Full Moon Rising

Sorry I don't have time to make a long post but I wanted to share these photos of the full moon rising over Pikes Peak tonight. These photos were taken from the deck on the north end of our house. Gorgeous!

 

 

My Peacock Yarn is in a Treasury!

My Peacock Re-Deux sock yarn is in a Treasury!

Thank you to Dorothy of dorothydomingo for including my yarn in this gorgeous Treasury. I must lead a very sheltered life because I had no idea that there was such a thing as a yarn bowl! What a clever idea. Now I just need to decide which one I want. Decisions...decisions... Please click on the Treasury and click through on my yarn - let's get this Treasury to the front page! Thanks!!

And, here's a plug for Dorothy's fabulous work. Check out this absolutely incredible bowl from her shop:

Oh how I wish I could afford this gorgeous pot! 

I Won a Gift Certificate to Gems by Jerri's Artfire Store!

Before Christmas I won a giveaway on Gems by Jerri's blog. It was a $30 gift certificate to her ArtFire store! I had my eye on a beautiful Fancy Jasper Jewelry set (three-strand necklace, five-strand bracelet and earrings) and it was on sale, to boot!

Jerri mailed the package to me and something went horribly wrong in the USPS mailing system (holiday shipping is a ZOO!) I received the envelope but it was torn on the back of the envelope and the envelope was empty. I emailed Jerri and told her that the package arrived (it took over 9 days to arrive - Jerri mailed it the day after I ordered!) and informed her that the envelope was empty. I did not expect her to do anything but I wanted her to know what happened. She promptly informed me that she would order more supplies and make me a brand new set! I was thrilled! The new set arrived in record time - this time packaged in a box, so it was in perfect condition.

So I would love for everybody to visit Jerri's blog and her ArtFire store and give her some lovin'! Her prices are extremely reasonable. Check out these other lovelies that I have my eye on now:

 A gorgeous freshwater pearl necklace and matching bracelet:

Or how about this fabulous Ching Hai Jade and Black Onxy necklace:

Thank you Jerri for making such beautiful jewelry and for having excellent customer service! You're absolutely the best!

WW - Sunrise at Uluru

What I Made This Week

I've been busy again! I have a Fiber of the Month Club - you can order rovings or batts or both. Each month I create a brand new colorway for my Club members and only they can purchase this colorway. January's colorway is Enchanted - Navy Blue, Mallard Green, Gold and Purple.

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Sometimes I coordinate the batt to the roving for members who order both. This month it worked out that I had fibers in my blending stash that coordinated beautifully with the roving I dyed.

I also dyed up a variegated Lincoln lamb fleece in Mermaid colors - Turquoise, Navy, Mallard and Purple. I love how the different colors of the fleece (cream, silver, gray) gave these fibers such lovely hues and shades when they were dyed.

 

And, I dyed up some kid and yearling mohair locks to be used as doll hair or for spinning. The locks that can be used for doll hair take forever to pick out of the fleece. I wash the fleece, dye it, let it dry on the drying rack and then hand select each individual lock from the fleece and lay them all in the same direction. It may take me almost an hour to hand select a couple of ounces of fiber this way. Whatever is left after I've picked out the nicest locks for doll hair I hand pick and sell for spinning, felting or other fiber art. I dyed up some silver locks and some mahogany locks. These fibers are incredibly soft and have fabulous luster (shine) to them.

 

And finally I carded up several new custom fiber blend batts for spinning, felting or fiber art. Here's Riot.

And Serenity.

So, that is why I haven't posted anything since Wordless Wednesday. When The Creative Muse finally comes around, I have to take advantage of it and do whatever The Muse moves me to create.

WW

Looking back...

Sibling Rivalry

I had this card table set up for cutting foam for needle felting kits and after I put everything away I came back and found Precious lounging on the table. This is a standard sized card table - look how much space Precious takes up! She isn't fat, she's just fluffy. And she may be part Maine Coon and they are very large cats.

Then Munchkin decided to come talk trash to Precious.

And Precious set him straight.

Got it...

I've been busy!

Believe it or not, my Mojo returned recently and I finally got inspired to get busy with the dye pots.

Here's what I made:

8 oz of merino/bamboo roving in my November Roving of the Month Club colorway "Christmas Snowflakes". This was a custom order by a club member so she could make a sweater to go with the socks she made from the original superwash wool roving she got in November. I love how these turned out!

I also dyed up a superwash merino/tencel 4 oz roving in my India Spices colorway.

And, a new member of my Roving of the Month Club suggested I add gold or bronze to my Peacock colorway. So, I dyed up this 400 yard skein of superwash wool/nylon. OMG I love how this turned out! It is even richer, darker and more brilliant in person - my photos do not capture the true intense beauty of this skein of yarn.

And, I decided to make a huge 8 oz 440 yard skein of worsted weight wool and silk yarn in a similar colorway only I added a bit of navy blue to the brilliant blue and used a different gold. Because of the yarn content this skein didn't soak up the dyes like the superwash/nylon skein did so it isn't as intense in color but I love how it turned out, too. Again, it is much darker and more brilliant in person than what my photos depict.

In the dye pot today: a gorgeous yearling mohair fleece in light red being dyed into a deep mahogany. This should be stunning! Perfect for doll hair, spinning, adding to a fiber blend batt, etc.

It feels so good to finally have my motivation back where it belongs!

WW - Still Dreaming of Summer

Split Rock Ranch is voted Best in Show in Cafe Handmade Virtual Craft Show

Thank you everybody for voting for Split Rock Ranch in Cafe Handmade's Virtual Craft Show! Because of all the votes we received last week, we won Best in Show! Best in Show winner gets a free ad space on Cafe Handmade's Virtual Craft Show site, announcing them the winner of the previous week's Virtual Craft Show Best in Show. Here is the ad:

So far this week we are, again, in first place. Voting ends in about 30 minutes so we'll see if we can hold onto it until the voting ends. I really appreciate all the support everyone has shown to Split Rock Ranch!

I signed up for 13 weeks in the Virtual Craft Show, starting December 6th - so today starts the 5th week. You can vote once per artisan, per week, per IP address (i.e., per computer). Sometimes it won't let you vote and I have no idea why that happens! You don't have to be a member of Cafe Handmade; you don't have to sign up or register. All you have to do is click on the little heart under the words "Vote for Me!".  Thank you!!

Wishing you a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2010

Photo courtesy of Luigi Diamanti at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We here at Split Rock Ranch want to wish everyone a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2010. Remember, approach every day with an attitude of gratitude - always be searching for the silver lining. You can always find something to be thankful for!

Looking back...and Forward

This is a great time of year to look back on the past year and reflect on things. Let's face it, there are things that go right and things that go...well, not so right, for all of us. I choose to believe that there is a silver lining in everything and try to remember to look hard for that silver lining when things "head south". Sometimes it isn't until much later that we look at something that happened and say to ourselves "wow, good thing that happened because if it didn't I would have...or wouldn't have..." and something good eventually came out of that event.

This past year we didn't have any crias (llama babies) born here at Split Rock Ranch. The last cria born here at the ranch was Hot Shot in September 2008. We exposed several of our females to males in the Fall of 2008 but none of them took, which is probably a good thing since our winter weather started on the last day of summer this year and those babies weren't due until several weeks later. (See, there's one of those silver linings!)

This past year we sold more llamas than we ever have before. We sold two females and four males. (We sold all of the crias shown in the photo above.) One of the males was our daughter's so he doesn't even really count because he isn't even on the books here at the ranch, but that makes almost 17% of the herd sold! Our goal is to get back down to 25 llamas so we have a better chance of getting all the llamas halter trained and most of our males pack trained. It also helps cut down on the feed bill, which is a good thing in this economy.

My fiber sales were down this year compared to 2008 but with the economy the way it has been, that was really no surprise and I've heard that sales were down for most fiber artists this year. That's okay though because it has allowed me to have some down time and more time to knit, crochet and spin.

My custom orders this past year were the best I've ever had though, so that thrilled me. Again, slower sales otherwise allowed me the time to really throw all of myself into the custom orders when they came in.

We showed several llamas this year. We didn't show at all in 2008 because we needed a break after earning our Halter Champion award for Tempis Fugit in 2007 and our daughter's senior year in high school was 2007-2008 and there was so much going on.  We did extremely well at the one and only show we attended in 2009. Kemui Yama took first place Adult Medium Wool Male, Grand Champion Medium Wool Male and Reserve Grand Champion Best in Show. He had never been sheared, groomed or trailered prior to the show so we were very proud of how well he handled everything. Decorus Domina (Baby Dee) took first place Adult Medium Wool Female and Reserve Grand Champion Medium Wool Female (second only to the Grand Champion Best in Show Female). Again, Dee had never been groomed or trailered prior to the show (I sheared her as a yearling but didn't groom her out).

And, this is the perfect time of year to look forward to the new year and set goals for ourselves and our business. Personally, I don't ever make any new year's resolutions for myself but I do try to reflect and learn from the past so I can set a better course for the next year.

In 2010 I would like to spend more time working with fiber and less time at the computer. I can eat up hours sitting here blogging, surfing the web, checking my Twitter and Facebook accounts, playing on-line games, etc.

I would like to sell at least 6 llamas again this year (we already have 3 llamas on reserve for somebody so we're already half way there!)

I want to spend more time working with the llamas and training the young ones to lead well and the adults to pack. I want to choose one male llama and start training him for performance so I can enter the performance classes at the LOCC Fall Show on Labor Day weekend this year.

I want to spend more time working with my horse, Maggie Mae, and start riding her this year. Maggie is a fabulous horse and she isn't the one with issues; I am. I took a bad fall from Tango in October of 2004 and have huge confidence and fear issues I need to overcome. I may enlist the help of a trainer this year, we'll see.

So, those are my goals for 2010. I will add to them as needed and alter as I see fit, depending on how things are going.

What are your goals for 2010?

Have yourself a very Merry Christmas

I've been procrastinating...again. We finished our Christmas shopping Tuesday afternoon/evening and I spent part of yesterday making chocolate covered pretzel rods and wrapping gifts. Today I need to see if I can get the rest of the gifts wrapped and some additional baking completed. Our daughter wants us to spend Christmas Eve with them in Colorado Springs but I don't know if we'll make it down the mountain tonight or not. We'll be spending all of Christmas day with them tomorrow so it isn't a really big deal but if I can get motivated and get everything done today, we might be able to make it tonight and tomorrow. We'll see. My motivation is taking a long winter's nap so I never get as much accomplished as I'd like to. Most of the time, I don't even care! At least the sun is out today and as long as the wind doesn't kick up, maybe it will even melt some of the snow.

I'm always relieved when the holiday is over though - no more pressure to think of and find (or make) the perfect gift, wonder if I've gotten everything done, etc. I can just kick back, relax and enjoy the time off. Now that the Winter Solstice has passed and the days are getting longer again, I'm hoping my Motivation finds its way back home where it belongs. I have a very long list of things to get done!

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas. However you celebrate the holiday, I hope you have a fabulous day.

Wordless Wednesday

A Working Ranch Dog is Priceless

I've always wanted a dog that I could take everywhere with me and not have to worry about them taking off or being a nuisance. Three years ago I started looking for a miniature Australian Shepherd and found a breeder in Oklahoma who had some beautiful dogs that were very reasonably priced. We decided on Annie, a red tri female. I really wanted a blue merle Aussie but they are generally hard to find and are more expensive because of their popularity. Annie's father is a blue merle and her mother is a red tri that looks just like her. So Annie has one brown eye and one ice blue eye.

I had forgotten how destructive Aussies can be when left alone. One day while we were gone Annie chewed the sill off one of the windows in the living room/great room. She even ate some of the drywall. She wasn't even alone - she had our YorkiePoo and our toy poodle for company along with several cats. But these dogs need a job to really be happy.

I recently started taking Annie with me when I go out to do ranch chores. At first it was a real hassle because she wanted to run all over to explore everything. I was constantly having to go to the neighbor's house to the south of us to retrieve Annie. Every time she took off I would either put her in the house or put her on her leash at the front of the house after telling her she was a bad dog and she was grounded. She quickly learned that she needed to stick with me, come when called and pay attention to what I was doing.

I hate it when the adult male llamas get into fights. There is generally a lot of screaming, spitting, running around and wrestling. Usually nobody gets hurt but it still aggravates me to no end. Annie is so tuned into me that she quickly learned to start barking at the llamas, which would make them stop their fighting and focus their attention on her. As they got used to her barking, that no longer worked so I would send Annie into their pasture and tell her to make them stop. She runs after the fighting llamas and barks then nips on their back legs to stop the fighting. As soon as they stop, she trots back to me with a satisfied grin on her face - "hey, Mom, see what I did?!"

She went after my horse, Maggie Mae, one day when I went into the horse pasture with grain in scoops and Maggie rushed me and crowded me, getting pushy. Annie immediately went after Maggie and Maggie spun around with Annie between her legs, knocking her down, which frightened Annie so she immediately left the pasture and stood at the gate barking at the horses until I came back out. So, Annie does have respect for the animals and knows when she is out-gunned, so to speak. Now she follows me to the horse pasture and sits at the gate with her chin on one of the gate rails waiting for me to come back out. She watches every move I make, along with every move the horses make, while I'm in there.

I really do feel a lot safer now with Annie helping with chores. I don't worry so much about wild animals sneaking up on me while I'm out working on the ranch. I believe if something happened to me Annie would find help for me or at least stay with me until somebody came to help.

Annie has even learned to work around the tractor. At first it made me really nervous but now she makes a wide berth around the tractor, waits for it to pass her and then falls in behind it, keeping one eye on me and one eye on the tractor.

Next summer we plan to start looking for an old Jeep to use for four-wheeling on some of the mountain trails we used to explore years ago. We plan to take Annie with us because we think she will be the perfect companion on these day trips.