Making stuff and doing things.

Various skeins of drop-spindled yarn, all ready to start a project.

If Winter was a house guest, it would be on day 7 of a 3-day stay. I live in a high, semi-arid climate. Allegedly. I think we may have had approximately 1 week of sunshine out of the last 6-8 weeks. I've never seen a winter so gray. Yeah, it's snowy and cold, but that's to be expected, isn't it? The snow is great for those of us who rely on irrigation water that is collected in reservoirs in the high mountains, which allows that collected water to trickle down to us via irrigation ditches during the typically dry months of summer. So, yay! Moisture! But, boo, weeks of cloudy days. I don't live in the Pacific Northwest, or England, or anywhere else where cloudy days are the norm. This has been a long, long stretch. Everyone I speak to feels the same. We're all biding our time until glorious, glorious SPRINGTIME. Amen.

The sun is shining today. It's wonderful.



Drum carder, odds and ends of wool.

The only way for me to combat the ennui that accompanies these long, gray days is by staying busy. Mentally and physically. I had an unfortunate stretch of time a few weeks ago where I had an injury to my wrist that kept me from doing anything with my hands that I normally do. No knitting, no spinning, no dyeing, no typing, no writing, no drawing, no painting, no shit. Let me tell you what, folks. That was a hard damn time for me. I can only stand to go for so long without making something, and making stuff and doing things is intrinsically tied into my happiness/sanity. A day without some sort of physically creative process is a long and cranky day, and I can only read or watch television for so long without feeling twitchy.

Fortunately for me, my friend Christina did her magic on my arm, shoulder and wrist, and I've been pain-free ever since. I still have this weird knot of tendon at the base of my wrist, which is kind of yucky, but it doesn't hurt. My mother-in-law told me she had the same thing once, when she had a huge garden that she had to hoe, so it's apparently an over-use injury. She had cortisone injections to make it go away, but I'm taking anti-inflammatory enzymes and hoping to avoid that route. So far, so good.



Hand-made herbal soap.

Taylor and I have been experimenting with bath products recently. We're planning a market garden this year, and we want to supplement any produce with things like soap, bath salts, lip balms and bath bombs, jams, jellies and baked goods. Tay is so psyched about selling her baked goods. We're planning on selling our wares at the farmer's market in Ignacio, which was such a huge success last year. Making plans for the garden and our stall has been something else to focus on during these long days. It's kind of hard to visualize when there's still 2 feet of snow in the garden plot, but we'll get there. We get a little closer every day.



Bath bombs.

And so we're waiting and biding our time, and I can't help but think about budding trees and the life that is waiting inside of seeds. There has been a very real feeling around here of being curled up and waiting for the opportunity to expand. It's all very cyclic and earthy, where right now we're waiting for life to bloom and expand, and in the fall we enjoy the feeling of the slowing down of things and the end of that period of hurried growth and long days packed with activity. I'm not a mystical person, nor am I particularly spiritual person, but I do admire the cycle and the way it makes me feel like a part of something larger than myself.

I think I'm going to go bundle up and sit in the sunshine a while.

Winter Is Messy. Also, Some Other Stuff.

Winter is nature's way of saying, "Up yours." ~Robert Byrne

It's been a long week. When it rains in L.A., it snows here. It's been raining a lot in L.A.

I haven't left the house since...when? When was the last time I left the house?! Maybe it was to go to Cynde's party. No, wait. We helped Christina move on Sunday last, so it's only been six days. Six loooooong days. I think Taylor and I are beginning to get a little nutso with the Cabin Fever. I spent a buttload of money on craft supplies this afternoon, because we decided we needed something different and nifty to do, and all most of our other supplies are buried in storage somewhere in Oxford. I'm guessing they're going to stay there until Spring. The UPS dude (or dudette, whatever) will be bringing us all sorts of goodies to make incense, soap, lip gloss, wool wash, and bath bombs. You know why? Because I cannot do fiber arts all the frickin' time. (Blasphemy!) Also, I gave myself tendonitis with all the dyeing/spinning/knitting, so I need a change of pace. Specialization is for insects!

Icicles of doom. They broke a window downstairs when they fell, sending snow, ice and glass all over the computer area. Fortunately, no one was sitting there at the time. Now we have sexy styrofoam instead of a window.

The weather has been a bit of a drag, but there's other stuff nagging at me this week. We lost our friend Emma earlier this week. She had been very ill, so it was not unexpected, but still. She was a fun, feisty, awesome lady. She adored her children. She loved her friends. She never did quite get the hang of knitting, but she liked the company and we liked having her around. She insisted that I spin her some yarn, so I did. I will miss her.

Also, my daughter, my only child, is turning 13 tomorrow. Birthdays aren't a sad occasion, but they certainly do mark the passage of time in a very glaring and obvious way. It really does seem like yesterday that she was born. I don't know where all that time has flown, but I'm a deeply grateful for it, even in the bittersweet way that I'm feeling right now. It's been an wonderful journey so far, and I'm really looking forward to the next leg of it, even the difficult stuff. Because, you know, it's all about the journey, right? Right.

The Winter of Our Discontent

Alternate title:  Two Weeks Until Vacation!  WOOT!

My fellow Arctic Dwellers and I decided waaaaay back in December that we were already disgusted with winter.  Why, hello -18 degrees, kiss my butt!.  Frozen water bottle on the floor of my bedroom?  I smite thee with my burning burning hate! 

Anyway.  It was agreed upon by all (all three of us) that we need to plan a vacation to somewhere warm sometime in the late winter.  We had three main objectives in mind in our planning:

1.  We need to go somewhere we've never been.

2.  We need to beat the Spring Break craziness.  

3.  Whatever we do, we'll miss two fricken' weeks of Winter here, thereby putting us that much closer to lovely, lovely Springtime.  Oh, happy days!

The general plan is to head south through New Mexico to Santa Fe, continuing down to Roswell and eventually Carlsbad.  My husband says that the Carlsbad Caverns are kinda nifty, so we'll stop and tour them and then turn east towards Texas.  I think we're going to spend some time in San Antonio, because there's lots to see and do there, and then that's it for our concrete plans.  In general, we prefer to play things by ear.  I think we're going to stay gone as long as time and money hold out.  

I can hardly wait!

Winter can kiss me right on the pooper.

The back yard.

Out the back door.  There was no snow there two days ago.

Spring cannot come soon enough for me.