Can it be any hotter??

Of course it can!! I know, that is a totally stupid, redundant question. I live in a sauna. I. AM. MISERABLE. This year is even worse than it ever has been before. My doctor so kindly informed me that I probably have 5 more years of this lovely hot/cold/hot/hotter/freezing, body temp. fluxuation to look forward to. Oh joy.

I totally now understand why so many people move to another climate when they get older. Crap! that means that I have to admit that I am on the cusp of being old.

You know, it wasn't bad when I went thru this surgical menopause the first time when I was 25. I don't even remember having but the smallest of temperature fluxuations back then. I got the OTHER stuff at 25, but my thermostat was ok. Not so the second go around with the surgical menopause. Lord, I feel like I am going absolutely bat-shit. I know I'm freezing my family out and causing my light bill to sky rocket but I can't help it.

I'm SO frustrated that I'm such a hostage to the weather here. I don't know if I'll survive this with my sanity intact. Just how much sleep deprivation CAN one take before their cheese slides completely off their cracker?

My husband sympathizes, but his sympathy only goes so far.

I haven't even knit anything lately. That's how crappy it is. I'm seriously getting the itch to knit but I don't know if I can even stand to handle something little like sock yarn. Maybe I should just use this time to catch up on some spinning.

HELP!!!

First Skeins of Dyed Roving for sale!

Black Widow
Crayola Box
Daffodil Explosion

These are the first three skeins of roving that I'll be offering for sale! I so hope that all my fellow spinners find these rovings just as yummy as I do. Click on the Feather Falls Fiber link for more details on each.

Bountiful Harvest

My little lavender plants have absolutely flourished this year! I was able to cut enough to get lots and lots of dried buds PLUS enough to make several Lavender Wands.

I've never made lavender wands before this year and after the first couple, I was actually doing a pretty fair job. Mmmmmm they sure smell yummy! My sister Patricia is a lavender lover, so I'll be sending her a few to use in her drawers and closet. She'll love me for that.

The photograph here is just ONE harvest cutting. I got about 6 cuttings of this size over the whole season. I noticed there are still a couple of blooms coming on even still, but sadly the season is almost over. I'll be very very sad if I have to leave these plants behind because they seem to like the way I grow them.

People watching

I have always been a people watcher. If I had a comfy place to sit, a good book and food and drink, I could spend all day in a mall just watching people. You see the darndest things. I entertain myself by creating little "lives" for them. Profiles. I often wonder if I get it right.

Reason this topic comes to mind is because the other day at the doctor's office, in the 20 minutes or so that we were in the waiting room I saw something that made me go hmmmm. Here was this woman, oh I'd say perhaps 50 yrs old there abouts. I'm thinking that she was trying to re-discover her long lost inner teenager. It wasn't so much her clothing that said that, well that is unless you count shoes as clothing... She had on black capri's, a white top and then the shoes. Little PINK ked looking tennis shoes. The pink shoes would have been fine. I like pink ok in some cases. What wrecked the whole deal was the decoration OF the shoe. All over this little pink shoe was printed black skulls. Yes, skulls. The kind that you often see on a bottle of poison. Or maybe on a pirate flag.

It's little stuff like this woman's shoes that often catch my eye and starts my imagination. I don't know, maybe it's just me and my boring fashion sense.

Then there was the guy who came in with the shaved arms............
I'll keep my thoughts and inner dialog on that to myself.

If you like history

I really love to look at historical photos. Today I stumbled upon a really interesting site. If you are a photo buff and enjoy looking at glimpses of life in days gone by this site is for you. http://www.shorpy.com/node It's quite remarkable, especially the black and white pictures. I love black and white photos because they seems to really have that stark realism to them.

Etsy

I've been setting up shop over at Etsy for Feather Falls Fiber. That's step 2. I've got to figure out how to set up the main page. The banner and all that is going to be a challenge. I don't know what I'm doing there! I hope I can figure it out so I can have a decent looking page.

New skein spun up

I like the way this skein turned out alot. It spun up to 134 yards. The roving came from The Yarn Wench.

New Blog

I've created a new blog. http://lookingthroughmylens.blogspot.com/ I've started working on Project 365, which is a photography project. The object is to take one picture a day for a year. I think that it's an interesting way to catalog a "year in the life"......

Some of my pictures will be following a theme, some will be freeform and as my muse leads me. I hope you enjoy them.

I've been TAGGED!!! - Seven Things About Me.

Seven Things About Me

The rules: Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those who are tagged need to write on their own blog those 7 facts as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven other people and list their names on your blog. Then you leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog

1. I was born with an extra bone in each foot. If it had fully developed, I would have 6 toes instead of the normal 5. This odd and weird fact was discovered when I was about 16 after I really damaged my foot after a horrible injury when I torn all the tendons and ligaments off of the bones in my left foot after a bad fall. It wasn't healing well so my parents took me to an orthopedic specialist and he did some new for the times xrays and that's when they discovered the anomaly. They wanted to do surgery to remove the extra bones but I chickened out and never had it done. That's why to this day I have to be extra careful because I am very prone to turning my foot over. I never sprain my ankle, but when I do turn it over I sprain it in the arch/instep area where the extra bone is because it is weaker there.

2. I love to bake. Come to find out that my great-grandfather owned his own bakery way back in the day so I come by it naturally.

3. I learned to crochet as a young girl and continued to crochet for many, many years after that until I just got bored and burned out. I always wanted to learn to knit, but there wasn't anyone around to teach me how. One day, I picked up one of those cheap "how to" books at the store and some needles and yarn and taught myself the knit stitch but the purl stitch still evaded me. That is until I found Knitting Help.com. I watched her videos and the rest is history. That is THE best sight out there for beginners to learn by watching IMHO.

4. I have only one natural, biological son, but I have 5 children. Two from my first marriage and two from my current marriage. For someone who never could have any more than one child, I'd say that I've raised my fair share of kids and just about seen it all as far as things kids can come up with. I thought that I HAD seen it all until I started raising teenage boys again! Now I'm starting all over with a 14 year old and a 16 year old. Things have certainly changed in just 10 years!

5. My half-sister and I were separated for 30 years! By sheer luck and the internet and great persistence on my part, I was finally able to track her down a couple of years ago. We were reunited for the first time and my DH just couldn't believe the physical resemblance between the two of us. Of course, neither could we. Although our body types are completely different, in the face we could totally be twins. We even sound alike! We even both only have borne only one son. It's really kind of a trip how similar some of our life experiences have been.

6. When me and my husband met, we were both perfectly content being single. In fact, we had both told ourselves that we weren't going to be looking for another mate, and that this time, if we were to hook up with someone that it was going to be someone that God brought into our lives. Well, our first date lasted 14 hours! That was after dinner and a movie! We sat in the Wal-Mart parking lot talking about our lives and just about drove the security guard nuts. He was a PERFECT gentleman the entire evening. Never made a fast move on me (which totally impressed me!), just held my hand or touched my arm or knee while we were talking. As the sun rose we went to IHOP for breakfast. When we went our separate ways, he gave me a hug goodbye and asked if he could call me later as we both had to go to work that evening! The rest is history...........God I love that man!!!!! I thank God every single day for bringing him into my life.

7. I love to take photographs. One of my favorite thing to take pictures of is flowers. I try to remember to take my camera with me with me most of the time so I can snap pictures when I see something interesting. I have caught some really cool shots over the years. I especially love black and white photography. Now since digital cameras have come along, I like fiddling with the colors without having to change the film.

Here are the seven people I am blessing with this meme:

Deb - http://mimis-knitting-corner.blogspot.com/
Robyn - http://www.bitchypoo.com/
Fred - http://www.vituperation.com/
Silver - http://www.cometosilver.com/write/
Leah - http://yarnoratale.blogspot.com/
Veryl - http://fiberinparadise.blogspot.com/
Twig - http://www.mapleontheweb.com/