A Thank You for a Thank You!

Miss Peach and her Mamma, Karla sent me this beautimus rainbow Thank you card for getting them Coco. That in itself would have been enough, to be sure. The package also included a very nice bookmark and this adorable bracele, hand beaded by Karla - she is so talented. Thank you, Miss Peach and her Mamma for these very lovely gifts. I will treasure them.

This weekend is our Spinner's Guild 2nd Annual Spin-In. Our guest speaker is Celia Quinn, who will be teaching us the intricacies of drop spindles. We (Marietta Shetlands) also have a vendor table, where we will (hopefully) sell some wool and the five Washington Wool dot Net tote bags that I bought for the occasion. Tomorrow I'm taking the afternoon off work to make about 100 scones to have on the coffee table, courtesy of Washington Wool dot Net, of course. Don't worry, I'll take lots of pictures.

A fun thing to do -

We have two main local grocery chains in town that compete for our dollars - actually it isn't too much of a competition - one is far superior in it's produce and its deli especially - the other used to have pretty good prices but they have been through some hard times and have had to close a bunch of their stores - It had OK store brands (Western Family), but horrible produce and now they've changed to a second rate store brand and they still have horrible produce. But that is where we shop because we've been shopping there for 14 years and know all the people who work in the one particular store.

The "superior" store company has 33 other stores in Washington and Oregon. It is nice, because where ever you go to one of their stores, you can be sure that the deli is going to be one of the best in town - and it is also nice because their stores are essentially laid out the same so you don't have to go hunting around to find what you need. They have a store in Yakima that was very helpful to me last year when my bro-in-law passed away, cause I promised my sister that I'd provide some sweet breads and fruit for after the graveside service (which was at the break of dawn)


Oops, sorry, I digress - anyhow, the "superior" store also buys out ALL the peaches from an orchard in Eastern Washington, guaranteeing that their customers will get the next best thing to actually going right out to the orchard. I love fresh peaches. LOVE them - I can still remember some fresh peaches that I bought in the fall of 1974 on a trip up the Methow river - they were just big and sweet and juicy. I don't know about you, but I find it interesting how such a small thing can still occupy a spot in my memory almost 35 years later... Oops - digressing again.



Anyhow, Saturday I went to the "superior" store to get some peaches, but when I pulled out a cart in the parking lot, I noticed a flier that said something about Hair Cuts to benefit Agape' House (a local shelter for homeless families and battered women) 8-5 at "the superior store" - why, that was where I was! - It was just 4 pm, it was for a good cause, and I've been needing to get my bangs cut for a while and get my hair trimmed in the back ever since I got my ponytail sucked up in the vacuum cleaner a few months ago - (and no, I'm not going to go into the story behind that - let's just say it was an incredibly stupid thing that happened, and leave it at that).

I wandered over to where the hair stylists were, they directed me where to pay - and a young lady walked up and said "I'm Julie and I'm going to cut your hair, and please, please may I braid it when I'm done?" I love having my hair braided, so whis was even going to be a better deal. And here I am, modeling my new Washington Wool dot Net T-shirt and here is the finished hair-do. Pretty cool, huh?

She put enough hairspray on it that it stayed nice over the night and I was able to wear it like that for our church BBQ yesterday too. It was just a fun thing to do.

Three Beautiful Things Tuesday!

I have been dreadfully delinquent on my Three Beautiful Thing Tuesday - in fact, (gasp!) the last TBT post I did was in OCTOBER! Oh my - Guess I'd better get cracking here!

For new readers, the object is to find Three Beautiful Things about each day. It causes us to focus on the good, when there is so much evil and ugly happening in the world (was it always that way, or do we maybe we just hear about it more easily now with TV and the internet?) The original Three Beautiful Things blog is written by a woman named Clare who lives in Kent (UK, not WA). She reminds us that it is not important to have a HUGE thing be beautiful, small things often have more impact.

My Three Beautiful Things for today are:

• Watching the joy that my friend (who raised three sons) gets from playing with her not quite two year old granddaughter.


• The gals at my favorite sub shop who made my sandwich today "just the way I like it" without any direction from me.


• Getting the notice this a.m. that our Washington Wool.net benefit auction raised over $4000 for the Black Sheep Creamery - Awesome, just awesome! (and I got that beautiful green & lavender purse that Sharon made)

Only Three Days Left to Bid!

I added up the bids from our auction today and it looks like so far we have raised a little over $3000 for the Black Sheep Creamery folks on our second go round - But there are still a LOT of things that haven't been bid 0n yet, including many of these beautiful hand woven scarves...





They are such a bargain, you have to check them out!
Please click HERE to go to the auction site. Thank you!

Only 5 Days left on the Fundraiser Auction

So, here's the deal - the Northwest Shetland Sheep Owners Association and Washington Wool dot Net, our new fiber farm co-op are sponsoring another auction to benefit the Black Sheep Creamery in Lewis County, WA that suffered devastating losses in the early December floods. If you havn't had time to visit the auction page, I thought I'd bring a few of the items that still need bids on them to you!

You can bid on any of these items by clicking HERE


This hand woven blue tweed wool scarf was donated by Richard Harvey of Whatcom county.






The lavender one is woven of mohair - I think it is beautiful.
(and I'm sure it is soft)





Linda Smith of Puyallup donated this hand woven woll rug. It has little bits of red, yellow, green and blue in it - it would be great for a family room, don't you think. (item 52)



Remember! You can bid on any of these items by clicking HERE.

Here are two more of Richard's scarves - he generously donated two dozen of them - 12 wool (Item 31) and 12 mohair (Item 32).

My friend Michelle from Bloulderneigh in Amity, Oregon donated several "Scratchboard" portraits of dogs - this bloodhound is particularly handsome, don't you think? (Item #5)







How about this beautiful rug? It's lavendar stripes would look lovely in your bedroom, don't you think? (item # 51)



And Last, but not Least in the list of items I thought you should see is the Hound Hat. Now, personally, I don't think we could get Neelix or Sinda to dress up like this, but they are cats, and perhaps less apt to have a cold head than this jolly looking fellow. So, know a hound who needs a hat? (Item #29)

Did I tempt you with any of our offerings? I hope so!

You can bid on any of these items by clicking HERE. And remember, there are only 5 days left!

The Auction - Part Two

Where to start - I guess with the first event - the floods of December in Lewis county Washington - devastating many small farms & businesses in the area. Our NW Shetland Sheep Owners group decided that we needed to help - specifically the The Black Sheep Creamery who was hit very hard and lost a good percentage of their flock of milking sheep.

So we put on an on-line auction. I must admit that Franna did a lion's share of the work - she offered up her web page to host and kept all the records of who was bidding and who was donating. What a teriffic job she did, and now, we're at it again! There is still a great need for assistance and there have been lots of fantastic people - spinners, knitters, fiber types of all kind, who have come out of the woodwork to donate - so we're having The Auction, Part Two!

This also launches our new Washington Wool website - a co-op / marketplace for Washington shepherds. Keep an eye on it - great things will be happening!

So, CLICK HERE and join the fun - you might just find the fiber for that next project you've been thinking about!





"Those Shetland Shepherds, aren't they just the nicest lot?"

"And they've got great friends, too!"