Overdue updates

Wow! It's been a while since I last posted what I've been up to.

Anna Glowfest wasn't quite a bust, but almost. Saturday's weather started out overcast, but not terribly threatening. I don't think the balloons went up because it was so windy. The winds continued all day, vendors started leaving around noon, the balloons didn't go up for the evening flight, then, around 7:30, event staff went around to all the remaining vendors and told us there was a bad storm 6 miles away and heading our direction fast, we should all batten down the hatches and get out before the storm hits. So we did. We left, not knowing what we'd find the next morning. Well, the next morning, it didn't even look like it had rained at the fair site. "Better safe than sorry" became our mantra.

Sunday was even more windy than Saturday. More vendors left during the day. One vendor, who hadn't staked his tent at all, or so it seemed, put up his wind curtains and left. Around 4, a strong wind came at us, and lifted his tent off the ground. Another vendor noticed the airborne tent, grabbed it, and hung on for all he was worth until a couple more vendors, including me, dropped what we were doing to help him handle the tent. It took three of us to get the tent back on the ground and callapse it so it wouldn't become airborne again. While we were struggling, the wind pushed us all sideways and took out another vendor's tent. That was enough for me. I knew my tent wasn't going anywhere, but I didn't know when someone else's tent might take my tent out. I decided to pack up and call it quits. While I was packing, one of the organizers came by and asked me if I was leaving. When I replied that I was, her response was that she didn't blame me.

As soon as I had everything packed up, I called Alan and asked him to meet me at Sicily's for dinner, after which we would come back to the festival, pack up our Tributes, and leave. By the time we returned after dinner, the balloons were being inflated for the evening glow. We had to wait until after the glow to be able to get our vehicles in place to load them. The glow was great. I think the pilots were trying to make up for the loss of flights. The glow lasted about30 minutes and featured simultaneous ignitions, pattern ignitions, an apparent contest to see who could fire his burner in the shortest, most rapid bursts, and random burns. It was fun to watch.

Monday dawned clear and calm. The vendors who were left probably had very good sales. I spent the day with Alan, watching him fly his RC helicopters and running errands.

The bands that played at the festival were actually pretty decent. Most, if not all, were praise bands, so I did get a little tired of praise music. Most, if not all, used the instrumentals from "Sweet Home, Alabama" for their sound checks. Now, don't get me wrong, I like "Sweet Home, Alabama", but hearing it 20 or so times a day is a bit much. Of course, when I got in my car to drive home and turned on the radio, what was playing but, you guessed it, "Sweet Home, Alabama". Alan even played it for me on Monday, just so I wouldn't miss hearing it so much.

I'll have to take pictures of the balloon jewelry and ornaments. Both turned out well.

Anna Glow Fest is here!

The balloon festival in Anna (TX), Anna Glow Fest, started last night. There were quite a few people around for a Friday night. I missed the actual "glow", but I did see the balloons illuminated while they were being inflated - quite impressive.

I succeeded in making a few knitted hot air balloon ornaments. I'll make more during the day today, while I don't have customers. I was lucky enough to find some very pretty beads in the right shape for hot air balloon necklaces and earrings, so I have several of those, too. I hope the weather holds.

Hmm. If I look outside now, I may be able to see some of the balloons. The wind is from the north and Anna is north of here.

More later.

What's new for Third Monday Trade Days - May 2009

I've been working on new floral arrangements for Trade Days this month. You'll also be able to see new earrings, and, I hope, new necklaces for summer. I'm experimenting with new earring styles, more posts instead of dangles, different combinations of materials, summer colors. If you've never been to Third Monday, you don't know what you're missing.

Brownies and Cakes

In this instance, "Brownies" are of the Girl Scout variety. I had a ball teaching 13 2nd-grade Brownies to ice a cake and decorate it. The troop leader, a couple of Brownies, and a couple of moms helped get everything set up. Then the fun began.

I showed the girls how to ice a cake, then they iced theirs. Then the moms and I used cookie and fondant cutters to put designs on the cakes, I demonstrated how to pipe stars, and the girls were off, decorating their hearts out. The girls did an amazing job icing and decorating their cakes, sometimes with a little adult help, but mainly on their own. I think they had as much fun as I did. When it came time to clean up, there was surprisingly little mess that had escaped to the floor.

So, a great, big, "Thank You!", to the troop leader, all the Moms who helped, and to all the Brownies who decorated cakes with me yesterday afternoon.

Icing flowers for the left-handed decorator

History: When I was a child, I would pick up a crayon, or pencil, or whatever, in each hand and write with it. Finally, my sister (13 months my junior) pointed out that, "You're only supposed to write with one hand." Since the rest of my family is right-handed, I chose my right hand, but used my left hand for a lot of things, dealing cards comes to mind. Years later, a neurologist told me I'm actually left-handed.

Time passed, and I started taking cake decorating lessons. Then came "the rose". Yikes! The rest of the class turns their flower nails the "right" way - counterclockwise. I turn mine the "wrong" way - clockwise. I still moved my hand toward me. My roses looked like - well, you can imagine - a pile of icing, certainly not a rose. So, I practiced and practiced, and practiced some more, and figured out the key - the direction you turn the nail, the direction you move your hand, and the direction you tilt the tip all have to agree. Once I figured this out, my roses started to look like roses.

Then I became a cake decorating instructor. Oh, now I have a left-handed student. Let's see if the old left-handed tendencies are still strong enough to make a rose. How about that? I CAN DO IT! HOORAY! YIPPEE! Well, my first left-handed student decided to make her roses "right-handed", which was fine with me. Then I posted on a discussion forum that I can help "lefties" with their flowers. A request finally came in, hence the Buttercream Flower Video.

The video comes in 2 flavors, "pc" and "mac". It shows how to make a rose and how to start a daffodil, an apple blossom, and a pansy. I left out the final details for the last three flowers, since the direction you turn the nail doesn't matter. If you need higher-resolution video, please let me know. The "standard" quality video is nearly 700 MBytes, far larger than the allowed video size. The "pc" version is on the left, the "mac" version on the right.

I hope this video helps.

The next challenge is ...

... knitting hot air balloon ornaments. Little did I know that the REAL challenge would be finding/creating a basket for the balloon. Knitting the balloons is easy. I've tried weaving yarn baskets, knitting yarn baskets, and searching local stores for tiny woven baskets. You'll have to visit the Anna (TX) Glow Fest to see what I finally use.

I'm also working on hot air balloon earrings for the occasion.

Bracelets delivered! On to the next challenge ....

I delivered the bracelets last night! Finally! I met my customer at the McKinney ballfields near the ballfields at Craig Ranch. This gave me a chance to see Robert Hogan's statue of Joe DiMaggio. Wow! You can even see the texture of Joe's shoelaces! Amazing. The photos on Bob's website, bronzeartbyhogan, don't do his sculptures justice.

Today is "home repair and maintenance" day. New A/C and heating unit for the downstairs will be installed today, next Thursday the upstairs unit will be replaced. The nursery is removing two dead pear trees, victims of cotton root rot, and replacing them with a redbud and a magnolia. With any luck, the insurance adjuster will make it out today to inspect the roof - we lost several shingles in last Friday's winds and the roofing contractor says it's time to replace the 15-year-old roof. It's hard to believe the house is 15 years old!

While all of this is going on, I'll probably try my hand at knitting hot air balloon ornaments. I'm renting space at the Anna Glow Fest balloon festival Memorial Day weekend. Alan suggested that I make hot air balloon ornaments to sell there. Hmm. I wonder if I can make hot air balloon earrings ... I'll have to think about that one.