Too cute!

House-Mouse Designs has a new cast of characters, the Happy Hoppers! I haven't been much into House-Mouse lately, but I just love this design:
Follow-up top my last post: I overnighted the dress to my mom, and she'll take it to our seamstress, who will hopefully have time to sew in a new zipper by Friday! Overnighting it wasn't horribly expensive, but then again, the dress probably weighs about 1 lb... I hope I never have to overnight anything heavy.

>whine<

Well, I got my shoes, and they're awesome.

Then I went to try them on with the dresses (look great! yay!) and MY RED DRESS BROKE. Dammit. I am so upset right now! 1. the red dress is brand new, and 2. now what am I going to wear to reunion?

:( >goes off and cries<

Falling For Ewe Swap Question of the week #2

What ‘cold weather’ project are you looking forward to making the most the autumn?

I'll be making some of the new knitty.com socks, for me and as Christmas gifts. I'll also probably make clapotis for myself with my new red mohair (assuming 500yds is enough). I had hopes to make myself a cardigan, but I probably won't start it til the winter, and there is one cold-weather item I have high hopes to start, but it's top-secret.

If I'm able to make that top-secret one, I bet it'll be my favorite, but I am looking forward to using my new blue sock yarn from Saturday for socks for me.

Other WIPs include baby items for the big baby boom of Jan-April 2009. So far I'm nearly done with a recently-found baby sweater UFO, and I'm working on a pinwheel blanket.

I also need to finalize my Christmas gift list, and figure out what I'm really making for everyone, I have 5 projects to start and 1 to finish, but I only know what two of those projects will be, and have no yarn for any of it.

Fun at the Fair, part 2: The Tunbridge Fair

I WON I WON I WON I WON!!!

I'll add more photos later, but here's one I took this morning, after gathering together all my winnings (i.e. all my entries)
We went out to the fair, and it was kind of promising in the morning... rainy, but cloudy, and it got progressively muggier and grosser as the day went on, so by the time we got there at 3:15 or so, it was disgusting and sunny. The yellow jackets were having a blast, ugh. We parked right across from the far entrance, which is right where Floral Hall, home of the exhibits, is, so went there immediately. We all won! Such success among the three of us (me, Clint and D). We browsed around the rest of the fair, but were all very glad we got there late-ish in the afternoon, because by 5 or so, we were bored. We ate, saw animals, saw vendors selling crap, saw weird-looking people (D and I felt very stylish, in our jeans, plain shoes appropriate for mud, and normal tshirts- our clothes actually fit properly and we don't have flesh spilling out all over. That's fashion!), saw more animals, had free cheese samples, saw vegetables, saw midway rides, had maple sugar candy (yummm), not quite in that order, and at the end, returned early to Floral Hall, where we were told we'd have to get in line to pick up our stuff. D got in the stuff line, I got in the money line, Clint and G went to the car for our bags, and we went at it. I'm very impressed by their organization- two money lines, alphabetical by last name, and in the pick-up-your-stuff line, you said your name and got your sheet from a woman, then moved over and had one volunteer take your sheet and walk with you through the exhibits to grab each of your items. D, G and Clint did that. I waited in the food line, where they gathered all the ribbons and tags from each food item and stuck them to your sheet. Then you say your name, and they give you your sheet, which is covered in ribbons. (I found mine a very impressive sight).

Then we went home in a very round-about way, up a mountain on a dirt road (ah, Vermont), saw deer, horses, a llama (which is the red thing I had a nightmare about a few years ago, I'm sure), cows, oxen and Cujo, and got back on the main road.... and then drove by the fair again. So much for shortcuts!

I think we all had a really good time, despite the disgusting weather.

Photos to be added later, but for now, here's a link to my Tunbridge Fair set in flickr

ps. we all won money. I won quite a bit of money- just a few dollars short of paying for yesterday's yarn purchases :) extremely pleased.

Fun at the Fair, part 1: The Big E

Yesterday was day 1 of the Fair Weekend: The Big E in Agawam, MA. Clint and I joined my parents there in the morning. We had to stop first for 2nd breakfast (first breakfast was scones in the car)
2nd breakfast was had in the Rhode Island building (you can't see in this photo, but the building says "Rhode Island" right above the main entrance. We dined on clam fritters- my favorite fair food.





Clint and I washed our fritters down with some Del's frozen lemonade.

We went through all the state buildings (RI, MA, ME, NH, CT, VT- I think I got that order right...?), stopping in MA to say hi to Smokey the Bear, snack on chocolate milk, raspberries and maple goodies.





The CT building had a nice United Technologies exhibit (where my dad works), and also a stand with some really nice-looking tomato-mozzarella salad that many others seemed to enjoy.









The NH building had some really pretty stained glass windows, as well as a granite map of NH in front. Clint and I tried to stand on our towns... and we do really live in Northern NH.










We paused in VT for beer, cider donuts (which were saved for this morning's breakfast) and yarn oggling- check out these adorable felted alpaca baby booties!!






We then met up with some of my parents' friends from the beach, and had lunch at the Storrowton Tavern. We dined on classic New England fair (baked scrod for Mom, meatloaf with mashed potatoes and butternut squash for Dad, a turkey club wrap for Clint, and chicken pot pie for me) and got to sit at proper tables- a nice change from normal fair meals.


After lunch, we saw animals:
Chicks! And a giant English Angora bunny! Also llamas, alpacas, ducks, and horses. We went to the cow/sheep building, where some 4-H kids played a 4-H joke and folded a $1 bill in half, sticking cow poo in the middle, and dropped it on the floor. It didn't quite fool us.

I went to the wool knook, and.....

BOUGHT YARN. I was wrong, mom was right, they do have nice yarn there- a very small selection, but the prices weren't bad. The red mohair was only $3/skein!


We did some other stuff (looking at vendors' stuff, going to the Grange building- Mom and I are going to enter stuff in their craft competition next year), and then it was time for the parade, so we gathered near the state buildings to watch.

Randomly, John Kerry was there. He led the parade.

Some floats in the parade threw Mardi Gras beads, and among the 4 of us, we did pretty well!

After that, more vendors, and we stopped for a drink. Clint made this Souveneir Cup Day and got a cherry soda.

For dinner, Mom and I had lobster rolls from the ME building, Clint had salmon on a stick from ME, we shared a blueberry crisp from ME, and dad had a chili dog from...somewhere, and a beer from VT. We also got Kettle Korn from NH, but that was mostly for the drive home and to enjoy this week.

We also carried on our tradition of maple sugar candy taste-testing, and bought maple pumpkins and little bite of maple candy from MA, maple ladies from VT, and maple NH and man-in-the-mountains (and a leaf for Clint) from NH. We haven't tried those yet, but I look forward to it.

More vendors (um... and Clint and I caved bought a couple Super Chammies... I'll let you know how they work), and finally, we left around 9:30, passing a calliope on the way out (they are calliopes, right? I think I have the name right).

All in all, we ate good food, didn't buy anything really crazy (I also got free toothpaste at a Sensodyne booth!), and we ended up exhausted and with hurting feet. Very fun!

I WANT MY SHOES.

I ordered them last night around 10 or 11, and they still haven't shipped! grrr incredible impatience.

Sigh. I'd kinda hoped they'd come tomorrow. It'll probably turn out that I paid $15 for the 2-day shipping and get them on Wednesday.

In packages-not-arriving-related news, I continue to detest Fedex. The first time they shipped something to me, I got a phone call a day or two after the package should have arrived, from a guy saying he needed my correct address, because it was written down as "Wolf Rd", which doesn't exist in my town. Um. It took an in-depth conversation to convince him that, yes, Wolf Rd does exist, and there are 4 condo complexes on it, as well as houses, so you'd think they'd have heard of it! Well anyway, I ordered a package last week (which I thought I needed by Monday, but luckily I did not) that finally shipped Friday, sat for 3 days in a warehouse in Mississippi (or Michigan? One of those western Ms), and still has not arrived. 5-10 my butt, I ordered it 9 days ago. When I order things shipped by UPS or DHL (even UPS ground from CA or AZ) they come in 2-4 days. Fedex should be Feddragsalongslowly.

I made a different kind of smoothie last night (since I should have something about cooking): chocolate soy milk, nonfat fudge swirl ice cream/froyo (Clint's), one container of nonfat vanilla yogurt, and a banana. It was.... smooth. Tonight I'll be doing peach, peach "nectar", and coconut gelato. Or possibly apricot nectar. I think I'm not one for bananas in smoothies.

Edit: Monday, 9/15: The shoes have arrived!! I'll get to see them when I go home tonight!!

The Domestic Goddess Gets Dressed

or tries to, at least.

I need shoe opinions. Unfortunately, you have to go without dress pictures. But in appropriate-for-autumn ness, what do you think? The dresses I'd consider these for currently are a black/red/fuschia/white print bubble skirt dress (the effect is a dark-ish red/fuschia) or a royal blue with black mesh/lace overlay (for a dark, dark blue effect) with embroidered embellishments empire waist dress.

I worry the last pair, the d'orsay style (with lovely 2.5in heels, my perfect heel height) are too light for fall. However.... wedding shoes? 0.0

















The dark blue dress- this is it in "teal", so the color's not as dark as mine is, but otherwise it's the same thing. This is appropriate as "cocktail attire", no?





Red dress.... and close-up of the pattern