Yay for Cindy! She answered all the very difficult quiz questions correctly, and her name was randomly drawn from the other quiz answerers for the very special grand prize :o)

Thank so much to everyone who commented and entered. This was fun, and I may have to do it again sometime, maybe to continue my birthday celebration. The three runner-up prize winners (also randomly drawn from all commenters) are:

Monica (you weren’t cheating at all, silly!)
k a t
PastPresent Collection (Heather)

I am trying to be organized today and get everything all packed up pretty and sent out tomorrow. I’ll send you each an e-mail so you can just reply with your address.

It was so beautiful this weekend. I spent as much time as possible outside.

I don’t know how many varieties of daffodils we have planted in our yard, but there are a lot. These were opening in full force on Saturday and Sunday. Everything else is brown, but the daffodils are bright and cheery!

I’ve added pictures of the extra first prize treats for the contest, so don’t forget to leave a comment and answer my easy blog quiz questions! I made a little bag with my new fabric stash enhancement purchases to hold the book and cards for the grand prize winner:

And that is the promised knitted rose corsage on there. I may need to add a leaf, I think it needs one. Sadly, I didn’t get a good picture of the book I made, but it’s a little 5"x5" square book with Japanese-style paper covers, brown paper pages, and an open-spine Japanese 4-needle binding. You’ll just have to trust me, I guess.

Last night I had a chicken panic attack. I went to put the chickens to bed (that just means that I go out the the coop, count the chickens to make sure they are all there, and close and lock the door). Meanwhile, Bear was scratching around a pile of old wooden fencing that had blown down a couple years ago. We replaced the fence, but have various piles of the old fence in the corner of the yard. I figured he saw a lizard go in there at some point, since he obsesses over lizards. I counted my chickens, and there were only 17. I counted over and over, and still, only 17. I figured out that one of the Ruby’s was missing, which was odd, since they are always in the coop at night. Bluebeard insisted on sleeping under our shed a few weeks ago for a couple days, but I managed to convince her to go back with the rest of the flock, but the Barred Rocks have always gone into the coop. So I got out my headlamp and a flashlight, and wandered around and around the entire property, the whole acre. She was nowhere to be found. I checked the pile where Bear had been sniffing, but there didn’t seem to be any room for a chicken to have crawled into. The thing with chickens is, once they turn in for the night, they are out. I can reach into the coop at night and pick up any of them, and they’ll just sleep in my arms. They just don’t want to move after dark. I checked under the shed, under the porch, in all the trees, over the fence on all four sides, and…nothing. After nearly an hour of searching I finally had to give up. I imagined every possible scenario, did she go out through the gate when I had it open to take out the trash? Did she fly over the fence and then not find her way back? Did a hawk or an owl get her? I didn’t sleep well all night, and as soon as it started to get light, I was straining my ears to see if I could hear her. I went out as usual this morning to let the chickens out, looking around again for her. Once again, Bear ran right over to the pile of fencing, scratching and sniffing. This time a picked up the topmost layer, and out popped a chicken! And down rolled her egg! Silly girl! She had crawled under the wood to lay an egg, and gotten herself wedged in. She walked away a little drunkenly, but after a little food and water, she was walking around just fine, and I couldn’t tell which one of the four had spent the night in the woodpile. Oh, and Bear got lots of treats and pets for being my hero!

I have a very very big birthday this month, and the only way not to be completely depressed about the whole thing is to start celebrating right now.

I actually don’t really need anything, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things I want. If you are related to me and were thinking about getting me something (even though I forgot to call you on your birthday last week, because I am sometimes a terrible sister), here are some fantastic ideas. Or maybe I’ll just keep this list and get things when I have a little moolah in my PayPal account.

I could really use this t-shirt (see this picture).

This is a huge splurge, but I think she would like to live in my guesthouse.

Pretty much any jewelry from this etsy artist, except for these earrings, which I already have and love.

This print is so cute. Man, I have really become a crazy chicken lady.

Can you ever have too much Decole?  I love, love, love the tea for one set. Even though I have 2 tea for one sets already. But they aren’t Decole, so I should still get that one, right?

And I want to try using my Print Gocco on fabric, so some inks and screens for cloth would be useful.

Speaking of fabric, I need to replenish my linen supply, which has become dangerously low. Some handkerchief linen would be good, as well as some mid-weight linen.

That’s enough of my greediness for now, I’m sure I’ll be able to add to my wishlist throughout the month. I have until the 31st, after all. Oooh, did I just answer a quiz question?

Update: I’m going to keep the contest going until Monday (midnight, PST), so don’t forget to say hi and you’ll be entered!It’s been one of those weeks where I leave for work at 8:00 in the morning, after feeding chickens, making lunch and whatever other little chores need doing, and then, after working all day, running multiple errands, including a visit to the dentist that wasn’t much fun, and pulling back into my driveway at 8:00 in the evening, after which I flop on the couch, eat a PB & J sandwich and try, unsuccessfully, not to fall asleep in front of the TV. I’m so tired that I’m not even going to try and re-write that very awkward sentence. Anyway, the point is that I’ve not been organized enough this week to take pictures of the first prize goodies, and I want to share those before I close the contest.

Update #2: No good picture of the special handbound book, but I promise it’s cute. I did, however, make a cute bag to hold all the loot for the grand prize winner. Here it is, along with the knitted rose corsage pin:

I was careful to include the mother hen and chicks fabric :o)

I’ve finally gotten it sort of together for the promised celebration give-away. I really appreciate everyone who comes here and reads my little blog, especially those that aren’t actually related to me. I also love love love getting comments, so those of you who regularly lurk will have to come out of lurkdom, since you’ll have to leave a comment to have a chance to win.

My sister suggested I make it a little challenging and have a quiz, so I will, but I promise it won’t be all that hard. Here are the rules:

I have four sets of gocco printed and stamped postcards (with a little stamping on the back side as well, from a hand carved stamp, fancy!) and four sets of gocco printed bookplates (they don’t have adhesive, you have to tape or glue them yourself. I’m just not that high-tech yet) and four mix CDs for four lucky winners. Three of the winners will be drawn from a pool of everyone who comments on this post between now and this  Friday, March 9th.  All you have to say is hi and you’re in! Although I’d love to know how you found me and how long you’ve been visiting.

A first prize winner will also get a little hand-bound book and knitted rose corsage (pictures to come in the next day or two). Everyone who correctly answers the five questions below will go into the drawing for the first prize. They aren’t too hard, and can all be found somewhere on my blog and/or Flickr account.

1. When is my birthday?
2. How many siblings do I have and what are their internet names?
3. Name at least three of my pets, past or present (chicken names are acceptable).
4. What kind of car do I drive?
5.How many Flickr contacts do I have? (I promise not to add any between now and Friday) :o)

And since my sister already asked, of course if you are related to me, you can have any of the above items if you are interested, just let me know :o)

I think I’ve got it! I’ve tried and tried to learn how to crochet, and it just never made sense. My biggest success was a tiny bit around the edge of my hot water bottle cover. Inspired by the fun ripple blankets all over the place out there, I thought I’d give it another shot. I got out my trusty Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Needlework, and once again studied the pictures, step by step. I don’t know why it clicked this time, but it did, and I’m just rippling along:


It was perfect timing, since we had to go to a funeral in L.A. this weekend, and I needed a good, portable project. We spent 24 hours straight with my mother in law, and the only way I can deal with that is to have something to keep my hands busy. I’m using this pattern which I think is a bit different than the other ripples I’ve seen, but it’s nice and easy, so I like it. So far I’m using whatever bits of wool yarn I’ve got laying around, but I may have to get a few more colors.

The blog-iversery reader appreciation giveaway is going to take a few more days. I was dealing with a mountain of laundry, an avalanche of dishes, kittens discovering yarn and a serious cock-fight in the yard this weekend, so I didn’t get to as many of the fun things as I had hoped. Luckily, the kitchen is (fairly) clean, there is only one more load of laundry, the yarn has been untangled and re-wound, and all that’s left is to deal with the two-roosters-not-willing-to-share-the-17-hens problem. For that, we are working on a small coop to keep in a fenced off corner of the yard, but a sudden drop in temperature and rainstorm forced us to stop before it was finished, so it’s going to have to wait until next weekend. In the meantime, the new rooster, Moo-Shu, is living in the pen attached to the chicken coop. He’s a really big guy, but is missing his tail feathers, thanks to the General. That unfortunate incident happened before it was apparent that they were roosters, and they had supposedly made their peace afterward. I guess the separation of the last few weeks made them forget that, and now they HATE each other. Sigh. The life of a chicken farmer is wrought with complications.

The good news is that I got my first blue egg, it was really pretty and it tasted good too:

Eventually the eggs will grow into the egg cups, I hope.

I can’t post a blog entry without a picture, but I’ve got no pictures. I did get a few new Photoshop brushes, however, and have been playing around with them a little bit. I made a new banner, but I may need to work on it a little more. It seems just a little off to me somehow. At least the colors are bright and cheerful on this dreary day. It’s been snowing this morning, but by the time I get home from work tonight it should be clear and cloudless and the snow will probably be all gone.

My reading cycle has slowed a bit, but I always must have something to read, so I’m quite interested in this new website, Revish. You can go sign up now and possibly become a tester, and share book reviews and recommendations with others. I’m still finding my way around, but it’s sort of like Flickr for book lovers. Come and try it out!

I have a little bad news on the chicken front. It seems that the co-worker with the three chickens, one of which was General Tso, has yet another rooster. So tomorrow we’re going to switch out his Rhode Island Red rooster for another of my hens. I know it’s silly, but I just feel so bad disrupting our little flocks like this. They’ve got brains the size of peas, and so they have a day of big changes and re-adjusting their chicken hierarchy, and then they’re fine. I’m sure they don’t actually remember the trauma of it all, and just go back to scratching and pecking and pooping and sleeping, but I still feel bad about the whole thing. Luckily, their third hen has started laying eggs, so we shouldn’t have to go through this again. What are the chances, eh? I’m just hoping that the two roosters will be okay together. They were once before, obviously, so I’m hoping they’ll be able to live in peace and harmony again.

I mentioned in my anniversary post that I wanted to have a little Heylucy blog reader appreciation giveaway, and I’ve been getting a few things together, so come back this weekend, and all will be revealed!

Edit: It appears that Typepad doesn’t like paragraphs today. Does anyone have any idea why?