A good mail day!

I meant to post this.. Thursday? I'm really not on the ball this week.


Check out this all of this loot! My dear friend sent an unbirthday package for me and the boys: spinning tops, monster finger puppets, and yummy chocolate (not pictured because I hid it away immediately). The high speed whorl and fiber I ordered got here two days early. And the super fun EyeCanArt kit that I won from Nicole's giveaway. Also a book to review for LibraryThing! Yay!

Today I've been doing this:



It will eventually be combined to make "Master Chief" batts.

More exciting news? I ordered my first ever Phat Fiber Sample Box! How will we celebrate this? With the vanilla frosted brownie cake the Beast requested, of course! Speaking of, I should get started on the mini apple pies for B and myself.

Spinning

I've fallen quiet again. I find that I have nothing to post about. We're having the usual homeschool fight - still trying to find our groove. It's practically summer here in Florida and it's hard to think through the heat (though I'm grateful for the sunshine after a week of rain and clouds). What's a stressed mama to do? Spin, of course!


Currently on my bobbin is this. I'm spinning probably lace weight here. I'm thinking about plying it but haven't made a decision yet.


This is the roving that is being spun above. I dyed this quite some time ago.


I spun this mostly over the weekend at the farm. It's near lace weight as well but I think I'm not going to ply it. It reminds me of Calcifer from Howl's Moving Castle - which is what I'll probably name it. (Aside: we have a cat named Calcifer - this yarn is nothing like her. And that tickles me.)


50% merino, 30% bamboo, 20% tussah silk. Scrumptious, in a word. I've been waiting on the arrival of my new toy to ply this.


Do you see this? It's my new, beloved toy. Dervish will soon be outfitted with a jumbo flyer! Score! Of course, I need to finish the blue yarn off before I assemble it. But here it is, freshly polished with beeswax. I'm so excited!

Mayhaw Festival

Over the weekend I was at Golden Acres Ranch for their Mayhaw Festival. I was set up in a tent with my yarn and Dervish, my spinning wheel. People came to watch me spin, to learn how to clean raw fleece, to gather information. It was a great deal of fun. Saturday I went by myself. It was overcast and rained occasionally. There was still a pretty good turn out, regardless. I met a great many truly wonderful people.

Saturday it was sunny and beautiful. B and the boys came with me. I'm so grateful for B. He is truly amazing - to spend his birthday chasing our kids around a farm while I share my spinning with others. It seemed that despite the weather there were less people - more kids, but less of a crowd. I still managed to meet many people (a number of whom have recently had sheep sheared and wanted to know what to do next). Busy as I was, I didn't take any pictures. Here are a sprinkling of photographs that B too while he followed the boys around.


I'm told that when they went on the "hay ride" (I didn't see any hay, but you get the idea) this dog (Boo, I think) followed along with the stick. I can't tell you how overjoyed my kids were with this dog. They love our mutt, Cynddl, but he's less than willing to fetch.















This weekend left me wanting, more than ever, to move out of the city and onto some decent land. There were chickens running everywhere, calm farm dogs, bleating goats, sunshine, and open spaces. Despite being glad to be home, I found myself profoundly sad driving back into the city.

Creative ten-year-old.

The Elf's school work for the last four days has been to make three stop-motion videos (he loves these things). One, I said, must tell a story and not involve any violence. This is what he did to satisfy my requirements. I present his retelling of The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

I suspect a lot of people who see this are unfamiliar with the character he used. They are mostly from the Halo games. While I do not always approve of the content of the videos that he makes, I must say that he is quite good at creating them.

Etsy.

Okay. I did it. I spent all day writing listings, affixing tags, and taking pictures. I've uploaded all of my currently available yarn to my Etsy shop.

Yay! Right?

Well, Friday night (or Saturday morning) I'm going to put my shop on vacation until Sunday afternoon. This weekend I'll be at the Mayhaw Festival at Golden Acres Ranch. I don't suspect that I'll sell anything there, but I'd rather not double sell something, you know?

Now I'm off to put babies to bed. Then I'm going to sit down with some lovely 50% merino 30% bamboo 20% tussah silk and spin away!

A third.

Yesterday was my third son's third birthday (the Beast). Three is fun.


Would you believe that this shirt was the biggest hit of all his presents? He's been wearing it since yesterday morning and shows no signs of letting me take it off. I have a purple shirt that I may put a cyberman on for him soon.


Rainbow dash was loved by everyone. Applejack lost her hat within the first thirty seconds of play. I'm going to sew elastic to it so that they can easily remove and replace it.


This is the extent of my cake decorating skills. A two layer brownie cake with buttercream frosting and peanut butter M&Ms. Classy, right? A suggestion: no matter whose birthday it is or how much they want it, toddlers should not be given cake thirty minutes before bedtime. It makes things more difficult than necessary.


This is what I did last week.

I've had the piece for this quilt top cut and sewn into strips for years.


I finally sewed the strips together. It's huge. I also sewed together the squares for a quilt for the Elf. I had one side sewn and the other just cut out. Right now it's half quilted. I've sort of lost momentum again.


The Imp's current favorite mama-made pants (mushrooms!). For my next trick, I'll add pockets.

Linking up with Nicole's Craft On. Because I can.

Sewing?

We know that my sewing machine and I don't get along. But recently I've had this.. drive to make clothes for my boys. I blame all those amazing, crafty mamas who blog about the adorable clothes they make for their kids with seemingly little effort.

So I tried to make pants. This is attempt number two.

The first ones were... bad. These are too long and maybe not wide enough in the legs. The Imp can't move in his crazy ways as easily as he'd like (but loves them, all the same). Here's where everyone else realized that tracing stretchy fabric pants and using non-stretch fabric to make new ones.. wouldn't work out so well. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.


This is the Beast's final birthday gift. I have two ponies and a dalek shirt for him. I love making freezer paper stencil shirts. Next weekend I'll be working on one for B's birthday.

Linking up with Nicole just for the fun of it.