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Monday, November 4, 2013

A Cool Change

Wow, I thought October would never end! It truly was a month of Mondays. Somehow, as always, we managed to get through it. This year was the busiest October I've seen in my 11 years with the tent company. And I don't know if it was some cosmic phenomenon or what, but it was more chaotic than usual too. We have customers we've dealt with for years, that for some odd reason, waited until a week before their event to call us, like we were supposed to psychically predict their order and put them on the schedule.  There are jobs I call to find out and see if the event is going to be held and see if we're getting the job, but I don't just assume anything. And the changes. Ugh.  Some people ordered their stuff back in June for their October event and then changed stuff at the last minute. Like we have unlimited inventory on everything available all the time.  Not in October. Or March. Anytime in between, you're probably good, but not those two months. Not here. 

So, there's a few more weeks of insanity. Oh, did I mention that Dolphin Tale 2 is currently being filmed too?  Yep, Winter the dolphin has a sequel coming. And we do all the tents for the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, where, Winter lives, so the movie company called us. They are not the most organized bunch. I really had to contain myself, lest I start chanting "Lack of preparation on your part, does not constitute an emergency on our part". Seriously. In the middle of all the rest of the craziness, we're dealing with movie people, and their ridiculous schedules. 
One neat thing to report was that last week, we were at the aquarium, measuring for a new cover over the turtle ICU area, and Bethany Hamilton, the surfer who lost her arm (Soul Surfer), passed by in the hall. She is a beautiful lady! I just smiled at her and she smiled back. Pretty cool to see someone famous. Would have been awesome to see one of the big stars (Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Harry Connick, Jr.) since they were filming. 


One of our jobs was at John's Pass in Madeira Beach for their Seafood Festival. A friend of ours owns The Alligator Attraction there and we stopped in for a quick visit when we finished working.  We made a few new friends. 

It's hard to believe these cute little guys can become the huge, menacing - looking, creatures that fill us with fear. They are very soft too!
 
 This is Chompers, the alligator, giving me a "smile". I was only about 5 feet away from him, inside his enclosure, and he was actually holding his pose on command.  He's fairly famous too. He's been on Tanked and Gator Boys on Discovery Channel. It seems  that I am surrounded by celebrities!

 Rudolph, the African Spur Thigh Tortoise. He weighs 100 pounds and has free run of the place. He's quite friendly and his back feet are ticklish.
 
 Well, all this work stuff, has left me very little time for sewing. However, I did manage to squeak in one little project. I learned how to machine applique in September, and I wanted to finally make the Quillow for Bruce's cousin. I decided I would try out my skills on a practice project first.  A while back I stumbled onto a website of coloring pages for Hello Kitty. She's cute and I've always liked her simplicity and innocence (although I've seen some altered images that just prove how some people have too much time on their hands, and need to have their heads examined). Anyway, here's what I made.  It's not finished yet, but that's not the point of the NewFO party, now is it? 

Barbara at Cat Patches, has graciously continued her monthly linky party, despite some family health concerns. Thanks Barbara for thinking of all of us, even during this stressful time.

http://catpatches.blogspot.com/2013/10/boo-its-scary-halloween-version-of.html


  So here's my NewFo. Isn't she cute?

I'm pretty happy with how she turned out. Now I have to figure out what I want to do to finish it. I have a few ideas, but they will have to wait until I have a little more free time to play.  Oops, I just noticed that I didn't iron out the pen, I used to trace out some of the details, like in the camera strap.  I did learn a lot while I did this practice project.  I actually have a recipient in mind, for the finished project already. But I'm not telling who, because she will most likely be reading this! 

One of the things I used for the first time, is the applique pressing sheet. I bought a rather inexpensive one, just to see how they work. 

  It worked pretty well, despite the lack of instructions. My main concern, since I'm new to the fusible stuff, is what temperature setting I'm supposed to use on my iron.This stuff was pretty flimsy and I think I may have had my iron a little to hot, but it didn't melt. I think I will invest in a higher quality one in the future, but for now, this works.

With my new tool, I did get the Scotty fused onto the background fabric and ready for to applique. Now the only decision is what color to use around the coat? White, Yellow or Teal?  What do you think?



Hopefully, the rest of this week, I should be getting home at a decent hour and can play with a few of the projects I've got piling up. We have to work Saturday, putting up, then taking down an event, but Sunday should be wide open. 

The weather is finally starting to get cooler. It's been breezy and that's always my sign that it's fall. We don't get the pretty foliage turning down here. We have Hurricane Season instead. Ha Ha.  On Halloween, I celebrated 18 years in my house. It's hard to believe! Where did all that time go? 

I think I'll close with a rarely witnessed image in my house. Four of the six cats, all in one place.
Not the greatest phone camera image, but you have to take what you can get. Starting at the top, going clockwise, is Dot, Multi, Oliver and Delaney. Sorry for the surrounding scenery, but had I known they were going to pose, I would have cleaned up a bit.

Thanks for stopping in! ~Amy

3 comments:

  1. Wow, you've been really busy! The appliqué looks great, I'd use teal for the Scotty, it will blend but still give the coat distinction. I love the cats picture, isn't it interesting how our animals never pose when the house is neat?

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  2. It's funny that the cats are all on opposite corners of the bed!

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