2023 has brought with me a time to plan and bring my love of thrifting to a formal place and name. For most of my adult life I have loved going to thrift stores, flea markets, antique shops. Partly how I was raised, partly my sustainable love of re-using, partly from having an amazing partner that also shares these values. This and so many other things led to a moment leading up to the new year when I felt inspired to name it, brand it, and share it in a very open and transparent way.

The idea of "flipping" and selling really came from what started as purging my own possessions a few years ago. I am definitely not a minimalist; definitely a maximalist but I really don't mind cycling through with a few exceptions (umm, not going to part with my macrame owls) and do not want to be a hoarder.

This was during the advent of FB marketplace seemingly replacing Craigslist and it was quite easy to find a way to move on goods from my own house without the awful headache of a garage sale and have a few extra dollars to add to the family income or redecorate. This evolved into meshing with my extreme love of going to thrifts, fleas, antique shops etc . . and finding treasures, rescuing unique items, and breathing new life into them. 

Over time I realized that not everyone likes to shop in and spend time looking for treasures like I do and it started to materialize as a sweet little side hobby along with knitcher that sings to my soul. After several questions from friends and family if we were moving because of the items I was selling it seemed like time to name it.

I believe in being transparent which was part of the driving force of naming it "flip witch" it is flipping, not for large profit, but to pay myself for tracking down the item, cleaning, sometimes fixing, listing, photography, etc. . . This year I will be approaching more as a hobby business, including tracking margins, taking care of taxes, etc. 

I hope you will enjoy me sharing my flip witch esthetic, here are just a couple corners in my own home of thrift and/or found item. I really do walk my talk. It is not very often that I purchase new items for my house or closet. More information and links for the flip witch are here.

Enjoy and happy new year friends!

Coming back into this space after taking a needed break. I function through my life through symbols and I thought I would share some symbols as I transitioned through my 50th birthday this spring and always looking through their strength as I keep hitting bumps in this road of life.

I enjoy getting new ink when I hit these transitions. This tattoo was for heritage and knowing where I come from and help guide the future.

Organic inspiration in plants:

• wheat for the Volga German heritage on my mother's side
• katniss for the Appalacian Mountains where my father's family is from
• meadow cosmo flowers from my childhood
• poppy for memory
  

Be well my friends and be gentle with your selves and others during these challenging times. 

Spring, yes- this magical transition from winter; waking from the winter slumber. I love spring; I like the way the airs smells and how mama earth starts showing herself in tiny little leaves opening on my elderberry bushes and tiny little flowers in my yard. I am also a little biased about spring; it is the season I came into the world along with several of my family. 

This year I am transitioning into a new decade- my 50's! I really never over think these bigger birthdays and try to embrace them with things I love. This year it includes some fun things that I will enjoy sharing closer to my b-day; more to come.

In the meantime I wanted to take the time to talk about some other things about transitioning into these years. I had my annual physical last year and I asked to let me know the recommended test, etc . . . for turning 50. If you recognize this photo above; you know a colonoscopy was part of the recommended items. 

Like many people, I will back up that the prep is the hardest part. A couple other aspects I needed to take in consideration is that I limit my refined sugars. So many of the recommended items for the liquid diet day are all about sugar. My golden tickets were starting to adjust diet a couple days prior, took out whole grains, seeds, veges, fruit with skin, etc . . and kept it pretty plain. Simple chicken, fish and some white breads. On the liquid diet day my golden tickets were Simply Asia Ginger Chicken broth, watered down white grape juice and homemade electrolyte. For the homemade electrolyte I mixed:

• sparkling plain water
• fresh squeezed lemon and lime juice
• pink sea salt
• honey

Even though spring is definitely one of my favorite seasons, it is hard to find that joy this year with all of the turmoil and war being waged on Ukraine right now. I wanted to do something to help and I decided to help with a small fundraiser to help another artist on Etsy that is based in Kyiv, Ukraine. 

As you have seen me share, I discovered Istihome wood printing blocks last year and the war is impacting so many things in their lives including their Etsy shop.

This spring I am going to be making limited batches of naturally dyed cotton muslin gift bags that I am block printing with a rabbit block from Istihome. 100% of the profits after the cost of materials will be going to this artist/maker.

I will definitely be looking into making financial contributions as well to humanitarian organizations but did not want to miss an opportunity to help another Etsy maker directly.

This first batch is in the shop and ready to ship. I dyed this batch with avocado, osage orange, chlorophyllin, and purple logwood and experimented with some different colored block printing. At this time I am only shipping to US to keep the cost all down and manageable on my end.

Please take a look, support if you are able, and help envision peace and resolution soon for the Ukrainian people.

Finishing up the poncho last week has gotten me itching for more knitting projects, and I mentioned that I was lining up another poncho for spring/summer wearing for some travel knitting. I pulled out a skein in my stash- Manos Del Uruguay Milo- merino + linen in petal. I was hoping to trying and find another complimentary pink and fade them together but I decided to go with a contrast because it was too hard to tell on the computer monitor if I could find the right pink to fade. I went with a contrasting colorway called grizzly; it has variations of pinks, browns, greens and hoping to wind it up and do a couple gauge swatches and then try and decide how to lay the color out in the poncho; stripes or color block.

I want to try and work on something before that project and came across a wide cowl on Ravelry today and was smitten. It is called Breeze Louise and is a free pattern if you want to check it out. I love how it looks in the yarn it was made in. I went down to my stash and was not feeling any of the yarn there was what I am wanting, so I think I am going to order the suggested yarn- Emma's Yarn. I like the story of the family that makes the yarn. 

I was excited to see my LYS as retailer of this yarn line and hopped in car today to try and check it out. I understand that COVID has really affected hours for businesses but I was so disappointed to see that they are no longer open on the weekends. They are only open a T-F during the middle of the day. It makes it really hard for me to try and support my LYS with such limited times to go check out the yarn. For some reason our community really struggles to have a good LYS. I am going to order the yarn from the shop that is providing the free pattern. 

All that being said, I figured if I was going to get a new skein of yarn, I should probably de-stash at the same time. If you are interested I just listed some yarns in my shop under the yarn tools and de-stash section.

I also want to share how saddened I am regarding the Russian war on Ukraine. I struggle to understand the audacity of the government of Russian to take this action. I am still determining how my family is going to help in a small way and am compiling information. Here is a starting spot if you are interested also. 

Also you may have heard me singing the praises of an amazing Ukrainian Etsy artist that I supported in the recent months who makes the most amazing wood block stamps; IstiHome. If you would like to support another Ukrainian artist; here is a link to a knitware designers from the Ukraine Pelykh Natalie/knitforsweet  and Victoria Chaplina/mycharmingwool. 

Supporting and visualizing peace- 

The Katniss Poncho is all done in time for the closing ceremonies tonight. It has been fun pattern to explore during the winter games and I really enjoyed making this piece. I also really enjoyed the unexpected rabbit hole I fell down with the Hunger Games and exploring family history in the area that is the setting of the dystopian Panem. This is the place where I process all of the amazing moments and athletes across the globe that participated; I really love the games. It is a sense of completing a knitting project that I set a strong intention to complete that sparks a flame to start another poncho. 

I also completing some amazing books along the way including the prequel to the Hunger Games; The Ballad on Songbirds and Snakes. I thought it would be fun to highlight some areas of the movie depictions of the Hunger Games series where yarn and over/knitware are shown. 

• Hunger Games is filmed at the Henry River Mill Village; a former yarn mill
• Hunger Games- opening dialogue with Seneca Crane and Cesar Flickerman explaining the Hunger Fames is something that "knits us all together"
• Hunger Games- early trade with Katniss at the Hob for a ball of wool yarn
• Catching Fire- the amazing knit cowl/vest worn by Katniss in opening
• Catching Fire- on tour Katniss; the black and gray sweater, the cap sleeve sleeping sweater, infinity style cowl in blue, reverse triangle sweater, cable sweater, Haymitch; neutral color sweater
• Catching Fire- burning of contraband in District 12 there is a large ball of yarn on dresser 
• Catching Fire- Finnick's sweater
• Mockingjay- Gale's black sweater, Tigris' cowl
• Mockingjay- Katniss returns to what remains in District 12- sweater in the doorway in the rain and the woven baby blanket