And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. ~ Kahlil Gibran



Saturday, May 24, 2008

Fun Time

While I was working the last couple of days I read the newest book from one of my favorite authors. It was so nice to read something light and entertaining. I am feeling greedy about it now. I want to go out and get lots of books to read and curl up in bed for a week or three and devour them.



Wouldn't that be fun?



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I have also gotten quite a bit of crocheting done. Since I finished the angel (crud, I forgot to get pictures again), I decided I needed a break from cross stitch and started working on a pretty simple granny square afghan. I am looking forward to getting it done already, though. I have been noticing that my hand goes numb by the time I finish one square. While it doesn't hurt, it is a really strange feeling and not altogether comfortable. I really enjoy crocheting, though. Especially when it is something as easy as a granny square. I can keep my hands busy and still be able to talk to people or listen to the radio while I am working. And at the end I have a pretty new something or other that I made with my own two hands.



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I am so looking forward to going to look at that fixer-upper house tomorrow. I keep reminding myself to be practical (at least for the most part), and I hope that I will be. I get so excited about rehabilitating broken down/old/unwanted things, that I am sure I will go off the deep end over this house.



I wonder what it is about me that is so addicted to fixing up old/broken things? Sometimes I feel like my Grandfather, who had a whole garage full of broken radios and other misc things he would buy at garage sales so he could "fix 'em up and sell 'em for good money". I loved my Grandfather, but could never resist making fun of that particular weakness. Now I find it in myself! I suppose that is poetic justice or something, right?



I think it is funny, because I am never really excited about new things. I like them okay, but I always look longingly at the items at Goodwill or even sitting on the curb somewhere and immediately start imagining how wonderful it would be to fix them up and make something wonderful out of them.



Of course, Mr. Barefoot loves new things best. Isn't that the way it always goes? I suppose we balance each other out. I keep him from going out and buying new stuff all the time, and he reminds me that I don't have the time or the expertise to fix everything I want to.



I think if I could ever really slow my life down and have some significant time and space to myself, that would be a hobby I would really like to have. Maybe I could even have a shop where I sold all the things I made. It isn't just furniture, I like to make things out of found objects, too. Remember my Gnome Homes? Those sure were fun to make. Of course, they fell apart because they were made with more enthusiasm than skill, but I have been thinking about them all winter and may have come up with solutions to the problems I had with them.

Anyway, there is a storm rolling in. I can hear the thunder and am getting excited to see the storm in all it's glory.

Have a nice night all, I am off to storm watch!

4 comments:

Kati said...

Dang!!! And you're not going to share the book title & author with us??? Or the colors your using in your afghan???? Pretty please?!?!

I think there is something in some of us though that recognizes the usefullness still in these old discarded items. Your grandfather saw these old radios not as pieces of garbage, but as something that could be rehabed & put back to use. You see the things at Goodwill that can be refurbished and returned to usefullness. Unfortunately, those of us who have the desire to see these things refurbished and rehabbed often don't have the skill or the time. And a great many people in our world don't even see the need. They see something even slightly broken as "junk" and "rubbish" and "worthless". I think we, those of us who prefer Goodwill over WalMart and slightly worn & broken down over brand new & shiny plastic, have a leg up over them. We may not yet be familiar with how to refurbish & rework thinks that need repair & care, but at least we see that they're not automatically "junk" and "trash". Now, to learn the skills to take those items and give them the TLC they need to become useful again. Those kind of skills are going to be at LEAST as important in the next era of our world as the skills of taking new materials (wool rovings, compost & bare ground, flour & yeast) and making new goods. While there is certainly a need for folks to spin new wool to make new clothing and blankets, there is also a need for folks to take old bikes and radios and fix them up to useable again.

Now to persuade our hubbies (and the others of the world like them) of such!

barefoot gardener said...

Kati-
Thanks...I appreciate the support on the whole "broken is better" thing...I am so far in the minority with that, I often forget I am not the only one who gets passionate about it.

As for the book, it is Nora Roberts' "The Hollow". Second in her "sign of seven" trilogy.

The afghan? I am using verigated (sp?) yarn that is green, white, purple and blue for the squares, and then plan to do the edging in dk blue to match the darkest blue in the other yarn. We have kind of a blue thing going on in our bedroom, so I figure it will fit rather well in there.

RuthieJ said...

My right hand sometimes goes numb when I crochet too (not when I knit, just when I crochet). For me, it's the beginnings of carpal tunnel syndrome--a wrist brace or those tight-fitting fingerless mitts (sold in needlework catalogs) might help if you get really desperate and don't want to give up your needlework. I have more problems at night with both hands going to sleep and have found that wearing my half-mitts to bed actually helps (the ribbing on the cuff provides just enough compression on my wrist and also keeps my hands warm)

barefoot gardener said...

I was wondering about that, Ruthie. Thanks for the suggestion on the little half mitts... I will have to do something cuz I think I would go nuts if I had to give up my needlework.