And so the new year began.

Over the holiday break Lifetime showed 'Julie & Julia'. For a while I've been waiting for it to ship from the Netflix DvD Queue, but Lifetime came up quicker. This is one of my new favorite female lead stores. Julie Powell reminded me how a blog should be written. It's a story of what a person does with real focus out there for everyone. I have a focus, but it's lately been a somewhat flashy collection of fluffy yum yums and sheep, or another shop blog trying to push product. This is not what this blog is supposed to be. I want this blog to be more meaningful and enriching. Thank you for the major redirect, Julie!

I'm stepping it up a notch to bring in all sorts of fiber arts. Being a full time fiber artist is going to be great!! Let's bring on the tutorials, experiments, works in progress, and finished objects. I'll be keeping the fluff, but adding pizazz!

Wednesday, will be the first tutorial of the new year. I'll be showing everyone how to make these cute gift tags for writing down care instructions for handmade items.

Have a fantastic day!
<3

Edited to add: Please visit my ravelry group to help plan March's twitter party! 

Look & Feel

First let's take a look as to what my wallpaper has changed to this week.

Slacking

Yes, I've been slacking on the blogging front. There aren't any images to show you, either. ::sigh:: So what am I blogging for? The past weekend has been rather slow, yet busy. 

First, I opened a bank account for L.M.S. Studio Arts, which includes my current shop. With that I applied for a business credit card with that bank. Right now we're just waiting for everything to come in the mail. 
Next, I finished spinning all the yarn needed for some personal projects. Late last night I started spinning a reserve braid of Magrathean in merino wool. That will be some of the handspun for a shop update later next week. There will be some Sleep Dep, Moonstone and Brass Petals for this week's update. 
Yesterday before heading home from the day job I spent some time in Jo-Ann Fabrics and spent $35 on fabric. What for, you might ask? Have you ever spun a great roving or batt to have most of it end up on your clothing? Do you have pets or small children that love your works in progress a little too much? Does anyone else have the mad hunt for your orifice hook, scissors or oil every time you want to start a project? I've got a handmade solution for you, it's a spinner's mate. This is a no tie apron with saddle bags. One end has up to 3 pockets to hold your scissors, orifice hooks, oil, lotion, tv remote or your phone. The other is a single large pocket to hold the fiber you're working with. It keeps it up and away from dust bunnies and pet hair. Each one is made of 100% cotton and hand stitched with my White sewing machine. The first one I made to my original specifications was way way too big. After sizing it down I have one at 11.5" x 31.25" (28 cm x 79.5 cm) and two 10.75" at x 28" (27 cm x 71 cm). I have enough fabric to make four more tomorrow. Hopefully they will be about the 11.5" x 31.25" size. Wednesday I will have those in the update as well. 
Also, the weather has been nice enough between rains to spend some time outside. We've been doing some outdoor things with family. 
I've been very busy and there are always more things being created and dreamed up. Oh the ideas I have waiting until Peter gets more jewelry making things. If he doesn't want to exploit this idea, I will. Muahahaha...wait, that's not supposed to be an evil laughter. Oh well...muahahahaha! 


Things to expect : 
* more handspun yarn listings
* Spinner's Mates listings
* Custom Order Reiki Distance Healing Doll listings
* pictures!
 

Sleeping In

Hooray for sleep! Three cheers for sleeping in until 1 pm. What no cheers? For the past couple of weeks sleep has been a precious comodity around my apartment. Our neighbor's one year old is still not sleeping through the night. People tell me every child is different. My niece slept through the night by about 7 or 8 months old and so did I. My sister took a little bit longer, but not by much. Peter slept throught the night around the same time as we did. Stephanie even slept through the night before one year. So it's rather aggravating. More so aggravating because other people's children should not be keeping me up at night. Due to that Photos Firday has been canceled. Our living room has been converted into our second bedroom and is in need of some serious cleaning. Right now we need to vacuum and organize. :) 

We're also getting ready for a second and even larger Beltane celebration. Children are not allowed so I can be as tipsy or bubbly as can be. It's been a while and I love mead. It'll have to wait until after the spinning demonstration. We are also selling some handspun yarn and handpainted roving there. 


Today I purchased some unfinished top whorl drop spindles. Within the next month or so I am going to start offering drop spindle kits. It'll be a spindle and 6 oz of fiber broken up into 3-2 ounce bundles. It'll be a sampler of the different wools I carry. The kit will also give a set of instructions and a link to a great group of instructional videos. They'll probably be left unfinished so that everyone can customize their own drop spindle, but Peter might take a couple and decorate and stain them. 


In a few weeks I am going to be working out some business credit lines. This way I can purchase more wool, dyes and other supplies. The biggest thing to come out of this whole venture is the umbrella for all of my little etsy shops, etc. It is LMS Studios. LylianMae Fiber Artistry will be a division of the LMS Studios (Soon to be LLC). Then if I decide to sell ceramics, art, jewelry, etc. later on that can be another division of LMS Studios. Everything covered under LMS Studios will be anything studio art. For instance, I have mugs that were purchased at the Dollar Tree and decorated with Porcelane markers. That would fall under a new branch of the umbrella. Eventually it will happen, but not certain when. Single drop spindles will be another branch. 


Congratulations to mamatwitch! She won the raffle for a Bee Bar from Honey House. The poll closed and Lavender is the herb of choice for the new Reiki distance healing dolls. :) There will be a new poll up later this week. 

Sneak Peak de Fibe-er

I wanted to give you all a sneak peak of all the fun handpainted fibers from this week. My favorite is Boudica. It turned out perfectly. 

 Agate is my second favorite (picture 1). It is a messed up version of The Magrathean (picture 2). For some reason the superwash fibers took the dye different. The olive became more orange and the grey a blue pink. It still turned out great. 

 And what kind of Sailor Moon fan would I be without some colorways from the show. This is Love & Beauty Shock. It is a really nice mix of the Sailor Venus costume. The more I look at it the more I get attached to it. ;) 

That's all for the sneak peaks here. For more peaks you can go to my flickr site.

The Beginning

Today I decided to keep separate blogs for personal and business use. This is going to be my business blog.
Expect this to be fully operational by mid April.

Still not sure what to put here exactly. Guess I should do some looking before posting more. :D