Has Anyone Seen My Life?

Seriously ... I feel like I do not have 2 minutes to myself anymore. LOL I am still trying to finish my Christmas knitting while trying to get things lined up for my 30th Wedding Anniversary. Yea, I know ... and BTW to all of those folks who were taking bets at our wedding that this marriage would never last ... HA! the jokes on you.
We finally have snow, Not much but it is snowing in the mountains quite a bit which is fine with me as that is where my summer water will come from ... and I don't have to shovel it if it falls up there. For me (and all of the skiers) it 's a win win. And I suppose it is possible that we could have a white Christmas.
However all of this snowy potential means that it is just a wee bit dampish around here and so not much dyeing is taking place ... but I have to get on it this week no matter what because the New What Would Madame Defarge Knit book is coming out soon and I have a pair of mittens in it that use my yarn.
Here is a sneak peak:

I love them ... I truly do. It was everything I could do to send them off to be photographed. And they are toasty warm which with mittens is always a plus. I am working on a pair of felted mittens now and that is fun if for no other reason than they are a huge floppy mess when you first do them and then they are a wonderfully thick mitten when they are done.
JennietheDog has been working on herding sheep. I will try to take pictures this weekend and get them posted. She loves it even though she is a bit slow on the uptake with it. It seems that her Therapy dog training has messed with her instinctive desire to herd ... but it is coming back slowly but surely. And she wanted to be sure to wish all of her friends a Very Merry Christmas.

Click Your Heels Together Three Times and say ....

... there's no place like home ... there's no place like home. And so we are back in the States and living close to our home in Idaho ... if you consider living next to The Great Salt Lake as being close. We have lived here before but WOW has it changed. Guess the Olympics wrought a bigger change than I would have thought possible. We are still not unpacked but I do have chickens and I have put in some pasture in preparation for spring lambs ... it's all about priorities.
We miss Italy so much it is unbelievable. Our friends there were wonderful and while a few have followed us back Stateside we have left some behind ... guess this means I will have to go and visit. Yea, tough gig.

Jennie the Dog hated the trip and hates flying now so if we were to move back overseas I will have to find a way to take a boat. LOL She is learning to herd sheep in preparation for the spring crop. Still undecided on what variety of sheep to get and if I even want to overwinter a flock. We live in a neighborhood here ... like I have neighbors I can see from every window in my house ... this has been a very tough adjustment for me. But they are all nice and seem to be ok with all of our little quirks. And I can start back up the dying business and that is good. I have a new mitten pattern coming out in the second What Would Madame Defarge Knit book and I have to say that they are my favorites so far. Those and the Winter's Stag mittens that I put up on Ravelry ... I like those too.

So, I am going to try to keep this updated a bit better ... and yes, I have said that before but all I can do is try. Here is a last picture of Italy ... one of my last stops before leaving ... Lake Barcis.