May Superheros Phat Fiber Box

March Phat Box!

March Samples...? Still thinking

The theme for March is Celtic, and I'd like to do a nod to Brittany, France.  This photo is from Vannes, Brittany, France.  Brittany is one of the six Celtic nations.

February Phat Samples

Revised January Phat Box

After a slew of malfunctions that included my old scale, my new scale straight out of the box, and my finger, among other things, I had to postpone the Wintery Mix colorway and come up with something from the finished supplies I had on hand.

January's Phat Box Inspiration

The box is "Phativersary".  I'll be paying homage to the first box theme, "Wintery Mix".

Merry Catmas

If you give a mouse a cookie, he'll want a glass of milk;     and if your 4-Her finds out you play tea party with your pets, she will gift you a pair of kittens on Christmas Eve.

Bonus - I had to use my web cam to figure out if both of them were perched on my shoulder or if I'd lost one.

Tea Party

Phat Fiber December Box!

The theme this box is Norse Culture.  I was inspired by this picture and the legend of Freyja.  I sent in Cotswold lamb locks dyed in reds, peach, and yellow; and miniskeins of my yarn, Frosted Juniper.

F!rst B0x :D

Thwarted: Trip to Etsy Mecca

Me too :/

Fresh from the famous Etsy photo booth, 4 people I've made sad.  The 3 on the left are genuine Etsy Admins, and the one on the right is the bestie never met-sy, Annie (who's totally real) of etsybtsy fame.

I was supposed to be there today, local grind in one hand, artisan baked good in the other, learning how to be an awesome team leader.  I'd even passed on a booth at a local craft fair I've previously attended to do it.  Unfortunately, my mode of transportation had other plans, deciding yesterday to have this wonky grinding in the front end start and then intensify with each small bump in the road.  Good times.  We limped home from the vet late last night with a sick little dog beginning to mend in the passenger seat, and it hasn't moved since.

Sick dog, you say?  Why yes.  Little Nessie came down with pyometra.  An emergency spay and two nights at the vet on an IV was in order.  She is steadily improving *knock on wood*.

Sandy Update

The mud room-type entrance shed blew down during dinner.
The sound of the constant wind drowned out the collapse.

 Power went out around quarter to seven Monday evening as I was in the barn counting sheep.  It came on just over 3 days later.  The water still doesn't work; the power lines to the well crossed during the storm and burned out when the power was turned back on.

Sheep shed by the chickens

Some of the tallest trees on the back lawn fell

The chicken coop with 3/4 of the roof gone

The chickens had a wet night.  The sheep and cows were hunkered down in the barn since the last were brought in Monday afternoon.  The cows were sheltering in the hollow by the road and weren't eager to run into the rain and wind for the quarter mile back to the barn.  A human in a red rain coat and a border collie finally convinced them.

Two wagon bays and part
of the sheep shed

The storm had an odd habit of
removing these bulbs and
leaving them scattered
on the ground.

The peak of the large barn

Things haven't been too bad.  Having my truck refuse to start as of Monday didn't help anything, but I got a lot of paperwork done by candlelight (sheep paperwork, no less!!)  Cooking and heating don't rely on electricity here.  Getting fuel has gone from a struggle to confusing.   Most stores that are opening back up are only partly stocked, and many are only taking cash.  Balancing which banks are closed with how much cash one has and when one is allowed to get gas has me staying mostly on the farm.

There's plenty to do here.

Oddly enough, my mom has no power but does have water, so tonight I have the luxury of clean hair.

Preparedness

This cracks me up.  I suspect it's not actually funny.  I have a hunch that I'm wearing down a bit under the stress of dealing with an entire region hopped up on storm hysteria.  If I could get my hands on that weather man that made the news commercial tonight where he said, "Could Sandy be the worst storm we have EVER seen??  Stay tuned," I would punch him in the nose.  But even so, this cracks me up.  I was scrolling through the predictions, hour by hour, with the background and text colors changing to emphasize the SQUALLS, and then in the middle of it appears a link for kids lunch recipes.  Also I'd like to immortalize the forecasters giving a 100% chance of rain.  I didn't know they knew how to say "100%".

And after lunch?  SQUALLS.

Souvenir

I already knew I'm not one for knick knacks anymore, but the fact was driven home on my CA trip.  I found myself in many a gift shop attached to some naturalist exhibit much like the ones featured in many a childhood school trip.  I clearly remember the excited calculations over what to get within my budget, squeezing the last bit out of those dollars while getting a few cherished items for myself and something for Little Brother.

I returned from CA with a few post cards and one item that inspired that same sort of excitement when I found it.  It's a chunk of a redwood burl, sustainably harvested, purchased at Muir Woods.

Those little asparagus things are the largest living things on earth.

I was there for Panel 4

I swiped this from The Flagpole.  Panel 4 depicts the wedding of a high school chum and her man.  The officiant is a mutual college friend of the couple.  Once the newlyweds returned from the honeymoon, I got some clarity as to why this clergyman was always armed with a Sharpie and could draw so skillfully on sleeping groomsmen.

This was my first trip to the west coast, not to mention my first flight.  We had a great time.

A skein from my sheep

 Here's the finished skein etsybtsy made from a pound of cream churro wool and some easter egg dye tablets. To see some of her other skeins, check out her etsy shop.