luxe

so, peeps has been incredibly constipated for quite some time now. we have been making her eat laxatone (kitty intestine lube) that wasn’t helping and her tummy was so bloated and hard that she would let me massage it, which would sometimes help a bit, but as of yesterday, it was just huge. we took her to the vet and she got antibiotics for the scab on her face that won’t heal, plus ointment, if it doesn’t heal, she probably has a tooth abcess and will need dental work done, which is bad because although she looks great and runs around a lot, she is 13 or 14 and has a heart murmur. he said he would put her on a heart monitor and use gas, anyway, but still, it scares me. nextly, she got a belly x-ray and as i though, she was super blocked up. i wish i got a photo of it. she was backed up, like pebbles, as far up as you could see. so. we had to give her a kitty enema, and then, she is super fluffy, so we had to clean up her bum region and down her legs because she was all yucky. the best part? we have to do it again to-morrow. gah! poor peeps. it did get her tummy moving, but she was really upset and clearly felt horrible and sore. we kept her in the bathroom for a few hours, and she ate (she is permanently on soft food, due to the tummy issues. plus the laxatone in the gullet every day)when she came out and guzzled water and then barfed up a bunch of bile and water. she is keeping to herself, but her belly already feels deflated and back to her petite self, but i know there is more poo up there that will have to come out to-morrow. i am so not looking forward to the enema. it was called a “pet-ema” how wrong is that? it is a two person procedure and it just sucks. suck. anyway, send peeps and her ailing bum some well-wishes.

otherwise, not much. we spent a fair amount of time in the bathroom with her, or trying to clean her up, to her chagrin, but ya know.

anyway, i hope to get photos taken of some new things to-morrow.
mwah
n.

famous last words. i had the super sore throat, which is better. i am a bit hoarse, though. i have a fever and feel really tired now. i got up to do some spinning and then after doing the single, was covered in sweat, do i decided to chill out at that point. so. oh, and cramps. my uterus is a renagade. it always has been a bad seed. there is no talking to her.

yesterday i got a good bit done. packed some orders which jakie took to the post office for me and realized that i was missing some of the things i needed for orders. one of which had been dyed on saffron fiber and it didn’t dye all the way through. so whilst the roving looked bright, spun up, it would look kind of gray, pretty, but not anything like the roving. so i redyed another, which came out green on the yellow, which i wasn’t surprised by, it just didn’t do that before. gah. anyway! i also redyed a berry one because the photo was of another in the batch that looked totally different. i will probably send both, but the second came out sooooo pretty. i want it.

i listed a BUNCH of stuff on www.luxe.etsy.com…and there is more to come in the next few days, too. i listed some sock yarns that are at reduced prices, too.

most things are small batch or the last of a small batch, so don’t wait. kay?

for anyone getting xmas gifts from me, i am way behind on packing and sending. we are going to visit my family in iowa after xmas, so it will go out after we get back in january. and then it is a whole new thing, yeah? yeah! that sounds good, right? some people, katrino and ms. chocolatte are OWED from way back plus xmas. i don’t forget. i just take a while. i think the longer you wait, the more stuff you get though. from me, anyway. like, interest, yeah?

i have the flu. from whence did it come? dunno. i have a sore throat, earache, sinus pain and feel achy. jake went to get me cough drops, etc, after work and everyone was sold out of everything that wasn’t cherry (i don’t eat cherry flavored anything. gross.) he did end up finding some for me after going to several different places. he is too good. i wouldn’t have gone that far. i really wouldn’t have.

i am in search of a small gift for my dad and older bro for hannukah (when we go to visit in iowa right after xmas), as well as something for his twin boys who are toddlers. any suggestions? my brother is into the finer things in life, and my dad is really into classical music (lots of kinds, actually) and classic art (not modern) and is the kind of person that seems to know everything. literally. if he watches jeopardy, he knows every answer. he enjoys crispy treats and nuts, although he is not supposed to eat them (who is?) and my parents both drink tea a lot, although only bagged tea, and in a mug. ideas?

whilst catching up on blogs, i found some good links for holiday ideas…a wreath made out of succulents…from crafster a recipe for different kinds of latkes…latke redux how to make this
the most gorgeous trays evah! i would hang it on the wall, like i do with my plate collection. also from curiosity shoppe, dish decals! that are safe in the dishwasher. they are a steal at only 6 bucks for a whole sheet, so you can make cool mugs, dishes, whatever you like. a cool gift idea, too! the online store has so many cool things, including artwork by my bloggy pal lisa s.!

xo
n.

this is night 3 no sleepity sleep. oooh yeah. i have gotten lots of reading done, though. so that is something. i started taking one of my old medications for when my arms and legs start to really really hurt and it helps for a little while. during that little while (about 5 hours) i have been getting lots of work done, have my to-do list so that i am more on top of what i need to do and don’t forget everything, like i usually do. i carry the luxe notebook back and forth between the studio and the computer so i always make note of what is what. special note for ms amanda…i respun the yarn that you never got and posted a link in a convo on etsy, so go look and see if it is okay for ya.

that said, i have gotten caught up on packing orders and getting them out. i have a few swaps and xmas things for online peeps that i need to get finished and sent, but otherwise, i am caught up. so that makes me feel better. wanna see some of what i have made?

anyone interested, let me know, otherwise, they will be listed to-morrow on www.luxe.etsy.com, okay?

so has anyone been watching kid nation? anyone that hasn’t…man, it is such a cool show. some of those kids are just amazing. so smart, so funny…and you can just tell that they will really be something. mainly because they are 8 and are already so smart and confident and adorable. the idea behind this reality show is that they take 40 kids between the ages of 7 and 15 to live for 40 days in a deserted ghost town and try to make it work. they have no modern conveniences and have to live like the prospectors would have lived. it is rather impressive.

i am off to shower.
xo
n.

first, i added some new yarns to the www.luxe.etsy.com site and i am needing to take photos (among other things) of several other really swank ones and knits that i haven’t gotten up yet. gah. i am behind on everything and then i sit and stress about it because i don’t feel well enough to do the stuff and people need their orders and….gaaaaaaah!

i haven’t taken the car to get the broken windshield wiper fixed yet and it has snowed or rained everday so i haven’t been able to drive to the post office. not that i have felt well enough. i am exhausted and headachy and have had some fibromyalgia issues (i assume) that makes everything hurt and my limbs and extremities feel like i am on a bed of nails. and crampy. the bed of nails is a new thing. i haven’t been sleeping (again) and i think that is making things worse.

when i sleep…nightmares. like usual. last night, i had this nightmare that had these large mice that i was feeding and playing with and then they turned into these zombie things and then i realized that the cats were there, and had been exposed to who knows what from the mice and then kahlo was missing and i saw her running in a creek outside and then she transformed into a big cat and then a wolf (lupus?) and then into a man who turned and started shooting with a machine gun at everyone. there was actually way more to the dream, but i shook myself awake and lay in bed and read. i knew that if i got up, it would be worse, but i should have. then i had a bout of the heebie jeebies when i changed my patch and got paranoid that it would be all day. the skin crawling hot and cold sweats are more than i can handle. after a shower and bath (all by noon!) i felt okay to just sit in bed and read, but the pain was back and everything was so cramped up that i couldn’t really do anything. so then i get upset and stressy that my customers will hate me. i hate having to make excuses. they sound like excuses. ya know? i hate it. i hate complaining. i hate all of it. and then, one morning i wake up and feel kind of normal and can do stuff and i realize that i really am not lazy. i really don’t want to sit in bed all day in pajamas and no bra because i can’t stand anything squishing me. sorry for the moaning. waa waa.

anyway, i have high hopes for to-morrow. bigtime! off to do some catch-up knitting.

xo
n.

izzy fetches! i dunno how i just figured this out, she would bring me stuff all the time and i never thought to throw it for her. she just keeps bringing her hairties right back to me. i had another cat that also fetched, but she just looooves it. and she has more energy than 100 kittens, so this is a great discovery. my arm tires before she does. cute girl.

so in the news, yesterday, i went to the drugstore and my windshield wipers were frozen. i got everything defrosted and the wiper on the driver’s side doesn’t work. i didn’t have gloves on and it has been below freezing so i was out there swearing. if it weren’t for jake, i probably wouldn’t have even had a scraper. anyway, i ran to the store and wanted to stop a couple of other places but was afraid it would start snowing, even a bit, which would be really really bad since i had no wiper on my side. gah. and then today, it snowed all day and was freezing cold and there were all kinds of really bad accidents on the news, so i couldn’t go to the post office. i am really glad that jake is out of town this week. i get really freaked out when he has to drive to work when the roads are like this. and tonite the temps will be in the teens. so.

i have done a ton of spinning this week. i did some really cool ones today, too and one of them snapped whilst i was spinning it and lost the end into oblivion. any of you spinners had that happen? gaaaaah! i actually got up and left it when i was trying to skein that one. the worst part is it is this stupid pom pom yarn that i wasn’t going to ply and then decided it was to blah as a single and now i trashed half of it probably. and it took me forever. stupid. i had a bad migraine last night and actually showered, turned everything off and just lay in the dark, which is so not me, not matter what, and i woke up feeling hung over and crazy. i did about 6 hours of spinning even though i felt really crummy, but i feel really good about the fact that i have been pushing myself. i plan to tag and list some things tonite, too, and then photos to-morrow.

in the past few days, i keep reading and seeing and hearing things about being and doing what you want to be doing and being. from everywhere. i feel like someone is trying to tell me something. i have been really trying to figure out what i can do. there is this big give and take with my health that when i push, it pushes back. sometimes i am not sure when i am giving up too easily or if i am being smart. but in the end, am i really going to be glad that i took a break on this day or didn’t do this, you know?

i have always been amazed at anyone that can do one kind of work for their whole life. for example, someone that only makes yarn. i think that my flakiness in this regard is one of my worst attributes. i want to do everything. i want to know how. i want to be good at everything. no one is. the whole jack of all trades master of none, yet when i am too tired to be producing anything other than fiber, i feel guilty. i know it is stupid, but i have always been that way. there was a time in my life that i really did do it all. i was in bands, in school with a course overload, working full-time and then after that volunteering at multiple places at once. i start to get manic and not sleep when all of that happens. i get excitable and just can’t sleep and i end up getting really sick, and my body says “when”. even still, i don’t learn from it, i just feel guilty and less than what i should be. and that is just as bad as not doing what you could be doing. so what i am asking, i guess, is how do you know where your limits are? i always assumed that i would be able to get my MFA. i realized quickly that my health makes scheduling impossible. that broke my heart. but is it really a cop out?

so here is what it really is. i have to push as much as i can without pushing myself right over. i need to be more like little izzy…she lives in kitten glee and runs until she can’t. and the conks out.

i spoke to someone that had grown up in the same place forever and stayed because of kids and family, etc. some family members passed away and she realized that she didn’t have forever to be somewhere that she didn’t want to be. so she and her family moved across the country. i would love to do that. i know that for both jake and i, living in an area that you have lots of stuff going on and lots of people around is inspiring. and even more, i wish we lived somewhere warmer. this shite is utter misery. i haaaaate it. anyway. food for thought. i just need to make a plan for life, or rather lists of things we want to do and start working on it. time flies by so much faster every single year. it really does.

okay, off to tag some yarns and list em. go over the www.luxe.etsy.com site to check em out…

xoxo
n.

so, new yarns going up on the www.luxe.etsy.com site here, plus more. i used my ott-lite for these photos because it looks like twilight all the time here, and they are a bit washed out. the colors are a bit nicer in person. ah well. i also have the xmas yarns to list and some new knitted gear. i need to get my act together. get on it, girl!

jakie is in california for business so i am on my own here, eating really poorly, at random times…woooot! somehow that is my favorite part. otherwise, i miss him. oh wait, i also enjoy doing knitting on the bed with a whole bunch of bags and stuff all over the bed. i have gotten a decent amount of work done, though, although i can’t get myself to go to the drugstore because it is cold and snowy out. dunno about that.

i ordered a faux snow leopard coat and just got it today, it is surprisingly nice quality, but being a short person (5′2ish), i am not sure if it is too much. if i do keep it, i will get the sleeves shortened. they are that kind that you are supposed to roll over, which i don’t like too much. i will probably post a photo of it on and see what the public opinion is. it would be warm, for sure. i reckon that fur coats, or their faux cousins are not really meant to be slimming.

i also got some gorgeous loose fiber that i ordered from frenecreek. i have ordered loose fiber from some of her competition and it was disgusting. literally, i gave it away. it smelled, it had straw and burrs and crap (literally) in it. it was cheap, but clearly, cheap for a reason. i am going to try stuff from them again (i am sure i will regret it), but again, i got this other stuff today from frenecreek and i squealed. and i am a total fiber snob. what did i get? a bunch of kid locks that i hope to dye up to-morrow, some fuschia targhee pencil roving that has peacock fronds processed right in…so nice. targhee is similar to merino, it is really soft and spongy and yummy. one of my absolute faves. i also got some natural cream polypay roving that is niiiiice and a batt from her gigantor pat green carder that is like 4 or more of my batts. it is merino and silk and some firestar. oooooh. so nice. by the time i checked the mail, i had already done several hours of spinning and skeining and taking photos and my back hurt. gah!

and lastly, i had ordered some things from sproutjewelry.net, an etsy shop (not to be confused with sproutstudio, which is equally lovely…and i was just blown away by all of it. i got one for myself that is even cooler in person than online…thissee and then i got this for a sister in law, although i am not so sure she will like it so it might be for peeps. okay, for me. we will see. i will order another, if she does like it. and then this for my brother jon’s wife. she is really petite and delicate and i can totally see this on her.

i need to do some knitting for some more gifts, i also need to either buy or make some opera length gloves to go with the 3/4 length sleeve coat jake got me a little while ago. i haven’t worn it yet for that reason. tj maxx and marshall’s both usually have really nice gloves for not so much. so.

i am blown away by the horrible flooding in the northwest. i hate saying this, but i imagine that fima will get on that much faster than they did in the south. the middle class and higher can’t be ignored. i hope i don’t get slammed for saying that, but still. it really seems like whoever is in charge of all this flooding is trying to tell us something. scary.

georgie bush is on the news and i can’t believe he is the president. i can’t believe he is in charge of anything. nothing has changed he says. he says he warned us that iran is dangerous. sigh. that is all he can say? gah. i think he has been saying the same thing for years and years, regardless of if anything changes or not. so odd.

i best go to the drugstore because it is supposed to really snow to-morrow and i need the migraine meds. but i don’t wannnnnaaaa! i don’t wannnaa! for those of you living in the warm places…i shake my fist at you!

smooochies,
n.

so here are some of the cool things i found lately on etsy. go and buy handmade goods people! and of course, my shop, too. go! now!

i spent the day doing yarn prep once i finally got up. i have been battling headaches and bad patches (an entire box of em was bad and holey) and i was up all night with a headache. so. i did get some new crocheted things for the shop ready, orders packed and the aforementioned yarn prep. hopefully i will have a bit of time to get some spinning done to-morrow, but we will see.

we watched alpha dog today, which got great reviews and it kinda sucks. the bulk of the acting is really poor. the story is really sad, but…

xo
n.