Can I slow down now?

 I have been so busy these past few months. Getting ready for holiday markets. All the preparation and making and loading and unloading. Setting up and taking down. Loading back up, then unloading again. It is a lot of work, these little markets. But so fun and I really enjoy them. I love meeting new people and finding kindred spirits. I love talking to "goat" and "sheep" people. Making new friends.

But I am tired! And Christmas is next week!!! OMG! Really?

So I am going to slow down and take it easy for once. I am going to walk slowly. Eat slowly. Enjoy this time I have right now. Look at the sun rises and sun sets. Like yesterday morning. I had to get up early to get to Mrs. T's for the day. Walked outside to feed the masses and saw this. I had to stop and just look. Then I ran in to grab my camera and start snapping all these amazing pictures of God's awesome art work. Just amazing and beautiful and awesome. And it was like this all the way around where ever I looked too. I really want to be able to see the little things in life. Not be so rushed and hurried like I usually am these days. Be more like a turtle, not a rabbit.

                                               This was just a few minutes later. Just beautiful.

 



                                                        And still a few minutes later.

Hello. It's me.

I've been watching some of the funny parodies of Adele's Hello. I love that song and could listen to it all day.

So here's the start of mi parody. It's about chickens.

Hello. It's me. Up here on this hay bale, laying eggs for you to eat.

That's all so far.

Middle school Christmas concert.

 This was my middle grand daughter Coryn"s last middle school Christmas band concert. She'll be in high school next year. And I heard her say she was probably going to join the high school band! If so, she will be the first to do it. Both my girls were in band all 3 years of their middle school. But didn't do the high school band. And Chloe, the oldest grand daughter, didn't either. I really hope Coryn does, because Dade Co. High is a really good band.

Her band teachers  are married and are the teachers for both the middle and high schools. There are also several little bands and groups in both schools. Most are student led too. Just a really good strong band.

The 6th grade played first. Oh my, I could really see a huge difference in 6th, then 7th. And 8th was just amazing! Like a real orchestra. And one of the trumpet players had competed in a national competition with over 200 other trumpet players and got 2nd chair. Pretty impressive.

Coryn is 2nd to last in this picture. With the long blond hair.

And she's the one with the hand in front of her face here. Not good pictures. I couldn't get her attention for a few minutes.

                                                           And here's the whole band.

             Coryn Fiona. She so cute. 13 years old already. And a middle child. I am too. I am SO proud of her!

Just some more wooly things. And dinner.

 I started spinning this pretty roving I got at SAFF from Heelside Farms. It's Border Leicester. It's looking like blue jean material as I spin it. I got 2 big rovings of this. And 2 darker blue rovings.

Isn't this pretty? Now I'm not sure what to ply it with. I have some white Marino I need to spin, so thought about plying that with this. Or just spin another bobbin of this and ply together? I would get more if I used the white with it though. Any suggestions?

And I've been making dryer balls the past few days too. I added colored wool to the white as I was carding it. I think they turned out cute. But smaller than I usually make them.

And for dinner, I made the sausage, kale and potato casserole from the new Taproot magazine that just came out. It is good! So glad I made it. I had all the ingredients, except Worcestershire sauce, so I used a little bit of organic soy sauce. Really simple recipe. From Ashley English. She has a blog called Small Measure. Check it out.

Saturday is the Bazaar Christmas Bazaar at Grace Episcopal Church in Brainerd. We get to go set up Friday afternoon. I am so glad. Because it's about 30 miles from here and takes SO long to unload and set everything up. Then I think I am done. I cannot hardly believe that 2 weeks from today will be Christmas Eve. Good grief, where has the time gone?

Hot off the wheel!

 I just finished these 2 skeins of a wool-alpaca blend yarn. The larger skein is 140 yds. It's $24. The smaller one is 96 yds. and it's $18.

It's really soft and pretty. I blended some black alpaca with the white wool.

This would make a nice soft warm hat, cowl and some gloves for someone special. Or for yourself. I can ship anywhere in US  in a flat rate box for $5.95.

Eggs and fire wood.

My hens have started laying eggs on top of the big round hay bale! I love it. It's so much easier for me. Usually I have to bend way down to get eggs out of the nest boxes. Or climb up on things. Or crawl under things. Just to get eggs. So I am ok with this nest spot. I love my girls.

And the fire wood fairy came Monday. You can see here how much wood we've used so far. He filled it back up with already seasoned wood. We have a great wood fairy.

In line...

 at the scratching post.

Silly sheep.