Kicking a pebble by the side of the road,
Watching it tumble pell-mell.
Chance and randomness become order.
Deng Ming~Dao

See that corner?  It has looked like this for years..seriously years.
I have a few corners in my house that look like this in the rooms that most people don't see.
As you may remember my word this year is Organization
I have been working on the mindful organization but felt it was time to start on the physical stuff that is occupying my brain.

I took all of this stuff and put it on the dining room table where I was going to have to look at it every day.  Amazing how fast that was sorted out and cleaned up!  The only thing left in that corner now is one organized camera/lens bag and my computer bag with a windows computer that I have to use now and then.

I moved onto the studio Saturday afternoon.  This will be an adventure and not a quick process. I will share pictures as I go along. It's a little harder to just get rid of things here and or throw them away because they have value.  However, some of this stuff I have had for literally 15 plus years and it just needs to go, hopefully not to the landfill, but no matter…it's going.
One of the things I am going to do is use my Woolen Rabbit shop page to de-stash items that others may want or need starting next month.

Sunday morning was super cold up here.  We had a few days of snow, then rain, then snow again.  It was so cold that the rain that fell was stuck to the trees days after it had rained, it was SO beautiful!
Even though I had to convince myself to go out snowshoeing with the extremely cold temps and a back that was barking at me from Tai Chi the day before, it was completely worth it!  It was like walking in a Crystal Palace.

It's been a strange winter up here.  We have had so many warm days, with very cold ones tucked in now and then.  I think it is confusing the animals and the birds.  On our trek this weekend, we saw many more animal tracks than we have seen in a long time.  Lots of rabbit, deer and little critter tracks.
On another note, there were some birders looking for a rare bird in this part of the US, a painted bunting youngster.  A few of them were able to catch some pictures of the bird.  Such a pretty lime green baby!
…and so winter proceeds…

Dawn is a shimmering of the horizon.
Dusk is the settling of the sky.
Deng Ming~Dao

What a beautiful weekend we had up here!  Saturday I went out for a walk in the morning and then on to Tai Chi. I spent the afternoon doing some organizing and cooking.

Goodness…Tai Chi was challenging due to how much I have forgotten and how out of shape I am!  Just doing the basic movements left me with sore arms..ey yi yi!
I am going to a beginner's class on Monday nights, to get back in sync again, but I will continue with the more advanced class on Saturdays to keep myself challenged.  I know it will click fast, kind of like riding a bike, but I definitely need a refresher course.

Sunday we took a ride over to the coast.  It wasn't quite as warm as last week, but still so beautiful.  
We are expecting some snow this week, so it was nice to go for a visit before it's covered in snow again.
We were going to do some snowshoeing before heading to the ocean, but Ken irritated his shoulder doing something, so it was better just to let it rest even though he would have gone out if I really wanted to go.  Umm..no, he needs time to heal.

I just love seagulls, especially the brown seabirds.  Yes, I know that they are scavengers, but their voices as they soar over the waters always makes me smile.  Now pigeons on the other hand…not so much.
While the main beach at Pine Point was pretty busy for a February day, the dock area was pretty quiet.
It gave us time to just hang out and enjoy our time there.  I spent some time discovering pretty rocks that came home with me.
Ken is a patient soul, he indulges my strange curiosities with humor.

Sunday night I knit a few swatches while we were watching the Superbowl.
This yarn is Dove and the swatch is for the sweater Donner by Elizabeth Doherty.
I am deciding whether or not to knit this in a wool blend or use the suggested linen.  I have some kicking around, so I will watch with that as well and make a decision.  I have to say that I really do not love knitting with linen, but I do love the end result, so we will see.
I do love her designs!

There are no ancients before me,
No followers behind:
Only the vastness of heaven and earth
On this mountain terrace.
Though heaven may know the ultimate,
Joy or sorrow is our own will.
Deng Ming~Dao

Look at that tangled bunch of yarn above, it's what my life was like last week as I was dyeing this yarn for a yarn club order in addition to the full days at my new day job.  It was a super intensive method of dyeing that took me twice as long as it would typically take, but I love the combination of colors!  This colorway was was inspired by the sweet little otter pictured below and it's called…"Otter Be Knitting".  The yarn is for Lisa of Indie Untangled's yarn club where a certain percentage of the yarn sales goes to the Fish and Game Department.  I love that part of this yarn club!

The yarn is safely on it's way to it's new owners and I hope that they enjoy it as much as I do.  I will be looking for a different way to dye this though in the future to make it less time consuming. Because this was for a big mailing, I didn't want to vary much from the original 2 skeins that I dyed for the yarn club picture, but I have a few ideas kicking around.

One thing I did realize though is that doing big orders like this now that I am working 8:30 -4:30 every day, is that I'm getting too old to keep the pace of working all day and then working in the shop until 9pm.  There are SO many new, young indie dyers in the fiber world that I will leave this kind of work for them.  Their young backs can probably handle it better than mine these days…which brings me to the last part of my post.

Fitness Friday!
I will be posting along with Kym of Stepping Away from the Edge about fitness goals and accomplishments.  
Now that I am in my 60's, I don't recover from things the way I used to, especially since my back surgery years ago, so one of my goals for this year has been to work on getting stronger and more fit, especially in my core and back.  I love that this will help keep me focused on my goals.

As you know I truly enjoy walking in the mornings and have been really working on making that happen each day which has been challenging with the darkness of winter.  I have to time my morning right down to the very minute to get outside and off to work on time,especially with the morning dog chores that have to wait until it's starting to get light.  

It starts my day off though in the most fabulous way though! Not only do I get to see the sunrise most mornings, but it feels good just to be out in that cold air that makes you feel alive.  I am however going to start incorporating some strength training into my life soon.  I bought some light weights to start out with at home and my plan is to start working with a trainer at a new to me gym in a few weeks.

Kym and I will be doing Fitness Friday on the last Friday of the Month, so I'll report back next month how it's going.
What are your favorite ways to stay fit and strong?

Truth perceived gives assurance.
Skill yields self reliance.
With courage we can defy danger
To increase power, increase humility.
Deng Ming~Dao

Pattern:  Elorie
Designer: Elizabeth Doherty
Yarn: The Woolen Rabbit, WW Kashmir
Needles: Many, but I sized down the largest needle to size 9 to get the right gauge and matched the rest of the steps down to this one.
The fit….perfect!  I should have steamed this again before modeling it after a week of sitting folded.

I did make this a little longer than the original because this yarn is warm and I wouldn't be wearing another shirt under it.
I am definitely going to make this again with linen for the warmer months.  I really love how this sweater fits!

We had a solid 8-9 inches of snow last night and because I really enjoy snow shoeing and the weather was agreeable, we headed out to our favorite spot to first take some pictures of the sweater and then to do what we knew would be a strenuous trek because we had to break trail in the fresh snow.

Ken being Ken thought it would be fun to keep snapping pictures without stopping, catching me in all sorts of unflattering pictures.  
This is when I was trying to turn around for him to take pictures of both the back of the sweater and the back of this cloche hat designed by Amy Herzog for a yarn club I did. I still love it after all these years!
BTW…Grace is NOT my middle name.  Thankfully he did not have the camera when I tripped over my snow shoe and fell..sigh.

We worked hard on this trek.  Plowing through all that fresh snow, making the way for others is a lot of work, but so rewarding when you are done.  Tin Mountain is such a little gem here in the mountains.  So much to see everywhere and so many different trails for many levels of endurance for the every day person.

I love this trail sign!  I have so many chickadees in my yard and I so love listening to their songs every day.
This trek while short was very steep.  It was definitely a challenge for those of us who have been too sedentary!

The rest of the weekend was filled with dyeing work that I will talk about tomorrow.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend in your corner of the world!

 

I purchased this beautiful beach stone necklace a few weeks ago when I made a trip to Boothbay Harbor to see the amazing lights that lit up their local Costal Botanical Gardens. (click on the link…the light show was AMAZING!)
 We took a little break to spend some time in Bath Maine, a place that I love and I found this little gem there.

I find that when I am feeling a bit stressed and I have this necklace on, which is frequently, I tend to just reach up to feel the smoothness.  It brings me right back to a warm summer day on the beach and the peacefulness of the ocean on a calm day.

Unlike most people who search the beaches for beach glass or sea shells, I collect rocks that somehow speak to my soul.  I have a pottery bowl that I made and each one of the rocks in that bowl have a date and a place where I found them.
I love this little bowl of memories.

I am working with a group that focuses on mindfulness and this little stone helps me remember that I am valuable and I need to look closer at stress and stressors.  It's definitely going to be a journey that I am looking forward to with a little bit of trepidation.

As many of you know, we always spend a week in August at our favorite place…Cape Cod.  It is a place that we have been visiting since my 2 youngest daughters were still living with us and it is still a place that we look forward to each year. The frosting on the cake is that we get to spend time with some dear friends that we don't see nearly as much as we would like to.

A few days ago, I sent a note to the landlord where we stay to let her know that we were excited to spend another week in our little house and asked her when she needed the deposit.  I didn't hear from her for a few days which was unusual, so I wondered if she was away or just busy, but tonight she told me that her sister, who is a co-owner has retired and wants to spend the month of August in our little house.  Instant stress…argh!

Now, I truly understand this…truly, I would love to spend an entire month there, but I just wish they had told us sooner because it's hard to find places this late.  Ken being Ken immediately became stressed, which of course created some stress in me.  I can't tell you how much the smoothness of this beach stone decreased my stress as I kept searching.

When I came upon a listing that had a weird time schedule (tues through tues) and I saw the above picture, I knew that this was the place for us.  It's no secret how much I love our Blue Herons and Great White Egrets.
I am very excited, not only for our new venture, but for a journey this year discovering mindfulness.

Life's journey is such an amazing thing that we are blessed to have with all of it's twists and turns.
We never quite know how or where we are going to end up, do we?

Have a wonderful weekend in your corner of the world!!

I am so much better today after getting some medicated drops to heal up the scratch in my eye.  Sheesh, this is not the first time I have done this so shame on me.  My mascara comes off in tubes which I love because it NEVER smudges, but if I don't take it off, I leave myself open for a day of pain, which sucks, especially if you just can't take the day off.  I looked like a prize fighter all day..LOL

So…look at that lovely bird feeder and what do you notice?  It's completely full even though it's been up for weeks.
Last year I had it hanging off the barn where it was close to some bushes, but I won't way I wasn't worried about rodents also being attracted to the feed that dropped to the ground.  I never noticed any evidence of them, but I did see a lot of cardinals sneak over to eat the seeds that fell.  I don't think that this feeder is big enough for them.

Today I moved it over to one of the trees I can kind of get to with boots on, but I'm thinking I may just put it back on the barn again.  I don't know if where I have this feeder is just too close to the road and leaves them exposed, even though it is right in front of a big tree or they just never found it…who knows.
I was going to put a bigger one on the back for cardinals, but I know that they don't like to venture out into the open too often.
Any ideas?

On another note….I finished my big brown blob and I love it!  
I will have Ken take some pictures this weekend so you can see what a lovely design Elorie is.

Always remember to take off your mascara before going to bed!

This past weekend was a busy one.  My son and his wife were lucky enough to go on a trip to St. Lucia with a bunch of his friends.  
Goodness when he face-timed me to let me know they arrived safe and sound, it was some kind of beautiful, especially in the middle of winter!
Warm breeze, tropical water, palm trees and some reggae music playing in the back ground.

The pay off for me was getting time to spend with these littles that I don't see nearly as much as I would like given everyone's busy schedule and the almost 2 hour distance.
Every chance that I get to spend with them is very special as they grow so fast.  Little Miss Raegan is just about the sweetest girl ever with a dear little voice.  Finley has shot right up, is very busy and has the best laugh ever!

I was introduced to Moana, many times over, re-learned how to play Candyland and all about Minecraft, at least on a 6 year old's level. Thankfully his big brother explained some of this to me before he left to spend time with his dad.  Jaxen is always such a big help and a very good big brother!

Last night before heading back home we stopped by to visit one of my younger daughters, Courtney, who lives close by.  She wanted to show me the new space she created for herself in the big house that she rents with a few of her friends.  It looks fabulous and is filled with lots of happy plants.
She told me that she is really enjoying learning about different plants and how to keep them thriving.  Some of them are very different ones than I am familiar with.  She told me she would grow a cutting of one of them for me.
I'm looking forward to that!

Whoosh….and just like that the weekend flew by, like they all seem to be doing these days.  Special moments to cherish.

 

I shared these little Tul notebooks with you a while back and I really like them.  I have 4 of them and each one has a designation to help keep me on track with where I want to go.  I know that so many people use digital journals, calendars etc, but call me old fashioned, I still like a paper notebook.

That sparkly pink one is my create journal for tracking things that I am making.  Each thing that I enjoy creating is in it's own section, ie, knitting, sewing, weaving, etc.  This will allow me to draw ideas, put small swatches or pieces of fabric in it with a start date and a hope to finish date.

The toffee one is for some daily things that I am doing to help me stay on track.  This little one comes with me everywhere right now. 21 days makes a habit, so I have a few more weeks to go, but it's helping.

The tan one is a fun calendar with inserts that have reminders for many different things.  This one comes along with me as well.  Just a few minutes a day in each of these 2 notebooks has actually been enjoyable.

The pretty purple one is for semi journaling.  I have never been good at regular journaling except for when I was in my teens.  Back then I was a BOSS!  Haha.  All that teenage angst and no social media, thus the diary's.  Being realistic about myself, I want to use this when I am feeling creative or working out some thoughts that need working on.

This is me trying to slap my ADD into submission..LOL.

What kind of tools do you like to help yourself stay on track and organized?