August Lately

And So it Goes

The end of summer quickly approaches, although it doesn't seem that we had one at all. The last week has been sunny and hot- welcomed, but foreign after all of this rain and chill.

My boys go back to school next week. One starts his last year at our wonderful elementary school, the other starts his first. It will be the first time that I have not had a small child at home for virtually as long as I can remember. It's a new chapter for all of us.

I have gone back and forth about what to do with all of this time. I have contemplated closing the business and going back to work full time, but really, it makes no sense to go back to a 9-5 career with limited income possibilities that allows very little flexibility for my children's schedules. I loved my work and many of my colleagues were like family to me- many of them remain my closest friends, even if I don't see them nearly often enough. But going back feels like a dead end.

I have so many interests that it's impossible to settle on anything right now, so I've decided to go back to college (a pursuit I abandoned early on in favor of motherhood) to complete a liberal studies degree at our local community college. I have no idea where it will lead, but at this point, I could still be a doctor before I'm 40. I owe it to myself, and my children, to at least explore the possibilities.

A family medical issue and the back-to-school rush have hindered any dyeing or sewing in the past week, but I'm hoping that this weekend will allow me some time to get at least a small batch done. My stolen time in the evenings when everyone else in the house is either asleep or dozing in front of the television has yielded a happy result- my finished Loppem:

Next up- My February Lady Sweater.

And Back Again

Life can really, really become a distraction sometimes! Suffice to say, given the lack of posts on this blog, that  life in general has been busy. The Hadley Homestead has been slowly awakening as the four (yes four!) feet of snow has finally begun to melt away and we have daylilies tentatively poking out along the edge of the house where roof melt has provided a bare patch of ground. This is not just a cheerful sight, but a miraculous one, because we have not seen a winter this long and snowy in years. We were all beginning to think we'd stumbled into a new ice age up here.

I've been keeping busy sewing custom bag orders and the busy bridal season has started. It hasn't left much time for new product development, but I'm not complaining! Assembly line bag-sewing doesn't quite fulfill my need for creativity however, so I've re-taken up knitting and have actually gone farther with it than ever before. I'm actually knitting an adult sized sweater! I'm remembering how much I love the textures and colors of yarn and the process of using simple stitches to create a unique and beautiful fabric. Since I've never knitted sweaters before, I'm planning to use up my stash of cheap acrylic yarns first so that by the time I get into my wool and cotton, I will feel confident in what I'm doing.

I've always loved working with natural fibers and materials, so I was not surprised when my muse recently whispered plant dyeing and spinning in my ear. As the snow melts away, I'm thinking about the plants and berries that will soon come to life again and provide me with an abundance of colors to work with.

I was finally able to get into Ravelry, an incredible knitting community, which I hope will help me to connect to others who will inspire me as I continue along this new crafty adventure. I found a beginner spinners group, newish knitters group, and a Vermont knitters group! If you haven't checked it out, and have even the slightest interest in yarn and knitting or crochet, you will definitely want to.

Still Here

Well, I did have a nice post all ready to go until firefox decided to crash on me. Typepad, why don't you save autodrafts for me? It would be ever so helpful!

January was the month of The Flu in the Hadley house, which is why I never got to that handmade holidays update post. The gifts we gave were gratifyingly appreciated and it is definitely something we'd like to continue for years to come.

That apron I designed? It came out so nicely, and I got such good feedback from it, that I decided to add aprons and matching dish towels to my product line. It's an idea I had been toying with for some time, and the enthusiastic response I received from the recipient sealed the deal. I'll be adding several reversible fabric combo options later today.

In January, I spent much of my time on the couch with one arm around a sick child and a sketchbook on my lap. Now that things have gone back to normal for the time being, I will be working on bringing my 2D imaginations into 3D reality. Stay tuned!

Meet Rachel

The Hadley family has a new member. Meet Rachel:

I have always wanted a Saint Bernard. They are such gentle giants. My husband and I believe in rescuing animals, not buying from breeders, so I had not been holding out much hope for getting one. Last weekend, we saw a friend in the store who knew a family who needed to find a home for their two year old Saint Bernard. This was the dog we'd been waiting for.

She is an absolute love in every way. Despite a few issues that will come with dogs the size of small ponies, she has become a part of our family so seamlessly that it's strange to realize that she's been with us for less than a week.

And just like That, Summer was Over

And what a whirlwind of a summer it was. Between swimming lessons, sleep overs and karate class three nights a week, I hardly had time to notice that it was summer before it was over.

Here in Vermont, the boys are back in school, the first leaves are starting to turn, and I'm using even more brown than usual in my projects. I absolutely *love* autumn. It's warm enough to be comfortable in a sweatshirt, but cool enough to keep the mosquitoes and black flies at bay. I start to think about turkey suppers and snuggling up under a blanket with my latest crochet project and a fresh cup of cocoa. This is the season in which I truly feel blissful and so very thankful to live in this wonderful, beautiful place.

August Lately has had a very busy summer and I suspect that it will only continue to get busier as the gift-giving season approaches. I'm trying very hard to get some new styles completed and available before the shopping season, but keeping up with current orders is always the first priority. Anybody know a responsible, detail-oriented person who wants to cut fabric for me?

Now that the boys are back in school and I have more quiet time available, I hope to get back to blogging at least once a week, and to share more photos!

I'm Baaaaaaaack!

And feeling oh so much BETTER! Yes, I meant to shout there. If I were to shout for real I think my jaw would protest but the virtual shouting, that's ok.

Right now I'd say I'm about 50% back to normal. I'm pretty sore, but I won't get into what the pain meds did to me. Let's just say I'll take nagging pain over what they did to my poor little belly any day.

I have a giant bruise on my jaw, it really looks like I took a very solid punch. It'll be gone in a few days though.

I want to thank all of you who took the time to leave comments on the last few very self-absorbed (and rather groggy) posts. You really did make me feel better to know that you care and I promise that I won't be so whiny in the future.

Now, enough about my mouth!

Boy, have I got some news! You know that big, huge, life-affirming project I talked about a while back? It's one step closer to fruition and I'm so excited I can't stand it! With any luck I'll be able to spill in a few weeks. Just cross those fingers for me, ok?

And finally something pretty to share- My new fabric from ReproDepot!

I can't wait to get these lovelies washed and sewn into something!

Signing Off for a Few Days

Well, as my doc predicted, the pain and swelling got a lot worse today and will probably be bad for the next day or two. As a result, I've had to break into the heavy-duty drugs that I was hoping not to have to take. It's making me extremely dizzy and all-around wonky so I'm not even going to attempt to write in the blog for a few days.

I hope you all have a great remainder of your weekends and I'll check in later this week when I can think straight again!

Ow!

Well, I woke up at 2:30 am in some pretty bad pain. It's weird. One side of my mouth doesn't even feel like anything happened. The other feels like I got punched in the jaw by Mike Tyson.

I'm really resistant to taking the heavy drugs so I took some ibuprofen (they told me that was OK because it will also help with the swelling) and was able to go to sleep again and was in much less pain by 6:30 when we got up. I'm still sore, but much less so. More bothersome to me, and this may be TMI so feel free to skip this part, is that my mouth is expected to bleed off and on for a while and you know, that's just nasty, unless you like the taste of your own blood, which I certainly do not.

One of the cool things I learned from this is that the tannins in tea actually help blood to coagulate. In my after care instructions it actually said to try a tea bag compress if you were bleeding more than you'd like. Go figure. I tried it and it seems to have helped some.

I'm supposed to go to my cousin's wedding today and try to do some photography for her. Man I hope I can get there. I might ask my husband to keep the boys home so all I have to worry about is myself. The last wedding we went to (his mom's) was one big blur of corralling the kids and I think I may have had three adult conversations over the entire weekend. I'm not complaining, it's just not something that I want to deal with on top of my current discomfort.

On a more positive note, I have some great new stuff from ReproDepot waiting for me at the post office. With any luck I'll be able to show you some pretty fabric tomorrow!

Recovering

Well, I lived. The worst part really was the IV insertion, and that wasn't even all that bad. I have an extremely dry, tingly mouth but they assured me that will soon be replaced by pain and I will be glad to have the pain meds on hand. Oy.

General anesthesia is a really interesting thing, for those of you who haven't had it. About 3 seconds after they put the sleeping meds into my IV I felt it, and of course Dr. Goofball, what does he do? He starts juggling something (it looked like sponge wedges, must be some kind of thing to keep my mouth open) next to me and makes me think I'm hallucinating. About two seconds later I was gone. It felt like 1 second later that they were waking me up and had Am come in to sit with me. 20 minutes after that we were out the door. Now that's my kind of surgery!

It was really nothing at all. I guess I've got some time ahead of me for recovery but the part that completely freaked me out is over and I'm really glad to never have to dread something like that again. Our imaginations are always worse than the real thing, aren't they?

The weirdest thing is that I can already feel all of my other teeth spacing themselves out. It's been so long since they've had any room.

As a side note, I would not recommend typing on a blog for all to see while anesthesia is still wearing off. I've gone over this thing three times and I still don't know if I caught all of the errors. My apologies in advance to all of you spelling and grammar freaks out there!

Hey, Thanks!

Ladies, thank you so much for your comforting words. It really helps!

As promised, the new fabric gallery is up and I've added some customizing options to some of my most popular items. Specifically, there's a new wristlet with removable handle and inner pocket.

I've also made my messenger bag

and the pocket clutch customizable as well.

There are currently 30 fabric combinations available to choose from, with more coming soon, I promise! Sounds like a good recovery time task, as long as the meds they give me don't make me too fuzzy brained. This from someone who gets completely incoherent when she takes Sudafed!

I'm trying to make today productive and not think about tomorrow. It's so hard when all you want to do is get something over with but you have to wait. And wait. And wait. Ah well, I just keep telling myself that by this time tomorrow it will be over and I'll never have to worry about it again!