A Month of Catching Up

It's coming up on a month since I last wrote anything. That's not completely accurate since I did write an entire post but I deleted it instead of posting it. I decided I didn't want that post on here.

So here's what's been happening. I've had several art shows and all that that entails. The making of work, taking photos of work, pricing my work, packing and then loading it into my car, then unloading and setting up my booth, taking down and repacking my work, then unloading the car once I get home. I've done that seven weeks in a row now and I have one more show this summer on Saturday. After that I have my three day Renaissance faire in September and at least one Christmas show in November, plus any open studios I do. I have won two ribbons this summer so far and I'm very excited about that!

Minocqua Island Art Walk

Three Lakes Art on Main

I haven't needed to make any pottery the last couple of weeks, I will be making some after the show this week, but instead I have been crocheting. I need to get some Kritters made, they seem to be pretty popular and I finally picked up the yarn to work on my temperature afghan again. I made it to July 28th before I ran out of another color and now have to take another trip to buy yarn. Considering I was stuck somewhere back in May, July 28th is pretty caught up, at least for now.

I ran out of orange about 10 inches from the end of the row.

I also took some work to a friend's store, Stamp, Paper, Scissors in Minocqua by WalMart/Trig's. She has a little of my pottery, scarves, Kritters, paintings and cards. So a little of Katlyn Koester Designs and a little of Katlyn's Bohemian Designs. If you need some of my work you can check it out there. (I also have some of my old style pottery at Chocolates and More in the boardwalk shops by Save More, Kritters and sweater monsters in the Three Lakes Center for the Arts, and as always a selection of old and new style pottery and Kritters at Artistree Gallery in Land O' Lakes.)

My display at Stamp, Paper, Scissors

Along with all the shows and art I actually had a little time to be social this month. I spent a couple days hanging out with some family that came to visit, went to a friend's birthday party and made new friends, went blueberry picking with my family and went for a hike with a friend. In essence that amount of socializing is what I usually do in a couple months and I had all of that in about 10 days.

Now the end of summer is near and isn't that odd? Where did it go this year? I feel like just a couple weeks ago I was hiking the Ice Age Trail. You can read about that adventure here: Day 1-2, Day 3-4, Day 5-6. Of course a lot has happened this summer, some good, some not so good. But you can't stop time no matter how much you want to, just have to take notes, pictures, and enjoy it while it happens. And the more you enjoy it, the more it stays with you.

Ramblings

I started writing a post this morning and realized I was just trying to fill up space without really saying anything. I'm not quite ready to share my new plans in full so here's what's up.

My first four months of my temperature afghan. I'm marking
family birthdays with special rows, and up toward the top you can
see the orange rows where we've had two days of 70 degree weather.
Immediately followed by 30 degree days.

This week has been quiet. I have spent a lot of time painting and crocheting. I have thought a lot about some options and things I am working on, but it is all still pretty new, so I'm not sharing it with the world just yet.

Some of our daffodils that got 3 inches of snow dropped on them.
And then rain, and wind, and some blazing sun. Briefly.

And it is being a fairly typical northwoods Wisconsin spring. Meaning the weather is trying to fit winter, spring, summer and a little fall into one week, sometimes into one day.

Final Prep For My Ice Age Trail Thru-Hike

I felt I needed to do the obligatory "gear" picture and "meal plan" picture. So here's my final gear plan. I realize now that I don't have my actual hiking boots in here, or my maps and I didn't put in my bathroom items as I am still using some of those. I know already that there are a few items people are going to look at and immediately want to tell me I'm wrong. Well, guess what? Maybe that item is wrong for you, but it might be what will make MY hike possible.

Most of my gear.

The two most obvious of those items are my fleece blanket and my puppy "Shreds." I can totally and completely understand why some people might think these are just extra weight. Here's my reasoning behind them and you can agree or disagree with my decision, but just remember it is my choice and if I decide I no longer want to carry something, I can mail it home at the next little town I go through that has a post office. So when I went on my first hiking trip to the Porcupine Mountains, I wanted something on the bottom of my tent, something soft, and I didn't take anything with. Then when I went to Colorado, I again did not take anything and I tend to spread out when I sleep and never stay completely on my sleeping pad and all night (each night) as soon as I touched the cold floor of my tent, I woke up. So this time I am taking a fleece blanket, it is fairly lightweight although a bit bulky, so it will get strapped wherever it fits. Plus I can wrap my feet and legs in it to keep them warm since wearing socks to bed only makes my feet colder.

"Shreds" my travel puppy and my fleece blanket.

Now the puppy. "Shreds" was given to me by a friend for my 18th birthday. He came to college with me and sat on my desk all four years. He came to North Carolina with me, riding shotgun, in 2010 when I drove solo to Penland School of Crafts for a two week pottery class. He kept me company while I sat for two hours waiting for assistance on the side of I-65 in Indiana while my parents and I tried to make sense of a AAA membership that the paperwork never got run. He came with me on my short, but solo trip to Grand Marais and my broom making class last year. And most recently he accompanied me on my trip to Colorado riding in the cup holder the whole way. He didn't actually come on the hike with me, but he was there in Colorado. "Shreds" is my travel puppy and he's going to be riding shotgun on my pack for this hike for as long as I want him. And since I can't take my slightly senile 19 (92 in cat years) year old cat, Shreds is going with.

Yes that is my bra she is sleeping on. Saturn (and her brother Neptune when he was alive) always seem to know when I am going away and end up in my clothes, suitcase or what ever else when I am trying to pack.

And here's my food for the first five days, plus a little more. You can't see everything because of how it is packed, but I have tuna, pita pockets, cheese (because I am a true Wisconsin girl and can not go with out my cheese, and I will buy more along the trail as I use up what I am taking with), breakfast bars, five dinners with a package of ramen if I need more, assorted drink powders, peanut butter and jelly, and assorted snacks including peanut m&ms, cashews, Reese's Pieces, mini chocolate bars, fruit gummy snacks, dried fruit and raisins, fruit leather, crackers, Gardettos and corn chips to add to my mashed potatoes. The tube of tomato paste will last through much of the hike and is for some of my pasta dinners and a couple of the rice dinners that need a little more flavor. Plus I have seeds for sprouting in hemp bags, I have my first crop already going so I can have some my second day out.

Each resupply box has some variation on this based on how many days I need to get to my next box.

And here's an update on my temperature afghan. This is as far as I will get before starting my hike. When I get back I will look up the high temperatures for the days (months) I missed and then catch up. I was glad when it started to warm up, I ran out of the 30 degree color. And if you can see the two stripes of multicolor yarn? Those are family birthdays. I made a slightly taller stitch with the color for the day then chained around the shaft of the stitch to make it stand out. I have a brighter yarn I am going to use for the summer birthdays.

In a holding pattern for the next two months...

Next time I'll see you on the trail!

Surprises and Back to Work

My yarn rainbow. The fuchsia color is for below zero, but
if we don't get much of that I may also use it for above 90.

It's begun! Just letting you all know I got the yarn for my temperature afghan and I caught up on the first few days. (My first post about the afghan is here.) I think it is going to be very pretty. Except I may record the temperatures for a few days up to a week at a time and then sit down one day and do them all at once. It wasn't very fun doing the first row, it never is, it's the hardest row in my opinion, but I was very happy to do four rows at once instead of stopping after one. So I think I need to do a couple days at a time.

The first four days, I'm going to be continuing on with purple for
the next few days, not supposed to get out of the single digits here.

I also had a surprise yesterday. It isn't very often that I win something. And most times when I do the prize is something I might like to have, but never would have purchased on my own, but if I could win it that's great! So I signed up for an art supply giveaway over the 12 days of Christmas and then completely forgot that I had won. A box came for me yesterday and I had no idea what it was. It was the paper I had won. I thought I was only getting three pads, I got six and one is the kind and size I was planning on taking hiking with me so I could paint pictures on the trail. This giveaway was for things that I was going to buy eventually. I almost got myself one when I was at Hobby Lobby yesterday, glad I didn't!

The littlest pad will be coming on my hike of the Ice Age Trail.

On Tuesday I got back out into the studio, the pottery studio that is, my painting and bead studio is just a folding banquet table set up in my bedroom and I crochet wherever I feel like it. Anyway, I haven't made any pottery since November and with shows starting again (read a little about that here) I needed to start working on some things. I have plenty of work left over from last year, but I always try to have something new in the works for the new year. Today I will hopefully be trimming this work and getting ready for my first firing of the year later this month.

First work of 2017.

I always have new ideas floating around in my head, is it my Creative Genius whispering for me to get back out in the studio? (A little about the Creative Genius here.) Maybe, maybe I needed the break from pottery, maybe I needed the time to work only on crochet, beads and painting. Maybe it has now been enough time for me to want to get back in the studio. Whatever it is I have work in progress and things to do. Onward!

Happy 2017!

Happy New Year! Happy 2017! My parents and I went to bed at reasonable times and woke up to the new year. I don't relish the staying up to welcome in the new year idea. I'd much rather be in bed well before midnight rolls around. We do have a sort of simple good luck tradition that we have done several years in a row now. We have a dinner of some good luck foods. I know there are many good luck foods you are supposed to eat on new year's day, but we have the ones we like. I make pig shaped cookies, because I won't eat pork, but eating pig or pork is good luck because pigs are rotund which represents prosperity and they always "root forward" symbolizing progress. Then we also have long noodles representing a long life, and dark leafy greens representing money. I also try to have at least one citrus (usually clementines) because they are round and gold in color they represent coins or again money/wealth/prosperity. I read somewhere the tradition is to eat 13 during the first of the year and I can't imagine eating that many citrus fruits in one day. Can you imagine?

Pig shaped cookies, this year they got sprinkles.

I'm not making any resolutions. I find I don't keep them. I want to be healthier so I plan to eat less junk, exercise more and in general do things that are considered healthy. It never lasts, I can be going along for a month or more and one day I simply stop trying. I don't say "screw it, I don't feel any healthier than before I started this so I'm not going to do it any more." I don't, but for some reason I stop making the conscious decision to not have that cookie, or to go on a walk. I have the cookie and I spend the day sitting, doing various stationary projects.

Romaine salad with spinach fettuccine. 

So instead of making a New Year's Resolution that I know I won't keep, I'm starting a new project that I will be able to tack on at the end of My Morning Ritual. I can write in my journal and then immediately pick up my crochet hook. I'm going to attempt a temperature blanket. I'm sure some of you have heard about this, or the "sky scarf." The sky scarf is one row of crochet or knit a day, but you have to use the shade of blue or gray that corresponds to what color the sky is at a certain time every day. Same for the temperature blanket except colors get assigned to a range of temperatures and then you use the high temperature for that day to pick your color.

A lot more journals full since I began my 3 pages a day ritual.

I made my own temperature chart and until I can get to the Hobby Lobby in Rhinelander I will record the temperatures each day and then play catch-up once I have my yarn. I will have 10 colors (maybe 11 if I decide to add one more above 80 degrees) because Wisconsin has such a wide temperature range every year. I could have an entire two or three weeks of one color if I did the suggested "below 22*." So I split it up a bit more. I picked out this pattern for a blanket, because it will hopefully not be too enormous if I use a small enough crochet hook and because I think it will be pretty as random strips of color. I made it once before following the suggested color pattern, but I will be following the color of the day.

My temperature color chart, I will add the yarn colors
after I make a trip to Hobby Lobby.

My mom has already offered to record the temperatures at home while I am hiking so that I won't miss two months of temperatures. I have some problems to figure out about my hike before I go, I have to go talk to the post master about the restrictions and rules regarding pressurized fuel canisters. I don't want to carry multiple fuel canisters, but I will if I have to. I'm still working on food ideas and I saw a blog about someone hiking the Ice Age Trail this winter and he has charts regarding his gear weight, distances he thinks he can hike a day and where that would put him for his resupply boxes. I may just take his chart for resupply and adjust it to me, if he's already got it all figured out why should I start from scratch? Work smarter not harder, right?