The AAI students are plugging along...a few more than the rest of course! It's such a crucial time to encourage them to get started and in to a routine. The time flies! And I certainly don't want them getting discouraged. Renee and I met them at a local fabric store to help them pick fabric and patterns (and avert as many disastrous choices as possible down the line- yes, I know, that's for our benefit so we're not fixing a cocktail dress made in satin from a stretch pattern). Some of the chipper designers-Sophie, Treyce and Camille!
This is the time of year where I also start planning for the coming chicken season. My family and another raise 60 meat chickens in a free-range moveable pen (or tractor). It's a bit strange to some to mix being a designer and chicken farming but it's very grounding work!
We get the chicks on April 23rd and they will be mailed here to Blue Lake, CA from Pennsylvania from JM Hatchery . It's funny to think of these little peeps all huddled together in a box on there way to us. I get a bit nervous during this time. In most cases, everything goes well and we don't lose a single chick. I have heard other horrible stories though. I have the 'bat cave' phone number for our local US Postal hub so I can go directly down anytime of day or night and pick them up. They are happy to give them to us as they make a racket- I am not the only one getting chicks. Working graveyard at postal sorting is hard enough without a thousand Peep! Peep!s going on.
That is a picture of last year's broilers in their pen soon after we put them in there.
They are so cute! Our cat, Chihiro, is very interested. Once they get bigger though, he stays clear- I've even seen him running away from our laying hens.
This tractor has a few laying hen chicks in with the broilers. They are the darkest and lightest chicks.
I've also been EXTREMELY busy switching over from working on Master Pattern to my own line, Chicken Boots. A lot of infra-structure was in place from doing it on the side as Saremy Designs but I am being more thorough with the development. Making sew-in labels and working on new designs (Jewelry Cases!).
How about a tutorial on making your own customized sew-in labels for all your creations?
Sounds good to me....stay tuned!
