Greece Photographs

It's been an interesting few days. I've come down sick, and I finished reading the book on Optimism that I was reading, and promptly moved on to a book my dad loaned me nearly a year ago - his copy of "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. I'll admit to being VERY put off by the introduction, she spends a lot of energy on talking about how SHE views creativity, and it's just...not how I do, at all. Not even how I WANT to. It's not just the way she discusses God - I could get past that, she makes it clear that she understands that not everyone shares her religious beliefs, fine - it's her attitude that creativity is something that comes from outside of us and flows through us. I don't think that at all, and I actually find that discouraging. I think of creativity as something that resides within us that we learn to accept, channel, and encourage. What's interesting, though, and that I only just realized is that in the end, perhaps the process is okay - she's talking about "letting" our creativity happen, and that's definitely how I view it too, it's about getting out of my own way and letting that creativity that resides within me...out. Anyway, despite my differences of opinion about things thus far, I've decided to give it ago. She says do one chapter a week; I read the first chapter last night, and I started tackling the "activities" in the chapter today. It's gonna be work, and I imagine I'll write more about it as I go - already, having read the sample activities, I've realized some interesting things.

What have I done so far? Well, she talks about doing "morning papers." Basically, wake up, pick up a pen, and immediately write three pages. She says to take half an hour. First discovery: I write small and fast, so I can only write two pages in a half hour. And I don't want to take longer. So, I was a bit skeptical, but I did it this morning. Last night, I set a journal and pen next to my bed, and this morning, I just opened my eyes, flipped the light on...and wrote. And it was interesting. What I really noticed about it wasn't just that it cleared a lot of crap out of my head right off the bat, but that it was invigorating. It wasn't invigorating because of the crap getting cleared out; rather, it was invigorating because, having spent a half hour sitting in bed accomplishing what felt like virtually nothing, as soon as I was done I sprang out of bed and immediately stared getting things done, and I've been getting things done ever since. Found that very interesting, and if it's the least I accomplish, I'll go with it. But tomorrow, I think I'll set an alarm, I think, I hate feeling like I've frittered the morning away (though, having just written that, I just realized...I don't feel like I HAVE frittered the morning away, which is interesting too, and maybe because I've been up five hours and have already gotten a lot done...but I can't credit the Morning Pages with that, since this morning has been a mirror of yesterday morning, before I read that stuff.) ...anyway. Yes. A bit rambling today.

Anyway, the cumulative effect of everything that I'm working on is that, while I wouldn't say I'm feeling inspired, I'm definitely feeling okay about just doing what I'm up for. I don't feel like "I MUST!" or "I WILL!" but I do feel a sort of quiet, resigned feeling of "I CAN!" It's been building for the last three weeks, starting when I started playing with my photographs again, and...I still feel that way. Anyway, over the last three days, I've gotten through labeling three or four more sets of my Flickr photos, and pinned a handful more of my better photographs. They're still all from the Greece vacation in September.

Santorini

Do you know about Santorini? OMFG, I LOVED IT THERE! It was probably my favorite stop of the trip, except maybe Istanbul. I would LOVE to go back to Santorini and just relax there for a week or two. It was stunningly beautiful, and breathtaking. When I got back to the ship after my day there, I joked to my mom that CLEARLY, I have to become a geologist. The volcanic caldera that is Santorini CLEARLY needs to be extensively studied. Sure, there's always the chance that the volcano will erupt again, like it did 3,000 years ago, and blow us all to kingdom come, but in the interim, there's all that sunlight and beauty and hiking and SCIENCE to do. It'd be a sacrifice, to risk my life that way, but someone has to do it... :)


This is the first view I got of Santorini, coming out of the ship looking at the biggest city in the island cluster, called Fira. See that switch backed path? I climbed up and down that. Yeah, it was damn hard...


My main goal on Santorini was do a hike - I walked from Fira to Ia and back again, about 7.5 miles each way. I was REALLY happy when Ia finally came in to view...


It was very common to find small shrines with rocks stacked against them. I have no idea what the religious significance of this was, but it was neat...


There was a spit of land with a huge spire atop it that I decided to climb. Hundreds of years ago, the Venetians had built a castle on top of that spire, and the ruins are still there - it was mostly destroyed by earthquakes. The most fun/scariest/stimulating part was when I had to free-climb up the last 15 feet. I was going to chicken out, but there were a few other American tourists there too, and we all stared at it, and finally one by one we decided to take the chance. Alone, I wouldn't have done it, but I'm glad I did...


Like every where else I've been in Europe, graffiti was every where. I fell in love with this one - Love, To Be Announced. They'll get back to us when they've figured out whose name goes in the heart...


There was no where in Santorini where you looked and didn't see a breath-taking view.

Athens
The other set I labeled was the pictures I took in Athens. This was ONLY the "general" pictures, and doesn't include the Acropolis, museums, etc. It was mostly graffiti, actually.


Like this guy...


And graffiti-Cthulhu...

But the real highlight of these shots is this one:

I adore this shot. I think it's one of the best photographs I ever took. I remember when I was standing there I was even thinking, "if I get this shot the way I want it, it's going to be amazing." I took several minutes just looking at the statue, walking around it, taking a few shots...and it worked. It turned out just the way I hoped. And I love it. Thank god for all that sunlight!!

So...I've just got to keep it up! I'll write more about "The Artist's Way" as I go, and post more photographs. And I'm still doing other crafts - I just didn't make enough progress this week to think it'd make a very interesting post. Maybe by Friday. :)

New Ways to Sort Through My Photography

Last week, my friends on Ravelry told me about Pinterset.com. Have ya'll heard about this? Well, I'm not yet sure what I think about it overall, but I'm finding that it's particularly useful for organizing things that I'm working on related to my Ravelry activities and my crafting business. My most recently thought-up use for it is for sorting through my Flickr photographs. See, I've got 10s of thousands of images up on Flickr, and while I'm going through and labeling them or looking for specific shots, I'll often spot one and go, "hey, that might be nice enough to put on a card or print as an 8 x 10!" ...and then I promptly forget all about it. But no more! Now, I'm just going to pin them to a board in my Pinterest (my username is Claire P Houck, or unforth, if any of ya'll are on there...). Before, I would do this sort of thing but assembling lists of links. The problem with this was that I'd have to then open every link in order to look at it. Or sometimes, I'd make a temporary file on my computer, but this is also a pain - I have to go from Flickr to my local storage, find the shot, and copy it over to the folder, then label it - and I STILL have to click the file to know what I'm looking at (or use a photo-editor/browser...)

But no more! Now I can just pin it, and go to the board, and look at them all at once!

I decided to test how this would go by going through one of the smaller, unlabeled sets I had up on Flickr - in this case, the pictures I took during the one day I spent on Crete during the cruise I took last September. There were 29 pictures in the set, I labeled all of them, and then I went through again and just pinned the ones I thought might be nice enough to consider making in to cards/prints.

It's awesome, cause now it's so easy to do things like...write this post and include the four images I singled out!

We visited this nifty castle overlooking an arm of the Mediterranean...




Our group then went to this small town in the middle of no where. Just as it started to rain, I spotted this...


Then, mom and I got sick of traveling with the main group and broke off to do some exploration in Chania.

There was really cool graffiti all over Greece and Turkey...

Will all of these get made in to prints? No, almost certainly not. But now, I can find them again easily, compare them to other shots as I identify them, and keep stuff easily organized. And, also nice, other people can Like or Pin my pins - so I can also see if I manage to post something that other people respond to very positively! Which will be very helpful (and, in fact, one of my shots got a "like" while I was writing this post!)

This'll be a big job in the long run, but I think it'll be fun. :)

It's Friday!

The first Friday of the new year! A bout of stress-induced insomnia chased me out of bed at 4:30 this morning, but I didn't let that worry me - I immediately got to work on my personal goals for the year to come, in this case, poking through my closet. Why? Because today, I'm going to the Farmers Market, which I intend to make a regular weekly task of. I want to go Green, it's one of my main goals for the year in fact, so I wanted to quickly sew up some cotton cloth bags to shove produce in so that I won't have to keep taking plastic bags at the farmers market, grocery store, or any where else. While I was at it, I decided to pull out a few other things that reflect my current crafting goals - to craft what I want to craft, when I want to craft it.

But first, my cotton bags! They took just over an hour to make. I made 2 big ones (like, to hold a whole head of romaine lettuce), 4 medium ones (like to hold a couple pounds of potatoes), and 8 small ones (like, to hold an apple or two).

I started with this muslin I got a few years ago to make curtains for an apartment I don't live in any more. It was plain, simple stuff - the same stuff I use as my photo backdrop, in fact.



Then, I cut it into 6 strips roughly the same width. Two of these, I left "as is," two of them, I cut along the center fold, and two of them, I cut along the center fold and then folded in half and cut again. This was all very approximate, but it got the job done.



To make them in to bags, I just sewed a flap along the top edge (so I could put in a draw string) then sewed up the sides. I used some random old scrap trim I had and some yarn bits to insert the draw strings, and then I was done, and ready to go!



At the same time, I pulled out a few things I want to work on. I've been loving Nerd Wars, and I'm not quitting, but it's caused me to focus almost exclusively on knitting and crocheting and spinning for the past year. I miss my other crafts. I miss sewing. I really miss cross stitching. It's time for me to start making better crafting choices. NW will manage, especially since I bet I'll be more productive across the board if I just relax and do what I want to do, when I want to do it.

So, what's in the pipeline?

Socks!
I started these socks in September. One is done (more or less) and this is the second. It's a great project for my purse - small, time consuming, and not too likely to fall off the hooks while I'm traipsing about town.

Sorceress Crochet!
Remember this project? It was what I was JUST finishing up when I stared this blog in August, 2010. I worked on it all that summer, and got it to this point...and then stalled before I finished the detailing work. I really want to get it done. It's so close. So out it comes, lets see how this goes. :)

Lap Loom!
One of my good friends sent me a lap loom for Christmas, with a note that I should use it to play with my homespun. She's BRILLIANT. So I'm gonna play with the loom, and see what I can do with the rainbow yarn I spun in November.

Cross Stitch Design
Lastly, I'm going through some rough personal stuff, and have felt pretty low for a few days, but last night I reached an epiphany point, and really finally absorbed (rather than just hearing and having it bounce off) that if I don't love me, no one else will either. While I was waiting to fall asleep, I thought about a strategy my step-mom uses, and that a friend of mine also suggested - leaving notes to myself. The one I was thinking about leaving was "I Am Beautiful," to help with my self-image. But then I thought...I should do this like I would do this. I wouldn't write a note. I'd MAKE something! So I'm gonna design and make myself a very simple cross stitch that says that, I already know how I want it to look. I feel really good about this project, and already have a few ideas for more.

All in all, for the first time in ages, I kinda feel like I have my crafting mojo back. I was excited to put all this together. I was excited to write this blog post. I'm excited to be about to cross stitch, and learn to weave, and to go back to designing things. I'm excited that I think that two of these ideas - the produce bags and the self-inspirational cross stitch - actually have some marketability potential, as I think about building this business more. It's a little hard to ignore the things that theoretically I HAVE to finish, but I'm just making myself relax. I have to love this again, first.


Read what everyone else is thinking this first Friday of the New Year, over on Wisdom Begins in Wonder and Tami's Ami and Other Crochet Blog.

Work In Progress Wednesday: This Blog!

Well, it's a New Year, and looking back on the year that passed, I'm not proud of the way things have gone for my crafting, my blog, and in general with my production. Don't get me wrong. I've done some fabulous things, some FO I'm VERY proud of, and some good work. I raised money for Japan, I became an important moderator in two Ravelry groups - one of which is the one of the most prominent boards in the entire site - and I got a solid core of a website that I just need to finish developing. I made more money that I did in 2011 from the business - though still not much - and I generally had all manner of minor successes. But oh, the things I let slide! So what comes next? I'm down for the count, but I'm not out yet. You won't see me tap! I'll do a post at some point soon reviewing the goals I set for 2011 (almost all of which I have failed) and outline my goals for 2012. I'll also do a post about business in 2011 - what I did that seemed to work, how my profits and money looked, how much I sold and of what, and what I think I might do differently. I'm keeping my goals and expectations for the year to come modest, perhaps more realistic, and I'm conservatively hopeful and even a little excited about what is to come. It's been a long 2011, with a lot of downsides. But as I looked at 2012 and thought, "I have to cut back, I have to do less," because I was at my limit last year, I realized: this is non-negotiable. I'm looking forward to what's to come! It'll be fun! ;)

Back on Track, Step by Step

It's funny, no matter how many times I go through this process, it's always so easy to forget that getting things done is a matter of taking it one step at a time. As soon as I let things accumulate - oh, I'm so far behind! oh, I have so much to do! oh, how could I have let so much time pass! - it gets overwhelming so fast, yet in the end, it's always as simple as just doing one thing.

One blog post, earlier this week, to own up to how far behind I've gotten.

One pattern, that I know is ready to go and be tested, now up in Free Pattern Testers here. I went with something recent - the scarf I made in September - but it's still a bit ambitious. I'm pretty busy, and it's my first knit pattern, and I'm really a crappy knitter still (though I'm getting better - I'm actually working on two knit projects right now!)



Once the testing is done on this, I'll be distributing this pattern for free, which gets me back on track in the area of releasing free patterns.

One day at a time, one thing at a time, I'm NOT going to give up on the dream of pulling off a craft business!

100 Posts of Curiously Crafted Creations

I'm back from my trip! I had a wonderful time, though my plan of posting about it while I was there fell through because, well...every trip, you forget something. It's generally not anything imperative, and if it were, you can generally replace it. I usually forget my pajamas. Not this trip. This trip, I forgot a two-to-three prong adapter - an essential item for me to be able to re-charge my laptop. Thus, computer usage was limited to one full battery for the whole trip, not counting my time on the airplane (which had chargers at each seat - how cool is that??)

More about the trip in future posts. That's not today. Today, I celebrate a major milestone. This is the 100th post in this blog! I've debated a lot about what to write here, and I find I still don't have a damn clue what I really want to say in this post. But that's never stopped me from opening my mouth before...

I technically started this blog in early September over on the Hive, but within a couple of days, I decided to port it over to a blogger blog instead. At the time, I'd previously made two attempts at keeping topical blogs - one in 2007, about the Wheel of Time series of books, and the second earlier in 2010, about the New York Mets. Both had died quick, quiet deaths. My other blog, a personal blog on LJ, had seen periods of heavy and light use, but for the past couple years I'd been lucky to manage one post a month. As such, I felt that my potential for sustaining a blog long term were pretty damn poor. I even started the very first blog post of this brand new blog with a semi-defensive apology about my chances of succeeding at this task.

My thinking has changed so much since then that it's rather fascinating. Then, I was not looking at the craft business with much optimism. I enjoyed it, and I had a few patterns out there and a few friends who bought my photography cards occasionally, but anything termed "success" seemed like a pipe-dream, and I had only vague ideas how to build a following for a FB page, a blog, or my work. I had joined Ravelry only a week before, and had just joined the Hive, too, and it was starting to look like increasing my social networking potential might be a good way to proceed if I was serious about this. But I can't say I had much idea what I had in mind, only that this seemed like another way to really try to grow my tiny craft business.

Since then, my idea of what I want and what I'm doing has really solidified. I want to make this in to a profitable business. That is far from saying that I want to make this in to a business that is my livelihood. Instead, I just want to make a steady, consistent amount more than what I spend on it. I want to keep building a web presence. I want to be one of the small fish in the amigurumi ocean, someone who people might even think of, and have some idea what my work looks like, even if they have never considered buying from me. I want to keep making new online (and, I hope eventually, real life) friends, and continue to build this feeling that I am a part of a community of awesome, interesting, talented people that I can aspire to be like.

This blog has turned out to be a major part of these efforts. I'd say, before I tried to do this, that I thought that running a craft business was mostly about crafts. I thought that if I could make a nice enough product fast enough for little enough money, success would follow. I knew there was more to it than that, but I had only a vague idea what that more was. Now I understand that balancing this online interaction is almost as important, and I find that I really enjoy keeping this blog. I think about what I can do future posts about, not just about what I'm currently working on or have finished, but about other things that I think will be useful. I actually keep a private, unposted post with ideas for future posts (hence, google is telling me that this post is actually my 101). It's changed my thinking in other regards, too - while I was on my recent trip to Bali, I encountered a few unusual and interesting craft-related things, that perhaps 6 months ago would have been only of passing curiosity to me, but now, knowing that I keep this blog, I spent more time with these things because I knew that a post about these things would be interesting (and it will be my very next post, in fact!)

It's more than that, though. Keeping a blog helps me craft more and craft better. I so look forward to sharing my work with others, and receiving feedback (negative or positive!) I love taking inspiration from the work that these friends have done, too. Sure, it takes time away from doing the actual work, but I feel that the support that I receive makes up for that.

As to the future for this blog, well, it's more of the same. Continuing to discuss the crafts and photography that I'm doing. Continuing to try to get up the occasional educational posts (they take a lot more time and energy, so when I get busy I stop doing them, but they're in the works...). Continuing to share progress and set-backs and newly released patterns. Continuing, in a general sense, to consider how I can use a blog to help support my business. And I'm looking forward to it!

What Do You See on a Long, Long Walk?

Over the weekend, I followed a train of thought that is surprisingly normal for me:
1. Hey, look, I've got nothing on my calendar on Tuesday or Wednesday!
2. That means that if I take Tuesday as a day off, I can do all the work Wednesday, and all should be well!
3. The weather on Tuesday is going to be gorgeous.
4. I'd really, really like to see the cherry blossoms at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, but I'll be out of time for the Sakura Matsuri (which is this weekend).
5. I should go to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden on Tuesday!
(and now the leap of logic)
6. ...I've really wanted to find the time for a long walk.
7. I should walk to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. It's "only" about 15 miles from my apartment.
8. ...it's actually almost 19 miles from my apartment. Hey, that's manageable!

So...it's the morning, and I'm just getting done a few odds and ends before I start my walk. Here's the plan.

It's 19.2 miles, and takes me over the Broadway Bridge in to Manhattan, then all the way down Broadway to Union Square, south down to City Hall, across the Brooklyn Bridge, and finally down Flatbush until I get to the Garden. The beautiful thing about this root is that if I get tired at any point, it'll be the easiest thing in the world to abort and get on the train; the 2, 3 and 4 all go to BBG, and I'll be following the root for the 2/3 early in the walk (starting at about the 6 mile mark) and the 4 root starting at about the 10 mile point.

I've done a walk like this once before, 3 and a half years ago - that day, I just set out to walk as far as I could, and ended up going about 20 miles - with lots of pictures - but I'll make that a post for another day. ;)

Anyway...that's the plan! Enough description, I need to get moving! :)

...I would say that the fact that I think this plan was in anyway a good idea and a reasonable way to spend my day off is probably why I'm exhausted and busy all the time. :)

So! It's been about a week and a half since I first wrote the above. First I did the walk, then I wanted to wait to finish this post until I'd labeled all the pictures on Flickr, then I got busy, but today I finally finished the labeling, and here goes.

First, to end the suspense, I ended up walking 29 miles last Tuesday. I still kinda can't believe it. What amazed me most was that I could have continued, and the next day I was only a little stiff; by Thursday I was good to go again, and did a four mile walk with my dad without a twinge. I guess I didn't really realize just how in shape I am. I'm feeling pretty proud of myself.

So, what DOES one see on a 29 mile walk? Lets find out...

I saw these a lot:


It takes a lot of fuel to make it that far!

When I started out, it was cold and really foggy.


It cleared up soon, though! The trip was very, very long and took me past all three other places I've lived previously in New York City. I grew up on 86th Street.


I went by a whole lot of major tourists sights, too, like Times Square!


And Union Square!


And China Town!


I crossed the Manhattan Bridge on the way out, which gave me awesome views of the Brooklyn Bridge and Financial District.


I'd gone about 19 miles when I arrived at the garden. It turned out that it was a free admission day, and the weather was gorgeous, so it was mobbed with people!


The Cherry Blossoms were in full bloom.


I also wandered through the conservatory, where they had an awesome room dedicated to Bonsai!


A lot of gorgeous spring flowers were in bloom.


And the sun was shining down through the spring leaves which finally seemed to sprout, over night, now that the weather was improving.


There were flowers pretty much everywhere I looked!


So then came the question: what next? I had promised myself that if I could muster the energy to walk back to Little Italy, I could get a canoli, but I wasn't about to risk hurting myself. I took a break, pondered my physical condition, and ended up deciding to go for it. On the way, I passed through Grand Army Plaza, which I'd always wanted to go through (as it is a huge Civil War monument)


And I walked back across the Brooklyn Bridge!


With fantastic late afternoon views of the Bay.


I got a cream puff, too! La Bella Ferrara is one of the best Italian pastry places in the city, and I wasn't going to miss out!


I once again took stock of my physical condition, and realized that I still felt decent, and this might be one of my only chances in life to see just how far I could go. So I had a chat with my mom, and we decided that to make absolutely sure that I hit a minimum of 26 miles (walked a marathon) I would see if I could get all the way up to Columbus Circle, at 60th and Broadway.


...at which point, I decided that my feet hurt enough that it was time to go home. I hopped on the train, and an hour later made my way up the hill to my pup, waiting to be walked. It wasn't until I got in that I discovered that far from almost missing the 26 mile mark, I'd hit 29 miles! The full set of pictures is here. The sunburn is just peeling now. (which is no fair, since I put on sunscreen, dammit). :) Anyway, I had a ball - I think there are more ridiculously long walks in my future, if I can only find the time.

Bits and Pieces, and Some Stash Busting

I've been so busy the past week and a half that I haven't had much time for craftiness, but I don't want any more time to pass, so I thought I'd give a quick, random update.

Making Stuff
I've made almost nothing in the past week and a half, but I'm almost done with the crochet Zouave jacket (just need more materials and some buttons, then I could finish in about an hour).

Nerd Wars
Well, the first whole round - all three months - of Nerd Wars on Ravelry is over. This month is a month off, which is great because I've been so focused on making things for it that I haven't finished a bunch of other stuff (like, I've got three new dolls designs - the starfish, the roly poly king, and the fox - plus the unfinished gokk - each of which I need to finish a remake of before I can test them). Now I can take some time to make additional versions and get them ready to go, which is great. :)

However, if you've heard me babble about Nerd Wars on here and find that you're tempting, it's also recruiting time for the teams for next round. You can learn all about it here - basically, we all break in to teams based on fandoms, and then compete! There are a lot of old teams that will be continuing (for roleplaying games, and video games, and Babylon 5 and Firefly and Star Trek and more) and there are some new teams (like for grammar nuts, and reading fans, and Psych). But the best team of all...is my team! I'm going to be a team captain next round, for fans of the TV show Supernatural! Which means I'll be a mod! So come check out the fun - I've found it to be a great source of inspiration and an awesome way to meet other crafters.

Free Pattern Testers
Speaking of increasing authority and becoming a moderator, after several weeks of back and forth communication, I am now officially the third moderator for the awesome and helpful Free Pattern Testers group on Ravelry. I've got a very small and specific job, and I was so honored to be asked to join the team, and am so excited (and nervous) to be starting.

1000 Amigurumi Crane Project
The Project has been featured on This Week in Ravelry, but unsurprisingly, as time passes and new issues enter the public eye (such as the tornadoes in the US south) the steam has faded. However, I'm going to keep trying to put time in to this when I can - my problem is I am just over committed right now, and so I haven't been able to do as much as I've wanted. Still, we've raised around $300 total, which is awesome.

Stash Work
Over the winter, I really worked on stash busting, and got things to a the point that this was all I had left:


...at least, that WAS all I had left, until I went to Michaels and they had a lot of awesome colors in a kind of DK/thin worsted weight on sale half off...



The state that the addition of these skeins and some others left my closet in was really rather horrifying (and I thought I'd taken a picture of what it did to my closet, but sadly I don't appear to have). Anyway, it was a disaster, but last Saturday I spent the whole day in hard-core spring cleaning (like, going through stuff, getting rid of stuff, re-organizing my closets, etc.) And now, things are in much better shape:



I actually have room to hang things in my closet again, and all the yarn is one crate! Now just to keep working...

Travel
May is a month of travel for me. I just got back today from three days in Louisville, KY, for a friends wedding. (and I'm running on 5 hours of sleep and having been up since 3:30 in the morning!) Next weekend (Friday night to Sunday night), I'll be in Maryland for Maryland Sheep and Wool. Then, ridiculously early on the morning of the 11th, I'll be getting on a plane and going to Bali, in Indonesia, for another wedding. I'll be back on the morning of the 20th. I'm currently acting on the assumption (supported by no evidence what-so-ever, but a lot of hope and optimism) that I'll have internet while I'm there, and therefore be able to post, but even without that, it's mostly a trip of relaxation, which means there will be yarn, and tons of photography, and lots to share when I get back. I'm pretty excited. :) I can't believe I'm leaving in a week, I've been planning this trip since I was invited a year ago.

Spinning
Speaking of Maryland Sheep and Wool, I learned how to spin on a wheel last week! No photos of any thing about that yet, but I promise I'll take pictures the second time. It was hard, but I kinda thought I was getting the hang of it...

9/11 and Memories and Thoughts
I've spent all day wrestling with how I feel about the death of Osama bin Laden and considering whether or not to do a post on here about it. In the end, this isn't my personal blog, and my feelings about 9/11 aren't related to my crafting, and I don't want to go in to politics. But New York City is such an integral part of who I am that I realized I couldn't just not mention it at all. When I first heard, I almost cried, and I couldn't figure out what I thought, but now that I've had all day to reflect (I didn't find out til this morning), all I can say is that I feel grim satisfaction. This city is in my soul. I love it, adore it profoundly, and 9/11 is a wound that will never quite heal. I still remember when my mom took me to the observation deck when I was a little kid, and from the 90th+ floor, the cars looked like matchbox toys and the people like ants; when I was in high school, I would go there to hang out and shop at the Borders cause my school was only a half mile away; when I was in college and would drive home on Route 80, I would catch my first glimpse of the skyline and it would make me smile because I knew I was home. Thanksgiving after 9/11, I went home on that route, crested the hill, saw the sky line, and there was a vast emptiness, and I realized for the first time how profoundly life would never be the same. I've now done that drive dozens of times, and I still feel that emptiness and loss every time. It's been a decade, but this wound will never heal, but I think that now that that SOB is dead, justice has been done for what was done to my city and to her people, and we can finally try to move on.


(this is a shot I took of the tribute from 9/11/2008 - I knew a lot less about photography then, which is why this isn't much of a shot, but it still seems appropriate here).