At the end of last year I began to ask myself what changed? Why was it that while I used to sit outside spinning for hours on end previously, I never did anymore, and basically only spun about a skein of yarn a year? Why was it that my motivation for spinning utterly tanked?
The answer was a number of things. First of all, I realized at some point last year that my eyesight was failing and getting that taken care of did help me commit more time to the crafts I enjoyed. Second, I do have a lot of hobbies which take away from some I used to do regularly, like spinning. Thirdly, when I foster rescue dogs I do almost no crafting whatsoever as I am busy training and caring for the foster and my own dogs. And fourthly, we got dogs without a fenced yard, and so when Mr. Ink was outside which was all the time since he loves working in the yard, then I was inside with the dogs. This was when we had a discussion about fencing in the yard.
And it worked!
Just as soon as the yard was fenced I wanted to Be Outside, and was able to spin 6 ounces of singles within the first few days.
I then plied those singles into a lovely 3 ply sock weight yarn, adding 785 yards to my yarn stash. Isn’t it gorgeous? If the weather holds, I may not get a lot of inside work done this summer. In fact, I am already off and running with my next project.
I am doing a combo spin, with these two colors. It’s a bit of a stretch, I generally keep tones more similar on a combo spin. But I wanted to change it up this time. I have a total of 10 ounces of these, so it’ll be a pretty large project when all is said and done. I have one bobbin out of 3 spun into singles. But, vacation is over, I am back to being quite busy, the weather is cooler again (not sad about that really) and it’s going to rain for a few days. So my progress has slowed. But soon, soon I’ll be back on the patio spinning while my dogs play in the yard!
I am a bit late on this post, but not actually late on the update. My 4th update posted April 11. The last time I wore makeup this month was May 15. So, the update photos are fairly accurate. I’ve got a nice amount of empties again which is lovely, including a bonus empty.
Here’s the progress photo from April:
Since there were a nice amount of empties, I chose to take a photo of just the empties for this month.
I finished the elf putty primer, the maybelline setting spray, the cerave sunscreen, and everything I wanted to finish out of the sleek contour palette. The bonus item is a pretty vulgar powder, not only did I finish the pretty vulgar powder but I then depotted another powder into this container and finished that as well. I’ll only count it as one though.
And the progress for photos and roll in items:
I made only the tiniest bit of progress on my mac foundation. This is technically a “bonus” item but I am really quite determined to finish it. And since work just went back to full time masking, I may make some good progress on this again in the upcoming month. I’ll prioritize it again.
I have the makeup forever powder sample I put in the larger laura mercier secret brightening powder container, and I removed the previous marks and put washi tape to mark the current progress.
I am very close to being done with the amazonian clay color corrector from tarte and perhaps I will be done next month.
I keep working away at my colourpop supershock shadow in frog, it sits on my vanity and every time I need a little extra sparkle I use it.
The pan of blush was repressed after the last update, I ended up adding a bit of leftover highlighter I was trying to finish up to give it more glow. It has worked well and I am enjoying the product in this new way, but there’s a lot more of it than I imagined there would be. I think it’ll be months before I finish.
Tarte Jelly Glaze is likely to be done next month since I’ll be using it again under the masks at work.
My stila lipstick made a tiny bit of progress but that progress is likely to stop again for a bit while we ride out this latest increase in cases. Plus it is really a dark lipstick which is more suited to the fall and winter.
My makeup forever artist color pencil saw some good progress over the last month as I was using it with a lipgloss over top for a nude lip. I really enjoyed that and will continue to do so but probably not while we are all masked up again.
And I am rolling in two items from the list. The benefit gimme brow and the coola setting spray with spf. I did not realize the coola sample, which I used once, had so little product in it. But since that’s the case, I imagine I can finish that up quickly.
So my list as it is right now:
Hourglass Dim Light powder
Bare Minerals Bare Pro Powder Foundation
Cerave sunscreen
Juice Beauty primer (deluxe sample size)
Bite Beauty lipstick
Sephora green color corrector
Tarte Amazonian Clay color corrector
Colourpop supershock shadow Frog
Benefit eyebrow pencil
Elf putty primer (deluxe sample size)
Ilia lip balm (deluxe sample size)
Tarte lip balm (deluxe sample size)
Tower 28 gloss (deluxe sample size)
Sleek Face Palette (darkest contour shade only with use of the light bronzer shade as well)
Makeup Forever Lip Liner
Makeup Forever powder (deluxe sample size)
Laura Mercier secret brightening powder
Coola spray (sample size)
Maybelline setting spray (travel size)
1 mascara of any type
Benefit tinted eyebrow gel
Ofra liquid lipstick travel size any color
Bonus items:
elf eyebrow wax Stila lipstick Pan of blush Mac foundation Clinique eyeliner Pretty Vulgar powder
That has me at 15 completed items out of 22 though not all of them are from the original list. I don’t mind, the bonus items were placed there in case I had some struggles using some from the original list. All in all another good progress month that I appreciate.
After old red fence came down and the first load was hauled to the dump, I got the rest of the old red fence into the pick up. We did not have a full load so we didn’t do another dump run, I figured we’d wait until we finished the new fence build as there might be items to haul again that we could add to the second load.
New fence day was a warm Saturday but it was much nicer than the hotter days previous. Our all volunteer build crew showed up around 10 and we got started! The night before we had set the end and gate posts with cement as these needed to be secure to measure from, but day of, we finished the rest of the post holes. I learned how to use a post hole digger this time, expanding my fence build volunteer knowledge.
Then we got started on the rest of the build!
All of the new fence area was previously covered by the red fence. This new fence provides us more privacy. We ran into a bit of a snag here, the neighbor had a very large junk tree he didn’t want to cut down yet. We did not measure carefully enough, and when we got to the tree, realized that our fence would not fit where we had the posts if the tree stayed. So I figured I’d give it a shot, and asked if I could go halfsies with him on a new tree to replace the junk tree, and he agreed. So we had a surprise tree removal as well! I am not sure what our solution would have been if he didn’t allow us to take down the junk tree.
We got all closed in between the garage and the house which is fantastic!
And we are closed in between the house and the other neighbor’s fence.
And one more angle of the back fence.
We did not complete the job until perhaps 6:30 pm and we had lost most of our crew by then, but the remainder just kept pushing through to get the job done. I learned to use a cordless drill and the majority of the screws along the long back fence were placed by me. I got into such a routine that I ended up deciding that I should get myself a cordless drill for the next fence build so I can be more helpful than just holding boards. It’s at the end of next month so I have a little time to do a little research.
Once complete, our dogs had a wonderful time exploring the yard, even though they truly acted like they were doing something wrong as they are so accustomed to being on leashes! Since the build, I’ve spent absolutely as much time as possible outside with my dogs and my spinning wheel and it has been absolutely glorious.
And as a side note, the week before fence build day we’d received our most recent foster dog, so she, too, gets the benefit of being outdoors unleashed!
We moved into our home in 2015 and with it came an old red basketweave fence. And no trees. Mr. Ink set about adding trees and plants and making our back yard beautiful. And one year I set about replacing the truly cracked and rotting boards of that old basketweave fence, I replaced 23 boards that year. I stained them red before replacing them on the fence and it held for a bit longer.
Despite the old ref fence, our yard was not fenced in. And over the years as we’ve added dogs and foster dogs to our lives, I dreamed of fencing in the yard. But Mr. Ink was worried about his plants, so instead over the past 5 years I’ve been taking dogs out on leashes for their potty time. That’s a lot of time taking 2 to 3 and once 4 dogs out at a time to go potty on leashes. I mean, we foster rescue dogs, and as such, some dogs have to go out way more than others if they are still learning how to live in a house.
Last year I finally convinced Mr. Ink that we really did need to fence in our yard and we came to an agreement about it. But that meant that old red fence had to come down. After all, it was leaning badly and many more boards had rotted and split.
But, the rescue I work with does fence builds on a volunteer basis. We all get together and put in the time and energy to build the fence and the foster home recipient of the fence pays for materials. I’d been participating in the fence builds for others so it became our turn to be on the receiving end. When trying to set a date, the one in May that we came up with was the same weekend as Miss Butterfly’s graduation and graduation party. That didn’t seem entirely convenient, but in the end, I decided to go for it. I took the week before off, and scheduled the build, knowing that I had to remove the old red fence prior to the build.
The scheduling worked out well though, because my parents were in town to assist with the tear down of old red fence. It was not in good shape. Some of the posts had completely rotted through, so without the weave, they just came down.
The tear down job was easier than I had imagined and it ended up being that the hardest part was getting all the pieces to the pick up truck and then cutting them into small enough pieces to put in the truck and take to the dump. The tear down took one morning, the clean up and finishing of the more stubborn posts went into the second day. But it did get done before fence build day!
Over the years, really since 2009, I’ve been making christmas stockings for new arrivals in our family, as well as for decor for our own home and a few other pieces for fund raisers and so on. I was surprised to find out that my brother will be welcoming his fourth child in July and the first thing my sister in law asked for was a christmas stocking for the next baby. So I got right to work on the 29th stocking I’ve knit since 2009. To be honest, the pattern is getting a little old and I would prefer not to be knitting them anymore, but I’ve got a reputation and a tradition to uphold. So, I got to work, with the intention to get the stocking done before my parents arrived for Miss Butterfly’s graduation.
I was successful, and yesterday this stocking headed back to the east coast to be provided for the family anticipating their latest arrival. Done and dusted, at least for now.
And I’ve got so much to blog about, and yet, it has been WAY too busy to get that done. I’ll start with what is likely the biggest news in my life, Miss Butterfly, my lovely daughter, graduated from High School. She graduated with Excellence, meaning that she completed over 100 hours of community service. She did that two ways, she volunteered very regularly before the pandemic at a fairly nearby YMCA camp, and she also earned a lot of these volunteer hours with the dog rescue we work with. To be honest she completed far more than 100 hours but that was the cut off for her “excellence” designation. Here she is, below, at her graduation party with her boyfriend and dearest friend.
I am not entirely sure what her future holds right now, but she’s got herself a thriving little business of pet sitting so that’s what she’s doing at the moment. In fact, she’s so busy with it that she often has to have someone cover her overlapping days. But folks really want to use her services and are very pleased with what she’s able to provide their pets.
In related news, she’s taken up crochet. I taught her to chain stitch and then she took it from there, and she’s created these two items:
They are adorable and she did a great job on them. I am very impressed! I don’t do this kind of detail work so it’s fun to see her enjoy it.
There’s a ton more to post about so hopefully I’ll keep up the momentum and get it all written down now that the graduation and party are over with.
Recently there was a spring sale on Westknits patterns. I decided that since some of my most favorite projects over the past 2ish years have been Westknits mystery knit alongs, I’d indulge in one of these patterns. I ended up choosing Quadrangle Spires. I had a nice chunk of handspun I’d created out of Loop! batts years ago and I wanted to knit it into something interesting.
Since I really wanted to use yarn from stash, I went looking for an appropriate pairing. I did not have a large amount of a solid color in the yarn weight I needed, so instead I decided to hold 3 strands of undyed laceweight yarn together. One strand is alpaca and the other two are cotton.
Honestly this combo isn’t the most ideal, but it is using up some of my stash. And that, for me, is a big win right now.
This is the middle section of the scarf. Each triangle is knit building on the previous triangle, and then the square is seamed together in one section. Sort of like piecing a quilt. I didn’t love the seaming, and I did have a nightmare last evening that I had done a very poor job on it, but ultimately it looks great and I have moved on to the next section. And it holds true that I am enjoying this pattern very well!
I’ve been watching the graveyard project pans on youtube over the years but never quite felt like I had the space to work on one. But, with only the 22 in 2022 going on right now, and feeling pretty confident about it at the moment, I think I could fit in a graveyard project pan this year.
So the basic idea, start April 30 (oops! Failed that already, but shouldn’t be a major issue) and end on Halloween. Items should be of two categories-
Resurrection: a product from a previous project pan
Collecting Cobwebs: a product that is getting old
Choose 5-10 products total, and it’s rolling style.
I went back through my project pans over the past few years, and it was kind of fun! I could see that by and large I tend to really use up the products that land in a project pan. Nevertheless, I made a list of items that have been in past projects and I could see continuing to work on.
Resurrection products:
Cover FX palette-I do not intend to work on the highlighters in this palette, only the blush, bronzer, and brightener. The hope would be to hit pan on all 3. I think the hardest goal there would be to do so on the blush.
NYX shadow pan-I use this as an eye primer setting shade and it was in my project pan last year. I did not finish it but I am now so close! I am confident I can finish this one.
Tarte Timeless Smoothing Primer-this is the first primer I purchased ever and so it’s the oldest in my collection. It was also in a project years ago but I just wasn’t using it so I removed it. I would like to get this used up, but that feels like a very distant goal. So, I’ll get as much use as possible over the course of this project
Here’s where the three of these are right now.
The NYX shadow pan is in the cover FX palette, as I finished the finishing powder in the palette earlier this year.
Collecting Cobwebs:
Mac Mineralized Skin Finish powder-I bought this at least two years ago now and just didn’t use it all that much. I like it a lot, it’s lightweight and pretty. So, I think I want to work on finishing it up this summer.
Tarte Be a Mermaid and Make Waves eyeshadow palette-this is the oldest eyeshadow palette in my collection and has been in multiple projects. As you can see I’ve got so much use out of it! And I truly still love it, it’s a fantastic palette. For this goal, I am going to say use it until I’ve worked through each shadow at least once and keep tally. Then I can roll it out and then roll in a different older palette in my collection to do the same. This will kind of coincide with a personal and not blogged about project I’ve been working on in my makeup stash.
Here’s the current photos on these two items.
I am finishing up a bronzer and contour in my 22 in 2022 project but I am so close to being finished on those so I think a different face palette will be great to use over the summer months. I will update monthly on this project since I want to roll out eyeshadow palettes and roll new ones in.
Suzy Sells Sea Shells 