Feeding the 'Pacas 2

Here I actually got a picture of me feeding Kodiak. We have come a long way, from him completely avoiding me to him actually eating out of my hand!!!

Feeding the 'Pacas

Yesterday I went out to feed the alpacas and decided to spend some quality time with them. I gave them some extra pellets and lots of loving. I have 2 that let me pet them and 3 that run away when I try. Kodiak, who rarely lets me get close to him decided he wanted the extra pellets that I had in my hand, and he came over to me and ate right out of my hand! I was amazed. I'm going to try again this afternoon and have my hubby come out with the camera to take pictures. Plus I want to put Shiloh back on his leash and get pics of that, too. It will be an alpaca afternoon. So exciting.

Oh, and my body is feeling so much better! I have lost nearly 50 pounds on a variation of the Atkin's diet. (Well, I did the induction phase for 2 months, but then decided I wanted fruits and potatoes back in my diet, so added them back in.) My period went away on its own, no pills needed and I think it's getting back on track. We will find out at the end of this month, if I start again or if I will need to go back on the pill to make me regular. I'm hoping for no pill, I get depressed and tired on it. No pill = more energy and happier me. :) That is all for now. If I get pictures taken I will post those later!

Getting Nothing Done

I have not done any crafting or spinning or any fun stuff since my last post. Although, we did fix part of the alpaca fence where Marley kept getting out at. I hope he doesn't find a new way out.

Anyways, what I have been doing is being in a bunch of pain and not wanting to move a whole lot. It's that time of the month and it's beating me up, completely and totally. I have the worse cramps, complete with full body aches. My upper shoulders are all knotted and hurting and my lower back is in agony. I have even resorted to taking advil to try and help with the pain (I hate taking any pills if I can avoid them). It's not working. The best that I can hope for is it to lessen up over the next couple of days.

Until then, ow ow ow ow...

Coastal Trip and New Roving

For my hubby's birthday today I took him to Bandon, OR. It's a cute little coastal town about 2 hours from where we live. We went to a bunch of little shops, ate way too many sweets at Cranberry Sweets (http://www.cranberrysweets.com/ they have the best fruit pate) where they have a bunch of free samples out (We bought some from them, too).

I also made a little trip to a yarn store there, since we don't have any where I live. They had a bunch of roving. Since it was my husbands birthday I didn't go too crazy with buying... I only bought 4 ounces of a merino wool that was dyed purple and silver. It is so pretty and I can't wait to spin it! I want to go back at my birthday, so I can go a little crazier and get some of the other pretty roving that they have.



We walked on the beach while we were there. When we started our walk it was a bit windy, not raining though. We got about 1/2 mile from our car and of course we got caught in a torrential downpour. My pants were soaked through and through. After we got back to the car we decided to go back to one of the shops and buy new pants for the 2 hour drive back home. The sales lady made me feel so good about myself. She asked if I wore a medium or large. About 3 months ago I would have been in a XXL. The large pants fit me, though and I was soooo excited and happy. (I've lost about 45 pounds due to being on Atkins since 1/20/2010, gone from 242 to 198).

Overall it was a great day and we had so much fun!

Walking an Alpaca

Today I took Shiloh out on a walk. I wish that my husband would have been home to take photos of it. Shiloh is fairly easy to halter, and I give him treats after it each time, so I think it's making it easier every time I do it. Well, we walked up the street to the mailboxes and a lady was out mowing her lawn. She gave me the strangest looks. On our way back a little dog ran outside and was barking at my alpaca. Shiloh got a little bit stressed out, but he wasn't too bad. We stopped along the way for him to eat wonderful tidbits of green grass and to eat some little flowers that he thought were very tasty. Then we walked back to the pen where the other 4 boys stood watching and waiting. I would try this with my other boys, but I think they might freak out a little bit. None of them like being haltered much, but they have to put up with, since it's almost shearing time.

Want to Learn how to Dye

I've been researching some information on wool dying recently and I believe it's time to take the plunge and try it. I bought a pound of wool from the Sheep Shed Studio for a fantabulous price. (With shipping it was less than $20 for a whole pound!). I am trying to figure out what brand of acid dye I want to get, I'm thinking the jacquard dye will be the best, and on amazon it's at a pretty good price.

I originally was buying the wool to make hair falls with, but I'm thinking I will have to try spinning some of it too. I've only used my spinning wheel 3 or 4 times since I bought it over a year ago, so I think it's time to practice some more and home dyed wool will be great to practice with!

I'll post the results of my science project up here after I finish. I'm really excited about it and hope that it works!

Sleepless Nights = Odd Designs

For the past week I have had an odd sleeping schedule. I haven't been able to get to sleep until 4 or 5 am, then I'm sleeping until about 1pm. Luckily my part time job is in the evening and I can do crafts at any hour. Well these past few nights I have spent time trying to design a great fire dance costume for summer performances. I keep coming up with designs for the top and then the next day realizing they won't work because of a)fringe b)material type c)looseness.

I keep designing thinking of metallic materials that reflect light well, and then remembering how flammable those are. Fringe would be horrible because I am spinning poi and what if I lose control for a second... Fringe would catch fire quick. My last design was very cute, and I still might try to make it, however it goes from a tight chest area to a very loose hip area, so again no good for fire dancing. Well... I will just have to keep thinking about an idea for a top and hopefully something cute & functional will come to me.

So, now I'm thinking that I need to restart my sleep schedule soon. Anyone have any ideas on how to do that?

Alpacas escaped!

Okay, only one alpaca escaped. And he is rather easy to get back into the pen.

Over the past couple of weeks our Suri alpaca has been escaping about once a day and for a while we were trying to figure out where. Our other 4 boys never try to escape, they like it in their pen with fresh hay and pellets every day, but not Marley. Marley likes to explore and thinks that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. A couple of days ago my sister in laws poodle was outside off leash when Marley was out of the pen, so the dog ran after him and chased him. Marley ran to the far side of the pasture and then leaped over the fence. It's not a super high fence, but still an impressive jump for an alpaca.

I was told that alpacas never challenged fences or tried to get out, well that simply isn't true for this boy. Apparently nobody ever told him that he was supposed to live peacefully in his pasture. Oh well, at least he doesn't try to run away, he must enjoy alone time away from the other pacas.

Etsy-fied

I now have an etsy account! It took me long enough, but I finally got there... http://www.etsy.com/shop/LadyCatEars

Go check it out and let me know what you think!!! I wonder how I can best market my site. Hmmm... I need more viewers!

Hair Falls

I am so bad at this whole blogging thing. I never really know what to say and I'm just awful at updating posts. I love reading other peoples' blogs, but writing my own is tough. Anyways, I did make a new item that I am going to have to make several more of now because it was so much fun and turned out super cute. Plus it will be a good way to use some of my yarn stash! I made some cute yarn "dread" falls. I will be donning this set as part of my fire dance costume, so that will be lots of fun! Anyways, let me know what you think of them. Thank you!

Time to start planning the garden

I am trying to decide what I should put in the vegetable garden this year. I know I will put in corn, zucchini, spaghetti squash and tomatoes. I'm thinking about onions and garlic, since we use those a lot, too. I would also like some snap peas. Hmmm... Any suggestions?

Hooked on Ravelry

I was recently told about a website called ravelry.com and that was maybe the worst thing anyone could have told me about. LoL. I am completely hooked on it. I spend hours at the computer looking at different patterns and drooling over other peoples yarns and just getting overall ideas for my upcoming projects. Most of my craft stuff is still in boxes since we moved, but I am slowly working towards them (They were brought over first, and stuff got stacked on them or in front of them).

Anyways, if you are looking for great patterns check it out, many of them are free and some of them are pretty inexpensive.

Ah, finished moving

We were able to get all of the alpacas safely transported and the rest of our stuff packed into 2 vans and a car (we've slowly been moving stuff over the past couple of weeks). On the drive over at around 8:30pm one of our vans decided to break. Really break. We were in the middle of the road, with no shoulder and no cell phone service. Luckily we were caravanning, so one car drove close enough to town to get cell service and call a tow company while the other 2 vehicles stayed in the road with hazard lights on.

I found out that people in this town are so caring and awesome, out of about 7 or 8 cars passing us about 5 of them stopped and made sure that we were okay and had help coming!

We were able to get the van towed for free through AAA and we all made it home safe and sound by 10:30pm.

In other news: I plan to start up an etsy store and get to selling on there. I have a bunch of unsold crafts stored up from the last craft fair that I went to and I figure that will be a perfect start. As soon as I am up and running I will post the link on here! I am also planning to do more spinning (since I have 14 bags of alpaca fiber to get to) and I've decided to hand card some of my stuff. Takes a lot longer than a drum carder, but I just can't afford one right now.

Now it's time to be off to bed! Goodnight.

It's moving time, again...

This weekend we are moving back to my sis-in-law and bro-in-law's house. Tim had his hours cut after the holidays, so he's down to working less than 20 hours a week, and I only have 4 hours a week doing caregiving right now, so we couldn't afford rent anymore.

I'm hoping that we can get the alpacas moved smoothly tomorrow. Right now I am not exactly sure how things are going to go... If it comes to it, I may end up moving them 1 or 2 at a time in the back of my mini-van. That could be interesting. I've moved 1 in it before and it wasn't too hard, so it's an option. If I do, I will most definitely take some photos to show on here.

By moving back in with family, this means we will have internet access again, yay! It drove me nuts not having internet at our house. Plus we will have cell phone service, since it is closer to town! (Our cell never worked out at the alpaca ranch).

In a couple weeks, after we have a little bit of money again, I am going to buy a little bit of pretty rovings to spin. I so wish that I had a working carder right now, so that I could card up some of Zachary's fleece to spin. Ah well. Maybe later this year.

Tiredness

This past week has been full of drama and pain and sickness. I got really sick with one of those 12 hour bugs and it was really icky and gross. Then, my period kept getting worse and worse, it went on for over 2 weeks and most of it very heavy. Finally I was so weak and felt like I was dying, so I decided to go in to the emergency room. It turns out that my body was trying to bleed to death. They gave me a blood transfusion with 2 units of blood, then they gave me pills to help stop the bleeding. They took good care of me in the hospital and were able to help me regain some of my strength and feel a bit better. Then the doctor came in and we talked about regulating me. She has put me on a birth control pill for the next few months to help regulate my period, she wants me to take iron supplements 3 times a day (I am very anemic) and she wants me to go on a no carb diet for the next 3 weeks, plus after that I am supposed to be on a VERY limited carb diet. I am not so excited about all of this, but if it will help I will give it a shot. We shall see how everything turns out.

Plied Yarn

Yarn, yarn, my first 2 ply yarn. It didn't turn out as horrible as I thought it might! Yay! I am so excited that I actually produced some usable yarn. Now I need to buy some more roving and get to work learning more on my spinning wheel. The more that I spin the better I will get, at least I hope I will get better! I am looking forward to learning more and more and someday I would love to learn how to dye my own fleeces and make some really pretty artsy yarns. Well, first I should get a carder, so that way I can card and rove all my fleeces... Someday. But for now I will just keep myself busy with buying bits of roving here and there from my etsy and ebay friends.

Spinning!!!

I bought a spinning wheel off of craigslist last year, around March or April. I have used that spinning wheel all of 3 times now. I have been intimidated by it, and scared that I would ruin perfectly good fiber by attempting to spin on it. The first 2 tries turned out horribly. They were all weird and different consistencies of weight, just yucky and pretty unusable. Then I saw someone spinning the other day and as I sat there and watched her go at it, I realized how to better monitor my thickness and twist. It became more and more clear while she was spinning that I too could spin a nice thin yarn. So the next day I sat down at my wheel and I tried it. At first it was a little difficult to get the thickness all the same, but after a few minutes I caught on and my yarn turned out so much better than those other 2 attempts! I spun about 2 ounces of white alpaca, and I have 2 more ounces to spin, then I will ply those together. **Gasp** That's right, I will even try to ply.

I made a decision this year. I am going to focus myself better and devote time to doing a few things that I love, instead of learning how to do something, then leaving it behind and learning something else. I have chosen 2 main things that I love, fiber arts (crochet, spinning, felting) and music (learning how to better play my harp). I might allow myself one addition sometime this year... Quilting. It's something that I have always wanted to learn and I think that Reba (my sister in law) might want to learn with me.

Anyways, I am so excited with my spinning that I just had to tell people, and isn't that what this blog is all about?

Working day and night.

So, right now I have very little time to come into town to do anything because I am doing alpaca stuff in the morning and in the afternoons. Ron and Marilyn are on vacation, so I have to be home more often to do the alpaca stuffs. Anyways, my husband and I are going to moving at the end of this month back to my sister in law and brother in law's house. Tim is really looking forward to it, because that means he doesn't have to clean up poop from 20 alpacas every day, now it will be only 5 alpacas, and we have agreed that he can do it every other day or even every 3rd day depending on how much there is.

After we move I am going to start saving up a little bit of money each month so that for my birthday I can buy myself a really nice drum carder. They cost between $600-$1500 for a good drum carder. The one that I want is nearly $700 and I think that if I can save up $100 per month then I will be able to buy one for myself at birthday time. It's so hard to work with the fleece without having a drum carder, or even good hand carders. I have 2 large dog brushes that I am using for hand carders, and they really don't work that well. I have an old hand made drum carder that isn't great, but right now I can't even use that because the belt broke and I can't find another that will fit.

I'm really itching to use my spinning wheel more, but I can't use it until I get the fleece carded, and to get it carded nicely I need a drum carder... Ugh. Well, August isn't too far away, I guess that I can wait for it.

Love At First Sight

Tender Love
Shiny and New

Wonderful Bond
Felt only for you

Fun Beginning
Lasting a while

Very Enchanting
Making you smile

Myself Devoted
To your care

Happy Delight
Half of a pair

Budding Sensations
Making me feel

Causing Excitement
That’s very real

Cherished Bairn
With silly giggles

Treasured Miracle
Lots of snuggles

Never Ending
Love you took

Heart Stolen
In just one look

New Year, New Start

A lot happened last year. My husband and I went bankrupt, lost our home, our car, and a lot of material things. However, we gained much spiritually and emotionally. Our relationship has been strengthened and I know now that we will make it through anything together. I started my own business... even though it's not really making me any money, but at least I get to create much fun stuff and I even had home-made gifts for Christmas presents for friends and family. I started this blog and then after I moved I didn't have internet access at my new house, so I stopped posting on it. I am going to try to be better about it now. I really do love to write and this blog helps with getting my mind started before sitting down to work on short stories and fiction pieces.

For those of you who read this and don't know: We are moving back into my sister-in-law and brother-in-law's house. We aren't making enough money to stay living where we are. I was hoping to find at least a good part time job by now, but the only thing that I have found is a very, very part time job caregiving. I do enjoy it, but I really need to find something with more hours.

My plan this year is to get a good job or make my business bring in more money. By living with the in-laws I will have at least a little bit of money to pay for booth rent, so I will be able to go out to more craft fairs and such. I am grateful that we are going to be able to save more money and not spend as much on rent and other big bills (like electricity, oh my that was a huge bill last month).

I am also working on other things. But I most definitely will be working on writing, blogging and updating my craft store website. So, keep reading and I will keep you posted on anything that is new and exciting. If I miss a week, and you are missing me, poke me by email and tell me to go update my blog that way I feel responsible to more than myself. :)