Friday, June 24, 2011

Major Yarn De-stash

I'm in the process of gathering yarn for a massive de-stash! There's some hand-dyed and spun by yours truly, lots of sock yarn, and some novelty yarns that looked good to me at the time, but I should have known I'd never use them.

Stay tuned!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Getting started...

There are a whole host of projects going right now. One is The Collins Crew another is my photography website and I've also been working on my etsy shop (see all the new stuff over on the right?). I'm working on listing some of my personal antique collection (in order to show I have good taste) and also let people know I will be on the lookout for what their favorite things are as well.

In addition to online shops, I'm heading out to local brink and mortar shops with postcards, greeting cards, and business cards in hand to see what may happen. The first shop I tried wants local buildings for the tourist trade - which I need to do earlier in the morning, as the commuter traffic starts to become an issue around 7:20 am (I already made an attempt last week).

The chickens are doing well. I let the girls out for a while this morning while I watered the garden. They are completely infatuated with blackberries. Luckily we have tons of them ripening all around the edges of our yard. Want to visit with a chicken? Hold out a blackberry and "bwaock" invitingly.

In a rare moment of brilliance, I decided to move the guinea pigs out of Erin's room and into the hutch we used when the chickens were peeps. The chickens were intrigued by this. The guineas seem happier with more sunshine and room to... sit in their houses. When they were inside they kept me (and Erin) awake at night by tugging on their water bottle, doing odd guinea pig dances in the night, and... sitting in their houses.

We're also trying to take out local food options more seriously. I didn't subscribe to a CSA this year, but I'm all about shopping at local farms and stores for as much of our food as I can. We found some great local beef up at McAdams Farm as well as potatoes, squash, cherry tomatoes, and cherries! They're open three afternoons a week and, while I like supporting our co-op, buying it directly from the farmer is cheaper and I know exactly where the money is going.

Soon I'll give an update on the trials of my bee hive. It's a steep learning curve right now!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Change of pace

After many years teaching small children (22 years)) and doing administrative tasks (16 of those same years) I decided to say adios to my job. Without any real certainty of what would come along next. Wow, you might be thinking, in this economy? I hear you. All I can say was the time had come and I couldn't do it anymore. For many reasons.

I am also a girl who worries - a lot - about financial matters so this is a really scary place to be. I'm trying to figure out a reasonable plan of things we as a family can do without, what we can do for ourselves (e.g., making our own bread to save money) and how I am going to support all of us.

Right now, I'm working on a photography website. I enjoy taking pictures of children and I'd like to work that into a job. It's going to take time to get my name out there, so that's not something for the short term. Here it is so far Rochelle Eisenberger Photography I'd love any and all feedback. I know a couple of things I need to work on, but I'm a novice so it's using up my patience quickly!

Today is going to be about putting out flyers for the kids' summer job efforts: babysitting, dog walking, lawn mowing, and weeding. We're patching things together, but hopefully it will work out!