I'm in a Fog

 I'm always talking about my big dog, Charlotte and the funny stuff she does. Well, as you can see in the photo above she knows how to keep me laughing while relaxing on the love seat in the living room. I'm still taking Christmas out of the boxes and I turn around and there she is. I think there's a lesson in her attitude.

I am so busy I don't know if I'm coming or going these days! And apparently I've been remiss in telling everyone I got a job at the new Walmart they are building in town. I haven't started yet because the store isn't finished. We were told that we would be starting in January. I got a call a couple days before Thanksgiving to come in the day before Thanksgiving for orientation. At orientation we were told they get the store keys mid January and that we would be putting up all the displays and stocking the shelves. We were also told this is the only overtime we would get but they understand we didn't have any notice and that we have Christmas plans already. So we have to just let them know when we aren't available. In my interview I was told if we said we couldn't come in we would have our hours cut. So I'm not sure what will happen but I need a couple days in December and that's that. Oh yes, I almost forgot to say I will be working in Fabrics and Crafts, and I'm not sure, but I think that includes Home Decor.

Here is my tiny little lemon tree. It has over a dozen lemons on it. I bought it because I thought the trees that D dug up when we moved would never make it. The lime tree didn't look too bad but the lemon tree looked dead. Of course D said it would be fine and it is flourishing better than when it was in the dirt. I hate it when D gets an "I told you so".

I woke up to the fog yesterday. We haven't had a good foggy stretch in many years. This is the view from my back porch. It cleared up nicely in an hour or so. But I had to drive to Turlock and it just got foggier and foggier as I headed east. Today the fog has lifted to be just barely foggy enough to be depressing. I'd rather have the heavy fog if I'm not driving. At least it makes you feel like you're wrapped in a blanket.

I know, I know, out of order again. One of my geraniums thinks it's spring. It's much prettier than this picture shows because it's a deeper, richer red. Quite stunning really. And I still have tomatoes on my tomato vine. I don't think they will get a chance to ripen. Rain is on the way and without sun it's not going to happen.

I will post pictures of the village under the tree this year in another post. We splurged and got a new fake tree this year. This one has "snow" on it. And for the first time it has all Wizard of Oz ornaments on it. There aren't enough of them but I love it anyway.

This year I'm not decorating as much as I usually do. But I still have a little bit of Christmas to get out of the boxes so I better get back to it.

My Blue Period

 Okay, I haven't blogged for a while. I've been trying the face book thing. But it's always on my phone and I don't type fast there. I feel people would get bored with a long post so I like this for one thing and that for another.

In any case I've been spinning, knitting, and crocheting my little heart out. Except when we went to Sturgis on vacation where I mostly just rode on the back of the bike. And crashed when we got back to camp.

I bought that blue fiber you see in the photo above, at a thing we went to in September. I haven't purchased any fiber or yarn in a very long time.  Maybe since February. I've been hitting the stash pretty hard. But who can resist those beautiful shades of blue? I call it Shannon blue since that's the color my daughter, Shannon, likes so much.

 I am attempting to keep the color run true by spinning identical pieces on two different bobbins. Now I realize this may not work. I can't seem to split the fiber evenly. But, what the heck, it make me feel like it might work in a couple spots at least. The end result remains to be seen.

 Darryl decided to learn to make cinches. The cinch is the thing that attaches to the saddle to hold the saddle on the horse. Mohair is the best and most comfortable for the horse. At least we think so. But we are fiber people so we might lean toward a more natural product if we can.  It is darn near impossible to find or buy a 38" or long mohair cinch. And if you happen to have a draft cross horse or draft horse you will need a long cinch. Anyway, after Darryl took a class and I saw what he made I got sucked in as well. 

The cinch in the photo above was being made by a young lady in my class. I got to take the class just for the cost of materials because my over achiever husband impressed the instructor so much when he took the class that he was asked to assist with this class. So I lucked out.

This is a picture of my second cinch. Darryl taught me to make the basic cinch out of scraps of stuff we had at home so I could make a vaquero style in the class. It's just a little fancier than the basic cinch. Everyone kinda shook their heads when they saw the colors I chose. But this is the color I want on my little pinto horse. And I chose the black and reddish brown because they are the colors on her. When I finished my cinch everyone loved it. One guy liked it so much he copied the pattern I put on the ends by the buckles. I made it up and the instructor was pretty impressed that I took it out a few times until I got the effect I wanted. It's a short cinch for my little horse so it doesn't have bars between the center diamond and the ends. Most cinches do.

This shows all three of my projects. The two cinches and the breast collar. The light colored cinch on the right was the practice one I did at home out of old cinch stuff and yarn scraps. Everyone seemed to like it because it's stained and looks old even though I just made it. I'm gonna hang it on the wall as a decoration. It's not strong enough to be used. Underneath the two cinches is two wings of a breast collar. If it was to be done all in mohair there would be a third piece hanging straight down from the center ring. I made this because my neighbor wanted to replace her husband's horse's breast collar. He is a leather worker and will make the third piece out of leather. He doesn't know that yet because it's a Christmas present for him. I embroidered their brand on the brown part where the breast collar attaches to the saddle. I can remove that if she doesn't like it. It's a little hard to see but their brand is the Horseshoe L ranch. He's a conservative guy so I put it in gray so it didn't jump out at you.

Now I am going to make a breast collar to match the cinch for my little horse. I think I'll make a collar for my dog. Darryl is working on a hat band. But he wants a matching breast collar for his horse. I will post a photo of the really cool cinch he made another time.

Just what I need. Another hobby.