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

I am still here although I haven't been posting.  There has been so much going on and so much of my time consumed with things that are not creative at all. Hopefully I will soon be spending time in the studio again.

We actually decorated this year, we haven't done anything for 10 years other than put a swag down on our gate at the old house. This year, in the new house, we actually have outdoor lights - that's a first, ever. The porch still needs something other than my wreath......maybe next year.  There are 6 trees up in the house - the big one, 3 small northwoods style trees that have all sheep/fiber related ornaments on them, a table top tree with my inklings and a tiny miniature tree. Stockings are hung by the chimney with care. It's looking very festive for the holidays.......for a change. 

The dolls above were made by my grandmother. I must have been in the 3rd or 4th grade so they're around 55 years old. I remember sitting at her dining room table watching her hand sew the clothing. The women's outfits are complete with petticoats and lace bloomers, cameos at their necks and not in view from this angle are gem baubles on their hats. That left muff is real mink. The man's outfit is all wool. I treasure these dolls and hopefully one day when I'm gone someone else in the family will treasure them. There were several sets made for my mother and aunts so there are others floating around the family - mine were my grandmother's set.

We did sell our old house - closed escrow on Nov 30th. What a sigh of relief not to go into the winter worrying about that house. We hadn't expected to own it for so long after buying this one but the fires this summer put a damper on houses moving in the area. I hope the new owners love living there, it is a beautiful house and piece of property. Now that we've sold it we can start thinking about some remodeling here at the new house....sometime after the holidays A new kitchen is in order, appliances are newer so those are fine but new cabinets, countertops, sink, backsplash are on the to-do list. Then a new gas fireplace which entails removal of marble tile and new tile and a different mantle. Some new lighting......which I've been looking for already but just haven't found exactly what I want. There are more things we want to do here but these are the first on the list.

Another issue taking up time was health related. An area of my breast with radial scarring found during a routine mammogram, followed by a core needle biopsy (yuck) and then a lumpectomy just 2 weeks ago. In the end all is fine, no cancer found, but still un-nerving. I can't say how impressed I was with my nurse navigator and my surgeon, not to mention how caring everyone was at the hospital. They all made, what for me, was a stressful situation so much easier. Man, am I glad that's over. Once those steri-strips fall off the incision I'll really consider it over.

Now I'm working like a mad person trying to play catch up with getting gifts together. I am so behind this year. This entire year has been consumed by not so fun or creative things - I'm determined next year will be better and I'll be spending much of my time in the studio. 

Off to Santa's workshop to finish up some small gifts.........

Say it isn't so.......

Say it isn't so.....I love Cooking Light magazine but this is what arrived in my mailbox the other day - the last issue!  I'm in mourning. I've had a subscription to the magazine from the first issue. Many of my all time favorite recipes that I make year after year are from this magazine. They will substitute Eating Well magazine for the rest of subscriptions, it's just not the same, I've read it before. They will have the occasional special issue on the newsstand but the chance of me remembering to make the effort to check out the newsstand all the time just won't happen.  So for the immediate future I have many recipes marked to try so I'll be ok for a while.......

On another note - anyone out there watch the Macy's Day Parade? I will be watching, or at least dvr'ing it to watch later in the day - the Grants Pass High School Band is in it once again. It's a huge honor to be selected but this is the second time. They went to Macy's back in 2010 - there were only 18 bands in the parade, only 8 of them from high schools and our band was the only high school from the west coast. It was announced 1 1/2 years ago that they were invited to the parade again, since that time huge fund raising events have been going on. It takes a lot of money to get 230 students plus many parents, chaperones, supporting staff, uniforms and instruments to NYC - a total of 444 folks. Each band member had to raise $2000 plus spending money for themselves but then there was all the extra monies needed for getting everything else to NYC. Everyone left here on Sunday being bused to big airports to the north for red-eyes landing in 3 different NYC airports. While there they will also get to see the sights and attend a broadway show. This year I know 2 kids that will be there, a friend's granddaughter who I've been giving bags of cans/bottles to for her fundraising efforts and a neighbor's son. This is very exciting for our small town. I'm not sure when the uniforms and instruments left aboard trucks bound for NYC - hopefully no storms will affect the cross country trip. So, if you watch the parade be sure to watch for the Grants Pass High School band.

A note of what's going on - too little fibery stuff, too much other stuff....nothing exciting to write about but hopefully life will get back to normal in 2019.

Yard art......

Now that I have a small yard where yard art won't be lost like on acreage in the woods I'm picking up fun pieces. These two pieces are from Rusty Birds in Vancouver, WA - the co-owner is down here for a holiday market this weekend.
 

 I bought this cute chickadee yard stake. I've got it against the fence so I can see it from the loom room window - it's along what I'm now calling rose bush lane as all the rose bushes are along this fence

And this is a armillary - it has circles that will spin around in a breeze/wind. It's hard to see here but it sits on the edge of my future garden beds, it's really tall, much taller than I am. We got it in the ground this morning - of course there's no breeze so it's not moving right now. And yes, those raised beds are in need of soil - that will come. I'm thinking of planting strawberries in the little cubbies in the blocks, then veggies inside the beds.

MIA

Yes, missing in action once again - sometimes there is just too much going on in my life and sometimes, like now, it's nothing I think would be of interest of anyone out there. Hopefully life will get back to normal in the not too distant future and I will have more creative 'stuff' to share.

I have been doing some sewing but it's for gift giving so I can't show it until after the holidays.

This morning we had freezing fog. I forgot to bring the hummingbird feeder in overnight but it wasn't frozen solid so the pair that visit were able to drink from it.

We have hummingbirds that stay here all year long which means I need to get back into the habit of bringing the feeder in at night so it's not frozen come morning.

It's hard to see in this photo but this hummie's beak is open - guess it's smacking it's lips and saying "yum, good sugar water"

And here just two hours later the sun has broken through and the feeder has thawed. These pix were taken through the window (with screen) right by my computer.

Parallel.......

This past weekend my weaving guild hosted Robyn Spady for a workshop on parallel weaves. Robyn is a top notch instructor, the most well prepared, easy to understand instructor and has the best handouts ever.

Of course, I didn't take but a couple pictures as I was weaving my samples. I wove a total of just under 3 yards of samples, all different treadlings, one shuttle, two shuttles on my M's & W's parallel threading. My warp was a light sage green and very dark navy blue.

My first two samples started out using the same colors as the warp - then I experimented with color for the remainder of the samples, some very successful, some not like this deep red. There were some incredible color combinations but I was too busy to think about pulling out my phone all the time to take photos. A very fun learning process playing with color while learning about all the treadling possibilities with the threading.  

I can see many warps in my future based on what I learned in this workshop......now if I could just mark some more things off my very long to-do list so I can try something new.........

Southwest Sunset Shawl

I finally decided to sell this shawl. It's handspun and handwoven. I kept thinking I'd keep it for myself but I haven't worn it so it's time to see if someone else would love this lovely piece. It's handspun merino wool, tussah silk, mohair, bamboo, tencel, ribbon, rayon with a bamboo weft. Lovely autumnal colors. It's listed in my Etsy shop HERE.

Pottery storage

At our last house we had an alcove with built in shelving for pottery storage - since moving pottery has been sitting in boxes where I needed a piece of furniture for it. Finally we found one and I love it. I love the color, I love the wire instead of glass in the doors and I love that I can now use my pottery again. Everything fit except for a few pieces and they're ones I never use anyhow that should really find new homes. I'm so excited that we now have our soup and stew bowls unpacked and a couple of my favorite mugs. And in the stacks of wall art propped up against the walls was this framed fruit label - it was as if we bought them to go together, the teapots too. It's the only piece up on the walls so far in this house and we've been here for 4 months.........I think I'm going to have to step it up and start hanging some art.

Bailey insisted I take his photo too - boy, look how white that face has gotten!

Towels in progress......

These towels came off the loom the other day, there are 12 of them. This is before washing. I did get them washed but they sit on the ironing board awaiting hemming. Time seems to escape me these days with other things going on in life. Hopefully I'll get to them soon but first I need to double check my threading on the table loom for an upcoming Robyn Spady workshop on parallel threading. At the end of threading heddles there were 4 extra ends. I was not real focused on Monday when winding the warp and threading. I think I just wound 4 extra ends but will check the threading just in case. So, more time spent on that then on getting these towels hemmed today.........

Leather Journals

I've finally taken some time to do the photography work so I could list some of my handmade leather journals in my etsy shop. I got these 6 listed today, more to come when I have time to do more photography work, which I so struggle with. These have high quality watercolor paper pages which are great for painting on but work just as well for writing or drawing. The inside cover pages vary from my hand stenciled designs to my handpainted paste paper to Japanese paper. They are $50, shipping included. Check them out HERE.

More towels

 Been weaving away on the towel warp during snippets of free time - here a tan weft......

 .....here a teal weft......

here a peach weft......two of each color.....will have 2 more to weave on this warp, haven't decided on color yet.

I'm thrilled that I can weave and I also successfully spun on Tuesday with no issues.  I don't think I mentioned here I was having an issue with my hand/thumb area on my right hand. The pain was a turn my stomach pain, it was hard to do even the simplest things, I iced it on and off, I wore a brace most of the day and always while I slept, am still wearing it while sleeping. I'm sure it was from overuse when I was spinning at the fair all day long for days in mid-August, I had also been spinning every evening for a couple weeks before the fair. I was able to sew first but only because I used a rotary cutter, I could not work scissors. I still haven't tried knitting, not going to push it as that can bother my hands on a good day. I'm still babying it, not doing one activity for very long as not to inflame it again, it's still a bit sore but not bad. So, I am far behind on holiday gifts, this may be the holiday season of no handmade gifts from me.

Weaving, rain and rainbows..........

 I can't believe I'm actually weaving again...in-between working outside in the yard trimming up bushes and trees. This twill pattern was requested by an etsy customer in black and white - she saw it in another color in my shop, only it had long been sold out. Will she actually buy them when I'm done, who knows, someone will if she doesn't.

Here's the towel in red. I like to weave at least 2 of each color. Am thinking green is up next, must have holidays on the brain. Speaking of holidays now that we're in a neighborhood and there are kids there will be trick or treating - not Sam's favorite thing but I love to see the kids dressed up, not to mention an excuse to buy lots of candy. Numerous houses are already decorated for Halloween - can't go there but I do have a big pot of mums on the porch and will add some pumpkins when I get to the store.

 

 We bought a couple trees for the front yard recently and got them planted. Here's my ginkgo tree - I've always wanted one as ginkgo leaves are my favorite leaves.  See all that gravel?  Not sure why whoever built this house felt compeled to put such a large area of gravel along a portion of the front yard. It is going but not until next spring. We'll be putting more bushes in and somehow getting the gravel out and replacing it with mulch.

 And here's my new fig tree, came complete with figs, two ready to eat........which I did. Behind the fig is the fence to the backyard - those are the white grapes gone wild coming over to the front side yard of the fence.

 As if right on cue it rained yesterday evening and during the night - I love it. I always predict the first rain to be the last day of September or first day of October - I was close. This does not signal an end to fire season, we need a lot more rain and snow in the mountains to do that but it's a step in the right direction. We had a record 110 or 111 days without rain this year (not sure which) - a record, not a good record to be setting in a fire prone area.

And here's the rainbow I saw out off the back porch (pictured above) - fitting to celebrate rainfall.

It's about time......

It's about time I get a warp on a loom. It's been months.........house hunting, getting a house ready to sell, packing, moving, unpacking, working on new house and still caring for the old house sure takes its toll on my creative time. This week is pretty busy but I am squeezing in time to get a towel warp wound and get started threading it. I'm excited. There is still much to do here but I'm choosing to ignore it........this morning I did work out in the yard for a couple hours so that's something.

Crisis the other night - Bailey got sprayed by a skunk out back - so much for living in the city as opposed to the country. We were out front in the dark by the light of the neighbor's Halloween decorations, bathing him with peroxide, baking soda and dish soap. It worked pretty good although still a little pepe la pue aroma on the top of his head. He was still feeling sorry for himself the next morning.

A bit of sewing............

Been busy around here with this and that and now visiting family. I try to sneak in a few minutes here and there to work on our holiday cards - not telling what they are but here are the pieces I'm working on sewing together.  I haven't quite nailed down how the card will go together but getting the sewing done will be the most time consuming part of it.

I really haven't been inspired to blog much these days, I suppose because I have very little creative time in my days. I'm hoping that changes come next week, I'm going to try my best not to let other chores or duties interfere too much. I'm doing pretty good with saying 'NO' these days when asked to volunteer or help with something.

More charity sewing

Yesterday afternoon I worked at warp speed to sew up my quota of 10 small tote bags for our American Sewing Guild Head Start project. Kids will get tote bags filled with goodies at the holidays. Glad to have my charity sewing finished up so I can move on to my own projects not to mention finishing up organizing since we moved. Hoping to get art up on the walls soon.

A bit of sewing.......

I just finished sewing up 17 pillowcases for charity. Our neighborhood group of the American Sewing Guild sews pillow cases for a local care facility. I hope they brighten up some of those residents days seeing them on their beds........and having the beautiful fabrics under their heads because what I got from the guild was high quality fabric. I thought I was picking out enough fabric to do my quota of 10 cases.....well, there was enough for 17 so I just kept sewing.

Next up are the small tote bags for Head Start kids that we fill with goodies at the holidays. I feel the need to get the charity sewing out of the way so I can work on my own sewing and get back to weaving.

This and that........

Been missing in action again - I have been busy, just haven't had much to share.  Been busy unpacking the last of the boxes (other than holiday stuff). My two studio rooms are set up ready to work in - all that's left is to put some pictures on the walls in those rooms, and the rest of the house.

I went to the American Sewing Guild meeting on Tuesday and friend Kathy taught us how to make fun visors. I love it and will be making more.

I did sew bathroom café curtains. I have family arriving next week and figured they'd probably appreciate a curtain in the guest bath. The bath is ending up black, white and gray with bits of other colors due to the black & white marble countertops. It's hard to see this fabric but it's little dashes of gray and black on a white background. Ignore the filthy windows - we haven't had time to wash them since moving in this house and I don't think the previous owners ever washed them in the 4 years they lived here. 

Here are the cafes in the master bath toilet area. I had bought a vintage table runner to make them but then found this cute dragonfly fabric in my stash - I love it, it makes me smile. We will need these once the plum trees outside lose their leaves.

And here's the café over the tub area. it also has dragonflies and is a coordinating fabric to the other one.

We have a couple apple trees at our new place so yesterday I made spiced applesauce for the freezer - it is yummy. I need to make more as we have a number of apples. I also made an apple pie. When the fridge Pillsbury Crust in the box says 'best by July 2018' believe it. It's edible, especially with vanilla ice cream, but really the crust is past it's prime - pretty heavy, not flakey at all.

And this final picture is yet another fire but this is old news. This was from Friday afternoon looking out our back door. If I hadn't known exactly where it was I would have thought it was just blocks away - it was on the other side of town, which isn't far but not a danger for us. Since then a fire broke out not far from our old house (which we still own, another story) but not close enough to be a danger but it is a danger for many others including friends. I have heard of one house that burnt but there are apparently others, no official news on the numbers yet. Hoping they get that fire out within the next few days and hoping those I know and others still have their homes once the fire is contained. And then today when driving home we saw a plume of smoke close to the fire from Friday - sounds like it got snuffed out quickly.  I am so done with fire season this year - it gets worse every year. And the story on the old house which we still own - it was close to the huge fire which is now ok on our side of the fire but kept anyone from looking at it. Just this past week a few realtors were out with prospective buyers, unfortunately none of them were interested in our house.......but at least it's getting shown now that the fire is under control and we aren't socked in with smoke.....just need the perfect person for a really nice home to go look at it.

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...........