Super-big-30-batt UPDATE at the old etsy shop!!!!  Please visit and if you are a fiberfiend, buy some!  There are some new lovelies there.

Tell a friend!  I am home from the shop with the kids for the summer you know… I need to make some money on etsy for summer-adventuring!!!

I’m only showing you one– you’ll have to go to the shop and look!

Some other weird but true news is that I have been interviewed by spin in public.  You can check out a short sketch about the fiber in my life here.  It was a fun exercise to sit and think about how fiber art and creative endeavors unfold for me… I am usually not so conscious of it. :)  I am excessively thankful to Cindy for asking me to be a part of her magnificent new site.  It is a wonderful resource and inspiration for spinners- new and expert!

Ok.  I am off to the beach for a visit to the family this week.  I’ll be checking in and taking lots of photos…

xo

Gooooooood morning!

It is the most amazingly gorgeous day in Reisterstown this morning….  You may not know that Reisterstown is German for ” land of a million damned anthills!”  I sit here at my food free desk and they are everywhere!  They awesome and perfectly fine outside– but out, out, out damn spot!  I am off to war with the ones who are taking up residence.  Here’s a glimpse of a couple of minutes into the war.  This is right next to my computer.

Do you recall this song??

Song lyrics | When I Grow Up lyrics

It pops into my head every now and then.  It really is my plan :).  I married the OLD GOAT, and I only had TWO babies, which  feels like a hundred and twenty on some days, but I am content with the mostly-awesomeness of them. SO, I guess that leaves me at just growing old and happy! :)  I’ve been feeling that progression  of parenthood a lot this week with our 5th grade and K graduates.  Amazing!  Then Marigold went and turned 11 yesterday. INCONTHEIVABLE!  She and the previously mentioned Goat-King had a super-awesome day at a class down at the Visionary Arts Museum.  You’ll have to check his blog for that adventure and beauty. ( follow above link).

I am just sort of stunned by the reality that is my ever-growing-up kids.  It’s all such a ride– sort of like that one called the scrambler from carnival days past.  Traveling in a circle that is also traveling in a circle and ALL THE WHILE it is whipping you back and forth like you are a giant Spirograph. A sort of schizophrenic parenting tornado.  As Matryoshka pointed out the other day, one night it’s a blog post about the impending BLISS-OUT of summer vacation, by the time we speak the next morning I am dancing barefoot on the very edge of the pit-o’-despair.  It’s hard to keep up, I know.  That’s the thing I guess… the fact that you have to keep dancing.  You have to try and let the Cyclone swirl around you and yet keep a sense of humor and your balance.

11 odd years ago~~

Playing next to a huge hungry panther…

just a few hours old on a thunderstormy day.

making sure we floss.                   finding creative everydays .

making a lot of noise.                                 being good family.

Time lapse photo…

Sometimes I wonder what I miss when I blink.

Hug a kid.

Hello Friends!
IT’S THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL SALE!!!
~~~~~~~15% off of your total purchase for this weekend only~~~~~~ June 12, 13 and 14
( I will send your sale-refund within 24 hrs by paypal )
http://www.gnomegarden.etsy.com

It’s the eve of Summer Vacation and we’re celebrating~~ This Summer is about having fun fun fun in the Doran house. Part of that fun is lots of dyeing and spinning and random Surprise SALE DAYS!  Please  invite a friend!
xo!

Dawn

~~~Tangental Interlude~~~

RING DANG DOO
Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs

Well - you can have your gold and your diamonds too
All I want is a ring dang doo
Well I’ve been all over this great big world HEY
Looking for a ring dang doo
I’ve fallen in love with a thousand girls YEAH
Looking for a ring dang doo
I’ve got a mojo and some voodoo too
But I ain’t never found a ring dang doo
Well I was down ina New Orleans
Looking for a ring dang doo
I fell in love with a girl in blue jeans
Looking for a ring dang doo
But I can’t stay though my love is true
I gotta keep looking for a ring dang doo
Ring dang doo
Where are you
What are you
>From Mexico to the Philippines YEAH
Looking for a ring dang doo
Well I’ve drunk with peasants and I’ve dined with kings
Looking for a ring dang doo
But I ain’t never found a single clue
I’ve gotta keep a-looking for a ring dang doo
Well people call me crazy every single day YEAH
Looking for a ring dang doo
But I don’t care what people may say NO
Looking for a ring dang doo
I don’t know what it looks like
Or what it can do
I gotta find that ring dang doo
Ring dang ring dang ring dang doo
Ring dang ring dang ring dang doo
You can have your gold and your diamonds too
All I want is a ring dang doo

Did you ever watch that crazy movie from the 90’s –Hugo Pool? It was one of our life-before-poppets favorites. Quirky and funny , and It had a great cast– a gorgeously insane Robert Downey Jr., Alyssa Milano, Sean Penn, A BABY Patrick Dempsey, Cathy Moriarty, Malcom McDowell.. on and on. This is a long clip, which mentions the ring dang doo…. Looks like you can see most of the movie in parts on Youtube.

It’s been really busy.  Only 2 days until the great SUMMER VACATION.  Here’s some poppies for you, they really do love a camera.

I’ve got so much to share– gardening, graduating,spinning and the makings of.  I’ll be back tomorrow for some of that.

Sweet dreams of poppies.

See that new fancy button over there? ———–>

That’s my friend Cindy’s new baby Spin in Public.  It is a wonderful site that promotes and celebrates hand spinning in a big way.

Here’s the scoop–

Spin in Public is a website dedicated to the appreciation of handspinning. Whether it is spinning on a spindle or a spinning wheel, lace weight, art yarn - you name it - Spin in Public is interested.

Spin in Public is a resource for spinners and those interested in spinning to read all about the art and get to know other spinners by reading their essays and interviews, seeing great photos and videos and reading what’s new in the spinning world.

We hope to inspire and teach, coordiate and celebrate, share and foster knowledge all about the joy of spinning.

It is a goal of Spin in Public to assist in organizing events where people actually go out and spin in public. This can be single individuals who set up a wheel in a town square and show the public something they have never seen before or a group of like-minded spinners getting together to have a nice day outside or in a public place that involves their favourite hobby - spinning!

We will keep a calendar of events, help you learn how to organize an event and share information on all events in progress as well as much more.

Cindy Cole

Editor

Spin in Public

Check it out!  It’s a great hub for all of your spinning adventures.

I just completed a small bit for her– a “spinterview” which should appear there someday soon.  Cindy also is an amazing woman, spinner and fiber-artist.  You can see more of her and her various creative adventures by visiting her home on the web, studioloo.

Have I mentioned that I have been playing quite a bit with A Midsummer Night’s Dream in my fiber works??  I have been having quite the obsession with it.  Sort of combining my love of the play, the ethereal world and fiber, I’ll post photos and more tales of such soon.  There will be batts and yarn !

I don’t have MTV but apparently at the stroke of 9pm EST on Sunday, the New Moon widget below will transform into a video and you’ll be able to watch the trailer of Twilight 2, aka The Twilight Saga New Moon! sort of a cinderella-widget event.

Going on day 3 of “my back went out without me” fun.

Here’s what I’ve been doing…

Just looking at that.

NO knitting.  NO spinning. NO gardening.

I did manage to get out of bed a couple of times today… and even hauled my sorry self to the chiropractor.  I iced me back when i got home and that was the big activity for the day.:)

Hedwig came by tonight, starved for company.  I could hear her flapping up  the stairs.  Birds really are wonderful companions.

here’s a rare few moments of sitting up!

oh, and here’s my eyeball.

See that stripe?  It’s called partial or sectoral heterochromia.  Both girls have eyes characterized by central heterochromia which looks sort of like this up close–

odd but true.

All restocked at the shop!

Back from the land of Fae with lots of sparkles and shimmer to show for it!

Loads o’ batts in this morning, and loads o’ lovely yarn going up tonight!! Please come visit and support your local fiber-gnome!!!

Well we did it!  Matryoshka and I spent a weekend in the faerie world, even ate the food!– and were able to get back to our own world.  That’s all against the fae rules, but we did it!  I wouldn’t have minded staying an eternity, if the weather had been more cooperative!  That said, it was a lovely weekend–Despite the rain and many weird weather appearances!  We met a lot of really wonderful people, heard some great music, saw a lot of great costumes and just generally enjoyed hanging out at the festival for 2 days. If you are wondering “what is this faerie festival thing all about?,” here is a little clip that gives you an idea of what you encounter at such a gathering.  (This is a fest in IL.)

I really enjoyed the Maryland one.  It was a little different than Spoutwood’s festival, but really nice.

Here a some highlights–

The Gypsy Nomads were MOST awesome! Again, this is another festival, but one of their songs.

So we sat and needle felted and spin span spun.

visited with friends, and made some new ones!

We had great neighbors!! Check out their awesome wares!

Goblin Road made some great leather corsets and these wonderful Gobbler dolls.

Emma of Creative Procrastinations had a highly addictive booth full of magical items– I’ll post her link once her website is open.

Creative Procrastinations was founded in the tradition of the Arts and Crafts movement which valued handcrafting and believed that everyone should be able to own beautiful, original things. Handmade beaded jewelry, fairy wings, fairy houses, fairy gardens, trinket boxes, journals, scrapbooks, hand-painted toys and a variety of other handcrafted items.

Fiber tomorrow, get some rest!