the happy season

What starts off with a lot of nice ideas for nice handmade gifts for nice people, family and friends, usually ends up as a chaotic scramble to pull things together at the last minute.

Imagine the mother, sitting in the dining room at 11.30pm before the last schoolday, fixing the little goodie bags for the enrichment teachers and the big goodie bags for the teachers after making the handmade gifts for the teachers. Or. The last seam on the totebag for the piano teacher was closed about an hour before she got here for the last pre-Christmas lesson. This list could go on and on. You get the picture.

However, all the rushing and running came to a halt for three special events.

One was the arrival of grandma from Germany - not all is lost! Where I am crazy, she is calm, where I am chaos, she is organized, where I go beyond things, she fills the basics (think laundry, dishes...), sounds good, huh?!

Then setting up the decorations. Over the last years the Christmas bins have been growing slowly and steadily. I find things in thriftstores, buy them in stores or handmade, or get them as gifts, some vintage, because friends know, that I like that. I am attached to all of them and love unwrapping every single piece and finding the perfect spot.

The third is the picking and the set-up of the Christmas tree. Traditionally the whole family goes to pick the perfect tree, then we decorate. This year it is even more special, because the kids did the decorating almost all by themselves with the help of grandma. The tree is perfect!

My wish for you... may your tree be perfect as well and may your Christmas be peaceful and happy!

P.S. If you wondered what became of the un-desired pants - a friend's daughter, sweet little Skyler, 3 years old, got them. Though she does have to grow a little before they will fit, mom thinks they will be perfect!

are you ready?

Okay, friends, especially all the moms or dads of little girls, here it comes.

My first give-away!

These were my daughter's much loved favorite pants and she wore them for a good while almost every day. At some point - of course - the knees were through. I let it go. But then she showed me that she could stick her whole leg through the hole. And she mentioned she got quite chilly with the big air holes...

So mother did some extensive work: undid seams on bottom, then sides, then picked funky corduroy fabric for a funky 70s look and some durability. Remember? Favorite pants. Well, not any more. It started with something like "mommy, I'm really not sure." or "I don't really know what would fit with this."

- Well, what can I say...the jeans have been officially unfavorited and banned.

By now I have been authorized to make this a blog give-away to find a new home for the former favorites (size 6R, stretchy jeans fabric, Lee)!

Pop me a comment if you want these for your girl and by next Wednesday I'll draw the lucky winner and mail these to you!

you, too

And then, yesterday, on the way to bed I found the other fuzzball snuggled up in purple handspun in my favorite basket.

Yes, Ike, I love you, too.

chain of events

Some greenish spots on my kitchen countertops.
Newly dyed skeins of yarn on a rod above the tub to dry.
Little girl puts moist skeins on bathroom floor, because she is going to take a bath.
Mother comes to check on her and finds this:





That's my sweet cat. Real furry and a real good taste in yarn!

breaking the silence of the lambs

A lot has happened around here in the past weeks.

The family has been to New Orleans for the fantastic wedding of our niece Elizabeth and her new husband Justin - check out the bathroom decorations!

We celebrated the woodfloors in our home with a sock party (loads of yummy food included).

After the open house/studio tour and one more holiday basar, I'm getting ready and creating as much as possible for the craft fair at Hip Stitch, Friday, 12/4, from 6.00 to 9.00 pm. and Saturday, 12/5, from 10.00 am. to 5.00 pm.

I have spun a lot of yarn, some handdyed, mainly to make more fingerless mittens, that are always a bestseller.

Another new product, that I've added to my "show stash" are zippered pouches. For those I love to use high quality fabrics and combine them with vintage ribbons, linen, whatever seems suitable.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving this pumpkin colored lovelyness has been added to my so far Koigu-free stash and I am truely thrilled!! Thank you soso much again, Amber!

And thank you to all my friends for being, who you are, and for being wonderful friends!

Happy Thanksgiving!

coming up

I don't like blogging without photos, however since my pc harddrive died and email adresses are lost at this point I need to invite my friends via blog and hope you all read this!

I recently launched my small artsy crafty business named "sheep on a spring" (--no, again, NOT "on a STRing", people, get reading glasses!). I plan to produce more and start an etsy business, while participating in local craftshows as I have in the past.
At the same time one of my dreams is coming true and I will be a participating artist in the first (annual?!) studio tour in High Desert. I am truly thrilled and hope you have a chance to stop by at our house on Saturday between 10.00 and 5.00! Please drop me an email, if you need directions!
In addition to the handknits, handspun yarns and dyed rovings, that you might know, there will also be some more sewed items, where I love to combine high quality novelty fabrics with vintage or recycled fabrics or related items.

All together there will be a nice variety of handmade things to please yourself or that would make lovely christmas gifts!

Hope to see you then!

embarrassed

I stand corrected by - ahem - not by my German, but an American friend (thank you, Amber), who kindly informed me, that what I named the Reichstag was in fact the Brandenburger Tor.

Ooops.

My house is dusty and will stay dusty for a week longer than anticipated. The company that delivered the wood messed up and we ran short. But well, we have not gotten the oil finish yet either, a product from Germany, that seems to be sold out all over the US at this point, so what the...

At the same time normal life somehow goes on and Fiona's fieldtrip brought us yesterday to Wagner Farm in Corrales. Don't we all love pumpkin pictures?

There is some knitting happening, too, almost finished fingerless gloves from handspun 2-ply yarn. I just need to weave in the ends.

A new project was started from bulky 2-ply handspun, a buttersoft blend of kid mohair and romney, to become a sleeveless vest in a design that I have been breeding over for quite a while now: long, just one huge button for closure at the neckline, the details will be developed as I go.

Sewing machine and ironing board found a current home in the low dust kitchen area and I was able to finally finish the birthday gift for my friend Mitchi in Maryland, this zippered pouch: vintage fabric, hand emboidered initials on linen, dark green velvet lining.

Doris, who will be taking off for Germany today, got a private lesson on sewing zippered pouches and surprised me yesterday with this lovelyness:

Thank you, Doris, and bye-bye 'til next year!

curious?

Right now our family is dealing with a lot of dirt and dust, but it's all for a good cause.

As most of the tiles and carpet on our first floor have finally gone bye-bye, things are beginning to take shape after as little as 4 days, that the great crew of Marek & Co has been working here.


Take a look:

Rifted and quartered oak to be oiled. It will be perfect!

favorite Friday

Once a year in October Albuquerque belongs to the balloonies.

For one week in the mornings we get to enjoy the view of the city with the sky filled with plenty of beautiful colorful balloons, high count of this year being close to 50 at a time - according to Fiona.

This is just the 3rd October that we have lived in Albuquerque, and I believe we are on the way to develop a new family tradition.

On Balloon Fiesta Friday we get up as early as 5.30am, leave the house without breakfast (ouch), take the shuttle bus from Hoffmanntown Church to the Balloon Fiesta Park, get a breakfast burrito (me)/funnelcake (Lewis)/cinnamon roll (Fiona)/snack from everyone else (my friend Doris, who is visiting from Germany right now) and watch the rise-and-shine of the special shape balloons.

It is a spectacular sight!

As to be expected I was thrilled to see some German balloons.

One of them had the shape of what was possibly the Reichstag in Berlin and was promoting a famous beer brand.

There was also a balloon shaped like what we call a "Bembel", a pitcher traditionally used to serve applewine in Frankfurt/Hessen, which is really close to where I was born and raised, yeah.

However, I must admit, that I find it odd, that Germany was represented by nothing but alcohol sponsored balloons. Germany may be famous for good beer and whatever other alcoholic beverages, but there is so much more, that makes Germany special.

Trust me.

lost words

(The guy was wearing a cowboy hat and he could spin, too!)

What a day

This was my day and it was good!

Thank you all for remembering, for calling, singing and emailing!

party time

Just this weekend we finally had the very girlie girls party.



After Fiona's favorite strawberry cake eight screaming girls got to hop in the pool to get rid of some of that energy (if you know what I mean).



However the main event was printing like Lotta. I had sewn drawstring bags for everyone as goodie/goodie bag and we cut potatoes to stamp on the blank part of the bag.




The results were great!

A good party!