My Garden Buddy

Every knitter should have a good friend like this.  She eats moths.

All things that wander are not lost...but some are

I have, I know it, a few scraps of plaid fabric.  I would like to find them. 

So far, they have remained elusive.

I have a bad feeling that I am going to have to move a number of big heavy bins to get to the one where they may be lurking.  But...you know how that goes.  The last place you look usually is where the item is.

Although it would not have been there if you chose that place to look first.  There is some kind of unwritten rule about that, I think. 

There are a lot of unwritten rules when it comes to tracking down stuff you KNOW you have, but just can't find.

The item well could be exactly where its supposed to be.  This is alarming, and often mildly upsetting.  What?  The hat is on the hat rack?  Really?? How can this be??? 

If it's something nobody else would have messed with,  it will be precisely where you put it the last time you used it.  This is frustrating.  You can't remember any of those details - not how, not when, not where, nor why.  And additionally, you can't pass the blame.  'THEY moved it and didn't put it back properly' won't fly.  And it's hard to admit that YOU moved it and don't have a clue.

There is an additional force involved in The Search For Something that must be addressed.

It is the Theory of Expansion. Say you are looking for a piece of fabric, or a ball of yarn.  Or a Chinese bird's nest, or a chunk of Kryptonite.  WHAT it is doesn't matter in the least.  Theory of Expansion functions equally well on all earthly and unearthly matter.

Here's how it works:  You have a bin full of (fabric/balls of yarn/bird's nests/ Kryptonite) and you must look through it to find the desired (fabric/ball of yarn/
bird's nest/chunk of Kryptonite).  To do so, you may need to remove some - or perhaps all - of these items from the container.  This is unfortunate, because when you fail to find the object of your search, you will need to replace the stuff (crap/junk/junque/garbage) you off-loaded.  It will not fit back into the bin.  


The Theory of Expansion has a corollary theory, which I shall call the Corollary of Undiminishing Returns.

How does that work, you ask?  (You HAVE to ask.  Otherwise I am just here chatting to myself, replying to myself, and sometimes really cracking up over my crazy sense of humor.  It's much better if you ask.  I will pretend you have.)

So, the Corollary of Undiminishing Returns is thus:  You have 10 items in a bin.   These items all fit nicely.  And lo and behold, 2 of them are what you had been searching for!  Kaloo-kally!  Frabjous Day!!!  You FOUND THEM!!!  

But don't get all over the moon quite yet.  You have eight items to return to the bin.  They will not fit.

There are more corollaries and various exceptions to them that need to be discussed, but not now.  I'm too depressed.  

AND I think I might be allergic to bird's nests.

Where I'm From

Where you are from is a lot more than what your home town is. 

These are some of the things that make up one small girl.  (Joe is a horse, and while she rides Joe often and cartwheels even more, the bit about the book in the barn is poetic license, she says.)


I'm from hours on Joe.
The tree I've ridden past so many times.
Kart wheeling past the red swing
and getting caught reading in the barn.

I'm from hours of drawing the wild flowers
and not being able to wait for the strawberries
to ripen and the tomatoes that went crazy in Mom's garden.

I'm from Grannie's hamburgers and Hershey's chocolate.
I'm from beautiful sunsets in the summer and watching
fireworks on the Fourth of July.

That's where I'm from.


So here's the big question:  where are YOU from?

Teawise tag wisdom

The more Yogi tea I drink the larger my collection of teabag tag wisdom grows.

Yesterday's tags are about boosting your spirits and maintaining a positive attitude.  This is always gracious and helpful news whether you receive it from a friend or by chance from the tag of your teabag.

And here they are:

Uplift everybody and you uplift yourself.  Yes.   Have you noticed how you smile when you're around a cheerful person?  Why not be that person?

Meditation is the medicine of the mind.  Of course this implies that you are meditating on things that are, to borrow the words of one Paul of Tarsus, true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy.  "Think about such things," is his wise counsel.

Where are your thoughts today?  Are you seeking higher things or just rumbling around in the same old trough of Same Old that got you into the doldrums in the first place?

The final tag in today's lineup is short and to the point: Keep up.

Find that positive beat and let it set the tempo for your day.  :-)

Advice

 

 

This little tidbit, allegedly from an old sewing how-to book, keeps surfacing.

 

 

The sad bit is that people overlook the great advice in the first paragraph because of what comes next.  You should prepare yourself mentally for sewing.  You're going to be using potentially hazardous and usually expensive equipment.   And unlike knitting or crocheted projects, you can't just ravel away a mistake and have do-overs.

You cut that fabric wrong, and that's a done deal.

 

Good results ARE difficult when indifference predonimates.  True for pretty darn near any endeavour.

 

Please note that in the 1940s spirit of things, I used the word endeavour.   I don't know if I spelled it correctly, but there it is.  I used it.  Fits in so nicely with predonimates and lackidaisically.

 

But nobody notices that part.  They're all off about the poor chick needing to make herself attractive so she can be free of the fear that a visitor, or even worse, her husband, might drop by unexpectedly.   Making comments about her need to be powdered and lipsticked.  And to have her French chalk near to hand.  Making lots of comments about her French chalk.

 

In Ms. 1949's world, not everybody had a phone.  No cellphone, no texting, no FB, no face time.  Maybe not even a land line.  Somebody well might just pop in on her, and then spread the word far and wide that they went to her house at 10 a.m. and she was anything but pulled together.   There was no Twitter or YouTube, so people had to spread gossip the old fashioned way, but they got the  job done, you betcha.

 

I, my 21st century self, like to be neatly put together before I sew. 

 

Unfortunately, often once I've neatly gotten it together, I forget where where I put it.

 

 



Passing the hours blog style

Do ever pause to ponder how blogs pass the time when their human isn't actively writing in them or posting photos to them?

Do they whimper pitifully and make sad puppy eyes?

Do they just sigh and hunker down to wait it out, sure that you'll come back SOME time?

Do they sneakily make up posts on their own when you aren't looking?  (Hey, I read back a ways in my blog, and there's no way I wrote some of that stuff.  No way, man.  I think the blog did it.)

I think mine probably has a rich life of the mind, developed over the large blocks of time when I wander off and don't toss it many little tidbits to nibble.

(It likes multi-sylabic words the best.  I've heard it emit small burps when I get all sylabic.  Do you ever get sylabic?  Is that even a word?)

Most of the time, I just magine it as being all curled up on a one of those high class pet beds, eating bonbons and doing whatever blogs do.

How about you?  Do you imagine what blogs do?

(Bonus Cozy points for making rhyming comments.)

Tea wisdom

So lately, I've been drinking Yogi tea.  It's great stuff - herbal and healthful, and each package comes with information and illustrations for how to a yoga stretch or meditation pose.  My current favorite Yogi tea is Chai Rooibos, which reminds me of Mm'a Ramotswe in the Number One Ladies Detective Agency novels.  She's a big fan of rooibos tea, and also of seeking positive wisdom and balance in life.

So it's all good.

But that's not all! 

Besides yummy tea with excellent health properties, each teabag's tag has a wee saying printed on it.  Some of them are really uplifting and thought provoking.   I have one here that says, 'When ego is lost, limit is lost.  You become infinite, kind and beautiful.' 

I like that. 

Chugging Eagle

Chugging Eagle is no more.

He has gone to his eternal rest in the great eternal resting place of  his kind.

But before he went, he had a good and full life.  He spent his days peacefully, swimming, resting, eating, ruffling his plumes and probably doing a  bit of pooping as well.  What fish do. 

Because that's what he was.  A peacefully swimming, resting, eating, plume ruffling and sometimes pooping fish. 

And he did those things with verve and elan.

Because he was a Beta, and they look as if they deserve $5 words.  Which, with inflation and all, are probably worth about $17.50 by now. 

But the sad day came when Chuggling Eagle pointed his little toes to the sky, and he was laid to rest in the manner of his kind.

We won't speak much of this because Chugging Eagle was a small fish.  And we know how they are swirled out to sea (or somewhere watery) with a great rushing sound to commemorate their passage.

RIP, Chugging Eagle.  You will be missed.  (As long as we remember you.)

Artsy in the DNA

There seems to be this universal thing among people who craft to see something that would be soooo amazing to use in...something.  You may not know at this moment exactly WHAT...but... you know for a fact that you NEED IT.  If it's at the craft shop, or laying on the path by the road, no matter...you KNOW it's perfect...for...something. 

The whole aspect of what/how/when you'd use it is totally beside the point. YOU NEED IT. And so you get it and carefully store it, because...you'd be crazy not to...and then...it starts to draw more things to itself.  And so it goes.

One day I plan to write a how-to book about this phenom.  It'll explain to those who aren't 100% sure how to tell if they have the Crafty Gene.  (Simple answer:  if you have to ask, you don't.)  But I'll stretch it  out further than that so the book is worth the money. 

If I do this well, I'll time the book publication to coincide with the launch of my new line of storage containers.

I need to get this all underway quickly, before a pile of yarn or fabric topples over and devours my tabl...

In Which Cozy Writes in Her Blog

Ten days into the new year is a great time to try for a resolution, don't you think?

Not so pushy as those people who start resoluting before the new year even begins.  Not so slackardly as those people who talk about resolving and don't.
Just right, as that awesome arbiter of Just Rightness says.  Yes, this would indeed be Baby Bear, and aren't you proud of yourself for getting the right answer!

(Of course you are.  Groove on it.)

Don't immediately fritter all that rightness away by assuming that I'm here to SAY something.  What.  Did you think I was going to resolve to write more?  Oh, sweetie.  You so do not know me.  Writing happens or it doesn't.  There is no discipline here.  Just me. 

So, let's have a nice photo of minion hats and bid everyone a lovely new year.