Planet Nilknarf

April 2012

April Birthdays

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Welcome to Planet Nilknarf

Hello readers! You're not going to believe this but all four of my quilts have been SOLD!! Somehow word went through the grapevine to Oprah's network! Even though she may not have her own show anymore, her first quilt will be on display in Africa at her girls' school, the second one will hang in the background on the Tyra Banks show, the blue one will be on the set of the Nate Berkus show and the most recent one will grace the set of Rachel Rae's set!! Not only that but Oprah has ordered TWO THOUSAND carousel horse ornaments from me to give to all the students at her girls' school. To top it off, I've been offered the chance to actually go there and teach the girls how to embroider and make quilts! I have to admit although I am thrilled and honored I was also kind of reluctant about venturing outside my comfort zone. You know how I feel about airline travel, especially with my sensory issues, and you may have also heard me complain about the rape situation. I expressed these concerns to her but I was assured that they were willing to spare no expense to go above and beyond the call of duty to keep me as safe and comfortable as possible! I will be flying first class with an entourage of body guards! Part of me feels kind of guilty because of all the poverty and hardship that actually goes on there. I was also concerned about missing school, but I don't have to worry because I won't be leaving until around mid-July. And to top it off, I can bring a friend! I would ask my husband but I know he hates traveling even more than I do, plus he probably shouldn't fly because he has lymphedema in his leg and he's afraid it might explode. So I'll ask Janette even though I don't blame her if she says no. She would need to get a

passport and she'd have to take time off work and I'll probably be gone for at least two or three weeks. Besides she already went beyond the call of duty for me last year when she came with me to my mom's place to help me sort through mom's things and settle her estate. I'm already grateful for how helpful she was to me at that time. Seriously, I should be grateful for this opportunity. And I really am. Talk about exposure! EVERYONE will know about the carousel project! Sponsors will be coming out of the woodwork! No pun intended! I will be asking our landlord if I can use the basement to set up my office/workshop, but with the deluge of exposure and financial aid coming I may be ready sooner than I think for something even bigger and better!

BAZINGA!!!
(In other words, APRIL FOOL!!!!) Seriously, if anything like that really did happen to me I wouldn't talk about it until AFTER it had happened!! I wouldn't want to jinx the situation!

Carousel of Friendship
I am happy to say that this month I have completed the first row of my quilt. I usually tend to start in the middle and this case is no exception:

Since Community Day at school I've received several submissions and they keep coming. I like to show the original submissions next to the squares I've embroidered. These first two are from Shannon Townsend, who is in Kim's class next door:

And these next two were designed by Amy's six-year-old daughter, Autumn:

She also designed this one, in progress:

And I have these next three submissions to look forward to working on:

Autumn's older sisters did the first two; the Smiley Face horse by 8-year old Hanna, and the Flintstones horse by 12-year old Britney. Then one more horse by Autumn, the Candy horse. I've yet to go to Fabricland to get more broadcloth before I can continue with these. This was my display for Community Day:

It was a real pleasure speaking to the art class and showing them my presentation. The problem is,

the previous term is over so they are not in that class anymore. So all we can do in the meantime is show my pictures on that TV screen in the hallway and hopefully I'll get a chance to speak to the next batch of students sometime after March break. In the meantime I was also very happy and excited to receive THIS in the mail on the first day of March break!

This Parker bucking bronco, Carmel prancer and Allan Herschell donkey were all embroidered by my friend Cathy Crawford. I sent the squares with the line drawings to her late last year after she and her husband Chuck sent me that wonderful photo of myself feeding the giraffe at Cheyenne Mountain Park zoo during last year's convention. Definitely one of the best moments of that journey!

Anyway, I love her use of metallic thread! It's so exciting to see the many wonderful contributions that make up my quilts as they grow! Over the years I have many drawings but this is the first time I've had someone else's embroidery other than my own and I am truly delighted! The second row will be done sooner than I thought! By the way, the Crawfords are also the owners of the Toll House Merry-Go-Round. They've written this beautiful children's book about their wondrous endeavor of how they found the abandoned carousel and fixed it up good as new. I have the book but can't find it at the moment, much to may annoyance, It'll probably turn up when I'm not looking for it so I can show it to you then. One of these days I would like to visit this wonderful place in person. In the meantime I would like to thank Christine Domaratious once again for the gorgeous craft kit she

sent me a couple months ago. I promised myself I'd give it a try during March break.

As you can see, the first one was already partially done; the mane, tail, bridle, facial features and pole as well as two of the hooves. I embroidered the yellow chain stitch on the saddle.

I refused to be daunted by the seemingly complicated instructions. Once I got going at it I found this project to be a lot easier than it looked, despite how many pieces there are to cut out. I couldn't help thinking that if the horses themselves are all basically the same then how come there are so many numbers? Why can't they use the same numbers for each horse? Then I realized that there are subtle differences in the positions of the legs and there are actually two copies of each horse. The instructions are straightforward enough, they're just very detailed and time-consuming.

Not that I mind though. This has been a very good exercise in patience and discipline. To me, the most time-consuming part has been anchoring the sequins in place with all those tiny glass beads. Two down, six to go. I will show you the second one next month!

Upcoming Events
Autism Awareness Day April 1st Light It Up Blue for Autism April 2nd HAADD Spectrum Arts Night; concert and art show Saturday April 21st, 7:30 pm, Armour Heights Presbyterian Church, Wilson Avenue between Avenue Road and Yonge Street. Art will be displayed before the show, during the intermission and after the show, while the audience enjoys refreshments. More info can be found here: http://haadd.ca/

Dear Mom and Dad

Saturday, March 24th, 2012 Dear Mom and Dad Hello. How are things in Heaven? Are Whitney Houston and Davey Jones there? If you see them tell them I said hello. I remember last year around this time. The day before you died, mom, was the day of that huge tsunami! I hardly thought about it then because I was more worried and concerned about you but now that I think about it, were there many Japanese people waiting at the gates that day? I guess it depends on how many were saved f you know what I mean. Last year I was having so much trouble coping! And sadly, this year at this time I've been having trouble coping too!! At first I thought it was because it was approaching the anniversary of your death but it was more than that. I was getting too stressed

out about the latest math I've been struggling with in class. I've been busting my ass over the same crap since January. I know I'm allowed to work at my own pace but it was getting ridiculous. In my class if I find I'm getting too stressed out over my math I'm allowed to play around on the computer. It turns out I've been playing around on the computer more than I've been working on my math. If I'm going to waste most of my day playing around on the computer I Might as well be doing that at home. I am SICK TO DEATH of fractions and percentages and I had the ULTIMATE MELTDOWN last Wednesday! Last year at this time I survived my multiplication tables by being able to decorate carousel horses with them but there is NO WAY to make this shit any prettier or more palatable. And to add insult to injury the computer Nazis at our school BLOCKED the National Carousel Association website! That was the last straw! I announced that I quit and stormed out of the class. Math is a LOST CAUSE and I'm NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE! In a way I was kind of sad because I really like Sabrina. She was and still is the BEST TEACHER EVER but even the best teacher ever can't teach me this crap. However, I met her in the park on my way from the library to the bus stop the other day and we had a wonderful chat. She doesn't want to lose me as a student after all the time and effort she's invested in me so instead of Math she's getting permission to help me learn PHOTO-SHOP! And I am on a LEAVE OF ABSENCE until the next term starts so I can work on my craft projects. Go figure, the day I said I was quitting school I actually received a call ordering TWO T-SHIRTS! They're Carousel of Friendship T-shirts with UNICORNS for two sisters ages 4 and 10, one pink and one purple. Since I didn't have their sizes in stock I had to go to Micheals the other day. I quite enjoyed the journey there and took my time browsing th4rough the store. I experienced my moment of zen in the ribbon department. How can anyone NOT feel happy surrounded by all those beautiful colours arranged in their perfect order! My customer gave me the sizes in numbers but T-shirts don't usually go by number, they go Small Medium and Large so I relied on my intuition as to what sizes would best fit a 4-year old and a 10-year old. I also stocked up on embroidery thread. Go figure, I have BUSHELS, PILES! TONS of it but none of it in the RIGHT colour! I needed to stock up on more bright blues and oranges plus I need all the white I can get for my sheep T-shirts. I haven't phoned Anne or Jean lately because I'm afraid they're going to ask me how far I've gotten with Joey's project. I'm STILL only on the second square :

At least I've gotten a bit further than the one on the right when the last picture was taken. All the flat green grass in the background is filled in now, and I think all the Jack-in-the pulpit plants are coloure3d

in. I haven't seen a Jack-in-the-Puplit plant since I was a kid. Remember when we used to go for walks in the woods when I was a kid and I'd pick all kinds of flowers and Dad, you'd teach me what they were. And you probably know that this Oprah thing was a complete hoax! Her show is still on after all, mostly in reruns but she's been exhausting this Whitney Houston thing from every angle and she has a different show in the evenings. I actually don't really pay that much attention to this sort of thing, but I had to laugh when Janette was visiting here last weekend and I showed her the newsletter so far. She actually believed me until she saw the Bazinga! All in all I had a really nice visit with her last week. We had a wonderful time together. We watched a lot of movies and ordered pizza and, of course we brought our dolls and dressed them up in their two newest outfits:

Gotta love those St. Patrick's day hats!! The outfits on the left were made from a scarf I never wear anymore and the ones on the right were made from a tank top that'll never fit me again. I loved that fabric too much to just give it away and if you scroll back up to the Carousel of Friendship project, you'll see where I actually used some of it on my latest quilt. Here's the best news of all! Janette and I have decided that the second week of April we are going to NIAGARA FALLS for a few days! We decided that we couldn't last any longer! We know we're supposed to go to North Bay in July but we need a break NOW!! We DESPERATELY need a change of scenery! You know how things went at my last carousel convention and the last time Janette and I were away anywhere together it was when we were staying at your house helping Jean clear out the estate!! Hopefully a few days in our favorite place will help me get my mojo back. I've been feeling so weary and depressed lately all I've really wanted to do is SLEEP most of the time! Half the fun of going on a trip is all the planning and anticipation! Janette has already made our hotel reservations and she emailed me the following music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fRoDDFatIQ&feature=email Go figure. Each journey has its own theme music. I'm thinking of loaderizing it onto my MP3. To be honest I've never purchased downloads online before. Everything on Black Diamond has been loaderized from CD's. I've been seriously thinking of getting another MP3 player as backup in case mine acts up again like it did when I was at the grocery store just after Christmas.

Just before March Break I bought myself a gadget that's supposed to convert cassette tapes to MP3 files but I can't for the life of me figure out how to use it. I'm coming to the conclusion that it's just a piece of junk that never worked right in the first place. However I did previously have hopes that I'd be able to listen to all those barrel organ tapes from Holland including the Spielklok tot Pierement museum tape and my KIDEO tapes. If I'm not meant to listen to my KIDEO tapes again I understand. There are just as many sad memories associated with them as there are good ones. Well, that's all for now, Love, Margaret

Carousel of the Month

Denver ZooEndangered Species, Denver Zoo, Denver, CO; 303-376-4800 [2009]

Carousel Works, 2000, NEW, 3 row, Park, 48 m, (VARIOUS ZOO ANIMALS), 2 ch, b/o no, Comments: Endangered species carousel. New carvings. History: Denver Zoo, Denver, CO, 2000 to present; Directions & Hours of Operation: Located in Denver's City Park, the Zoo's main entrance is on 23rd Avenue between Colorado Boulevard and York Street. Open every day of the year. Hours vary. Mailing Address: 2300 Steele Street, Denver, CO, 80205-4899 Website: www.denverzoo.org

Illustrated Lives
Last month I started a new column after having read Danny Gregory's book An Illustrated Life. It was my goal to visit all the websites listed in that book and get to know some of these artists. I confess I

haven't visited any new websites recently just because I've been so busy and bogged down but I would like to thank Peter Arkle for his wonderful newspaper! It was so nice to receive this in my mail. In this day and age not many things are sent by snail-mail anymore and it was a welcome surprise to receive a good old-school newspaper printed on newsprint. The whole thing is hand-written and filled with wonderful, intricate hand-drawn illustrations, full of fascinating anecdotes chronicling his trip to Russia. He mentions a bright yellow cell-phone store looking out of place among all the drab gray buildings, how the thong he bought for a lady friend ended up costing more than the insect-print shirt he treated himself to and he mentions some interesting desserts that alone would make me want to go there. Especially something called a Fifth Element. It is a chocolate confection that comes wrapped in purple foil and contains caramel and Gorgonzola blue cheese as well as fennel and caraway seeds. I love chocolate and Gorgonzola blue cheese but I never would have imagined combining these two flavors! I bet I'd enjoy the combination of sweet and salty/pungent! You can visit Peter's website here and find out more about his newspaper: http://www.peterarkle.com/ Meanwhile, here is an entry from my own sketch diary:

Lucky Penny Icebreaker

Sometimes when news is a bit slow there is a game I like to play called the Lucky Penny Ice Breaker. The idea is to randomly select coins and talk about the things that happened on each year. Within the past week or so I've found at least three pennies and my husband has found a very interesting State quarter which I will tell you about after I mention the two of years on each of these pennies I've found. 2004: I will always remember this year as the year that I discovered that I have Asperger's Syndrome!

It was about a week before my 40th birthday and I kept having so much bad luck with my sales. We were on the way home from my horrible sale at the Roseneath carousel. It had been raining all day and I hadn't sold a thing. Besides, if anyone wanted carousel-related merchandise, they would buy it at the carousel, not from MY craft table. I cried all the way home and my husband and his aunt were scared I was having a nervous breakdown, so his aunt sent me to her psychologist. But it wasn't the psychologist who diagnosed me. In fact she had never even HEARD of Asperger's Syndrome before. It was my friend Lisa who told me she had it and when I asked her what it was she sent me several links. When I read these links I KNEW I was reading about MYSELF! I was excited and relieved. I wanted to read anything and everything I could get my hands on about this subject, especially Asperger's Syndrome in ADULTS! I was like Johnny 5 in those Short Circuit movies. I NEEDED MORE INPUT!!! Earlier that year, in January, we celebrated Janette's birthday at Niagara Falls. The four of us went; me, my husband Dave, Janette and her boyfriend, Mark. One of the highlights of our trio was visiting the Lost Birds Kingdom for the first time. Janette went to Loblaws to buy herself a birthday cake but there were no plates or forks so we improvised with whatever we had in our hotel rooms. We used ice bucket lids, etc. for plates and I sliced the cake by pulling a taut piece of embroidery thread through it. Now it was my birthday in July. So the four of us spent the day at Port Dalhousie. We had lunch at a fancy restaurant and enjoyed as many carousel rides as possible!

2002: Okay, so I know I'm backtracking. I should have written this one first but if I try to paste it in chronological order I might mess up my pictures. 2002 will always go down in history as the year that Dave and I got married. We had a wonderful honeymoon at Niagara Falls. Unfortunately, the day we went to the Allan Herschell carousel museum in North Tonawanda was the day my dad passed away. And last week my husband found a new state quarter among his change that happened to be from GUAM!!! GUAM!!!??? Since when is Guam a state? I looked it up on the Internet and it turns out that although it may not actually be a STATE, it is a TERRITORY of the U.S. America may have fifty states but at least five territories. Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Guam are four of them. I forget what the fifth one is, even though Alaska and Hawaii are not just territories but also states. I looked at a map and Guam is about as far away from the Untied States as you can GET, somewhere off the coast of

Indonesia, just north of New Guinea. And face it, Guam is fun to say! It sounds like a camel yawning!

Beetlebomb's Book Nook

This month's book review is Shopaholic & Baby by Sophie Kinsella. I've heard a lot about the shopaholic series of books and seen the movie but this is the first time I've read any of them and this is probably the last book in the series unless she writes about Minnie as a toddler growing up to be a little fashionista herself, which sounds like a fun idea. Our main character, Becky, finds out that she is pregnant, and for her it's a joyful, exciting and optimistic time without the usual worries about crying, sleepless nights and shitty diapers that I'm used to reading about, the things that, to me anyway, make me NOT EVER want to be a mom! Becky is happy and excited about her new arrival on the way. And as usual, like in her previous adventures, Becky has a case of the I-Want-This-I-Want-That's! So many cute baby clothes, toys and things to choose from! Especially prams! In her dream house, Becky decides she not only wants a Shoe Room but a PRAM Room because there are several different ones she wants. But her blissful journey toward motherhood has one fly in the ointment. Dr. Venitia Carter. Obstetrician of the stars! Becky makes the mistake of dropping reliable Dr. Braine for this trendy vixen who, ironically, turns out to be her husband's ex-girlfriend. From then on it's a series of twists and turns, troubles, tribulations and misunderstandings. Things appear to be so bad that Becky even hires a private investigator to spy on her husband. What does he find? Read this book and you will know. Shopaholic & Baby has been a delightful, fun-filled, laugh out loud read from start to finish and I can hardly wait to read the other books in the series.

Ewetopia

See You Next Month!!!!!