Has it really been a couple of weeks already?  Every day, I see stuff I fully intend to blog about, but I’m still wading neck-deep in the idea that I need a fully clean slate before I dive back into my 10kH, so I can focus on it pretty much entirely.

What I keep forgetting is that Free Time doesn’t just happen. You have to MAKE IT HAPPEN, or it won’t.  Time’s like that, the fickle mistress.

To be fair, there have been some relatively significant changes going on over here in the cottage.

  • I gave up coffee.  Don’t faint.  Decided this past week that when a staggering twelve shots of espresso wasn’t doing anything for me, it was time to let my poor body have a rest.  And despite one really nasty headache that felt like gnomes were excavating my eyeballs with rusty pickleforks from behind, it’s been remarkably uneventful.  Not to mention cheaper.  Starbucks may go broke.
  • Almost ALL of the boxes from the storage unit have been gone through.  It’s a matter of selling the furniture that I love now, and I’m dragging my feet a little on that part.  And listing a billion books on Amazon, which gives me an eyetwitch, but we do what we must.
  • We discovered the farmer’s market.  The Piedmont Triad Farmers’ Market is freakin’ awesome.  More on this in coming days, but I just love Peach season around here.  ‘Nuff said.
  • I gave my last public appearance as Miss Violet last Saturday, at the amazing Purl Jam retreat in Blacksburg, VA.  It was hosted by the equally-amazing Mosaic Yarn Shop, where I would totally hang out every. single. day if I lived closer.  As it was, I managed to only drool on a few skeins, by sheer will.  And I’ve determined that when Shannon Okey and I get together, the resulting Idea Storm(tm) is a scary, scary thing.
  • We’ve also discovered the dog park.  It’s in a new-ish park here in GBO, and there’s a quarter-mile hike to get there, but the furry children have deemed it awesome, so it’s worth it, even in these insanely humid/hot temps we’ve been having.  Cash is especially fond of the full jar of treats they provide at the entrance.  Go figure.
  • I gave in, finally, and had a professional Apple Genius help me figure out WTF was going on with my email.  Apparently, I’ve had one of the settings wrong for a good long time.  And while this was a blow to my technologically-competent ego, at least it’s fixed now, and I’m not getting twenty-five THOUSAND downloading every time it updates (no, literally.), or missing things coming in on the domains anymore.  This makes up for the ego-ding.
  • I signed up for GoogleVoice, which means that shortly, anybody who wants to comment can do it via voice.  This’ll be important later.  You’ll see.  :D

(Figured a list would be easier than trying to explain it all separately.  More on most of those in the coming days.)

The Wizard of Oz series, shown above, is almost ready for rollout, about a week later than planned.  The heat and humidity here have changed the way things smell (go figure), and the giving up of coffee means my nose works differently.  A couple of my original formulas, after aging for a few days, morphed pretty significantly, and I’ve spent about a week doing some reading to figure out precisely why that is, and how to fix it.  (Notably, “Dorothy” went from young and bright to a kind of sophisticated thing that didn’t fit the concept at all.  It was gorgeous, but soooo not what I wanted.  Thus, the reading.)

Digitally, I’m working on something related to this:

Which is, obviously, not digital.  But it *will* be.  It’s not just a kit and a Tiny Art Journal — it’s a mini-class.  The first of, hopefully, many of them.

More on that later this week.

Along with a little sneak-peek of the first Oak River Township knitting pattern, which was HILARIOUS to write.  (Those of you on FB have seen it already.)  I’ll tell y’all all about it tomorrow or Friday, depending on how today’s hours go.

I think that’s about it for the catch-up.  Now that there isn’t such a backlog, and things are starting to clear out of here at light-speed, I’m planning on going back to mostly-daily posts.  Stay tuned. :)