Creative Strands Again

I just found out the Creative Strands is going to be held again this summer - July 7 - 11. I went to their website to see if there was any new information. There wasn't, but I found two great pictures from the Patsy Z workshop that Kate and I went to. Here's a close up. Don't you love that cast!

Wow! You can do that for me!

In my comment box yesterday I was offered the chance of a lifetime. Of course, I don't have that particular organ, but if I did, by golly, I would have responded in a heartbeat. As it happened, in my haste to delete the comment I must have deleted the whole entry. Not to worry - it wasn't exactly Pulitizer worthy.

School is taking up most of my time right now. I have over thirty kids in each of my three psych classes. At least my World Cultures class is smaller. I'm also creating another class on the fly. I'm teaching an advanced psychology class. Along with having three preperations we have very few substitutes in the district, so I've been losing my planning period to cover for other teachers. I'm also taking a Video and Hypermedia class so I've been busy learning how to edit. For one of my projects I have to do an instructional video and stream it. Sounds just right for spinning or weaving.

I did get the lighting in the studio up, so when I do get some free time lighting won't hold me back. I also finished my second fulled fish for the ST exchange. The Fibertrends tote is really a quick knit. Just have to do the strap and sew the bottom - oh, yeah, and full it! Hopefully I'll have it finished by next Saturday when I go see Sarah's new house.

I was hoping to get to the Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival in Salem NJ but work got in the way. Hope Linda has a good weekend there.

An Unexpected Day Off

Isabel has come and (looks to me) almost gone. She did leave me a present though - no school! Even Villanova's law school is closed. Up until Laura started last year, they prided themselves on never being close! It doesn't seem to have caused much havoc around here. Some power outages - my lights only dimmed periodically throughout the evening. I think it was the high winds that worried the school officials.

My lawn is covered with shredded leaves, but there aren't very many large branches. We took precautions and brought patio furniture into the garage, the shed, and even some right into my studio (jeez, it's not even finished and it's cluttered!).

What will I do with my new found time? Go to school! Our first few weeks have been crammed with meetings and paperwork, so I think I'll just take some coffee in and have the room to myself for a couple of hours. I used to spend quite a few days before school started organizing, cleaning, etc. but last summer was just too short.

This afternoon I'll start listening to The Secret Life of Bees with my wireless headphones and start warping my loom.

Remember when

your mother told you that your eyes were bigger than your stomach? (Ha, I should be so lucky!) Well I guess my eyes were bigger than my energy and time constraints this weekend. I did, however, get the wall painted and the bathroom steam cleaned (you do remember it was a very messy son that moved out??) so I guess that counts for something. Hopefully I'll get something on my loom soon. In the meantime I think I'll try and get the Fibertrends tote finished and fulled this week. Sarah will be here next week for a shower and I'd love to have it ready by then.

My nephew is getting married October 18th. Where did the time go? Dan is going to be in the wedding - his first time being a groomsman. Laura and I had to break it to him that he was paying for his tux and other expenses, not Mike! Mike's the first of the grandchildren to get married and my mom finally has a dress for the wedding. She doesn't really have the stamina to go out and try on dresses, so my sisters have been bringing dresses home for her. They finally hit the jackpot yesterday. I have to do a few alterations on it, but it looks great on her. You know, finding a nice dress for an 87 year old woman is quite the challenge.

People to See and

places to go. I mean, I'm not really an unsociable person, but with the start of school, and another new course to teach, and another course to take, I'm just not into spending my weekends going places. However family obligations call, so off I go. That leaves very little time to relax with my fiber pursuits. I have finished another fish - so I'll be able to full that this weekend. I'm hoping that I'll get a chance to at least get a warp wound, maybe even sleyed, so that I'll be able to get downstairs and weave a little. But now I remember that I really should just get that last wall painted so the bookcases can go back where they belong and I can get the other light hung. THEN maybe I can start weaving.....

In the meantime, I should be jotting down the brilliant ideas that come to me in the middle of lesson preperation or when I'm stuck in traffic (mind you, my school is all of 5 miles from my house, but if you hit just wrong time - there you sit).

A Little Fishy

Sometimes you just have to play! I finished the first of my fish, using the fleece I dyed over the summer. All of it was handspun, either by spindle or wheel. I have enough spun to do maybe 3 more, but I still have some of the dyed locks left. I'm going to try and make the next one have two colors spiraling around his body. Here's what it looked like before felting. Now all he needs is some eyes and to be stuffed! Okay, back to lesson plans.