The wind is tossing the lilacs,
The new leaves laugh in the sun,
And the petals fall on the orchard wall,
But for me the spring is done.

Beneath the apple blossoms
I go a wintry way,
For love that smiled in April
Is false to me in May.
Sara Teasdale

This week's sparkle are the beautiful lilacs filling the air that surrounds me as I walk each morning.
They only stay around for such a short while, but it is a smell that I always embrace each Spring.

~

Have a wonderful Holiday Weekend!

Dawn is the shimmering of the horizon,
Dusk is a settling of the sky.
Deng Ming Tao

Almost 4 years ago, I shared this post with you, about my unique meeting up with
Tom Livernois of McTavish Spinning wheels.  Tom and I have maintained a friendship over the years as there is no doubt that he is a master with fine woods and I am a long time admirer of fine woods.  A wonderful marriage.

One of the discussions that Tom and I shared was about Magnus's big wheel.  Tom was taking time to learn all the ins and outs of making the smaller sister and wanted to bring his craft to a comfortable place before he took on attempting the big sister.  I completely understood that rational, but I had told him that when the day came that he was ready to make the bigger wheel, I would want one that would be the opposite sister to the one I have, which is birdseye maple with walnut accents.

2 years ago Tom contacted me and showed me a swoon worth piece of walnut that he had saved for my wheel, and of course I bit the bait.  I watched as he shared the production pictures with me in the very same way that I had with the little sister and was awe-struck.
There was a problem though…with 2 children in college, finances were very tight and all the while I watched this wheel grow, there was a gnawing in my stomach.
Ken was struggling with the college bills and when he needed to replace his car and I just couldn't justify spending this much money, while watching his stress level…..so……
I summoned up my strength and told Tom that it was just not to be, and he understood.
It was a heart breaking decision for me, but once I made it, I immediately felt a weight lifted and knew it was the right decision.

Fast forward a year and Tom contacted me again, with…can you believe it….another amazing piece of walnut and he asked me if I wanted to do this again.  He wouldn't be able to get to it until 2015, which would give me time to plan….so of course I said yes!

Now, we do not have 2 children in college right now, but we still have one and the loans from her older sister, so in order for me to have the bigger sister, I had to let go of the younger sister. 
While it was a hard decision for me to make as the maple wheel carries a lot of amazing karma in her story, my heart belongs to bigger wheels.  I just love them, so I was willing to put her in a wonderful home to bring this one here.

Here she is in all of her amazing glory!  Tom is a master craftsman and creates magic with the wood he uses for his spinning wheels.  She has been here for a week and has not left the side of my chair in the living room.  She is pure joy to spin….a very smooth ride.

You can see some of the wheels that he has made on his Ravelry here

Thank you Tom!!!!

 

 

Here it is Tuesday and I am posting about the weekend…Kim time…ha! 

This was a weekend of birthdays.  Little Asher's birthday was last week on the 7th, but we celebrated his along with his Mom's on Sunday the 17th, which is her birthday.

Now this daughter of mine when she lived here was ridiculously hard to surprise because she was a snooper.  Yes, you read that right..a snooper!  When it was birthday or Christmas time no matter how well you hid those presents, you knew when she opened them that it was not the first time she saw it for sure.
However….her husband is pretty good at surprising her and she was blown away when he had her meet us at the lake.  She thought that maybe I was taking pictures or they were going for a ride in our kayaks, so imagine her surprise when she found out this pretty blue kayak was just for her.
She was very surprised and very happy.  Good job Jeff!

Getting this little guy to sit still for more than a second for a few photos on the other hand was a complete challenge.  No picture of him with his birthday cake or presents that are clear, he was a moving target for sure, but we love him so..ha!

This little guy makes as all smile with his silly antics…..How can he be two already??? 

 

Today's Ten on Tuesday topic is 10 Things I Need to Do and Stop Procrastinating. I will preface this with my middle name is "Procrastination".
It's something that I am working on, but I don't always succeed, so here we go….

1.  Blogging ~ My morning is usually filled with walking and Tai Chi, and then the day is filled with work.  When I do blog it is usually at night.  Of course I should do my blog post for the next day at night, not the current day.  Hmmm…good idea!

2.  Website work ~ I do all parts of my business.  The ordering, dyeing, reskeining, advertising, shows, sewing, shipping and web work and sitting at my computer updating the page is something that I shouldn't put off, but I do.  It's tedious work.

3.  Keeping track of my food journal ~  I use my fitness pal and while I am really good about tracking my exercise and my weight, I loathe trying to find the food choices in their large library of food, so I just don't do it, even when I am really paying attention and being really good. 

4.  Answering emails ~  I have to admit, that once an email has lost my sight of vision, I sometimes lose track of it.  I don't mean to, but I do.  I have really worked on getting better with this one!

5.  Checking in on Ravelry ~  I don't go there as much as a lot of my friends do, but because people will direct Woolen Rabbit questions to me there instead of emailing me privately, I do try to get there at least a few times a week, but I should do this daily.

6.  Sitting down and getting the curtains for my dining room made ~  I have the fabric, the pattern and the sewing machine.  I just need to commit 2 weekends to getting them done.

7.  Making bags for the shop ~  This one is a conundrum for me as I think I enjoy sewing more than dyeing, but I am always putting it off.

8.  Cleaning out the cabinets upstairs in my studio ~ it's scary….

9.  Dusting ~ I flat out hate doing it.  I don't mind the vacuuming or washing floors, but the dusting..ugh

10.  Finding 5 things I need to do ~ those things I procrastinated doing all week, just before I head out the door which will guarantee me being 5 minutes late.  I don't know what comes over me, but it drives my dear husband crazy., he refers to it as "Kim time"..ha!

This little guy is my Friday Sparkle!
He turned 2 yesterday, how can it be that he is already 2 years old.
He has brought a lot of sparkle and laughter into our lives and I look forward to many more years of joy for this sweet little boy
Silly boy making his "are you cute?" face…LOL.

 

For his 2nd birthday his mom, my oldest daughter, Stacey put this beautiful video together celebrating his journey so far.
I have to admit, every time I watch it I cry…yes, I am that sappy Grandmother.
I love you Asher!!

It's been a little while since I have shared some of the projects I am working on, so I thought I would give you a peek at what's been happening here.

You remember these towels on the loom?  They are now finished and off the loom.  I will wet finish the fabric, weave in the loose ends, then cut and hem them.  I love the fresh spring colors.

I am also working on Romi's mystery shawl, using my Opal yarn.  I kept it scrunched up so that you can't see the design…and I am a bit behind, so it's no surprise for anyone who is working on it.
I have to say it took me a while to get used to Romi's charts, but with this being my second shawl designed by her, I have to say that I love them.
I can't wait to see how it finishes up!!

What have you been working on?

Now that the packages have all been mailed, I wanted to share our final yarn club mailing with you.  It was one of my favorite ones to put together because it was a darker fairytale….Maleficent.
She was always such a scary character to me as a child, then I saw the movie this summer and came away with such a different thought process of this Evil Mistress…..
I loved this movie!

We were so fortunate to have Romi Hill design this appropriately named pattern….Dark Wing
I love the lacey wing like look to this beautiful half circle shawl…a wing span.

Romi requested a black shade with touches of blue and teal which are the colors that come to mind when you think of Maleficent's magnificent cape.  The yarn she chose was Airy which is a beautiful single ply merino that blocks out beautifully and perfect for a shawl.
The color is named Blackthorn.

I wanted the gift for this last project to be a special one to close out a magical year of Fairytales and was so happy when Kam Baker of Everyday Peacocks agreed to create this pin for us.
I loved it enough to snag one for myself.
Thank you Kam!

One of my favorite parts of putting a club mailing together is creating a special card that embraces the entire package.  I spend a lot of time on this part of it and I think that this one has been my all time favorite of any that I have done over the yarn club years.

Thank you to all of you who joined along and I look forward to sharing another year visiting
"Once Upon A Time"

 

The winner of this give away package is Jo-Ann Coles, the 16th commenter chosen by
the random generator at random.com

Thank you ALL so very much for your fun and creative name choices.  I love so many of them and will tuck them aside for future purple colors that I create.  The name that I chose is "Huckleberry Pie" suggested by Jodi.

Now that I have a name, I will be dyeing some of this colorway up in different bases and get pictures up on my website.

I am finishing up the mailing of the last yarn club for 2014/2015 this weekend and will spend most of next week restocking the shop with some new bags.  It's been a little while since I have had some there, so it's time. 🙂
Speaking of the yarn club, I will be shutting down the new one tomorrow, so if you want to join along now is the time to do it. 🙂

~

…..on to Friday's Sparkle….

Yesterday was mine and Ken's 21st Anniversary. 
My husband is one of the kindest, most thoughtful, supportive men you will meet and I am so incredibly blessed to call him "My Man". 
Definitely a big sparkle in my week and in my life! 

Thank you all for participating and have a wonderful weekend!!

 

I posted a picture of this headband 2 weeks ago and mentioned that it was a brand new color that
I created for a friend who loves purple, and PURPLE it is with subtle almost black undertones.

I had also mentioned that I was going to run a contest to give this lovely shade a fun name….so here we go. 🙂

I will leave the comments on this page open until 9:00 am (EST) Friday and choose my favorite colorway name and in return, I will do a random drawing for this prize, which has another new colorway called "Beebop Blue" in Opal, one of my new bag designs and a bar of Baby Blue soap.

Good luck and thank you for your help!

Drops.
Water cleanses,
Gathers in the earth.
Tender. Invasive. Subtle.
Emerges a shining river.
When small, it is weak.
When great it tumbles mountains,
Rendering great clifs
Sand.
Deng Ming~Dao

I know I have been pretty quiet this week, but it has been mostly due to this week's Friday Sparkle.
So many consecutive days of amazingly warm and sunny weather!
My daily walk across the different bridges that cross the Swift river that just sparkles with new life as the winter snows are quickly melting into it.
So beautiful!! 
We have waited a long time for weather that has allowed us to enjoy the warmth.
~
I will be back however on Monday with a new contest that may include yarn…. 😉

Have a wonderful weekend!!!