Sunday, October 30, 2011

Crazy Busy!

This past weekend was the Weavers' Guild of St. Louis' Annual Sale in Clayton, MO at The Artists Guild in Oak Knoll Park. It was my first year selling at the sale (I have gone to the sale many times) and what a collaboration it is! So many fiber artists and their work! I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It is alot of work to get ready for it. But well worth it. It was enjoyable spending three days with the other members and getting to know them. The sale runs like a well oiled machine with Jane at the helm. It takes each and every one of us to make it work. And there are life long patrons that come each year, too. I was in awe.

This is a picture of some of the hats.






These are some of the scarves that were for sale. I say, 'were', because most of them sold at the sale! And no wonder, they were beautiful.  Its hard to describe the sale. We were in 4 rooms downstairs and the clothing was upstairs. It was huge! I only photographed not even  1/4 of the show. As you walked around, it was easy to become over stimulated by all the awesome-ness of the talented artists. I would look into a room and wonder how many thousands of hours of work was represented in this one room?
On the left is a fiber art owl made by my friend, Tracy Deniszczuk. We took the felted fish class together a couple of weeks ago. On the right are silk brooches. They are about 2-3 inches.


More jewelery offerings.
And then add to my busy week a wonderful parcel in the mail! How exciting! The spinning wheels are beginning to arrive. You know they come from a distance when they put USA on your address.             I couldn't wait to get them opened.





My husband put the wheel together for me while I was putting tags on Sale items. He marveled at how the wheel spun so effortlessly. Before he put the drive band on, he would spin the wheel and it circled around and around and around. I spun a little bit on her and she is nice! I am impressed. I will have two of them for sale at my next spinning class this weekend. I think the students are going to like these! I know I do.                         I can't forget to mention how much help my son and husband were to me this past week. Thank you, guys! Its been very hectic and I've had tunnel vision to get ready for the sale and they have taken care of the animals in my absence. I am blessed. You guys ROCK!
Percy is growing fast. His curled tips on his ears from birth are beginning to straighten out. He is running around the pasture like lightning! I'll get a picture of it for next time.
Talk to you soon,  Tammy

Friday, October 21, 2011

I'm Pickin' And I'm Grinnin'

Remember "Hee-Haw"? That country comedy show from the 70's? They had a bit on it named 'I'm pickin' and I'm grinnin'. That was a funny show and I thought about it alot this past weekend at my friend, Bonnie's, house. Its had to tell from this photo but it is a huge electric picking machine. I was feeding wool into it, prepping the wool for carding and singing, "I'm a pickin'!" and then I'd grin. I was cracking myself up! ok, maybe it was a little sleep deprevation, but I was having a good time. Just over my right shoulder is a conveyor belt that feeds the wool into the teeth of the picker. I think I will put one on my Christmas list. With a building to store it in. (hey, if you are wishing, you might as well wish BIG)
    Remember the blue alpaca that I dyed last week? In the 'Singin' the Blues'? Here it is coming off Bonnie's carder. It is a sight of wonderment that I can watch all day! The blue wool came out so well that only a limited quantity of it will be for sale. I have to save some of it for myself. I will try to duplicate the color so more of it can go on the market. There is something about the color of denim that I totally love.  love, love, love it! And thank you, Bonnie, for getting my wool carded! She helped me get wool ready to take to the Fiber Fun Fest this weekend and to the St. Louis Weavers' Guild Sale next weekend. We had several colors come off the carder, a nice Christmas red, and some sparkly browns that turned out very nice. The wool is now to the fun stage--spinning it into yarn to make hats, mitts, scarves or whatever you like. And remember, it takes a year of caring and feeding the animal to get this wool from him. Wet or dry, hot or cold, I go out every day to care for them. So please don't hold it against me if I save some of the product for myself. And of what I do sell, I don't charge that much for it considering how many hours and pounds of grain it took to produce it. There is a part of me in every ounce of wool I sell. 


                                                                
Isn't this a great camper? Have you ever seen one? This is my free spirit friend, Jaime. She camped out at Bonnie's last weekend. Her Burro has a heater in it and can be pulled by a car. She takes it to Canada on trips. I am fascinated by this camper. It would be great for me but my 6'5" husband would never fit! lol

And this is my Funky Felted Fish I made in Pam MacGregor's class. I really like my fish! He is very Funky! I believe I will hang him in the bathroom. It was a great class and I learned alot. I was, as usual, the last one finished with the fish but I was still within the time parameters of the class. I am a slow felter, I admit. I think I talk too much during work . Can you imagine that?  Talk to you soon,  Tammy                                                   



Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Perseus


This is the little guy born on Friday! This picture was taken shortly after his birth. My son named him saying that all herdsires should be named after Greek gods (remember Aries?). I might have to rethink letting my son name the new babies. Anyway, I digress--his momma, Emmee, was a first time mom and she sailed through the birth like a champ. He is a little small but for a first timer, that's ok! He was  a couple of weeks early and it took a few hours for her milk to come in so I gave him some formula to get him started. And of course I wasn't ready! As you can tell, the only soda bottle in the house was a two litre bottle. Talk about over kill! lol  As you can see, the bottle was as big as he was. Hey! You make due with what you have!


Vienna was in love with her half brother (they have the same dad, Laredo). She still is, too. It fun to see the girl herd welcome the new guy. And Georgie had her watchful eye on him immediately. I had to put mom and Vidalia in the barn for the day as he was getting confused about who his mom was because all the girls wouldn't leave him alone. But after a few hours of nursing, he figured it out fast. He makes Aries look so big! It looks like Percy (that is what I will call him) is going to be a rose grey tuxedo. It is hard to be sure until his true fleece starts growing in. Many times the cria fleece's color is altered in the womb by the fluid. So we'll have to wait a month or so to be sure. The tips of his ears are curled a little, too. They will straighten out in a couple of weeks. Did I mention he is full peruvian? Well, he is. I am going to enjoy watching him grow. It looks like he is the only cria I will have this season. That is ok.
Here's a picture of him yesterday.
And while we are looking at "awe!" pictures, I thought I'd add one I took yesterday evening. Birdzilla has got her babies roosting already in the barn and two of them are finding shelter under her wing. She sleeps with her wing stretched out like that! That is a mother's love!
Talk to you soon,  Tammy

Thursday, October 13, 2011

I'm Singin' The Blues

I've been singin' the blues around here. Everywhere I look, its blue.



Shades of blue alpaca, blue merino, and blue nylon.


I've been doing alot of dyeing the past day or two. Once I get started, I tend to dye anything and everything within eye shot. I think one of my favorite colors is denim blue. I consider it a neutral color. It will look good with any color! Especially my jeans. I'm going to blend all these blues together into one roving. I think it will be awesome! I will have it in my booth at the Fiber Fun Fest held by 3 Sisters' Workshop on the weekend of Oct 22-23. Check out the website at FiberFunFest.com for details. I am still feeling blue. I think I'll go take care of it.
Talk to you soon,  Tammy

Monday, October 10, 2011

Nook sleeves

I have been felting some lately, getting things to take to the sale at the end of the month. I have a son in college, too, and have been getting him together for classes. Did you know that now you can buy your books for class as e-books, have them downloaded on the computer and put on your Nook through Barnes and Noble? Yes you can! How cool is that? We will be doing that next sememster. And that got me thinking about my son transporting a Nook around without breaking it. So I made two felted sleeves for a Nook. Each of them have a vintage button on it. (You know how I am about the buttons!) I pretty much pick out the buttons and then design the sleeve. I am happy with the way they turned out. The Nook fits perfectly inside.



The one to the right is in a totally different colorway. It has a bakelite button on it. Felt melds color together so that it is a joy to create. Your imagination is the limit with it. I am going to start teaching beginning felting classes with 3 Sisters' Workshop this winter. Check the website if you are interested in learning. Some felting is physically demanding. Felting smaller objects-not as much. But whatever the size of the project, it is 100%satisfying!                  I made both sleeves out of merino wool. I am going to make some more of them. Come to the sale at the end of the month if you want to see them close up!
Talk to you soon,  Tammy

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Lions and Tigers and SKUNKS! Oh My!

So, I'm coming in from the barn yesterday evening, at dusk, and look at what pops out from under my workshop! No, its not a small badger but a skunk! I am standing about 10 feet from him.














He then walks about 5 feet over to the back door of the house. He is obviously looking for the cat food bowl. When I have said before that I adopt the stray cats that come into the yard, I didn't mean this! LOL He is looking right at me when I took this picture.






The next thing he does is walk back to the workshop, where he started. Wait a minute! He makes a hard left and is walking up to me! Does he like the camera? I'm standing about 10 feet away from him at this point and as you can see, he is making 'beady little eyes' contact with me. I started stepping backward very slowly.
He turned to go back under the workshop and then made a quick turn around heading back for me! You can tell because the picture got a little blurry from my jumping! He was moving fast and heading for me! I have never had this happen before. I'm thinking "I've calculated skunk spray before (how and why I did that is another story in itself) at being over 40 miles per hour when it hits the air. He is between me and the house. There is no way I can make it! Back to the barn! The alpacas will save me." And away I ran shrieking like a little girl.
The moral to the story? There isn't one. Funny punch line at the end? There isn't one. But I was very careful last night when I stepped out of the workshop to go in the house, that's all. I plan on not being home this evening at dusk in case he comes back with his infatuation. This is just my crazy life.
Talk to you soon,  Tammy