Needle Felting

Last week my son and I took a class in needle felting. This involves stabbing wool with a special barbed needle to make the fibers mat together. He is an artist and took imediately to the concepts of creating soft sculture. The pictures are the creations he has made during the past week. He will probably thread a fishline through to turn them into hanging ornaments.

Branching Out

We have decided to branch out into the business world. A new store just opened last week in a nearby small town. It is renting space to vendors and my daughter and I decided to each take two feet. I already had a slat rack for craft shows but of course the shelves that I had for it weren't 4' long, and not enough of them, so I went to the lumber store and bought a sheet of 1/2inch plywood which they were nice enough to cut into the suitable widths for me.

My next stop was to pick up some felt yardage to cover the shelves (protection for the glass and the yarn from shelves that I didn't have time to properly sand and finish)

Today was moving in day for us. It was so much fun to get everything labeled with our identifying number and price and decide where each item would be placed to look it's best. We still have some tweaking to do, adding a little more yarn and soy candles, some signs and contact information.

We are happy to be a part of a new venture. If you are driving down M-32 in Northern Michigan and see a sign for Homespun Harvests,Elmira, stop in and shop or just browse. I have a feeling there will always be something new to discover.

Etsy Treasury

I was just notified that one of my yarns is featured in a treasury made by http://www.etsy.com/shop/simplysuzula . I was pleasantly surprised to see how nicely the shades of my yarn fit in with the beautiful jewelry and other art in her collection of Citrine.
Take a look http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=91330

Rainbow yarn

I spun these skeins of yarn from six hand-dyed colors combined(plyed) to form one continuous skein ranging from red to purple without any repeats. The two skeins average 300yds each of wool and mohair and are soon to be listed on etsy (waiting for them to dry from setting the twist ) It was one of those projects to see if I could do it (no knots and distinct colors) I think it worked and am tempted to keep one for a project:)

Fall Harvest

Just before the frost/freeze that we had last week I was able to harvest the few remaining things in the garden, a five gallon bucket of tomatoes is now nesting cozily in boxes of newspaper waiting to finish ripening. Pictured below are some of the grape tomatoes, a squash, and my mystery growth.

This second picture is a closer view of the unknown object that I rescued from my compost barrel. I'd been watching this unknown vine grow during the summer, my first guess at it's identity was squash but then it blossomed-a small, delicate yellow bloom- so then I thought cucumber, and again waited to see the result.

As I was stripping the main garden I decided to take a last look and noticed several orbs smaller than an egg, definitely not a cucumber, then tucked away under the abundant leaves I spotted this and picked it. Gourd? maybe but don't remember throwing any in there (yes it wasn't the best made pile or it would have heated enough to kill any seeds) an immature squash that I don't recognize? Any ideas anyone? In the meantime I'm resisting the urge to dissect and letting it dry or ripen?

Etsy Voter

I've been busy this summer with craft shows and gardening, lots of corn ready to harvest right now, but I'm excited and had to share! I just received notice that one of my yarns was chosen to be one of 40 listed on Esty's Voter for this week. As I understand some of the most popular ones will then earn a place in one of the gift guides. If anyone wants to check it out go to http://www.etsy.com/storque/etc/vote-which-yarn-gets-you-in-a-knitty-mood-5094/
With so many beautiful choices, I understand if you don't vote for mine. If you do, I thank you.

Craft Show Tent

I've had my old pipe,elbow, and tarp tent for many years, and it serves well when I have help and set it up as a 10'x20' but for one person trying to use a 10'x10' space it sets up as 10'x7' and still takes up a lot of room in the van.

This week I treated my business and myself to a new easy-up tent. It's white! It has sides that actually fit and zip closed at night! It's an exact 10'x10'! It's heavy but takes up less room in the van!...Yes I need to make a set of weights for the places I can't stake, but I am very happy with it so far as I head into my season of weekly shows. (To know where I'm at check my store weekly http://mulchandmore.etsy.com/

The new tent pictures ended up first, but you really wanted to see them first anyway:) You can see how much more I can display (and I still have 3 totes of yarn that I couldn't fit out so need to do a little more display tweaking) Each show is set up a little differently anyways because of traffic flow and sun (candles and soap need to be shaded) so it's always a work in progress.