Feb. in Stanley WI

Hard to find a spot to put all the new snow. We have been hit since late Jan. with a series of storms of heavy snow and terrible temps with low (-35) wind chills. Dec. was long and cloudy, and the beginning of Jan. seemed temperate by our standards. But wow, it's been an old timey kind of winter lately.

Yesterday I made it to our Muddy Sheep Wool club in White Bear Lake MN for a fantastic meeting with Roseann and friends. Last year we had a year long challenge to make a "Wool Book", which I was happy to tackle. We also have meeting challenges if we choose.  What I decided to do was buy an old hardcover book from our library's book sale, and tear it apart so I had the covers and spine.  I thought of making the book my challenge record whenever possible.
So I made a cover of wool, and using the "mandala" challenge did a design for the cover.

This also would be where I would put some to the charms that Roseann gives during the year!  The next design that worked in book format was "what's in your cup" so I made a garden.

We had a pineapple theme, so I did a pyramid of sheep with a pineapple on top!

And then a sunflower for the fall!  How I love the sunflowers in my garden in Stanley. It was always such a challenge in Saint Germain to keep them growing since we didn't have alot of full sun areas and the deer, while not eating the sunflowers, loved to crop them and drop them. Very mean of them.

Now it's 2019 and another wonderful year of Muddy Sheep! Our challenge was "what came first, the chicken or the egg?" I couldn't decide so made this!

And as you can see I have lots of pages to fill yet.

 

It is such a difference working with natural wool and cushing dyes, then poof! beautiful colors of soft sexy wool!  Easy to get overload as I look at the recipes and try to make a choice of what next!

I wish I could match Eddie's beautiful color combos!

This is a very important event for Barry, his book published, after years of work and tears.  The fictionalized story of a teen living in Iron Mountain Mi who, with a school friend, wins an award for wilderness camping survival. They journey to Ely MN and work as assistant guides at an outfitter for part of the summer, and the best part of all is camping with their teacher by end of summer out in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

life in stanley year one

 

well, it's been a year almost. and we are surviving in stanley wi, learning life in a little farming town has many blessings.
still doing some shows with Barry's baskets, and I'm learning the art of hand dyeing wool fabric. still selling my pottery that I had left on my etsy shop and adding wool listings too.
we have lovely neighbors, quiet street, (no more state hwy out our door) and a tidy little cottage with a new furnace/ac and many updates that we had put in prior to moving. we are blessed. the town has things like a rodeo with bucking broncos and cowboys, a fun library and a great pizza place.
stay tuned for more .......