Still waiting to hear from the O'Fallon Band Booster Club craft fair. Next week I will fill out and mail the Strange Folk Festival application.

I am currently looking for a job. I signed up for the ticket to work program that Social Security has. I was with one placement organization and they didn't help me at all. These companies are job placement companies. They help with job seeking skills, resumes, job placement and vocational counseling. This new place, Employment Options, Inc. specialize in work from home jobs. So we will see how it goes.





Here is a hat I made for my hair dresser. It was such a hit that the receptionist at the salon wanted one. So I made her one in purple colors and charged her $30. I was told that it wasn't enough, but since I enjoyed making it and it didn't take very long and the yarn wasn't expensive, I was happy with the price.

We are having a garage sale tomorrow and Saturday. I have priced all the clothes and items we are selling. The money we make will go in the pot for Don's and my trip to San Fransico (sorry about the spelling, I just can't think today) this August for our anniversary. I have never been there so I am looking forward to it. I was thinking of selling my jewelry at the garage sale, but after thinking about it a little longer, I decided not to because I don't want to sell the pieces at garage sale prices.

I mailed the application to the O'Fallon Band Booster craft fair. Now it's just waiting to hear from them. There is four of us that will share the booth. The four of us want to participate in the Strange Folk Fair that is held in O'Fallon also. The application for that opens in June. Both of these fairs are juried, which means they want to see pictures of what you will sell in your booth. It took a few tries to get the pictures and the quality of pictures we wanted to send in. But in the end the pictures weren't so bad.



Here is a sampling of what we will be selling in our booth.

I went to the Waterloo Sheep Festival a few weeks ago with my Warped and Twisted Guild and had a few of my jewerly items for sell. I did pretty good. I took 15 items and 11 items sold. Not too bad. I don't have any pictures of the items.

A few friends and I are going to apply for a couple of craft fairs. They are juried so we had to take pictures of a sampling of the items we will sell. I will be selling my jewerly and some knitted items. One of my friends will be selling the yarn she has made and some peyote beaded earrings she has made. (She is the peyote queen). Another weaves and makes the most beautiful scarves. And antoher makes wonderful felted hats. She will bring items her daughter makes, such as coffe cozies and tote bags.

This is a bracelet I made. It is suppose to be a blue animal print pattern, but it looks more like a granite pattern.
















This is a peyote bag that my friend Bridgette maked. Isn't it beautiful?






This is one of the coffee cup cozies. Cute.













This is another animal print bracelet I made out of polymer clay. Also the necklace and earrings to match.

























I made a necklace for a good friend of mine with an adjustable chaine. It's lilac flowers in a type of cornicopia vase.

Here is a picture of the fingerless gloves I made Catie.








I have been listening to a self-help mind control (that is me controling my mind, not someone else controling my mind) and it has been helping. There is a centering meditation that is one of the exersizes. I really like it but I find that sometimes I seem to skip sections of the recording. It's like I go to sleep and miss parts, but I am not asleep because I am still aware. I know it sounds strange, but there it is. Even though that is happening, I am getting better sleep and I have been remembering my dreams, which I haven't been able to for months. All in all I am pleased with the program. I am saving up to buy the exensive course.

My Spinning

My good friend is letting me borrow her combs. The kind that you prepare wool for spinning with. You comb the wool until it's light and fluffy. I am able to spin with out pre-drafting when I do this.













Here's a picture of what the wool looks like after it has been carded.










And here it is on my wheel.






And the finished product. This skein is about 70 yards. It's a single (not plyed), because my wheel doesn't have a big enough opening for a very large ply. Since I am just now spinning with out pre-drafting my yarn singles are still lumpy and bumpy. So if I ply the singles I will have a very bulky yarn.





I haven't been making any jewerly because I have been concentrating on finishing Christmas presents I was knitting. This is a picture of one of the pair of fingerless gloves I made.






This is one of a pair I made with a double braid. I took the pattern for the gloves in the first picture and adjusted it for the double braid. I made a pair for Catie that had a cetic braid. But I haven't taken a picture of them yet. I will post it later.

Have a happy and abundant New Year.

Barbara

Trimmed the tree tonight. I always enjoy doing that. I buy some shortbread cookies. Don and I drink tea or eggnog and Catie drinks hot chocolate. We put Christmas music on and then look at all the ornaments we have collected over the years
I started collecting ornaments for each of the kids when they were babies. I would get one for each year. So that when they grew up and were on their own with families of their own they would have some ornament to start with that had some sentimental value to them. This year Jeni got married and I packed up her ornaments and will be sending them to her and Jamey.



This is a picture of Jeni and Jamey on their wedding day.












This is what the tree looked like when we were done. The big tree is the family tree. The little tree to the left is Catie's tree and the small tree on the right is my tree, which I shared with Don this year, so it was our tree. :o)

My life has been a bit crazy lately. Catie had her play rehursals, trying to fit the rehursals and homework together was a nightmare. Catie was up late some nights getting her homework done. But now it's all over and the play went off without a hitch.

Thanksgiving was nice. We went to Jefferson City, MO to be with Don's family. There wer 31 one of us there. Luckly one of Don's sisters just build a big house so we were all able to eat and meet at one place.

Since my daughter Jeni changed the date of her wedding from "some time after the first of the year" to November. I have set aside her blanket to finish some other projects.


I made a couple of monkeys for my grandsons. I forgot to take a picture of the monkeys I made, so I posted the picture off the pattern. The monkeys do look like the example. I made one a tan with dark fun fur and the other I made with dark wool and a kind of reddish fun fur.



These are a pair of fingerless gloves I made for my friend Heidi. She told me that her hands get cold in her office when she is typing on her computer. So I thought a fingerless gloves might do the trick. She is a blingy type of gal so I am putting a row of swarovski crystals down the center.


This is one of the pair of gloves I am making for my friend Cricket. She's a smoker and her hands get cold when she has to go outside to smoke. I used the same basic glove pattern I used for Heidi's gloves but I used my own cable pattern instead of the one the pattern calls for. After I get the other glove finished I am going to make Catie a pair with a celtic weave pattern on them. If I get any good I will make a pair and see if I can sell them in my etsy shop.