Seriously, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.....

Hey there everyone!! Remember me?!?! Yes, the contest is over but no I haven't had a chance to look through all the enteries and pick the winners. I will do that tomorrow and alert the winners tomorrow afternoon or evening.

BUT, now that the contest is over - I can reveal the secret(s)!!!!!! I had the contest running for so long because I was hoping we would actually be ready to "launch" part of the secret at the conclusion of the contest. However, we aren't ready to actually launch yet so that will come later. So, for now I will just tell you about the launch and about the exciting stuff we have going on.

We have been absent because we are MOVING!!! We are getting the heck out of this crazy city (Atlanta) in exchange for a quieter, slower life pace in beautiful Blue Ridge, GA. We have already purchased the house and are already moving in. That's why my blog posting/reading have been so spotty lately. We don't have internet set up at the new place yet and we are traveling back and forth spending about 1/2 the week at each place right now so things are kinda crazy. Plus, we have been working our butts off at the new place doing all kinds of stuff so I haven't had time to be online anyway. But we are SO EXCITED and we absolutely love the house and Blue Ridge!

We are close enough to walk into downtown Blue Ridge so we have just been having all kinds of fun in addition to the long hours we are putting into the house to get it ready for the official move. Also, that's why we have shut down yarn bowl production for a while. We have to get moved and set up in the new place so we should be back up and running in another couple of weeks. I already have a running list of folks who are waiting on the next batch.

We have laid all new floors, cleaned, cleaned, done some cleaning and cleaned and just generally been doing stuff to make the place look like a home. The previous owner was a batchelor so it was basically just a place he "stayed in" if you know what I mean. We have three acres, a huge beautiful deck that overlooks our pond and creek with a waterfall. It is an amazing place!!!

I, of course, brought the camera back but I forgot the connection to download the pictures to the computer - it's still up in Blue Ridge. So, the before and after pictures will have to come later. HERE is a link to the pictures we took before we actually bought the place though so that will give you some idea. Since these pictures are "pre us moving in" all the stuff in the house is his, not ours. The tree that fell over in the pond has now been removed, ALL the pink carpet is GONE (thank goodness) and like I said, the place is now much cleaner. We really feel lucky to have found this place and we got it at a great deal since it needs a little work (but nothing the man and I can't do ourselves). Next up on the agenda is a fence for the dogs, tearing out and replacing the back deck (since it is pretty much disintigrating) and putting a shower in the upstairs bath (he was going to remodel but we told him that we would just finish it so that we could do it the way we wanted it). Here's a couple of shots from the photo album (two of the front of the house and the last one is the view of our pond from standing on the porch):

OK - so that was the first part of the secret. The SECOND part of the secret is that........drumroll please................we are starting a YARN COMPANY!!! We are going to be working with the Georgia Mountain Fiber customers to provide a place for them to sell their beautiful alpaca yarns and roving!!!! We are SO EXCITED!! The name of the company is Amia Yarn Company and we will be selling alpaca yarns/roving that are all processed from American alpacas. We really wanted to do something to help support the American fiber farmers since they have such tough competetition against the South American producers. It's a really involved story so if you want to learn more you can go to the site at http://www.amiayarncompany.com/. The shopping cart is something we are still working on and we aren't actually selling anything yet but there is a lot of good information on the site about why we are doing what we are doing.

We are so excited about helping to promote this luxurious fiber AND the folks around the US who are raising alpacas and need help getting their yarn and roving out to YOU - the people who want it!! We already have some gorgeous alpaca and alpaca blend products and I can't wait to let you all know about the launch for the site so stay tuned!!!!!

More pictures and information coming up soon!

WHEW - that's a load off - I have been wanting to tell all of you guys about that stuff for SO LONG NOW!!!! YAY!!