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!

One of the things I especially love are the ads.  I find so many great artisans this way.  Tonight while working on my brand spanking new group I found such an ad.   I was led to Urban GypZ.  She sells all of my favorite fibers and sock yarns, and does beautiful spinning work.

Strange Fruit on Merino/Bamboo

2 ply merino/silk handspun

Oy! The Koi! on Fat Fingering

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.

Etsy

What I have up is only about a third of what I have to put up, I have a few more fibers to stock and yarns.  I plan to get more, if not all of it up today.

I was just looking through my sidebar and links, to see what needed to be corrected, because after all, apparently it’s been over a year that I’ve been selling judging by my archives…  Wait.  Did I just say a year?  And I let it pass me by!  I think this may call for a giveaway or special stocking or something….need to think on this

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!!

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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…

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!