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.

hotel seance

sarah painted the most awesome sign and hung it too. i held the ladder.

i'm truly resisting my higher self's plan to get healthy, before it's too late. sometimes i wish i could kick my own ass.

Shot with my Hipstamatic for iPhone
Lens: Helga Viking
Flash: Off
Film: Ina's 1969

Shot with my Hipstamatic for iPhone
Lens: Helga Viking
Flash: Off
Film: Ina's 1969

ragtime outtakes

today was kind of a bust owing to some icky news this morning that hub's place-of-business was vandalized... so useless angry feelings and phone time with insurance people...

i did accomplish *some* stuff this weekend (our weekends are sunday/monday), like doing my hair colour (not perfect, but it'll do with a hat..), the usual agonizing over my life's Work, a lot of catch-up on sleep and miss marple, mexican food, turkey time and ragtime.

cosy friends

No-one can make a care package like Mathyld. Yummy teas from her mum's tearoom, lunar oil and the pièce de résistance, this special talisman she created with magical gemstones and a vintage vial. My favorite stone is the rutilated quartz, with its glints of gold, but each gem has a particular energy and we chose this one for me together. I'm so glad it is here to help protect me from the flus and fatigues I've been having... Thank you, ma soeur!



..and I'm so proud to have an original papercut by the very talented and dear Chad, Mon Petit Fantome. It's titled "As Rabbit's Spirit Began To Pass, He Told Us The Final Secret". It reminds me of when Hazel passes at the end of Watership Down. So beautiful it gives me major weepies.


Miss Hadley is finally adjusting and acting more like a cat than a scared, starved creature... she's finally scratching, playing even, cuddling and snoozing in the sun.

goings on

Lots of work and fun getting ready for Trace's opening at the hotel on Friday night. Show pics here.

hotelling

getting ready for friday's show!
finished mathyld's mitts
packaged four things to send off tomorrow
worked on carding gabbie's fleece
really helpful creative convo with sarah, which generated new goals (four new pieces based on a theme) she's quite the taskmaster!
tonight: knitting shetland lace shawl

finished taxes, *finally* (ugh)
researched new project
drew new embroidery
started new knitting
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