Planet NilknarfSeptember 2015Welcome to Planet NilknarfI'd like to start this month's issue with the following link:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/coloring-benefits-meditation_55b7c9c1e4b0074ba5a6724f

Drawing, colouring and doing a variety of arts and crafts in general has helped keep me sane throughout all these years. Then again, some could say that this is debatable! Who cares! I like this idea! I've enjoyed colouring as an adult long before adult colouring books were fashionable. Mom just had to chuckle one Christmas when I was in my 30's because I was having more fun with the deluxe box of crayons that came in my stocking than anything else, even at my age at the time! Here at Planet Nilknarf we are all about indulging your Inner Child, whether that includes riding carousels, watching cartoons, blowing bubbles, building stuff out of Lego bricks..the list goes on!

Spending many fun-filled hours over my beloved Extreme Scrapbook from mid-April until late July has taken me on a wondrous, colourful and exciting journey. One of my favorite pages had me up colouring until around two in the morning for several nights in a row:All those clowns! It was never a dull moment!! This, of course, was near the end of my book, even though I drew it before I was finished much of the blank pages leading up to it. I had fun colouring many random pages in advance, creating colourful backgrounds for the pictures I was yet to post of my art and travels, and covering random spreads with colourful collages such as these:Once I even solved the problem of having to choose between two magazine pictures I liked equally by cutting a trap door in one of my pages!The big, beautiful house and the garden in the window being held open by my hand were on both sides of the same magazine page.The windows on the bus were another special effect I enjoyed!I plan on using this idea to tell another story in my next book!

And I started using this book to showcase pages from the Life With Louella comic book series that appeared in Planet Nilknarf for almost the first two years:I think I'm about halfway. By the time you get there, there are about three different things going on on those pages near the end: Travelling Dolls photos, the Clown Parade, and, these comic pages, of course.

To see the rest of this book in its entirety, you can click on the following link:https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.554208641385568.1073741870.100003893116310&type=1&l=9440203e3d

I am actually hoping to bring it to the NCA convention with me so people can take the time to flip through it and see it up close in person!

Here's a Wonderful Idea!!!!

Let's hear it for the BUDDY BOX!!! When I saw the headline, the first thing I thought was Are there Ace and PJ boxes too? But that's just my KIDEOTIC sense of humour kicking in. Seriously, a Buddy Box is a wonderful package full of all kinds of cool and wonderful things. You can order one at a time, or a subscription, for yourself and/or a friend. There are things such as herbal tea, pencil crayons, a colouring book and cards with inspirational messages.

This link will tell you more!http://blurtitout.org/2015/07/20/junes-buddybox-the-reaction/

I shared this link with The Livingroom because I thought it would be fun to make our own as a fund-raiser, complete with its own colouring book designed by our artists here at The Livingroom.http://blurtitout.org/buddybox/

I think this idea is FREAKING BRILLIANT!!! The only problem is that the subscription can be a bit pricey, to say the least. I think we can make our own for less at the Livingroom. However, if we're doing our own, we may have to come up with a new name for it as Buddy Box may be a copyright infringement. Assembling these boxes could be a fun activity for volunteers, like when we put together those Sensory Kits at Kerry's Place.

Other Links Worth SharingThis made me smile:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/annaborges/who-let-me-be-an-adult?bffbhealth&utm_term=4ldqpkl#.lnLvQJdWQ4

#30 kind of sucks though. BOTH my parents are DEAD!!!:(

20th Anniversary of the Big Subway AccidentWell, I picked up a copy of the paper on Tuesday, August, 11th. Sure enough Janette's name was mentioned in the article with a brief paragraph but the only pictures were of the three people who had died. However, the very next day, people from City TV came to her workplace to interview her for the news. Here it is:

http://www.citynews.ca/2015/08/11/video-remembering-torontos-worst-subway-crash-20-years-later/

Pony Explosion!!!I have been busy as a buzzy bee!!! As the summer winds to a close I have been cranking out a veritable CLOWN CAR'S WORTH of my famous carousel horse Christmas tree ornaments. Back in the summer I took whatever inventory I happened to have around the house, an estimated 80 ponies or so, and stuffed them into a large shoe box which I mailed to Virginia for this year's carousel convention so I can sell them at Roundabout Faire. I would rather mail them than bring them on the plane because I do not want to get into trouble with customs. You may or may not remember the fiasco regarding the T-shirts I was planning to sell at the Pittsburgh convention in 2005. Let's NOT have a repeat of such a scenario. I pray pray PRAY PRAY PRAY that I sell ALL of these horses so that I do NOT have to take ANY of them back with me and I will have a generous sum of money in my pocket as a result for whatever ham-and-pickle activities await me upon my return.

Since they've been gone I have been working with a vengeance to repopulate my inventory!They look so pretty arranged in line in order of colour!I especially like these purple/batik ponies. Some of that material was left over from the batik fabric I bought at the last Bobcaygeon Quilt Show. I got a lot of mileage out of that fabric including my Psychedelic Jacobean quilt and one of the squares on Janette's quilt.

As the days progress and the herd increases I add the ears, facial features, manes and tails...A select few are chosen to be unicorns!

I'd like to thank Janette for providing me with some much-needed extra flowers and other injittiments to decorate my horses with. She actually bought one of the green ones! :)In fact I've sold a horse or two every day since I brought a selection from my latest batch to The Livingroom. And I was actually able to save the $25 needed to go on the Oshawa Zoo picnic coming up on Wednesday, September 9th.

I am confident and excited about a new season of reaping and rejoicing!!

Ham-and-Pickle ActivitiesWell, Kerry's Place has the picnic that I mentioned on Wednesday. When I come back from this year's National Carousel Association convention, we have our Wind Reach Farm trip on the 28th. I haven't heard anything yet about this year's Autism Celebration. It usually happens sometime in October.

Meanwhile I am trailing another exciting scoop. Niagara Falls has a CIRCUS MUSEUM!! And they appear to have a very low profile on the Internet!! Carl, one of my friends at the Livingroom mentioned it to me. He says it's near his sister's place. He didn't know the address but he said it was off of Lundy's Lane. The first time I googled for it, I was pumping a dry well. I thought it was called the Barnum & Bailey museum. And if you google Circus World which is what this place is called, you'll get all sorts of stuff about Bariboo, Wisconsin or the place in Florida! One of my FB friends on the NCA FB group gave me a snail-mail address on Victoria Avenue, so I sent them a letter with a bunch of questions. I still haven't heard back yet. Meanwhile, I found another snail-mail address at Carissa Court. It also had a phone number, but the phone number was for the freaking PITA PIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HELLO???!!

So I checked again and I found that first snail mail address on Victoria Avenue but they NEVER answer their freaking phone!! So I've basically given up for the time being. All I can do now is wait for Carl's information. He says he has a bunch of pamphlets for me, but they're at his sister's place.

Meanwhile, we have learned of another new carousel-related place opening up this month in BRANTFORD!!!! Yes, Wayne Gretzky's home town.

This is the newest link. I just found it now:http://thecarnivalmuseum.org/

We're thinking of going there for my next birthday. They also have a FB page which I've just likedhttps://www.facebook.com/pages/North-American-Carnival-Museum-and-Archives/84411267396

This is one of the first articles I've seen about the Brantford Carnival Fun Factory

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2015/08/25/new-carnival-museum-in-brantford-home-to-the-beautiful-and-bizarre.html

Here's an older article I just discovered now..http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/2015/07/31/museum-celebrates-brantfords-carnival-history

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!! I'm SO EXCITED!!!

Man, there's more stuff here than you can shake a stick at.

I've checked out the Conklin website and I'm getting a major case of the I-want-this-I want-that's! I already have too many T-shirts but I am SO TEMPTED by the Conko clown one!http://www.conklinshows.com/

This link mentions that Brantford was the perfect location because of it's accessibility by rail. Good to know if we want to take a train there...http://www.advantagebrantford.ca/Blog/tabid/159/ArticleID/36/Carnival-Museum-Fun-Factory-Opens-Doors-on-Alice-Street-in-Brantford.aspx

And Trip Advisor give the place an excellent review alreadyhttp://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attraction_Review-g154983-d8423323-Reviews-The_Carnival_Museum-Brantford_Ontario.html

Okay...what can I find about Gananoque....Meh, I'm pumping a dry well at the moment.

Beetlebomb's Book NookThis month's literary selections are World Beyond Your Head by Matthew B. Crawford, and Something Blue by Emily Giffen.

I got the book World Beyond Your Head from my husband for my birthday because I heard the author being interviewed on CBC radio and wanted this book. It truly is fascinating, albeit a tad loquacious. Matthew B. Crawford writes about our relationship with technology and issues such as gambling addictions. I find that fascinating since Janette and I are hoping to go to Las Vegas someday and it's up to me to keep her out of trouble as she thinks she'll have more trouble resisting than I will. Slot machines are designed to be addictive. The comparison to autism is interesting as people are attracted to the colourful graphics, spinning wheels and flashing lights. More often than not they are actually disappointed when they win because they don't want to stop playing! Matthew writes about a lot of fascinating stuff including the art of pipe organ building. It's a worthwhile read.

I almost didn't read Something Blue by Emily Giffen, the sequel to Something Borrowed, in light of how Something Borrowed ended. Rachel's fiance, Marcus, ended up with Darcy, her best friend and bridesmaid, while Rachel was cheating on Marcus with Darcy's long-time boyfriend Dex. To further throw a monkey wrench into things, Darcy ends up pregnant with Marcus' baby. I have to admit it, I have no respect for women who oops' their boyfriends. That is, forget their birth control and get pregnant in an attempt to snare him. I can sum up her life choices in two words; Boys and girls can we say Train Wreck. Karma bites her in the ass big time when Marcus breaks up with her after all, so she ends up moving to London, England where she moves in with her friend Ethan, whom she's known since childhood. This book is filled with some pretty interesting twists and turns before everything works out for her after all. I shan't repeat how. You'll have to discover it for yourself! ;)

At the end of this book is a preview for her next book at the time Baby-Proof. I read this first chapter and it looks amazing so far. Janette says she has this book. I've just GOT to borrow it from her. I already know it is not one of those lame cop-out books as I call it. I've read enough so-called Childfree literature where the protagonist ends up getting pregnant and changing her mind. After the Rice was like that and so was The No-Kids Club.

10 more days until the convention!! EEEEEEEEK!!!! I admit I am feeling kind of overwhelmed when I think about all the things I have to do and my financial situation. Financial Guru Suze Ormond would say I was out of my mind to be taking this trip. SO would my aunts. But NO ONE CAN STOP ME! NO ONE BETTER TRY!!

Lilac TimeHere are some pictures of one of my latest works in progress:

As you can see, not all my Lilac Time creations are horses. The completed quilt will have a dozen squares.

Well, I guess that pretty much sums up the September issue.

See you again next month!Margaret Franklin