Win yourself some boots

My old boots are tired!

I still haven't come up with a way to retire my decade-old Ariat Ropers. They are my comfort boots. But they sure are looking worn out. They really don't go with my green velvet dress any longer.


 I know it's silly, they are just an article of clothing, but these boots have protected my feet on trail rides in the Colorado mountains; training colts to run on the racetrack; on our journey across the US looking for a new place to farm; as we broke ground on Foxbriar Farm; and now, they run me through the Craft Village at the Ozark Folk Center everyday.


You can't just throw a pair of boots that anchor all those memories into the trash. And honestly, they are worn out, so I can't pass them on to anyone, either.


So, with the help of Country Outfitter, (an awesome Arkansas company) I'm going to have you all help me figure out an appropriate retirement for my beloved boots. And, along with helping me, out, you have a chance to win your own new pair of boots.

When I find something I like, I tend to stick with it.

Country Outfitter has lots of different types of boots. You don't have to just pick a pair like mine. If you win this giveaway, they will give you up to $150 towards the boots of your choice. And even if you don't win, I bet you'll find something that you want to put on your Christmas list for Santa to bring!










HOW TO ENTER THIS BOOT DRAWING

1. To get a chance to win your very own pair of boots from Country Outfitter, you must click this link to their boots giveaway page
and enter your email address. They may send you some promotional emails.

2. You must leave a comment on this blog post with your suggestion for a proper retirement for my old Ariats.

I am also going to set up a place for ideas on Pinterest, so read on in the next few days for how to share your ideas there, but that in not a requirement for entering. To enter, just click on the link above, enter your email address and then leave a comment here. That's it. That's all the requirements. Of course, I'd appreciate it if you'd share this out on Facebook and with your other social media friends, so that everybody has a chance to win boots and I find a good use/retirement for my old boots.

My boots are made for walking!

We'll be doing the drawing for the winner of this pair of boots and announce the winning retirement idea at noon on Sunday, November 25. You have up until midnight on Saturday, November 24th  (Small Business Saturday) to enter

 Disclosure: Country Outfitter, a retailer of Ariat Boots, gave me these Heritage Lace Ropers to review.

October - nuff said...

Caricature artist Jim Engler drew people
in the park on Saturday, including the folks
at the Sheep to Shawl. Jim will be teaching
caricature at Folk School this March.

October has always been an incredible month at the Ozark Folk Center. I've been teaching food preservation, cheesemaking, and spinning. I've been doing demo's almost everyday on some aspect of saving food or making cloth. Everybody has chipped in, we've cooked sorghum, woven shawls, sheared sheep and braided garlic.


Then, when I've been home, I've been digging drainage ditches on the new shelters, building and tarping new shelters, fencing breeding pens, sorting sheep and goats into breeding groups, planting the fall garden, , spinning yarns, weaving rugs and shawls to take to Christmas Showcase, and touring gift shops working on my Interpretive Resale Best Practices workshop for NAI National in November. Ok, is that enough excuses yet for not writing a blog post since the first?

Carolyn and I visited lots of gift shops, like this one at
Toltec Mounds State Park to learn about their interpretive
resale best practices. Here Park Interpreter Laura Lawrence
tells us about the artist who painted these wonderful
watercolors at the park and gave the park the rights
to reprint them on bookmarks and post cards to sell.

We finished fall shearing today with Fantasia and Gizmo. Fanta's fleece will be a good rug, it's going to be the next one on the loom. Giz... I might spin, but most likely will weave it into a chair cover or handbag fabric. His last fleece is a rug that Linda Odom has and his fleece before is partly a handbag I'm lining now and partly in the current shawl on my studio triloom.



Lena sheared Hagrid yesterday as a demo during the Sheep to Shawl at the Folk Center. She did a great job and I appreciate it. That let me focus on my cheesemaking students. I spent this morning studying why I am having so much trouble with mozzarella. It's the milk - when I looked at the expiration dates they were all about 2-3 weeks out, showing that they were ultrapasturized. That process allows milk to keep longer on the grocers shelf and destroys it for cheesemaking.

So, now that I have that figured out, I need to go finish planting fall chard and kale. I love greens with dinner, and while you can buy them at the store, they are so easy to grow. Here in the Ozarks, they will usually grow all winter.

But first, I need to finish this blog post. Is it attention deficit disorder - or just way too many things on the to-do list disorder?

George loves mooching from and posing with visitors
to the Ozark Folk Center. Hagrid, with his new haircut
is in the back.

While it is still October, with apple butter cooking and soap making and Beanfest yet to come, November is just around the corner. November is going to be another busy, wonderful fun month, in part, because it is full of giveaways. In just a few days, on October 23 to be exact, I'll be starting a Country Outfitter giveaway for a free pair of boots! I'll give you a few more teasers tomorrow and then all the details on Tuesday.

Tillie models the new slicked down style of angora goat.
Fantasia, far right, got her haircut this afternoon.

And then, starting November 1st, we'll be having an elf hunt in the Craft Village with lots of great free prizes. Help us find the pesky little Elf in the Shop and get a chance to win the perfect handcrafted present.

After that, perhaps like my cheesemaking students who kept helping me find my measuring cup yesterday, you could help me find where I left my sanity?

The elf, in the shop...this little guy is starting
to get into all kinds of trouble in the Craft
Village. We just caught him trying to break
into the fried pie case in the Smokehouse.
Come help us catch the elf and we just might
give you a prize!

Visit our studio and sign up to win a hand-tied broom

In July, Shawn came up with the idea to thank our wonderful visitors at the Ozark Folk Center by giving away one item from each craft shop each day. The crafts people all thought it was a great idea and outdid each other creating wonderful items to give to the lucky winner of each day's drawing.

You might win a Turkey Wing broom similar to this one if
you enter the drawing at our Common Threads Studio
September 14-16, 2012.

Since it was his idea, Shawn took the responsibility for doing the daily drawing and over the month, he developed quite a patter. One of the early lines he came up with was, "Now ya'll know one of the conditions of the drawing is you must bring me presents to win." Then he'd pause and look over the crowd. "You didn't know that was one of the conditions?"
At that point, somebody either in the crowd, or one of the crafts people who knew the schitck would say, "No, it says here that you must be present to win."
And Shawn would go on to say how that was a typo, but he'd just have to abide by what was printed.

This is the first year Shawn will be offering his award-winning brooms at our home studio during Off The Beaten Path Studio Tour, September 14-16. To encourage people, especially those who have been here before, or (gasp) folks who aren't interested in sheep, to stop by, Shawn will be giving away one of his beautiful Ozark Turkey Wing brooms during the Tour. The drawing will be Sunday, September 16 at 4:00. You don't have to be present to win, we'll be happy to call you and you can either come by and pick up your broom, or we can mail it to you. However, you do have to physically come to our Common Threads Studio in Mountain View to enter the drawing.

Shawn also makes broom tying tables in his workshop.

So, check out the Studio Tour web site for the directions to all the fine studios and take a few minutes to swing by ours and at least congratulate Shawn on his National Craft Broom win and enter the drawing for one of his unique, hand-tied brooms.

Of course, if you want to feed the sheep, look at my shawls, handspun yards, bright dyed fibers or enter the drawing for one of my rugs, I'll be here too.


Hope to see you this weekend.

Win a Fleecyful Wool Rug

This coming weekend is the Off The Beaten Path Studio Tour September 14-16. Now in its 11th year, the tour is a free, self-guided driving tour of 30 artisans home studios within 30 miles of the Mountain View Courthouse Square. It gives visitors a rare chance to see working artisans in the environment that inspires them. And it gives you a chance to purchase unique items directly from the person who made them.

As long as the weather is good, all my Fleecyful Rugs
will be on the porch during Off The Beaten Path Studio
Tour, so you can shop for your perfect rug.

We've been doing the tour for several years now and have made many friends of the folks who visit our studio. This year, I want to say a special "thank you" to our friends.

Many of you know the rugs I weave from my sheep's wool. These Fleecyful Rugs are incredibly comfortable, durable, washable, and unique. Each rug is a one-of-a-kind, woven from an entire fleece that one of our sheep took an entire year to grow. Every dollar we get from the sale of these rugs goes back into the care and feeding of our rare Jacob Sheep and Angora goats.

Boomer says "Thank you very much for buying Fleecyful Rugs so
I can keep my girlfriends."

I've been weaving steadily this summer and have a good selection of rugs ready for buyers to choose from at the Off The Beaten Path Studio Tour September 14-16. Now I need your help to get the word out about these rugs.

To thank you for sharing the word, I'll be giving away two rugs at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 16.

There are two ways to win -

1. Come by our Common Threads Studio and sign our guest book, leave a good contact email or phone number, check the box that you want to enter the rug giveaway, and tell us who recommended you visit our Studio.

2. Be the person who is most listed in the "Who recommended that you visit our Studio" column.

So, plan a girl friend's weekend trip to Mountain View, bring your husband for a fun weekend getaway (there are lots of places to hike and fish if he isn't into crafts) or if you really can't make it to Off The Beaten Path Studio Tour, send all your friends and tell them to bring you back cool stuff.

You just might win a really awesome rug for helping promote this creative group of artisans and beautiful area of Arkansas .

Pondering giveaways

August 2012 is the month of giveaways here in my little corner of the Ozarks.

First, Shawn had the idea to give away an item each day in the Craft Village at the Ozark Folk Center State Park as a way to thank our visitors for coming to see us. Every craftsperson was very generous. Some created unique items just to give away. Others donated several items to give to visitors on their featured day.

Almost every item went to someone who appreciated and loved it. There was one 13-year-old-girl who was visiting for her birthday. When she won the turquoise earrings designed and created by Linda Widmer she was ecstatic. Her parents agreed to let her get her ears pierced that day as a birthday present.

Nita Reuter of Hot Springs, Arkansas, loved the broom made by Shawn
Hoefer that she won in the August Craft Village Giveaway.

Or Nita Reuter of Hot Springs who just glowed with happiness when she won the Tom Turkey Wing broom made by Shawn. "I've been praying so hard that I'd win," she said. "I've never won anything in my whole life." She hugged her broom around the whole craft village for the rest of the day.

These little presents have added a bright spot to our quiet August days.

Then along came the Arkansas Women Blogger's Unplugged (#AWBU). There were giveaways on top of giveaways. Every session started off with drawings for items donated by sponsors. Every attendee received a bag of gifts from sponsors. Every woman there got a free pair of boots from Country Outfitter and is getting another free pair of boots to give away on her blog. (sneak peak - I'll be giving mine away in October). Obviously, free giveaways are a good way to promote your business, product, web site or blog.

With this experience in mind, I am working on creating a giveaway to promote the Off The Beaten Path Studio Tour.  The tour is coming up Sept. 14-16, and I want to get as many people as possible to come to as many studios as possible - including ours. I want to get people to pick up the tabloid publication that talks about the tour and has each artisan's contact information. I want to encourage people to visit and get to know these talented artists. I'm just not quite sure how to put it together, yet.

If you have ideas for a giveaway that would work to promote the tour, let me know. I think I'll go weave a bit before bed. My brain gets its best ideas when I let it go off to play while I weave.