Pictures to Share

Simone Olivia ... she is such a cutie pie and looks just like her daddy, Andre.


Andre & Stephanie came to visit us a couple weekends ago. It was really great to hang out with them again. Here's a pic of the happy family, unfortunately taken in poor lighting and it's a bit blurry too.


Brody's new look. :)

it didn't turn out so bad after all ...

the roving didn't felt after all! and it got even prettier when it dried. i got a little goofy taking pictures today but i had fun with it. :)

Rocket Roving Experiments

The picture doesn't really do justice but oh well. I think I may need to stick to superwash roving for my shop. I'm going to spin one or two of these up and see how bad the fiber sticks together. I have a feeling it may be bad. :(

Getting So Big!

Chickens

I realize I haven't done any garden or chicken updates lately. Bad news on the garden ... entire thing was eaten by a fungus. I actually had to buy squash at the grocery store last week. Just makes me sick to my stomach to talk about the situation. After the frost and the replanting and then a hale storm that sent the corn and okra down and their sides and tore big holes in the leaves of everything and then the over fertilizing "incident" ... we overcame it all only to end up with some corn and green beans and have everything else eaten by a fungus before it produced anything. We decided we need to do some rotation planting and probably move the garden to a different spot next time around. I can't believe it's summer and I'm buying squash, zucchini, cucumbers, etc. Just makes me mad.

On to happier things ... the chickens are getting big. Should only be another month or so before we have eggs. Will be interesting to see how many hens we ended up with. The Bird Man's breeding and incubation techniques supposively yield a 5:1 ratio for hens to roosters. We got 4 so we're hoping we got really lucky and got all hens. Not sure how we're going to explain it to the boys if one or more of the chickens disappear. Not sure how I'm going to deal with it myself either. I'm certainly not going to eat something I've been feeding by hand. It's things like this that will push me back into being a vegetarian.

Here's a picture taken several weeks ago.



Apparently my recent chicken picture taking didn't turn out so good. I'll have to take more and post later but i'll leave you with a couple of pics that will give you an idea of how big they've gotten.




Guess what? Chicken butt! :P (sorry ... just couldn't resist. i do this to houston quite often and it makes us both laugh. me: "hey houston, guess what?" houston: "what?" me: "chicken butt!" real mature, i know. )

Rocket Yarn

Well I finally made another delivery of Rocket Yarn to Hanks last Friday. I decided to play with a new base (merino/silk) this time around and also veered from my typical dark earthy colors a bit to play with some pastels. All in all I think it turned out pretty good. I also did some kettle dyeing with my newly evolved technique (top picture) and was very happy with the results. Almost wanted to keep those four for myself. :) So happy to be getting more crafty time lately. Now that i've delivered a batch to Hanks, I need to dye up another batch to list on my Etsy site. That and I have something else in the works .... hand dyed roving. Rocket Yarn Fiber? Rocket Yarn Roving? Rocket Roving? hmmm ... i'll have to work on that one.

Pretty!

This is one of Ginger's batts I spun up. Wool/alpaca blend. Absolutely gorgeous!

Dyeing and Spinning

She's Here!!!

She treadles like a dream. Takes no effort at all which is a GREAT thing for my arthritic ankles. :) I haven't spun any yarn on her yet as I had to get back to work but I will definitely give her a test drive later today.

see anything you recognize? :-)

My Wheel!

I'm so excited! I just got the tracking info for my spinning wheel. It will be here on Tuesday. SQUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

And just for future reference, friends and family feel free to send me fiber for any birthday or holiday. ;) Raw fleece is great too. I just lllllloooooooooovvvvveeeeeee the smell of raw wool. Does this make me strange? Oh well ... who cares. :) I'm trying to talk Brett into letting me add an animal or two to our crew that produces fleece. (Short dog and cat hair and chicken feathers aren't so good for spinning.) So far all he has said is that I have to build the fence myself. At least it wasn't an outright no. :)

I've finally discovered how to have wonderfully peaceful uninterrupted time for myself. This week I have been going to bed early with the boys and then getting up a couple of hours before everyone else. Tuesday and Wednesday I spun yarn on my borrowed wheel (thanks Ginger!) for two hours before the rest of the house woke up. It was absolutely the best way ever to start a day. Today I actually got up and exercised before everyone else got up. Not quite as fun as spinning but still made me feel great. After the mood I was in for most of last week I decided I had to do something different. More on this later ... time for me to head to my oral surgeon checkup. Hopefully he will agree to change my anti-inflammatory. Anaprox and I are not getting along so well anymore. I'm hoping for ibuprofen as I know I can handle lots of that.

Great Idea

I'm submitting my "big baby birth stories" to this site: www.unnecesarean.com. I think it's a great idea. If you have an "unnecesarean" or "big baby" story to share, please do so. We women really need to help each other out with this increasing problem in our medical community. C-sections seem so common place and are handled like they are nothing at all but I know so many women with serious physical and emotional issues due to c-sections they were forced in to.

Movin' On

Today is Houston and Brody's first day at their new daycare. We were driving 28 miles each day with the old daycare. It was convenient when we worked at G_ _ but now that we work from home and gas is over $4/gal it has gotten expensive and much less convenient. I was really hoping for something to pop up and present itself. And then guess what happened .... an in-home daycare literally popped up right down the road. I'm talking less than a mile away. I was a bit hesitant about it but after visiting and talking to the owner several times we decided to go for it. The boys did really well this morning and I think they are going to like it there. Houston will only be there until he starts The Blake School in about six weeks but Brody will be there, hopefully, until next September when he is old enough to start The Blake School. I'm anxiously awaiting picking them up in about an hour to see how their day went.

I'm so excited I feel like a little girl going to Disney for the first time ....

I'm getting a spinning wheel of my very own! I'm so excited I think I could cry. :)

Louet Julia

YARN!

After what feels like forever and a day ... I finally did some yarn and roving dyeing. :) I experimented with a new technique I came up with on the yarn and most of it turned out great. Not so sure about the bright green one ... makes me think of Kermit the Frog. All of the yarn was dyed using the same four colors that I mixed up myself. The different shades in the yarn are due to different concentrations, mixing and the different fibers.


100% superwash merino roving


75% wool/25% nylon


some sort of wool ... can't remember right now


peruvian highland wool


75% merino/25% nylon (this was actually an overdye ... i love it when mistakes turn into gorgeous yarn)

70% merino/30% silk


wool ... not sure what kind

Patterns I Heart

I was browsing through the most recent issue of Interweave Knits a few weeks ago and found a pattern I absolutely loved named the Apres Surf Hoodie. Now my time for uninterrupted, focused knitting like that required in this pattern is pretty much nil so I'll probably just admire the photo from time to time. Well today I was browsing the internet (as I tend to do probably more than I should) and I found another striking hoodie pattern that I loved named Riding to Avalon. Now I just have to find myself a copy of Knitscene Fall 2008 Issue when it comes out. So after looking at the patterns I realized they were both designed by the same person ... Connie Chang Chinchio. She is truly a knitwear designer after my own heart. You can see more of her patterns here and she has a blog here.

Something Random

I didn't sleep very well last night but I had the craziest dream that kept continuing every time I went back to sleep. In my dream we had chickens and ducks living in the house with us and we spent every minute of every day running around picking up eggs and saving them from breaking. The birds just kept laying eggs all day long so I found myself basically standing in the same spot turning around and around picking up all the eggs that kept appearing before me under the couch and next to the tv and on the piano and on and on and on ....

Gifts Galore!

Birthday gifts tend to dwindle a bit as we age but I really racked it up this time around. I got a yogurt maker from Papa & Miss Nancy and a food dehydrator from Dad R. I've already made some yummy yogurt and have pretty much eaten it all already. I can tell I'm going to have fun with that. For my first round I added honey and vanilla extract. I really liked it but Brett and the boys thought it was too plain. I mixed in some strawberry preserves and they loved it. Next round is probably going to include some blueberries I have in the freezer from our trip to the u-pick blueberry farm. And I've set aside some tomatoes I picked from the earth boxes this week to turn into sun-dried tomatoes with the food dehydrator.

Getting two kitchen gadgets that I've had my eye on was plenty enough but I also got a pretty good chunk of cash to get my spinning wheel fund started, thanks to my mom and Dad R. YIPPEE!!! My wonderful spinning teacher Ginger, from Hanks, is helping me find a used wheel to purchase. She also invited me to come to the shop when she's there and spin on one of the class wheels which I plan to do as soon as I can schedule it in.

Fun Birthday Weekend

Brody & Houston ready to go watch fireworks

We headed down to Bradenton for my birthday weekend. My cousin Matt and his fiance Karla and her parents as well as my cousin Lindsay all came into town as well. It was really great to see everyone. We watched fireworks on Friday, my mom had a gathering at her house on Saturday which also happened to be my birthday and then we hung out at the pool on Sunday before heading out to the beach for dinner. We actually managed to have nine of the eleven living Anderson cousins there on Saturday. I think it might be the biggest number of us together in a really long time.


Lindsay, Matt & Me


Back row left to right: Tommy (my brother), Donny, Traye, Matt
Front: Eric, Missy, Me, Lindsay, Robbie
Missing is Jay (Lindsay's brother) and Kevin (Matt's brother) as well as the two cousins we have already lost, Carl & Stacey (Matt & Kevin's brother and sister)

So you think that's a crew ... check it out when we add significant others and kids ...



And I must say, we make some pretty darn cute kids in this family. :)


Brody & Juliana


Houston, Austin, Brody & Juliana


Brody, Austin, Houston, Carly, Juliana, Alana


And here's Aunt Lori, Lindsay, Me & Karla at dinner on sunday


Matt & Karla

Socks for Seeley

Word is out! Check it out here.

And thanks to my Aunt Karen, I now have the perfect idea for my note to David/Seeley. Hee hee. I'll share when I'm done. Think Dr. Seuss. ;)

Something Spacey

Send your name to space on the Kepler Mission. And here's a great activity for kids and adults alike.

LOOK ... It's a Finished Knit!

I can't believe I actually managed to finish a knitting project within the given deadline. That doesn't happen very often these days. My "Socks for Seeley" are done and now all I have to do is write the note to accompany them and send them off to Erin who is so graciously putting the package together and sending it off to David Boreanaz aka FBI Agent Seeley Booth on the Fox show Bones. The knitting was the easy part. I accomplished my goal of knitting some "crazy socks" as his character is fond of. Now what do I say? "Hi. You don't know me but I knit you some crazy socks. Hope they fit. Please wear them on the show if at all possible." Um, yeah. Gonna have to work on that. I've never in my life sent anything to a "celebrity" and while i'm totally excited about sending the socks, the note is another issue. The other knitters in the Socks for Seeley group are cracking me up with all their wishes for the socks. This is going to be a really cool package. I just hope it doesn't creep him out. All we really want is to see our socks on the show since it is a bit of a theme with his character and hey ... we're knitters. And now there's some talk about knitting something for Emily aka Bones so she doesn't feel left out. She's apparently a vegan so we will have to be a little more creative since wool is out. I'm thinking a cotton or linen handbag if we actually decide to go ahead with the plan.

Blog Neglect

So much to do and say (or just ramble about) but just not enough time in the day. Yep ... that pretty much sums it up. So what's been on my mind lately? I'm in list mode lately so maybe that's the way to ramble for the evening. Excuse my lack of grammar, punctuation and thoughts that make sense.

- wish i could spin some yarn ... would be a good way to release tension in my jaw. i promise this makes sense, really ... i think spinning yarn is one of the most stress-relieving things i've ever done. and speaking of stress ....

- TMJ dysfunction treatment is going well ... chronic fatigue and general feeling of crapiness has eased quite a bit thanks to the meds, hate being on meds but i like feeling well so i'm dealing with it, who would have guessed all that ickiness was due to my handling stress by clenching/grinding my teeth??? i've also been able to cut way down on the coffee consumption. muscle relaxer at bedtime is my best friend right now and the anti-inflammatory has the wonderful side effect of easing my ankle pain along with all the pain in my face, neck and jaw. now if i could just keep with the mushy food diet. what a serious pain in the arse. apparently you can't put your jaw in a sling (who knew right?) so the time to heal is three to nine months depending on the severity and your discipline in keeping with the treatment plan. so far i've had my bite adjusted, had a new night guard made (turns out my old one was making things worse due to a bad dental treatment ... long story that makes me grind my teeth just thinking about it) and have been on the meds for about three weeks. i'm really trying with the diet too. much more difficult than i would think. everything i eat is supposed to be the consistency of cooked pasta or softer and not make me open my mouth very wide. no subs, no apples, carrots, corn on the cob, gum, chewy stuff, etc. oh yeah, and i'm supposed to reduce my stress and better manage my physical reaction to stress.

- Houston is back in speech therapy two days a week and i am back to keeping them home those same two days a week. i decided i might as well keep them home a little extra while i can. our life is going to change drastically come september 2nd. he has to be at school before 8am. we are usually getting out of bed at that time. yikes! i am and will always be a night owl. somehow i'm going to adapt. so as i was saying, therapy ... he really likes his new therapist and gets all excited about going to see her and we're looking forward to seeing where he is in another couple months before school starts.

- Brody has had a total language explosion over the past couple of weeks. absolutely amazes and amuses me. he's already putting together two and three word sentences. this just thrills me to no end. i know it's totally normal but we never got to experience the development of language like this with houston. we used to joke when brody was a baby that he would grow up and teach houston how to talk. i thought we were joking. while houston's articulation problems have improved, i'm already hearing brody say words that houston doesn't know how to.

- brett and i actually went on a date last week thanks to Papa & Miss Nancy and had the best dinner we've had in a really long time. mmmmm ... wine, fried mushrooms, crab stuffed tilapia, wine, hot fudge sundae .... oh yeah ... we ate it all! it was such a great night. oh the things you take for granted before you have kids. also made me realize that we really should do that more often. even if we just go get coffee or something. so nice to be with brett, away from the house, the kids, the business ... just be the two of us together as friends where we can talk about whatever we want to and not have to worry about diapers or dishes or clients or deadlines or bills or anything that we don't want to think or talk about and not be interrupted in the middle of it all. i almost forgot how peaceful that is.

- piano playing is not as frequent as i would like although i'm pretty darn happy about what i've managed to teach myself so far. i'm having a blast with the Laurie Berkner songbook and our Sandra Boynton book. I've decided that in my next life I want to come back as someone who writes, sings and performs silly children's music. That would totally rock.

and on that note i'll leave you with a pic i took of a salad i made for dinner last week. just because it's my blog and i can do that sort of thing. shhhhhh ... just don't tell my oral surgeon that there's something on this plate that's harder than cooked pasta consistency.




one more thing, thanks for all the emails/comments/ideas/offers about my last post. who would have thought a yogurt maker and a dehydrator would generate that much chatter!?!?! i even have a dehydrator on its way to me. it's almost like blog post= magic. post and "poof" ... free dehydrator being sent to my very own doorstep. :)

Feeling the "WANT"

So we grow our own vegetables and we will have our own eggs from naturally fed, unmedicated happy chickens in another three to four months. What's missing? Two kitchen gadgets i'm really looking forward to owning one of these days. In my ever continuing quest to make sure our diet is as natural and low sugar as possible, I've been thinking of things I can do or make to help us along. I've really wanted to try making my own yogurt. First of all, they (meaning the yogurt companies) sneak all kinds of craziness into most store bought yogurt. And besides that, there is the cringe I feel every time I throw a plastic yogurt container in the garbage. Sometimes I buy the big deal and scoop it out but the kids (well all of us actually) eat yogurt every day and it's nice when they have a healthy snack they can get by themselves.

I've been doing some research on yogurt makers and found one that I really like. Well two actually. They come with cups which you can buy extra of. Perfect single serving sizes that I can stick in the fridge and the kids can get to themselves without making a huge mess. There's the Euro Cuisine Yogurt Maker at Target. And then there's the Cuisipro Donvier Electronic Yogurt Maker that I found on Amazon. The funny thing is, I went to Stitch 'n Bitch yesterday and Becca was talking about making yogurt. And then Kelly got talking about the food dehydrator again which happens to be the other kitchen gadget I want. She lucked out and got one for $5 at a yard sale. It seems like something that would be really useful, especially with the garden. What a great alternative to canning. All the peppers and tomatoes from the garden could be dehydrated and saved to use in cooking. Mmmm ... sun-dried tomatoes, banana chips ... I could go on and on dreaming of all the yummy healthy snacks I could make for the family. :) Anyone have either of these kitchen gadgets? I'd like to hear your thoughts or ideas.

Can you tell I've made good use of my time at work this afternoon? I'm not even going to get into the spinning wheel thing yet. I'm trying to put it out of my mind which has been extremely difficult since I've managed to make it by the yarn shop a few times lately. But like I said, I'm not going to get into that right now. I think I'll go play my piano for a few minutes before I have to go pick up the kiddos. :)

Hand Dyed Yarn Swap Round 4

Round 4 is now open. Check out the blog if you want to join us.

Send Your Name to the Moon!

Click here to send your name to the moon aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Meet the new additions to our family ...

Four of the cutest little baby chickens you ever did see.

Dave Ramsey says "SELL THE CAR"!!!!

So that's what i'm going to do. I'll be posting more info sometime this weekend but if you know anyone in the area interested in a really nice, fully loaded 2006 Nissan Pathfinder ... please send them my way.

And ... if you know/see anyone selling a 2003 or 2004 Pontiac Vibe, please let me know.

kthnx