Archive for the ‘Ramblings of a Southern Belle’ Category

But I will anyway.

You see the reason that I don’t blog often is because I feel if I’m going to blog, I need to make it interesting, and interesting to me means including pictures.  But adding pictures brings a whole new slew of perfectionism.  First there is taking a good shot, making sure it is exposed properly and such.  Then there is uploading to the computer.  Then there is editing, which is usually just resizing and raising contrast.  And in my head, that just takes too long!  I swear sometimes I think I have ADD because I just can not stay focused on one project for more than 10 minutes.  So to spend half an hour with pictures, instead of just writing, makes it too much of a time suck, not to mention that by then I figure you wouldn’t even care much about the post to begin with.

Sooooo… no pictures!  I’m just going to blog the nice old-fashioned way!

My birthday celebration was quite the success!  I am so proud that it did so well.  A huge thank you to the ladies that joined me : Lisa, Rebecca, Paty, & Tasha.  The stocking could not have been what it was without you ladies.  And a big huge, sloppy kisses & hugs thank you to all of my customers!  Without you, well, where would I be?  Drowning in mountains of fiber, that’s where!  Not that that is the worst way to go..

I am planning my next stocking as we speak.  I have been told via my Ravelry group that boy colorways are wanted.  I stepped back and looked at what I have been stocking, and the amount of pink surprised me!  So yes, I am working on boy colorways – right now in fact.  The first is cooking on the stove-top as I write this.  I have 4 total new colorways planned.

I just placed an order for 12 lbs of roving, some new things as well as old favorites.  Keep an eye out for it!

And now, a confession.  I am scared of spinning batts.  There!  I said it!  I have had these beautiful batts in my stash in the past, but I am unsure how to spin them.  So I ended up selling them when I needed the cash.  I do have one remaining batt, and that is a FOTM club installment from Becoming Art.

I have been after Theresa, who makes and spins from batts to make a video for all of us batt nOObs out there to teach us!  She plans to make several installments, and her first is dizzing a batt.  So, I watched her video and found myself a diz – a wooden donut bead on an abacus that was laying around the house receiving no love.  The hole is the perfect size, according to Theresa – 1/4″.  And indeed it was!  I made a lovely roving from the batt, and am spinning it now.  I have to say, I am no longer scared of batts!  Dizzing it did wonders.  I can’t wait to diz my next one!  Thanks so much Theresa!

I’ll start with the and more bit.  I stocked my Etsy again and I even made the front page this morning at 1AM PST!  Thanks so much Ginny & Craft Cult!

Woot! I made it!!

Now the missions.  You can check them out yourself here.

The first weeks mission:  To fill a huge trash bag of items you don’t need, in 30 minutes.  Well, I went above and beyond, and most of it was toys lol!  I filled 2.5 outdoor garbage cans of junky/broken toys, and one 40 gallon tub  of yard sale items.  I plan to go through my things as well.

Gonna take stock pics tonight, hum-diddly-doo. 

As you may or may not have noticed, I am starting to write private, password protected posts.   Please be aware I will not be handing them out to anyone who asks.  These are only going to go to my closest friends.

I seem to be bouncing off the walls today!  Not sure why, but I’m diggin this burst of energy!!

And if you don’t follow me on Facebook, you may have missed my new ‘do!

The new bright and shiny Amy!!

Matthew should be going into pre-kindergarden next year (read: Fall 2011, not Fall 2010) So I *think* that is around when I will re-open.  I am slowly collecting new fibers and yarns after having purged/dyed all my remaining stock.  I have a bin full of stock still that never sold, but no more undyed stuff.  Right now I have about 2 lb BFL yarn, 3 lbs of Peace Fleece yarn, and many many lbs of Australian merino roving and many many lbs of Bamboo roving.

I am also pretty decided that I will just sell on Etsy, and not on Hyena Cart anymore.  I just really wasn’t getting the sales on Hyena Cart, especially since I dye more fiber than yarn.

The idea just occurs to me to try to have some sort of Spring/Summer sale soon, with remaining stock, to fund buying different fibers.  I really want to get some angora blends (roving), more worsted yarns, sport & fingering as well.  We shall see…

I meant to come and blog – and tonight I am just not up for it.  However I want to share that I am now the proud owner of a Nikon D40, and I have been having WAY too much fun learning it!  (I think) I’m getting better every day, and today was only day 3.  Trying to wrap my head around exposure rules is definitely giving my brain a workout.  This weekend is the local Mardi Gras parade and I.can’t.wait!  Some good photo ops to be had for sure!!!

I have been dreaming of blogging again, like I used to do way back when.  I used to blog very regularly, had a personal blog site and the whole 9 yards.    Somewhere along the way I lost the bloging mojo.  So still I dream, but in reality I doubt it will happen again.  Even once a week seems unattainable, when I look at my postings here and realize I am only blogging about once a month!  Such is life I suppose.

Anyhoo, this past weekend I got some wild hair up my derriere to paint my craft room.  My whole house is in sore need of a makeover (of which Stephinie of Gypsy Forest can attest to).  I used to not be embarrassed to admit to living in a mobile home, back when we first bought the place and I had so many dreams of fixing it up so nicely … but now, 6 years later, the mantra of ‘we are planning to do … ‘ is just not working anymore.  My husband, bless him, is just not into the whole home improvement thing.  I have been begging him all these years to let me paint, begging him to fix the decks, begging him to let me plant shrubs, flowers, trees.  But always he tells me it’s something we can do without, wait till this time, etc.  There is always an excuse.  Well this weekend I decided enough is enough.  I am making my house a home this year.  I am going to make it look inviting.  I may not really know what I’m doing, but I will do it!

And so I started with the craft room.  I guess I am going a bit backwards, that I am doing the least seen room in the house first.  And next I plan to do up either Matthew or Abby’s room – likely it will be Abby’s as she loves the new color of the room and I have 1 & 3/4 gallons of paint left.  I dislike the idea of the two rooms being the same color, but I hate to waste the paint.

Here it is, all painted up after only a day of work.  And the husband really likes it- in fact he’s asked if/when I am doing more rooms!  He is so predictable, once I do something that he was so against, he loves it.  The huge blank expanse of wall is being filled up with items as I come across them.  Anything and everything will go on the wall.  Anything that catches my fancy, and is hang-able, or that I can make hang-able, will go up.  Right now, it’s still pretty bare – I have 2 framed pictures up, an Amy Brown print, and an old mail sorter that belonged to my grandmother.  It will be a forever work in progress I think.

On the left of the photo, is my spinning corner.  The glider faces the computer in case I’d like to watch a movie while spinning.  And I have fabric on order (Kokka sheep farm in turquoise) to recover the glider cushions.  I’m debating about painting the wood – I don’t think I want to but it definitely needs a cleaning.  The ironing board is cluttered b/c I took this soon after I had moved everything back into the room.  So there are still things there that need sorting.  On the right, the blank paper was bookmarking where my Amy Brown prints would go – they are there now.

And this poorly stitched together pan shows the opposite side of the room.  Directly in front on the left is my tiny sewing table.  My machines had been picked up for months before I decided to start making my own interchangeable knitting needle case.  Then I remembered how much I despise not having things ready to go when I am, so I found the machines a place.  On the wall above the table is blank now, but I have this on it’s way to me.  Above the printer used to reside that yellow shelf on the floor.  I am going to trade that off with a similar shelf that’s bigger, that’s in the kids’ bathroom.  The hubs doesn’t want to move it.  Looks like I will be doing it.  Then next to the shelf will go my bulletin boards.  I’m also going to make this (in turquoise) to hang from the ceiling above the computer, and get 2-3 more photo frames for the opposite wall.

This room seirisouly makes me happy whenever I walk in.  Lime green is one of my favorite colors, and just screams creativity to me.  I can’t wait to get the finishing touches up to show it to y’all!

I’m thinking wholesaling may be the way to go for my business.  I really am bad at getting packages out in a timely manner, so that’s good quality #1.  #2, is time – listing, pricing & photographing take tons of time!  Which I don’t have.

I’m not real sure how it works though – do you get a pre-payment?  Or once the wholesale customer gives you their order, are you expected to be able to send product immediately?

**The gallery is now updated!**

Pretty much what I’ve been!

I went on a knitting kick, so haven’t been dyeing at all lately. However I have a couple new colorway ideas, and I need to get dyeing starting tonight. I am attending a craft show this Saturday at Southdown Plantation in Houma, Louisiana. If you can make it, be sure to seek out the Shirley’s (heirloom sewing) booth. I’ll be bringing my goods into my mother’s booth, and my wheel is also coming along. Should be fun!

I’m about to go get some yarn kettle-dyeing, and while that is cooking I’m going to update my galleries – the handspun gallery is really not showcasing my current spinning. Those yarns are older – looser plying and thicker slubby areas. Since that is not so much how I spin anymore, I’m going to take them down and put up my newer works. I’ll keep ya posted!

On the home front, work is still slow for my husband. We are just barely eeking by, but eeking by we are Things will get better for us, and no matter what happens, we will all be ok.

My mother gave us her older glider, and we set it out on the front deck. The weather has been so nice lately that I love to take my knitting and spinning out there! Now if I can only dress it up with some nice potted plants

My son has begun potty training as well! Today he started taking his diaper off every time he peed in it LOL! I just wish he’d figure it out before wetting it, so I could get him on the toilet! But it’s progress, and progress is good. I’m looking forward to being diaper free!

I decided to go ahead and let everyone in on the ’secret’.  I know I’d be dying to know if I weren’t the owner here, even though I’d know I didn’t NEED to know

My husband Richard, has lost all overtime hours at work once the recession started.  We depend heavily on those hours to pay our bills, namely, our mortgage.  We’ve finally reached a point to start reducing bills and make any money we can.  This includes selling off some of my precious and much loved fiber stash, and trying to dye & sell all remaining undyed fiber.

Because of this great need, I am discounting items AND offering a coupon code on my Hyena Cart. (15off) So everyone wins!

I will miss the internet and doing this dye thing greatly, but at this point there is really no choice.  I WILL be back one day … I just don’t know when that will be.  Hugs all, and thanks for the memories!

Keep an eye on my Hyena Cart for a Fish Pond & Swamp Sunset stocking!

The videos are finally working

In other news:  my beloved, handmade, gorgeous, yarn swift  bit the dust.  It was kind of already dead but I kept it on the life line … another arm fell off and I’m just not going to bother fixing it. *cry*

Soooo, I’m making this! http://auream.wordpress.com/2008/12/07/diy_swift/

I wanted it finished tonight except we forgot to get the dowel.  As soon as I have it done, I dye!  I have some light grey and light heather Marr Haven to try out, see if I like the results so I can keep offering it.  I really love the Rambo yarn!