September Cards: Nothing to See Here

 I never made a single card from my September card kit. It was all about birthdays and balloons and I just wasn't feeling it. When I decided to do the giveaway this month I ordered some things to make fall themed cards to stick in the boxes with all the fall soap.

 The problem was that it was all back-ordered. Once again I waited too long to jump on that particular seasonal train. I kept hoping it would get here on time but those soap boxes needed to go out while the fizzies still had some fizz in them. I ended up just making a bunch of random cards using the stuff I had here. I was pretty disappointed.

 Of course the day I mailed out the last of the boxes guess what showed up in the mailbox? Look at those cute little critters jumping in a pile of leaves. That would have been such a cute card to stick in my fall giveaway boxes. Darn.

Even worse, on the very same day, my Simon Says Stamp card kit of the month for October showed up and it was all fall themed. It's really pretty but now I can't think of a single use for it. Oh, well....there's always next year I suppose.

Speaking of nothing to see here....where did my blog roll go? It was on my sidebar and now it's gone. I hope I can find you all again. Jeesh. This is scary.

The Fruits of Our Labor

 The stash room is back in business. I've finally got a place for everything.

And then some. I've got a room full of shelves.

The Mister even put up a new rack to hold all those full project bags that were all over the house.

He also put up this tree-like rack for the little projects. I added two more of these tall skinny Ikea shelves in some wasted space by the door.

The soap shelves got a good cleaning and reorganizing too. It's all in one place now instead of being all over the room. It's really nice having an organized place to do my thing.

The living room is also done. New drapes, covers and pillows make such a huge difference. All my knitting doo dads are now in easy reach in my spiffy wall unit. Ikea, I love you.

In case you are wondering, my furniture isn't two toned. I wrapped my new gray covers with cardboard to protect them from the kitties until I am over them being all new and shiny. That doesn't take long around here. The clutter will be returning on Friday as I pull out the scenery and costume materials for the Yellow Submarine.

Finally, I jammed my old TV stand under the dining room table so that it can hold all the sewing whatknots and hopefully keep clutter to a minimum this time around. As if. I should also mention that we had too many kids show up to join again this year so we will have to have two teams. That means even more scenery and costumes for a whole other production number. More on that one later.


Note to CharlotteK: Your soap box is ready to mail but I can't find your address. Help? Thanks!

With Gratitude

 Look what showed up at my door today and the timing couldn't have been better. The Mister and I were sadly rationing out our remaining pumpkin spice coffee pods when the UPS guy knocked on the door and handed us a very aromatic package. What a surprise! Now we can make all the pumpkin coffee our heart's desire. It's crazy delicious and I can't thank Sandflies enough.

That fiber I bought at this year's SVFF is for this beauty. Witchknits gifted me this pattern on Saturday and her timing couldn't have been better. It's honestly hard to get worked up over fiber fests when your stash is as huge as mine but this pattern gave me a mission and it was lots of fun trying to find the perfect colorway for it. It's the Ghazal Cowl by Katherine Leek and it looks like a fun knit, doesn't it? The best part is that it's given me my spinning mojo back. I hate to say it but the wheels have been empty since the TdF.  Thanks so much Witchknits!

SVFF 2016

I was heading up the country early Sunday morning.

While The Mister was doing his intense football watching thing I took the day off from home improvement and went to the fair.

It was the first nice day we've had in ages. It was not sweater or wool sock weather but it was comfortable enough to be outside. Hallelujah.

 I browsed but was not tempted by the fleece sale. The shed is full as it was too hot to think about washing anything this summer.

 There was plenty of yarn to be tempted by.

 There are always lots of bunnies here. The couple walking out ahead of me had a bunny in a box that they had just purchased.

 Instead on one old camel, this year we got two young ones.

 There's not many sheep or goats to look at. This fest isn't about the livestock as much as it is about buying stuff.

 I love this vendor's set up. It's always too crowded to get close enough to see what's up.

 There were lots of baskets at this festival. You can't have enough of these.

 My first purchase was some fiber. BFL and mulberry silk to be exact. Someone just gifted me a pattern-more about that on a later post-but this is the fiber I will spin for it. I bought it from Fiber-ing at Callaluna Farms Studios. I almost had a breakdown trying to decide on a colorway, they were all so gorgeous.

 You knew I had to go back and get one of those baskets. My second purchase was this itty bitty one that matches my big one. I picked it up from Twin Birch Products who had the best prices.

 I walked my legs off looking for sock yarn. My rule is that I can't buy from the same vendors that I bought from last year and I'm running out of new sock yarn vendors. This is a kinky superwash Merino sock yarn from Unplanned Peacock in the Canyonlands colorway.

On the way home I stopped at my favorite farm stand.

 They usually have the best apples and produce you can find but it wasn't so this year. There was very little to choose from.

 There were plenty of nice pumpkins and yard doo dads but I wanted apples. Real apples.

I picked out three that seemed promising but they weren't. It must have been a tough summer for farmers. I know it was for me.

Proceed With Caution

 I know I've mentioned it here several times.

I even put it on the labels. Now that people are beginning to receive their soap boxes, I am starting to worry about the risk of falls. These things are powerful. They are full of butters, oils and milks and meant for only the driest part of your anatomy. Daughter who insists on putting them in the tub and having an allover soak had a near miss the other night. These things are slippery with a capital S and can make quite a mess. I'm in the process of finding a new recipe for Daughter who wants a good, safe tub soak, which these are most certainly not.

The safest way to use them is to put them in a basin or bucket in the tub, give your feet a long, hot soak, rinse well and then use a squirt of dish washing soap for the tub and basin cleanup. I love them but am very careful about using them AND I certainly don't want to read about anyone getting hurt. Got it?

The State of the Stash

 Whenever I show the stash room someone always comments that they would love to see my stash. Here goes. First the roving. My beautiful babies. I have two shelves full.

 I've got baskets filled with itty bitty yarn. Jamieson, Malabrigo, Elann, and lots of other lace weight in small balls.

 I've got cones of kitchen cotton.

 I've got a huge hat box filled with more. I forgot I had it.

 I've got a shelf of weaving kits from my towel of the month club.

 I've got two shelves dedicated to all the Knit Pick kits I have fallen for.

 I've got lots of bins of Knit Picks and Elann yarns in worsted. I plan a project, buy the yarn and lose interest before I even start.

 I've got a big bin of leftover sock yarn waiting for a project.

 I've got tons of Palette.

 There are several bins of a little of this and a little of that. I've got single skein syndrome. I see a skein, I buy one and then it becomes a pet instead of a project.

 I've got kits I made myself of projects I plan on doing one day. Maybe. Maybe not.

I've got a needs-to-be-carded fiber stash on the drum carder stand and lots more in the closet.

I've finally got all that washed fleece under control. A lot of junk went out in the trash.

Here is my newly cleaned out stash closet. There's another shelf above this one filled with neatly organized boxes of sweater yarn in large quantities just in case I am snowed in for the rest of my life. I've got tubs and tubs of handspun. Those hangy things are filled with leftover bits from spinning projects. They get carded into projects when I'm in the mood to make something crazy.

 Just as I was near a breakdown having to wrangle all this fibery goodness, The Mister comes in from the mailbox with a package. More yarn, of course. That's just sad but I saw someone's Felici socks and I just had to have a pair plus a little more. Sick. I know but it gets worse....today I'm off to a fiber fest. Oh, my.

Broken Record

 Yesterday was painting day-again. Here is the contents of the stash room stuffed into the new wall unit and spread out all over the living room. This isn't everything. I'm not touching the closet. I just cleaned it out and reorganized it and it looks fine.

The now empty stash room is getting a fresh coat of paint and the addition of two more Ikea bookshelves. I sent The Mister on the errand today while I did the painting. Four rooms down and one to go. I can't wait. If I don't get things back in order around here soon I'm going to go crazy.