Juice of Atascadero

Isn't this a darling turkey? His name is Juice. When I went down to pickup my daughter from her finals, we stopped on the way back at her Math teacher's family farm in Atascadero. They also have a small pack of friendly dogs, including a number of buff cocker spaniels, two alpacas, a batch of chickens, white ducks and purple peacocks. There is one duck that rules the roost. It keeps the turkey and the alpacas in line. Juice-The-Turkey lost his mate to one of the dogs recently, and is looking all over for a new girlfriend. Three gal turkeys are on order and coming soon. In the meantime he follows people everywhere, puffing up his little chest, to impress whatever females might be in the vicinity, like a basso profundo getting ready to sing the Benedictus all the way through without stopping for breath. His owner picks him up, manipulates the air out of him by pressing down and it makes as funny nose a he expels it. He seems to enjoy this, though it's even more likely he just likes to be cuddles.

Baby Sally, Puff and Tim

I was waiting for my daughter to finish up her finals at Cal Poly and taking a lot of walks into downtown San Luis Obispo. Lo' and behold I found a Beverly's Fabric Store. Hot dog! 

I was pretty excited when I found this fabric because I learned to read with Dick and Jane and I remember the story depicted on this bag where "Mother" sews a new blue dress for Baby Sally and then Jane copies this activity. I'm a substitute teacher, so I created a lunch bag with this memorable fabric. Inside I interfaced and used some scrap pieces from a  dish towel as lining. Also a piece of oilcloth scrap lines the base for a nice stiff sit-down. I've made similar bags that I lined completely with oilcloth scrap. The handles are small pieces of drapery cord, which I keep around to use when I make drawstring backpacks. I sew a piece of grosgrain ribbon across their rough ends on the inside, and put my name and phone number on them in case I forget them in somebody's classroom.

I like giving this kind of bag as a present, maybe with some muffins inside. People can then use it as a regiftable gift bag or keep it for something. My sister uses her prototype of this bag to carry around cds.