after the thaw

so glad that the washer and the kitchen sink have finally thawed out. lots of laundry and dishes. while it was frozen, i learned that a new roller derby is starting in my area!! sarah and i took a field trip to greensboro and skated all over the sports authority, and then the main street of our little town at night. and the last bit of big news is that my hair is now very platinum!! i love it so much that i wish i hadn't waited so long to do it. white skates, hair, and christmas.

by any other name

some of my handmade feather earrings are in my shoppe... and my new dottie friend is by allyson mellberg (i've wanted one for ages!) things are going along pretty well, although i'm cold and tired and so very glad the market is *over*. exhausting!

i'm on a mission now to introspect and regroup, which may last the winter. of course i do my best introspecting via blogging! so i hope you'll join me. i'm actually going to try to come up with a business plan of sorts, although first i need to think of a different name for it that doesn't make me vomitous. and before that even, a clearer vision of the life and work i want, and before that, what really matters to me.. see? lots of navel-gazing forthcoming here..

let me begin with the name thing. i met some people these past weekends who i had first met online, and i identified myself as drucilla. but then there are some older friends around who know me by my birth name. and some people get confused or reactive to a change of name. some can be unsupportive and even disrespectful. i confess that when i had an old friend decide to go by a different, more formal version of her given name, i thought it was a bullshitty move (but then, she was kinda full of it..). and it's easy to laugh at middle-aged divorcees who choose new new-agey monikers. but i am trying to be more full of love and self-love, and less jaded in my own middle age. i'm persuaded by gala darling that

"life is not about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself"

and i have always, always, since the beginning of my memories, wished for a girlie name...

xox
drucilla

doesn't she look purty under glass?

missus fox wanted to say hello again. i've got displayed her in this thrifted end table which was made by bombay company in the 90s' - it's got a glass top that opens for displaying needlework! we think it's nifty!

jam at the holiday market

the handmade holiday market last weekend at the hotel was incredibly fun. some of the biggest hits were joan's jams, shelly's bracelets, and pam's soaps. it started snowing (our first of the season!) on saturday afternoon, which seemed to send shoppers scurrying home... but then on sunday, travis and scottie brought in some instruments, and barbara lent her amazing voice for some soulful impromptu harmonizing... for a few moments it was like we were in a craft club time machine, back in the 70s.. or what i imagine the 70s must have been like (i was kind of small to remember much..)














anyway, it's starting to feel like a real community around here... after sitting together and drinking tea and crafting all day, people feel like family. so we are excited for the market redux next weekend, when temps are supposed to be back up in the 50s!

this week, along with trying to stay warm and well, i'm listing some new pretties in my shoppe, and marking down some things that need to get on to their new homes..

Hestia, help me

O Hestia, Goddess of hearth and home,

I am afraid that Winter is upon us. I've had a miserable cold and our old farmhouse is now about 49 degrees. Please help me to keep the fire burning and keep my family warm this Winter.

Help me wake up in the night and the wee hours before the fire burns out. Give me strength to carry wood day and night. Protect our dogs and farm animals and keep them comfy. Please keep friends (like Dana and Cal) warm too. And if it's not too much to ask, please don't let my indoor plants die.

"Hestia full of Blessings" 44 x 53 inches Egypt, 6th century (click to biggify)

thank you, Hestia, for this season which puts me in closer touch with our survival. i am so grateful for the cast iron behemoth that is the Source and center of our home. thank you too for the sheep and wool that insulates better than any plastic byproduct. and come Spring, i will be really, really, really grateful.
xox
dru

excuse me, i've been in a crafting fog

friends, i've missed you! i feel like my real life has rudely infringed on my online one... but much crafting has been accomplished in preparation for our first handmade market at the hotel. i love some of the new things i came up with, including a use for all those feathers i've gathered all summer! the market finally started today and it's been great fun getting ready and meeting new folks. makes me even wonder if i might like being a shoplady, although i still wonder..



more pics soon.. i need to go and catch up with your blogs now!!

Happy thanksgiving from Lurch!

and Narcissa

@craftivista

halfway done!

sunday with papa and sherlock

i enjoyed a sherlock holmes-fest last sunday with my da.. something i haven't done since i was much smaller.




and even caught a glimpse of that elusive hell-hound of the baskervilles!

sweater is coming along..

i'm trying to be good this week, but i could not pass up these incredible antique boots (thrifted!)! they are so Me that i'm sure i wore them in a past life. i just need to add buttons back to the sides!!

little cans of sunshine

even though they look a bit more more like true blood, that's what sarah calls canned tomatoes in the dead of winter. she gave us canning lessons the other evening and although it took about six hours to can forty pounds of tomatoes, it wasn't as difficult as i expected from reading canning books. it's the kind of thing much better taught in person, among friends and stories and coffee breaks.

these adventures in cutting, roasting, peeling, mushing, sterilizing and pressurizing was about the most productivity i've known in a good while. i did have to get my house in order before my oldest bff came to visit last week (so fun!!) and then, i also finished up the last lesson of ragtime before she came. so maybe i haven't been as lame as it seems. but the little boxes are not getting checked lately! and now, i'm off to visit mum on wednesday and that means it will be difficult to list things on etsy or prepare for our handmade market over the next week.

all i really want to do is curl up in bed and read knitting mysteries (finished death by cashmere last night, and started died in the wool this morning), and then move to the fire and knit a little of the new sweater i've started (i treated myself to a rowan book and yarn. it's thrilling so far).

maybe it's the nesting season. or hormones. maybe i'm just lazy. or maybe it's that i can't get my freaking meds paid for by insurance, and my fatigue is always out of control when i don't have my meds. it's definitely not that i don't have the spark, or don't enjoy what i'm doing, because i do!

maybe i'll start listing my goals here rather than my accomplishments, at least sometimes, to help me get on track.

1. get copies made and insurance papers mailed out (tomorrow)
2. take photos for new 'smoking section' of etsy shoppe (tomorrow)
3. meet with sarah to decide on vendors for handmade market and get emails sent (tomorrow)
4. groom three bunnies (tomorrow)
5. list around 10 new items on etsy (11/10 to 11/17)
6. figure out tags, banner, postcards and display for handmade market (while at mum's, 11/10 to 11/17)
7. crafty craft for handmade market (11/18 to 12/3)
8. figure out winter plan for hotel and turn on gas (before 12/4)
9. work on grant stuff for hubby (before christmas maybe?)
10. eventually must deal with looming question, to quit or not to quit (grad school). or try that other thing that one professor suggested (afraid to mention yet and no clue at this point but i stress on it daily)...

whew! i know there's more, but that's all i can think. anyone else having these issues, or any words of wisdom to share??

@elsewhere

elsewhere, with my best old pal (that's her, hiding in the confessional).

Owl for Eva

One of my sheroes loved my last barn owl, and I made this one thinking of her. I hope they connect. I do love the idea of crafting animal spirits and familiars.