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Inspiration

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Hello dear ones,

Wow I feel like I have been trying to write this post for weeks now. Sadly writing seems to take a back seat to all the other jobs right now. I am on this mission to be caught up before my birthday which is the 29th of this month so I’ve chained myself to the dye table and pots. Honestly not a bad thing, kinky maybe though. lol  It just leaves little room for anything else besides shipping and such. I would say more about seeing light at the end of the tunnel but in all honesty I do not want to jinx it. I am not going to test the powers that be on this one.

To all of you that have asked, I doing well. I got my second vaccine a week ago so I have another week and then I get to hug my son and daughter-in-law (daughters are on the east coast right now) . I am so excited I can’t even. The lack of hugging for this hug loving person has been more than a little painful.

While this past year has been hard and painful of many different levels (and more so for some of us than others based on our level of privilege) there has also been some pretty illuminating and inspiring moments for me. It’s quite a bit and I do have a lot to say about it, most certainly more than one blog post worth. So consider this post a beginning. As with any process there’s layers and depths to plummet and shine a little light on. I have been pretty quiet about it all except to close friends and family so I could make the most of this opportunity ~ do the work it took ~  appreciate it all, and be in the moment presented to me.

As most of you know I have for the most part been alone for the better part of all of this. Well…actually, alone except for Valla the Maine Coon cat, a whole flock of chickens and my own little bunny warren plus whatever other wildlife shows up. Before the pandemic I was used to spending 5 days a week with at least 4 other people (Team Blue Moon) and sometimes more than that. A whole lot of differing energies and personalities. Since I am a people person it was not a huge challenge. Although I will say the whole ~ being an employer part ~ is quite a lot of work no matter who the employees are.

The pandemic hits and we shut down and I find myself  alone. I feel like I am good at being alone. I enjoy my own company. However this was different and it was quite a hard transition to make. I certainly had more bad days than good ones in the beginning. Especially with all of the stress that went with figuring out how to do run Blue Moon all alone. A lot of the jobs here I had not done for awhile so I had to retrain myself and find the most efficient way run systems as one.

At the very beginning all the ~ silence of space ~  felt empty and pretty lonely. So I attempted to fill that space. I started to listen to podcasts, audio-books and so very much music. Which kept me compnay of sorts and gave me the support I needed to be a little more comfortable to do the work and to move on to whatever was next. I have so much  much gratitude to;  Per Bristow, David Chang, Jonathan Van Ness, Layla F Saad, Brene’ Brown, BTS, SHINEE,  Nikita Gil,  Rumi, Lindy West, Sanjay Gupta MD, Samin Nosrat, Tommy Orange, Padma Laksshmi, Junauda Petrus, Michael Twitty, Alice Walker, Morat, Eckoes, Isaac Lee, Kim Hyung Jung, Common, and so very many more. Thank you all and to all of the brave souls who share yourselves, gifts and insights with us all. Thank you for the comfort and and for the illuminating inspiration and growth.

Once I acclimated myself to the new work schedule & all the space that was just mine I noticed something. I realized that even though it was a whole lot of work and it certainly has been, I felt more content and even happy than I had in years. I started to reconnect with parts of myself that I had not experienced in such a long time. I had been so busy making sure everything around me worked for everyone around me that I had neglected me. Something that a whole lot of women can relate to especially single mothers. I could actually hear myself and I was listening!

My creative life started ~ way back when ~ with music. I played clarinet, guitar and dulcimer and also sang. Music was my life’s blood. I was also a sound engineer, a job I truly loved. All wonderfully fulfilling until one day I had a very freak accident with hydraulic rollers that smashed my left hand ending my instrument playing for what I thought would be forever. I was devastated and I could not envision how to make it all work with a smashed hand. So I walked away. Yup, I shut down that part of myself and I packed my life up and moved out west to Olympia Washington with my girlfriend at the time and my sister and her girlfriend and started anew. Yeah probably not the best response.

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I love music, all kinds and I listen to music ALL the time. Until a few years ago I still sang quite a bit. All of my kids sing and a few play instruments. One of the gifts that this space of time has blessed me with is that heart and soul connection with music I had when I was younger. I finally grieved 40 years later and my heart broke right open into song. I picked up one of the guitars I have and started playing again just for me. It’s a challenge but that’s okay, it still feels so very good. I am also singing ALL the time which feels so good. Did you know that chickens love to be sung to? it’s pretty hysterical. They cock their little heads and some of them will bob them and hum. Yes chickens hum.

Okay so this is getting real long so I am going to make a bit of a leap here so I can bring in color and yarn. I promise to fill in the spaces and share more of this process with you soon. I am learning so very much everyday that I am excited about and want to share with you. Based on the y dye chemist I work with recommendation I decided to learn chemistry. Yup! I want a greater understanding so I can do more with color and I LOVE it! Color Chemist me!!!

Also…I have always wanted to learn another language but was told by a few teachers that I did not have an affinity for it so I gave up. Why do we do this to children trying to learn. I decided to try again and because of my love of kpop music I chose Korean and ya know what I am not to bad at it either.  Hoping to at some point to also try Japanese. Right now I think most of the music I am listening to is not in my own language. You get more of an appreciation for the voice as an instrument and language, especially lyrical and melodic ones, as an actual part of the score and not just words with a message (not to discount that aspect though) . There’s a French artist I am listening to right now that I am so moved by I often find myself tearing up into the yarn.  A little extra!!

As I rediscover and heal all of these parts of myself and find new ones I’m incorporating it into the work I do with color, yarn and design. Life is energy. Color and music share the vibrations of life. Some days I have a fair amount of clarity and a  clear vision and path of how this all feels and looks. And then there are days where I feel like a conduit and it’s my job just to get out of the way of all of this energy and let it flow through me. Honestly those are my best days! I feel like there just not enough hours in the day I feel so deeply inspired and moved.

I have stopped filling that silence of space. I now sit in that space and do my best to be present in each moment no matter what they hold. I get to experience so many things that would just pass me by. A privilege for sure and one I am grateful for.

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I promised new colorways a few weeks ago. I have been waiting on this until being more caught up. Below are some of the colorways that have come out of all of this exploration. ( And there are so many more to come). I am in the process of adding them to the website. It will take me all weekend, it’s a big job and I dye during the day so… . If you feel the need to order before I get them up you can do so by ordering whatever base you want in the Snowflake colorway and then in the notes section of your order put the colorway name you want. Please read the descriptions on each colorway so you can understand their source inspiration and I can credit what I was inspired by.

I hope you enjoy knitting with these as much as I did creating them. While I love them all my favorites are; LOKI, Atlantis , SHINee’s back (been a HUGE SHINee fan for years), and My Euphoria which is different than the RSC one I sent out!! I have contacted a few musicians that I am going to work with composing color and sound so look for that soon. I am pretty excited!!!!

Before I head out to the dye barn this morning I want to again thank you all for your continued patience and support over the last 22 years, especially for that past year. I grateful for each and everyone one of you! I hope you all are taking care, staying safe and getting vaccinated.

Oh also a word on USPS.  They are over worked and stressed! Ours PO is a small town one that is under staffed and are doing their very best. Amazon will do their own deliveries out here until they get complaints about deliveries that are missed are just wrong. The cell service out here is not the best so they can’t scan. Once Amazon gets enough complaints they stop delivering out here and then just dump it all on the PO with no warning. It’s a lot so if we can be patient and understanding.

Here is Connie our USPS worker who is a gem!!

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Okay off I go! Have a lovely weekend!

Bunny Day!

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Happy Easter Sunday from all of us here at Blue Moon Fiber Arts and bunny farm! I was hoping to have chicks to add to this mix today but they did not hatched yet.

It’ been quite a beautiful few weeks here in the Pacific Northwest which I have been fully enjoying. So much light and warmth good for the soul. Also yarn dries faster. hehe

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Speaking of yarn… . I almost don’t want to say this out loud because I feel like it tempts the powers that be to wreak havoc. However… I am going to because it feels so good. Within the next three weeks I expect to be caught up within the 15 business day schedule so fingers crossed that nothing gets in the way of that. Also I am scheduled to get my first vaccine today at 4:00 so pretty I am excited about that!!

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I am so excited about being caught up. Such a stress. I feel so good about it that I have actually created a few new colorways. Yeah that kind of excited.

I am going to change up the colors on the website. I’m a little tired of dyeing some of these. So…if you want them order this weekend.

 

I do not know if you remember but last time I raised prices I said that I was not raising them as much as they were raised on us since it was too big of a jump and it felt unfair. Well..it’s that time to raise them. And yes that does include the sock yarn. It won’t happen for at least a week so you have time if you want to order before I do.

I am also going to discontinue Comet within the next week. I brought it in as a short run and for me it has run it’s course.

On the good yarn news front I think I have found a new BFL yarn which I am pretty excited about!!! So stay tuned for this late Spring. I am so excited about this.I also think I have talked the new mill into a BFL mix yarn and Tigger!! So do please send good creating yarn vibes this way. It’ not easy to get mills to branch out right now.

If there are nay colors or themes you would like to see me work new colors into let me know. I am working on music related ones right now. I have rediscovered my musical mojo ( starting life as a musician) . I am going to make a few playlists to share with everyone soonish. Oh and I am on flickr if you want to see pics. I have been quiet there for a few months but have started to photograph more.

A good friend recently told me I need to get back to social media that I am missed. I am honestly not sure that is true but I do plan to revisit it all soon. I do  have a few issues about social media as a performative platform that is not real so I am trying to work my hear around how this would look for me and Blue Moon.If you have thoughts you’d liek to share with me I would love to hear them.

Okay I need to go rinse out out everything I dyed yesterday and hang it to dry before I head out to the airport for my vaccine.

I hope you all have a wonderful day!!!

PS I ran across this picture of me in my 20’s and thought I would share. My hair has never ever cooperated. UGH!

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One more time…

Good morning!!

I am trying to get a quick blog post in, answer emails and ship before they turn the internet off again. It has been spotty since the last time I reported to you. There a days when it kind of works and days where it does not at all. They finally sent someone who kind of knew what he was doing and today they are replacing a fried card and the main box for this area.

I can’t even with this. I so would love the time back I have spent dealing with this over the last three weeks. Anyway I am not going to dwell on this since it seriously just pisses me off.

Sock club is shipping out along with web orders! If I do not respond right away to your emails please assume it is the internet and not that you are being ignored.

Okay how about a pretty Spring like sweater!!

Meet the lovely  Elizabeth Margaret 

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Look at the smile and all of that pink. Elizabeth has design two sweaters using our yarn. I know the one she is wearing is in Targhee Worsted and I believe the other is our Silky Victoria.

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This one is the Mae Crop Sweater in our Targhee Worsted I believe the colorway is Rose Quartz. Elizabeth is part of the Eat Sleep Knit wonderful Pattern Academy. If you are a new designer please do check out the goodness that Eat Sleep Knit is spreading!!

Below you will her the delightful LOVE YOURSELF  sweater in our Silky Victoria KMBFLA colorway. I will say I am not usually  big on allover lace sweaters but there is just something about this one that makes me happy. If I was knitting it for me I think I would choose a Raven colorway!

Photo credits to @elizabeth.margaret.knits

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Thank you Elizabeth for choosing my yarns to design with I love what you do!!!

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So you know how I told you I thought my two bunny buddies that adopted me were both males.

Well…

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I was wrong! There are 5 baby bunnies and that little guy is one of them. So I now have bunny friends that are keeping me company and eating a whole lot of carrots and apples. They get along with both the chickens and cats and are forming quite the little menagerie out here.

Okay I am going to go get todays shipping out before they shut me down. Fingers crossed that this fixes these issues because well I’ve had it with all of this!

Take care and stay safe!!

Sigh…Update 3.11

UPDATE 3.11:  Century Link finally showed up late yesterday after me pretty much threatening to send a whole bunch of knitters to Twitter.  So I am shipping today and tomorrow. I did thoroughly test EVERYTHING before letting them leave. 

Okay I am just going to apologize right out of the gate for this rant. I am tired and angry and so very frustrated and seriously wish I had the punching bag and bat we had here for awhile during the Sock Summit prep years. I have edited this “rant ~ self pep talk” for swearing. For those of you who know me you know that was a lot of editing.

Yesterday morning we lost internet service. Turns out they were working on the box for our area. I took a little drive to have a chat with them and see when we would be back on and was just told later. Great!! So lost shipping and answering emails yesterday.

Today I do have internet in the house which is why I can post but not in the dye barn. Once I figured this out and did  some testing to make sure I took a deep breath and decide I should call and find out what is up. It seemed pretty suspicious to me that it was only the one line and it happened after they were there working on it. So after calling and dealing with all of the phone protocol I finally get someone who then has to reboot their system twice before pulling my account up. After I explain to him what was going on he told me I needed another department. I called tech support how would i need another department??!! Awesome! Ugh

I get put on hold for a good 20 minutes and am then transferred. The woman I get has such a poor connection I can’t hear her and she finally disconnects us. At this point I took all the egg cartons ( empty ) on my kitchen table and threw them across the room. My cats were thrilled. Okay so I drink a glass of water and call again. Go through the whole ~ did you do this and did you do that~ protocol before I got a person. At this point my morning work plan is basically wrecked.

So bless Bridgette’s heart for understanding my frustration. I told her as soon as she took my acct number I was frustrated. Anyway we trouble shoot for a good long time and find out that yes in fact it looks like they might have done something to that line when they were working yesterday. I knew it. It’s not the first time. She then says so you are not going to be happy because of course we can’t get anyone out there until Monday. And you know what?  In all honesty I though she was going to tell me later in the week so I was happy. Still…I almost cried.

It’s the end of the week and I have shipping to do. So in order to ship I have to use click’n ship and enter everything manually into USPS and then go into the Blue Moon site and do the same thing so it shows the tracking numbers and then email the customer. I have sock club sitting here and also a fair amount of other orders. And honestly it’s not doable so as sad as it makes me RSC will wait until they come on Monday. And those that have knit deadlines I will click’n ship.

This is the kind of thing all small business owners deal with but it’s all worse this year since we are all online all the time using all the band width. So many of us small business owners have fewer staff, if any. I am one of those, so time, plans and efficient processes are super important. And mine just got railroaded ~ again.

So very many obstacles! I am one of those people who always gets back up when knocked down. Life has challenges it just does it’s what we do and how we handle them that creates how we live. I will say though the past week or so not getting back up has seemed like it just might be the more sane option. haha

In the grand scheme of things I know how privileged I am. I know I have it better than a lot of others during this past year or so. I have a roof over my head and food on the table and the ability to work. Perspective!! I have a friend who is fighting breast cancer right now and she has had to deal with so many complications from treatments. It’s staggering and she just rallies and keeps on keeping on. I have talked to quite a few of you who have made sacrifices for your families while we deal with the ever changing landscape of how to navigate all of this pandemic protocol.  we all have lost loved ones and not seen or been able to be with loved one. So very much to process!

We do all have our challenges and burdens if life and the pandemic has greatly upped the ante on that for most of us. If it has not for you then please do count your blessings and look out for your fellow humans. We just don’t know what others are dealing with. Ask people how they are. It’s amazing what your hear and see. We learn so much when we bear witness to each other. Listening and hearing is powerful for both the person sharing their story and the person receiving it. A gift if you will. We are strong but, we are so much stronger together.

Which is why in the middle of all this today I texted my son for support while dealing with Century Link  bs and then called my daughter after all was said and done to rant and rave with swearing and now am writing you to share what some of my days can look like.

Thank you for listening my friends! I have my tea with a little fortification in it and my BTS CD (no streaming without internet) so out to the barn I go since I do not need internet to dye! I am also taking you all with me .

I hope you have a lovely weekend!!!

Please take care and stay safe!

love

 

Short and sweet!

First of all Happy Lunar New Year!!

I was going  to write a lengthy share today but…we have so much snow. Up to my knees at the moment and what usually happens when we get this much is we loose power which means I can’t work and there is no shipping. I actually doubt USPS will make it here anyway since they would be hard pressed to get down the drive.

So I just wanted to put that note here. In case we do and you hear nothing I am fine, all is well, just seriously snowed in.

It is quite beautiful and very peaceful. The chickens are seriously not happy but the bunnies are loving it. Which I will say I did not know about rabbits.

I am diligently working on all of your orders. I really appreciate your patience and support.

To those who have called and emailed and sent notes thank you so very much for taking the time to reach out. It’s just wonderful to hear from you. Also those of you sharing on instagram thank you so much knit and crochet goodness!

I will check in when all of this winter storm business has passed.

Stay safe and take care of yourselves and each other!!!

love!!!

 

Big LOVE!!!

I woke up this morning with my heart feeling so full that I could feel it spilling over.

So in this break today between dyeing and shipping I am taking a moment to say hi and how grateful I am for you and send you such Big Love!!!

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Love is always the answer

and maybe this little guy too…

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A few things…

Happy New Year!!

I know we all are glad to see the end of 2020 and I am certainly part of group. It’s been such a year of scary things happening with so much loss and hate. However it does feel like we are so very slowly moving our way out of this scenario and into a place where we can start all of the really hard work of healing and change and growth toward a greater good for EVERYONE! Absolutely everyone.

As a small business owner this pandemic and how poorly it has been handles in this country has been a nightmare on so many levels. So first and foremost please if you are in a position to support small businesses please do, especially restaurants.

One of the most challenging pieces of this is the constant changes. You just never know what is coming next and once it shows up you have to figure out how to make that work. In this industry it is how the safety protocols we all have to put in place affect how we run our businesses. Which means almost all of us are operating understaffed. All the way down the chain of supply this is true. In this industry it starts with the mills and then moves on from there. When the numbers of cases of Covid go up then these restrictions tighten (as they should) and then we have to readjust.

I told a friend recently who asked how I was coping and I told him moment by moment. It’s not even day to day at this point. Like yesterday for example. I was all set to ship, packages all ready to go. So I turned on the computer and opened Endicia and lo and behold there is an upgrade. All the online shipping systems got hit hard with so many new accounts since March. They’ve had to make massive changes. And upgrade takes me calling them which is now at least an hour wait for tech support and then however long it takes them to switch our system. I am not ashamed to admit I almost cried. It was my last job of the day and well… I walked away. as soon as I finish writing this I will call them, put it on speaker and work until I get someone. Who I will be patient with even though I feel stressed because we are all over worked and doing our best in a very trying time. In April it was a three hour wait so it is better.

Mostly it is just me here at the moment doing ALL the things. ALL of them. I had Crystal here very part time (safety protocols) but then her family got exposed and now I am waiting for the incubation period to be done and the tests to come back. It will probably be another week. Of course that makes it really hard to predict timelines consistently or well anything quite honestly.

We also had huge Fedex shipping delays in December which affected getting some of our yarn here. The Fedex facility in Utah where our supplier is got hit and they were down in crew so it all slowed to an absolute crawl. Which one does not know until you  go to check your tracking. Oh and then their are the seriously stressed USPS workers. I can’t even some days. For most of December our carrier the lovely Connie was not her until 8 or 9 pm. Craziness!!! Please give all the love to your USPS worker that you can!!

What I am saying with these details is this i a challenge most of us have not experienced. I know I have not. I have not run Blue Moon alone in a very long time so this has been quite an adjustment. One that has taught me so very much. I am seriously grateful I can still keep Blue Moon operational. I know a lot of folks who have had to close their doors. Its so very sad and scary.

A lot of the yarn that was delayed is here! Sock yarn is here!!! I am reeling the sock yarn from cone to skein which used to be my least favorite job here, now I find it a bit meditative and calming.

Before Crystal called to inform me of their exposure to Covid I was working on getting the 3rd shipment of sock club out. Of course now that has slowed. I will say this this is one of the hardest parts. I know I am good at adapting to change but this craziness is a whole different ball game. So when I tell you I am working on your order or the sock club or whatever it is at the time I am doing so within this current shifting sand paradigm. We all are.

Please know I am doing my best and I do not have words to express how deeply I appreciate your support and patience. I am so close to being caught up enough that I can sleep at night. I have not added new colors because I do not have the time to make them and get them up on the website. I also do not want to add any until I am closer to being current.

As I have said before please email if you have any questions. If you do not here back in a day or two give me a call. 503.543.8431 is the dye barn and 503.543.3468 is the house . If I do not answer please do leave a message. I am probably at the dye pots.

As far as health and such I am doing ok. I know some of you have been concerned because of my silence. I am being very careful since I am one of those immune compromised. I did do a number on my ankle this summer so that has given me some issues. I live alone and am now working alone and have not seem my daughters in forever so that is a bit heartbreaking. I have lost people I love as a lot of us have.

All of this that we’ve been going through is a lot to process and cope with. Some of us have way more to cope with than others. I  do know my priviledge and am working with the local community to help others with less navigate all of this.

Okay it’s almost 10:00 and if I do not get Endicia on the phone it’s going to take longer to update the shipping software.

Oh these 2 furry souls have brought me so much joy in the past few months. They escaped from my neighbor and adopted me. Meet Chester and Buddy!!!

Love to you all!

Thank you Georgia and Stacy Abrams!!!

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Happy Halloween!!

Happy Blue Moon Halloween!!

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It’s a rare one. We’ve not been graced by a Blue Moon on Halloween in 76 years!!

Pretty special and I think this year we will take any special magic.

Sing  a happy song and dance under this magical moon!

It’s a wonderful night for a moon dance !!!

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Just another day ….

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This picture shows a small bit of the outskirts of the wetland that borders this little slice of heaven I get to live and work on.  Every Autumn when the morning dew gets heavier and the morning sun hits at just the right time this is what you see. I remember the first time I saw it. I was walking down the gravel drive to get the paper (yes that long ago) and the sun rose over the hill and lit up the fields that were just covered in spider webs. They were everywhere, on the grasses and trees and fences. It was stunning and eerie and I had never seen anything like it. I turned myself around, went and got my son and my camera. I made sure my youngest who is seriously terrified of spiders was still in bed. I spent the next week until the sun shifted studying this field.

This week as I headed out to work I noticed the field and was delighted to see all the my weaver friends are still at it. In this time we live in where we just do not know what each day is going to bring us I am finding more and more comfort in the natural world around me. I know I am very lucky that I get to share these 5 acres with all of the critters and life that grows here. I know I more aware and connected since it has basically been just me and whatever else lives here with me.

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Spiders are flipping patient as hell and the beauty of these woven splendors with the morning light shimmering on their dew laden threads is quite magical.

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We had a delightful but unexpected visitor this week.

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Meet Frankie the bunny! Isn’t he adorable? And also very tame as you can see.

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Yeah he came right in. It turns out my neighbor got some bunnies and some of them escaped so now we will all have bunnies.  I love bunnies so I am delighted. The chickens were very confused. It does explain who has been eating my lettuces. I will have to fence them off now.

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These ladies were not real thrilled to be sharing their ranging space with someone else. They were already pretty peeved with the blue jays and then this guy shows up. Never a dull moment and most definitely a good day.

Crystal and I were thoroughly entertained. We actually got a full week of work in which lately seems to be quite a miracle. We still have a little smoke this week from the California fires but the super awful toxic air has cleared. Thankfully. And now we all get to recover.  So many folks here in the Pacific Northwest have lost so much due to these fires so please do keep them in your thoughts and prayers. Since Scappoose is North of Portland we were pretty safe for the actual fires. I am very proud of how our little community stepped up to help those that were evacuated. We opened out fairgrounds and had so many donations form the community at large that we trucked them out to other communities in need. Farmers and ranchers here opened their land to house animals that had to be moved. It was a lovely thing to witness in this time where we seem so divided. When push came to shove all of that did not matter. I hope we can remember this!!

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One of the things I did during this pandemic to feed my soul was to get my garden back in shape. I started the project because of the supplying food aspect but then just kept going. One of my dreams for this piece of land is an extensive dye garden. Well this year we have the beginning of that. The picture above ip Hopi Sunflower which is a wonderful dye plant that I have been wanting to play with. Look at those seeds. Now if I can just leave it long enough for it to get to the perfect time to harvest before the birds get to them.

Crystal and I are making headway on orders!!!!! Sock club is shipping along with web orders and store orders. Yay!!!! So very happy. Thank you all so very much for your extreme patience and also for believing in me. I am truly humbled, grateful and so very lucky to have been a part of this community for so long. Your emails and letters are so wonderful. Thank you for sharing all that you are also going through. We are all affected in some way by what is happening in our world. We just never know what another person is going through in life.

I spent time this week changing the colorways to Autumn and Halloween since it is my favorite time of year!! The trees here are already turning. Since we have lost so much forest in the past few years I am probably going to find a way to pay homage to our trees.

Okay… well I am off to do the shipping and feed the chickens. I can hear them clucking away as I type so better get them their morning grain and greens before they get hangry.

I hope you all are well and taking care!

Stay safe!

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One day a a time.

Hello all,

I’m dropping in here to let you know that I am here working away and doing my best! I know you’ve been worried and I am sorry for worrying you. It certainly has not been my intention. Running all of this by myself for so long got to be overwhelming. There were things that I just did not have the time or energy for and unfortunately this was one of them. Which made me sad I do so love sharing with you and it’s been a bit lonely here.

Anyway I have brought one of my dyers back to help as of last week and we are moving through things. Well we were until the firestorm hit. We are on the North side of Portland and so far are safe from the big fires. However our air quality is as of today the worst on the planet. So it will be just me here for a few more days. We also have had spotty power. Since we are rural and that’s where these fires start the power company has been shutting things down when the winds are high. Downed power lines are usually the biggest causes of these kinds of fires. I appreciate them being safe although it is a pain.

It’s terrifying and there is so very much loss. So much it’s heart breaking!! If you are local a whole lot of folks are being moved here to the fairgrounds and other places, farms and families that have room. The Columbia County fairgrounds is asking for donations of any kind basically. Food, clothing, bedding, games for kids to play. You pretty much can’t go wrong. A lot of these families are from farming communities so their animals have been moved here also so feed is also needed. If you are on Facebook you can go here to  this group to see what is needed and how to go about donating.

You can also donate to the Red Cross and local Food Banks to help the staggering number of folks who’ve lost so very much in California, Oregon and Washington. I know we’ve not experienced anything like this in Oregon.

Okay I am off to make a run to the fairgrounds to drop off some things and then back to work.

I am so very grateful for each and everyone one of you. I hope you are all taking care and staying safe! Thank you for your extreme patience with me as we navigate all of this and your continued support. When I am low I remember each and everyone one of you dear creative souls.

Show your postal carrier some love!!

Love each other! We truly are all we have. It takes every single one of us with all of our beautiful differences.

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Diller shaking off a dust bath on a better day last week.