Photography Challenge - V is for......

It's time again for the alphabet photography challenge - I had a whole list of ideas for V but I just didn't have the time this week.....maybe I'll do better next week with W, Y might be ok.......X and Z will be really challenging. I can't believe there are only 4 weeks left of the challenge.

Vanilla Bean - ugly but oh so flavorful and such a yummy smell

Vineyard - Del Rio Vineyard in Gold Hill, OR to be exact

Velocipede, also known as Penny Farthing or Boneshaker......and 2 very scary clowns

Velvet - some of my hand-dyed velvet

Vicious - hah!!!  (yes, Bailey managed to get his photo in again)

More secret stuff..........

More work going on in Santa's workshop....bit of knitting last night and will continue with it tonight.....

......some sewing too - fun fabrics.....secret projects.......

Busy day.......

Busy day today trying to get caught up on things and working on gifts. Here's part of what I was working on but I can't say what they are......won't be posted until after the holidays.......

Now off to the latest knitting project........another gift that can't be shown........

Fiesta merino roving

The other day I put up a pic of the new Ashland Bay roving colorway  Fiesta.  Here's a picture of a sample handspun - I love it.  It's supposed to replace the discontinued Daffodil and Sunflower - well, no where near what daffodil looked like but pretty close to Sunflower which was one of my favs. It's very autumn inspired once spun up. 

Yesterday I took an all day class at Top Stitch, the Berina store in my area, on my new serger - what a great class - Jonathan is a wonderful teacher demystifying sergers in general and Bernina ones in particular. Looking forward to a class he said we can do for those of us with the 1300 model to learn about the chain stitch and cover stitch which others did not have in class yesterday. Jonathan is great, as is his wife Karen who also teaches at the shop.  If you're ever in SW Oregon they've also got a great cotton fabric selection, not the big 4 pattern company patterns, and threads........not to mention machines and irons.........

Photography Challenge - U is for......

Umpqua Bank

Umpqua Ice Cream - yum!

Umpqua River

Udders - yes, there are udders, these are part of the herd that supplies milk to the Face Rock Creamery in Bandon

Upsidedown - yes, Bailey managed to get his picture up here again

New roving colorway

I've spent the better part of two full days weighing, bagging, labeling roving, putting it into my inventory spreadsheet and updating the etsy shop - phew - too much administrivia!  Anyhow, there is one new colorway of Ashland Bay roving that I've now got in stock - Fiesta. It is a replacement for the discontinued Daffodil and Sunflower rovings.......both colorways I loved and didn't keep any for myself......very sorry I didn't. I'm hoping later today to get a sample spun up of Fiesta to see how it compares to the other two.

More clearance items

I've just added more clearance items to my "Other Stuff for Sale" page on this blog where they can be bought directly from me or they may be bought via my Etsy Shop.   I have a gray one and a chartreuse one I wear often, love them, also have a yellow one with the sun charm hanging on my spinning wheel.  These originally started out as spinning wheel baubles.

This is more of my cleaning out old stock to make room for new.......hopefully this winter I'll get into the household cleaning out mode........but we all know how that goes at times, bottom of the to-do list here as there are much more fun things to do.

Lazy weekend.......

This weekend has been a lazy weekend on the coast. Beautiful weather - mostly sunny but then at times the marine layer would float in for 30 minutes or so, then back out again, nice weather, nice weekend, life is good.

Recycled Upcycled Scrabble TEA Pins

I'm in that clean-out mode so there may be more items showing up on sale in the Other Stuff for Sale tab on this blog. I need to clear out old stock that I'm retiring producing to make room for new creations.  These scrabble tile pins are also listed in my etsy shop.

I gave these as gifts one year and everyone loved them, I've got a couple in my own jewelry box. Hopefully someone else will think they are fun for themselves or gifts.

More items to come as I have time to list them.

Hand Woven Scarves for sale........

Finally did some photography work for the etsy shop - I needed 4-5 shots for each scarf listing, took many more than that to get 4-5 decent ones.  Here are the latest listings in the etsy shop - an off-white merino/seacell scarf, a painted warp ginkgo scarf in autumn colors, a sage/rust gingko scarf and a teal/fuschia dragonfly scarf - the last 3 scarves are all tencel.  More scarves to take photos of in the near future........

Still treading water here, gulping for air at times. I have been able to cross a few things off the long to-do list. Huge Ashland Bay order placed for roving for my other etsy shop - I will be spending several days weighing, bagging, labeling, putting into inventory and updating the shop when it comes in. I placed a bigger than normal order as to take advantage of the prices before they increase in the next month.

Many scarves, 9 to be exact, left the studio this week for new homes - I know 7 of them are destined to become holiday gifts - I hope the recipients love them.  I really need to get back to weaving - life keeps interfering........sometimes for fun stuff, sometimes for administrivia. I've got more holiday gifts to knit and other requiring assembly of handwoven/handmade parts, holiday gift sewing to do...... perhaps some work on those will start happening later today.

Photography Challenge - T is for.........

Tiger Cub - my friends Linda & Virginia got to bottle feed it

Tractors

Toppcat - I saw this car sitting in my dentist's parking lot - did a quick search to
find out more about  it but nothing - has anyone else heard of a Toppcat?

UPDATE:  Friend Nadine suggested Toppcat wasn't the model name but something
the owner  put on to customize the vehicle. Hubby Sam took one look at the
photo and said it's a 1955 Pontiac Star Chief, his sister's first husband had one
 

Toppcat closeup

Toppcat hood ornament closeup

Tuna - bought one of these babies last week and split it with a friend - 22 pounds

Teapot

Teapots with my felted Tea cozy in the background

Teapots - my Lenox ones with Tea cozies I made to go with them

Tea art

Tea angel

Tail - do you know how hard it is to get a tail picture from a dog that won't stay still?
This was the best I could do - Bailey was exhausted after his photo shoot.

Frost on the Pumpkin

This photo is from the Butte Creek Mill steps - love seeing the date in the stone, pumpkin and cornstalks. Fall has really arrived, we've had frost on the pumpkins......well, not my tiny ones on the front porch as they're under the roof......temps around freezing overnight, then up to around 70 during the day - my favorite time of year weather wise.

Is anyone else getting a little panicky over the holidays approaching so quickly? I have no ideas for gifts for Christmas and a few birthdays....well, guess that's not totally true, a few ideas for small gifts I've been working on......but for the most part I'm clueless.

Sales have been good lately, in fact on the very long to-do list for this week is to work on photography - scarves need pix taken of them so they can be listed in the etsy shop.  I've got a special order for embroidered towels to get done this week, need to place a huge Ashland Bay order as I'm out of some colors, low on others, want to work on putting together pictures for a Snapfish book but not sure that will happen as there's a deadline if I'm to get a deal they're offering right now.....deadline of Thursday - yikes! But no work today or tomorrow other than boxing up and printing postage for orders as my brother is still visiting from the east coast.

I'm still waiting for life to slow down.....does it ever happen???  We're working toward it, hopefully with changes at the end of the year things will slow down a bit.

Still having blogger issues with not being able to update/edit any gadgets in the right hand column of the blog. Been on the community forums where there are lots of angry comments from bloggers about this issue - sure hope it's fixed soon.

Blogger issues

Question for others using Blogger for their blogs.  I have not been able to edit gadgets in my sidebar recently in this blog and the one I do for my spinning group. I've tried it on simple text gadgets - when I go to edit I type in the new text line but the save button doesn't save it.  I even tried doing a new gadget and saving it and it wouldn't work.  Finding answers via blogger are hard.  just wondering if anyone else has had this issue. I know it's been going on for at least 2 weeks, hadn't updated anything for over a month before so not sure how long it's really been going on.

Update - I did find the community forums (always seems to be a challenge to find) and see others are having the same issue - no fix I could find so I've posted to this conversation too.

Roving on Sale

I've just put this roving on sale in my fiber etsy shop in the Sale section of the shop.  It's Superwash Blue Face Leicester. I don't know why it doesn't sell well - it takes dye beautifully and is a dream to spin. Is there a stigma because it's a superwash fiber? I don't know. I just know I've spun quite a bit of it and love it. It's regularly $14.60 for 8oz - it's on sale for $10.95. I have seven 8oz bags left, sale price will be in effect until it's gone.

Photography Challenge - S is for......

 

Seagull

Stairs - long stairs in Bandon by the Sea overlooking Elephant Rock

Stumps

Sharpening wheel

Saddle wearing Salmon - this is huge and made out of leather, on display at a local restaurant

Jacob Sheep



Sheep with dreadlock bangs

Sheep



Shetland Sheep

And yet another Shetland Sheep



Sleeping Bailey - Soundly Sleeping

Photography Challenge - R is for.......

It's that time of the week again for the photography challenge - this week's letter is R - I didn't get the all important photo of the Rogue River and just couldn't get myself out of the house today to get one.

Rustic Italian Baguette in a bread store

Rusted iron skillet at neighbor Carol & Merle's house - love all the fun outside décor they've got

Rabbit - Jack rabbit to be exact sitting in the front yard

Remember back in the O photos my friend Patricia's dog Odin appeared and I said his brother would be coming up - well, this is Reilly. This is actually a photo of the wine label made in Reilly's honor called Reilly Red. Reilly was adopted from the Rogue Valley Humane Society

Retriever - of course Bailey wasn't going to miss his chance this week

Still here.........

Still here.......been busy visiting and having fun.  Friday a few carloads of fiber folks from down here headed north to the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival.  We had a great time in spite of the rain - not just rain but driving rain, sideways rain, rain in sheets, with hurricane force winds. Very sad for the outdoor vendors at OFFF. There seemed to be a good turnout in spite of the rain but I'm positive as many folks showed up or stayed all day long like usual.

We ate at some great restaurants - Sushi Track and Dar Essalam, a Moroccan restaurant - oh my goodness, how yummy.....both in Wilsonville, OR.

Friends Diane & Gary from Idaho came to OFFF and then followed me home Sunday, we had a great visit......but alas, they had to head home this morning so the house is quiet and I'm already missing them.

Today I will play catch up....and maybe take a nap. I need to finish up my 'R' photos so I can get them posted in the next couple of days - have 2 more pix to take.