Change is good.

Blue jean rugs.
With orders done, and the Christmas open house over, I am weaving blue jean rugs.

I have decided to try something different. I usually take pictures of every blue jean rug I make, then put it on my web site. But a blue jean rug is a blue jean rug. They are all vaguely different, but mostly the same.
So I am going to put one of each size on my web site, and the customer can choose from a 2'x3', a 28"x48", or a 30"x60". Then I will try to weave a stack of each, and not spend time taking pictures of almost identical rugs, and putting them on and taking them off my web site.

And I am thinking that might work for the sock rugs, as well. Making life simpler, isn't that a good idea??

I was eating my lunch today, glanced out the window, and saw a pileated woodpecker. Same tree I saw him on a few weeks ago. I bolted out the door, camera in hand, grabbed my zoom lens from the car, and ran through the snow around the side of the house.
I looked in vain, he was gone.
This is NOT my picture. I wish it were.
Here are a few miscellaneous facts about this awesome bird.

• The Pileated Woodpecker was the model for the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker.
• The pileated woodpecker is also regionally known as the "Indian rooster" or the "Rain crow".
• The roost of a Pileated Woodpecker usually has multiple entrance holes.
• The sound that a Pileated Woodpecker makes when boring a hole in a tree is so loud that it can be heard over long distances.
• Pileated Woodpeckers make such large holes in dead trees that sometimes the holes can cause a small tree to break in half.
• Pileated Woodpeckers have been observed to move their eggs which have fallen off the nest to another site. This is a rare habit in other birds.

I am not done with my Christmas shopping. I don't have a good plan. I get tired just thinking about it.
Does that ring a bell with anyone??

And I desperately need some time off, even a day. It seems a simple thing, right? I can just take the time, right?
Then what stops me.
That, my friends, is the question.

Wham Bam

Thank you, Tammy!!!!!
I had an order that had to get done by Christmas. I had the loom ready, the fabric cut, and I just needed a partner.
Tammy had today off from her regular job, so she came over.

We wove a 6'x 8' rug, hemmed it, packed it, and it will be on its way to British Columbia on Monday. We were slammin'.



Tomorrow I will finish up the last red scarf, I think it might be my favorite.



I love color, but texture moves me, too.




Thanks to Hilary, over at The Smitten Image, for her comment about the hawk, and what it means to see one.


"Hawks are visionaries and messengers. As a totem they help to open the higher chakras so that we may hear and see the visions and messages that Spirit and the Universe are always sending our way. There is never a moment when the Universe is not trying to get a message through to us but we are so often too busy or unaware of what it is we need to be watching for! Hawk helps us to not only be aware that we are receiving a message but how to interpret them. The realm of symbols is also the realm of Hawk for Hawk is able to soar high above the earth to soar on the breath of Spirit, to commune with Spirit and thus understand through the intuitive level what the message means and with their keen eyesight, how to implement it once they return to earth through seeing the broader picture below.
Many of the messages Hawk may bring are about freeing yourself of thoughts and beliefs that are limiting your ability to soar above your life and gain a greater perspective."

That is what I want, a greater perspective. I want to soar.
Have you ever dreamt that you were flying? I always love those dreams.

What I really want to do is fly away from all this cold weather. Somewhere warm and sunny. I can't weave next to the pellet stove for 4 months, can I???

I think it's winter.

This morning, I decided to take a little ride. So I left the loom, and headed out into the cold.
I drove a couple of miles behind the studio. It was cold, brutally cold.



Seems like we were just enjoying a rather warm, uneventful November, and the wind brought all this, with a vengeance. It is 18 degrees here today, but the weatherman says it feels like 6 degrees.



Even though it has seen better days, this is a gorgeous old barn.



I have been thinking again about holding onto anger and resentment, as opposed to letting it go. It is especially difficult, when as a family, you hold on to the resentment together.
Today, I questioned that again.




As I ventured further down the road, I caught sight of this.



I pulled over, and got out.
I saw him, and he saw me.

He decided to give me a show.
Can you imagine, I am snapping as fast as my fingers can go.



Don't think for a minute that I knew what I was doing. I was just trying to follow him, and as luck would have it, I had my zoon lens on.



At first I thought maybe I had frightened him, and he was trying to get away.
But then.......

he came back.



Ah, there's that red tail.




I think someone is having a good time.



I left reluctantly, with my hands about frozen to my camera, and as I drove away, I thought wouldn't it be nice if resentment could glide away so smoothly.
I need to work on that one.

Back at the studio, my hands warmed up, and I took pictures of scarves to put on my web site. Just in time for Christmas!!! Click HERE go check them out.

Ready or not.

But I AM ready. Toika warped for a 6' wide rug. Tammy is coming on Saturday, and the weekend is booked. With any luck, this 6'x8' rug will get finished over the weekend, and be on its way to British Columbia by Monday afternoon. Just in time for Christmas.


It was cold and nasty outside this morning. There was 6-8" of fresh snow, and the roads were slick. I took my time driving to the studio, didn't want to end up in the ditch like several other cars I saw on the way.
When I get to the studio, the first thing I do is turn up the heat.



Part of getting the Toika ready involved adjusting all the tie ups to improve the shed, which requires me to take this achy old body under the loom. I know, I know, countermarche looms are just wonderful.....blah, blah, blah. They are painful, that's what they are.
And no, the cats do not mind me swearing out loud.



Then I moved on to another loom, put a new warp on, and got most of this cranberry table runner done. I loosened it up before I left, and I am letting it rest before I measure it tomorrow.
That, dear friends, concludes the orders that I will finish before Christmas. I am drawing the line.
No more until January. There. That was easy.

I have Christmas shopping to do, and I want to make more scarves. I am into them. I have some beautiful silky, red thread that I am dying to weave up. It is the end of the year, I want to finish it weaving according to my whimsy, and not according to anybody's deadlines, not even my own.

When I left for home tonight, it was getting dark. I went to the mailbox on my way out the driveway. In it, there was a check. A nice check, and nicer because I didn't expect it. It took me a minute to realize what it was for.
Back in the spring, a shop that I sell rugs to asked me if they could take a couple of bigger rugs, without paying for them, to just see if there was any interest.
I agreed, wondering if I was making a good decision or not.
I tend to trust people until they give me a reason not to. Sometimes that works out, and sometimes not. You can imagine.
I thought about the rugs a couple of months ago, and questioned my judgement, again.

But it worked out, and it WAS a good decision after all.
Who knew?
I love nice surprises.

Let them eat cake without plastic

I think Jinx is taking her inspection to new heights........I was printing the UPS label right behind her at the computer, and she jumped in the box.




Tomorrow is my mother's birthday, she will be 85. Since we are expecting an ice storm, we decided to have a little family party for her tonight.
So I stopped to get a cake mix, so I could whip up her favorite dessert, a strawberry decadence cake. I bought an aluminum cake pan while I was in the supermarket, one with a plastic cover, which I thought would be good to transport the cake back home.
My plan was to bake the cake, thaw the strawberries, and put the dessert together at the studio, in between threading the 7 ft loom.




But when the cake was done, it looked deformed. It was huge on one side, and nonexistent on the other.
Then I saw it.
A piece of plastic.




So I flipped the cake over, and saw that the entire bottom of the cake was covered with melted plastic.
Yup.
I poured the cake mix into the inverted plastic top that the pan came with.
Oh, dear.




So I went to the store, again, and started over.

My husband made lasagna for dinner, two huge pans. One with meat, one with spinach. They were awesome. We had salad, and two loaves of Villa's bread.



My mother decided that since she won't be 85 until tomorrow, today she should celebrate her last day of being 84.
Some people think that's pretty funny.




And the cake turned out OK after all.




Happy Birthday, Mom.

Peace and quiet.

Early Sunday morning on my street. It is quiet, and looks like it should be on a Christmas card.
I still don't like winter.



But I took my cuppa tea, and drove the 8 miles to Kingsbury.
My house awaits.


Surrounded by fields and farmland. Can you tell I love it?? This little hamlet of Kingsbury somehow touches me deeply.



Just enough snow to cover everything, and not enough to be a problem.
Perfect.



My driveway doesn't even need to be plowed. This old apple tree is hanging on, even though parts of it have crashed to the ground in summer storms.




So today was the third and last day of the Christmas in the Country tour. It was a quieter day, but I still made some nice sales. And in between flurries of customers, I had a chance to do some fabric prep for my next order.
The cats continued to be the stars of the show. They purred and they preened, and they were perfectly behaved.
But I think towards the end of the day, they were getting tired, as was I.



"Is it over yet?"

Yes, Sydney, it is over until next year. Now I have two orders to finish for Christmas, and tomorrow will be business as usual.
The quiet will be totally welcome.

Yum yum More Crow.

Today was day 2 of the Christmas tour, and I had some help.
I always appreciate someone working the register, so I can demonstrate weaving, and answer peoples' questions. Sometimes, people I know stop by, and it is nice to be free to chat with them.

You know how Walmart has a greeter????
Well, my greeter likes to LAY DOWN on the job.


It was suggested to me that I should lock the cats upstairs during the open house weekend. I didn't take the suggestion, and I am glad that I didn't. First off, they were totally not a problem, and everyone loved them. They got lots of attention, and were very popular.

Two of my daughters, and my almost adopted daughter came with two of my grandchildren.



We got time to talk, and laugh. Time spent with my girls is always good time.


We love each other, and that will never change. Someday I will probably annoy them, like my mother annoys me at times, but they will still be in my corner.
Like I am for my mother.
And yes, I apologized. I hugged her. I told her how MUCH I love her.
I ate MORE CROW.
I realize that some battles are just not worth it.
She was quick to tell me that I was completely wrong anyway.
I will work on gnashing my teeth, and keeping my big mouth shut.
Amen.



And what place better to shop for scarves, than at Mom's shop?????
I can't imagine. Don't they look beautiful???
And the price is just right.
Oh, daughters. And mothers.







My mother is a poem
I'll never be able to write,
though everything I write
is a poem to my mother.
~Sharon Doubiago