Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Finally announcing...

THE WINNER!!!!

Miss Laila, come on down!!!! Your name was randomly chosen out of a tiny box by my husband! :D Because the pins actually consist of 3 colors I will be using all three to create the Sullen Storms colorway. I can't wait to see it on one of your beautiful creations!

This giveaway was much smaller in participation than my last one and all of you have been so supportive and wonderful in the short time I've known each one of you.

Kate, thank you for being one of my first jewelry customers on etsy. It may not seem like a big deal but it really meant a lot to me, the jewelry world is tough out there on etsy. It was that much sweeter that you were a repeat customer. I hope you and your friend are still enjoying your candy bracelets very much.

Dani, Christina, and Dru, and Laila, you all are completely awesome fiber friends. I am completely floored by your support. Despite only having met two of you, I feel like I actually know all of you because of all the kind words, supportive notes, suggestions, and really just a way to be able to express ideas to people who actually "get" what I'm trying to do.

That being said, I'd like to offer a small gift to each of you who were not the prizewinner to show my sincerest appreciation for your participation and support. I think I actually have everyone's address so just pop a little comment here if your addy has changed since I have had to send anything to any of you... probably Christina? and dru, I will get those moths out to you then, sorry I'm a slow poke, I wanted to make sure I had them packaged very carefully. :D


Thank you all so much for your color suggestions as well, I will be making some variation of each one so look for em' in the shop!


Next time: pictures from Fiber Expo!

Monday, October 25, 2010

i bet you thought I forgot...

BUT I DIDN'T! The blog giveaway winner will be announced tomorrow! Sorry I've been so busy I haven't had a chance to randomly draw someone. :D

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

one seat over

Joe and I went to dinner the other night at one of our favorite local breweries, Dark Horse Brewing Company. We usually prefer to sit at the bar but it is often packed in there so we were quite pleased to find that there was plenty of room for us there. We sat down with the seat on my right open and the one to his left. I know, stupid right? Well Joe is tall so I thought he'd wanna sit and the end to be able to stretch his legs out. Silly man of course sat 3 seats in instead. So after joking with him how silly it was, I sat down to and we resolved to move should anyone else want to sit down.

A very nice couple who clearly frequent the brewery more than we do since everyone working there knew them (I'm not entirely sure they weren't the owners...) came in a bit later, so I asked if they would like us to scoot on down. We had a little small talk, joked a bit, and discussed what beers we were drinking and then went back to our conversations with our spouses.

Soon after we were discreetly told by our bartender that our first round had been taken care of.

I had one of their yummy homemade lime sodas for my second drink as I was driving and was shocked to find out a few moments later when we were ready for our bill that someone had taken care of the entire thing.

We're sure it was the couple that paid but we weren't supposed to know. Shocked, I tipped the bartender/waitress the twenty bucks I had in my purse.


Such a small gesture from us that resulted in a reaffirmation of my faith in human kindness all because we moved one seat over.

A large thank you from the bottom of my heart to that couple. 

Monday, October 11, 2010

giveaway ends wednesday 10/13

see post 100 for details!

AND, just so you know that I'm not wasting this gorgeous day, I actually sat outside to write this post while the dogs chewed on sticks. The colors are getting to be so beautiful!
 and then I had a puppy photoshoot! .... I wish I could have caught Dillion with his "stogie" in his mouth. Joe walked outside and Dillion greeted him holding a piece of a very small branch that looked like a giant cigar in his big doggie mouth!  I did manage to snap a few of my cute canine companions playing on this rare Indian summer day. (I was wearing a tank top!)
they are happily playing inside now... right underfoot of course. :D

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Shop Update Monday 10-11-10

Sneak Peeks :D 10 batts going in the shop tomorrow in all.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Chicago, puppies, rainbows, and wool

As promised a wee post about chicago.

At yarncon I got to hang out with my fiber friend Dani of pumpkinhaus where we both got to meet the lovely Laila of laigrai. It was so wonderful to meet with these incredible ladies with whom I have so much respect for and common interest. Dani doesn't live too far from me so we can pal around anytime, but Laila came all the way from NY to do the show so it was kind of extra special for us all to get together. Both of them had absolutely gorgeous booths at Yarncon that I wanted to buy every little thing from. This of course was what I forgot to photograph but we did get some photos snapped of us outside of the Pick Me Up cafe.
I also got was so lucky to stay with my pal Julie while I was in Chicago. It is so nice be able to catch up with old friends and to be able to see little parts of places like Chicago you would never even stumble upon without the help of someone who knows the place. We went to China town for dinner Friday and went into the Hoy Poloi gallery located there. Lot of really cool stuff but all that came home with me was a silly little eye poppin monster and some Tim Burton playing cards for Joe. Julie got one too which led to a hysterical photoshoot for the benefit of our dear Hillary who would have been in on it were she not oceans away. This may be my favorite one...
Prior to the weekend of Yarncon I was feeling pretty burnt out so it was nice to be smacked in the face with something as rare as a double rainbow on my drive to spinning night. The "double" was very faint but as you can see one of them was incredibly bright.




After relaxing most of the week, I began to itch to spin finally. I had missed that urge since I had kind of been forced to do so over the past month to build the meager inventory I managed. While at Yarncon I couldn't resist getting one of Laila's gorgeous batts but since it was only about 2 oz. I decided to pair it with one of my own. I tore them both into strips and drafted them a bit together. I was a bit worried at first but I think I am happy with the results so far.







Very fall festive I think, mostly mossy woodsy looking. I also had someone who thought he was helping.
Thanks for the cuteness support Frank.

psst... HEY! you're gonna miss the GIVE AWAY!

I mean seriously people, possibilities of free things don't come along every day. So if you want a chance at one of my Cosmic Poppy Shawl Pins, check out post 100. All the details are there. :D

Still open for a bit but I've only had two comments so far and wanted to make sure that it wasn't just my lack of blogging as of late that was causing the hold up.

At any rate, I've finally been able to breathe a sigh of relief as I finished my back to back to back weekends of shows. I'm quite happily sipping one of my favorite Michigan wines, Leelanau Cellars Great Lakes Red if you were wondering, and trying to catch up on the internet side of things. Funny how time gets away when you are INSANELY BUSY!

So for a quick recap of things:

First stop, the ol' alma mater of Adrian. I had a terrific time though sales were slow at Art A Licious. I I have participated every year the festival has been held and it honestly has gotten better as years have passed. Sharing a booth with Starr is of course always a treat as well. :D Plus! I made this rockin' hat for my friend Kendra while sitting in the booth, she is the model of course.

 Next stop, West Branch, MI. Northern Michigan Lamb and Wool was such a wonderful show. Nice people, plenty of setup time and easy to access the building to do so which is always a plus. I did wonderfully at this show and did I mention how nice the people were? Jill had a booth next to me and mom was there for cheap help. Many laughs over the weekend on the beautiful fair grounds. It was rather windy, chilly, and rainy or I would have gotten some pictures of the already turning colors in northern Michigan.

Do you like my giant bag of popcorn and bottle of squirt... yeesh you'd think I would think to take things like that out of these pix by now...


Finally, Chicago. Oh, Chicago. That will have to be another post I think. :D