We Sold Two Llamas Yesterday

Yesterday we had some visitors to Split Rock Ranch looking at llamas. They own over 100 acres in northern Huerfano County (southeast of us) and need livestock to maintain their agricultural status (which is a HUGE tax savings, for those of you who don't know what AG status affords you!) They decided to investigate llamas. They had already picked out two of our males, Midnight Hour and High Five.

Midnight Hour was a perfect gentleman and behaved himself very nicely. He was shown starting at the ripe old age of 5 months old (we weaned him from his mother and took him to National Western Stock Show to show him for the very first time). So Midnight is "bomb proof" and very easy to handle.

We have handled High Five quite a bit and he has done the Fairplay Llama Race several years so he has been handled by strangers, as well, but he was antsy yesterday because he is younger and we had them tied up where they could see and smell the females and High Five was more interested in putting on a show for the ladies.

Then we started talking about females because they want to buy a female from us next summer. I had a particular female in mind that is in their price range and totally unrelated to both Midnight Hour and High Five. So I pointed her out and then we went to look at one of her offspring that just happens to be a High Five son - you all know this little guy...Chocolate Chip. One look at Chip and they changed their minds; they fell in love at first sight and decided to get Chip rather than High Five.

So, they paid with cash and a personal check and went back home to finish their fencing and housing preparations and will either come pick the boys up after they've found a suitable stock trailer or we will deliver the boys to them when they're ready.

I'm thrilled because this is going to be such a great home for the boys. I'm kind of bummed because it will be strange to look out the kitchen window and not see Midnight Hour sunning himself on the south side of his Rock & Tree. And Chip holds a very special place in my heart.

WW

Split Rock Ranch in another Treasury on Etsy!

 

My Pumpkin Patch Custom Fiber Blend Batts are featured in a Treasury on Etsy! Please visit, click and comment if you'd like.

 

Thank you to Dorothy at DorothyDomingo on Etsy for choosing my fibers for this beautiful Treasury. Please also visit Dorothy's etsy store where she has some stunning ceramic pottery pieces!

I Think I Nailed It!

For the November Roving of the Month Club colorway I wanted something for the holidays but not the traditional red/green/white. I had silver and blue in mind. I found this photo online and tried to recreate it on rovings.

I think I nailed it...what do you think?

My Final Choice for the Banner

After playing with several different suggestions and ideas that my wonderful visitors offered I have decided to go with the third collage and added the grid lines in tan and changed the text to white to make it easier to read. Although I do find the text more difficult to read on the orange background than the blue, we decided to use this collage because those two backgrounds together offer a lot more space for text than the blue background by itself. The collage with the text on just the blue background looks too cluttered. So, here is my final choice for the collage to be used for our vinyl banner.

By the way, the text looks really small in these photos but when you print it out on a 2'x3' banner it is big enough to read easily. I'll try to remember to post the llama collage I designed for a 2'x1.5" banner. I thought the lettering was way too small but couldn't get it any bigger and when the banner arrived I was thrilled at how fabulous it turned out!

Playing with Picasa Again - Need your Help!

I have been playing with Picasa again. I recently won a 2'x3' vinyl banner from U-Printing on The Shopping Duck's blog. I had already ordered a free 2'x1.5' vinyl banner from Vista Print a few weeks ago and I did a collage of our llamas, which I will show you later. So, I decided that I wanted to do a different banner collage this time to show off my fiber arts. Picasa allows you to select photos from your computer and then you click on collage and it randomly arranges those photos. It does not allow you to move individual photos in that collage, you must click on "shuffle photos" and it randomly moves them around again. I wanted one of the custom fiber blend batt photos in the upper left part of the collage so I could write my information on that (I use Adobe Photoshop to add the text). This is the first collage I made but we think the wording is more difficult to read on the orange background.

So, I deleted some of the photos and kept shuffling the photos until I got the blue CFB into the upper left portion of the collage like this:

I still wasn't really happy with how it looked so I deleted several more photos and ended up with this:

So, my question is, which one of these three do you like best? I have until the end of November to make my final selection and get it emails to U-Printing so they can make my vinyl banner for me.

To see the photos larger, just click on them - that way you can read the lettering. The click on your "back" arrow to return to the blog. Or, right click on the photos to open them up in a new window or tab.

Thank you for taking the time to look and comment! I really appreciate your help and respect your opinions.

UPDATE: Someone made the suggestion to use white lettering instead of black - which I have done on the third image. That one happens to be my favorite because the size of the images are larger than the other two collages and the orange and blue batts finally shuffled next to each other! Someone suggested using a tan background - which I could probably DO except that would mean doing a text box in Photoshop and then reselecting all my favorite photos again in Picasa and then hope that the tan text box finally shuffled to the right position in the collage. Someone suggested that I use Photoshop to do my own collage - which is a fabulous idea, but I have no idea how to do that! Sigh...so to save myself from a HUGE amount of additional work, I'm hoping the white lettering looks better.

Thank you everyone for your fabulous ideas, suggestions, comments, etc. I knew if I put these out there I would get some great feedback. You guys Rock!

One more try - the second collage adding the tan grid lines to separate the photos a bit and the text in white.

Wordless Wednesday

Split Rock Ranch - Cafe Handmade Virtual Craft Show

Split Rock Ranch

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A brand new week for the Cafe Handmade Virtual Craft Show. You can vote once per artisan per IP address per week. If you haven't voted this week, please do! Thank you!!

Another Custom Order Finished!

This started out as Galaxy - a Custom Fiber Blend batt consisting of superwash wool and cultivated mulberry silk. I love the colors against the black background and I am thrilled with the finished yarn!

 

And, the finished cloche hat!

Have a fabulous day!

My latest knitting project - Fabulous scarf using handspun yarn

My latest knitting project is now officially a FO (that's Finished Object for non-knitters, as opposed to a UFO = Un-Finished Object).

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=33833579

Awhile back I bought a beautiful skein of handspun wool and mohair yarn from my friend Carolyn at The Flying Ewe and it has been sitting in my stash waiting for the perfect project. The yarn has a beautiful fuzzy halo from the mohair and the wool makes it soft and squishy. Several days ago I was perusing patterns for neckwarmers and cowls and came across this scarf pattern that is very simple - three rows that are repeated for as long as you want the scarf to be, then attach fringe along one side and you're done! I enjoy these simple patterns because they keep my hands busy without taxing my mind too much while I work. And this one looks deceptively more difficult than it is! I think it almost looks like a vest from the front view and I love how the colors of the yarn gently undulate through the piece, giving it the illusion of a field of springs flowers - crocus and daffodils and jonquils. I think it would look stunning fastened in the front with a scarf pin but I couldn't find mine in time for the photo shoot. I guess maybe I need more scarf pins...

This beautiful knitted wool/mohair scarf is for sale in my Split Rock Ranch etsy store or if you'd like this scarf in a different color or yarn choice, just let me know because I can do a custom scarf just for you! Pricing of my knitted and crocheted items depends on several factors including yarns used, difficulty of pattern, etc.

Thank you for visiting Split Rock Ranch - have a great day!

The holiday shopping season is here!

I've decided to start doing more marketing this holiday season. I belong to several craft, art and handmade networking sites and am in a couple of marketing campaigns.

Check out the Holiday Open House on Online Shopping Mall. I found several really neat stores that I'm going to do some shopping in.

And I paid to advertise in the Virtual Craft Show on Cafe Handmade. Again, lots of great sellers and some really neat stuff. On the Virtual Craft Show they have a Best in Show award that goes to the advertiser who gets the most votes that week. The ads start on Sunday and go until the next Sunday. You can vote only once. I was in first place for a little while but am now in 3rd place. If you would like to vote for me please check out my Split Rock Ranch ad on Virtual Craft Show.You don't have to be a member and you don't have to register or anything else, just click to vote! Thank you!


UPDATE: I am now in 1st place! Thank you everyone for all the votes and the nice comments. I will still need votes to continue until Sunday to maintain my lead.


I love how my ad turned out on the Virtual Craft Show:

I think the colors just POP on this ad!

Okay, now I've got to get started dyeing up more fibers and yarns and get more fiber blend batts carded up so my store is stocked up for the holiday season. As always, I love to do custom orders so if there is something you're looking for in the way of yarns or fibers, please let me know and I'll do my best to get it for you!

Finished Custom Order - See the stages of development

I got a custom order from a blog reader recently to turn some of my Cotton Candy custom fiber blend batts into a scarf.

Here is the Cotton Candy in the batt stage:

 And then the yarn after spinning the batts

And finally the ruffled spiral scarf after crocheting the yarn:

Now I'm working on another set of batts, spinning them into yarn to make a crocheted hat for the same person. Somebody is going to be nice and warm this winter!

Over the Top Award!

I was blessed with this award by Jennifer at Oils for Wellness. My mission is to answer the following questions with just one word. I thought this would be a fun opportunity for you all to get to know the Llama lady at Split Rock Ranch a little better. Thanks, Jennifer!

1. Where is your cell phone? Purse
2. Your hair? Messy
3. Your mother? Loving
4. Your father? Awesome
5. Your favorite food? Pizza
6. Your dream last night? Weird
7. Your favorite drink? Coke
8. Your dream/goal? Wealth
9. What room are you in? Office/bedroom
10. Your hobby? Horses
11. Your fear? Alone
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Debt-free
13. Where were you last night? Home
14. Something you aren't? Extrovert
15. Muffins? Yummy!
16. Wish list item? Jeep
17. Where did you grow up? Colorado
18. Last thing you did? Blogged
19. What are you wearing? Robe
20. Your tv? Sony
21. Your pets? Many
22. Friends? Blessings
23. Your life? Fulfilled
24. Your mood? Tired
25. Missing someone? Daughter
26. Vehicle? Truck
27. Something you're not wearing? Shoes
28. Your favorite store? Etsy
29. Your favorite color? Purple
30. When was the last time you laughed? Yesterday
31. Last time you cried? Recently
32. Your best friend? Husband
33. One place I go to over and over? Outside
34. One person who emails me regularly? Marsha
35. Favorite place to eat? Chili's

The nominees for this award are:

Karen at Will Oaks Studio
PJ at PJ's Prose
Patti at The Maaaa of Pricilla

I hope everyone has a safe and fun filled day today - Happy Halloween!

Alpenglow

Tonight I looked outside and realized that the entire sky was bathed in Alpenglow. I quickly grabbed my camera and went out on the deck on the north end of the house. Above is Pikes Peak - note the almost full moon in the upper right.

And, of course, I had to get a better shot of the moon bathed in Alpenglow.

And then I needed a closer view of Pikes Peak - note how much snow is already on it!

I came into my office on the west side of the house and then looked out the window and saw that the western skies were glowing orange, so I grabbed the camera again and headed out to the front deck.

And I had to take more photos - I love the big tree - I have so many photos of this tree over the years.

I hope you enjoyed the sunset tonight as much as I did!

Happy National Cat Day!

October 29th is National Cat Day! Check out the National Cat Day website here.
We submitted photos of our kitties Lalo and Precious to Your Daily Cute blog. They have an adorable collection of cat photos on their blog today; check them out here.

And, the day wouldn't be complete without pics of our Cat Crew here at Split Rock Ranch!

Lalo

Precious

The Three Amigos

Boots, Smoky & Ruff

Munchkin, Boots & Precious

We were putting new bedroom furniture in our master bedroom and took the drawers out of the chest of drawers to make it easier to move. We came out of the bedroom and saw that the cat's had turned it into a Cat Condo and had to take a picture!

And, even though it is National Cat Day, I have to share a photo with you to show you what our YorkiePoo, Pippin, likes to do when it is cold and snowy.

Nothing like the wood stove to keep you warm!