring it up, and skeining I'll put it in the bin for photo's and sale on Etsy... it's a rather lovely yarn if I say do say so my self.

So my previous post I mentioned the BFL I had hand washed, flicked, carded and spun - here's some pics from that. This was all done from 12am Saturday to 2am sunday.

Yes - again the photo quality isn't the greatest, but it was a last minute thought of "Hey I ought to take some pics of what I've been doing for my blog... especially as I've gotten requests for them recently in my other blog. I still have half the BFL fleece to finish up - it's still slightly damp as it was on my porch when the rain that drenched the Tunis drenched my BFL as well... Given that today is going to be a scorcher, I fully expect that I'll be able to card it up in the next couple of days. It should be dry by tonight.

At present I have some Mohair/Romney in the bin you see in the far left above... I've been flicking it out, and opening the locks as well as doing a first blend with the hand cards, and then will be putting it through at least once on the drum carder. That will be set aside to spin later this week too.

I promise more photo's to come and maybe even a video from this Saturday if sunshyn689 isn't too nervous about having herself be the guinea pig in a how to session. :-)

Oh for those of you HitchHiker fans - yes the wheel is still in my car, poor thing is in the trunk with 4# of Navajo Churro and 2# of Jacob. It will probably come out of the car smelling like a sheep farm. That ought to be fun at S&B on Wednesday ;-).

(BTW - Why use sunshyn689 as a guinea pig for photos and video? She's 1. Younger 2. Pretty & 3. I'd be the one holding the camera for all this LOL!)

Scared witless

Not really a fibery update this week guys. My baby did something on Friday and then Sunday that really has frightened me beyond words. His lips turned blue in his sleep.

In trying to discover what caused it I've concluded that modern medicine is just barbaric.

My poor little man's been a pin cushion, been jammed in a Plexiglas frame that bolts shut on the sides, while he sits on a saddle to get chest X-rays, had an EKG run, and still has to have an EEG run that they can't get scheduled until mid June at Yale New Haven. I'm exhausted from it all, he's beyond words of done with it all. They don't know yet why he is going cyanotic when he sleeps.

It hasn't been something they've been able to observe... outside of a possible arrhythmia - there's a chance it was a series of small seizures - but they just don't know. It first started happening on Friday - and was noted by my husband at nap time.

Sunday I had 4 incidents of it while we were in the car, and I decided that I'd call my HMO's Nurse line. They suggested getting him into the Children's hospital that night, no later. Home on Sunday night, we went to his pediatrician early monday, and I spent the day in and out of medical facilities, and again the childrens hospital in Hartford.

They sent him home, his little arm covered in paper tape and gauze that he immedietly tried to pull off, that covered the site where they drew multiple HUGE vials of blood from him off, and he spends time rubbing the bruise on his leg from where they jammed him into the X-ray frame so they could get a chest X-ray

His heart and lungs look good on the x-ray and for the EKG and Blood tests - they came up normal.

So that one more test is left and the local hospitals aren't deemed prepared enough to deal with little ones, so they are scheduling at Yale New Haven for an EEG for him. (CCMC doesn't have someone who can do this until July.) This will require that he's sedated, and I'll likely need to take another day off from work like I did Monday.

I don't regret it at all, but I'm exhausted and just want to know what caused this so we don't have the ghost of the issue haunting us.

I told Gaelon I need a spa day - but I'm thinking I need a weekend where I can spin, and not be worried about kids, or anything else inbetween massages, pedicures and little things to help de-stress me.

Have I mentioned I was interviewing for a new job at Initech too? It's a wonderful job in Quality Assurance, an audit and compliance position. While dealing with my son's issues, and my mom and step dad's ill health I have been trying to decide if I want this job that I've been agressively recruited for. Critical analysis regarding my career is eclipsed by thinking about one beautiful little blonde haired boy.

So what's wrong with my baby? What made my him go cyanotic and scare the poop out of his Mommy and Daddy?

Well like the Doc said - it's just not known and they are leaning towards saying it's a virus right now.

I looked at him last night in his sleep and said "Garret you aren't MS Windows, there are no bugs allowed."


On the work front - I accepted the position. I start my new job on the 2nd of June.

Silk nice, icecube on my bum not.

Ok, so in the face of all that's going on right now with my step dad being ill and having recently lost my step mom - which brings the loss of my dad to the forefront of my mind and heart, I decided that if the kids won't let me get time on the wheel I'd haul out a drop spindle. After all, with a drop spindle there is no chance of little fingers getting caught in whirring parts.

So I've been working on a lovely silk colorway that I think is in need of spinning up in a ply with some Alpaca. The Alpaca only has me peeved with trying to ply it with more alpaca and I think that's got a lot to do with the fact that I'm using the onboard kate and my HitchHiker to do the plying, so my need for a real tensioned kate is coming back into play.

*sigh* I was going to get one at the CT Sheep and Wool festival - really, but for whatever reason it didn't happen.

I need to keep an eye out for one, maybe if we get to go to Coggeshall farm in RI this weekend I'll find something I like.

So - regarding the title? My three year old daughter is an ice chewer. She just crawled into bed and dropped a piece of ice down the back of my pajamas giving me a rude awakening. Then she runs off giggling maniacally.

I want to know who taught her that trick. I truly think they deserve a special thank you of their own. Don't you?

Well wishes sought

My step dad had a heart attack last night. Not a strong man to begin with, this is a very bad bit of news. There may be a trip to Las Vegas for me soon, and it's not to gamble...

I have a rough game plan if I need to go out for the funeral, and a very liberal boss who will undoubtedly be understanding. My complications will be of the financial and toddler kind. Yep - my 14 month old is still nursing, and it's not like I could leave him behind. It's hard enough thinking about leaving my three year old and husband, but man airfare isn't cheap and we've cut down our trips out as it is - I saw gas on the pump this morning for 3.99 a gallon. OUCH.

Now if he happens to miraculously recover (ha - don't laugh, he's managed it before, he's awful ornery and love my mom too much to just check out on her despite frail health) then I'll be taking my three year old to the fiber fest at the Coggeshall farm in Rhode Island next Saturday. She has a love for spinning, and I think that getting her turned on to non oil dependent (other than the petrol to get there to learn more) activities and fabrics and means of living is a good thing.

We'll have to see what the week brings before we make solid plans.