Phew!

Well I'm all organized... all that's left is to pack it all in the car (where is the boy when you need him to do some heavy lifting?) But it's dark out now, and there are absolutely no lights where my car is, nor does my car have an interior light in the hatch... so packing will commence early tomorrow morning.

In the meantime, I'm dosing up on Advil (killer headache) and sharing with you all the lovely presents I got today.

First... a present to myself.
Some lovely Australian opal beads finally arrived in the mail today. There is a great seller on Ebay who has beautiful gemstone beads - but the opals are particularly hard to get. It's not unusual for the auction to skyrocket waaaay out of my price range. But I managed to get these at quite a reasonable price a few weeks ago. They are quite small but the fire in them is AMAZING. I'm going to make myself a pair of chandelier type earrings with them, I think.

Second... a present from Mom...

This one is a real present too!A skein of Skinny Bugga from the Sanguine Gryphon. For the uninitiated, the Sanguine Gryphon along with others like Wollmeise and the Plucky Knitter are like rock stars are of the hand dying community. Their stuff sells out in minutes, and sometimes its ridiculously hard to get a hold of. I tried once, failed and said "screw that!" There is a lot of other yarn I can spend my money with very little effort.

Mom however, has infinite more patience, and finally scored four skeins... one of which she gave to me! And while I won't lurk on the internet waiting for an update, I will say this is GORGEOUS yarn (merino/cashmere blend) and her dying is beautiful. I do understand why people want it.

I was planning on taking both the fan shawl and my sock to the show tomorrow to work on , but I am sorely tempted to wind this up tonight, and cast on for a new sock tomorrow. I'll keep you posted on my progress to resist that urge.

And finally... another present I bought myself

For most people, impulse items are things like gum, a chocolate bar, or a bag of chips... for me..... it's a dragon stuffie. I was in Hallmark buying a birthday card, and this awesome guy was near the cash register... the picture doesn't do him justice, but I didn't have time to get a better one because my battery was dying. I have a small collection of dragon stuffies and as soon as I saw him I knew he had to come home with me.

And now there is a strange smell coming from my kitchen that I must go investigate. I think Dave put something in the recycling that should have gone in the garbage...

So, if you're around Hamilton tomorrow, stop by Gage Park for the Pagan Harvest Festival 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. Hope to see you there!