Stasia's Place Of Grace

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

 

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Seeking Mesquite Spindle

Quick question: does anyone know where I can obtain a good-spinning, well-balanced, Mesquite wood spindle? Please e-mail me if so (and ignore the Spaminator message - I will see your e-mail without you having to appeal to me to be "let in"!) TIA!

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What To Get For Mom?

Guess what? My sister is going to be a mother! Wow! That has me thinking about Mother's Day...

I have found a few new favorite things lately, and all would be great Mother's Day gifts, so I thought I'd share them with you.

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Crabtree & Evelyn offers these for the gardening mum... er, mom. The Gardeners Hand Recovery is amazing stuff - I can't live without it. Great for knitters to prevent dry skin from snagging their yarn, too! They're not kidding when they call it "a manicure in a tube" - and it works in 30 seconds. Goes on dry as a scrub to exfoliate; get it wet to lather; then rinse and dry and you've been lotioned! Amazing!

Check out the cute gardening tote (a good value, stuffed with stuff!) and apron while you're there! There's even a free gift, and free shipping, with a $60 purchase right now.

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Speaking of aprons, what about one of these? Methinks they'd be perfect for a gardening mom, cooking mom, or fiberartist mom! So cute! Look in the "animals" section for "Down On The Farm" which has sheep on it!

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What about making some homemade, lavender-scented homekeeping supplies? There are recipies for laundry detergent, fabric softener, and linen spray here.

And lavender dryer sachets are easy: take a little muslin bag, fill it with lavender flowers, add 6 drops of lavender essential oil, and toss it in your dryer - good for about five loads. Ask Theresa where to get the little muslin bags - I forgot! Were they from e-Bay? We got them for dyeing a long time ago...

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My Caracalla Bean (Vigna Caracalla) arrived from the Thomas Jefferson Center For Historic Plants! It comes as a tuber, ready to plant in potting soil. Bet your mom has never seen one of these! And bet she'd love one. They're gorgeous!

And speaking of gorgeous flowers, the Jamilou Hibiscus from ExoticHibiscus.com was just featured in a recent Martha Stewart Living... I ordered a few, in case my black thumbs kill one!

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Does your mom enjoy a nice glass of vino? The 2002 Sauvignon Blanc from St. Sup�ry is fantastic! Reasonably-priced (under $15), it received a 95 point rating (somewhere... I forget where!) and tastes of pineapple, with lime and grapefruit aromas. Sweet and tart at the same time, it'll stand up to something cooked with cilantro - we had it with tequila-lime marinated, grilled chicken.

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Where's my java?!?!? I'm going nuts without it! I broke my Bodum French press's glass carafe, but thank goodness I was able to find a replacement - plus some migratory-bird-friendly, organic coffee - at CoffeeAM.com.

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For the mom-to-be, you can't beat the clean, simple designs in "Simple Knits For Cherished Babies" by Erika Knight, and "Baby Knits For Beginners" by Debbie Bliss. I picked up both today.

Or what about Evolving Body Balm from Badger Balm? It's wondrous stuff to prevent stretch marks... and their Sleep Balm rocks!

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In My Garden

Today in my garden, we find mini-daffodils, checquered lilies, and blue grape hyacinths blooming. We see two male cardinals displaying for a female, with their wonderful, bright red plumage flashing against the grass, newly-green from a week of rains. And there's a burrow being dug by something big - wonder what it'll turn out to be?

Lettuce is coming up, and there are tomato and cilantro seedlings in the mini-greenhouse. The jalape�o from last year survived indoors over the winter, and has its first flower. Can salsa be far behind?

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In My Creative Life

Will be picking up the beaded doll again soon.

Knitting on my Geddy (dear departed Sheltie) fiber socks - just got some Crystal Palace bamboo circular needles as the stitches kept falling off my 5" Brittanys when I'd take these out and about. I love the CP bamboos, and doing socks on two of them, and I also love the service I have received from Yarnmarket.com, from whom (whence?) I purchased them. They have fantastic customer assistance, and you can see right off the bat what's in stock when you order on their website!

I'm spinning California Variegated Mutant/Romeldale wool - gray - from Sheepy Thyme Farm - they've just sheared, and they are not kidding when they tell you that their ram fleeces are odorless! I have fleece from Rocky and Teddy and both are worth every penny. I spun a skein of Rocky and submitted it for the Spin-Off Rare Breed "Show Us Your Skeins" feature, and now I'm finishing up the rest of it, making a 4-ply, cabled yarn for socks. I'm spinning it on my Little Lendrum (upright) (as opposed to the Lendrum Saxony which just spun some lovely Silkworker silk for me).

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On The Nightstand

Quentins - Maeve Binchy
Two Gardeners: A Friendship In Letters - Katharine S. White & Elizabeth Lawrence
Simple Knits For Cherished Babies - Erika Knight
Baby Knits For Beginners - Debbie Bliss
Clarissa - Frances (Fanny) Burney

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May you have a very happy Mother's Day, whether you are a mom, a mom-to-be, a mom-to-your-friends, or whether you have a mom or know a mom or, like me, never wanted to be a mom at all!

Know who's a good mom? The Spindlers ListMom and RealMom Nannette!

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