Tuesday, November 29, 2005

ain't life like that?

The turkey was great! It hoped on Saturday and we all got stuffed. Excecpt for the turkey. The dressing gets cooked separately in my house. Don't ask my why. It's just the way that my mom did it and so here I blindly follow suit.
Saturday was also the 6/49 draw. And for the first time ,I didn't play the tag. So guess what? If I would have payed my one dollar, I could have won $10. I'm glad that it wasn't $100,000. That would have really sucked.
Sunday was a nice day here. We had a spare kid over so out they went to play. Great! Peace and quiet for a little while, or at least as peaceful as a house can be while harboring a live 2 year old. When they came in, they were soaked and muddy so into the washing machine go the coats and snowpants. Then into the dryer go the very wet coats and snowpants. About 10 pm , hubby and I are chatting and I decide to get a bag of chips out of the back shed which I refer to as "cold storage". It also houses the dryer. Lo and behold ! The dryer has stopped! I'll get those dry coats out and hang them up by the front door so they are ready for the kids to grab them on the way to school in the morning. Hmmm. This one seems a little damp. And holy shit! This one is soaked! Soaked as in dripping. I'll just start the dryer again. No I won't it won't start! ARRRGGGHHHH! My dryer is broken! This is...this is... This Sucks! Thankfully I had just finished doing ALL of the laundry in the house for the first time in about a month, well maybe two weeks. But I cannot live with out a dryer for more than 2 days. 4 kids and all.
And then last night I was suppose to teach a workshop on temari, not like I'm an expert or anything. It takes about 70 years to become a master in Japan and I just don't have the time. I might get good at it , but I will never be great. In any case, My workshop was suppose to go last night, but due to slippery roads and the distance that some people had to travel, it was decided by the hosting group to postpone. Until January 30. No Christmas money from that quarter. But I do have a couple of craft shows coming up this week. Maybe there will be some funds coming in there.
On the bright side, I washed and clipped about 10 scarves last night while watching a movie. So they are ready for tags. Some of them were woven this summer during my artist in residence series that I did for a local fiber group that I belong to. They are all so different. Some are silk, some mixed warps, some chenille ( the really cheap stuff I mentioned before, or maybe I should say inexpensive) One is a rayon and silk mixed warp that was hand dyed in blues and greens. It is stunning if I do say so my self. I suppose that I should take some pictures of them before I put them up for sale. Just in case they sell. I hope.
I have another two scarves on the loom that should be coming off with in the next 24 hours. Two more chenille ones. I have stared to try and make some "manly" scarves. I have had people ask for them before for Christmas presents. Or maybe I should be saying "Holiday" presents. I thing the whole debate is silly because the Christians stole the holiday from the pagans in the first place. It was originally the time to celebrate the winter solstice. When the days start getting longer. Now that is something to celebrate. I don't know if gift giving was involved, but I am pretty sure that there was no fat guy in a red suit. He is banned from our house anyway. I decided early on that I wasn't going to lie to my kids, so no Santa, or Easter bunny, or tooth fairy. Do you think that I am a cruel mommy? Others have said as much to me. People get offended over the silliest thing. Kind of like the "Holiday Tree" debate that has been raging lately.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Happy thanksgiving

I am, as I mentioned before, Canadian, and there for celebrated my thanksgiving some time ago, but I find that I have a lot to be thankful for and so just wanted to piggy back on our southern neighbors holiday. I think that I will cook a turkey on Saturday and then I will have even more girth with which to be thankful.

My Two year old has learned a new trick. She now will remove her diaper by herself when it is full of oooey gooey gushie smelly stuff, and then come and tell me that she needs a new diaper. So far the consequences have been very minor. Any attempts to toilet train have met with absolute resistance. She is stubborn like her father. Things should be interesting from here on out.

I got an e-flyer in my mail box this morning from a yarn company in Canada and I was shocked to see the price of chenille both cotton and rayon. It was about $30 per pound! Is this a normal price? I bought a basket full at the traveling yarn guy sale for $6 per pound for cotton and $10 per pound for rayon. I found out when they came through town this year the chenille yarn that they were selling was the end of stock from a mill that went out of business a few years ago. Alas they sold most of it and are only left with a few ugly colors. I knew that their prices were a good deal but I had no idea how much of a deal! IN any case I just took some rather manly scarves off my loom. No picts yet thought. No camera. Christmas is comming and a gal can always hope that Santa finds her. I will also have to figure out how to post the pictures too. Hmmm.

We had our first snow that stayed over night. It is only a few cm but there it is. We are however suppose to get some rain later on this afternoon so I great hopes that it will are go away.

My seed catalogue arrived yesterday! It is always so exciting to see new flowers and the new strains of veggies. This year Stokes has a purple carrot! Yes indeed, a purple carrot. Who knew? I have not yet had a chance to do anything more than take a quick glance. The ordering shall wait until the Christmas holidays.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

instant insanity

Here we go. I have been thinking of doing this for quite some time, and of course thought that I might have had nothing to say. But I find my self lying in bed at night composing letters(?) to no one in particular and thought , what the heck?
I am Canadian, although I prefer to drink imported beer. I have 4 children ,a husband, and a cat that is, as my mother-in-law says, getting confused. That means that today I caught her on the counter,in the cupboard with her face in the butter dish. EEEWWE! This is not normal behaviour from her. She is 13 years old now. She was chasing her tail the other day and has taken to waking me up like clock work at 5 am to be let out. Have I mentioned that sleep is precious to me? What to do?
I am also a fibre artist although I will say that I am some what a repressed fibre artist as financial,spacial and timewise, I am somewhat lacking at this point in my life. But next September, the baby goes off to preschool two mornings a week and the world shall once again become my oyster. It might be an oyster in the grocery store, but it shall be mine alone! I am primarly a weaver and dyer, and have taken quick dips in the printing, stitching,and quilting pools. My latest thing has been temari balls. Basically they are stitched balls that originated in Japan. It takes about 70 years to become a master so I shall be a rank amature for the rest of my life. Sigh. Check it out.

http://temarikai.com/

Both the pattern and album buttons are enough to blow your mind!

Today is my eldest's 11th birthday. It seems like two weeks ago that I brought her home and we spent the night watching her sleep. I don't think that I have had a good night's sleep since.

Right, I garden too ,and do that thing called "putting food by" so while you may not here much from me in that arena excecpt that the seed cataloges arrived you will hear more latter. And to those who wondered what I was going to do with 91 quarts of dill pickles, I can only say that I hope that it is enough to last until next Sept when the next years batch will be ready. My kids are all pickle fiends. Picture piranas on a cow caracs and you will have an accurate image of my kids around a pickle jar. Gardening season is from mid April for the extreamly hardy things to usually mid September when the first hard frost hits. There are times when I wished that I lived in a more temperate climate(mid February comes to mind), but I do have nice things to say about Canada. To my knowledge we have never had a drive by shooting in my hometown and I we almost always have snow for Christmas. Unfortunatly it then lasts for the next 4 months, but that is a small price to pay for a bit of piece of mind.