i went on a tour yesterday with my mom to some local maryland artisans’ open studios and boy, was it great. freezing, but great. large parts of montgomery county are still pretty green and open, and the northen part is even an officially designated agricultural reserve. next weekend i’m hoping to go to a blacksmith’s shop and a textile gallery, but yesterday we went to the two fiber places – kiparoo farm and dancing leaf farm.

hi ~ i was in denial all day yesterday but this morning, it proved impossible to ignore: cough cough, i’m sick, or in other words: “slow down!” lots of orange juice today and i should be ok by tomorrow-ish though. …oof, that’s a jinx if there ever was one.

~ i’m the tenth listing for tofurky on google image. had it two years ago tomorrow – it was a very tasty meal and i have really sweet memories from the dinner to boot. btw, that’s a (delicious) quiche pictured with it, not pizza.

my schedule seems to be settling down a bit – i tend to spend every other day with my sister, and i like to do it in one go, i.e. the whole day, and on those odd days, i have time to spend with my brother, my mom, and time just for me. last night was a combo of the last two – the early evening was spent organizing all my fiber, hence that first pic. (btw, the desk is an old one of my dad’s – he had it forever in his study and i love it. it’s a little too shiny for photos, but it’s a nice long and wide desk.) ideally, i want to exchange the plastic for some nice wood bins, but for now, i’m happy with this setup. not included is the one (small) rubbermaid container that holds all my fiber – maybe three pounds max, which surprised me.

it’s a been a long week full of babies ~ since saturday afternoon, we’ve been waiting for baby g to be born (my sister, such a tease, kept us all in suspense for the whole nine months), and in the meantime, there were five other kids that needed babysitting, changing, attention – and how! -, etc etc. at first, i was tossing them in the air, twirling them until we fell all dizzy, dancing like a mad woman to get a grin, but now, i’m reduced to a toss here or there and mostly weird faces and odd sounds. anyhow, finally, wednesday morning, around eight a.m., gavin thomas came into the world. how exciting! we’re a family fulllll of women (four men, eleven women), so all the guys cheered when he was born. i must say, i’m awfully pleased to have another nephew. gavin was 21 inches long, weighing 8 lbs. and 13 oz. when born, quite a change from the twins and kiyra, who were all under 6 lbs.