Christmas Greetings

Still here, just really, really time-challenged lately. I just can't seem to get both enough time and enough amibition to actually do something with it. I've actually gotten a few things knitted and some spinning done (there are, at least, pictures somewhere), but this is much more fun for the day.

Gypsy said this was what she wanted to share with her blog friends, so here you go:

Big Foot at the Beach

This last weekend was pretty darn good. My local spinning/knitting group had a potluck up at Hamlin Beach State Park. It's late enough in the year, that they no longer charge an entrance fee. The lodges are really nice, too; they are made almost completely of cut stone. The one we had had two fireplaces at each end, so we were quite comfortable as the day got colder.

Gypsy loves this park. I'm really not sure what she likes most...sand, water, waves, seagulls, geese, leaves and just plain wandering about.



Just in time for colder weather to set in, I finished the mittens for the kids next door. I'm thinking that the snowmen may be a bit too large, but then I took the tracing of his hands back in July, so they may not be as big as I think.

Meg surprised me by creating this fabulous centerpiece for the table. I think she did a terrific job and I sure hope that I can get her to do it again for other holidays/seasons!

It's Howl-ween!

Gypsy here. Mommy sed I could blog 'cause it be Howl-ween and I wore hat fur long 'nuff fur her to get picture. My peoples calls me devil-dog and not just at Howl-ween.

My fur-friends got dressed, too. I don't think any of dem like it much.

Bubba be resigned.

Trouble be mad.

Sadie thinks she tough dog, so don't like frilly. Peoples called her Stinkerbelle. Hee, hee, that funny!


I big girl & know there be cookie if I good. Not the people cuppy-cakes, but still a cookie.

These aren't our punkins, but they sure are pretty neat. Mommy sez they really big and I could fit right inside them.

Mommy gets her punkin out & plugs it in and gets candy for little peoples (at least that's what she sez). I sure wish little peoples would come tricks n treats, cuz it would be fun to kissy-face them!

Pssst! Mommy sez I can enter contest at Baa Baa Blacksheep, Bear's Mommy told us 'bout it. Me thinks I have 2 new friends!

Treasures from the Hudson Valley

OK, so I could have just said that Rhinebeck was terrific (it was), the bus trip long (it was), but let's just go with the wonderful highlights of the day.

--No responsibilities to "run" anything. Very nice...as I'm part of a guild that puts on a pretty darn good Fiber Fest, I can really appreciate someone else's efforts.

--Meeting Jane of Quiddity. She is one of those people that I immediately like. I'm thinking that might of been kind of inevitable considering the amount of like interests we have. The only problem is that she lives in Georgia there won't be that many opportunities to visit. No picture, sorry, bad blogger.

--Meeting Franklin. He is absolutely as charming as can be. Again, someone that I immediately felt could be a very good friend. Sigh, at least Chicago is closer than Georgia. Dolores was no where in sight, so he seemed pretty relaxed.

--Snagging a copy of It Itches and having it signed by Franklin. It's good, very good. Get yourself a copy!

--Shopping. I really hadn't planned on buying much of anything. The only item that I was kind of (but could wait for a nice one) looking for was a white fleece. In my continuing effort to visit my stash, often, I discovered that there was a distinct shortage of nice white wool.

On top of the black sheep, which is a felted pouch, suitable for notions and such like, is a lock of Border Leicester 6mo. lamb clip. It's long, shiny, and very white...nice find. It's already washed and might even be dry enough to card.

Other treasures included some green wool yarn (on sale, probably destined to be a vest), Trekking sock yarn, Araucania sock yarn and another ball of lace weight from Galena's booth. I still haven't knit up anything with the first ball, as I'm still searching for the right pattern for it. This one should be a bit easier as there are fewer colors in it.

Since the weather has turned to typical, ugly fall cold/windy/rainy/slushy/dank, I figured I would use my new mug, also purchased at Rhinebeck. You know what, ladies? If you use one of those fancy hot cocoa mixes, with milk and add some Screech, it tastes like you're drinking one of those rum balls that appear around the holidays. Takes the chill right off!

Lene, you have a lot to answer for...

One of my favorite blogging friends is Lene. No, let's just correct that. She has moved out of the "I sure wish I could meet this person group" to "Must get together with Lene while in Toronto". We've met a few times over lunch/coffee and I enjoy every minute of our visits.

What has she got to answer for? Well, not for making me think of life/living from a very different viewpoint than mine...that's definitely a highlight.

Not for living a bit too far away to visit regularly...I could easily just suck it up and drive to TO for a day-trip.

She tagged me on a book challenge. I know, it was way back in June. To be fair, I really didn't forget about it, but as time went by, a bit of guilt set in. Eventually, I went back and scanned through all of Lene's posts until I found it:
Pick up the nearest book.
Open on page 123.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the next three sentences.
Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

Since, at the time, George Carlin had recently passed away, I thought that using his book would be a great choice. Still is. Braindroppings, by George Carlin.

Page 123: For instance, imagine the crap we'll have to endure on TV when Bob Hope dies. First of all, they'll show clips from all his old road movies with Bing Crosby, and you can bet that some news anchor asshole will turn to the pile of clothing next to him and say, "Well, Tami, I imagine Bob's on the Road to Heaven now."

Kind of spooky, isn't it?

As far as tagging, I'll tag Mom (who doesn't really have to tag anyone, just have fun with it), Deb, Jane, Linda G. and Denise.

OK, guilt-trip over...yippee!

Oh, and another thing that I'm blaming on you...the compulsion to check LOLcats and dogs every. single. day.

Busy, Very Busy

The Finger Lakes Fiber Festival has come and gone for another year. There were many fine vendors with many equally fine temptations. I succumbed to only a few items: some hand-dyed roving from Cloverleaf Farm, some cotton/linen/rayon yarn, a ball of sock yarn, a new belt for my spinning wheel, some alpaca yarn and, of course, kettle corn.

I have one of the best jobs of the festival: coordinator of the Skein & Garment Competition. This allows me the opportunity to check out everyone's entries and thoroughly enjoy them during judging and setup. This year, our entrants outdid themselves...92 skeins, 62 finished garments and 15 basket entries.

A few weeks ago, Deb (of Not Pretty to Watch) chose me to receive one of these:

Now I get to send along the ribbon to 4 of my favorites. It was definitely not an easy task to just pick four. In no particular order: Quiddity, Yarn Harlot, The Seated View and The Panopticon. All the these fine writers/bloggers are people I would adore to live closer to, just so we could sit and visit whenever possible. Since that's not feasible, at least we can drop in on each other's blogs.

October brings many things around here. We've had a pretty hard frost, Indian summer is upon us for the next few days, Farmer's Markets are full of fresh produce and Rhinebeck is fast approaching. Our spinning guild is renting a bus. It leaves our area at 4:30 in the morning for the trek to Rhinebeck. Gak...I can only hope that someone will wake me when we get there!

Unusual?

It's starting to get a bit breezy outside as what's left of Ike is passing through tonight and early tomorrow. We don't get much in the way of hurricanes as we're too far inland, usually just wind and rain. It did, however, get up to 97 F this afternoon. Definitely unusual for mid-September. Gypsy and Bubba were ready to melt, as were we. Neither one of us has had the chance to get a new winter cover for the pool, so we did have what is likely the last dip of the year. Very refreshing, as the the water has dipped down to 68 F.

Earlier this evening, I wandered out to my veggie garden. We were quite late getting plants in the ground this year, but we do have some truly frightening tomato plants that are taller than I am...they were pushing 6 feet, but kind of slumped over as they ran out of support. There really haven't been huge amounts of fruit, but I found this mighty speciman this evening. Pretty much as frightening as the plants!

In the spinning department, I finally finished spinning a pound of recycled denim cotton. Believe you me, a pound is a lot of cotton for someone who is very used to wool and other animal fibers (and is very much looking forward to getting back to them). I'm now plying it up into a fairly nice, 3-ply. You'll notice that I have a furry little helper.

Unusual stuff all around: weather, veggies and cotton.

Gypsy Blogs (Again)

Gypsy here again. I guess Mommy thinks I big girl now and can blog more. I got to go for a ride in the car-car today. First place we stopped was the barn where Big-People-Sister goes (and she takes Sadie with her). Fun place. Lots of very good smells. All the kitties puff up really, really big when I say hello. There were even lots of those really big puppies with the long tails.

Then we all got in Mommy's car and went for another ride...to the beach!

My peoples even let me off leash in a public (kind of) place today. We were the only ones on the beach. Maybe that had something to do with the rain.

Daddy threw sticks for us and I got most of them. Sadie too chicken to go in wavy water. I big girl and went after them if not too far out. Is OK, if you wait, they come to you.

Hey Bear...do your peoples take you to beach, too?

Diane here...yes, our family went to the beach, wandered about and had a picnic lunch...all in the rain. Even though it was more than a bit damp, involved two very wet, very happy dogs, it was definitely a pretty pleasant way to spend an afternoon!

Summer's Winding Down

Gypsy here...Mommy be busy with fluffy stuff so I do blog.

This summer my big-people-sister brought homes a little blonde brat-dog. She kind of OK, but be really pushy. Now the kitties like me better. Really now, do you have to that just for belly-rubs?



It fun to play ball with big-people-sister, Daddy & Sadie. We be tough on balls, this is #6 so far. We makes them pop or I chews them up (them handles on jolly ball not last long at all).



Another good thing is that shortie can't get up on my new couch. My peoples got me new one that matches me really good!

The Wheels on the Bus Go 'Round & 'Round...

Mom and I went on a bus trip to Maine last week. I'm here to tell you that if you have 2 seats next to each other, you can, indeed, spin all the way to Maine (and back again).

It is somewhere in the neighborhood of a 9-10 hour trip from the Rochester, NY area, not to mention the couple of hours from Portland to Bar Harbor area. I probably should have been drinking something stronger than blueberry soda; it was very, very good even so.

By the time we pulled back into town, plying had commenced and two more bobbins had been filled.

Lest you think that I never, ever looked up from my wheel, we saw many Maine sights:


Portland Head Lighthouse (in the fog, with foghorns going off):
It was not lit as it had been struck by lightening the night before (a bit ironic?)

Lobsters, lots of them. I had 3 meals strongly featuring the beasties.


I wonder if any of them were caught by these folk?







We also took a cruise and saw, besides many lobstermen, seals, eider ducks and eagles.










Maine is definitely a place I would go to again. Even though I was unable to find any open yarn shops, there were signs that wool-centric people live there:

July has melted away...

It continues to astound me at how fast time goes by.  Yeah, I'm a bit of a slow study.  At any rate, the living has been painted, carpet is ordered and due to be installed this week, the gardens need weeding (again), Gypsy is happily spending time under her tree (when not in the basement with her own personal fan), spinning and knitting projects are in slow motion and now I need to pack to go off with Mom on a bus trip to Maine.  There are pictures, but they're still on the camera.  Must. get. it. together.

Happy 4th and 1st (and any other day you care to celebrate)

Well, it's the end of the 4th of July weekend here in the US. I'm thinking maybe North America should just close down and be happy for the entire week. Canada celebrates on July 1st and the US on the 4th.

In my travels today, I saw this unique "flag pole". There are no tricks of perspective here; I took the picture from the side of road. The flag is huge; it's a full-size fire truck and a fairly large barn.

Originally, I planned on writing a post about how I've managed to get quite a few projects done in spare moments here and there. There has been a fair amount of spinning and knitting. There are even pictures. There will be even more spinning over the next month as I figure out what I'll going to spin up for the Tour de Fleece. I'll be a late starter as I have yet to go stash diving to see what strikes my fancy.

This 4th of July weekend has been filled with many activities. There was so much other stuff that it took me all weekend to graft the final seam on a pair of sideways gloves.

Here's a really big thing: DH finished up a custom-made entertainment center for a client. They do really plan on getting a larger TV. It breaks down into six pieces that was still a challenge to get on the truck to deliver. It just as much of a challenge getting it off the truck, too. No doubt about it, he does really, really good work!

The cats have been helping us choose what to about our living room/dining room. Our carpet has needed replacement for years and I am heartily sick of builder's white on the walls. I think we've settled on a carpet choice. Yes, it is the carpet that the cats have chosen, just a different color than the ones they are laying on. Paint choices have been narrowed down and need to be looked at (again) during the day.


And now, because it's summer and the opportunity is just too good to miss: Here are some "Daisy Ducks"!

Exceptional Randomness

I'm going to blame my lack of blogging on backlash from our daughter's graduation, subsequent party (including frantic house & yard cleaning and, yes, it rained again), very hot weather, a birthday (mine...makes me feel old) and Father's Day. That's my excuse(s) and I'm sticking to it!

On to some randomness...a blimp. Does anyone else think that blimp is a really funny word?

And a bunny, that Bubba has just noticed. Both of them had been within sight of each other for quite some time, each looking in the opposite direction. That just doesn't demonstrate good predator/prey behavior, does it?

Gypsy has discovered a new hiding place. May I present tree-dog? (Please excuse the window glare.)

Throughout it all, I've actually gotten quite a bit of spinning and knitting in. There are even finished objects, but I can save those for another entry.

And, finally, I can say that a lantern just doesn't give off enough light to do the beaded picot bind-off on Knitty's Ice Queen. Knitting has resumed now that the power is back on.

110% Chance of Rain

It was chilly, rainy, very rainy, a bit thundery and windy enough to turn many umbrellas inside out for a few hours earlier today. It was unpleasant enough that college presidents and politicians reduced their speeches to "Congratulations!".

Why were we out in weather like that? Well, we had a very, very good reason, because, somewhere in this throng is my daughter.

Today, she graduated from SUNY Brockport with a Bachelor's in Accounting. There are not enough words to say just how proud we are of her!