The Annual Pig Photo Shoot

Traditionally (for the last six years), I spend Black Friday taking photos that eventually end up as my Christmas cards.  I love sending cards that make people laugh and a photo of a bunch of dopey guinea pigs is pretty much guaranteed to do that. 

We didn't have good daylight yesterday, so the photo shoot was today, and took most of the afternoon.  It starts with setup and checking that we like the scenery.  Then its wrangle pigs, bribe pigs, shoot photos and review photos.  And repeat, repeat, repeat. 

Usually we get a few decent photos in the first batch or two, and then do the last photo shoot(s) for minor adjustments to get just the right photos.  But this year, with three pigs (two that have never been through this), it was just impossible to get one good shot.  Plus, the first two sets of photos were a loss, because the "snow" covering messed with the lighting.

I videoed the fourth and final shoot:

What a bunch of dopey pigs!

Let the project marathon begin!

Its after Thanksgiving, which means my Christmas projects have begun:  ornaments and small sewing projects I give as gifts.

My kick-off project isn't, technically, for Christmas.  Its for an annual fund raiser at the Scout House in February.  I've been requested to make some more shoe bags for the raffle.   Whenever I'm buying material, I keep the shoe bags in mind.  I try to find something bright and/or outrageous.  A hot-pepper bag I did a couple of years ago was a big hit.  So at some point this year I found some more pepper material, as well as some whimsical stuff.

Musical mice!  That's about as whimsical as it gets!

Fall Frolic

I frolicked, and it was fun!

We went to the annual Fall Frolic at the Greenfield Grange on Sunday.  Its a fundraiser dance that goes from 2pm-10pm.  We lasted until about 7pm.  My aching feet, flagging energy and thoughts of the two hour drive home got me to admit it was time to go.

I hope it was a successful fundraiser.  It was certainly a fun dance!



For more photos of the dance on Facebook, check out the Fall Frolic 2010 album.  Roger takes wonderful photos.

The proper way to spend a Sunday afternoon

Ah, a chilly, yet sunny, Sunday afternoon.  And the guinea pigs are doing one of the things that they do best: napping.

Yup.  Its a rough life.

Any of these three would tell you that.

I'm thinking they may have the right idea.....

Sailboat Sweatshirt

My sewing room disaster area wasn't just from my quilt.  I also worked on a child's sweatshirt:
 

Wow, that red is bright in the photo! 

The little flags on the top of the sail actually stick out, because they were just too small to try and piece.  Which actually made a really neat effect.  I originally thought of putting a mast, but I was having hard enough time, I ended up simplifying it a lot!  My mother pointed out I could have used freezer paper to make piecing together the tiny pieces easier.  I may have to learn how to do this, if I attempt to do something like this again.

I debated about folding under a seam allowance, and attach the block with iron-on adhesive and hand stitching, but I opted, in the end, for iron-on adhesive and zig-zag on the sewing machine.  Guaranteed not to come off that shirt!

The Aftermath

Just in case anyone was wondering.... I sew pretty much the same way as I cook.  I leave a disaster in my wake.  My kitchen, more often than not, appears to be self-cleaning.  Or at least when I come back later, its all clean!  Unfortunately, in the case of sewing projects, it doesn't seem to work the same way: 

<sigh> Maybe I can face it this weekend....