Until Then...

I have other stuff to blog about tonight, but until then, I thought you might enjoy this Shine article on The Top 10 Worst Foods of 2009. I am happy to report I didn't eat a SINGLE one of these. But that's not sayin' much...

Well today I reached 200 sales in my My7kids Yarn Shop at Etsy, less than 9 months after my first sale ever! Woo Hoo! My current series of recycled yarns I am putting up is called Man-swers... things like Put The Seat Up, Walk the Stupid Dog, Mow the Lawn, Be Nice to Her Mom. I could probably do this one for a while.

Meanwhile I also put a new item in my HeartFeltFun Boutique at Etsy. It is a little felted basket or bowl with a rolled rim, built-in handles, and beads. I knitted and felted it out of one of the handspun yarns that were sent to me from Japan to donate to our Youth Center. I hope it sells quickly so that some little girl can have a darling Easter Basket!

Yesterday in our rainy-day travels, I took some pictures out of the car windows. This picture on the left is the Bull Run Steam Power Plant run by TVA just on the North side of Knoxville. It is HUGE... the building alone (at the base of the taller tower) has 12 stories of platforms on the outside, and it is dwarfed by the steam stack and tower. The steam was such a great contrast to the dreary sky I couldn't resist this pic, even through the windshield!

You may notice across the bottom of the stem plant pic, the continuous "cloud" of fluffy white. These are the dreaded (or coveted) Bradford Pear trees that are so ubiquitous here. These trees do not bear edible pears, but in the Spring they bloom entirely white. The fall of the blossoms could, I guess, be referred to as our last "snow." Then they are covered in the most audacious chartreuse new leaves... which develop into glossy deep green, wonderful shade. In Autumn the leaves turn scarlet red to deep plum.

They are all over the place, as evidenced by this picture of a major intersection in Knoxville, at Cedar Bluff Road and I-40 Eastbound. And, there are 5 of them in my yard. Oh so beautiful but I think the flowers stink (smell like vitamin B1) and the pollen has me acting like a mouth-breather for weeks. Hey, beauty has its price.

One more picture of community beautification for those of you not lucky enough to live here. All over the place, on the sides of highways and overpasses and in medians, some soul with foresight planted (or caused to be planted) millions of daffodil bulbs. This hillside isn't in full bloom yet... that will take a couple weeks. But for several weeks in the Spring we are treated to these cheery yellow blooms, just about everywhere we go. Guess you only have to take the time in your commute to actually notice them.

BIG News

So I have been looking over my shop lately, and I noticed something.

My first sale was 24 May, and I have had over 100 sales. And even though I have had recycled sweater felted items in my shop that whole time, and hand knit items (or offers for custom hand knit items) for a couple months, I have only ever sold ONE little felted cozy.

Apparently the people who come to my shop want recycled yarn, yarn, big fat handmade needles, and lots more yarn. Just about as fast as I can unravel it, dye it, and list it.

So I got to thinking, if I were looking for yarn, I wouldn't want to page through 5 felted items, a few yarns, then some more felted stuff, to get to more yarn. As a consequence of all these thought processes, I got a crick in my neck. No. I went and created a 2nd shop, call Heart Felt Fun. Oh what fun it was coming up with a new name. But since most of the items are felted (we who DO that really know the term is fulled), and most of them are just for fun, and some of them have a little felted heart sewn on them, I thought it was right clever. As a matter of fact, I might sew a little felted heart on everything from now on, as a trademark. Wow, am I smart.

So over there on the left below my regular Etsy shop feed, is a small one for my new shop. Stop in and take a look sometime!

Some completely different notes:
My 6mo grandbaby Hannah growls like a pirate. Now she also eats food. And my daughter says that while she feeds her, Hannah is the Cookie Monster. All growls and "num-num-nums." Which is pretty funny really.

Today I was riding shotgun in the car, knitting, while Artemas got to practice more driving, in the rain. The song "Into the Night" by Chad Kroeger and Carlos Santana came on the radio, and we were all riding along singing, with the rain streaking down the windows. Being a singer myself, I noticed that the lyrics are sung fairly rapicly, and then go directly into the chorus with no break in time or bridge of musical licks. So I said, "I wonder how he does that, sing all those really quick lyrics and then go right into the chorus without taking a breath."

Artemas said, "He is just gifted, I guess." To which I replied, "I am sure he IS."

The cheeky kid threatened to put me out of the car. Imagine.

Not my fault at all if a person is easy on the eyes. And it would be weird for a woman who has managed to make 10 babies in her lifetime to not notice that a person is easy on the eyes. LoL!