Open weave scarf, hand painted Blue Heron, Boucle, Rayon, click to enlarge
“When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses.” – Joyce Brothers
It’s been a whirlwind around here, which is like my “old life” and it feels really, really good. Like an old overcoat that may be a little worse for wear, but is filled with good memories and feels very comforting when you put it on.
Dave left before the sun came up this morning for a 6 am flight (I drove him so I’ll be taking an afternoon SNOOOOOOOOZE). He’s headed off to Dallas then to Little Rock (where I will rendezvous with him) for his check up, then he heads to Connecticut for a Board Meeting and I head up to Maryland to see our daughter. She’s giving a speech at her Swim/Dive Banquet and well, it’s a “mommy thing”, I wanted to be there. So logistics of travel was challenging, but Dave very aptly sorted it all out and made it possible for me to go up north, which I’m grateful for.
Montana is working at her internship and then also got a retail sales job at White House Black Market. She’s always wanted to work in a women’s retail shop and she was very excited to get a job in such a nice store. She said all her money at this job will go towards her “professional wardrobe”. I hope I can get over to the shop when I’m there. I hear it is a very nice new chain of stores.
Hudson is studying hard for his Arbor License and working very hard in S. Miami. He landed his first big sale, a $20,000 job and is pounding the pavement trying to secure more new work and clients. Miami has been an adjustment for him. It’s a lovely culture to visit, but he’s not so sure he wants to live there. He hasn’t had a chance to meet many folks because he is working a lot and he misses his girlfriend. It’s a bit lonely. We want him to just bag it and come to Sacramento, live at home, work, and save some money. Since no one wants or can buy a home, rents have skyrocketed around the country. But, he likes his work a lot, and he’s got a job! Much to be grateful for.
Dave has booked a cruise for our 30th Anniversary celebration this year. I know, I know, Multiple Myeloma, suppressed immune system and a Cruise! ARE YOU CRAZY! Yes, I guess we are. We’ll take precautions as best we can and I’m sure we’ll have a great time.
My weaving is all consuming these days. I have two weaving friends, my instructor and another student, and we are just weaving fools. We have dubbed ourselves “The Three Warped Broads” (that’s a play on a weaving term, warping your loom in case you weren’t familiar with the term). Saturday, we three, and another gal went to a local sheep farm that was having an open house. All the ewe’s were having babies and they were just everywhere, with dried umbilical cords hanging off their bellies. Dena called us the Lamb Tram and someone in her family said, “Oh you are going for a Ewe View” so we were cracking up…
“Three Warped Broads on a Lamb Tram for a Ewe View.”
And we just kept adding to the nonsense.
Anyway, the day was perfect. We took lunches, chairs and wine (Californians drink a lot of wine, I’ve observed). After meandering all over the farm and looking at the spinners spinning, the dyer’s dying, finished hand spun, hand dyed yarns, trying not to spend too much money in the little store there, we sat in our chairs and had lunch. The owner, Robin, asked to take a picture of us because we were all so relaxed, eating, drinking wine (complete with wine chocolates!) and having a grand time. Robin, has a nice spread and she weaves and spins and sells yarn from her sheep. You can pick your sheep, pay for the fleece, and then in November when the shearing occurs (another visit there) they will give you the fleece or send it to the mill with your instructions. Learning about how all that works was fascinating. I kept saying “I’m not going to spin yarn!” Well, I have to tell you, I just might. What a soothing, spiritual, type activity. The spinning wheel lightly ticking along with the roving fleece running through your hands twisting into yarn. It was something I had a much better understanding about after the day there. Robin also teaches weaving and knitting and a whole host of things fiber related. So we will go back for a class. She will schedule it just for us when we pick our dates. We were all a buzz about our day there on the way home and happy it was close, and local.
I didn’t take pictures, though I took my camera. Sometimes, I just want to fully experience everything. When I start taking pictures, sometimes, not always, I just start to get too focused on that and less on experiencing what is around me. There was a lot going on and I just wanted to absorb it all fully. I’ll go back and when I do I’ll take photos then, but Saturday, I just wanted to BE THERE.
We gals have plans to have a booth at a local art gallery for Christmas time sales and are all working hard to hone in on our products and materials. I have a shop who will carry my stuff, if I can just keep it long enough to get something in the shop! Now that is indeed a nice problem to have.
I’m helping to paint my local yarn shoppe. I like to paint, it’s very soothing to me. I know, most people think it’s a chore, but I understand it and watched the masters and picked their brains over the years and enjoy it, so I volunteered, during the conversation on a shop facelift, to help with the painting. We have 1/2 the store done, or at least it will be tomorrow when I paint the wainscoting around the cash register counter. It looks amazing and with some clever rearranging, a donated new couch and electric fireplace and mantle, the shop is looking better than a Starbucks hang out. From that, one of the women asked me if I do this for a living and we are negotiating me painting her mother’s room in her home. I’m happy about that. I like her a lot and I’ll have some money in my pocket and so slowly, but surely, I’m feeling a part of our new home in Elk Grove.
I’ve also been volunteering for the Elk Grove Teen Center’s Teen Idol competition. Eight weeks of kids, ages 11-18, singing their hearts out. Next week the winners will compete (10 of them) and cash prizes given to the top three. It’s a fundraiser for the teen center and the kids’ are amazingly talented from all over Northern California. They had 80 contestants this year!
Anyway, all is well in the Puente Household and it feels good – really good.
Enjoy spring. It is always a nice time of year (unless you are an allergy sufferer). The birds are singing and the bulbs are blooming. Winter keeps trying to eek back in, but soon it will be summer.
