Happy Ostara!

Daffodowndilly

by A.A. Milne

She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,

She wore her greenest gown;

She turned to the south wind

And curtsied up and down.

She turned to the sunlight

And shook her yellow head,

And whispered to her neighbour: “Winter is dead.”

Lookie Lookie!

Guess what I found on my doorstep last night?

4lb 11oz of  California Red Fleece from Apple Rose Farms

See how wonderful the crimp is!

It’s very soft.  There is some VM from what I can see in the box but not too bad.   It’s not all for me though – I’ll be sharing this with Deb and Lucia (Rhymes with Fuscia) *apparently the link adder thingie stopped working*

Five more days….

…  until Spring. I can hardly wait. This weekend we got a little glimpse of what it around the corner. Bright sun, warm enough to sit outside without a heavy sweater and/or coat, hat, mittens, etc. It was just lovely.

Cindy and I (and my nephew Eric) spent most of the day on Saturday painting the new studio space. Cindy had done all the priming last week, so we just had to get the color on.

The studio space is long and narrow (think bowling alley). There are two columns on either side of the studio that are going to work out to separate the workspace from retail space. We also decided to use color to emphasize the two spaces. I love, love, love the colors – the front (retail space) is a very dark purple blue. The back (workspace) is a light, light, periwinkle grey. The light in the space during the day is spectacular. I cannot wait to actually get some play time in there soon.

Here is the workspace from the pillars to the back. That window is so tall that if I stand on the window sill I cannot reach the top of the window. This is primed but not painted.

Here is the space from the pillars to the front (entrance). This is primed and ready to paint.

Here is my sister and nephew painting.

Here is the finished front with some of my fiber that we brought down. Loving the colors!

Here is the finished back space. Well technically not finished – I still have to move down the fiber, dyes, and all the other accoutrement that goes with fiber dyeing, etc. But it gives you an idea.

We plan to put stainless steel counters on the right side, and sitting space on the left.

Finished (but not moved in yet) front space.

What do you think? I am loving it and I am not regretting giving up therapy and happy pills for this space. It’s so much better for my soul and well being.

I think we are going to have the big opening Open Studio Saturday on May 2^nd, so put that on your calendar!

I also went to a couple of parties this weekend.

Lynnie and Mike

And of course if you go to a Tea (Birthday Party) in March you are bound to run into the Mad Hatter

With two parties the only thing I made all weekend was a yummy pasta salad that was so easy and cannot really be counted as cooking.  I got this from Lynnie.

1 box of Barilla Cellentani pasta cooked to box specs.

Rinse and cool, then add an entire Party sized container of Tabouli salad.

Toss to coat pasta – refridgerate for a couple of hours then serve.

It was addicting to eat.

Oh and these little petit fours from Concord Tea Cakes were almost too cute to eat!

And knitting – I finished the socks and started on some lacy fingerless mitts.  Pics later.

New Do and Socks Too!

I got my hair cut last weekend.  Most of the color is gone,  I think I’m going to go native finally, a couple of more cuts and the dye will be gone.

And finally proof that I have been knitting socks.

These were a pattern I kinda made up of different stitch patterns.  The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Wild Cherry.

And I am working on another pair of plain socks – the yarn is from the Socks that Rock Club last year.  I hope I have enough to squeek out a pair of socks for me.

I still have to take pics of the Spa Booty – soon I promise.

Is it Spring yet?

It must be daylight savings time starts this weekend! YAY!  I love daylight savings time.  I love having it light out after I get home from work.  When it’s dark out I just want to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head.  Now that there is actual daylight, I might actually get back to doing more things after work.

This past weekend was Spa weekend in Freeport.  What a great time!  I stayed with some lovely ladies from my knitting and spinning groups, Julie, Debbi, Mary and blogless Kathy.  We laughed, we knit, we laughed, we spun, we laughed, we ate, we laughed, we shopped and we laughed some more.  Check their pages for some more photos of the weekend.

We stayed in a condo at the Harraseeket Inn and it worked out perfectly.  Not only was there plenty of space, but a kitchen for coffee in the morning and a wonderful pennesgetti dinner with meatballs, foccacia bread, and salad.  Yum!  We could have fed a small army.

I supported most of the vendors there and then joined the road trip on Sunday to Halcyon and Purl Diva for more fiber and a lovely lunch at the Joshua Tavern in Brunswick, ME.  The Seafood Chowder was delicious!

I took one photo the entire trip (I know bad blogger! yet again).  But we were just having too much fun.  Here it is a photo of Julie with her beautiful new coat from the LL Bean outlet – such a deal!

All of us said we cannot wait until next year to do this again!

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Boy it sure seems like there is a lot of things going on right now, it’s crazy and only getting crazier.

This weekend is Open Studio weekend.  I will be there in the old studio (306A), the new studio will not be ready yet.  We just got the keys and there is much painting, cleaning and moving to be done.  But I am so excited!  It’s going to be amazing once everything gets done.

Once we are in I will be scheduling some dye days.  Both Cindy and I have a ton of stuff that we’ve been putting off dyeing until we can get into the new studio.  Let me know if you are interested and what weekend works for you.

I also have a ton of fiber to be carded too.  Let’s hope the longer days help me get some of this done.

I did finish the socks I was knitting before I left for spa and actually got to wear them!  Everything else seems to be in some time warp and no matter how much I knit nothing seems to be getting done.

I also spun a bit over 4 ounces of my hand-dyed merino superwash roving over the weekend, it just needs to be plied (2-ply), maybe tonight?

I promise pictures to come soon of the Spa Weekend booty.