A few of my favorite things....

Listening to 'Josh Groban' while making dinner with my sisters.... Then we each try to sing along with the CD and fail miserably since he's a tenor and we are all sopranos, so one must try and sing like a tenor! 'Tis hilarious to listen to.

Waltzing in the moonlight with a sister.

Singing a duet with a sister while washing dishes.

Watching Pride and Prejudice with a sister and using as many pillows as possible while watching it.

Creating and then drinking purple smoothies with a sister!

Laughing at absolutely nothing; with a sister.

Talking in bed until the wee hours in the morn. With a sister.

Playing out of tune instruments.... With a sister.

Dreaming about the future, with a sister.

Screaming because there is a huuuge spider in the bathroom! With a sister.

Sewing, knitting or whatever else it may be at the time. (with a sister)

Enjoying all that life has to offer every day! With -- a -- Sister.

I love life. I love my sisters.

Life is good.

~Caitlyn

A frightening, but brief, experience

Have you ever been in one of those situations where you're in that sub-conscious state in your sleep, and you hear a noise....? You begin to wake up slowly, pushing the fog of sleep aside while your brain tries to analyze the sound?

Last night around 11:30pm, that very thing happened. I heard something, I could never describe the sound, but in my sleepy state it took a while to put a name to the noise. "Is it two cats fighting?", "Coyotes on our property?", "A herd of turkeys going down our road?" Then it hit me. I sat bolt upright in bed as I realized what it was! "Llamas!!" It was our neighbors llamas screaming in fear!

The only thing I could think of that would dare try to nab on of those llamas was a cougar, so I leapt out of bed, and tried to see if I could see anything from the safety of indoors. Mom joined me on the watch a few moments later, wondering what the unearthly shrieking was. Poor Copper was so terrified by the sound that he zoomed under a bed pushing buckets and boxes aside as he went. ;)

Now this is going to sound pretty silly, but I was so glad that I was not a guy, right then and there. If I was, then I would've had to go outside and see what the problem was! How much better to stay inside where it was safe! ;D There was nothing mom and I could do, so we went back to bed.... But sleep had left me....

This morning we 'phoned our neighbor to see if she knew what had happened.

Her answer?

"I didn't hear anything last night. And they both showed up for their breakfast this morning!"

Well, maybe those ornery llamas managed to scare away whatever it was.... :)

~Caitlyn

The Making of Bread...

~Caitlyn

I really liked this one....

Since dad is a volunteer firefighter, he often takes his camera whenever there is a 'Burn To Learn' (i.e. the firefighters burn down a building to work on their skills). And of course he comes home with well over 800 pictures (or so it seems!). But this picture in particular caught my eye....

~Caitlyn

Two year olds are so fun...

Today while at the grocery store, a grizzled old man with a long gray beard walked past us while on the dairy aisle( he reminded me of a trapper of old times), little Carver was fascinated for some reason and couldn't stop staring at the stranger. Finally after a few moments of silent awe, Carver looked at me and whispered:

"See-see (my nickname), look! It's Santa Clause!" ;)

Thankfully the man didn't hear the comment, but I did have a difficult time controlling my mirth...

~Caitlyn

In the Beginning God created.....

And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:9-10

This is what I imagine what it must have looked like after God created land and sea. The newly created light pouring itself upon God's newest wonderful creation of earth and water. (minus the tiny seagulls in the picture ;D)

~Caitlyn

Too much of a good thing?

You wish to know the reason as to why I have been neglecting my blog so shamefully of the late? The answer?

Cashmere!

I have been up to my ears in cashmere for the past week!

I had a custom order on my shop for two cashmere skeins, had another request for for three cashmere skeins from a different person, there was a confusion in my cashmere fiber order so I ended up receiving 5 ounces of cashmere that was the wrong color, I ended up keeping that five ounces but ordered more cashmere in the right color, which came in the mail today. Cashmere, cashmere, cashmere!! Is it really possible to get tired of something so lovely as cashmere?

Ahem, to add to all this cashmere, I'm thinking very seriously on adding a couple cashmere goats to my little fiber flock! Yup, I'm crazy! ;D

Cashmere anyone?

~A cashmere crazy Caitlyn

A thought that blossomed....

As most of you know, I give spinning lessons, and that's really the furthest I've gone with my teaching. But this morning via e-mail someone asked me if I would consider doing a 6-hour workshop! Six hours of spinning and everything else fiber related! My first thought was: "What a great idea!" and then the second thought was, "Why didn't I ever think of that before!" ;)

And so the thought (and my enthusiasm) has grown!

Alas, I came up with so many class ideas that I'm going to have to do two workshops! So I'm thinking about doing one in Feb/March and then another in May. The reason for doing one in May, is that I'm planning on having a professional shearer come out and teach everyone to shear their own animals! By shearing my own animals rather than having a shearer do it, I save well over $200 each year!

The hardest part is deciding what classes to do in the first workshop since it will be only 6 hours, and each class being roughly an hour long! Here is the list of classes that I want to cover.

The basics: spinning on a drop spindle

Navajo plying (very tricky and challenging, but very important to know!)

Dyeing, both with plants and chemical dyes

Making your own Niddy-Noddy and using a Nostepinde

An hour of spin time! A time where everyone can just visit and work on their spinning skills.

Spinning exotic fibers such as casmere, suri alpaca, cotton and silk

Preparing fibers. How to use handcards, a drumcarder, and how to prepare those exotice fibers.

Washing fiber. It's not so scary after the first few times!

Shearing, sheep, alpacas and angora rabbits ([sing, song voice] Oh Miss Victoria.... ;D)

Spin-off contests! Just a bunch of fun games that anyone could do. :)

Creating novelty yarn

Plying: It's all about balance

Spindles: One for each occasion (going through all the different kinds of spindles)

And Spinning with beads

So I have been busy today getting details figured out! I decided to hold it at our Church since it's neutral ground and there would be enough room for everyone.

I really am excited about this. I'm excited to watch the Lord move and work through this, and I pray that I will remember to give Him all the glory for it!

~Caitlyn

Enjoy the teeny things

I love life. I love finding little things throughout my day to smile at. Little things that make my day all the more cheerful. A chickadee outside, a hug from a baby brother, a walk with an alpaca.... Or a phone call with a stranger. ;)

Today, while on Craigslist I found an ad for fencing (which we need!). 'Twas a short ad; merely giving heights and saying it was cheap. No definite price. And wouldn't you know it, he gave a phone number instead of an e-mail address. Mustering up what little courage there was to muster (I don't particularly like making phone calls. and even worse! Having to talk to a guy!) I dialed the phone number....

The man was friendly and answered my questions, and even repeated aaaallll the prices two times over because I got confused. Then, we somehow got onto the conversation of animals, (I guess it was the fencing) the conversation got really enjoyable then! As it turns out, he raises exotic birds (pheasants and peacocks) so we traded off questions on birds and alpacas, talked about if we really thought the alpaca buisness would stay good (we decided, yes) and talked about predator problems and how to manage them. I thought it was funny how when we were talking about fencing, he spoke very quietly, but when we got going about the animals he got really excited and loud.

The phone call really made my day. I only know his first name, and he has no idea of mine; but it was so fun getting to talk about those things. I learned a lot about pheasants as well! I guess this guy sells his birds for $400 to $1000 a pair and makes like $70,000 a year on them! No idea how he does it though....

It was just a little thing, a phone call, but it sure made me smile. Maybe phone calls will be easier now...

~Caitlyn

Vintage Treasures II

Ha, ha! Now I get to show off my vintage treasure! I got it off Ebay for a ridiculously cheap price. Neat, huh? It's an original World War II garrison cap. The tag is dated from 1941. The red and white piping indicates that it's from the Medical Corp.
It's a little worn, but that enhances it's meaning to me. It's neat to think about who might've worn it. See the detail of the piping? A little piece of history to wear. :P

~Megan

The Spinster's Nook

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have an announcement to make!

My Etsy shop is finally up and ready for visitors!!

Hurray!! On Saturday, I spied a bit of blue sky outside so I grabbed Emily and my yarn and pleaded for some pictures. And I got them! So my whole Saturday was spent getting everything up and ready.

It took me forever to think up a name for my shop. I finally asked my family to help me think of something; I think we thought up every possible name that could be "thunk" up. Everything from "Strandz of Purlz" to "The Wooly Mammoth"!! ;) In the end I had the inspirational name of:

'The Spinster's Nook'

What do you think?

Wondering why exactly I chose that name? Visit my little online shop and find out!

You can find it at http://www.thespinstersnook.etsy.com/

Well, I'm off to go spin some more!

~Caitlyn

Of Vintage Goodies

Yes! I am finally getting around to posting about this! A few days after Thanksgiving, while hunting around on Etsy, I found the most adorable vintage dress pattern fo sale. And who were we to resist such a temptation? ;) Sure enough, a week later, a peculiar package found its way to our front door....

Such is our newest treasure :

Sorry about the bad shot, can you guess who took it? (me)

In June, there is going to be a WWII themed ball (seems kind of funny to have that for a theme while doing english country dancing) , so we're thinking on going to it in this style dress. Emily is working on her dress already ('tis delightfully easy to sew!), Megan has her fabric and is preparing to start, and me? Well, I'm still dreaming about it. ;) Someday I'll get some fabric for it...

~Caitlyn

Slowly, slowly

Well, I earnestly tried to get my Etsy shop up yesterday..... But alas, I am still lacking pictures of my products. :(

Emily tried very hard to get some good pictures, but the lighting wasn't good enough so we had to surrender after a couple of skeins.

So I'm not really sure when I will finally be able to say "It's open!!", but slowly, slowly, I am getting there.

~Caitlyn

Snow

Adorable little brother playing in snow + Big sister with camera = Pictures!! ;)

Dare I hint that those wee mittens were handknit?

I love those wee little boots...

'Rina, how did you sneak into this post? Silly thing....

~Caitlyn