Wacky Funster

It doesn't work for me :( Just a blank screen :(

I will never, EVER go into a Walmart...we don't even have them here...!!! Commercialism of Christmas is just one more way the world has brainwashed the people .... to spend spend spend... The whole country is brainwashed from Britney Spears and who the hell cares about Jessica Simpsondom....to C.Rice constantly lying to the people about the illegal activity of our government...to a bogus hype to shop for Christmas. Best hide your head in the sand and have an original thought for yourself!!! and get a life that's worth living. The perfect "Christmas" present is your presence period...for your family and friends and all who love you.

The Antedote: 1 Wacky Funster 12:14 For lo, my brethren, sup out on deck with a loved one on the full moon of the sixth month eating pepperoni and sausage pizza (hark! hold the anchovies!!!) to relinquish unwanton tunes in the noggin...after proclaiming your undying love. My stuck tune is always "we all live in a yellow submarine......HA? A yellow submarine....wha? A yellow submarine...." yada yada yada

piece a cake...thanks :)

Anyone here interested in doing a geneology search, and seeing if it's a distant cousin...???

Happy Happy Birthday Hawkeye!!! Miss you... Wacky O' :)

Who's James Martindale?

Happy Happy Birthday and Fine Libations, Digig!!!! flowers((((((Digi)))))))flowers So glad you are doing so well!!!!! Miss you!!!!! Wacky O'

Holy Moly Paw!!!! I've been away!!!! Hope it was a blast of a day!!! What did you do? Love, Wacky O'

Yeah!!!! Rochyrococo!!!!! I've missed you alot... Welcome Back!! (altho I'm rarely around anymore myself)... :) :) :)

I must add this. Although self employment is a financial drain.... ...my quality of life couldn't be better.... ...and my stress level is about nil....

Psalmy...sorry to break this to you, but, you need your foot to spin...and you need it to bob up and down for hours!!!!! hehehhehe Felting's cool tho. I make my gnomne heads in less than an hour and about 1/2 ounce of wool...I charge $28 each or 2/$50. It's great.... !!!

Well, I had NASE, Linda...and I remember your warning on another thread.... 8 years ago I was payihg $1600. This year it would have ben $4860!!! For next to nothing...altho they did pay for half of all my crowns these past few years and 2 cleanings and half my prescriptions...but, it surely isn't worth the cost anymore. Good thing you ducked, Garth!!!!

I guess I can chime in my $.02!!! I've been self employed for almost 15 years. When I was teaching, I would clean a few houses after school to supplement my income. Moving around with the way (choke choke) surely makes people hiring you question your stability. I started housecleaning 3 houses a day, 5 days a week. I did that for about 13 years...until my body just couldn't take it full time anymore... And it looks good, doesn't it? Like I'm making dangloads of money, doesn't it??? Nada and ditto what Linda said....keep the day job ;) I now am a massage therapist, have a little cottage office, business is up and down with the seasons... I am absolutely miffed at all the money I DON'T HAVE!!! but, I'm single...you and your hubby will have 2 incomes coming in. It's just about impossible to make ends meet anymore. Gas is up, elec. is up, oil is up, taxes have doubled as my overinflated house has tripled in price (that whole scam in the real estate is such a crock!)...food is going up 4%. This year I had to drop my health insurance. At $5000, I figure someone won't let me die on the street...some hospital will take me in. I'm starting to feel like a poor person. That I'm looking to get from the system now. I recently applied for "free care" in the state, and hope to get some lipitor at fraction of a cost from the drug company. Not to mention quarterly taxes...oy vey....and house payments and house insurance and property taxes... I am truly getting overwhelmed....and as I get older, I'm tired of working so much...and yet, I have to work more to make ends meet!!!! I'm tired of budgeting....I can hardly take off, because I haven't the money. I've cut out movies and going out to eat...I have no cable.... I think self employment sucks.

The best thing to do for real time consuming things is make kits. Candle kits, knitting kits, beading kits... People buy them. So, krys...if you make something unique, stock up on the ingredients, have an example, and sell a kit wrapped in pretty ribbon... Amazing how those things go.

I dunno Linda...I'll read up on it and let you know... Last weekend I was up in Vermont learning to do felted landscapes... I had such a blast...and was blown away at the beautiful creations (yes creations ;) ) I made...I not only learned wet felting, but needle felting over it for texture. Today I drove a friend up to Boston to the hospital. I figured while I was waiting, I'd do some needle felting. I bought a little book on felting gnomes....and some woman was watching me the whole time. Just as we were leaving she asked the cost of them (I hadn't even gotten that far!!!) and ordered 6 from me...at $20 a pop.... I couldn't believe it.... I think people really appreciate handmade things that are earthy looking. I think people are tired of all the crap "made in China"...at least that's the feedback I'm getting. Better to pay a little more for quality, and supporting our local artists and farms, than buy crap from China. How are the candles coming? Where did everyone go?

M.Stewart is on NBC now. I won a drop spindle this weekend at my fiber retreat....!!! Psalmy...you're gonna love it!!! Yes...it's ok to blend wool with cat/dog hair. It's OK to do just about anything you want to!!! You can give everything a try...there are no wrongs and no rights!!! It's all fair game. That's the beauty of spinning...and there's no end to it!!! :)

dmiller..you're a hoot!!! I just collected 3 bagfuls of lichen...there was a field of it and , being a good doo bee, I did leave acres for prosterity...I can't wait to dye it!!! I've been drying marigolds...have about 5 pounds of them now. I just purchased 3 books on dyeing mushrooms!!!! Oy vey...it goes on and on, doesn't it? I just met some heritage of the pilgrims....they run a museum on the banks here....they were so excited when they saw all my yarns at the local art center... They have an iron kettle set up by the old museum house...this old woman knows EVERYTHING about dyeing this stuff!!! I can't wait to hang with her. Wow...your wife was lucky to have you. Did she ever dye birch bark? I haven't yet, but can't wait. I grew indigo plants and dyer's knotweed in my garden this year. My first indigo batch came out aqua, and was gorgeous. The second batch I did failed, but I think it's because I waited til October to harvest the leaves and the dye must have gone from them, I suppose....dunno. This weekend I am going to Vermont to be with nationally renowned spinners and dyers...I will bring some lichen and cranberries...and have heaps of fun with the peops!!! I love this stuff!!!! Thanks dmiller...for restoring my faith!!! :) P.S. I just finished weaving a 7' shawl made with queen anne's lace, goldenrod, tansy, onions, cranberries, black eyed susan, marigolds, mullen and lilies of the valley. It will be on my website as soon as I run it down to the woman who does it for me. It's phenomenal...and there's nothing like homespun and homedyed...doncha think?

I SPIN DOG HAIR!!!!! People love it!!! I only charge $10/hr, which is far more than plumbers, doctors, housecleaners get...so, I think it's fair. I have a box of it coming by mail to me this week from god knows where...someone found me...so, spin dog I go!!! Hey, the pet market is HUGE...I may as well cash in on it... Psalmie- wish you lived near me...we could hang and spin. I go all day. Have you heard of drop spindling? You can buy a nice hand made wood one pretty inexpensively and do a little spinning at home. If not, you can make a drop spindle from an old CD, a dowel, a cup hook and off you go!!!! It perfect for kids. Did you know famous artists in the 1600's and on had their own personal spinner and weaver? Flax was spun into linen, then the weaver would weave the painter's canvas...de Vinci had them...they all had them!!!!! Just think about it. Before the industrial revolution, there was no electricity or factories to make any fabrics!!! The king of England had each household spin and weave 32 pounds of wool a year or they were fined!!!! Digi...I could make you a rowana (sp) with a hood...it would take me a while-perhaps a month- and more expensive if you wanted me to spin the wool too. Or perhaps you would like cashgora? or kid mohair locks...I figure, if you're gonna spend the money, get the best. I have some absolutely gorgeous kid locks from 6 month old goats....it's softer than goose down and cashmere doesn't even compare to it. It's costly to spin tho, as I stretch it by boucleing it (spun 3 times-one over thread the second with metallics...)...or a poncho with a hood would be cool too. You could buy your own yarns and send them to me, or I can spin up anything you wanted. There is nothing like homespun. By the time the factories have mutilated the wool via carding it to death to make it "perfect" for consumption (you know how us buyers are!!!) and dyeing it, it's really no longer true wool. Anyways... I don't put my yarns on the website...just examples of them. Most of those have been sold. The cashmere shawl/ with the silk boucle- see that one? I brought that to Martha Stewart's house last Easter as a gift- I still haven't heard from her...but, don't be surprised if you see my on her tv show one day. I taught one of her staff to spin last summer when she was up here visiting her relatives. I've also written "where in the world is Matt Lauer" offering to spin silk in China, Alpaca in Peru, Wool in Scotland, goats in Switzerland...yada yada yada...I hope they pick me to travel around the world!!!! yada yada yada...it's morning and I'm sipping on my caffeine, so a little talkative at the moment...LOLOLOL Psalmie...have you tried weaving little squares? I have a small hand loom, and I spin up about 10 yards at a time and weave little squares...it's kinda fun...one day I'll make a scarf with different handspuns. I was thinking of making little 10 yard kits for people of various handspuns. There's so much to do. ArkieRon- HEY YOU!!!! Did you ever plant those gourds for me? ;) I bought about 20 of them when visiting Asheville, SC a few years back...I've finally gotten into carving, burning, drilling, dyeing them...I sold 2 birdhouses the other day....I love doing that. Need alot of space tho...Ron...I'll buy your gourds and your kid curls from you!!!! :) Anyways...one must really have a passion for this stuff, because, truly, it just doesn't pay...but is fulfilling and adds to the overall quality of life. It really fills me!!!!

Shell, you have to go to my website... www.thecapecod.net (I don't know how to underline that here, so just type it in. dmiller, I think those skeins just sold this week at a farm craft fair I did. They were all dyed in cranberries from the bogs...the color's kinda pretty, isn't it? I don't put individual skeins on, because I don't know how. I barter with a woman to do it....

Dang Psalmie!!!! the same thing just happened to me....grrrrrrrrrr Digi...no problem...would love to.....grrrrrrrrr I'll write again later too....I just wrote a book that disappeared and am a little frustrated myself!!!!

Hey! As long as we're selling stuff on here: www.thecapecod.net

Ron....I will buy the whole herd of fleece from your 6 month old angora goats. SOLD already!!!! Just tell me when and where to send the check. I will also buy the fleece from the second spring cut.... ...from the whole herdle of them!!! :) (No joke...I have 3 fleeces on their way down from Maine as we speak. I just bought one on ebay...and I just spun up 2 last month....) Thanks, Wacky O'

I guess I'm a purist at heart. I would hand dip the candles in rainbow colors and market them that way-it yields a higher price, and is a good teaching tool as to how the early settlers did it. Today I am opening a show with 4 other women at the local Art Center - "Textured Texiles". Our open house is Saturday evening...I will bring my spinning wheel, and do alot of teaching and explaining of the art. So, psalmy, I will sell a few things there (altho the center takes 40% which is absolutely ridiculous!!!- makes that $2/hr- $1.60 then minus taxes...hmmmmm, $1.20)...but I also do a few little craft fairs. I always bring my wheel and demonstrate, so people understand the high prices of handspun. I have recently learned that "wool" yarn that is manufactured has lost most of it's wool via the processing in factories. They don't care for the product and it is run thru so many machines and dyed to a pulp!!! Once you have tried handspun, you'll never go back. Each skein is individually cared for...and I use natural dyes (marigolds and such from my garden, cranberries from the bogs, etc.) I am thinking of trying to sell a "batt" for spinners on ebay dyed all in cranberries, see how it goes....but, I don't sell on ebay. I don't like ebay, much...and handspun needs to be fondled to be bought!!! I have a craft fair this Saturday at a local farm. 2 weeks ago I sold $300 worth at our local Cranberry Harvest Festival..I'll do one more around Christmastime. I have a website, but it's hard and time consuming to put every skein on, so I don't really sell thru that. Last summer I was at a local fair, and a woman from Austin, TX bought a shawl for $250 from me on the street!!! She emailed her sister in Colorado, who ordered 3 skeins of cashgora cranberry yarn for $160 and then some alpaca and angora for another $85- her sister then ordered one skein at $60...and in no time, got me a pretty hefty sum from these 2 gals from on the street!!! You never know where they'll come from!!! Right now I am spinning kid mohair locks (from a 6 month old goat). I have to scour the country to find these goats as they are only 6 months once!!!! The product is softer than cashmere or down...there's nothing like it in stores, where wool is hardly wool anymore. Psalmy...find your local spinners guild and hook up with them. Go to a meeting and see if someone will let you try your hand at spinning. It is very difficult at first, but, like riding a bike, once you get it...you've gotten it. Then, as you progress and get bored with the regular spinning there are soooo many variations, and things to do...it's absolutely fulfilling. I spin close to 50 hours/wk. I have alot of extra time in the winter. It's like a deep meditation...very stress reducing...In fact, I'm looking to buy a second wheel...why? So I don't have to keep changing parts to make thicker designer yarns... I love soap making. I use beef fat...again, tho, the pots get sooo heavy that it's hardly worth it for me. What kind did you make, Psalmy? When I do my rainbow candles I use cleaned up big tomato juice cans...one for each color....in double boilers...then put them on the table and walk the wicks around dipping into the colors.... I'm too into spinning designer yarns right now tho, and the only other craft I have going at the time is gourds. I just finished 3 birdfeeders and 2 baskets for the farm fair this weekend. Gourds is a whole nother fantastic craft....!!!! it's endless.... I have a friend who is a famous sewer...she gets plenty of jobs teaching, but again, selling is a problem to get your time back in $cash. She barters alot for chiropractic/massage work to fix her damaged body. Good luck act2!!! I hope this all helps. Psalmy...if you have nimble hands- go for it...get a wheel...I have an Ashford from NZ, and am looking into a "rose" by majacraft.

Don't know your much, but, birthday wishes to you Waterbuffalo!!!! :D