The prompt is: This week, share with us a photo of something that you consider a marvelous treat.
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Cliche though it may be, a treat for me was when my daughter took me into NYC and we went to Dylan’s candy store… and also stopped at Serendipity II for their famous frozen hot chocolate which I adore…and do not share :)
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/treat/
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Tagged candy, chocolate, ice cream, New York, photo challenges, Photographs, post a week, postaday/postaweek, postaweek, postaweek/postaday, shopping, weekly prompt
After I bought a bag of wonderful fall-colored roving at Rhinebeck, I could not stop thinking about how I needed to spin it!
Though I am still very new at spinning, one of the things I learned is that it makes it easier to keep practicing when you are spinning with fiber that you love. So, caution (and thoughts of saving it for when I am an expert) aside, I jumped in and spun that baby up into three spindles.
Once I had three spindles of single-strand I couldn’t wait to see how it would look all plied together.
Boy, it did NOT disappoint! I am so in love with this yarn I have made! It isn’t a very large amount, but definitely enough for a nice autumn-y cowl. Now I can’t wait to get my wheel going again!
In the meantime, Halloween is very nearly upon us, and the kids kept reminding me of the many things that needed to be done, like pumpkin carving.
This year I let Oona do all her own tracing and cutting. The only help I gave was removing the pieces, since it was a bit fiddly for her.
They made such a glorious mess.
You know who wasn’t complaining about that, though? The pigs! Pumpkin day means it’s time for their annual treat of pumpkin guts.
They loooooove pumpkins. In a few days (before total rotting can set in), they will be given the Jack o’lanterns as well. But for now, we are enjoying our day of handiwork!
Emily’s Raven, and my “Nightmare Before Christmas” theme.
Oona’s pumpkin
Neve’s pumpkin.
Now that Pumpkin day is accomplished, there is only really Trick or Treating left. Tonight we’ll watch Hocus Pocus and bask in the last remaining glorious bit of October before it is done.
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Tagged Knitting, Seasons, Spinning, Uncategorized
I’ve recently finished all of the books on my kindle. Well, all of the ones that I am going to read anyway. Sometimes a book sounds really good. It might have even won some prizes. It has good reviews and critical acclaim. And then you try to read it and they spend the first two pages talking about why their furniture at home is far superior to the furniture in this filthy place.
Good lord, I got it after the first overwrought sentence. After the second and third, I can see you are a privileged asshole. Can we please move on? No? Then we, sir are over.
Sorry, does that sound bitter?
It’s not often that I put a book down. I used to pride myself on never not finishing a book. Then I decided that I had better things to do with my life than waste it reading snooty books.
(This is where my husband cracks a joke about how many times I’ve read Poison Study in the last three months. )
Snooty books, a definition: books that are technically well-written, but are so well done they have no flavor left. The beauty of the sentences, the characters, the plot, can’t be felt for the difficulty of trudging through words.
I’m all for reading books you really have to tear into, but I’m not into books that lord their greatness over me. I want a book that engages rather than shuns.
The truth is, when I find a really good one, I read it a few times. I read it the first time for the sheer joy. The second time through, I read to break down the characters. Again to look at pacing and plot, etc. etc. Don’t look at me like that, it’s fun, but it leads to reading ruts. I get stuck. Afraid of getting burned by snooty books, or just plain bad books, I have trouble branching out.
I keep thinking I need to start some sort of book swap for high volume readers like myself. It would be something where you trade good books with awesome people, and then when you’re finished, you have someone to geek out about them with.
I have no idea what this sort of swap would look like, but I’m desperate for a bookish community that doesn’t center on reviews. So many online reviews are negative just because they can be. I want to avoid that.
Who’s with me?
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Tagged Uncategorized
Part 4 of our trip..
This is the National Monument to the Forefathers
The monument lists the names of the Mayflower Pilgrims and also on the four buttresses are seated figures emblematical of the principles upon which the Pilgrims founded their Commonwealth; Morality, Law, Education and Liberty.
According to Wikipedia : {The National Monument to the Forefathers, formerly known as the Pilgrim Monument, commemorates the Mayflower Pilgrims
And this is the Pilgrim Hall Museum ..CLICK HERE
The nation’s oldest continuously operating public museum, Pilgrim Hall Museum houses an unmatched collection of Pilgrim possessions telling the story of brave and determined men and women building lives and homes for themselves and their children in a new world. See William Bradford’s Bible, Myles Standish’s sword, the only portrait of a Pilgrim (Edward Winslow) painted from life, the cradle of New England’s first–born, Peregrine White, the great chair of William Brewster, and the earliest sampler made in America, embroidered by Myles Standish’s daughter.
The only thing we were allowed to photograph were these beautiful stained glass windows
And that…. that’s two of the most delicious, mouth watering, , heavenly New England lobster rolls… :)
This concludes part 4 of our Plymouth, MA trip.. actually it may conclude this series all together, or it may not !! Hope it’s been as enjoyable to read about as it was to have experienced it :)
(pictures are mine and Debs)
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Tagged ancestors, architecture, Family, food, history, Massachusetts, monuments, museums, New England, Photographs
soon it will be good bye to another beautiful October :(
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Tagged autumn, foliage, leaves, Photographs, trees
A couple of years ago, I did a blog post about some really cool DIY sheep ornaments I made for my Christmas tree. I cut realistic sheep shapes out of wood and wrapped them in scrap yarn from my stash. The results were so lovely and rustic that I ended up making a who bunch more to use as gift tags for my handmade gifts. It was one of our most popular, most Pinned post of all time.
I also get tons of emails every week from people who don’t have the tools or the skills to cut their own own sheep out of wood, and are looking for a source for realistic wooden sheep cutouts.
I found a few sources for good wooden sheep but no matter how often I updated the post, the emails still come when the suppliers I linked to sold out.
So my amazing, adorable husband volunteered to become my sheep supplier. He can do just about anything and he always exceeds my expectations. For example, I gave him the outline of one sheep to use as a template; he came up with the other two on his own.
Our adult ewe sheep has been joined by a yearling and a tiny lamb! Aren’t they the cutest?
And for the alpaca lovers…
He even hand stamped the muslin bags to ship them in.
You can use any kind of yarn to wrap your sheep and alpacas.
I wrapped this one using a self-striping yarn. You just have to pay attention to the color changes if you want to make stripes. (A dab of glue from a glue gun can help keep everything in place if you’re anxious but it’s definitely not necessary.)
Here’s another example of variegated yarn. I didn’t try to keep the stripes together on this one.
Here’s the best part:
This year, we will be donating a portion of the profits from the sale of Sheep Stash to Heifer International, to continue or long tradition of donating livestock to help lift families out of hunger and poverty. In previous years, we have raised enough money to purchase 6 sheep, 2 goats, 2 pigs, 2 hives of honey bees and several flocks of geese, ducks and chickens. It’s one of the most rewarding things we do here at JMF and it’s a tradition I hope to keep up for years to come.
To purchase your very own set of Sheep Stash Sheep, visit our Facebook shop. I’ll post the total of our donation to Heifer International when all is said and done.
Oh, one more thing– I would love to see your Sheep Stash once you wrap them! Please post them to our Facebook page so we can all be inspired.
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Tagged do-gooding
Sunday we drove out to our friends’ house to celebrate their son’s 7th birthday. Thankfully the weather held, and we were able to mingle outside and enjoy grilled bratwurst and fresh oysters.
And did I mention it’s beautiful out at their house in the fall?
Kirby, the welcoming committee.
Paul and Emily missed out on the fun, due to a bad cold that is making its rounds. Paul is actually still down with it, and home from work today. I’m trying to power through today, and make some garlic chicken soup to aid in recovery.
Neve helped with the marshmallow roasting.
Oysters! I actually got Neve to try one; she wasn’t thrilled with it, to say the least!
Lisa and Will always throw one heck of a party, and being out among the changing leaves on a mild October day with a great group of people……well, how can you go wrong?
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Tagged Uncategorized
Martha’s Vineyard
New York harbor 
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Tagged autumn, clouds, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, New York, Photographs, sky, sunset
This is not a post about how to build your brand. If you are looking for a quick guide to branding, look elsewhere. There are professionals out there who can help you do this a whole lot more effectively than me. But be warned, if you are new to selling, there are no quick fixes. Branding is a journey. When I work with artists, this is the part I pray they have done already, because it makes my job loads easier, and I literally cannot do it for them. I can interpret their brand for my store, but I can’t give them their identity. If you have a clear idea of who you are and what your company does, it makes it a million times easier to sell your work.
This is why you need things like the following:
An example of branding: instantly recognizable and consistent photography
Full disclosure, to me, this is the scariest part of starting a business. This is the step that takes a lot of reflection and introspection. It takes work. Real work. It is the opposite of doing all that fun creating, but deciding how you represent what you create is just as important as creating it. And yet, this interpretation is also the part that is most often skipped or half-assed. My best guess at why artists-as-entrepreneurs, myself included, have difficulty with this step is because it can be really, really scary.
If building your business were a story, this would be the part where the hero has to confront his demons before he can go on to be victorious. That is how scary I find it. It is like Harry Potter going into the Forbidden Forest to give himself over to Voldemort scary.
Why do I find this so scary? Because I’ve read a ton of those business branding guides. I’ve got notebooks full of notes on who I think I am and what Tiny Dino Studios could be. What I have never once seen is someone deal with the emotional side of what these guides ask you to do. They ask you to knock down all of your protective barriers. They want you to demolish the walls you’ve built around yourself, take a step back, and examine your true self. They might ask you in ways that don’t feel so navel-gazey, but for each exercise they give, they are looking for an authentic answer. No perfunctory words will do.
You are not going to be good at branding unless you are 100% honest with yourself about what you want your business to be. And if you don’t like yourself, if you are afraid of what you’ll find if you lower defenses, confronting that can be the scariest thing in the world.
It takes guts to fill out one of those brand building guides and mean every word of it. It most likely won’t be quick, and a lot of it probably won’t be fun. Don’t let fear hold you back from tackling this. Just like any business, if you put in the hard work now, it makes your life easier in the long run. Developing your brand is like a good workout, getting up the motivation might be difficult, and the work is hard while you’re in it, but the way you feel stronger afterward is worth it.
It’s OK to wrestle with yourself. It’s OK to not like yourself very much or feel inadequate or scared. It’s OK to ask for help. What’s not OK is giving up before you’ve even started. No one can do this for you. They can guide you. They can coach you, but in the end, it’s just you and Voldemort.
If it feels like too much, check out my blog and business tips pinterest board. It’s full of people who break marketing and business planning down step-by-step. I’ve also found that just because the advice is for writers or bloggers or etsy sellers, doesn’t mean it won’t be compatible with your business.
Have fun. Grow. Sell!
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Tagged branding, building your brand, Business Savvy, know your brand, marketing, selling without fear, your brand journey
It’s Monday morning, and boy am I feeling it. I packed a lot into the last few days, and I fear that the cold Paul and the kids have been dealing with may have finally reached me.
For most of Saturday I worked on baking and spinning. That luscious Blue-Faced Leicester roving was calling to me and I couldn’t tear myself away from the wheel! I’ve got almost two spindles full; when I’ve got three I’ll ply them together. I can’t wait to see how it all blends together!
I mean, those colors!!!! When Neve and I were wandering around Rhinebeck, I realized we kept grabbing the same colors. The colors of fall! I had to make a conscious effort to look at other colors as well. There’s just something so homey and comforting about the golds, oranges, and reds of this time of year, though.
To match that coziness, I tried a recipe from King Arthur that I’d been eyeing for awhile: Cranberry-Pumpkin rolls.
I left out the cranberries this time; Paul isn’t crazy about them, and I wanted to see how they’d do as plain pumpkin rolls.
The result? Absolute deliciousness! I crammed them all into a 9×13 pan as suggested by the recipe, but I actually had dough leftover as it wouldn’t all fit. Cranberries would have been delightful in them, but in all honesty they do well enough without them as well.
That evening I met my sister out for my birthday gift from her: The Avett Brothers in Charlottesville.
It. Was. WONDERFUL.
They are so good live, I can’t even tell you. Maddie and I had such a good time; I have the best sister!
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Tagged food, Spinning, Uncategorized