A New Spot

 I think I have found a new favorite reading place.  I have decided not to share the location. I know this is totally selfish on my part.  I just don’t want to arrive and find that I have absolutely no place to sit and read.  

Sad Resignation

 My portable arm rest came today. So did my new c pap machine.  I know it’s going to be a while before I can knit again.  To that end I have cleaned off table space. Gotten my art paper, pencils and paints. I will begin working on a modern art piece tomorrow.  I know using my left hand I will need all the flexibility I can get.  After that it will be reading.  After all I do have a stack of books that want to be read and find new homes.  

I promise to post pictures even if they are only fridge ready.  

Today’s Ganga

Because of the pain in my right shoulder and arm the decision was made to move into s smaller, lighter weight purse.  So I went to my favorite Goodwill store and found 4 new to me purses.  One is for events that require see through purses.  Two others were vintage in very good shape.  The last was a new with tags purse.  Three were made of cotton or other natural materials.  One was a see through vinyl.  For all four purses the grand total was $32.00 plus tax.  By the way the new purse with tags was originally priced at $45.00.  So getting 4 for $32 was my Ganga for the day. 

Ganga is Tucson speak for an amazing deal.  I changed into one of the new purses when I got home. It is a very early SAK purse.   I did not think I needed a new purse until I tried to put my new iPhone into my purse.  My iPhone model 8 used to fit perfectly. My new phone is at least twice the size so it did not fit.  Technology upgrades sometimes have a big effect on purses and other modes of carrying them around.  It’s not like I can stop everything and knit a phone holder right now. 

It was a bit  too much driving for my arm so I came home in pain.  John and I have a funny feeling that more tests are going to be required. I should find out later this week.  As long as I sit and do nothing else, there is absolutely no pain.  The moment I move wrong or too much the pain is back with vengeance.  

On A Fiber Hiatus

 Well it seemed inevitable to everyone else but me.  The arthritis has moved to both shoulders. The right shoulder is worse than the left.  Until the pain goes away on its own or we figure out what the real damage is and repair it, I will not be working with fiber.  

So the game plan is to rest and read.  I know I did child care and reading until my 40th birthday when I went to try something new on a whim and became hook on fiber.  Well in the last almost 25 years there have been a lot of books written.  I have amassed a few and will try to read as many as possible.  I have pulled my reading glasses out.  First on my list is The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride.  

A Bad Sprain

 I feel so incredibly talented. I managed to sprain my right wrist while in bed sleeping.  It’s only 4:00 a.m. but I feel that I should declare that today is over before anything else happens to me.  Right now I am icing my wrist to take down the swelling.  I know it’s not broken because I have the full range of motion in my hand and wrist. Also there is no bruising. It does however hurt like #@&$@#%.

Today is my busy day of the month with one guild meeting in the morning and one after lunch.  It’s my absolute favorite day of the month. All I can think about right now is if I am safe around people. What else is going to happen. Let’s face it, when I sprain my wrist while sleeping what else is going to happen today? 

I think I will sit here on the couch and finish icing my wrist.  Then take a nap. After my nap I will decide whether to couch potato it or leave John at home and go on with my regularly scheduled day.  I will post an update later today when the decision has been made.

A Busy and Good Day

 Since I cannot knit, spin or weave right now I have moved into a major cleaning mode again. Today I started working on my jewelry making supplies.  Since I am no longer doing fund raising, I am no longer making earrings or bracelets those beads and supplies have to leave.  I am only about 60% finished, but I have almost filled a medium USPS medium flat rate box. To be weighed and listed on E Bay for gem show pricing.  

I am also taking the opportunity to switch out my storage space for my jewelry making supplies.  I have two new storage boxes in an effort to downsize from over a dozen containers.  I still have to go through a few more boxes.  I went through the beads first because there were just so many of them in so many boxes they were in.  I can say the beads have all been sorted.  I just have to decide how many findings to keep.  For those that do not make jewelry the findings are the pieces that keep the beads together.  

I made more progress in other areas too.  Yesterday I went through the coat closet. I just wanted to see if anything I stored in there because it was two small for me to wear at the time.  The good news is that I fit into 2/3 of them.  Only one did not survive the time in the closet. That particular year did not wear well.  Four pieces need to be hand washed, the others are now waiting their turn in the washer then the clothes line for drying.  So this round of new clothes is a continuation of shopping from my closet.  There are a few pieces that still have a few more inches to go.   I found this to be my personal happy dance time.   

Just a little peak of the beads I went through today.  This is only one of the drawers that I went through today.  

Another Rest Day and more

 This latest round of flare up has gotten the best of me.  So even if I don’t intend to be cranky, sorry but the pain is winning right now.  

In other news I have posted an update to my Maxi Fingerless Gloves.  I had a hard time doing the editing on Google Docs.  So I transferred the information to Microsoft Word to do my editing and clean up.  Then I transferred the pattern back to Google Docs and added my new picture.  It took me a while to figure out how to make a pdf file for the pattern. I landed up Googling my question.  Apparently it is a very popular question because I was not even halfway through typing when the question finished itself. Once I got it up it was easy peasy.  

I also called the durable medical equipment company and got the run around again.  At least with the phone call it did not take multiple hours to get the answer that they were twiddling their thumbs.  Apparently only one person in the entire company can process the paperwork and he seems unwilling to do so. I am at the point of getting my money back from the credit card company and then reaming the on the review boards.  To say that the service has been lack luster and horrible is giving them too much credit.  

The lesson learned from this is not to work with the company to see if the equipment works but send any merchandise that arrives damaged back immediately and get my credit cards company to refund my money.  Especially if only the inside box is damaged. 

Unintended Cleaning

This morning started off very early with a migraine at 4:00 am.  In order to take the aspirin I had to have breakfast at 4:30 am.  I don’t take aspirin on an empty stomach. Then once the migraine started to go away it was nap time. Most of the day was spent in that post migraine haze. But I managed to have a busy day anyway. Except for numbers.  John tried to run the same numbers over and over again, the numbers did not work for me today. 

Today was a day fill with 3 rounds of unintended cleaning.  First up was the kitchen starting with the microwave oven. Then the stove top which lead to the Keurig coffee maker. Which lead to the toaster oven. Which lead to the countertop. Which lead to the omelette pan that I brushed the crumbs into.  It was almost like the book If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.  Except that if you give me a cleaning rag.  Then it was lunch time and then nap time.  

This afternoon I tried to finish dispatching the mess I made by cleaning out my dresser and closet.  The odds and ends that can’t be thrown out, but need a new place to reside. I did make some headway on that front.  

Then after dinner I went on a quest to find my 2 hole punch.  I have not yet found the 2 hole punch, but instead managed to clean out a desk drawer. Fill a tub with items that we no longer need to keep and now needs to be shredded.  Put a huge pile of envelopes for mailing things out into the same drawer.  I also found some stamps that as of right now don’t fit in my stamp drawer.  That will be fixed soon.  

Then it was off to look at new toilet paper holders on line.  In the next few weeks we will be updating one bathroom to make it look like it belongs in this century rather than so the last century.  It was just too difficult for me to envision what they would look like in my house. So I will be going to the hardware store to buy it. Thank goodness I don’t have that problem with yarn.  The yarn always knows what it wants to be. Now if I could just spend more time knitting and weaving everything would be wonderful.  

A Hard Earned Victory

 I have not been able to wear this dress since 2002. Yes, 22 years ago.  It was around that time that I became a sandwich generation, mom.  I had my own family to take care of and I also started taking care of older family members who needed help too. Almost all of my self care time disappeared almost overnight.  

I lived on caffeine and fast food lunches.  I mastered eating at red lights in between appointments for everyone but me.  Slipping in grocery shopping just before school got out for Eric and just beating his bus home.  In 2009 I gave up artificial sweeteners and substituted Mexican Coke instead.  The pounds slowly creeped on.  Favorite dresses and other clothing items were put into the back of my closet.  

At one end I had school activities and fundraisers for both kids. I had activities for both kids at 2 different schools.  I needed to be there for both of them.  Eric had more medical issues and appointments.  More therapy to be done at home.  At the other end I had appointments to take elderly family members across town at the Veterans Administration Hospital and Doctors offices.  They needed help with shopping and errands.  They liked fast food lunches during the week because they missed going out to lunch.  Yes, that added weight on too. 

That slowly everything wound down to a different life after we lost the elderly relatives and Eric went to spend time with relatives who crossed over before him.  The year 2019  brought Covid 19 to the whole world.  The year 2020 brought 5 different surgeries for me. Then I spent time trying to recover my body and health.  

A doctor recommended the weight loss program A Pound of Cure.  Me being the skeptic bought the book and read it cover to cover before I made any commitments. Between myself and various family members we had failed at too many diets to count.  So before I even went to the doctor who wrote the book and ran the program I gave it a test drive to see if it really was possible and really worked.  After losing 30 pounds, I decided that the program worked and more importantly I could live with it.  So I made an appointment with the doctor.  I have continued to lose weight and inches.  Which brings me to last week.  I decided to try on some clothes to see if I had finally lost enough weight to fit into some of my favorites. Three dresses fit and were washed and added back to my wardrobe.  A lot more clothes were regulated to a pile for the consignment shop either because they were too big, yeah me, or had polyester or acrylic in them.  Somewhere between the time I bought them and the present day I became very sensitive to polyester and acrylic and can no longer wear them.  

Here is a picture from today in one of my new to my wardrobe rotation dresses  yes it is another driveway picture. It is an L.L.Bean regular size large. My daughter thought I had gotten rid of it a long time ago. I am so glad that I kept it.  By the way it was in the mid 50’s when we took the picture and I was freezing cold.  I am not a winter person. 

The Alternative to Knitting

 There is an alternative to knitting.  It’s is called cleaning house.  I did not do any heavy duty lifting. Most of the carrying and lifting was done with my left arm. Most of my current works in progress and the next up to knit have been put away. All I ask is that you refrain from looking into certain closets.  They just might resemble something akin to Fibber McGee and Molly’s closet.  No things really will not fall down on you, but they are a little more full than normal. Each project has its own bag.  I will pull them out one by one when my arm is better. 

I spent part of the day looking for a larger flax seed filled heating pad.  Most claimed to be all natural.  I have yet to figure out how polyester, fleece and the various fillings are natural. Granted that cotton and flannel have to be woven into fabric but I do consider them natural fibers because than decompose in about a year if buried in your flower bed. I am not even sure what the half life of polyester and fleece are but I am sure that it is longer than a year and puts nothing good back into the garden.  

I will try one more place tomorrow to find a larger heating pad. If they do not have what I am looking for, I will buy some food grade flax seed. Take some muslin from my fabric stash. Measure, cut and sew the inside piece. Then fill it with the flax seed.  Sew it closed. Make the outer cover so that I can take it off to wash as necessary. Most of the ones that fit my criteria had a delivery date of 2 to 3 weeks out.  My time to make will be less than 2 hours. 

My arm felt better in the morning. As the day went on the pain got worse. Every time I put the heat on my arm, I  fell asleep. To that end I am going to microwave the small heating pad that I have and go to sleep.  

At A Standstill Yet Again

 I am not sure what is happening with my right arm. Right now I am on A temporary hiatus from everything I do. Till we figure this out, they’ll be no spinning, knitting, weaving, making jewelry doing need to work, or anything else fun.

So today I’ve been watched The Crown.. I watched 3 episodes.  After every episode, I got up and did a low cleaning. I brought all my knitting and fiber arts projects to the knitting room. Then I tried to figure out what I could do and I as I ran through each type of art I do I feel like I cannot do anything without my right arm. 

Unless I figure this out by Saturday, I’m gonna have to give up my spin together spot because I won’t be able to spin. This makes me very sad. I usually get a lot of spinning done during this week. Well, I’m gonna go put some heat on my arm and then go to sleep, hopefully sleep will help. 

A Busy Day

 Today was fantastic. We went to another venue of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.  We went down to the Kino Sports Complex on Ajo Way.  We skipped the main tent and went to wonder around the back tents.  Some of the awesome things we saw included the Australian mineral exhibit.  The stones were so colorful.  They were very different from the stones from other parts of the world.  If you ever get a chance to see stone from Australia don’t pass up the chance.  Of course I found some more charms for stitch markers.  We walked around until John thought I might be running out of spoons.  I was having so much fun, that after 3 hours of walking and looking I did not want to go home.  

In other good news I tried on my largest size blue jeans in my closet today.  Only have to lose 3 more inches on my waist until they will zip up.  This is a lot better than the last time that I tried them on.  Last time the would not go over my hips.  So I consider this major progress.   

In knitting news, I finished a charity scarf tonight. I will take pictures tomorrow.   I am almost finished with the thumb on the first glove to match new shawl. Now I just have to weave in the ends, take pictures and publish the pattern.  No problem except that I either need a model or someone to take my picture.  

I have picked out the yarn for the next shawl. I just need to cake one huge skein of lace weight silk.  No it’s not going to be a lace weight silk shawl.  I will double strand she shawl with a pretty mohair yarn, I got both of the yarns at Grandmas Spinning Wheel here in Tucson.  The changes in yarn happen so fast that sometimes you might have to pick a different yarn combo than I am using.  More pictures tomorrow.  

Well it’s getting late so it’s time to call it a day.  

Serendipity

 Today was full of serendipity for me. I went to my closet to look at some dresses that I had worn when the kids were much younger. I decided to try on a few and this resulted in some laundry, and about a dozen outfits leaving the house because they were either too big or made of the wrong material. And now I have to find a resale shop for them. I also have less stuff in my closet. Roomba can now enter safely.  

I also have four dresses that I haven’t worn in decades that now fit. They have all been washed and are drying in the garage. That was such a good feeling to get into those dresses. I can’t wait to wear them.

I know the pounds are not coming off as quickly as before. However, I am in a period of losing a lot of inches. That makes a big difference too. I am following the book A Pound of Cure.  It eliminates all junk food and a lot of processed foods.  I don’t  have to count calories or points.  I just make sure that I eat between one to two pounds of vegetables a day. Throwing in fruit and protein.  I have found this lifestyle very easy to follow. 

Redecorating

 I have spent years decluttering the entire house. Getting rid of stuff we no longer use or need. Creating more space. Finding lost treasures. Taking car load after car load to Goodwill.  Taking selected things to Bookman’s for store credit so I can get new socks for the children’s clothing bank I knit for.  By the way the kids are rumored to like the socks as much as the hats and scarves that I make for them.  

Now enough clutter has been up cycled  and recycled to create newly made space to create a new environment for us.  I did start on the selfish side though. I took 2 previously acquired works of art and placed them with a lovely piece by Navied Mahdavian who is a cartoonist for the New Yorker and author of Searching for Home in Rural America. The piece is so attuned to me, reminding me to unwind. 

So without further ado, here is the new wall of art.  The picture is a little off center due to lighting issues  I know the frame on the sheep did not match the other frames, but a brown frame would not have done the sheep justice. I am just not going to mess with sheep under any circumstances.  

Now I am off to reclaim my knitting room.  It became a way station during my closet tear down and reorganization. Since I am really close to needing to type up several new patterns, I need the room back. Also please don’t remind me that I should only work on one design at a time, my mind just does not work that way. 

Living in Tucson

 There are a lot of great things about living inTucson besides the nice spring and summer weather.  One of them is Bookman’s.  Bookman’s is an old favorite. It was the place to exchange things like books, music and a whole assortment of fun things. It was fully linked to the sustainability issue long before it became an issue.  It was a place I took the kids to exchange their books for new to them books. If they got an album that they did not like they could exchange it for something else.  I even pick up the odd arts and crafts supplies.  

For the last several years I have been using Bookman’s as a part of my house decluttering efforts.  I bring Bookman’s things like books, old jewelry, and other things.  In return I take store credit.  I pick up the occasional book, but mainly I get cool socks for the children’s clothing bank that I knit for.  The picture below is from the store credit I got from today’s trade. 

The other thing that is really special about Tucson is the yearly Gem and Mineral Showcase.  It takes place from late January to mid February.  It is one of the largest shows of this kind in the world.  Some of the shows are wholesale only. Others are open to the public.   We occasionally go to the public shows.  We get to see all kinds of all things lapidary. From raw rocks to highly facilitated gems.  

I occasionally get supplies for stitch markers and earrings. Sometimes jewelry findings.  Yesterday I got 5 charms to make one of a kind stitch markers for myself.  I pretty sure these won’t be at Joann’s or Michael’s anytime soon. I have even been know to buy some earrings. 

Now it’s time to go do some knitting.