Yarn swap, TdF, and why I didn't do zippers

I received my Yarn swap box from Stephanie the other day and it had awesome sock yarn in it as well as Chocolate covered Peppermint Altoids, which are every bit as good as the chocolate covered cinnamon ones. I have taken a picture of the stuff she sent, but haven't loaded it onto Kaylee yet. As soon as do I will put the picture up for you all to see.
I have also joined the Tour de France Knit-A-Long, and will be knitting in the Yellow Jersey category. I will have the link up for that tomorrow so you can all see what it is about. I have a bunch of Works-In-Progress that I need/want to finish, as well as new stuff to get started. Some of the new stuff has been in the "I have made it several times in my head already" stage for a while; now it is going to be moved to a new stage and hopefully a fair portion will cross the finish line. Yesterday I finished knitting the bag for HSKS2, and today I sewed up the lining and got it put in. On the knitting front I made 45 inches of I-cord drawstring for it and now that bag is finished! I need to get the rest of the stuff for the kit and it can be off in the post.
I finished the bag for the notions bag exchange, and it has two zippers. Count them, two zippers! Yep, I have been intimidated by sewing zippers for years. Give me a Pile of Leaves costume to sew with a newborn infant around, no problem. Give me a loaf of Great Harvest Sourdough Bread, complete with bag to sew, no problem. Give me a Pixie on a Toadstool to sew, no problem. Heck , give me a Bishop (including Miter) and Priest outfit to sew (shirt, cassock, stole, chasuble/cope each for two young chilren) no problem. Show me a pattern with a zipper and it is, "No can do, it has a zipper. Find a different pattern or we have to see if we can alter this one to have buttons instead." Yes, I said give me buttons over a zipper. I'm sure you are all wondering why I didn't do zippers. Well, the first zipper I sewed in my life was an absolute failure. Now I am willing to overlook a fair amount of stuff in the learning curve process and rarely call anything a failure. That zipper was a mess of a failure. There was no rescuing the zipper or the item I was making. So I concluded that zippers were my enemy and we would just change the pattern to use snaps, buttons, or something else than a zipper. If the pattern couldn't be altered than we found a new pattern. If you don't believe me, just ask DTE, she'll tell you (just like she told her dad at dinner the other night). Well, some years later I learned that there is more than one kind of zipper foot. I knew I needed a special foot to put in a zipper and I knew I had a zipper foot for my sewing machine (which by the way is older than I am). What I didn't know with that first zipper application is that one needs a special kind of zipper foot for an invisible zipper. It turns out that if you try to put in an invisible zipper with a regular zipper foot, you have a mess (and live in fear of zipper application for years afterwards). I have now conquered the zipper. Yes I put two zippers into one bag the other day, and plan to make another bag like it this week, as well as a different bag that also has a zipper. No, they are not invisible zippers. But for now, the bag has to stay invisible until the person I made it for has it in their possession. Then you can see it and all its zippery glory.