On Monday I dyed. A lot. I had some yarn that looked a bit like a Hawaiian lei so I did some in red, white, and blue, also a different set in rainbow. I dyed up some silk yarn and also some blue sock yarn. The blue sock yarn is every shade of blue I had premixed in my dye cabinet. It turned out nice, and I can’t wait to see it reskeined. Today I had my slave driver friend, Jeanetta come over and help me play with all the silk scarves I ordered. We dyed 20 things! All that is pictured is the scarves. Once the bags dry I will be sure to share. Some of them turned out fantastic, others look a little like mud was slung across the dye room, but ahhhhh well…it was fun to have four hands!
The velour and silk was a very interesting fabric to play with. Above you see it in blue (which I adore!) below it is in chocolate. With the blue, brown, and red today we did sets so I will have them with small key chain/cardholder bags, and a bit larger makeup size bag. All with the silk velour. It is quite stunning to see the way the light hits them.

Tons of scarves for Toad Suck Daze. The red above is in Razorback Red!

We managed to survive the morning with very little injuries. Surprising with Luke and Brady jumping off the top bunk bed onto a mattress pulled off the lower bunk bed on the floor…I was the only one injured. I managed to stick a wooden skewer right into the middle of my forehead. The darn thing actually stuck. Once I pulled it out, it really didn’t bleed too bad…but I laughed so hard I was wiping away the tears and holding my side. Darn wooden skewers. I am really beyond beat though. I am ready for a nap…and my poor hands need a rest. Hope your crafting endeavors are successful and pleasing today, and watch out for skewers. ♥

My family has an interesting history for April Fool’s Day. We love to play jokes on one another and the day is too much fun for the most part! This year…my creative wheels have not been spinning in the tricky department…so I figured I would share April Fool’s 2004.

It is amazing what you can do with food coloring. My kids were babies and I was new to the parenting thing. I figure what better prank to play on my six year old and one year old, than make them think they were getting cupcakes for dinner.

I took metal cupcake holders and made little mini meatloaves. Then I made up some mashed potatoes and placed them in three separate bowls. I colored each bowl with a few drops of food coloring and I had made frosting!
So, they weren’t the prettiest cupcakes in the world…but to a six year old this was the best dinner EVER!
The plates were set, the dinner started. I got a few weird looks when I had the camera out, but hey…he’s six! Then he said “Umm….what kind of frosting is this?”
After a really good laugh, the boys enjoyed their April Fool’s Cupcakes.
What better dessert to have then Chicken Nuggets, Mashed Potatoes N Gravy, and peas and carrots? I mean…they had to have dessert after such trickery.

If you haven’t guessed yet, the chicken nuggets were Carmel, mashed potatoes…ice cream, gravy…Carmel topping, and peas and carrots….skittles.

Hope you all have a lovely Tricky April Fool’s Day…as for me and the family, who knows what’s for dinner tonight! ♥

So much to post about! You may want to get some coffee for this one. First off, this week has been a blast and a nightmare all together. The kids were off for Spring Break and Todd had to work this weekend. That adds up to WAY too many hours of boys without any extra adult help. So, what can a girl do but dye! I got a new batch of yummy roving in all types of blends. The below picture just does not capture the true beauty of this roving. I painted it in a very soft shade of green. The roving is a tencel/superwash merino blend and looks shiny and silky and just totally delicious. Jeanetta and her crew came over on Thursday…which was just way too much fun (to say the least) and she declared this roving, once spun needed to be called “It’s Not Easy Being Green” I had to agree…so here is it’s debut. Once I get it finished in all it’s spun up glory I will post more pics. This one maybe super tricky to catch it’s glory so it most likely will not go up on Etsy…but be saved as stock for Toad Suck Daze.

Saturday was an absolute joy! My Aunt Donna and cousin Allison came up from Benton with an fun group of ladies. They called it a Knitting Field trip. The ladies were yarn-a-holics and were definitely my kind of gals! Jeanetta graciously agreed to hang out as well to help me answer questions and to show off her amazing work too. Her nests and artwork were a hit, and I hope the ladies do take a “Field Trip” to her shop in Little Rock. If any of you are “stalking” the blog (haha) feel free to post a comment!

I set up several tables around and gave them a “yarn making experience tour”. One table had processed yarn still on cones, one had roving in many fiber contents and blends, one table had my current limited stock on hand painted and handspun yarns. Then I gave them a painted yarn example and dyed up a boucle, my favorite, in greens, blues, and yellow. I was feeling rather springy. Here it is…it has not been reskeined yet, but once it has I will be sure to show off more photos.

After the ladies took me to the new yummy restaurant, Gusano’s. I came home and set the yarn. I really loved the colors once they were all set. I figured I had some left over dye still blended up, so I did a few experiments. I just recently got more silk fabrics to play with. Scarves, sarongs, makeup bags, and some with crushed velvet. Here is one of the quilted makeup bags:

I also have tiny little crushed velvet n silk card holders with zippers. This did not dye up the way I expected it to. I will be throwing this one back on the painting board to give it some more color. The inside ended up showing off the most beautiful shade of green, it’s what I expected the outside to do…but everyone knows I love to play with my dyes, so this one too will be updated later.
So here the spring trio together. Too much fun!
Lastly, I have been working on the AREtsy handouts to go in the Toad Suck Sacks (goody bags) we will hand out for free during Toad Suck Daze. Here is what I have come up with so far. I really like it. I wanted it to be in Black N White to take it easy on the ole printer.