Hi everybody! It's November! Woohoo! With November comes Thanksgiving, my birthday, no change in the weather (Orange County, CA), and time for a new team etsy blogger update! First things first, this month's featured etsy blogger is storybeader! Her jewelry is fantastic - the photo is the piece of hers that caught my eye right off.

One of the most unique things about her pieces, though - is not just the beautiful jewelry, but also that each piece comes with a haiku, written specifically for that piece! It makes me want to order some just to see what she writes about them. :)

Storybeader is also a huge help for the etsy bloggers team, and, of course, keeps a blog! You can read all about her jewelry, see photos of dogs in costume and more, here: her blog.

Really - go check out her stuff, I am a huge fan of blogging, a huge fan of etsy, a huge fan of haikus, and a huge fan of jewelry - so when they are all combined, it makes magic. :)

rommel and my braided rug

Here is my puppy dog taking a nap on the very first braided rug I ever made. It's the product of..oh..years of tears and frustration. It's made out of tshirts I cut into strips then braided. I have been trying to make braided rugs for evvver, and there was always something wrong with them- usually a puckering that I just couldn't control. When I moved to Huntington Beach, the first thing I did was get a library card, and spent a marvelous hour or so wandering around in the basement getting completely lost in the decimal system. I happened to find what looked like a really old book about braiding rugs...and lo and behold, I found the tools to magically fix all puckering problems. :)

on our way home

Happy, tired ride home.

riley's farm

apple orchards!

These are photos from yesterday when Adam, Rommel and I went to the Apple Orchards.


First we have my pooped out boyfriend - at our very first stop that day, mind you.








Adam got very excited by the idea of a zoo. He saw the ostriches and that was it. He spent a good 75 cents on corn kernels to throw at them. There were actually some pretty cool birds there - also, a pig that just wandered the property, a "trout fishing pond" (a large bathtub literally teeming with stocked trout), a goat named Mad Max wearing a hat, llamas, emus, and the smelliest goats I have ever seen.






The actual act of throwing the corn. Yes indeed. I am a thorough photo journalist.

calorimetry

Time for some photo journaling, my fine feathered friends!















Here are some photos of the calorimetry that I made today. I like it. I think next time I would make it with WAY brighter yarn, and make it slightly smaller. Also - I wouldn't bind off so loosely.

oh man, three cheers for gaining an hour today. I needed it! Yesterday Adam, Rommel and I went up to the Apple Orchards, which was wonderful. It was cool (it rained today) and there were fall colors, and apples on the trees, and chestnuts and apple cider... we went all over the place, finally eating lunch at Riley's farm and then heading home. We have a jug of apple cider in the fridge and half a peck of red delicious' on the counter.

Today I was an exhibitor at the Down Syndrome Association of Orange County's annual Buddy Walk at the Angel's Stadium. Sadly, it rained and rained and rained - so we couldn't really set up our whole booth, but we hung out for about 4 hours and watched all the folks walking. It was a much larger event than I'd anticipated - next year it'd be neat to get a lot of people there, including our clients. It's kind of Relay-for-Life-esque, but with more little kids.

Now I am at home, wishing I were warmer - I am in love with this pattern that Heidi found so I might take a break from crocheting my granny square coin purses and make something for myself. Oh yeah - I am pausing on the granny square bags and going for coin purses of all sizes - I am crocheting them and then putting a liner and zipper. So far, they are cute, I just want to make them extra special so I am going to put them down for a while and let the ideas for them percolate. Also - I've been crocheting so much lately that I really miss knitting, and it'd be nice to make something for meeee!

I can't believe it's already Sunday afternoon. Man. I am so tired of working fulltime. I want more days to myself.