When I was in China this summer, the students we met in Shanghai informed me that 2012 was the year of the dragon.  Turns out I was born in the year of the dragon.  This means that this year, 2012, is my year.  Technically, I’m a fire dragon and this year is the year of the water dragon but, let’s not get technical here.

LE DRAGON:

Occupying the 5th position in the Chinese Zodiac, the Dragon is the mightiest of the signs. Dragons symbolize such character traits as dominance and ambition. Dragons prefer to live by their own rules and if left on their own, are usually successful. They’re driven, unafraid of challenges, and willing to take risks. They’re passionate in all they do and they do things in grand fashion. Unfortunately, this passion and enthusiasm can leave Dragons feeling exhausted and interestingly, unfulfilled.

While Dragons frequently help others, rarely will they ask for help. Others are attracted to Dragons, especially their colorful personalities, but deep down, Dragons prefer to be alone. Perhaps that is because they’re most successful when working alone. Their preference to be alone can come across as arrogance or conceitedness, but these qualities aren’t applicable. Dragons have tempers that can flare fast!

Considering their hard-working nature, Dragons are healthy overall. They do get stressed and suffer from periodic tension/headaches, likely because they take so many risks.

Dragons prefer leading to being led.

Dragons will give into love, but won’t give up their independence. Because they have quick, sometimes vengeful tempers, their partners need to be tough-skinned. Dragons enjoy others who are intriguing, and when they find the right partners, they’ll usually commit to that person for life.

A Fire Dragon’s emotions can flare instantly. Fire Dragons put themselves on pedestals, and because they react quickly and recklessly, they sometimes make wrong decisions. Fire Dragons need to slow down and keep their tempers in check as that’s when they’re best.

That’s totally me.  Even the bad stuff.  I’m very much ok with it.  

So, this year, I’m going to make things happen!

I’ve been planning a big tattoo for years.  Cherry Blossoms.  I love what they look like and I love what they mean.  I started thinking about them over 5 years ago.

“…besides being an enduring metaphor for the ephemeral nature of life…”

“The transience of the blossoms, the extreme beauty and quick death, has often been associated with mortality…”

The little one was an impulse tattoo but I love what it says.  I don’t like the job the guy did but I can have that fixed.  If I can’t have it fixed, I see a big shoulder piece in my future.  ;)

I went with my friend Karley from work.

She got her “Live to conquer”.  Pretty.

Then we went for Pho.

And now for the big one…

He just drew it on me from a picture.

This one hurt a lot!  I didn’t cry though.  Not even close.  Just a lot of deep breaths and clenched teeth.  Maybe a little historical laughing.

And maybe a little texting.

This is around the moment I found out my long-time friend Denis was coming home for Christmas.  Yay!

This is Kyle, my new favorite tattoo artist.

Almost done!

Voila!  How pretty!!

Thanks Mario for taking all these pictures.  He sat there through the whole thing.  You are totally Super!

Then we hit the Lone Star and I had one of these!  Yum.

This is what it looks like all healed.

So, that’s the story of my new ink.

Next post: the things I’ve been working on.

I don’t even know where to start at this point.  So much has happened in the past two months.  Imagine that!  Two months since I last posted.

I note that there was no mention of Lake Placid in my last entry on November 20th.  So, I guess I’ll start there.

The family rented a cottage in Lake Placid for our Annual Family Christmas Vacation again this year.  We had stayed at this cottage a few years back and everyone loved it.  So, we headed there again this year.

Here are a few pictures of our family weekend.  There are soooo many!  Which ones do I post?

Because so much has gone on in the last while, I’ve decided to do a few small posts instead of one giant post.  Uploading all the pictures takes an eternity here in the country.

Next post… maybe about my new tattoos.

I’ve been making a lot of little things – baby things – and spinning for a hat I saw on Google Images that I had to make.

After I finished my Brandywine shawl (which was praised a couple of times), I started with the wee things.

Both the same.  Colors are inverted.

Not a great photo… but my second ever crochet project from a pattern.  I was pretty proud of this little thing.

Oh, my “wee” things were interrupted by the blue cowl.  Made with my handspun.  Yay!

See how one blue is plied on itself and the other is plied with black silk thread?  Pretty cool ha?  I was experimenting.  I was disappointed when you couldn’t really see the difference in the finished product.

Oh, and our guild is having a Christmas party at the beginning of December.  We have a gift exchange.  Last year, the theme was hats.  This year, the theme is hand coverings.  I’ve been wanting to make the Ribbed Hand Warmers from Purl Soho.  What a perfect way to scratch something off the list!

I also made a tuque for my neighbor, Terry.  All summer, Terry has been mowing my ditch.  For no reason.  He’s retired and spends his days puttering outside.  What better gift then a woolly thing to keep his melon warm!

I must confess: this is an old picture from the tuque I made last year for my friend Michel.  The one I made for Terry was the same.  I forgot to get a new photo.  Bad Mylène.

Yesterday, while I was vacuuming, he came to my door to thank me for his hat.  Some people are genuinely nice.  Why does that surprise me sometimes?

Behold (pun intended) another wee thing.  I’m making these little things for a local photographer.  Soon you’ll probably see a few of my hand knits on her baby photos.  Youpi!  I’m going to be famous!  NOT.  Hahaha.

I finally finished my green Monkey socks.  I haven’t photographed them yet.  Perhaps in my next blog post… in a month (oops!).

There’s a story behind this yarn.  I spun it black and white.  I found the contrast too stark.  I decided to dye the white a little grey.  I didn’t remember that food dye doesn’t really come out the actual color of the dye.  So, my little bit of black turned out a little bit of purple/red.  I tried to overdye with some brown.  No worky.  So, I ended up with a lot of this:

Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with this wool.  It’s just not what I wanted.

I started over with an actual gray and more black.  Turned out great.  I also spun up a few other colors and added some of the blue from my cowl.

I chose not to keep the nipple at the top.

I will attempt a better photo soon.

Then I had to make yet another pair of baby mittens for Callah.  Either I have no concept baby sizes or that kid has giant hands.  I made her two pair already and they were both too small.  So I made these rather big – they might fit a 5-year-old.

I’m finished with baby mittens!  No more.  I told Dad (Austin) that I would make the kid a snowsuite before I made her another pair of mittens!  He thought that was very funny.

Last night, I started an extremely boring pair of grey ribbed socks for Brian – another guy from work.  I swear that earlier, I started to wonder if I could knit my own eyelashes.  That’s how boring these socks are.  I need color people!!!

So, I think that’s it for the knitting stuff.

A couple of big things have happened in the last few weeks.  I won’t bore you guys with the details.  I lost my balance (figuratively) and my perspective.  Some old feelings I hadn’t dealt with came up and bit me square in the ass!  But, all is well.  Nothing a few days at home and some travel mags can’t cure in a pinch.  Balance restored!

Michelle visited with the family.  I always love spending time with them and all their pets.

Ultimately, family and great friends stood by me, held my hand (figuratively and literally) let me cry and said all the right things.  People amaze me sometimes.  I love it.

Oh, and I’m planning another tattoo.  Actually, two of them.  One for next week and one for later – the big one.  Requires planning.

Ciao all and see you soon (I hope).