"The Bag"

Before felting it looked like this:

After one run through the felting process it looked like this (not so pretty):

A second trip through made it look like this (better.. but not right):
A third felting brought us this (getting very close..but I think I can do better):

We sent it through one more time and ended up with:
All we have to do is add the button and it'll be perfect!

Now.. on to the next project!

The weekend

Every year, for the last 19 (with the exception of one or two), my family has gone to the beach with another family for a long weekend in the spring. Usually over Easter, but sometimes spring break. This past weekend was the annual trip.

When we first began the tradi-tion our oldest children, were just infants. Over the years our families have grown and changed. This was the first year "the big boys" didn't join us. We missed them but managed to have a rocking good time just the same.

The weather was such a treat. It was beautiful during the day. Stormy and exciting at night. At night the winds howled. It hailed and rained ferociously. During the day we built fires and walked on the beach. We explored some lovely tide pools containing starfish, mussels, hermit crabs and all kinds of fascinating tide pool creatures. We experienced two late-afternoon minus tides that made an otherwise hidden beach accessible - if you were brave enough to scramble up and over some huge rocks and outcroppings. The beach was filled with agates. You could actually sit down and within arms reach gather more agates than your hands could hold. We brought back a couple pockets full. It's much like gold fever and I can't wait to go back!

The house we rented had a hot tub. We rented THIS house, in part, specifically because it had one, but only one of us brought a suit. Not very good planning.

On the way to the outlet mall to acquire cheap and ugly swim suits I spied a yarn store. I tell you.. I'm a bit obsessed. I have so much yarn already and projects stacked up for months, but I had to stop. I found unspun wool. Beautiful, hand-dyed merino wool ready for the spindle. And this yarn store is offering a class in hand-spinning in April. Mid-week, mid-day. cough cough.. I think I feel a sick day coming on...

Happy Anniversary!

My TYPoE has been going for a year (one year and two days to be exact). Holy cow.

I have a burning desire to tell you about my weekend. But given that I just discovered I'd hit the one year mark I think it's important I spend a moment reflecting on my goals and my advances.

I shall edit my "Things still to do" list:

• Learn about goats - done. They are not related to cats or dogs. They are browsers not grazers
• Learn about organic stuff - Definitely need to learn more about this!
• Learn how to knit - I think I've got it. I want to get better though.. but I certainly have the basics down.
• Learn how to milk a goat - yes! I'm looking forward to this lesson.
• Learn how to card and spin wool - Have a book. Just got some beautiful wool - Found a place in Lincoln City that will teach me - if I can get over there mid-week. I'm ready to learn!
• Learn about necessary business license - oh yeah.. I've made NO progress on this.
• Learn more about goats - Absolutely need to learn more. For one thing I need to finish the book Peter got me. And I will - as soon as I can put the knitting down. I've found I can not knit and read at the same time. darn it.
• Learn how to make better goat cheese - I think "more exciting" would be a better goal. Apparently my goat cheese is just fine, I just need to learn how to add herbs and flavors.
• Learn how to make goat soap - I want to do this. It involves lye. I'm scared.
• Get my kids through High School and Independent - You know.. this may not happen for a very long time. But Jill's graduation from High School remains the target date.
• Get my house ready to sell - On going and still has to stay on the list. I have a new floor. That's a start.
• Sell my house - Can't even START this until next spring. I'll put it at the bottom.
• Buy a funky pink bicycle - I shall wait until I move. There is no place suitable around here for riding a funky pink bicycle.
• Find someplace for me and my goats - Peters house. He said I could. But you guys already knew that.. didn't you?

The past year has gone quickly. It's been exciting to learn new things. Something I think I should continue doing even after this set of goals has been reached. I look forward eagerly to see what the next 15 months brings.

I'm such a sucker

My vegetable garden is sooooo tiny I bought one of those upside down tomato plant pots to make the most of the room I have. Afterall.. I have one of these in the photo below..

It may work. I hope it works. The commercials indicate it will work. Then again, according to commercials, eating Dorito's will make me sexy and a G.I. Joe Action figure can actually rescue Barbie from an alien invasion...

I'm working on a bag for Jill. I wasn't going to show it to you.. but I'm afraid you won't believe I'm working on something. I really am. I'm knitting. and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting. . . I may actually get sick of knitting before I'm done with this thing (probably not.. but maybe!) Keep in mind that the squares on the floor are 12 inches. That makes this thing already about 18 inches long.. and I have SOOOOOOO much more to go. Then I will felt it.. then it will be much smaller with some shape and style. So I hope.. felting is such a big unknown...

The good news.. I think I have the knitting thing down. At least the basics. I'm already researching my next project. Peters mother gave me a bunch of wool to do with what I want.. but I can't decide what.. and Peter gave me yarn to knit him a hat.

I'm a visionary...

Today was all about prepping the garden for summer. I dug up old plants, dug dirt and tilled. This is what it looks like now..

But in a few months I hope it will look like this:

Septorhinoplasty

Today was "the" big day for Kyle. He had a Septorhinoplasty with a cartiledge graft from one of his ribs.

He was such a trooper! His nose already looks better.

And now.. I'm tired.. he got to sleep the day away, I was awake and pacing.. or wait.. I wasn't pacing.. I was KNITTING.. I'm making a really large bag for Jill and made significant progress. YAY! I'll show it off when I'm done knitting and ready to felt it.

Lawrence Welk?

Noooooo! Jill joined the McKay High School Jazz Band. Gooooooo... JILL!

A person should not be allowed to have this much fun!

I had a l-o-n-g weekend!

I don't work Fridays and today was my "mandatory furlough" day. The state is broke and we all have to do our part to save a penny. What do you suppose I did with my long weekend? Of course I went to Peters! I left the kids home while I was away and this time they didn't try to burn the house down. Yay!

Saturday I slept in, had coffee and relaxed. I was lulled into a false sense of security. Before long Peter and I were filling and schlepping bags of river sand up a long hill. The asparagus needed sand. But first it needed weeding. The poor asparagus are now thriving. We worked longer and harder with some rototilling and wood cutting. In fact, we worked until I plead for mercy. Thank goodness it was granted. Despite my aching bones and muscles it was a good day. I don't feel like I missed my treadmill at all.

Sunday we went sight-seeing and had a picnic overlooking Lake Shannon. On the way we spotted a herd of elk. They were lovely! Our perch over the lake was from an abandoned Concrete Plant in Concrete, Washington. I have added better pictures.

Rant coming.. On the way to Concrete, we stopped at a DQ for ice cream. Peter and I both had a chocolate dip cone with chocolate ice cream. The ice cream had a slightly sour taste with a definite fizz to it. It scared us and we threw it out the car window (it's biodegadable!) On our way home we stopped by the DQ and mentioned the toxic ice cream. The woman behind the counter laughed and said that she often got complaints the day before the machine was scheduled to be cleaned. She said it wouldn't make us sick and offered to make us another one. We gracefully declined.

Don't you think if this was a REGULAR occurance they would move up the cleaning of the machine?

I just hate it when something keeps me from my icecream! My rants over now.

What a day, what a day...

My mom is doing well. Uh.. TOO well. I'm sure you want to know HOW that can be possible. Well here's the thing. I've been purging, and reclaiming my house and it's contents as my own. My mom has started asking for things that she now remembers. The other day she decided she wanted "those flowered towels" that I had secretly given to charity. I quickly changed the subject. Now she is deciding she wants to call people and she wants her cell phone back. I got rid of that too! I got problems.

Not to mention that my little Honda seems to have a big target painted on it. It was sitting peacefully in a parking lot when a big Chevy Suburban decided to smash into it. My daughter was behind the wheel, watching the action in her rearview mirror, honking furiously trying to alert the driver to know avail.

Knitting is going fabulously. I think I have callouses forming on my fingers. I'll include a picture of my projects once they are done. I have two in the works. I'm still so fascinated by the whole felting process I just can't get enough. Yay.. it's fun!

Knitted Goats

The story behind this is very long.. So I'll try to shorten it up.

Today at work I had to create a blog in order to accomplish some testing and troubleshooting regarding Social Networking.

At any rate.. the blog I created was just a test - a way to get into the blog software and I had free reign on it. I tried to create "Get My Goat" and was very dissapointed to find out that blog name was already taken. So I settled on "Knitted Goats."

This is where the visualization takes place. Knitted Goats. I tried to picture what a knitted goat might look like. A stuff toy popped into my head. But that wasn't right. So then I went off on a mental tangent about how I want to have cashmere goats so that I can "shave" them and make stuff out of their hair. But what if I do that and they get cold? I should take my wool, shaved from the goats and knit them sweaters!

Goats in sweaters. Can you picture it? I was giggling all afternoon because I just kept picturing goats in sweaters. hah!