I ran across this in my bloggy travels…. it is so worth looking at the video!

In the 4.5 years since the birth of cowboy…. we have not shared the “family sick” experience.

Not until today. I guess the bright side is we will be in the clear by Christmas.

I have many things to post about… but I have to wait until I get slightly less attached to my couch….

Think good thoughts… the cowboy has not mastered the art of resting yet.

I am still here and subconsciously posting less I think because of the pressures of NaBloPoMo. (It also may have something with the sheer volume of work that I am doing right now!)

The year is winding down.. in a quiet way. Yesterday was the 4th anniversary of my dad’s passing… I touched base with my siblings and mom without talking about it. No need to. We all feel it.

I started my day off by metering out fiber and watching Sgt Pepper’s Lonley Hearts Club Band. A fitting tribute to my dad who taught me more about the Beatles than I could have ever guessed. They fade into the soundtrack of my life so seamlessley.

I cranked up the Stevie Wonder in my iPod as I was in my studio. Funny thing about iPods… no one else can hear the music but I am sure they heard my beautiful rendition of Songs in the Key of Life . My studio is right next to the bathroom too… wonder if the potty partakers enjoyed their serenade.

I have pictures of thing in my camera and a missing USB. They will have to wait for now. I have images of a series of mixed media collages that I am going to start working on in December rolling around in my head… they will wait as well.

The cowboy, however, will not wait. Off to American Education week for us!

Have a great Tuesday!

Ok…

So I have been agonizing over this decision (please… ask my friends… the listen to me whine about it ALL THE TIME)

I have seen my little business grow. And I love this business… with my heart and soul. I feel more like me… a better me… because of it (and because of the undying love of my family)…

My business has grown so much so as I am one person with a million things to do, with just enough handle on my technology to barely make it work (until it fiercley comes and bites me on the ass by crashing). I have had to think long and hard about where the business needs to be and where my head needs me to be… meaning the great debate between retail or wholesale.

I have decided that (after many trials and some big shipping nightmares) that I need to go wholesale only. I am not closing up shop, or quitting the industry, by any means… I just can not do it all alone anymore. It is a hard choice to make… and a slightly sad choice to make (I meet so many interesting people through purchases!) but, I think it is the right choice to make. I never in my life have been half-arsed about anything and I can’t start now.
There will still be an occasional club (anyone who is in a club right now will be getting an email from me tomorrow) And ALL EXISTING CLUBS will go on as scheduled…. but the warehouse will shut down until further notice. I will have an updated list of my wholesale clients listed on my sidebar in the coming week.
Please email me if you have any questions/concerns. I am (and I have never done this) closing comments to this post. I would love your feedback in the form of an email.

Thanks for all the support… this is not tragic at all by any means. It is a decision driven by being successful. That is never anything to shy away from.

Thanks friends.

Yes… I am one of the many bloggers and fiberphiles headed north to Rhinebeck.

I am a square for Blogger Bingo on Saturday… I will have an identifier on my outerwear… don’t know what exactly that will be (a button most likely)

I will be wearing a sweater that looks like this:

a shirt with a logo like this:

and I look like this:

I probably will look like that after all the fiber intake!

PLEASE feel free to come up and say hi. I love meeting new people… I can not promise that I will still be able to formulate a sentence… but I will try!

On a side note… I am so, so grateful for the support that I get from the blogosphere! I am working day and night to get all of my work done (which is a surprisingly HUGE amount… more details to come)… I am making some changes to the structure of my company and need to firm up the details. Thanks for your patience… it will pay off I promise.

2 more sleeps until RHINEBECK!

I am on a tear…

anyone who thinks global warming is not something that is real should come stand next to me in Baltimore as I sweat my ass off!

I want fall. I crave fall.  I was born in the fall. My birthday is tomorrow and I am thinking that I get to wear shorts and flip flops… not FUGL and hand knit birthday socks! (She is steeked .. and drying. A zipper and she is fini’.)

I see leaves turning (brown and falling off immediatley!) All the cues are there… the morning and evenings are darker. My house looks like Halloween hell… and no fall. Still summer. I wish there was a public pool open so I could swim! At least I would be cool.

I swear I am going to start my thrummed mittens in protest!

Thanks Jody!

I took the cowboy to taekwondo tonight. The master presented my boy with his white belt.

My boy beamed like I have never seen. I was a proud mama… watching her boy reveling in the joys of his accomplishment. I could never have imagined how happy this would make him. How happy it makes me to see him learn, and grow.

This parenting journey is so amazingly, gut wrenchingly, beautiful. The depths of the commitment and passion that I feel for my family can not be described. My son calls me “mama” when he is particularly at ease and feels happy. I am “mommy” all the time… but “mama” at the special times.
Tonight, after his belt presentation, he ran to me and thanked me for being “the best mama I have”.

In interest of passing muster in that general area, we have had to make some tough decisions regarding our lifestyle and our parenting focus. My beautiful boy has made some school transitions this year that we are still riding out…. and while taekwondo is something that he is finding great joy and accomplishment in… his new educational endeavors are still a work in progress.

For this reason, my D and I have made the executive decision to remain in Maryland while the amazing Sea Socks 2008 Cruise is taking in the wonders of the inside passage. The time away is too great for the boy and the distance is too great to leave him. I hope you all understand our choice…and know that it was not an easy one to make. Patricia is a trooper, being so gracious and understanding fully why we have pulled out of the cruise. Amy, Chrissy, and Brenda will have many things to teach you all… and I am sure that you will have a great time.

I will, however, be providing extra special yarn-love for your goody bags. You bet your skein I will!

So… I am trying to live up the the words of my baby by being his “best mama”he has and remembering that yarn is lasting… but my baby will only be four once.

Again… late night but cool in the studio. Thank God the weather broke. The heat up here can be slightly brutal. I always wondered why the galleries in SoHo went on holiday in August. Now I have lived it. My neighbor ( the painter) left for the summer and traded up for a hiatus in Brooklyn. At least she was hot but in NYC. (She has resumed her schedule here and I have resumed annoying her to no end with lots of noise and bad renditions of the “RENT” score and the Beatles).

There are so many things changing here at Chez Mama. Good changes, eventual life changes (my 35^th birthday is in the beginning of October. I actually share a birthday with John Lennon… hence the Beatles I think), the cowboy has changed schools (multiple times), and a new schedule.

I am trying like hell to embrace it all, remember that my boy is really, really tired and anxious (hence the incessant whining), and that getting older is good. It is inevitable.

I tend to be of the mindset “Go Big or Go Home”…. It helps me take on life like this big bucking bronco that just wants to be ridden… wants to be tamed. Yeah, well.. I am over the tamed part right now. Buck away, buddy… I am hanging on.

So, that “go big or go home” thing….. Well….

Here is exhibit “A”:

I made the appointment for the Red Door Spa at 11 am…sat in the chair at 2pm and was fully coiffed by 4pm. I left a VERY big tip… the stylist had her work cut out for her ( I let go of at least 6 inches). I really like her… she is very pierced and multi-hair colored and in her early 20’s. She likes me because I am not an entitled wealthy 40-something that asks her is she does her hair like that because of Brittany Spears. I think we have a mutual affection for each other.

Exhibit “B”:

I also *gulp* started running. (I hesitate to tell you because that makes me accountable…)… but I am running. 3 days a week trying to build endurance for a 5k in the spring. I am tired of feeling like that is something that I can never do. I don’t love running… there are some folks out there that *heart* running big time. I am not trying to fool myself that I will love or feed off of it. I am just so freaking tired of feeling like I can’t do that. I pant… I feel like I am dying… but I try like hell. That is the point.

Exhibit “C”:

Again with the accountability…. I joined Weight Watchers. That’s right… I said it to the couple hundred folks (I can’t believe that you all add up to a couple hundred! Thanks!) who read this meandering journey of fiber, parenting, and nonsensical commentary. I am in week 3 and doing well. I am not going to give a pound count.. I am down a little and my clothes fit much better. I have been eternally grateful to the folks that I have connected with in the Ravelry Slimdown2tog group. I know a few folks in person and have made more imaginary friends!

So… the times they are a’changin’ here in Baltimore. Change is scary… but hopefully the change will provide some great results for all involved.

And… because I could not resist a gratuitous cowboy picture…..

Here is my baby in his Taekwondo uniform. He actually broke a damn wooden board. Crazy….

Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’.
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.

Thanks Bob. And thanks to my dad who taught me about him….