NoNoNoNo #3-10

First, I want to say thank you to all Veterans, and all current military, and their families. Some debts can never be re-paid, and “Thank you” is never big enough.

#9

#8

#7

#6

#5

#4

#3

NoNoNoNo Pictures 1 and 2

These are the first two of 50 pictures for NoNoNoNo.

NoNaNoWriNoNoMo

(a.k.a. NoNoNoNo)
Non-National Not Writing a Novel Non-Month

They say a picture is worth 1000 words. So in response to those individuals who participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month - which encourages people to try writing a 50,000 word novel in November), you are invited to create 50 pictures between November 1st and Nov 30th.
You can do paintings, drawings, pencil sketches, collages, digital photography, print photography, graphic design, ink-blots, pastels, watercolors, pencil-crayons, Crayola crayons, or whatever tickles your fancy.
Just do 50 images in those 30 days (which averages to 2 images per day). The focus is on quantity, not quality.
Post your works of art to your website, or blog, or just show 'em to your friends at coffee*. Be free. Express yourself!

TexasWren’s Work Renown Stealth Release Disguise Kit

Premiere Edition.

This was my contribution to the goody bags at the BookCrossing UnCon in Kansas City this weekend. In the past, I've sent handmade leather bookmarks, notepads, more bookmarks, yarn kitties, pillows, and this year, I was completely stumped. I really didn't want to send bookmarks again, and I know several others were going to send bookmarks, and I like to be a bit different.

In the way of all good crafters, I spent hours pouring over blogs to find the perfect idea. It had to be relatively inexpensive, since I was making 30 of them. It had to be fun. It had to be something I could actually do. Just as I was about to give up and drag out the random pieces of leather from my stash---again---I found This Tutorial from Whimsy-love. It just screamed "Perfect!!" to me.

Let me stop here and give a brief explanation of BookCrossingso that you can grasp the fun of this craftiness. We register books, label them with unique numbers and leave them for people to find and enjoy, and hopefully, journal on the website. (It's free and private!)

We have several release methods. There is the standard "Leave it somewhere, and when the waitress/person on the bus runs after you to tell you that you forgot your book, you casually tell them that you are finished reading it and someone else can have it now" release. And then, there is the stealth release, which avoids the awkwardness of the aforementioned style.

Thus was born the Stealth Release Disguise Kit.

All of the contents were gathered in a ziploc bag with an instruction sheet.

The bag contained a yellow dowel rod—the BC color-and 5 disguises.

Please ignore the muddy footprints on my table. The feral kitties decided to take up residence on this table during all of the heavy rain. I took these pics in a hurry and decided it was better to explain the muddy pawprints than to miss the brief moment of sun.

The moustache was my first project. I used the link provided by Whimsy-girl to make the moustaches. I couldn’t find any brown felt at the only store in town that sells crafty things, so I used white and painted them with acrylics. Worked just fine.

The second project was the magic wand. I cut stars out of different colors of felt. Because I didn’t want my conventioneering friends to yell at me for glitter everywhere, I used glitter glue. I heart glitter glue.

I dredged up anything sparkly that I could find in my office/craft room, and attached them with my low temp glue gun. I used beads, gems, and even some metallic confetti. I used shiny curling ribbon out of the Christmas box and some beads from the dollar store, glued on feathers, and suddenly, there were wands to make BookCrosser’s appear authoritative.

The third project was the pirate eye patch. I had a lot of trouble with this one, but my darling hubby figured out a solution. The problem was that gluing on the skull and crossbones didn’t really work, because the dowel needed to be interchangeable. So, each patch is made of 2 patches. The design on front is printed on paper, cut and glued. The dowel goes only through the back layer. It worked really well.

Finally, I decided that we needed some Ballycumbers to make them appear literate, since it is, after all, a book club. Bally is our mascot, so I invited him to join the fun. I couldn’t get enough yellow craft foam, so I cut them out of white, drew on the lines with sharpie, and thinned down some acrylics for the yellow.

I was really proud of this part!

The arms and legs were pipe cleaners poked through the foam.

I haven’t heard anything from the convention-goers yet, although I did see a picture on flickr where someone needed a stronger disguise and turned a second moustache upside down to make a beard. It might have been more effective if she had used the same colors. ;-)

And, just for fun, here is a picture of a couple of my feral cats. They have lived under my house and been fed by me, every single day for over 2 years. I have never been able to touch any of them. The kitten went under the floorboard (too much rain + a really bad carpenter=ruined floorboards---we have someone to fix them this week, I hope.) and without her mom knowing, she came back out. Mom sat there for several minutes waiting for her kitten, while kitten ran free. Ok, it was funnier to watch than it was to read.

Meet Momma and Little Kitty.

TexasWren's World Renown Stealth Release Disguise Kit

Premiere Edition.

This was my contribution to the goody bags at the BookCrossing UnCon in Kansas City this weekend. I've sent handmade leather bookmarks, notepads, more bookmarks, yarn kitties, pillows, and this year, I was completely stumped. I really didn't want to send bookmarks again, and I know several others were going to send bookmarks, and I like to be a bit different.

In the way of all good crafters, I spent hours pouring over blogs to find the perfect idea. It had to be relatively inexpensive, since I was making 30 of them. It had to be fun. It had to be something I could actually do. Just as I was about to give up and drag out the random pieces of leather from my stash---again---I found This Tutorial from Whimsylove. It just screamed "Perfect!!" to me.

Let me stop here and give a brief explanation of BookCrossing so that you can grasp the fun of this craftiness. We register books, label them with unique numbers and leave them for people to find and enjoy, and hopefully, journal on the website. (It's free and private!)

We have several release methods. There is the standard "Leave it somewhere, and when the waitress/person on the bus runs after you to tell you that you forgot your book, you casually tell them that you are finished reading it and someone else can have it now" release. And then, there is the stealth release, which avoids the awkwardness of the aforementioned style.

Thi

For the dogs...

Warning--this is a teeny bit of a soapbox and a bit of a tear-jerker video if you love animals.

In my county, we have no animal shelter. Sure my town, and, I think one other, have a little bitty shelter, but they are basically holding pens until "the three days are up." If you know what I mean.

We have a group here called Hill County PawPals. Our goal is to raise the money to build a shelter. We had hoped to have the county join us to run it if we built and donated the building. That's a bit dicey right now, and I honestly don't know how that will turn out.

For the time being, one of our volunteers works with the local Animal control officer when he has an adoptable dog. She runs ads, begs for foster homes, and does her level best to keep him from being put down. She has a lot of helpers in this. It's a great organization, and I tip my hat to them regularly.

Anyway, as a fund raiser, they made a calendar with sponsors for each month, featuring that sponsor's dogs. They posted the video this morning, and it is so wonderful.

If you love dogs, check out these cuties!!

You're invited to visit my Posty site

Several years ago, I set up a postcard site for my BookCrossing friends. Some of the cards were designed by BC members, and some came from my graphics programs. Some are general purpose and some have Ballycumber, our traveling book mascot.

I searched high and low for a postcard site that I trusted until I found one. The postcards are free to use, and I don't make a penny off of them. I guess the host site, Dear Webby, makes something, but that seems like a fair trade. In the several years I've done this, there has never been a complaint or a problem reported to me.

All of that is by way of saying that my new blogging friends are welcome to use the site. We have birthday, get well, thinking of you, and right now, Fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving cards. There is even a Thanksgiving card with a maple leaf for my Canadian friends. At the bottom of most categories, you will see a little book animation. Click on that to see the second page of cards for that category.

I hope that you enjoy them!

Our State Fair is a Great State Fair…

I love the State Fair of Texas.  There.  I’ve said it.  Well, I’ve said it lots of times, but not to you.  I missed the first Fair of my life, because I was only 3 months old.  I haven’t missed one since.

I remember when the fair was a dirty, smelly place with weird side shows and motorcycle daredevils riding in a cage.  It’s come a long way!

This is Big Tex.  He used to be a Santa Claus in a small town.  He’s been talking to us since before I was born!  He wears a size 70 boot.

The fair grounds have been around since about 1886, I think, in some form or other. The grounds are a National Historical Landmark. Many of the buildings there now were built during the 1930’s, I believe by the CCC.  Most of them are Art Deco.  Back in the 1970’s or 80’s, they started slowing restoring the buildings, and they are gorgeous today.  These murals wrap around the upper walls on the terrace of the Food and Fiber Building.

There are animals.

    

And midway rides.

   

And there are still a few weird things.

And food.  I mustn’t forget food.

One of the events of the fair is fried food.  The concessionaires compete before the fair for the most unusual, tastiest fried food.  We’ve seen fried pizza, fried PB & J, fried Latte, and fried cookie dough. The winner of Most creative 2009 was Fried Butter,  whipped butter, flavored with your choice of cherry, garlic, or something else.  I didn’t try this.  I know the fair only comes around once a year, and I don’t worry about what I eat on that one special day, but my arteries were screaming NO!!!  And so were my taste buds.  I didn’t talk to anyone who had tried it, so I can’t say much else about  it.

What I did try was Fernie’s Fried Peaches and cream.  Sheer genius.  Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take a picture before I scarfed this down.  This is how the website describes it.

“Sweet juicy peaches are coated in a delicious batter of cinnamon, ginger, coconut, graham cracker crumbs, eggs & milk, then deep fried to a crunchy golden brown on the outside, while luscious and sweet on the inside.  Served on a plate drizzled with raspberry sauce, lightly dusted with powdered sugar and topped with a cool dollop of whipped cream.  A side of vanilla butter cream icing is provided for dipping.”

They forgot to mention that the whipped cream was also drizzled with raspberry sauce, and there were a few un-fried peach slices on the side.  So, so good.  It’s a good thing I walked several miles that day!

Since there isn’t a picture of the Fried peaches, I’ll leave you with this fair food.

Yum!  Texas nachos.

Do you have a big state fair where you live?

The internet ate my post!!

It's after 10:30 pm, and I still have at least another hour of work before I'm finished, but I wanted to make a nice post today. Badskirt suggest Crocktoberfest for today's theme, and I have one that fits perfectly-Crocodile Sandwich, a Live Journal/Flickr community.

But, when I tried to include pictures, it froze up and then vanished. I can't even find the part that it usually saves every few minutes.
There isn't time to try again, so until tomorrow, I'll leave you with this.

Trying to catch the lightning

We got off work the other night, and a storm was moving in from the north.  We pulled off the road and tried to capture the lightning display.

In the meantime, while the northern sky was pitch dark and bustling with the light show, to the west, it was a lovely sunset.

This was taken from the same place, about 60 seconds after the first 3 shots.

I have much to say.

But, not today.  Today was our annual trip to the State Fair of Texas—my 56th consecutive year to attend.  I’ve actually been there probably in the neighborhood of 100 times though.  When I was a kid and lived in Dallas, I always went several times each year.  There would be a trip with my parents, one with my friends, one with a church group, one with the FHA, one with the drill team.  These days, we limit it to one.

But, I’m worn out.  Tomorrow, there will be pictures.  Tomorrow, there will be stories.  What kind of stories?

There will be stories about how my husband got a 6 year old in trouble. There will be stories about the glory of fried peaches.  There will be stories about the embroidery/quilting/sewing machine that didn’t come home with me.  Sob.

Tonight, I’m going to curl up on the couch and read.  And recuperate.

This is a picture from an earlier year.  I just wanted to whet your appetite a bit.

Flocktober

Monday is my long, long day for work.  It's 9:30 pm, I started about 7 am, and I have at least another hour before I"m finished.  So, this will be a brief post.

I took these pictures at my favorite place on earth-Galveston, Texas.  The first two won blue ribbons at the county fair this year.  The others are just some I took that make me happy.  Not that blue ribbons don't make me happy too!

 

And with that, I’ll bid you all a good night.

Flocktober

Monday is my long, long day for work. It's 9:30 pm, I started about 7 am, and I have at least another hour before I"m finished. So, this will be a brief post.

I took these pictures at my favorite place on earth-Galveston, Texas. The first two won blue ribbons at the county fair this year. The other ones are just some that make me happy. Not that blue ribbons don't make me happy too!

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Look this way, Lucky!

We took Lucky Pound Dog for a walk yesterday.  He is very camera shy-or maybe he’s just cantankerous--and the only pictures I have of his face were taken with a zoom lens.

So, let’s try this again as we enjoy the park on this lovely fall day.

Look here, Lucky.

This way, Baby!

Don’t back your ears when your momma’s talking to you!!

And don’t roll your eyes at me either!

It won’t do any good to look at Daddy. He isn’t my boss!!  Now look at the camera, please.

Well, this is just rude.

This is not the view I was looking for, Lucky.  But, don’t think I’ve given up!

Look this way, Lucky!

We took Lucky Pound Dog for a walk yesterday.  He is very camera shy-or maybe he’s just cantankerous--and the only pictures I have of his face were taken with a zoom lens.

So, let’s try this again as we enjoy the park on this lovely fall day.

Look here, Lucky.

This way, Baby!

Don’t back your ears when your momma’s talking to you!!

And don’t roll your eyes at me either!

It won’t do any good to look at Daddy. He isn’t my boss!!  Now look at the camera, please.

Well, this is just rude.

This is not the view I was looking for, Lucky.  But, don’t think I’ve given up!