Feeble attempts at organization

I think the time has come for me to own up to the fact that I’m as scattered as they come. If I could somehow pull it all together, maybe I’d spend less time looking for the stuff I need to do, and more time doing it. Also, my couch/office was starting to overflow. So, I took everything off of there, and started a bit of sorting- nothing major, just 2 shopping bags and the stuff that I felt needed to go back on there.

office renovations

The thought being, I would sit and work on the left, a few projects could hang out in the middle, and some books and stuff that I use all the time could share space with a cat or 2 on the left. Sofar, it hasn’t worked. Sigh. Will try again this weekend.

I also thought, if I could fill a calendar with what I need to do, and write down important to do’s, I could keep my projects moving along. Enter: the white board calendar:

in hopes of keeping it all in order

I think the idea here will be to assign projects different days to work on (sweater 1, Mondays and Wednesdays; sock 3 has Mondays and Thursdays; baby hats on Tuesdays, carding on Fridays, etc) and I can order them based on when they’re due. And finally, to keep stuff I need to do on the computer in order:

whimsical organization

Here, I will keep lists like: email so and so about fleece, pay bills, invoice this person, email thank you’s, etc. I told the kids if any of my pens disappeared they would be beyond in trouble- that this was all mommy’s work stuff. So, some fun drawings have popped up- and that’s ok as long as nothing of mine gets erased. So, here’s hoping…

How do you guys do it? Please tell me your organizational and productive tips.

Thank you all for linking back to the AIDS Walk on your blogs- you guys are so supportive, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. It’s getting closer…

There’s been a bit of sadness this week. Tuesday one of our little hamsters, Comet, died. She wasn’t very old (not quite a year). Also, my very old cat, Squeak, was just getting older- and starting to fail. On Thursday morning my neighbor who is a small animal vet came over, and while I held her in the sunshine, we put her to sleep. It’s always a hard decision to make, even when you know its right. I do have to tell you this- being able to do it here instead of putting her through the stress of a car ride and vet visit was priceless- I’m very grateful to my neighbor for saving her that stress. So now, no ancient cat is stumbling across my keyboard making odd words, no ancient cat is missing the litter box. She’s not wanting to go in and out 50 times a day just to watch me open the door. I don’t care- I miss her. Safe journeys, Comet and Squeaky-Black-Bear.

I bet you’d like to see some goaties. As always, you’ve come to the right place.

She's all legs and ears

There is Baby Enigma- her legs and ears are growing quickly.  It doesn’t matter how many pictures I take of her, I usually only get about 2 that aren’t blurred from her constant motion. She has springs in her hooves. She does love to sit in your lap and be petted- she’s a little puppy-goat.

I bet this watch tastes good!

And here are Evan and Renesmee doing what they do best- being cute! (and growing mohair- would you look at it all!)

Renesmee and Evan

Happy weekend, everyone!

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Feels like a rain forest

very green

Dear Rain,

Everything is very, very green now. Please stop.

Thanks,

Mindy’s goaties

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You guys are great!

Thanks for the donations for the AIDS Walk, and for all the virtual hugs. I need to figure out how to get the donation page onto Facebook (they say its easy, but I don’t do computery stuff very well). I may try to pull together some type of raffle near the end so I’ll gather everyone’s names for chances, then. Sweet Ducky offered up her place to stay at as a halfway point if I were driving (thanks!!). Buu-uut. I’m taking the train. Yup, that’s 12 hours of uninterrupted knitting time each way. (well, each way has a 2 hour stopover, but still).

I’ll probably pack along a few hundred projects in my lovely new bag from Carol. Look at this fabric:

Best fabric ever!

She has better pictures of the bag, and you’ve all gone and looked, but I’ll get you some of it in use later. She put 2 dividers in there, so I have 3 nice compartments, and she put a nifty magnetic clasp in there that I will play with endlessly (so easily amused).

I have promised you MD stash enhancement, and its time. So, lets do this short and sweet:

Forest Floor mohair boucle

The dyemistress of this lovely is Leslie of Tintagel Farm- I don’t think she has a website. I’ll be seeing her in June at the goat show, so I’ll see what I can find out.  I’m thinking some kind of shawl, w/ a single button. (got the perfect one- see further down).

it's pink

Pink cotton/rayon boucle- probably be a shawl or something. It hasn’t told me yet (yes, yarn speaks to me- doesn’t it speak to you?) Dyed by Pucker Brush Farm. No website info on the label, but they are also at Rhinebeck.

Lace weight wool boucle

Also by Pucker Brush. Its darker than the photo shows- very autumnal.

rayon boucle

Also by Pucker Brush, this happy green rayon boucle. (see what happens when your booth is directly across from someone?). This one has already start becoming:

spring scarf

Just a light, little, decorative scarf.

Kid Hollow Sock Flat

Kid Hollow is now doing sock flats. And this pretty one is going to become a new pattern- I’m hoping to have it done by the June show.

buttons!

Assorted buttons for kids’ sweaters. Check these out:

Nut Buttons

These buttons are made from some kind of nuts. (and the darker green one- it belongs to the mohair earlier) All these came from Melissa Jean Handknit Design.

Ok, I think that’s it for show and tell. I also restocked the smaller sizes of addis- (2, 3, and 4’s) cuz for some reason everytime I need them, they’re always in some other project…

You haven’t seen Chance in awhile- he’s something like 7 weeks old now, is completely off the milk replacer and eating kitty food like a big boy.

I will conquer this tape measure!

The tape measures don’t stand a chance… (oh, that’s a bad pun)

I bet you’d like to see Little Miss Enigma.

Baby Enigma

oh so sleepy

I’ll be vending at the Sedalia Spring Fiber Festival this weekend, and 5% of all my proceeds will be going towards the AIDS Walk. Thank you again for all your encouragement and support- you guys are the best!

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Because I miss my brother

If you’ve been reading for awhile, or if you know me, you know that I lost my older brother, Eric, to AIDS August of 1995. If you didn’t know that yet, you can read a little about that here. Two months before he died, I went to Boston to do his last AIDS Walk with him. That was hard- knowing it would be the last time I saw him (the next time he was resting in a very special cookie jar- I’ll tell you that tale soon- waiting to be scattered to the wind at Martha’s Vineyard- another place that he loved). He loved Boston, and it truly became his home. Because I have only been 3 times- his partner Jeff’s memorial, the walk, then Eric’s memorial- and they were all painful, I had kind of decided I would never go back. However, Miss Mad for Knit has gently persuaded me to return this June, and do the walk with her, in his honor.

I’m doing this because I miss my brother, his wonderful partner Jeff, and his other wonderful partner Randall (never became HIV positive and I hope is very happy, wherever he may be). I’m asking you, if you possibly can, to support me in this- even the smallest donation will help. Maybe, this may help keep another sister from missing her brother- and allow another young man (or woman, or child) to live their life to the fullest. Here is the link to my donation page. Thank you for reading this, and for all the good wishes I know you guys will send me- you’re all wonderful!

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I know rain is good, but please stop

It feels like its been raining for a month. It did rain all through the festival, and I think the first day we saw any sun or blue sky was yesterday, and I believe you could see the steam rising off of my poor goaties. Today was really nice, which made errand running even harder (I hate being gone when I could be here working or with the goaties. Unless its yarn, I hate shopping- the only way to make it tolerable is to do it with a friend or my Mom or sister- then I don’t feel like its a complete waste of time). Ok, so where was I going with this? I still don’t feel settled from MD- its been a crazy week. Choir concerts at school, one day I took a bunch of different mohair products in to the preschool and told them all about the goats, errand running today, this weekend dog sitting for a friend, homeowner’s assoc meeting tomorrow (I can think of about 5 bzillion things I’d rather do, not limited to root canals and migraines and cramps). Whew.

Suffice it to say, no MD stash enhancement pix until the sun shines again- probably Sunday.

Here is a very, very wonderful thing. My birthday is next Thursday, but Carol was on the ball, and made me something wonderful and has already posted about it- she was excited- and deserves to be- go check it out. Can you believe she found goatie fabric????

the cutest fabric ever

So anyway- you guys have about 6 days to top that. I’m kidding- that’s just silly. Besides, it just can’t be topped!

(when I show the stash enhancement, I will also show you the necklace I got from Amy, plus the wonderful box/bag w/ psycho bunny fabric).

Ok, today’s goatie pictures- it was the first day in ages I could have evening wine outside with the goaties.

Chance rides Sirius

My daughter decided it would be a good idea for Chancey to take a ride on Sirius Black. The kitten is growing, and being all kittenish. I have the holes in my hands and feet to prove it. I just love Sirius’ eyes- so pretty. While I was watching the baby goats for Pat & Steve at MD, some guy was saying that goats just creep him out- their eyes are weird and they are minions of the devil. Apparently many people think that about goats. I just don’t even know what to say to that. Pat said she was listening to a book on cassette and it was saying the legend of goats being… satanic? comes from not only the hooves, but the fact that goats, like snakes, are the only animals that will hold your gaze without averting their eyes. Hmm. Anyway- if nuts want to believe goats are satanic, I guess everyone has to have something to believe… Sorry, that ended up going way off topic. Back on topic- Sirius has beautiful brown eyes.

Who is next?

Fluff shared his wine with me

Generous of him, isn’t it?

Jonesy

Sweet Little Renesmee

Cute Little Evan

Baby Enigma

I took about 50 pictures of Little Miss Enigma, but she is a goatie in motion, and all but this one were blurry. She was hopping about on the stoop with me- what a wonderful sound her little hooves make. She’s growing, and her mother, Elphie, continues to be an excellent mother- it amazes me how these goats know just what to do.

Have a great weekend! Next time I will do the MD stash enhancement, plus I need to tell you all about the Boston AIDS Walk- I’ll be going up there and Miss Mad for Knit will walk with me and offer much moral support. I will be walking in honor of my brother and his partner. Here is the link to my donation page– if you can help, it will mean more to me than I could ever express.

Ok, guess I did tell you all about it. Well, there will be more. Anyway- Renesmee is wishing everyone a nice weekend, too.

I could reach that spot if my horns were just a bit longer...

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Home from Maryland

It was an absolute whirlwind! Crazy, busy, crowded, fun, wet, awesome. I was happy to be back home with my kids and (very, very wet) goaties and the rest of my zoo- but I already miss everyone I see every year. It’s always such a wonderful time.

After the overload of strangers, the exhilaration of seeing friends I’ve made online, meeting new Ravelry friends, spending a weekend working with Pat & Steve (Kid Hollow Farm), having dinner with the wild and wonderful group of ladies that we have dinner with on Saturday every MD S&W, the shopping on Sunday, and the late night drive home in the rain last night (did I mention it pretty much rained all day yesterday?) I’ve been pretty much brain dead all day today. So stash enhancement will have to wait for another day.

We headed out Thursday afternoon, unloaded most of the stuff into the booth, went to dinner (first of 4 nights at Carrabas Brothers- yum!), then collapsed at our hotel rooms. Friday we spent the day putting their fantastic booth together (I usually want to take the whole inventory home), went on a supply run to Target and Staples, Steve had someone he needed to visit, so he picked us up dinner and took it back to our rooms, and Pat & I watched Twilight (finally) on the hotel movie thingie on the TV. (the scenery was awesome- I so miss living out there). Saturday was crazy- but bright and early Ducky stopped by- it was wonderful to get a hug, place a face on the friend, and meet her lovely daughter. And- while she was making her rounds, she collected business cards from farms so I can source different wools for blending with my mohair- thanks tons, Ducky! Shortly after, Carol and Laura came by so I got my hugs from them- yay. At lunch, I got to break away and have lunch with Carol- that was wonderful, and I missed her the second I got back to the booth. Sunday I got to get out and shop a bit- not much I needed- more on that later. Whew. It was so wonderful.

Sorry, I know that was long.

While I was gone, my daughter found a Luna Moth just leaving her cocoon- check this out-

When she found it

Becoming

Her moth

Back in the wild where she belongs

Pretty amazing.

When my 7 year old sweetheart called me Sat. morning to tell me he missed me, he was a bit weepy so I distracted him with an assignment- get pictures of Baby Enigma (who is growing like a little goatie weed). He’s not quite the photographer his sister is, but he’s getting there.

Baby Enigma

She’s got crumbs from the mineral block on her head. We’re supposed to have some sunshine for a little bit tomorrow- hopefully it will start drying out and we can get you some better shots. But for now, I’m going to bed! Nighty night.

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