This Moment :: This Little Light of Mine

A Friday ritual (inspired by SouleMama). A photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember.

Shenandoah Fiber Festival

Highlights from the festival (via Instagram, my new love):

:: The sheep dog demonstration, and hearing Samson yell "Run sheep! Run dog! Ruuunn!". 

:: Finding the most beautiful stitch marker. This was my first purchase of the day, found in a little cup labeled "Stitch Markers, $1".

:: Hanging with my boys and some sheep on a gorgeous fall day.

:: The shopping of course. I picked up mohair locks, BFL for spinning, superbulky yarn and undyed roving. 

I cant wait to get to work and start playing with these new fibers. I've dreamed up some new items for the shop, some for babies and some for mamas....in fact, if you look closely you can see a sneak preview above.

Happy Monday!

This Moment :: Still Summer!

A Friday ritual (inspired by SouleMama). A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember.

Vintage Floral Finds and a Blueberry Cake

Two of my recent thrift store finds:

The most gorgeous floral watercolor painting. I absolutely love the colors in this painting. Its quickly moving up my list of " best finds ever!".

A vintage floral quilted comforter. The perfect new picnic blanket! My collection of vintage sheets, linens and blankets is rapidly growing out of control, but I couldn't resist....just...one...more.

And now for the recipe:

Best Damn Blueberry Ricotta Cake at Stacey Snacks. I made this cake yesterday and it was delicious. So delicious in fact that it was gone by this morning. Thats a lot of cake to eat in one day. I did have some help, but still, I just couldnt stop eating it. It was that good :) It was made with ricotta cheese, and speaking of ricotta, have you seen the cheese making kits at Etsy? I see cheese making in my future.

Spinning A Rainbow

A little video clip of Samson helping me spin yarn....

The Vineyard

The first night we slept in the house and the second night we slept in our tent.  I was a little hesitant to camp out as my imagination gets a little carried away thinking about all the nocturnal beasts that might stumble upon our tent in the middle of the night, but we camped out anyhow. It is so worth it to wake up to birds chirping in the morning and to the beautiful fresh country air.  It was unbelievably peaceful.

Samson didnt exactly understand camping - his first words upon entering the tent that night were "all done!", as in, get me out of here. He said the same thing when he woke up in the morning and then promptly exited the tent. He wandered the gardens and the vineyard and was literally barefoot all weekend. He even got a tractor ride from the farmer next door.

I got lots of knitting done (new projects for the shop!), and we ate delicious food. It was like staying at a country bed and breakfast, (but cheaper!), and we got to bring Winston too. Yay! 

Spontaneous Getaway :: The Ranch

A spontaneous getaway led us to the country this weekend, spending one day at my in-laws vinyard, and one (surprise) day visiting their friends ranch. It was immeasurable fun for my little animal lover(s) (Winston included), and super relaxing for J. and I. The ranch was like my dream property and since then I have been dreaming about our own little ranch full time. One day!

Hope you enjoyed the photo tour! Next up is the vineyard :) 

Mountain Bluebird Yarn

I've been spinning up lots of yarn lately, yay!  My annual visit to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival always gets my spinning juices flowing again (read - spinning up my stash so I dont feel guilty about buying more at the festival).  Then I took an art yarn class, and then there was that yarn naming contest at While Tangerine Dreams:  If I were a skein of art yarn, what would I be called? Mountain bluebird (of course), a variegated skein of blue yarn with scrappy nesty earthy bits of this and that. But what would mountain bluebird yarn really look like?  That got me thinking. I stood in my craft studio and looked around at all of my favorite craft materials: recycled cashmere, vintage fabric, vintage ribbon, recycled sweater yarn, roving in every shade of blue, mohair locks, scraps of turquoise shredded silk and more. My creative light bulb flickered, why not spin all of these things together into one yarn?
And so it was spun: Mountain Bluebird Yarn.

This Moment :: A Minute to Knit it

A Friday ritual (inspired by SouleMama). A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember.

The Lavender Farm

I am over the top in love with my new work schedule that allows me 2 to 3 days off during the week to hang out with Samson (who I am even more totally-over-the-top-in-love-with).  Yesterday we visited a lavender farm with our little waldorf play group and while looking through my pictures just now I realized how perfectly they capture his current 17 month old being.
He is learning new words every day. Words like lavender and butterfly and baby, which he said so clearly at the farm. He chases butterflies, and bees, and lightening bugs. He picks flowers...and then rips them apart.

He loves helping mama. "In the basket", I must have said one hundred times this day, and into the basket he put flowers and lavender. "In the dish" I say at home, when he tries filling up Winstons dog dish with food. This week he helped me unload the silverware from the dishwasher and I was so pleasantly surprised that it actually was helpful. Two pieces at at a time, he put them all in the drawer.

He has a new fascination with little houses, cars and trucks, and doesn't quite understand that he cant fit inside of them.

He loves animals, especially dogs, cats, cows, and snakes - which are his favorite animal noises to make. The snake ssss-ing is somewhat confusing since we are potty training as well, but that's ok. I'm sure he knows which one he is referring to at the time, even if I dont.

He is so big and so little all at the same time, and I seem to think this about him no matter what age or size he is. He is still amazing me by way of the simplest things, like saying "omm!" when we arrive home, and by carefully opening sugar snap peas to get to the peas. And now, what to do with that lavender?

This Moment :: Playsilk Peek-a-Boo

A Friday ritual (inspired by SouleMama). A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember.

This Moment :: Farm Visit

A Friday ritual (inspired by SouleMama). A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember.