I finally got the title to my RV !!! Its been a year since i put it on "lay-away". so now its fully paid and mine , aaalllll mine. :)
 Tuesday we will be moving it to its new permanent place.
 I will be soooo busy. First on the agenda : clean up. its been sitting for over ten years and used for storage.
I'm so excited but also very nervous. i will relax when its in its spot.
its only 50 miles but with my luck....That's why i will get insurance for it just for that move, id rather pay $100 , better safe than sorry. i hope everything will go OK.
i will make lots of pics.
Ya'll wish me luck.

I have been busy collecting tips , tricks and ideas for the RV. I've joined a couple of RV Face Book groups and i have decided on a Beach theme.
I absolutely love the beach and wish i could live close to it but since that's not possible i can at least pretend i am .
So here are a couple of pics from the interior of my RV.
 Please excuse the mess, the owners more or less just parked it since last use and used it for storing odds and ends.
So this is the kitchen:
                                                                                                                            
                   Whats with that mirror? Whoever thought that looks good?

                   Its one of the first things that will have to go!!!Ugly , ugly , ugly!!!                                                                            
 

                                                                                                                                                                   I hope it comes off easy !!!

                                       

                                                                                                                                                              The cabinets and walls will be painted white, all of them , throughout the RV and they will have some kind of color accent, not sure yet what, probably a light sea foam green or a nice soft coral red.
I love wood, but since this is such a small space ( and some of the cabinet door parts are some kind of fake wood anyways), the white will make it look bigger and will bring light in there.
 I'm looking at several knobs to put on the doors. I have my eyes on some beach glass ones but they are pricey, so i guess ill make my own, maybe from shells I've collected.

                                                                                                                                                                That leather/ vinyl cabinet end piece will be replaced by a spice rack. Those window cornices also will be removed, they are over every window in there.Same with that thing over the door.

 

                                                                                                                                                                The counter top will need a makeover too, but not sure yet what its gonna be.                                                

I came across a very neat idea about the stove back splash on pinterest. It will put a good deal of color there and stick with the beach theme.
Aaaahhh, how i wish i could start already.
Of course before i can tackle any of that there will be a great cleanup first. its not bad dirty but it has been sitting there unused for several years.
I will reveal more of my plans for my future weekend getaway/home in the next few days. Now im getting back to pinterest and see what else i can find :)
Also working on a thick pair of socks for a auction for a friends rabbit club.

So i had the opportunity to buy a '83 Winnebago (33 foot long) from my employer on a layaway deal for really , really cheap. Well, for me its still a fortune but since i can pay as i can afford it , i just had to do it. It will be parked permanently on a friends property in the country. I hope to have it moved there early next year.There will be a lot of redecorating and upgrading going on.

I am so very excited about this. Eventually this will be my home , but hopefully for several years yet it will be my weekend getaway.
As this will be located at my friends farm with sheep, goats, rabbits etc. i will be in paradise.I'm already researching and collecting ideas how to redecorate.

Well Hello there :)
After several years (3 1/2) absence i have decided to start posting again.
Just a few here and there , more regular a few months from now.
Just a short recap: I've had a major life change about 3 years ago ( separated from husband after 8 years of hell) and subsequently had to deal with some mental issues (PTSD , due to severe mental abuse),which left me in a state of severe depression and anxiety attacks.
But with the help of friends , who i will be forever grateful for, i am ready to leave the past behind and look forward to new adventures.
I will be revising some of my older posts and remove any pics or mentions of my ex.So if some of the tags on some of the posts are not accurate, i apologize.
Now with this out of the way: lets dive into new and exciting times to come.

Little Gaby had a Sheep....

So, i finally got my own ...Sheep!!!!
I am happy, happy, happy !
He is a year old Hampshire Down/Sussex Down mix.
Isn't he handsome, his name is Bert:


















I cut just a few staples of his side to wash and see how it looks:
Its is quite clean , virtually no vm...

and after the wash:

white as snow and very soft.
The staples are just a little over 2 inches long.
Hopefully by the time i'll undress him it'll grow a little more , hoping for 3 inches.

Checking in...

Yup, i'm still kickin' :)

It's been been about 7 months since i posted last. It's not because nothing is going on, no, quite the opposite.

I have joined the many millions of 9-5ers (well, actually 8-4 ).

And, as luck has it , it has to do with hair, and i love my job.

What , do you ask, does she do?

I am the caregiver ( Kennel Manager) of a LOT of American Cocker Spaniels and , they have hair, lots of hair!

So, once in a while i have to shave one down and of course , i keep the hair.

Here is one i just took off recently . This is Adele, she is 10 month old and this is her first haircut:

before: what a wooly bear :)

and after:

(she looks kinda bewildert, doesn't she ?)

result:

She gave me 6 3/4oz of georgeous ,supersoft hair in a rich chocolate brown with a lovely sheen, very much like Alpaca. Staple lenght is 4-5 inches

I also have the hair of Cosmo, an older Gentleman who is Raven black, i got 3/34 oz from him :

i also have some buff ( a rich medium yellow-tan ) and black and white.My Studio is in a state of disarray at the moment (improvements are beeing made ) but as soon as i lay my hands on them i'll get some pics up.

I can't wait to process them and spin them up.

I won, i won, i won !!!

I want to show you what i got in the mail Friday.

Shortly before Christmas i got an e-mail from MMFWOOL ( Merry Meadows Farm in California) . It announced a contest to win one of their beautiful fleeces. First i didn't enter 'cause i never win anyways but then i thought " what the heck...".

So i told them why i thought i deserved to win .

Well, i didn't get the main prize but i won a $25 ! runner up credit to use on any of their fleeces .

So last week i saw this gorgeous Cormo fleece they offered ( with several others) on eBay.

The price was $32 with free shipping for 1/2 fleece. I pounced! 2.1 # of beautiful Cormo ( they keep all their sheep covered , so the fleeces are very clean).

And this is what i got :

One big box full of heavenly soft wool.

Staple on this is 4+ inches.

It has such a fine,tight little crimp!


The difference between washed and unwashed:

and here after i took the brush to a few locks:snow white and buttery soft:


If you are looking for award winning,super quality fleeces visit the guys at MMFWOOL.com, or eBay,you won't be sorry.

So as soon as it warms up some i will wash all of it and then i'll have to decide what i'm going to do with it.

Leave it pure, unmixed, or mix it with some other fibers? dye it or leave it natural?

I know one thing: i can't wait to Spin it up!!!

The beauty of a hard freeze...

This is a little belated post , been really busy knitting Socks .

I made these pictures last Sunday , the first day we had in a long time that was halfway decent.

Cold but nice.We decided to take the four wheelers and explore a little below the bluff ( yes, the same one i fell off last year >:( and hurt myself ) behind the house. So we follow along this path and come to this rock wall about 30 feet high with these huge icycles hanging off of it.

With the sun hitting them it was just beautiful:

and then a little further down this frozen waterfall:

YES!YES!YES!YES!YES,yes,yes,yes.......

FINALLY!!!! I've been doing the happy dance for the last two hours!!
Why you ask?
This afternoon at 12:30 pm , my shop building was finally moved to its permanent spot!!
After 8 months of waiting, trying, moving it sometimes only feet at the time ,it's finally done!
YEEEHAAAA!!!!
With the help of a friend, his wrecker,lots of chains,ropes ,pulleys and a big oak tree we got it done.
I'll be busy for the next couple of weeks, sorting, organizing,setting everything up.
I'll finally have a place for my sewing mashine, carder, spinning wheels, loom. A place where i can dye my yarn without messing up the kitchen. A place where i can just get up and leave everything sitting there without having to put everything up, and come back next day and just pick up from where i stopped the day before!!
Happy? yes , i am !!!

Keep the Wiener warm...

Ha, made you look !! :D
But seriously, get the mind out of the gutter and look here:



I made another one of those little dog sweaters. This one is for my daughter in laws grand mother. It's for a Wiener dog!( hence the title :P)

As soon as i get a pic with him wearing it I'll post it.
This is a picture of Buddha, the Chihuahua (resides in Colorado),wearing the last one i made:

I know he looks totally dejected , but his owners swears he struts like a show dog when she takes him for a walk with it on.

I also made a couple of caps, one for toddler to kinder garden age , modeled here by my grand son Daniel:

It's a little blurry, you just can't get those little energy bundles to hold still for a second!


and one for first grader to maybe early teenager size:



Also still working on the Horse Comfort Ears.Will post on them later.Still working some kinks out.
I also got all the materials and instructions and patterns together to start on the Teddy Bears.
Maybe i get to next week.

What a Face....

A couple of weeks ago i posted a couple of pictures of two Teddy Bears my Mom made for her great grand son's.Yesterday i received a package that contained mine:

The pics really don't do him justice. Each of these lovingly handmade bears is different, with their on little personality. The little glasses didn't initially go with him but when i saw him i thought they where just right for his little face.

I love my little bear. He sits on the sofa beside me and watches me knit.

My Mom send me all the patterns and instructions to make these little fellows. I will shop around for material and over the summer start making them.

First though i will practice by making several out of plain fabric.These bears are 100% hand sewn, and i mean hand, no sewing machine involved here. It is really amazing that my Mom can still do this, after all she just turned 80 a couple of weeks ago.

Snow wise we got close to 12 inches here beginning of the week,

not much for the northern parts of the country but crippling for Alabama.Not so much if you have a four wheel drive :)

Luckily we got the snow and not the ice like the folks further south.Since it's been freezing all week most of it is still on the ground , the roads are passable though.I know a lot of people complained about it ( not the school kids though , they've been out all week), i thoroughly enjoyed it. This is the most snow I've had since i was a very young teenager.

New Year, new projects

Hope everyone made it into the New Year OK?!

I have been a little quiet lately, custom orders coming in pretty steady, just enough to keep me busy without falling behind.

I had two new projects to work on, one a little dog sweater , a first for me but turned out really cute:

backside :

belly side:

Jack modeling it:

I had to bribe him with Honey O's to hold still just long enough to get a halfway decent picture.

and here something really unusual:

anyone wants to take a guess?...

well , I'll tell: this is a knitted Horse Ear Warmer Bonnet. one of my customers who lives in Colorado told me that her horses ears get very cold in the winter ( Colorado, i can believe that !!).

she said she uses fly bonnets in the summer but wanted to know if i can knit something similar to keep his ears warm. Heck yes, I'll at least try!

So this is what i came up with , anyone into horses, what do you think, could this be something i could start offering in my shop? feedback appreciated. I've not seen anybody offer them anywhere for sale.

Next i'll try my hand on a really cute knitted hat. I only have one picture of it taken off the tv.

no pattern , no nothing, just a picture. Wish me Luck :)

Beary Happy Holidays

Just want to show everybody right quick what my Mama made for the grand kids:

are they not adorable?

She's been making these bears for several years now. They are totally hand sewn.The head, arms and legs rotate.They measure 14 inches each and are identical except one has black eyes

and the other one blue and the paw and footpads are a little different in color.

I'm in love with the blue eyed one ,blue eyes turn me into mush :)These boys are super soft and sooo cuddly!

She made me one too but he is still in transit. as soon as i get him I'll post a pic.

The grand boys are going to have a fit over them.

Other than that it's been quiet at the home front. It's been soooo cold!! below freezing for about 6-7 days now and lows at night in the teens or even below zero when the wind kicks up. Horrible, and this is the deep, deep south mind you.

I've had a steady stream of custom sock orders coming in and i can just so keep up.

Now I'm waiting for the holidays to be over and everything calms down. Then I'm going to try my hand in bear making. Hopefully i can get as good as my Mom. I'd like to make them to sell.

So i wish everybody very Happy Holidays, and a Happy,Healthy New Year.

Some knit's and a couple of "Thank you's"

First of all i want to thank everybody for commenting here or e-mailing me with their thoughts on Star's passing. I really appreciate the kind words.

The first week was quite bad , i caught myself looking out the window several times checking on her until a split second later it hit me : not there anymore :(

It's better now , i think it finally sunk in. I never thought i would miss her so much, especially since i haven't actually used her in the last five years and she was just a front lawn ornament.

Now to other things.

My dear Mom send me another goodie box with lot's of knitted baby socks:

and some German chocolate (best in the world) but i didn't get a pic of that, ate it all :)

...and myself , i knitted these socks for my Daughter in laws mom for her help with putting Star to rest:

and these fingerless texting gloves for my step daughter in law for her birthday this last Wednesday:

I already started another pair of patchwork socks and after that i will make a pair of thick socks for my daughter in laws grandad for letting me bury Star on his beautiful pasture.

Star...

She liked Parades.
She would Dance and Prance and show off.
She loved drinking Beer out of the can.
She loved rolling in the mud after a good rain.
She loved Bread and Butter Pickles.
She loved trail rides in the woods.
She never gave me an ounce of trouble.
She loved chewing tobacco, and Pimento cheese sandwiches.
She was a Good, reliable companion. She carried me thousands of miles.
She brought me pleasure for 15 years.
She loved to run in the pasture, bucking , kicking with her head up high and her tail straight up in the air, trailing her like a banner.
She never bucked while ridden, never kicked or bit anyone.
She loved her sweet feed.
She was a McCurdy.
She never faltered, no matter where I pointed her nose.
She loved dogs, cats and goats.
She loved a good scratch under her belly.

She loved a good cooling off with the water hose when it would get hot in the summer.

She loved kids and was very gentle.

And I loved her…
She will be in my heart until I die and she will be terribly missed.

born late 70's, early 80's - died 10.29.2010

　
　

At long last, progress !!!

 I've finished a couple more socks and a pair of DK weight fingerless gloves (they're called 'texting gloves ' now), and I'm almost done with redoing all of my shop pics.

I'm suffering from insomnia for the last 8-9 days. i think i hadn't had more than 10 hours of sleep in that time. I walk around like a zombie all day , so very tired, but if i try to take a nap i can't sleep!! and am wide awake at night. it is now midnight and i am bouncing off the walls. what is wrong with me??

oh, look at this:

aren't they cute?! I looked up out of the window this morning and there they where, Bib half asleep and Jack watching over her with his paw wrapped around her, like he's saying : " your save , i'll look out for you ".

Disclaimer: No beer was consumed during moving of building and no animals or humans where hurt in said move.

Just a little knitting...

I have spend pretty much the last week and this one revamping my etsy shop, from banner to descriptions to pictures.Even at less than 30 items that is very time consuming and a lot of work, especially if you're on dial up. I try to get the pictures down in size as much as possible without loosing quality but it still takes several minutes per pic to upload.I think i took about 300 new pictures in all.

But now i'm almost done, i think i've got a couple items left to redo.

But i got a little knitting in.After all the black socks i knitted a pair of patchwork socks which i promptly sold and got a custom order for another pair.

After that i got a custom order for these cute fingerless gloves:

and then i made these and put them in the shop today:

and i already started on another pair, this time a DK weight, they should be done in a couple of days.

David Taylar Daniels is my Hero....

....and here is why:
Last week i had my etsy shop critiqued by several people and the biggest issue was that my pictures could use a major overhaul, mainly they where too dark and boooooring.
So after tweaking around the shop on some other issues i started taking lots of pictures , trying to lighten them up and make them more appealing.
Unfortunately the only program i have to work my pics on is the Microsoft program that came with the PC ( five years old). It was a trial issue and half of the features quit working after six month.
I've always loved how good Dave's pictures look, especially the ones without a background.
So i contacted him to find out how he does it.
I downloaded one program that will let you make your picture background transparent, well, that is everybody elses pictures, not mine. I could not get it to work right for me :(
So i tried to download a program that Dave recommended , but, i live in the boondocks, all i have is telephone dial up. Very, very slow. So after being informed that it would take 360 !!!! hours to download the program , i gave up. and I sure can't afford to buy Photo shop.
So, here is where Dave comes in:
When i went to the mail box this afternoon, i had a small package. At first i was stumped, i hadn't ordered anything!!
Then i saw the name of the sender: Dave.
now I'm even more stumped.
So back to the house i hurry, because it was one of those bubble wrap plastic envelopes and you just can't tear them open, you need a knife or scissors.
And to my surprise this is what was inside:



Oh, i can tell you: that was one of the nicest things anybody has done for me in a long, long time.
I immediately installed it and it works great!!! So now y'all watch out !!
I'll have some b*&%^ing pictures in my shop!!!
I'll be forever grateful.
Thank you Dave !!!

Updates...

This is just a short post , no pics.I 'd just like to update on a couple of things that have impacted my life in the past weeks and thank everybody ( here and in the homeland ) for their well wishes.

First my old mare: she has fully recovered from what I'm sure of now was a snake bite.She has lost quite a bit of weight during the first 4-5 days because she didn't eat. It takes many pounds of feed a day to keep a horse looking good. If they don't eat for several days they loose weight fast. Sometimes a hundred pounds or more in a few days.(boy, wish i could do that !!!)

But, she is back to eating everything i put in front

of her and asking for more.

So, hopefully I'll have her a little while longer.

Next, my ankles.

They are almost good as new. Well, not really. Both are weak and i wear braces on both of them ,especially when I'm outside wandering in the yard. I'm very careful where and how i step.I've always had weak ankles and unfortunately always will, I'll just have to be careful.

On the knitting side : I finished another pair of ( black!!) socks for a customer in Washington state, must be getting cold there :)

Also still trying to figure out how to get those holes centered in those beautiful beads.Any help or suggestion is greatly appreciated. Just be reminded that they are lentil shaped and do not lay down flat.
I started on another pair of patchwork socks last night. They should be ready to go in the shop by about Sunday.
I will put a picture in here after all. It has nothing to do with above story's.
These are my mother in laws African Violets that i inherited from her.

She had them for many years and tended to them with lots of love. They bloomed all the time and every time we visited her i admired the pretty little flowers.
So when i brought them home i got all the info on how to keep them off the Internet( i remember my mom had one for years and remember that hers was very fickle especially about the light it got) . I re potted them with new soil and tried to find them a good spot by a window, but after a couple of weeks decided there wasn't enough light and moved them to another spot and that's when the miracle happened:Blooms!!!

This plant has been blooming for about 3 weeks now.

I have one more plant and four cuttings. I hope they will bloom too once matured.

I wish i could tell mom-in-law but due to her advanced stage of Alzheimer's she won't understand :(

Well, this was not that short of a post after all and pictures too !!