luxe

we had an okay weekend. jake left work way early in order to change his brakes, which he had done before (well, the rear ones and these were the front, which proved to be a different animal) anyway, he expected to be back in a couple of hours. i was up early having not slept, and had been doing spinning all day, so the time kind of went by. anyway, it ended up that he got home at 9p and still didn’t get the breaks fixed. i felt bad. he was so tired and annoyed and felt guilty for not spending time with me. i miss him when he is gone, but i got a lot of work done, so it really was fine. on a day that i feel okay, i am happy to do work. no biggie. i feel like i am the shite partner in this relationship, not he. he just has a lot to do. i understand. what else can you do? act like a jerk? i am not that sort. i know couples where the other is not allowed to do anything or go anywhere, whether it be to have a hobby or friends (which always disappear when you blow them off for many years) or to work on the car, i know people who are not so nice to their significant other. i have never really understood that. if jake only had 1 day off and he wanted to go play some blues with his friends, as long as he would have fun, i would want him to go. and he, me. we end up together most of the time, but i would like him to feel free to do whatever he wants to do. especially things he enjoys. he works so hard. he deserves to have some fun sometimes. anyway, as you can tell, i have been really paranoid that i am a bad, lame, boring wife/partner and just don’t do enough for him. for us. to keep things spicy and fun. i feel lazy. and selfish. when i feel well, i work on art or yarn stuff.

my studio is an explosion of all things art and fiber and desperately needs to be organized, but i don’t want to spend that little bit of time i have on cleaning up. i know that when the studio is clean, i like being in there more, but still, i can’t just pick up a bit at a time, i am easily overwhelmed and i can’t break things down. i see every detail. so. i need to. i have a sort of organising method in mind, i think it would work well. i also need to get rid of old clothes and i have some sewing to do. i need summer clothes, have lots of fabric and big tshirts to make into other things. so.

also, if anyone knows a local hairdresser that rocks, that knows how to do everything, that takes new classes all the time, that suggests new things and has a good sense of what looks good on who, let me know.

so, on friday, i got a lot of stuff done. lots of yarn. on saturday, i skeined up some yarn, some custom, and then went out and took photos of it, check out the flickr if you like. i have a couple more to do and i have a ton of fiber and yarn to list, plus my big electric carder from angela of material whirled will be coming tomorrow i hope, so that will rock. i hope to put it on a rolling cart that i use on the back deck to avoid making the house even more fiber covered. i am excited.

i have to get orders packed and one resent, etc, etc, etc. and potentially a very exciting thing to announce soon. i will keep you posted. as far as good news, i got accepted into a softie show called crammed organisms, there are several other people that got in that are excellent. i didn’t get into another one that i applied for and it bummed me out a bit. i don’t apply for shows ever, really, and that is something that i need to turn around. i have to do it. especially for my fine art pieces. i have to make myself do it. i also got invited to do what sounds like an amazing show in ireland, which i will keep you posted on. i am really excited about it. i just need to be organised to maximize the amount i get done, regardless of my energy. so.

i will be listing the mixed media collage/gouache pieces in my etsy shop soon. there is one in there now. i also will be listing some of the circle pieces, although a couple of them i have grown a deep attachment to, and will likely keep.

i also have some fantastic fiber charities that i want to tell you about, but i am not feeling so hot at the moment, so i will do that on the next post.

i have been paying for all the work and running around i did this weekend, which is okay. as long as i have something to pay for, rather than the sick sick sick with not cause.

here is some work i have had for a while. the amigurumi tree is new. i am planning to hone it a bit more and write up the easy pattern.

and the new yarns, one is organic brown cotton, gorgeously soft, veggie and fair trade, too! and the white one, is dye your own, it is uncarded bamboo and organic green cotton. so lovely.

oh, lastly, dunno if i mentioned it, but i would love to have some slipcovers made for my couch and two chairs. i don’t know anyone to ask. i would totally be happy to swap fiber or yarn for the sewing, or pay munny. anyone local interested, or know someone they can recommend?

xo
n.

heya peeps, can you even believe this weather? well, here in pa, anyway, it is gorgeous! my chives have come up already, the lemon balm and mint, too, which need to be torn out before they get huge. they tend to take over the garden. a lot. i am always excited to put on the overalls (oh wait, i already wear them a few days a week at least) and my gardening gloves (i know, i know, i wear gloves to garden but not to dye…bugs and rotten stuff…ew!)and my little yellow clogs and get busy. i love it. so fun. we have a strawberry patch that i planted a few years and we get zillions of berries now and they taste so intensely strawberrylicious. so good. and raspberries, which the birds love to eat. ah spring. sigh. i was talking to katrina last night about how fantastic spring is, and sleeping while it is raining, sitting outside on the porch in a thunderstorm…so surreal. again, sigh.

i got a ton of work done yesterday. i woke up really early due to pavel’s talks with the birdies (”hey birdie…birdie…hey birdie…”) and his launching himself onto the blinds at the shadow of the birds on the wire. such a nerdling.

i got a few skeins spun and plied, one with sparkly pompoms, one with tons of flowers, really really purdy. and fun. even after a really long day yesterday, i couldn’t sleep last night. i guess that i metabolize caffeine and such really slowly or something.

my younger brother josh is having some problems with his eyes, which is scary, if i lost my vision…i can’t even think about it. i would wither and die. anyway, he is a writer, his new graphic noveljust came out and is doing really well…my mom went to two places to get it, the first bookstore was sold out! and i imagine he is really freaked out. on the upside, he has a girlfriend that seems really great that takes good care of him and seems to keep him in line (wow!) although, i am sure no one thought that i would score anyone like jake who manages to keep me in some semblance of order. seriously. i was a bit out of control for um…most of my life. and not really in a good way. anyway. just wanted to let my brother know that i am thinking about him and i hope that we can keep better contact from now on. there aren’t so many fialkovs in america, you know. in fact, any fialkov you meet is probably related to us. anyway, congrats josh! this is one of many many things he has done. i guess we are all a bit obsessive about whatever it is we do. peeps is obsessive about peeing on everything and dropping nuggets, kahlo is obsessive about licking, pavel loves drinking out of the tap and saying “wawa”, jake is a musicoholic, i love to clean my ears and my cat’s ears…did i just say that out loud?

oh, also! i am going to be getting a sewing lesson from this crafty lady that lives kinda close by…and i told her that she could either pick out a sock yarn or dye a skein herself. i have a feeling she will be dyeing one herself. she already did a koolaid one and is a sockaholic, so she could really make the excuse that she would be saving money! that was how i got into making yarn. what a downward spiral eh?

i went to drop my packages off at the post office and of course i know all of the tellers (i have some favorities, too) and asked if i could get more of those plastic bins for sorting mail (um, yeah, that’s what i use em for…) anyway, i never have a bag big enough to hold everything and he gave me two gigantor bags literally big enough to put 3 of me inside of. i was so excited. they are ugly, but it works. and i got another plastic bin that i put dyed fiber braids in. that would make a nice photo, eh?

i haven’t knitted anything in a while. i don’t want it to just sit and it isn’t really scarf season, ya know? i made a wrap that is really fuzzy and pretty with big tassels. i might list it. it would be super for summer nights. i have been really uninspired to make anything. i do dyeing and spinning, but i haven’t felt terribly excited by much. not sure why.

i have stitch in my side. i have been having it a lot lately. it feels like an asthma attack coming, but doesn’t. it just hurts. odd, eh?

i will do a better post to-morrow. i swear.
xoxo
n.