What's new

You've seen this one before, but it was one of three that were sent to a far away place, so now I'm working on some to have at the market tomorrow. They're made out of thick and sturdy hemp. They will last forever. You can use them for anything. I want five for myself.


And then there's this new little hat. We'll say it was inspired by the garden, the rich, dark brown and the soothing green that go so well together, just as nature intended.

Camera play

A few months back when I was in the midst of deciding whether or not to make a major camera change, I spoke about a circa 1970's Nikon camera my husband had. There was a time in high school where he worked for a friend's dad who sold cameras, used ones I think, and he came away with a nice one when it was all said and done.

It had one lens, a 50mm 1:2 (I'm told it's a good portrait lens) which took the most beautiful pictures, at least the 35mm film variety that I'd seen. In making the decision between buying a new Canon or Nikon, I went with the latter because the woman in the store told me I could use the old lens, even a 30 year old one on my new camera. She was right.

Finally today I started playing with it. I have to do everything manually, adjust the f-stop, focus, etc., but man is there a huge difference in what it can and will do than my other lens that came with the camera. I think I'll leave it on all day today and play.

New basket below, to show up in the shop soon. It's super thick and sturdy hemp and I think I need about 5 for myself. Can you see a difference in the picture? I especially like the toenail polish reflection in the floor in the top pic. Didn't see it at first, did you?

Out with the old

In with the new.

I consider myself pretty thrifty. But there are times when not spending money looks more foolish than economical. Take the socks in the first picture, for instance. I'm rather embarassed to say that the green pair is at least 15 years old, and the white ones are, ahem, even older. Last year Kevin even asked when I was going to get rid of those "wretched ol' things". (He likes to say wretched when he really wants to express disgust.) Even though they're "wear camping socks" and "wear bumming around the house socks", they're nearly every day socks. So as I reflected on his comment and their frequency of wear, I decided it was time to throw out the old and bring in the new.

I'm capable of wasting a great deal of mental time and energy on being frugal. Like figuring out how to fit in an out of the way trip to the cheapest gas station when time won't really allow for it, or suffering with freezing feet all because I'm too cheap to buy new ones. I justify it by saying to myself that there are more important priorities to spend money on. Like the kids, the family, food, etc. but every once in a while I'll stop myself and ask, "aren't I part of the family too?".

This may seem trivial on the surface and as I said before a huge time waster, but I'm sure there's some great psychological reason why I operate this way. I have my own theories and maybe you do too, but whatever they are, the most important thing for me to remember is...I'm workin' on my flexibility when it comes to some of my old worn out ways that benefit no one.

Enough of that. Here's the basket report: 2 down, 1 to go and I think I'm on my way to a dislocated index finger. Well, maybe that's a little melodramatic. It just feels like it. (point of reference: these babies are 8" in diameter and 8" tall)

Fitting that they're going to someone in Sweden, eh? Simple lines, cream, makes me think of Sweden.

Moon sand

I had no idea what we were getting into when I agreed to let Allie buy Moon sand with some of her birthday money. If you're familiar with it, you know that the tiny little grains of sticky colored sand get in every nook and cranny, all over the bottoms of feet, in the hair, stuck onto clothing and in between the miniscule cracks between the wood floor boards. The kids love it. More than Play Doh. It's right up there with paint.

I have a few ground rules on the moon sand:
1. they have to ask to get it out well before 8 p.m.
2. they can use it inside IF they can find the plastic art mat
3. or, they can take it outside on the porch if the weather's nice

I think that's fair. There is one up side to the whole operation and that is when they're done, they can never retrieve it all and the stuff left behind gets swept into the borders around the porch, or if we're inside it gets sucked up into the vaccuum. That way, we always end up with less than we started with. I'm waiting for the day they run out and want to buy more. I just hope the allure fades a bit before then. Maybe some of you have more tolerance for the stuff than me.

Today was great porch swing weather where I sat and watched the blue sand being made and remade into animals, houses, people, etc. I'm working my way through an order for three "everything baskets" from the shop. They take more hand strength than the usual knitting so I have to do some, switch to something else and then come back until they are eventually done. Thankfully I remembered to warn the purchaser they'd take me a few days to complete.

And the sand party raged on.