Saturday, February 27, 2010

Spring is Coming !

Well, if you look outside, it does not look like spring!  Although, I love the snow it is time to start thinking about the garden.  Jeff and I have begun to make our plans.  We will add more raised beds for the tomatoes. . .. last year the plants were huge and we were not able to harvest many of the tomatoes, because we could not get to them.  Jeff will build beds that are narrower and plant one row of plants rather than two.  We'll see how that works.

We have made our prelimary list of seeds to order/buy.  Way too many choices and we need to delete some from the list.  We are trying some new veggies this year . . eggplant (by request), some multi-color hot peppers and some purple carrots and some flowers for cutting.  The harvest should be quite pretty!

Headed to the Fort Wayne Home and Garden show later today - should be fun!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Retreat Review

OMG!  The retreat was AWESOME.  Of course, I am exhausted . .. .but we had a blast!  So many fun fiber and llama girls!  We spun, knit, wove, joked, learned, laughed. . .ate really well. . . What a great time. 

We had two guests that are very, very new to fiber, hopefully, we did not scare them off.  Fiber artists are a wonderful, diverse, crazy group . . .add on that most of use are lama owners. . .. the fun just goes on and on.

I will update with some pictures as soon as some of the girls email me.  I, of course, did not take my camera.  Even if I had taken it. .. I was to busy to even think of it.

The dyeing classes were the most popular and I think the Dip Dye had the best results. . just amazing what your ball of yarn turns out like after you re-skein it!

More updates later, now I am off to bed. . . .. .

Monday, February 15, 2010

Retreat Update

Since today happens to be President's day, as a banker . .. I have the day off (from banking).  I have spent my day getting ready for next weekend's fiber retreat.  I have poured candy, written instructions and notes for next weekend's classes, beaded several spinning hooks, made a grocery list and gathered lots of stuff.




I will be posting the spinning hooks for sale on my etsy site after the retreat.  The candy that I poured will be for sale at the retreat.


Joy and I will set up for the retreat on Wednesday night since I have a Relay for Life meeting on Thursday and Friday is just too late to get it all done.  We'll finish setting up on Friday night, but most will be done on Wednesday.

We have goodie bags to finish putting together and just a bunch of supplies and groceries to haul into Joy's.  It will be a fun, relaxing weekend.

Check out our page on the blog home page if you are interested in details.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Fiber Retreat

Well, Joy and I are in full swing getting ready for next weekend.  Joy is busy cleaning her house and probably the barn.  You know the llamas need to be ready for the treat as well.  And if you know me, you know I have 16 zillion little things I want to finish for the event. (I'll get to about 10 of them, LOL)

I am busy putting together goodie bags for everyone who attends, gathering the materials for the classes and getting our vendor items around.

We're hoping to draft a couple of craft night friends to help at the retreat.

We've added a couple of new items this year .. . we're having a slide show Saturday evening featuring Joy's trip to Peru last year.  Beautiful pictures!  The weaving demo that everyone will work on, will be a shawl that we will donate to a llama fund raiser.  

We've also opened up Saturday to "Saturday Only" participants.  These fiber fanatics can come for just the day on Saturday and attend all the classes and visit with everyone else who is attending.

Our vending area is open to everyone - just stop in and shop!  The address is 1390 Co Rd 12.  I will put some sort of signage by the mailbox - cuz it just looks like a long lane to nowhere if you've never been there.

As you can imagine, we have lots to finish.  It will be worth it - it will be a great weekend relaxing, spinning, knitting, weavings, visiting with other fiber artists, great food, and lots of fun!  If you cannot join us this year, put it on your calendar for next year!

I'll post pictures and stories after the retreat!

Please send me an email (llamaluv1@yahoo.com) or post a comment here if you have any questions about the retreat.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Big Storm Feb 9, 2010

Well, we are getting a bit of snow - about 5" so far and may be blessed with 3-5 more inches. Funny how everyone is all crazy about the snow. . ..not like we've never had snow. .. .this, of course, from someone who drives a 4-wheel drive truck and thinks "plowing snow" means to plow through it in my truck!

The critters are all snug. The sheep are running and jumping like crazy having fun. The llamas are NOT going to go out and get wet, they prefer to wait for the staff to serve them and the dog had great fun making "puppy snow angels" as we walked to the barn.

Inside, everyone is settled in. Daisey and Kuddles are hunkered down in a laundry basket like two peas in a pod. They are mother and daughter and inseparable.

Now off to my knitting, time to finish a pair of mittens for a friend at work. I'll post a picture when they are done.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Big Storm Prep

Oh my! The news is sure having fun scaring everyone that we're going to have a huge snow storm. I don't worry about us during a storm, but I worry about all the critters. So, I went down to the barn and got everyone ready. I cleaned stalls, filled water, put out straw and tucked everyone in for the night. They will all be snug as a bug in a rug!

The new ewes seem to be doing great - all settled in and happy. I'll share more about them and their big adventure in another post.

Now, all my critters are tucked in, I have my knitting ready and I'm ready to get snowed in!