My favorite part of going on vacation is petting, and chasing, and biting the various critters I encounter. I’m back from the rural lands of Ohio, and I must confirm that my need to run and play with critters has been quite satisfied. (Well for a day or two, at least…..)

 

 

 

 

Last night my mom and I made dog toys made from the de-squeaked toys that the family schnauzer had recently mauled. Felting a new dog toy was just the answer for chewy-chewer. If felted tightly enough, there was little chance for the rambunctious puppy-at-heart would be able to chew through very easily.

First lightly needle-felting some ecru around the squeaker, we then added wool of various colors to create the soon-to-be Mr. Happy.



One important feature I thought was worth including in my design, was the ability to pick op the squeaky toy, once it had become sufficiently slimy with doggie slobber. So with my toy, I made it into the many-legged critter of a spider.

As you can see, said toy was approved by Mr. Schnauzer.

 

 

Ever since I was a kid, I can remember my dad with his piles of old dusty green bottles in our basement, just waiting to be filled with some of his homemade wine. Late summer evenings walking down the creaky wooden stairs, I’d be stricken with the pungent scent of fermenting berries or other fruit. The huge 5-gallon glass jars filled with must, slowly bubbled gasses through the strange plastic water-filled traps making an eerie bubbling sound.

I remember when I was in high school, I grinned to myself when my junior year teacher gave us the assignment of making home-made wine. I had the assignment in the bag, and was quite confident in turning in my full 750ml bottle of plum wine. To this day, I still wonder what my teacher ever did with all those bottles of wine, and along those same lines, I wondered how many kids simply filled a generic bottle with something bought in a store.

While out here in Ohio, it was grape picking time at a local orchard, and my dad decided to invite me along for the process.

Between myself and my parents, we ended up picking 11 pecks of grapes. Here’s me with just a portion of our booty:

 

Next, it was time to de-stem the grapes. Like the picking of the grapes, it wasn’t a quick process, but rather a rather steady even-paced meditative one .

The final process that I helped my dad with, was mashing the grapes into must. Seeing all those grapes, de-stemmed and sitting in a huge bucket, I was so temped to pull a Lucille Ball.
 

 

I’ve been out here visiting my folks for only a day, and already I’ve found some cool things to snap. I thought that this old house and barn in rural Ohio, was the quintessential country building.

 

On my way travels back from Burning Man, I was delighted to receive a notice that NifNaks was accepted into Felt Club’s Holiday XL show in November.

This is very exciting for me, because this is the first show NifNaks has ever traveled a significant distance for. I’m very curious as to what type of experiences this category of craft show will deliver for me. I have no doubt, it will be very interesting and rewarding.

If anyone is counting, this makes five (5!) shows I am doing this holiday season. The first begins with Capsule in October, and ends with Mission Bazaar in December. Click below to discover the where’s and when’s….

Capsule – Oct 20
Plush You – Nov 2
Felt Club XL – Nov 16
Bizarre Bazaar San Francisco – Nov 30
Mission Bazaar Holiday Show – Dec 6 & 7

Please stop by and stroke my cuddly creations!