We have been included in another treasury.  Actually this is the second one recently but I was seriously lax and didn’t do anything about copying the last treasury so it is gone already.  Anyhoo, the new treasury is live and it is called Buttercups and Bluebells!  Lovely sound that title is.  It just slides off your tongue and makes you want to lie down in the woods and watch the clouds puff on by.  The colours are gorgeous with all those yummy blues and stunning yellows.  Hmmm…what do you think?  like it?  if so, while it is hot and live, go to HERE, and comment on what you think.  Remember the treasury is only there for 2 days and than it is gone to make way for new material keeping things fresh and new.

Of particular note I think is the “Gate to the Bluebells” by consumedbynature.  I think this is a stunning photograph.   kudos to you!!

On another note, we have rehomed the last of the sheep, sold off more than half the dairy goat herd, sold off half the chickens and are getting down to a more manageable size.  I plan on having a handful of dairy goats for our own milk, some chickens for our own eggs, dogs, cats, and our new bunnies.  I have both French Angora rabbits, which are my first love, and some Silver Fox and white New Zealand rabbits.  The Silver Foxes and New Zealands are for meat.  That is an experiment that I am not sure on.  We will see.  If it turns out that they are not for us, than it will only mean more rabbit cages free for more of my baby Fur bunnies (ie. the French Angoras!)

My DH (dear hubby) has suggested perhaps I am addicted to treasuries?  Whaaaat?  How could he think that?

Anyhoo, my newest treasury can be see here for the next 48 hours or so.  And you can view this small snap shot of the treasury right now.  Again, I struggled to decide which to make alternates and which to keep as main ones.

I had such fun picking these out that I think Esty.com should allow my treasury to have SIXTEEN items in it rather than the standard 12!  I have said that before, but I don’t think they take me seriously.

I will mix them up during the short time the treasury is alive, but you can see them ALL in this snap shot to the left.

I really do enjoy CricketsCreations and this is one of her pieces that I truly do enjoy. you can see her listing  here complete with numerous photos!

fullenstar is a new artist to me and I can not get over how lovely her item is. you can see her listing here.

I included a picture of her lovely item to the right to show you how glorious her colours are in the picture.  I love how she has dyed the colours, how they blend together, the fullness of her felting and well just a lovely unique design.

SplitRockRanch lives just “around the corner” from me out here in the sticks!  I do like her fleeces and her dyed locks.  check out her fleece in the treasury here.

Well I am off now to go finish the chores here on Alba Ranch and feed my critters so they can produce more of that lovely long wool, fine wool, and mohair you are getting accustomed to seeing in my shop.

If you feed them, they will GROW!

I created my first treasury on Etsy.com today.  it was really fun!    What is a treasury?  Well it is a small collection of art items off various stores on etsy.com that I have chosen and put together as a collection. I am the curator so to speak!

It will only be visible for less than 48 hours..so til sometime on Friday I would expect.  I can have ONE of my own items in there, but that is it.  So I picked 11 other items from 11 other shops. If it generates enough interest and the etsy admin people like it, part or all of it could end up being featured on the MAIN front page of etsy which would be so cool. I have been featuerd in one and chalrie has been featuerd in one but this is the first time I created one myself.  It is a way to show appreciation for other artists and it is kind of fun.

I titled it “Not your grandmother’s pot holders…” as most folks think of hand crocheting as pot holders or tea cozies and a lot of people may knit but not as many crochet cool unique things.  So this is a list of unusual things that have been crocheted and pulled specifically from my Etsy FAST team group…FAST is Fiber Arts Street Team and maybe one or two from the MILE HIGH club which is antoher group specific to colorado.

One of my favs is the Apple cozy so your lunch will be displayed and bagged nicely.  Sure beats a brown paper bag doesn’t it?

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=74689  since it is a timed collection and will only be visible on Etsy.com for 2 days, I have copied and included a snapshot of it in case you missed it.  I have to admit, viewed as a whole, it is NOT your grandmother’s pot holder!!  particular note is the red poision dart frog and the apple cozy and elf ears..three of my absolute favorties for unusual items!  course there is the crocheted and felted coffee mug, the flapper hat..oh just go see the collection as I love them all!!

Today is my 9th anniversary of being married…to my husband!!  good thing that it is to him, otherwise he might be confused.  However, he is on his blasted boat again and I am alone.  Well, if you count all the critters I suppose not REALLY alone. hahah  BJ says that it is good that he was with me on the most important one..the getting married one…or there wouldn’t be any anniversary..she has a point!

Ok I am back. had to rescue my “fried bread sandwich” as my husband calls my grilled ham and cheese.  Not feeling the best today, sore throat, beginnings of a head ache, bags under my eye..or rather my bags have luggage and they are over their luggage limit.  and my neck hurts where my ear tubes are under the surface.  Been fighting for weeks now that I have gold fish swimming in my ears… it is what I call when I move and my head sloshes.  normally it is only there, not really any sinus stuff.  But it can be interesting when I get dizzy, try falling over in the barn yard because you cock your head a little in any direction!  almost fell into the trough!

I have been weaving so much these days.  I have all my things up now on our shop except raw fleeces, and clean rovings.  starting on some of the rovings today.  you can see a link to the right of my postings for the Etsy shop.  We are listed as albaranch ….go check us out and buy something.  I have had rather good luck selling things there, loads better than awful ebay.  they suck with all their new policies.  Unfortunately I sill have all my belly dancing things to sell, maybe I will sell them in the local shopper, probably be cheaper than ebay.

Been so focused on getting the art up on etsy.com that I have forgone sleep a lot these days.  Sleep is overrated you know.  it is a major inconvenience when I am in the middle of something, and than I just ignore and find myself face down on the computer.  Blast!

I think my next weaving with be with a yarn that I have not tried nor do I have any critters of these variety out in the barnyard.  Romney/CVM cross. it has a nice soft handle to it with a lot of loft, not all that dissimilar to my merino, just not as soft.  so we will see.  I have some merino off at the mill being processed as we speak.  they are going to be doing merino for me for the first time, and than doing some in blends with mohair and alpaca as well.  so will be really interesting to see what we get back.

Found a new seamstress as well.  She has some of my favourite items, the lining disintegrated on my favourite Cerise skirt, so she is putting a new one in.  I hope that she does well as I really miss my skirt.  funny how you get attached to an item like that.  Well I should go do the morning chores, since I maybe starting them before 2 pm today, I am doing much better than last night which was more like 6 pm.  Morning chores.  Denise asks me why I don’t just call them chores as I only have to do them once a day and I said I call them MORNING chores just for her.