Life

Vacation post 3 of 3

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The Dance of the Mountain Gods

We went to the Inn of the Mountain Gods, the Mescalero Apache Tribe casino, for lunch.  It is in the mountains by Ruidoso.  They had this beautiful bronze statue (on the left) in front of the casino/restaurant.  It is called “The Dance of the Mountain Gods”.  Inside I took a picture of a showcase they had with the apparel the Mescalero Apache Warrior  typically wore back in the day, see below.  I had to lighten it up quite a bit because I took it inside, I hope you can see it well enough.

 

 

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It was a fun trip and it was very good to see my dad. 🙂
Last of the 3 posts, dang blog.
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Vacation post 1 of 3

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Roswell Walmart

I went to New Mexico to see my dad.  As you can see, in Roswell, they play up the “Roswell Incident”.  Of course my mom, who was raised in Roswell, always told me that there were no aliens.  My dad said they use to send up weather balloons to test the air for radiation because it was the “cold war” and they were making sure that the country in eastern Europe we were having the cold war with wasn’t testing their nuclear capability.  I personally believe my parents, but you can believe what you want. 🙂   Yes they even have their city lights on the main street down town decorated.  Some people even travel to Roswell to get married because like Las Vegas there is no waiting period.  So if you want to elope, come on down 😛 (I’d call ahead to make sure that is still the case tho’).

 

Downtown Roswell

 

My blog is giving me hissy fits so I am going to have to do this blog in 3 different posts to get all the pictures in.

 

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Spring Has Sprung!!

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Butterfly Shadow Box

I saw the male Robins last week, was sooooo excited – Spring is here, tho’ I have to admit we had a really awesome winter this year.  I always love this time of year, with the tulips, crocus, and my favorite – Hyacinths (absolutely wonderful fragrant smell!!!), and other early spring flowers coming up.  I love everything about Spring!!!!

I went to a craft get together early this afternoon that our Relief Society president does once a month so we can all get together and enjoy each other’s company.  For those not familiar with what Relief Society is, it’s a woman’s organization in our Church that is dedicated to helping others, and uplifting not only others but our selves as well.  There were several projects to choose from but I absolutely adore butterflies so I chose this Butterfly Shadow Box to do.  It was simple and fun. 😉  I’m excited to see what we can chose to do next month.  Hey Sis, you would love this one.

Yes Daylight Savings Time is Here Again…sigh

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a few years ago

Well, since the government obviously isn’t going to listen to me about the stupidity of Daylight Savings Time, I’m feeling  like taking a little of my past back :).  This picture was taken about 12 years ago.  Most women would love to have a glamour shot taken, and so I did.  My hair was much shorter than it is now, and you’d think shorter hair is easier to take care of, but nope, I have curly hair and it’s such a pain to take care of.

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A friend and I were discussing this evening the little things that don’t cost anything but are a wonderful part of our lives and how some people overlook these wonderful little but comforting things.  Some of the things I love are: a warm & gentle breeze blowing across my face and watching my hair swirl in the breeze, watching the waves in the over grown grass as the wind blows across it, the smell of freshly mowed grass in the summer time,  listening to and watching the geese as they fly south in the fall and come back in the spring, listening to the birds in the spring and summer singing their little songs outside my open window,  the beautifully fragrant smell of fresh roses and lilacs, the feel of velvet & satin, the feel of a very soft fiber going through my fingers as I spin, the comforting sound of my knitting needles as I knit, watching huge snowflakes as they fall (from inside my warm apt :P), watching the lightning streak across the sky followed by the boom of the thunder,  the feel of my ferret’s fur (he’s very soft) :), hearing the voice of an old friend or family member.  The list could be very long, but these are a few of the things I love.  I’m sure you could come up with a few yourselves. 🙂

Better Late Than Never :)

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Polypay Lamb Roving

OK, I know I promised a picture of the lambs fleece a couple of weeks ago but I’m busy getting use to having nothing to do :P.  Actually, I’m adjusting to a new routine so I haven’t gotten to the things I usually do. I have been re-arranging my apt, and getting ready to go through boxes that should have been gone through so long ago.  One day this coming week I will put a box in the middle of the floor and just sit there going through pitching and re-boxing as needed until I have one box down and however many more to go, my goal is to get rid of at least half of my boxed stuff.  My bedroom is almost reorganized, just the stuff on the top of the bed I wasn’t sure what to do with, but I will have to make a decision this coming week on what to do with those things (mostly papers – that is what I have the most trouble sorting through) so I can sleep in it again – tho I have to admit my love seat is pretty darn comfortable :).

The roving is from a Polypay lamb.  Since I didnt have anything to put it on out there, to keep it from getting more vm (spinning term for vegetable matter – grass, weed seeds, etc, etc) in it for a good shot of the whole fleece,  I just left it in the plastic bag to get a picture.  I’m keeping it in my car as I’m not sure my neighbors wouldn’t appreciate the “delightful” smell of sheep coming from my apt :P.  I will make arrangements to get it out in the mail this week to the mill where they will be turning it into roving.  It should be very nice and I love that it is white so that I can play with dyes ;).  Then in a few months I will have some nice Polypay lamb’s roving to spin.  Maybe next year if I get another fleece I will try to scour and card it on my own. 🙂

Fall Make Way For Old Man Winter

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LDSVenus

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Up front  just so you know, I am not a winter person.  Snow is awesome if you are looking out a big picture window at it in a nice heated room, and you don’t have to get out in it.  Warm snow would be terrific. 

My ferret and my bird shed and molted in preperation for winter in early August this year, about a month earlier than normal, during a heat wave.  We have been having cooler than normal temps in September and today, while I was walking to where I park my car for work, I saw geese flying over head,  headed south.  And altho’ I love watching and listening to the geese, it’s a bit earlier than normal as well.  So I’m getting ready for an early winter!  I wouldn’t mind winter so much if it wasn’t so, you know – COLD.  Guess I will be thinking about how nice it would be to live in Hawaii in a month or two :P.

My son gave me some of the fiber off of his goat.  All goat’s soft under fiber is called cashmere except for the Angora goat which gives mohair instead.  His goat has a lot of guard hairs which have to be picked out, so I have it at work and during my lunch break, since it only takes me about 10 to 15 min to eat, I sit there with tweezers and pick out guard hair and vm (vegetable matter) from the soft fiber.  The more guard hair I get out the softer it is.  It’s pretty dirty tho, so as soon as I get the picking done, I will need to wash it before I spin it.  I think this will be a long, on going project. 

 ***Just wanted to make mention that there is an actual cashmere goat that produces very nice cashmere fiber, but as I said before all goats produce cashmere (again except for the angora goat) tho not as abundantly and not the same quality as the actual cashmere goat does, but it’s all soft :).****

3rd Comfort Shawl Done

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3rd Comfort Shawl started

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Yes, it’s the same picture because I finished it on my lunch hour at work and gave it to her so I didn’t get a finished picture, I know, I’m bad.  She was so surprised and held it close and said, it’s so warm.  I hope it will give her many days of warmth and comfort.

I’m starting another shawl, but this will be the one that I’m spinning the cria (baby alpaca) for a friend just because.  I have one skein and a spool on the wheel that I need to spin more onto and then ply it so that will give me 2 skeins.  I will need 3 maybe 4 skeins for this shawl.  It’s one I’ve done before, the Wisp shawl.  It’s light and very pretty.  I think light and airy for the warmth of the alpaca would be good, because alpaca is very warm.

I’ve been so moody this week, and then it hit me why, today would have been my youngest son’s birthday.  Happy Birthday son, I miss you.

I had to take Thor to the vet’s last week end.  He’s having some bowel issues and they put him on anti-biotics and a steroid.  She said if he’s better after the round of anti-biotics (the steroid is in the anti-biotic) then it was a helobactor infection and he should be fine, and that is my hope.  If not and it comes back  then it was an inflammation problem and the steroid was taking care it in the lower colon area, and she will try a different anti-biotic for the lower bowel and see if that takes care of it, and if not then she will have to do a biopsy to see what is going on.  Poor Thor was not a happy camper about getting his temperature taken (he had a sore bottom) – this was his first trip to the vet and I don’t think he likes vets now :P.  I’m glad I had a some savings, and it took it all.  This is why I don’t recommend ferrets to those who do not like to spend money at the vet’s office as the ferrets get older, because you will.  I have my own health check up’s coming soon and when all the free wellness checks that my health insurance takes care of for the year are done, I will be dropping my health insurance so that I can use the premiums I was paying for to take care of Thor.  He comes first.  Other than the free wellness checks (and they cover a lot of things), it was more of a catastrophic insurance plan, because it doesn’t pay for anything until I’ve spent $5,000 out of my own pocket, except for the wellness stuff.

A Round Tuit – revisited

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A Round Tuit

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Years ago I saw one and thought it was so cute.  I found this one on the internet and used it several years ago, and have found that I have had to bring it out of mothballs and use it again :P.

When my son was going to move in with me, I had to move the 1/2 room of boxes out of the spare bedroom and ended up putting some of it in my bedroom.  He eventually decided to stay close to his daughter (5 hrs away from me), and after his death, I just couldn’t make myself sort everything out and put away.  It’s finally time, and finding time to do it is not fun…. but I have some motivation to get it done because it’s time for the apt inspection the city does here every 3 years.  It’s coming up soon so I have to get that bedroom cleaned out.  I’m part way done and decided to take a little break.  It would be much easier if I had a week of vacation to go through everything and do it right, but I don’t have any vacation time until late this fall.  Sooo I will just have to do the best I can with what little time I can squeeze out to get it done in.  I’m much better at procrastination :P.

I’ve begun working on a comfort shawl for a co-worker who has been diagnosed with cervical cancer.  I’m about 1/3 of the way done with it.  It’s a simple comfort shawl, as I felt that it would be needed in a hurry and no time to work on something that will take a long time to complete.  I’ll post a picture of  my progress later this week after the apt inspection.

Well it looks like we will have football this year.  That makes me happy 🙂

It’s been hot as heck here and lots of humidity.  I will be glad when fall gets here for the cooler temps and less humidity, but that means winter is right around the corner, so fall is a 2 edged sword. 😛

Heat Wave and Harry Potter

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Ok, the ambient temp the last two days has been about 96 degrees, and the heat index, with the wonderful humidity that IA is known for, has been around 111 degrees.  I always tell people that IA has two season, cold & ugly and hot & ugly.  It gets hotter out west but they (except for TX which is also very humid) don’t have the humidity to go with the high temps.  You can have the humidity, I prefer the dry heat!!  The night temps have been in the middle 70’s,  sigh and my air condtioner is running 24/7.  I’m so thankful for that!!!  Suppose to cool down next week I think (I hope).

I got to go see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 on Saturday with my daughter.  I have to say it was AWESOME!!!  Yes, it is not exactly like the book, but it was very well done and I loved it!!  I have loved all the Harry Potter movies but I have to say this is my favorite of all of them.  If you haven’t gone to see it and you enjoy Harry Potter, it is a must see.

I’m working on the shawl I started to get the stitch count right for the Daisy Rectangular Shawl.  I mean you can’t have a started shawl and not either finish it or frog it.  I chose not to frog it, it’s acrylic yarn so it will probably go to my grand daughter because it won’t need a lot of care like the natural fiber yarns do and she can enjoy it and I won’t be worried about it. 😛  I need to be spinning on that Cria, but it’s been so hot when I get home that I haven’t been in the mood for it.

2nd Comfort Shawl is finished!

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Finally Finished and Blocked!

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Well, it is finished, blocked and given!!  As you can tell it is a diagonal pattern.  I orginally wanted to do vertical however that is just not the way it worked out.  I still have to figure out the correct number to cast on (had a little extra on one side and when I discovered it I was a bit too far to want to frog and begin again) and to cut the width down.  So give me a few days as I work this out and then I will post the pattern in My Free Knitting Patterns page for you to enjoy.  This Alpaca yarn drapes very nicely as a shawl and I’m sure it will be well loved.  I’m sad that it is a discontinued yarn tho, as it was lovely to work with and very soft.  I can now get back to spinning that wonderfully soft cria (baby Alpaca).

Well my children almost got to either come visit me in the hospital in the critial unit or to the morgue to identify me yesterday.  I was on my way to my daughter’s new house to get some steak and hambergers that were left over from her birthday party on Friday evening and as I was driving on a major street at 3o mph, a driver from a cross street didn’t stop at his stop sign and he was going about 40 to 50 mph.  I saw him out of he corner of my eye and knew he would not be stoping so I slammed on my brakes (fortunately there was no one behind me) and he came barreling out across the street and I missed hitting him by about 6 inches.  Hope it scared him as much as it did me.  I drive an older small sub compact car and the engine would have been sitting in my lap as I would have broadsided him.  Thank goodness for quick reactions and promptings from the Spirit alerting me to the other car.