We made it home safely

and I took a few days off because after dyeing for months for the show I needed a few day rest.  We left for MD after I hurt my ankle so I rode in the back seat of our truck all the way.  After riding in the back seat with so junk around me I so wish I had a truck that had 4 full doors not the 1/2 I have now.  My truck is a 2008 with almost 112,000 miles on it but superman has kept it in good shape so I intend on putting about about 400k on it if I can. 

We arrived in MD and went over to one of friends home then to dinner with friends.  I couldn't even eat dinner all I wanted to do was sleep, you see I hadn't slept in 3 days.  When I'm coming up on big shows where I sometimes worry if I've dyed enough of this yarn or enough fiber I tend to worry.  You would think that after dyeing for 4 months and dyeing more yarn that I carried last year I wouldn't worry.  Wrong.  I dyed and dyed, made buttons, but more yarn and still worried.  I also had to have enough stock to take to my next show KY Sheep & Wool then home on Monday leaving on Thursday for Great Lakes Fiber Festival so I had to dye lots of extra.  No time to dye in between shows is very expensive so I had to invest a lot of money at the end off last year so I can have enough inventory for the shows.

Now that MD is over it's time for me to get my order list together for Rhinebeck (come join the facebook Rhinebeck group) because I have to dye like a fool when we return from our only show in June Estes Park Wool Market.  I've got yarn arriving almost every day this week so I can begin planning what I need for the fall shows because come August I will be on the show almost every weekend from August to November.  Then we begin ordering all over again.  I love my job.

I'm going to leave you with a few pictures from 2011 MD Sheep & Wool

So I did it

I dropped superman's Harley Davidson on my foot just what I needed after a day filled with a migraine and so many other things that went wrong.  My mother has already called to many times telling me to go to the emergency room but I don't think it's broken it's just swollen.  Just swollen is bad right now when I have so many things to do, I don't have time for this right now.  God why do things come in the way when I don't need or have time for them?  Is there ever a good time for inconveniences like this no but especially not now when I have the biggest show of the year next weekend? 

Yesterday was one of those days that I would love to do over.  I woke up with a migraine that I tried and tried to get rid of ice, pills nothing worked so I jumped into our freezing cold pool.  It was dirty because we haven't vacuumed it from last year's stuff but I needed something cold on my head to get rid of the cold.  Not thinking I forgot to put on suntan lotion so I ended up with tan lines in April.  So I decided I would try to dye yarn but wearing a mask and moving around with a migraine was not helping so I took the rest of the day off.  When superman came home I decided that I needed to go for a bike ride that's when I hurt my ankle.

I'm supposed to to finished dyeing yarn right now plus packing the trailer tomorrow.  Not so good for plans for my biggest show of the year but with my family's help.  I still have to pack all 8 racks, dye a few more skeins of valencia, help superman pack the trailer, pack our clothes, get fuel plus in the middle somewhere go back to the dentist on Monday.  I hate being in this position but these are the cards that I was given at this time in life so I'll keep playing it.

I have 3 shows this month, MD Sheep & Wool, KY Sheep & Wool & Great Lakes Fiber Festival so it's going to be a busy month for me.  Plus princess has her junior prom, I've done all the prep work for her prom because I'm going to be in KY so superman is going to have to take lots of pictures.

Here are a few pictures of what I've been up to dyeing and my polymer clay buttons & shawl pins.

I'm back

to running and I'm loving it.  It's been awhile since I was able to hit the road because my ankle was hurting me like heck.  I ran on Sunday and tonight over 4 miles each day.  I'm tired and sore but I'm going it's OK because I'm ready to go down another dress sizes.  Most of my friends who read this blog didn't know me before this blog existed when I was so much smaller.  My weight has given me a lot of different health issues, sleep problems, high cholesterol, bronchitis in my hip, high cholesterol and I'm so proud to say that I've taken the weight issue as a priority in my life.

Here are a few things I've been working on.  All the buttons are up and now on the website.  New colors of Wool, Silk & Cashmere and oh I'm now selling knitting needles.

ATL here I come

tomorrow because I'm leaving for Stitches South and I have to admit I'm not ready to wake up at 4:30am to begin my drive.  I'm excited to go back to Atlanta for the my west indian food plus I found 2 great places where I can find a few things for my polymer clay.  Plus I'm going to have to find a goodwill because I've dropped 4 sizes since I went shopping last, really embarrassing last week while I'm was running errand my pants were falling down.  Great problem to have now that I'm at 35lbs lost but I hate having to buy new pants.  I decided I'm not buy any shirts until I get down the size I want to be but the pants I'm realizing there is only so much a belt can hold up.


Right now my ankle is killing me and I haven't been able to run, I want to wake up every morning change into my running shows and run run run.  But I did the wrong thing before running when my entire body was not ready not this time I'm going to listen to my body and stay off of it when I can.  Tomorrow it's going to get a lot of problems walking back and forth as I set up my booth but that's fine I'll go back to my hotel room to ice it every night. 

I've been dyeing as much as I can and decided that I needed to order more yarn for my biggest show with that in mind I have to plan according.  MD Sheep & Wool is one of the most unique shows I've ever done.  I do to several shows a year in so many cities and I have to say that all of them have their on rhythm, they and the attendees who attend they make the show.  At MD I see so many people from different states, I get to see some wonderful seafood plus I get an extra dose of my reggae music.  In 2 week make a hole because we'll be hitting the road with our big trailer.

I guess I better get to bed but before I go here are a few pictures of new colors of beaches.

What a life?

I have to say that my life is never boring, also not what I expected when I came to America with that one suitcase full of clothes with holes in it.  I never knew that God would choose me to do so many things, that sometimes I would be so disappointed in the path of my life is taking then what seems like a minute later I wonder God why are you so good to me.

I'm not perfect nor have I ever claimed to me, I've made so many mistakes that I'm pass counting my fingers and toes to many of them to count in life and even in my business.  When the mistake is either shown to me by God or when someone I respect show me how I could have done it better I always ask for forgiveness.  Yet God still sees fit to bless me and for that I'm truly grateful to him.  I can't wait to tell God one day how grateful I am for the valleys because when I saw why he had me go into the valleys the hills BLEW my mind.

 I've been so busy that I haven't taken the time to write here on my blog in a while since my last post I've been doing lots of polymer clay buttons.  I also got bunch of new polymer clay books, gadgets and new colors of clay.  I don't know what it is about claying but I love love it and I use it as a downtime.  I haven't made much money selling my buttons but it's like everything else it will take time and when the world recognizes what great buttons I create they'll take off.

Then there is my dyeing since I've discontinued a few yarns in order to make room for 2 other lines of yarn.  I introduced Mist to you on my last post but have you seen Queen, it's based on one of the characters from our Carnival in my country.  There is always a King & Queen of Carnival each year here is my version called Queen.  It's a single ply superwash merino that's so soft, it's taken me a year to finally find a single ply that I like.

I will also like to tell you about my new fiber show called Charlotte Fiber Festival beginning in 2012, it's been a dream of mine for years and to bring one to the Queencity is going to be lots of fun.  For the first year I'm doing my best to concentrate on the market place and getting as many customers the event.  There's so much room to grow that I hope to add a great line up of classes and teachers for the following year but only time will tell how that goes.  I have several people interested in teaching classes for the event that's another part of the event I'll have to see if I can make happen for 2012.   I already have Knitter's Magazine & Universal Yarn plus I've given a charity close to my heart Halos of Hope an opportunity to be at the show as a dedication to my uncle who died of cancer, friends who died and friends living with cancer. 

Yesterday we went to an antique show in Charlotte, NC at the same place we're going to have the Charlotte Fiber Festival there were so many vendors that my feet hurt like heck before the end for the day.  I couldn't wear my best walking shoes because the outdoors spaces were on gravel.  We were about to go home when I walked by one of the outdoor vendor that had an outdoor figure that brought me to my knees.  It was our dog Demetrie that was killed in January I couldn't believe it, there was no way I was leaving that event without him.  I still miss him everyday, he would have been seven this May so to find something to put on his grave brought tears to my eyes.  At the next antique show I'm going to get a bench from the same person so our other dogs can sit on during the beautiful days when he would love play outside.  To mommy's big boy you'll always be in my heart.

Until next time.

Where is time going?

I've been so busy with dyeing, my new assistant, princess, superman, our dogs lets not forget superman who's been busy himself.  Since my last post I dyed over 1100 pounds of yarn and made a bunch of polymer clay buttons.  I released my new line of hand dyed cashmere yarn called Mist that my friend and facebook pal named from a contest little did she know that Mist reminded me of The Pitch Lake in my country.  The Mist on that hovering over the lake that I can't wait to show you pictures of when I return to my country in July.  The cashmere is so soft that Mist was the perfect name over all the other names that came through and I'm grateful for all the people who submitted their suggested name.  Melinda won a free skein of hand dyed cashmere for her help.

I'm so happy that decided to hire an assistant, for the past 6 years (lyso now dyer) it's been me.  I've taken the responsibility of everything being a wife, mother, small business owner, pet owner, friend and so many other things I finally said it's time.  Jenifer has been a great help I can't wait for her to see where all the work behind the screens to see what it's like for our first show.

I've been running around with princess doing open houses at several colleges and I believe it's brought us so much closer.  Princess favorite college forever has been orange, she wanted us to paint her room orange when she was younger (Thank God we were wise enough not to) she also has wanted to go this particular college since she was eight.  We went to that college and she decided it was not what she imagined and it was so big for her.  We've got 3 more schools before we decide which one is a good fit for her, she wants to major in forensic science and it just so happens that our county opened a huge forensic lab yesterday.  It's been 7 years in the making and she's already asking if she can be an intern there, I said lets get through high school.  We're also working on getting items for her junior prom together, there are so many other proms going on that weekend we have to start work now setting appointments.

Life is going to get even busier as we draw closer to MD Sheep & Wool it's a show where I do a lot of damage to our check book.  But such is life.  I can't wait because it will also be our first show as a family for the year.  I will also be returning to Stitches South in a little over 3 weeks, I thought last year would be my last year but it's a show that's so close to my home and I had so many customers wondering if I return. I can't wait to see everyone again this year and get a taste of my island food.

 It's 3:15am and I've been up since getting 4 hours sleep tonight so I better to bed.  Please follow me on facebook you never know what you'll learn or what I've got up my sleeves next for contest.

I know it's been forever

since I wrote but I've been so busy.  Here's what's been going on since I wrote last.

 I've been doing lot and lots of polymer clay buttons I feel like when I first started knitting.  I would knit all the time and if I wasn't knitting I was thinking about knitting.  I remember when I wanted to learn to knit my friend who got me interested in knitting she said call your local yarn shop they should have lessons; they didn't.  So I took a friend from work and we went to learn at Michael's Craft store, I remember when they gave me the needles I was like what am I going to do with these to chop sticks.  Then I got the taste of it and I haven't put it down yet.  I love love love to knit then knitting turned to dyeing and you already know how much I love to dye.  Now it's polymer clay and I'm hooked. 

It's so bad that superman said I'm spending to much time with the clay than I am with dyeing.  I tell him to BUTT OUT because I love learning new thing plus I'm using my color skills to create unique buttons.  I've included a few that's up on my website for sale, I'm not as good as some of the other great clayers out there but I have to start somewhere.  I always said if I got another hobby my husband would have a fit and he had but this time I'm like some where some how God wanted me to have a slow Sunday at the show last January.  He wanted me to jump into this wide world and explore so that's what I'm doing.
 
I've also gone into another part of our business I've hired an employee.  Yes me the woman who has brought the boxes from the delivery driver down to my studio, skeined 1000 pounds of yarn by myself, dyed the yarn using so many techniques that I gave up counting, twisted the skein, photographed the skein, labeled the skein.... Lord I'm getting tired just writing down these few steps because it's not that easy doing everything by yourself.  

So I hired Jenifer and she's going to begin on Tuesday, one day I'll have to ask her how she begun to follow me on facebook.  She's been one of the people I allowed into my circle of friends since my profile is only visible to my friends.  When I decided to say enough I need help, I posted it to facebook, ravelry and twitter then next place I was going was to job service.  But I needed someone to help me in order to take my business to the next level I needed help so I did it, after 6 years of trying to do it all myself I hired an assistant.  

I have to admit that I'm scared, what if I fail her, what if my expectations are to high, what if we don't get along after all we'll be traveling together, what if what if.  My close friends most of them business owners themselves have talked me off the ledge that it's going to be OK.  That if it's not as good as fit as I thought it's OK just so that I get some help.  Help so I can put some of these techniques that I've got written down on yarn these techniques that I've been dying to try for about 2 years now.  I know I'm doing the right thing and that it's going to be OK.  So if you see Jenifer at our booth please make her feel welcome because like I had to learn the best people in the world roam the fiber world.  That also means I'll be able to write more about my crazy life, superman, princess not keeping her room clean and the 2 most adorable dogs in the world.


On a personal note I've been busy busy busy but not to busy to get off 2 medicines within the pass 3 months.  As off today I've lost 28lbs WOWOOOOO  can you hear the scream where you are?  I've been trying for 3 years to lose 75lbs that I put on due to a medicine I was taking but it's taking a lot longer to get off and it's going to stay off.  I begin physical therapy on my right ankle tomorrow to strengthen it as I begin using my bike for exercise also plus I would like to make a routine of running at least 6 miles or more on every run.


So there it is everything in a nut shell.