Just pics

Whew!

Just finished a spinning project this morning. I was given a bag of fiber a few months back and it is just really weird stuff. I don't know what breed of sheep it comes from, but it is super stretchy and slubby and weird. Think stretchy cobwebby. I tried carding it but it didn't help at all with the slubbiness of it, so I just decided to spin it from the locks... even though it wasn't very lock like! Oh well. I couldn't bear to just toss it so I thought that I would spin it, dye it fun colours and then give it all to a preggy friend who really loves to knit. Maybe some longies and soakers for the new baby? It turned out cool anyways. A bit thick and thin and slubby, but soft and sproingy. I dyed one skein about a month ago to experiment with dying and it turned out nice. I have no idea how it will knit up though. I finished about 600 yards more and was finally finished plying this morning. I had planned to get out the dyepot this afternoon but it was so pretty and creamy looking in its natural state. I called up my friend and gave her the option of keeping it in its creamy natural white colour and she would love to give it a go that way. I still have a bag of cheviot/shetland mix that I am going to dye in locks this afternoon. Maybe I will throw some onsies in there to tye dye with the boys as a gift. Now I am looking forward to spinning something consistant and clean looking!

I have been looking for ages ...

I have been looking for ages on Craigslist and at thrift stores for a good bookshelf. They are hard to come by! When I do see one that is real wood they are in the 250 dollar range. We had made do for almost 10 years now with one my father in law built out of some sort of awful prefab coreboard. It has been saggy and terrible looking for the past 8 or so of those years! Finally yesterday we purchased some wood... we walked into the wood store and there were tons of pine shelving bits for sale. We put together a nice big bookshelf in an afternoon for MUCH cheaper than anything we could have bought used... besides, it is really nice and big. We both went to bed with big smiles! Anything that makes our 800 square foot place more organised and livable... hey! It makes me very happy!

I sold a loom that I had bought used yesterday, gave away another that I had been given ( who gave us a bottle of wine!) , decluttered and organised the boys play/ learning space ( got 5 bags off to the thrift store!) . I has been productive around here!

Somehow I have been super supported in the fiber arts community and have recieved 2 new looms in the past week. A beautiful Salish upright loom, a nice lightweight rigid heddle as well. You meet fiber folks everywhere you go. A woman fom the local fiber guild was telling me that the youngest member in the guild is 60 years old. Some are in thier 90s and are just itching to pass on thier knowledge. My hubby and I were marvelling at how somehow I have amassed everything that I needed for spinning including two lovely wheels, carders, combs, spindles, niddy noddys, an antique skein and bobbin winder, and 6 fleeces all for under 200 dollars( over the past year). People have been very generous! I really NEEDED something like this in my life though for sanity reasons! ( parenting can be so intense and creative balance is a real need in my life. )I am very thankful when I feel so supported by the universe in these ways.

Piccies

So in the end only two of the eggs hatched and the final egg was empty and unfertilised. The babies are doing great and are super cute!! The oldest we named Piper and the younger one is Cricket. We just started taking them out of the nest briefly to clean the poop out. So there is a quick pic in the meantime.

We have a baby!!!!

Baby budgie number one hatched yesterday night!!!! I could hear little peeps from inside the egg yesterday and by bedtime last night the peeps got a lot louder . I knew something was up yesterday because papa bird was super attentive and all of the sudden squished into the nest with mama... weird beause he has never done that before. I was worried about him squishing the eggs... but they seem to know what they are doing!!! He squishes in there and feeds the mama, and preens her and coos to her. A loving papa!lol I watched the mama turn the baby over and around to get access to its little beak and feed it. It is like a little pink bald jellybean!

I will take pics of the baby (babies?) in a week or so. I don't want to disturb them too much.

Into fall!

Brrr! The mornings are getting chilly! I can hear my hubby scraping the windows of the van before heading off to work in the morning.... at his new job!!! Good news, as EI would have run out soon. Was hired and started last week as the Maintenance Manager at a very large hotel!!!! I am seriously crossing my fingers that this will work out long term. Partial medical/dental and life insurance... luxuries that we have never had! Working in the same place every day, regular schedule. I cried when he got it. I will always make it work... living on 1400 dollars a month for the past 6 months has gotten to me though. It will take us a while to catch up again, and I will be so thankful to have the basic needs covered again.

Things are good here, getting back into a routine of things. We have all been under the weather for a bit here, so it will be nice to get back into the swing of things. Interesting news, our budgies have laid three eggs. If they are fertilised and all goes well, they may hatch in a little over a week. We are all prepared for natures will... not trying to get our hopes up. It would be nice though!

Yesterday the boys and I took on the task of trying to make felted soap! Fun project , even for someone with fine motor difficulties. All of our soaps worked out! Today we are going to try to make some felted acorn ornaments for our Norfolk pine houseplant. Last year we made origami ones... should be cute with the acorns. I think we need to go hunting for another acorn tree to find more caps because these would make perfect Christmas gifts for the grandparents.

Swinging into fall

Whew! Things got busy over the last couple of weeks! Youngest son turned 6 last week, we had unexpected house guests for 4 days and things are just plugging along.
Good news. The gallery here in town wants us to put some of our copper and wood jewelry in her storefront. This is so great. Galleries generally take 40 percent profit but the owner has offered to knock it down to 30 percent. It sure eats into any money we could make( putting a ton of time in to only make a teeny bit over the cost of supplies) but I guess any little bit helps right?!
Eldest son went to the environmental club for the past two weeks and it has gone so well. My last post I was feeling pretty down about the whole thing but this has been such a booster in morale! I know the mom who runs the program ( a happy surprise!) and she has been so helpful in checking in. She has been sure to make the food they cook together gluten free ( which is cool because I was a support for her family a couple of years ago when they tried gluten free for thier family) and has phoned to check in to make sure things are going well. I can't say enough how much I appreciate the support. ( Thanks Janet and Louisa for the comments last week as well. It really means a lot!)
Papa still isn't working yet. Still little trickles of stuff here and there. We were waiting on a new condo project which would have ment months of steady work... then the owner/ contracter had a heart attack and died. All of the construction just stopped for the project now. We are trying not to panic but slowly we have gotten into the hole over the past half of a year. EI runs out in March. We could really use a bit of luck right now. We sold our old lathe this week for grocery money. Bonus though,oil is wayyyy cheaper this year than it was last year. With a coupon we managed to fill the tank for the same price that it cost for half of a tank last year.
The last week has taken a different turn for us. An elderly gentleman in the community had approached my hubby a few months ago to do some editing and to type up a chunk of his biography for him. My hubby did it as a favour to him and now it has turned into more editing and visits. He hasn't said anything but I know that he is dying right now. He doesn't have any family around and is super lonely. He wan'ts to pay me to cook for him... I have got too much on my plate already. And I just CAN'T take money from someone who just needs a little bit of help. I am going to try to save portions of what we cook so that he can freeze them for meals. He has lost so much weight already. I know that truly he just wan'ts our company and that is the most important thing. I just feel a little bit overwhelmed. Dang! Yesterday he took me aside and asked me to make him a necklace with a very special cherokee arrowhead( he has a cherokee background) that he has been saving. Like a talisman for this last bit of his journey.( I am actualy excited about this project. It kept me up last night trying to come up with the perfect design.)He is SUCH an interesting character. He gifted me with some cut burmese emeralds that he was saving as well as a jar of raw opal. He gave the boys a bunch of his fossil collection too. He is so kind to us... I hope that I can be there to help him. What a bizzare existance we live sometimes! No groceries, but opals and emeralds!lol The universe takes care of us in unexpected ways!