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!