What in the heck is FPS? It stands for “For Pete’s Sake!” And the exclamation point is important. I made that up about three years ago. I left Office Manager Susan a note about something we had to do (that we weren’t happy about) and I put an FPS at the bottom of it. After awhile, she finally said, “Ok, I’ve been trying to figure this out for 15 minutes. What does FPS stand for??” Since then, it has been a commonly used phrase here at The Loopy Ewe, although most days are not FPS days and you won’t hear any part of that acronym uttered. But today? Today was an FPS day.

FPS 1. How difficult is it to cut cardstock in half twice, to equal four cards the same size? And why is it that every time I take the Needle Inventory Cards in to Office Max for printing, they have to re-do them at least once? Time to find a new printing solution.

FPS 2. How did both Susan and Elf Sue manage to take the same week off for Spring Break? Yikes. Thank goodness for Karen, Lori, Anna and Mary today. We may have needed Vicki and Donna in here today, too, but they were off playing. I’m sure.

FPS 3. Daylight Savings Time. And being an hour behind all day. Enough said.

FPS 4. I walked to Starbucks before walking to work today. It adds in an extra 1500 steps. I was hoping that by some miracle those few blocks would add 7000 steps so that I’d get all 10,000 in for the day. Wishful thinking much?

FPS 5. Desk is piled high. Too much else to do today. (See FPS #2.)

But the GOOD news is that we have some fun things just up on the website tonight for the Update. That’s a cure for all of the FPS’s of my day. We added in:

Malabrigo Twist (and a few sock and worsted re-stocks). You’ve been asking for this worsted weight base, and we have it in all of the colors. See that yarn photo closeup, above? That’s Twist. We DO have more on order. When I was at TNNA in January, I asked Tobias why our orders were taking so long. He said, “Well the thing is, you order SO MUCH at a time ….”  So just know that it’s always on order and always in process around here.

Universal Yarn Cotton Supreme (that soft, wonderful cotton yarn that I couldn’t keep my hands off of at market. Love it. And I love the Cotton Kids pattern book that we also brought in with it. Now I just need someone’s baby to knit for.) See this purple photo? Click on it and make it bigger. That’s it. And we have it in 25 colors.

Lorna’s Laces (big re-stock of Sock and Sport, including their new colors: Avondale, Calumet, Catalpa, Humboldt and Pullman. Also, Zombie BBQ in Sport.)

Namaste Circular Needle Cases (in Lime, Black, Eggplant, Peacock, Hollywood Pink and Red. Classy looking and great for your favorite sets of needles.)

Sock Club and Kit Patterns from the past (I know, I got behind on adding these in. I promise to do better this year. The good news is that you get lots of new choices all at once!  The patterns from this month’s sock club will be available for sale in September. We’ll stick to a 6 month schedule now.)

I just noticed that I listed five FPS’s and five fun things just up on the website. I guess it all balances out.

Sheri thinkingthepiled-high-deskcanbedealtiwithtomorrow

Several of you have asked us to do a post showing the progression of orders here at The Loopy Ewe, so today, Loopy is going to follow one order from start to finish and show you what happens to your order, once you hit the “place order” button!

We come in first thing in the morning and print the orders out. Then I write on them and check out the fun things that you ordered.  :-)

The stack of orders goes out to the main packing area and gets put into the order tray.

Next we add one order (and order giftie) to each of the bins on our rolling cart. We have two rolling carts like this and we just keep re-filling them all day long until the orders are done.

Here are the red bins full of the different gifties that go into your orders, depending on which order number this is for you.

Once the rolling cart has been filled, it gets pulled back over to the wrapping counters.

And then we package up each of your orders.

Next, your order gets put into a box. We tape both ends of the boxes now because the adhesive that the post office uses is worthless. It used to work. Now it doesn’t. And we sure don’t want the flaps opening up and your yarn getting dumped somewhere enroute. (Loopy doesn’t get to use the tape dispenser, for obvious reasons.)

The box gets weighed and we write your last name, your order number, and the weight on the outside of the box.

We enter that into the computer and it processes the shipping label to go on your box.

Then the boxes are wheeled to the front lobby area to wait for the mailman to appear and take them on their way to your house.

If you’re lucky, the box goes directly from our front lobby to your mailbox. If the postal service is up to some tricks, they might send your box from one end of this country to the other, and THEN deliver it to your mailbox. FPS. We do love packing up your orders and sending them off to you every day!

Sheri coldandcloudyheretoday,whathappenedtooursunnyweather?

Several of you have asked if I’m still walking to work. (Seriously – put something out there and the whole world keeps you accountable. Try it.) I am still walking. This morning it was in the 60′s on the way in, and it will be in the 70′s on the way home. It makes me think that I’m not going to be too fond of walking when it gets hot. At all. I will have to overcome that. I photo-ed my way home the other afternoon, just for something to do. Plus, it freaks people out when they see you pull out a camera and aim it in the direction of their car.

This is the safest part. I appreciate this concrete barrier. It protects cars from careening off the road and plunging down into the creek next to our building.

Here’s the creek and that’s our building beyond the trees on the right. This little creek is the one that can cause trouble if it rains too much and we get flash flooding. Remember these photos? Yep. All that from this little creek. I think it happens about once every five years or so.

This part isn’t any safer on the way home. If I don’t leave here by 4:30, it gets even busier. It’s a good incentive to get home at a good time. If I come back here at night, I drive.

I was walking along here the other night, thinking “Whew – now I’m on the safe sidewalk”, when I noticed tire tracks in the grass where someone had driven up over the curb. So …. maybe not. Oprah’s No Phone Zone campaign sounds better and better to me.

Our neighborhood feels like a little oasis when I turn up on this street. The noise level goes from “I can’t hear myself think” to “I could hear a pin drop”. At least at that time in the afternoon.

Of course the fun part is having someone waiting for you when you get home. (Note to self – time to do the spring window cleaning.)

Or two someones. WH works later than I do, and both kids are off in their own places. At least the cats are happy to see me!

So is there anything you need to be held accountable for? Are you willing to put it in writing?  No doubt someone will ask you about it in a week or two, if you do….

Sheri mightneedtocleanthatLoopyshoweroutforthesummer

Bad News: It’s Monday, and all signs confirm that. Some Mondays are just like that.
Good News: I have a box of Thin Mints on my desk. Somehow that makes it better.

Bad News: I heard that fish commercial again during the Academy Awards.
Good News: The other Olympic commercial that I couldn’t get out of my head, is gone. In fact, I’m not even going to try to remember the song. Something about “live it, ride it, something something” – a car or jeep commercial? Not very effective if it annoyed me and now I can’t even remember what it was for.

Bad News: We had absolutely nothing (n.o.t.h.i.n.g.) planned for this past weekend.
Good News: Knitting Daughter came home for the weekend to surprise us! I’ve never been so happy for a free weekend.

Bad News: I said I was going to knit on 3 different projects this weekend and I only knit on one.
Good  News: I had a lot of fun on the one!
Bad News: I seem to be unable to leave patterns well enough alone, and made some changes. It’s the non-sock pattern that was in this month’s Sock Club.
Good News: I think I like what I did, but time will tell.

Bad News: Not a whole lot of new things going up in the Update tonight – it was a light week. But we have a new Zauberball-6 from Schoppel Wolle. Susan took a pink/green one to make a sweater for her cute granddaughter! Also, needle re-stocks (and Hiya Interchangeables again, as well as those cute Hiya project bags that sold out so fast), new Wendy Knits patterns, a Born to Knit pattern re-stock, more Hand Maiden Swiss Mtn. Sea Sock (we keep getting boxes of it, showing up!), and more Namaste re-stocks up. Come check out the new things here!
Good News: We’ll put a couple of batches of other things up this week as well.

Sheri gotanybad/goodnewsfromyourweekend?

1. Thanks to an overabundance of TV watching lately (thank you , Olympics), I feel that if I hear the song “Give me that fish. Give me back that fillet-o-fish” one more time, I might have to go push the golden arches over by hand. Enough already.

2. I have three projects that I really want to work on this weekend. A stealth project, one of the patterns from the sock club kit that we sent out this week, and my Mountain Colors Crazyfoot sock (line to appear here at Loopy soon!). Not to be confused with the other projects that I also have on needles at the moment. Way more than these three. I’m so fickle.

3. I don’t believe I have shared a recipe containing peanut butter since November 13th. Clearly I am overdue for another one. And these are really really good. Recipe adapted from Martha’s Cookie Recipe Book. It’s filled with great recipes.

Whoopie Pies with Peanut Butter Filling

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tbl. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Filling:

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/2 tsp coarse salt

Scoop about 2 heaping Tbl. of dough onto baking stone. These will spread as they cook, so leave room around each ball. Bake cookies at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. Let cool on wire racks. When completely cool, spread filling on one side and make a sandwich.

Store in the fridge, covered (or individually wrapped). They taste best at room temperature, so let them sit out for a half hour or so, before serving.

4. I use the Elves as a testing ground for recipes. Well actually, I use WH for the testing, and then I bring the rest in for the Elves to sample so that it’s not sitting at home, tempting me any longer. It’s a good system.

So – here’s a question for you. I want to work on 3 different projects this weekend. How many are you going to work on throughout the weekend? One? Two? Ten?

Sheri nowwishingIhadn’tsharedtheYouTubelink
becausenowthesongisstuckinmyheadagain

Remember my post about walking to work? (Yes, I’m still walking. People keep asking. I guess that’s good for accountability.) Someone in the comments that day said that it’s too bad we don’t have a shower at Loopy Central, for the days when it’s hot and humid when walking to work. That made me realize that there are probably a few ten things you don’t know about Loopy. Like:

1. We do indeed have a shower here. The shower stall now looks like this. It’s filled with shelves that WH built, as a place to keep a few extra shipping boxes. (This space used to be some kind of doctor’s office and I guess they needed a shower.) So we have one – but it’s not usable.

2. This wall is paper thin. I was standing there contemplating Cascade 220 colors one day, and could clearly hear one side of a phone conversation from the office next door. Too bad it’s not a stock company, or I might be able to provide some interesting stock tips. It’s a real estate company.

3. The extra chocolate kisses are kept in the bottom of this cabinet.

4. We have one live plant here at Loopy, and we named it “Fern”. It’s not a fern, but we call it Fern.

5. This is the most useless area in the whole shop. This part of Loopy Central used to be a real estate office, and this was the lobby. It doesn’t really work to keep inventory here, so we just made it look interesting.

6. We have a little elf who guards the shop 24/7. We don’t fully trust the sleepwalkers in the sleep clinic across the hall. Strange things have been known to happen at 3 am.

7.  Our favorite circular rack was a cast-off from Linen’s & Things when they went out of business. Susan found it for sale one night and WH drove up there to buy it and bring it back to Loopy, 10 minutes later. Then he made the cool plastic dividers for it.

8. We have a back (indoor) entrance. We never use it. But if we ever want to close up and leave early, we can stack the outgoing boxes here. If we don’t answer the doorbell, our mailperson knows to come around to this alcove to collect the day’s batch of boxes.

9. We have a visiting shop dog. Although Loopy is clearly a cat person (he loves Zoe and Gracie, who come to visit on occasion), he’s also partial to Buddy. Buddy comes to work with one of the guys down the hall. If Buddy is in the hall when our door happens to be open, he dashes in here to say hi. I think it’s because we give him so much attention while he’s here. Smart boy. (And the photo is a little blurry because Buddy never stands still while he’s in here. Never.)

10. When things get crazy, sometimes we just jump into the coffee cups, head first. It seems to help.

Sheri I’msurethere’smore.I’llfillyouinaswethinkofmorethatyouneedtoknow.