Keepsake Quilting

I made it.  I not only got to Keepsake Quilting, I went twice.

(It seems so unfair that Lindsey Lohan even looks good in her mug shots, and I can't even manage to get a good one out of the hundreds that I take on vacation.  I was squinting into the sun here.  Okay, okay, it's a shoddy excuse.  The good news is that should I be arrested I can save them money by sharing one of my many, many pictures that look like mug shots.)

This is the more catalog-ish view of Keepsake.

I got an okay to take some pictures inside from the person cutting my fabric.  As soon as the camera snapped, however, someone else yelled, "You can't take pictures of the quilts!"  The cutter smoothed things over explaining that I was just taking overall shots.  I was not willing, however, to stir up things by taking more than these two.  They don't do the place justice.

(I'm not talented enough to Photoshop those two quilts out, so, instead, I'm going to ask that you don't look at them.)


I thought I was only there an hour or so, but apparently it was long enough for Brian to not only visit the neighboring stores but develop close personal friendships.  When I finally left, he took me around to meet his new friends in each store.

I could not pass up the ducks.  They match my rubber duck collection after all.

 

These are some fabrics that just starting begging me to take them.  I am in an orange mood lately.  This has never happened before.  I'm going to be redoing the larger bedroom in yellow.  These should make a lovely quilt, etc.  I passed up the first fabric, blue with tiny orange leaves, requiring the second trip. On the second trip, I found the rubber duck borders.  That little trip alone was another $56.  

 

Oh, yes.  The lake and all the surrounding area was incredibly beautiful.  The lake is enormous! We've got to go in the summer next time. 

Tomorrow:  The Maker Faire!!  

Lake Winnepesaukee (aka Keepsake Quilting) for Our Anniversary

Happy anniversary to us!  We are going to Lake Winnepesaukee FINALLY!  I've been trying to get there for more than 20 years.  It's not THAT far from Upstate New York, and it has been just a bit off the routes we've taken for a number of vacations further north.  It was often on the list of places we would stop on the way to or from other places.  Something always got in the way.  We were running late, the kids were too tired, we'll do it the next time.  My reason for wanting to go there:  Keepsake Quilting.  I so want to see that store.  Their catalogs are eye candy. 

I guess when the sole purpose of the trip is to get to this lake, we might finally make it there.  When the hubster said we were going there, I was ecstatic.  He remembered.  He knew how much I wanted to go to Keepsake and was doing this just for me.  I had days of this fantasy.  Then I mentioned where we were going to someone in front of Brian.  Turns out Keepsake was not actually on his list of reasons for going there. Too bad he said that.  He had sooo many brownie points piled up before I found out he really wanted to go to the lake.

Be that as it may, I am going to Keepsake and to what I understand is a lovely lake to celebrate our 27th anniversary.  I shall post pictures of the too many fabrics I'm going to buy.

Art Journal Classes Online

I just signed up for "21 Secrets for your Art Journal."  It will be a collection of 21 lessons, each taught by a different artist.  I've been looking at Hanna of Stockholm's work on her blog for a while now.  She is incredibly talented.  Classes are going to begin on October 1st, but you don't have to do them at a specific time.  That's just when the classes will start being available.  The cost is $59 which is a bargain when you consider it's less than $3 a lesson.

Take a look at Hanna's blog to see the inspiring things that she creates.  She has some great tutorials.  Even I, with very little artistic talent, am able to do many of the projects.  There's a link on her site to join in the classes.  Hope to see you there!

They are Finished! 30 Sock Creatures and One More For Good Measure

Here they are.  I guess I was in a striped sock mood.

The monkey, who my lovely husband named Mango, is made from a pair of socks I got at the sock outlet store.  Some of the socks from there were good, but some "run" when you poke holes for eyes or a nose. That's not good.  The hole grows and grows.  If you are lucky, the eye and backing snap together quickly enough to stem the run.  It's a pain trying to do it though.  I couldn't get the nose for this on  quickly enough and ended up needing to use a felt nose in order to repair it.  

The snakes are from socks purchased at Joann's.  They're not really heavy, but are solidly construction and easy to work with.  I think I just need to avoid the really cheap socks.   BTW, the snakes are names Echidna and Cecrops in honor of the mythological Greek creatures that were also kind of snaky.

So that finishes the challenge!  It's late, but I did it!  Here's a group shot of all the little monsters.  What a rag-tag looking bunch!  Lessons learned:  make sure the sock material is worth all the work and make the challenges much, much smaller in the future.

I Won a Ticket to the Maker Faire!!!

I won a ticket to the Maker Faire in NYC from the Martha Stewart Craft blog!!  I missed out on the original 15 tickets, but I and five others got an email saying there were extra tickets.

My lovely husband is going with me.  It's an expensive win with the cost of Brian's ticket and transportation and food and I don't want to think about this part of it anymore.  I'm only going to think about all the incredible things I'm going to see there!  This must be good karma from posting about Martha's napkins.  OR, maybe she DOES read my blog....just kidding.  I can always dream, though.

Hopefully I will be able to take some pictures for the blog.  Wish me luck navigating the streets of Queens.

# 28 of the 30 Sock Creatures has Arrived!

So here he is, number 28, Ezcar Goe.  What a time doing this one!  It was not supposed to look like this at all.  The first few attempts were not working for me.  His head was originally his butt.  Then, I folded down the legs and had a giant head, but no body.  Adding various appendages that were originally to be arms resulted in a rather obscene looking creature--fun, but not something I'd be able to put on the blog. 

I had an even worse time getting pictures of this guy.  It's hard to show the face well and also show definition in the rolled back piece.  In addition, The black rolled back piece didn't show well on light OR dark surfaces.  This picture shows the back a little bit better, very little.

You'll just have to take my word for it!  Escar Goe is quite lovely in person.  Or should I say in snail? 

Lessons learned:  1.  It's hard for me to get good photographs when working with black socks.  2.  I really need to get a book on photography.   Any suggestions on that?

My inexpensive and almost maintenance-free water fountain

I am taken with water features.  On the other hand, I don't like having to spend a lot of time on them.  I've been playing with fountains since I first bought one of the little packaged models in the 80s.  All of those were either buzzingly annoying, obnoxiously loud, and/or require perpetual fiddling with the motor filter.  Their small size also required that they be filled constantly.   My own attempts at building one from scratch have been so-so.  They were still rather care intensive.  However, I finally did it!  I've waited to post about this to be sure it was a long-term success.  I've had this one going for over a year with almost little maintenance.

The porcelain pot,  about a foot high and wide, was one that was around the house.  I can put a ton of water in this so that I only need to top this off maybe once a month.  The sound changes with the level of water.  If it gets too loud and splishy (is that a word?), I toss some more water in.  I also put in a bit of bleach on occasion to keep the bowl from developing scum.  Just a splash or what amounts to several tablespoons does the job without getting the eau de swimming pool effect.

The pump is in the 100-155 gph range (about $25) so that it works at its lowest setting.    Although that is a high range for the size of the pot, working at the lowest setting means it is less noisy and not taxing the unit.  This low setting gives the sound of water throughout the downstairs but does not show water spurting up unless you look down into it.  I've learned that spurting water also means the possibility of over-spray which will result in water spots on the surrounding area. You can hear a bit of a pump buzz when you are next to it, but sitting in the room you just hear the water.

If you get a pump that overpowers the sound of the water, return it!  Try the next size down or a different brand.  IMHO, if the pump is too loud, it is defective--it gets returned.  Another suggestion, test the water pump outside if possible to get the setting you want.  You will be amazed at how far some of them can shoot water. 

My pump is covered with large washed rocks I've collected over time.  The cord is covered (well, almost--you can see a bit on the side) by the small potted plastic plant.  Yeah, I could drill a hole in the side of the pot, but I'm not willing to risk the pot.  The plant works fine for me.   Voila!  Finally, a fountain that can survive my neglect!

A Martha Stewart Napkin

It's from Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts.  Martha "claimed" that this would produce a napkin with beautifully mitered corners.  I love nicely mitered corners but have always found them to be difficult.  Following the directions (for once), I ended up with this.

I love Martha.  This napkin is perfect.  Look at these beautiful corners!

It was so nice, I was afraid to embroider anything on it.  It took me weeks to decide whether or not to put something on it, more weeks to decide what design to put on it, and another week or two to get up the courage to actually do the embroidery.  I don't know why.  This napkin was so easy to make.  You iron it, sew on a few of those creased lines, and do some straight stitching around the edge.

I finally decided on a simple floral design for the embroidery because I'm a bit tired on initials right now--I overdosed on my towels.  I used a slightly off-white on the bright white cloth.  I'm not sure that the placement is conventional.  I folded the napkin the way I would use it and put the design on the top.  It is off-centered when the napkin is open--one of the reasons I chose white-on-white.

I used a fabric from Joann's that looks like linen.  It washes beautifully.  No ironing needed at all.  I've had linen napkins before.  They were lovely but HAD to be ironed.  I like ironing, but who has the time especially around the holidays when you will most likely be using them?  Now I just have to finish the other 17 I want.  I know better than to put down an exact date for them to be finished here.  Life has an annoying way of interfering with my well-made plans.

I really do love Martha.  I want to be in her audience.  I don't want to meet her, though.  For some reason, I find her completely intimidating.  Could it be her awe-inspiring talents and boundless energy?  Yes, I know she has a hoard of people coming up with lots of ideas, too.  Martha did, however, create the whole venture and keeps it going strong.  Great napkin, Martha!  I just know she reads my blog ;-}

Two new sock creatures are finished at last...

I've been having pretty good luck with my sock creatures, but these last two nearly did me in.  I haven't posted in a while because I just could not get them to be even remotely the way I wanted them.  I have worked, reworked, and reworked them again.  I have tried multiple ways of doing the mouths, ears, and limbs. I tried some new eyes.   And still, they are not what I wanted.

I worked with the baby socks that I used for the cute brown bunny in my last post on sock creatures.  These, though turned out just blah.  How can such cute little socks turn into such boring little creatures?  (I'm feeling intensely guilty saying this.  It's as though I'm a mother saying my kids are ugly.  Is this normal?)  So here they are.

They look sad, don't they?  Even they know they look bad.  I must admit, too, that the picture flatters them.

I tried doing the yarn straight across for a mouth like they do for the original sock monkey design.  It is my own ineptitude that caused the one with the red mouth to look as though it is frowning.  However, that piece of yarn pulled straight across just doesn't seem like a good idea for a kid's toy anyway.  There is nothing holding it firmly in place.  I tried to rectify that on the other one by tacking it down with yarn which is why there is a big black blob in the middle of the upper lip.

I wasted sooooo much time on these two that I just wanted them done!  Lessons learned:  If I do use the yarn mouth again, I will probably try doing really light tacking with matching thread to hold it in place.  Also, working with tiny socks is a royal pain in the butt!

So to name the little beasts--Sadlee and Dullci. These are numbers 26 and 27 of the 30.  I'm really, really almost there!

Hadley Mountain Near the Sacandaga Reservoir

My daughter, Keegan,  wanted to go hiking so we went up Hadley Mountain last weekend.  It's a nice little hike with an inspiring view.  There was a bit of a crowd at the top although the trail was not crowded.  It was a perfectly beautiful day!  The pictures came out well although there was a good bit of haze looking down on the water.   I love the rolling landscape in the distance. 

There is still a fire tower on top of Hadley.  You can't get into the room at the top, but you can still climb up to the entryway.  This is my lovely husband, Brian, in front of the tower. (I told you there was a crowd at the top!)   Both my parents grew up in the town of Long Lake in the Adirondacks.  One of the women in their group of friends spent a summer working in one of the fire towers and wrote a book about it.  Normally only guys would get that job, but it was during WWII.  I would have loved to do that!  It is a quaint little memoir that was not widely published, but I loved it. 

I did make it all the way up.  Here's proof. 

Here's Keegan sunning at the top.  How cool that the rocks make a lounge chair!

Although this next picture is hazy the view of the winding water is too nice to leave out.

See that--there is something more to New York State than the city. I climbed a bunch of these little ones but have only done one of the 46 High Peaks.  Mt. Marcy is off my list to becoming a 46er.  While it is the highest, it is not even near the top of the list for most difficult.  I'm not sure I even want to try doing them all.  I prefer taking my time, getting pictures, stopping for every little beast, rock, or plant that captures my attention.

Sock creatures 24 and 25 of the 30 are here!

I will apologize now for the quality of the pictures.  I am having the worst time with the new Cybershot camera.  I keep accidentally moving the top piece that changes the picture mode. (Does anyone want to buy a slightly used camera?)

In any case--here are the newest sock creatures.  This first one was to have been a smaller version of the pig I did the last time.  Being cheap, I was trying to save a small piece from the top of a sock.  Lessons learned:  1.  You can't change the length without changing the width if you want the shape to remain the same.  2.  You can work with your "accidents" by moving in another direction altogether. This one is, as the painting teacher used to say on the PBS channel, "a happy little accident."  My pig turned into a very nice head.

I like the simple X for the mouth.  Another happy accident was that I forgot to round off  what would have been the back of the pig.  The straight line left what I turned into ears.  (You can just see one on the side in the picture.)  The monkey would be hanging upside down on a vine on the socks, but it works this way, too, for a sweater.  She's also a gymnast--see that awesome split below.  A very small,  pig-headed gymnast had to be named  Petunia Retton. (Y'all do remember Porky's girlfriend was Petunia, right?)

The next creature came from the socks the size of the tiny striped ones here.

Who knew they made tiny, brown-striped, old man socks?  No wonder they were on sale at the sock outlet.
I had the carrot button left over from some long-ago project.  I don't know what I was thinking going with the traditional pink/red bunny eyes on a completely nontraditional striped bunny.  Things I make late in the day seldom make sense, though.  The mouth is kind of lost in the picture, but it is just an orange inverted V.  I had the WORST time getting it even. In any case, this is Fiver, named after the little rabbit in Watership Down.   If you've not read the book, you really, really should.  It is one of my all-time favorites.  Just thinking about it now makes me wish I had a little person to read it to. 

Five more to go!  I will get there yet.

Fun Candles at the Craft Fair in Vermont

I wasn't going post about the Manchester fair because I got so few pictures.  I know people get upset that others are going to copy their designs--understandably, so the camera stayed in my bag.  You have to buy at least one if you are going to attempt to copy it! At two, three, four hundred, and more this was definitely a "look at" trip for the most part. These kinds of craft fairs are far more art than craft. 

I did find Otter Creek Candles, though, and they are well worth sharing .  They have soy candles in a huge selection of fragrances.  My Otter Creek candle burns cleaner and much more slowly than most others I've had.    It was heaven to check out all the choices at their booth, but nearly impossible to decide which one to get. I finally went with one that would to be fun as well as scenty.  Are you ready for this?  Monkey Farts.  Yes, it is gross and juvenile.  I couldn't even  bring myself to smell it at first,  but the owner insisted it was a banana tropical scent that just was not selling under its original name. Its actually a beautiful soft scent--just a touch of banana.  Now, it's a top seller.  See--I'm not alone in having a sick sense of humor.  My kids enjoyed the joke and I got a great candle.  I'm happy.

Check out the Otter Creek website.  Mixed in with their large number of socially acceptable choices are just a few fun ones.  I'm going to have fun with those this Christmas. 

I did get a few pictures to show you what a lovely day we had. Not many craft fairs have this view all around.

 Even the weather was perfect.

Two New Sock Animals

These are sock animals rather than creatures.  I got both of them from Daniel's Stray Sock Sewing Book--the first one, not Stray Sock Sewing, Too. Here is the lovely white rabbit. 

I love the way the head came out and the frilly neck.  The body, though, is lacking something.  It's just misshapen and I cannot figure out what to do about it.  Next time, I'm going to cut it at the point where the legs go on and sew legs in separately.  Still, he has a beautiful face!  He gets to stay.  

I tried to find out the White Rabbit's name from Alice's Wonderland.  Apparently, it was White Rabbit.  That just won't do.  Someone thought it was Herald, but that, according to someone else, was his job not his name.  The spelling makes that kind of obvious.  I'm going to use it for my white rabbit's name anyway. I like the name and the spelling so this guy is Herald. 

This little pig was done almost exactly as Daniel's version.

I gave mine a curly tail.  I can't imagine why Daniel didn't.  A pig just has to have a curly tail!

Isn't that a great face!  You create a ball with the end of one sock and pull the top of another sock over.  (As I'm looking at the picture right now, I'm thinking those ears would make great horns.)    The idea of putting in balls of stuffing for the legs and sewing them in place was interesting.  It worked well, but I think I might try stacking circles of felt or fleece the next time.  It will be easier to create uniform shapes that way.

These are numbers 22 and 23 of the 30 I should have completed long ago!  I really want to try a few more of these pigs.  There are a variety of ways to do them in the book. There is also a fish made in much the same manner.  I want to try that too.  Now if I could just create a few extra hours in each day! It's nice to get a few things finished, though.

The new job is just sucking up my time.  Without a dedicated desk/phone/computer, I still have to do a lot of the work at home.  I'm not good at setting boundaries, though.  I tend to keep working way longer than I should.  Good news is that it is a year-long grant!  I'll be finished on June 10th!!!  (Lesson learned here is to be sure the place of employment actually has room and equipment for you before taking on the job.) 

Sock Creatures #18, 19,20, and 21 have arrived

I've been playing around with new ways of sewing the limbs on and some pointy ears with this bunch.  Daniel's book, Stray Sock Sewing:  Making One of a Kind Creatures from Socks has a technique for rounding the head I wanted to try.  I am trying to eliminate the no-neck look on some of my creatures.  Daniel's method of gathering and sewing the head into a ball seemed like it might work, and it was better. Al Bino shown below does have a nicely rounded head and some definition in the neck.

His legs just didn't look right so I sewed them into what looks like a kneeling position.  He does look kind of cute that way.

Here was the next try:

I do like this one named Phee Lexa after Felix the Cat whom she does look a bit like.  I am fond of the pointed ears and the cutesy sweater.  I ordered a bunch of different eyes from CR's Crafts online that I used on this batch.  I found this company when surfing the net looking for different kinds of eyes for my creatures.  These were the owl eyes.  The have lovely swirling lines through the gold-colored area.

I'm doing a bit of hand embroidery as well as hand sewing some of the head and limbs on this batch.

My next one was a royal pain.  I HATED IT!  Because I was putting a growler in it, (the thing that makes a mooing noise when you turn it upside down and then back),  I thought the torso needed to be longer. It ended up looking just plain misshapen.   I just could not leave it like that so I took scissors to it cutting out an inch or so in the mid-section and sewing it back together.  She's wearing a tutu to cover the scar.

She's actually much more attractive in person.  She's  Anna Catlova.

For the last one,  I sewed crescent shapes into each side of the head in addition to using Daniel's gathering method for closing.

I think this one was the most successful in getting some curve from head to neck..  Since she's got sculls and crossbones on her arms and chest, she is Lydia the Tattooed Baby named  from the song, Lydia the Tattooed Lady.

Nine more to go!  Then I can do some in other fabrics.  Do go take a look at CR's Crafts.  There are so many fun things.  In addition to a bunch of different eyes and a couple of growlers, I got a doll's wig  and some of the nerdiest little glasses.  Now I've got to figure out how to sew on ears and a nose to hold the glasses up.

The 16th and 17th Sock Creatures AND pouches

I decided to try a few pouches after coming upon the 3 Bears  tutorial for a "boxy pouch."  These are my first ones, and I will admit they need some work.  However, they are usable. I do apologize for the pictures.  They need some work as well.  The new camera is proving to be a challenge.

This pouch should have been rectangular.  I didn't have a zipper long enough, though.  I did, however, have five shorter zippers so this boxy pouch really is boxy. 

For the second one, I resorted to my usual habit of changing the rules.  I tried to keep the rectangular shape by sewing the zipper in the center and sewing the corners at 1- 1/2 inches rather than the three inches used by 3 Bears.

Lessons learned:  First, I need to use a heavier fabric or use a stiffer interfacing to make it sturdier.  The first one had some light  iron-on interfacing and the second was a mid-weight cotton.  Neither one is really heavy enough, though.  Second, I really need to try this with the longer zippers that were suggested.  I'm just going to have to get to Joann's this week!

On the sock creature front,  here is the first one.

It came about because I wanted to use up some of the scraps, and I do like those little red button eyes.  (I really do need to figure out the new camera.  These pictures suck.) I have named her Skye Bleu Pynk.

The second one is a combination of ideas I found in Stray Sock Sewing:  Making One of a Kind Creatures from Socks by Daniel.

Is she not adorable?  I really should name her after Daniel, so, continuing in the new style of mutilating names and the spelling of names, this is Dan'E-ella.

PVC Piping for Drawer Clutter

I hate messy drawers and shelves.  I also hate spending money on expensive storage solutions.  More often than not, these store-bought dividers don't fit my drawers anyway.  I saw a post somewhere long ago about using PVC piping for the catch-all drawer.  Everyone has one of those--or two or three.  I really work hard on keeping that down to one drawer, and I've kept it in check for the most part.  My mess was the in the clothing area.  Socks and, well, other things that just don't fold well or stay in place.  We had some leftover PCV pipe from house projects that fit the "well, other things," so I started there.  We tried a few pieces to make sure the pipe diameter would work.  Then we cut pieces to a height that would fit in the drawer.  Between small baskets that have accumulated over the years for belts and the piping for "well, other things," I've been able to keep this drawer in check for a couple of years now.  Sometimes I fold "the things" nicely and slide them in.  Sometimes I just stuff them in the pipe.  Either way, the drawer always looks great.  Here's the proof.

I did sand the edges a little to make sure they wouldn't catch on the fabric, but the need was really minimal.  I intended to use them for a while to see what arrangement would work, and then glue them together.  The drawer is full enough, however, that they stay in place.  Should I miraculously have so much drawer space in the future that these fall over, I'll get the glue out.  I might even hit them some spray paint for plastic!  Yeah, right!  That's only going to happen if I use that ugly purple stuff plumbers use for gluing. 

I'm still waiting to find some larger piping for the socks.  I am hoping that posting this will encourage me to get to the Habitat ReStore to find some.  If you have not visited a Habitat ReStore, do try to find one.  They are usually worth a trip especially for those who are able to think outside the box. 

While I'm on the subject, see that little bit of orange in the right-hand corner?  Scissors for cutting off tags on all the stuff that comes home.  I spent years running downstairs for the scissors before I smartened up and kept a pair in the room.  Then it took a while longer to realize that the scissors needed to have a narrow, pointed end to fit in tight spaces such as the bulky bits of thread used to sew labels on the waist of pants.  (Why do manufacturers do that, anyway?)  Martha Stewart has probably written about this in one of her many books already.  Just in case, though, I'm going to say it:  Put some scissors in the bedroom especially if you sew.  The sewing room/area is usually closer than that junk drawer where you keep the crappy scissors.  In a rush to get dressed, you WILL have a POWERFUL  urge to break that rule about never using the good scissors on anything but fabric.

Weekend Sewing Complete and Then Some!!

My house may need some cleaning, but I did finish the weekend sewing projects.  First, I finally got around to replacing the too-short handles on the slouch bag.  It is now perfect!

This bag fits around the body perfectly.  It's from Akiko Mano's book "Linen, Wool, and Cotton."  As I mentioned in my previous post on this bag, the only problem with the book is that does not come with an errata sheet.  That is an easy fix, however, if you know where to look online for the necessary changes.  My original post about this bag has the online source.  I love the book.  I love the projects.  I don't love having to find out the hard way that there are errors in it.  'Nuf said.

The next bag is from "Simple Gifts to Stitch:  30 Elegant and Easy Projects" by Jocelyn Worrall. It's the bag on the cover.

The alternating stripes were more than I could resist.  I was worried that this bag wouldn't be big enough, but the size turned out to be great.

Look at the number of books, etc. this thing holds!   It makes a great library bag.  I know this because it had it's first trip there today.

I think I like it better in the fabric on the book cover.  While I love the pink fabric, the irregular stripes don't show the alternating stripe patterns as well.  I followed the pattern completely--a novel idea for me.  (Okay, okay, ALMOST completely.  The handle fabric is not going in the right direction.  I just didn't want to cut into the large piece fabric to make the handles, so I used a leftover piece going in the other direction.  I have another piece of matching floral fabric.  I want to make another bag using the stripes and floral.)

My last project for the weekend was to do another of the oh-so-late sock creatures.  I did TWO!  These two are numbers 14 and 15.  I am truly halfway there!  I used baby socks.  Instead of being easier as I thought it would be, it was harder working with smaller socks.  Here's the first one.

She's actually quite small except for the head.  That's why I've named her N'Se-Phyllis.  Things learned from this one:  I need to put the eyes farther forward and/or make them larger.  Or, maybe I could sew a line across under the eye area to push the snout down.  It's hard to see the eyes with that big snout.  She's much like one of my previous ones, just smaller.

As so often happens when I have housework to do, I decided to keep working with some of those little socks.  I wanted to try doing some antennae.  That word looks so weird, I looked it up to be sure it was right.  Yes, that is the plural for antenna.  I also wanted to try some octopus-like legs.  So, here's what was born of the venture:

I could only fit four legs on.  I am really happy with this guy.  He's definitely a true creature, a Cycloptopus.  He's named after the cyclops in the Odyssey, hence he is called Beta Polyphemus.

I'm enjoying the heat immensely!  If summers were about two months longer and always this hot, I might consider staying in New York when the hubster retires.......naaaahhhh.  The only time I've ever liked snow was when I was sitting in a ski lodge next to the roaring fire in front of a huge picture window waving to the children as they trudged past on their skis.

I'm hooking up to: