Passing along…

This was part of our newsletter this weekend, and apparently for at least the next four more. I was amused, so I thought I would pass it along:

The Care and Feeding of Rennies (Part 1) by Tempest

Welcome:
Congratulations on your decision to adopt a Rennie! Many of these fascinating creatures are in need of good holes were they will be Loved and Cared for. While keeping a Rennie can be expensive, time-consuming, and sometimes confusing, the results can be well worth the effort. A well turned out Rennie who is happy and healthy is amazing to watch in action. The guidelines below will help you care for your new charge, but they are only guidelines. Every Rennie is quite unique and you should get to know your Rennie’s personal quirks, preferences, and skills.

Introduction:
The most important step in caring for your Rennie is selecting the right one. Rennies come in many varieties. You find them of both sexes, and in every imaginable size and color, age, health, and plumage. Far more important though, than their physical differences are the differences in their personalities. Every Rennie has a very unique set of skills, preferences, and attitudes, and you need to take these into consideration as you make your choice. If you have a nervous condition, a Daredevil Rennie is not for you. Likewise, do not adopt a Fighter Rennie unless you have a large yard in which he or she can chase around other Rennies with a sword. If you have small children in the house, you might prefer to a Rennie other than the Arms Collector, and if you like your nights silent, keep in mind that Stitching Rennies are known to stay up quite late, whirring away at thei machines, punctuated by occasional loud bouts of swearing.
(Here I add: [ Understand that certain types of Rennies are not as hygienic as others. Please observe caution with "I only work 2 days a week" Rennies, Gamer and Push-monkey Rennies, who tend to smoke, and Patchouli Rennies. If you enjoy music you may want to proceed cautiously with Drummer Rennies.])

Food and Drink:
Once you have selected a Rennie and brought him or her home, your first concern may be, “What do I feed this creature?” Luckily, most Rennies are not picky about what they eat, and indeed, will consume with relish most anything you offer them. Do not be afraid to offer your Rennie exotic or strange foods. They have a highly developed sense of adventure and will likely at least try whatever it is. Keep in mind, that through some strange quirk, your Rennie will enjoy almost any food more if presented on a stick. Your Rennie requires large quantities of water. Your Rennie will want large quantities of liquor. There is a very fine balance between the two that you must find to keep your Rennie (and in the case of more belligerent Rennies, yourself) happy and healthy. Rennies are very affectionate creatures, and will often cuddle and love on you for treats. Favorite treats tend towards chocolate or nice liquor, though your Rennie may have different favorites. Recently, several varieties of Rennie have evolved a taste for Sushi, so you may wish to try that as well.

(To be continued in upcoming issues)

Rainbows and Roses

After eating the world at our Weekly Competitive Potluck, we had just a sprinkling of rain, but it was enough to give us quite a show. I took photos the entire time, but these are the best of the bunch. I took this panoramic one on Rhonni’s side of the lane. She did not have the power-line issue I was having in the inner circle. That is her booth on the left. It was really beautiful. It got strong enough that there was a double for awhile, and the inner side of the main one just glowed. It was awesome. In this shot you can see some of the sun on the trees. I just know there is a pot of Gold over there somewhere!

When I turned to go in after the show, I noticed that Rhonni’s rose bush pushed out her first flower of the season. This is an old bush, and very fragrant. It just fabulous when it is covered in blossoms.

It occurs to me that I should explain The Weekly Competitive Potluck. It is the tradition of our neighborhood here to have a Friday potluck down at the Skychair booth. They got together some years ago and decided that common potlucks attracted to many people that they did not necessarily want to just feed for free. This started the idea that i should be competitive. They hoped the label would scare off the faint of heart. It worked. No one wins anything, but it does encourage a greater effort that a bag of chips or store bought cookies. All of us are on the road so our kitchens are with us. The weeks are themed. This last week was Southeast Asia including the Indian Sub-continent. The previous week was Mediterranean. Last week I brought Lebanese food. This week I made a Biryani rice dish for Rhonni’s Pumpking Daal. Ronn of the Tortuga’s wife (Heather, she’s Asian) brought home made Crab Rangoon, and eggrolls. Jeff Cobb (Thom Sellectomy) made Thai grilled chicken, and our host Bobby Knight continued in the Indian vein and made Lamb Vindaloo. Like I said, I ate the world. I definitely had a “waffer thin mint” moment. This next week is Europe, so I cannot decide if I will make a black forest cherry cake or bannocks. We shall see.

Have a great week! I have another Kid’s Day on Thursday…whoppee!

Kid’s Day

These two pictures amused me. They have nothing to do with the fact we just did our first of two student days. Other than, perhaps, that I was in the booth for 5 hours on a Thursday. My last post was about getting in the groove of my life. Well, there is nothing that screws that up like a Kid’s Day. Wednesday feels like Friday, you feel like the part of Thursday when your finished is just enough time to recuperate, and then you actually have Friday! Ahhhh…Now I have all this stuff that should have been done that’s not, and no time…Ahhhh. -sigh-
Oh, and did I mention that GA divides their student days over two weeks, two Thursdays. So I get to do it again next week! Eeeek! Oh well.
There is still plenty of alcohol.
~cheers

In the groove

For three years Rhonni and I have gone walking in a sub-division that is right across the road, called Durham Lakes. It has a golf course that winds around a couple of small lakes, and lots of fancy houses. This morning we got up early so we could get our walk in before it imapcted our day, too much. So by 7am, we were tea’d, and dressed for walkin’. We can get a pretty good clip going, and can walk 4 or 5 miles if we take the right trails. My shoe decided to eat my foot today, so we only got 2 or so in. Note to self…new walking shoes. Obvioulsy there was a reason, I left them here in GA.

This is a tree that we have walked past for the last three years, and I love it! Today with the early morning sun on it, I fell in love all over again.

2nd weekend was completely lackluster, and this week and the next, we have a kid’s day on Thursday. I do though feel like I am getting back in the groove of my life on the road. I finished setting up my workshop, and I will sew today.
Life is good.

Missing

When once again,
our paths shall cross,
I will forget the distance,
and the time that was lost.

Hazel’s 15 seconds of fame

MVI_0156

Originally uploaded by elensari

And now for something completely different. I do not know if this will even work, but lets try out the new video functionality of Flickr.

I took this little movie today of Hazel playing with her ball on the door leading downstairs. I need to be able to keep the kittens upstairs on fair days, and so I installed this door in the floor. It works pretty well, except you can see it is not quite long enough. I had to extend the pet screen past the actual door to keep her in because she has no fear. Also, she really would like to be out in the great big world. Mama says, “NO!”

This 15 seconds makes me laugh over and over, so I hope you enjoy it, too.

Waxing Gibbous

That is what the moon is doing. I took this photo on Sunday night of opening weekend here in GA. It was a lovely sunset as you can see from this photo.

This sunset though heralded the beginning of our cold snap. I was very pleased that it had been so warm, but it was about not to be. Thankfully Jason, my employee, brought me an oil heater to borrow. It was about to be 34 degrees that night! It has worked beautifully, and with the addition of the last electric mattress pad in North Georgia, I was mostly toasty…while in bed. This is a shot of the clouds from the deck on my booth. I really liked the lighting.

We had a descent opening considering the weather, but man; I am sure glad it is over. I hibernated all day yesterday. I did not even leave to Post Office until 3pm, when it was finally 50. Today was much better. I got a whole pile of stuff organized, and unpacked sewing machines. I still have one screen door to fix, and then the house will be kitten-ized. I just spent the last hour conversating with Rhonni and Kristen; 2 of my favorite peoples. We laughed, and had wine, and chocolate, and talked about boys…of course. *grin* All and all, a good day.

Georgia v5.0

So, here I am again in Fairburn, GA. I was just telling someone in TX last week, that there was only a few good personal reasons to come to the Georgia show.
1: The dogwood and wysteria is blooming when I get here (very short-lived).
2: My friend Rhonni lives right behind me, so I get to spend a lot of time with her.(yea!)
3: Miss Lila’s tearoom in Fairburn(closed, gone, no clue why)
Here is a picture of some dogwood.

I love how the dogwood looks like suspended snow flurries throughout the forest. There are not enough leaves on the trees to block the view, so you can the lacey sporadic clumps in the woods. Some of them are pink, but these on site are all white.

There you have it. I am glad to be starting my first show. I will enjoy the resumption of steady income. Also, Atlanta is an enormous city filled with interesting things. Maybe this will be the year I actually do some exploring on my own. I hate driving around Atlanta, because it is the only city that I always get lost in. Did I mention it is HUGE, and sprawling? This a place a GPS would actually be useful to me.

I have my opening weekend in two days. The weather looks marginal, I hope it misses us. I was just saying that it was nice that it was not cold for set-up this year. Well, that is coming Monday…joy. 32 at night. Let me tell you how much fun that is alone, on an air mattress, in an uninsulated storage shed, in the woods! Whooppee!!!

Okay, enough bitching…-sigh- I will see if I can find a heated mattress pad. That will fix the cold bed issue, which means that I can sleep, and that makes one’s perspective much better.

Wish me luck!!

120

That is the number of stitch lines just to do the panes on Larry’s slops. Six rows of stitches on 20 panes…-ugh! Those who know me well, know that I hate repetitive things, and doing the same straight line 120 times, drove me to distraction! But now they are done, and rapidly becoming pants shaped.

This is a close-up of one of those panes, and the pretty chocolate velvet and blue silk. I love blue and brown together.

On another happy note, today is the kittens birthday! They are officially 1 year old. Cheers! Treats and catnip all around!

Fa, la la la, and new clothes

Today was the last promo for Sacrborough Fair, and it occurred at the Grapevine Mills Mall. Of course, no one is thrilled by the prospect of being in a mall all day trying to amuse the patrons. It is free to get into a mall. There are some many more “interesting” people around. So MaritaBeth needed to make her finally delivery to Dan Granquist, the other half of the bipartite individual Figbash & Scrump. He is partners with Bert in their act out at fair. Should prove amusing. I met her out at the Mall, and we watched QAL perform, and the little “opening gate” thingy. Then we had food, and watched as all these performers disperse through the crowd, like a kicked over anthill. Now I am off to sew at MB’s, and see how much further I can get on Larry’s pieces.

One more week, then off to Georgia to start my show season.