I need a break. I have a few commitments  ALL with deadlines coming  within the next 2 weeks.

Why oh why does that seem to always happen?

Feast or famine seems to be the order of things.

I wish I could play a little elevator music for you while you wait for something new and exciting to happen here.

I’ve put Ron to work hanging clothes line in the dye studio while I work.

Soon there will be spring breezes coming in the windows to dry fabrics and threads.

I’ll be ready!

I wanted to tell you a little more about the lessons I learned recently. Sometimes I write things to release them to the cosmos so I can move past them. That’s why I posted them.

The first lesson about a good deed was simple. I gave an acquaintance a large amount of Koa wood so her son could use it. She had lamented that he was starting to work in wood but all the exotic woods are expensive. Koa wood is VERY expensive and I had a large wide frame that I could part with to help him get started. The only thing I asked for in return was that he make some small token for me like a  hera marker. That was more than a year ago and my emails to her asking for either this small token or the wood back go unanswered. Its a shame really, but I learned that she and her son are the poorer for this and you can’t make someone show their appreciation.  I do believe in Karma.

The lessons I learned on written instructions and workshops all have to do with some of the natural dyeing I’ve been doing.  I have books from a couple of internationally known teachers. One says scouring the fabrics isn’t really necessary and another says it is.  The supply list for a workshop says to bring fabric that has been scoured but doesn’t elaborate. I cannot imagine a total beginner making heads or tails from all this.

I have used both methods for dyeing with good results. Or at least I thought I used both methods before dyeing. I have an old book on the subject of natural dye and decided to give that method of scouring fabric a go. Wow. Was I ever surprised. The water from previously scoured fabric turned so brown it looked like the fabric was in a tannin bath. I haven’t used any of it to dye yet, that will have to wait a few days. But I hope you can see why I was  frustrated about it all.

Recent lessons learned in the last month

• Sometimes when you do a good deed it comes back to bite you in the butt
• When you buy a technique book it may have incomplete instructions so I won’t buy their books again
• Some authors are more giving and sharing of full details than others so I will always buy their books
• When you pay a lot of money for a workshop you don’t always get all the information you need
• Do your own experimenting and research and suck it up when  the workshop leader assumes everyone knows the answers
• When you sell something you have created there are people who want you to give them directions to make it on their own and for free (** NOTE: I didn’t sell it in a book or workshop)
• When your husband tells you not to lift something….DON’T !
• There are caring and giving friends who don’t come under the first thing on this list so I will pay it forward

Quite a lot of learning in the last few days and I am not too old to learn from them!