In hindsight

I should have known better. Somehow or another, the organizing/cleaning/redoing of the bedroom turned into spring cleaning the entire house. I'm not quite sure when it happened or why it happened, but I think it might have started when I found some expired salad dressing in the fridge while making out a small shopping list. That led to cleaning out the fridge which somehow led to deep cleaning the kitchen which led to moving the couch to sweep under it... yeah, I'm not sure what went wrong either.

I did get to my bedroom and I've got it organized like I want it. It's still ugly, I'm not going to sugar coat it, but now I know what to do next. PAINT! I've got a reddish dresser that needs to be brown and a weird corner table that came with the house that needs to be brown. The room also needs curtains and end tables and more rugs, but I'm on the way to liking it.

Somewhere during the spring cleaning activities I hurt myself, badly. My right arm has been screaming at me since around midnight when I rolled over on it and woke up going "ow ow ow ow". I've been very tender with it since, but still, it screams. This is going to be a damper on my spinning every day challenge, but I will not give up yet, no, I will not give up.

Onto crafting news (because I know you don't read this blog to see which part of my house I've decided to organize). Sometime last week I decided I needed to participate in a fiber festival OR a different type of craft show this year. The shows locally are fabulous craft shows - HUGE craft shows - busy craft shows - but they are very generic craft shows. My scarves sell well and my jewelry does okay but I'm not sure my yarn and roving will do well locally. I'll know more after October once they have come and gone, but in the mean time, I need to branch out. I'd love to head down to Austin for some shows down there, but they are on the weekend of a very profitable one I do up here, so those are out. There is the Urban Craft Uprising in Seattle which I am very interested in and a couple in Chicago. I need to get busy and start making a list of which ones I want to go to and see if any are even possible.

Any show/festival suggestions to send my way?

Oh - I dyed some more this weekend - you can see my favorite addition to last night's shop update above. I love this dyeing thing :)

All In A Day's Work

I was busy on Saturday. I dyed a lot of roving - I had a count, but I've lost it and don't feel up to counting them again. You can see some of the fruits of my labor above.

I was also busy today, but don't have a product to show for it. I went out to mom's place to help her do some things around there and to visit with her. We walked around her house for a bit and I got a TON of pictures of spring's beauty. I love this time of you - you can see them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ehwin/

I have to admit, I've lost my ability to photograph jewelry. I'm not sure what happened. I used to do a great job with almost every shot coming out how I wanted it. Then I moved. I've struggled with good jewelry photos since last summer so I can only attribute it to moving. I just haven't found that special spot to use as a back drop where the lighting is perfect. I keep looking but in the meantime, my poor jewelry gets ignored. I've got stuff to post, I make new things almost every other day, but only a few things come out good in photos. *sigh* I'm sure I'll get my photo mojo back... someday.

If you're wondering why I'm not posting about an herb garden update, it is because it snowed all day yesterday. Yes, snowed. Snowed yesterday and nice a sunny today. Ahhhh - gotta love this time of year. Hopefully I'll have herb garden news to post next weekend - so stay tuned.

Say "hello" to my little friends

It's official, I have fallen in love with dying wool. Each time I've done it, I've learned another thing or two about mixing colors and I can't wait to dye some more next week. The last batch I did had more muted tones (still bright but not as neon). I added some browns and such to the colors and I love how they turned out. The ones pictured here are Desert Sunrise and Dusty Rose. Both are available in the shop.

I've been a bit busy this week getting ready to head out of town this weekend and haven't had too much time to work on stuff for either of my shops. I did make some jewelry for a birthday gift and finish up some yarn, but I've been doing laundry, shopping (every good vacation deserves a new pair of pants or shirt or something), and organizing my toiletries because they were here and there and all in a mess. Now I just have to pack tomorrow night and we're headed out of here early afternoon on Friday. Whew - I'm tired already :)

Aside from getting ready for this trip, I've been enjoying the crazy weather we're having. It was warm enough for flip flops and capris the other day (but I refuse to wear either of those in public until at least the end of April) and tomorrow they forecast snow and ice. I am not complaining, I'm a winter weather lover and I say bring it on just as long as it's cleared up in time for my drive down to Texas on Friday.

Let it snow.

Purdy

Just had to show a picture of my roving all dressed up and ready to hit the town (i.e. - braided). I can't wait to get to Sam's, get more vinegar, and get back home to dye some more!

Be sure to check out all of my new roving selections in my shop.

Also, if fiber is your thing, you can find loads of blog posts filled with fiber goodness over here at the Fiber Arts Friday Blog Carnival. Enjoy :)

Lookie what the UPS man brought me

Okay - so he didn't bring me hangers of dyed roving to put in my bathroom BUT he did bring me a couple of boxes... both of which contained the necessary supplies for the dyed roving hanging from the shower curtain rod.

I'm already pleased, not thrilled, but pleased with the turn out. It's better than I thought it would look for the first go round and I can't wait to spin some of it up to see how it turned out. It was all I had in my NOT to go and dye all of my wool tonight. I better take this in stages to learn a bit each time.

I need to get a light box made so I can get some good pictures of the roving once it's dry and braided up. I might even try to list some next week if I get a batch that I love dyed up tomorrow. I love new hobbies.

One thing is certain - I'm going to need more vinegar to get through this wool.

Naughty United States Postal Service

Hey USPS - I appreciate you bringing me all sorts of goodies in the mail today, but I didn't appreciate the bent package. Guess what, "Do Not Bend" on a package from Australia means "Do Not Bend" here in the US too - they speak English... capishe? I will be heading up there tomorrow and complaining.

However, I received the most wonderful (don't I always say that) items in the mail box today and the bending only messed with the print a bit. I can flatten it out in a frame. Thankfully the seller sent it over packaged quite well and my postal carrier was too lazy to leave it at my door and tried his darnedest to get it to fit in the box.

One was a trade from an amazing artist in Australia. Her name is Ali J and I'm so excited about what she sent. I got a print, necklace, and button. I'll be going back there for Christmas next year. I know some people that would LOVE what she makes.

My second treat in the mail was a much anticipated package from Hobbledehoy. I watched her hand dyed roving fly out of her shop in the days leading up to Christmas, but didn't buy any as I didn't yet have a way to spin it into beautiful yarn. With the receipt of my drop spindle for Christmas, I now have reason to spend money in her shop like it's going out of style. I purchased Drunken Sailor and Chocolat from her shop and she sent a bonus batch of roving as a treat. I can't wait to spin these up.

My third treat was a pendant I purchased on a whim the other night. I had favorited it a few days before and felt the need to move some fundage out of Paypal and into someone's shop. Deciduous Soul was my lucky seller. I purchased a lovely pendant from her shop and will have to wear something brown tomorrow because I cannot wait to wear this to work and get many, many compliments on it.