Isn’t this pretty? Remember our favorite dessert experience contest? Well this is one of our winners. LeAnn’s Blackberry Birthday. I am in the middle of creating these and so far this one is my favorite. Jamoca Almond Fudge is almost done but it needs a little more coffee and a little less fudge swirl. I know…things you never thought you would hear yourself say, too much fudge swirl.
I have a whole lot to tell you so you might want to grab a refreshing beverage and get cozy.
Monday rolls around and while I usually do not relish Mondays (who does really?) lately I look forward to them because Debra is here. If you can make Monday good you are all kids of wonderful!
So in waltzes Paula at 6 am and she makes a bee line right to me and gives me a big long hug. Well we are all huggers here so it’s not totally out of our normal but this hug, it felt different and it was. Paula gave us her 3 week notice on Monday at 6 am. Proving yet again that timing is everything!
Now we have been working towards Paula phasing herself out of Blue Moon on a daily level and not doing the awful commute she does so, this is a really good thing. It’s good for her and we are super happy for her even if we are going to miss her dear smiling face, big ol’ heart, quirky sense of humor and sage wisdom so very much. We are also really going to miss her contributions to our potlucks. Paula is one hell of a cook.
Even when change is good and in the best interest of everyone involved it can still be challenging. Paula has tried leaving several times before and always comes back. ( That homing device totally worked!) I am thinking that this time it’s going to stick. Yay Paula!!!! We LOVE you so very much, know that you are all kinds of wonderful and are going to miss you tons!
On that same day we had one of our new dyers just not show up. Turns out she had a change in her life she needed to address and so we are now down a dyer. okay…it’s summer time I can roll with that. I’ll just production dye for awhile.
In the middle of all of this ( still Monday) the washer starts making an odd noise and stops working. Yup, when it rains it pours. I called Sears and the soonest they could get someone here is June 3rd. What the hell?? Seriously is there a shortage of repair workers. If so I missed that memo. I called around and finally found a guy who actually came out today and helped us out.
We use the washer every single day, all day during the week to rinse and spin yarn so we can NOT be without one. All of which the Sears people could’ve cared less about but the local guy totally understood. I was super proud of myself because I looked up the error code we were getting and found a work around so it would work until the guy showed today. I felt super handy!
So … we are dyeing out little hearts out on gradient kits, sock club, sparkle yarn and other such goodness when I hear from the mill that they were wrong about the stock they had of our Marine Silk Sport and that the yarn we were expecting to show up was not going to show up. Yeah, and there went Wednesday. Kaboom!
Now I have been running this business for 15 years and the one thing I do know with every fiber of my being, (pun totally intended) is that no matter how well you plan or you think you have planned, shit just happens! People make mistakes and things we cannot control wreak havoc. I believe it is called life. As much as I want to slam dunk someone here for messing with our little gradient party the fact is we all make mistakes.
I think the golden moment is in how you take responsibility, problem solve and correct the issue at hand, which the mill is doing by busting a move to get us our yarn in a timely fashion. I have been working with mills for years and I will tell you this is a super speedy quick turn around for a mill.
My part in all of this has been to not stress too much over something I could not control or let it color our experience. I worked hard on these subtle ombre’ gradient kits for Carol’s design. As most of you know I take color very seriously.
Believe it or not there was more happen this week but we creatively problem solved our way right out of most of it. We moved on through it all and hopefully learned enough that if it all happens again we at least know which repair man to call.
If you are part of the KAL Carol has extended the start date to the 18th giving us enough time to get everyone their yarn as close to that as we possibly can. We are going to send an email out next week with a discount code for everyone to use at your leisure anytime this year to make up for the delay and let you know we really appreciate your patience.
See I told you. It was a week. One the positive end of things my test results came back really good again. So yay!! And my wonderful insurance agent Diane saved me a ton on a new car insurance policy. Happy dancing!
Okay onto the GIVE-AWAY!
Have you seen this lovely book that Tanis Gray put together of knits for little ones? It’s so cute! There are not one but two designs in there using our yarn.
We have a copy to give away ( Thank you Interweave!) along with the yarn to make this cute little hat and mitten set!
Adorable right?
Its the Rainbow Bonnet and Mitten Set by Lisa Chemery
All you have to do is comment here with your favorite song. You know how much I like a good story so if you have a story as why it is your favorite song all the better!
Team Blue Moon will choose a winner at the end of next week.
Okay it almost 4:00 which means I need to wrap things up so I can feed and walk the dog!
Thank you for listening. I hope you have a wonderful weekend filled with joy laughter and knitting!
Oh….almost forgot. There is one spot left for our DYE DAY so if you wanted to paint some yarn now is your time. We do hope you will come out and play even if you do not want to paint your own yarn. We will have an indigo vat going and of course the BARN SALE and tons and tons of fun!
Paula will be there too!
