BirdBath

These pictures totally disappeared from my post below and I wanted to be sure that you could see what I was talking about. Danette → had a mound of sand (she's making a bird bath), covered with a layer of plastic, then the leaf is veins up, and she is patting wet cement over the top.
When dry, the cement is lifted, turned over, and behold - a birdbath.
Danette is the daughter of my friend, Billie, who lives across the street. The other lovely is my daughter, Terre, who lives in Ithaca.

Spinning, Bird Baths, and Stepping Stones

What a wonderful weekend! full of friends and creative "stuff". On Saturday several of us met for a day of fibery fun at Cary's lovely place, SerenityFarm. Donna ← taught a spindle class in the morning. She wrote about it on her blog Here and this is her Etsy Store.
Pam, looking over her shoulder below, blogs also and has an Etsy store.
It's so inspiring and heart warming to hang out with good women.

On Sunday five of us got together to play in cement. We made either birdbaths or stepping stones. A brief description of what we did. First of all, we cut several rhubarb and burdock leaves and built a mound of damp sand the shape of our chosen leaf. A sheet of plastic covered the mold and then the leaf was placed on top with the heavy vein side up.
We mixed a bag of cement in a wheel barrow and working from there, scooped wet cement to cover our leaves about an inch thick.
This ↓isn't finished, but it's one of my stepping stones. I stained it with reddish paint and sealed it.

Preparing Doggy Hair for Spinning

My Ravelry friend Teresa sent me a couple ounces of washed dog hair ↓

We wanted to see what kind of yarn it would make. I was a little worried at first because it was so "hairy", and thought that it would probably be too prickly. I've only spun the undercoat brushed from my Golden, Cassie. This was cut, not brushed out, and had lots of short hairs, like the second cuts from alpaca shearing. I threw away lots of those shorties.
This picture of my drum carder shows me adding the dog hair on the metal tray. The turning/crank handle is on the right.
I added a layer of the dog hair and then a layer of a white alpaca/merino roving that I pulled, separated, and fluffed up. I continued layering until I filled up the drum, removed the batt and set it aside. The batts are pretty much a 50/50 blend.
After I carded all the doggy hair, I split the batts and ran them through again. This may have been a mistake because I created some little merino noils (lumpies). I probably won't run it through the second time if I do this again.

I think these batts look gorgeous and have them all packaged and ready to send off to Teresa in Atlanta, Georgia. There's 4.2 ounces here. I wanted to spin up a little to see what it would spin like but all my bobbins are full. I will just wait for word back from Teresa.

Featured on Lime and Violet

Oh, my gosh, my store is featured on Lime and Violet. Thanks so much, RC, for telling me.
Go look:
http://www.limenviolet.com/blog/?p=6675

NutriSystem Food

Summer has finally arrived in midMichigan. That's my thermometer from yesterday. 117 degrees in the sun!!! the inside temp is only 65 because the unit sits right above my register in the kitchen. It was actually 75 inside.
Except for barn chores, I wasn't outside much but did a lot of spinning and knitting. I cut back my morning walk to a mile and my evening bike ride to a mile.
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My second NutriSystem Box arrived yesterday by UPS. I thought some of you might be interested in it, so took pictures before I put it away.
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Because this was my second month, I got to make some choices before they shipped it.
First of all are the breakfasts. You can see there are several packages of cererals and a couple oatmeals, plus some scones and muffins. At the very bottom are breakfast bars. Last month I had some scrambled eggs that came to life with water and the microwave. I really don't like milk, but will get it into me on cereral. I usually have an Activia when I come in from chores.
If you want a bigger picture of what is here, just left click on the picture:

On to the lunches....the little tubs have a metal top that comes off, replace the plastic top and microwave. I think these are quite good. The larger containers on the left get boiling water added and then set for about 5 minutes.....and, of course, more bars.



Moving right along here to the dinners. These boxes just go into the microwave so are quick and easy. No veggies here so I have to supplement. Last month the Schwann's man brought me a big box of NutriSystem's frozen dinners with veggies in them, some sandwiches, and ice cream. I'm thinking I will probably get that again.

And the yummies.... Last month I got quite a few cookies so I changed that to more salty stuff like pretzels and soy chips. Oh, and the monthly supply of vitamins on the left. So, my friends, you can see that there is way more food than I need for a month. The best part is that I can just open my cupboard and choose something. No planning ahead and no prep, well except for having some fresh fruit and vegetables on hand.

As for taste - it's ok. I'm not a big connoisseur and don't especially like to eat, so it works for me.

You probably want to know the cost - $299 a month.

I will have to make a decision each month if I want to continue. I have lost 13 pounds, and want to lose about 10 more.

Phat Fiber Contribution

The July PhatFiber Sample box will go out in the middle of July so I got my contribution in the mail today. This has been a fun activity to be involved in and, frankly, an inexpensive advertising.

Every month has a theme that we all vote on. July is nonwool. Even though in my mind alpaca fiber is considered wool, the rest of the Phatties don't and many of them are contributing alpaca to the box. I decided that I would send 20 of my sachets ↑ that I include with all purchases. The ingredients are: lavendar buds, patchouli leaf, cedar leaf, orange peel, and pennyroyal. I love the way these herbs smell and really hope that moths hate it and stay away from the fiber.
I also sent along 10 coupons for 20% off all yarn in my Etsy store......and 2 skeins of this yarn that I just got back from Stonehedge.


This yarn turned out beautiful! It's 70% alpaca from Ariana plus the seconds from my crias, and 30% merino from Genopalette. I have 65 skeins!!! Can you imagine how much yarn that is? I'm planning on using some for my dyeing adventures. This picture ↑ is just to show you how it looks from the mill. I'm washing all the skeins, 4 or 5 at a time. The fiber fluffs up and becomes a bright white like the picture with the flowers.

Morning Fence Construction

I've been wanting to fence in my whole back yard for Cord ↑, but have had all kinds of hold ups. There was a sinky hole back there that I thought I could just fill in with dirt, but when son, Rob. was home, he stuck his hand down it (oh, yucky, yuck). He discovered the pipe from the house to the septic tank was broken.
Last week I had the local plumbing place come and patch the pipe. The young man asked me when the septic tank was last pumped. Well, ah, never..... Yesterday Jason came and pumped out the tank. I could only take one quick glance down there. Oh, my, double yucky, yuck. I appreciate folks who can do nasty jobs like that.
Soooo, this a.m., I finished chores at 8 and fenced in the back for Cord. He's a happy feller. It's 90 degrees out already, but the trees keep this area very comfortable. And, surprisingly enough, I didn't see one mosquito the whole time that I was out there. Happy Horsey!
Cord belongs to Beth who I mention frequently here. He's a retired, senior citizen although he looks like a young whipper snapper in that picture, doesn't he?
Oh, I almost forgot to tell you - I took this picture looking down from my bedroom window.