Today’s Fortune: Your artistic talents win the approval and applause of others.

I sure hope this fortune is right. I have a lot riding on it.

My girlfriend Dharma will be here sometime next week, and I am very excited about that. She is coming to visit as part of the sock monkey exchange student program called “TSM.” That stands for Traveling Sock Monkeys. We will be sending ValenTina to California, and Dharma will be coming here from Connecticut, which sounds like a pretty bad deal for California. My friend SassylePoof! will be going to stay at Dharma’s house, and Sister Mary Monkeypants will go to Sassy’s house, and so on. There are a total of seven traveling monkeys, and each of them will stay for a few weeks at each house. It will all be great fun.  Except, of course, when we eventually get ValenTina back.

Since Dharma is going to be here next week, I wanted to get her a diamond ring, but Mom said she thought that might be a bit “premature.” I asked her what that meant, and she said it meant that I didn’t have enough quarters saved yet. That made me very sad, but then Mom told me she thought Dharma would like something I made by myself much better than something I bought. Mom makes beads and sells them sometimes at a place called “Etsy.”  She gave me a bunch of her handmade beads that were saved for making stitch markers, and told me I could choose any of them that I wanted.

She also got out a bunch of other beads that she did not make, too.  She said I could use any of them.  It was hard to decide.  There were lots of really nice colors, and I wanted the very best ones for Dharma.  (My friend SassylePoof! will really like visiting here – she likes sparkalie things, and my Mom sure has lots of those.)

I finally chose some big blue and purple beads that Mom made when she was first learning to make beads, and put them with some other blue beads that she did not make.  I picked these ones because I think they will go good with Dharma’s hair ribbons.  Mom helped me put them out on a thing called a “bead design board” to see what they would look like, and then she helped me string them onto some stretchy stuff called “elastic”, so that Dharma will be able to get them on and off over her head.

We asked ValenTina to try them on so we could see how they looked on a girl monkey.  She was not happy about helping out, but was even unhappier about having to give them back to me.  I guess that means that they are probably good.  Maybe someone will give ValenTina a good necklace on her trip.  But unless she decides to be a little nicer, I doubt it.

Mom says I am very talented and creative.  I hope Dharma thinks so!  I really hope that that my artistic efforts will win the approval and applause of Dharma.

Mom also gave me a really good book to look through.  It is called The Big Book of Things to Do and Make. I will review this one after I have had a chance to read it, but it looks like it has all kinds of really good stuff to do and make.  I guess that’s why they called it that.  I think me and Dharma should do some of them together when she gets here.

Mom said I can pick out some projects and she will take me to Michael’s to get stuff to make them.  I wonder how he will feel about us just coming in and taking his art supplies?

Today’s Vocabulary Words: Premature, Etsy, bead design board, elastic