Interesting Article of the Day - Dr. Grandin

After talking to my Mom about how much she enjoyed the Temple Grandin movie, I Googled Dr. G and her Hug Machine. That led me to this odd, but interesting, article about "infinite" machines that allow you to do mundane, but enjoyable, tasks over and over again. Popping bubble wrap is one example.

One a more serious note, here is Dr. Grandin's Feb 2010 talk at TED. It runs for about 20 minutes.

Making Yarn

Here is my test sample of the yarn I am currently making:

Craigslist Saved the Day

I donated several bags of stuff to MS today. MS wouldn't take my old TV/VCR - they said it was too old!
I posted my old TV/VCR and an overgrown Pygmy Date Palm on Craigslist and by the end of the day both were gone. Hooray!
It was a good day.

Sightseeing

Hubby and I are gearing up for some sightseeing based on the August 2010 Issue of the Washingtonian. I'm very excited.

New Dress - Opinions?

I ordered this dress online. What do you think of this dress on me?

Here is the dress as advertised online at Shabby Apple.

This dress appears to be the same style in a navy fabric.

Pimpin' My Wheel

I got a cup holder for my wheel. Thanks FBN Plastics!
Also shown is a couple of yarns that I'm working on.
After I took these photos, the colored drive bands that I ordered arrived. Now she can dress up in pink or blue! Yeah! :-)
In one of the photos you can see the spinning stool I made out of an old Ikea stool and some scraps I had in my sewing stash. So - it was like it was FREE. :-)

Garden Rewards

Veggies I picked from the garden this past weekend.

American Visionary Art Museum

Today, DH took me to the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. He had purchased the Groupon, so we got a good deal on the entrance fee.
Afterward, we went to Elliott City for dinner. We also attended Yappy Hour at The Wine Bin and bought delicious gourmet chocolates.

Random Stuff

So, I got more of the planting done. Lots of purple flowers - deep violet globe amaranth, bright yellow marigolds, clear blue lobelia. I have lots of peppers still to do and more herbs. I have a yellow blackberry bush to plant.

Our garden clay soil needs a lot of amendments. To keep the beds from getting full, I have started to sneak the clods of dried clay into the trash. In the past, I tried to move them around the yard, but now the yard is lumpy.

The fish printing went okay, but less paint got onto the shirt than I really wanted. I touched up the shirt by hand and added some foam stamps that I got for .50 on clearance to create undersea plants. I trimmed the shirt and want to add lettuce edging, but my test edging didn't go so well, yet.

I got a lot of spinning done. Finished a braid of hand painted roving and started a bag of roving in several shades of yellow that I got at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival.

I have one more fish (for printing) in the fridge that I got at the Asian market. He(she?) is a porgy and was very fresh when I bought him on Tuesday.

I have to tidy the house because DH is arriving home today. My ADHD clutter making skills have run rampant without him here to monitor me.

Since DH was away, I got a Hawaiian pizza last night and watched North and South. I just love Elizabeth Gaskell's stuff.

I finished watching "ADD and Loving It" off of the Tivo. I know a couple of people who would probably benefit from seeing it.

I got a set of assorted antique finials off of eBay and they should arrive this week. I am hoping one of them looks good enough to add to the 1801 wool winder that my friend, Will Pownell, and I are restoring. I got it at a going-out-of-business sale at an antique store in the Sparks/Hereford area. It was 50% off! Will did an amazing job restoring the function of the winder's clock. He hand carved a new clicker, a new clock hand and a peg for the base. He got the wooden gears to function and everything works rather smoothly now. The wheel turns 144 times before the click tells you the skein is complete. Will even bought me a bottle of wood polish for antiques, so the whole thing has a nice gleam.

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Gardening in the Heat and Messy Crafts

This morning, I took DH to the airport. A few days ago, his office realized that he was needed on the west coast for something very important. It shouldn't take long and hubby will be back before I can make too much of a mess of the house. ;-)

I spend the morning planting until it got too hot. I got in most of the tomatoes and all of the okra and a hyacinth bean plant that was a gift. There is also a volunteer tomato plant in the garden, so we should have plenty of tomatoes. Our yard is probably too small for the okra, but I had to try it anyway after I saw it growing at Great Hopes Plantation in Colonial Williams burg. There are plenty of other plants waiting, so I hope it gets cooler soon. Planting in our yard involves digging up the dirt with a shovel and then adding compost and peat to the soil and then mixing it up. I am concerned by the severe lack of worms in the soil this year. It may be time to research buying some.

I plan to do some spinning, knitting and fish printing onto t-shirts while DH is away. I will go to the Asian market to see what fish they have to use. I picked up t-shirts and fabric paint yesterday at the Jo-Ann's in Columbia. Fish printing or "Goyotaku" is the Japanese art of taking a print directly from a fish. Actually you can now buy rubber fish to print from, but I'll try it on real ones for now.

On an unrelated note, I have two female Betta fish sisters in one tank together. They have always gotten along well together and used to swim side-by-side. Recently, they seem to be getting on each others nerves, so I may have to separate them. My pet store crowntail male died of old age last week, so I have a free tank ready if needed.

My Shrinking Experiment with #6 Plastic

Using some online tutorials, including the ones linked in the last two entries here at TRF, plus information from the Official Shrinky Dinks website, I made my own (almost) FREE SHRINKY DINKS!

To make the image above, I laid my templates and my finished SDs on a flatbed scanner. All distortion you see is the actual distortion of the finished pieces.

For this experiment, I used a couple of food containers that were destined for the recycling bin. One had cookies in it, the other had fresh herbs. The containers need to be recycling category six to work. I made templates in Photoshop CS2 to create some knitting markers, tags and buttons. I have been wanting to make markers to use when I knit hats, so that I can remember how many stitches I cast on at the beginning.

I used a set of Sharpie markers to trace and color my designs onto the plastic. I used a regular sized hole punch to make the holes. (You can see that I forgot to punch one of the small tags.)

The online tutorials said to use 350F in the oven, but 325F worked for me just fine. I lined my cookie sheet with parchment paper. Most of my pieces were done shrinking in about 2 minutes or so. By the time I left them in for the 30 seconds extra recommended on the official Shrinky Dinks instructions, it was very close to 3 minutes.

I opened the oven to peek and take some quick pics with my camera phone. (Don't tell my service provider on me!)

Most of my plastic had ridges for stability, but all of the pieces baked to a nice smooth flat surface. The one small blue tag with the funny bump on the side was me trying to eek out another tag from a piece that was too small. I continued the design up the side of the plastic tray.

I tried sealing the color with clear nail polish, but it smudged my design. I will try something else and report back.

In conclusion, this experiment was a lot of fun. I would totally do it again.

More Shrinking

Here is an even better link to directions for shrinking #6 plastic.

Free Shrink Plastic - #6 Plastic Food Containers

I just found out that you can use #6 plastic and permanent markers to make your very own Shrinky Dinks! All of those clear plastic food containers are not trash after all.
You can see more info here at Skip to My Lou.

2010 Fiber Festivals In or Near Maryland

Saturday, May 15, 2010, 9 am-4pm
4th Annual Rhode Island Wool & Fiber Festival
Coggeshall Farm Museum - Bristol, RI,
Rt. 114 off Poppasquash Rd, Adjacent to Colt State Park
http://www.coggeshallfarm.org/Fiber%20Festival.html

May 15, 2010
SEDALIA SPRING FIBER FESTIVAL 2010
The Sedalia Center, 1108 Sedalia School Road, Big Island, Virginia 24526
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

May 15th & 16th, 2010
Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival
Saturday 10am - 5pm & Sunday 10am - 5pm
Greene County Fairgrounds, 107 Fairgrounds Road, Waynesburg, PA 15370

May 22
Long Island Fleece and Fiber Fair
Saturday, May 22, 10 AM to 5 PM
Hallockville Museum Farm
6038 Sound Avenue, Riverhead, New York 11901

June 26-27, 2010
Eastern Angora Goat and Mohair Association (EAGMA) Annual Show June 26-27, 2010
Frederick Fairgrounds, Maryland
http://www.angoragoats.com/Show%20Page.htm

September 11 - 12, 2010
16th Annual Sheep & Fiber Festival
Hunterdon County Fairgrounds, Routes 202 & 179, Ringoes, New Jersey
Free Parking, Undercover -- Rain or Shine
$5/person; $10/car load; $15.00/car load for 2-day pass
http://www.njsheep.org/

Sept 11-12, 2010
PA Endless Mountains Fiber Festival
Harford Farigrounds, Harford, PA
http://www.pafiberfestival.com/

September 18 & 19, 2010
The Finger Lakes Fiber Arts Festival
Hemlock Fairgrounds, Hemlock, NY
http://www.gvhg.org/fest.html

September 25-26
Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival, Clarke County, Virginia
Ruritan Fairgrounds, Berryville, VA - easy access off US 7, 13 miles east of Winchester.
$5/person
http://shenandoahvalley.tripod.com/

Sept 26
Knox Farm State Park, E. Aurora, NY
Knox Farm Fiber Festival

Sept 26-27
Washington County Fairgrounds, Greenwich, NY
Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival

October 2 & 3, 2010
Fall Fiber Festival & Montpelier Sheep Dog Trials
Saturday: 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sunday: 10:00 am - 4:00 PM
11407 Constitution Highway, Montpelier Station, VA 22957
ADMISSION: Adults - $5, 16 & under FREE
http://www.fallfiberfestival.org/

Countryside Artisans tours - Tour dates in 2010 are April 16, 17, 18; October 8, 9, 10; December 3, 4, 5 and 10, 11, 12.
Dancing Leaf Farm
Dalis Davidson
21920 Beallsville Rd. (Rt. 109), Barnesville, Maryland 20838
(301) 972-8089
www.dancingleaffarm.com
http://www.countrysideartisans.com/brochure.html

OCTOBER 16th & 17th, 2010
NYS Sheep and Wool Festival
Dutchess County Fairgrounds, 6550 Spring Brook Ave., Rhinebeck, NY 12572
Saturday 9AM-6PM
Sunday 10AM-5PM
General Admission - $12.00/day, Pre-purchased tickets - $9.00/day
2-day Ticket package - $17.00
http://www.sheepandwool.com/general-information/index.asp
Free parking

Nearly New Sale - This Weekend

The Nearly New Sale - Volunteer Services

Twice each year, GBMC volunteers devote their time and effort to the hospital's semi-annual Nearly New Sale, a most successful fund-raising event that contributes all of its proceeds back to the Health System. And, twice each year, GBMC employees, volunteers, and the general public get an opportunity to buy treasures, trinkets, and necessities from furniture, clothing, jewelry and silver to appliances, sporting goods, toys and games, and much more -- all at nominal prices. Past sales have resulted in raising more than $250,000 annually.

Don't miss the chance to pick up the deal of a lifetime, and at the same time, help GBMC raise funds to support the critical services it provides to the community.

Nearly New Sale Dates for Spring 2010

1st Public Day Saturday, May 1, 2010 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
2nd Public Day Sunday, May 2, 2010 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
3rd Public Day Monday, May 3, 2010 4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
1st Half-Price Day Wednesday, May 5, 2010 4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
2nd Half Price Day Thursday, May 6, 2010 4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Bargain Bag Day Saturday, May 8, 2010 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Directions to the Nearly New Sales Building:
Take Charles Street to the GBMC entrance. After passing gate house, take first left-hand turn, and then take next left. Proceed to top of hill to parking lot on left.

Nearly New Sales Office 410-828-9467

How Animal Crackers Are Made - Funny Photo

The Lolcats empire is ever expanding. They now have a funny food website.

http://myfoodlooksfunny.com/2010/04/17/funny-food-photos-how-animal-crackers-are-made/

Bow Tutorials

I found some good bow making tutorials at Print My Ribbon:

Aster Bow

Pom-Pom Bow

Chrysanthemum Bow

Current and Upcoming Fun Holidays

April 22

* National Jelly Bean Day
* Earth Day
* Oklahoma Land Rush Began

April 23

* National Cherry Cheesecake Day

April 24

* Pigs in a Blanket
* Plumber's Day

April 25

* National Zucchini Bread Day
* Hubble Telescope Sent Into Orbit

April 26

* National Pretzel Day
* Shuffleboard Day
* Hug an Australian Day

Tuesday Date with Hubby

Tonight Hubby and I went to historic Ellicott City. We stopped at the Wine Bin, petted Chloe, the dog who works there, and stocked up on vino. Then we ate on the deck at La Palapa. We finished up with frozen yogurt at Tutti Fruitti on Rt 40.

Thanks, Honey.

A Note from Jennifer Levitz

If you have been reading my blog, you saw the article in truck drivers who are quilting and knitting. I wrote the following email to the reporter who covered this story. Today she sent back a reply. I have posted both emails below:
__________________________
Dear Ms. Levitz,

I really enjoyed your article entitled "Idle Pastime: In Off Hours, Truckers Pick Up Stitching". Thank you.

I knit and sew also. I am glad that some truckers have found a way to fill their downtime productively and enjoyably.

___________________________
Ms. Novak, thank you so much for your kind note.

Jennifer

Jennifer Levitz
Wall Street Journal - Atlanta bureau
303 Peachtree Street N.E.
Suite 4200
Atlanta, GA 30308
404-865-4359

Dogs + Art = Hilarity

This Cafe Press Seller takes photos of dogs and inserts them into famous paintings - hilarious!

They do all kinds of dogs, so click on the title after the link to see breeds other than Shelties, but really, why would you want to? (Just kidding. ;-))

Quilting in the Cab

This Wall Street Journal article, published on March 29th is interesting:
Idle Pastime: In Off Hours, Truckers Pick Up Stitching
With Less to Haul, Drivers Try New Hobbies; Quilting in the Cab

Shearing at Feederbrook

Please look at my new photos from Feederbrook Farm.
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Emily Chamelin from Chamelin Shearing came to Feederbrook farm last week. Lisa Westra, shepherdess extraordinaire and the force behind the fiber, was kind enough to invite me and many other friends of the farm, so there were a lot of fascinated onlookers eager to see the shearing. A reporter and a photographer from North County News were there to "get the story". I don't know when the article will appear.

Emily demonstrated both hand shearing and electric shearing for us. She is very good at working while answering questions. She has an obvious talent for shearing and has a comprehensive knowledge of sheep and how to care for them.

Emily will be participating in the shearing competition at Maryland Sheep & Wool this year. There has not been a shearing competition in the U.S. for about 100 years, so it should be very exciting.

I got to meet Molly in person. Molly and I both picked Maggie, the friendly Blue Faced Leicester, for our Fiber Project sheep. Hooray! :-) Obviously, Molly has great taste in sheep. ;-) We have been communicating by email. We will see each other again soon when Emily comes out to shear Maggie. How cool is that?

Feederbrook is Online - Multiple Links

I know that some of my readers may be yearning for more of the pastoral country life with contented sheep on an idyllic farm.

Besides their website,
you can see videos from Feederbrook Farm on You Tube.
You can also discuss the farm on the Ravelry forums
or find the farm on Facebook.
You can also see more photos on their Flickr site.
And you can shop for Feederbrook goodies at Etsy. Right now, the lambs that need names are listed for your perusal and enjoyment.

How to Brush Your Dog's Teeth

I found a great site that has good directions and photos on how to brush your dog's teeth.

I brush my dog's teeth everyday and she looks very young. She is now eleven years old and her teeth are white and her breath is fresh. We have never had to have her teeth cleaned at the vet's office.

Teeth brushing can add an average of two years to a dog's life.

Yarn Party & Lambing at Feederbrook

The Yarn Party was a blast! It was very well attended and I got some great stuff! I met some great people. I met a wonderful woman at Lisa's booth who let me try her English wool combs and diz to make roving from washed fleece. So cool! She bought one of Lisa's lambs who is a Shetland/BLF/Wenslydale cross and has deposits on 3 more Finn Sheep lambs from another breeder. She also has rabbits, dogs, cats and chickens on her farm in PA. Her farm is not too far from my brother's place in New Freedom.

Lisa had some awesome yarns for sale at her booth. All of her yarn is tagged with a photo of the sheep it came from along with a short description of the sheep's personality. So fun! Lisa even has some yarn from Maggie's first shearing! Just like Baby's First Haircut! Hooray!

This past week's Fiber Project meeting was about Lambing. Just before we arrived, a lamb was born. I got to hold it while Lisa applied Iodine to the umbilical cord!

We also got to see Lisa give inoculations and apply ear tags to two twin lambs. The lambs protested, but only a little. They are tough and enjoyed a lot of cuddling and petting. We all got to hold them. When we let them back into the pen they ran over to mom and it was so funny to see their little greeting. It looked a little bit like mom was counting them. There are about twenty lambs now and lambing season is about half over.

I took lots of photos and I hope to have them posted this week. I also got lots of photos of the bison on a nearby farm.

This week, Lisa will be shearing the rams. She is concerned that they will not recognize each other after-wards and there will be fighting. Sheep are very visual.

Knitting For Your Amusment

Poster Contest at MD Sheep & Wool 2010

Here are runners up and the winners of the Maryland Sheep & Wool Poster contest for 2010. I especially like Betttie Sperty's art at the bottom of the page. I Googled, but couldn't find any contact info for her.

You Know You Have Too Much Yarn When...

I came across this article this morning. I hope it is a joke, but I suspect for some knitters, is isn't:
When the Stash Attacks: Creative Techniques for Concealing Your Yarns

Third Annual Homespun Yarn Party!

Feederbrook Farm will be at the Third Annual Homespun Yarn Party.

What:
Yarn Party! Check out local yarn vendors, sit and knit, meet new people!

Who:
All your favorite local yarn dyers and spinners, plus some extra crafty goodness!

Where:
Historic Savage Mill
8600 Foundry Street
Savage, MD 20763

When:
Sunday, March 21, 2010
12 PM to 5 PM

Featuring:
great crafty vendors
free lessons on knitting, crochet, spinning
door prizes
weather-permitting, a sit and spin/crochet/knit area out on the deck

They will be collecting knitted and crocheted items for local charities.

Admission is FREE!

More Feederbrook Fun

I went to visit "Lisa and the Sheep" (Lisa's usual email signature) at Feederbrook Farm last week. I had the most awesome time.

Lisa showed me her fiber studio. Buford, the basset hound, greeted me like a long lost pal. He has a soft coat and sweet voice. He howled every time I stopped petting him. The trio of peacocks were hanging out on and around the farm tractor in the shed.

In the fenced barnyard, the sheep had spread out a thick layer of hay. They are messy eaters! Inside the barn there were two ewes close to giving birth. Maggie, my little ewe lamb, ran into the barn and was eagerly thrusting her head through a stall partition in anticipation of getting some animal crackers. Three angora goat babies were in the barn also, under the red light of a heat lamp. They are very cute and have curly hair. Lisa let me help bottle feed them. The regal face of one of the llamas peered at me over the partition and a handsome rooster posed from the top of a wooden beam.

We went back out into the barn yard and Lisa said, "Watch this!". She then added a new bale of hay to the feeder and the sheep acted like they had won the lottery! They rushed over and eagerly attacked this amazing prize with gastronomic gusto. As Lisa expected, it didn't take long for one of the girls to climb on top. Later, when I looked over the photos, I could see all of the sheep leaning toward Lisa with their noses in the air. Their expressions of interested anticipation of the hay were unmistakable!

Not only Maggie, but also little brown Clarisse, and black-faced Wonder Woman surrounded me with expectations of a treat or a pat. I think Clarisse would have been happy to have one of my coat buttons; she enthusiastically tasted all of the ones she could reach!

Lisa pointed out the sheep that were happily nibbling the clean, white snow leftover from the recent blizzard. The girls enjoyed the snow so much that they had been ignoring the large bucket of fresh water supplemented with molasses "anti-freeze".

You can see photos from my adventure here on my Flickr site.

Baltimore Breaks Its Record For Snowiest Winter

Baltimore Breaks Its Record For Snowiest Winter

Fiber Project 2010

For 2010, I am participating in a year long Fiber Project at Feederbrook Farm in Freeland, Maryland. I have a share in half of a sheep, kind of like a wool CSA (community supported agriculture).

My sheep's name is Maggie. She is a young and pretty Bluefaced Leicester. She is very friendly and loves animal crackers. Her fleece is white and very soft. It will be really great for hand spinning and knitting.

During 2010, we will be doing many interesting things on the farm including bottle feeding lambs, washing, carding and spinning wool, learning about the care and training of sheep, and learning about which plants to use for natural dying. We will also receive quarterly newsletters from the farm. At the end of the year, we get to keep some of the wool from our sheep.

During the January meeting, we met and chose our ewe for the year. When Lisa, the shepherdess, called the sheep, a herd of tiny sheep came racing around the barn! What fun! Lisa showed us how to look at the fleece and let us pet the ewes. We also met the rams, who we got to pet through the fence. Rams cane be dangerous, so we were safer outside their pasture. Wiley is particularly friendly and handsome 3 year old Shetland ram.

Lisa gave us a tour of the farm. Besides the sheep, there are llamas, alpacas, peacocks, guinea fowl, dogs, cats, tiny goats, a pot belly pig and honey bees.. Wild geese love the farm's large pond.

In March we will get to see our ewes being sheared.


Feederbrook offers several programs and classes throughout the year.
You can find out more about Feederbrook at:

http://www.feederbrook.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/feederbrook
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Feederbrook
http://www.ravelry.com/ go to the forums area

Best Answer? Maybe Not, But It Was the Most Obvious One.

I don't know if this was meant to be serious of not, but I couldn't resist.

Outdoor Love Map

Here is an interesting title for a website: Outdoor Love Map

Friend Face

You can find me on Facebook. Look for me under "Theresa Calvert Novak".

Questions!