Fall Festival Fun

We took the boys to the 7th annual Parents United Together fall festival on Saturday. Houston had a blast and as usual, wasn't scared of anything. Brett and I are both scared of heights (unless i'm in an airplane) so we're not sure how Houston turned out this way but that boy isn't scared of anything.

Books & People ... random thoughts happen when I stay up too late

There's something i've been meaning to blog about ever since we took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University earlier this year. One of the best things I took away from that course was this quote:

“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” - Charlie Tremendous Jones

For some reason, this one thing pops into my head more than anything else ... especially lately. I love to read, always have, but I don't read nearly as much as I used to. Kids, business, knitting, kids, spinning, kids .... makes it difficult to keep my nose in a book, ya know? Dave Ramsey really emphasizes the need to keep your brain alive and to continue to grow by reading. He also says the best way to get ahead in your career is to keep learning all you can about what you know. Sounds funny but makes sense. Instead of learning a little about a lot, make yourself an expert by learning everything about something. I find myself in an interesting position with the business Brett and I started back in February. I've learned a lot about civil engineering over the past few years but I still haven't found my niche. I know a little about a lot but there isn't one thing that I really know a whole lot about. I was fine with that for a while but now I'm feeling the need to really dig in to something. Something that fits my interests and abilities. I feel like I finally know what path I want to take which is giving me some new found motivation. It's a good compliment to what Brett is already really good at and I think it fits the future of the country/state/economy etc. We'll see where it leads. (more on this later)

Back to that "books you read and people you meet" thing ... We also learned in Financial Peace University that millionaires read an average of one non-fiction book a month. I'm challenging myself to read one non-fiction book a month for the next year. If I can keep it up for an entire year there is a good chance I will form a lifetime habit. For September I kicked it off by re-reading "Financial Peace Revisited". I think I'm going to get back in to "7 Habits" this month. I've tried reading it a couple of times but never stuck with it for some reason, even though I did find it interesting.

I've also decided to do something about meeting more people. I pretty much spend 98% of my time at home since I live here, work here and don't have many friends close by. Doesn't do much for the meeting new people thing. Pretty much all of my call up/hang out/stop by friends are in Gainesville. Kids and gas prices have made that quite a bit less convenient these days. While I have absolutely no intention of giving up my G'ville friends, I decided to start a craft group here in Lake City so that maybe, just maybe I may be able to find some other like-minded ladies close to home. (Maybe even find a fellow Lake City transplant who doesn't therefore already have fifty plus friends in the area.) We meet later today for the first time so i'm really hoping it goes well. I've met some really great people and learned a lot by going to a mom's group and a knitting group in Gainesville. Those kinds of things don't seem to exist here in Lake City and while I have my theories as to why this is, i'll save that for another day. I decided I might as well start it up myself and see how it goes. Only time will tell ...

Link: Dave's Recommended Reading

Student of the Week

Houston is the student of the week this week at The Blake School. Click here to see. We are so proud of him! :)

National Alpaca Farm Day

Today is National Alpaca Farm Day. Find an alpaca farm near you and go check out some great animals. Here's the one we're going to.

You can find a farm here:
Alpaca Nation

What a Neat Idea

the hope revolution

Fun Projects for Kids from NASA

Check it out here: The Space Place

Rocket Yarn

There's a bunch of Rocket Yarn at Hanks and i've also just listed a bunch in my Etsy shop. Go buy some! :)




Here's the yarn I dropped off at Hanks ...

Two Shuttles

A friend from my NASA days sent these to me. This may be the last time we will ever see two space shuttles on the launch pads at one time. Go to spaceflightnow for more info.

Ike's Sadness

For those of you who don't know, Brett and I used to live where hurricane Ike hit. We've been watching the news over the weekend and can't believe our eyes as we see places we used to shop and go out to eat and work either torn up or under water. The saddest thing to me is the Kemah Boardwalk. This was just a few miles down the road from our house. Brett asked me to marry him at the top of the ferris wheel at the Kemah Boardwalk and we were married in the Kemah Community Center. Here is a video that shows the destruction in Seabrook and Kemah and at the boardwalk. My heart just sinks watching this. I've been in touch with a few of my former coworkers and it sounds like many have left the area for the time being. My thoughts and prayers are with them during this terrible time.

I feel so helpless in this situation. I want to be out there with my friends and coworkers to help them pick up the peices but I can't do that right now. If we didn't have kids I think Brett and I would both be on our way out there with our working gloves on. I've been working on an idea for a way that I may be able to help. If anyone knows of a non-government organization that proved to be efficient and helpful during Katrina that will be helping in the Houston area, please let me know. I have to figure out the specifics but I'm working on a way to raise some money for them. It may not be a huge amount but it will be something and it will be more than we can give by ourselves at this time. More details to come ...

Now at Hanks!

Rocket Roving! :)

Cool Art

Nowhere Man - check it out here.

Rocket Roving

More roving up in the shop. :)

Dress Blues for Patriot Day

Sock Yarn

Finally got a chance to work on my sock yarn again last night. This is roving I dyed in my MOTHER EARTH colorway but my green turned out a bit darker than normal. I think I like it that way though.

I figured out my issue with over spinning. I learned to spin on a single treadle wheel. Well my Julia is a double treadle that practically spins itself. I had to move the band to the biggest whorl and really slow down my treadling. Wala! I also just finished spinning 4 oz of lace that requires a lot of twist so I had to turn off the autopilot mode I was in and pay more attention to what I was doing.



Started plying once I finished the second single but couldn't finish it up last night. Started doing the head bob falling asleep ... not so good for even plying. ;) And as you can see ... I wasn't moving the slidy things either so the yarn is all hanging out on one end of the bobbin.



I'm really happy with how this yarn is turning out. I thought it was going to be too thick but it's actually shaping up to be just what I wanted it to be.

Loving the Vibe

We've driven close to 300 miles since we bought this car last friday and I still have a 1/4 tank of gas left. And it only cost $35 to fill up. Yippee! :) The only thing I miss so far about the Pathfinder is the volume control for the radio on steering wheel.

Rocket Roving

Rocket Roving on Etsy

Feltable Wool in MOTHER EARTH - hot poor method for slightly muted colors
3 of these, 4 oz each



Wool/Nylon in PURPLE HAZE, 3.625 oz




Wool/Nylon in MOTHER EARTH - cold poor for more vibrant colors
3.5 oz

Crafty News

So i've been racking my brain lately trying to think of something I can do to supplement our income while waiting for business to pick up. We have enough work to keep Brett busy 40+ hours per week but not enough to keep me that busy. I figure while Brody is at daycare and Houston is in private school I better find a way to bring in some more cash. Thing is, I don't want another "career". I don't want something I have to dedicate a lot of time and energy towards just to quit when things pick back up. I considered waiting tables just because it's easy, i've done it before, i could work a few lunch shifts a week and still do all the "mom's taxi service" stuff. That would also leave me a couple of days to be in the office doing the things I do. I could do some teaching or tutoring but with that comes a lot of preparation and time that I don't really have for the money I would make. So long story short ... Brett and I talked about what would be the best thing and we came up with something that we think will fit our life pretty well. See I already have the skill and talent to dye yarn and roving that other people like enough to buy so why not step it up a bit? That's where the title of this post comes in ... Rocket Yarn has always been a side thing that I do when I feel like being artistic. I just pick colors as they come to me and don't worry too much about producing lots of stuff. Well that is about to change. I have lots of exciting ideas and i'm looking forward to seeing how they pan out. I'm going to dedicate one (maybe two) days a week while the kids are away to dye up yarn, roving and project bags. I have a website in the works too. And to get things started I put some things I already had on clearance in my shop and managed to sell most of them over that past week. Hopefull that's a sign of good things to come. Now I just have to figure out all the technical things like getting a wholesale license and stuff like that. Anyone that has experience/advice ... i'm all ears!

The Vibe

I so love the new car. It's a 2004 Pontiac Vibe with 59,000 miles. Not too shabby for $9,600. No more Pathfinder payment and now have a car that gets 30+ mpg. Yay! :) It figures after having the Pathfinder for sale for over two months the calls would start coming in the week Houston started school. One vehicle for this family is no fun! We fixed that though. I knew I wanted a Vibe after doing a ton of research over the past couple of months. It's a joint venture between GM and Toyota. It's a Toyota on the inside (drive train) and a Pontiac on the outside. They get great reviews on all the car review websites (cars, edmunds, kbb) and won an award for being a used car "best bet". I think Dave Ramsey would be proud.

Yippee! :)

Bye Bye Pathfinder

She's on her way to Valdosta, GA. She was a good one and I'll miss her but I won't miss the payment or the gas mileage. :)

Houston's First Day of School

Last night as Houston was getting ready for bed he said "Mama, I'm so excited about going to my new school tomorrow". He was busting at the seems. He had a hard time falling asleep and kept asking me to talk about what was going to happen on his first day. I laid with him scratching his back while telling him how it was all going to go. After lots of tossing and turning and me going through the story from us "waking up before the sun" to pulling up to the front door of his school where his teachers would get him out of the car about four times, he finally fell asleep. Then this morning I went in to wake him up and he popped right up and started talking about how excited he was. He was such a trooper. He flew right threw the morning routine and got all dressed up in his dress blues. I wasn't sure how the drop off was going to go but he hopped right out with the help of his teacher and walked right in to school. They do what they jokingly call their "valet service" which is really nice. I did pretty good too. Only cried a little. :) I hope he has a great day.

Houston's Birthday Weekend

Ready for School

I can't believe my baby is going to be 4 years old tomorrow. Where did the time go? He's been trying on his school uniform just about every day. He's so excited about his "new school clothes". This is a picture of him in his dress blues. They don't wear them very often ... just on special days like certain holidays that school is in session and semester exams but they do wear them on the first day of school. Brett and I went to orientation yesterday and we are so excited about The Blake School. I think it's going to be great! We got to meet his teachers ... his regular class teachers Miss Roni & Miss Lori who happen to be a mother and daughter team as well as his music, art, spanish and PE teachers. I think it's so great that they start spanish from the beginning. All students are bilingual by the time they graduate from The Blake School. How cool is that?

Going for Socks

Remember this roving? It's a superwash merino/nylon blend. I braided it, soaked it and then spot dyed it while it was still braided. I mixed up three different colors (an earthy green, an earthy blue and chestnut) and poured them on the braided roving randomly about 2-3 tablespoons at a time. Tied it in a plastic grocery bag and microwaved it in 2 minute increments. After it cooled overnight I rinsed it well and let it dry.



Here you can see I've split the roving up. The top right braid is half of the original roving. The top left pile is part of the first half i'm spinning. The bottom pile is part of the roving that has been pre-drafted in preparation for spinning. I love how the colors pull in spot dyed roving.



Here is the (slightly overspun) single i'm working on from the first half of the roving. I blame the fact that it was 6am and I had not had any coffee yet. I was also spinning in low light so as not to wake up the kid sleeping on the couch right next to where I was spinning. I didn't even realize how overspun it was until I saw this picture on the computer. I'll just have to be really careful when I ply so that I don't end up with coils in one of the plies. I play to ply this tightly so it shouldn't be a problem to get that extra twist out.



I'm super excited to finish this yarn and start knitting myself a pair of socks from it. It spins so easily ... just like buttah! I'm aiming for a DK or Sport weight yarn. We'll see how that works out. It might end up a little bigger than I was planning. :)

Fay

Well crap. Seems as if they now think Fay is going to swing back and come right over top of us.

The Problem with Dyeing & Selling ...

Is that most things I dye, I want to keep for myself. Certainly not going to pay for my crafty habit that way! Here's some of the superwash merino/nylon roving I dyed yesterday. Hello socks! I forced myself to list a few things in my etsy shop today so we'll see how that goes.

Spinning Fun

Remember this?



It turned into this ...