An Ornament Adoption Fundraiser!

I have an adoption fundraiser going right now in my Raverlry group. http://www.ravelry.com/groups/ever-improving-me All ornaments have been donated and the bidding starts at $5/ornament then increases by $1 bids. Please check it out or share to help out. You can also view the ornaments in my facebook photo album here http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.511005108930291.117647.505056599525142&type=3 and let me know if you would like to bid on anything. all current bids are listed with the photos. Thank you for donating, bidding, or sharing!

3 Weeks until Tom goes off to Bootcamp

We are getting down to the wire now. Tom feels pretty prepared to go off to boot camp. I am feeling easier about it too. I will miss him terribly but I am already working on feeling up my days to keep busy. I will still Nanny 2 days a week. I will hopefully also get a part time waitressing job. I interviewed and the atmosphere of the place is great so I am hopeful that I will hear back a positive this week. I also plan on learning Spanish or at least starting to learn while he is gone. I have the Pimsleur Spanish phase 1 to try. I will see how good the course is before committing to more money for it. I have always wanted to learn a foreign language though so I am pretty excited.

Tom plans on working for about 2 more weeks then we will go visit family before he leaves. We are looking at this as a very positive step forward in our life. I will be reaching out to friends and family while he is away to help when I get lonely and miss him. Thankfully we will get to write each other and he will get a few phone calls while away. 

Wishing to Adopt

I created this wish at WishUponaHero. Please read and share with as many people as you can. I truly believe the more this wish spreads the better our chances of adopting are.

We would very much like to adopt a healthy baby. I am putting this wish up in hopes someone will be able to fulfill our dreams of having a family. I am unable to have children due to medical issues. We believe we would be great parents who know that children are a blessing. If you are someone or know someone who is thinking of putting a baby up for adoption I hope you will consider us.

My husband is joining the Navy so we will have a fairly stable and secure life. I am going back to college to be a social worker. We are both nice, loving and stable people with so much love in our hearts for the baby who will eventually come to us. We are hoping to adopt a healthy baby and that is really all we care about. Boy or girl doesn't matter, we will love either.

We are also listing with an agency Angel Adoption next year but fees for agencies are expensive. We have set up a GoFundMe page to raise the fees for adoption. here is the link http://www.gofundme.com/crko8 so you can also help us accomplish our goal of raising $5000 for the initial payment to Angel Adoption. We have raised $100 of the fee so far. Please share this wish because we feel the more people it reaches the better our chance of adopting.

Thank you for reading,
Johanna & Tom Spalding

www.gofundme.com/crko8

Its Fiber Friday!

I am working at my friends shop The Tangled Yarn in Nicolasville, KY this week and next. Today I have been picking some locks to make dryer balls. I am also washing a very lovely Cormo fleece that I have plans on dyeing up and maybe making into batts. I am also making batts since I am so very low on them. I have some festivals coming up so I am trying to stock up not only on my online shop but for the festivals. I am also adding some new products to my shop. I plan on adding soaps, dryer balls, and more project bags. I am really wanting to expand what I do to bring in more business. If anyone has ideas I would love to hear them. I hope everyone is doing grand. My life is pretty great right now! big hugs to everyone!

Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival

This weekend is the Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival! Come and see me in the LunaBudKnits Booth. I hanging out with Stephanie this time and I am pretty excited! Friday, June 1, 12pm - 6pm & Saturday, June 2, 9am - 5pm at the Johnson County Fairgrounds, 250 Fairground St., Franklin, IN 46131

I would love to see anyone who will be at the festival!

Kentucky Sheep & Fiber Festival this weekend!

This weekend is the Kentucky Sheep & Fiber Festival. I will be assisting the lovely and talented Roo in the Moonwood Farm booth and I will be bringing some of my stuff too. I would love it if you came by to see us! We will be in the Ag Pavilion Building in booths 1 & 2 along with Elizabeth of the Spotted Circus. We are going to have a lot of fun! Hope to see you there!

Fiber Festivals in May I will be attending

I will at the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival May 18-20. I will also be at the Middle TN Fiber Festival May 25-26. I hope to see you at one of them! I will be in the Moonwood Farm booth helping the wonderful Roo out! I am bringing a wide variety of things with me. Here is a list of what I have prepared so far:
52 Batts
35 Hand Dyed Yarn
2 Pencil roving
1 Silk Hankie
41 Stitch Markers
32 kitty Kisses Hand tied yarn
48 Fabric Flower Pin Kits
34 Felted Soap Kits
4 Double sided shawl
1 Scarf

I am still working on
1 Triangle Shawl
34 Yarns in the process of being dyed
? Batts that I can make in the next few weeks. Though honestly not that many as I am doing full time Nanny work for a bit.

My stuff is all labeled and ready to go so the rest of the stuff will be labeled as it is finished to be taken to the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival in a bit under 2 weeks! Wow time has just flown for me. I am also planning some other festivals later this summer and fall. I will have considerably more merchandize at those festivals as I will have had more time to prepare for them.

I am feeling pretty excited because besides Roo of Moonwood Farm, Elizabeth of Spotted Circus will also be there. We will be having a special booth coupon that will be good for any of our stuff. If you are able to please do stop by and say hi, introduce yourself if we have not gotten to meet yet. I love meeting new people at the festivals. My online shops will reopen after the festivals in May so no fear there! I just found that I could not prepare for the festival and maintain my online shop at the same time. If you are not able to go to the festivals I hope we at least get to talk online. I am on Ravelry often enough. I also have my newsletter though I have to say I am not that great about sending them out. (probably as good as I am at keeping my blog active lol). Finally you can find me on Facebook to say hi! I will resume custom orders in June. Thanks to everyone who reads this blog!

I will be at the Vintage Creations on Lime Spring Sidewalk Sale & Artist's Market

SPRING SIDEWALK SALE & ARTIST’S MARKET
Vintage Creations on Lime located at 712 N. Limestone, Lexington; Will be hosting this Sidewalk sale & Artist’s Market on Saturday, March 31st, 2012. This is an outdoor event, and rain date will be set if weather is not permitting. Hours of the Sale are 11am-4pm. So if you live near or in Lexington come and say hi. I will have a table there with some yarn and batts and probably my kick spindle. Hope to see you soon!

Phatfiber Box Drop weekend sale!

Visit EverImprovingMe's Studio

SAVE 25% Off All Items

Use Coupon Code:

PHATSCIENCE

during checkout.

Handmade Soap

Fiber Prep Class March 10, 2-5pm In Winchester KY

This Saturday March 10th from 2-5. I am teaching the Fiber Prep class in Winchester. I know a few of you asked to be reminded. The cost is $28. you will get to use hand cards, comb & hackle, an art hackle, and a drum carder. I will provide fiber to play with. There will also be fiber available to buy so that you can make your own batt to take home and spin or felt. If you are interested just let me know and I can have a spot for you. We will have a lot of fun. There will also be a small fiber washing demo. Thanks!

I am making Reusable Sandwich bags again!

I have redesigned my pattern to make a better reusable sandwich bag. The new bags will not have velcro but buttons instead. I believe this will make them easier to wash and dry with out getting food or fibers stuck to the velcro. They should be in the shop later this week! Look for more sewn items in my shop as the year progresses! I hope you are all having a great week, so far mine is looking amazing!

My Shop is Open Again

I took a bit of time to get organized and I am back with some changes. I took some time to look at my goals:

* Adopt a baby
* Save Money
* Build a successful business
* Be a better friend
* Workout & Get Healthy
* Go To Festivals

I have just listed the ones that really pop into my mind. In order to accomplish everything I want I have decided to take my business to part time. What does this really mean for the business? Well I will list things as I make them, though I probably won't have a lot of inventory all the time. I won't be doing as many custom orders. The custom orders that I do will have time limits that work for me. My clubs will now run quarterly. The next club is from March - May and it is already full. I will list the June - August club for sale in mid April and I will only have so many slots available.

Setting better limits to my business will help me be able to improve the quality and timeliness of what I make and send out. In addition to Batts, Roving, and Yarn I now have Bags, and Stitch markers in my shop. More sewn and hand made items will be added as I decide what I want to make and carry. I also plan on having a portion of profits go to the Adoption Fund. I am planning on having certain items in the shop whose profits go only to the adoption fun. To even begin the process we need to raise $5000 to start the contract with the adoption agency. We plan on using Angel Adoption. To help raise the money we have also started a GoFundMe page. If you want to help us with adoption costs you can donate money, link to my page, help fill my baby hope chest, or buy from my shop. Any help is appreciated.

I have some pretty good ideas about how this year will go business wise and personal wise. We are working towards our goals as we can. To help build my business I plan on continuing to create the best products that I can. I also plan to go to Fiber Festivals and to be more proactive online. I have several new and fun threads in my Ravelry group to help it become more active. I also have 2 fiber festivals lined up already. I plan on going to the Fiber and Music Festival on May 12-13 in Charlestown, IN. I will also be going to the Wine & Wool Festival at Sandhill Crane Vineyards on July 28th in Jackson, MI. There will probably be more added but for now this is what I have. Thanks for reading!

How are you?

I have decided lately that I really want to get to know people. My friends are the ones who really help me get through those tough times in life. I want to spend time getting to know people better. I think I only touch the edges of knowing a lot people at times because I can be a bit stand offish. So Tell me something here, would ya? I want to know about you!

Craftsy meet up party at Enchanted Yarn, Jan 26, 2012

This week I am working out of Enchanted Yarn Shop in Clarksville, TN. The owner is RoLynn and she is one of the absolute nicest people you will ever meet! I have been helping to gear up for the Craftsy meetup Party tonight at 5:30pm. So far there are 67 people RSVP'ed!!! That is simply incredible but goes to show what sort of shop she has. They were #1 in the whole world for RSVPs for the party! It just sort of blows me away.

If you have not heard about the Craftsy parties let me tell you a bit. Etsy has a learning/teaching side called Craftsy. They are trying to promote crafting, and learning and get the community involved which I think is pretty cool. This is the first major meet up but I do believe they plan on doing it monthly. Anyone can host a meet up so its a great way to meet other crafters in your area.

What happens is you register to host a party like Enchanted Yarn shop did, then people can RSVP or just show up. You think about something you know how to make and then write or find instructions on how to do it. You bring 20 copies to the party to help others to learn how to make something new and fun. Its that simple! I plan on hosting one in my area next month and I hope to see you there!

You can find Enchanted Yarn shop online, on Ravelry, and on Facebook. Of course you can also visit the shop in person at 2327 Madison Street Clarksville, TN 37043, or call the shop at (931) 553-9000.

A treasury for the hope chest!

I made a treasury that is a wishlist for my baby hope chest.

Help us Adopt!

Hi everybody! I have finally started the page for fundraising for our adoption process. I tried to think of the major things to list in the Wish List area so you can see what our costs are and what we are wanting funds for. There are several ways you can help.

* Make a donation
* Buy something in the Bag’s for a Baby section. Half of all profits from this section will go to the adoption fund where the other half will be reinvested into the business.
* Link to my donation page so that others can see it
* Send me something for my baby hope chest or nursery

I think I have pretty much covered it but please feel free to add to this list. I really want to be well on my way to adding to our family by the end of the year. Thank you!

This year we plan to Adopt and Rebuild my business.

We are working towards adoption, and would love to have your help! We want to get into a more financially secure position so that we can adopt without worry. Having my business improve and succeed is so important because it will allow me to stay home with my future children while still making an income. We have set up a donation page through GoFundMe to work towards this goal.

I want to improve my business. Eventually I would love to open up my very own brick and mortar shop down the line. For now I really want to build my business back up to become self sustaining while at the same time work on getting ourselves ready to bring home a future baby. I want to replenish my supplies and improve my efficiency. I have some limitations that currently impact my life and my business. There are so many things that could help from little to grand. This goal is not just for donations, this is also a working goal for us to hit as a family.

This year I want to do several things that require a good amount of money. I have over 100lbs of wool that I would love to get washed professionally so that I can dye it and make batts up. I would love to get a motorized drum carder to save my right arm and shoulder. There are lots of little things I would love to get for my business like more dye pans, move gloves, and different colors of dye. I also want to replenish my wool, yarn, and combed tops and odds & ends for my batts.

The other thing we want to start doing is working towards having a nursery. We want things like cloth diapers, crib sets, bibs, diaper stackers, things that we will be able to use once we have completed the adoption process.

If you can help in any way I really appreciate it. You can help either through donation or through buying products from my shop. I sell drum carded batts, hand dyed roving, and yarn. I also sell sewn goods and batt add ins. Thank you for reading this and thank you for your help!

I have closed my shops to reorganize, estimated reopen in Feb

I have closed my shops online to reorganize them and I plan on reopening them in Feb. I just wanted to make a blog about it in case someone goes looking and sees them shut down. I did leave my sandwich bag pattern up since that is an emailed PDF pattern. If there are things you hope to see in the new shop line up please let me know. I plan on having a section for adoption funds. I plan on having self striping yarns in the following colorways:
Mad Science Experiment that is black light reactive: Electric Violet, Neon Yellow, Chartreuse
Oh for the Love of Goth!: Black, Red
What if Ms Piggy & Kermit had kids? : Green, Hot Pink
Ice Pirates: Black, Purple, Grey
80s Child: Aqua, Lime Green, Hot Pink, Black
October’s Party: Golden Yellow, Moss Green, a bit of Red, and Brown.

There will be more but those are certain.