I think I’ve got it! I’ve tried and tried to learn how to crochet, and it just never made sense. My biggest success was a tiny bit around the edge of my hot water bottle cover. Inspired by the fun ripple blankets all over the place out there, I thought I’d give it another shot. I got out my trusty Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Needlework, and once again studied the pictures, step by step. I don’t know why it clicked this time, but it did, and I’m just rippling along:


It was perfect timing, since we had to go to a funeral in L.A. this weekend, and I needed a good, portable project. We spent 24 hours straight with my mother in law, and the only way I can deal with that is to have something to keep my hands busy. I’m using this pattern which I think is a bit different than the other ripples I’ve seen, but it’s nice and easy, so I like it. So far I’m using whatever bits of wool yarn I’ve got laying around, but I may have to get a few more colors.

Happy President’s Day! It’s a stock market holiday, which means I have
the day off. It’s pouring rain outside, so I’ll be inside working on
some fun things, one of which is my new Print Gocco.

I got myself a little treat with my bonus last month. While most of it went to exciting things like bill-paying and car-repairing, I found a print gocco on ebay for a really good price, and snatched it up before anyone else saw it. They’ve typically been going for well over $100, but I found a slightly used one for $55, and even with the shipping from Japan, it was still well under $100. I tried it out this weekend, and made myself some personalized note cards:


I love the way they came out, and it was so fun to do! To see how this clever little contraption works, here is a good explanation. It’s sort of a cross between screenprinting and stamping. I think I’m going to have a lot of fun with it!




My next project here on the farm is going to be a couple of beehives, hence the vintage beehive clipart :o)

I really think I am an optimist, but the last few days have been quite a test of my optimism. So I figured I’d write about all the yucky stuff, find the good in each situation, and throw in a few pictures that are making my happy, despite all the doom and gloom around here.

First of all, there were the shingles and chimney blown off our roof. That’s not so terrible, except for the $500 deductible on our insurance, but at least we have insurance, right? And when it’s all done, we can enjoy a cozy fire in our wood-burning stove. I’m not sure when that will be, however, as the winds were still pretty bad yesterday, and the tarp was blowing all over.

I made a felted ring the other day:

It’s kind of funky and fun, and very cozy to wear. It was fun to make, and I’ve got some fun ideas for lots more of these little babies, so they may show up in my shop soon.

Saturday, as you may have heard, was (very nearly) record-breakingly cold. Of course, we live in the mountains, so it gets cold, and I like cold weather better than hot, but we’re talking way below freezing, for days on end. So Sunday morning, when it managed to get above freezing for a little bit, we heard a very loud bang and a whoosh of water. Not good. A pipe under our front porch had burst. So we had to turn off the water for three days. Luckily, it was under the porch, not the house, so the water just flowed into the yard, and also luckily, we were home, so we were able to shut it off right away. So there was no damage to the house, and not a lot of water was wasted. Living without water is very not fun. We did, however, occasionally turn the water back on so we could flush. It was a little wasteful, but we weighed our options, and decided it was worth it. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. By the end of the second day, we were pretty disgusted with ourselves and decided to waste a little more and take really really really fast showers. Boy oh boy, did that feel good! The plumber came yesterday and fixed everything up, and it was only $150 which goes toward that $500 deductible that we were already out, so that’s not too bad after all. Other people had it much, much worse.

Since there was no water and I felt scummy, the best thing to do was curl up in front of the television and do a little hand sewing. My Blythe doll, Evie, was the beneficiary of my handiwork:

I made a little sundress with some vintage eyelet and linen. I even made some pink striped stockings to go with it. I have a little jacket planned to go over it. And then I think this is my favorite outfit so far, a linen butcher’s style apron over and pleated skirt and lace-edged t-shirt. Apparently, Evie likes the Classics, she was hanging with Shakespeare and Chaucer this morning. I forgot to mention that Evie made the trip to Boise with me, and she was a big hit with one niece so far. We had to change her eyes frequently, but Evie came through it all with flying colors. I still need to work on my Blythe photography skills.

Yesterday I went out to my car to go to lunch. I started it up, backed out of my parking space, and started to pull forward, and a couple lights came on the dashboard. One of them was the EPS light, which came on last year, when my timing belt broke and took out half the engine with it. I called a tow truck and had it towed, and spent a sleepless night worried that we were going to have another thousands and thousands of dollar repair bill. Luckily, the dealer called this morning to say that for some reason the throttle had lost all its settings, and they needed to reset everything for a cost of $200. Sadly, that will not come out of the $500 deductible :o) he he.

Happily, through all these crazy happenings, I had a new crazy coat and scarf to keep me warm:

I knitted the scarf myself, of course, and the coat, complete with purple velvet flower, was only $29 at TJMaxx. It’s a couple sizes too big, but that just means I can wear it over sweaters and stay especially cozy.

This one might be a little gross, sorry. While waiting for the tow truck yesterday, I decided to go have lunch, since that was my original intention, and while chewing on some rice and beans, my crown came off. I tried putting it back, but it won’t stay, so I’ve got to call the dentist and find time to get over there. Luckily, we have good dental insurance, and the oral surgeon who took care of this particular tooth is really nice and quite cute. Not as cute as Mr. Lucy, of course, but if you have to have someone drill a metal rod into your jaw, it’s always good when they are nice and cute, right?

And one more really good thing, I ordered some Moo Cards:

How can those NOT make you happy? I didn’t think I really had enough ‘good’ pictures to get them, but they turned out pretty nice anyway, and I love all the colors! You really do need to click that one to see it full sized.

Okay, I guess I am still an optimist after all.

I’ve been making things in my usual ADD fashion, a little of this and a little of that. I did some more needle felting:

I’ve been inspired by my chickens lately. I also have some Blythe clothes cut out and I’m watching some eBay auctions for Barbie clothes hangers. Christmas decorations are going up a bit at a time.

I need to finish a scarf by Thursday for a gift exchange at work. I’m a little nervous about the scarf, we drew names among most of the women in my department, and I don’t know the person I have at all. I really like giving handmade gifts, but I know that not everyone appreciates them. I think the scarf is going to be very pretty, but am I being selfish in doing what I like, rather than what I know the recipient likes? Because I really have no idea what she would like. I did a little asking around, but I didn’t get any really clear ideas for a gift. Maybe I need to post a picture of the scarf to get more honest opinions. I’ll do that tomorrow :o) I can always scrap the scarf idea and get a gift card or something, I just hate giving that sort of anonymous, all-purpose gift. Am I weird?

And, finally, the last member of my immediate family has started a blog. My third brother lives in Portland where he’s a Radiologist and has a beautiful wife and three of the cutest kids you ever saw in your life. I’m not just saying that because we’re related, really it’s quite amazing that I share any of the same genetics with all these good-looking people. 

I was watching Nigella last night. She is just the queen of adjectives, isn’t she? Anyway, while she was busily creating a quadruple chocolate cake (quadruple! not double or triple, she goes all out and does quadruple, which is really how much chocolate any good chocolate cake should have, now that I think about it), she said something about how she loved this sort of enjoyable busy-ness. I love that phrase. That’s how I spent my weekend, involved in all sorts of enjoyable busy-ness.

First of all, I wanted to try my hand at needle felting, so I made this little snowman:

I forgot to measure, but I think he’s about 5 inches high from the tip of his hat to the base of the flower pot he’s sitting in. He’ll be going into my etsy shop when it’s back up. They’ve been down all weekend, doing an upgrade.

Then I finished up the sock monkey that I’ve been working on for around 4 years. Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I have been doing a little bit here and a little bit there for a very long time. I finally got some decent pictures this time:


She will also be in the shop. Do you love her shoes? Because I really love her shoes. I don’t know that anyone will buy her, I put a lot of work into her, so she’s a bit expensive, but well worth it, if I do say so myself.

Also for the shop, I made some little bags:

They’re sort of Japanese craft book-esque, aren’t they? They’re about 10"x12", so just perfect for a sock knitting project or a couple libray books, or maybe to carry your lunch to work.

I even made one thing not for the shop, that yellow pillow behind the sock monkey! Since I’m working on this apartment therapy project in my clubhouse I’m finding all sorts of cute stuff that I forgot I had, including a feather pillow form and two yellow linen placemats. I just stitched them together with turquoise-y floss et voila! A pillow!

Since there is no chicken content today, I will just point you over to the right hand sidebar where you will find links to some of my favorite fellow crazy chicken ladies chicken keepers.

Ooh, and I almost forgot! One of my brother‘s songs will be in an episode of Men in Trees, I believe around Thanksgiving. I’ve never watched that show before, but everyone set your Tivo’s, and I’ll be doing the same!

And, in case you missed any of the links above, my shop is here. :o)

P.S. I have 499 comments on my blog, who wants to be number 500?

The chicks are flying, and they are getting a little cheeky about it:

This little chickie flew up to the edge of the box, perched there and looked at me as if to say, ‘do you see me? do you see me? did you see me fly up here? huh, did you?’. The other day Mr. Lucy walked into the laundry room and there were chickens on the dryer, chickens on the floor, and a chicken on the chair. The all stood stock still and went dead silent. Then, as if on cue, they all flew back into the box. Like little kids caught in the cookie jar. They’re so funny. Fuzzy still likes to watch TV with me in the evening.

Do you know that taking pictures of these dogs is even harder than taking pictures of chickens?

Do you think they could both look at the camera at the same time? Apparently not.

And because, once upon a time this was a craft blog, I have a few works-in-very-slow-progress to show:

We’ll see what I actually get done this weekend, since I absolutely need to build a roost and nesting boxes for the chicken coop and get them moved out there.