Meet Llama JJ!

This wonderous creature was made for me by the daughter of one of my wonderful Market Neighbors! Jesse is 11, and her specialty is making animal sculptures out of "found" natural items such as pine needles, sticks, nut shells and rocks. She binds them all together with everyday recycled items such as rubber bands and twisty ties. Ingenious! I am so proud to be the owner of her very first llama sculpture. It is named Llama JJ in honor of Jessica, the talented and environmentally conscious artist!

OMG, I'm getting worse at this...not better!

So I've been selling online for about 4 months now, and I seem to be getting worse at naming my products...not better! My thanks to all of my Etsy forum friends and my friends at MaryJane's Farm for helping with the Watermelon Yarn Dilemna. I did go ahead and remove the "icky-sticky" watermelon picture, and was just ready to take a new pic of a whole melon with the yarn...when the yarn sold! Hahaha...things just happen that way sometimes! Now I have this huge watermelon with nothing to photograph with it...Oh well, (munch, munch, munch) I'll just have to deal with it!

I would appreciate your help with this new yarn. It's not quite red, and not quite rose, and not quite pink. It reminds me of something, but I'm blocked as to what???? Any ideas?

Watermelon Yarn?

I've made this new yarn and I've named it Watermelon. I really love the name because it just fits so well, and I think this pic really showcases the colors. In the picture, though, it looks as though the yarn is touching the watermelon...trust me, it's not!

So here's the question. Does the fact that I took this picture with the yarn so close to the watermelon make the yarn look "sticky"? It's just that whenever I think of watermelon (and I do often this time of year, yum!) I can almost feel that sticky feeling on my fingers...of course maybe not everyone is as messy as me when it comes to eating watermelon! What do you think?

Doggles!

In the title picture of my blog, you see my dog Chloe, being her natural Farmgirl self, and relaxing with the Ladies. Here you see here in her Alter Ego, "Duner Dog" and looking totally embarassed! But there is some reasoning behind dressing her up and parading her around in public, besides "just for fun" of course! My husband is a dune addict. Just like we are all farm and fiber addicts! The first time we took her duning we found that she loved riding in my Rhino (formerly known as the Llama Bean Picker Upper), but there was one problem. She accumulated so much sand in her eyes, that it was still coming out a week later. The logical solution....Doggles! Yes, they are a real doggie product! You can buy them at most pet stores and they are fairly reasonable. Trust me, I tried making them myself first, but just could not get them to work right! Anyhow, she's OK with them when we are riding, but tends to get irritated with them when we are not in motion....hence, the picture. "Awww, come on Mom, everyone's looking!"

I Am in a Treasury!

I am so lucky to have been featured in this gorgeous Fall Treasury by merkabajewelry! I'm still working on figuring out how to take a "print screen" and turn it into a picture, so until I do here is the link to the treasury. Check it out if you get a moment! Woo Hoo!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=1747

OK, now that I've got THAT out of my system...here's some of my new yarn for you to take a gander at. I'm branching out and using a little more wool in my yarns. The idea is to give them a bit more body and general "squishiness", and the colors I'm able to dye are...well, "to DIE for"! Sorry, I've always been a sucker for puns! Any comments would be appreciated.

Wow! Coupons!

I know, I know, to most online retailers this would just be "old hat" but I'm fairly new to all of this (fairly elderly also, considering the use of the expression "old hat"!), so to me this is really exciting. I'm going to start offering coupons! Does anyone have any good ideas about how best to distribute them? I have an Etsy shop and sell at the Grower's Market also...but am unsure of the etiquette attached to distribution. Who knows, I may even work my way up to "giveaways"....Contests...Fiber Fairs...a B&M Store...Running for President...What am I crazy??? By the way, until recently I thought B&M stood for bowel movement. I couldn't figure out why anyone would want a store....never mind.

Say Cheese!

I've gotten some pretty cute goat pictures in my time, but this one takes the cake! You know, usually goats do exactly the opposite of what you want them to do (see goat post below!), but Olivia and I have what I like to think of as a special bond, so sometimes (sometimes, mind you) she and I are on the same wavelength! This morning was hectic and I was posting a new yarn, and all I needed to finish was a picture of a smiling goat. Now I have pictures of smirking goats, laughing goats, and braying goats...but not a single full tooth smile. So down I go to the goatyard all pessimistic and dripping with sarcasm and call out "Say Cheese, Olivia! Yeah, right." What does she do? She smiles! Well, I'll be damned. I think she just did it to prove me wrong, but I love her anyway...after all, who could resist that face?!

Farm Fresh Flowers Series

I just wanted to show this picture of my new yarn. It's called, obviously, Pink Hydrangeas. I was spinning this mohair at the Growers Market yesterday, when these beautiful flowers from Fry Family Farm caught my eye. How perfect was that?! This is the second time this has happened, so I think I'll start a yarn series called....hmmm... What do you think? Fryed Yarn? Fryed Mohair? Yarn and Fryed Flowers? Any ideas? Oh and the Etsy Forumer who came up with the name for my new fiber below (Mystic Sea) is Catiahades, who has an awesome etsy shop also! Check her out at catiahades.etsy.com!

Applesauce Anyone?...No, that's dumb...

Here is yet another challenge for my fellow Etsy Forumers. What to call this conglomeration of green fiber? This past weekend I asked them to come up with a name for my new yarn (see post below!) and they gave me such an outstanding response that I thought I'd try it again. The yarn BTW, ended up with the name "Hawaiian Punch", offered by Karmacrochet...check out her awesome shop at Etsy also!

A Yarn by Any Other Name...

I'm having a heck of a time. I've been spinning and selling, spinning and selling... and not only am I running out of names, but my yarns seem to be getting wilder and wilder. Somebody stop me! Or at least help me name this one, because I'm at a loss. I'd really like to list it this afternoon, but it's going to be pretty sad if I have to call it "Just Yarn". HELP!

Funny thing about goats...

So this is my newest yarn, it's the color of these flowers, hence the name "Zinnias". Well I thought it would be a catchy idea to get a picture of the goat who produced the mohair eating a zinnia...simple, right? First I looked Zinnias up on the internet under "poisonous/non-poisonous plants", and no problem there. Well good. Next, I had to catch the goat. Funny thing about goats, when you have grain or just plain don't want to be bothered, they are all lovey-dovey like they haven't seen you in 5 years. But as soon as you want them to do something, forget it. If you haven't tried dosey-doing around the goat yard with a 75 pound running hairball, you haven't lived. And the worse part about catching a goat who does not want to be caught, is that they tend to be "drama queens". As soon as you catch one, they bray continually and at full lung capacity so that the entire countryside thinks you are slaughtering the poor thing! Well, we got through that part, not fun in 90 degree weather but typical, and haltered up the goat. I am not an expert photographer, and knew I had to halter her if I had a prayer of getting this shot before she ate the flowers. Next I brought out the zinnias and waited for her to gobble them up. Nothing. "Yum!" I said, encouragingly. Nothing but the chomping of dry grass. As it turns out, goats do not like zinnias, no matter how safe and nourishing they may be. This shot was actually a result of cheating. I called her name, stuffed in the zinnia and got the shot before she was able to spit it out. If nothing else I've proven I still have my dexterity, even at 50!