Last week started calmly enough. The boys and I visited the Bloomington Bagel Company on the east side to check out my ‘Scarf Art’ display. It’s an easy sell to get them to go to a place that sells food they like, especially after their Tae Kwon Do class with Mr. Scott. They snurfed down a couple of bagels, which we consider to be travel tax to art destinations. 
This coming Friday and Saturday is the holiday art show at the Unitarian Universalist church on the bypass, and you can bet that there will be some serious art show taxation at the cookie walk when my support crew brings me lunches. I always look forward to this show because it marks the end of the art show calendar for the year. That’s when I burrow into my studio and weave until May and the Broadripple Art Fair. If I come out with some nice weavings it means six more months of traveling to art shows. Anyway, the ‘UU’ show is a great chance for me to do some Christmas shopping, plus I get to chitty chat with my fourth street buds and the regular attenders. I’m also hoping to say goodbye to the last of my ornaments, since I’m not going to make any more. As you might have guessed from the last few posts I’ve been exploring scarf making (three-dimensional wet felting) with a newfound passion.
The big news of the week, though, was the trip to the GPUs (grandparental units) for Thanksgiving and hugs-all-around. Of course there was a big dinner with the extended family. There was lots of chitty chatting around the kitchen table, and every evening there was a happy hour around the bonfire. It may have looked like candle at the start of happy hour, but it was a bonfire by the end, just like on all the old family camping trips. Of course that was Jim’s family, but I know a thing or two about bonfires. For fun we traveled to Frank’s big outdoor store to pick up a few fishing supplies for the cold-hardy fishermen, and I got to pick up a few treasures for weavings. Frank’s sells feathers for fly tying, but I just mumbled ‘hackles’ and ‘secret brookie stream’ and bought all their deep green and jewel tone feathers for my weavings. Will they ever be in for a surprise! On the way back I discovered a little used bookstore just down the road. I told the owner my criteria for books: no violence, no blood and gore, no mushy love stuff. I ended up with six new books in the queue and I set off reading the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It’s a story told through a collection of letters, which is great because it’s full of stopping points to pause and emotionally regroup when things get too intense. It bought me a couple of afternoons in Grandpa’s big comfy armchair with the sun streaming in. I almost finished it on the drive back home as the boys created monster cards in the back seat for three straight hours. I hardly missed traveling without my faithful needle felting needles, poking away at ornaments!
So now I’m back home, gearing up to create more scarves. I’ve got a little unpacking ahead of me, plus a little cleanup to recover from the whirlwind of preparing to travel. The boys are bathed and ready for school today, with only lunches to make and a little fire to light under them to get them out the door on time. They still don’t seem to get that bare feet and crocs for shoes doesn’t work any more. And who needs jackets?
Until next week…
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