luxe

look at the dirt in my eye and on my face! when i took a shower, the water was actually dirty! hardcore!
rough night. needless to say. i have been overdoing things, i know, but my mind is willing, even if my body is not. i have more dyeing to do but i should probably attempt to take things a bit easy this week because maryland sheep and wool is this weekend and if i am lucky, i will have made myself sick by then. you too, donna! take it easy, lady! i get to see her to-morrow i think. wooot wooot! we are so different but we have a really fun time together. very easygoing. you know how with some people there are lulls and you have to think of things to say or do? that doesn’t happen. she is a good egg. me likes her. mwah!

anyway, i was going to do some dyeing but was pooped out so i thought that i would do some spinning instead because i haven’t done a lot, etc, etc, so i did one yarn and plied it and then thought that it was so lovely outside, i would drag the louet onto the back porch and spin out there. we have a swing with an awning on it, so i figured i would do it on there so i didn’t burn the hell out of myself. um…spinning on a swing is really really hard! it reminds me a bit of sitting on one of those yoga balls or something. standing on a log in water. riding a unicycle. right zeeps? i bet you can ride one! anyway, i came out of it with a really sore neck and back. i wish i knew a message therapist that would do work for yarn. seriously. i mean it. or, i could get zeeps to ride a unicycle over my back? nah, that might cripple me. so, in closing, i don’t advise it. use a chair. that doesn’t move. i spun 4 big bobbins of yarn today. more than a pound of fiber. pretty good, eh.

on the riches you know the show with eddie izzard (woooooot!) and minnie driver? well! one of my most favorite actors evah…clancy brown! was on today. i hope he is on more episodes. oh brother justin.

i am sleepy and scattered, so off i go.

oops, i forgot, i got tagged by anja! i need to figure out who to tag though. hmmmm.

The rules
Start with 7 random facts/habits about yourself
People who are tagged have to write their 7 things on their blog
Then choose another 7 people to get tagged and list their names
Don’t forget to leave them a comment to tell them they
have been tagged and to read your blog

only 7 random things? sheesh!
1. i have the most sensitive nose and taste buds. i can smell bad things intensely and get bad bad migraines from it.
2. if i eat blue cheese, or anything that has blue cheese in it, i get sick in minutes. when i was a kid, i didn’t know that i couldn’t eat it and would eat doritos or chips at any opportunity, and they all have both blue cheese and msg in them which also makes me sick and i would get a migraine like nothing you have ever seen. bad bad stuff.
3.i love matzo with butter and vegimite. love. i eat it one row at a time.
4.my grandparents on both sides are from white russia. they came to south africa as children.
5.i was born in capetown, south africa. i didn’t become a us citizen until i was 12 (i think).
6.i love berries. all sorts of berries. i could eat raspberries and blackberries until i get sick. and i have. seriously. i have raspberries and strawberries in my garden. the strawberries are unreal. ask the squirrels, birds and rabbits. they enjoy taking a bite out of the perfectly ripe ones. sigh. eat the whole thing! geez. rude!
7.i have watched general hospital since i was in 3rd grade. i tivo it. i don’t watch any other soap and have no desire to. they seem stupid to me. odd? yeah, i reckon, but there aren’t talking chimps or psychic babies or anything, so it seems reasonable. sure, people come back from the dead sometimes, but there is usually a good explaination. right?

nighty night.
n.

okay, i did a partial update because i was crunched for time. i went out to hang up fiber to dry, it ws nice and breezy, which makes fiber dry in no time flat. did i mention that i adore the warm weather. the smell of earth in the air. swoon. anyway, i ended up cleaning up my garden which was an absolute mess. gross. dirty. i planted seeds, and a little metal window tin thingy with catnip and a cute little asymmetrical pot i have with catnip, as well. so cute. i ended up out there all day and got overall/wifebeater burns on my shoulders. it was lovely out there, although i absolutely tuckered myself out. so at that point, i was behind on yarny things and started to upload and crop photos for the update and we had some friends come over for an impromptu bbq, which was nice, but i was way late on my update. i always have the whole negative attitude about selling stuff and then it always sells. i don’t know why i am like that. and i am especially broke, sheep and wool is next weekend, not that i tend to buy much, and i need to order fiber. badly. i mean i have loose stuff and locks and stuff, i just used up almost all of my top. i think i will just get superwash merino next time. i think people like it. it is my personal favorite, for sure. it is a pleasure to dye, i don’t have to use any acid at all, it dyes much more vibrantly than anything else, is incredibly washfast and is almost instantly set before the heat. what more can you ask for. i can also rinse it out whilst it is still hot. bad. ass. ah superwash, where have you been all my life? okay, so you wanna see some of the stuff ? here goes…
there are also some sock yarns that absolutely rock, i loooooove them. the green one i did for jakie’s socks, and it knits up really pretty, as you can see. i find that not many handpainted sock yarns would be suitable for guys, you know? i really like the way that my yarns do a variegated stripe. the only issue i have is that if the colors are too close in value, it looks beige. wanna see an example?. in a handspun yarn, muted colors of similar value are fine. in a sock yarn, the colors almost blend making a totally blah color. not bad. just blah. it is odd because that some color scheme in a fiber would be gorgeous. lesson learned. class dismissed .there is more of course, so head over. and to-morrow or the next day, i will update handspun yarns.

i finished the yarn i made for my younger brother’s fiance and it is just gorgeous. it has soy silk spun alongside merino and i plied in some different yarns and rose gold and iridescent sparkle and texture and silk flowers. i emailed my bro pics to make sure she would like it because i hate giving people things that they don’t want. i hate getting stuff i don’t want. i have horrible guilt about it being a waste. if i give someone something and that they don’t like, i always hope they will tell me it isn’t their thing and if it is from a store, take the gift receipt and get something they like. it is more that it torments me to give them something that they think sucks. selfish, maybe. anyway, i told him that if it wasn’t her style, i could make her something more simple, or whatever. i know she works in a big library and i am sure that she can use a shawl or wrap for that, so i can just as easily spin up a plainer yarn for it. i must say, i adore this wrap and i designed the colors, yarn and knit for her, so i do hope she loves it.

otherwise, i am really rather tired, i wasn’t going to blog but decided i better do it at least a little. i haven’t been sleeping and it is taking its toll on me. i need to pack orders and then try to do some sewing, i want to make some nightgowns, sleep shorts, etc. i keep looking for em at the store when i could make my own and they would be good learning opportunities. also, i have been really slacking in the fine art department. i draw at least a little bit everyday. not today, i will shortly. even just a doodle or design idea for a purse or clothes, but i need to finish up some of the mixed media pieces i have been working on and get things hung in the house. i have so many things that need frames or just need to be hung up. i want to do a mural on a large wall we have downstairs and then work in all of the plates i collect as a part of it. we also need to paint the living room and entry and kitchen. there is so much we need to do that i put off. shameful. oh wait, also, i want to do some simple wardrobe basic pieces and i want the fabric to be rather distressed. i want the edges to all be unfinished. so basically, even some of the cool patterns i find, but with the edges raw and a post modern, natural fibers, simple lines with interest in the fabric with embroidery maybe and other texture put into the fabric. so tell me, how do i do this? what do i need to make sure to do? and what kinds of fabric would work the best? i like em to be soft, breathable and easy to take care of. and inexpensive. don’t forget that. help!

oh, i got a couple of pairs of cute shoes lately, too. this first pair are super cushy inside and i like that they are bronze…and this quote sort of relating…”A soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.” — Johann von Goeth
horrible photos. sorry. anyway, the pumas are linen. i am a puma fan. jakie bought em for me. very cute. i almost never wear anything that has laces, as you might have noticed. in the summer, if i can be barefoot, i am, okay, actually, all the time. i am a foot nudist. but i wear sandals the rest of the time. i am trying to make sure i ditch the grosser looking ones, though. speaking of feet, where i broke my foot years ago, my foot has been really hurting. it is the outside of my foot, especially if my feet are tired or if i wear heels, even ones that were comfy for me before. sigh. i loooove heels. not cool. i need to go to an orthopaedist about it. i mentioned a podiatrist to my mom and she called them butchers (apologies to any podiatrists out there) but in fairness, (and i think some of you can attest to this) they can be rather brutal. not sensitive people. they aren’t Md’s, i am not sure if they are DO’s or something different altogether. i have had them do bad things to me before, so i will take my mom’s advice.

we are going to sheep and wool this weekend and plan to go up on friday and stay over, coming back after the show on saturday. if anyone wants to hook up, please email me so we can exchange numbers and make tentative plans. also, i think we are staying in columbia, md, let me know if that is good, or if somewhere else is better. i was attempting to see if we could avoid driving in the wrong direction to go to the hotel, which i think frederick is. for anyone not yet with a hotel, i went onto hotwire.com which had by and large the cheapest prices. the only thing is that you don’t know what the hotel is until you commit to buying. they tell you how many stars, basically where it is and you go from there. i am waiting to ask jake what he wants to do, but you can stay at a 3 star hotel for under 100 a night, and some dive places for suuuuper cheapo. so please make sure to email me at natashaluxeATgmaildoTcom…okay? i am excited to hook up with my ladies!

sleeeepy. and hungry, too.
xo
n.

ooooh girrls! (and boys)i have some good stuff on the update in the luxe.etsy.com store tomorrow afternoon! very exciting stuff. seriously. so make sure you are signed up for it. if not email me at natashaluxeatgmaildotcom to let me know you want to be on it and i will add ya. you want a peek? well…
i am literally fighting with myself to figure out what to keep and what to sell. i know i can dye something similar again, but still. the sock yarn that is grayish green and the pinky purple color…oh my. i love her. love. i started a pair with one skein of the two colors of green sock yarn for jake. it is fun to knit with. i am just doing a standard sock magic loop two at a time. as usual, i had to screw it up on the cast on and do it ass backward before i got it fixed. i am doing a strange box rib on it so it isn’t insanely boring, but is knit on every other row, i can handle that. not too hard.

i also listed some vintage clothes, this amazing dress… and will be listing some vintage aprons and this rockin’ dress which i wish would fit me because it would be mine. i am so tempted to do something to it to make it fit, or cut it into a skirt and a top, but it was handmade by someone and is in perfect condition. i just can’t do it. it doesn’t seem right.

i overdid it a bit yesterday and totally conked out, so i will be doing dyeing tomorrow unless it rains. again. sigh. we went out for groceries and stopped at marshall’s where i knocked over almost everything i passed, but did manage to find a really nice escada perfume, i always get similar things that are sweet and passion fruity. it is all that i can usually wear without making me sick and i get lots of compliments on them. what can i say, i am sweet and fruity! i also got two cute dresses for summer and a bra. jake treated. what a nice boy!

i need to go and buy felt this week. as you can see on the big mosaic for the update, i dyed all of my felt and it looks lovely, but because i used it in a big ole sheet, it wasn’t as splotchy as i like. the good thing was that it went from feeling like cheapo craft felt, even though it was 100% wool felt, to feeling like nice quality felt because i was really rough with it and kind of felted it, i think. it worked out well. i feel much better about that. i am planning to start dyeing sheets of felt, as has been suggested by several different pro artisans. they said it is impossible to find in any colors (i know!) and it is poor quality, and handpainted…forget it. so there we go. and it is fun to dye and i don’t have to worry about messing it up. love it!

i have been using my gigantic electric roaster for dyeing and just bringing the contents up to a simmer and turning it off and leaving the lid on and bob’s your uncle. i have sockyarn to do for the upcoming club, so that is on the list tomorrow. i have a bit more fiber to dye, but i am nearly out, so i need to order my giant 25+ lb bump. woot woot! i think i will get some bulky cotton for summer, too, although i had using fiber reactive dyes. you have to use it right away or it is no good. i hate that. and i am not good at mixing those colors. grow up. i know. it has been so damn humid that nothing wants to dry around here. sheesh.

we were supposed to have the in-laws over for a cook out tonite, but the weather did not permit. maybe tomorrow, we will have to see. i have work to do, so i need to get some stuff done, whether they are here or not. maybe i can drag the carder outside if it is nice and save my nose and lungs from the fuzz. i swear, the fuzzy lung is bad stuff. seriously. i really get a lot in my nose and mouth and hopefully not any further.

okay, i am growing very sleepy, it is rather late, coming up on 2a. there was a bunch of stuff i wanted to talk about, but…you know how that goes. what things? alec baldwin? yeah, that was one. oh, i know, a question for the fabric peeps out there…i have been thinking about doing lots of summer things that have a deconstructed but really simple feel about them…think mad maxx but a wee bit more romantic. what fabrics would work well for frayed edges and distressing without falling apart and being summer weight? any ideas? i am thinking neutral colors…chambray in any color, i would like tops and skirts and dresses but things that could work well with a pop of color, too. i would love the waist to be that way as well as the hem, sleeves, straps, whatever. idears?

mwah!
warm (damp) fuzzies
n.

the photos i meant to post didn’t show up for some reason…so here are some for the ladies (and fellas, if you fancy)…
hot gardener:

and at the beach last year…

and how about for the lady kitties out there? okay, here is pavel and papa crashed out…

sooooo. today, got up, did dyeing, some sockyarn (6 skeins) a bunch of 2 oz bundles of the soy/merino fiber, 4 oz bundles of superwash merino and to-morrow i need to dye the rest of my merino and some more sock yarn for the sock of the month club i will be starting. i am doing a batt and roving of the month club also. oh, i also dyed a couple of yards of wool felt. i have yet to see how that looks. i forgot to cut it into sheets before dyeing it, so it may be more muted than last time. i dyed all of the aforementioned stuff in my vintage electric roaster, which is really rather large. i piled roving in and got the dye throughout and then put layers of plastic grocery bags to separate color layers and then the next layer and on the top, i had the sock yarns wrapped in plastic wrap on top of plastic bags and mesh. i will let you know if it worked out okay. the sock yarns were fine, i was running low on saran which was why i didn’t wrap everything up. i wasn’t sure what temperature to set it to and it seemed to be getting way to hot, so i turned it down to 150 degrees, the lowest temp and left it on for about an hour and then turned off the heat and let it sit for a few hours. i will post photos to-morrow. i hope the weather is dry enough to hang things up outside. some of the fiber came out soooo pretty. i used the orchid purple, which is a more pinky purple and olive drab with some rasberry mixed in and that olive drab is from the gods. you can put it with anything and it looks fantastic and adds depth. i also did a sock yarn with the olive drab and avacado for jake. it looks purdy. fun, but still something a boy could wear. i knitted up some of my own sockyarn and i have to say it looked really pretty. i love the louet gems yarn but it is so expensive (worth it, but expensive) that i am not sure if people woudl be willing to pay the difference. the superwash i use now is really good, but the louet has a nice sheen to it. anyway.

i went to michael’s after picking up the car from being inspected and got maroon and purple silk flowers to use in a yarn for my brother’s fiance. i hope to have some time to spin tomorrow. my hands are really hurting me, so i am going to try not to use them at all tonight. sob!

i emailed nava to tell her that i loved her book and then had looked for her fine art work and it is just lovely. i would love to see it in person. i think it is really rare that a photo can really give you that great of a vibe of how the work is in person, but in her case, the work is very tactile, so i imagine it is super duper incredible in person. anyway, we have emailed back and forth several times and she is so incredibly nice. i told her that i feel really out of the loop in regards to my fine art and how to go about approaching galleries, etc. she gave me loads of great ideas and it made me realize that it scares the crap out of just about everyone to do it. not just me. i am probably more confident than i deserve to be, i always have been, even with work that really wasn’t so good. at all. yeah. i admit it. i guess that when you are passionate about your work, that passion just makes it look extra rosy, you know? anyway, i dropped out of the art world for fear of being so disappointed in the people that run it that i would want nothing to do with it. for that reason, i didn’t go for my MFA. i have a big back and forth about being a professional artist because i have manic spurts and then have short periods where i need a break. the thing is, just like spinning and knitting for a living, it is a job. you don’t get to only do it when you are into it. that is called a HOBBY. savvy? anyway, once again, i am astounded by the amazing degree of open hearted generous women out there.

i have lots of thing i need to take photos of, weather permitting, tomorrow and if i can get my dyeing done, photos taken, i would like to do a bit of sewing. i have a slew of patterns that amy butler sent me and some designs i have sketched up, too.

i strung a gazillion flowers onto different threads for the upcoming yarns and i popped into tj maxx before i ran home. i need summer shoes, i am attempting to not wear any gross shoes anymore. at the beginning of the summer, new flip flops. i tend to wear nicer ones and it is hard for me to let go of em, but i am doing my best. i picked up a pair of wedge sandals that have this squishy nice footbed in them. they are a bronzy color, but i am not sure if i will keep em or not. i will walk around the house in them and see what i think. there were tons of really really cute tops there, too. if i make a bit of money this weekend, i will buy some new summer clothes. mainly i just need some tops. i will make some more skirts and hopefully some dresses, if that is realistic. i need a swimsuit, too. i am not sure if any of the ones i have fit. i need a cover-up or two, as well.

i grow sleepy. i am fighting myself not to knit or sew or embroider or type anymore. i am behind on blogs, but too sleepy to read em. oh, also, whilst dyeing, i listened to lime and violet for a while and actually rather enjoyed it. it was more like listening in on someone’s conversation, but while i was busy, it wasn’t really a big deal. they manage to bounce off of each other really well without any one of them seeming to be more dominant that the other. which is a really good thing. i would really like to work on my luxe podcast that just goes along with my blog basically. has some clips of what i am doing, or tutorials or whatever. maybe some footage or photos of me in action, dyeing, spinning, whatever. i think that there needs to be more things like that around. methinks.

oh! i almost forgot! michael’s recently got in a martha stewart line of stationary, craft supplies, papers, boxes, frames, all kinds of things and they are just gorgeous. honestly, they are really reasonably priced for the quality. it actually kind of reminded me of amy butler stuff. there is ribbon and …if you have a michael’s nearby, go check it out…i can’t find a link. sorry. really lovely, though. and i am a snob. so take my word for it. you might pee in your pants a bit. they have these “collector” boxes for displaying stuff that are different colors and have a scalloped design on them…so many things you could do with them. they are a bit pricey, but so purdy. if i was rich…

thanks for all of your sweet comments on this and the LJ bloggy. you guys rock. and you made jake blush. he loves it.

xoxoxoxoxoxo

i am having such issues with feeling lazy, etc. i had a hectic weekend, was exhausted sunday, shan came that night, we spent the day monday, i did NOTHING. no biggie. vacation day. on tuesday, donna came over just for a bit, i woke up late due to the headache from the night before. she left fairly early, the dentist called to say that they could squeeze me in to do my prep for the crown so i go in. i forget to remind the dentist that the regular novacaine or whatever it is makes me sick and doesn’t work so well on me. so, i was expecting that because i had the root canal already that they were just sticking my crown in. um…no. not so much. drill. drill. drill. different drill. another drill.

an hour and a half later, i walk out feeling queasy, migraine well on its way and my mouth and jaw hurts like hell. on the upside i knitted my 2 socks on one circular the whole time, which was the only thing that saved me from writhing around and acting like a crybaby. the main thing is, i didn’t expect it to hurt, so it made it worse, i think. i didn’t even drop any stitches! pretty good, eh? i don’t know how i lived without having portable crafty things to work on when i feel anxious.

whilst getting finished up there, filing down the temp crown, the assistant was talking to me about how her mom was dying of emphysema(sp?) and that her younger sister who lived in baltimore disappeared 4 years ago and there has never been any word of her since. they found her car in a bad neighborhood a few weeks after it happened and it had absolutely no fingerprints in it, including her own. nothing. there was no paper trail, so no one used her credit cards or anything. one of the things that i learned in the 10+ years that i owned the tattoo shop is that you have no idea what is going on inside anyone’s head. no idea what may or may not of happened to shape someone’s life. perfect, gorgeous women who seem like they would have it all got cancer and their husband left them. men whose wives took off and left their children behind. all kinds of things. before then, i always had a very hard time meeting new people. i always took everything personally. i thought everything was about me. in a negative way. which is even worse. and i know grown people who are like that. it is sad. they are people that no one wants to be around. people who can’t be happy for anyone. can’t empathize with anyone. think that whatever they have is better than what anyone else has, or worse, or whatever. it is just sad. i learned that it means a lot to people to have someone to open up to. even if you are a stranger. it means a lot to someone to have a little bit of kindness. to be a little bit spoiled. to feel special. even if it is the smallest thing, just for a moment. it is so easy to lose sight of that. to wallow in your own crap. i don’t ever want to be that person. i don’t ever want to lose sight of how much i have. i don’t want to lose sight of the fact that for all of the really hard days that i have where i feel awful, i have some that i am inspired. i am able to push through. i am able to roll around like a pig in mud in the fiber, the paint, the cats…my amazing friends who love me and never give up on me even when i haven’t talked to them in months, my family. and most of all, my jake, who has taught me that you really can have unconditional love and support. that someone really might think i am incredible…no matter what i grew up thinking or feeling. and that means so much to me. i think of those dark, miserable people who see everything as negative despite the fact that they usually have fairly easy lives all things considered. sad.

so where am i going with this? well, i have major guilt issues about being sick. about not feeling up to doing work. or cooking. or cleaning. or making phone calls. anything. and i know that all of us with health issues have the same guilt (don’t worry, i won’t mention any names) so i try to push it aside. but even still, i can’t help but wonder if someone else could push through it. i see how hard my jake works, waking up at 3:30a and getting home anywhere between 4p-6p and sometimes cooking dinner if i am not up to it. and never acting crappy about it. ever. or i see how hard shannon works, like the damn eveready bunny. or any number of other people who have their hands full with kids, and all sorts of other things. but there is nothing i can do about it. so i have to just accept it. i have to.

i am slowly learning to sew. i can put in a hidden zipper pretty well, it doesn’t scare me anymore. i used the bi-fold bias tape for the waistband of my one skirt and it looks really pretty. i have made a few things and have been doing sketches for some purses and tops and skirts. so that is exciting. i am going to attempt to sell some handpainted felt and fabrics, because i think color is my forte. the ironic thing is that growing up and in college, i was not a color person. i used dirty colors, and blood red, and that was really it. i don’t know how i lived without color. i wish i could go back in time. but i can’t. so in this life, i will try to be open to what i love and what i am really good at. i see people fighting that, they are good at something, but they want to be good at something else. they just won’t accept that it isn’t their thing. and it is a shame. so much of being happy and successful is accepting yourself as you are. striving for excellence is a fantastic thing, but some things, like me being a basketball player, are just not going to happen. and it is important to be realistic.

so, to drastically change subjects, here are some of the photos i had promised…here is my spring wreath. is it the cutest thing ever?

here is jake looking sexy in his yardwork clothes and steel toed shoes. seriously, he is such a sexy mofo. he thinks i am just saying it, and that you guys just say nice things to be…nice. so go ahead, leave him a comment telling him what you really think. i seriously am not sure how i lucked out like this. scccccooooooore!

here is kahlo’s hairless belly. she is a licker. i think it may be allergies, but she licks pretty much any part of herself that she can comfortably reach, her tummy, inner thighs, parts of her outer thighs, her feet, paws, etc, etc. anyway, the result is pink, cool as a cucumber and the softest thing you have ever felt. wanna see?

i finished my first pair of magic loop 2 at a time socks today and while they are not perfect, they came out okay. i will take a photo tomorrow. i need to make my dad a pair that promised for months ago and then jake is next in line. i let him try on my pair as i was knitting them (cuff down) and he said “ooh, it feels like i am not even wearing socks!” so i am excited to make him some. he said he wanted big thick ones for walking around the house in, so i think i might just spin up the yarn myself. in worsted weightish yarn it wouldn’t be that much yardage. my only concern is that a single ply will pill a bit. my other choice would be to buy some yarn or use sportweight doubled.

in music news, we got several new cds, amy windhouse being one of them and it is really fantastic. she is a 23 year old londoner and has a voice from beyond, amazing. they call it neo-soul. her voice reminds me of lauren hill a bit, but better and more consistent. also, lauryn hill made incredibly nasty racist comments against caucasians. not cool. we also got the fratelli’s new album. they are from glasgow and it appears to me that lots of good things do. it is a really good upbeat album that is good from start to finish. lots of fun. it reminds me of the commitments soundtrack. anyone remember that? good stuff.

we also have been really into murder by death. good stuff. i promise you. i will post some more soon, too. i need to get a new ipod. mine is a zillion years old and has to be plugged in and i can’t update it anymore, and is only 10G which holds a teeny fraction of the zillion cds we have. i forget all of the stuff we have because my memory is really bad and on ipod, it is there, you can listen to whatever you fancy. i am getting sleepy, so off i go. sigh. so so tired. man.

i love all of you guys. i hope you realize how much i have gained from having this blog…all of the things that have happened as a direct result of it. you rock!

xoxo
n.

woah! things have been a bit hectic around these parts and the update i had hoped to do just didn’t happen. we had a busy weekend, and as the weather gets nice, i actually find that my energy is better and we do much more, i leave the house, we have get-togethers, parties, etc, etc. i loooove it. ah spring. butter and his adorable lady came over and saturday and we had a really fun time. i spent most of the day on saturday working on sewing until that point.

sunday, i went to get groceries, went to marshall’s in search of some summer shoes to no avail, and the place was so packed you couldn’t actually look at anything. i meant to look at bras and was so irritated that i just left and went for groceries. later that evening shannon, aka knitgrrl showed up and we hung out all day today. so fun. although, no work done. bad bad me. i need to do dyeing to-morrow and spinning and i need to list stuff on etsy. to-morrow my buddy donna is coming over so hopefully she won’t mind hanging out with me whilst i do some work. right donna? hee.

i emailed amy butler (butter’s aunt) because i was looking for her new skirt patterns and none of the stores that sell her stuff had it. she sent it to me along with several other cute patterns, the cute floppy hat pattern and some purses, i am excited to crack em open. i am hoping they won’t be too hard.

i have a skirt that i think was originally a dress and it was just cut in half, not finished, no buttons, so i finished the edges and added buttons and hemmed it. i wore it and it got really stretched out, it is just thin cotton. so, i had no idea why anyone would make a waist panel…now i know, on account of things stretch out if you don’t do that. so i may just add some grosgrain ribbon or something to make it more stable. hm. i bought a really cute dress pattern when i got groceries. it claims to be an easy one, we will see. i love wearing dresses and they tend to be the most flattering thing for me, so i hope i can make one that looks pretty. and then make 10 more.

i have been letting peeps go outside with me without her leash because she just adores eating grass out there. she just eats and eats and purrs away. she actually will run out as fast as she can if you open the back door and then stops 5 feet out and eats grass. when shannon and i were on the front porch, peeps wanted to come out and went to each window and meowed and then was jumping up and down in front of the front door in hopes we would see her through the window and let her out. such. a. nerd.

i guess i know how she feels, because when i went out to greet shan at her car late last night, the air smelled amazing, the stars were out and i felt like i was a kid. except way better because i hated being a kid. i just feel like a new person when the weather is so lovely. i wonder if we lived somewhere that is chronically nice, if i would feel better more often.

i am really sleepy and really behind on emails and…everything. so off i go. mwah!
n.

so here is some of my score. the fabric and some other odds and ends i didn’t show. yes, there was more. a lot of this stuff will be listed on my etsy store to-morrow.

i also found some fantastic vintage sewing books that are actually really great and have wonderful illustrations. i am assuming that they belonged to the same person.

i got some sewing done today, i will take photos, soon. i swear. in one of the sewing books i have, i think the sew what! skirt book, there was a little blurb about using bias tape to finish a waistband if you didn’t want to actually sew a waistband. i did that today (i used the dual fold 1/2 bias tape) and it works so well and looks so nice and polished. i also did my third hidden zipper and it went well. fancy, eh? i had made a pattern for a skirt and somehow managed to make it incredibly enormous, like twice as big as me. i dunno if i did the math wrong or if i was bloated and did the math wrong or what, but i only figured out how off it was after i put in the zipper. sigh.

after all of that, our friend jason and his adorable girlfriend came over and we made some digiorno pizzas (waaaaay better than delivery. you wouldn’t mistake it for delivery because it ROCKS) and then got italian ice (for you locals, the meadows has italian ice now. passion fruit. yum!), and they had a flavor called…wait for it…get the kids away from the computer, this is really vulgar…DIRTY TURTLE. how sick is that?? so creepy. and worse yet, jake and jason both ate it! ewwwwww! he needs to rinse out with bleach if he wants to kiss me. jake, i mean, not jason. we had a nice time. i sewed a hem whilst chatting. we ate outside on the back porch and i let peeps out onto the grass because she had been crying all evening. she loves to eat grass, she must need greens, i guess. she is like a little weedwacker. she heads straight for the long grass that the mower misses and eats and eats and eats. billy goat peeps. i took photos which i will load up to-morrow. we had a really nice time.

i am really happy with my hair. i feel like i can do lots of things with it and before, i really felt like my hair had no style at all. when it was short it had a specific style and i could do things with it, but for a while it was just blah. thanks tammy!

oh, another quick mention, dharmatrading.com sells a product called reduran that removes dyes, ink, grease and i now found out…hair dye, from your hands. it is amazing. you all know that i hate to wear gloves if i don’t need to, and i personally think that acid dyes are not a big deal in their liquid form. anyway, this stuff totally takes the dye off of my hands. jason’s girlfriend is a hair stylist and had hair dye on her hands and said that nothing gets it out and i gave her some of this to try and it worked. she couldn’t believe it. it doesn’t have harsh chemicals in it, i don’t know how it works, but the link i put in here has a video of it in action. it is a must have for anyone who does messy stuff that stains you. even dyeing hair. i wish i had this when i used to use vegetable dyes on my hair. ah well.

i had other things i wanted to chat about but i am really sleepy. shhhhnore!

i am not sure if i posted this or not, but i am planning to do a batt/roving of the month club and a sock yarn of the month club, also. there aren’t many slots left already, so please let me know if you are interested. i will be sending it out in the update email.

oh, and my brother josh wrote the newest vampirella comic which is out in comic stores now. pretty cool, eh?

i don’t feel like drawing, i am sooo tired, but i need to. everyday. no. matter. what. such a hard life i lead. ha.

xo
n.

okay, so i have been a bit absent lately. all of the horrible things that have happened this week, i just didn’t even know what to say. on the same day, the shootings in virginia and all of the car bombs in the “safe zone” which barely made the news at all. horrible. all of it, horrible. and in this area, on the same days as those things happened, and last night, shootings all over the place, plane crashes, crazy stuff.

kurt vonnegut passing away kicked off the bad week. jake and i both are huuuuge vonnegut fans. i have read most of his books (and that is a LOT for the non-kurt peeps out there) and i will have to make sure to read the ones that i haven’t read. maybe my favorite one of his books, dead eye dick, is about a guy with the worst luck in the world. he is messing around with a gun and the bullet goes through a series of different places and ends up killing a pregnant woman who is vacuuming her house. needles to say, he is called deadeye dick from there on. poor fella. i imagine that kurt is somewhere else raising hell and smoking cigarettes. in the end, he was right, cigarettes wouldn’t kill him after all. go figure.

i have had a week of exhaustion. my least favorite thing in the world. oh wait, i hate the heeby jeebies worse. i used to get that skin crawling feeling all the time and it is unbearable. anyway, this weekend we were rather busy, i pushed myself to do a bit more and go out with jakie. monday i was really pooped. tuesday, pooped. donna came and hung out with me and sat in my stinky bedroom and watched tv and looked at pattern books with me. oh, and taught me to do 2 socks on one magic loop! i knew how to do one, but i am so excited to have learned two! here is a photo of it in progress, since ripped out. but this is my own handpainted yarn. pretty, right?

i actually ended up tearing out the original pair and starting over, and i even think i understand how to finish them. i will keep you posted. so thanks donna! we have a nice time together.

so then yesterday, i got work done and then was so exhausted that i got nothing else done. jake cooked dinner. i feel awful when i am too tired to help out. i had a hair appointment today and dragged my butt out of bed, no time for coffee, was yawning at the salon and started in with the creepy crawls (sigh) and went hom afterwards rather than doing the stuff that i needed to do. grrr. my hairdresser gave me an awesome new hairstyle. i absolutely love it. wanna see a bad photo of it? okay…
it is in a pony tail in the back, so it is still long…

i realize i should have had jakie take photos for me, i will do that to-morrow. it doesn’t really show the hair very well. it has a sideswept bang that can go straight down, to the side or be pinned back, some shorter wispies on the side and then long in the back with a bit of layers. i feel like it softens my eyes a bit so they don’t look so buggy. what do you guys thing? we put a section of dark through the middle of the blonde and i like how it looks a lot better. worked out really well. i think she was pleased to do something different. right before cutting me bangs, she asked if i was ready…i told her that unless she had something evil in mind, like a mullet (although those are um..stylish again. yipes.) that i wasn’t worries. just hair. although when i got the two worst hairstyles of my life it wasn’t just hair.

so i came home, relaxed in hopes of recharging a bit. i haven’t really been sleeping so well and have horrible nightmares. i wish i knew a way to make them stop. i have had nightmares all my life. my niece, maddy has really bad nightmares, too. i feel like she was meant to be my daughter. i never thought i would have felt so connected to that little girl. i sent my mom a wrap that i knitted for her from an ironstone yarn kit that was cream with sparkle and texture, really pretty, i put in some really cute day of the week underpants for maddie and some dance ones, too, maddy, like me, needs her underthings to match her outfit. i have been that way since i was little. my mom said it was a pain how specific i was about everything and she is the same way. i am that way still, if not very fashionable. and my underpants most always match. if they don’t, you know that i must be really out of sorts. anyway, she demanded that she had to put the frog ones on immediately to wear to sleep in. it cracked me up. not many 4 year olds are excited for new underpants (*i hate the word “panties” and refuse to use it.). my mom said she really like that wrap and being someone who has everything, if you give her a scarf, she will only wear it with a specific outfit, so she may only ever wear the things i make her once (at least once, i hope.).

i really avoid posting when i feel cruddy. i don’t wanna moan and groan more than necessary. and frankly, i don’t even have the energy at those points to complain. i lie down and do…nothing. weeeeee! however, if you are having pain or depression problems (or both) and need to talk about it…do! don’t hold it in. it makes you feel like you are going crazy, when it is something that lots of people deal with and often, people are happy to talk about it. don’t let it fester. find someone to talk to.

warm fuzzies,
n.

jake told me about this and i totally forgot to blog it. are you kidding me? how could i forget about yoshimi and pink robots? how? what next? interpretive dance? yoshimi on ice? that could work!

while i was out today, i heard what i assume was one of the new gwen stefanie songs in the store and wow. so. so. bad. and worse yet, people love it. and her awful clothing line. so ugly. although i do love her hair and makeup. whatever stylist fixed her up (remember what she looked like when she styled herself?) deserves a medal. people really will buy anything. put a high pricetag on it, call it designer…the funny thing is that lots of artists and craftspeople that design their own things and make them don’t view themselves as designing and making one of a kind things, and the things we make are in many cases much much better quality, much more flattering and truly unique. but it in instyle or vogue and it must be good. sigh.

oh, lastly, on gene simmons family jewels, gene and his wife both had plastic surgery and i must say, despite my tattooing and piercing background, it freaks me out so so badly. i stretched my earlobes gigantically for years and then decided i didn’t want to have them stretched anymore (more than 10 years later. sigh. see kids, you really might change your mind, and it might take a while.) the main thing is that i see all sorts of amazing handmade earrings that i would kill to wear and i can’t. anyway, i would theoretically like to have my ears fixed and i am so freaked out by plastic surgery, even though it is a minor procedure in that case, (insert puking noise here) it just freaks me out too much. and when i see it on tv even, it just…eeeeewwww! i don’t know if i could have stuff done or not. i imagine if i get really saggy and gross, you overcome it, but even when i know people that get things done and i look at them and think about it and foreign objects inplanted that you can’t take out or shots to paralize, or tissue from a cadaver or whatever, freaks me out. blech. blech. blech. okay. i am exhausted. enough babbling.

let me first apologize for my absence. it has been a wee bit busy and i actually went out every day this weekend (i think. maybe not friday. hm. not sure.) anyway, i got bras, not sexy ones, but ones that fit, don’t hurt and my boobs don’t fall out when i lean over, so that is a bonus. i am having such a time finding bras that fit me. le sigh. such a hard life. shutting up. also, i got some super cute brown linen pumas, and pajamas, the top will be worn as a shirt because it is cute but not cute without a bra, and i won’t wear a bra to bed, so. photos to come of that. what else? i went to joann’s to get some sewing supplies, nothing exciting. a new spring wreath with a bird, some nests and eggs…how cute is that. photos..i swear. and all of the scissors were half off, so i got gingher pinking shears and the stork embroidery scissor from them, too. sweet deal. the rest was just bias tape and such. oh and a magnetic pin holder thingy, because i get pins all over the place. and that thing is suuuuper magnetic. hardcore. oh, and we went to barne’s and nobles yesterday and i got the new craft magazine, which is good, as always, and the new blueprint magazine, where i saw this cool stick of stuff that you wet and cover your big white roots between hair appointments and so far it worked well. i am wondering if it will come off on stuff, but it says it comes off when you shampoo. my grays are super white, actually, which would be fine if they were in streaks and not randomly all over the place. it smells like an old lady, unfortunately. not sure why it needs to smell like anything, really.

i do have some new yarns, which i will list some of to-morrow, plus some other new stuff, soon, i promise…wanna see? first, i handpainted some wool felt and made more poppies, most of these are on pinbacks (aw crap! i meant to buy barrettes to put some on) i usually give the pins away with orders, they are rather large and have vintage buttons on em. i plan to do more. do you think i should sell handpainted felt sheets, or the poppies? here is the before…


i used the only 100% wool felt that i can get around here, and it isn’t terribly soft. it is fine for this, but i would like a smoother felt. anyone know where i can get white or cream pure wool felt in yardage? and not for a million bucks a yard, either. anyone?
and some yarn…
this one, i have more merino that i am selling from this batch…i spun in these pansies, sparkle and then these border leicester kid locks i dyed as greenery…pretty, no?

here is one of the braids…

this one has loads of irridescent glass czech beads plied in…

and this one is another that i have more braids of the fiber from this yarn. pretty. and easy to spin, too!

i also have some incredible batts with soy, merino and sparkle or bamboo, merino and sparkle that are incredible to spin. i actually spun it thin! wha? yes! sportweight probably. i need to skein it still. but i will put up some of the dreamy batts. the fiber is pretty expensive, but it is nicer than silk, in my opinion. nice.

i am hoping to just mess around with the sewing to-morrow. not sure what exactly, but maybe i will try one of the skirt patterns from the sew what! skirt book. i will be sure to keep you posted.

in luxe news, i was very flattered to have this amazing metion on domestik goddes! fancy, shmancy. if she fancies, i will send her some yarn to play around with. she says on the blog that newby knitters and crocheters might worry that their projects wouldn’t be good enough for art yarns, but ironically, simple knit or crochet stitches on big needles look fantastic in fancier yarns, because the yarn can do all the work for you. that was what i loved so much about them. you can look fancy whilst knowing nothing. and unlike a plainer yarn, it is rather exciting each stitch to see what will happen. weeee!

jake showed me this sheep horror movie. um. yeah. killer sheep. killer, dude!

so mr. pavel enjoys washing his paws in the cat waterer right after coming out of the litterbox. additionally, kahlo has a foam ball, or sometimes several, that she enjoys putting in the food and water dishes. if you remove them, a few minutes later, they are back in there. peeps does not tamper with the water, but responds to these behaviors by peeing or pooping somewhere inappopriate. also, kahlo will puke right outside of the litterbox or in it, and peeps also responds to that with the peeing and pooping…in further too much information, peeps has been having poops that are like rabbit pellets. i try to give her kitty laxative and it doesn’t help. i think. anyway, i put a water dish in our bedroom, thinking at the very least, it was further from the litterbox and shouldn’t get quite as much litter in it from pavel, who loves to splash around in water (i know, strange for a cat. he looooves water.) so the cats are drinking more water than i have ever seen them drink. i am wondering if they were not drinking water like they should have because of the gross water issue. i am hoping this will help with peeps’ hard poops. we find them all over the place. it is actually not nearly as bad as the pee, especially since they are like little rocks. poor peeps’ butt. okay, no more poo talk. any suggestions would be welcome, though. she is 12, so i dunno if age is an issue as well.

xo
n.