Sunday Stills - Pets

"Three years ago this week will be the third anniversary of Sunday Stills. The very first challenge was Pets……so in honour of Ed and Sunday Stills lets do it again."

And since Ed set his own personal December challenge to work only in black and white, Betsy agreed to play along.



Actually, she'd do anything to not lose her warm Wool House bed ;-).



Even though it almost looks like she's scoping out some higher exploration.



I used Pioneer Woman's Actions to convert these pictures to black and white. For this last one I used "colorize" because it added just a hint of color.

Happy Anniversary, Ed!

For more Sunday Stills...

O Tannen-baaa-m

Remember the picture of Betsy getting ready to jump into the bush to try and catch a bird? Funny thing about that, that's what she's doing in the Christmas card this year!





While you will probably never actually find Iris and the sheep all knitting Hank a warm sweater or everyone out skating or sledding in the snow (in reality they mostly just stand lay around in the barn yelling for me to bring them more hay ;-), Betsy catching a bird? Let's just say the "neighbor kid" watches his backside pretty carefully nowadays.

Besides the obvious - Iris being in charge of the decorations, Graham Lamb fooling around with electricity, Marcel letting Hank climb on his back to reach a higher branch and naughty Willard racing around carrying an ornament, here are a few little tidbits you might not have noticed on the card this year. The "rest of the story" as they say.

• After a couple games of sheep bowling this fall, Hank is keeping a sharp eye on Hickory.


• Last year I made Renny ornaments for all the people who came out and helped me take care of her. This year she's hanging her own ornament on the tree.


• Comby's hanging up a Green Bay Packers ornament. That little touch was especially for Janbaby...a Bears fan. It's the little things ;-).
  

Saint Tim and I enjoy coming up with a new Christmas card each year. It's become a fun (after it's finished ;-) tradition, not only for us, but surprisingly also for a number of folks who collect each new card. I'm flattered, albeit a bit bewildered.

Equally flattering (and bewildering) is that we caught the attention of Kentucky Educational Television (KET) and are going to be part of their Christmas special this year. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm hopeful they are mostly featuring the farm and the Christmas card's "cast of characters" and not much of my hillbilly yammering. It airs locally on December 17th at 8:00 and will post to their website a few days after that.

I have a feeling it might be a Merry Interesting Christmas :-o.

*****

Random.org picked #7 Aaron as the calendar winner. Aaron, drop me an email with your mailing address :-).

Giveaways are fun - let's do another one! Leave a comment with your favorite holiday tradition and we'll draw again - this time for a box of Christmas cards.

Merry Christmas!

You Can Call Me Martha

But I'm pretty sure Martha...



...wouldn't leave her holiday greenery up all year.

Yep, that's still last year's decorations :-D.

In my defense, even brown I still think it's sort of pretty. And besides, Martha "has people".



So, I'm out cutting some fresh greenery. Betsy's helping. And trying to figure out how to get in the front door.



And just when I think "ooh, I can set this up as a nice photo"...



...like a flash she races out to Burning Bush (also brown...and still pretty ;-) to try to catch a bird.

Remember this scene.

Counting Down The Days

Actually, I'm trying not to think about it. ARGH!!!



The 2012 calendar has finally gone to print. I thought after last year's learning curve that this year's calendar would be a snap. I am obviously a Slow Learner. Always something new to learn...which is usually sort of fun...but not in the middle of the end of the year, Christmas rush :-o.



We picked some of our favorite photographs and once again added in some fun dates like popular fiber festivals, St. Drogo's (the patron saint of shepherds) Day, Hug a Sheep Day...



There is, of course, a healthy dose of Lila.



And Renny



Newcomer Betsy



And lots of tiny pictures.

Note to self: when you are taking a pictures of something awesomely sweet like Hank cleaning Marcel's ears, TURN THE CAMERA LANDSCAPE! Pictures need to be short and wide (landscape), not tall and skinny (portrait). I cropped this one down to fit...in a tiny box. Sigh.



In case anyone's interested, I will put a few of these for sale in my Etsy shop. By the way, I've done quite a bit of Christmas shopping on Etsy this year. If you aren't familiar with Etsy's vintage and handmade marketplace, definitely check it out. Shop local...anywhere!

In the meantime, just for fun, leave a comment and tell us all how ready for Christmas you are and on Friday I'll random.org a winner and send you a 2012 calendar. Maybe you'll need it to help you get more organized for next year...maybe you don't. Let us know ;-).

B. Willard's Busy Weekend

"I think I need a vacation."



Willard not only got called into duty for pet photos with Santa, but he also had to stop eating for a couple minutes to get his picture taken with his sweater. Yep, that's a B. Willard original barn sweater. I spun the yarn as part of the 2011 Tour de Fleece and have been knitting on it off and on throughout the fall.



I used the standard Elizabeth Zimmerman EPS sweater pattern because I wanted to test how the yoke worked before I started the patterning portion (using the same method) for Jester's sweater. I had my doubts on a couple occasions, but of course, EZ was right and it worked out just fine.

The only odd part of the sweater is the circumference of the body. I knit my samples to find my gauge, did the math (Elizabeth's Percentage System), knit the sleeves first just to make sure...spot on. Cast on the correct number of stitches for the body, knit for awhile and thought, hmmm...that looks big. Oddly, my 48 inches were now 52 inches.

That's a pretty significant difference. And suspiciously the correct measurement for 20.

It appears that once again I've been outsmarted by a sheep.

Sunday Stills - Back Light

Keebs has obviously started decorating (himself) for Christmas ;-).

For more backlit Sunday Stills...

Santa Paws 2011 - Just Like Brooks Brothers...Without The Singing

But just darn near as cute! Pet photos with Santa, benefiting the Scott County Humane Society in neighboring Georgetown, Kentucky.

Stella and I counted back and this was our seventh year to take a sheep or two to town. First we took Henrietta, then Popcorn PeePee Pants, then Woolliam, then Keebler and Graham Lamb and now B. Willard and 20.



And nothing strikes fear in the Humane Society volunteers like thinking you are bringing in 20 sheep rather than a sheep named 20 :-D.



Here's our "how they did it".



First you've got to sign in.



Then you've got to fix your scarf. And it's true - sheep really don't seem to mind dressing up. As long as it's not. pants.



Then some last minute instruction about what is expected...from us and all the sheep back home. "Stand nice and don't forget to tell Santa what everyone wants for Christmas."



"Mostly I wish I didn't have to do this silly stuff..."



Willard did a great job. He had actually never been inside a building before, but happily walked right in, didn't have a single accident on the floor, only stepped on Santa's foot one time, let everyone pet him and take his picture, wasn't bothered by the dogs, jumped back into the car and munched on some hay. I'd say he's on the "Nice" list for sure.

Don't forget to add your local animal shelter or humane society to your list this season. Every little bit helps.