
I would never have thought to pair tofu with broccoli rabe but it turned out wonderfully and is definitely something I would cook again.
I would never have thought to pair tofu with broccoli rabe but it turned out wonderfully and is definitely something I would cook again.
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Tagged Cooking
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Tagged boats, Family, Martha's Vineyard, Pets, Photographs
I am swamped at my day job. I am the kind of busy where I am days behind on all of my projects, I accomplishing my daily tasks at an almost feverish pace, and my office is a mess because cleaning stuff up as I go takes too long. (I realize I will likely have to spend two hours cleaning it at the end of the month, but it will be two hours well-spent, let me tell you.) Then I grab the kiddo from school and try to give him my full attention til dinnertime, and then it’s back to work on Tiny Dino Studios.
While I am sure I have mentioned it before, I am trying to spend as much time on my yarn business as I do on my day job. It’s a lot easier to quantify the day job as 30 hours a week, because I am scheduled to be there. This yarn thing is another story. When a so-called hobby overlaps so closely with work, it can sometimes be difficult to draw the line between work and play. I think about it this way: if I am knitting a sock for myself out of yarn I dyed, that is not work. If I am photographing pictures of said sock and yarn for the blog, that is work. If I am designing a sock, any time I touch it anything to do with it, it’s work. I have never quite reached 30 hours a week yet, I am averaging closer to 20. Since I never seem to make it 30, I always feel like I am not doing enough. I could always be doing more, and I feel guilty for taking some time off.
This is stupid, and I am trying to stop.
I have a pretty full schedule most of the time. Yesterday, for instance was day job from 8-3, doing yarny work on my lunch break, picking Athrun up from school, Athrun time for two hours, Athrun off to his dad’s so I can go write at the coffee shop for an hour and a half and then I spent two hours teaching a knitting class. Then home for a glass of wine and bed.
It’s no wonder I’m tired today. In 13 hours, I had a two hour break with my kiddo–and while writing and knitting classes are all totally and completely fun for me to do, they are still work.
Today, I feel like sitting on the sofa and doing nothing–but I have put in 6 hours of day job and 3 1/2 hours of knitting job so far, and I feel like I should keep going. To admit that I just don’t have it in me is a battle I don’t usually win. Normally when I feel like this, I tell myself I am going to relax and do something not work related after dinner, I get through an hour before I start to feel lazy and pick up something work related to do.
The thing is, I have no reason to feel guilty or lazy.
So tonight, I am going to revel in my non-working, and congratulate myself on everything I have accomplished over the last couple of days. (And eat some damn ice cream.)
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Tagged Almost a Business, building a business, crafty business, handmade business, ice cream
Life has given me a lot of really crappy days lately (and not just me – I know plenty of other people having tough times…..must be something in the air) but once in awhile it also hands me something really, really great.
Little Mr. Darby, our House Lamb, has turned a corner!
He’s been getting slowly perkier and perkier each day, and last evening started nibbling on a small amount of grain and drinking from a water bowl. It was great because I then didn’t need to get up in the middle of the night to give him a bottle. In the morning his ears perked up when I went to say “good morning” to him and he let out a tiny little “baa”. I put more grain in front of him and went for my own breakfast.
A few moments later I heard his little “baa” again. When I went back, he was looking at me expectantly. He had eaten all of his grain so I gave him some more. Just tiny amounts so he wouldn’t overdo it.
We repeated this process all morning until I took him out to enjoy the sun and lay in the grass.
Except he didn’t want to lay in the grass. He wanted to walk!
He is still fairly weak and can’t walk around a whole lot on his own, but the fact that he has started to do it gives me great hope. It will be wonderful to see him back out with his fellow lambs instead of hanging out in the craft room impersonating a spoiled invalid.
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Tagged Farm, Pets, Uncategorized
Hello from Texas, where is is raining buckets today. BUCKETS, I’LL TELL YOU!!!
It’s actually a fantastic day for spending the day in pajamas, which is exactly what I’m doing, because I have pneumonia. I guess the hell-cold virus thing I had in April didn’t go away completely. Instead it lay dormant somewhere in my lungs and multiplied. I’m actually not all that sick considering; I’ve had pneumonia before and this is fairly mild, cause we caught it early. HOORAY!
So today is one of those email answering, blog reading kind of days. I thought it would be fun to share two of my current favorite sewing blogs with you and get you to link me to your favorite crafty blogs.
Lladybird is one of my favorite sewing blogs, because 27-year-old Lauren taught herself to sew and in three short years has become this amazing garment maker. She can make absolutely anything! I mean, she makes her own coats, for godssake! I love Lauren because she is completely fearless. She’s also funny and swears a fair amount, breaking down the stereotypes about the kind of women who make their own clothes. You will love this one!
Tilly and the Buttons is another sewing blog and her story is similar to Lladybird’s in that she also taught herself to sew in three years. Tilly has become something of a sewing star in her native England, appearing on the BBC in The Great British Sewing Bee. She has also begun designing patterns, the Miette skirt above being one of the first. It’s in my queue.
Who’s blog do you read when you need crafty inspiration or a creative kick in the pants?
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Tagged everything else
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Tagged architecture, flowers, Martha's Vineyard, Photographs
Over the weekend, Daniel, Chris, and Jason dug out the old compost pile and made space for a compost tumbler. I’ve planted some herbs around it to fill in the space with nice green ground cover.
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Tagged gardening
My brother-in-law turns 50 this weekend. So, in his honor, please pick up your nearest book or whatever book you’re currently reading, and turn to page 50 and then share the first 50 words with the rest of us.
(Do feel free to round this off, to stop and start with complete sentences, though.)
Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!
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Tagged Wordpress
This week I couldn’t help but focus on Findley projects! I was naturally gravitating towards them, so let’s see what tickled my fancy and if it tickles yours, shall we?
This Evenstar Shawl was knit by the cleverly named knijaknit in Findley Dappled’s 106 Driftwoord colorway. I’m so impressed by these lace circular shawls, aren’t you?
This Kieselguhr was knit in Findley 07 Atmosphere. DameLac says that she knit it using one ball of Findley! She’s hoping that it will block out to be a little bit longer, since the curling hem comes up a little higher than she’d like. When I see garments like this knit from one ball of yarn, I’m reminded again by how impressive Findley’s yardage is!
I’ve always been tempted to make an Advent Calendar Scarf (this pattern is from 2012), but I’ve never taken the challenge, since I’m not a fast knitter and December tends to be a crazy-busy time for me! I’m glad I get to see omiegosh’s knitted in Findley’s Renaissance.
judisohn knit this Echo Flower Shawl in Findley Dappled’s Clear Blue Sky. The longer I look at this, the more the individual colors pop out at me. Such a lovely pattern!
What a great way to learn a new stitch pattern! Idyllblue knit this little lace bracelet using Barbara Walter’s English Mesh Lace pattern and Findley in 02 Graphite.
This Blooming Stitch Shawl makes my heart flutter! kfritz knit this in Fresco! Am I the only one who salivates just looking at this?
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Tagged Findley, Findley Dappled, Yarned by You
I have been writing a series of blog posts for the Potwin Fiber Artisans Blog about knitting my Etherial. (There should be a new one tomorrow.) But since I have been knitting so hard to keep ahead of my class, it is the only project I have been working on. While I’m saving the real blog post for the PFA, I felt like teasing you all with my latest progress photos. And you’ll notice, that unlike last week, I took these photos at the coffee shop and not at my desk at work. Progress all around!
Trippy Flat Knitting On Circular Needles
What are you working on this week?
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Tagged Etherial, In The Works, knitting class, pts