No soap, no toothpaste, no mat, no problem.

Here is a post with no pictures!*

We just got back from our little break up at Kripalu yoga center. Ahhhhhh.

We treated it like a real break from everything and I was into the Zen Packing Method which meant waking up the day we were to leave, showering, and throwing everything into a bag without a care in the world. La la la. Of course it wasn't until we were entering the Kripalu driveway that we realized that we'd left our yoga mats behind. But no bother, Andrew doesn't get skeeved out by using other people's mats (they have an abundance for borrowing there), and I just bought a new one at the Kripalu store. At first this was hard to accept...it meant I was missing my cloth mat that I use when I get all sweaty-palmed (which is approximately 2 seconds into my first down dog) and I didn't want to shell out money for another one of those, but I did realize that in the handful of years that I've been a yogini, I haven't bought myself a new basic mat. See? Things happen for a reason and the Zen Packing Method always has a way of working itself out.

Of course, forgetting our toothpaste and soap was a different story. Morning oms and morning breath do not go together very well, but by the time we'd realized that we'd done a fine job of forgetting basically the important essentials, it was all something to laugh about.

So...many yoga classes, fantastic meals, and lots of knitting and reading time later, and I'm left wondering how to keep the sense of inner calm I find at Kripalu back to my daily life - - as I finish with spring break and head into hell week for Sweeney Todd. There is something about letting go of all of the random, needless crap that bogs us down. Why do I have to read my email 80,000 times a day, and why to people feel the need to email me so much? How much of all of that effort is really important, and how much gets in the way of energy that could be spent in a more positive way? At Kripalu, there are no locks on the doors. There are safes in the room if you want to put your wallet in there, but the message is simple: don't bring goofy expensive stuff which will get in the way of finding your center anyway, and know that when you walk through the door you are entering a community of trust so don't mess with it. The expectation is there that we'll be able to manage fine with this arrangement, and I imagine that most people do. Because of the lack of keys, checking in to Kripalu consists of picking up a name tag and finding out where your room is and then you are off. And when you leave, you just leave. There's no checkout or busybody work that the staff has to do to make it all happen, no keys that they have to get for you or hold for you during the day, or make you a new copy of if you lose them. For guests, not having a room key to worry about means that if you split up from your roommate during the day, you just meet up later and can get back into the room whenever. Simple.

So this leaves me wondering, what are the busy part of my day...the unnecessary keys that seem to serve a purpose, but perhaps will become meaningless if I just readjust an aspect of my daily life. And if I can minimize or even eliminate those keys, what space will I have created for other, more meaningful activities?

And with that, I'm off to a double rehearsal (afternoon rehearsal, dinner, evening rehearsal) for Sweeney. Om.

*and the reason there are no pictures? I brought the camera and found the perfect photo to take of the mountains on the morning we were leaving - it had been snowing all morning and then the clouds broke all whispy-like over the mountains and lake. And as I set up my shot and looked into the view finder, a little red light indicated "no card". Well, at least the Zen Packing Method produced consistent results. And the truth of the matter was that I should have been standing there looking at the beautiful scenery rather than trying to fuss with photographing it.

Complete Set

Well, the eggs have been reunited! The mail delayed them so that our friends' eggs didn't get here in time for Easter, but no matter because now they are happily together. And there is an identical set on the West Coast, joyfully nesting.

And here's what I love about crafting with friends (even if it is long distance). With simple instructions (paint two of the same sized eggs identically), look at the different approaches we all took. Tony, who is the tallest and therefore had the honor of creating the outside egg, created a clever design of a bird hatching out of the egg. Brilliant. And apparently the eggs would have made it into the mail a few days earlier if Tony hadn't needed to paint another coat of yellow on the beak, a fact which makes me love his egg all the more. Jodi's egg is the middle one and she's the only person who thought to paint the inside of her egg, and Sophie (who had the smallest egg) chose to paint a line around the middle as if hers was cut in half to open...genius. They are perfect. Gosh, I love these eggs.

Thank God for Chocolate

A.K.A., the Easter post!

Here are the eggs that Andrew and I painted up for the New Easter Egg Tradition. We haven't gotten the eggs from our friends yet as they are held up in the mail - -I was hoping to have them pictured all together in time for Easter. So these are our lonely eggs, waiting for their three nesting buddies. C'mon, mail!!!!

I had told a friend a while back that I would make her a garnet and pearl curly q necklace ages ago and I finally put it together. It's one of my favorite curly q designs because I think the fresh water pearls pair so nicely with the hand-dyed silk cord. I swear, I could have a hundred million of those silk cords and never have enough...they are so fantastic. I got them at a bead show a while ago at Marsha Neale's booth.

And because you can't just make ONE of something when you're up in the craft room (all of the tools and beads were out already and Andrew and the cat were quite content watching March Madness!), I made another necklace which I'll put in the shop. I'm really flipping out about lavender lately and I'm not sure why...it all started when I got addicted to Margerum's (local producer, can't find a website, sadly) lavender jelly. At first I was like "hmmm....tastes like eating soap," but because I was convinced that eating lavender was super-cool, I kept at it and now it's like some latent lavender gene has been switched on in me. I bathe in it, perfume myself with it, stuff sachets with it, eat it, try desperately to grow it (which is tough to do in our climate....when I was in Portland, OR I gave serious thought to moving there just because I'd be able to grow lavender) and now I'm falling love with the color (guess what color the bedroom is going to be painted?!) It's true folks. If I were in the 2nd grade, I'd tell myself to go marry lavender...that's how much I love it.

Anyway, here's my Lavender Love Curly Q

Swarm Management

The beads have been organized! Nothing brings a slightly OCD person more pleasure than having something to sort and after making a necklace with the beads Debbie gave me, that's just what I did:) There was a whole other box of organizational pleasure that I didn't photograph, but just so you know...that's how many beads I got to sort yesterday.
The necklace is up in the shop:)

A Swarm of Beads

I'm not really sure what you call a whole bunch of beads. A gathering? A gaggle? A collection seems way too boring. As I took this photo, it felt like I was looking at a swarm of beads...so there you go. Debbie gave them to my mom to give to me, so I'm not sure what their history is. But considering that the three of us are yard sale hopping buddies, I'd say they were picked up from some such place. It's a lovely mix of random shades and as soon as I finish with this post, I'm heading up to the craft room to mess with them.

Things have been quiet in blog-land for some time as I've been swamped with the few weeks before spring break and with endless Sweeney Todd rehearsals. My little community theatre is taking on this monster of a musical this year and there have just been rehearsals piled on top of rehearsals and lots of grumpy people trying to learn lots of insane music and lyrics. I've been knitting up a storm when I'm not on stage, but don't have anything completed yet to show for it. This year, I've taken to bringing my knitting on stage with me. There are so many stops and starts in the runs of the acts that we're doing right now, I can't tell you how many times I run to the wings to get ready for a scene I'm in and then something at the very end of the previous scene is messed up and I end up waiting - - miles away from my knitting - - for a half hour. Despite the fact that I've been hassled for trying to "multitask" during rehearsal, I submit that I am actually working hard at maintaining my sanity and therefore, the knitting stays with me. I think that from now on, when someone asks me what I'm knitting (why to people always do that when you knit in public? I find the question odd), I'll just say "I'm knitting sanity." These days, that's just about right.

And speaking of knitting, I worked up this little baby beanie a while ago, but just sent it out to a new member of the family (my cousin's first baby) just recently. Yay for quick and tiny knitting:)

Monday Birthdays

They are never the best, but they have to happen. Today was one such birthday - - an auspicious one (33 on 3/3), but a Monday birthday nonetheless. Being that I share the same birthday with my Mom (for reals) and that she has a meeting and I have my first Chinese class tonight, it's going to be an odd day without her around. But I thought about her all day (and maybe broke a school rule and called her during class and had my kids sing Happy Birthday to her) and hope that she's reading my blog tonight: Happy Birthday to us!

I have no pictures to show for it as I'm between Fiddler rehearsal and the afore-mentioned Chinese class, but I needed to write about how wonderful it is to be really known by your friends. I didn't want or need anything in particular this birthday, but the friends and family who got me gifts really managed to find things that show that they are paying attention. They know what I'm into recently and what I've loved forever and as I've wandered through this weird birthday that I've felt should be important (33 on 3/3, in case you forgot!) but didn't seem to be, waiting for "something" to happen that would make it a really grand day, it finally occurred to me that the something has already happened: I have really, truly good friends.

Blouson Sweater

Here's the blouson: all finished. I finished this up really quick with the help of the complete second and third seasons of Lost. I'm now catching up with this season on the computer (not as comfortable as the TV to knit in front of, but whatever). Why the hell can't I find the first episode of the fourth season on the computer? Just wondering.

I'm happy with how it turned out and am loving the feel of the yarn I used (Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk Aran). It knit up a bit bulkier than I imagined it would, but it's cozy and warm and will keep me toasty until Spring (finally) arrives. I chose to keep the knit side as the right side...I'm just not totally sold on the inside-out look yet. I knit the whole thing basically in reverse which I only had to think about for a few of the decrease rows. I'm really happy with how the hems turned out, and the pleating and knitting of them was really simple, too.This is the first sweater I knit with raglan sleeves and it was a little epiphany moment to realize that the sleeve tops became part of the neckline (duh). Anyway, I think I nice tank top to bring me into the warmer months will be the next project on tap (hooray for no sleeves to knit!) the sleeveless tuxedo top from the same issue of IK.