Unmoored

 My apologies for the lack of posts this past year.  

The final decline and passing of my father this summer had taken al ot of time away from my time at my weaving activities.

I always had in the back of my mind, if not immediate thoughts, were of my mother and how I could help her.

Yesterday was a hard day. My mother has joined my dad in heaven after only about 3 months apart.  Her health has always been a little iffy - breathing and heart issues as well as kidney function lately.  We had been working on getting her breathing back to normal the last month or so, so she could go visit the grandkids in Canada, but she had a quick decline that would have needed a ventilator, but she made the decision to receive comfort care instead.  Her condition made it very hard for the doctors to keep her comfortable without impacting her ability to breath/get oxygenated and maintain her blood pressure.  So it was one or the other.  She was aware and her spicy self thru the pain and struggle and when she realized she couldn't handle the struggle until my brother and her sister got there, she made the decision to let go.  After the pain was relieved, she was able to rest peacefully and quietly slipped away.  My sister and I, along with my 3 kids were there with her.  My brother didn't get there in time, and neither did my sister, but we are glad her suffering was over. 

This picture is of my parents and one of my girls at one of the last events that dad was able to attend.

We will miss them both, but are happy that they are together again in their new heavenly home. 

I will probably be a little unmoored for awhile as we navigate thru final arrangements and the new day to day without them in it.

All for now,

JULIE

An Apprentice

 Yesterday I had the pleasure of being the supervisor of the young man.  Mom and Dad were weaning calves...

I don't do bunches of production work on weaving during the summer, but there wasn't much I could do with a busy little guy needing most of my attention.

What to do, but grab some denim strips and start cleaning the strings off!

I don't usually do this as a separate step, I usually just grab a 'dirty' strip, clean it off and sew it to the previous one at the sewing machine.

I figured this was something I could do with a busy little guy underfoot.

Jhett had a ball unloading the clean strip tote and carrying the strips around.

Mom came in to check on us and take a bathroom break and found us being productive.  Thus the photos.

I have 3 vendor events left for the year. I have enough inventory, but  I feel like I didn't weave enough this summer.... some colors and size choices are slim.   I'm making it a goal for this winter to weave up as much as possible so that I won't feel the need to weave much at all next summer.  Ya know, get enough inventory for all the shows I normally do. 

 Maybe I can enjoy some riding and fun stuff next summer then?\

All for now, 
JULIE