Happy Holidays from the Funhouse

Gradients - perfect for play time!

We love to send inspiration out into the yarniverse - and we have lots of fun new gradient dyed fibers in the shoppe.  Please stop by and take a peek; See something you love?  Want something you don't see?  We love to hear from you! Send us a note and we'll be happy to work on it.

Polwarth-silk blend gradient in "Monet"
 

The Holiday Season is in full flurry around here - those of us who are making our holiday gifts are busy sneaking in moments of crafting whenever we can. But it's easy to lose the joy of creativity when you turn from "want to" to "HAVE TO", so I thought I would take this opportunity to remind you to take a bit of time each week to PLAY.... without expectation, pressure, or guilt. Find colors, textures, or images which speak to your inner voice; gather them together and try something new. 

For me, the most difficult part of playtime is letting go of expectation - which can so often lead to disappointment.  The mere act of play is joyful, and when you take away expectation you allow full creativity to bloom. Therefore, your "mission" - if you choose to accept it: even if you are a "plain vanilla" spinner (do you always spin lace weight natural colored fiber?  Or perhaps you haven't ever tried to spin a gradient - too "scary"?,) please schedule a guilt-free play date with your inner child.  Pick some "in your face" colors and try a new spinning technique.  Even spinning a "Thick and Thin" single can be a step outside the box.  Create without expectation - do not worry about how "good" it looks, or what the heck you will make from the yarn.  Just enjoy the process - gorgeous colors, delicious textures - and listen to your inner muse. 

And even if the resulting yarn is nothing you can imagine showing anyone, wash that skein of yarn and hang it up where you will see it - I promise you that each time you do, you will smile with a renewed sense of joy. 

Give yourself the gift of playtime this year.

3rd annual BOGO sale!

Hi all-

Well, it's been a pretty busy month, and it's looking to be an even busier holiday season for us here at the Funhouse.  I'll bet you're all "up to your eyeballs" in Holiday projects, right?

Before I share some of my own happenings, let's just get the big SALE news out there:

It's time for our popular "BOGO" sale again!  Yay!  This is a great time to stock up on Holiday goodies for your stash (or gift/swap items too)  This one only comes around once a year, so don't miss out - sale ends midnight on 11/17/12. 

Details: P.S. Just enter the code "BOGO" in the notes to seller when you are checking out with paypal.  If you can't figure out where to enter the code, just email me at funnygirl@funhousefibers.com, and I'll take care of it for you :O ) 

p.s.: not valid on items which are already on sale.

Hey subscribers - welcome!

Well, it's bound to happen; you design a new blog, start a facebook page, post pics, and feel all "modern" and cool - then you realize that you never set up the 3rd party mail manager to send out blog updates to your subscribers...Le sigh.

So, without further ado... welcome to all of you wonderful subscribers!  This is our very first "official" blog update, and I'm sorry it's been a few weeks of silence..see above embarassing details, LOL!  Oh well, it's all good now, right? 

Now that I have your attention, I'd like to reward you all for being so patient. You should all have details for our very first "subscriber exclusive" discount coupon attached to your newsletter.  Thank you so much for your support - it's what gets me excited about creating FUN stuff every day.  I love to share fun ideas! 

I'm still tweaking the contents of this email newsletter - don't want to send you all kinds of spammy stuff, but the newsletter template had some spots to fill.  Please ignore the multiple shop links, etc.  I'll be tweaking the format once it actually goes out and I can see what it looks like "live."

Meanwhile, it's time to announce the big winner of September's giveaway:  congratulations to gamanda- at- xxx -dot- com (email address edited for privacy purposes)!!!  You won a set of POP ART mini-skeins!!!  (see pics below)

"Pop Art" giggles - set of 4 miniskeins

I've sent you an email to get your mailing info, so that I can send out your goodies.

 By the way, I have edited the subscriber sign-up form so that you all have to give me your first and last names - I need them so that I can properly address you if you win prizes, LOLOL!  If you would all take a moment to send me an email at: funnygirl@funhousefibers.com with your first and last names, I can add them to your existing subscription info manually.  That would be great!!! (and lots better than yelling "hey YOU!", grin.)

P.S. I'll be adding some pics of October's giveaway prize in the next update. 

Thanks again to all of you who have signed up on the newsletter list - You're the best!

xo
Miki and the Funhouse gang

"CAPTAIN AMERICA" Boucle' spinning Funkit

Looking for some Instant-gratification type Fun? Good news - we've got lots of new Funkits in the house!!!

That's right, we've been hard at work on some new products for the last few months, and the funkits section of our shoppe was looking a little slim - but not any more!  We've added some awesome new boucle' spinning kits, in both 4 and 8 oz sizes, so that you can have even MORE fun. 

We've also had some requests for more of our beaded spinning kits, which we LOVE to both create and spin ourselves, and they're BACK - wooty woot woot!


If you've been wanting to try spinning your own beaded yarn, this is a great way to start - we've done all the tedious work so that you can sit down and play. We've even got a free instructional Youtube video so that you can check out our beaded spinning technique - it really is just as easy as it looks.  Once you try spinning with beads, you'll start coming up with all kinds of ideas for adding beaded yarn to your hand crafted projects.

Next up on the list:  Creative spinning kits!  We've got some fantastic FUN planned for all of you this week - yay!  Look for new Holiday-themed kits going into the shop this week (just in time for "All Hallows Eve, bwahahaha....)

Speaking of October.... check out two new Halloween Colorways --

"Hocus Pocus" Polwarth/silk

First: "Hocus Pocus", and brilliant blend of deep dark ebony black and wicked lime green.  These are too much fun to spin - the end result can be as bold or as blended as you like. We've got a bunch of our favorite fiber blends already up in the shop for you to play with!


"Hocus Pocus" milk protein fiber



"Hocus Pocus" Panda fiber

Second:  We've got "Zombie Virus" in the House, LOL!!


Nope, not the REAL zombie virus, something much more FUN - our new just-for-Halloween colorway!  It's actually really gorgeous, and so much fun! Just a couple of braids in the shop at the moment, but we'll be adding lots more of this one next week...along with our next "crazy fun" Halloween treat.

"Zombie Virus" in Merino/Alpaca/Silk blend.  YUM!



*Stay tuned for a special update tomorrow - we'll be announcing the winner of September's big BLOG giveaway, and other awesome news.

 

xo

Miki and the Funhouse gang

 

And we have our very first winner for our monthly giveaway:

A great big Congratulations to Melody Parker, who won the hand painted gradient dyed silk brick!!!
We can't wait to send this out to you, and we also can't wait to see what you create - please share your project with us when you do, ok? 

And today, we finally created a "real" facebook page for Funhouse Fibers.  We're spiffing it up a bit, and will send out info in the next couple of days so that you guys can "like" us and share your spinning and knitting projects with all your fellow "Funsters." 

Thanks again for making our days alot more FUN - we love to create new stuff to make you smile!

xoxo

Miki

"I can't believe I WON the Funhouse giveaway!!!"

It's "Fiber Friday" at the Funhouse!



That's right, every Friday is FIBER FRIDAY at the Funhouse!

 

New in the shop this week:  lots of hand painted fiber in yummy fall colors.

 

  Don't you just love fall?  I grew up in Northern lower Michigan, and the trees turned the most gorgeous colors - brilliant reds, striking golds, bronze, and every shade of green.  I also love fall because it's the beginning of the harvest season - I dream about the piles of fresh produce available for canning and "putting by" for winter that we had available on our family farm. 

Nowdays, I have a tiny place in the city, and no luck with growing vegetables in pots :O ( 



Merino-Alpaca-silk "Autumn Harvest"

We do, however, have a wonderful weekly farmers market  here in town, so I can still make pickles and preserves if I want to.

My favorite pickles EVER were pickled baby carrots with cinnamon and nutmeg - seriously, they were THE BOMB, and made me famous with the locals for a couple of years.  Now I'd kill to find that recipe again - given to me by my blind neighbor down the hill from our farm.  Sigh.
Doubt I'll ever be able to re-create them, but I can try, right?





Meanwhile, I'm inspired by the shades of autumn this week - check out the gorgeous colors in this delicious braid  - one of my new favorite fiber blends: superfine merino, baby camel down and silk (!)  What's not to love???

Merino-baby camel - silk "Autumn harvest"

 

You can pick up some for yourself now in the shoppe - I'm happy to share my "Fall Harvest" with you. :O )

P.S. coming soon:  "Yarnie Tuesdays"

Have a wonderful Holiday weekend, everyone-

xoxo
Miki

Store Update

New stuff just in at the Funhouse!

We've added a delicious variety of Mawata silk hankies, English Shetland (gradients!), and some fun new Milk Protein fiber.

We've also just added a new page dedicated to our monthly giveaway - you can win just for subscribing to our blog!

Meanwhile, we're hard at work learning some spiffy new computer techniques to beautify the new blog.  Stay tuned, and have a great week of Fibery Fun.

xoxo
Miki and the gang

English shetland gradient "Sea Glass"

Welcome to the new Funhouse blog!

Pardon our mess while we are under construction.

Check back soon for the AWESOME new Funhouse blog - we're so excited!  We'll have direct links to new items in our store, weekly tutorials for spinning and fibery fun, and GIVEAWAYS!

Don't miss out - sign up to follow our blog now, so that you'll know when we have our "grand opening" party!

see you soon -  keep spinning!

xoxo
Miki

Meanwhile, you can visit Funhouse Fibers on the web, in our shoppe, on Facebook, or on Ravelry - check out our "Fun & Fast tea cozy" pattern (available for instant download on Ravelry).