Monday's musings coming on Tuesday

I didn't get to the musings yesterday so here they are a day late!

This weekend...
We played board games, I did lots of dishes and knitting, the kids worked on cleaning their rooms. The grownups realized that mostly the problem really was too much stuff in too little space. We are going to have to work on this. We had a quiet and pleasant weekend.

Right now...
I am sitting with me leg up, I did a bunch, but not all of, errands this morning and am tired! My shoulder is hurting so no knitting right now. Soon I will make bread for dinner - we are having turkey - I just finished eating lunch. I made salmon pate and ate it on whole wheat crackers with pickled onions.

Plans, how last week went.
I knit on both the socks and the tank top and resisted the urge to cast on a Lillietind Hat. I did not cut out skirt fabric. I did darn Bunny's bunny socks. I did read the Handspinning Art & Techinques book and it is a slog! most of the info is out of date so reading it is really work. I did work on my German every day, but mostly really late at night. I did not do inventory or film a tutorial. I did work on the house, but not on the 4h stuff. I did not write in my book.

Plans...
I want to cruise on one or both knits so I can cast on the Hat soon! I want to spin the yarn for the hat - only about 75grams - I want to spin for a little bit each day to work up my endurance again. I think I should clean my studio before starting a sewing project. I need to decide if I am continuing to read this book or switching to another. I want to work on my German in the early afternoon so I can focus on it better. I think I will set up a time in the week for writing. I am going to remember that I am still healing and try to go for a walk each day and to be gentle with myself.

Prayers...
I am praying for calmness and strength this week. 

Monday morning musings - lists

I love them! recovering from prepping for and having a show for my yarn and such. It rained all the show day so I had to reorganize and dry everything. Luckily, Sunday was sunny and breezy. Here are my to do lists in recovery and in preparation for our up coming large group camping trip. The kids will be hanging out with their cousins and grandparents for the week (next week) so it is just the adults. A week long date with my husband, that we just happened to bring a bung of friends on... okay more like before kids trip. Okay, okay, we always end up spending time talking about how cool they are and how much we miss them, but adult time is important. These lists are not for the shop, just for me. I should get off my computer and get to work!

House – to do list

Vacuum

Mop

Laundry

Find bedrooms

Find rec room

Weed wack around garden

Plant garden

Mulch garden

Buy sprinkler for garden

Rack wine

Camping Prep – to do list

Make:

Horseradish Vodka

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Snack mix (buy?)

Roasted nuts

Beef Jerky

Dehydrated peaches

Salad

Get:

Mussels

Fancy bacon

Beef for jerky

Horseradish

Check sticky rice quantity

Chocolate chips

Tomato juice

Instant coffee

Whip cream can

Find:

Camping kitchen stuff (sort for two)

Bag or container for kitchen

Spice disk

Rack for Dutch oven

Baking dish for Dutch oven

Baking stone for Dutch oven

 

Garden Valentines

 My garden has started!!! I am trying to winter sow this year. Basically, you take milk bottles cut them out and turn them into mini green houses and plant your seeds inside. You put the whole mess outside in a sunny sheltered spot and ignore it. In theory come spring I should have plants ready and waiting. The post I read for this is here. I am trying some dye plants that I want to play with and as I collect more bottles I will start a few more things.

 Badger's Valentine box. The boxes had to be less the a foot square, have at least a 5 by 2 inch slit for cards and have at least one moving piece. This is what Badger with the help from mom, dad, and auntie made. The tail moves.

This is Butterfly's the slit is in the back and the jeans move so you can put the cards in. They also had to write out a meaningful appreciation on the card for each child in the class. Handwritten. The cards could be store bought or homemade but the child had to write something specific and caring to each classmate. They girls had quite a bit of help assembling the boxes. The did the painting and the paper mache, but we did the hot glue and structural work. What I really liked about this approach was that instead of a candy party sign it quick, the teachers made it be a design challenge and a change to think and express something nice about each classmate. 

I hope they brighten their classmates day and yours.
~ Julia

The list

Every year I dig out last year's list. The WIPs I did not get too, I mark off what I got done and add what I started over the year. Some years I have made great progress other years not so much. In the interest of self-esteem, this year about 3/4 of the way through I decided to make a second list. A list of all the things I did finish over the year.

This year I am going to do both.

Finished this year list will be posted each month, but here is one thing:

Doing the Fandom in Stitches block of the month patterns for the Hobbit. Actually I am doing it twice. One set for my MIL done up as place mats, one set as a quilt for my dad.


Carrying list:

7. doll
8. kilt
9. my wedding quilt
11. Keira's quilt
16. Carol's quilt
18. Sailboat.

That is what I had left on it. 

Here is the new carrying list:

1. doll - needs hair sewn on, a face, and a dress.
2. kilt - needs finish work and belt loops.
3. my wedding quilt - We had guests sign squares, I decided to hand embroider all the signatures and hand stitch the whole thing. I have slightly more than two rows done.
4. Butterfly's quilt - was suppose to be a QAL. I fell way behind, I think I have twenty of one hundred squares done.
5. Cousin's quilt  - Needs sash, backing, and binding. Was done in lap quilt style so it is already quilted.
6. Sailboat - I have the plans. This has been on my to do list for almost 15 years now. I will do it. Hubby has asked that I wait for cabin to be built first now. WIPs in my house are not called albatrosses they are sailboats!
7. White cotton sweater for me. - Have to the shoulders starting at the neck.
8. Green leaf baby blanket - may actually frog this.
9. Sign for dad's business - likely 30 more hours.
10. upcycle sweater - half done.
11. drop spindle lace weight yarn. Continuing until I run out of wool.

Bits and bobs from this month

This is Badger, we hit a great park to play in while waiting between husband's cousin's wedding and reception. We spent almost two hours playing at North Beach Park in Racine. This is an amazing park.

Mom knows everything. I hope they always think so. They found this feather in the yard. Who lost it? I don't know. Guess who I asked, my Mom.

This is the star jasmine plant I bought myself as a remembrance of my trip to LA with Beaver. He wants to go there for college (not yet!) and had the opportunity to meet some people who might be able to help and have his work reviewed. He wants to do set design/monster creation type work.

Every year I help a friend harvest her grapes and she helps me harvest my apples. I took home a big bag of green unripe ones she was not planning on using. I found a recipe for sour grape pickles. We shall see.

I made jam out of the rest of the unripe grapes, it is tarter that the ripe ones but these grapes are seriously candy sweet so that is not a terrible thing.

Mouse surprised us all with wanting to go out for Cross Country this year. We asked if he knew it involved exercise and being outside... then agreed quickly. He loves computers, and unless we force him would be on them all the time, so this was a surprise. He loved it and worked hard. He came in at the middle of the pack and his school took 3rd over-all. He is the one with the curly hair.

Triangle loom weaving project. I enjoyed it but will need a much bigger loom to make anything not for my girls.

Butterfly reading her birthday card from my sister. I have a beautiful new nephew.

He is moving so he is blurry but that is Beaver. He loves his team.

Wool on a wednesday...

Yes I know it is Thursday, but this is what I did yesterday.  Mom and I wanted to go up to Spry Whimsy, mostly to see Peter and Ingrid, but also to get some wool and see Peter's latest creations.  He is an amazing felting artist, She is a spinner and being with them is calming and inspiring and energizing all at once. Ingrid was not in the shop yesterday but it was nice to see Peter. Mom and I had been talking about going for awhile, Dad who is still recovering from surgery was not really listening to us.  He arrived at my house thinking we were spending the day planning for our businesses and the kids 4H projects and maybe running to the Woodcraft store. He did think it was a little weird I want them here at 8! Spry Whimsy is a bit more than an hour away and I had to be back in time to pick kids up from school. Boy was Daddy surprised!

 I bought this wool (above two photos) to be plied against the the skein below.  Once I got it home I am not so sure, but it sure is lovely. Merino and silk blend. I am going to spin it up really fine and them make a decision.

 I want to play with the color wheel so I got these, that is three ounces of each.

More color play but this time a continuous blending experiment like in the current issue of Spin Off magazine.

We have a lovely day and Dad even got to go to Woodcraft but after we got the kids. They were given popcorn and sat quietly and quite contently munching while we shopped.  Mom helped my make dinner and Daddy took a nap in my chair with granddaughters giving him pillows and blankets and stuffies to cuddle. Then they made off with his hat and coat and played pretend to be Grandpa.

Hope you are having a wool... wonderful... week!~ Julia

Come have lunch with me

In the interest of feeling better, losing a bit of weight, and generally eating better I have decided the make lunch a bit more important of a meal.  I normally grab something, either from my own kitchen or out while doing errands - though I must admit I sometimes invent errands to do the two Chicago style dogs for $3 special down the street...shh!  I am then hungry and crabby later. I have been seeing these yummy looking recipes over at Farmish Momma and I wanted to try them, but thinking about the hard time my children would give me kept me hesitating. While at the grocery store this week I thought, I could just make some for me... Brilliant! So lunch is on! 

This is the yellow split pea soup she posted in her real food/real budgets series. I made a few changes, my husband was eating too and doesn't like blended soups so I skipped that step, I think it may have been necessary.  I cooked this much longer than she says, and the peas have a disagreeable - to me - texture that likely gets fixed by the blending.  It tastes amazing though, next time I will just cook it longer. I did not have any bacon grease handy so I fried up two slices and added them to the bowl of soup at the time of serving. I also added red pepper flakes because I add that to everything. 

 On the topic of bacon... I made these for Valentine's day.  Pretty but I prefer my bacon non-floral. No one in the family complained however!

For some crafting bits, I switched to cloth pads for that time of the month.  I bought some Glad rags brand and wowsa was that expensive, but rather than have something plastic-y paper-y rubbing against me all that week I have flannel. Much, much better. I did cloth diapers for my kids and thought about this a lot then. I have only had issue with them moving a bit during wear no leaks. So I am trying to make a few that are similar to what I bought but slightly differently shaped, hopefully these changes are comfy. I made a few before and they worked just as well as those I bought.  These are extra pieces of flannel from various kid projects and cotton batting leftover from quilts.  I have discovered a love hate relationship with grommet snaps, I love them when I line everything up, hate them when that is not happening. You might notice that the horse pad has two snaps set into one flap, that is not a design feature!

hope your plans are going according to plan! ~ Julia

Selling, new blog, surprise.

After a long time of talking about, dreaming about, and thinking about selling my crafts, I have decided to go for it.  I set up an Etsy site and am doing all the necessary forms and such to be all ready to sell.  I am planning on participating in a local farmer's market's craft weekends. It is once a month along with the market so I thought it was a gentle way to dive into craft fair selling and hope it will be a good fit for my family. To show what I am doing I created a new blog for the Business (that sounds so big!) it is MoonBound ArtisanShip

***

Sometimes ideas run away with me.  I decided that while my husband was off on a business trip I would empty, clean, carpet shampoo, and paint our bedroom - as a surprise! So I had a week to get everything done, this was the only room we did not paint when we bought the house, typically taking care of ourselves last thinking there.  I got my Mother and friend and co-conspirator R over to help. Mom watched the kids, folded mountains of laundry and also did some canning while R and I attacked the bedroom.  I did not clean it before my husband left - no surprise there - so we just grabbed stuff and threw it about the house. Like many people I know our bedroom had become a place where I would hide stuff I did not want to deal with while cleaning other rooms! Hopefully, I am done with that.
R got her Husband to come over after work and help move the furniture either out or to the center of the room.  We all had a nice dinner together and I discovered exactly how bad of a job my vacuum had been doing! The pictures about are us (R is working the camera and we are both laughing manically) at about 1am mixing the greenish paint I bought for this when we bought the house 5 years ago and all the leftover whites and creams we could find.  I did not want to spend more than $30 on the whole project to be an extra super part of the surprise, unfortunately I misremembered the name of the paint color when I went to get a second gallon and the color they gave me was bright deep teal. Not a good surprise. So sticking to the budget (which was wasted on buying that awful color) we mixed something up.
We got the room done and put back together and I managed to clean the house within an inch of it's or maybe my life before my hubby got home. Surprise accomplished. Surprise out of hand - Oh Yeah!

Hairpin Lace afghan I am making for my Grandpa out of yarn I received from my Grandma's stash. I have five done and think I will need thirteen or so.

I am still knitting, crocheting, spinning, and sewing up a storm here, but have found out that on days I do a lot of listings or book work type stuff the crafts come a bit harder. So I am trying to get all the necessary paper stuff out of the way before lunch and then playing after.

The kids need more time outside and I am longing for spring.

Chasing my dreams and hoping you chase yours ~ Julia

Spring, no summer, no spring...

Um the weather seems a bit confused yesterday we are roasting, today I am cuddled into a sweatshirt. Oh well, here is some over grown beauty from my yard. It seems like every time it would be good to go out and get yard work done I either am racing off to something or it starts to rain. I have done the mad dash take the laundry in off the line twice this week. I am starting to wonder if maybe my plans for my garden do not fit either my life or my willingness to actually make it a priority. Butterfly had her Violin concerts, the Boys more Model club meetings, spinning things for me and helping a friend.

 Mom, Dad, and I are going to start selling our craft work - excited and nervous!

Additionally I have been breaking out in hives everyday! I never was allergic to anything growing up but whatever I am reacting to is really driving me nuts, it has been about two weeks now of raised itches hives. Will someone please scratch my skin off, please! 

One leg patched, one leg darned, one Mouse singing Darned old Jeans, the next line in his made up song is, you can tell Momma loves me, darned old jeans.

I have been doing lots of hand stitching, repairing clothing, pretty embroidery, learning to darn.  I LOVE darning.The kids are enjoying it and bringing me a remarkable pile of things to mend and darn. (Are they ripping some of this just so I can sew it back together???)

Hope you are enjoying the simple things ~ Julia

What I made for Easter

I am just posting this now due to taking a little break after having some dental work that is only really feeling like it is healing well now. I made two dresses for my daughters for Easter using only materials I had on hand (except a zipper for each dress) and in the colors they picked. I also made them each a matching knit shawl/bolero/jacket thing in matching yarn that was not only stash but stash yarn but originally bought at a thrift store. Beaver did not want me to make him anything and Mouse got a hand made kilt - that was not really finished by Easter but wearable - and got to be in the photos with the men in kilts at church. He was very proud. There is a large group of Scottish descendents in the parish so for major holiday they all wear their colors. I will post more about his kilt as I finish it.

 This is Badger's dress, I wasn't sure about the colors but she was determined and I like it now. Please excuse the wrinkles as this is after she wore it and I washed it but before I ironed it again.

 These pile of fluff do not look like much but on the girls they are fuzzy cuteness and covered their arms, halter style dresses not the best choice for this years weather.

A sneak peak of Mose's kilt. I decided to go with a flannel shirting in a color very close to his fathers ancestors, but not to buy the really stuff for a 8 year old. Someone else I have in mind to make on for will be all out though.

 This is Butterfly's dress. It looked great on her and the best part of both dresses is the pattern thinks little girls are much bigger that they are.  I had to take the dress in 4 inches and up four inches for Badger and 2 each way for Butterfly. Even then the dresses are very long and not snug. So they will last a long time!

I am a day late joining Crunchy Catholic Momma at the Stash Bash! I hope your creating fun, useful, maybe even beautiful things! ~ Julia

Thank you Blog!

 I was just saved by the blog. I thought I should post a picture of this wool. I dyed it Sunday night after using the dye for Easter eggs with the kids and wax painting eggs. I wanted to put away the wool before people come over tonight. Out came the camera. As I took the photo I realized I needed to charge my camera. Mouse has his school music program tonight and I nearly attended with no battery charge left!  It is plugged in, now I just have to remember to put the battery back into my camera.

 Badger drawing snowmen and stick figures. I may be spring but we still have snow! They say we might see 40 this week.

These are the painting wax resistance eggs I made and in the bags are yarn eggs the younger three did in Sunday school. We are going to make an Easter tree, from sticks in the yard, when they get home and hang these eggs. The picture is My Great-Grandmother Ruth Delilah, she is holding Beaver whom she told me was a keeper. She passed on not long after this photo, it is sitting on the under the tea pot cupboard in my kitchen with my cookbooks and keeping an eye on us.

Hope you manage to remember all the little and big things you need to today! ~ Julia

Monday Morning Musings

Linking up with Nadja at Patch o' Dirt Farm.


Right Now...
 I am sitting in my quiet kitchen, cooking up some leftover baked potatoes to go with some eggs.  I have a cup of hot decaf chai at my elbow. The older three children are off at school and Badger is still in bed. As she has been sniffly I am letting her get her rest. Jim is working and the snow is falling fast, last Monday of winter. It is 8:50am.

This Weekend...
Friday, I was all excited to go to a spinning guild meeting.  I had never been before but found their website and the Badger and I gather up our stuff and drove over. But there was no one there. very disappointing. That evening I went to a gathering of people from school, some of whom I haven't seen since my graduation. One of the Professors hosted and made chicken curry, we watched a Thai horror film, not bad, and a Lithuanian movie about a warrior and a princess. Wolfhound was very good, a bit Conan like but more likeable. I got home late but had a very nice time.
Saturday, I slept in while Jim played with the kids. That evening we went to close friends' house to play Star Wars so part of the day was spent building a character.  I am playing an Archaeology professor and had a nice time translating what I really would do on a dig to both my friends and to the Star Wars universe. It was not my idea to play myself, as I normally try to play something completely different, but since he was starting us on a dig, everyone said it made the most sense for me to be the professor and them to be students or guards. As a side note if I could get a real life crew to move that much dirt in a two month season I would be a very happy archaeologist. We all had fun, and so did the kids who had a movie night with their friends.
Sunday, we got up for church, early as I remembered as I was falling asleep that we were supposed to bring the snack for Sunday School. I wanted to bring something shelf stable, so they could use the extras another day, so we stopped for granola bars on the way into church. Adult class was a continuation of the program we have been doing on Sabbath as resistance. Looking at ways to focus on God and Family on Sundays as a method of resisting the ways of the world and as a way to recharge in faith and love to face the work ahead. I find that this course is resonating with my sustainability and simple living reading, focusing on the thing you are doing and doing it well then doing the next thing. I have been wanting to do family dinners on Sundays, and think I will start. Maybe one weekend each month invite my parents, then the next month invite Jim's and his sister's family.

Some plans for the week...
I want to work on cleaning the house well this week, I feel like I have been just getting enough done for awhile now and really want to get more than enough done. I also want to work on Mouse's sweater, make more crocheted flowers, finish Bec's skirt, and make some Easter dresses and an Easter Kilt or two (depending on whether Beaver would wear it, I know Mouse will.) I also want to place my garden orders this week.

I am grateful for...
Mom was released from the hospital Friday and is resting at home!! Bec is settling into a new home and job, that if I had sat down and created for a job that would be perfect for her I could not have done a better job. My brother in law got a new job that is much closer to home and is making him, and my sister happier.

Some prayerful intentions this week...
I want to set a little time aside to pray for all of the people on the prayer request list from church.

Stash bash - apple sauce

Linking up a day late with Crunchy Momma's Stash Bash!

What is a momma to do when she finds out that she has canned (& canned, & canned) a whole bunch of applesauce from the apples from her trees, only to discover that only one of the kids likes applesauce! This was 2011's summer crop as our apples produced nothing with this past summer's weather. I still have lots of applesauce!

Then I discovered that I could get them to eat it if I took my 'stash' of applesauce and make it into something they all like - fruit leather. This is a great snack for school as my younger kids are required to take either a fruit or a veggie that is also not messy as snack time is during course time. So my dehydrator is getting a workout this week making school snacks.

Side note: I firmly believe we as a society would be better eaters (with less health problems) if we spent a little less time harping on what we ate and a little more time eating. My elementary kids are given 20 minutes to get to the lunch room, go to the bathroom, get their lunch and eat. I really think that making eating important and focusing on doing it would be a better lesson in the long run than teaching kids to eat as fast as they can without thinking about the food or tasting it. I know my Butterfly would be nicer when she got home if she had enough time to eat her lunch, she is so hungry but never gets through her lunch.

On a more crafty note my stash busting crochet flowers are coming along well. I am using up all the bits and pieces of yarn I have, I think I will stitch these all together when I am done and make an afghan for my living room.

Hope your creativity is turning your leftover supplies into things that improve your life!~ Julia

Yarn along - Down at Fraggle Rock

Joining Ginny at the Yarn Along today.

 Having finished with the box to mail to family out west - it arrived safely - I went back to the sweater for Mouse.  It is about 8 inches so far, knit from the bottom edge and I am shooting for 18 minimum so I must seriously buckle down.  I am also working on a crocheted hat for my dad.  It is called Lidsville and I love it. I have to lengthen the inner band and stitch it to the hat (so glad I called mom for his hat size - yes I started making him a hat without it) and add the button on top before I am done.  I will be making another for myself and figuring out how to scale it down a bit for the boys.  It does however put the Fraggle Rock theme song in my head.  I spun the yarn shown (red) and used it and a brown wool for the hat, the homespun changes from red to russet to green to brown to blue through the yarn and I really enjoyed the changes and how it worked up.  Normally, I end up giving away my spinning, so this was extra fun.

On the reading front I am going the the Anne of Green Gables series again, like visiting old friends at Christmas and it always makes me feel in the mood to clean and bake.

Oh the overexposed blue things are the gloves I sent for which are helping my hands greatly.  I also noticed I was sleeping with my hands bent up under my chin and have been working hard at keeping my wrist straight while I sleep.

Some finished work to round out my post.  I finished the two pairs of socks for Butterfly and the stone soup necklace for .... um not telling.

Hope you crafts & baking are going well.  ~ Julia

In my kitchen, in my life

It is 10:25, I have been awake since 6 and probably should have awoken about 30mins earlier, but oh well. Beaver has to be to school for gym by 6:30 Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I like that he has this option so he can keep Spanish in his schedule and take the reading lab. I dislike getting up, I dislike that he - who normally is great at great up - stumbled to the shower without checking the time, I dislike that he loves wearing the same sweatshirt every day all day! I dislike that I ended up yelling at him right before dropping him off, but I really dislike the disrespectful smart ass way of speaking he has picked up. So I will live with having yelled at him, and having made him angry by taking the sweatshirt and I will wash it (in really strong soap) and hope he remembers I love him.

After dropping him off I came home to wake up Butterfly, hoping not to wake Badger, nope! Oddly Butterfly was super crabby but Badger, who was soaked and chilled, was cheerful.  Toss a Badger into the tub and try to convince a Butterfly to eat hoping a little blood sugar would help. What helped was walking into the playground at school holding hands. It helped me too!

I came home to find that Mouse had taken all the garbage from bathrooms and bedrooms and gathered it together for garbage day, helped his sister out of the tub (husband was home but getting ready for work) and convinced her to get dressed. Other than wearing shoes he was ready for school and playing nicely on the computer.  We had a nice walk to school holding hands. 

So it is 10:36 and my garbage is out, my dishes washed, bean soup bubbling away for lunch, bread rising for dinner, floors are swept and the whole day seems bright if cold. I know that 30 is not really cold, I live in Wisconsin, if this were March we would be running around in sweaters talking about how warm it is, but I am cold.  I want a fire in the fireplace.

I will be casting on the second half of my mismatched toe up two at a time socks today, they are Butterfly sized and will be a Christmas present. She won the whose foot will fit into these practice socks lottery. Now they all want socks.  I doubt I will get the rest done for Christmas presents but maybe I can start right after.

Each year I make the Children make presents for their siblings and try to make the godparents a homemade gift too. Usually that ends up being something I made decorated by them. Badger has taken this to heart. Her siblings each got homemade birthday presents from her - so did I which required closing my eyes, and teaching my husband to finish a beaded bracelet - she has also made my mother her birthday present. The photo above is her present to her siblings for Christmas. Recycled Crayons, she also made a second set (my muffin tin for melting wax is a 6 holed one) with different colors of glitter mixed in.

I hope you are getting along in your holiday preparations and are having a productive Tuesday! ~ Julia

Woolly Wednesdays - welcome to my dyeing studio

Yay for the return of Woolly Wednesdays!

Due to general busyness I have not spun in about 2 weeks. Gasp! I have however cleaned out the from porch and set it up to be a dyeing studio and gone about collecting wild bits to dye with or spin. Welcome to my studio. It is a not quite dry enclosed front porch. The front yard is graded wrong so it sends water toward the house, the porch is in need of real help but for now, it is clean and a pleasant work space.  It will be cold soon, but hopefully a space heater will help.

Milk weed pods from my front yard. I enjoyed the butterflies all summer now I am gathering the fibers inside. I read that mix with wool to be at least 20% wool they spin beautifully, are very insulating and a bit water proof.  We shall see.

The seeds from one pod.

The fiber from one pod. Very silky and beautiful.

Also one pod's worth, fluffed a bit, this makes a good down alternative too.

Bottles of Alum solution, trying to reuse and refresh rather than just dump it, and jars of tannin solution leftover from the acorn dyeing.  The window there leads to our den, so if I opened the curtains, I could keep an eye on the kids while they are on the computer.

I imagine this was once the front entrance to our house, now only me and an occasional wayward cat use it.

Ugly but comfy chair - there are two so pull up a seat - the bags have staghorn sumac, that I will be using as a dye soon. The Birch bark I collected (from a fallen tree) to try to make a basket from.

Drying rack, from front: first dye bath goldenrod, second dye bath goldenrod, and first dye bath trembling aspen.

I am planning on re-purposing this old kid's easel to dry hanging skeins from.

Re-purposed kid's desk covered in tile from goodwill, dye pot and burner.

Trembling Aspen leaves simmer to become second dye bath.

Two ounces of wool in alum mordant bath. bottle of water to rinse fibers, bucket to reclaim the rinse water and my toes, I should re-paint them.

Looking out the studio windows to my front yard.

Superwash yarn a most recently spun just inside the house

A closeup.

 Hope you enjoyed the tour, happy spinning! ~ Julia