Maryland Musings

Sunny, blustery and cold today.  Love this weather.   20F this morning when I woke up.  Temps expected to get back up to seasonal levels by the end of the week.  I find this weather much more energizing, which is just what I need right now.    I'm getting seven hours but it doesn't seem to be enough these days.  Got my shaving mugs done yesterday, and put together many Mother Fiber Felting Packs.  It takes more time than you think to put colors together that a needle felter might need for a landscape picture, complete with curly locks for silly embellishments.  The apartment was/is a mess, with bags of wool, fabric, and soap making accoutrement everywhere.  I swear I need a trailer in the barn yard to live in, as my crafting activities take up this whole living space.  I bought a 20,000 square foot barn so I would have all the room I need but it doesn't work that way.  Walls, cabinets and closets are necessary for organization and storage.  A recurring theme I seem to voice.  One can only live and hope - I hope I live that long.  I made sure I got my hot soak this morning, and decided to pull little Sadie in the tub with me for her first bath.  I would have done Izzy, as I'm mad at him for running in the road, but Izzy got wise and darted away as I went for his collar.  Cute little Sadie didn't know what I was up to and just wagged her tail as I pulled her in the water with me.  She was good as gold, but with two feet on the rim of the tub, ready to bolt if I let go.  Now we are both scented with my recent soap batch, Garden Rose.  Very lovely and creamy I must say.   I just got back from my Sunday trip to New Berlin to pick up the NY Times.  I always call ahead to make sure they have one and ask them to hold it so as not to make the twenty mile round trip a waste.  On the way back I spied a great black bird on the side of the road, not looking so good.  I stopped to inspect it and found a lovely, heavy purebred hen, which must have been clipped by a car and left for dead.  I couldn't let her sit there and die in the wind and sun.  I have her in a pen in the barn, with water and feed, but she's in shock.  We'll see.  I put my patron saint Hildegarde Von Bingen's liturgical chanting on, the music I do chores by.  Maybe she'll perk up with the music and chickens all around her, even if they are strange chickens.  I'm clearing the decks to make my Shepherd's Friend Hand Creme.  Clearing the decks is a big deal around here, with nowhere to put the "stuff" besides boxes on the floor.  I had to clean off all six shelves of my sewing shelves for soap to cure.  Can't find a thing and it's driving me crazy.   Have to make the creme today, as I'm back to school tomorrow.  Matt is cleaning off tables for me today.  I used to obsess about my booth, but it's as good as most, and better looking than some.  The first year I did Maryland I was all wrapped around the axle about my booth, then the next door booth people came - The Fibre Company from Maine.  They came late and drove their Subaru right up to the booth.  Out came stacks of plastic crates filled with yarn.  They stacked the crates up and that was it.  No frills.  The lines for their booth were out the door.  I think people care more about product.  I still use the same red and white checkered tablecloths I did ten years ago and they do fine.  Very farmy and simple.  If I ever get all this soap wrapped it will be a miracle.  My roving is just exquisite this year - with lots of mohair blended with wool, my favorite.  So soft and "slippery" for easy spinning.  Only the Lipstick is all BFL wool with flecks of angora.  Trouble is the wool/mohair roving is so soft it will fall apart when people handle it.  Hopefully they will grab it and buy it.  I wouldn't blame them, it's great.  I had a note from a Rhinebeck customer asking for more messenger style totes in Maryland.  I'll try to get one made for her.  Most of the totes are the classic two-strap style as I had some fabulous goat horn toggle buttons to put on them.  Better get to work.  Coffee first as my head is nodding a bit.  I'm using my Susanne Farrington mugs, as I love things that are hand made by people I know and admire.  They inspire me to be creative myself.