luxe

we recently changed the cat’s food to an organic one after the pet food scare. we don’t do soft food, but the expensive dry food we gave them was on the list and i was pretty pissed off about it. you spend a ton of money to get your pets the best food that you can and it turns out to be the same as the crap food from the grocery store. anyway, as you probably know, ms. peeps likes to pee on the floor (and drop nuggets when the mood strikes her) and whilst cleaning it up, i realized it had a pink tinge to it and started freaking out, being a professional UTI/kidney infection host (the have parties in my nether regions…goddamn mooches.), but it didn’t seem to be hurting her to pee. anyway, my mom, who is staying with us this week (now you know why i haven’t blogged) suggested that maybe something different was in their new food and i look at the label and it has ground beet pulp. when i looked at peeps’ peep, i see that it appears stained (crazy? yes, i looked) and i know that if you eat anything with beets in it, it even stains your intestines and stuff. i am thinking that is what is going on. odd.

what else? i have done loads of felt flowers for barrettes and pins, although this time i have been using seed beads in semi abstract patterns and they look really pretty. i may add some for a yarn on the side, or list them to add to whatever you fancy. so purdy. i did some more sock yarns, one for a pair of socks for my dad, i need to skein em. shortly. i hate having no knitting to work on.

we will be leaving on friday for a week to the beach (yay!) so i am not sure if i will be able to check emails or not.

more later!
xo
n.

i have been such a bad blogger lately, i just don’t have the energy and of course i am super behind on ready all of your blogs (i have close to 200!) and they get out of hand quickly. i hate it. it makes me feel guilty, as stupid as i know that is. it is really hard to decide if i should try to catch up on blogs or draw, read, etc, etc, etc. mainly, i have had lots of headaches and have been just pushing to get as much done as i can and i feel a bit like i am just treading water. you know?

i have been having lots of nightmares, like usual, i don’t understand them because they are so complex. they tend to be set on college campuses, sometimes i am taking classes, sometimes it is just there. several dreams have had fish in them which were cut off at the tail, but were not killed. no idea what that means. and almost always, i am being chased and attacked or threatened and am often attempting to protect another person or animal. sigh.

i was sketching one night and kept falling asleep, and kind of woke up and wrote down what i was dreaming, my writing is so bad that it is hard to read:

all of my
old clothes
cried out to
me-all the different
faceless me’s
w/their different
cute (?) self(?) & hairstyles
drowning (?) ?????
like the
one in the patternless fashions

and then a really odd scribbly drawing of two people. um. no clue. but i do remember sort of seeing all the different versions of myself over the years all together. in the book patternless fashions, which was originally written in china, there are fantastic illustrations fromt hat time with faceless people with cute clothes and hairstyles, so i assume that is what i was talking about? dunno.

jake had some sort of 24 hour flu yesterday and i think i had sympathy flu. i kept falling asleep throughout the day, but really asleep, not just a nap. poor jake felt sick when he got up at 3a and went to work anyway and came home at 8 am and was either in the bathroom (powdering his nose, hee.) or totally conked out and coverd in sweat or goosebumps. he is the type of person that eats every hour or two or gets, as i call it, “hangry” which is angry and hungry, although the low blood sugar makes him feel legitimately angry. you know? so he was very dizzy as well, which may have been from the flu or lack of eating. he normally has a rather healthy, ruddy complexion and was literally green. he always has very red lips and they were pale. it is odd to see him sick because he never gets sick. anyway, pavel wanted to cuddle with his papa and take care of him, which is extra sweet because he is not that way. wanna see?

poor boy.

otherwise, i have done a good bit of spinning and dyeing. i really need to finish some mixed media boxes and other things. i feel very annoyed with myself that i haven’t made the time. here is some of what i have been working on…

i have some lovely yarns i need to take photos of, as well. i have been dyeing felt, which will be for sale. the deeper colored ones are 100% wool felt, and the rest is wool and rayon blend, which feels much nicer and looks rather pretty, i must say. i will be listing some soon. so pretty. and i realized really quickly that it is impossible to find unusual colors of felt that is of any kind of quality and ti get handdyed felt…forget it. i keep meaning to make felt myself, but with my energy issues, it just doesn’t seem realistic.

my mom will be in town for a few days, coming in to-morrow. i hope to get work done this week regardless becase we are leaving this coming weekend for the beach. wooo hoooo!

okay, i am getting super sleepy.
xo
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