Wonderful Etsy Resource

I just found Etsy is For Everyone, a wonderful blog written by etsy seller Strumpfkunst (who makes the cutest darn sock monkeys with attitude that I have ever seen - I may just be getting one for Bella for Christmas - Buy Handmade!).

Check it out, great info/resource if you are a seller! She talks about using Stumble Upon today - I've had Stumble Upon sitting in the toolbar of my Firefox Window for ages and have never thought to use it to promote my shop. Duh. :)

Purple Scarf Needs Some Love - and Cordoba, Spain, for Something Completely Different

Well, phooey, my blogging roll ended with a resounding thud. So did Cyber Monday thus far. (Though last week went very well for my little Etsy shop!)

But, I did manage to take some better photographs of this poor purple scarf:

The poor thing was posted in my Etsy shop pretty early on - before I sort-of got the knack for taking ok pictures of textiles. So, it wasn't getting many views. Or maybe it's just a really homely scarf, lol! Poor purple scarf needs some love.

Natural daylight really does seem to work the best for me...

I have kind of an old digital camera - an Olympus C-3030. We bought it in September-ish 2000 to take on our honeymoon with us, and digital cameras were still pretty new then - and it was state of the art (and wicked expensive, no way would anyone pay $1000 for 3.3 Megapixels now, lol!!). Amazing how fast technology changes, isn't it?

At any rate, I remember we were in the Mosque in Cordoba (Spain), and this (American) guy walked up to me while I was trying to take pictures of the arches (beautiful) and was amazed at how you could see the photos *on the camera*! LOL And our kids will all grow up saying - you mean you had to wait to get the photos developed?? And what exactly *is* an "album"?



There are those beautiful arches. Also took this photo from the window of our hotel room in Cordoba:


Yup. travel bug is biting. Niece Timothea was in Paris this past week for her 30th birthday (she's living in the UK at the moment, lucky kid), took some *fantastic* pictures and has me all jealous.... Maybe by next fall Mr. Conall will be big enough to travel. Can't wait!

Color!

So, one of my eternal struggles is trying to push myself on the color front with weaving. Structure is pretty easy for me, but I tend to fall into ruts/easy color combinations when I let myself. For example, I'm working on a dove grey/teal scarf in a Wall of Troy twill pattern on my little loom right now. Very nice (and I like the twill very much), but not particularly adventurous of me! (Weaving it mainly because I feel like I need some more "masculine" type scarves in my shop, and also because this yarn has been sitting around looking forlorn about not being used for quite a while now).

Anyway, we took a family walk over to the local library for storytime this morning, and I sneaked down to the art section while Carlos read to Bella and watched Conall play with toys in the children's room. Love the art section.

And I found a fabulous little book! The Color Scheme Bible by Anna Starmer. It's meant for interior decorating (helping you choose color palettes for your house), but it's great on the inspiration front! I've been sitting in the dining room pouring over it, color cards in hand, figuring out possible new designs and combinations.

I feel a yarn order coming on. Uh-oh. There goes the budget...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dead end!

OK, this picture requires a couple explanations. That's Conall, the ten-month-old, and he's "walking" around the kitchen, pushing this stool in front of him, sticking his tongue out to crack me up at the same time. Funny little man. Sister Bella didn't walk until 15 months, so this is really a surprise! We're thinking he might be walking by Christmas (he'll be almost 1 at Christmas). That would certainly make ski season a lot easier for us...

The other part of the explanation is about the stool itself, which has a neat little backstory. My big brother Tim is the head librarian at theTown of Oxford Free Public Library, in Massachusetts. What a great job, huh? He also really loves woodworking, and has made all sorts of fantastic furniture for my Mum. (Trying to talk him into looking into Etsy, but I don't think it's going to happen.)

A couple years ago, the town of Oxford voted to expand his library dramatically, and in the process they replaced a lot of the old shelves (the original library building is reasonably old by U.S. standards, from the early 1900s, IIRC, and they found all sorts of neat historical documents - including a time capsule - during the renovation).

At any rate, Tim salvaged the shelves and made everyone these fantastic little footstools out of them! I actually have two. :) One is down behind my big loom - I sit on it while threading heddles.

This one has gotten kind of beat up over the years... Stickers put on it by Bella, paint dripped on it by me, cat prints tracked across it by Madeline. But we use it every day! Bella uses it to reach the computer, I use it to reach things stored way up high in the kitchen, Conall loves to push it around. Great present. Hooray for big brother Tim. :)

Thanksgiving is about family, after all, right?

Hooray!!! A Very Happy Tuesday!

It's official - the Red Sox have signed Mike Lowell (3rd Base) for three more years!! (In case you missed it, he's my absolute favorite baseball player - and he won the World Series MVP this year! Whoo-hoo!)

Apart from his excellent playing, he just seems like such a class act, a real team guy. Doesn't crave the spotlight, quietly gets his job done, works hard, and is a wonderful liaison for the Spanish-speaking baseball players (he's Puerto Rican, just like my hubby and kidlets).

And, here's another reason to be happy:

Snow! And Stowe is open for skiing! (Man, I hope we can manage to move to Vermont sooner or later... Or at least build a little ski house/yurt up there.)

Oh, and I sold a scarf yesterday. :)

Knitting

I seem to go on knitting jags. I just started a scarf with some gorgeous silk/wool Manos del Uruguay yarn.


I bought the pattern from Sand & Sky Creations, a fellow member of EtsyFAST (street team). She did the scarf in a lovely soft grey yarn - I'm thinking her looks better! :) You can see the cabling better with the plainer yarn; having cables and all this color may be overdoing it a bit. But I still like it (more interesting to knit cables than just a plain old moss stitch or rib or something).

At any rate, check out her Etsy shop! She makes really lovely knitted items and sells patterns, too...

On a Posting Role...

I seem to be on a role with the posting thing lately, so I thought I'd keep it up.

Here's a picture to keep you a little interested, lol:

Somebody thinks his big sister is the best thing EVER.

Goofball.

On weaving fronts - Carlos was at work today (sigh) so I got zip accomplished. Managed to sew up another pillow during the goofball's (very short) naptime, though, using interfacing this time and it is much much better. It will be in my shop as soon as I can manage photos of it...