Go, Team, GO!

Didja hear the news? I'm captaining a team for the Ravelympics & I want YOU! Team COLORBOMBers: there are prizes (!), a discount in my Etsy shop, a personalized Ravatar, & even a custom BOMBits colorway in our Official But Optional Team colors, (orange & pink) available only to Team members! There are 8 of us on the team so far, but the festivities don't start for another 2 weeks, and we'd love to have ya - join us today!

I also put up this NEW skein of handspun art yarn in the shop, 'Spruced Up', one of my Tufty™ style yarns with tufts of fiber wrapped like little presents of love and sprinkled throughout.

It's a whopping 132 yards of snow-on-evergreen goodness, in undyed BFL wool with silky green hand-dyed mohair locks from my friend Janet Heppler's Nebo-Rock Textiles in Covelo, CA, plied in with a coordinating cotton thread. Weighing in at almost a quarter-pound, I daresay there should be plenty enough for a hat or other small project, even a pair of matching kids hats!

This last pic I'm throwing in 'cuz it makes me giggle: this is my Day 26 Year in Pictures entry from yesterday, entitled 'Busy Week at the Bomb Squad.' Seems bomb threat #2 of the week wasn't any more threatening than the first one (which turned out to be a bicycle light, not a bomb). Maybe this chin-stroking Humboldt's finest is contemplating what this one will eventually prove to be?

Tags: Ravelympics, COLORBOMB, handspun, yarn, Arcata

Panicking Much?

Hopeful - 4/365 YIP

Trying not to, but... Hope. That's today's word of the day in Velma's World. We (& by we I mean me, 'cuz Cole is working in Willow Creek for the next few days) are on pins and needles over here. Freaking out, actually. I've kept this under my hat since the week before Thanksgiving, but we got our 60-day notice from the landlords - they're selling the house we rent from them. OUR house! We've been here for four years come February 1st, and although this place ain't perfect, it suits us. And I don't have to tell you how much moving sucks, do I?

Seriously, we DON'T want to move. To say nothing of we can't AFFORD to move. Rents have gone up since we found this place; we'd have to downsize our living space for an upsized price. And moving without a car? We could kiss all our friends with trucks goodbye, I'm sure. (At least yarn isn't heavy.)

BUT. There is a possibility of a reprise. A potential non-solution solution. As in: maybe we won't have to move after all. It all comes down to our next door neighbor.

Today is the day she submits her bid to BUY OUR HOUSE. Yep, Jeanne, the neighbor who brought us wood last month when our heater was broken because she felt bad that we didn't have any heat - she likes the neighbor status quo. Afraid that growers, or a loud & crappy jam band, or a bunch of partying college freshmen, or a developer -- possibilities all -- will move in, she's decided to try to purchase it herself and continue renting to US, with no increase in rent!

So for the past month we've been ushering a host of inspectors, estimators, and appraisers into our house to suss out what all needs to be done. It's a circa-1950s era, standard-issue for the area, approx. ~1000sqft house that hasn't had any real maintenance done on it, EVER, so it has, let's just say, issues. A fair amount of work would need to be done just to get it up to code; we're on fuses here for cripes sakes! No bank will touch the house without an electrical upgrade to circuit breakers, as far as I know.

But Jeanne is prepared to take on all the work that needs to be done, & today she makes an offer to the current owners. Cole & I are counting on this going through; the housing market here is so tight, there are almost no comparable options available to rent locally.

So -- my plea to all my readers this week: send your good housing thoughts this way!! Hopefully the house fairy will tell the landlords to accept Jeanne's offer and we'll still be here in 2011.

An Xmas Eve Eve Gift from Arcata

Monster Recycling Bin
Originally uploaded by Velma's World

Arcata Garbage just dropped off our gigantor new recycling bin (our weensy old one is on top for scale). On the plus side: one container for everything. Cons? Even empty this sucker is HEAVY!

Wish I'd thought to take a pic of the massive truck they brought these on.

Best part of this "gift" from the city is getting rid of all our blechy old bins in the garage. But rates go up next month; that part, not so much.

The Wheels on the Bike Go Round & Round

Rachel's Spinning Wheel, en route, originally uploaded by Velma's World.

This is how we get shit done, VWorld stylee. That green lump in the driveway? You *might* think it is a car, but you'd be wrong. It's really just yard 'art'. I really need to get off my hot ass & put an ad on Craigslist for it. 'Cuz getting packages to the PO is done the old fashioned way 'round these parts: I make the husbo schlep the boxes that are too big for me to navigate myself.

This box? Filled with a Babe spinning wheel destined to live with another. Yes, I'm downsizing my stable of wheels, seeing as we got our 60-day notice to move last month. (More on that later - I'm nothing if not a tease...) So, Merry Christmas Rachel, may she (he?) spin you into 2010 in good health!