The Crapola and The Goodness

Crapola first: I haven't been posting because I'd love to have something else to talk about besides how preparing a cross-country move is rapidly destroying my soul.
We are seriously tense over here, people. C and I don't usually argue over petty bullshit, but here we are, doing just that. I've been purposefully avoiding most forms of communication with my friends. It's so much easier to shut down and be an asshole than to feel my heart break every time I feel closer to a good friend I'm soon to leave behind.

Goodness = The weekend was awesome. Stacey and I went out to see Jill Sobule at the Iron Horse, and I am really going to miss that venue. Jill was full of Adorable and Charm and Hilarity, and I had a very nice sparkly water with lime. Before the show was a shared pile mountain of deliciously greasy tempura (hence the sparkly water to settle the tum) and a solo-effort chocolate truffle that was much too large and delicious for one person to consume (but somehow I managed it).

The next morning was you-know-what (which, btw, I had totally forgotten about...I'd like to think I honor my mothers every day) and I was allowed to sleep in (7:50am!!!) and a pile of french toast awaited me at the bottom of the stairs. Sleep + Toast = The Good Life.

The rest of this week I can pretty much do without. Our tenants (yeah, the new ones who moved into the house we haven't been able to sell) just decided to move out...a week before C leaves and so now we scramble to get new tenants in.
We have friends to buy our wood, though, and I might even get $100 for the sad Subie that is minus one cylinder. It's all about balance, right?

Oh, and before I forget...and this one's for the locals...well, the locals who are into fiber:

This Saturday, May 16th 10-4pm...The 6th Annual Jamaica Fiber Festival
in Jamaica Village, VT

Come visit. It is my last New England hurrah.

And when we get to where we're goin' and I have a whole new set of locals, there will be this:

Here: on July 18th and 19th! Woo!

I'm teamed up with Kim of Infiknitty for this event, and I'm very excited! It's a fabulous way to be welcomed back home. I'm keeping just enough of my studio here to keep up on production while 99.5% of my worldly belongings are on the other side of the continent. I'm borrowing a spinning wheel and I won't have my drum carder, but felting gear is very minimal, so I will be focusing on the summer Tangled scarves and a couple of new kits for the show involving a sweet little mitt pattern and some dyes.

Happy...what day is it? Thursday! Happy Thursday!

A Post...all proper-like

Hello there, internets!

I have been absent for so many reasons.

1: Prepping for shows...one down, one to go before we move! For a report on Twist Fair, scroll down.
2: Playtime and yummy things with good friends.
3: Our internets was brokity-broke. For more than a week, which made it easy to fall off the posting-horse.
4: A general malaise about the impending uprooting of my life...
5: Many trips to the pond.
6: More, I'm sure, but who cares? Here I am!

That whole malaise thing is boring me to tears, so I'm pretty much done with it. I have no choice but to go with the flow and see where this takes me, so I might as well make the best of it. There are dear friends, fog, old growth trees and granite to climb...all waiting for me at the end of this, and hundreds of other Items of Goodness I could note if I just put away the fear. Right here in this little box.

And if nothing else keeps me going, I have two New England visits already planned for the fall.

So...Twist!
Customer flow left something to be desired...there were some pretty long lulls of zero traffic, especially on Saturday...maybe it's the economy or maybe it's that no one could get into town and park because of the Pride parade/rally/thing that was happening downtown. I did pretty well, anyway, and received some really amazing and validating feedback. Sadly, there were quite a few folks who mentioned that they would buy something if they, say, had a job or weren't broke. Being in that same boat myself, I wished I could have plunked it down for some of the other great vendors there, but the almighty Swap be praised, I did make some awesome trades.
The Candy Thief and Bill Pickles (karatekatkniter ) were my neighbors. They were swell and didn't think I was crazy when I was on a moth-murdering rampage (they were flying around in the venue and seemed very interested in my stuff...my guess is that costumes are stored somewhere on that floor of the building...don't know for sure). I'm 99.9% sure I didn't bring any of those little bastards home with me, but all my goods are on a freezer rotation just to be 100%...
Casey helped me start my Candy Thief collection, and here she is sporting her Spun Monkey acquisition:

There were clowns harrassing amusing the vendors and shoppers, one of which was very impressed by my partner-in-vendoring whipping out a pen and a key to start a knitting project with...

Here's my set-up:

Yarn:

New neck warmers modeled by Lacey:

Lots of other nuno:

Friday was full of fabulous...it started with a journey to the venue with my good friend Stacey who, not only chauffeured and kept me company at my table, but also took us to her family's cabin that night for our few hours of sleep. Sans children for the weekend, we shared a semi-fancy dinner before the show...I had forgotten how relaxing it is to have a meal with only adults at the table. And to have someone else cook it for me and clean it up! Extreme luxury.

After the Friday night installment of the show, we ate sugar with supersnackcake where we declared our love for otters, expounded upon the virtues of fried foods and lost and found her wallet.

I have now taken a two-day break which, while a lovely thing to do for myself, does not help me prepare for the Jamaica Fiber Festival a week from Saturday.
Too bad I spent most of yesterday afternoon/evening trying to remember how to breathe after being attacked by my Most Deadliest of Enemies: buckwheat flour on the Co-op floor. It was my worst reaction yet, so I've made an appointment to get an allergy panel and talk about whether or not I should be carrying around one of those EpiPens. I am staunchly anti-pharmaceutical, but when C told me he was going to start carrying around a knife and a ballpoint pen just in case he has to give me an emergency tracheotomy next time, I figure manufactured adrenaline is maybe a saner, more sanitary alternative.

Wheeeeeeeeeee!

Where I've Been...

Here:

I have a few hours of tagging ahead of me before I can ship a big fatty box to Cloverhill Yarn Shop for MDSW. No sigh of relief, however, as production mode shall remain in full swing until C takes my studio away...I will have zero fiber for nearly an entire month. I am building inventory like a crafter possessed. No sleep for me. Oddly enough, I don't even want the sleep. This deadline business has been fueling my creative fire rather than dampening it. I just can't get enough wool play.

There are other places I've been....mainly enjoying the quiet of the housemates (a family of five) having been away for two whole weeks. I had no idea how much I missed about having my own cozy home. We function much more smoothly as a family unit on our own...I need a village, not shared housing.

I've also been in packing mode in between things like eating and felting. We're aspiring to a much higher standard of pre-loading organization this time around, because we won't be able to unpack right away when we get there, maybe not for several weeks or months, and will undoubtedly need to find this or that in a box somewhere. I'm not at all anxious about this and that's a BIG FAT LIE.

Okay, I've gotta know...***BRIMFIELD LADIES***...what is UP?!?
which day? can it be on a weekday, like Friday? (I have a fiber fest on the 16th I really shouldn't flake on, but will if I have to)
I want to see you all and fight over buttons at least this once before I leeeeeeaaaaave.

It's official.

I'm going to miss this place.

I've been spending my days in a wistful haze, quietly drinking in sounds and smells, trying to take in as much of this amazing seasonal transition as I can...knowing the seasonal shifts in the redwoods will be the merest of subtleties compared to the utter bursting forth that is a New England Spring.

I'm going to miss this girl, too:

My Alice.
But she's a Vermont girl and has zero interest in long journeys and the salty sea. She likes bracken. And lots of it. And she probably won't miss me all that much. Or at all. But I'm okay with this.

Really, I'm okay with all of this. If only because I am very distracted with the fact that I have only two more weeks until Twist and less than that to ship out for Maryland Sheep and Wool.
I have been mad prepping:

Have not even begun work on the shiny new thing that I intend to have ready for both. Luckily, I can run remarkably well on very little sleep.

Since C has been back and housemates have still been away, there has been family time and even a few quiet moments in the day...I had forgotten what it was like. We are quite the efficient little unit when we have our own space and time to manage. I really enjoy not needing to schedule my laundry and showers.

C leaves soon...in a few weeks time. A solo drive. The whole storage idea became ridiculously expensive. So, the standard moving rig it is, and we'll just have to move everything around a lot when we work on things like the floors and such. The little guy and I are still planning on taking the train...just the two of us...a few weeks behind C so he can get some of the more major work done without having to worry about kid-safety, or un-safety as the case may be.

I'm going now to soak up the remaining bits of this glorious Spring day. And eat a popsicle.
xoxoxo

May 19, 2009

The Little Guy and I...we stand alone in wellness, looking down over the wreckage that turned our home into The Vomitorium. We've pounded the probiotics, the honey-lemon and elderflower teas, smoothies of homemade yogurt and summer berries. We step over the casualties...3/4 of the household brought down, and we are ready for them to all feel better so we can have normal meals again, use the bathroom whenever we want, and in my case, to get some work done again.

I still have not ordered my camera. The whole wheel thing really has made me nervous about investing in any moderately expensive piece of equipment for my business. I can find the Xsi for $600 or $219 depending on the website. My gut says go for the reputable biz that I've trusted for photography equipment forever and pay the higher price, rather than take my chances with a place that is obviously selling it for less than cost or perhaps it's just a knock-off???? Ugh. I really should look into whether or not there's a place in Bratt I can go to buy locally if I'm just going to pay full price anyway. I excel at making things a lot harder than they need to be.

In other news, there are several things I'm prepping for:
Twist Fair, May 1 and 2, Northampton, MA
Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, May 2 and 3, West Friendship, MD (sending my stuff down with the Cloverhill Yarn Shop...I won't be there myself)
Still on the fence about applying to the BUST Spring Fling Craftacular and Art Star in Philly. If I don't apply to BUST I'll be doing a local fiber fest that weekend in Jamaica, VT. I'm just worried about putting too much on my plate right before moving.
Anyone do the Spring Fling last year? Any thoughts? I did the BUST Holiday Craftacular the first year of the event, but haven't applied to any of their events since. It's kind of a long haul to a very unfamiliar place for me, but now I have some family in that area so it could be a fun trip on the train.

And then there's filling up consignment/wholesale accounts...I want to have everyone taken care of before I take a month or so off during the move.

Speaking of, we are now in the planning stages, trying to figure out how the heck we're going to get ourselves and our stuff 3000 miles west. The way we did it last time was ridiculously expensive...we're hoping to find some info about train cars but research is less than fruitful. Anyone have a transporter we can borrow? Preferably one that won't bring us to the other side as insects, please.

Oh, and it's snowing today.
Happy Thursday!