It's County Fair Time

It's county fair time again - always easy to tell when it's fair season - it's hot and smoky. Luckily we demonstrate in an air conditioned building but we still have to walk from the parking lot to the building - yuck. The fair runs Wednesday thru Saturday and my spinning group will have a big group of spinners there each day to spin and talk to the public. It's always lots of fun.

Here's our display this year. Spinners sit in a circle in front of it. There haven't been many fleece entries in recent years but we do have 7 fleeces that one of our group will judge on Wednesday.

Friend and spinner Shirley is also a bobbin lace maker and brought her display of different types of bobbin lace and bobbins to share - I'm not sure where in the building they'll be, they are incredible.

I'm unpacking cones of yarn now, making headway at emptying boxes and bins but still have a ways to go. I worked on it today after making a couple batches of blackberry jam from blackberries we picked right over the back fence. While we were picking the other night the cows were on the other side munching on them...........so how come they weren't complaining about being stuck by thorns on their noses and lips.......we were sure complaining on our side of the fence as they stuck our hands and arms.

The Taylor Creek Fire and Klondike Fire, which are one now have grown to over 100,000 acres. The part that had been the Taylor Creek Fire is in pretty good shape with containment lines on the east side between it and homes. The Klondike Fire part is a real challenge, there are homes in danger as I type. This two fire complex is a long term fire fight so we've got to get used to smoke although we did have two clear days this past week when the wind shifted. Unfortunately thunderstorms are in the forecast this week and here they are generally dry which leads to lightning strikes which leads to fires like the 170 that were started on July 15th like these two near us.

I will admit that I was concerned when the US Forest Service took command of this fire because their fire fighting history in our region is not good - they tended to let fires go until they became monsters. Well, I guess being sued by the county to the west of us and county to the east of us has been instrumental in changes in how they fight fires.......and for the better. And they're doing a tremendous job of keeping the public informed of what's happened between several online videos each day and many community fire meetings. We are the guinea pigs, first in the nation, for this new pilot program with the online video briefings - and they are getting great response from the community. There is incredible technology being used in finding spot fires using big drones when it's too smoky for aircraft to fly, the drones can also drop little 'ping pong balls' filled with accelerant to start fires that will be used as containment lines. Fire fighting has changed.......for the better. Unfortunately it's still a very dangerous job for the fire fighters.......there's no getting around that. I send good thoughts their way each and every day to stay safe..........

A bit of progress.........

 Remember way back last December 25th when I opened the first package of the 12 Days of Christmas spin-a-long from Inglenook Fibers?  Well, it didn't take me too long to spin it all, but it took a while before I found a pattern I wanted to use for the resulting knit shawl. I finally finished it up a few weeks ago but going outside to block it in this smoky hazardous air quality wasn't happening. Yesterday I decided to just set up a table inside to do the blocking. Here it is finished. The pattern is called Be Simple Variations - it's an asymmetrical shawlette.

 I decided to paint the loom room and sewing/craft room before unpacking boxes. I knew once it was all unpacked they would never be painted, I mean never. I painted a bright white which is great since so much of the walls will be covered up and there's only one window in each room. Unfortunately my loom room is a bit smaller than my last one so two pieces of furniture won't fit in and it's a bit tight but I'll make it work. Here's one view of the room.

Here's a view from the other corner. I still need to buy shelving for the closet to store all the books and magazines and whatever else. Above the closet is a 3 ft deep shelf - I'm going to put things I don't use as often up there like my table loom (workshops only), inkle loom, marudai, drum carder, etc. It will take a ladder to take them down but that's ok, they'll be out of the way when I'm not using them.  There is going to be a tv mounted up high so I can see it from my chair at the table and also from each loom. What you can't see is the view out the window is the side yard with roses all along the fence. 

 Here's the sewing/craft room - I've got two tables in there so I have space to work on 3 machines, my Bernina QE440, my Bernina 1350 Serger and my cheapie Brother embroidery machine.....which does a great job. I have another cheapie Brother but it's in a carrier to take to workshops.

Here's looking in the other direction. I didn't get a picture of the closet but it's the same as the loom room with the storage shelf above. Maybe it will be a good place to store roving.......not sure yet.

I plan on starting to unpack all the boxes into these two rooms this week. I'm anxious to be able to find things and get on with weaving. I've got several special orders to weave. I've got some sewing projects I want to get to with making café curtains for the bathrooms and then a special order of embroidered towels.

We have the worst air quality in the nation - the fires just keep burning and it's not just the fires close to us but it's the entire northwest. It doesn't matter which way the wind shifts, there's always smoke. They are making headway on our Taylor Creek Fire - it's now 38% contained. The Klondike Fire, only 5% contained, is getting close to meeting up with the SE corner of  our Taylor Creek Fire. For safety reasons (for fire crews) both fires will now be under one command. It's going to be a long fire season - what's really scary is that we haven't even entered the worst part of fire season yet. We've always had fires but nothing like they've been the last 10+ years - now it seems to be the norm to live with smoke the majority of the summer.

Blueberries and jam making

 A weaver back east shared this Blueberry Buckle recipe (from Cooks Illustrated) - it's incredibly yummy, I mean like deliciously yummy, to die for yummy. It's the best of all worlds - it's like a cobbler, like a crisp, like a coffee cake. I'm going to try it with other berries, maybe even peaches or apples.

The same day I made more jam. Two batches of strawberry/blueberry and two batches of figs. The fig trees at the other house (one we're trying to sell with a fire close by) have a bumper crop of figs this year.  I'm not sure how many I've eaten straight from the trees, they're like eating candy........for that matter I'm not sure how many handfuls of blueberries I've eaten this past week either.

The fire keeps on growing, more to the north and west at the moment. Good news is that some evacuation areas have gone from level 3 to level 2, and from level 2 to level 1. Our road is still on level 1, no change there.....hoping it won't be too far off. We'd really like that house to sell but no one is going to go look at it with the fire going full guns. But there is progress being made on the fire so that's a great thing and all the hard work from fire personnel has kept all houses safe to date.

Taylor Creek Fire keeps on keeping on.........

First off - I apologize for the sideways photos - I don't understand it but when I take pictures with my phone they turn up sideways on the blog. They weren't sideways when I downloaded them onto the computer and edited them but they show up sideways here. I'm at a loss.  So, just be patient and turn your head for the first four of them.......

The fire rages on coming closer and closer to our old house, which we still own, which we would love for someone to buy but no one will go look at it with a fire close by and this sign on our road.  The sign message changes to also say only property owners with proper ID will be let through and that's only into certain areas depending on what the fire is doing.

This is an official 'Fire' sign to direct the fire fighters in the right direction - this was posted on our road too. The fire camp, a mini city, used to be set up close to us but now it's moved a mile or so to the east - guess that's a sign when they move further away from a growing fire.

These types of signs are all over the roadways thanking the fire fighters, wishing them a safe day. What a horrible job it is - they're working with very heavy packs, heavy clothing, in 100 degree weather, long hours, many dangers and poison oak on top of it. We are so grateful they are here from all over the country to help us. This morning's fire report didn't mention if any homes have been lost but as of last night there had been no losses due to all the structural protection crews out there laying hose and protecting those homes as the fire has burned around some of them. I'm taking it as a good sign that there was no mention of any losses. The good news this morning is that there is 30% containment - not on the lines being built close to our old home but on the lines protecting many homes to the south. Updated estimated containment date is October 19th - that's a long ways off. My guess is it's the west side that will be the issue for the long term (at least I hope) and the fact that there are plans to let it join with another fire 7 miles to the southwest.

Yesterday evening we went out to our old house to set up sprinklers on the 60 ft long deck. Flying embers are a huge concern and things like pine needles on roof and gutters and wood decks are just ripe for lighting off. The good news at the old house is that the fig trees are producing a bumper crop of figs this year - maybe I'll be making fig jam later today, will definitely be dehydrating some.

We took a long weekend away on the coast to get out of the heat and smoke. Blueberry farms have opened up so we picked 24 pounds of blueberries. The berries are just starting to get ripe, depending on what happens with the fire we'd love to get over at some point to pick more while they're still available.

Here are 3 batches of jam. I've got more blueberries in the fridge for more jam making, freezing and a blueberry buckle recipe someone just sent me.....definitely need to pick up some vanilla ice cream to go with it when I run into town for more pectin.

I'm getting closer to setting up my weaving and sewing rooms at the new house. Yesterday we painted the ceiling and walls of the sewing room. I still need to paint a shelf in the closet and the door trim and Sam needs to install the new baseboard. Then we move on to the weaving room. I am so ready to unpack what looks to be almost an entire bay in the garage of boxes that goes in these two rooms......hmm, hope it all fits......

Fire season in full swing.....

Been MIA again - just too much going on and in my down time I haven't felt like blogging.....such is life at times........

 So, first up here's what I'm spinning now. I had some handpainted roving I bought years ago that I had pulled apart at the color joins which leaves most of one color with bits of other colors on the end. So, I've spun 2 partial bobbins of the one that's mostly purple with bits of teal and pink.......

......and now I'm working on spinning the bag of mostly pink with bits of purple and teal. In theory what I should end up with once I finish all the spinning is several skeins that will coordinate with each other. What will I use them for, who knows.....

Much of the house is unpacked now except for my studio space. After some additional shelving goes up in the bedroom closet and laundry room I'll be ready to tackle the loom and sewing rooms. I can't believe how long it's taking to unpack after this move. I'm so ready for everything to be in it's place so I can get back to weaving and sewing. I was lucky to be able to find the roving to spin so I can work on something fun in the evenings.

On July 5th I, and several others left for Reno - some were going just to Convergence (weaving conference), and some of us were going to Convergence and also the Complex Weavers conference. I won't say a lot about the trip because I wasn't thrilled with it. I didn't like a casino venue........at all. I haven't been to Convergence in years as it hasn't been within driving distance - let's just say it was missing the WOW factor that I remember from years past. I did have some good seminars at both conferences and went on a nice artist studio tour one day. I apologize to those who love Reno, I did not and that's all I'll say. I did take photos of some of the exhibits and will eventually post some of my favorite pieces once I get them edited.

Fire season is in full swing. Last Sunday a thunderstorm moved through SW Oregon and started over 160 fires. Luckily many of them were put out relatively quickly but there are many that are growing. I've been watching the fire that's near our old house, less than 15 miles from where we're now living. It's very close, there are many on different levels of evacuation notice, not at our place so far. It really blew up yesterday. No, we are not living there now, thank goodness, and everything is out of the house except for some Christmas trees in the garage.........but we do still own the house and it is for sale, the property won't be worth much if the house burns down and all that's left is scorched earth. I've been listening to the ODF (Oregon Department of Forestry) scanner channel online, it's fascinating to listen to firefighters on the ground, pilots in choppers and tankers, but it's also scary to hear when they're pulling out and accounting for all personnel. All the work firefighters and the supporting staff do is so appreciated - it's hard and dangerous work. I hope all stay safe and that they're also able to save homes as there are hundreds in dangers way right now between the fire near our other place (Taylor Creek Fire) and other fires in the area. Please send positive energy in Oregon's direction - the state needs it right now...........

MIA

Yes, I've been MIA for a bit - moving this time (buying, packing, moving, unpacking, selling) is horrible. I don't ever remember it being like this past moves. Anyhow 2 weeks ago it took the movers 2 days to get us moved. I'm still not unpacked, nowhere near unpacked but I just can't worry about it at the moment - I'm not running a race. In past moves within a week, 2 at the most, I was totally unpacked, house set up......not happening this time. 


We finally listed our other house, not much activity in a hot market, so I'm thinking it's listed too high.......like I said all along when our realtor gave us a price range to consider. We decided to give it some time - thinking time is up this week.........


Last Wednesday the AC went out in the new house and for some reason this house holds the heat. It's been unbearable inside the house, even with fans - it's been lovely outside in the shade.......so not as much unpacking getting done around here. Luckily our realtor got us a home warranty so it will be fixed but the soonest an HVAC company could come out is this Wednesday afternoon. I'm sure that will be to diagnose the issue, then we'll wait for the fix. At least we don't have humidity here on top of the heat..........


Since there's no unpacking happening in the loom or sewing/craft rooms right now I'll leave you with a few pix of the yard. For a small city lot we've got lots of fruit. I didn't take pictures of the 2 plum trees - not many plums on them and they're grossly in need of a manicure - so overgrown and thick. That will happen at the proper time and I will be getting guidance on how to trim fruit trees at that time.

One of the two apple trees.......

....a close up of the apples, we have no clue what type of apples on each tree......

.....blackberries coming over the fence from the cow pasture - they're along the entire back of the yard - I can see blackberry jam production here in August.........

.......one of two grape varieties.......we understand there are white grapes and red grapes - right now they're all green..........

.....and finally, my favorite color of rose, yellow - there are many rose bushes along the fence although not many roses at the moment since they were loaded with spent flowers when we moved in, I've trimmed them back and there are new buds coming out now.

We are still caught up in the 'mess' of buying, packing, moving, selling - phew, I don't ever remember it being this stressful or entailed. As I type the photographer is here taking photos to get our house listed - Sam and Bailey are at the new house for the fridge delivery and internet/phone installation.

This is what we see behind our new house. I have seen up to 5 cows at once but not yesterday. So, I'm naming the cows - the red cow on the left is Guinevere, the black cow in the middle is Joan Jett, the red cow on the right is Chai Latte, the cow to the back right is Coco Loco. Probably not a good idea to name them as one day they will be gone....I'll have to pretend they have moved on to a new home rather than a freezer. They are fairly young, maybe yearlings?  I don't know.........I don't know anything much about cows but I enjoy seeing them rather than another house behind us. We're used to privacy living on 5+ acres but having this parcel with cows behind us at the new place will make the transition much easier.

Now transitioning my studio space will be more challenging - my two rooms are almost the same size but I'm losing a huge walk in storage loom. I'll just have to get more creative with my storage areas. The kitchen will also be a challenge as there aren't as many cabinets but really, do I need those graduated wedding cake pans I bought in 1986 for a cake decorating class I took............and haven't used them since. I will be re-evaluating everything once again as I unpack. And what about those two springform pans that I don't think I've ever used since I'm allergic to eggs and don't eat cheesecake.......or enough tart pans for an army, I'm sure keeping one will suffice......... 

Paring down has felt good but oh, so much work. I'm yearning for the days when I can spend all day at the loom, or get in some spinning & knitting, some sewing & quilting......it will come..........

New house

We have closed escrow on the new house closer to town, in a neighborhood, off acreage. We're almost ready to list our current house. We won't move to the new place for another few weeks. I have to admit I did have some second thoughts after we were into this purchase but after being over there without the former owner's things in it I can finally say it feels totally right. This home is going to be very comfortable and it feels good inside, nice and light and bright.  I'm still wondering where all our stuff is going to fit..........it's a tiny bit smaller than our current house but what that 3 car garage is missing is the huge storage rooms we have in our current 3 car garage. There was much donating and giving away of things we don't need this last month but I'm thinking as I unpack there will be a bit more........I've packed some things that I really question whether I need to keep storing them as I haven't even looked at them in 15 years. I can take my time unpacking and think on it........

This is the front of the house, front trees are all leafed out now. To the right side of the house is where I'll be planting some fig trees early next spring. I'm thinking I also need a gingko tree in that area. They're my favorite leaves and they do grow here so I'll have to search for a small tree this fall or next spring.

This is a view off the little back deck. There's a 5 acre parcel behind us complete with a few cows so even though we're on a city lot it feels like we still have some privacy out back rather than looking out at another privacy fence with a house behind it. If we look a bit to the right there's a view of the mountains.

You can't see them in this picture but there are 2 dwarf apple trees that are loaded with little apples. We were told there are 2 plum trees, we see some plums on one of them - I understand that plums got hit hard with cold weather in our area after flowering so that may be why we're not seeing much. There are some grape vines on the side yard, they're loaded with pinpoint little grape clusters. In front of the grapes there's an area where someone tried to put down a patch of sod, over gravel.....well, of course it didn't take. I'm thinking a raised bed strawberry patch would be perfect there. Along the fence on the other side of the yard there are lots of rose bushes totally covered with roses and tons of buds - looks like I'm going to have to learn about roses. There's a little corner where the previous owner had a garden - I'll be watching to see if it gets enough sun to determine if that's where I'll put some raised beds for veggies. If it doesn't get enough sun we can do something right along the white picket fence, it gets tons of sun.

So, right now rather than being over at the new house much we need to keep concentrating on getting this one listed and packed up. Life has been consumed for quite a while with house hunting/sorting/packing/getting a house ready to list - I'm more than ready to start nesting at the new place and get back to doing the things that I love like weaving, sewing, quilting, spinning, knitting, beading, etc, etc, etc. I don't ever remember this buying/selling process being so all time consuming in the past.

Spinning Wheel for Sale

I'm moving so this beautiful wheel must go, I just won't have room for it. I had been asking $275 for it but will entertain any reasonable offer.

Beautiful Saxony Flax Wheel with Distaff. I was told when I bought this that it is a Country Craftsman wheel. I have not found any identification on it and am not sure if they were signed or not so I can't verify this.

I've only been using this wheel as décor but it spins beautifully.

The original Country Craftsman wheels were made by Jerome Rooney starting in 1969. He patterned the wheel after a 1700 Saxony flax wheel. The earliest of his wheels were made with 13 spokes, this one has 12 spokes and is thought to be from the early 70's. Joseph Franzek started working with Rooney in 1972. When Rooney retired in 1982 Franzek took over the business. He built and sol the wheels until 2003 when he retired.

The wheel comes with 3 original bobbins. The threading hook and lazy kate are not original, the lazy kate is a newer Kromski stained to match the wheel.

Must be picked up in Grants Pass/Merlin area. I will not ship so please don't ask. Please don't contact me if you're going to try and scam me - it won't work, I will not answer the email. Cash only, local in person pick-up.

I had been asking $275 - if you're interested make me a reasonable offer, this wheel needs a new home asap so I don't have to move it. I can be contacted at cindiesam at yahoo dot com

Hanging in there...........

I finally decided to knit the 'Be Simple Variations' asymmetrical shawlette using the 12 Days of Christmas handspun. It will be interesting to see how it turns out as it goes from color to color. It will also be interesting to see how big it ends up. I knit this shawlette using fingering weight yarn but this is more worsted size knit on bigger needles. I'm hoping it turns out big enough or I'll be ripping it out and trying something else. I am knitting on this when I'm not totally exhausted in the evening.

I'm hanging in there with the house buying project although I'm overwhelmed at times......many times. If all goes well we will be signing papers on the new house this week. I finally finished going through the entire house as I refuse to box up and move things I haven't used since we moved to this house 15 years ago. I've started packing so the house shows better............as in packing the weaving and sewing/crafts rooms as the rest of the house shows just fine. We have some work to do on the deck which Sam has started. Not sure when we'll get this house listed but am hoping it's in the not too distant future as we don't want to have an extra house for very long.

I've heard interesting comments from those around me about our move. Friends are feeling bad for us because we're downsizing - huh??? The new house is only a tiny big smaller so I wouldn't call that downsizing, we are downsizing from acreage to a neighborhood and no one should feel bad for us over that - it's what we want to do, it's a choice, we don't have to move, we can stay right where we are but we are ready to take care of less and have more time for the things that are important to us like weaving, spinning, quilting, sewing, beading, knitting, golfing, fishing, walking on the beach, etc, etc, etc.....   So dear friends, if you read this, please stop making those comments as it's starting to get on my nerves. Other than having to go through all the pains of buying and selling, which seem to be much worse this time than ever before, we're very happy...........we're both thinking about now that we don't ever want to move again but who knows what the future holds......

Finally.........shawls blocked

I took time early one morning last week to block a couple shawls so I could pack them away. It's not my favorite thing to do but I thoroughly enjoyed taking a break from house buying duties and getting the current house ready to put on the market. I love the way both of these turned out.

This is the Pretty Basic shawl pattern (Janina Kallio) knit from some beautiful hand-dyed fingering weight yarn a friend gifted me - I can wear this with so many colors - I love it. What I love about this shawl pattern is that I can knit it as long as my yarn will go, this one was knit several inches longer than the pattern calls for.

This is the Be Simple Variations asymmetrical shawl/scarf pattern (Carolyn Glauz-Todrank). I knit it in hand-dyed gradation fingering weight yarn, I think from Brambleberry Yarns but don't hold me to that, I can't find the label. I wasn't sure if I was going to like these colors but I love them.

Now back to cleaning windows and packing up coned yarns and knitting yarns in my studio so those rooms look bigger for showing of the house - one can barely walk in those  two rooms because of shelves and shelves of fiber. If I were looking at a house I could look past that, or get totally engrossed in seeing what was on the shelves, but most buyers would rather see an uncluttered room.

Hoping before the end of June I'll be weaving away again in my new space.........

Beach time out.........

Last weekend we had a beach getaway planned with friends who would be camping over there. We knew we really needed the getaway so in spite of so much to do here at home we headed west to the coast. We were celebrating Kathy's birthday over the weekend and one of the important parts of it was watching the labyrinth being drawn and walking it - it was World Labyrinth Day. Denny Dyke regularly draws them on the beach in Bandon along with his crew of rakers - Circles in the Sand

We're standing up above on the cliff watching the drawing - here it is in one direction......

.....here looking the other direction. It's huge, as usual.

One of the drawings within the labyrinth we pass by as we're walking.....

....a great sentiment - "We all belong to each other".......

.....folks walking the labyrinth, even horseback riders came to see although it would probably be frowned upon if horses walked it.....although I'm sure they could as the tide started coming in and others were done walking. There was one dog walking it but he got frightened so he had to be picked up and carried off.......and he wasn't a tiny dog to pick up.......not sure what spooked him.......

......ying yang we passed by......

Life is a labyrinth

and we are all wandering

searching for ourselves

Coming down the home stretch......

At the end a place to write our names. There's ours in the heart.......

.....and Bill wrote this for Kathy

After our walk we went down the beach a little ways to have an incredible picnic lunch I put together - it was a lovely day on the coast. Off in the distance you can see people still walking the labyrinth. It was a perfect weekend - life is good......

Overwhelmed..........

I'm overwhelmed at the moment, so much so I couldn't even find a suitable photo to go with this post. You see, we've been thinking about moving for the past year but hadn't really committed until recently. It's time for us to get off acreage and move into a neighborhood. We're at the point where we don't want to worry about dead trees, fallen trees, ice & snow on our steep 1/3 mile driveway, etc. Oh, and there's the fire danger I will not miss, we have no escape route here if a forest fire starts close by and we're on a hill surrounded on both sides by ravines. There's no where in our region that's totally safe from fires but it will be better at the new house. It's going to be sad to leave this home we've had for the past 15 years but we're ready for a new adventure. We will miss our extra large covered deck and the privacy acreage provides........and we will miss our neighbors but we're not going but 13 miles closer to town so we can still see them.


We have found a house and are moving forward with buying it. We have not listed our current house yet as we want to make sure the purchase on the new one goes through.............and we have to spruce it up.............as in clean it out. Our current house has tremendous storage, so much so that we just kept filling it up without moving anything old out. This is where the overwhelming part comes in - we're cleaning out closets and storage rooms and right now that job looks like it will never end. I have found that I need to go on several diets - a knitting yarn diet, a fabric diet, a bead diet, a roving diet, a craft supply diet, a shoe diet, a purse diet, kitchen stuff diet and I'm sure there are many other diets, including the normal diet to lose weight.  And there's the weaving yarns but there are 3 things exempt from that diet - tencel, silk and cottolin as I go through those at a fairly quick pace...........although there's no weaving going on at the moment.


I still have stock of roving to sell in one of my etsy shops - it's all 20% off thru May 26th and I'll most probably extend the sale beyond then. I really don't want to move it and I'd like to use those bins in packing up the house. I have been trying to move the remainder of the roving as I'm not going to be selling it any longer once my stock is gone. So if you need Ashland Bay roving check out my shop HERE. 


Now off to figure out which closet to tackle next..........

Back to journal making

The watercolor paper needed to finish up leather journals finally arrived.........via slowboat..........but I guess that's what one gets with a free shipping offer so I can't really complain.

 I got all the paper cut for the remaining 12 journals I want to make. Six of them still needed end papers so I decided to do some stenciling.

Here are the 6 end papers that need to sit for a while, the Shiva Paintstiks need to cure. The end papers get folded over the 'books' of watercolor pages so the design on the right of each paper is in the front of the journal, design(s) on the left are the back page in the journal. Each of these goes perfectly with the leather colors and buttons chosen.

I also got 2 journals put together, both of those I used some of my paste paper for the end papers.....forgot to take a picture of those.

I couldn't resist.........

 While on the coast we frequently go to second hand/antique shops. We pretty much furnished the cottage over there from them.  Why we still go I'm not sure since we have no room for any other pieces of furniture.........but we're hooked. So.........this machine was marked down to $65, I couldn't leave it there, it had to come home with me, if it hadn't been marked down I could have easily walked on by.  Does it work? I have no clue yet, that's not the point, the point is I love to look at it.

This one has a cabinet that goes over top the machine rather than it folding down. It's so pretty.  Now where will it live??? I have no clue. There is no room in the beach cottage..........and here at home I've got one without the machine and it has a marble top, and I've got one with the machine, it's the type that folds down and has a cover. So......where will a 3rd machine live??? I have no clue yet. We didn't have room to bring it all back here to the valley so we brought the machine and lid - next time over we'll bring the desk part. Bailey refused to let us put the back seat down in order to bring it all home, he was not sitting next to that 'thing' - he wanted 'his' back seat. So.........I've got some time to figure out where to put it.......

Leather journals.......

In spite of being out of the studio too many days this week I did make some time for journal making. 

Here I'm auditioning a button - the final step in the making of a journal

Here they are - sorry no pictures of the insides with the lovely/creative end papers. I've got watercolor paper cut to make 6 more, then I've got leather cut for 12 more but I made a math error when ordering paper and don't have enough so more is on the way from Dick Blick. Many of these will end up for sale in my etsy shop in the not too distant future.

"Who you looking at?"  Bailey's bed behind me when I sit at the computer - he can sleep like he was doing here, before I rudely woke him up, or he can lay his head on the window sill and watch the forest critters.

Journal making

My life doesn't seem my own these days which results in very little time weaving. Lo and behold I had the entire day at home yesterday and I could have woven on that 3 scarf silk warp that's been sitting on a loom for weeks. But I just couldn't get into it. I couldn't sew because my Bernina is in for maintenance. I looked at the pile (on the floor, for months) of already cut leather, big folder filled with watercolor paper waiting to be cut into journal pages and fun papers for end covers for the journals. I thought - I'll start working on making all those journals, then I can get that pile off the floor and into a nice box of finished journals. Of course, this will take a while because I have a lot of supplies but it sounds like a fun activity for right now.

Here are some leathers paired with my homemade paste paper that will be coordinating end papers. The paste paper is so fun and I'm so glad to have a good use for it.....you see, I made it many years ago with my dear friend Janette when we had a paste paper play day. Janette lost her very long battle with cancer back in 2011 - I thought about her all afternoon while planning out which paste papers will go with which leathers.

Some black leather will get paste paper end covers, others will get Asian paper that I'll use spray adhesive to adhere them to watercolor paper so they have some heft.

These leather covers will all get Asian paper as end covers.

So, this is the paper picked out for 15 different journals. Then there are at least as many pieces of leather cut out for more journals but I have no more end paper so those I'll do what I've done on past journals, either watercolor paint the end papers or stencil them. I'll concentrate on those after I've made all of these journals.  Yesterday I did get 2 journals made and paper cut for several more......but a friend came over to buy some roving so we spent time visiting instead of me working on journals......time well spent visiting with a dear friend.  Eventually journals will show up in my etsy shop......but they need to be created and then comes the dreaded photography.........

Excitement here is a bear opening the bird seed pail and eating seed one evening, next evening he tried to carry the pail off but heard Sam open the front door so he dropped it. Then overnight he decided to pull down our very high steel cable holding bird feeders between trees - one feeder is missing. I want to put the pail out this evening so we can see it, Sam doesn't want to lose the pail.....