Music to my Brain

I'm sitting here listening to Andrea Bocelli's Viaggo Italiano. and it occured to me that it's amazing how music can affect our moods and more importantly, our creativity.

My one and only visit to Italy was when I was all of fourteen years old but I fell in love with the history, the architecture, the people and sheer beauty of the land. It's been many, many years since I tossed my coin into the Trevi Fountain but the memories are as sweet as though it were yesterday. I've yet to return. But I truly believe that my wish to return to Italy will one day come true.

Right now I'm on rewrites of Opus #5, which is set entirely in Italy. I discovered that I needed to make some radical changes in the book. This necessitated inserting a whole new chapter between two previously written ones. This is about as easy as putting on a bra without removing your pullover shirt. It's doable, but tricky.

For me, writing is something I love but it drains me. Not unlike being at the beck and call of a demanding infant you've given birth to. Mental rejuventation is vital to the creative process.

If I'm feeling stressed or blocked, all I have to do is put on a CD of Italian songs and close my eyes for a few minutes. Slowly the muscles unknot, the endorphins begin to seep though my body and into my brain and a sense of well-being and happiness floods through me.

In cases of severe stress or extreme writers block I strongly recommend filling the bathtub, add a generous portion of bubble bath (lavender scent preferably for it's relaxing qualities), light a few candles, sip a glass of port, eat Godiva chocolates, and listen to a CD of your favorite love songs. An hour later you'll be a new you.

Goodbye Febru-Ugly --Hello March!

--Who came in like a lamb. :)

Anyone else breathing a sigh of relief that the first day of spring is just twenty days away?

The first income tax refund check arrived yesterday so we celebrated and bought a new vacuum. woo-hoo.

After a test run on the clapotis last Wednesday night, I'm ready to start for real tonight. Just have to remember where I put the frassing stitch markers I bought.

I've also bought the necessary items for engineering a new scotch tension band on my spinning wheel. Don't think I mentioned it before but I got to my meeting on Sunday and discovered it was missing. Had to borrow the guild's little Kiwi for the day in order to spin at all.

I could have just ordered a new tension kit, but I'm not a patient person and the thrifty Scot in me comes out when I see something for $15.00 (including shipping) that I could make for under $5.00.

A big congrats to the Knitting Olympics Team Georgia members who got their projects done. St. Janice must have set a world's record for sweater knitting.

On the writing front, I've finished rewrites on chapter three of Opus #5 and have started on chapter four (9 pages!). I meet with Miss Mary on Friday to see the results of her critique and proofreading. One more chapter and I think I'll have enough to send off to the editor and agent I met last fall.

Okay, off to figure out what to feed the other people in the house before I set out for Stitching for Sanity.

The Tale of a Very Bad Dog

I had to take a picture of this. It's just too painful to not share. Once upon a time, that mess was a beautiful ball of creamy white bluefaced leiscester lambswool roving. The two cocoon-looking balls on the left of the picture are two bobbins-full that I had already spun up.
Five minutes. That's all it took. Five little minutes of unsupervised time alone in the living room and Rockhead Roxy managed to jump into a chair, sniff out the wool that was inside a closed bag that was inside another closed bag. She tore the bags open, pulled the wool out, ran out the dog door and shook the wool like a rat.
Thank goodness I found the wool quick or she'd have had it strewn across the yard like streamers at a boat launch. The funny thing was, she knew she'd been bad. The minute I went outside and saw, she made a run for it. It took me a good fifteen minutes to grab her, then I scruffed her on the floor, made her smell the wool while I screamed at her. She spent a good hour in "time out" before I was calm enough to let her back out with the rest of us.

Yesterday was the monthly Peachtree Handspinners Guild meeting. The lovely blue cloud you see above is some BFL lambswool I bought from Tina Evans. She raises sheep and angora goats up in the northwestern part of Georgia. She's also an absolute genius with the dyepot.

As for the Mess O Wool....I've decided that will be my project to work on when I'm dead bored and have nothing else to do on a warm day when I can work on it outside.

And I've learned a valuable lesson...Dogs and wool are not mutally compatible--as much as the dog would like to think otherwise.