Happy Holidays from Jet and Celtic Crossroads

I know the last 5 posts or so have been under the same date, but I had to republish them from my other blog on MySpace.com. I wanted to make sure you all were caught up on what was going on in my world.

It's interesting that so much has happened in a few months. My November spinning class went well, and my student and I have become friends. I have another kids knitting camp this Tuesday and Wednesday, and that will be fun. I'm pretty excited and I love working with kids. I used to volunteer for the YMCA when I lived in Seattle and used to have great in depth conversations with the kids there...most were very bright and knowledgable for the 8-15 yo group...but kids are growing up much faster than when the boomers were kids. Television, radio, music, magazines, etc., have all helped that happen and I'm not so sure it's such a good thing. Kids don't seem to have as much fun with their busy schedules: sports, extracurricular activities to the nth degree, starting to worry about college when they're still in the 5th grade. No wonder kids are so stressed with everyone pushing on them from their grandparents, parents, and teachers to their friends. It's especially bad in the BIG cities, but even in the country where we live, it's like that now, though they're a bit slower about it than in the big cities, but the stress is still there nonetheless. The kids now don't have any spare moments to really play and be kids for the most part.

I was invited to participate in another festival in Prosser, WA, for the 3rd Annual Wine Country Festival. I'll have a chance to demonstrate spinning and it is so fun to watch people. I love doing that because parents and their kids take such an interest in it.

The people who bought Rommy, two 2006 ewe lambs and a 2005 yearling ewe, will be picking them up today... It's been awhile since we have held the sheep until they could pick them up, but they are getting them. They live here in town, so they'll have the chance to build their sheep farm well with 30 acres (lucky for them).

Lance and I are searching for 20-40 acres near where we are now, but it hasn't been easy. We not only need the land for me to have a profitable business breeding and selling sheep, but we also need water rights to make sure the sheep have their pasture and have some grass/alfalfa we can grow so we don't have to buy it for the sheep each year. It will all work out, but ti takes time. On this land, we'll be building our own home: either a straw bale or a partial underground home. We'll figure that out when we get the land which we'll build. The house will have a solarium where I can keep my plants and raise some exotics that I cannot grow now due to lack of light. I want to raise a pomegranite as well as some oranges and satsumas, maybe even some kumquats and limes. Some orchids too. I wish I could have a banana tree. It would mean another fiber source and banana leaves for cooking if I weren't so allergic to them. It is a shame, but being able to recognize your limits and boundaries is part of life.

I finished spinning up my Ronaldsay wool a couple days ago. On Monday, I have to stop by the airport gift shop to see if anything has sold and to replace or change stock. I have to go by every two weeks, but it's worth it to have a place to sell my crafts and yarn in the winter. With the Farmers' market closing at the end of OCtober, it does make it difficult to sell things though sometimes people come to the house to buy yarn or other items, so I have kept a few here for that reason.

We're practically finished Christmas shopping, only two more gifts to wrap and send. I made a pair of tube socks for my SIL to wear with her new Birkies (blue with peach stripes on the toes and a band of peach at the top). I also have a shawl I'm knitting for a friend and a shrug I'm making for a woman I met through Knitochet (www.knitchet.com), the local yarn and fiber shop. Every time I go into the store, I find some interesting yarn and fiber to knit or spin respectively. This is going into her 3rd year of being in business and her store is beautiful and just as nice, but very different, as Wild Women Yarns, the LYS in Walla Walla that went out of business two years ago.

December 30 will be 9 years since I met Lance, my husband, the first time. When we met that day when I got off the plane at LAX, was the best day of my entire life. Our life together hasn't been perfect by any means, but we love each other a lot, and we both have the same ideas about what we want to do with our lives and our marriage, so it works out pretty well. We've both had to compromise to a certain degree as in all marriages if you want them to work out for very long, but it's not because we have to, it's because we want to. We'll be married for nine years on Valentine's Day next year.

Get your shopping done ASAP so you can enjoy the Christmas Spirit and n spend your time worrying about getting it done. It only gets worse when you procrastinate and you have to deal with all the crowds.

Happy Holidays!

Hugs,
Jet