All the balls up in the air

Hello stranger, yes it's me! All my balls are up in the air and I'm juggling frantically!
Seems to be more of a yearly thing to write than a weekly or monthly thing, sorry!
I've been doing a lot of cleaning and clearing around the house.
And I'm now committed to finishing a lot of worthy UFO's.
So at least I can then let myself start some nice new stuff, there is more to knit and crochet than I can ever achieve in this lifetime, but I won't give up trying!
Had a lot of fun making little woven squares from scraps of wool from my stash, and then crocheting edges, sewing them all togehter and adding a little footsack, which resulted in a wheelchair lapblanket for a darling old lady.

And something peculiar happened, I even made myself a broomstick lace long cardi-tunic. I never make or keep anything for myself, here it is on the right.
Once again this summer I was in Karpathos Greece to teach Do-In. Meridian yoga as it were. and it was a joy without end. In Greece I swam and snorkeled every day and really truly loved that to bits. Coming back was a bit of a bugger.
Struggling is becoming a system of survival but the joy of knitting still remains of course, and crochet as well. And oh joy, earlier in the year someone found me a lovely second hand Ashford traditional spinning wheel, so I've now added that to the mix too, still very much an amateur, but not doing bad with the spinning and twining!
I've always been so in love with my house, but this year the idea of selling and moving is solidifying daily in my system.
At least at my moving party I can do a big sale of knitting books and part of my stash. Because the idea is to move in somewhere just a tad smaller.
The goal is to found a ground floor apartment or somewhere in an apartment with an elevator, as I no longer have cartilage in my knees and the stairs are becoming non-productive. Also for the clients I must add. So fingers and all other available body-parts crossed on that issue.
On the upside I have lost 25 kilos over the last two years, very proud of that, but not done at all with the weight loss.

Doing very elderly-like gym at my physio is keeping me together and that works for now.

It was the 5th b-day anniversary of WOOOL this year. So proud of contributing sometimes and so great to see Pauline make it all work!
Left is a cardi I made for Sis, fit like a dream, and all cotton as she is more allergic than me!
So you see I still have found time to keep my hands busy, apart from my several jobs and other odd errands around about.
I'll keep you posted on what is to come, please send me your support and blessings, and come visit if you want a treatment or just a nice gab over a cup of tea!

Some time to reflect on .......

I had the most amazing time teaching Do-In in Karpathos (Greece) at the end of May. Magical things happened.....but most of all loved the rugged scenery and the people on the island are so so sweet. The food was great. And the weather not too hot to leave whack me out of commission. 

Must say the weather today in The Netherlands is nearly doing that. It's very hot and humid for Dutch standards and we are having big rain and thunder (and maybe even hail) storms passing through.

For the next few days (up until Saturday)  I will be minding the wool shop for Pauline while she is off frolicking around Cadiz with the lovely John.

Anyhoo..... I had a symbolic learning experience in Karpathos that mostly taught me not to be too hard on myself when I can't seem to live up to my own standards and trust the universe to provide solutions for me. Which they did at that moment in time. In the middle of the week in Karpathos I was sent a word during the night and the word stuck with me throughout the day (running around in my head repeatedly), it was a Greek word and I don't speak Greek so ofcourse I had no idea where it came from. Nikita (the lovely hotel and restaurant owner) explained what the word meant, which was "My Beloved" and that didn't make much sense to me at the time. Later in the week, when I got sick and very cross with myself because I couldn't finish what I started, I finally had the insight that I was my own beloved and I needed to be a bit more nice to me! To embrace and support myself unconditionally and not to judge myself so harshly. And not to be afraid to ask for help. So there you have it!

This weekend I finally found the time to attend one of Iris' sound healing concerts. And that was just lovely, waves of sound coming through my body. I was comfy on the floor under my blankie and I usually can't lay still for that long. And Saturday spent a lovely quiet day in her little holiday house, which is not little and is actually a proper house! too wet and cold to sit in her cute outdoor living room. So I spent the day watching movies from the Spiritual Cinema Circle and reading up on crystals.

So now I'm just braving the heat and waiting for clients, doing a little knitting and reading.

Pauline just left and had a hard time leaving her shop.......it's her baby! and I totally understand.

So this was a little incoherent note that covered a lot of topics. I will be back to write more and try to be more coherent and organized.

Simple pleasures.....

I can derive so much pleasure from finishing a project. Even knowing that it will leave me to venture out into the world and become someone else's present. The process is what is most gratifying to me. In this case turned into quite a big object. There is only 100 grams of yarn in this object. amazing right? It's resting after being blocked on my futon bed, and that is how much room I needed to spread it out, a queen sized bed.

Anyhoo....I'm off to teach another sunday Do-In class in a few minutes, which is also a simple pleasure to enjoy with my little class. And after that back to the grind of finishing my big translation job. I estimate a maximum of two more days on that one.

Have a great sunday everyone!

mother nature roars again

My heart goes out to all the people involved in the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan this week. Some of the spots we know well on Big Island Hawaii were hit as well, the news said not so bad there, but I'm sure for some folks it was. This is some raw video on Kealakekua bay, near Kailua Kona. We swam there on our last visit when we were trying out our snorkling gear, and thought it was a quaint little seaside village, we might want to stay in next time.

http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2011/03/11/raw-video-kona-tsunami-house-washes-away-floats-in-bay/

I sincerely hope it was mostly material damage and no personal incidents. Either way all devastating. I send out my love and heart out to all.

Aloha

Reasons to be cheerful part 1001

I am blessed with many friends, but I of course also have a best friend, well actually two, one Girl and one Boy. How great is that? Boy does not live close enough to be a physical daily fixture in my life like Girl, but we do make sure we have our time together every few months (we need a fix every now and then!). Yesterday was one of those days. And we were so productive! Apart from catching up, shootin' the breeze, having coffee at the new Bagels & Beans, visiting my other workplace at the guitarstore, etc., we had chores to share (ahum). A doorknob that had been waiting more than 10 years to be attached........, cleaning up the computer (and thus making it faster!), and working on my website. Not often Boy decides to have a sleepover, but in this case he did because he missed the last train home. (he lives on the other side of the country). So today two more chores to take care of. Me: in charge of finding chores and giving directions. Boy: very practical and hands on! And luckily for a single girl I have an abundantly filled toolbox (very impressive!). He's still fast asleep as I'm writing this blog entry, but after coffee and breakfast, we will continue to be on a roll! Ain't life Grand?
So what else is going on......? I also got the guts up to ask my needle doctor to treat my Achilles pain that I had been suffering from for almost four years. He did, and with reasonable success, and I'm grateful to Zoe for coming along and supporting me for the first round of those, cuz I was a bit freaked, and I don't freak easily. And now after 6 shots in 2 months I'm done for a while, cuz that stuff seriously messes with my head (and my hormones).

Decided once again to control the yarn stash (yeah right), finish a lot of pending projects, keep the knitting machine after all and pay Jen installments for it like a sort of lay away plan, hehe, right! And just recently started to offer my little finished projects for sale. I make them just because I like the color or design or challenge of the design and not with a particular plan or recipient in mind. Hence I need extra rooms added to the house to allow for the stash and all the cute products arising from it. We'll see how the sales go, whatever happens

I'll probably just keep producing. But the little baby cardi I had made last week was sold within days, so that is hopeful. Have the little brand tags and business cards all laying in wait. Also sorted out a whole pile of grandma and mums button stash. Sorted into sets, packaged and labelled to sell off. They are vintage right? And I'm not using them.

The practice at the moment is too quiet, unfortunately. I'm working on a big translation gig and started to do a few extra hours at the guitar shop. I'm trusting the universe will support and I will be able to relax into "enough" or "slight abundance" any time soon. Am getting more and more relaxed about all this. And as you can see: I'm still standing!

Happy New Year! Welcome 2011!

We seem to all mention to each other how time is flying, and it flew again. So after having a rad fun filled party (Thank you Ria, Alex, Ron & Nick for organizing all that, I especially loved launching the big paper lanterns with our wishes for the new year. That was so much better than the usual plethora of fireworks that the Dutch tend to set off at New Years.) And now it is new years morning and I am in awe.........or just stunned.....hihi.

My housekeeper, who is the dearest soul, even showed up today to help me enter the new year with a relatively organized (my part of the deal) and at least clean house (her part of the deal). Luckily she showed up a little later than usual........ahum....but I was up and adam and breathing and drinking tea before she showed..... ;-) Albeit in my jam-mies, but that is okay for today. I tend to stay that way as long as I can today. Tomorrow morning I will be all active and teach my first yoga lesson of the year. I promise to be gentle with my participants.

I'm taking a short break from knitting and crochet production as I have bursitis in both shoulders and that got so bad that I had to have a shot in it (which is no fun but my orthopedic GP is a wizard at giving injections without pain). It's just a very intrusive nasty procedure to have done. And that is all that I'm gonna say about it.

Last weekend I immersed myself in the grand art of Tunisian crochet, which I hadn't done in years. Tried out all kinds of different stitches and ended up making a cute little pram blanket instead of just a few swatches. I was quite pleased. I will do more delving and later in the year I will teach a workshop in Tunisian at Woool. That will be fun. Throughout the year I have been teaching beginners and intermediate workshops in crochet for Pauline. And she is doing so well with the shop, I love dropping in on Saturdays to help her out,

just because it's fun! This worldwide revival of the needles arts has really taken off and hasn't passed as a fad.

I took a day trip on a Wednesday in December with Jennifer to Hoorn to meet Will Schouten and visit his shop, which resulted in a small increase of my stash, but still was great fun.

On the business level 2010 has been a good but challenging year for me and the practice. I think it is due to "intimidation" by the media over the crisis that makes people decide to keep their purses closed and not enjoy regular preventative treatments, although these treatments for the most part were still being reimbursed by the health insu

rance firms. Or maybe there are other reasons that I'm not smart enough to pick up on? So there was about a 40% drop in income for me. I must admit that I am developing more and more of a sense of Laisser Faire with all this, trusting the universe to provide for me and being immensely grateful for the support and concrete assistance that my friends and family give me when I really get into a bind. I'm still working two mornings a week at the guitar store, I'm still doing translation jobs and I also still am teaching workshops at the Pauline's yarn shop. So altogether all activities that I love and enjoy, keeping me basically covered, but still demanding work weeks of 60 hours and up sometimes. What I hope and trust for in the New Year is income just a bit above and beyond that, so I may relax a little more and maybe take some time off now and then for a breather, be it at home or on little or big trips. On that topic there are some wishes for the new year, visiting my friends in Goa (India), going to Glasgow again and swimming with wild dolphins in Bimini, and of course returning to Hawaii. Hope springs eternal!

Health-wise there are still a lot of challenges for me, but nothing that will keep me from achieving the above and more. So that will remain a work in progress. Happy to say that I'm on a diet that is working for me (anti-Candida diet) and that I've lost 13 kgs since oktober. Yeehaa, so if my body allows me I will keep shedding slowly........

I wish you all Health, Happiness and abundance for all of those you love, and ofcourse for yourself (and me!!).

In love and light

Yoff

where did time go?

Okay, so keeping up a blog like it should be is hard when you are so busy. Now to find out what I'm so busy with so I can weed out the unnecessary. I work hard in two places and I really need my downtime too. I love my creative projects and helping others with theirs (reading and translating for example. Since I have less energy to go around I have realized this has greatly affected my social life. I just don't have the energy to run around with all my friends anymore all the time. Which doesn't mean I don't love them and miss them dearly.

Anyway..........today is Sunday. I'm on summer schedule for teaching my do-in class, so I had this morning off. Taking things to a slow start. Out to lunch with my friend Jen, and then together off to an interesting knitting workshop with a famous knitter/designer who is from around here, but had her book published worldwide. Then dinner with another friend, and not back home too late like a good little girl. Before falling asleep each night I send off my version of prayers and distance treatments for some folks who are going through rough spots physically or otherwise. That is the time it is most easy for me to concentrate those energies.

And sometimes

I even remember to include myself in that moment!

I haven't been working like mad on any projects, just a slow trickle, but here are two that are my favorites from the last half year.

I'm focussed on keeping afloat through summer which is usually a bit slower than the rest of the year. But this year has been slow in general. This month I was saved by my first tax return in years. I was really pleased with that! This week a few new clients arrived (all on one day) and as much as I love all my clients. The new ones bring excitement and heightened awareness as it is my style to delve deep into their lives to offer them the best help I can offer.

It's been pretty hot for dutch standards, so my last week also was about keeping it cool, rescheduling and using my little air-co and fan to create a cool zone, so I could get a little sleep. Friday me and Rach hid out at the cinema, which is great cuz it's cool, and we love movies, so that always works out. Then we went purse hunting for her with medium success. It was a perfect day for shopping as it was quiet in town. I'm proud of Rach for getting out there. Good day for this exercise!

Holland has been in the grip of the world cup football. The dutch tend to go a little crazy over that. At which time I try to embrace my inner Canadian and just breathe deeply ;-)

My knees have been giving me trouble, so until I get myself to the second opinion center in Rijswijk, I've gotten over my initial shyness and started using a crutch while walking. Hopping on the bike to get around is still no trouble at all. So need to get a little brace attached to the bike so I can bring my crutch along on my bike trips.

I'm gonna go catch up on some shows I recorded over the last two weeks and then get gussied up for my venture outdoors downtown. As far as that goes it's simple nowadays, something clean, not too shabby and a dash of waterproof mascara. I don't do the full theatric version anymore, thank goodness. But those were the days!

See you soon, but I can't make any hard promised on that!