Just one more post

This Christmas has been really lovely. Not only did I get an amazing set of presents from Laurie's parents, I also was able to receive communion. Since it's snowy here at the cabin, it's hard to push the wheelchair uphill and in the slippery wetness. It's doubly hard right now, because my back is still so sensitive and Laurie can't lean into it to push me uphill, like she normally would. So we decided that it would be better for me not to go to Mass today. At home, we have a pyx so that if I cannot go to Mass, Laurie can bring communion home to me, but, alas, we didn't bring it with us. Laurie and her parents left for church promising to ask to see if there was a pyx available to bring to me. When they asked, a very kind couple volunteered to follow them home and bring me communion officially. It was so very nice of them to take time away from their family to come minister to me. It was really touching that they had gone so far out of their way and understood how it was important to me to receive on Christmas. I am very blessed, indeed.

So, some more catching up to do. These pictures are from our drive home from Flagstaff, after we were snowed in at the Bed and Breakfast we stayed at while Laurie was finishing her finals. The drive back with the red rock and the snow was so pretty - I'm not sure what could top snow and red rock. Some of the first pictures didn't show the red rock because there was so much snow. We stopped at a little National Forest trail head area and walked around a little. The path had been plowed, so we took a lovely walk. We even saw a blue jay just perched there on a branch, posing for us. So here are the pictures from that drive (just a few of them, I took a bunch, but most ended up to be blurry trees!)

A week or so later, we went to our Benedictine oblate meeting for December. In December, both the East Valley group and the Phoenix group get together for a little party. We were so excited to see one of our oblate friends who has moved to Ithaca, New York about six months ago! What a wonderful surprise! We grabbed coffee with her a few days later, before she left to go back to New York. It was really good to see her. This picture that is coming up is from that day. We put my freshly washed hair up in rags and this was the result:

Unfortunately, it didn't last for very long. We're trying out new products in my hair. I switched shampoos and conditioners to Burt's Bees, but they are so expensive and there is silicone in the conditioner, which I don't like. We've tried a number of other shampoos and conditioners but haven't found the right combo yet, so my hair has been a little dry lately. Our next experiment will be going back to the Burt's Bees baby shampoo we were using and try jojoba oil as conditioner. If that doesn't work, I'm not sure what our next step will be.

I better be off now, Laurie's making Christmas dinner and it looks like we'll be eating soon. She's making yorkshire pudding, green beans and roast beef. She just served a fancy cranberry/cinnamon/lime sparkler drink so we must be getting close! Homemade pumpkin pie and whipped cream for dessert! I love her whipped cream (and the pumpkin pie, too, come to think of it). The one bummer is that I haven't been able to get ahold of my family. My mom's not returned any calls or picked up her phone. Maybe I'll try just one more time. Merry Christmas to all, I hope you had as good a day as I have. Thank God for many blessings.

Another fiber post

Two fiber posts in one day! Oh my! I found where I had stashed the other pictures I had meant to post earlier and took a few more, so I thought I'd make up for the lack of posting earlier and post again - and again Merry Christmas.

First up is BFL that I bought at Tempe Yarn and Fiber. They are both 4oz. The first picture is a Barbara's Braid, hand dyed by a woman at our LYS. Second is Pagewood Farms in the color "Misty". I actually picked them out separately, but they are so alike and of the same color family that I'm spinning them together. A handful of one here and another there to make a beautiful three ply sock yarn for some socks for me (knee high socks, that is)! On this shopping trip, I also got some lovely dark, dark, almost black looking merino that for some reason I didn't photograph. I got almost 13 oz of it and plan to make Laurie some knee socks for her Christmas present. It's beautiful and they won't be getting this color in again.

We attended Expressions in Spinning just before we left for California. The topic for this month is Ireland. I saw some pictures of monasteries and in a Celtic book that we looked at mentioned Iona Monastery, which is techincally in Scotland. It's even a Benedictine monastery! On my iphone, I found an amazing picture of the monastery, where the stone wall is almost pink with the sun reflecting on it. The picture is copyright of a company called Mysterious Scotland. So, I combined two colors to make the subtle grays and pinks. The gray is Jacob wool, from what I understand, a rare breed of sheep and the pink is merino in the colorway "Begonia". They look really beautiful and very true to the picture, as you can see in the batt.

Lastly, are the pictures of the brand new spindle that I got for Christmas, this morning. I haven't had time to photograph all of the fiber, it takes up a lot of space and I'm already cluttering the coffee table with books, other fiber and my computer. I'll most likely wait until I get home to give you all the wonderful details. Laurie's parents were so very generous to me this Christmas, I can't thank them enough.

On the spindle, is the beginnings of my Ireland yarn. The spindle itself is a Jenkin's Turkish Delight in Striped Ebony, weighing in at 1.2oz. It spins for so long. It's my first low whorl spindle and I'm having a lot of fun with it!

A fibery post

This won't include all the wonderful fiber and new spindle that I got this morning for Christmas. First up is my new spindle set. These are partially to replace the bolivian rosewood one that I broke the tip off of. (I'm still hoping to get that fixed by sending in back to the maker.) Both of these spindles are 12 inch ones in Lignum Vitae wood. You can't really see how beautiful the wood is in the picture, but it has streaks of blue and green and is very pretty. I've already transferred the cashmere/silk that I was spinning on the broken one over.

Next up is the fiber that I spun up for Expressions in Spinning, the My Beard poem. It's 2oz of BFL. About 140 yards of sport weight yarn, Navajo plied. This was my first every three ply and likewise my first time Navajo plying. It was a lot easier that I had initially thought it would be, so I think it will be a regular occurrence. Right now, I'm in the middle of knitting this yarn into fingerless gloves for myself. They are turning out really nice.

I know that I have more pictures of fiber on another card. It may be in the camera. I'll have to get on downloading them to my computer so I can show them off. I'm not sure when I'll photograph the wonderful Christmas presents that I just received, soon I hope!

A couple of big long posts...

Merry Christmas! I've been neglecting blogging recently. Mostly, because there has been so much going on. One example is that Laurie got a job! We found out a few days before we left for California for Christmas. She will be working at the Jewish high school in Scottsdale. The job is almost exactly the same as what she was doing in her previous job and she really likes the people she'll be working with. We think that her being let go earlier was better for her in the long run because she was able to do things like tour the school on a work day and go in for a meeting. We're very excited, she starts on January 4th, but she has some meetings on the 29th and 30th so we are going to go home earlier that we thought.

Right now, we're on the second leg of our Christmas trip. We spent the first few days with Laurie's sister and brother-in-law and their 2 little boys. It was a lot of fun. They have a guest bedroom on the first floor that is perfect for staying in. We got in after bedtime on Saturday night and Sunday morning, I got woken up to be blown a kiss from the oldest (he's 2). We celebrated Christmas dinner a little early, Laurie's sister's family are spending Christmas in Seattle, with her brother-in-law's family. It was delicious and the boys got their gifts from Laurie's parents. The oldest got a balance bike, which was a big hit and both are sharing the Thomas the train set, complete with train table and track and everything. It was really cute to see them so excited!

The next few days have been quiet. Hanging out with the boys and playing with them and lots of reading with them. We went to lunch twice and it was really convenient to get out because Laurie's sister is the proud owner of a new minivan (ok, new to us. They've had it for a little while, but we didn't know about it.) So, we didn't have to load car seats into our car before we could go anywhere.

Now, we're up at Laurie's parent's cabin for a few days before we head home. There is a little snow on the ground, hopefully enough for them to cross country ski on. We're expecting friends to come up tomorrow. We'll leave for home on Monday.

Our neighbors at home have been really nice. I went ahead with my mom's permission to order all the things that I need for the bunny! (Only 7 days left!) Our neighbor is collecting the boxes that were still arriving when we left for CA. I'm really excited to go get Bennett! It's going to be a lot of work, but it will be worth it! (Bunny kisses!)

I hope all are having a good Christmas. I am a blessed girl this year. We do Secret Santas with Laurie's family and Laurie's father drew my name. I got everything on my list, which was extremely generous. I'm planning on doing a knitting and spinning post soon, I've got lots to post about. I'm looking forward to a family tradition - the making and eating of cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. We're heading to Mass at 11am. Off to see about doing that second fiber post...

Snow, snow, snow...

On a whim, Laurie and I are up in the snow right now :). Laurie had been tracking the weather recently and at the approach of a huge winter storm in northern arizona, we loaded up the car and drove out to a lovely bed and breakfast near Flagstaff. We came up a day earlier that we had anticipated because we were worried about being caught in the beginning of the storm, driving up Monday morning. It's a really good thing we did. Yesterday and last night, the storm laid down 2 feet. It was blizzard conditions by noon. It was beautiful. We were here alone in this big, lovely, warm lodge watching it blow and snow outside. I've been spinning to my heart's content and Laurie's been working on the last of her finals. With any luck, she'll be done tonight and we can both spin together. Last night, the power when out in the blizzard conditions, so I was spinning by candlelight by a roasty fire in the fireplace. The power was restored in the early hours of the morning, so we're enjoying the lit Christmas tree and the cozy surroundings right now. Everything is so beautiful covered in snow. Unfortunately, the cross country ski place is closed and won't open until Thursday morning and we're leaving tomorrow morning. It's been quite a relaxing and lovely getaway. Just what we needed with all of the stress that's been going on lately.

When we get home, tomorrow, I'll post again to fill in what's been going on this last week or so. It's hard to be on the computer here and not spinning and enjoying the beautiful surroundings, I really hope Laurie will be able to have a little fun here, too!