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. :)

Getting ready to move

My hubby and I have found a place to move to. It's not very far from where we are now, which is great since we will still be close by to visit Reba & Dave (sis- & bro-in-law for those of you who don't know). We will be staying in a home located on a farm called Alpacas of Shepherd's Pasture. The owners of the property are trying to sell off all of their alpacas because they are ready to retire, so we will be helping to take care of their alpacas until they get them all sold. This is a great opportunity for Tim and I to learn more about the alpaca business. I will have access to a store set up and will be able to show products in there.

We will be able to take our 5 alpaca boys with us and put them in a pasture. The house we are staying in is a 3 bedroom, so we will be able to have guest room (Mema & Mepa, that means you won't have to camp out when you visit us!). We haven't really unpacked since we moved up here, so we don't have a lot to pack up. Only some clothes, craft stuff and a few books. I am so excited and can barely wait until next week!!!

So, I am planning on having a "warm house" party around Halloween (and I hope people will dress up). A warm house party means that it is not a house warming party because we have pretty much everything we need. So no gifts, please! If you would like to bring a yummy appetizer or other food that would be appreciated. I will post more details about it later!

Sorry for the lack of posts in the last week. I have been so sick and not been doing much. Now that I am feeling a little better I will be getting back in the swing of things!

Sick of being Sick!

The last couple of days I have had really sore shoulders, then last night my throat started to hurt and my ears are hurting. I have been taking lots of vitamin C and tea and oranges and soup. But I still feel crappy.

My time at the psychic fair was really fun. I met a lot of nice people and I sold a couple of things. Plus I made a great trade for an abdominal massage, which was amazing. I didn't make my booth rent back, but that's okay. It was a learning experience and most people were not there to buy crafts. Oh well. Hopefully I will be more successful at the Christmas craft fairs that are coming up. We shall see.