luxe

so, last night, the cats continued to fight and the kitten and pavel ran back and forth across the bed and us and the hole in the patch again and then, etc, etc, etc. le sigh. needless to say, me no sleepy. also, i have been kind of forgetting to eat, other than when i first get up, so i wake up late and am so hungry that i feel like i will barf. i need to really try to eat every couple of hours. i know that i am chubby because i don’t eat enough, oddly enough. gaaaaah! it is so ironic that we spend so much time trying NOT to eat when the secret is to not eat processed crap and to eat whenever you are hungry. how did that get so hard to figure out?

i took a pep pill, had some coffee and got to work packing up orders and then spun and plied 4 bulky bobbins (i think…) wound some, and tonite, got one knitted up for a swap. weee! i am afraid to say it, but i think i am caught up. is that possible? seriously?

i have some presents to make still, but i have either swapped or bought handmade for everyone.

i should be ashamed to admit i watch the real world on mtv. crappy reality shows are a bit of an addiction, but more than anything, i am generally amazed at how nasty people are to each other and the mob mentality. i am sure you know i have whined about my miserable childhood experience with just that, to the point that everyone seemed like the same group of people, regardless of where we had moved to. on this episode, the faux blonde, frosty haired, low rise sweatpants and too short shirt wearing thinks that she is hot due to her frosty hair flipped out on a non-faux blonde haired girl and pushed her down, as well as saying horribly things to her and it literally just brought all of the bile back up to see no one get mad, no one defend her, just to watch and think it is kind of funny. i dunno. i just don’t understand that stuff. people are mean. and then everyone is mad at her for saying that the girl has to go home. like it isn’t your own fault if you get violent with someone. and also she felt the need to let everyone know that she is a really religious “christian”. i know, i know, hate the sin, not the sinner, but it is hard to get how someone considers themselves christlike and acts so so mean. gah. i guess i just relate with the non-faux blonde. did i mention, gah? on the upside, all of the guys hated her, too. they just don’t get involved.

sorry for the rant. sorry. photos to-morrow.
xo
n.

i haven’t slept yet. yesterday i woke up with a bad migraine. i had a hair appt and i had to go because i had missed my appt before that and my hairdresser must hate me. anyway, the florescent lights there and the fumes (i guess) always make me sick. by the time i am getting the actual cut, after the color, i am shaky and jittery and feel crummy. so i end up doing nothing else on days that i get my hair done, unless i do it later in the day and do other stuff earlier. when i got home i had the lupus chilly sweats and took a shower to defrost a bit. i also took some meds and by the time i got out i felt human again. i changed my pain patch. at around 11p, i notice that i feel all jacked up again like i did the other night when i had the hole in the friggin patch. guess what? another hole! so, i haven’t slept yet. izzy was running around on the bed non stop (she finally fell asleep) and the cats were fighting and i just was overmedicated and felt yucky. so. i got NOTHING done today other than checking emails and a couple of phone calls. i really needed to get orders packed up, but alas! did not. so that will be the goal today along with some spinning, some listing fibers and yarns, etc. i think i am going to just get out of bed and do work shortly because i don’t think i will sleep.

i got the new william gibson book, spook country which is fluff, but i always enjoy his stuff. i don’t read much fluff, but i give in to ole’ william. also, i got the dr. oz book on cd, you on a diet which is basically like an owner’s manual for your body and how to manage your weight, not diet. how to understand how things work rather than waging war against your body. i don’t eat a lot at all, in fact, i am known for my picking since i was a little one, and i think that might actually be making me gain weight. it is good so far.

coffee and miniwheats time…
yay!
xo
n.

so, here are some of the long awaited photos of fibers. i have more on flickr, and more not photographed yet. i have 2 xmas yarns and more coming. i have been so behind trying to get caught up on spinning for orders that i haven’t gotten to do any new stuff other than those two. i have one more yarn to do and then i am caught up. so!

last night i had yet another issue with the stupid pain patches i use. it is a clear plastic patch with sort of a pouch inside of it that holds an alcohol goo that contains that pain medicine. it goes through your skin and is supposed to be on for 3 days. 3 days, got it? i put the patch on in the evening and at around midnight, i had a bad headache, was nauseous and felt super tired and out of sorts. i also realize that my back feels damp where the patch is. i touch it and my shirt is wet there and i try to dry the patch thinking maybe water got under the adhesive when i showered and i realize that the goo is coming out. when i took the patch of several hours after putting it on, it was bone dry. i got 3 days worth of pain medicine in a few hours. needless to say, i felt really out of it this morning when i woke up and couldn’t get out of bed until later…2 pm. not to mention that my insurance pays a fortune for the stupid patches that regularly have malfunctions. gah.

off i go.
i hope to get photos of new knits and get em listed to-morrow.
xo
n.

i had another day of getting lots done and even getting groceries! can you believe it? i am almost caught up on the yarns for orders. i have some to skein up, two fancy ones to spin and ply and i think that gets me back to start some new ones.

i popped into joann’s looking for the teeny christmas garlands that have bulbs and candy and things on em to no avail. i actually walked back out and didn’t buy ANYTHING! and i even had coupons! go me! so, i went to walmart instead of the nice grocery store and target out of shear laziness. we don’t go there so often because the lighting makes me want to have a seizure and the fruit and things like that are not so good. however, they did have good teeny xmas thingies for the yarns, so that was cool. i am keeping them secret, but let me just tell you that i have some REALLY good things up my sleeve. i was looking for red pom-poms and couldn’t find any. what is that all about? i actually might make some for the yarns i am planning. i have cheap red yarn from the giant crocheted stripy sculpture i have sitting here beside the bed, unstuffed and sad (who else makes an adult human sized crocheted sculpture and doesn’t just put the stuffing in already? who? meeeeeeee! anyway, i am excited to get this stuff made.

also, i am excited to get photos of the new fibers i dyed up. really pretty. also, at the request of the yarn yenta, heatherly, i dyed some sam i am sock yarn and have two 4 oz skeins of fingering if anyone wants first dibs. it will be listed in the next day or so. i love the thing 1 colors in it. so good. thanks heather!

it has been unseasonably warm still, not crazy warm, but enough that you could wear a warm sweater and be comfy outside. it started raining a little while ago and i am sure you all know how much i love the sound of the rain. and the smell. so nice.

after i saw izzy’s littermates that one time, i have never seen them again. we have been putting cat food out on the porch and someone is eating it, but we have no idea who. there is a big fluffy black cat that i see in the backyard now and then that might be izzy papa, and a little cat that looks like pavel that i assume is her mama, but we don’t know. jake saw that cat come out from under our porch, but we could be feeding the neighbor’s cat or squirrels or rats. who knows? we put the food out anyway. after i saw the kittens eating out of the garbage, we put food out. jake is good enough to make sure there is always food in the dish and water. when i first found peeps and kahlo, they were eating garbage and it actually hasn’t gotten out of their system 13 years later. they still gobble up their food and eat practically anything, even if it makes them sick. i have noticed that pavel and izzy, who were both raised from bottle, are rather picky. they eat their food and that is mostly it. pavel adores peanut butter, though. so.

i am off to do a bit of work before i go to sleep. photos to-morrow, i promise. oh, and here are some gorgeous gift idea links…
how about going to the www.luxe.etsy.com shop and picking up this poppy snap neckywarmer?
a different kind of heart necklace pronounced neck-a-la-chay. hee.
felted laptop cozies! from fabulous-fabulous. so cute!
amy bengston’s rosewood jewelry…swooooon. i found her via trunkt.com
and also found via trunkt.org, imogene bunny necklace. i lub it. lub!

and i lub you, too! LUB!!
n.

i have blue/black grody fingernails. i did a bunch of dyeing, including some with fiber reactive dyes (i finally got the dye for your bamboo shannon!) although what was supposed to be teal, and i only used a teaspoon, looks navy. it isn’t rinsed yet, so fingers crossed. gah! i also found some “cotton” i got from little barn a while ago that i wasted 3 tubs of procion dye on, which literally just rinsed right out. why? well, because i think it is actually nylon. arseholes. i actually nearly tore my hair out over it, i couldn’t figure out what the issue was and dharma told me that it had to be treated or coated and that was why it wouldn’t take. or, it is not cotton. oh yeah, that is why i don’t order from them. anyway, i got some new colors, i tried most of them out, but had only rinsed out one roving and one bag of loose mohair (thanks chocolatte!), some ecru firestar (thanks barbe!) and some border leicester locks. i had some linen and hemp top from i dunno where that i dyed with the bamboo. i hate how it feels, so i am sure i will sell it. it is like rope. gross. so, i got all of that done today, plus a sam i am sock yarn at the yarn yentas request. cool! i will take photos and will be listing some loose fiber and some dyed top. there are some really gorgeous super saturated ones and some nice soft gentle colors, too.

i had an order from a regular that wanted more of an artyarn, except that i made it in a different batch, so it looked different and she was bummed. i actually need to make notes for myself so i know exactly what goes into certain things. i do remake lots of things at clients’ requests, or just sometimes because they are really popular. it is never just the same, though. i have several remakes to do this week. i relisted a few yarns that i have more of the fiber for, and of course all of them went at the same time, so i need to get them done and out in the next few days. not that i am complaining. i am happy to have business. i know things have been lean for a lot of people. everyone is broke.

after the dyeing, i worked on some of the softies i had halfway done. i hope to get them finished this week and they will probably have clothes, too! one of them is pink and cream striped birdie. the other is a kitty.

speaking of softies, i got the “plush you!” book which is fantastic. really a gorgeous book with some artists that i hadn’t heard of before. it is so good that i bought it twice. okay, i accidentally bought it twice. anyone who wants to swap me something for my brand new never read second copy?

i got a ton of spinning done today…about 6 hours worth and then getting some plying stuff cut, pulled apart and strung. i will probably be able to get the rest done to-morrow. i have had really bad cramps over the past week, but they come on suddenly like food poisoning. blech. i hate that stuff. anyway, i have been able to push through and get stuff done, so that is good. i have made some more neckwarmers, too.

i hope to load up new yarns and fibers, etc, to-morrow.
xo
n.

so firstly, update. nonstop, everyday new things added…birdies with hats (yes, really.), freeform crocheted jewelry, tons of scarves, neckywarmers and other wearables and yarn and fiber. yesterday i did my first holiday yarn of the season that has tiny christmas lights in it. i have to take photos to-morrow. super cute. really. so pop by and try to pop by every day if you have a moment to swoon. hee.

new season of project runway. ooooooooh. so excited. it seems like a higher quality of designers. it always cracks me up to see the 21 year olds that have that “it’s perfect!” way about them still. and then, a few years or 10 later, you are horrified that you not only cranked out really strange stuff (and not in a good way) but did it with obnoxious attitude. sigh. and then the slightly older people that are more of an artist and make really odd things that wouldn’t suit many people, but they love that about their clothes, but it makes most people hate them. those people never get hurt because they think that you just don’t get it. maybe that is best, really. so far, good. what say you?

in other news, jake got me (and himself) and early channukah/xmas pressie…a BIIIIIG ipod video! squuuueeeeeeee! i have had a 10G first generation ipod for ages. the battery doesn’t work, although i fairness, it has never broken and has worked forever. it is covered in paint and ink and is a mess, but it served me well. we have huge music collections in this house and i am unable to keep track of what we have and where it is because i had no room. so i got the biggest memory ipod and you can put photos on there and shows and whatever you like. so. awesome. i am on the lookout for a fun cover for it. any ideas? thanks jake!

my good etsy friend, ashley and i are doing some swapping for xmas gifts (okay, maybe some of it is for us, too.) and i am super excited. jake got two really cute new jackets, a black velvet blazer (he looks so gq in it!) and a olive green corduroy jacket with patches on the elbows…really swank, so anyway, he needed some cufflinks and i found these awesome ones in ashley’s store…lookie here…i have one of the pebble rings from her shop from a previous swap with an opal set in it (my birfstone) which i love, and she made me custom a wee love knot ring. so go…buy. her prices are really reasonable. and she is awesome.

i think that is about all for the mo.
xo
n.

that said, i listed some amigurumi birds, a bunch of knits and some yarn. i am planning to list more to-morrow.

i have actually had a productive week and it makes me feel like a real person! weeeeeeeee. i know i say it all the time, but if i had normal energy, i would be dangerous. i tend to avoid getting involved in things that require firm plans. i am paranoid that i will be sick when i need to be doing, making, etc. it bums me out. there are so many things i would love to do, but i know that you can’t ditch out on things. when i have a few days of feeling good, i get all excited, i think maybe i am okay now. maybe i just thought i was sick. and then the anvil drops on my head, and i remember. so i guess the trick is to use every moment that i have, and to be in that moment as much as i can. when i feel crummy, i try to work on projects in bed. sometimes i feel to crummy to do anything. i don’t go online. i don’t talk on the phone. i don’t do anything. thankfully, it is only a few days a month that i am too sick to even knit or crochet. making things helps me to feel like i did something of value.

i have gotten mostly caught up with work. i have more to list and i really need to find someone that can fix my website. since the zencart update, i can’t do anything on there at all. if anyone knows someone, let me know. my friend that set it up for me has a real job and a lady and is busy, so i feel bad asking him to try to open up the can of worms. i hope i don’t need to get a new site designed. i need to find someone to do it for me first, really. jeebus. i got poppy pins made, stitchmarkers made (they go in as the freebie with yarn orders), got some yarns spun up, packed up orders. now i just need to get the studio organized and cleaned up, and the bedroom, also. wanna see some of the new stuff i have made? this one is “sam i am”…

i am incredibly sleepy, i haven’t been able to sleep lately, so i best get going. i am literally 2 months behind on blogreading, so please forgive me. i feel bad about it, and the further behind i get, the worse it is. i have lots of crocheted jewelry that needs to be listing and more to come. it is fun, you can use small hooks but not take forever to amek it. and that rocks. i also ordered a few more dye colors and fiber reactive dyes for the bamboo i am dyeing for shannon’s new book. so. i hope to do some dyeing this week if i can.

i smelled the paris hilton fragrance “can-can” and it smells awesome. like candy. actually all of them are not bad. i told jake they should be nice. she has been raised on the best of everything. she should know what smells nice. i may yet get that one, it is so good. and the new escada smells like grapefruit candy. i have their one from last summer and it smells like candy, and i tend to lean towards fruity scents, never floral. most things give me a headache, foody frangrances not so much. blah blah blah.

oh, here is a photo i took of myself getting a migraine. jake thought it was an excellent representation of it. i am not exactly sure why i look like i have on lipstick. hm.tell me what you think…

leave me some comments so i know i didn’t lose ya. oh, tons of new photos on my flickr, so buzz by…okay? i’ve missed you.

MWAH.
n.

first and foremost, this is way late…jakie’s birthday was the 10th, but i want to just give a say a few words about my best friend in the world. i have known jake for more than 10 years. actually, since i was 21, so 14 years (woah!). we have been friends for all of that time, and for much of it, pretty close friends. jakie is a few years younger than me and when i first met him, he was only 18 and a bit wet behind the ears. i didn’t see him as anything more than a friend (and i think the same applied to me) but he was incredibly earnest and kind, generous to a fault, open-minded and starving to know about everything. flip forward many years and i have gotten out a long term horrible relationship, as has he and we go out for dinner. hehas grown up. he is smokin’ hot rather than just smokin’ cool. he is relentlessly sweet, never pushy, always in a good mood and seems to really really like me (although even still i am not exactly sure why). we started hanging out and i have spoken to him (if not seen him) every single day since then. i think that was about 6 years ago. maybe 7.

i cannot even express how he makes me feel. i never felt safe in my life…not until jake. he always just seems like he knows what the plan is. he has helped me to just feel like there is always an answer and that everything is okay, no matter what. he sees me in a way that no one else does. somehow, the lumps and bumps make me better. he is the first person in all of my life that i know would never betray me, would never stop loving me, would never stop liking me. i have never had that. i know how precious that is. i know how precious he is.

jake has no clue how amazing he is. when i get comments on the photos of him online about how cute he is, he tells me that people are just trying to be nice. we all know that you guys are nice, but not that nice. he is incredibly smart. he taught himself trigonometry. seriously. who does that? despite going to a christian school with no exposure to literature, he is really well-read. despite not being allowed to listen to music, he has an insane knowledge of music and a passion that rivals his knowledge. he is a fantastic musician and has a voice like an angel. he is incredibly neat (sadly, i am a pig) and does the housework and often the laundry and never bitches at me for being lazy or a slob. he loves the cats, even peeps, despite the fact that she pees all over the house. when i brought pavel home (newborn, no less) he took him in his arms and cradled him against his neck and that was it. no questions asked. he bottle fed him and pooped him and loved him. when i heard izzy crying in the middle of the night from up the street and brought her into the bedroom, he sat bolt upright from a dead sleep and said “where’s the kitten?”. he took care of her like his own baby, and here she is, big and strong, and loves papa more than me. i can’t blame her. he will pretend not to want the last piece of cake, even if he really wants it. he has driven me around in the middle of the night when i get the heebie jeebies until i fall asleep. he rubs my neck. he makes me toast with butter and vegimite. he has taken me home from a show that hasn’t even started yet because i felt sick and managed to act like he didn’t want to go anyway. he tells me he loves me every time we get off of the phone and before he goes to sleep. and he kisses me goodnight. he has soft, full lips. he has legs like a showgirl. he tells me he loves me in his sleep…”mmmm ii lllove youuu, babbeeee…”. sometimes he chuckles in his sleep. he loves to cuddle. even in his sleep. he loves the cats to cuddle with him, and he usually has at least one (pavel) with him, the others jockey for position.

i never imagined i would be married. i never wanted to get married. until i was with jake. i certainly never imagined that the words husband and sexy could go together. they do. then, i couldn’t imagine NOT being married. i love you jake. this post is the tip of the iceberg. i don’t tell you enough how much i love and appreciate you. i know that you know it, but still.

happy birthday baby. i love you.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo