ZZZZZZZZZ

Please tell me about your sleep.  What do you sleep on?  Why do you like it?   How does your sleep effect your life?

Why do I ask?   Because mine sucks.   It's funny, too, how you look back, and you know that it hasn't been forever, but damned if you can remember when it started.  I suspect though, that having Covid over Christmas, might have something to do with it.

I had a sleep study a couple of weeks ago, and the results were shocking.

I do NOT have sleep apnea.

Wow.

So I'm back to square one.   Waking up many times a night, and not having the foggiest clue why..........unless it's post Covid stuff, which the doctor said is very possible.  

Oh, yeah, and I have asthma.  Go figure.

This is Naya and Willie's yard.  There's a 5 ft high black chain link fence around most of it, and a stockade fence across the back.   They have a dog door onto the screen porch, and in the summer, the kitchen door is open to the screen porch, so they can go in and out as much as they want.

Yes, they are spoiled.

The bush is a "snowball", a form of viburnum, that my mother bought me years ago.

It is a beautiful thing, but the blossoms are VERY short lived, which is sad.

It does have an odd shape, because my husband did some trimming around the bottom of 

it, before I could catch him.

When asked why he would do such a thing, he said that he couldn't get his riding lawn mower close enough to it.

I think I threatened to kill him if he ever touched it again.

Looking back on that now gives me pause.

Yes, this is a box of 12 tubes of Pepsodent tooth paste.   It is my favorite 

tooth paste, which I used to buy at the dollar store, because it was the 

only store that carried it.  Then suddenly they didn't have it either.

But I found it online, and ordered a box of it, so I won't be running out any

too soon.

When my daughter commented on it, I told her that at least she knew that I planned to stick around for awhile.

It's going to be a quiet weekend here at Crazy as a Loom.  Everybody has plans to be somewhere, and the weather is supposed to be wonderful.

Naya says she is not impressed.  With any luck there won't be any fireworks.  If there is, she won't be looking this laid back.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Critters and a simple thought.

Is this enough color??????   

I wanted some towels that just screamed happy.

I think they do.

I have a stash of 70+ towels........ and taking into consideration that a few will sell here and there, I want at least 100 for the guild show in November.

Still on a mission to downsize, to really get rid of things I am not using, and know that I probably won't use.   I am having a HUGE sale this coming Saturday, May 20th, from 10-2, right here.  So far I have 160 cones of thread, and about 30 hand dyed yarns for weft.  Plus there's a Baby Wolf loom, a table loom, and lots of miscellaneous weaving tools.

The lawn has taken off........and maintaining almost an acre of lawn has once again

become an issue.

On our morning walks, Lois and I see lots of wildlife.   These turtles love to sun themselves on this log.   

There's a muskrat that follows us sometimes, and a pair of ducks, and Harry the heron.

So far, Willie and Naya have not noticed him.

I had a bit of an epiphany the other day.   I was driving through the countryside going to a friend's house, and I was just enjoying the scenery and the quiet.   I wasn't really thinking of anything.  I stopped  at  a local coffee shop, and I was pouring myself a cup of coffee, and clear as a bell, the thought came, 

"I love my life...........and I'm ok."

It startled me, and I almost looked around to see who said it, but I knew that it was in my head.

But from that moment on, I have felt better.

It may not make a bit of sense, but it's true.

I will forever miss my husband, and there will still be things that bring me to tears, 

but for the first time in a year, I felt a real sense of acceptance, and serenity.  I'm going to be fine.

Sydney says:   "Of course you are."

She's so wise, isn't she?

Yesterday I was out in the yard, and noticed several big vultures swooping around. 

Then two of them landed on a house across the road.  

I headed over there, to get a closer shot.  I figured they would be gone

by the time I got there, but they weren't.

Heathcliff and Gertrude, maybe?????

Getting ready for a sale.

In my new solo life here, having my lawn mowed, and any yard work that needs to be done, is a financial consideration.   I am not going to do it myself, I've decided that  a while back.

So, I guess I'll just do what I can afford, and hope for the best.

Here's my back yard after the first spring mow.

It's obviously way bigger than I need.  But I've spent years clearing what used to be an old barn yard, and now I hate to let it go.

Oh, it would grow up in a heartbeat, if I stopped mowing it, and I have nothing against wild, green spaces.  The problem is that it wouldn't be a flowery field from Pinterest.  It would be a hot mess, with the sumac and the knotweed (we call it bamboo) and the locust trees totally taking over.  

So I just can't do it.  

In my efforts to continue to clean out this big old house, and downsize, I am having a SALE.

It's on May 20th, 10-4, and it's all weaving threads and weaving tools.  I have shelves of cones of thread that I haven't used, and probably will never use.  They need to go to other weavers.

I'm digging through drawers and cupboards and finding all kinds of things, like this old quilt that needs to be finished.

 It's a beautiful piece of work.   The wedding ring quilt is one of the hardest to get right, IMHO.

Anyway, I put it away, for sometime after the sale.  I don't have time for it right now.

I just happened to catch this turkey vulture as it landed on a nearby pole.  

He didn't stay long.

I had work to do anyway.

I needed to wrap up one project on my sewing table, before I start assembling all the cones of yarn I want to get rid of.

It's a dress/tunic that I made from several different pieces of woven and hand dyed yardage.

Not entirely sure that I like it as a dress, but maybe shorter, as a tunic, I might really like it better.............

So after the sale, I might try to make another one.

The front.......

The back........

Eighteen years ago, we cleaned out my  father's house after he died.  He wasn't exactly a hoarder, but he was certainly a collector of strange things.  His house was a wreck.   I say he wasn't a hoarder, because he was functional.  He could sleep in his own bed, eat at his table, 

shower in his bathroom, and sit in his recliner and watch TV.  He could cook on his stove, and do dishes in his sink.

But there it ends.

The rest of the house was totally trashed.

We filled thirteen 30 yard dumpsters to the tune of $11,000.

I vowed I would never do that to my children.

Then just recently, a lifelong friend of mine died suddenly, and she WAS a hoarder, and she was not functional.    She could get herself to the store to buy wine, but she couldn't get to her bed, she had no vacant place to sit, she couldn't use her washer or her dryer or her shower.  The stove was buried, the kitchen sink was buried.  

Disturbing does not begin to describe it.  

Now her poor brother has to deal with it.

A whole houseful of it.

So I have this real need to simplify my life and my home.  That is not the kind of legacy I want to  leave behind.

Needless to say, there will be a lot of "stuff" in my house when I leave this world, but I want it to be useful stuff, and organized useful stuff.

Not junk.  Not boxes and drawers full of unidentified junk to go through.

Thus .......the purge.

Naya and Willie do not care one whit.   As long as they have their food dishes, and their soft, comfy beds to lie in, and Willie has his tennis ball, the rest is just fluff.

We could learn a lot from dogs.