The Fiber Fair

Well we made it to the fiber fair, in spite of multiple issues and our van leaking fluids halfway there. It was a nice day though it was so windy I ended up putting alot of my things back in the van so that they wouldn't blow away. The vendors were great! So many and selling tons of great stuff! I forgot my wallet in the rush to get out of the house, so I didn't get shop as much as I would have liked but I did pick up a nice french doe. All in all in was a pretty good day, but I do have to say, Where were all the people?!? a great turn out of vendors and products, but fiber people? not very many, most of the people who stopped to talk to me were from right in town and had no real interst in fiber related things at all! They had just wanted to see what was going on. Did people just not know about the fair? Is the cost of gas the reason? I don't know but either way it would've been nice to have some more of the people that the fair was for actually show up. But on a lighter note, I have new spindles posted in my etsy shop, and new fiber will be up as soon as my camera batteries are done charging.

Beaded Headstalls

It has finaly stopped raining, I got some time in on my boy, the picture is of him last year, he's still a bit shaggy in spots now but he is starting to look good. I am working on hand beading a nice wide browband for his bridle because I just found out that we might be in a parade this year. I rode in it last year too but I ended up riding sunny instead of buddy because buddy is a bit of a fruit cake when it comes to crowds. So anyway I am making this beaded headstall, if it goes well I may be offering a few others on Etsy. I still haven't decided what other color to use, I am doing the black parts right now but by june he will have shed out to a not quite black bay color and I can't decide what color would really go well with that, if anyone has any color suggestions I would love to hear them, I need to buy him new ribbons for his mane also and I don't want to buy them until I figure out the perfect color. I was thinking maybe gold, or burgandy.... It's so hard i have tried every darkening shampoo and stuff on the market, he is just never going to be black!




Here is a picture of me on sonny last year, I did burgandy ribbons with him. Either way I am so excited about this summers riding possiblities, last year we tackled the water, at the beginning of summer bud was so scared of puddles he would do a dance as soon as you started to get close to one, and by the end of summer I actually had him swimming neck deep in the big river. This summer, well, there is a very large pasture full of unsuspecting cows and now that the last of the longhorns are safely in the freezer they are looking a lot less intimidating. Last year before the big pasture was finished we had to ride past the cows every day to get to the trails and buddy was so scared he almost tossed me a couple of times. Now we can ride into the cows with no issues, so I am thinking, how hard would it be to teach him to work the cows? Now, I really know nothing about teaching a horse to work cattle but it's just too tempting, I think that we could do it, the bull is the tamest of the group, none of them have horns, and I spent alot of time last year riding among them to get buddy over his fear that the cows were going to eat him. I am still doing research online but I think that this might be this years project.

Rain.... uck

All this rain is killing me, though I did have fun teaching my daughter to throw mud balls yesterday. We saw some of the neighborhood boys starting up a mudfight and just had to join in, though I was probably the only parent who was laughing about it. We had so much fun! I haven't had a mud fight since I was little! But it's been three days straight of on and off rain and while I should be geting things done around the house, I've done little but browse etsy and dye wool.... which has come to a temporary halt because it's too wet outside to dry it. On a better note my lilah b. is looking about ready to pluck, hopefully in the next few days and then maybe carmella will be ready before the marshfield fiber fest, call me greedy but I would really like to get the wool off of her before she goes.

Standing over the dyepot

I hvae been standing over a dyepot for the better part of two days now I've got a huge amount of roving, some corriedale cross, and an unknown but really nice wool that I have been using to perfect my color recipes. I am mostly working on getting that really awesome look with tons of different shades of the same color. I think my favorite is the moss green, though the salmon color is my 2nd favorite, it just doesn't have as many different shades. These two and many more will soon be available at my etsy shop and I am even considering selling some of my preblended dye (in powder form) so that you can do this at home. I've got a really nice purpleish color in the dyepot right now, it's more of a solid color though if it comes out how I want it to it will have a slightly darker shade in spots. The girls and I are having so much fun, we are even considering doing up a bit of angora, I just can't decide what color to do it!

The Garden

Well, after weeks of work I am finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. I have everything besides my peppers, melons, pumpkins, peanuts, and some flowers in the ground. I ran a bit short on compost as I decided to top dress all of my raised beds with another layer this year so on monday we will go out a buy a truck load to fill in the last of it. The bunny play area has a nice thick covering of dandelion and clovers so that when they get out to play they have good stuff to munch on and I have been trying to make sure that at least one "playgroup" gets out each day. My husband thinks it's ridiculous that I have organized them into groups but certain bunnies only get along well with certain other bunnies and if I try to mix it up too much it ends up as bunny battles instead of bunny playtime. I am so happy now that its warm again. About two more weeks and the bunnies will have their new shed with AC and more space. I've gotten my first Iris blooms from the 200 or so ( not kidding) that I dug up and brought here last year and my empty lot beautification is going well, I can see the seeds that I planted sprouting up all over the place. It's going so well that now I am wondering if I could maybe plant some other things there like a few pumpkins that I may not have the space for. I may just try it. Every morning I go outside and look over the gardens to see what new miracle has begun to sprout or grow or bloom I am constantly amazed at what a miracle it is to plant a seed and watch it grow.

Just have to brag

The other day we went to pick up two beautiful French angora does. I am very, very happy with them I had never seen or felt french angora fiber before and was surprised to find that it is silkier than that of my English bunnies. It is also a bit longer, most of it is about 7 in. long, and the best part, on the way home I put one of the girls in my lap and started to spin straight from the bunny and it is actually a bit easier to spin than the angora from my English. I paln on selling 1 oz. on etsy, but the rest I am totally keeping for myself! It's just too good to sell it all. Now I am thinking that when I get my numbers down a bit I may breed one of them and try to get either broken or white babies because wool that long and white would be awesome.

The Marshfield Fiber Fair

I have just received confirmation that I will be able to attend the Marshfield Mo fiber fair. I will be there selling a few bunnies and buying wool and I hope that you will be to I will be offering a discount on multiple bunny purchases while there. This will be my first fiber fair and my first time taking the buns out in public, i'm so excited!