On New Leaves and Shedding Skin

It's been so overwhelming, I don't even know where to start.

A week ago, the journey home began with a bus ride to Boston, a bus only narrowly caught by jaywalking across a wide, busy road with several small children and gigantic luggage. I traveled with only one of the small children, my own, and he was quite enamored of bus travel and made things much easier than I could have hoped. A little confusion and lack of communication on my part made for some fruitless runnings-around on Sarah (

sarahcoyne

) and Megan's (

suncloudedover

) parts (sorry!!!!!), as Alison (

wonderlandq

) found me lickety-split and we blew right on outta that bus station right quick, beating Sarah to her casa by about an hour and a half. OOPS! I missed Megan entirely. Boo on that bit.

Sarah heard some bedtime story and the little guy crashed out hard on the Deadly Daybed while we had the best dessert ever, which consisted of handmade ice cream, strawberry-rhubarb sauce and crushed dark-chocolatey/salty cookies. Seriously, it was so good. I'd try to recreate it here, but the strawberries aren't the same and the rhubarb here is ridiculous.

Anyway, the flight was uneventful but exhausting, and I've spent this entire week just settling into our latest state of limbo.

We're at my in-laws in the East Bay Area, and for several weeks, possibly a couple months, C will be up and down between here and the farm up in northern CA...the farm job is going to be awesome, but we need to get our shelter figured out. Right now, the plan is to build a platform and set one of these on it.
The little guy and I need to stay behind down here until something is set up. The only setback is that it's going to be a while before C is paid and we're not sure how we're going to purchase the actual structure. I'm confident we'll figure it out, though.

I avoided getting in touch with anyone since we've been here so I could process and absorb my new surroundings. Sure, it's all familiar...it's not like we've been gone twenty or thirty years, but still...it's very different from the life I'd gotten used to...flying in over brown, dry hills instead of lush, green mountains made my heart heavy...we hiked today and it felt like we're suddenly in a different hemisphere entirely. Bristle thistles and crunching grass, air that is dry and crisp...tell me that it's summer here.

Moving on, there has been a decision made through all this transition...this being that it's time to retire The Spun Monkey in it's current incarnation. I will still be producing yarn, and I will retain my Etsy shop...probably not my website, but the domain will link to Etsy...maybe just x-post to a wordpress blog that links to everything...but I cannot be a yarn factory any longer. Stick a fork in me. I can't keep staying up until 2am to meet the quota I set for myself so that I have enough for shows, consignment and my own shop. I have a child and a husband and will also be integrating myself into a cooperative farming scenario. I will still be spinning and creating art, but it will no longer be during hours when I should really be sleeping. And normal hours means less productivity. However, this also means that my time with my art will be precious and more fulfilling because I will be exploring what I want to rather than what I feel I should be working on in order to sell product, meaning: more complex pieces, fine art and mixed media works and varied mediums. This shouldn't be disappointing to anyone, as it should make my shop more interesting to follow and incorporate more of my passions as it evolves. Fiber and yarns will always be there, but I need to branch out creatively or I will burn out.

That's all I've got for now.