Monday Monday

While I am not averse to having company, and I love having an apprentice,  I must say that today was a fantastic day at the studio.
Just me and the cats.  I didn't even turn the radio on.  The only noise was the whoosh of the shuttle.
It was lovely.
Sometimes a day like this is just what I need to regroup.
I have always been fond of alone time, even as a child.  My mother would often come into my room, to see if I was alive.
I think it is a gift, to like being alone sometimes, and to be good at amusing oneself.  It has stood me in good stead.
Where did that phrase come from???
Geesh.

I did a little of this, and a little of that.  No pressure.
I cut some fabric.  Actually I cut a lot of fabric.

I did a little bird watching.
Which  brought a question to mind.  Do you feed the birds year round?  If so, why, or why not?

Looks like he's waiting for the answer, doesn't he??

I wound some yarn, for no particular reason than it seemed like a good idea.

I wove a couple of Walkin' on Sunshine rugs, 30"x60".

And I appreciated.   I appreciated everything about the day.

The studio,  a choice of looms to weave on, lots of fabric to pick from, contented cats, spring,  a whole day to myself to just be quiet and reflective, Bubbalee making it safely across the road,  living in a free country.  Being safe.  Being healthy. So much to be thankful for.  The list is long.

And that's all the philosophy for tonight, folks!   Hope your weekend was lovely.
Are you ready for Monday?
I love Mondays.

The Labyrinth

Back in 2007, I took my two grandsons to Harmony, in Comstock.  It is a wonderful place, acres of wildflowers, and total serenity. And they have a labyrinth. I asked my grandsons, 7 and 10 at the time, to walk it, stay in the paths, and think about what it meant. The oldest one said, "I don't get it." The younger one, after a while, said, "Mimi, I think I know what it means." I said, "Yeah?? What do you think?" He said, " I think it is where you find the center of your heart."
I knew then that I had to build my own labyrinth.
So in 2008, I did just that.
At first, it was just stones on the grass.  It is a left sided, 7 circuit, labyrinth.  

And while I liked it, I knew that if I wanted it to be somewhat permanent, and as maintenance free as possible, I had to do more. 
So in June, 2009, I made it better.

These great shots of it are from the upstairs bedroom window.
So what does it all mean, you ask???
On Lessons For Living I found this.

"Your life is a sacred journey. And it is about change, growth, discovery, movement, transformation, continuously expanding your vision of what is possible, stretching your soul, learning to see clearly and deeply, listening to your intuition, taking courageous challenges at every step along the way. You are on the path... exactly where you are meant to be right now... And from here, you can only go forward, shaping your life story into a magnificent tale of triumph, of healing of courage, of beauty, of wisdom, of power, of dignity, and of love."
Caroline Adams

We are all on the path... exactly where we need to be. The labyrinth is a model of that path.

A labyrinth is an ancient symbol that relates to wholeness. It combines the imagery of the circle and the spiral into a meandering but purposeful path. The Labyrinth represents a journey to our own center and back again out into the world. Labyrinths have long been used as meditation and prayer tools.

A labyrinth is an archetype with which we can have a direct experience. We can walk it. It is a metaphor for life's journey. It is a symbol that creates a sacred space and place and takes us out of our ego to "That Which Is Within."

Labyrinths and mazes have often been confused. When most people hear of a labyrinth they think of a maze. A labyrinth is not a maze. A maze is like a puzzle to be solved. It has twists, turns, and blind alleys. It is a left brain task that requires logical, sequential, analytical activity to find the correct path into the maze and out.

A labyrinth has only one path. It is unicursal. The way in is the way out. There are no blind alleys. The path leads you on a circuitous path to the center and out again.

A labyrinth is a right brain task. It involves intuition, creativity, and imagery. With a maze many choices must be made and an active mind is needed to solve the problem of finding the center. With a labyrinth there is only one choice to be made. The choice is to enter or not. A more passive, receptive mindset is needed. The choice is whether or not to walk a spiritual path.

At its most basic level the labyrinth is a metaphor for the journey to the center of your deepest self and back out into the world with a broadened understanding of who you are.

As much as I am a workaholic, I quite often just take the time to walk the labyrinth.  I especially do when I question my direction, or I can't get my thoughts quite together.  Sometimes, I just sit in a chair and look at it.
Serenity is everything.

I'm the daughter, no the mother, no the daughter.........

You get the idea, right??
I took my MOTHER to the doctor's and then to get her lab drawn, and then to the grocery store.
Sometimes I feel like her daughter, but WAY more often, I feel like her mother.
Did I mention that she has referred to me as her "mother" in conversations???
Good grief.  You can't ever anticipate this stuff.  It just happens.

While I lust over the blog photos of GREENERY way south of here, I am not unhappy with the brown April of the northeast.  It is so much better than the winter we just left behind.  

Today there was sun and clouds, and it was warm enough for a light jacket.  
After lunch, I went outside and raked the labyrinth.

There were bits of leaves all over it.  While I was raking, I was thinking how happy I am that my grandchildren are going to grow up and think it is perfectly normal to have a labyrinth in your back yard.
How cool is that???

This is Louise.  She belongs to my next door neighbor, and they just popped over to say hello.
Hey, Louise.

I have a lot planned outside the studio this year.  For the last 6 years, I have worked 24/7, or pretty darn close to it, to make this studio a success.  And you know what, it is a success, on many levels.
The bills get paid, the house gets maintained, and heated, and loved.  The cats have a home where they are loved.  I get to weave here and dream and create and dream some more.
Crazy As A Loom has made it, in my humble opinion.  I have shelves piled high with stock, my custom orders are all timely.
So this year, at last, I am going to spend some time doing the things outside that I have wanted to do from the beginning.   I have done a few things every year, but I have never really given it my best.  The hedgerow is still all grown up and tangled.  The whole yard needs attention.

Every morning is a chance to do it all over again, maybe a little different, maybe better.
Just one more thing I am grateful for.

A done deal.

And that's not just about income taxes.  That check went in the mail.
Ugh.
But I am talking about the order of six rugs that I just finished.
They are, oh, so done, and as we speak, they are on their way to OHIO.

I was hurrying to get the fringe tied, and get them packed up before the UPS truck came.
As usual, I had help.

Sydney says:  Does this rug make my butt look big????

Once that was a wrap, I took a short lunch break, and started cutting fabric for a 30' runner that is going to a summer home on Lake Michigan.
It will take several days to get everything ready.
On the apprentice front, Lois is getting to be quite the rag rug weaver.  The real indication that she was hooked was when she started saving out "colors" for a rug she was imagining.
I didn't tell her that's how weaving starts taking over your life.

Sydney pondering.

This is the rug Lois designed and wove.  Pretty nice, don't you think???
I am either a great teacher, or she is a great student.......or maybe BOTH!!!

All in all, a very productive day.  I would like to tell you that my foot doesn't hurt, but I can't do that.
I am trying to be patient, not my best quality.

Miss Puss wants to know why there is a "Sydney Says" going on, when it is obvious that she, Miss Puss, is the Queen.
Hmm.  I don't know the answer to that one.

ACK!

One of those days.
I had an appointment with a podiatrist, in Amsterdam.  That's an hour away from me, but a friend of mine highly recommended him, and I have so far not been impressed by anyone I have been to.
So DH and I took a ride.
I insisted DH go with me, in case this new doctor wanted to stick a needle into my foot.
In which case, I would have BROKEN a few fingers.  What are husbands for???


This doctor does cryosurgery, which is not done by every podiatrist.  I thought he might do it on my painful right foot.  But he didn't.
He did an ultrasound of my foot, and showed me the damage inside my heel.  He scanned my feet for orthotics, and put a wrap/brace/strap around my right instep, which helped immediately.
I have plantar fasciitis, and he says that with this brace, then the orthotics, and exercise that is done every morning, BEFORE you get out of bed, this should be better in six weeks.  If it's not, then he might stick a needle in my foot.
OUCH.
I liked this doctor, and he told me more than anyone else had previously. He was worth the hour drive each way.

We stopped at the Waterwheel in Galway.....and bought wedges of the best cheddar cheese you have ever eaten.

Then we went over to a natural geyser in Saratoga Springs, where my husband lusted over, and drank, the most disgusting smelling water you have ever smelled.
Good God!!!!  How can you drink that?????  As he smiles, and guzzles.
His answer was that he has been doing this since he was a kid.
Well, there then, that explains it.
???
So I am almost to the studio, the day has flown by, and my cell phone rings.  Lois:  Where are YOU?
Seems the UPS truck that was supposed to come TOMORROW, decided to come TODAY.
WTH?

(Lois has her gloves on, which means that she means BUSINESS)

Check it out.  UPS truck on the OTHER side of the road.  A busy, state highway.

And boxes falling off the pallets.
And the help I had lined up to load these into the barn...........not available TODAY.
OK, then.

The UPS driver was VERY helpful, but he wasn't taking the traffic seriously, and I think this is where Lois is chewing him out.
GRIN.

Somehow we got them in the driveway, and parked them in front of the barn.  But there was no way that we were going to load 36 boxes from 65-85 lbs each into the barn.
Luckily, I made a couple of calls, and found a couple of helpers.  It wasn't long at all, and they were all tucked nicely away.
On my way home, it started to rain.
Yes, a little stress, a little work, a little inconvenience.

But am I complaining yet.
Not for a minute.

Just thanks.

Before you all start telling me how talented I am to keep changing my HEADER, I have to confess.
I didn't do it.
I wish I did, but I didn't.

Thanks and KUDOS to Di over at the Blue Ridge Gal.
She is just too damn clever for her own good.
:)
Seriously, thanks Di.   I LOVE it. You always seem to pick out my favorite pictures, without me even telling you.

I have been working on this order for several days, on and off.    Six rugs that are somehow coming out better than I expected them to.

One more to do, and they will be on their way to Ohio.

Let me just say..........again............that I am grateful.
Can you say that too many times??
Oh, yes, I have a pain in my foot, and one in my thumb, and some days I feel like the freaking tin man, bringing to mind how my father always said he wished he could oil his joints.  I have worries.  I worry about Bubbalee, and I worry about my elderly mother, and my elderly dog.  My car is dirty.  I don't have much 'really brown'
 fabric.
But I am not complaining, cause in the scheme of things, if there is a scheme, I am one lucky lady.

I just went for a bike ride with a good friend, my mother hasn't missed too much 'stuff' after our recent blitz cleaning of her apartment, there is NO snow outside my window, DH is watching the Red Sox again, hoping they don't get whipped this time, and I am sitting here with my very best buddy of all.

Have you met Ed???  Eddie? Edhead?

Did I wake you up, buddy???

Yup, life is good.  I am grateful, and I don't think I can say it enough.

Keepin my hat on.

Yup, it's official.  No more shows, save the one local fiber show I like.
Business is good, and I don't have to do them.
I am convinced.
Enough already.

Well, it is pretty official.  Bubbalee has had her babies.  We didn't see her Saturday at all, and then on Sunday when she showed up, she looked thinner.  And she ate, and went right back across the road to her hideout.
Today, same scenario.  She did spend a few minutes out in the field behind the barn, but not her usual.  And from the upstairs window, I watched her head for the road.

Let me just say that I am respectful of this road.  The traffic moves quickly, to say the least.
As I watched, she ran back away from the road a couple of times, and eventually made her way across.

Nothing is going to keep this girl from her babies.  I just hope she manages to stay safe.

She is just to the left of the yellow and gray guide wires, and her destination is just to the left of the tree, under the back part of the house, which is actually a shed.

This is what it looks like from the studio.  I ran up to the front bedroom to see  her better.

I just hope she can raise her kittens, and that we can catch them before they get killed in the road.

It seems so hopeless.

I am finally getting my groove with this order.  I guess I wasn't crazy about the color combination, and it took me much trial and error to make it pleasing to my eye.

But I think I have it now.

I have a lot of hats in the shop.  I don't usually put them on my web site.  I guess I should.  Some are felted, some are knitted.

While weaving is my business, and my passion, I have been knitting since the age of 4, and it is a comfort zone I return to often.

Here is the hat pattern I have been knitting lately.  Bulky yarn, heavy hat.

I think I love to knit hats because I can finish one in an evening, and I don't have to remember where I am or what I was doing. It is also a chance to play with color and texture time after time.

It is also a chance to use up bits of leftover yarn.  And I love that.

Sydney says:

I like hats.

Fake Flowers.

I didn't go to the studio today.  First time in a long time.
But it wasn't exactly a day off either.
I went to an early breakfast at the local diner, with DH.
Then I came home and started cleaning my mother's apartment.
7 and 1/2 hours later, with help after lunch from two of my daughters, it was done.
There are at least 8 boxes of stuff in the cellar for an upcoming garage sale, and both the garbage can and the recycle bin are FULL.
I am so tired, I can barely keep my eyes open.
My mother is a borderline hoarder.
Really.

Clothes, shoes, magazines, papers, shoe boxes filled with minutiae (that's L's favorite word)

It was a nightmare.

My daughter took my mother to church, which gave me a chance to tear it apart.  I found some pretty scary stacks of stuff.

She was pretty good all day about going through her things.  She had to be persuaded several times to put something in the garage sale pile, but she tried to be agreeable.
Until the fake flowers.

We had everything done.  Except for the fake flowers out on my kitchen counter.  Dusty, dirty, ugly, OLD fake flowers.
We tried to convince her, but nothing we could say was going to move her.  She loved her fake flowers, and we didn't understand, and she wasn't going to give up even ONE of them.
So finally, I took them all outside, and dusted them all.  I brought them back inside, and gave them to her, told her she would have to figure out where she was going to put them.

Some battles are just not worth the trouble..

We all went out to dinner, at a local cafe, where two glasses of wine went down quite well, thank you very much.

I think she is liking her new, clean, organized place.  I just peeked in and she was sitting quietly going through some mail, with the TV off.
Wow.

It was a job well done, one that I have had on my mind for a while.  I am glad it is behind me.

Here is the wrap I just finished.  Do you like it???

It is kind of funky, and just something I wanted to do.
You know I'm a fool for color.

Fat cats and $10 bicycles.

I tried starting an order today, but the THIRD time I cut the warp off, I knew it wasn't happening.

I just couldn't get in the groove.

I took my queue from this plump and pretty girl.

Sydney said:

Take the afternoon off.

So while I did manage to finish a shawl that I had on the Macomber upstairs,  I called it a day right after lunch.

I had a bike ride in my head.  A real bike ride, not a fabric cutting stay in one place bike ride.

So I hauled my bike out of the shed, but the tires were soft.  I figured they would get me over to the nearest gas station, what I didn't figure on was that the AIR cost CASH, which I didn't have with me.

Can you imagine, paying for AIR??  

So with a bit of an attitude, I peddled myself home, grabbed my purse, and DROVE over to KMart, where I bought myself a bicycle pump.  I then went home and pumped my tires up, got my water bottle, put on my helmet (I promised DH) and off I went.

I stayed on a couple of bike trails, and rode steady for over an hour.  I was hot and tired when I got home, so I know I got a  workout.  All on a $10 bicula, to quote my granddaughter.

You know, there is nothing quite as much fun as riding a bike.  It doesn't matter how old you are.

It is just such a feeling of freedom.  You don't have to overthink it.  It really is pretty natural, just like when you learned in the first place.

I love that I really don't care if people think I am crazy.

It's OK, really.

It just felt so good to be outside, to be expending the effort, and feeling the burn.

I'd almost forgotten how good that can be.

I might have a case of spring fever.

These two.......not so much.