Horses are a no-show

As you can probably tell, due to my lack of posting about them, that the horses haven't come yet. The person who was supposed to give them to us couldn't come last weekend. I think it's good because it gives us more time to get ready. So, they may come this weekend (Sunday probably, since Sarah, Dad and I are at my grandma's house right now getting ready to go to the first U of A football game {yay!}, and tomorrow we're in town all day), but probably next weekend. So, as soon as they come I WILL post pictures! Cross my heart. :) I'm excited for them to come, and can't wait to share them with all of you!

Anyway, just wanted to give you an update and let you know that the horses have not come yet. Just didn't want you to think I was ignoring you or anything. :)

A New Bible

When I got saved about 5 or 6 years ago, Dad bought me a beautifyl Bible. A big study Bible with my name engraved in gold on the front. It's gorgeous. And I still have it and love it. But unfortunately, it's showing signs of wear. Pages are ripping, the cover is bent, and it's not looking as great now as it was. Most of the wear and tear comes from taking it to church. It goes in a big bag with all of the other Bibles, and sometimes gets dropped or things like that. I want to keep it nice, since it's very special for me, so I decided it was time to get a new one. I've been wanting to get one for awhile, and had been thinking about it, but I just hadn't.

Well, the other day I got an email from Thomas Nelson. It said:

"Thank you for downloading the New King James Version translation on YouVersion. We hope you enjoy reading the Bible and discover a clearer understanding of God's Word. To help further your Bible engagement we would like to extend a special offer from Thomas Nelson Bibles of 30% off any Bible or Biblical reference book at thomasnelson.com"

And so, they gave me a 30% off coupon! Yay! So, of course, I went on and looked at the Bibles. I got permission from Mom, and found this one:

 

http://www.thomasnelson.com/bibles/nkjv-ultraslim-bible.html

 

It's such a pretty color, and it's supposedly small, which is good. I'm pretty excited for it to come. :)

 

 

Etsy Talk

Like I have said in previous posts, I enjoy talking about my business, so I'm going to. :)
My blanket count right now is actually pretty low. I only have 8 blankets to make for orders, plus 4 for someone Dad works with. So, I don't have much to do right now, which makes me HAPPY!!! I love doing this, but there are a lot of other things I want to do too.

For instance, I've had some time to work on new blankets. I have a show I want to do the beginning of October, but since I don't have any blankets in stock, I need something to sell. So, I've been working on some new stuff. The good thing is, sales are somewhat slow, so I can do that without it putting me behind. I've got one done, and one in progress. One is a brown and bright pink shell, and one is a light pink, light yellow and lavender shell. I like both of them quite a bit. As soon as I get pics I'll post them. But anyway, I've been having a lot of fun coming up with new color combinations. I also figured out how to do the shell with a bigger size hook, but still make it the same size. The shells take the longest by far, but this cuts down on quite a bit of time.

I've actually had to do a lot of figuring stuff out lately. I figured out how to modify the shell, and I have 2 orders right now that are for custom sizes. I like getting to come up with new sizes, although they're pretty much always bigger, which means they take me more time. But it took me forever after I started doing custom orders to figure out that I should write down how many chains I did, how many rows I did, as well as how much I charged for it. So now I have a very nice little repertoire of sizes. It makes my life SO much easier. :) Unfotunately, both of these happen to be sizes I haven't done already. :D Oh well. :)

This question is more for people that know my shop, and found me through Etsy, but it may apply for everyone. I'm curious. What are some color combinations that you think would be pretty that I could add to my shop? I've got more ideas than I can count, but I can't tell you how many times I've had people custom order colors, and I've gone, "Wow, I would have never thought of that, but that looks amazing!!" So I'm asking. Are there any colors that you think would be pretty together?

Ok, I guess that's all I have to say right now. It's been pretty slow lately, so there isn't much to talk about. :) Adios!!!

A new addition

Hey ya'll!!!!! Sorry it's been so long since I've done a decent post! Things have been so crazy around here lately. Why you may ask? Because we're getting....

*drumroll*

Horses!!!!!

Yup, this weekend 2 horses are coming to live with us. Someone that Dad works with is giving them to us. They're both boys, and they're 19 and 20, I believe. So they're older, but that's good because they'll be good with the little kids.

So, we've spent over 2 weeks now getting ready. Because we had absolutely nothing ready for any sort of large animals. Like, nothing. No fence, no shelter, nothing. So we had to start from scratch. Another person that Dad knows (you'd be surprised at how many people he knows) had some really cool panels that he sold us for really cheap. They involve cutting, grinding and welding before they're ready for a fence, but they're still really cool. The fence is almost done, and they're putting a roof on the shelter. I say they, because truthfully I haven't been doing much to help. Because I have blankets I have to get done and stuff, Mom decided to put me inside. So I work on the cooking, cleaning, laundry and taking care of Danielle, and they work outside. Fine with me! Besides, after 2 weeks of seeing pretty much just me during the day, Danielle is finally starting to like me. :)

Things were going well, and they were almost done, but we had kind of a blow. Yesterday the guy who is giving us the horses came over, and there's a LOT to modify. I would explain, but it's hard without pictures, which unfortunately I don't have right now. Let's just say there's a lot more work to do. But that's ok, we want the horses to be safe and not hurt themselves.

And that's why I've been gone! I will take TONS of pictures on Saturday (or Sunday) when they come. Everyone's pretty excited, except for Jonathan. He's never wanted horses. But I'm sure he'll warm up to the idea once he gets to know them!

Who Am I

So, Monday I went to my dear friend Rachel's house, and we did some recording! She has all this amazing equipment, and she was kind enough to let me use it. I spent a couple hours there, and we came out with this song. I'm pretty happy with it overall. It's a lot higher key than I'm normally comfortable with, although I'm didn't have to strain to sing it at all. Also, there are a lot of flat notes, but hopefully they're not too noticeable. Would ya'll listen to it and give me some opinions? I'm singing the melody, and Rachel's doing the piano and harmony. (Btw, isn't the piano AMAZING?!? I love hearing Rachel play.)

Who Am I by user75024389

Thanks Rachel for letting me come!!! (And btw, I already know what song I want to do next hehehe)

My favorite song of the week: The Lost Get Found

So, I thought it would be fun to start posting what my favorite songs happens to be every week! The song I'm starting out with has been my favorite for a long time: I sing it all the time, and I've worked on it in voice lessons for a couple weeks now. This one is "The Lost Get Found" by Britt Nicole, who happens to be my favore singer EVER right now. And this is my favorite song by her. Enjoy!!

 

Kayla

A Special Opportunity

So, I might have a special opportunity coming up in the next couple months. I don't know if it'll happen, but I'd sure be happy if I did.

So, Mon had been talking about getting us into 4-H this year. I did it briefly a couple years ago, which was fun, but no one else has. So, we were gonna start this year. Mom went to get some more rock for our driveway the other day, and was talking with the lady there about it, because her kids do 4-H. Well, we thought it started in September, but here it starts in January, because our fair here is at the end of September.

Well, Mom and I had talked briefly before about what I would be involved with. Nothing really suited me except for cake decorating and crochet. The cake decorating sounds awesome, but Mom and I were concerned that the crochet would be very beginner oriented, and I would get bored. Then Mom came up with an idea. I could help teach. Sure, why not? I know enough to help teach a beginner class.

So back to the rock lady. She and Mom started talking about me and the crochet (I wasn't there), and the lady said that she didn't think they had a crochet class, (even though the website said they did), but that if someone was willing to teach it, they'd jump all over it. So, there may, just may, be an opportunity for me to teach it all. by. myself. I'm pretty jazzed. I think it'd be so much fun to do. I've wanted to start teaching for the longest time, but I never have had the chance. And now,  I might! We'll have to wait and see. Again, it doesn't start till January, but the lady suggested that we come to this month's meeting and talk to some people. I would be do excited if I could do this. Plus, it would give me an opportunity to meet people. I haven't met any other girls since we moved here. It would be nice to get to know some people...

What do you think? I this cool or what?!?

Etsy Talk

So I'm finally cutting down on the amount of blankets to make. I'm a little sad, because in the last 2 weeks I've only sold 2 blankets, but I am grateful to not have so many to make. I have a couple custom orders to make, 4 for one of Dad's realtors that he works with, (He bought 4 awhile ago, then decided he didn't like them, so is trading them) and a blanket to make that is going to Hawaii! 

One of the coolest things about this business is knowing that stuff that I've put so much time and effort into are being used by babies all over the world. :) It's a really cool feeling. I've shipped to Qatar, Australia (several times), New Zealand, France, Canada more times than I can count, and tons of other places, it's really pretty cool. I'm so glad I decided to start shipping internationally. 

I finished 2 blankets today, which made me pretty happy. One was close to being done, but it's still a good feeling to finish it. And now I'm starting on a third. A lot of people need them by a certain time, so unfortunately I'm having to move some people up to get them to them on time. I feel bad for making other people wait, but what can I do? If someone needs it for a baby shower, it can't be late. I've been having a lot of people ask when their blankets are going to be shipped. Thankfully pretty much everyone is so  nice about it, and completely understand.

I did have one customer today, that asked me, and was pretty rude about it. Even thought I made it very clear to them when they purchased that it was going to be awhile, (that was 3 weeks ago) they were very rude and said that they didn't appreciate having to wait almost a month. I replied and said as carefully as I can, that I have 15 + blankets to make at any given time, and I'm having to make pretty much a blanket every day to keep up. I tried to be very professional with her, and tell her that I don't mess around, that I crochet every spare minute I get, and that I had other people ahead of her that I need to take into consideration. And then I didn't say this, but there's also the fact that I have 6 siblings, I'm still in high school, and to get pretty much all my colors I have to drive 90 miles. Do you think I handled it well? I'm not used to having people be rude with me. Most people are so nice and tell me that it's fine, and whenever I can get it will be perfect. It's a little unnerving. 

Ok,  I'm done now. I have one more question though. Does it bother you all when I talk about my blankets? I'm sure it probably bores some people. It just means a lot to me, so I like to talk about it. What are your opinions?