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Just pictures

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Wednesdays do me in with my pattern class in the morning and then the online Equine Assisted Services course I'm co-leading in the afternoon. Today my co-leader and I finished up the individual meetings which took the majority of the afternoon. It was also the second day of these conferences, so I am really done with being on Teams at the moment. My condolences to everyone reading who spends the bulk of their working life on Teams.  Anyway, for a second day in a row I have no bandwidth to write, but tonight you at least get pictures.  This is origami by H. You may remember that H. adores origami and is extremely good at it being able to teach herself from origami library books. Her most recent book is about origami stars and snowflakes. I think it's pretty astounding. Look at the intricate folds in it.  Then on a completely unrelated topic, we had some very large boxes arrived this afternoon. These are very exciting as they are several things: portable sheep fencing, a sh...
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Fiber Monday - lots of hours represented by very few photos

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It's difficult to use photos to show what has taken hours of work because it is very hard to tell the labor behind the picture. Here is what I have accomplished this week.  This is the muslin of the skirt front of the pattern I'm drafting. It has pockets and a fly zipper and I have all the pattern pieces for this drafted and ready to be copied in their final form. I have learned a lot. I'm thrilled to have this pattern. It's been a lot of work. I anticipate that as I go and draft more patterns that the process will become faster and easier. There is just such a steep learning curve at the beginning stages of learning to draft.  I always say if you want to know what my mental state is, take a look at my desktop or my kitchen. I think I'll have to add my studio to that list. Here is what my work table currently looks like.  It's driving me a little nuts, but I still have the back to finish tomorrow, so it makes no sense to clean up now. I'm crossing my fingers...
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Personal quirks

I don't know about you, but I need something a little lighter tonight. So let's play the first installment of...  Am I the Only One?!  The game show where I learn whether I am somewhat normal or if I truly do have a runaway imagination.  I'll list three actual, real life occurrences for me and you tell me in the comments if you do this, too.  1. I seen to be an optimistic and a cynic all at the same time. My optimistic side comes out every time I go collect the mail from the mail box. There is always a little fizzle of anticipation because you never know if this will be the day when I open the box to discover a letter with a large check for us inside. In reality, 99.9% of the time there is no mysterious envelope with a large check. But every once in a while (think decades here), there actually is a surprise check, so you just never know.  2. Along those same lines, whenever I'm in the vestibule where the cost closets are I always am sure to look through the fron...
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We've had Kenzie for ten years

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I realized this morning that it was ten years ago today that we all (well, those who were living at home) went down to Felines and Canines  (extremely highly recommended if you are looking for a new friend) in Chicago to see if we could find a dog.  For those who weren't reading here ten years ago, this was right after we had returned from China with R. and Y. We had left on that adoption trip a week after my father unexpectedly passed away. When we returned home, our Labrador Retriever, Gretel, unexpectedly passed away shortly after our return home. She had not been doing well, but what we didn't know was that at the age of three she had developed cancer through many of her internal organs. We were all reeling for any number of reasons and a new dog was feeling necessary.  I had made an initial trip to the shelter by myself in advance. I was well aware that families with as many children as we had were not always welcomed with open arms. I needed to scope things out in a...
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A couple of quotes to stand in for actual writing

Living in the United States is just a hot mess right now. It's actually terrifying if I allow myself to think about it all too much. To the rest of the world, I'm so sorry. There are good people here, but there are so many other evil ones it can feel hopeless. Some days I have to spend some time hiding away in my studio working on things that are simple but require just enough attention to keep the hamster off his wheel inside my head. Today was one of those days and I have a few more bits done on my English paper piecing project.  It also means that what I really want to write about, because being silent is the same thing as tacit approval, I just don't have the emotional reserves to do so. If I were to try, it would be a very expletive filled post. I'll spare all of us that and share a couple non-expletive filled quotes that I came across this past week in my reading.  The first is from the book Shopkeeping: Stories, Advice, and Observations by Peter Miller. (This is ...
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Grocery saving tips

I've written about this probably more than once over the years, but it might be time to revisit it. I'm still managing to keep our weekly grocery budget under $200 for eight people. That's with 90% of our groceries being purchased at Aldi. Not included in that number are trips to Costco, which are probably once every five weeks, an occasional bulk order, and the Chinese market. At Costco I buy paper towels, toilet paper, tissues, olive oil, peanut butter, some seasonings, mayonnaise, honey, and sometimes sun-dried tomatoes. That total is usually around $125. I tend not to buy much food there because often it costs more than at Aldi. The Chinese market I go to every couple of months where I stock up on ingredients that are impossible to find at my regular stores. This total is also around $125. The bulk order happens when I need more wheat or oats and I'll throw some other baking items in as well when I'm ordering. Figure around $150 for that depending on the price o...
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Fiber Monday - Conquering a nemesis

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I don't have much to share today. Much of my time this past week was spent doing horse related things and not fiber related things. It's such a shame that the hours in a day are not infinite. My pattern drafting class had a week break, which was very good because my business took a lot of time, but also not very good because yesterday I realized I had quite a bit of work I needed to do in order to have my next class be profitable.  This is why I have spent a pretty significant chunk of time trying to understand how to sew a fly zipper. It has always been one of those things that just hasn't made sense in my head, so I did a pretty good job of avoiding fly zips completely. Until now. Because the skirt I am drafting has a fly zipper. I couldn't really move on until I had figured them out.  I am happy... oh, so happy... to be able to share with you my first correctly sewn fly zipper.  I don't even want to say exactly how many hours these two pictures represent. The goo...
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