Alpaca, Eggs, Landscaping, Yeah, we got that

When you've got a Wonder herd of these,

Those are Alpaca, not Llama folks

it turns out, you don't have much time left for this...

What's a busy person to do?

Small Wonders Landscaping

You call in a professional landscaper to take care of your problems!

How did I end up helping a professional landscaper? You know I don't work for money.
I VOLUNTEERED!! I thought it would be a fun way to spend an afternoon. Guess what, it totally was. Knitting together is fun, but weeding together is funny. We should really pool our resources and get this Small Wonders Landscaping lady more often. Not only was she a riot, but, wow, wait until you see the results when you attend...

The Alpaca Wonder Weekend
with a
Wonder-ful Pen Sale!

Presented by
The Wonder Why Alpaca Farm, LLC

on
Saturday, October 3, 2009
from
10am - 4pm

located
7 miles south of I94/ Battle Creek, MI

1996 E Dr S

East Leroy, MI 49051

Admission: FREE

Check our website

for details.

http://www.wonderwhyalpacafarm.com/

When we started working, I was all awwwh, look at those turkeys, they're actually birds that aren't trying to attack me!

Turns out, they were just trying to lure me closer to the fence so the attack chickens could have their chance at me.

Not only will Home Grange #129 be serving up Sloppy Joes, Chips and soda for the low, low price of $5, but we will also have egg salad sandwiches made from these very chickens! Yeah, take that chickens!

Meal Deals $5
Sloppy Joes
2 Hot Dogs
Egg Salad Sandwich

all meal deals include chips, and soda

Rice Krispy Treats, and brownies, will also be available! Monster Energy Drinks so you can be like the Wonder Why Gal too!!

Now if any chickens, sandhill cranes, or geese get any funny ideas...
This is my dog.

Our yard is a bird free zone.

The Football was Awesome

Before the game, I got all nervous. Why? because I wouldn't be able to work on any charity work at the game. It would be all fun and good times. Sure, I can knit anywhere, but my current knitting projects are all lace work and I can't do lace and work a crowd. So I flipped out and sent the Ogre to the store. This is what he came back with.

Proper Charity Work Size Needles

Why 2 sets of knitting needles. The flip out was so big he was worried I might want my needles to be color coordinated with WMU. He was right, I took the gold ones to the game. GO Brown and Gold! Go BRONCOS!

Here are some pre game photos. Yes, we are tailgating in a garage. Screw you, I made the Ogre opened the trunk.

We had some Kentucky Irish in the house, yo. Somehow between here,

and here,

awesome things happened. I kissed Sandy's husband, which ended in me getting a $20 Cub Scout popcorn sale from Dee's brother. See, I'm always trying to help out the Cubs!

(I'd like to say the Ogre just stood by and said "yep" and nodded a lot. I take the attention off of him being so freakishly tall.)

Then we all changed our name to Jenny and I think I'm finally going to get to be a bridesmaid and not the bride for once!!! I don't know if John knows that his future wife changed her name to Jenny or that I get to be a bridesmaid, but whatever. Promises made at driveway tailgating are forever!

Look! Our WMU spirit beads got us on the JUMBOTRON!!

During the game we made friends, saw other friends, all this while in the Elephant Ear line. Kentucky Irish did her best to keep us abreast of Kentucky's mighty attempt to thwart a number 1 ranked Florida. God did punish Tebow for either lying about h1n1, spreading h1n1, or just straight up showboating and used Kentucky to concuss him barfing to the hospital.

The knitting? Mocked by all around me. Then my fame of knowing Coach Cubit,
WMU players

and being a "phila... er, phila... er, yes, er, Good Deed Doer."

Now, who is in for a WMU Hockey Game?? K Wings???? I'm in charge of the next event, and let me tell you, it's an event.

This was the after party Sunday night.


Now tell me he doesn't like this dog.

It's always fun around here

Hey! It's football day. I get to wear the Go Broncos Hat!

Oh, I know, I'm supposed to be at like 3 places today, but sometimes my best friend wins out:

I know you all thought it was you. But I need my very best friend to be a Big Grumpy Ogre.

It balances out all the Short Annoying Cheerful.

Don't worry, I'm bound to do something stupid today.

I've been practicing my one handed back bend, in my new zombie fighting prom dress no less, to prepare for today's tailgating.

Speaking of fun...ZOMBIELAND!!!! Opens Friday. I'm looking at Oct 9th. Get your shovel and your hedge shears sharpened.

On the BIG SCREEN!!!! The Wizard of Oz!!!!

ONE NIGHT ONLY!!!

As we were walking in Liz said, "you don't see that very often." Of course I had to get a picture.

See, it's not all fancy like normal movie marquees. The Kalamazoo 10 had to go up to their attic and pull out actual letters and spell out Wizard of Oz.

We didn't go to the Wizard of Oz for Pig 1. Oh, no. We went for this person.

Yep, that's the 10 year old Snot.



I was expecting the Kalamazoo 10 to be packed with people dressed up like Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Tinman, Cowardly Lion and the whole bit. Sadly, it was less Rocky Horror Picture Show, and more a Wednesday night out at the movies. The only person at all dressed up was one friend of Dorothy and I think he just had more fashion sense than the regular Wednesday night out at the movies in Kalamazoo crowd.

But the movie it's self was not a disappointment. The colors in Munchkinland almost made me dizzy!! The audio was amazing! The Ruby Slippers??? Ahhhh, so shiny.

You know what we learned from the Wizard of Oz? This world needs more of the color green. Oh, and sequins. The color green and sequins. Big hats too. The color green, sequins, and big hats and fancy dress.

Fancy dress!
Sure, looks better in Munchkin Land

(We could probably do without the random flowers on shoes that they had in Munchkinland, that did not strike me as real practical.)

Don't you think, maybe, we should try to incorporate this into our everyday lives more too? "A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others." In the George Bailey way. Great, now I'm mixing classically beloved or hated movies.

Whatever. I'll never be able to watch it on a small screen again. Ogre, we need that new tv, with surround sound, and hd, blue ray. Yeah.

Updates, but it's still awesome

Remember Iraqi Bundles of Love? Well, here's what we bundled.

Confused by the bundle concept? Well, you put two pieces of ribbon in the bottom of the box, to form an x. Then you put a large piece of fabric on top.

Fill box. Bundle like a baby.

Tie it up, mail it out....RAAAAAWHIDE!
(Of course the Zombie Prom Date Knitters sent 6 yards of Orange Fabric to Iraq!!!)

Ooooh, can you spot your Kidney Kozy in the mix here!


Sure I have to drop them off yet, but every time I go near them I fall asleep. They're just so damn Kozy. I'm going to have to recruit the Ogre. He's got no heart, I think he can resist their power of comfort.


Hark! What is this bowl of fluff floating in space?

If you look close, there's a blue square in with all that lovely hand spun yarn.

Actually, the bowl isn't floating in space, it's on my new hand me down end table!!! Anyway, the blue square is The Hope Lodge Shawl.

Hope Lodge Shawl
See, it real small, blue, in the bowl
Wow, Cancer DOES suck!

So, if anyone has a roughly 10x10 blue square sitting around the house, for the love all things comfy! PLEASE SEND IT TO ME!!! The Wonder Why Gal was the only person who turned one in!! I feel like a schmuck, a schmo, a bunch of schm words that I don't know how to spell.

I will put it together, I will mail it in, just send me your blue square!!

So what's going on now with the Zombie Prom Date Knitters?

• We are currently meeting Tuesdays at the Koffee Klutch in Galesburg. Lu Ann will treat you right in there!

• October 3rdWonder Why Alpaca Farm Open House! Demos and Fun! If you want, serve food with me, or do demos, or just visit and have fun!!!
  

• October 10th Vicksburg Historic Society-Fall Festival we have a 12x12 space, bring your knitting, spinning, crocheting, a chair and your sass. We provide the space and sign. Wear your ZPDK shirt.
  

• ZOMBIELAND-yes, we are going to go see ZOMBIELAND. I don't know when yet.

I'm sure I'm missing stuff, but really, that's just the next two weeks. There's also the Battle Creek Barnes and Noble Wednesday night once a month thing I always forget, and then Fabrications in Richland knitting also. So....yeah, lot's of knitting to be done!!

Knit with Snot

The most frequent question I get is "Why knit with snot?" Followed in frequency by "Do you really knit with snot?" Today, I will answer these questions, raise more, and show you why I love orange and green. Plus you'll under stand my desire to hermetically steal all items of importance.

You see it all starts with an orange rectangle box.

Notice the shade of orange, notice the that you could find that sucker in the aftermath of the Apocalypse and it's contents would still be intact. It's vintage 1970's Tupperware people. When I see it my little orange loving heart sings! Don't fret! This little beauty never held vegetables! It held something almost good as cake! It was Pk's sewing box!!

This is were it all started. Constant craving, desire, longing. Really, I would look into the box for hours and dream of all the awesome, no, I didn't know about awesome yet, all of the foxy, disco, rainbow things my Mom could knit and sew for me.

Then, then, she would use her wand just like in Sleeping Beauty

and zap one of these tags into the finished item:

Yeah. It never happened. No tags. Just me spending a lot of time daydreaming about the dumb things. Don't worry, Pk did make me clothes, although she did swear a lot while making them. Is that where my fine swearing skills and hatred of sewing comes from? See, it's all coming together.

Now, here is a close up of the sewing box. Notice the knitting needles, notice the sew in your finished project tag says Princess in my beloved Snotty Green. I think I transfixed my love of those tags and the love of that sewing box onto those two colors. What would Freud say. Well, since we often knit with him, he'd say pass me another Roman Coke and knit me another pair of socks, you've figured it out, Twit.

I may have also subliminally passed over the princess part, picked up the devil and well, yeah, if only my poor Mother had known that maybe television would have been a better babysitter than crafting.

Now on to the Knit with Snot. You see that I ALWAYS wanted a handmade item with sweet little tags sewn in. So, when I was starting this blog I was reminiscing, and thinking about how much I love knitting, and how special hand made items are.

But at the time my Pigs were really young and this is what I had around the house...

Then I thought to myself...I don't knit with love, I

KNIT WITH SNOT

Now do you see the whole tie in?

So it's 3 snotty boys, aka the three Little Pigs. Known as Pig 1, Pig 2 and Pig 3.
I had a 115 pound mutant Chocolate Lab named after a Scientist but everyone called Bubba, he also had a large amount of snot, an evil cat named Pippin,

a 6'6" Ogre of a husband, Chemist by trade,
grumpy by nature, Zombie Slayer by family tradition.

Oooh, the zombie thing?

Zombies. Our family protects the world from zombie invasion. Our knitting group, the Zombie Prom Date Knitters joined in the fight. In the not too distant past, a rag tag group of knitters got together to rid the world of boredom, drab colors, and the occasional walking dead. Weapons of choice: pointy sticks, spindles, shovels, and any handy household item. Now, if your back needs a sweater, shawl, scarf or rid of hunch backed brain hungry tendencies, you're in the right spot. Don't believe me?
Check out the adopt-a-highway sign on I-94 mile marker 84. Those bags are full of, well, unmentionables.

Any other questions?

But, I don't sew...

It's over, the Kidney Kozy Smackdown II that is. Of course we lost to the Kalamazoo Knit and Crochet Meet Up Group.

Actually, I think the dialysis patients won, we knit 12 Kozies, their group made 30 so 40 Kozies will be donated to the people over in the Battle Creek area getting dialysis. I may officially change my middle name to Tom Sawyer. They think they beat us, I white washed them in to knitting 30 Kidney Kozies, while I went fishing.

Ah, I'm going to go smoke out of my corn cob pipe now, come on Huck.

Anyway, we had our prize drawing was held Tuesday at the Koffee Klutch in Galesburg. (For the record, Dang Lu Ann, your mochas (medium, soy, no whip) are top notch!)


Yes, this is a retired carbide helmet, kindly donated by my cousin Matt. It's was supposed to be for the Pigs to play with, but really, I swipe it pretty often. It's AWESOME. Thanks Matt. I know you miss it.

Chris of Briar Rose Fibers generously donated 2 beautiful skeins of yarn to spur on the creative juices. Here we have one of our lucky winners:

Our very own Andrea of the Wonder Why Alpaca Farm!

She was actually speechless.

Our next skein went to Zelma! Thank you Zelma for the 4 lovely Kidney Kozies. Cables and everything.

She's no slouch.(Marty and Alice will be transporting. She's busy knitting more Kozies.)

Kentucky Irish won an item of her choice (I'm pretty sure that excludes an actual alpaca, kitten, or child) from the Wonder Why Alpaca Farm.

Our Final drawing for the day was for Cookies made by Em.

Hey Em, sucks to be you....

Photos taken with Rebecca's AWESOME, not EVIL camera.

Look at the quality! DANG.

The Ogre had some questions for me when I got home from all the glory of Kidney Kozies. He said "I get that you've been busy:

You and Rebecca sent supplies to Iraq as part of Iraqi Bundles of Love. That was great.

You helped Shannon and her family with the Highway Clean up.

You and the Zombie Prom Date Knitters tricked other people into making Kidney Kozies.

You do all this great generous stuff for other people, and this is what you do for me? Duct tape?


But, I don't sew.