Maurice the Moose
Bonjour je m’appelle Maurice, I am a moose from Chicoutimi, Quebec. My favorite pastime is people watching. I enjoy kayaking and mountain climbing. My favorite food is of course Poutine, but since I am a vegetarian I prefer it avec gravy de champignon, non avec le traditionnal gravy de poulet. I am going to live with a family en Tully NY, j’ecoute they have trois bébés! Enchanté!
It was a very grey day and it misted and was pretty cold most of the day. We were lucky to be right near Karen and Dick’s house so we had access to a bathroom that wasn’t a portapotty, Karen also provided us with wool sweaters and a wool wrap that helped with the damp. I went for a walk towards the end of the day and signed up to volunteer at the Peace Council and ate a delicious coconut macaroon. It was a good place to people watch too, a lot of fun and interesting people. We had lots of lookers and a few buyers. We made up the cost of the fair and then some each I made enough money to buy groceries and gas this week which it was looking like I might not be able to (boy is money tight right now) and we also both noted which bags seemed over priced and which bags most people were drawn to. We figure that at the Plowshares event this year we will definately make money. We are also thinking about a spring craftshow and perhaps a mid summer one too. Plenty of friends stopped by our booth and all in all it was a great day, even though my poor toes were grape popsicles by the time I got home.
Tomorrow Michelle and I will be at the Westcott Street Fair here in Syracuse selling our handbags. If you are in town be sure to check us out. If not I will be post
Knitting Hands
I never really thought my hands were my best feature. I have big hands for a woman, and they are always chapped, and rough looking, and I have the worst hangnails ever. These hands are the hands of a firm handshake and a look in the eye. These hands can paint, sew, embroider and knit. These hands can cook, clean, mow, rake and shovel. These hands know just where to scratch the dog, the cat, a horse or a calf. These hands are the hands of a teacher, frequent handwashing with the harshest soap, but the hands that caringly take a kindergartener’s frightened and small hand, that gently take a tantruming child’s hand to lead them to a calmer place, that go on the shoulder of a troubled youngster showing concern and offering a kind word. These hands touch my daughers face, a pat on her hand or rub her back, loving - or a whack on the leg and a flick of the finger, teasing. These hands are hard working, these hands are generous, kind, loving and good. Today these hands of mine look beautiful.
The Sonya bag
Michelle has given up on me in these last two weeks, and took the yarn that I bought several months ago to make some of our more inexpensive Lion Brand yarn bags. Yesterday I finally sat down and started getting some crazy quilting done. Next weekend we will sew on labels and I will be lining bags for the Westcott Street Fair the following weekend. The fabric for this bag came from a Jellyroll at Mission Rose. I loved the fabrics and even though I am not really a neutrals person they really spoke to me; I love the quiet simplicity. For some reason they reminded me of my cousin Sonya thus the Sonya bag was born.
Yarn from an Art Fair
We headed down to Cooperstown, with a plan of going to the Ommegang Brewery for a tour and tasting, and then to the Baseball Museum, apparently so did a lot of other people because neither actually happened, we did go to the brewery but no tour, no tastings. The line at the Baseball Hall of Fame was out the door and they were only letting in a few people at a time. But we were quite lucky that there was an art fair in town and we walked about a mile through town to get to it. The day was lovely and the walk quite pretty. At the fair I was able to talk to one woman about displaying her purses, and another about wool. The woman with the purses told me that in town there was a gift shop that sold a lot of felted purses. Michelle and I don’t like felting much because the bags always look lopsided, but I thought I would try a couple so I bought four skeins of yarn, 2 of a gorgeous green varigated Dorset wool and 2 of a lovely natural Bartlett wool. The company was called Amondale Farms. It was a gorgeous day and a lovely trip. I really had a great day…despite the minor setbacks.
