A Best in Show

I know, I know, it's been ages since last we spoke but no news is good news...  But this news is even BETTER!  Today at the New Year's Eve show held in Wilmington, Ohio Delilah got a best in show.  It was such a nice surprise as you always dream about the big win but it seems so elusive most of the time.  The show started around noon and ended shortly after 6PM.  Those are some great show hours as you get to sleep in and get home at a decent hour.  The weather was beyond great at temps near 60 degrees.  Geez, someone pinch me- all this sounds too good to be true.  Here are some pictures just so you know I wasn't dreaming.

"Hey!  Don't forget about me, K?" Delilah waiting to be judged for best 4 class.  No room left on the table!

Delilah after getting the once-over by Judge Mike A.

Judge Kevin deciding between the Californian and Delilah for Best in Show.

Delilah sitting pretty waiting for her turn.

Two happy rabbit owners.

Another good reason to go to the show: meeting up with good rabbit friends Annette and Lisa.

First Snow

It seems we are having a year of weather extremes.  First, a very hot summer which was unbearable now extremely cold temperatures that have arrived early this year along with the snow.  We got about 2 inches yesterday and thankfully it didn't stick to the driveway.  Maybe it was retaining the heat from the 61 degrees we had several days before!  I will just be thankful I didn't have to go out and plow.  Here are some pictures of Angus and Wesson enjoying the first significant snowfall.  At least someone was looking forward to  it.

Angus pondering the origins of snowflakes.

Wesson playing with a frozen toy.

Angus can't catch the little red head.

"Wanna make a snowman?"

A blog entry about an article featuring a blog

Well, that was a mouth full.  My friend Betty is at the rabbit convention in Minnesota and this article was written about the experience featured on her blog.


http://www.examiner.com/pets-in-oakland/the-fun-never-ends-2010-blogging-the-87th-arba-convention-review

You've got to love technology, information travels at the speed of light!

Pretty....

Now that summer is a thing of the past I have more time to play with my fiber.  Here are three recent completed hanks.  The one on the left is Too Sexy's fiber which almost met an untimely end when Wesson decided to take it outside.  I found it a day later full of leaves and rained upon but it was salvageable.  The other two hanks have been dyed with commercial dye.  I like the natural color fibers like tort and black as dying fiber always makes me anxious.  What if I don't like the color after all that time I spent spinning it?  These two turned out lovely, though.

A message from Sweet Pea

"I am NOT cranky.  Now get out."

Junk yarn

Well, not exactly 'junk' yarn but this is an 88 yard hank of seconds I have clipped from Sweatpea, my black English Angora.  She is from lesser quality stock than the rest of my herd of rabbits but she produces the most lovely colored fiber.  It is a real pain in the butt to maintain on her but the efforts are well worth it after it is spun up.  She has always been quite a cranky rabbit so I really have to work for it!

Wool-o-Rama win

John and I traveled up to Painesville, Ohio for a chance to show angoras FOUR times in one venue.  Whew, that sounds exhausting just SAYING it!  The weather was great as was the actual set-up.  There was plenty of space and a flea market going on right next store for those who had a moment to go check it out.  It was well worth the 4 hour drive and if I have anything show-worthy we will do it again next year.
Delilah won 3 best of breeds and went on to win the specialty show
Wool-o-Rama comprised of Jersey Woolie, Fuzzy Lop, Satin Angora, French Angora and English Angora.  The 4 hour drive home wasn't too bad considering John got pulled over for speeding, luckily he got off with a warning!

Judge Jacinta going over Delilah for best in specialty show.

Delilah and her big win.  A stuffed bunny of her very own and a rather large ceramic oven ware bowl.  I've GOT to come up with something to make in it!

We drove up the night before and visit my parents.  My mother decided she would like to wear Delilah for a hat!

Mandie in her second coat

She's still a beauty.

Even Morty thinks so:)

I have a thing for hats....

lately.  I am not a hat wearing person as I seem to have enough hair on my head to do the job but I can't stop knitting hats.  I think I have it down to a science and can finish one in a couple of hours if the yarn is thick enough.  Here is a group picture of my latest creations.

I also want to include this picture which is a future hat.  I could never have enough pink yarn;)

3 Tort Skeins

I have 3 tort rabbits.  Too Sexy is a chocolate tort and Mandie and Bunzilla are black torts.  It is interesting to see how the colors appear in these skeins.

Too Sexy's fiber is a buttery yellow on the left.  Mandie has a bluish tint to her's and Bunzilla, although a black tort, has his mother Too Sexy's color in his fiber.  These are their primary coats and the yardage is from 150 to 180 yards.  I like my yarn a little thicker so it is more of a worsted weight.

Best 4 Class!

We had another great rabbit outing at the Lima Rabbit Breeder's Association show yesterday.  Delilah won Best 4 Class in show A.  Think runner up to Miss America or the second best rabbit in the building in layman's terms.  The show started at 1PM which is an odd time for a rabbit show and finally ended close to 9PM.  I feel very good about this win since there was a Dutch rabbit specialty going on so there were some contenders there.

Bob Swartz judging breed in Show A.

Stacy Easton judging breed in show B.

The show secretary recording best 4 class winner.

Judge Kevin Bogan posing with a tired rabbit and a happy rabbit owner:)

Laura has a party invite

Remember Laura, our Bouvier, who loves the bunnies?  Well, she got a party invitation of a life time for her other hobby, Agility.  John and I were quite surprised to get a letter in the mail from AKC that looked like this:

John has always strived to achieve this goal but hadn't given it much thought this year.  He is quite excited to be recognized for his hard work.  Yea John and Laura!

Laura-loo has come a long way from this,

To this!

Philena Doolittle Sampler

I read in our local newspaper that there would be an open house in an historical house today featuring a 187 year old sampler stitched by a then 14 year old Philena Doolittle.  We have lived in Centerville (possibly Washington Township, I haven't quite worked that one out as, these things go in more rural areas) for 13 years and I thought I should learn something about this city.  Having done some cross stitch in the past I was curious to see such an old piece of work.  Below is the sampler.

This is the article that I read in the paper that peaked my curiosity:

What a great find for Centerville to reclaim a a piece of the past fashioned by such a young girl.

Gold Star Pedigree

This is what I strive for in my rabbits.  A gold star pedigree means that everything in the pedigree is registered and granded.  I buy excellent quality rabbits and try to maintain the high standards they came with.  This is not an easy thing to do as even with the best laid plans, rabbits do not always cooperate.  Congrats to Bunzilla for you are now certifiably AWESOME!

A visitor

I had an old college friend stop in to visit us yesterday and he was just amazed by the rabbits.  He wanted to take a picture with Delilah who looks like she doesn't know quite what to make of him!

Tony is a funny, funny friend and could almost make a rabbit laugh:)

More pictures from Auglaize Co. RBA show

Judge Kevin going over a static-ee Delilah

Look!  I'm the writer.  This is almost as anxiety provoking for me as it is to show.  Don't want to screw that job up.

Judge Donyelle deciding, deciding, deciding.

Best 6 class winner.

Registrar Richard is tattooing my now BIS winner.  Poor guy had to wait until the very end to finish the registration.  I hate tattooing, it looks like I want to grab her and run!

BEST IN SHOW!

Gosh, how I love to say those words!  Especially when it pertains to one of my rabbits.  John and I went to the Auglaize County RBA show and what a lovely day it was.  Besides being perfect weather, the stars, the sun, and the moon were aligned and Delilah hopped away with the big win.  We were the last of a handful of breeds to be called to the table which was fine since I was waiting for the raffle winners to be announced.  Happy to report John won a candle and a halloween desk ornament although the rubber backed carpet went to another fortunate gambler.

Judge Donyelle judged Best 4 class.

Judge Ron R. judged best 6 class then best in show.

Winning is fun:)

A good read

Looks like Jamey got his copy of Midnight Crystal in the mail today!

More hats

Things must be slowing down at work as I have completed 4 (four!) hats in the last couple of weeks.  I have a lot of odds and ends left over from other projects in my angora yarn stash and it seems a perfect amount to mix a couple for a hat. 

Kool-Aid dyed men's cap.

Lower half is pink lemonade Kool-Aid dyed and top half is natural black angora.

Jamey is a STAR!

Jamey, the black bun bred by me who now resides in California with Betty, is a STAR!  He is one of the heroes in the new book Midnight Crystal by Jayne Castle being released tomorrow.  Check out the clip below.  He moved to California and became a star, as it should be!




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O__wLoX27xY

Happy Birthday, Mom!

John and I took a trip up to Cleveland to celebrate my mom's 69th birthday.  It was a lot of fun to see family that I haven't seen in years.  As my mother was recently diagnosed with breast cancer she wanted to go BIG for her party.  Parties are exhausting but it was worth the trip.

My mom modeling 2 chemo caps I made for her.  I didn't get a very good picture of either one but the light pink is an eyelet pattern.  It was a huge hit even with the teenage nieces as they said they wanted one too.

The way they were

I decided to take some recent pictures of Delilah and thought it would be nice to do a 'then and now' blog entry.  Hard to believe they were so tiny!  Betty sent me a recent picture of Jamie, he already has enough legs to be a grand champion.  I just need one

more for Delilah.