Its all true, the boogie girl is real, and you've found her. She knits, sews, spins, does pottery and writes it all down in this blog.
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Shopping!
Here I am with your Boogiefied holiday shopping guide. Maybe not the most comprehensive one but I just can't help myself. I love passing on good info.
**edited section due to new info**
I've removed the Salvation Army stuff because of all the issues and this is a knitting blog. I think they still do some good in the community. While many stores seemed selfish in banning SA. The holidays to many are about giving and peace. Make peace with those you need to and give from your heart.
*****
I would never say where you can or cannot shop. What I've got for you are alternatives for your holiday shopping pleasures if you want them. I love to shop with local people or look for special handmade gifts and smaller stores. I have a few links on my link page. But I'll put them all here for you too. I hope it helps you to find some good people to shop with.
Lets start with my stuff (sorry couldn't help but pimp myself a bit)
Pottery and Yarn, Rovings, Knit Bags and Hats and of course My ebay store. And I just created a new bag, a back pack, that is at an introductory price until the end of the year. If you put "Boogie" in the comments I'll upgrade you shipping to Priority at no extra cost. Ok, so I pimped my stuff a lot.
This gal makes fabulous yarns, check out Pippi Knee socks Her colors really are to dye for.
Amazing soaps and lotions with terrific service. Botanical Soaps
of Maine
Laura's stuff kicks butt. All organic catnip and more. She also has fabulous stuff for the pooches in the family. I've known Laura for years and she loves animals and it shows in her products. Kennebec river Company
If you are looking for quilts and wall hangings I'll have some fabulous stuff from my mom and aunt soon. I'll be taking their stuff to The SPA knit and spin with me and I'll be working on their website soon. If anyone is intersted you can email me and I'll get you some more information about what is available.
My SIL and BIL also do stuff. They make pet feeders and Doggie treats that Min and Kayla (my 2 beasts) will attest to their goodness. They also make yummy candles, lotions, balms, chapsticks and soaps. Petworks of Maine
Ikebanaware Mark makes the most amazing pieces. His stuff is so pretty. Really unusual and worth checking out.
Doug cracks me up whenever I am at a show with him. New England Twists Jewelry is some really pretty stuff. He does great work and he's a fun guy.
Go see what Roxie has going. She has great orginal patterns, catnip toys, and handspun yarns not to mention a fully stocked yarn store. Plus she keeps up a blog.
I can't forget Goose Pond She's the one that makes those cool sheep gauges. But Susan also makes jewelry, ornaments, frames and more. All kinds of themes but has great knitting and spinning stuff for all your fiber friends.
The knitting bag lady on Ebay makes some really nice bags. She's a sweet lady to boot.
For fantastic Jams and such go see Gyspy wind. Great products. They have the best sugarless jams I've ever had.
Normally I might avoid too many specialty condiments but Mother's Mountain is unavoidable. They have recipes that have been passed down for generations and the stuff is soooo good. I made the most amazing pasta salad the other day with their Honey Mustard. Another plus is that many of their products are gluten, wheat, and sugar free.
Did your Mom or Gram ever put up canned goods for the winter? Stanchfield farms has canned goods just like Gram's stuff. But it's not just homemade canned goods, they have a barbeque sauce that you could use on cardboard and have it come it out good. Yummy stuff.
Susan has the most fun clothes ever. Zaz and Moe clothing for adults, babies and kids is so funky and cool. Definitely worth a look for something special.
Grampa's Garden has great herbal hot packs and they even make a teddy that you warm a belly pack and it's soothing for babes and adults. This is my favorite item of theirs. My next favorite item has to be their fleecy slippers that you can warm the soles too sooth tired cold feet.
Mountain Mama of Maine. More herbal stuff but different from the rest. She has a lip balm that will cure your cold sores over night or if you use it regularly you won't get any. No kidding, I got some for Husbeast and he was cured instantly. Her stuff kicks ass.
I showed you the cute little sheep that I got from Mudpuddles and Pudding. Terri went and got one. You know you want one too. Or maybe you know a very desrving person.
I just found Glamscience over the weekend. Fun stuff! You need to check it out. I'll definitely be getting some notecards from her.
Ok, is this shopping overload? I'll have this up on my Links page too so you will be able to access it. I hope it helps you to get some great and unique gifts for people. And speaking of gifts. I got a cute knitting ornament from Roxi.
Thank you for all the great comments yesterday. Some of you sound like you need to try and make nice with your sewing machines or maybe kick them into submission
Anyway, now that I've taken up your whole day with shopping I'll let you get to spending your money. If your boss catches you, it's ok to blame me. I'll take the heat.
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Monday, November 29, 2004
The Scarlet Letter
Pass the scarlet letter over here.
I need to be wearing that big red "A".
Yes, I'm an adulterer.
I've been cheating on my knitting. I'm not talking about spinning more than I knit. Although, I've been doing that too. I've hurt knitting's feelings. I've been consumed with sewing lately. I tried to hide it from knitting but I just couldn't hide it forever.
You see, I got a "bee in my bonnet" and decided I need a new bunch of shirts. I went through my stuff and I'm tired of all the work shirts that are huge and frumpy. I can't wear all the tiny tops of my youth. No one needs to see my belly. Therefore, I need new tops.
I went to the crazy Joann's sale at 6 am on Black Friday and I scored a bunch of cheap material for new blouses, shirts, pants, PJ's and all that. Yes, I want PJ's to. Normally I just wear a t-shirt and sweats but I think it would be fun to pretend I'm grown up enough to have real PJ's. Like Nick and Nora but with Boogie style.
This is what I've finished so far. Its a really easy and nice pattern from McCalls.
I must appologize for the quality of photos. I'm not good at mirror pics and the other one was taking at 6 am so I'm headless there because my head was still laying on a pillow and not read to stand on my neck.
I made a couple of things for the little one too but she cast me a look that said I better not even attempt to take a photo.
I did find a bit of time for knitting last night at a Hockey game. I have also logged a bit of time on Manly. I've certainly not spent as much time as I would like to have. I'll show of some spinning later in the week.
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Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Happy Holiday
If you all were tired before, wait until tomorrow when you eat a bunch of bird.
If you need something to while away the time, try pelting this turkey with snowballs. Come on, you know he deserves it.
Or play this one where you get to actually shoot a gun at the turkey.
Don't want to "hurt" the bird? You can try and follow this one through a maze
Then there is this one which is just maddening. I can hit squirrels and my duck decoy (which if you hit it, you won't have as many turkeys visiting you) and a hen but I can't seem to hit anything else. I know someone will play this and show me up.
I can't believe I forgot to mention that Alexa showed up to say hi in Portsmouth. It's always great to meet online friends and readers. So HI Alexa! Sorry it took me so long.
Have a great one and I'll be back on Friday.
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Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Tired?
Hell no!
I'm exhausted.
If I'm so exhausted then how do I get anything done?
I'm stubborn and persistent. Husbeast can attest to that. I'm like the mule (or ass if you prefer) that persists in getting the field plowed just because its there and I won't listen to Farmer Brown until it's done. On the flip side, if you show me another field and I don't feel like plowing it, I'll bray and procrastinate until someone kicks me in the tail.
The fields I worked at plowing yesterday are Carissa's yarn
and the Manly sweater.
Yup, that's an old picture but it's far more cute than seeing 2 inches of progress on the front. I need it done for xmas. Will I make it?
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Monday, November 22, 2004
Done!
I did my last show of the year!
Woohoo!! Let's have a little party!
Shake your bootay, move that rumpah.
Let's boogie down, baybay!
Did you step away from your computer and shake it for me? And why not?
I'll wait, you can shake it now......
Now that the shaking, rattling and rolling is done, I've come to some executive decisions.
1.
In January I'm going to have a pottery sale online to reduce my stock. I've had all that sheep pottery but now I'm doing bunnies, and I'll be adding alpacas soon. That's what I need to do today. No rest for the weary. I'm also going to attempt to wholesale my pottery in March. I'm starting with mugs and we'll see how it goes. (is that one decision or should I have called that 2 or 3 decisions?)
2.
It makes me happy to spin and I make more than I need so I'll be selling yarn/roving on a more regular basis for a while. I'm working on Carissa's yarn now but after that's done I have a bunch of other rovings dyed up. I do have some yarns that I've had completed for a few weeks. In fact, if you look to the left. Not that far left, just to my side bar. There is a link to my website for some of the yarns. Or just look down (I don't want to make you work too hard on Monday morning):
3.
I'm going to do a stash cleaning soon too. Any yarns that aren't attached to a project will go. Yeah, so I'll be scrambling trying to find a project for my yarns but if I can't do it, I'll be getting rid of the darlings. My stash isn't huge in comparison to some, but it's getting too big for my closet so I'll be cleaning up some of that. Either that or I'll get rid of fabric to make way for more yarn, hmmmm? So maybe this one isn't a definite decision yet. One thing has to go, fabric or yarn.
4.
The rest of my stock of bags will be going up for the holiday buying and I'll be doing some others this week.
5.
The Christmas lights are going up today. Why do you care? Because if the weather is crappy I'll be whining about it tomorrow and if I waited much longer it's sure to be crappy and I'd be whining about it. It's my decision to save your eyes from whining in words.
There, do you feel better knowing all my exucitve decisions. I should be pretty busy for the next few days. It is a huge weight off my shoulders knowing that I don't have to do a show until February. I still work regularly otherwise I'll slack off and won't have stock. But it's nice knowing that for a few months I don't have to pack boxes, pack a truck, unpack, haul the booth and boxes around, set up, sit for days, pack up again, and unpack at home. That made me tired again just thinking of it.
Pictures now.
I had to get the blather out of the way before I started in with a photo. Did you think there would be no photo or did you skip right down here? Naughty you. I like naughty. Aren't you worried that you might have missed something good?
It's my entry to the six sox along and also a Christmas Prezzie for Dad. I'm not sure I like the jacquard done in such a pattern but I'm not frogging it. I'mm be working on more presents and I need to finish that Manly sweater for J. Hopefully I'll have something to show soon.
I've got to go unpack a truck. Have a sun-shiny Monday.
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Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Goat Dog
My mom has this dog. She's a sweet black lab that just looks at you with these eyes filled with puppy love. She's also numb as a pounded thumb and naughty. She eats paper from the trash can. She'll spend time eating TP right off the roll. She ate the toe off my mom's "fuzzy feet". Yesterday she ate the thumb off M's mitten.
That's what they used to look like and this is what they looked like yesterday:
I figured after the attack of the goat dog, that it was a perfect opportunity to show you how I did that. Since it was a thumb it's easier than a hole somewhere else.
I snipped off the raggedy bits and snipped into an end. Then I unraveled until I had a level spot to start from and enough of an end to weave in to keep it secure.
I picked up the stitches and added in a new piece of yarn.
I finished off the thumb and you can't tell it was ever damaged.
This is about the most knitting I've done all week. Sad isn't it. Between problems on ebay, my pottery show, and family stuff I haven't had time to even look at my wheel or my needles. Sorry Carissa, the yarn is taking me longer than I thought. Friday I start my last show of the year. I hope things get easier after that.
This is it for the week folks. I barely found time to write this so I'll see you all on Monday and hopefully I'll be more relaxed with another present finished that I can't show you. If you are in Maine come see me at the U.N.E gym in Portland. Come entertain me.
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Monday, November 15, 2004
RED
Today's blog post is being brought to you by the color red, the number two and the letters "G" for gift and "I" for idiot.
Let's start with the gift and then we'll move on to the idiot.
I took 2 bunches of merino and dyed it with many colors in the crock pot. Then I spun and plied it into a 2 ply yarn.Then I almost completed a secret gift for one of my special friends. I think it will be perfect, but it does need a little finishing.
Sorry, you can't see it yet. That's what secret means.
Shall we move onto the idiot part?
I'm not entirely sure why I did this. Part of it is that I want to try doing 2 socks on 2 circulars so I need 2 sets of needles. I've heard that it's easier to keep track of which needle to use if I paint the tips of one of the needles. Ok! So I run into the bathroom and get my hot RED nailpolish. Here comes the idiot part....
I'm thinking why stop at the tips. I want f*ck-me red needles. ooooh aaahhhh. So I paint and I wait for them to dry. And I do it again and again. OK. I have f*ck-me red needles but they aren't all that smooth and they aren't exactly US#1 (2.25 mm) anymore. There, that's the idiot part.
I have dreams of needles in all the jewel and opal colors of nail polish. I'm poised to go out and buy a butt load of the stuff but it doesn't seem to work out too well. Kids, I don't recommend you do this at home. I'll try to knit with them and report back another day.
I've also started to think that if the nail polish doesn't pan out, my Dad has an auto painting area that he set up in his shop. I'm sure if I could get him to spray paint these then they'd be all even and nice. Cars come in such pretty colors and if the needles are thick I bet I could get flames painted on it. ooooooh.
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Friday, November 12, 2004
Mudpuddles and Pudding
His name is Hank. I thought he was a girl when I first ordered him, but when he got here he wanted to be named Hank. I don't think it gets any cuter than a punk sheep with a litle red Mohawk. If you click on Hank you'll see where I special ordered him from. He is currently sitting atop my llama fiber egg carton safe from sticky fingers.
This toy is mine. All MINE! I have few things that I don't let little M have. Just Hank and Punk Barbie
This is a little gift of yarn that will be heading out to someone soon.
That's all I have time for, gotta get ready. Have a great weekend all.
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Thursday, November 11, 2004
Boogie the Potter
Sadly I've not had much time to knit.
I've been living here:
You would've thought that I would have turned on the light before I took the picture. But if I did, I might have seen something else that I needed to do. I wanted to go in the house and stop working. This is only part of my studio but its the one with the bigger equipment, 2 wheels and one of the kilns.
CLICK HERE to see what I've been working on. Well, I've been working on all the products to fill in the empty spots at my next 2 shows. Saturday I'll be in Portsmouth, NH and next weekend I'll be in Portland, Maine.
Just for Carissa this is me spliting fibers and winding into nests.
It's not easy to take a photo and do this at the same time. Obviously big dog Kayla was unimpressed and napped through the whole thing.
This is a bunch of the "nests".
So, yeah, that's about as fiber filled as my day has been lately.
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Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Christmas?
I read yesterdays post from the Harlot about how Christmas is only 46 days away. I knew that. Hmmm. Yeah, I knew that.
How pathetic is it of me that I knew that and yet I'm knitting a sweater for me, socks for me, I did a pair of mittens for me and a hat for me.
Did you ever see my ridiculous List of gifts to make?
Did you know that I made this list in JUNE?
Yes, you read that right.
JUNE.
You can see the highlighted items that are complete. Trust me, there are a couple there. I can't seem to hang onto gifts though. My dad came over and cleaned my chimney for me. Man hanging on the roof breathing in soot, he gets socks. Fair trade? Ok, that's one Xmas gift I have to make that I had originally crossed off, but I've done that a few other times this year and in past years. Maybe they're all used to it by now. But that's exactly why I started that list in June. This was suppose to be my year that I would get the gifts done.
To help myself further, I made the Knit along.
Go ahead take a look. People there are actually finishing their gifts.
So what am I doing yammering on here when I could be knitting?
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Tuesday, November 09, 2004
The throat
Yesterday I awoke with a sore throat. It started out mild but it got worse. If I have a stuffy nose or I'm hacking up a lung, I'll go to work and cheerfully do my job through sniffles and hacks. Give me a sore throat and my response is to whine. Call the emergency and put them on stand-by, Amy's got a sore throat.
I was doing the normal warm water and salt gargles. My throat just laughed at my sad pathetic attempt to alleviate the soreness. Like I need pieces of my body mocking me when I don't feel good. I was trying. I thought of giving up and just laying down.
But wait! Knitting group. I couldn't miss knitting group. We only meet once a month. I can't miss that. But then the whine came back and my throat just laughed at me once again.
That's when I got tough. I did an online search for other sore throat cures and found THIS. I start reading down the list. Aloe vera juice, nope I don't have that. Apple Cider Vinegar, yup, I have that. Apple Cider Vinegar. Let's say that again. I was going to gargle with Apple Cider Vinegar. How mad does one need to be to gargle with this evil stuff?
I wasn't mad, I wanted to go to knitting. So away I went to the kitchen to gargle with Apple Cider Vinegar. Dumbest and smartest thing all at once that I've ever done. That stuff burned, and stung, and made me gag. I've never gargled with anything so foul in my life. My throat felt worse and there would surely be no way I'd be heading to knitting that night.
With a sigh, I went to lay down with Miss M and take a nap. If I can't knit, I'm not going to work either.
Now you're wondering if I went to group last night. I woke up without a sore throat. Holy cow!! The Apple Cider Vinegar worked!! I think it worked because it stripped my throat and I have no throat left to ache. But dammit, I made it to knitting.
I'm glad I did. It was fun as usual. I got to see a gorgeous shadow shawl that I've been dying to make. I now know I have to make it. And I watched Nalbinding. If you haven't checked that out, it's well worth it, very interesting. To top it all off Betsy and Toby are going to let me share a room at them at SPA weekend in February. So I actually get to stay in the hotel where its all happening. These guys are just awesome!
As promised here are Bunny Pics:
Gotta love that look. I can't remember what she was upset about and I'm sure she doesn't remember either. The sweater is a bit too big, it was meant to be for Christmas (well, I did take it back and I will wrap it up for Christmas too). Hopefully she'll be able to wear this at least into the spring.
The back, the angry face replaced with cute bunny butts. Can you tell the tails are fluffy bobbles? While I hate intarsia I could see myself doing a sweater with fluffy intarsia like bobbles all over it.
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Monday, November 08, 2004
A Day of Thanks
I got 2 packages on Saturday. Woohoo!
The first was from Anj
She sent me a piece of Rhinebeck
Isn't that cool. It's a multicolored sample set of llama in a little egg carton. It's for needle felters. I'm looking forward to doing some needle felting decorating with it. Maybe embellish some clogs for the fabulous miss M or some Xmas ornaments. I have a million ideas of how to stab it.
Anj also got to go to the Knitter Review knitting retreat in VA. I got the report and it sounded absolutely awesome. Someday I'll go. Rhinebeck first though.
A gift from my glorious secret pal. Thank you Secret Pal3. I love Burt's Bees and ran out of a couple of things so it's a well timed gift. This picture was taken just seconds before the little bleeting lamb was whisked away. I heard it bleeting again, I bet it wants breakfast. There was also a book mark but it had already found its way into my book before the picture.
Thank you guys!!
Knitting group is tonight. I tried to get to 2 other events over the weekend but neither one panned out. I'm really looking forward to a relaxing knit night at the Brew pub.
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Thursday, November 04, 2004
Hard work
Campaigning was hard work and I really needed a day off.
Not that I really had a day off. I've got work to do and my last 2 pottery shows to get ready for. I have some new stuff I'll show off later. They are all in the kiln (big pottery oven) at the moment.
I've been working on "no sweater left behind". Actually one sweater still has been left behind, Olive. Poor Olive.
Bunny is almost at the collar. It's flying right along after intarsia hell. I want someone to smack me if I think of doing an intarsia sweater again.
Not very impressive. But I'm at the last grey stripe. This means point of interest is coming. 5 more rows of grey, 2 of black and then I start on the neck and sleeve shaping. And then I get to move on to sleeve island. I've promised myself I'll get this done by xmas. It's his Xmas present and he already knows it. It's ok, I'll get him something fun too.
Mostly though, I've been spinning Carissa's yarn in my non-work time.
Looks similar to Mandy's but really it's quite different. I have a mini skein of Mandy's left and together they are different so Carissa and Mandy won't look like twinsies.
Have a good fiber filled weekend!
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Wednesday, November 03, 2004
The results are in!
All that hard work has come down to today. All the campaigning and photo ops. All the bumper stickers and speeches. It all ends today unlike the real election sadly. I won't blather on, your results follow:
GRAND PRIZE
Elisa!!
She gets the sheepy mug and she can choose the roving or the handspun yarn.
But I didn't stop there - if you stopped reading you are missing out. I had to draw a few more prizes. Actually I didn't do the drawing, the little one did so its all fair.
THE MITT PARTY
received 40% of the votes
Benadetta wins some handspun yarn to make her own mittens
THE SHAWL PARTY
received 32% of the votes
Ralphie wins some mohair to make a lacy scolf.
THE SWEATER/SOCK PARTY
received 28% of the votes
Tina wins some sock yarn.
There was a bit of controversy here at election headquarters. As some of the exit polls came in Husbeast accused me of favoring the mitts and running a better campaign. So the hat lawyers were called in and it was decided that it really didn't matter since it didn't affect the contest. It's all about the prizes, right?
This contest was a hoot. I really had fun even if I did seem a bit insane there for a time. Congrats to you all and thanks for playing along and reading. You guys are awesome!
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Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Voting central
We are the hub of activity over here. Projects running to and fro, interns running out to get coffee, last minute polls coming in, phone calls are being made all the while the candidates are busy making last minute speeches. Ahh, the activity. Did you vote early? If not today's the day and the polls say the candidates are neck in neck in neck. So go here and cast your ballot.
Here's a final look at the candidates:
The shawl and lace party.
They were a little hard to pin down on this busy day. Their spouses and children were not available for the photo as they were busy campaigning in another part of the house.
The Mitt and glove party.
They are probably the most relaxed and laid back party in the campaign. I'm not sure if they are so cocky they think that they will wind hands down or if they are Zen mitts. Here they are with their spouses, all happy to pose for the camera.
The Sweater and Sock party.
Warm and ready to cover the backs of America. Here you see the Manly sweater's family. Manly, Olive, and Bunny.
Harvest sock and her husband Sabre sock were unavailable for photos as they were taking care of campaign headquarters while Manly sweater and his family were out making appearances.
Now its all up to you to decide which project will be house president. Not that being a project president at this house means anything at all, but voting gets you entered in a contest. Free stuff is always cool. I'm almost sorry to see the election coming to a close. The real elections, however, I'll be happy when tomorrow comes and no matter who wins, I hope they win by a decent margin so we don't have to wait months for the results. I can promise you that my little election and the contest winner will definitely be announced tomorrow. I'll probably post late as I expect I'll be up late tonight.
So go email me your vote/contest entry then go vote for real.
VOTE!!
Not becuase its your civic duty but because its a priviledge to be able to have a hand in deciding the direction our country takes. So, go vote and be heard.
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Monday, November 01, 2004
Trick or Treat!
Oh, too late you say. No candy left?
Well, I didn't finish sewing my costume until yesterday. M's was sewn a few days earlier because she had a school Halloween party.
Click for another view.
The little one was Queen Frostine from the Candyland game. Yes the costume looks alot like Cinderella, that's what I had a pattern for. I have no idea why she has that look on her face but I still think she looks darn cute. Notice the pants and black shoes sticking out from underneath the dress. It was warm so at least she didn't have to wear a coat over her costume this year.
I was "prairie chick". Straight from the frontier. That's me spinning, working on the 3rd bobbin for Carissa's yarn. Do I not look prefect for the part? Oh, forget the hanging "flame" bag of roving, the fact that the roving is red and there are a bunch of CD's behind me. I felt "prairie" but I had Thai for dinner and collected nasty amounts of candy. Terri, no hardtack yet.
The weekend wasn't all tricks and sewing. I knit a pair of mittens for myself from one othe yarns I showed off on Friday. I love them. I think I need one pair.
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