Monday, June 8, 2009

under my belt


Here's the undyed lot
Originally uploaded by betsy ply
Renegade was great! Good times and sunburn was had by all. It was wonderful to see so many people with interesting shoes. What's next for me? Besides 14 hours of sleep? It's etsy time folks. Lots of fun stuff is now in the hands of fun people. But there is some more good things I'll be putting up for grabs, if only so I don't start knitting it up myself.
As always. It was wonderful to see you and I miss you already. To bits.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

weekend poem

so quickly

if you would build with wood
a structure where we stood
a shelter with a rail
to hold us should we fail
to take into account
our lives are pouring out

I would bring a cake
for eating while we wait
and water maybe too
for the drinking that we do
then we'd hold onto the rail
until we softly fail
to take into account
this pouring that comes out

so quickly saw you should
put hammer to the wood
I will keep us fed
full of cake and bread
and cups I will bring too
for the pouring that we do

Sunday, April 19, 2009

not the most genius at this thing called blog


first store order!
Originally uploaded by betsy ply
Yeah. I took a time out. Yeah. I'm blogging from my flickr because actually going to my blog and finding the photo I want and uploading it seems like a mountain of mountainious time. We will all live through this. One day we will look back and laugh.
Yarn! I have just finished my first wholesale order for a new yarn store in Denver! I will plug this yarn store as soon as I get all the info which will be in approximately 3 hours.
What am I doing right now? I am in the middle of roommate interview nonsense. It will be over soon and I will sloooowly come out of my shell and actually blog about stuff.
There are some things I feel the need to tell you.
I have been a negligent friend. You know who you are. Betsy sorry.
I'm obsessed with the new Decemberist album but don't actually plan on owning it.
I love yarn. I would eat it if I didn't think it would make me really really sick.
One more secret secret thing to tell you....
I have a new boyfriend and he's going to make me a drum carder.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

the land of the lazy blog


buckwheat hull pillow
Originally uploaded by betsy ply
Well, I like this picture, and I feel like writing but I don't feel like writing about this picture.
I should be putting stuff on etsy right now. But it's cold outside and I believe I am wearing my crabby pants. I'm still ruminating on the cough drop question. I'm also so very very close to buying a drum carder of my very own. Oh how I want my very own drum carder, let me count the ways. Well right now there is about 500 dollars of NO DRUMCARDER FOR YOU to be counted.
So this is the deal, I'm selling on etsy specifically to get this drum carder, and maybe a big marble slab to make cough drops on, or maybe fudge, or just cookies. Marble slabs are good for making pie too.
But wait... I have a marble slab. My painting table. Unfortunately it's not 'food friendly' any more.
But wait..... I want a drum carder anyway! All etsy proceeds will not go toward a marble slab, of this you can be sure.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

cough drops

Jen and I have been 'facebooking' (is that a real word?) each other this afternoon about cough drops. We've both been stupid ill again. I bought myself an economy bag of halls, and an economy bag of ricola. I decided to not get the sugar free ones because 'sugar free' is a euphemism for 'really weird crap'.
Jen suggest I get sugar free, I demurred and we did a little back and forth about corn syrup -vs aspartame. Then I decided that what the hell, I don't have enough stuff to do. Jen and I should make our own. I just looked on line (for my preliminary research) and didn't see any inspiring recipes then I remembered this book I have.....

I bought this book for two whole dollars at a flea market in Mechanicsburg PA. Mostly because, well, I did Need To Know.
This book is one of the most amazing how to books I have ever seen. It was published in 1885. And copyrighted 1884 A. I.Burt.
One of the most fabulous things about this book is how it's organized. Everything, from 'Putting Out Fires' to 'Tea Cakes for Children' is listed alphabetically.
So for instance, 'how to make a hammock' is listed right next to 'ham, how to cook'. I am not kidding you.

But I digress.
Here's the recipe in this book for how to make cough drops.
Listed under-

Cough Candy (Medicated) ---To five pounds of candy just ready to pour on the slab, add the following mixture, and form it into sticks. Tincture squills, two ounces; camphorated tincture of opium and tincutre of tolu, of each one-half ounce; wine of ipecac, one-half ounce; oils of gaultheria, four drops; sassafras, three drops; and of anise seed oil, two drops, and use this freely in common coughs.

What do you think?

Monday, January 12, 2009

finally, I'm going to put these on etsy.

Tomorrow. Tonight I've been interviewing roommates. I'll be interviewing more again tomorrow, but I'll have more down time. Sigh. 'Kay. goodnight.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

since I mentioned the 'p' word I started writing it again

What in hell's name is wrong with me. To be kind to myself I can say -at least I was working on something. Now I'm writing poetry. I guess it's kind of a backlash for not doing music right now. I'm also concerned that I'm going to appear facetious because now I'm going to subject you to it. Just, please, don't read it out loud.


(part I)
you've been lazy
and haven't realized
I've been waiting

a cold fingered violinist
had to start the show

while you stood stage right
hand over heart
crumbs down your shirt

(part II)
skinning your bees
like pebbles for sale
an edible wax

choking hazard

they point at things
while I wait in line
for the toilet

your ability
to be distracted
is unpronounceable

you are a boat with shoes
I am full of water


(the charm)
There is no 3rd time
I leave my skin in the sink
and go out
the way I came in

Saturday, January 10, 2009

6 random things -belated yet not outdated

I'm so bad! I'm sorry Nicole. I'm sorry Rebecca.
I will be a good girl from now on.
I was tagged by both these lovely ladies and promptly did nothing about it. I'm fixing that alacrity of inaction right now. I'm taking it to the streets and stuff like that.
Yeah.
So here's the first part, some random things about me besides I don't always do things in a timely fashion. Rules and links follow below.


1. I used to have straight hair. No really. I did. My hair turned curly around the time I turned 14. No one knew what to do with that kind of craziness in suburban Pennsylvania. I had bangs when my hair went curly. This was a bad thing. This was a deep hair wrongness.
There should be a special place in the world that all curly haired people get an invited to on the investiture of their curliness. This invitation would be to a place where no humidity exists and 'blowout' is a 7 letter word never to be spoken out loud. Lessons will be given in hedge-cutting and alternative uses for mayonnaise. This is the world I want to live in.

2. I frequently mispronounce words. Why? Mostly because I've never actually said or heard the word used in polite conversation before. This can be an issue for some people, especially if the word happens to be 'tangential'.

3. I have a really vivid and startling dream life. My dream last night involved my close friend Ranu. She lives in San Fransisco with her darling triplets and her handsome husband. In this dream, a friend of hers gave her a pair of cowboy boots that they had custom made for her. They had a horizon line half way up each boot and when you stood in the boots, they made a complete picture of a sunset. all the way around. I remember that she was fascinated by the fact that each boot had 4 zippers in it and when the boots were unzipped they unfolded like flowers. They were pink on the inside. I believe I was just visiting in the dream, there was a weird segue where I spent a lot of time trying to meet someone under some scary underpasses. Then I was back at Ranu's house. She had this sentient piece of paper and we were trying to get it to answer questions about what I should do. But it would only write the answers while you weren't watching it. It was teasing us by writing everything backwards.
Because my dreams are so vivid, I always feel it's my responsibility to let people know they were in them. Or else I feel like I've been gossiping about them. I don't like to feel sly.

4. I'm fascinated by the idea of poetry but can't stand having it read aloud.
It's like having someone lick your face at a party. It's like announcing what kind of medication you're on at the company meeting. I'm so not kidding about this.

5. I frequently call things that may be considered green -blue. but I'm not color blind. I think I just prefer that color that I'm calling blue that's actually green to be blue because I like that color better as blue, even if it is technically a green color. It would look blue if I put it next to a greener color, so why can't I call it blue if I want to. Most friends avoid this topic with me.

6. I saw a ghost when I was ten.

And now for the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

And now for the links:

linda of knit a bird snorkel
bev of square animals
our lady of the yarn snob
miss birney
andrea of badbirds
gooseflesh

on the bobbin


on the bobbin
Originally uploaded by betsy ply
yep. I'm back in action. I'll be posting a slew of new stuff to my etsy site and blogging my little heart out.