The flip side looks like this...

Charge!

Good Evening!

I have been doing some personal projects today to try and get some Christmas gifts taken care of...I have knitted up a couple scarves and made some gloves...other ideas are perking in my brain...but as I was knitting this wonderful alpaca scarf today I found that I had inadvertently changed my pattern.  Do I (sucking in of breath here) go back?!  Take it out and fix that part?!?  Never!  In the words of great (and maybe not so great) military leaders the world over, I say "Charge!"  I will not retreat!  I am going forward and try to adapt my pattern as I go so that it remains beautiful and eye pleasing.  Will it work?  We shall see... 

Speaking if Alpaca...it is my wish to someday own some.  For some quick basic facts about them read this:

http://www.ilovealpacas.com/facts.shtml

and here are a few great pictures of some Alpaca...

Enjoy!
Janet

Great Shot!

Hello,

The other day while out walking the dog (sometimes it seems like I always am...) I captured this awesome picture of the full moon.  Unusual because it was so bright and during daylight hours.  Also there was to be a full lunar eclipse only I didn't know about that until Sunday...two days after I took this.  I had been having a bad week as you may have noticed by my intermittent posts here...and I was blaming all sorts of things...the full moon being one of them...others I talked to noticed it too.  Is it possible that it was especially bad because there was to be an eclipse?  I don't know...but I sure am glad that the doom and gloom has fled with the waining moon and things are getting back to normal!  Still it was a beautiful view of the moon.



Since things are on the upswing around here I was busy felting yesterday.  I have finished two sets of fingerless gloves.  The black pair is already sold and is heading to California for Christmas.  The other is a gift I am giving. 

I also received some very soft and unusual Alpaca yarn at my fiber group get together.  This Alpaca comes from some animals that are living just south of Spokane in Washington state.  The yarn was my payment for some knitting I had done several months ago.  I love the twining brown and black - the natural color of the two Alpacas!  I am combining that with a golden ribbon yarn in a scarf.  Hopefully it will be masculine enough when I am done!

Have a great day everyone!
Janet

Ya Just Never Know

Well Saturday's Sale at the Jacklin Arts & Cultural Center was quite pleasant.  This was the first sale in recent times.  There were just five artist/vendors.  And multiple singing groups!  The sound was outstanding!!!  The Jacklin is comprised of two old church buildings that have been moved to this location and joined together.  We were set up in one half and the signers were in the main 'chapel' of the other half... and the resonance was something to behold.

As far as our sale went it was a mixed deal, but with future sales planned, the Center's director hopes to build up the number of artists as well as the number of customers.  What was so interesting was who my customers were...well who one of them was...a 10 year old boy from one of the choirs was fascinated with my needle felted Treasure Pockets and talked it up to his parents enough that his father returned to buy it for him for Christmas.  Amazing :)... but who knows...maybe he is a future fashion designer in the making!  I can still picture the way his face lit up when he saw them, touched one and told his mother about it...really warms me to think of it. 

I said it was a mixed deal...well that is because I spent more than I sold!  One of the vendors had alpaca sweaters and jackets on sale for a really, really good price and I couldn't pass them up so in between customers I did some Christmas shopping as well as getting one for myself.  All and all a very nice way to spend the day.

The other day I got all bundled up in my wonderful Alpaca scarf and hat, boots, winter coat and mittens and headed out with the dog for a walk.  On returning I noticed how the snow on our roof had been sculpted by the winds from the night before and marveled at my luck on not having it all drop on me as I went out.  It was a lovely morning and the snow was beginning to fall again so I ran in to get my husband to take a snap or two of me in the snow!

But, oh how quickly the snow can go!  We have had a Chinook wind for the past couple of days and all the lovely white blissful snow has now been melted away.  On the positive side of things though, we might be able to squeeze in a bit more yard clean-up and some holiday decorating before the next snowfall begins!

I remember a year long ago when a Chinook wind came in February and caused great damage to things because of the super fast snow melt.  Rivers and streams flooded all over the area.  And of course we hadn't seen the last of Mr. Winter so after all the snow melted - of course confusing the plants and animals of which season it was - why here came a giant of a snowstorm to blast us back into the reality of winters in Montana.  Weird what things you remember sometimes! 

Anyway...thinking of those long ago days and my family seems appropriate with the biggest 'family gathering' day just a few hours away.  We will be joining my older sister, her husband and his family, plus our Mom for dinner tomorrow...more memories to make...and here's hoping you and your loved ones have happy memories from tomorrow as well!

Janet