Thursday, March 29, 2012

We hosted a fiber fun day at the farm last Sunday.

We focused on painted dying techniques this time around. About a dozen people were on hand getting dirty in a very colorful way.







Brandi jumped in and helps me run the class and kept mixing dyes for the others. Without her help I never would have been able to keep up! Here's a huge THANK YOU shout out to her. The day started out with beautiful weather, but the winds picked up in the afternoon and we had to retreat into the shop as a dust storm came in from the south. The wind died down pretty quick, but I think we were all ready to leave the dyes behind by then.



The only one not exhausted at the end of the day was Daisy, who found herself a nice little nest for napping

Friday, March 16, 2012

Peaceful times at the Tucson Wool Festival

Last Saturday was the last Tucson Wool Festival, as Kathy is moving to Maryland at the end of the month. She didn't advertise very heavily (short timer syndrome I think) and I thought the crowd was way down. I know sales where. And I couldn't have cared less or had a better time. It turned out to be such a relaxing day. I got to visit with friends, work on projects and have time to eat a decent lunch (thanks for the mac and cheese Kathleen!) In fact, after Kathy shut down for the day, we all just hung out for a while. Eventually we all packed up and headed for home. It was nice to arrive at the house after a show not completely exhausted.
Of course, I still need the busier shows to keep the alpacas in hay, so I'd best not get use to it.

I've been spinning yarn like a mad woman so I have enough for everyone to play with next Sunday. I'm hosting a fiber play day. We'll be playing around with hand painted dying. I have no idea how many people plan on being there, but weather it's one or one hundred, I want to make sure everybody gets to try at least a little bit of dying.
Now I just have to clean out that end of the shop, so I can set up tables...

I've been playing around with the web site and have finally figured out how to do a little tweaking. For the life of me I can't figure out why computer programmers aren't all insane. It took me two hours to change one price. But I did change it, and that called for a small celebration. I rewarded myself with a nice chilled glass of wine. If I figure out how to change a photo, I'm gonna give myself the whole bottle!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

come on google, let me in...

Look! I'm up-dating the blog; now quit nagging me Pat.
I suppose I could tell you nothing has been going on, but we've been pretty busy, really. The problem I'm having is Google has decided to be difficult and keeps refusing my password. When I try to reset it, I get an email stating I don't have an account with the email I use. This is usually followed by another email telling me how to reset the password for the email they claim I don't have. ??? most of the time I decide it isn't worth bothering with. On occasion, I reset the password, only to be told the next time I try to log in that the pass word is no good.

I hate technology.

So what has happened lately? The Southwest Regional Alpaca Show has come and gone. I had registered Belle and Flynn, but the night before checking, Belle decided to get sick. Nothing serious, a bad case of the runs, but I didn't want to stress her further or take a chance she was contagious with anything so I opted to leave them both home. Belle was fine in a couple of days and completely unrepentant for having ruined my plans. Nobody else showed signs of illness, so it was probably something she got into. In hind sight, I was just as happy to not have the kids there. My mom didn't make it out this year, and I don't think I could have managed everything without her.
I headed up the ABA booth this year. I think we did pretty well. We managed to make a little hay money. (or made up the money we spent on not taking Belle and Flynn to the show)
The following weekend Pat and I participated in Arizona City Daze. The weather was quite nice, and I thoroughly enjoyed the wine I bought on the way home. Other than that, there isn't a whole lot to talk about. Think we'll put this one in the "thanks, but we'll pass" column.
We'll take a break this weekend and then head to Tucson for the final Tucson Wool Festival. Kathy has bought a home in Maryland and is shifting everything East. I'm sure she would welcome us there, but it is a bit of a commute.
One thing about AZ City Daze, I had time to take stock of my remaining product and realized that I am getting low on yarn. We have been selling it steadily all winter without me paying much attention. Now I'm hustling to get more done. My free time is spent carding and spinning. Now I'm getting notes that people are needing soap again. Shoot! note to self: free time must be spent carding, spinning and felting. Maybe I should just give up sleeping.
Some good news, yarn wise, our cream color yarn came back from the mill. I'm skeining that off the cones and on March 25, we're going to have some people over and spend an afternoon playing with hand painting techniques.
The other thing I've been trying to work on is getting our online store up dated. That is really not going well. (the "I hate technology" statement and the difficulties I have with Google should give you an indication of my computer prowess - slim to nil. On line stores are completely beyond me) Stay tuned for either a new on line store, or a news headline about a crazy woman that shot her computer.