I got to take the time this morning to visit with my neighbors at Glenfiddich Farm!  What a special treat!  The England’s raise sheep, specifically for spinning wool.  Kathy showed me her shop where she has many different types of yarns and roving wool and more!  She creates a lot of beautiful things with wool and her knit sweaters were amazing!   When I was on the show circuit, Kathy and company were also at some of the shows I participated in.  Mainly the fine art or fine craft events and the folk craft shows. I feel really blessed to have them as neighbors!  We really live in a beautiful area so Check out their farm and sheep in this video!

And on this trip, I was blessed to be able to purchase beautiful roving wool for my new art, needle felting and felted quilt banners.  I was able to get a lot of natural colors to create animals and much more!  Kathy is very knowledgeable and helpful!  I noted all the great colors and types,  she had bags of fleeces that hadn’t been cleaned or carded yet that were so beautiful!  Her husband takes great care of the sheep, and is a wonderful shepherd!  Kathy had bought several of my art signs in the past and it was cool to also see them on the walls of her house.

Maybe some of you remember when I used to create dolls,  many unique creations from fabric, paint, and fibers?  Some of my regular customers were sad when I stopped making them and went to painting only, Well loved creating all of them, the normal and the crazy moose, giraffes, elephants, porcupines, etc.   and I am really looking forward to trying my hand at it again.  Only this time it will be more refined and detailed.  I will be making them out of mainly all natural fibers and materials.

Also!    Gina M. and Laurie L.  guessed my new craft!    I will have a little something for you in a couple of weeks!    Have a blessed day!

This last week, I have been busily gathering new tools and supplies for my new craft!  So I thought I would take a moment to give you all another hint or two.   One thing I can definitely tell you is it’s not wood!  Someone asked me about this video and guessed that I was going back to woodworking.  In this video, that many of you have already seen, is my husband’s craft.  He is into fine woodworking and wood turning. He’s very talented!  The table top he is making in the video is hemlock being electrocuted with a very high voltage of electricity. He can maneuver the electricity to go in a direction he wants it to, and he can also alter the amount or depth of the burn.   But that is his work! 🙂

So that is one category ruled out!  My art requires very few tools, and most are small.  So a tool that an artist doing the medium I will be working with looks something like this item below! Let me know if you can guess what I am going to be creating!

I hope you all are having a blessed Memorial Day weekend and remembering your loved ones that fought for our country!   We all know that freedom is not free.  We spent the afternoon with my husband’s family and visited the cemetery and placed flowers on the graves of family members.  Thanks to Uncle Steve and Louise for all you do!   The flowers were beautiful and the memories we create are even more special!

Do you ever feel like there is something new or different that you are supposed to be doing, and you just can’t seem to figure it out?  Being an artist for many years, I have encountered a few “dry spells” so to speak, but not like I have over the past couple of years.  It’s been a bit of a burnout to keep doing the art I have been doing for 20 years.

But through the inspiration of my mom, my sisters, and my husband,  I a moving into something brand new!  My mom is a quilter, my sister Mary is creative on many accounts, and my sister Kristi is an encourager,  My husband, is blunt but honest! LOL, so with all of that, I have found my new creative outlet!

While I have created many signs and painting over the years, I find that it has become monotonous and boring,  When I started with signs, no one was doing them. Technology has become so accessible for people, most don’t have to buy signs, they can make them easily with a font and a printer! So why spend the money at a show?  Yes, most of my designs were unique and detailed but it doesn’t really matter in this day and age.  Simple signs are cheap and easily copied.

This last week, my breakthrough came at me, all in one day!  Things I had prayed for and about, happened all at once!  People came into play last week, ideas popped into my head, and I have totally redesigned my booth with a new vision, last Tuesday morning!   I had prayed for a long time and never seemed to figure it out.

My husband told me that I needed to do something new with my current designs and updating them. He said I needed a fresh new look.  Little did he realize, that was the kick I needed.  Though truthfully I think he was a little afraid since I went a totally new direction!!  However, he gave me a great gift with that comment, and he also purchased some new supplies and everything I needed to get started!

Then I spoke with my mom, she is a great inspiration with her talent.  She was very encouraging!  She sent me some information to get me started as well.  So with family and friends helping me out, next year, you will see what I am working on! It is not common, and some pieces will be very original and unique!  I can’t wait to show you and will keep you all updated so stay tuned!  I will provide little hints as I go along!