a crafty blog?

I really have been crafty lately, I just haven't posted about it lately. But now I have something big. I got a spinning wheel! I ordered the Otium from Heavenly Handspinning and have been trying to get it to work.

Trying is the operative word. I tried myself out the other week when I got it. I think some of the words I was saying were making my husband blush. First, I couldn't treadle. Then when I got the hang of that, I couldn't get the yarn to go on the bobbin. Then, a piece broke on it. I was pretty angry because that meant I wouldn't get any practice, but I emailed Jan Ford, the company owner, and she was nothing but nice. I sent pictures of the part that had broken and she sent one immediately at no charge. It came in last night and I got to work on it. I started getting frustrated because it wasn't going well again, but I had Jason talk nicely to it and fiddle with it a bit and I started to get it. Here are the results: The darkness of the picture and of the wool hides the lumps and uneven twists. :) I was just happy to finally get yarn on the bobbin. Now I just need to practice, practice, practice.


I picked up spindling again while I was waiting for the wheel part to arrive. I wasn't ready to lay out cash on a spindle when I wasn't even sure if I'd like the wheel, but was itching to spin,so I cobbled one together out of some junk lying around the house. I saw someone on YouTube make a one out of cardboard and a pencil, so I followed suit, except I used some leftover coroplast from the piggies' cage so I wouldn't crunch the whorl when I put it in my purse.
I am thrilled with the results. It spins like a tornado, and I've even moved past park and draft, which I thought I never would. I had a big breakthrough when I read about spinning from the fold. That made it so much easier to draft.

another mother in law post

I stood adjusting my Christmas party dress bodice in the mirror after fiddling with it on my dummy. I thought to myself "Hmm, I think I'll have to turn this into a princess seam" and that triggered a memory from that huge fight MIL and I had over the summer.

"Why, you were such a spoiled brat even your letter jacket said princess on it!" she screeched at me. I don't know how other letter jackets are, but the styles of the ones from my school had the last name emblazoned across the back, and most people put a nickname in small letters underneath it. I didn't really have a well known nickname and sure as hell wasn't going to put "Sugar Plum", my mom's diminuitive for me, on there.

I hung out with the stoner/misfit group at school. I wasn't a stoner or really even a misfit, unless you count that I didn't run with any popular crowds and wasn't very well known. I loved hanging out with the group because even though I wasn't just like them I felt accepted by them.

There was one boy in the group I used to walk to class with a lot. I never fancied him romantically, and I don't think he fancied me that way either, but I think he appreciated me talking to him as an equal, as he was very,very obese. While I never witnessed him being picked on, I'm sure he put up with plenty of it. I treated him the same as I'd want to be treated, and always greeted him with a big smile, and sometimes a hug. He was very sweet and dubbed me "princess". So, since that was the least dorky sounding name I could think of, that's what I had put on my jacket. This was before "princess" and "Hottie" became associated with Paris Hilton and moms dressing their daughters like cheap hookers.

I'm pretty sure Robert was the sort of person MIL wouldn't have openly taunted about his weight, lest she be branded a witch, but I'd bet Greg Louganis' gayness she'd have said plenty of mean things out of his earshot. That's how she operates. I'm really surprised she worked up the nerve to call me a brat to my face, but I think she did it because I was emotionally vulnerable and Jason wasn't there to defend me.

The whole situation with her makes me sad, and not just because I know I will never be truly favored in her eyes. Even though she's not the type of person I'd be friends with outside of family, she has her moments when she's happy and and tolerable to be around. She doesn't make any stabs at mine or Jason's parenting skills, appearance, lack of Catholicism, etc . But then it's as if she realizes she's not being bitter and gets mean again. I hope I never get like that.

My first time being tagged!

I was tagged by Miss Kitty at E &P for a Seven Weird Book Facts meme. I have to come up with seven weird book facts about myself,tag seven other people, then let them know they've been tagged.

1. The scariest book I've ever read is Alas Babylon by Pat Frank. I first read it for an English class, then re read it later and both times didn't sleep well for days afterward. Horror novels and movies never scare me, but this book did because it seemed so real that it could happen tomorrow.
2. I read The Macmillan Fully Illustrated Dictionary for Children a lot when I was a small child. Consequently, it drives me nuts how atrocious people's spelling can be these days.
3. I'm currently reading Virginity Lost: An Intimate Portrait of First Sexual Experiences by Laura M. Carpenter. It's a drier read than I expected, but I still find it interesting. It's nice to read something about sex that goes beyond "Just don't do it!"

4. I'm a card carrying member of the Bathroom Readers Institute. It all started when I got Jason an Uncle John's Bathroom Reader for his 19th birthday in 2000. He's legendary for his "private library time" so I thought it'd be perfect for him. Now we're hooked on them. We have quite a few to catch up on, but there's at least 7 of them floating around here. Where else could you learn about the history of Photography, dumb criminals, and odd world customs in the same volume?

5. Despite being a grown up, I love childrens' illustrated books and had several long before the boys were born. Some of my favorites right now are the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems, and the Walter the Farting Dog series.

6. I read things to the kids that are way,way above their reading level, like the unabridged Alice in Wonderland and the Hobbit. I keep the sessions short so they don't get overwhelmed, and often stop and explain words, but I don't dumb things down. In the area I live in, I think a lot of people don't read to their kids often and it's so sad because it's such an easy thing to do.

7. I'm as happy as a pig in slop at a used book store or library sale. I never leave those types of places emptyhanded, and usually leave with at least a stack.

The people who I want to tag don't have blogs, but I'll see if they'll let me publish their memes on here later

1. Anthony
2. Jude
3. Monica
4. Bryan
5. Jason
6. Natalie
7. Scott

Remembrance Day

In Flanders Fields

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

---

Too good to pass up.

I love going to what I call the "Fancy" Kroger, the Kroger signature store. It's not scary and huge like the Super Wal Mart down the street, and they have several ethnic foods. I always try to get one or two new things from there, like Jamaican Curry powder, Heinz baked beans for fry ups, or Patak's curry sauces.

I credit Jason for spotting this one and for 50 cents, it was worth it. I collapsed in immediate giggles, and couldn't resist pointing it out to the cashier.

Note that it's "spicy" and just try to keep a straight face. I decided to fix it for dinner last night, and couldn't resist making little meat balls purely so I could say "Jason, let's have cock and meaty balls for dinner!" The boys heard me say that, of course, so Malcolm is still saying "Why I can't have cock in my mouth?" I have to keep myself from laughing so he'll stop.

Not quite cats

Jason and I had discussed getting a cat closer to the first of the year, since Korshka disappeared a few weeks ago and there've been no signs of her. Our plan was always to fetch her from my mother in law's once we weren't paying set up fees for phones, internet, rent, etc. but that changed when she went missing.

I've been getting really lonely here,and since having our dog Addy in the apartment wasn't an option, I went to the apartment office and started asking about pets. Were I to have a cat, the deposit would be 400 dollars, half of which is non refundable, and an additional 10-12 dollars a month on pet rent. That isn't completely out of our budget, but I would have had to wait until after the holidays to get a kitty because we try not to spend more than 2 or 300 bucks at a time on anything that isn't groceries or rent so we have a cushion in case we have something unexpected happen (Like when Hurricane Ike hit and we had to completely restock our fridge).

I didn't want to wait that long. Emotionally, the holidays have always been a difficult time for me, and there's nothing like a furry little pal for a pick me up. We're settled in where we are, have steady income, and have settled into a predictable routine, so I knew taking on the responsibility of a pet was something I could handle. I asked some more questions, and found out that there is no pet rent or deposit necessary for a caged animal such as a hamster. I'm not terribly fond of hamsters (Been bitten one too many times!) so I immediately thought of guinea pigs. They're big enough if one of them scampers away, I'd be able to find them, and not so fragile and delicate as to have a heart attack from one of the kids giving it a gentle pat while it's in my lap.

So here are my two little males, Marley and Hendrix. We got them from Citizens for Animal Protection, a shelter in the area. Those were such great names Jason and I decided to leave them as is.

They really don't shoot lasers out of their eyes! I just don't know how to use the red eye feature on my camera. Plus, they were really excited about dinner time. These guys can really pack it away too, Hendrix(the brown and white one) ate a quarter of a carrot and Marley ate a huge sprig of parsley as fast as he could get it in his mouth. I'll try to get better pictures in the weeks to come.

Anyone of sound mind and body getting a pet should seriously consider getting them from the shelter if at all possible, especially for little guys like these. Not all shelters even take them but it might surprise you who does. When I was perusing the pages at Petfinder, I saw they had rats, mice, guinea pigs, and even lovebirds at the local SPCA.

I'm back!

After months of not blogging,I'm back!We have internet access at home now. Here's a short rundown of what happened. We got back to the states in February, stayed with my mother in law for 5 months while Jason job hunted and looked for a place for us to live. We now reside in an apartment in Houston. It was nice to not have to worry about lodging when he didn't have a job, and I am glad for the hospitality extended to us, but my husband and I don't get along very well with his mom so it was better for us to move out as soon as possible.

Oh jeez, and I know I said this would be short but now I have to vent about something that happened there.

We had a huge argument the week before we moved.The kids were misbehaving and she tried taking me aside to tell me how I could handle them better and I snapped. Of course, this meant crying a lot and then she layed into me. She went on about how dirty our apartment in Denver was. And, it was. I was depressed, and mostly alone with a new baby, worried about moving, so I let everything except the baby go to hell. I wasn't able to take the dog out as often as I should have and so she peed on the carpet in some places. I'm so ashamed of it now. She went on about how dirty our car was, and how we shouldn't ever let the kids eat in there, and talked about how I shouldn't still be nursing Malcolm, and how I let the kids walk all over me (I don't, but she always takes over and I try to keep ugliness to a minimum in front of the kids). About how I was a spoiled brat because I took flying lessons as part of Civil Air Patrol, and that's why my parents don't have any money, and why didn't I have a Driver's license already, and how I needed to be more active and how I was too heavy. Then, the icing on the cake was when she said "All you ever do is sit there and knit". I told her I have depression and anxiety problems, and living out in the country with only her as a companion didn't help, and knitting was my outlet. "Oh, I thought it was a nervous tic, you always having to have your hands moving" she said with a sniff.

Needless to say, I'm still hurting over it. My ire isn't so bad I'll prevent her from seeing the kids, but I see a lot of biting my tongue and drinking when I get back home in my future.

I'm glad to be able to articulate my thoughts here. Thank you to anyone who took the time to read my rant. I promise there will be more knitting/crafting content soon.