I'm gonna be in an art show!

Who'd of thunk it?!?? Me, little ol me, in an ART SHOW??? How freaking cool is that? OK, so Friday afternoon I picked up little man Joe at about lunch time. I was in the mood to sit & knit & noticed they now have Dip N Dots at the JCC (Jewish Community Center), so we went and he had the very healthy lunch of Dip N Dots and potato chips and chocolate milk. I know, I know, it sounds terrible, doesn't it? He needs twice the calories and about 4 times the fat of a normal child, so he pretty much lives on chips & cheetos dipped in peanut butter. ANYWAY, I was sitting and knitting on the Tina's Tote and had my finished booga bag (with the same noro yarn) with me as well. The two little ladies at the table next to us were dying to say something, they'd lean over, change their minds, lean back and repeat. It was like being in high school trading glances with the cutie in the back row. Finally I just smiled at them and kind of waited. One of the ladies finally said she's on the committee to run the big JCC art show each year and was dying to find out how much I sold my "creations" for. I said, oh, I don't sell them, I am just beginning and I just make them for gifts for others and myself. After talking with them a while, they petted my booga bag, appropriately Ooohed and Aaaahed and then decided I HAD to have a booth at the big show. This is a SERIOUSLY huge art show where people spend a LOT of freaking $$, but most of the artists are ARTISTS. (You have to submit 5 photos of your work to the panel and they decide if it'll work or not and the tables are very limited.) Thousands of people attend each year and it was wall-to-wall people last time I went. Then I said, I'm a member here, but I'm not Jewish, wouldn't that be a problem since it's a JEWISH Artist's Show? They said an exception could be made if I included something with a Jewish theme in my collection. I said I designed a cross stitch/needlepoint design of the Star of David a few years back, would that work and they said YES. They also decided if I changed the name of one of the purses to "Joseph's Bag of Many Colors" I'd be approved. I thought it a bit tacky naming a purse after a biblical man, so I thought I'd go with a "Scarf of Many Colors" instead. I have until Sept. to get enough crap done to sell. At first I said, oh, I don't have very many items done and don't know if I'd have time, and they said I could just have two or three samples of the bags and take orders as they both want to buy buy buy my stuff. That gave me a heart attack just thinking, what if I couldn't get in the yarn I needed, and I don't like the idea of knitting under a deadline, so I think I'll just crank out what I can and bring what I've got. If I somehow sell everything, I'll keep the last few items for samples and take a few orders. If I come out not selling anything, EVERYONE I know is getting purses & scarves & hats for Xmas next year!

I know, I know, you don't make any $$ selling what you knit when you consider the time that goes into it, but I'm an old craft-show regular. I used to do all the bazaars, church sales, craft sales, etc. with my cross stitch and other crafts it was ridiculous, I've got the fever again. And this one's RESPECTABLE. WHOO HOO. OK, I'm a bit excited. Now I figure I'll design a small & medium bag to go with the tote and crank out a bunch of scarves and I should REALLY do some felted hats as one of the more fundamental Jewish groups' women wear hats ALL the time, and I think those would sell well. Of course, I've never MADE a felted hat, let alone designed anything resembling a felted hat, so I may or may not do this one. But how cool would it be to take a class on ways to decorate felted items and put a little flower or design on the front of a felted hat????? The possibilities..... I guess it'll be "in my spare time". The fair is pretty cool. Table rent gets you a tented booth, a table and an art screen. They take table rent and 20% of the sales for the charities the show promotes. I'm trying to get it approved that I can sell some of my beaded cross stitch kits I used to sell through a needlepoint shop here in town, but that one's iffy as they don't want "crafts" they want "art." I am trying to convince them that in helping others create items of beauty I am promoting art as a whole, but I don't know if it'll fly or not. They probably won't accept any other knitters as they want a broad range of items, so I've got some room to come up with different things. I think I'll focus on a limited number of items and just have a lot of them. We'll see. Anyway, I was just all happy-shiny with B52's music playing in my head all night!

Joey's feeling better this weekend, but still running a low fever. I'm going to try to work 8-2:45 Monday, we'll see how that goes. I think they may be getting tired of me working from home so much lately, but I'm getting the work done. I'm actually getting more done at home than when I'm in the office.

We got the PRETTIEST snow-ball snow fall last night. Mom came and got the kids out of bed just as I was getting them to sleep. I was going to be a bit irritated, but then she took us to the back door to look at the snow. It was coming down in the prettiest scene, and actual snowballs were coming down. It was amazing. We put on coats & boots over pjs and went out in the backyard catching snowflakes on our tongues. How is it that a little snowfall can quiet the sounds of the city so? It was amazing, there was a little glow in the air and you could actually hear the snowflakes hitting the ground and our coats. We got up today and made a snowman called Harry (as the snow packed so well the snowballs were coated with grass and leaves, giving us one hairy looking snowman) and "the best snow fort EVER", consisting of about 10 BIG snow balls rolled up and down the hill. It wasn't too cold, we ended up with about 3" of wet, packing snow and just played and played outdoors. Good day.

Mark & Russell are expecting dauchsund puppies around Valentine's Day, so I get to go play with the little weiner babies. I already said I can NOT have any more dogs, as Miles is perfect for us, one dog PERIOD. If anyone you know wants cute little puppies, let me know. They called to see if I wanted to go eat with them. I love them, they take good care of me! But, I wasn't able to get out tonight, so we will try for later in the week. OMG at the CF Great Stides Walk meeting Monday night everyone was trading phones, so I gave mine to look at, not quite understanding. Apparently, moms across the world have their cell phones loaded with pictures of their beautiful children. I haven't quite figured that part of the new phone out yet. I was getting a few strange looks, and then someone finally asked me, "is this your husband?" and I realized the ONLY picture on my phone is one of Mark with his mouth open showing a mouthful of chips & cheese sauce from the mexican restaurant when Russell was trying to show me how to work the damn phone. Yup, that's again why I blend in so well in with the mommas around here. Cripes. When I told Mark and he laughed so hard he snorted. Thanks, babe.

Makeup Update-->
First, I got my hair cut, thank GOD for Allegra. She is my personal super-hero. It's a bit short, but it grows FAST and after about a week I normally LOVE it for 4 months until I call her desperate again. ALSO, she's back with the ex-boyfriend I LOVED for her, he's good to her, treats her well and is a FIREMAN. Oh LORD, I love the firemen. Apparently he has SINGLE FRIENDS that happen to enjoy playing texas hold-em at Allegra & Dave's house, so I may be heading over there some time to flirt a bit with the hunky firemen. yummy. She's got a swimming pool at their new house, and I've been warned that I WILL be hanging out at her pool this summer. Damn treadmill of doom, I've got to start running NOW so I can get those thighs a bit less scary. I don't want fireman bob to think he can't lift me and carry me away.... OH, back to makeup. Allegra is in her late 40's or early 50's. She, Like Miss Country Chic from UR, looks at LEAST 20 years younger and it makes me SICK SICK SICK. I finally asked her what the HECK she does to look so stinking young and she said she uses the Bare Escentuals mineral makeup every day. Apparently it's supposed to not only protect your skin from the effects of aging, but she swears it repairs and restores and all the rest of it. She showed me that I was apparently using enough for a week's applications in one dose, so once she put it on me, I was stinking LOVELY. No big craters in the face, and the cool thing is it feels like you're wearing NOTHING, no, not really, because when I wear nothing, I get all greasy, and I never get greasy feeling with this stuff. I am a believer. I got more on eBay, but think I'll be getting the official stuff after Allegra yelled at me because "how do you KNOW no-one opened it up and stuck their dirty fingers in that stuff..." etc. Ick, so I'll just use the good official stuff sent from QVC or from the bare escentuals site. I promise.

This firemen by the pool threat may help in my lack of willpower. Tonight instead of eating the 2 m&m cookies left over by my children, I thought of myself in a swimsuit in front of firemen, and put them in the trash. Good chunky momma. Good. put down the cookies and walk away.
My goals for the next week:
**Complete the Tina's Tote and keep thinking of a basic design for a small and med. handbag.
**Follup up w/stores on doing the cf $1 donation shoe cards
**Write a letter to the grandparents
**Wear something BESIDES stained jeans, tennies, sweatshirt, baseball hat at least ONCE in the week