Month: February 2023

Crafting · Lifestyle

Fun Fact

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In 2019 I closed my brick & mortar quilt shop and was looking forward to running an online business focusing on hand-dyed wool, patterns and kits and fun wooly things. It took some time to figure out work space and start loading all kinds of goodies to the website, www.nekedsheepwool.com and moving forward with this new adventure…and then…

2020 happened the world kind of shut down and I found that I needed to reach more people with my business and opened an Etsy page…deciding to go back to my roots with Kelly Ann’s Quilting. As the year went by I started adding more quilting products to the Etsy store and wool and Sashiko to the website, and at one point I had fabric on the website and it just became too much to try and manage. I do have more sales on Etsy and having to update the website each time I sold fabric because a full time job that I didn’t need so all the fabric and quilting supplies were moved to Etsy and for about a year I operated them as two different types of businesses.

2021/2022 I found a new obsession with Sashiko and the Wonderfil threads, and knowing that to get the biggest bang I would need to load both of these products to both of my store fronts. Well…one thing led to another and now I’ve started adding wool to the Etsy store.

Fun Fact…Etsy has 81+ million users and 5.3 million sellers. When you have that kind of audience it’s hard to ignore the possibilities. I’ve pondered this fact for awhile and I feel good about the fact that I’m loading more product over on Etsy, while not ignoring the website, I needed to decide where to spend more energy. For now I’ll be adding the same products to the website and Etsy, so if you are familiar with how Etsy works and that makes you comfortable, I say pop over and check out my page…if you want to see what my website is all about, I think it’s a pretty cool page….either way I would love for you to visit my business pages and let me know what you think.

We are two months into 2023 and I want to use my “work” time more efficiently and have more time to play…so follow along to see where I take my Neked Sheep Wool and Kelly Ann’s Quilting.

KA

Crafting · Gardening

Off her meds

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Mother Nature is off her meds here in Virginia…

78 tomorrow and check out Saturday…do you see those snow flakes… ARE YOU KIDDING ME????

We traveled to North Carolina this weekend and between the time we left and returned my Bleeding Hearts are starting to pop up through the ground. I do have a few bulbs that popped up a few weeks ago, no flowers yet, and they are typically my earliest flowers…but my bleeding hearts need to sleep a little bit longer. I can’t wait for them to put on a show like they have done for years

I made this wool applique wall hanging earlier this month from a kit on my website.

I was kind of excited to get it done so I could enjoy bleeding hearts a little big longer in the house…now I just hope the flowers in the yard survive till they are ready to bloom and don’t get too cold. I’ll be keeping an eye on my flowers and do my best to protect their tender little leaves.

We’ve stayed cloudy today so I’m wrapped up in a jacket and warm socks while working in the basement but you better believe that tomorrow with the temperature going to be close to 80…I’ll be outside soaking up the sun and warmth.

Now if I could just convince Mother Nature to stay on track and stick to one season per week

KA

Crafting

Spring Flowers

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I have tulips on the brain….first up…

I tried my hand at making my own rubber stamp using a lino cutter and small pieces of rubber designed for stamps…it started with a mess

and ended with this

I say not bad for my first time….and I only slipped and hit my finger once so I’ll take that as a win. I’ll be using this stamp to make a spring pillow like my Valentine’s pillow in this blog post. Hopefully I get it done this weekend…I say hopefully because today I went to my LQS and purchased fabric to make a Chandelier Quilt, like this one from Lella Boutique

If you click on the designers name you can download the pattern for free…

But…

before I can start on this quilt I need to finish up the baby quilt I’ve started for our dental hygienist and for that quilt I’m making the baby heart quilt

One block done…several to go…

So you see…I have a full weekend planned and it’s only Wednesday..

Keep watching the blog for quilt and crafting updates.

Cooking

Comfort in a Cup

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You know that time of the afternoon … between lunch and dinner … you need a little bit of something to either warm you up, fill your belly or just something to sit and sip while reading a good book. Well I have a few things to show y’all that will do all of those things…

First up…Golden Latte from Epicure … my friend Kristi had an online party and I ordered a few drink mixes and once I made a cup of the Golden Latte I can say that I am hooked on the flavor.

INGREDIENTS: Turmeric, cardamom, vanilla, and organic coconut cream powder make for a bright, warming taste with peppery notes. A low-sugar, vegan alternative to coffee shop drinks with only 5 g sugar per serving. All sources of maltodextrin used at Epicure are made with rice or tapioca. Epicure only uses gluten-free ingredients.

I’m sold on this mix and will check out the others through this company, nice clean ingredients.

Next up…today’s hot drink is a cup of Millie’s Sipping Broth

Ingredients – Thai Lemongrass

YEAST EXTRACT, SEA SALT, RICE HULLS, DRIED GARLIC, DRIED LEMONGRASS,
DRIED CARROTS, DRIED ONION, CRYSTALLIZED LIME (CITRIC ACID, LIME OIL, LIME JUICE), DRIED TOMATOES, DRIED CELERY.

A totally different flavor than the Golden Latte, it’s savory and really is like wrapping your hands around a cup of comfort.

You might also notice my cute little cup, a gift from my friend Kathy and we both love to listen to Mipso…Mipso music makes everything better.

Back to the sipping broth…I can actually see sipping a mug of this if we’ve had a late lunch and looking for just a little something in the evening. I don’t typically have caffeine after 2pm, so between the Golden Latte and the various flavors of sipping broths I think I know what I’ll be having for a pick me up.

Let me know if you try any of them…or let me know what you favorite afternoon hot drink is

KA