Because I'm not tired yet...

(though I hope to be shortly) and I'm trying to distract myself from the fact that the roving I ordered did not work out for me to spin (I am allergic to Louet brand roving... who knew?), but I'm sure Ilana will enjoy it and have better luck... I'm going to ramble a bit about things not very important in the grand scheme, but currently relevant to myself... Jewelry, fashion, colors and the coalescence thereof...

So... I have an awesome blouse I bought a few months ago. I had a coupon for a free $30 at Lane Bryant, I needed several shirts for the High Holy Days, it fit well, the color wasn't vile, I bought it. It was about $11 after discounts were applied. I love shopping wins. Plus it's 100% cotton, no petroleum-based synthetics - FTTW! I didn't think much of it at the time, it was just something I could buy to fill an immediate need and hole in my wardrobe. I have since fallen in love with it. It's a midnight sky blue. It has... not Swiss dots (since those are embroidered in) but something very close to them woven into the fabric and ever so slightly puffed sleeves. It goes with my coral necklace that I asked my sister to make for me because such color combos are IN according to the people who decide these things, as portrayed in the film and novel "The Devil Wears Prada." (Also, they say that bold, "statement" jewelry is the thing. And will continue to be the thing for at least the next year.) I am in love. Honestly, it is my favorite outfit right now and I fully intend to wear it half to death before Spring when it might be out of style. *nods sagely*

The coral necklace came to me one day in July. I was gazing at some coral beads in a bead shop and I thought I usually hate wearing such a bold red, but omg, those would make a pretty necklace! But I wavered on it for a few weeks and didn't buy the beads until almost September because until then I didn't have a vision of what I might want the necklace to look like. But I did buy them and had them sent to my sister and told her I just had to have some fabulous 18" long necklace made with them (and maybe some silver spacers). And she, being the talented, totally genius lapidary artist she is, did just that, as you can see by following the hotlink above. (If anyone reading this feels they must have one just like it, please do contact her through that page and inquire. She is always happy to make additional copies of an item, and I'm fairly certain she still has some of the same beads left.)

And what happens... Bright red is one of the "top" "IT" colors of the Fall '08/Winter '09 fashion season according to Pantone, who are apparently those IT people ultimately responsible for the why fashion colors are significant/cerulean sweater scene in "The Devil Wears Prada." I didn't know that at all going in. I just thought, omg, I love those red coral beads! Must have! Because I don't really pay attention to things like that until clothes are in stores and people are wearing them. I buy what I like because I like it. Or I buy what I don't totally like but find acceptable at the time because I need something for a specific purpose. I don't usually plan ahead. Especially accessories, which are almost always an after thought, if they're thought of at all.

So because I called the red so well for something I just had to have for the Fall/Winter this year... not really caring, except that I sorta do, I'm trying to figure out what I just have to have made for the Spring/Summer in '09... This is what happens now that I fully intend to take advantage of the fact that my sister is a jewelry-making goddess... I found some lovely deep sky blue turquoise 6mm rounds at Michaels (on clearance, the silly people!) the other day. Snatched those up and am now plotting. I have no idea what I want done with them, but they are so very pretty... I may go back and buy more... Maybe a really long, loopy, drapey necklace...? I dunno...

I also want a hamsa necklace SO bad! I don't have one! I find that shocking and wrong! I don't know what color I'll have that put together with when I find a pendant... Maybe many colors? In a trade-bead sort of look, except not because I'm not terribly fond of trade-beads... Although, maybe evil-eye beads? I dunno yet... I still haven't been able to find a hamsa in stores, only online, and they tend to be kinda pricy... like as much as I usually pay for all the beads and/or finished necklace altogether... and I find that shocking and wrong too... Because apparently, "ethnic" inspired jewelry of the Middle Eastern/African/Asian/Indian variety is going to be the thing in fashion jewelry (in addition to the bold stuff) this next year... So where are the hamsas in stores? Because we wants it precious, yeas, we do...

To continue the list of jewelry-wants, I'm coveting my mom's pearl necklace that she got from Lara... If Lara has another 26 pearls left, I might just have to ask her to make yet another one for me... Mom let me wear it because it was required for an outfit I wore to synagogue several weeks ago, and it looked so good and I felt to very chic! So now, I want one myself... Although, I'm sure Mom will let me borrow it anytime because she's awesome like that...

Just to note, colors I'm really feeling good about right now (in no particular order): true red, aqua, robin's egg, Tiffany blue, London topaz, midnight sky blue (although apparently Pantone is calling it "Twilight Blue"), indigo, navy, autumn sky blue, turquoise, aubergine, amethyst, bottle green, slightly-on-the-blue-side grass green, forest green...

Meanwhile, I need to go back to the drawing board for some of my planned Holiday gifts, revise and start the search for appropriate roving again... Ah, well... I'm sure it will work out. I'm thinking now black, white and gray Shetland will serve for my immediate needs and I'll worry about colored rovings once those are squared away.

Must pimp...

I just got a package from my sister, Lara, containing all the things my mom and I ordered from her last week. It is all SO BEAUTIFUL! OMG! I'm like falling over with the pretty. *happy squeal*

So, seriously, if you like jewelry and pretty things (or you know someone who does), or you need one of those aromatherapy eye pillows to help with headaches, cramps, nausea or insomnia (they can be heated in the microwave, chilled in the freezer or used at room temperature), she's your gal! Check out her stuff at her etsy store, Eternal Autumn. She also takes custom orders of all sorts - whatever you want. Just message her through her etsy store. She's always happy to consult.

Here are the pieces I got if you're curious... Apples in Autumn, Persephone's Pomegranate, Fallen But Not Forgotten, and an aromatherapy pillow. My mom got two pieces (which I WANTED!): Art Nouveau Innocence and Ice Siren of the Arctic Seas.

What I've been up to...

I've been busy today.

Weeded, fertilized and watered the garden, picked cucumbers and green beans.

Went out to lunch at the mall and then to Dillards because they were having a sale on bedding and my parents had gotten some Dillards gift certificates for Christmas this last year and they wanted me to get linens for the spare beds at the cabin. Got Ralph Lauren sheets and pillowcases for next to nothing. Yay!

Then went to the Joann's by that mall because they often have really good remnants. I got two linen remnants to make napkins with. Yay!

Came home, decided to get paint chips from Lowes, which is around the corner from our house, so that I can match things for the cabin. We aren't painting anything, but I've already gotten my bedding, and the granite in the bathroom has colors in it that I want to pick out in the towels, so I needed a close match in color that was more portable than either bedding or a slab of granite - hence, paint chips. Did that.

Then went to the other Joann's which is next to another mall about equidistant as the other one in another direction from my house. That one is bigger and I wanted to see if I would luck out on fabric for curtains for my room. Alas, I did not. But I did luck out on stumbling upon a fabulous sale. They're remodeling that store and so half of it is on clearance right now and another quarter is seriously discounted. Yay! All magazines 10% off, a lot of yarn on clearance, fabric, beads, all sorts of things... I got more remnants (linen - again... I think I'm becoming obsessed with linen remnants for napkins and placemats), DMC's Encyclopedia of Needlework (every kind of needlework - if you use a needle of any sort to do it, it's in there, in detail with pictures), linen embroidery thread and magazines.

I got the new Victoria magazine because it's full of inspiration for the cabin interior design, and the Spring 2008 Spin-off Magazine. This in particular is a must have! They have a bunch of knit lace shawls (!!! - not patterns but extremely inspiring nonetheless), as well as a couple of knit hat patterns for any gauge handspun.

But the piece-de-resistance are the Danish Tied-Shawls (if you click the hotlink of "Spin-off Magazine" above and scroll down you can see a pictures of a small part of one of these shawls). There are patterns and they are made with handspun, hand-dyed yarn. And they're folksy and beautiful. And useful! They tie in the back so they won't fall off and will stay put while you're doing important things. Did I mention they're handspun, hand-dyed (with natural dyes too!), and hand-knit. I'm bouncing with joy every time I even look at the pretty pictures! The magazine is $7.99, but for this alone it's so worth it. Go. Run. Buy a copy. There are a lot of other useful looking things in there too, but I'm far too distracted by the shawl pattern to look at anything else seriously yet. I am so making myself one this summer! I'm tired of not having my own shawl... I've made bunches for others, but never kept any myself. There are more patterns for these types of shawls available at the author's website.

Oh, and Happy Mother's Day! :D

*off to obsess over the Danish Shawl some more*

Things to learn...

Two posts in one day! Oh, I'm feeling chatty...

There are two things I want to learn this summer...

1.) How to make soap using lye and oils. And how to mill it and add things to it. Yes, this is a very necessary endeavor.

2.) How to shoot... like, a gun... Jason told Susan and I last week that he thinks we should do that. Susan, of course, already knows how to shoot, but I don't. I've never shot a gun. I don't even think I've ever really held one either. And the only ones I've ever seen up close are Jason's rifles and shotguns and my mom's revolver. I don't even know what kind my mom's is. I saw it when I was a little kid, and I, being a good little girl, stayed away from it as I was told. (I just went and asked her about it. It's a .38 Special Official Police Colt. A friend of hers bought it for her at a gun show back in the 70s and she bought it from them. She still has it. It desperately needs to be cleaned and she hasn't fired it in 15+ years. But she took it out and showed it to me. My dad had a bit of a mini-fit over it. LOL!) So, yeah, I think it's an important skill to have... as an American... revolution, rebellion, purpose of the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution and all that... to at least know the mechanics of the process. How to handle it, load it, aim, fire, hit what you're trying to hit and not something else, and to clean it...

I told my dad my intentions and he vehemently grumbled about it. He hates guns, as they are for killing and that's about it. Reminding him that he eats meat that has to be killed by someone before he eats it doesn't help. He doesn't see getting steak or chicken from the grocery store and hunting and killing a deer for food as the same freaking kind of thing. Even though, you know, it kind of is... To him, one is okay and perfectly acceptable for civilized human beings, and the other is not something he particularly approves of or would ever participate in... I can't say why he thinks this way and it makes no sense to me. The only thing I can figure is that it's because he's a baby boomer from a Yankee and city-fied family and has an overall gentle demeanor. And that's all well and true, but I still think it's an important skill and one I'd like to add to my repertoire.

I will now go back to watching John Adams for the 50th time since Sunday. This miniseries is kickass! I highly recommend checking it out.

Gonna be quick...

This has to be quick because I caught the stomach virus that my brother had earlier this week yesterday morning, and although I'm feeling much better than I was yesterday, I feel like something just hit me in the head when I opened this window to type... But I want to write this down somewhere so I don't forget. I think I've decided on a name for my soaps... "Candide" or "Candide Soaps" or even "Candide Savons" (Would that be the correct plural in French? It's been too long and I can find my textbook to remind myself.)... Because candide (and candid - I just like the French spelling better) are from the Latin for "pure" or "bright" (and also "white," but that's neither here nor there). According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, it means "free from bias, prejudice or malice," "marked by honest, sincere expression," and "indicating or suggesting sincere honesty and absence of deception." Since I intend to make soaps that are free of artificial colors and fragrances and composed of all natural ingredients, I think that the name is appropriate. It's also kinda a synonym of both "plain" and "simple," which I think is kinda neat since "Plainly Simple" is the name of Susan's site.

Another soap entry...

I've been researching soap making... The more I find out, the more I think I'll like it. I just have to get the blasted supplies... That'll come... In the meantime, I've been looking at ingredients.

I think I definitely want to avoid tallow for the simple reason that rendering animal fat will not be an option. So all vegetable oils/butters. I will use milk, beeswax and other animal products in some soaps though. I hear using tallow is "out of fashion" in the soapmaking community or some such nonsense for "philosophical reasons" (and let me just say that those who object for these kinds of reasons and yet have no problem eating steak are hypocrits). Whatever... I have no philosophical objection to using tallow. The part of me that likes to use every part of something and not be wasteful actually really likes the idea of tallow. I'm not a - to quote a very good friend - "crazy vegan" after all, I just don't want the mess and smell of rendering to deal with. So I think Castile and Vegetable soaps will become my speciality! ;D

I don't want to use fragrance oils... The ingredients are just too ambiguous. So if it needs to be scented, it'll be scented with essential oils. I've also heard that sandalwood is endangered now... (Why do people still use it if it's endangered?) So I guess I'm going to need to not use that. I will not go so far as to use recycled paper wrappers and natural inks in the labels... I would if it were convenient, but I think packaging is going to be hard enough without getting picky...

Got a good idea for wrapping though... Butcher paper, tied with twine (and of course, plastic wrap to preserve scented stuff until it's shipped)... Labels are going to be an issue though... Maybe Susan will think of something... She did have those nifty price stickers and tie-on labels for her stuff at Golden Girls Antiques. hmmm....

I need to get my work room organized before I start this... Must employ Joe with this as he is a master organizer. Can't do that until after the spring planting though. (I really must get my head on straight by Saturday, cause I've got major agricultural work to do this weekend!) I have to get my yarn stash organized and in a home, as well as all my needles and sewing supplies. Then I need to get storage bins for all this soap stuff. Pots, utensils, and oil storage as well as organizers for all the additives... This will be fun! Joe will enjoy it, at least...

I got the idea for this post from the "What Type of Soaper Are you?" page at http://www.millersoap.com/soapertypes.html . My favorite answer to this question is "THE UNSUNG SOAPERS: These girls (no self-respecting man would do it) are easily recognized by their inability to stand up straight. They stand for hours, in period costumes, hunched over cast iron pots hung from cast iron tripods, stirring endlessly, at the multitude of Historic Society gatherings throughout the land, in order to promote respect for soap's humble beginnings in this great US of A. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor hail, nor 90-degree temperatures, nor poorly organized shows, will stop them from preserving and carrying on one of America's greatest traditions - the art of SoapMaking."

Now, I'm going to bed...

Hand creams & such

After checking about the price of plastic and glass containers for stuff like hand creams and salves, I've found that it's probably not going to be economical to produce them to sell via the net unless I went way high production, which I really can't. Even so I tried out the recipe I had, since I have all the supplies and it very interesting... It's somewhere between a cream and a salve. I used peppermint oil and it has a very sweet, Christmas-y scent now. I put it in Ziplock storage containers about the size of a pudding cup... I have three of them. They will probably be given as gifts later this year, if I don't use it all up myself in the meantime. I think I'm going to stick to soaps... the other stuff seems too involved and pricey for me at the moment... It's just as well.

Soap!

Yay! I convinced my mom that I do know what I'm doing, am responsible enough to handle lye (well, not handle it... cause that would burn, but use it rather without poisoning myself and others), and will keep everything having to do with soap making entirely separate from her precious kitchen... All of which I had already planned to do, but "lye" being one of my mom's buzz-words, she kinda stopped listening as soon as she heard it and had to be convinced that much harder. I'll be collecting the stuff to make soap over the next several months and have all of it ready to go by the time the herb garden is producing again. I'm planning on using all natural ingredients. If I didn't make it myself or buy it in its most basic form (such as turmeric and paprika to use as dye), it's not going in the soap. ::nods:: Should be good!

In other news: I'm still working on the Mrs. Beeton cuffs and the 19th century hood. It's all coming along. One thing I have noticed about the hood is that I seem to be knitting it a little looser than the sample I have from Susan. I don't know if it is because the original has been felted down slightly, was done on different size needles than those prescribed by the pattern (size 10.5) or if I just naturally knit looser... any could be possible, I suppose. But it's looking good so far and I've had no problems.