The yays and the boos for the week.

Yays:

Hunting camp, snow, lots of firewood. Family. Living in a beautiful place. Blackjack. Awesome sleeping bags. Hand knits that keep you warm.

Dandelions at 8700 feet. In October.

Reunions. My daughter. A warm house to come home to.

Halloween movies. Beer. Anticipation of a party.

Starting a new project and loving it.

Boos:

Getting ripped off by a wholesaler.

Gigantic ideological divides.

No snow plow service for our road.

Recession.

Friends who are hurting in one way or another.

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Hugs and kisses to those of you who need them. xoxo

Halloween Crafts Link Roundup

Halloween Craftiness:

Haunted Paper Toys

Papercraft Skull

Paperkraft has a searchable site with some super-cool Halloween projects.

The Toy Maker (papercraft)

Nifty vintage-looking printables

Owl Awesomeness

Now that I've we've run out of printer ink, onto general craftiness:

Martha, natch.

Whipup's roundup part 1

Whipup's roundup part 2

Swell Life's 24 Halloween Projects in 24 Hours

Halloween on Craftster

Make's Halloween Archive

Finally, where would this blog be without knitting? Here we go:

Whipup's Ultimate Halloween Knitting Roundup

I'm going to post a question meme, since I have no substantial content to share this week. It's been business as usual here at Chez Color Fest. Yarn, Halloween, fiber, fall, food, cats, lather, rinse, repeat.

1. Is there anybody you just wish would fall off the planet?

Yes. The list is very long. Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck, and the Taliban are at the top.

2. How do you flush the toilet in public?

With the magic of my mind. Or, my hand. Whichever works.

3. Do you wear your seatbelt in the car?

Yes. Always.

4. Do you have a crush on someone?

Alan Rickman and Helena Bonham Carter.

5. Name one thing you worry about running out of.

Refried beans. We must never, ever run out of refried beans.

6. What famous person do you (or other people) think you resemble?

I don't think I resemble anyone.

7. What is your favourite pizza topping?

Mushrooms.

8. Do you crack your knuckles?

No. My husband does, and it grosses me out.

9. What song do you hate the most?

That stupid Skater Boy song. Avril Levine, I think? Ugh. HATE IT.

10. Did just mentioning that song make it get stuck in your head?

Yes. Shit.

11. What are your super powers?

Sleeping late. Endless drop-spindling. Coffee drinking. Shopping online. Google-Fu. I can knit AND watch tv at the same time. Ignoring deadlines. Beer Snobbery. Farting in Bookstores.

12. Peppermint or spearmint?

Spearmint in gum, peppermint for anything else.

13. Where are your car keys?

Hanging on the key rack. I always hang them there, which is really my one consistent habit of organization.

14. Last song you listened to?

A Record Year For Rainfall by the Decemberists.

15. What's your most annoying habit?

Procrastination.

16. Where did you last go on vacation?

The Gulf Coast of Texas.

17. What is your best physical feature?

Probably my eyes.

18. What CD is closest to you right now?

Nada. Everything is on MP3.

19. What 3 things can always be found in your refrigerator?

Half and half, some form of cheese, and tortillas.

20. What superstition do you believe/practice?

I don't like to talk about really bad things happening to people I care about.

21. What colour are your bed sheets?

They are blue with telephones on them that have the words "pillow talk" coming out of the earpieces. They don't match anything, but they were 50 cents at the thrift store, so that makes up for it.

22. Would you rather be a fish or a bird?

A bird. I'd be an owl.

23. Last thing you broke?

I really don't remember. I'm not typically the one who breaks things in our family.

24. What are you having to eat tonight?

I don't know. My mom is cooking for us tonight.

25. What colour shirt are you wearing?

Grey sweatshirt. I stole it from Adam.

26. If you could be doing anything else today, what would you rather be doing?

I'd rather be at Rhinebeck.

27. Do security cameras make you nervous?

No.

28. If you wrote a book about your life, what would the title be?

I'm Not Who I Thought I Was: A Memoir.

29. Last time you went to a cemetery?

It's been a while, and that's good and bad. No one has died recently, but on the other hand, I love cemeteries.

30. Last concert you went to?

We saw Three Dog Night and REO Speedwagon at last year's rally.

31. Favourite musician(s)/bands you've seen in concert?

Smashmouth.

32. Next concert you're planning to attend?

I think Adam wants to go see the Trans Siberian Orchestra.

33. Do you talk to yourself?

Yes.

34. Have you ever adopted or purchased a pet?

Yes. Cats and kittens from the Humane Society.

35. Have you ever been present when an animal is being born?

Yes. It's messy.

The last of the Farmer's Market bounty until next year.

The Ignacio Farmer's Market was quite the success, especially for its first year. It was such a great addition to our community. Tay and I are talking about growing a market garden for next year in order to be able to participate in it.

Hand spun yarn drying indoors.

I have been one obsessive drop-spindling mofo lately. I have so much hand spun right now, which completely rocks. I love to knit and spin year-round, but when the weather cools down it becomes something of a seasonal imperative to start churning out hats and mittens and scarves. Warm socks. Blankets. The list goes on. (Also, Anne, if you're reading this, I have your mitts 90% done. I just need to finish the thumbs.)

Ice ring around the sprinkler. We've been trying to give everything one last good soak before we run out of irrigation.

I love this time of year. The feel of autumn is just so peaceful. The quality of the sunlight is just a little more golden, which seems to bathe even ordinary days in a kind of nostalgic glow. It's hoodie weather, which works for me, since they're my favorite item of clothing next to a comfortable bra. You can stash your phone, keys, and a drop spindle in that front pocket if you don't mind looking a bit bloated.

There's the smell of woodsmoke in the air, which I love. I haven't lit a fire yet, because our house stays pretty warm and I'm holding out for that morning when I just can't stand the cold, which will have to be pretty extreme. I'd like to hold out until November, but we'll see. I'm really used to being cold. We froze our asses off last year in that glorified tent of a trailer and our firewood supply ran out, so we spent a lot of time huddled over space heaters. I woke up one morning and found that my water bottle had fallen to the floor and frozen solid. Taylor and I spent a lot of time at coffee houses, with their seductive combination of central heat and wifi. Now that we've moved home, we have central heat, wifi, and two wood stoves. It's kind of like heaven only with out the clouds and harps and such.

Week (ish) in Review

We were vendors @ Bayfield Heritage Days. I made a little money, and we got to visit with folks we knew and make new fiber contacts. It always amazes me how fiber people make instant here's my number, come to my house and we'll hang out kind of connections. Very cool.

The Mr. turned a year older. He seemed slightly freaked out about his advanced decrepitude, and now he's on a diet and thinking about marathons. He does that every year, though, so I'm not worried. I haven't heard the OMG LET'S SELL EVERYTHING AND MOVE TO NEW ZEALAND spiel lately, so it's all good.

Kittens keep us on an even keel. If we sell everything and move to New Zealand, where will the cats live? Answer me that!

I set up shop at home for some customers a few days ago. Much easier than setting up and tearing down the vendor tent. Also, I always have access to coffee and a clean bathroom. The only thing I don't like about vending is port-a-potties. Ugh.

We had some seriously glorious days, so we went on a picnic.

Chimney Rock.

Taylor.

One of my favorite things about where I live is that we can drive for 15 minutes and be somewhere gorgeous and completely away from everyone else. I don't think we even saw any planes in the air. It was wonderful.

Dead deer. You can't go anywhere around here without finding deer or elk bones. Which is pretty cool, actually. Tay took this photo. She's a girl after my own heart.

The champagne of beers! Now in handy dandy quart size!

Adam and Taylor took their annual colors trip. This is Engineer Mountain, north of Durango. It's a fourteener.

Silverton, CO. Taken 9/29/09.

So, that's the week in review. I expect my next blog post will be about how Halloween preparations have taken over our lives.