Wondering Wednesdays #7

December 30, 2015mulchandmorecrafts 3 Comments

For this wondering Wednesday I’m turning the keyboard over to our resident cat “G-Dog” to share his thoughts with you;

Meow, I’m usually quite quiet, and keep my wonderings to myself, but tonight I’ll make an exception.

As New Year’s Eve is fast approaching, I’m wondering why humans seem to make it such a “Big Deal”? If they aren’t busy planning for a big celebration (my humans aren’t) they are busy making lists and plans for the beginning of the New Year (mine are). I’m wondering why one particular day should be a “changing point”? I like things to stay the same, on my pre-conceived schedule, with all these lists, some things may start to change? grrr….

G-Dog giving Mom the paw!

As a cat, I’m happy that I get fed several times a day, usually whenever I use my paw to attract attention to an empty dish. Sometimes they don’t understand and I get an ear scratched instead. But if the paw doesn’t work, when the teeth replace it they get the message!

Getting closer to using teeth

Then I sit patiently watching to make sure they follow through, and place the dish exactly where I like it…purr.

Watching

Yes, that’s the right way.

I sometimes try to read minds, and stare at them as hard as I can, wondering what they are planning next?

What ARE you thinking?

Other times I give up, realizing they haven’t developed the skill needed to read my mind yet. I’m wondering if they ever will?

Meanwhile, thanks for listening, remain your purrfect selves and hurry back next week/year. And please add anything that you might be wondering about in a comment….otherwise I think Mom’s mind may be set on talking about more crafts, instead of letting me play ~~kitten~~ old cat on the keyboard!

Oh well, I’ll try again later, maybe

Resolutions or Goals?

December 28, 2015mulchandmorecrafts 4 Comments

Happy New Year!

As the New Year fast approaches, many are busy making resolutions, or reviewing the almost past old year. This year I’ve decided to try a new approach!

To me there is a difference between resolutions and goals.

Resolutions usually involve an abrupt change in behavior (such as losing weight, stopping a bad habit etc.) but doesn’t break these changes into steps or prepare to implement them. It’s just saying that starting New Year’s Day I am going to ………….!

Goals,on the other hand, involve making lists, prioritizing the objectives, listing the steps to meet these objectives, and having incremental ways of measuring how close you are getting to the final goals.

Goals sound like a lot more work, but also more apt to succeed in obtaining the desired result. It’s not an overnight test of will-power that if you fail you quit, but more of an endurance test, to see how close you can come to making permanent changes (in life-style, habits, or business)

As you may have gathered, I have started preparing my business goals for 2016! It is a growing list of sub-topics (or how I plan to achieve these goals), but most of my actions will be toward these three main headings:

Continue to build web-site
Increase Inventory
Increase Sales
Now I need to get out of this list mode! Maybe I do need to add one more-LEARN MORE computer skills! If anyone can help please leave me a comment and I will edit this to finish it the way I had planned?? I’ll leave it to another day to maybe add some parts of my sub-lists:)

Wondering Wednesdays #6 Art or Craft?

December 23, 2015December 24, 2015mulchandmorecrafts 3 Comments

Art or Craft? I have often wondered how to classify the things I make. Are they crafts? Are they art?

I have no problem recognizing the works that my husband and son create as Art! They are each talented artists. However, in my mind, the things I create I consider crafts. Yes I use different color combinations and techniques, and much of what I make is one of a kind or limited editions, BUT that doesn’t mean it’s “art”. After all they are not a painting or a soft sculpture!

Then I ran across this article which I recognized as the writing style of an on-line friend. I contacted Sandi for permission to include her article here;

Metal wheel worker

“In the 1850s, if you needed a new shirt, you made it; if a stirrup on a saddle broke, you crafted a new one; to celebrate a wedding, ladies would gather, bringing all of their scraps to create a quilt for the newly-married couple. Socks and scarves were knit or crocheted by firelight; knives and farm implements were hand-shaped from cast iron. The term “artist” was applied to those involved in traditional art forms – painting, sculpture, the theater.

Many of the skills needed to maintain a homestead in the 1850s are considered art forms today. Beginning in 2014, Frontier Homestead will endeavor to bring artists working in these various fields together, to present living exhibits of the historical past.”

After reading this, I am beginning to change my viewpoint. Maybe my husband is right and I can be considered an artist too?

What hobbies or crafts or arts do you pursue? In what category do you consider the items that you make? Everyone has a talent, I wonder what is yours?

And as Christmas is fast approaching, I want to wish each of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

WIP are now FO!

December 19, 2015December 19, 2015mulchandmorecrafts Leave a comment

This is the follow up on my works in progress, which are now finished objects. Plus I’ve started another hat to felt from some multi-colored hand spun that I’ve always liked and wanted to see how the colors would look when knit. I know when felted the colors will become less distinct, but should still be unique. (And I’m happy that the colors came out very accurate in the picture, the other pictures I’ll apologize for in advance, I really need to make a decent light box.)

Work in Progress, hat to felt

The infinity scarf, before and after;

Cowl on needles

Due to the gauge of the yarn, it came out longer, and I think two solid or heather colors would show the pattern to better advantage,however it is wearable. But I do like the diagonal enough that I experimented in making a semi-matching hat (same diagonal,but in only one color), and I wrote down what I did so I should be able to repeat the hat in different colors.

What I am doing 041-1

Next the hats that I felted, the brown is off in color (IRL a dark reddish brown) and I still plan to add a band into the loops you can see.

brown wide brim hat to felt

The narrow brimmed one is really fuzzy, thanks to the mohair blended into the wool.

gold and light brown(mohair &wool) with dark wool band to felt

The blue hat I made for myself. It’s the perfect weight for the unseasonably warm weather we were having. We now have 3 inches of snow so I went back to wearing one of my felted hats for greater warmth.

The two felted ones (above) will be priced ($60 each) and added to my craft show inventory. I do plan on taking better pictures, writing descriptions to include measurements and having them available for on-line customers too. If anyone has an interest please contact me through the contact page. I don’t list the things on this shop or this shop that are in my craft show inventory, just to avoid a possible duplicate sale of a one of a kind item.

Wondering Wednesdays-#5

December 15, 2015mulchandmorecrafts 3 Comments

Wondering Cat Wednesday!

G-Dog (yes, that’s the name he came to us with) is wondering when a cat is supposed to sleep?

for blogging 101 059-1

He’s curled up on his favorite end of the couch wondering when the flashing light is going to stop?

for blogging 101 058-1

Meanwhile I’m wondering when my camera is going to work well enough to take the pictures I want to make the posts I had planned. The memory card stopped working and I lost a lot of the pictures I had…(lesson learned empty camera often!) Now something else has come up and I won’t be able to start shooting new ones for a few days.

I’m also wondering how people manage to plan and write posts drafts ahead so they have something to fall back on when life and plans don’t coincide? Once I write something I want to post it before I rethink it too much? Anyone else have these problems? And rethinking this, why aren’t I still talking about our cat? Maybe I need a cat nap?

Wondering Wednesday #4

December 9, 2015mulchandmorecrafts Leave a comment

On my introductory Wondering Wednesday lisamariagardiner left the comment “A bit deep and meaningful but I’m seriously wondering what the future will be like for my children x” I don’t have answers for you, or any of us, but I will try to express my thoughts on your topic, a topic that really affects all of us.

As the world seems to grow more unstable it is difficult to predict what the future may bring. Many changes that they will see are beyond our control…I think back to the changes my grandparents saw in their lifetimes–in transportation; from horse and buggy to man walking on the moon—in world events; WWI, the Great Depression, WWII, etc. My generation learned to use a manual typewriter in school and now struggles to navigate the world wide web! And with the “Cold War” didn’t really expect the world to survive until the turn of the century! Worrying about these changes, that the ordinary person has little if any control over, can be very non-productive.

As parents all we can do is prepare our children to become self-sufficient, to think for themselves, to care for themselves, and hope they make wise decisions with the tools we’ve tried to impart.

We have to realize that we can’t lead their lives for them, and that their choices may or may not be what we would have chosen for them, anymore than some of our choices were what our parents wanted for us. We may want stability while they want exploration and adventure. Their “ideal job” might be something that we would hate doing. But we must learn when to support their choices and when to offer help if it is needed.

And on a different note; I’m wondering where time is flying to? Wednesday is here and almost gone and I didn’t get any new pictures taken (but the infinity scarf is off the needles, still needs the ends finished and blocking before I can show a pic.)

And as always, I welcome your comments about what you are wondering about?

After The Last Craft Show of This Year

December 7, 2015December 7, 2015mulchandmorecrafts 3 Comments

IMG_20151205_223942_703

This is how we felt…..Luckily the dog moved before I climbed into bed!

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It was a much smaller show than I thought when I signed up. We did mange to break even, and had the fun of staying two nights with family! But it was a lot of moving candles around (it was too cold to leave them in the vehicle overnight so they had to be carried into the house each evening)

Next will be making out our schedule for next year’s shows!

Wondering Wednesdays #3

December 2, 2015mulchandmorecrafts 9 Comments

Today I’ve decided to share what I am wondering about.

I recently found a free knitting pattern here that I really liked the looks of and decided to try with some of my hand spun yarn. I chose two skeins that co-ordinate, one a dark navy blue, the other the navy plied with a single of gray and light blue.

Hand Spun Wool

I’m on row 9 of 21 and I’m wondering how it is going to look? Should I have chosen yarn with more contrast? As you can see from the work on my needles, it’s too crowded on the 32 inch needles to really tell exactly how it will look when finished. So I will keep knitting and maybe try a different color combination for another one. It is a fun pattern.