R & R weekend on the coast..........

Just back from a few days on the coast - spotted this new 'condo' going up right on the beach - Bailey had to check it out to make sure construction techniques would stand up to high tides........sadly the next day it was all knocked down..........maybe the builder will give it another try.  

I've come up with a new solution for the politicians eager to repeal and replace the ACA with something that will not be the best solution for all of us Americans who need health coverage. All those politicans health insurance should be the same exact insurance of any new health care act they come up with. Admittedly they can afford the premiums but would they be happy with the coverage....or lack of coverage........if they even qualify for any coverage! Guys/gals - just do what's best for all of us out here - don't give us less if anything at all - don't repeal something just because it's called Obama-care - work on fixing what's there and making it the best for all who need to purchase health coverage on their own - and if you just can't stand it change the name............

Sand

 Got me a stick, got me a stick, a good stick, really good stick........

......got sand in my mouth, sand, sand in my mouth......

 ......it's in my teeth, gritty sand in my teeth......stick my tongue out....maybe it will go away....

 .....licking sand off my lips.....getting more sand in my teeth......

 .....no more sand in teeth Mom - see....see my mouth, see no sand......

 

This was a cool sight yesterday morning as the marine layer was burning off.......it looked like a fog rainbow over the inlet.

Re-entry sucks..........

Re-entry, as I call it, is tough. Each time we go over to the coast I deal with re-entry when we return. Playing catch-up with orders (boxing and mailing), inventory updates, transaction posting, etc. etc. etc. It get harder all the time and what suffers is time to be creative.

I'm going to do some real soul searching and crunching of numbers on the roving side of my business. It provides a nice income but at what cost? The roving sales have a life of their own, just when I think things are slowing down like they always do for a month after school lets out they pick up again. We haven't experienced Sam's full retirement and loss of income yet since he's doing consulting work for the company, sometimes 1/4 of normal hours, sometimes up to 1/2.........so will I be sorry I give up selling roving once he retires completely? Something to think about. My biggest problem is how much time the roving side of the business takes - I feel like I spend too much time in front of the computer dealing with it.........too little time to weave.....not to mention sew, spin, felt, knit, felt, bead, craft, etc. etc. etc. So, the next step is to evaluate it and make a plan. Even if I do get out of selling roving it will take a long time to sell off stock - there is a lot of stock, a whole bunch, a huge amount........takes up one complete bay of the garage a lot of stock. So much to think about over the next few months with the main goal of getting more time to weave and be creative.

This was what it was like the past 5 days on the coast - picture perfect

Here's a house around the corner from us - look at that yard, it's incredible. Sam says no matter where we walk, around town or on the beach I always manage to pass this house getting home.

Our yard does not look like the one around the corner but we do have 2 hydrangea bushes in full bloom right now. Someday I'd love a beautiful yard but we aren't over there to take care of it and we don't have a sprinkler system so it's very sparse at the moment.

I spotted this snail, probably up to no good on my hydrangeas but cute

The new knitting project is the Noni knitted felted bag. Right now I'm knitting intarsia for the stripes - I need 9 balls and 2 threads for each which means I'm working from the inside and outside of each ball. The tangling was horrible so I devised this solution using plastic Ziploc containers. Yarn bowls would work but I only have 2.

It's looking pretty tangled here after just knitting 2 rows but it's actually very fast to untangle.

A romp on the beach.........

We spent the past 4 days on the coast - relatives came to visit from Montana, they used to live here in SW Oregon.....they were the first of the family to move here from the east coast back in 1980, if I remember the year correctly.......many of us followed over the years and then they had to escape us all. Montana is beautiful but we won't be following them there, too cold and snowy for us.

Sandra & Monte have had several mini-dachshunds over the years, this is the new addition to their family, Gia, a long haired mini.  They've done a good job socializing her as doxies can sometimes have snippy personalities - she's a real cutie and loves everyone, humans and dogs.  We weren't sure how Bailey would react to a dog the size of a squirrel (he hates the dreaded squirrels who taunt him) but he did great and really enjoyed having her around. He even let her pounce on him, paw at his face and give him kisses - I think he loves her and I know she's in love with him.  I'm not sure how much Gia weighs but Bailey has to weigh at least 10-15 times more than her. I tried to capture some fun shots of her loving him up but she's so darned fast I'd just get her tail in the shot so pix from the beach are as good as I could get.  Tonight is a family dinner back here in the valley so they'll be loving each other up again before Gia heads back to Montana.

It was Gia's first time on the beach - she loved it

 

She pretty much stuck by Bailey learning the ropes

 

I think she was a bit puzzled by the rolling in the sand and kicking legs in the air

 

In the end - two pals heading back to the house after a day of frolicking on the beach

 

 

This and that.......

These skeins are the latest off the wheel - the mystery batts I was spinning. Not my favorite kind of spinning since it's a bit lumpy bumpy and it's medium soft, not something I want next to my skin, but I am determined to spin from my stash. I'm not sure what it will become, maybe something knitted and felted or if there's enough maybe a blanket.....will think on it a while.....quite a while.....

 

 I started knitting another Morning Surf Scarf as seen in Spin-Off magazine's Summer 2008 issue. The first one I knit was fingering weight handspun. This is out of a commercial yarn by Universal Yarns - Classic Shades Sequins Lite - can you see the little green sequins in it?  It was a fun yarn a friend and I bought last fall. I wish I had made the scarf a bit narrower but after doing a couple inches decided not to rip it out as this yarn gets very fuzzy with taking out stitches.

 We spent the past few days at the beach cottage - we'll be starting remodeling soon, we'll do all ourselves (except kitchen countertops) to keep the cost down.  Above you can see the tile wall behind Sam's chair (more on that in a bit) - the former pellet stove sat in this location. We took it out and gave it to a friend as the room is so small it would heat us out of there not to mention sitting just a couple feet away from it in the other chair and couch.  The closet door to the left will be taken out and drywall put up - we'll be opening that area up to the kitchen on the other side of this wall - the kitchen is woefully short on storage space.  That tiled wall behind the chair will be opened up on the top to see through to the kitchen - I'm thinking of hanging an old window frame in the opening for decor.  We thought about tearing out the entire wall and closet area but the house is so small we'd feel like we were sitting in the kitchen if we did that. So, back to the chair - we went out looking for a chair, I was thinking a used vintage cottagey small chair and ottoman to fit with the rest of the décor, an old chair that I'd slipcover - this electric leather recliner is what we ended up with - remind me not to go furniture shopping with Sam.......but he does love his chair.

 Here is Sam knocking that tile off the backer board.  Bailey and I supervised.

 Here it is with the tile removed - so much better.  Painting won't happen until after the closet door area is drywalled over but it already looks better.  The tile on the floor will stay until we get to replacing the carpet, the very dirty smelly carpet, we'll be putting in wood flooring, maybe one of the new engineered floors.

 The rest of our stay was spent relaxing and walking on the beach. This is the river inlet beach leading to the ocean, it's where we find most of our treasures.  Here's Bailey running at breakneck speed toward me.

 Just caught him in the corner of the frame - that is one happy dog.

 This is as far as he'll go into the water, who ever heard of a water dog that's afraid of water, he's our second Golden afraid of water. He's after that rock, every walk he's after that particular rock, not sure what he thinks it is. We were there at a very low tide so it won't ever get closer for him to get to without going deeper in the water......which won't happen........

 Treasures on the beach - snail shells that the hermit crabs grab when they need a bigger home. I'm sure there are agates somewhere in those rocks but I can rarely pick them out, even with my little agate cheat sheet.

 Small cockle shell on the beach - these are a dime a dozen

 I love the way the sand looks as the tide goes out - would make for a nice woven design, wouldn't it?

 I'm not sure what this is but I call it sea spaghetti - or it could be my hair after a windy day.

I have no clue what this little orange plant is - does it live in the ocean? or did it float down river from something on the land?  Don't know.....maybe I'll find out in the future......

Happy Holidays

While on the coast this past weekend we decided it was time to visit Shores Acres State Park on the Oregon Coast. We hadn't been there for the holiday lights in over 10 years. There are over 300,000 lights, countless volunteers putting them up, taking them down and hosting every evening. Cookies & hot cider are served in the cottage, young high school girls were serving Sunday evening. There's also musical entertainment, we listened to the tuba ensemble performing holiday tunes. Very worthwhile going to for the holiday lights or any other time of the year, the rugged ocean views are incredible and the flowers showy......but it's truly a magical place at the holidays.  Enjoy..........

Happy Holidays to you all no matter what holiday you celebrate - be safe, treasure spending time with family and friends whether big and boisterous or keeping it small and quiet....the best to you all.