I see another rat...

My sister fell in love with Rufus rat (last post) and bought him for her daughter for Christmas. I've made another one (right). This one didn't start out as an elephant but as an actual rat. It doesn't matter if you use a pattern or not for these felted creatures because they will end up, after the felting process, looking quite different. Which is good, because I don't write down my patterns and I hate making the same thing over and over again. I made a cat (above) and put him up on Etsy yesterday. I would never be able to make that exact same cat again.

.....I love felting!

Elephant -----> Rat

Yesterday I decided to crochet an elephant because the one I had listed on Etsy sold recently. When I finished last night crocheting the item, I put it through the felting process. I took it out of the washing machine and saw that the ears had felted too small. I thought to myself "Well, this elephant will just have to have small ears." But things like that bug me. I tried stretching the ears, but they wouldn't get any bigger. I then thought I'd just cut off the trunk and make another animal out of it. Here is what I came up with....

I love him. I call him Rufus Rat..

ELECTIONS ARE TOMORROW... PLEASE VOTE!

Tomorrow I will be at the polls as an election official for my county. I will get there at 5:00am and I'm not allowed to leave the building until results are sent in and all the paper work is completed. That usually keeps us there until around 8:00pm. That makes for a long day. Especially if you live in a small town like I do and only 25 voters show up. Usually we have half the town show up on a national election. Next November it will be very busy! So what do I do all day? Our last election day was last June for the Republican Primary. I knitted and completed a whole purse. I also take a cross word puzzle along to work. But the most important thing we do, is eat! We all bring a main dish and most of us bring dessert. I'm making lazagna and probably chocolate chip cookies. ...Yum!! It makes sitting there all day bearable.

On the front page of Etsy twice today!!

I was on Etsy's front page two times today and I sold my little Ellie Elephant. What a day!! I forgot to get a screen shot the first time, but I did get a screen shot of swimswim's Treasury with my bicycle purse on it (above). I had over 200 views! girlsavage got a screen shot of her wonderful list with my Plain Sue Rabbit on it and sent that to me.

My new bicycle purse

This is my new bicycle purse I listed on Etsy.
I have an old run down house on my property (below) and I've been taking pictures of my purses and crocheted animals on the front porch. I absolutely love the results! Expect to see more of my items with this background.

Falling Leaves

I took this video at my mother's house yesterday. The leaves were falling off like crazy on this particular tree. We had a hard frost the night before and the extra weight of the ice brought the leaves crashing to the ground. The background noise is my car motor. I forgot to turn the darn car off and it spoils the sound of the leaves hitting the ground. It was a beautiful sight to behold regardless....

Russ

As I was posting in this blog earlier today, I started thinking of my dad. All us kids called him Russ from the get go even though he was our real dad. Russ died on April 15 in 1984.

My dad use to write in a journal every day. When I go back and read his daily postings, it seems he was only here with us yesterday. His postings were usually only a couple of sentences long. Like, “It snowed six inches today" or” Vicky called and her and Randall are coming in this weekend". His posts were short and to the point but when you read them around certain dates, you can go back and remember those times. He had one post, which I laugh at today but I don't think I was laughing then, where mom had given me a couch and we somehow had to get said couch back to Va Beach. The trip took us five hours but my crazy husband had it strapped to the roof of his old Dodge and expected me to ride all the way with that damn thing tied on top! My dad wrote about what a fit I threw and needless to say, the couch didn't go back with us.

I miss Russ. I'm so glad we have his journals.

crafting

I've seen my daughter wear one and they seem to be selling on Etsy, so I've put mine into the pot. Something new for me.........cuffs......


I’ve hand-spun the yarn to make this soft cuff. I've used Alpaca roving in colors of deep green and dark rose to spin a vibrant yarn and then crocheted and felted the yarn into this beautiful wrist band. An old button was added for the catch. This cuff measures 10 inches by 2 inches (25cm by 5cm) and has a circumference of 7 inches (17cm) when closed.

Fall in Craigsville

My mountains are so pretty this time of the year. In fact, this is my favorite season. I don't know if it's the color of the leaves or the cool crisp days that make this my favorite. Here are a few pictures I took last year. This year is starting to be just as picturesque.

Craft Show

Wow, I met the nicest people at the Centerville Pumpkin Festival yesterday! Many of the Etsylabs girls were there, including my daughter Anda . Mary and her mom were so nice to me. It's been years since I have taken my crafts to a fair but, by far, this was the friendliest crowd.

Centerville Pumpkin Festival

I'll be attending the Centerville Pumpkin Festival near Richmond VA this weekend and hope to see many Etsy people there. Amanda (Anda) and Mary from the EtsyLabs will be there and I'm so excited that I'll be meeting Mary for the first time.

Little Pig

I listed this little pig on Etsy yesterday. I loved how it turned out. By trial and error, I crocheted, pulled out, crocheted, pulled out, and before long I ended up with something I liked. I think I'll try a giraffe next. I'm thinking of adding sipping straws to the neck and legs to keep them stiff and so the giraffe can stand and keep his neck up.

My first blog

After seeing all the blogs on Etsy, I've decided to try my hand at this phenomena of blogging. I'm not sure what I'm doing so if there are any suggestions out there, let me hear them.