Blind Date with a Book

We ventured to Inverness, FL on Saturday to check out "Market at the Depot" at Liberty Park.  The city venue is fabulous. The property is located near a bike trail and in addition to the large pavilion, has a "stage" under the water tower and a café with a game room. 

A squall came through just after we arrived. The outside vendors, and even some of the inside vendors, had to deal with blowing rain. 

There was a large variety of wares being offered for sale. 

This was my favorite:

This clever lady acquired a variety of books of different genres. Each was wrapped and included a brief synopsis. For example, one synopsis stated:

Historical Fiction

- Contemporary  - Cold War 

- Troubled marriage  - Lies

- Kept secrets  - Love

- Twist  - NYC

Rating: 4 stars on Amazon

The pretty packaging also included note paper, a marker, some stickers, a tea bag and other ephemera.

Who doesn't love a brown bag mystery?!

Clever idea!

 

Il Mistero

I decided to try a mystery quilt this year. As if I don't have a gazillion things to do at this time of year!
Bonnie Hunter posts clues to creating a quilt every year. Some time after Halloween Bonnie introduces this year's mystery. For 2015 we are putting together a quilt inspired by a visit to Allietare, Italy. If you are at all interested in quilting, or travel, or connecting travel to fiber arts, you must visit Bonnie's blog and check out the intro.

Bonnie provides readers with paint chip numbers to help them collect the right sort of colors for their quilts. She tells us how much fabric we will need.

Here are my fabric choices:

I chose the green on the bottom as my "constant". Bonnie suggest a gray, and I'm just not a gray person. The middle swatch will be the backing for my quilt. It is called Renaissance Books, and I thought it was not only perfect because of its rich colors, but it goes with the Italian theme!

Then, we wait for the first clue. I "penned" this poem just before the big reveal on black Friday:

'Twas the eve of Thanksgiving and all through the house

Folks were groaning, clutching full tummies and laying about.

Except for me! I was downstairs in my lair,

Doing the sort of things I love to do there!

I was admiring all of the colors in the stash I collected,

Something other quilters are doing, I kinda suspected.

I have my black, and my gold, I think I'll use green and not gray.

Will my neutrals be neutral enough and not stand out in some way?

I love my reds. They are my favorite. They are warm, not too bold,

Some were bought recently and some are quite old. 

And my backing, a Renaissance print just begged to be bought.

It was a bit pricey, I wasn’t sure if I ought.

But it looked wonderful with the colors. It matches the theme.

It was the prettiest backing I had recently seen.

Tomorrow is the day we thought would never be here;

Give a hoot! Give a holler! Give a big cheer!

Bonnie is posting Clue Number One.

This year’s mystery quilt has finally begun!

Allietare, we are ready. We can’t wait to start.

So, Rejoice! Let the challenge gladden your hearts!

Bonnie posted the first clue. We were to use our constant fabric and neutrals to make two hundred ninety-four HST (half-square triangles). Hey, I love sounding like I know what I'm doing! But, lucky for me, and other quilters out there who may be new, or not into the lingo, Bonnie explains step-by-step what to do, and even has links to videos for us visual learners!

Here are a bunch of my HST's ready to be snipped apart and pressed open.

Who would think that 294 HST's would fit in a baggie and look so inconsequential!

And now....

Oh, Bonnie, that was easy! We snipped and we sewed.

Many of us have 294 two-inch blocks ready to go!

My triangle blocks are bundled in groups of ten,

Stored in a baggie and fastened by pins.

Are you the type to get it finished all in one day?

Or would your rather spread it out, having more time to play?

I have little triangle bits on the floor, everywhere,

But what the heck, they blend in well with all my dogs’ hair.

I haven’t time to vacuum with Christmas ‘round the bend,

And combined with this project, my sewing never ends!

What’s next? We quilters in Quiltville all want to know,

We are ready, Allietare, on with the show!

Let the banners wave across Quiltville land

Press on thread warriors, Clue #2 is at hand.

To recap: (sing along…)

On the first week of the mystery quilt,

Dear Bonnie gave to me,

Two hundred ninety-four HSTs.

Wee Beasties

Oops, I meant to post this around Halloween, 

since it involves very scary critters!

But somehow it escaped me....

Take a look at the wee beasties I found in my gardens:

Oh my...

Lions,

and

Tigers,

and

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What are they?

Do you know?!

Check back for breaking news at 5:00 PM MT!


Oh drat!
Late, again!

I forgot that I said I'd reveal the response at 5:00 PM,
and here it is almost 7:00!

These are seed pods from Snap Dragons.
How fitting that the cute little dragon flowers 
would have such fitting seed pods!

The Gypsy History Mystery - Solved

I received a special email today. 

Out of the blue.

source

Gypsy's most recent owner, Larry,  contacted me. Apparently my blog information was sent to him by the wonderful folks in the Wyoming Australian Shepherd Rescue group. Larry wanted to set the record straight on a few things, and gave me the "real deal". It is so wonderful to learn more about our sweet Gypsy's early years.

Gypsy was born in the fall of 2008, as far as Larry recalls. She was born on a cattle ranch in Marquand, MO. Her parents were registered Australian Shepherds. Momma Aussie gave birth to Gypsy and her 6 brothers under a large brush pile. Gypsy's original owners didn't, or couldn't move the brush pile. They were able to capture 5 of the pups, but not Gypsy and her brother. So, the two wile pups did not meet the 'off with their tails' appointment at the vet. Because their tails weren't docked, the original owner couldn't sell them. The puppies were given to another cattle rancher, and they had the run of his farm. He wanted to get rid of Gypsy, and Larry took her in. He also has cattle, and at that time he had an Aussie who had been kicked and was having some difficulty doing his job. Larry took in Gypsy hoping she would produce a replacement for his ailing Aussie, or become interested in helping with the cattle. Gypsy did neither. Larry needed a dog to help him with the cattle, and since Gypsy wouldn't do it, and his other dog couldn't (and later had to be put down), Larry acquired a Border Collie pup. Larry didn't originally intend to give Gypsy up, but the pup would not attend to his job, preferring to hang around Gypsy.
We couldn't be happier with our rescue pup... who has no Cinderella story to tell. We shoulda been able to figure that one out - she's just too darn sweet!

Mystery Melon - or - Squash Surprise

We have a puzzle in our garden. 

We planted something... and we don't know what it is! 

Now, how, you might ask, could someone be so silly as to do that?! 

Well, as you may recall, we had a garden disaster in the form of a major hail storm, just after we planted the garden this spring. Our fledgling plants were squashed...literally! Hubby took pity on me - he never could stand to see tears! He visited the garden shop. He visited the farmer's market. He bought new plants. I planted them. But, I have to admit, my heart was heavy and I just couldn't imagine the plants 'doing' anything. So... plunk, plant and sigh. I know that some plants had identifying tags, but evidently this one did not. It just looked like the other squash plants, so it went in with the squashes.

Lo and behold... my garden began to grow; in spite of the hail. In spite of the drought. In spite of the almost triple-digit temperatures. I have bounty from my garden. Dreaming is a happy little gardener, now.  In fact, I had enough little squashlets that I could gift some to Sharron. She was given a bag with yellow summer squash, zucchini, patty pan squash and yellow zucchini. I wouldn't give her the mystery melon.... as I didn't want to repeat the stupid thing I did when I lived at my other home, where I had a volunteer squash-like plant in my compost pile. I gave the interesting globelet 'squash' to my neighbors... uh, they weren't really summer squash we found out... they were baby pumpkins! (And that could be why I had to move - it could be that I was laughed out of the neighborhood!) So last night hubby and I pondered the plant. We stood in the garden, hands on hips, staring down at the fruiting body. What is that? Is it a gray Zucchini? Is it a watermelon? I reached down among the leaves and grabbed that baby, which was the size of a small football. I twisted it and broke it right off it's life-sustaining stem. I committed squashicide.... or melon murder... or something! We marched into the kitchen and grabbed the big carving knife... whack! The object lay in two pieces on the cutting board - with hubby and Dreaming staring down at the hemispheres, trying to place what we were seeing into some sort of taxonomic order. We poked it. We examined the seeds. We smelled it... and later we tasted it and partook of it's fruit, and it was good!

Do you know what it is?

What ideas do you have?

Scroll down...

and down some more for the answer.

Oh, and hubby, while we were eating it, smacked hand to forehead

and recalled that he did buy this type of plant as he thought I'd like it!

Mystery solved!

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Are you tired of scrolling down, yet?


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I'm not having too much fun making

the asterisks!

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I have to practice finger-gymnastics to type asterisks

and then hit the return key.

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Okay....

Here is the answer to the mystery....

The object is...

Pregnant Pause...


P


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Like they use on America's Got Talent...

Can you hear the droning music?

It's a....

Oh, I hope you aren't too disappointed

after having come through all of this....

Spaghetti Squash