Weeeeee!!!

45 in a couple of hours!

Already crying at the midpoint of the Lost season finale!

LOVED "The Monsters of Templeton" by Lauren Groff (read or listen, I insist!).

Commercial break over, back to Lost!!!

Musings

No pix for this post, just a few musings (I'll try to avoid "whinings") about living with lupus and "embracing" middle age (or trying to!).

Middle age??!!?? What the heck??? Eesh. Well, I'd rather be who I am right now, 44 + 361 days, than who I've been throughout my multicolored and -faceted life, so there's something to embrace. I was just hit by the image of me at a track meet in high school, wearing rainbow striped socks with my neon lemon yellow Nike's with turquoise swooshes, and some kind of hideous but oh-so-cool rainbow striped tank top as I lobster fried in the Calif Central Valley sun. The late 70's weren't that kind to anyone!

Or me in my Oingo Boingo lime green linen dress with black, purple, fuschia squiggly patterns, wearing long pearls, black heels, probably some black leggings. The 8o's were only kind to Madonna's bank account!

Or me in my oh-so-cool hospital scrubs, hair in a scrunchy, finding my niche working in a busy hospital in the early to mid 90's -- I was styling! Or thought so ... :)

And now me in mid/late 2000's, kicked back in my Eddie Bauer fave shorts and sweater, hair with more white than I'd like people to know about pulled out of my eyes, and lamenting the wrinkles that I've been developing, thanks to all those days of frying in the sun in the 70's! Ah well. I want to be the wise old woman that doesn't care about white hair and wrinkles. I'm trying, dang it.

So as I'm musing, I'm hurting a lot today, and not entirely sure why. I'm looking down at my lovely blue toes -- not a great sign for a lupie gal -- framed by lovely lobster red feet and throbbing ankles. Not to be left out -- heaven forbid -- I'm sporting bright cherry red knuckles, swollen and aching fingers that are curling into little arthritic claws. Neato! Waiting for the motrin to kick in! And my lovely lovely brilliant red and inflamed cheeks -- my butterfly rash -- I knew I was in trouble last night when I was shocked to see such crimson standing out where it didn't belong! Just think -- a lot of women pay a lot of money for blushie cheeks -- I get mine for free ....

I didn't overdo it this weekend ... if anything, I under did it. Maybe that's the problem -- let the adrenaline stop, and the pain floods in. Well, we'll see how I feel tomorrow. If this keeps up, I'll have to go see my rheumatologist, and be told it's all in my head.

I've alluded in previous posts about life decisions ahead. What's most important to me at this point in my life? Is it to potentially make myself less healthy by increasing my stress in order to get a master's degree? Is it to focus on my career? Is it to create family, either the old fashioned way (Mr. Right and kids) or less traditional (adopt or focus on my friends who are family, etc.)? Is it to do the things I thought I was meant to do, but didn't pursue, like create stories, novels, art, etc.? I don't have to come up with any huge proclamations soon, like joining a commune or anything. But I am making school decisions, because I either have to go back in a couple of weeks, and double up in the Fall to make up for the Spring, or take a leave, or quit altogether. And I have to be OK with any of those decisions.

Today's supposed to be about sun and bbq's! It's not too late, go enjoy!!!! xoxox

New banner!

Only 2.5 months in the making...

OK, so I'm not 1,000% in love, but I'm overall happy with the next phase in banner-dom for my Etsy shop.

I knew absolutely nothing about Photoshop when I started this whole gig in January, so everytime I tried to create a new banner during the last few months, I'd give up, thinking I had much better ways to spend my time (which was true!).

What's nice about this is that I can drop in new photos and shift the arrangement around on a regular basis.

I played with borders for the photos, but didn't really like that. I've seen a few shops that have banners that seem suspended in space versus solid block of color, so played with that and finally came up with something I was willing to "hang on my wall." And only lost two hours of my life on this one (hahaaah).

Let me know what you think ... gently please! ... now that I've picked up a few new skills, I'll be playing with it more!

Beautiful start to a long weekend

knitting in linen

Manos del Uruguay wool/silk blend in every shade of grape, purple, lilac, lavender. Gorgeous!

Seed stitch border, linen stitch body, and about 5/8 of the way done!

I spy in my backyard ...

Lavender has taken over!!!

A certain gleam means t-r-o-u-b-l-e

Celebrating Mamas

My Mom and her first baby ... me! I'm 10 or 11 months here. I used to be cute, but my Mom's always been gorgeous.

Here's to the mothers in our lives!

I got my creativity from Mom (though she denies it). I got my love of reading from both my parents. I got my quest for the perfect shoe (as of yet unfulfilled) from Mom. We share an addiction of arugula, kettle corn, and chocolate (NOT in one dish...). She also gifted me with a stubborn spirit, love for kitties, appreciation for Americana food, love for God, thirst for knowledge, joy in games (we both love videogames, ha!!) and fun.

It's one thing to be grateful to your Mom for giving birth to you, but I'm grateful and a better person for having her always in my life ... nearly 45 years!!! It's rare that we don't talk on the phone at least weekly, often more. I just wish we lived near enough to hang out weekly (or more). And same goes for my Dad. I love them both!

Etsy Treasury Secrets Part I

Treasuries are a popular feature at Etsy. They're also a huuuge source of mystery and urban myth. I'm sharing with you all my own findings about treasuries!

True or False?

True: Treasuries are a GREAT way to promote on Etsy.
False: Treasuries are a GREAT way to promote your own items on Etsy.
True: Treasuries are a GREAT way to promote other sellers on Etsy.
True: There is great joy and satisfaction to be found in selfless promotion of others and NOT yourself.

Fact: You're not supposed to include your own items in your own Treasuries (and why would you want to, when it's so much fun to focus on others??), but you can include ONE of your own items, though if your Treasury is selected for the Front Page, Etsy won't include your own item.

Fact: Etsy's front page collection is selected from Treasuries (even Treasuries created/curated by Etsy Administration).

True or False?

True: A really beautiful and unique Treasury with great and clear photos has a great chance of being on the Front Page.

False: The #1 Treasuries in popularity (more on this later) are not automatically on the Front Page (I see many Front Page Treasuries that have very very few views).

True: Being in Treasuries increases your chances of being on the Front Page.

True: Lots of Treasury curators use their favorites or "hearted" items to build their Treasuries.

True: Therefore, being "hearted" can increase your chance of being in Treasuries.

True: Lots of Treasuries are created by Etsy Street Team members using co-member items.

False: Being in a Street Team guarantees you'll be in Treasuries.

True: Being in a Street Team and taking GREAT photos of your really GREAT items increases your chances of being in Treasuries significantly.

True: Begging in Etsy Forums or via Treasury comments to be included in Treasuries increases your chances of being in Treasuries (likely quite the opposite).

Fact: When you like a Treasury (your own, others or one you're in), click once on each item! Why??? Watch the counter on top of each item, to the right increase by one. You're allowed 12 clicks total.

As you can see from my very fancy and professional circled area to the left, my own treasury shows a # of views, a # of clicks and a # of comments. With each of these, your Treasury gains "hotness" or popularity. My Treasury started out with a very pale gray square to the far left -- now it's a sort of blue gray (still darn cool).

If you comment on a Treasury and like it, CLICK on each photo!!! Increasing clicks increases "hotness," which quite honestly means nothing other than giving the curator the satisfaction of seeing that their Treasury did well.

MORE Treasury Secrets this weekend!!!

Now on to something completely different

No sad laments in this post! Just pix of a quiet Sunday!

New scarf (Wild Irises) knit with beeskneesknitting's incredible wool! Look at the colors! It's so soft and poofy. I encourage you to check out her Etsy shop -- her colorways are so rich and vibrant. The story behind this scarf's name, other than the obvious (color) is that I loved the wild irises that abounded in the fields and meadows where I grew up (Bishop, in the high desert of the Sierras). (btw, the wild iris photo is EXACTLY what I used to see, with Mount Humphreys and Tom in the background, both of which I saw every single day regardless of what part of town I was in - photo by Galen Rowell who I met several times at the home of my best friend, who's Mom was a very talented painter and potter, and stepfather was a well known mountaineer and guide).

Then I have Crema Arancione (Orange Cream), a scarf/wrap.

Yeah, I could have called it "orange cream," but doesn't Crema Arancione have a certain "je ne sais quoi?" Certainly sounds more chic to me! It's incredibly soft. I used Filatura di Crosa's Love, a wool/mohair/synthetic blend. Love this yarn. If I ever work down my shamefully huge stock of yarn, I'll indulge in some more.

Can't believe the weekend's over. I made a delish farro salad today, and also poached salmon (YUM) and tossed grilled asparagus, blanched fava beans, lemon zest and juice, garlic evoo, and meyer lemon olive oil. TO die for. I'll eat well this week!

:)

Looking back

This week was a little rough, so I'm happy to have the perspective of a gorgeous Saturday looking back.

A very dear friend had surgery, and it went exceedingly well (YAY!).

My heart is hurting for another very dear friend going through unthinkably difficult times (big big hug!).

I'm down to the wire at work with too much work to possibly do in the time available for annual budgeting, while trying to hire staff (which = working all weekend).

I'm dealing with my own not so happy news about my health, with some new issues that have popped up (oy ve).

The kitties decided to knock down my really pretty glass lamp that's on my bedstand in the wee hours, which exploded bits, shards and chunks of glass all over me, the bed, and them (THAT was fun). Everyone's OK, amazingly, except for one tiny little cut on the very tip of my nose. I'll take that, considering that my eye could have been lacerated! I was more worried about them, but both were unscathed, though very freaked out with tails at full fluff.

BUT ... let's not panic. Life is cyclical, and I truly believe God doesn't give you more than you can handle. So good things happened this week as well!

My Scarf of Many Colors sold, and it's on it way to its new home (my, that's a lot of "it's" in one sentence).

I got two sales from last week in the mail (with apologies to the new owners for the delay given the above).

Some cool things happened with my job at work yesterday, so YAY (calling, hopefully, for a little celebration this weekend, maybe I'll actually get myself a few spring work-appropriate clothes ... ooo, or shoes!!!!)

Despite the new health issues, I'm feeling darn good for the sudden warm weather after the re-emergence of Winter over the last week plus (weather changes and me don't mix).

And, I have two new scarves listed, which I hope folks love as much as I do!