We've been busy. NTIF was last weekend; I brought my wheel and spun for 2 days. On Sunday I spun for 2+ hours straight, which screwed up my wrist, but hey! I taught a bunch of kids where their clothes came from. Good weekend.

Monday was the boys' birthday bash - my baby is 17 now. *Seventeen*! How in the world did that happen??????

Yesterday was IHOP's free short-stack day; we had breakfast then caught up on our grocery shopping. Then I hit the bed; Monday evening/Tuesday morning, a cat got into the back yard and ran into Chloe and Bree. We got the dogs away from the cat, then SG tried to figure out how to get the cat out of the yard........then the cat ran IN TO THE HOUSE THRU THE PET DOOR. He made it into Himself's closet before the dogs realized what was going on; I ended up in one of Himself's coats and SG's work gloves trying to get the cat into a cat carrier (which, I did. After it attacked my hand/arm. Thank GOD for leather gloves!)

Anyway. Today we dropped the Jeep off to get the A/C fixed and picked up our new bathroom fixtures. The plumber has been called......the floors haven't been ordered - yet - but the quote should be ready. *I* am ready to get this DONE - I want to be able to put my house back together!

Oh, and in other news, SG bought me a lovely bracelet on Saturday....and yesterday I noticed one of the gemstones was missing. :sigh: I have the vendor's contact info, we just need to contact him to see what needs to be done. :big sigh:

I am NOT striking today - why should I support women who aren't exactly what they claim to be? Most of these protests are being funded by Soros and Co.....and headed by Anti-Israel folk. They aren't doing this because they think it's right - they're doing it because the pay is good. :shakes head:

but I managed to bugger up my wrist - again! - last week. Too much typing for a job. :sigh: We bought me a new brace (can't find any of my others), and I am treating it like a CT flare-up. Fun times.

Needless to say, very little hand-work has been done. I am just past the heel turn on sock #2 (going VERY slowly. I can only knit maybe 10 rounds before having to stop. :big sigh:)....I wanted to wear them to NTIF this weekend, but I don't think that's gonna happen.

Neither is Sunday - it's Himself's 16th, so I am skipping NTIF to spend the day with him. (He quit doing the Festivals last year...it's OK, it's his choice, but.....I don't want him to EVER think a Fest comes before HIM. So....we'll be there Friday and Saturday. :shrug:)

Politics....I am very, very sad for the American people. They need to pull their collective heads out and actually LISTEN to what Drumph is *saying*. (One of his ancestors changed his name from Drumph to Trump. Since he has gone on record saying you should embrace your "real" name...well, I will. :nods:) He changes his stance more often than I change my underwear.......I fear it's either him or sHillary. Neither of which care about we, the people. /enough politics.

Anyway, gotta rest my wrist before school. Laters!

Yesterday was a Recovery Day. I NEEDED it - badly.

Friday: Canton First Monday Trade Days. It's HUGE. HUGE-huge. It's been described as Disneyland for Antique-hunters, and that's not far off. We were there 4 hours, and didn't even cover the first lot. It was supposed to be 70*, so I dressed for 70*. The weathermen forgot to allow for the windchill - it was FREEZING. 4 hours was all my wrist and arm could take.....:shiver:

Still, it wasn't a waste - SG found 1 hand plane (he's looking for older Stanley planes), and I scored a book on drafting patterns for $3. And a bunch of freshly-made dog treats. :lol:

Got home, made sure all our garb was clean, together, and ready to go...this involved ironing. LOTS of ironing. :lol:

Saturday: NTIF. It was 47* when I went out to milk, but warmed up quickly. Very little wind - the few times I went outside I was fine in my shirt-sleeves. It seemed to be not-busy this year - I didn't see the crowds I'm used to seeing. Kinda sad......but I did get a bobbin of Alpaca/Merino/Silk (in a LOVELY teal-y blue!) spun up.

We didn't do too badly - I scored 2 books (1 for each kid: Pattern drafting/costuming for Himself (I think the Lord is trying to tell me something!) and a book on Steampunk fashion for Herself) and a lovely, lovely new mug from my potter friend. Oh, and a new t-shirt - Royal Blue with "I am Sherlocked" and a lovely sketch of Benedict Cumberbatch.......it's lovely. And will be worn with pride when it finally warms up For Real. :lol:

Sunday: Woke up to 43*. In less than an hour, it was 34*. And misting. We headed out anyway - got to NTIF at 8:30. We left at 12. COLD, SLEET, light snow flurries......and NO patrons. I wanted to hang in there, but by 11:30 I was in agony - my left arm feels the cold, and this? Was COLD. Miserable. I didn't get warm again until yesterday afternoon, to be honest. At least I had planned ahead - I had started chili Saturday night, and tossed it all in the crockpot Sunday AM. We had a lovely dinner - with half-price baked goods from House of Douglas bakery. :lol: (Yes, it was That Bad - they started discounting all their stuff at 9 AM. NTIF didn't open until 11:30. Tell you anything?)

The roads were all iced in yesterday, so SG stayed home, and the ISD was closed. We did school anyway - why not? - then I went back to bed. :lol: Ended up with 2 dogs, but hey - they were warm!

Today is "warmer", if 40* is considered warm. We're still iced in, but at least we can get out of the driveway today. Which is good, since we need to take Auntie shopping.....:shiver: :cold: :brrrrrr:

Oh! I found out Sunday that my Fibonacci socks won a prize in the knit along! :happy dance: Fun stuff! Holiday Yarns offered me my choice of 1 skein of Flock Sock.......mmmmmmm. New yarn! That I didn't have to dye myself! :lol:

Thankfully! I'm tired....it was a LONG weekend. They moved us to across from the children's area, which you'd think would have brought lots of people over...only the children's area has always been pretty much a dead zone. :sigh: So....BORING for us. Most of the time. Except when a clan cousin brought her 5-month old, and I got to steal her. (Told ya I had some gypsy in me! I did, however give her back. Sleeping, today. :grin:)

So...I have 2 photos. I don't normally post pics of me, but what the hey - I had probably 15 photos taken of me today alone (by strangers!), so...why not?

( cut for photos. I'll let you decide if it's photo goodness or not! :lol: )

My corset came in today! That's pretty fast, since it came from England!!!

Impressions:

Quality: Looks to be well-made. No loose threads. Grommets all placed correctly, good spacing. Feels like a quality piece. Does smell a bit - sort of an "oily, mechanical" type of smell. Not bad, but noticeable to me. The laces are ever-so-slightly stretchy, which is surprising to me - every other corset/bodice I've ever had has stiff laces. There's 10 steel bones, along with the bones that run alongside the grommets. There's 2 along each grommet; narrower than the body bones, but just as stiff. The tag has simplified wearing instructions...we'll see if I can lace myself in using them. :lol:

Looks: Pretty! It's black-on-black stripes; I *thought* I was getting a brocade, but this is fine. (If it was for a specific "look", it wouldn't be; for what I'm doing, this is probably better than a true brocade would be - it'll be worn with my Tartan.) The busk front is neat; the posts are small and not "in your face".

It feels "heavy-ish", which it should (steel bones are heavy!). The inside is a solid black twill; it resembles what used to be called "Trigger" (you SCA-dians out there will recognize that! :wink:). There's a satin ribbon run about waist-high behind the stays; not sure WHY, but....it looks interesting. The modesty panel is ample; it's a good 8" wide. My other corset had one that was barely 5" wide - the wider one means you have a bit more play in lacing.

All in all, I am VERY impressed with this - especially for the price I paid. I'm itching to order an "everyday" underbust now - if it's the same quality, I'll be VERY happy with it. And it looks like it'll last - I'll update on that after NTIF. 8+ hours/day, 2 days should tell me how quality it really is...:lol:

ETA: I was able to get it on, all by myself. Fastening the busk was problematical; if you don't have wrist/hand problems it'll be easier (Not EASY, because it's hard to hook the loops over the posts while sucking in your stomach..and you can't SEE the busk with your girls in the way.). I can't tighten the laces by myself, but it FITS. :happy dance: For the record: I have a 31" waist, and bought a 26" corset. The modesty panel shows the full length...but that'll change when SG comes home and laces me up properly. I don't think *I'll* be able to get in and out of it myself - it's too hard to fasten the busk by myself. So...I guess SG'll just have to lace me up every morning. :evil grin:

barely, but I made it. Steady crowd; less than last year, but still a good-sized crowd. I was never swamped, and had some "free" time, but still saw a lot of people. LOTS of kids - which is good. I like teaching kids - they'll listen, whereas a lot of adults think they know it all (and really don't).

Got 4 bobbins of lace-weight singles spun. Need to ply them up - Herself claimed the finished yarn when I started the first bobbin, and want worsted-weight. :sigh: OK...I have plenty more of the sky-blue merino in my stash. I can share....I can. :lol:

SG gave me a lovely necklace and earring set from our "favorite" vendor. :lol: One of the reasons he's our favorite: he bought me the necklace yesterday. We went back today to get the earrings and a "manly" wrist cuff for him...and while SG was shopping, Herself and I were admiring earrings. I found the pair that matched the necklace, and SG said "Yeah - go ahead. They're nice!" So, we're talking, and admiring all the pretty sparklies...and the vendor looked at Herself and told her to pick out a pair of studs - we were "good" customers, and he felt like throwing them in. :glee: She was over the moon - he had a pair of Celtic Dragons. Needless to say, we'll be spending more $$$$ with him! :grin:

One of my Clan Cousins homeschools...and she gave - GAVE - us a Science book they weren't using.....and offered the others when her last 2 finish with them. :gulp: This is.....I know I have books, and I have online resources -but she's navigated the Texas laws, and knows them. She also gave us some dissecting things for hte physical science portion (a fetal pig, a frog, and....I dunno, dead animals. :lol:) This is cool - and the book has stuff I had thought of, but in a more.......how to put it...."real" way.

We got one of the Physics kits yesterday..Himself is all excited. :grin:

Too tired to think more......

barely. Rough estimate was 50,000 people thru the gate yesterday, and about 20 - 30,000 today. I talked to at least half of them. :sigh:

I managed 2 3-ply skeins yesterday (Navajo/chain-plied, but still!), and 1 almost full bobbin of lace-weight singles. Oh, and a ball of Pyr-hair straight from the dogs. I taught 1 person to knit, and at least 4 people had an "Ah-Ha!" moment while watching me spin. Pictures will be forthcoming.....not sure when, but they'll be coming. :grin:

I got offers of dog hair (NO thanks! - Except for the Pyrs I spun from - they were immaculate, and very very sweet), free llama (the guy took my card, and will be shipping it to me. We'll see), AND I got commissioned to knit a chullo-style hat for a clan cousin. He ran to Wally-world last night for the yarn; I told him $20 and the yarn would get him a hat. (It's a simple 1. 2 colors, MY style, with ear-flaps. I figure, stripes are easy and quick; the yarn is worsted-weight, and yeah, I'm way under-charging, but he's a Clan Member. So......yeah.)

We got an application to go on the waiting list for another Wolfhound - Zoey is slowing down and showing her age (she's 7 - soon to be 8), and they don't have any rescues right now, so....best to get on the list and wait. They had a lot of dogs for petting, but so far people are hanging onto their big dogs. (This surprised me, but Wolfies are such lovable goofs, it does make sense.)

I noticed a few things: People weren't buying - OR drinking! - as much as in years past. Also, a LOT of people are worried about "the crash". (They don't realize it's HERE). Quite a few people were discussing setting up "commune" type places - I was invited to move to a lot of them, as I could contribute clothing. :rolls eyes: I didn't have the heart - or the prompting - to tell them what's happening......in fact, I was *very* disinclined to discuss it. :sigh: I did what I could - urging people to get goats/chickens/gardens, but I'm not sure anyone really listened.

It's hard to describe the mood...usually it's upbeat, people are merry, happy drunks. This weekend, they......were looking for distraction. Not spending much (from what I could tell, anyway), and...sorta desperate - or that's what I was getting from them.

The bands on our stage were *fantastic*. They were a big draw - but I didn't see people buying CDs. :shrug: (I should say that *we* didn't spend much this year - I spent $70. $30 for a new mug (my friend is a potter and makes lovely Celtic-themed mugs. She makes a beautiful Celtic Sea-horse mainly for me, and I broke my favorite one a few months ago), and $40 for a mug for my co-worker's birthday (hand-thrown, with a Celtic Owl on it. She collects owl stuff, so this is PERFECT.) Usually, we drop $200 - for food/gifts/CDs - but this year we're too tight to do this. (And what I spent? She'll hold the check for me until the 15th. :sigh:)

Stupidest question of the weekend: 10 year old boy "Is that Real?" pointing at my spinning wheel, after watching me spin for a good 10 minutes. :bangs head: 2nd stupidest (and I got this one a BUNCH): "Can you spin straw into gold?" :sigh: (Answer: "No, I'm currently working on spinning steel wool into silver. I'm almost there!")

I know there's a lot I'm forgetting....but I am exhausted. And, we came home to a dead hen...no clue as to why. It was one of our original Buff Orps, but here was no external sign of anything. Herself is down about that....:sigh:

And I do mean *survived*. Let's recap, shall we?

( Friday )

( Saturday )

( Sunday, in which the strangest question EVER was reported )

( In which we do a Good Deed )

Wrist - OK, I hadn't spun for about a week before the surgery until Saturday. This was probably NOT the best way to get back into it....Saturday night I had to pop a pain pill. I was stiff, sore, and very, very achy. Sunday was better - it's a little sore this morning, but NOTHING like it was Saturday. I got back in the groove pretty quickly - I was turning out froghair singles within a few minutes.

Elbow - tender where the stitches are right up to the skin, but no major pain.

Borg - I was able to get 1 lady *spinning* on my Norwegian. She's a natural...and I'm sure will be joining our ranks soon. 2 kids HAVE to have a wheel NOW, dad.....1 dad took down the info on Babe's Fiber Starter, so I feel pretty good about that one. A couple of other people are *very* interested - I passed out a few cards, and told them how to find a local knitting/spinning guild. :grin: Clan-wise, we had 6 full sheets of new members/interested parties, which is phenominal for this Festival. This is good - our Annual General Meeting is this year, HERE, in June, so...we want more members to show our National Board how good we are. :snicker:

I'm tired, and I'm at work, so I'd better skedaddle. Lunch with the boss today - it's co-worker's 65th b-day today, so, needless to say, we ain't gonna get much done today. :lol:

for another year. This weekend was the North Texas Irish Festival, and...wow. Just...wow.

( LONG but wonderful weekend )

[Unknown site tag]

Saturday, we got there at 8, got set up, and went on walkabout. LOTS of vendors - but the draw for NTIF has always been the music. This year, was made of win - some (JUST SOME) of the lineup: Brother, Brothers 3, Battlefield Band, Jiggernaut, October Country, Needfire, Altan, Red McWilliams - the list goes on and on. This year's HAS to be the best lineup - I mean, Battlefield Band, Brother AND Altan? Whoa!

Anyway, Saturday was steady, but not ever packed. When the Clinton rally let out, it got a bit weird, but still cool (although I heard that the drunken pirates in the center kinda upset the Secret Service guys (who stood out like everything) and the police had to step in to keep things under control :snicker:) I mean, c'mon - Celtic bands, beer, whiskey tastings, and Rennies all in the same spot as a political rally...what do you THINK is gonna happen? :lol:

We (the Scottish village) are set up right in front of Trinty Stage, and had lots of good music this year - not too loud, not too obnoxious, just nice, good rockin' Celtic music.

We left about 5-ish, both exhausted but ready for another day of it.

Sunday was shopping day for us - and music day. I got 2 new hair toys - metal hair ties in celtic knotwork (like Flexi-8s, but all metal) in bronze/gold/silver. 1 is a simple knot, 1 is....sorta organic. It reminds me of a tree, somewhat. I got 2 new mugs - my potter friend had tried to finish Himself's mug by Christmas, but the new baby (cute!) kinda scotched that, but she brought it this weekend. Too cute: pale blue kid-sized mug, with a Celtic Rabbit on it. Himself is THRILLED, to say the least, and I got me a new Celtic seahorse one.

Sweet Geek bought me some bath salts, a few CDs (Battlefield Band "Best of" and one of Needfire's newest), a Serenity t-shirt, and the most lovely knotwork necklace. :squee: He also got the kids t-shirts, which they went gaga over. :grin: I bought him a Needfire CD (he hadn't heard them before) and some haggis :gag: :snicker:

We got to hear October Country (my friend Casey is the lead singer), Battlefield Band, and Needfire - the cool thing? Sweet Geek didn't know that Brother sometimes performs with Needfire....and right as we walked up they finished a set, then asked if there were any Brother fans in the audience (duh! :grin:) because here are 5 of 'em, and look - here are 2 more! :grin: Good music all around.

Fun but exhausting weekend...I need a weekend to recuperate from it! I did manage to get 1.5 bobbins of froghair spun up, which is something. I also got a skein of doghair done, and the promise of more doghair and some cat. We'll see......

Kidlets are off to Granny's house for Spring Break. House is nominally clean; I have to get in the studio and get it reorganized so I can get back to weaving. (This is easier to do when the kidlets are gone - no "What's that? Can I have it? Oooh - that's pretty!" etc. :grin:)

I'm really liking the MM Shampoos....think I might buy more when these run out. There's only 1 with a scent I can't stand (Air - Pine Shale or something like that :ick:); the rest are pretty nice. My hair seems happier - less tangles, it's growing, and...it feels thicker.

The icon is me from NTIF this year - Sunday. The article I snagged it from captioned it "Fiberaddict from Celtic Clothing Company spinning tartans"....WTF??? You can't *spin* a tartan - they're *woven* from yarn, yes - but not SPUN. I've written to the person who found the article so I can set the author straight.....seriously "Spin a tartan"?????! There's enough misinformation out there about the fiberarts - I don't want to add to it.

Life still sucks.....