We will be picking up our cria Spottedcirucs Amazing Acrobat in March and will be attending  The Great MIdwest Alpaca Fest in Madison WI in April, along with Bill.  So look for our boys there this spring.  It will be our first show ever so we are excited.
We will also be adding some new things to the store in the next few weeks. My mom was nice enough to sew up a few knitting project bags from some fabric I had bought, and there might be a few of her handmade quilts in the store also.

Have a happy holidays from Spottedcircus Alpacas & Llama

Also while we were at  Magical we were able to see our 2 week old cria, Amazing Acrobat. He was born September 12, 2011 and is out of Gathering Storm and our beautiful Obsidian girl MFI Violin Cierto. As of so far he is a spunky little guy. He spit at me twice and tried to kick Roo as he gleefully ran away from us. He looks like he is going to have dark brown to possibly maroon fiber and is super curly right now. We are hoping that's going to be a sign that he is going to have the same silky fiber that Violin has with the massive amounts of density that Gathering storm has. He also has a stunning head and profile. We are planning on showing him next spring, when he will be available for sale.

So we went to pick up Mr Speckles in Evans Georgia and ran into a few issues along the way. As we left Kentucky the car started shaking and acting all sorts of crazy, so we spent 5 hours at a Firestone getting the front end practically redone. On the way down we met up with our friends Roo & Vickie at the Tennessee state fair, where conveniently there was a fleece auction :) and spinning competition. While Roo competed in the spinning competition, we learned that to spin the most in the fastest amount of time we need wooly winders. It was fun to watch none the less. We then rampaged the fleece auction. It wasn't really an auction because there was prices listed on each, and supposedly in the past people would negotiate with each other if they wanted the same fleece.. HA! I grabbed up what I wanted & didn't take names! I ended up with a 2nd place black Romney fleece, a intersting cinnamon brown shetland, and a 1st place grey handspinners fleece. Around 15 pounds of fleece total. Prices were very reasonable, and there was lots of fleece available.

We then went and spent the night at Roo's house so that we could continue on our way the next morning. On our way to Georgia the noise started again!! Come to find out the last repair guys screwed up and our wheel was being held on with 2 lug nuts. So another hour and a half later we finally made it to our destination at 9pm. The next morning we got up bright and early to meet with Dorthe Peloquin of Peloquins Perch and her llama herd. She has some beautiful llamas, and made us fall in love with the suri alpaca. The fiber is so extremely soft. She showed us all the training Mr Speckles had received. He could jump up into a building, go over jumps, walk on a bridge, walk through tires, and go on a teeter totter. It was very impressive. After seeing the whole herd, we loaded Mr Speckles into the PT cruiser and took off for Alabama.

We stopped by Nina's store Fiber art work in Huntsville AL, and meet a nice little girl and scared an older one that was worried Mr Speckles might eat her. We overnighted at Roo's, where I examined her studio, discussed fleeces, and made friends with Jesse. Finally after a long trip we arrived home to rain and 4 alpacas that were convinced Mr Speckles was a new woman for them.

Overall a fun, tiring trip. At rest areas we caused quite the sensation when we unloaded Mr Speckles to stretch his legs.
So here a bunch of pictures of all the fun!

Booth set up and tear down went really quick which was nice and not very stressful.  So here are some photos of our booth

There were also several other "Rooites" there from the seminars at Magical. It was good to see other alpaca owners out there utilizing what their alpacas give them every year.  We saw Judy from Swisher Creek Farms & Loretta & Linda .
Also a photo of just how stuffed our car was..I'm thinking we need a van

We will be having an open house September 24 & 25 2011 from 10-3pm. There will be spinning, alpaca and llama hugging, and a guess the number of speckles on Mr Speckles contest. Bring your chair and join us for a day of peaceful alpaca watching.  Learn more about raising and caring for alpacas also, and visit other local farms as they too host open houses this weekend.

While at Magical I had the chance to meet an alpaca that I had bought her fleece from Roo at the Kentucky Sheep & fiber festival. Her name is MFI Violin Certo. She is a beautiful maroon color that occurs naturally in alpacas but is a very rare color and hard to get. After I washed her fleece up it literally felt like silk, so I knew I had to meet her on this trip.  Well wouldn't you know it, she was up for sale & already bred to have a cria in September. So after some negotiations the farm offered me a deal I would be stupid to refuse.  Luckily it involves her staying there till after she has 2 babies, and thus gives us time to build a female pasture & sell her first cria to help pay her off.  She is 3 years old & out of their herdsire Obsidian, a beautiful black alpaca, and is bred to Gathering Storm, a comical muscular boy. We are hoping for a dark rose grey female cria to be born near the end of September, and then we will re-breed her next spring. They have an 11month gestation so it will be a long wait for the second baby. We will get to see her at their annual auction in October that we are helping out with and are hoping that she has either had her baby by then or has it while we are there.That would be awesome. So without further ado...MFI Violin Certo