Ceallach Knits

I have been a bit remiss in posting to the blog....it could be a number of things like the heat, or being busy at work or not having time to take pics to show everyone but mostly it's probably just laziness.

But I am now posting to the blog with the latest and greatest incredibly exciting things going on in my life.

Coming soon! I have just this month registered domain names for my business, including dyeingtoknitandspin.com and the main domain ceallachdyes.com. I am still working on things like logos and inventory and the website itself, but am hoping to launch soon. So keep your eyes peeled. I will of course announce it all on this blog and Knitter's Review and Knittyboard, and any other wonderful places that come to mind. What is it you might ask? Well, hand-dyed yarns and fiber of course! And also coming along is a new blog, but I don't have the first post up yet, but once I do that, I can link up to it. Wouldn't that be grand?

Secret Pals, well my Secret Pal from SP8 is fantastic, and totally knows what to pick for me, she is apparently very thoughtful. I cannot wait for the next package!

My One Skein Pal, however, is not so great....in fact, she does not exist. Yep, 2 months into it and I have not heard word one....which kind of sucks, but does not mean that I do not fulfill my obligation at all....My downstream pal seems a very nice person, but is just coming through some hard times. She needs to spend more time and energy pampering herself, which I think she has started to do, just by joining SP8. She has also made some important and very difficult changes in her life recently. I am so proud of her for finding the strength to do that.

So everyone saw my list of things to do while on vacation. Here is the list again, but with comments on what got done, and some commentary too!

House Projects
1. Rearrange/organize the study. Yep, it got done, but do you know, within 3 weeks all the cleared space is trashed again? DH does not even leave space for operating the mouse.

2. Clean up Living room Hmmmmm, the big pile of stuff is now a big pile of boxes.

3. Replace at least the bathroom faucet. Well, I started to replace the faucet, and discovered that the overflow channel on the sink was rusting through the bottom and then also into the sink and leaking into the cabinet....so I pulled it out, measured the whole and then tried to buy a replacement sink....NIGHTMARE. But that tweren't so bad compared to trying to plumb the drain after waiting 10 days for a sink etc. It took us 3 DAYS to get that part done!

4. Re-organize the sewing room Okay, to be fair, this did not happen....mostly because the other things took so damned long. But the good news is that I did purge the remaining quilting fabrics except for the ones that I know I will make up into quilts, although to be fair, the big pile will probably become just comforter covers, not a quilt. I have no patience for the quilting aspect, but love piecing.

5. Put away the big bins in the master bedroom in attic, along with toddler play station. DONE

6. Replace blinds in family room because they are falling apart. DONE, to the tune of 150 dollars! But they will last a lot longer than the Home Depot ones that were falling apart. DO NOT buy blinds at Home Depot.

7. Clear rocks from back into side yard DONE-DH hired the gardener to do it....the side yard looks really nice now...

8. Posts in back, and at least one crossbeam for Rowan’s swing, possibly dig out the patio area in preparation for sand and stones. Umm yeah, how long does it take to measure out for posts in the backyard? Well we measured it out, marked with landscape chalk, which the termite guy obliterated when he replaced all the stations around the house.....He seemed a bit dense, Like Gee there's a big red X here, they moved the rocks, maybe they are planning a project. Well I think I will put the stations RIGHT ON THE BIG RED X!

9. Finish planting under maple in front, it still looks a bit raw. Ummmm, yeah. Does putting some fill in count?

10. Replaced the kitchen sink. Can I just say right here, that I hate home-builders? They do really stupid things....in this case they cut the hole for the 22X33 inch sink to be 33 inches wide....exactly the size of the sink....the drop-in sink that relies on a ledge of countertop to be fastened down. Half a day to remove everything, knock out five cut tiles and replace them with full tiles, put the sink in and plum b it. Another half day to grout the tile, and then another 2 hours to fasten the thing in, after grinding down openstock screws that were actually long enough to reach from the sink to the edge. Can I just say something else here? When they build a countertop, they put down 3/4 plywood, then gypsum board, and then grout and then tile...making the countertop aobut 3 inches thick. For the drop in sink they give you these clips, and the screw that goes with are like maybe 1.5 inches long....can someone else do that math for me? Because when I do it, it does not compute!

Creative projects
Finish quilts that are in progress....Yep, I finished 3 of them. I have one more to do, but did do the quilting on it....so it's mostly finishwork. I also culled the quilt fabric, and freed up a bin! How's that?

Dye yarn for business and post on sites Well I did dye a bit....

Generally spend time spinning and knitting I did lots of spinning, including 4 ounces of cotton, plying some singles laying around and some other spinning.....lot of spinning....in fact the one constant was the whir of the wheel. Knitting? Not so much!

Get out the knitting machine and make some summer sweaters on it to use up some of the yarn I have. Umm, yeah right.

Make new template for blogs Ipso facto.

Teach Peter how to blog?? Maybe a daddy blog?? Negatory on that there cottonmouse. (Johnny Cash )

Make new blog/website for business or on etsy/ebay See above

Personal Health
Take vitamins everyday NOPE

Take shower everyday NOPE although this is mitigated by the afternoons at the pool....I always shower and shampoo after.

Swim everyday with and without kids Kinda

Take naps I only did this when I did not sleep to 10am.

Generally restore my own health so that I don’t have PVCs, as well as get started so that momentum can carry me through when I return to work GOOD NEWS....PVCs are fewer I think mainly because of exercise.

Dentist appointment Tues 1pm Yep, there it is.

Oh and somewhere in there, I had my birthday, which was kind of a bust, mostly due to Littlest disturbing everyone in the house, and being unable to get back to sleep....birthdays are always emotional for me. Also DH had ordered stuff for me, but all of it was held up for various reasons.....go figure. Maybe I will take photos of Bday gifts and post about it, because I have basically gotten stuff all month which totally makes up for it.

Finally, my Secret Pal sent me a lovely postcard wishing me a good birthday. Sorry pal that I did not post about it, but I really enjoyed receiving it while on holiday!

The garden is coming along too. I was home yesterday for morning conf calls and at the end someone called the cell, so I beat it out to the side yard where the garden is to check things out....the tomatoes have grown, one has at least one cluster of fruit and another has flowers, the serrano pepper plant has flowers, the zucchini has a bunch of flowers and at least one baby z, the carrots, radishes and beets are up, the zinnias and marigolds have some blooms and the amaranth is spectacular. Oh, I forgot to mention, while on vacation, D and I put in two grapes and two watermelons.....the grapes are Thompson and Flame seedless. Can I say that it makes me happy to see things growing? I just hope the tomatoes get going, as we really enjoy them in our house.

That's all for now....no obligatory knitting content today I am sad to say!