OMG!

You guys, I just got an email from Ann Shayne of Mason-Dixon Knitting telling me that I won Kay's Stash in their Great Stash Giveaway contest!  Eeeeeeeee!  Since I was away last week without internet I had a blue-million emails to sort through.  By Monday I had weeded out the chaff and had only the good stuff to read.  About mid-afternoon I opened the one referencing the contest, clicked over to the site, saw the yummy prizes, and proceeded to enter.  My entry was #1500-something.  I figured I had a snowball's chance in you-know-where to win but win I did.  I cut and pasted the pictures of the stash I won so I could take its picture and put it on here--also so I can moon over it when I'm away from the computer.  (I know, I'm a dork)  I've been being so good about not buying yarn, I didn't stop at Spin, the yarn shop in Door County on my way up to The Clearing or on my way home.  This is my reward.

On Sunday I went to Joann Fabrics to find some fleece and fur because OJ is a huge fan of the Muppet, Animal, singing "Mahna Mahna" so I'm making him an approximation of an Animal puppet for Christmas.  I snapped some screen shots of the YouTube video that are very blurry but I think I've seen it enough I can figure it out.  I've got a puppet pattern that I used last Easter so I'll just use that even though the mouth won't open.  I'm especially excited about the fur I found for his hair.  Animal has floating orange feather hair; Joann didn't have anything like that but they did have a bolt of some long fake fur in a peachy color.  I nearly had a stroke when I saw that it's $44.99/yard but I could buy just an inch.  Whew.  So have a strip of it 1" wide and about 45" long. I figure I'll piece it if I need to.  Animal has light purple skin and is wearing a lime green shirt in the video and he has a big pink nose.  I've got some pompoms that will work for the nose.  Now all I need to figure out is the sunglasses.  This is going to be fun.
 

I've noticed the last few times I've seen OJ that he likes to put bag handles over his arm so this morning while the laundry flopped around I dug out some things and whipped up this little bag for him.  It's about 8" square and the handles are long enough that he can put them on his shoulder or carry it as is.  I hope he likes it.  LC and I discussed what she'd like in a bag.  Since we'd just read Fancy Nancy she wants beads and flowers and butterflies and feathers and maybe jewels so I found all kinds of interesting things on the sale racks at Joann.  I'll be seeing what fabric I have on hand and work up a bag a bit bigger than OJ's man bag (murse?) because it's going to have all kinds of embellishments.  Which are going to need to be sewn on by hand but I'm looking forward to it anyway.  This weekend, I'll make a start.

 





I slept until 6:30 this morning (hallelujah!) so I wasn't mad which means that I got out to do yoga on the patio just as the sun started rising.  And just as I finished this long strand of Canadian Geese came honking by.  Today the humidity and heat are gone and it feels right for late September in Wisconsin, finally.









September 27--Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, The Port of Valencia.  The sun rose like a flaming ball bathing the harbor and all the boats in fiery red light.  "Red sky at night/sailor's delight..." Cinta said under her breath.  "Red sky at morning/sailors take warning," she finished with a sigh.  Not the happiest thought when you are on your way to board a tour boat.  She consoled herself that they weren't going far, just up the coast to see an old fortress from the sea, then back into port for a lecture and lunch.  It wasn't going to be a long sail; the brochure said three hours.  As the thought crossed her mind the Gilligan's Island theme song began running though her head.  Maybe she should decide right now whether she wanted to be Ginger or Mary Ann.

It's time to go do something with the salmon marinating in the fridge.  I see boiled baby reds in our future too.  And I need to go down to fling the last load of wash into the dryer.  Bye.
--Barbara