The Craft Fair/Flea Market

   It took place yesterday. We had a ball. Even though we got there a bit late and were still setting up when people started coming through. Here is what we ended up looking like!

    That's my good friend Bonny crocheting away behind the table there. She had baby sweaters that she had made.

    And she had really cute dolls too!

   I had my cat toys.

   She sold quite a bit and was very happy! I didn't sell a single cat toy. I wasn't unhappy, though. It was lots of fun and I got to talk to lots of people.

   
    You may have noticed in the first photo that we were under a Snap On tool thing. We got lots of men coming over looking excited, because of that! Bonny had suggested that we should have signs made to hang up that say NO TOOLS on them.


    I actually spent $5 and bought a bag of circular knitting needles. Some of them look old. In fact, some of them have metal cables, and two of those are teenie sizes! There's one, in it's package, with an illustration that looks straight out of the 1950's. I can't wait to show them to my knitting expert and see what she has to say. Heck, the bag alone was worth $5 to me, as a place to round up all my current circulars that have no packages!

Randomness on Mother's Day

    Today is Mother's Day, and yesterday was my beloved Hubs' 50th birthday. Some years they both fall on the same day. And yes, I caught myself a younger man. After nearly 26 years, it makes no difference anyway.


   Our son, and my youngest child, Jesse, is away in the U.K. for a karate tournament. He should be back tomorrow evening, according to his fiancé. I know it's silly, but I was worried. This was a huge tournament, and even though he is an experienced martial artist, and holder of a 4th degree black belt, I still worry about him.


    Even though he was busy with his tournament, he managed to send his dad birthday wishes, and Mother's Day wishes to me. I can't wait to see the videos that were taken of his fights. He won 1st place in his division in sparring, but didn't win Grand Champion. I hear he lost the last fight for that honor. So he came close.


   I was looking through my photos today, and found a couple of funny ones. Sara had tried on a couple of my wigs and took photos of herself.

    I should get her to try all the others on too. There is also a very funny one of Jesse in one of my wigs, dressed in his paintball gear. Well I can't find that one. I thought it was in my files on my laptop.


    I had a ball babysitting for Owen this week. He's getting so big. He likes to stand up on your legs and all you have to do is hang on to him for balance. He's not good at balance yet. He can't even sit up by himself, but he loves to sit, and stand too.


    But you really have to be careful. The other day, after his daddy left for work, I Owen was sitting on my leg, and I looked away for a second. The little turd spit up all over his bib, and it puddled on my pants leg. Nice. No sound at all, just a wet feeling on my leg. I looked back and there it was!

    I seem to have lost any interest in crafting right now. I have made more than a few cat toys for the craft fair/flea market. I just realized that's next Saturday! AARRGGHH. Oh wait, I'm ready! No need to worry. Anyway, the cat toys are fun, and I hope I sell bunches of them. All other crafting is in a time out. That happens sometimes, you just don't feel like doing it for a while. Sort of like blogging.........


   

It's been a while....

    I know, and I'm sorry it's been so long since I last posted. I had my laptop crash. Then after we sort of got it back, it wouldn't connect to anything. I think I finally got most things working again, except for some reason I couldn't log into my blog.


    Today I finally got through, but I'm still not sure if what I write will actually post. How can a blog site, owned by google, not recognize google as the search engine I'm using? It confounds me. But I shall keep writing and hope it posts.


    I've been working like a mad woman these past few days, getting more rings and yarn for my cat toys, as well as gathering more supplies of other kinds. For instance Hubs gave me some small S hooks he found in the garage, new in the package. I can use them to hang my cat toys in the wire cubes we are using. I also purchased some paper lunch bags for those toys that are purchased.


    I have also been busy making more cat toys, as well as re-tagging the ones that I had previously tagged. So now, all the toys are tagged with the new business cards, and the measurement on the back. This evening I made four more toys. As you may be able to tell, I bought more yarn today, and my good friend Bonny gave me some of hers too.


    Now my hands are tired, and so am I. Hubs has gone to bed already, as he has to work tomorrow. Before I sign off, I wanted to tell you that I've taken the legwarmers out of their time out. It felt good to work on them today while I was at Bonny's.

News, news and more news!

    See what happens when I take a couple of days off? There are developments in nearly every aspect of my life! First, I'm excited about the craft fair next month. Even more so since I was browsing business cards and found one that was perfect for my cat toys! So I ordered some!

    And they will arrive before the craft fair, so I can put one on each cat toy! As if that wasn't enough, I got word from Hubs that our friends female cat is having kittens. They have a young Munchkin male cat, and he bred with their regular female cat. I get to have a kitten if any of the babies turn out to be Munchkins! I am so excited! Here is a photo of a Munchkin cat, just so you know what they look like.

    And here is what a kitten looks like!

    I have no idea what Sam and Jade's kittens will look like, it could go either way. Jade is a beautiful short hair, mostly white, and Sam is a long hair Munchkin. I'm really looking forward to meeting their offspring.


    As you remember, I watched Owen Monday and Tuesday this week, as well as my regular gig on coming up on Thursday and Friday. Well, this week, he rolled over for the first time! I was so excited! He did it four times in all, the first two times to the left and the second ones were to the right. He was so calm about it, he didn't startle himself at all. I tried to get it on video but he wasn't co-operating. I did get a photo of his smile, though.

    He's been drooling up a storm lately! I've been calling him Drooly Smurf. So far, no teeth have poked through, though. His mommy can't feel any yet.


    And lastly!! I have made a decision. After the craft fair, if I haven't sold all my cat toys, I am going to post them for sale in my etsy store. I've had one for ages, but never posted anything for sale yet. It should be fun! And I have the benefit of a good friend who has had experience with an etsy store so if I have any questions, she will help me out.

It's all in the preparation

    Five weeks from yesterday, on May 17th, there will be a craft fair at FDR High School, here in Hyde Park. Once again, with my friends Mckenzie and Bonny, I will be there selling my handcrafted things. This time, I am featuring my very own, self-designed cat toy. I call it Lazy Kim's Cat Toy.

     I originally made one for my kitteh Ozzy, and he loved it. Over the years, I think he's had three of them. I have made them for all my family members that have cats. I even made a special double one for Jesse and Julie's cats, at their request. I recently had to make them a new one, since the Lady and Gizmo destroyed it. Every toy is Ozzy tested and Ozzy approved.


    I will also have my crocheted blankets, as well as a few knitted shawls. Bonny is cranking out some crocheted dolls! They are really cool, and with each doll you purchase, you get a crocheted outfit of your choice! Mckenzie will have more of her goodies that she makes herself, including her superior lip balm. I'm sure she will also have some new items that I haven't even seen yet!


    If you are in the area on that day, please feel free to stop by and see us!

Legwarmer Update

    Today I was working on my legwarmer. I crocheted while I watched Arrow on Netflix. I had been interested in that show, but never got to watch it. It was good, I hope there is more than one season. I just finished watching the season 1 finale.


    Also today, I went to watch my grandson Mason, who is 3. He is getting to be quite a handful! Very physical, and I'm so *not* a physical babysitter. Oh well, he'll learn. While he was napping, I worked on my legwarmer. Here are some photos, see if you can see how much more has been done:

    That is the whole thing. The next one is just the top, or knee end. The white stitch markers are where I added short rows to the ribbing to make it wide enough.

    Then the bottom, or ankle ribbing.

    So as you can see, I have made some progress. It's not all Lazy Kim's Cat Toys. I'm getting there; perhaps slower than I'd like, but I'm still getting there!

A busy but productive week

    It has been a busy week for me, crocheting my Lazy Kim's Cat Toys. I ran out of wooden rings, so I had to go in search of more. Joann's was where I found the last ones, so I went there first. They didn't have any.


    The original version of the cat toy was made with flattish plastic rings that I had bought at Joann's. I had even restocked from there. Then they stopped carrying the stuff with which you make purses. I think they call them findings, like for jewelry. That was when I found the wooden rings.


   They didn't have more at Joann's as I said, but Bonny and I went to Michaels, and they had some!! I bought all three packages they had on the hook. That was 15 wooden rings. I also bought some more of the Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn, in colors I thought would be pretty as cat toys.


    What do you think?

    All of these toys were made with the Sugar 'n Cream, except the solid brown one, which was Lion Brand Cotton. Sugar 'n Cream, it turns out, uses 100% grown in the USA cotton. I will be putting that on the tags. The Lion Brand Cotton? I'm not sure, it doesn't say on the label.


   I only have one more color to use, red. That was the color I used for the original toy I made for Ozzy, and I was saving it for last. The reason I'm only making one of each color to start is that each one is a different length. I've kept track of what each one's length is, so I can make more of every color after I write out the individual tag for each one. The lengths range from 10 feet to 13 feet, with the majority being 12 feet.


   And yes, this puts my legwarmers on the back burner. The never ending garter stitch baby blanket for Owen is there as well. I hope to get back to them at some point.


    I would like to point out that I use plastic or wood for the toys, not metal, because metal could hurt the kitteh's  teeth when they bite, and their claws too. Even though metal, being heavier, would go further when the toy is thrown. Oh well, safety first.