Good bye, Sweet Xena~

This past weekend was a sad, sad time for our family. 

Our Xena quietly passed on to doggie heaven. 

She was 8 1/2 years old and died from kidney failure.

Thank you, sweet girl, for being the best dog ever.

Here are some photos of our girl over the years...

She was only 1/4 lab, but everyone thought she was a lab puppy because she was not very big.
I wanted to name her Petunia Lucille, but Paul did not want to have to call such a sissy name so we ended up with Xena Lucille.
She was a total girly dog, Petunia would have fit her much better, so Xena (the warrior princess), turned out to be an ironic name, which I suppose fits our sarcastic family well...

When she wanted food treats she would say "I love you", only it sounded like ry rov rou.

When she barked it hurt her own ears and she would shake her head. So it went, BARK!, shake shake shake, BARK! shake shake shake. It was funny.

She loved her wubbies (stuffed critters) but she hated to play fetch. 

She would bring her wubbie to you to show you, 

but if you threw it, she gave you a look like, Why did you do THAT?!

She LOVED to hunt for moles and bunnies and rodents 

and was forever digging holes looking for them.

She also loved to roam away and visit the neighbors... it was my job to make sure she was always nearby, which entailed calling her every so often to keep her close.

 I am still looking for her everywhere.

It will take a while to break that habit.

Goodbye to my girl.

The Peculiar, Magical, HUGE ant hill in our forest.

We have this huge ant hill in our forest.

I think it is fabulous.

I took a photo with Paul in it to show the size.

 I also took a video. You can hear our rooster crowing in the back ground.

We are pretty sure they are Thatching Ants. (link for more info).

They are so fascinating!

Summer Life~ Family Visits

Summer is my favorite time of year. The weather, the flowers, the garden, and family visits.

 My favorite flowers so far this year are my neon-coral geraniums. Delicious!

My girls. 

Eve.

Ann.

 Our entire family still lives in PA (we are in WA), so summer brings a lot of family visits.

First visit was my Dad and brother Jack.

 Visits bring many road trips to local sites, which means a ton of car knitting time!

Our animals are growing fast, and we have fallen into a nice summer routine of feedings and scratches.

My mom and step-dad are here now for a long visit, we have been doing a lot of this...

I always have a mega ton of ideas in my head, this one will not leave me alone. So here is Chad, a sewing pattern I have in the workings. He is still in the prototype/note/sketch stages. I love this part, making variations, figuring out the best way to communicate it onto paper....

My wheel has also been bewitching me lately. Again. I used to spend time with her the better part of every day, so spinning again feels like a warm hug, like going home after a long, long trip.

Off to clean a bit... today is a swimming day, we have invited our friends to come and enjoy our pond...

Wishing you a relaxing Sunday.

xo

reenie

Gratitude~ Three very special Gifts and a very clear Message~

Yesterday was a special, odd, goosebumpy kind of day. 

A normal day, routine, running, chores, meals....

But I received some really profound, meaningful and relevant gifts. 

All in one day.
Sometimes life, routine, and my thought patterns tend to make me feel like I am stuck and in a haze with no clear idea of where I am headed. Foggy, depressed, moody.... stuck.
Then the clarity hits... the inspiration, the passion, and the very clear messages that I just love and appreciate so much.
Here is my story of yesterday...

Gift #1 is THIS...

An early 1940s Singer 201-2. With a direct-drive motor, which means no treadle and no belts.

She is all metal and black and completely GORGEOUS.

I am in love.

I plugged her in and ran her for a bit.... she purrs like a kitten.

She now sits next to my sewing table where my much younger Singer Heavy Duty 

(which now seems, not so heavy duty, in comparison) sits.

A real treasure and a very special gift from our friends Joe and Sally. 

She belonged to Joe's mother, and he wanted to pass it on 

to someone who will cherish and use it, which I already do.

I will call her Betty, after Joe's mother.
Joe sent me a bio of his mom, which I will print out and keep in the drawers with the manuals.

Here are photos of the manual cover and inside front... (click to see larger images).

This video describes the model, takes you on a tour of the machine, 

explaining what each part is... plus tells us that this model was used by 

Rolls Royce in their factories to sew the leather for the interior seats!  

So very heavy duty! Watch out! haha. This girl will sew anything!

I have not sewn on her yet, I am still absorbing her energy.... 

and I have yet to go through the treasures in the drawers in super detail.  So far I have found some lady gloves from the 50s and a gianormous sweater shaver (see it in the drawer? It's mauve and so awesome), plus a lot of feet and parts and notions.  A treasure chest!

 Ezmaralda has given her approval, which is good because she now sits in Ez's spot in the studio. 

The perfect spot to watch the bird feeder and remain invisible to the birds.

She came with a bench too! (which I shall promptly reupholster in a Kaffe Fassett print!)

The top of the bench lifts off for storage.

When I closed her up to take a photo, I discovered THIS... 

A scissors holder on the side! 

LOVE LOVE LOVE

Perfect fit! 

Just wait! It keeps going!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then I received a text from our friend Marty. 

While we were running errands he delivered the second and third treasures... 

Gift #2 is a knitting machine from the 80s(?).  

From Marty's mom Allie (thanks so much Allie!). 

I am overwhlemed by Allie's generosity as well as the parts in this box! hahaha

Time for "Knitting Machine University" (when ever we get obsessed by something around here, which is almost every day, we name it, "______ University").

I need a lesson in knitting machines and it will be an adventure trying to put this creature together, but I am sure if I cannot figure it out, there is someone local who can teach me (anyone???).

There is a Bulky (worsted) part... (I don't even know what the part is called yet, a carriage?)...

and an Intarsia part!!! 

 The ideas I have for this are already overwhleming my brains, haha, 

as if there was any room in there before yesterday. 

BUT... the third gift???

This one did me IN.

Marty brought me my dear friend Ruth's yarn bin.

We lost Ruth in Dec. of 2012 to Melanoma.

I met her in 2008 at a local yarn shop just after moving across the country and missing my yarn friends in PA so very badly. Meeting her was such a gift at a very lonely time.

I still have not gone through this bin in a lot of detail. I saw a "UFO" she had started for her young daughter and never finished.... I had to put the lid back on.

Going through this will require some alone time and a cocktail to toast to our Ruth.

So, the Message sent to me today was a very CLEAR one.

Life is short.

I am on the right path. I love fiber arts. 

I love knitting and sewing and designing. 

 I am so very THANKFUL for these amazing gifts I received today, 

for the time I have to play with them, 

for the ideas they have already generated, and the opportunites they present. 

I do not want to take anything for granted. 

~Gratitude.

reenie out.

xo

The Peace of Wild Things~

The Peace of Wild Things

BY WENDELL BERRY

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~ Paul

Life Happens~ Bird Nerd

We have been taking a lot of time lately to absorb life. 

Well, that and working... alot...on the garden and with the animals.

When I look over my photos it seems like all I do is sit on my deck, but really that is the only time I stop to photograph anything. Funny.

My knitting/design time is spent on my couch, where I have full view of our deck and pond, where I can watch the BIRDS! This year they are my favorite.

Who knew I was already turning into a crazy bird lady? We laugh at how much we soudn like our grandparents, all excited about the birds at the feeder.

I put feeders on the deck this past winter. Feeders and a lot of suet cages. This spring we have had so many new birds.

We are not native Pacific Northwesters, we grew up on the East Coast.

Wildlife here is a neverending wonderland for us. 

This year the Grosbeaks came to eat!  

An entire flock of them. Two types, Evening Grosbeaks and Black-headed Grosbeaks. 

The Evening Grosbeaks are my FAV. It looks like the male is wearing yellow sunglasses.

   

Here is a Black-headed Grosbeak~

This year, several pairs of Red-winged Blackbirds nested in the cattails by our pond.

Paul waded in the water and took this photo right after their eggs hatched!

This photo was taken exactly ONE month ago~

And this one a few days ago!

It's astonishing how fast they have grown.

They are now feisty babies, still wonky with the flying thing, fighting over suet cakes on the deck. 

If we get too close to the nest, the Papa will dive at us.

Yesterday we had the debut of a family of Mallard Ducks!

Mom was so subtle, we didn't even know she had built a nest.

Paul and Eve took the canoe out and got some fantastic photos of them, 

learning how to swim and catch bugs.

 Here are some more shots of life around here lately~

Wanna see more photos???

Visit my Flickr Album HERE.

Back to birdwatching!

Later.

xo

reenie