Sunday Brunch with my Family

Sunday October 19th I had the great pleasure of having brunch in Dallas with all of my boys. This was the culmination of a great Texas/OU weekend. I planned a sales trip to Texas around the gathering of the boys for the weekend. After a week of traveling around Texas from Houston to San Antonio to Dallas and Fort Worth visiting many yarn stores I enjoyed a great weekend in Dallas.


Above is a picture of me with the guys. If I were still sending the annual Christmas card, this would be the photo of the year. the family was augmented by two beautiful young ladies giving me the female support that I have longed for!



Susie Presser and Katherine Ann Buck, pictured above were brought to this gathering by Tyler and Will. Tyler found Susie in Steamboat and Will, KA in Austin! Both great gals who share an allegiance with Alabama!

 

Here is the gang with the two pups, Silver who belongs to Tyler and Kinney Brown Dragon, son of Silver who belongs to Davey. An expanding family portrait!

 

Davey works in a beautiful restaurant in Dallas - Maximo's at Alpha and Noel. Tyler, in Steamboat on trees, John is in Dallas waiting on tables and playing the piano, and Will is tending bar at Carraba's in Austin. They are each taking care of themselves and continue to be great friends to each other. I only wish the geographic challenges weren't so large!

these pictures will help you see How they have matured and continue to enjoy each others company. I feel very blessed.

Tobacco Barns in Suffield

I haven't blogged for about a year here - and realize that I have missed it, if not for you but for myself. A sense of order and openness - back from the Creative Memories Days. With this gorgeous arrival of Fall, I will regress in future posts through some of the things I want to share in the passed year. Looking forward and looking back - lots to be thankful for.

Fall in Suffield and the height of the tobacco drying season. The area is famous world wide for the supreme tobacco leaves they produce for cigar WRAPPERS! Not the ring I used to love to get from Grandfather's cigars. It's all about the outside wrapper which requires an evenly dried, large tobacco leaf usually grown under tents to keep them from spotting in rain or sun.

The true beauty to me of this process is the BARNS. Incredible long rectangular structures that are very much the same as they have been for hundreds of years. Although there have been many technological attempts to simplify the process, it still has to be done the natural way. the barns are slatted so control air flow and are geometric visions while they are in use

Amazon Reviews

August is slow in the yarn business so I have been laughing out loud at some very funny reviews on Amazon. This was all new to me since I thought amazon.com was a pretty serious site of commerce. It turns out that there is some real viral marketing going on there from the grass roots (or who knows where it is from but the big marketing companies might feel threatened). If you haven't seen these, I hope you enjoy the ride. If you have, and have some to add for me to see - bring 'em on.

I will give a quick view of some of the finds that have come across my computer and try to be relatively brief, you can get into much greater detail on your own, waste a day or two following links, and be amazed at the creativity out there. Or, you can get back to work, whatever that may be.

The first is the the "Three Wolf Moon T-shirt" - seems pretty simple and straightforward.


and then you might notice that there are 1363 reviews. of a t-shirt? what is this about? Read on... there are magical powers for sure here. and then you notice little things like 13,670 out of 14,222 found this review helpful. People have a lot of time on their hands.

After you have had the chance to read some of these reviews, jump over to youtube and check out this and you will actually witness the magic.


You may have noticed a reference to "Tuscan whole milk"... which leads you to think there is something else you might want to get from Amazon. Here, again, are some great reviews

My personal fave is the second one by Edgar from Baltimore... could this be E. Allen Poe? Such beautiful writing! Oh - wait, you can hear this read to you here

And lastly on this guided quest, I want to share, from other products you might be interested in the great reviews for "A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates (Paperback)"Such a terrific reference work! But with so many terrific random digits, it's a shame they didn't sort them, to make it easier to find the one you're looking for."

So simple and yet so powerful!

A special thank you goes to my brother John Babson who brought these wonderful finds to my attention - he really does have too much time on his hands!!

If you have more to add to this - please leave a comment and share with others. Consumerism rules!

July Fourth 2009

The fourth of July proved to be a beautiful respit from the rain New England has been facing for the last... shall I say 40 days. Finally summer felt like it had arrived! The weather was perfect and my friend Cathy (Walker Hopkins) from way back in high school orchestrated a beautiful weekend in Madison, CT. It was great to be with old friends. Kathy (with a K) and Doug Velsor - again, since High School only he didn't go to the Academy - came down from Vermont to soak the sun and friendship. Cathy's Aunt Susan joined us from NYC with tales of city life and theater people.

Here is our group watching the Wallingford Symphony Orchestra Concert on the Green - Great seats Cathy!

Fire works on Friday, biking and walking on the beach, even found a great consignment store in Centerbrook... Peonies - had some good stuff and reasonable prices - I resisted but it was good to know.


One of my favorite visions at the concert was this little not quite 2 year old who got quite animated when I pulled out the camera. Having left scrapbooking behind and not fully moved into the bloggosphere, I am again reminded on how easy it is to make friends with little people when you take their pictures! All of the kids were amazingly well behaved throughout the two and a half hour show!






Cath even had sparklers for us to light for the finale.

texas annexation

Texas Traveling




Living in New England suits my soul as the changes of scenery and seasons are much appreciated. It's a great territory to sell yarn in and I get to many beautiful places. However, I truly miss the boys and the Texas connections. Being an enterprising person and looking out for opportunities that can meet my needs, I approached a couple of my vendors who do not have representation in Texas and was successful on annexing the state to my New England Territory. I know this may sound a bit wierd if not sacriligious, but it works for me! Having three sons that are living there, missing them a bunch, this combined business with pleasure in a beautiful way.

the last weekend in May, I headed to Texas to check out my new territory and spend some "quality time" with the boys. I arrived in Dallas on Friday, rented a car, fetched John from his condo and went to see Dave at the restaurant he is working at... Maximo's at the corner of Noel and Alpha (if you are in the area - stop by and say HI). John and I then headed to Austin for the weekend and to start my yarn prowl. We arrived at Will's appartment arround 11:30 and I was one tired puppy. After meeting Will's roommates and his girl (good job Will) I headed for bed while they stayed up till who know's when.

Saturday and Sunday were spent with John, Will and Katharine Ann (KA) and the pup the two or them were foster parenting while I was there (they have had quite a few and doing a great job with this). We went for Barbeque, to Greenway springs, in and around Austin, eateries, and just a generally good time. I even gave them a little space on Sunday as I headed out to Yarnorama in Paige Texas for a little drive by. Very nice store with a full table of ladies knitting a variety of wonderful things and talking up a storm.



This Will, John and one of Wills roommates at this video game van rentable for parties. The van pulls up in front of the party person's house with two games on the outside and inside full of screens and games for the party to enjoy. this one was full of four year olds doing parallel play! I am sure you are all wondering if this is a good idea.... but some people think it is!


The expressions on the faces tell the story...







Rudy's barbeque was a highlighted meal in Austin. John Will and KA are enjoying the feast! Note the picture at the top.




Here's John at the automatic hand washer... keeps away the swine flu germs I hope... maybe not since everyone used it. We survived

The week was full of yarn store visits and kid visits. Two days in the Austin area netted 7 store visits between San Antonio, Austin and surrounds, and Wimberley Texas. Going into a yarn store is like coming home. They are all so different but all so similar. Each has it's own colors, sense of design, fiber dedication and general personality. This is why they can exist comfortably even when located near by. Having the daily focus on my business, I was able to keep busy and let the boys be. Sometimes their late hours get to me, but since I had things to do from 7 am on, I was busy and content. I would return to meet them around four and we could wander around, eat and wander some more! It was great.



These pictures are from the Old Oak Ranch yarn store and sculpture garden located in Wimberley Texas, in the Hill country West of Austin. A great destination for all fiberologist and friends as there is Texas beauty all around - and some great fibers too.














Tuesday evening John and I returned to Dallas. There i also added to the mix of adventures visiting with a couple of good friends from back in the day. I hadn't called any friends because I wanted to focus on the boys and yarn. I wanted to keep my options open for availability when they were. Davey working in the restaurant business can be unpredictable. As time alloted and availability of a friend coincided, I was furtunate to get in a couple of great quick catch up visits. I even was there for the engagement announcement of one of Davey's good friends and the 30th birthday celebration of another of his friends. What a joy. Sharing in these happy milestones is a piece of the puzzle of life that I am missing by being far away.




Here's a picture of Sue Jones, an amazing lady who makes me laugh. It was her son who got engaged. Here she is pictures with her trailer preparing for her first official outting with the "sisters on the fly" group. Man, is she lucky! I hear-tell that she had a great time.


I didn't take enough pictures to represent all the good times I had, even totally missed a picture of Davey. I intend to go back in the Fall and will, hopefully be better about telling a story with pictures.

I returned from that trip and had to turn around and travel to the yarn convention in Columbus and a visit with my Dad and brother. More to come to get this all up to date.

Old Friends - book ends

May 14th - Cathy Walker Hopkins' birthday. By happenstance, luck, or "fortunate circumstances" I reconnected with Cathy after a winter of quietness, just in time to get to share her birthday! Needing a reprieve from the quiet respit that Suffield offers between yarn calls, a social visit was a welcome relief. Gracie and I headed to Madison.

Silliness comes at all ages, and we all need some of that. So here we were, 5 full grown women, each with a diverse background and stories to tell, convening in honor of a dear friend.

Cathy and I have been friends since High school, where we would knit during our classes, not knowing how ahead of our time we were. Still knitting, I gave Cath a skein of a personal favorite yarn of mine - the Blue Heron Rayon Metallic - the Denim color will be terrific with her coloring.
Simon and Garfunkel - Old friends- I have it playing as I write... "time it was, what a time it was.. I have some photographs...." but here's the line I forgot was there " how terribly strange to be seventy." Woof (as John Robison would say) - what were we thinking. How terribly strange to be sixty would work as a concept - although not for the rhyme. What a journey.
Friendships a precious and as I have moved a bunch I realize how important it is to be "intentional" about friendships. How quickly they can fade into oblivion if not nurtured and cared for. In our fast paced world, although communication tools abound, the preciousness of shared history needs our attention. If you have taken the time to read this, maybe you would take minute to call a friend you haven't talked to in a while and let me know how that worked for you. It works for me. let's share.

The Silent Winter

Sometimes your just not in the mood to write - or there isn't much to write about. Both were true whenever I might have had the time to write. So a brief catch up to keep things up to date and not be saddled with the "dreaded Christmas update letter" that this is supposed to take the place of. Here it is SPRING and my last post was Christmas.


February brought a welcome relief as I turned in some frequent flier miles and headed out to Steamboat to visit Tyler. It was a beautiful trip with some great sunny days and good times with Tyler and Silver - the grand dog and father of Kinney who I met over Christmas. I was fortunate enough to get to stay with dear friends, Karen Harrison and Walter Freedman in their lovely home. It was incredibly relaxing and recharging. It seems so long ago.

Tyler is a delight to be with. Silver is very well behaved and he and ty take good care of each other. Neither strays to far - and the grounding is good. I didn't take many pictures as my battery had drained and the charger had gone missing. It's much easier to tell a tale when it's accompanied by photos. And I haven't quite gotten the knack of the cell phone camera. There is one picture of tyler and his friend Reagan - but that's all I've got. Enjoy it

Check out the knitted caps - EVERY one has them of all shapes and sizes - and mostly handmade! Praise the Lord! I actually knitted 5 alpaca hats out of Kraemer alpaca bulky - sooo soft - on my trip and passed them out to whomever was dearest at the moment!


I found this picture of Tyler and Silver - i think from when he was first adopted. I had another on my phone, but it seems to have disappeared. He is one fine dog.


Other than that, the winter has been long and focused on the yarn business and creating enough interest to keep the recession at bay. I have been focusing on my work and my lines, trying to bring good products and sales to the local yarn stores in new England. Knitting still continues as many seek comfort and satisfaction with working with their hands and enjoying the many great fibers that are available. As we all pull in the reigns of our economic lives, there is comfort in creativity. I, myself, have been knitting up a storm and creating fun pieces to show off the fibers I sell. I have also worked at improving my skills at spinning fibers. The rhythmic repetition of knitting and spinning combined with the tactile pleasures of same brings needed respite.

Having focused on work, I miss the kids and am working on a plan to combine the two. I will be taking my show on the road to Texas and seeing if I can drum up a little excitement in fiber business there, but more importantly, having some time with the boys.

This is a bit of a catch up post - just to bridge the gap between then and now and let you know that I am still here, looking for giggles and finding adventures. Hopefully to be posted in a more timely basis.