The Case of the Missing Couch Feet

It all started over a month ago ....

On a warm and kind of crazy August day ...

What we thought would be a busy, hectic, but normal move turned into one of the great mysteries of the year.

Yes ... The Case of the Missing Couch Feet.

Our belongings moved from our humble abode in Evanston, IL to our new cozy bungalow in Quincy, IL on August 28th. We immediately departed for a long awaited vacation to the great north woods of Wisconsin and returned on September 11th. Upon our return we faced the mountains of boxes that had overtaken the cozy bungalow.

When we moved we had to remove the little wooden feet from the bottom of our beloved couch to fit it through the door frame. It happens. But where ... Oh where???? could those feet have gone during the move??

The unlabeled box in the kitchen?? The one in the spare bedroom that had miscellaneous junk in it?? Maybe it was somehow still in the garage??? Please tell me that they didn't end up in the GoodWill pile!!

Hours turned to days ... days turned to weeks ...

My dear husband was on the verge of a meltdown. A few more days and I would have found stacks of 2 x 4s under the couch.

Me? It didn't really bother me. So our couch was 4" too low ... who cares?? Well my father in-law wouldn't sit on it because it was too hard to get up from. My husband grimaced every time he sat down on it. Our dog on the other hand was quite pleased that it was the perfect height for him to see out the window.

Well, let me tell you ... our lives changed last night. I was sitting at the computer working when my husband barges in ... he had found a clue!!!

A garbage can that had 3 screws and a small chip of wood! I am confused and a little irritated that he's excited about a piece of wood that had obviously broken off a piece of our furniture in the move, but I went with it - he seemed rather wound up about it. He had a promising piece of evidence!


He was now a man on a mission. He ran out of the room with the biggest clue we've had since we got here. A garbage can. Yes, dear.

I go back to work and 5 minutes later he comes back with the couch feet in hand! Who knew that that one garbage can had been all he needed to jog his memory?? That garbage can had been in our old basement ... next to the couch ... when we were packing that last box of "junk" ... you know, the stuff that doesn't really belong in a box and sits on the floor until you absolutely have to back it. Low and behold - the missing feet were in the big box of junk next to it! The box that had just been tossed to the basement because we didn't want to deal with the unknown contents.

He promises that he went through every single box we have left weeks ago. Yes, dear.

So there you have it - case closed! Our couch is the proper height, we have beer in the fridge - we are once again ready to entertain :)

Until the next time ...
The girl behind the lama
~LMM

Break time!

I have a 14 minute break from work - my time to blog for you!

Scheduled break time??? Yep, it's come to that. My day is now organized in a series of goals. Especially since I've had 12 sales in the past 13 days (WOAH!!!!). My husband pointed out an interesting factoid to me last night. After dinner I checked my email as I do quite frequently throughout the day ... walked into the kitchen and said very meekly ... "So I think I've got another mitten order?!?". Now, a year ago that would have been a jumping for joy kind of statement. So what gives??

Lesson #3 learned since working on the shop full time: It might actually be successful!

Which ties into lesson #4: Be prepared!

Now I am not complaining in any way shape or form, I'm a tad bit overwhelmed but definitely in a very, very good way. The cold weather is upon us and gosh darn it, Lama Works is a success!! How can I tell winter is approaching (other than the obvious cold weather??) ... I have 3 orders going to Canada this week, which I'm sure is much colder than Quincy, IL for sure.

Had I spent more time over the warmer months getting ready for the winter ones I might have more time now to design new things. But as it is, I'm spending my week catching up on orders and knitting like my life depended on it. What's on the agenda?

1 baby pumpkin hat
2 pairs of Bella mittens (maybe 3 .... 6 if the custom order goes through)
2 hats (one Bella, one falling leaves)
2 pairs of wrist warmers (one falling leaves, one custom)
1 falling leaves scarf (still in the design phase)
50 thank you cards (as soon as the envelopes get in)

Oh and have I mentioned that I might be doing a craft fair in November??? Time to hustle!!

So back to that scheduled break thing ... I'm trying to structure my time each day with goals. OK I'll have this hat finished by 10:00. Then from 10-11 I'd like to have this hat done and then at 11 I work on things around the house. If I finish any segment a little early, that's me time to read, surf the net or even take a nap. So far, so good I think! If all goes well I'll have 3 orders packed up and out the door this afternoon and I'll even have time to go on a date night tonight. Date night on a Tuesday?? Heck yeah! Matinee prices in the evening and free popcorn at the movies?? Date night on Tuesday for sure!

OK, gotta run ... just enough time to finish the post and get on to my pumpkin hat!
Thanks for joining me on my break :)
Until the next time ...
The girl behind the lama
~LMM

A little bit of time for me!

It's an interesting position to be in .... my hobby is not my work ... my work is now my hobby. How does one separate those two things???

I find it hard to set aside time that is just for me, because in that spare time that I used to have ... I'd knit. I am trying to be strict about my work day and spend just normal business hours working on things for the store. So I organize, I do paperwork and I make projects for the shop. I'm trying really hard to spend my nights just hanging out with my husband or out with friends, but if I do feel the need to knit - I make sure it's a project for me or at least a present for a friend (Sweetie, I promise that the scarf I promised you last Christmas is going to be here before winter is!)

Hence the great sweater project - which I'm still plugging away at slowly but surely. I'm back to about where I was when I ripped it all out 2 weeks ago. I went down a needle size and a sweater size so hopefully this will do the trick. I've decided that I'm just going to keep going this time. If it's too big, it's too big and someone in my life will get a lovely present.

I also got back into quilting this weekend which was fantastic! My new sewing room actually was my husband's Grandmother's sewing room back in the day, so I channeled her energy and decided that Sunday was finish a project day! I found a Thimbleberries quilt top that I had finished and conveniently also found the backing and batting.

I really do love the house that we are living in and it has such a rich history with the family, but I just had to share some pics. There are a lot of rooms that need ... well ... updating. There is quite a bit of wall paper and shag carpeting. I'm loving the yellow stripes ... With the matching yellow ceiling ...
Oh and of course the cork lamp :)

But I digress. I didn't quite finish the quilt, but I made pretty good progress! I've got the top all sewn together and even took the time to do the decorative stitching on it that I tend to avoid. I'm trying to do things right. Too often in my past I'd slop together a project and call it done, but now that I have more time in my life to work on things, I want to do them completely and get it done correctly. That means I do rip things out now when I make a mistake and I'm going to try really hard not to fudge it ... I said try ....Anyway, that was the fun craft of the weekend... it sure is nice to have my supplies all back in order again! I can finally find my yarn!


Until the next time ...
The girl behind the lama
~LMM

Where does the time go?

Ok I know, I know ... I've been MIA ... but really that's a good thing!

Why??? My husband passed the Bar exam!!!! We've been waiting and waiting for those results to come in and they sure did last Thursday! We couldn't be happier and we are so looking forward to just settling into a groove of normal, quiet life.

First thing first.. where have I been?? Working! 6 sales in the last 7 days! I can definitely tell that the cooler weather is here and that people are thinking about the best way to stay warm. I'm getting a lot of custom requests which I love! "Hey, do you have a scarf that matches this??" "What about mittens that look like this??" "Can you make me this, but in this color, and make it this size?" It has given me a good chance to be creative and tweak some patterns a bit to my own liking.

One project that I've been working on for 2 different clients are some accessories to go with the falling leaves collection. I managed to take a fantastic pattern for some fingerless mittens and convert it from sock yarn into a worsted weight variation. Next up is a scarf to go with it!

I also had a fun bud vase order for a little girl's tea party which was fun :)


I'm still toying with the idea of doing a craft fair yet this year. There is one that I might be able to have a small table at in November, but do I really have enough to stock a table?? I'll tell you that if I keep getting this many sales in a week, there's no way I'll be able to keep my stock up and ready for a craft fair, but I'm going to try!!

Enough shop talk though. I was also out of town this past weekend for a beautiful wedding at the Milwaukee Art Museum. It was great to see all of my family and we even got in some time with our friends while we were there. Enjoy some pics from our weekend!




So it's been a pretty good week! Here's to another great one!
Until the next time ...
The girl behind the lama
~LMM