Blatant Retail.

Over the past few years, I have been inspired by my blogging friends.  Giving me encouragement, support, ideas, and even names for products.
This morning, I got a text message from my adopted daughter......my whole family actually adopted her when my youngest brought her home probably 15 years ago.
She reads my blog, and she had a brainstorm.
God, I love brainstorms.  If you have to put brain with another "S" word, I would rather it be this.
Anyway, she had a name for the Socketbook that is the perfect size for an iPad, or any other notebook.........are ya ready???
Will Apple send out a hit man???

 THE......................i Socket.
I can't stand it, it's so clever.

Suppose we could call it the EYESOCKET......so Apple doesn't get all sensitive.

O.M.G.   I love this. As DH would say, it doesn't take much to amuse me.
That's an art, btw.  To be amused so easily.
Just sayin.

I sent out a newsletter last night.....with a special offer to all who sign up for it.  I would like to extend it also to all my blog followers.
It is FREE SHIPPING in the continental U.S. until Christmas, for all orders over $50.  You just have to email me and say "I want free shipping."  I will then credit you back whatever was charged for shipping when you checked out. 
Unfortunately, I am not big like LL Bean, or Land's End....I don't have a 'code' that you enter to get the free shipping. 
Oh, the perils.
But let me tell you, it was STUPID of me to send a newsletter on a Friday night, when I knew that I would be alone at the studio on Saturday.
Ya think???
This is what I did all morning, plus all the accounting that comes with it.
Be careful what you ask for, that's all I'm saying.

You know, and I know, that I am feeling better when I am marketing my wares.
I do feel better, and the universe is speaking.

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Monkeying around. Again.

Tammy is at it again.  When she's not working at her cleaning business, Morehouse Cleaning Services, or weaving rugs at her fave weaving studio, Crazy as a Loom, she is busy making adorable felted Christmas ornaments.

You can go HERE to her Etsy shop to see more of them, before they are all gone!!!


I just happened on a blog written by another Chiari surgery patient.  I was googling the effects of barometric pressure on headaches post brain surgery, and there she was.
Through her, I found a link to a "aches and pains" index on weather.com
Go HERE to put your zip code in, and try it for yourself.  It indicates the likelihood that the weather will make your headaches, arthritis, or other ailments, worse.
This week, the index was LOW, and Monday through Thursday were very good for me.
This morning, when I woke up, I knew it was different.  Not horrible, but different, and all day my headache has been a 5-6.
I checked the "index" and today in my zip code, it's a 5.  Hmm.
Tomorrow and Sunday, it's supposed to be a 3 both days. Monday it's going to be 10.
Ouch. While I am not excited about a slammer on Monday,  I will be very interested to see if my headache is truly that nasty on Monday.
My daughter had a good point though.  It really IS that much better now that I know WHY.
And I also know that there ARE good days.  And those GOOD days will get me through the lousy ones.
Perspective.  I always knew that it was important.  I just didn't know that it was everything.


A lady came into the shop today, with a proposition.  She said she had one of my towels, and she loved it.  She had a tiny crib, that she didn't want anymore.
Would I trade???
Well, that may sound crazy, but I gotta tell ya, I LOVE SWAPPAGE.

And besides, the monkeys needed a place of their own.  They've been asking me.

 

OK, I'm crazy.  I have never denied it.

Ever.

But tell me, isn't it the sweetest?  And isn't it perfect?  I love the little tail sticking out between the rungs.

 I swear I heard them whispering and giggling when I walked by.

 

 Here's my new marketing idea.  Not real sure how I am going to do it.  But the medium Socketbook is a perfect tablet/Ipad carrier.   

What do you think?

And I think it's time for a giveaway.  But I need an idea?  Anyone???

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Sun loving.

 Roy likes to ride in the truck, and he especially likes to lay across my lap if I'm not driving, soaking up the sun.
This little dog has the biggest feet.
I love his feet.  I love him.

 

Next and Enough are loving their  solar house.   They curl up in it together, and if the sun is shining, they stay in it all day.

Who doesn't love the sun?

Today, I sat in a sunny window, and did some weaving on my mobius shawl warp.  This one is turquoise.  Tomorrow, I think I will take three shawls off the loom, and finish them.
I was going to wait until the warp is done, but then I realized I would probably have 8 or 9 to sew all at once.

Today was Day 4 of almost normal.  Who's counting?
I'm just enjoying every minute.
Overwhelmed with gratitude.
I am so blessed.
This day is mine, and I love it.

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Let it be gray outside.

This is kind of how I plan on spending my winter.
Stove roaring, cat sleeping nearby, warp on my loom for towels or shawls or scarves, things to weave that are easy on my neck.
Listening to solo guitar on Pandora.

This is my most recent warp.  The colors spoke to me, chosen at random.

But just in case you think that I am always on top of my game.........I am so NOT.
Somehow when I wound this warp, I had the narrow strips of rust positioned quite nicely in an otherwise off the top of my head warp, until I got to the end.
Then I screwed up and put a narrow strip of turquoise where the rust should have been.
When I tied the warp on, the absence of symmetry where the rust should have been, jumped right out at me.
So........rust tied on, handy clamp adding weight.  I wove with this the whole  12 yards.
And it worked just fine.

 

 I love making dish towels.  I try to leave them all on the front beam until the warp is finished.  Then I roll it up, cut it off, and bring it home; where I hem the ends, and throw them all in the wash.

Someone asked why they weren't on my web site.
Truth is, I have never been able to get enough ahead to do that.  I sell them out of my shop, and they are usually gone quite quickly.
Maybe this winter, now that I am not weaving rugs for a while, I will get a stack made.

 They  really do last forever.  And they get softer every time you use them.
I find that when I reach in the drawer for a towel, I will go past 5 others to pick out one that came off my loom.
There is a certain sense of  decadence about using a hand woven towel.  At the same time, it feels so right.

 Three good days in a row, I think I must be dreaming.  Hoping that this is a glimpse of my future.
But knowing too, that if it's not, it's still a blessing.
Because days like this will help me get through days that aren't so peachy.

 It may be gray outside, but I know where the color is.
And today, there is sunshine in my heart.  That's what hope will do.

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Kid stuff and winter.

A long time ago, when my grandson was a baby ( he is now 15), I bought two grocery bags of hot wheel cars at a garage sale for $8.  They eventually made their way into a basket.

He played with them for a long time, and every  grandkid after him has had a go at the basket of cars. 
In this day of computer games, and high priced toys, it is incredible to me how much fun they still get from $8 worth of second hand toy cars.

"I have to go now?"

 Here's O, come to cheer us up.
And Cockadoo, her doll.

 

 Who loves Cockadoo???

 

When O comes to the studio, she has a routine. First, she hunts Sydney down, though most days, Syd is at the door as soon as she comes in.

Then she gets an animal cracker.......she knows where they are.

Then she goes upstairs to the kids' table to have a "tea party".

She has a new trick, which she showed me today.

She goes into the front bedroom, and hollers down through the grate, "Who's down there??"  about a hundred times.

Of course, I am obliged to holler back, "Who's UP THERE?"

I wouldn't want to have a little one, I am way past that. 
But gosh, having them around sure does make me smile.

Today was a good day.  After waking up two days in a row with a smasher, this morning I woke up with a 3, and it stayed that way all day. I swear it's the weather.
This is where I do a little dance. :)

I did some weaving this morning, but this afternoon, I was on a mission.
My old coffee table is usually COVERED, with books, magazines, and knitting projects.  It is BELOVED by me, bought at a garage sale for $2, many moons ago.   I resisted replacing it, even though my kids often heckled me about it.  Eddie used to lay under it, so I would never get one that had storage under it, while he was alive.
Roy could not care less.  He has never, ever slept under it.  So I decided maybe it was time to give in, and get a new fancy coffee table with baskets underneath.

 And while I am really not a cheapskate, I am very fond of keeping old things instead of buying new, when I can.  So it occurred to me, why do I need a new one?

So off to Target, where for $20 each I found the perfect baskets.
One for magazines, one for knitting.

And now, my most recent finished baby surprise sweater, is lovely to photograph against the
sweet wood grain of my old coffee table, now that you can see it.

 I text messaged a picture of my new "clean slate" to my three daughters.

My youngest daughter came back with a good one.
"We paid EXTRA and had Dr. Rekate do a few additional adjustments."

 

So who knows what is next in store for me?
Should be interesting, yes???

Kids.

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In the now

This is the weekend of the Christmas in the Country tour, which I have participated in for the last 7 years, this would have been the 8th.  But when they were collecting the money for the advertising, a little voice in my head said, "Are you serious?"
So, much to everyone's surprise, I opted out.
Gulp.
It felt very strange.  But I did it anyway.

So fast forward to the actual weekend.  I made some cookies, L vacuumed, and we hung the flag out.
She was weaving rugs, I was weaving on my dish towels.  No pressure, no commitment.  We were just OPEN.  We did get out our funky sock garlands and hung them over the fireplace.

Friday, only one person stopped, and I was ok with that.

Yesterday, however, we got quite a few people and some decent sales.  But most of all, everyone that stopped was go glad to "see me on my feet".  Like I wouldn't be, right?
Whether they read my blog, or called the studio and L told them, or they just heard about it, they knew that I had brain surgery, and they were happy to see me still in operation, even if it is a little scaled back.
It was heartwarming.

But the best part of my day, and it may sound strange, was lunch.
L's best friend, J, had stopped by.  I had made some of my fave sweet potato lentil soup, which
you can find here over at Two Peas and Their Pod.
I make it every chance I get during the winter, because it is so filling, and easy and warming.
Anyhow, as we were sitting down to our soup, a customer was ready to check out her goods.
I said, "Would you like to have soup with us?"
She asked, "What kind of soup?"

Her name was Kate, and she sat down and had soup with us like we had known her forever.
It was just the most spontaneous, life affirming moment, and I can't explain it better.
Somehow, in this world of craziness and cruelty to children and animals, of greed and political warfare, something as simple as having a 'perfect' stranger to lunch, was grand.

I am crazy, I know.
It was just so much nicer to me, to have the studio open, to feel relaxed and ok with it, not to have any pressure to 'create' anything special at all.
And it was just fine.
And today, I am not open at all.  And that's fine.

It seems that I have  lost the ability to remember things that I swear I will remember.  Names in particular.
We are starting out with a fresh notebook on the desk, so that everyone who calls, or pops in, gets jotted down in it, to make me feel less inadequate.
This is my "new normal".
There is more to come.  I just know it.

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For crying out loud

Sitting on the couch, looking out at the FIRST SNOW of the year.
I don't care really.  I only care about this headache.
Gah, I so wished I was going to get to stop talking about it.  Some days I try to go all around it.
And some days, that's possible.  And God knows, I am grateful for those days.
But then there's today.
Went to bed with a pretty intense level of pain, woke up at 4am, with a smasher.  I like to call it that, because it reminds me of 'smashing' potatoes with any of the kitchen instruments I have in my twirly Lazy Susan keeper of instruments.  Like someone or something has been inside my head with that.

At any rate, I couldn't go back to sleep, so I came downstairs, took Motrin on an empty stomach, only because who eats at 4am?  Not I.
Faithful Roy snuggled on the couch with me, and I dozed off finally.  I had hopes of waking up with much less of a headache, but that didn't really happen.
So now I am drinking tea, talking to you, trying to be patient.
I ask myself some crazy questions........like could it be the weather????   Because I was pretty ok yesterday, with the headache just a faint hum. 
But I went for a massage at 3pm, and when I left......whether it was the weather or something instigated by the massage, even though it was fairly gentle........my headache was all stirred up and angry.
Let me just tell you......I dream of the day that I can say......through tears, I know..............I DON'T HAVE A HEADACHE TODAY.

But still, I am only relating.....please know that sometimes I just need to get it out there.   I am not looking for sympathy, I am still very grateful for what I do have.
I just get a little tired, and worn down with it.

Last night, DH told me of someone we know quite well, a really lovely lady, who went to the doctor with a pain in her stomach, and now has a diagnosis of pancreatic and liver cancer, and maybe 6 months.  I couldn't stop thinking about her.  And about how tenuous our lives are, every minute of every day.

I haven't been weaving rugs since my surgery....too much shoulder work, and thus, neck tension.
But I do tie fringes on them, when Tammy and Lois get a stack done.
I am fast, and I think that nominates me sometimes for "official fringe person."

The other day, Ava went for a walk with Roy and I, and she went ahead with him, and did a little running.
Roy was in heaven.   You can tell by his 'flat back ears'.
I loved watching him gallop.

I don't think I would mind winter so much, if the skies were so eternally gray.
Give me snow and cold, with a lot of sun.  It makes it so much nicer.
If ever I find that cold, stormy weather makes my head ache, it may be time to leave the northeast.
Just sayin.

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