I am so excited!!!

I still owe you part 2 of the Tyler gets Phat blog but I wanted to take a minute to congratulate my dear friend Linda and her blog partner Sandy from the Cemetery Divas. They were nominated for the Kreative Blogger and in turn nominated me! (Thanks Linda!)

Now the part where I tell you 7 things about me and nominate 7 other blogs!

So....7 things about me huh?

1. Yes, I really have 8 kids. My husband's first wife died of breast cancer and he came complete with 4 kids :) The oldest would have been 22 this year (he died of lymphoma in 2005) and the youngest is seven.
2. My husband and I own The Counting Sheep Farm and we breed Cormo and Icelandic Sheep (my daughter breeds Finns). Our farm is also home to 6 horses, 30 chickens, umpteen cats, 7 English Angora Rabbits,a Dexter cow, a llama and a LGD (Livestock Guardian Dog) (Shameless plug: the blog is here)
3. We milk our cow (Mama Cow) by hand and I use her milk to make cheese and soap.
4. I have a Congo African Grey named Tyler whom I adore (and everyone else is sick of hearing about) that says "Come here Paul" when he wants me to hold him.
5. I homeschool
6. I knit, sew, spin, rug hook, attempt to weave, scrapbook, and attempt to play guitar (hmmm....am I forgetting anything?)
7. I owe everything I am and everything I am able to do to the precious Savior who gave His life to save mine.

Now for the 7 blogs I nominate:

1. Farming in the Shade: Lona tells about the daily goings on at the family farm as they try to make a living working the land.
2. A Holy Experience: Thanks to Lona's introduction Ann makes me cry about once a week. She has a way with words that is almost painful in the reading it is so real.
3. Juniper Moon Farm: Shephard Susie all I want to be and more. She inspires me to not give up.
4. A Walk through MoonWood: Another farm blog :) Roo talks about living the dream in a very honest way.
5. Craftlit: Oh Heather, you have taught me so much! I am sure you have been nominated for this award a bigillion times but...
6. Alpaca Farm Girl: Maybe it's the farm girl in me but I love this blog...especially the latest post.
7. Danido Crafty: Hand dyed yarn, yummy patterns...what more do you want? Chocolate? Yeah...me too.
   

In which Tyler gets phat.....

or the Phat Fiber Box is here! Part One

Who is Tyler you ask?

No, silly, this isn't Tyler. This is Twila. She is the little girl that hovers over the box hoping to take all the beautiful yarn.

This is Tyler. Tyler is my 10 year old African Grey and he is very, very naughty.

But he has good taste!
He said "Do you want something?" (which generally means he wants something) and picked up Mama Jude's sample. Sometimes there is accounting for taste.....

At any rate, here is the first half of the wonderful findings in the box. Click on the picture to visit the etsy shop represented.



Uh-oh, I don't have a link for this last pic...can someone help me out?

A day in the life.....

....when I finally woke up this morning about 10 am I discovered that my children had done all the chores, cleaned the kitchen, and had breakfast waiting on me. Can you believe it was a wonderful mile high stack of pancakes? AND they only had 100 calories and no fat???? Yeah me either. This is really how my day went.....

I woke up at 7:30 and watched my nephew while the older kids did the animal chores and milking ( they do chores in the morning which is great, then I do chores at night. I have found my hands hurt if I milk twice a day.) The house was a disaster and I don't think I ever had breakfast until 11:00.....if you can call pb&j and 11:00 breakfast :)

The to do list was long:

• Clean out the refrigerator
• Wash 2 Icelandic fleeces
• Make my first batch of soap
• Attempt to beat my fiber room/craft room/office into some semblance of order

Obviously the list doesn't include the laundry, meal preparation and general housecleaning that is also necessary.
The fleeces got done and so did the soap! And I even got back into the dyeing saddle and overdyed this:
I only did one batch because I wanted to see how it would behave with the dye since it a blend of Alpaca, Cormo and Silk. I am guessing the silk is really going to pop.
The fiber room/craft room/office is still left undone. My biggest problem is that my stuff has out grown the room. Call it what you want, it's too small.

In search of the perfect mitten......

I honestly love this mitten pattern. I honestly consider myself an intermediate, even close to advanced, knitter........
and I honestly can't knit these mittens to save my life. I have now ripped them out (completely) twice. I.WILL.NOT.GIVE.IN.THE.MITTENS.WILL.NOT.WIN!

The colorwork is turning out fabulous. The chart is very straightforward. These mittens would be perfect if my hands were a foot long. Anyway back to the drawing board......with smaller needles....

I have some yummy batts to upload to the farm store. And I have a bit of an announcement to make: I will be moving the inventory from My8kidsmom Hand Dyed Yarn and Fiber to Counting Sheep Farm. My goal is to simplify life a bit and to minimize expenses. My8kidsmom will still be the brand name for my hand dyed yarn and fiber, it will just be all in one fabulous etsy shop!

Just in case......

you were wondering.......



what I have been up to......
now you know!