Creating Again

Earlier today we were supposed to take Artemas for his driver's test in Clinton, where DD#1 lives, over 30 miles away. Traffic was terrible and we almost ran out of gas. We were late, and they wouldn't let him take the test. If he waits, renews his permit in Oct., and takes the test in January when he turns 18, he can get a non-restricted full license. So, whatever.

We went on to Des house for some fun in the sun. She colored Diantha's stripes to incredibly bright neon pink. Artemas had to have some stripes too.

The little kids ran around picking up sticks and walnuts in the yard, and laid on a quilt on the grass. I knitted & lay in the sun a while... Veronica made me some foil "sun shades."

So here are lotsa pics of the fun. Enjoy!


This is the walnut harvest. About a 1/2 bushel. Husking them will have to wait for another day! I have a hard time eating walnuts, because they burn my tongue. I like pecans better. But I would like to make some natural dye from the hulls!

Here we have some more hair-do Rocket Science going on


Jeremiah and his little Aunt B couldn't squeeze their eyes shut tight enough to keep today's sun out, though it wasn't scroching hot for a change...

Des got haircolor in her mouth, and it was Blek.



But a Lunch of Champions of soda and a homemade muffin, that was much better.

Artemas ended up with stripes. Fortunately, guys' hair is short, so in a month he can shave it off.

Or, not.


I've been going through a slow slump, in my shops, in my creativity, and just in my energy in general. Accordingly, my sales have suffered over the summer, which they always do when I get down to about 30 or less items (though I hear from just about everyone, that sales have been bad all over this summer).

So today I finally got some new items listed in my shop. I used my Hall of Horrors banner from last year, because it is still so cool... and the avatar of me dressed as Alice Cooper last year at Halloween. I just LOVE Alice, both as a performer and as a fellow Christian.

The first one is Frankenstein's Suit, a handcut, hand dyed yarn from a recycled 100% cotton T shirt. Wow, I just love this one.

There is also Halloween-er, a self-striping, hand dyed 80% wool bulky yarn in orange and black. Too cool!

I relisted and renamed a couple existing yarns.

And I put up a new listing for my So Big They're Obscene handmade double-pointed knitting needles from recycled pear wood.

Feels good to be creating again.

Don't Leave Home For Long or Random Weirdness Happens

A lotta pics tonight, of random weirdness that has happened to me lately when I wasn't looking.

Our cat D.O.G (pronounced Dee-OH'-ghee) finds some strange places to sleep. The other morning I opened the cereal cupboard to put away a container oldest DS had left out when he left for work 2 hours earlier. -->


Sat. night I went with DS#2 to pick a friend of his up from work. Said friend needed to go by his house to get clothes, so he could more comfortably spend the night on our sofa playing x-box. He asked if I minded if he would do a load of laundry at my house. I got home to find the girl next door spending the night too. Apparently I am running a Youth Hostel.


During the hour I was gone, aliens, or oldest daughter Desiree, got hold of Diantha's hair. ( <-- )

And Tony's. ( --> ) And shortly after we got back, Artemas' too (no pic available, thank God).

Tony's hair is very soft, and ended up looking like a fuzzy yellow baby duck.


Diantha is striped. Seems like the plan is that when we go to Des' house tomorrow, she is going to put hot pink color on Diantha's stripes.

Hannah is shocked at the whole proceedings.


~'^*^'~~'^*^'~~'^*^'~

While we were out walking the other day, I came across some pic-worthy fails.


The first one was in the bakery case. These chocolate-dipped pastries look like a pair of... well, of... oh bollocks, never mind.

Then there was this spectacular product-name fail. The package is clearly printed in English, and was available in a major chain American grocery store. Exactly WHAT does this soup taste like? (Let me guess... chicken!)

Ok, this isn't exactly a fail, more like just something really weird.

This is a municipally-owned vehicle in our town. It's not a cab. I never saw a chartreuse, something, before.

Here is a yarn bomb, yarnbomb, knit tag, among other names, that we did back in June. It fit at the time. Looks like the people who work in this place have tried, and tried, and tried, to yank it off. No one thought to use a pair of scissors or a box cutter.

The sun has faded it somewhat over the summer, but the fact that it is hanging in there is a testament to the staying power of acrylic. If nobody cuts this thing off, it will probably still be there when Jesus comes back.

Speaking of knitting, I took a notion the other day to actually knit a long-overdue baby gift. The "baby" is 14 months old, so the time is just about ripe. Anyway I cast on the Mossy Jacket that can be found at F.Pea on Friday and I really am almost done with the jacket body.

I am doing it in Bernat Cottontots yarn with Filatura Di Crosa Mama in pale lime for the trim, because the baby lives in FL. I am not crazy about cotton yarn, and the Cottontots shrank a little lengthwise in the washing of the swatch, so I will have to knit an extra inch or so. But the cloth is pretty, and the mom can throw it in the washing machine. Always a plus!

Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love, or Somethin'

My husband colors his hair. (SHHH! He doesn't want people to know!) He has black faccial hair but doesn't want his hair colored black because it looks too fake. So I use Ash Brown on him and that works. He started coloring it about 30 years ago, when he was only in his mid-30s and went gray. Said the gray made him look and feel old. Now he keeps on, because he doesn't want people to think the kids are his grandkids. That doesn't help but still.

And, he has been sick for like 2 weeks with some sort of flu or cold. He was on vacation for part of that, and last week was a sort of short week with Thanksgiving and all, but he still ended up working Friday and Saturday, calling in sick on Sunday (the last day of their work week) and again Monday, so he could finish lying around.

Monday afternoon he says, "Would you color my hair?" I looked at him and thought, sure, anything to help it look better. He wears it long but it is thin, and different lengths some places cause it breaks easily from all the color-treatments. Two weeks of lying around as much as possible did nothing to enhance the style, without all the white poking through. So he went and got the haircolor without looking at it, and I mixed it up and put it on his hair without so much as a glance at the box. I might add that my hair is naturally very black, but I have it colored (lightened just slightly) purple right now. I had bought black hair color for when the color mutates, I can go back to "normal." Whatever that is.

He got out of the shower and says, "Why is it black?" I said, "It isnt' black, it's Ash Brown. Must be something wrong with your eyes!" Then I looked at him. My husband, the Elder Goth. Tonto. Elvis. You get the idea.

I had made a pot of bean soup for supper, but he said he needed protein. Since I was out rounding up kids, I brought home hamburgers. He had been lying on the couch keeping the madness to a minimum with the younger ones while I was gone, so he just sat up and I sat beside him, eating burgers. I was using the laptop and watching TV, but I kept seeing him out of my peripheral vision. Finally, I turned to him and said,

"Can you sing like Wayne Newton?"

ROFLOL! A few minutes later, I said, "Oh, come on, sing Donke Schoen just once for me!"

He didn't really think it was funny. It was all I could do to keep from laughing so hard I was crying! I told him if people at work say anything about it, just tell them your wife wanted some strange so she colored your hair like a Goth.

Later that night, he was heading for bed in flannel shirt and sleeping pants, looking kinda bedraggled. I said, "I gotta tell ya, Elvis, you don't look so much like A Hunka Hunka Burning Love to me right now."

Man I am having a good time with this.

Last night he went to kiss me goodnight, and I said, "Only if you sing Donke Schoen for me."

I don't know how long this will take to fade, but I can see having a little fun with it for at least a few weeks to come. LoL.