Long Time No Blogging :(

I kind of fell off the face of the earth again. Sorry about that. 

So here is the last thing I've completed, which isn't saying a lot cause it only took about two or three hours. It's a flowery headband thingie. The pattern is from Krafty Katie's Blog and the flower is an "Irish Rose" crochet motif that I did with some self-striping yarn cause I'm lazy like that.  I've been making a few of the flowers just by themselves to pin on other hats and scarves and things. They're fast and easy and can be dressed up with beads in the center or whatever. Add a clip to the back and they make cute hair accessories too.

I've got a lot of stuff going on lately. I got a Ukulele for Christmas, so I've been trying to learn to play that with very little luck. I think I'm gonna have to cut my nails super short and just keep them that way for that and for the pottery stuff I plan to get back to this summer. I never did get my garage cleaned out to the point where I could get that kiln going out there, but my friend Susan has a pottery studio and she's going to give me some lessons/let me use her kiln this spring and summer. She lives about 45 minutes away from me, so I probably won't be going over there but maybe once a week or so. I have the wheel and some clay at the house though. I figure I will be able to make stuff at home and take it over there once it's to the "greenware" stage if I can manage not to bust it on the way.

I'm moving the yarn store if I can come up with $2000 to fund the move. My lease at the current place runs out at the end of March. The landlord here wants to raise my rent by $300 a month that I just won't be able to afford, and he isn't fixing any of the leaky roof/skylight/window/basement things. I'm probably gonna have a big moving sale and hope that raises the funds by mid-February, but this past week was pretty sad and slow sales-wise, so there is a real question as to whether it will be moving or shutting down for good. I hope I can just move it since I found a great location which is $275 a month cheaper than my current one, but times are hard out there ya know. I may have another career change coming instead. I took a part time job at my local wine store closing three nights a week after I get done here at the yarn store, so that should help out a little bit with the moving expenses, but I don't start till later this week.

Another new-ish thing I've been wanting to do more of is printmaking. I made a linoleum block to stamp the store name on some paper bags I used here around the holidays. I also printed some holiday postcards, which I colored in with markers and stuff, but I didn't get any pictures of them before I sent them. I made this really not too detailed 3-picture tutorial on how to do that in case you're curious. It's not hard at all, just be careful and don't gouge holes in your fingers. Cut AWAY from your hand. haha One of these days I'd like to get an etching press so that I can play around with Solar Plate Etching, which is a new-ish technique (well, new compared to the traditional ones, it was invented in the 1970's) I have been reading up on. It creates an etching plate without using all the nasty chemicals. You just use the special photosensitive plates, the sun or another UV light source, and water to develop it then you print. It's pretty spiffy. A small-ish press costs around $1500 though so it may be a few months before I can scrape that together.

In a perfect world I'd like to run the yarn store and be making other art things in a back room studio so that I could be selling those also, but I haven't reached that level of organization and there aren't enough hours in the day yet for that, my Real Housewives Of Wherever addiction, and everything else I want to do. I joined a gym again and am in the process of losing all this extra weight I'm toting around - about 40lbs of it.  I meet with a personal trainer lady for the first time this Wednesday, and I've also started being active with the local TAPS-affiliated paranormal investigation group so I'm gonna be processing evidence from at least one investigation a month hopefully starting this week. 

Next month the work on my new giant back yard garden is going to have to start. I'm planning on about 20ftx30ft including paths, which is the biggest one I've ever tried to have. I hope it works out good this time. I've been successful growing things in raised beds and containers before, but this is my first real in-ground attempt. It's going to take a lot of time at first, but as the season goes on it shouldn't be too much work per day for me to keep up with in the mornings. I gotta get myself on some kind of schedule soon though or I'll go bonkers.