finished

I finished my scarf on Thursday. I absolutely love it, flaws and all. It has such a different feel than knitting and it was soooo much faster. Probably a total of 6 or 7 hours, spaced over the course of a week. I worked in short bursts, given the constant interruption of children. Of course now today I've experienced a constant pain in my right shoulder and I'm wondering if it was because of the movement required during weaving. Certainly I need to give it break so I haven't started on a second yet. Not to mention I need to focus on some other higher priority projects.

It's been a year now that I've had my spinning wheel and it's still not finished. I'm so very disappointed in myself for not finishing it by that self imposed deadline. I took it apart yesterday and have been working on it. I really like the way it's turning out and the resistance that I'd been feeling towards working on it these last couple months melted away once I dismantled it and just put the wood burning pen in my hand. It would seem the best cure for procrastination is just putting myself in motion. I'd been hoping (somewhat irrationally) that I could get the wheel done in time to spin up the fiber that's in the mail on its way to me as we speak. It's a spin-along for the months of Jan/Feb. It's my first spin along and I'm looking forward to it but I'm pretty sure that I'm going to have to reassemble the wheel before it's finished if I want to get the yarn spun up in the allotted time. Oh well. Truth be told I haven't spun any yarn on my wheel in quite some time and I'm itching to get to it.

Well I'll wrap this up because it's waaay past my bedtime yet again.

slowly generating enthusiasm

I've been reading my story today and doing minor editing as I come across bits of grammatical or spelling errors that need touching up but I still haven't started writing anything of substance. I can see the gaps staring me in the face, needing to be filled in but I'm just not feeling the enthusiasm yet. I think I need to do more research on ancient Irish culture (what little is known of it) and hopefully that will recharge my engines with regard to this story. Taking a month away from it has definitely taken some of the wind out of my sails. I'm determined to get back to it though.... as soon as I finish this woven scarf.

I'm soo close to being done. Literally less than 12 inches from the end and that can be done in less than an hour then I just need to figure out how to get it off the loom and tie the fringe. I'm so excited that I'm going to go work on it right now, even though I should be in bed.

Yeah.. I'm still working on that whole 'writing in the morning instead of at the last minute before bed' thing. *sigh*

New Years Resolution FAIL

I wish I could say that the reason I failed to blog yesterday was because I filled my writing quota by working on the novel but alas I cannot. I'm sad to admit that after only three days I totally spaced out the resolution and didn't write a thing. The funny thing is I was doing my usual morning internet cruising of Ravelry and Facebook and thought to myself, "this is really the time I should be writing instead of the end of the day when I'm tired and should be in bed." So then I find myself tucked in after watching some Six Feet Under (great show btw) and it's 12:30am when I realize that I had a writing FAIL for the day.

However! I shall not let this get me down. There are still 361 more days for me to get it right and it would be foolish to give up after a minor stumble. Onward and Upward!

What I see now is that I really should be writing in the morning. My evenings are too packed with stuff to try and cram writing in on top of it all. It's my tendancy to put things off till the last minute but in this situation it's really counterintuitive. I have more time in the morning when Quinn is at school and the girls like to watch their morning PBS shows while I sip my chai. So that is another habit I will work on integrating. Plus I need to go to bed earlier. 6 or 7 hours of sleep just isn't enough for me and so getting to bed at 10 is really important. It is 10:21 right now so I'd better wrap this most boring and mundane blog entry up.

I think I'm going to change the settings so my blog update doesn't post to facebook everytime I publish. I'm worried that I'm spamming people's newfeeds with the daily notes and I feel kinda self conscious about it. So.... yeah.. the link to my blog is on my page if anyone is interested in reading these ramblings.

G'night.

the witch under the stairs

When Azalea woke up this morning she began describing in great detail her dream with fervor. She asked me in a rapid and urgent tone, "What lives under our stairs, mom? Is there a bad witch under the stairs??" I told here that nothing could live under our stairs because there was nothing but dirt under there. (After The Flood many a year ago our basement was filled with silt and there are still closed off portions that have yet to be dug clear.) She proceeded to tell me that in her dream a bad witch had taken her friend Beth and that she lived under the stairs. She went on and on with details that were hard to decipher because she was talking so fast and sometimes her speech is still hard to understand, especially in the morning when my brain is still foggy. She wanted to go across the street to make sure that Beth was okay and I had to reassure her that dreams were not real, that Beth was probably still sound asleep and that we should go back to sleep too because it was 6am and it was much too early to be awake on a Sunday. Thankfully she took my advice and we snuggled until sleep returned for us both. When we woke up to face the day at 9 she continued to talk about the same dream as if there had been no break in the conversation from three hours earlier. It was the strangest thing. She's talked about her dreams for awhile now but this was so much more detailed and serious than she had ever been before. It's so interesting to watch her try and decipher reality from fantasy. I marvel at how powerful the imagination is for her. She has a dream of a bad witch under the stairs and it's as real to her as I am. She goes outside to call out to the Care Bears that she is so certain live in the clouds and gets really upset when they don't answer her. She begs to go visit Edward Scissorhands or Dorothy and Toto because she is so convinced that they are really out there somewhere. Four year olds are amazing.

just keep typing...just keep typing..

Here it is only the second day and I'm already feeling at a loss for anything interesting to write on my blog. My life seems pretty consistently mundane from day to day so I'm always hesitant to write about it on here because my inner critic just chides me for thinking that anyone would have an interest in reading about it. I must work harder to squash that annoying little voice down and write onward if I'm going to stick with this resolution.

My mom came over today and offered to watch the kids while I took her car somewhere. Since I didn't want to spend money I opted to go to the library for some quiet time. I ended up getting on the internet and reading part of my novel for an hour. It's been almost a month since I've looked at it and seeing it with fresh eyes has renewed my momentum to see it finished. I read the end and was pleased to see that even though I rushed through that part to finish by the deadline it is still a pretty decent bit of writing. A bit heavy in the sappy romance department but hey, some people like that sort of thing, myself included and I refuse to be too hard on myself for writing something fluffy. It may be cheesy but it's fun and people like fun, especially me and the most important thing I'm learning is that I need to write something that *I* enjoy, otherwise the process is tedious and well... not fun.

One hang up that I'm facing right now is juggling all these projects that I want to work on. The novel thing is on something of a deadline since the free proof copy that I won from NaNoWriMo expires in May. I'd like my novel to be finished and edited by then so I can have the pleasure of getting a copy that can sit on my bookshelf amongst the rest in all it's glory. Another thing that is nagging at me is my spinning wheel. It's officially been a year now that I've owned her and she is still unfinished. It's just the last little bit of detail work that is left before I can oil the wood properly to protect it from changes in humidity and dirt. I can already see that the wood has changed color from being handled by me and the occasional grubby child's hand. I had vowed to finish it before a year had passed and I'm disappointed that I didn't stick with that. Then there's this weaving bug that's bitten me. Oh, I can be so scattered and I really wish I was better at finishing things in a timely manner. Procrastination has long been my nemesis.

School starts up for Quinn on Tuesday. I'm simultaneously happy and mournful for it to begin. I've enjoyed being able to stay home and not have to rush around in the morning. I need to make a better effort to get to bed earlier and wake up earlier so we can take our time before leaving for school and it's going to be even harder since we've slid back into a late schedule during the break. On the other hand I will be happy for Quinn to have something to occupy his brain during the day besides video games and harrassing his sisters- his two favorite pastimes. Santa brought us a Wii for Christmas and I've been lax on the time restrictions I usually impose on the video games during the break. I think it will do Quinn a lot of good to unplug for the school week when I only allow him one 30 minute session that he has to earn by doing a chore. The weekends are basically the only time he is allowed to play for long stretches and there is a noticable difference in his attitude when he has been playing too much.

Well... my hands hurt now because I've been weaving a bunch today so I'm going to wrap this up. Maybe I'll do a recap of the holidays tomorrow. I like to read back though the blog about what we were up to years ago so I don't want to forget to document the important stuff that I'll want to remember later.

G'night!

Hello blog. Long time no see. It's a new year and I'm making a resolution to write on a daily basis. I'm not committing to it being a blog entry a day because I've still got a novel to finish and I'm sure there will be days when contributing to that is as much as I can manage. However I do want to make a point of documenting my life on a more regular basis and I'm sure there will be days when I have absolutely no desire to write a single thing on my novel and the blog can act as a substitute for my daily writing quota.

Today I spent most of the day researching looms as I try and make a decision about whether or not I should buy the 16" Kromski Harp or go for the 24" or totally jump ship and get the Ashford rigid heddle. It's a tough decision but I think I'm nearing a finality on the matter. I've been weaving a scarf on the 16" harp that I've rented from the LYS and I'm very pleased with how the loom feels. I'll probably end up purchasing it. My only regret is that to make a nice wide shawl or blanket I'll have to sew panels together. It's not ideal but I think it's a fair trade off considering that 90% of the time I'll be weaving scarves that fit just fine on the smaller loom. The 16" is comfortable in my lap and I don't need a stand for it. I'm not sure I'd be able to say the same about the 24". The main reason I considered going with the Ashford instead was because someone pointed out that the quality of the wood might be superior (New Zealand Silver Beech) to that of the Kromski (European Alder). The concern being that screws more easily strip the softer wood I guess. I haven't come across any posts of people with this problem though so I think I'm going to go ahead and not worry about it. I prefer the look of the Kromskis and the fact that they fold where the Ashford does not. My house is tiny and that folding is helpful.

Here's a look at my first work in progress-



So let's see.. We undecorated the tree in preparation for returning it to storage but I couldn't bring myself to take it down completely. It adds a nice amount of light to the living room and I need to replace a bulb in a lamp to compensate for the darkness that the tree had been keeping at bay. We get so little reprieve fromthe dark this time of year.

Well it's late and I just wanted to get something written before heading to bed. I was getting ready to brush my teeth when I realized I was about to fail on my resolution on the first day so here I am preventing that sad fate.

Oh and one last note of something important that happened today besides entering a new decade. There is now a new Doctor. I got to watch the final adventure of Ten and the ushering in of Eleven. It was exciting and sad at the same time. Ten will always be My Doctor and it was hard seeing his run end but this is also the first regeneration I've been witness to as a fan of the show and there was a great deal of anticipation and wonderment at what the future will bring. I think Eleven will be great in his own unique way and I'm eagerly awaiting the spring now. And not just because it means the sun will be returning to this frozen land.

Allons y!

First Goal!

Big day for our soccer player... Q scored his first goal ever today and to make it even more awesome it was the only score by anyone from either team the whole game so he won it for the Green Geckos! Q's score was made by a penalty shot that the coach made a point of letting him take. I later found out it was because last night at practice Q said to the coach, "Coach, I wanna make a goal in the next game." When the coach was telling me this story at the end of the game today he had a really big smile on his face.. I think he was beaming more than Q!

I guess we're gonna go eat out tonight to celebrate. Yay! There's a halibut sandwich with my name on it. mmmm..... halibut.... *drool*

(soccer pictures forthcoming)