What happened?

Wow - it's been a long time.

In 2013 I was going to walk 2,013 miles and make 12 hats in 12 months. Neither got accomplished.

What did happen was in 2013 he started to build Gertie, my spinning wheel and she was completed in March of 2014. Her full name is Gertrude, which is my grandmother's middle name. She was always working, with a huge garden, flower beds, running the farm still, family history, writing her own story. Both my grandmothers were workhorses and Gertrude fit the bill, Gertie for short. MyHoney looked at plans that are fairly popular for a "$7.00 spinning wheel." He didn't like them. And he has some valid points, the main one of which is if he's going to build me a tool, it's going to last. And this is the result:



I don't know the spin ratio, but I want to say it's 32:1? That is a recycled bicycle rim, with a bicycle wheel hub, and the bearings for the spindle are also bicycle bearings. (He's been in the bicycle industry since 1979 and as of this posting works for the largest bicycle shop in Ohio. So yes, it had to be done!) The spindle? Well, that was going to be tricky. The bearings are metric and dowels are hard to find. But I remembered having a lot of Mom's knitting needles and a few didn't have a partner. Sure enough, one was the perfect size so I have memories of Mom along with my grandparents every time I spin.

Since our first fiber fest in 2012 I've accumulated a small herd of drop spindles. The most recent of which are 3D printed!



The 2 in the top picture are mini Turkish spindles; the purple and white one is mine, the tan and green one is MyHoney's. The bottom picture is a bottom-whorl with a triquetra whorl. The really cool part I didn't know until a couple weeks later is that the white pieces? GLOW IN THE DARK. I'll work on a picture... These came from TurtleMade and they were a treat to talk to at the Great Lakes Fiber Festival this year!

Health-wise there was a rough few months in 2013. We were celebrating MyHoney's birthday and I wasn't feeling very well. Chalked it up to Red Lobster for lunch and the yummy biscuits. Except by supper time I wasn't feeling better. And by midnight I was in bed with waves of pain - if I hadn't already had a hysterectomy I would've wondered if they weren't labor pains. At that point, he took me to the ER figuring it was a gall bladder attack. It wasn't. I had a huge ovarian cyst, 6 inches by 6.9 inches. By the time I went in for surgery, it was over 7.8 inches by 7.8 inches - they literally couldn't open up my abdomen to get an accurate measurement. Thankfully, it was just a cyst gone wild - with some minor complications it was removed as was my gall bladder. MyHoney was a dear and spent every night in that crappy hospital recliner for me! I've gained a fair bit of weight since then which is something I need to re-address. Frustrating, but I'm still alive and healthy so we'll take it! As a result, I am getting some aches and pains so definitely will need addressing.

I did go back to school for a Holistic Health Professional diploma program. I'm not able to complete the program before our next journey but I am a Holistic Health Practitioner now. Under that umbrella, I am a Reiki Master Practitioner, Energetic Systems Integration Practitioner, Associate Polarity Practitioner, Relaxation Massage Technician (pending licensing with the state), Holistic Health Advisor, Earth Energy Master, and Medical Intuitive. I've got a business website but I'll try to get descriptions up next week. There are some modalities I'll be adding as time goes by, such as Herbals, Aromatherapy (and not the MLM that's so prevalent - true Aromatherapy training and certification by NAHA), and working with crystals. I'm also looking at Sound Therapy, Trigger Point Therapy, and possibly Biocranial Sacral - but for now, I'm focusing on the business with what I have!

The next journey will happen in 2016 - we are doing another Big Move, this time to the Pacific Northwest! Amazingly, we'll be 2 hours closer to the Black Hills, and the more I read/watch about the area, the more excited I become! As such, a lot of the courses required to receive that diploma are actually quite useless outside of Ohio and so it would have been a waste of money. But the ones I really wanted to take and completed will be such a benefit to my friends and family, and soon, clientele. Keep an eye out for updates on this journey!!