Today

I spent the bulk of today in the garden, it's suppose to rain through Tuesday after that I'm' hoping to wash my jacob fleeces.

Cabbage Update

We planted out cabbages finally, well most of them anyway, after it's done raining tomorrow we will plant the rest of them on the west side of the driveway.

Tonights Dinner Menu

Tonight's Dinner Menu

Garlic Burgers - too busy for any sides~!

Thank You

A huge thank you to everyone that participated in today's Fibery Giveaway!!! Your participaton made this a LOT of fun! ~ Kimberly

May's Fibery Giveaway Winner

And the winner is...

Quiltmuse

Congratulations Jacquie!!!

Announcement Time Change

I am changing the announcement time to

1:00 pm Central Time

this will give folks more time to leave a comment

I'm really pushing the clock here and I have one more yard sale to go to - I hear there's tons of fabric and vintage goodies!!! IF you don't see your comment don't fret all comments are moderated and it WILL be posted before the announcement!

Reminder on Giveaway

Please remember to leave your email addy, or make sure it's in your blogger contacts so I can get ahold of you tomorrow, I'm clicking on some of the names and there's no contact info, I really don't want someone to miss out because I couldn't contact them! ~ Kimberly

Today's Yard Sale Score

There were gobs of bits of vintage lace, doilies, linen fabrics etc., all carefully folded INSIDE of tacky polyester fabrics.

This is just a hint of what I picked up, all at one sale, for fifteen dollars. The only downside is I'm going to have to put this stuff in a closet with my ozone machine - it smells like dryer sheets to which I'm very allergic. Most of the items like the millenary pieces are very fragile, still very usable for collage, and would probably not survive being washed.

This woman was an ace garage sale preparer!!! Very sly if you ask me, as I was taking items out of the bags all sorts of treasures started to appear. It's like she knew that these would be chosen ONLY by the right person. As I was looking around for more goodies, I had just grabbed a bag of millenary supplies, she asked me if I had looked at the other bags of fabric on the far table simply stating that everyone had passed them by. I took one peek and grinned from ear to ear and each bag was a mere 50 cents! Mother Lode!!!

May's Fibery Giveaway

May's fibery giveaway (found out it wasn't spelled give away) consists of natural dyed cotton and silk fabrics, acid dyed silk carrier rods, the hot pink carrier rod fibers were dyed with cochineal, and hand dyed yarn bundle and cotton pearl cotton threads. What you don't see are some extra goodies I'm tucking in with this bundle, in the same color palette of course.

What you have to do is post a comment AND you MUST have an email addy so that I can contact you! No I won't use your email addy for anything other than this giveaway! You can sign in as anonymous but please leave your addy in your comment ~

Names will be drawn out of a hat, I'll have John do that part, and tomorrow I will announce the winner and contact the winner via email at Noon Central Time (gives you time to comment and me time to go to garage sales).

Garden Update

The potato patch has been mulched, I beat the rain this time. One of the upsides to checking the potatoes was I found something was munching on the leaves so tomorrow it's off to the gardening store for some organic bug stuff to kill off the buggies. Otherwise hubby is threatening to use Sevin on everything and that is the last resort around here.

Friday Blog Give Away

For those of you who follow over here I am hosting a Give Away tonight, after 9PM Central Time over at my other blog! http://www.prairiefibers.blogspot.com

Blog Give Away Tonight

I'll be announcing the blog give away tonight

9PM Central Time tonight!!!

More later I have fleeces to wash!

State of Affairs

What my wet studio looks like at the moment! The pile on my screenprinting table is some what reduced now, see previous post. My plan is to work late into the night tonight and get this mess cleaned up for tomorrow's big reveal. It'll happen I'll probably be sore but it'll happen! ;-)

Everything that is stacked on the table WAS stacked against the far wall, BON, or I should say stacked up against the old cabinet and chest of drawers. I'll post improvement photos tomorrow.

Wet Studio Clean Up

In the boxes Printing blocks, old printers letters, inks, stencils, and fabric paints. Sinew and rawhide for basketry and other 3D fiber projects on top of the shelf.

Collage items on the wooden shelf.

Basketry materials, fibers for dyeing and pfd fabrics for dyeing and painting! And the obligatory surface design supplies: rollers, stamps, sponges, squeegies, etc.

Wire cages/boxes I'm not really sure what they are called they are really convient for corralling lots of little things. I'm hoping by tomorrow I'll be able to stand on the far side of my studio and see across the room! Right now it's looking pretty bad.

Peony

Potato Patch

They need to be mulched again! They've grown about 18 inches since last Saturday. The plants are dry but the much they are in is wet, I'm wondering if it's ok to go ahead and mulch them (I'm using hay) or wait another day???

What is it???

Click on the photo to see the bugs better~!

Some thing is eating my grapes and my roses, on the roses there's little whitish looking critters that I think will have to be dealth with tomorrow the question is what are the critters?

May 28th Garden Update

Tomatoes times three rows, and to the far right green beans.

Cabbages and Hepatica that still needs to go into the ground!

Today's Dinner Menu

Today's Menu

Macaroni and Cheese with

Tuna and Peas

Mustard Greens

Cranberry Sauce (home made of course)

Wet Studio Clean Up

I've been working on my wet studio this afternoon it's in sorry need of organizing but it's also giving me time to ruminate over the questions in The Creative Entrepreneur and some of what I've just started reading in I'd Rather Be in the Studio. I'll post pictures of my studio later tonight.


John and I took the old dresser and cabinet, that I never used because they were always blocked, out of the studio and put my wire cages (you'll see what I mean later in the pictures) on that wall instead. It's about half full and I admit I'm glad that I have yet to run out of space! I now have space to walk around and have a place for my surface design supplies.

Blog Give Away

I will post the details about the blog give away tomorrow night after 9 pm central time!!!

Banner No. 4

I was told by a lot of folks that the really liked banner no. 3 but that the background was too blurry. So I've changed it back to the orignal fabric background, let me know what you think.

Tonights Dinner Menu

Tonights Menu

Seasoned Pork Roast with onions and carrots
Mashed potatoes
Roast juice thickened with potato starch
Cranberry Sauce - homemade of course!
Mustard Greens

Friday's Blog Give Away

I'm working on my "new" newsletter!

Viva La Verde Treasury

My Green Sleeves Bead Soup mix made it into this lucious green treasury by jewelsbydesigns

Blog Give Away

I'm working on my first ever blog give away - check back on Friday for details ;-)

Avatar No. 1

Avatar No. 1 - I've been told that this pic is too dark.

Avatar No. 2

Avatar No. 2 for shop I like the first one better but I've been told it's not bright enough.

Shop Banner No. 3

Choice number 3!

Shop Banner Number 2

Choice number 2 for my shop!

New Harvest Banner

New banner for my etsy shop kbaxterpackwood

Paragraph Structure

After all these years I'm still not sure why I'm not able to have seperated paragraphs on blogger!

Heart and Meaning Exercise

I've started some of the exercises in The Creative Entrepereneur by Lisa Sonora Beam. While coloring in my journal is a no brainer the questions are a lot harder to anwser than I anticipated. It's going to take some time to anwser them all -hmm maybe that's why it's called an impass in life?

The paint was still wet when I took this picture. Eventually I'll finish the writing, maybe in another journal the one I'm writing my business plan in, and will attach things to the pages in this one. Unlined Journal by Paper Chase.

Bird Harvest No. 2 WIP

In Progress 6x6 inches

Screen Printing with Natural Dyes Part two

Screen Printing with Natural Dyes

Making Gum Tragacanth Binder

Block Printing with Indigo

Natural Dye Video Uploads

I'm uploading more Mark Making with Nature out takes to my YouTube check it out!

Yellow me Mellow Treasury

My natural dyed trim was included in this rather mellow yellow treasury by jewelsbydesign

Balloons from Paris Treasury

My red violets merino wool was included in this gorgeous purple treasury by mistflowerphoto

Relax and Enjoy Treasury

My lavender lincoln locks were included in this lovely treasury by kingsQueens

Etsy Treasuries

I've actually missed capturing a few treasuries, I was show cased in, because thumbalizer wasn't working for a few days and it didn't occur to me to zoom out to capture the image .

Rose Garden Reverie Treasury

thank you to Faries Nest for including my silk carrier rods in this lovely treasury

For Those Who Whine about no sales on Etsy!

I'm going to be brutally honest here folks because quite frankly I'm tired of the whining!

First of y'all need to learn how to cull works that are dragging you down like or not, while it MAY be your favorite piece, it does not do you, the artist, justice. And PHOTOGRAPHY speaks volumes about you, the artist, as well as your work.

Most folks are using all sorts of "props" when photographing small items and it IS the undoing of those works! Get rid of the props!!! Take good clear photos and if need be crop it in a photo editing program and get rid of the white areas! You DON"T need rulers in your picture, period! Get rid of theruler and put the measurements in your description! Take an inviting enticing photo of your work from various angles an, angles that tell us a story about the color, texture, shape, and form of the piece.

Go look at any number of shops on etsy that have sold hundreds or thousands of items ALL similar to yours, and ask yourself WHY are their works selling and why aren't my works selling??? I'll give you the anwser

Photography!

Third - descriptions some of you need to work on your descriptions, most are very lacking. Again go look at those shops that are selling hundreds and thousands of items WHY are their items selling and yours are not? I'll give you the anwser

Descriptions!

Fill out your policies, I do NOT buy from anyone who does NOT have their policies filled out, period!

Use some caption breaks in your descriptions so it does not become monotonous**************** and `````````````````` and ~~~~~~~~~ etc.,

Fourth - Tags and Materials Some of you are NOT tagging properly or listing your materials in such a way that puts you at the top of the food chain.

Fifth - Blog, website, FaceBook (create a Fans Page on FB) Twitter, Flickr, etc., are all places where you can CULTIVATE a following. DO NOT SPAM folks with your listings WE SIMPLY DO NOT CARE! What we want to know is YOU!!! It's all about you baby and YOU are your artwork! Put the purchase info in your profile links we'll look for it or ask if we want it bad enough! And if you cultivate your following in the correct way you will have thousands of folks wanting it and badly check out TheBlackApple to get a feel for what I am talking about.

Sixth - local art fares, business cards with images of your works on them, postcards, with images of your works on them. Make them enticiing, subtract EVERYTHING that detracts from the item you sell.

Again there are those on etsy that have had hundreds and thousands of sales to NON-ETSY buyers! WHY??? Because they have created a following!

I don't bother trying to sell in the forums, though I do visit them from time to time. I've created a following through my blogs, websites, facebook, twitter, and group lists I belong to. I sell more work off list, because they saw it on Flickr or on my blog than I do on Etsy. I use Etsy as a place where I can sendthe curious that want to see what I sell, when they are wanting more than what I offer on my website.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Kitchen Sink Bottom

Here's the details from the bottom side of my new to me vintage kitchen sink! Ok dh keeps saying "it is new it's never been installed" Yup he's right!

Kitchen Sink!!!!

Let the kitchen remodel begin! We picked up a 40 year old sink today that had never been installed, what are the odds of that happening??? The sink is 20 x 42 inches with 9 inch deep bowls. I can fit my largest canner inside a bowl - I've waited years for this to happen. Anyway porcelain on cast iron, for a total cost of $75!!! Btw it's an American Standard Sink - see other post with pictures of sink bottom etc.

As soon as I find the windows for the new sink wall, we can gut the kitchen, do the wall repairs (we're replacing a door that is no longer used) etc., I will have a brand new to me kitchen! Everything, well except for the structural elements, has been salvaged, re-purposed or is vintage.

Peony Hosta Garden Update

Tomorrow we will mulch this garden with recycled pine bark maybe the fence will get put

in sometime soon as well!