Some finished objects and another "no thanks"

I finished the beading yesterday afternoon -- whoo hooo!!

Now it's on to the backing (a double row of beads all the way around the edges.

Oh yes, and I have to remember to insert the magnetic clasp at the ends while I'm doing that.

As I was saying yesterday, this block for the afghan is now complete --- it took me about 45 minutes to weave in all the ends of the joins on this --- I'm glad I have used up almost all of that light blue now --- that's the one that is all little pieces about a yard long each (or even less)

I know, you're thinking "why didn't you just throw those away as pieces of string too short to use?"

Blame it on my grandma -- she taught me to knit with the string my grandfather brought home from the post office and it often was pieces of less than a yard long and we tied them together. Back when I was doing that though, we didn't bother with weaving in all the ends on a dish rag!

The next block has been cast on and two rows knit, so we are moving right along on this.

Yet another new doggie toy

My daughter tells me they have nicknamed these "the squid"

Up until this one I had made them out of a fur like fabric. This one is one leg of a pair of worn out blue jeans.

The kids and the dogs are coming to visit this weekend, so I thought it would be good to have a toy for the "Terrier-izor".

Yesterday we got another of those envelopes from a show we had applied to --- the "thanks but no thanks" kind --- only this group snuck up on me. It was still my envelope, and they didn't send my CD of .jpgs back, so as I was carrying it from the mailbox I was actually getting excited that we had got in. When I opened it and pulled the packet of paper out of the envelope, however, my check for the booth fees fluttered out of the stack and hit the floor along with my hopes of having successfully juried into the show.

Once again a letter that says "of the catagories of artists applying, the largest single category every year is jewelry, which means the competition for places in this category is especially hard." Is that supposed to make me feel better? (clue: it doesn't) Or is it someone's hint that I should submit my work in a different catagory?

Either way, we won't be going to Columbia, MO, for a show this year --- pfooey

So now I'm working on an application for a show in St. Joseph, MO. We have done this show -- in fact, we won a ribbon there in the crafts area, but last year when they put me in the crafts area again I told them "no thanks" --- I want to be in the arts area where a ribbon also means a cash prize, and better sales. I'm thinking about entering our work as "mixed media" instead of jewelry --- maybe that's a better description.

And so today not much will get done as there is shopping to be done and supposedly a big spring snow on the way for tomorrow.

into the fray!