August: Sweaty, but not bad

It just occurred to me that I never did an August roundup. Let’s see if I have anything other than “made a lot of ceramics, made a lot of soap, was social” to say…!

Home – We watched Jenn’s dog, Chloe, a few times. She fits in well other than constantly wanting to hump Corwin, who is starting to spurn her advances. Barb had a birthday, for which we all got together and used it as an excuse to have fun. Speaking of fun, a friend and her adorable kids came over to try out ceramics – I really wish I’d remembered to take a photo of the mugs they painted. They seemed to have a good time and it was totally adorable to watch (and kind of a flashback, too, since I was pretty much right in between their ages when I started to do ceramics). The kittens, damn them, continued to get bigger (even though we instructed them to put a stop to that and stay tiny). Fuckers. And this has already been blogged but Tim made a Damn Fine Cajun Meal for the last two episodes of Treme that we’ve been saving to watch with family. I did get out and about to walk the dog and get some exercise in; not as much as I wanted but I have to admit that the heat saps my strength. It’s hard to get motivated to go out in it and then once I am out it’s hard to keep going through the soup of the air. But I did get out five or six times, which is better than July (admittedly then I had a broken toe, so…). And I was social; met friends for lunches, dinners, ice cream, coffee and knitting, and had a few people over now and then. I could get used to this!

Hanks – It was sock club month, and my Sequoia colorway was pretty well received. I’m almost done knitting a pair of socks and can’t wait to show them off (and wear them). We had our… second? spinning at Wild Iris Books, and we’re very grateful that they’ve given us the space. We’ve gotten a couple of emails asking “did we close” or “are we going to reopen when Publix does” and it leads me to think that I really need to write a recap blog post for those who were gone over the summer… but every time I sit down to do it my eyes kind of glaze over and I feel I’m not ready to rehash it all. Someone send me some brain power…?

HaldeCraft – In the hopes of selling something, I purchased the world’s largest bag of biodegradable packing peanuts. I’m really glad that didn’t get rained on! Actually, I kid – that wasn’t the largest one. They had two that I could get, and that’s the smaller of the two. I had no idea how big it was going to be, I couldn’t visualize the dimensions… really, really glad I went with the smaller one, the larger one would be almost twice as big! Anyway, I have sold things! I can’t thank my friends enough for supporting me, and I’m also thrilled to say that I’ve even sold a couple of things to people I don’t know. My green gargoyle incense burner has been featured in not one but two different Treasuries, and my little brown owls were featured in one as well. Oh, and so was my wall planter! And this is all without me doing any real advertising yet (I’m still working out where and how I want to do that) so I am crossing my fingers that this will work and let me have the creative and fluid lifestyle I find myself craving.

Knitting – Meh. I finished more than I did in June and July put together, I think. Not for the enjoyment of it, but to be able to finish things. I’d like to get to the point where I only have two things on the needles at one time; one hard project and one simple “social knitting” project. So I finished a pair of socks, a shawl, a cowl, another pair of socks, and a tank top. Whoops, almost put the sweater in that list, but that was finished this month! I forgot what I was working on. August. Right. Last month. Dur.

Anyway. I think that’s it. I need to get going soon anyway, breakfast is calling me… as is a shower, and some Valium, so that I can go to the dentist. Urgh. Maybe that’s why I’m typing all this up and taking my sweet time doing it? Because procrastination is king…? Grr. Argh. Hate the dentist. Blargh.