Carolina Arts

Happy Hallowe'en!!!

2008-10-31T12:34:00.002-04:00

Aren't these the cutest ribbons you ever saw?!! I used them to make a few Halloween cards this week. Ribbon is another of my "fetishes"!

And this cute fellow is just old orange crepe paper streamer drawn up with needle and thread into a circle and the cute sticker added.........it looks like a Halloween flower!

And these bad boys are the REAL Hallowe'en photo for you today! The pair of buzzards were sitting on the dead pine this week sunning their wings after lunch. (Getting ready for Hallowe'en supper tonight!) Heh, heh......

I hope you all have a safe, fun and happy All Hallows Eve tonight! I'll be locked inside my dark little house watching old black and white horror movies and eating chocolate!

Autumn stuff...............

2008-10-27T13:06:00.002-04:00

One day I brought home from my walk some leaves that are steadily falling everywhere around here and tried to trace them onto felt. Hmmmm..........
some did nicely; some didn't. These sheets of felt from Joggles.com are wonderful.......large and lots of colors with dots of other colors mixed in and some with free-motion stitching already done! Above there's a maple leaf, an oak leaf, and a pumpkin I free-handed and forgot to leave a stem on it! Grrrrr! Click on the photo to enlarge it and notice the stitching and the blue blot of felt in the brown leaf! Off to play with them some more......

Is this sugar maple leaf "painted" neatly by Mother Nature, or what??!!!!!
Coloring right in the lines! And off the same tree below............

.........click on these also to see the really neat color patterns. I've never noticed the autumn leaves with patches of color like this, but they're all just gorgeous. AND all different! Like snowflakes! Is God great, or what?!!

This moccasin (dead!) was at the edge of our driveway near the highway on one morning's walk last week............a vehicle must have run over it since we couldn't find any terrible-looking wounds on it like it would have had if an animal (or gun) had killed it. I suppose the snakes are on the move quickly now trying to find "hidey-holes" to spend the winter in hibernation. Our area has had warmish night temps so far, but this week we're getting the first hard frost; and our NC mountains are getting some snow/sleet today! Some local friends spent the weekend riding their motorcycles to the Blue Ridge Parkway to see the leaves, and said the scenery was just beautiful and the colors at their peak. Lucky dogs.

*************************************

On another note altogether: I want to thank a couple of my blogging friends who have recently tagged me to play a game telling stuff about me you don't know; and then tagging 7 others to do the same. I must apologize to them for not playing this time around; I did that one several times last spring and summer and don't have time now to play, but I appreciate you visiting my blog and thinking of including me! Try again next spring, when my mood is better and DH has his new knee replacement and I'm all done with making Christmas presents and dealing with "company" and cooking and all that stuff I hate! (Can you tell I'm one of those "Scrooge" persons?!) HUMBUG!!!!! Heh, heh...........

Cat-nap time...............

2008-10-19T13:13:00.002-04:00

Baby Sister is napping in the "boy bed" some days; but it doesn't have enough stuffing for her old arthritic joints. I need to open it up and stuff a piece of her "fleece" pad shown here into the center. But some days she likes the fleece without the bed! Another cranky old lady lives here!

And this is the reason Sister cat isn't sleeping in HER pink, well-stuffed bed! Buddy/Bubba boy takes over whichever bed he thinks she wants to use, just to see if I'll make him move. Guess who won?

**************************

I see by my former posts that I'm slowing down and not posting to my blog nearly as often as I used to. The autumn's beautiful weather is one reason: I want to be outside in it as much as possible! And I'm not interested in much right now.......I guess we're waiting for DH's new knee to get put in soon, and then maybe while he's recuperating here, I can concentrate and get to work on some projects that are waiting! And the cold fronts that are shooting thru NC on a regular basis are playing havoc with my spinal osteo-arthritis pain as well; so bear with me and I'll be back on a more regular basis soon, I hope! Right now I'm off to read awhile with the cats (in the BIG bed, not one of the little cat beds!) Heh, heh.........

More autumn scenes........

2008-10-15T20:20:00.002-04:00

The squirrels and other woodland critters leave this kind of proof every day of what they're having for lunch on the big rocks! They got ALL the pecans this year, they have hickory nuts and walnuts and buckeyes...............
and the woods are full of fruits for the wildlife. They all should be fat and sleek for the winter!

I have a handful of glorious zinnias and cosmos left blooming this week; they are just gorgeous. I guess they heard the weatherman saying we're gonna have nights down in the '40s this weekend, and very cool days! I'll go out and cut all the blooms before the cold front comes in so I can enjoy the flowers in the house. I'm always sad to see them go for the season.

Fall colors.............

2008-10-14T12:08:00.002-04:00

The patches of wild morning glories around the farm are just bursting out with new blooms recently. I guess the few cold nights we had reminded them they'd better "do their thing" before winter sets in eventually!

..........and the yaupon tree in the front yard is just showing off with its gorgeous dress of red berries. The birds don't like these to eat as much as they do the dogwood berries, so when these leaves are gone from the yaupon soon, we will enjoy the burst of color against the naked tree and sky all winter.

.........and all the dozens of dogwood trees around here have made a good crop of berries this year, but the cardinals and bluebirds have almost eaten them all. But even if the berries disappear, the dogwoods' pretty leaves are turning their special shades of red and when the afternoon sun is on them, they're like a watercolor painting............

Spooky things.................!

2008-10-11T18:07:00.002-04:00

.........our very old black walnut tree loaded with nuts this year...............
.......the "outdoor cats" eyes glaring in the dark! They're sleeping on heating pads on the seat of the golf cart under a big shed out of the weather.......do they have it made, or what???!!!!!!

.........and my October beaded ghost pin is finished!!! I wish her little orange seed bead eyes showed up better, but her required rhinestones are the two letter "0"s, in the "boo". And there is actually a space between the top and bottom parts of the exclamation point; it doesn't run together like it seems in this photo. I haven't decided yet what my November dolly will be....stay tuned!
.........and another spookier photo of the old walnut tree against the grey sky; it looks like it's reaching lots of "arm" limbs up to grab birds as they fly by! Hmmmmm...........wonder if animals celebrate Hallowe'en like we nutsy humans do? (They probably see us all costumed up and run as fast as they can in the other direction!) Heh, heh............

Reading and beading..........

2008-10-10T19:49:00.002-04:00

These are my latest two library books I've enjoyed reading........both about the southeastern coastal waters and towns and people! If you love the ocean and beaches and good stories, these are for you, too...........my fantasy life is to live like the eccentric old lady in the big old "cottage" right on the sea's edge. She rides a bike to "town" and dresses in long, loose vintage clothing with beaded and embroidered scarves and big hats; and spends days abed among fluffy pillows reading to her heart's content! Ahhhh......
we old women can still DREAM, can't we???!!!!

And this is my latest project: an embellished evening clutch/purse using vintage bridal satin from old dresses........this is the front. Click on the photos so you can see the white-on-white beads and sequins! The scattered tiny dots on the front are little pearls, and on the back I used Swarovski delica crystal glass beads..........love the sparkle!
This is the back of the purse, using pieces of the daughter's debutante gown from the 1960s. (This is a commission piece for an elderly friend who, like me, cannot bear to part with gorgeous vintage needlework and fabric and handmade thingies!) Now her grown daughter will have a meaningful surprise birthday gift soon, and it will bring back memories of her southern heritage as a debutante at the ball many years ago!

The lining is just a white-on-white design cotton fabric, and I used little pieces of white "hook-and-loop" for the unseen closure under the flap. This was a joy to work on, because my favorite part of any project is the fun of digging through my stashes for just the right embellishments, and seeing it all come together. Of course, it's especially nice when the customer first sees it and says, "Oh, how LOVELY it is!" Thank you, my creative muse... now we're off to try our hand at painting glass Christmas tree ornaments like I did for many years awhile back. With the economy bottoming out, I'm having to resurrect all my latent talents and pray my hands don't shake and my eyes hold out, because Christmas is coming! And Santa needs help!

Hallowe'en is near!!!

2008-10-09T19:32:00.002-04:00

Check out our cousins next door and their roadside display of wonderfully handmade and painted plywood Hallowe'en ghosts and pumpkins made with sharp sticks to put into the ground! LOVE that candy corn!

Here's Don, master craftsman with his saws and tools, showing me around the whole great menagerie of "spooks" he's made to sell......he said wife Ann and their cute little grandkids helped paint every one of these!

I love the big black cat sitting on the moon; be sure to click on the photos to enlarge them and enjoy the wonderful detail they put into their art works! They've been selling like hot-cakes; I hope they will make some for the upcoming Christmas season, too! (Thanks for painting my little pumpkins and black cat I got for my yard, Cuz Harley and Kendal!)

**********************

.........and look what I found in friend Betty R.'s yard Sunday! A wonderful stuffed "pumpkin man" sitting in an antique wheel barrow, surrounded by some of her gorgeous flowers and greens........ is he a happy camper, or not?!! You should SEE the cute Hallowe'en thingies in her pie safe on the deep front porch, and her little groupings inside the house! I hope she'll take pix of all her decorations and put them on her blog to take us on a virtual "tour"!!! (Check out her blog listed near the top of my side bar on the right here: Love 2 Sew; or Knot Sew Square.) Thanks, Betty, for the "interruption" Sunday and the quick tour of your place!

Haying time.............

2008-10-07T18:21:00.002-04:00

This little bronze yard marker has been lost in the weeds for many years; I found it recently while mowing and brought it home. It got a new coat of white paint and I stuck it in the ground across our driveway where the deer herd crosses most nights. I wonder if they will "obey" the instructions?!
Heh, heh............

Here's the peaceful sight I see on my morning walks since the hayfields got cut and baled! I love this curving path winter and summer, spring and fall.

Here are a couple of "hay balls" near our house and yard; you can see our little log tobacco barn in the center of the trees. Click to enlarge and you can see it much better! DH says these bales weigh about 1,000 lbs. each! I'm glad somebody's cows will have hay to eat this winter when it's cold and sleeting! Something new this year: the man wrapped some of the bales in a webbed plastic sheeting instead of just twine..........hmmm. Wondering what I could do with a piece of the netting in some art projects?!

Gobble, gobble!!!!!

2008-10-06T20:20:00.002-04:00

This turkey had gotten inside the fence the other morning when I went for my morning walk..........the other five were outside in the pasture and took off. She spent a few minutes running up and down the fence before she remembered she could FLY up OVER the thing to get out! Duh.
This is Mr. Cotton Blaylock and his security blanket..........he's growing leaps and bounds and is gonna be a gorgeous doggy! (He's another of my many four-legged "cousins" here in the neighborhood!)

The lichen growing on this stick is the "normal" kind I see around here all the time, but this fat piece with long arms is a new one..........isn't it delicate and beautiful???!!!

.......told ya!

2008-10-04T18:08:00.002-04:00

........see how pretty the other wreath is on our little log cabin door?! The one-room barn used to be a tobacco curing barn WAY out in the country in Warren County here, and my DH and nephew numbered the pieces, took it apart, re-assembled it in our side yard many years ago for my retail shop for my handmade arts and crafts. That lasted for nine years and was lots of fun to decorate for each holiday, and to know that people liked my work enough to drive out here and pay REAL money for it!!! Heh, heh........
.......check out the old weathered wood the barn door is made of.......oh, if it could only talk!
I've been addicted to the "Lincoln Rhyme" novels by Jeffery Deaver for years, and this latest one is as good as all the rest! One of those I just couldn't put down and hated for the end to arrive. Hurry Jeffery, and whip out another one soon!

And this little beaded dolly is my first in a year-long series that I'll be making for the Beaded Journal Project.........since we have to finish one each month and Christmas is nearing, I chose a small size! All mine will be this same shape and include rhinestones/parts of vintage jewelry. This one is carrying a little "scepter" that used to be part of a ladies' pin and still has its original little stones intact. Her face is cut from a piece of fabric, and the rhinestones are on the tips of her crown, but they don't show up well at all here. The next dolly is almost done for October, and is turning out to be a really cute "ghost"! You'll see her later in the month............

Autumn is here!

2008-10-02T19:03:00.002-04:00

Isn't this the prettiest little square wreath, and can you believe how the berries match our weird pink/red door?!! And I'm also surprised I got it because I do NOT like "artificial" thingies........floral thingies especially. Unless they look REAL! I had to keep feeling these fuzzy leaves the whole time I was looking around in the local florist shop........ I ended up buying the two matching ones she had; one for the back door here, and the other I'll show you later on the log cabin door in the yard. That one is mighty pretty also against the old weathered wooden door.

This "quilty" story was pretty good, and I finished it up quickly.........I've been avoiding art and reading a lot recently. Love to just "get lost" in good stories or read about interesting people. (Preferably somebody much worse off than my family's puny little problems, so I'll feel better!) Heh, heh.........I know........I'm a sick old woman. Thank God my mama loved to read and read to me as a child and instilled the love of books in me!

And here you see an example of "October's Bright Blue Weather", which was part of a poem Miss Sadie Limer taught me in the third grade, way back in 1953! She took our little class on an outing uptown and pointed out that wonderful, special shade of BLUE that comes to the south in October, and I never see it that I don't think of Miss Limer. She was very old-fashioned, very strict, and we were scared to death of her, but for some reason she made us WANT to learn the lessons and to please her! And she was one of my first early art admirers; she always encouraged us to make handmade cards for our parents for every occasion and holiday. My special cards were for Valentine's Day, and long after I was a grown married woman, I made and mailed her my special handmade Valentines every year. They were filled with calligraphy and lace and paper doilies and little red stick-on cherubs and hearts of gold and glitter..........I wonder what became of them after she died. I STILL love to make valentines, whether out of papers or fabrics or metal..........so I guess I've moved on up to being a "mixed media" artist in my old age!

I got awards!!!

2008-09-17T18:47:00.002-04:00

I'm so blessed to have nice folks who read and let me know they enjoy my blog. One new online friend, Janet lives way off in the United Kingdom and sent me BOTH of these awards awhile back. I have just learned how to transfer them here to show off! Thank you, Janet! (She does the most gorgeous knitting and embroidery and other needlework you've ever seen!) Do visit her blog sometime:
http://looplousadventuresintohandicrafts.blogspot.com/

**********************************************
Sorry I've been "missing in action" for awhile and hope to be back here on a regular basis soon. I miss everybody and their blogs, and reading my emails! We've had not one, but TWO deaths in our families the last ten days; one a blessed relief for a dear aunt who's been ill for months and could not get off the respirator. The other is my brother-in-law who fell from a ladder and hit his head on a concrete floor while feeding up their horses. He'd been very wobbly and in a walker for months; we don't know why he was even in the barn. Our little family would welcome your thoughts and prayers...............and I hope all my friends in blogland are well and creating ART! I'll get back to that next week also, hopefully. God bless us, every one.

Autumn things...........

2008-09-14T17:20:00.002-04:00

We finally, thank God, got a decent rain from the hurricane's remnant storms! We are still in a drought situation, but every three inches like this helps, and the fish in the farm pond enjoyed some fresh oxygen, I'm sure.
This ugly red scum on the pond is from the literally hundreds of cedar trees of several kinds growing around this area....it's sort of like their kind of "pollen". The recent three inches of rain cleared it away, thankfully.......and the water is almost back to the pier's "feet" once again!
.........and here's another sweet photo of the Bubba/Buddy house cat; you can see he makes himself at home on every bed and chair and blanket or pillow he can find! And he's getting FAT! He chows down day and night, whenever the notion hits; we'll weigh him next week and see if he's added any more pounds to the six he's gained already!

Beading again.........

2008-09-13T12:39:00.002-04:00

This is my first monthly (September's) beaded art doll that I'm making for the next twelve consecutive months. I'm thinking she's going to be a mermaid and have fringes and fishes hanging from the bottom! Stay tuned.
Don't these cute little mushrooms look just like little drinking cups for fairies in the forest?!! Some are tiny and they kept their cup-shape instead of flattening out, for some reason. A first for me, so of course they got their photo taken!

Signs of fall.............

2008-09-12T18:22:00.002-04:00

I have these snow white mushrooms popping up near the salt block for the deer in the side yard.........the flat=topped white mushrooms/toadstools will be eaten by the squirrels, but I haven't seen them eat this fat kind yet.
We also have huge "fairy circles" in the pastures of white and tan larger ones growing.........'tis the season, I guess! The big tan ones look just like pancakes w/maple syrup on them!

And I dread seeing our beloved dogwood trees start to look like this in the fall of the year. It means they look pretty for awhile before dropping their leaves, but then the "nekkid" tree skeletons are everywhere to see all winter! And I caught the cardinals eating the red dogwood berries off the trees one day like they were starving to death! Hope a few seeds make it to the ground to make baby trees next spring! The bluebirds also love the dogwood berries, and thank goodness we had good crops of them this year in nearly all our nesting boxes around the farm.

Hallowe'en is coming!

2008-09-11T10:12:00.002-04:00

Check out these cute little "face" buttons with flapper faces on them I got recently for use on my beaded art dolls! Love those expressions! They'll be on a couple of my BJP dolls during the next 12 months.

Our last lily happened to be the perfect color for pumpkins and the upcoming Hallowe'en holiday........ DH's lilies have been a pleasure all summer. They've blooming at random and all have been different colors and types! We are finally getting some much-needed showers this week and some cooler air, but the flowers around the yard have about pooped out for this year. Next stop: autumn!

A thing of beauty..........

2008-09-08T18:19:00.005-04:00

My artist quilting friend Betty R. whipped up this little wall quilt in a few days recently from a pattern in a new book she got. She first cut the light and dark green wavy strips of fabrics, and then wove them together! Each and every light and dark green piece you see has been satin-stitched around every side!

And even appliqued this sweet little hummingbird and pink flower blooms which are 3-dimensional, and have beaded little stamens coming out of each one! She's an amazing talent in many areas, and I'm so proud to call her one of my best friends in the whole wide world! Check out her blog :

it's at the top of my blogging friends in the right-hand column here on my blog......."knot sew square". For some reason, I can't get it to work out from here in this post! You'll love her other works of art!

Reading and beading.............

2008-09-07T17:34:00.002-04:00

This wolf book is my new read from the library..........it takes place in ancient times and the story is told from the wolves' perspective. And of course eventually the intrusion on their natural world by humans...........I'm loving it, but you know I'm taking the side of the wolf any day!

And here are the beginnings of my year-long challenge of participating in the 2008 Bead Journal Project........I'm going to make 12 little three-inch "flat" fully beaded dollies, all dressed with at least one or more pieces of vintage rhinestone jewelry! One per month, starting with September and I'm calling them the "Rhinestone Ladies". They are small enough to work in with my commissions and my Christmas gifts in the making; that way there won't be so much stress during the next few months! And they all will be using the same pattern, but will all be different colorways. Wish me luck! I'm looking forward to beading them...............this month's is starting with the aqua felt body above with the pewter crown and holding a piece of an old pin with stones for her "scepter", and I'm thinking she will be a mermaid...........we shall see what she wants to be in the next few days!

"white things" today.........

2008-09-06T13:03:00.002-04:00

I ordered a few whimseys from a new (to me) online shop named "One Hundred Wishes", and look how beautifully packaged it was when it came!
As you click the ordered items into your "cart", it reads: "I wish for:"
Then when the pkg. arrived, this gold sticker says "Wishes Enclosed" (in this gorgeous polk-a-dot paper!)

You'll have to click and enlarge this photo to see some of the little goodies, but I just love the gold fabric "leaf" ribbon; the woven pink/black jaquard ribbon; the little German scrap paper keys tied with pink ribbon, and in the polk-a-dot cellophane bags are wonderful old-fashioned millinery flowers! In pastel and bright flocked paper colors! I've looked everywhere for them to use in my embellished projects.........this online shopping is so fun!

And look who I found uptown yesterday afternoon!!! My "Blaylock critter cousin" learning to use a leash for the second time! (He does NOT like it, but his mom is teaching him all sorts of good manners anyway.) Did you read about this child earlier in my blog about being abused and starved and literally "thrown away" at the doors of our local animal shelter, when it was CLOSED??!!! And the pup was only a tiny thing to fit in your hand, and weighed ONE pound..........well, the right woman connected with him, and boy, now he's "livin' in high cotton"........'cause she named him "Cotton", she thinks! God is good, isn't He?!!!!

******************

And we here in Warren County, NC spent the night and this morning getting winds and lots of rains we needed from the Hanna storm which went right across our area during the night! Many thankful prayers went up from those of us here who live under and among many big old trees!

A "must read"; art quilt project............

2008-09-05T16:29:00.002-04:00

Oh, this book was like all her books........so moving and I couldn't turn pages fast enough! I love her stories because they take place most always at our Carolina shores, beaches and places we who love the ocean here recognize. It will wrench your heart, but then life does that, doesn't it?

This is my 10-inch quilt block to be sewn together with oodles more by Monica Magness, who created the Pink Artist doll, "Love Squared". Her idea is to get lots of artists to take the last of the 2" beaded/decorated squares and sew them onto large blocks, to be viewed from both sides.......
.........this it the other side of my block after the final edging was put on to finish off the raw sides. She's gonna now sew who knows how many 10-inch blocks together to make a wonderful embellished art quilt to also be sold for breast cancer research next year! Do check out her blog "girl-gone- thread-wild" by clicking on it listed in my favorite blogs in the right-hand column of my blog's home page, and see how much monies have rolled in for chances to win the beautiful and huge Pink Artist doll she assembled for the great project! You will also find on her blog's home page a place to donate any large or small amount to get your name into the pot for the drawing for the doll..........there's almost two months left, I think!

This little beaded heart square was one of my two favorites that were sent to me..........I don't know who made any of them, but all the artists put their hearts into the beautiful work!
..........and this is my other favorite little square in the bag of 13 that I received to work with. This 3-D face just spoke to me for some reason...... thanks, Monica, for letting me be a part of this project! As a long-time breast cancer survivor it means a lot to be able to participate!

Cat tales............

2008-09-04T18:35:00.002-04:00

It seems this new house cat does funny things in spurts..........all in one day I got these shots! This is his antique water bowl; I use it because it's one of the few that are heavy enough that he can't turn over easily..............we heard "water noises" and here's what we found when we investigated. He'd evidently put one of his little fur mice (the black one!) into the water bowl and it made a splash, so he played at trying to fish it out for awhile. (This is what you call "a drowned rat".)

.......and here's the morning routine in my paint studio that has a great little sink for washing up brushes, rags, etc. He's found out that he fits it very nicely.........he turns on each side and then his back, just to make sure it still fits EVERY day!

And when he gets bored playing with his tail, he'll get up on the corner and I turn the water on to dribble awhile. He loves water just like Baby Sister cat does; and now he's into all of her "watering holes" in the house, which irks her no end! By the way, he's gained from about 6 lbs. when we took him in last spring up to 13 lbs. today! And solid muscle. See how great I turned out, Cuz Susan?!!!

September stuff............

2008-09-03T14:57:00.002-04:00

The scenery on my morning walks changes almost daily........the huge spider webs I posted here a few weeks ago are all gone now, and the pastures are filled with these little "pocket" webs! I didn't see what the occupant looked like, but I suppose the web is built before dark and insects might "fall in".........that could work for daytime or nights. There are literally hundreds of these small webs everywhere the last two days!

I'm trying to complete the edging around this pin/brooch with just loops of size 11 glass seed beads.........I worked on it Sunday afternoon while my "quilty" friends beaded away on their projects. This pin will be set aside now, though, until I make the first of the 2008 Bead Journal Project pieces for September. I have committed to doing 12 small fully-beaded "flat" dolls for the BJP; one per month and am anxious to get started! (One of my mottos: NEVER finish one project before starting the next one on your list!") Heh, heh........

I don't know what kind of lily this one is, and I don't even remember if I've shown it here during the last week; but it's lasting a very long time and I keep adding new cosmos or small sunflower blooms to the vase as they open. I apologized to the honey bees, but with my non-"green thumb", I only have a mighty few flowers scattered around the yard and I need to be able to see them while they last............autumn is upon us! I treasure each and every tiny blossom and love the colors of the fall season, but it's the beginning of my least favorite and depressing winter season. Oh, how I wish we could bottle the beautiful weather and blooms for February!!!

Summer goodies.......

2008-09-01T18:29:00.002-04:00

This was the SWEETEST watermelon we've eaten in a long, long time! It was a generous gift from our "farmer" neighbors; I wonder if they irrigated their watermelon patch with "sugar water"?!!! Heh, heh......... man, it was good!..........thanks, again, Boltons!

Well, these three loaves of Amish/friendship bread are our first since one of my pals gave me a "starter" in a gallon zip-lock bag. I think it's the same recipe my mama used to make often, and back then it was called "Herman" for some reason! It's very good like coffee-cake, and is great nuked in the microwave and eaten with a cup of coffee or caffeine-free diet Coke! Also great for breakfast slathered with a thin layer of butter and heated. I put big chunks of pecans in this batch, and you can also make it chocolate, etc.! More to learn about this........(and I also found out I don't have enough matching loaf pans!)

And yet another of DH's gorgeous big lilies blooming one at the time; and my little patch of cosmos only gives me TWO little blooms every few days! But I guess I appreciate them more than if I had a whole yard full of flowers blooming at once.........

Today is Labor Day in the USA, and we had a feel of cool, dry air this morning on my walk. The seasons are changing for sure. We still need rains and might get lots the end of the week from the hurricane Hanna coming up fast on Florida and the East Coast. We have to pack in more water and foods, etc. in case things get rough. Thank God the folks in New Orleans had sense enough to evacuate this time for hurricane Gustav, instead of staying and getting harmed. I'm old enough to have been through a few, and when Mother Nature gets her dander up, I'm getting out of her way! 'Tis the season, folks: stay safe. And pray.

......more new library here............

2008-08-29T21:59:00.002-04:00

This is the entrance facing south/Franklin Street..... there are supposed to be 58 parking spaces on three sides of the building (there is NO space at the back side of the building for anything). And I'm hoping those 58 spaces will include more than one handicap space like we have now.

This is the north entrance; we were told all entrances will have attractive round white columns in keeping with our historic little town. I don't know about shutters or other "traditional"/"historical" additions......will have to see as they are added. I do hope some more detail work is in the plans so we don't have another ugly, "modern" brick building.

And this is the main front entrance as seen from Franklin Street.......notice how narrow the driveway is; this truck is parked at the edge of the property line near the street.

This is the nice big foyer/entry hall as you come into the main front door, and there are some large rooms all around and some small rooms. At least there are some windows and we will get more daylight than in the old building. Notice the dropped ceiling with lots of blocks of fluorescent lights and all the black space above is filled with ductwork............more indoor shots tomorrow!

disappearing flowers...........

2008-08-27T17:28:00.002-04:00

This is one of the last of the beautiful pink cone flowers from this first year's crop........I've saved the seeds, hopefully to help a new and larger patch of them come up next summer. They are truly one of our more drought-resistant flowers for this area, and can live weeks with no rain!

And this lone little purple petunia is a volunteer all by itself among our new bed of peonies! It has bravely bloomed (with little water or help from us) all summer; another good choice for dry areas. I don't know if these white patches on the petals make it a "mutant", or not, but it's really pretty with the contrast to the dark purple!

And last, but not least at all...............your royal highness, Mister Buddy Cat. Or Butt-cat! Or Bad-cat! Or Bubba-cat.............sheesh! Are we sickening with our pets, or what????! This is Baby Sister's pink bed he has taken over. She is ticked off, of course. So this week we found her a new little round bed at the dollar store and put it down in another room...........she got in it and loves it. And how long do you think it took this little boy cat to try it out the first time she got up to get a snack???!!!!!! She's old and arthritic and cranky (like me) and wishes we would take him back to wherever the hell we got him from.

......the old and the new.............

2008-08-26T20:16:00.002-04:00

This is our little local public library........I've been reading here since before I started to school. I loved to sit in the little chairs at the little tables in the "children's room". And I have checked out thousands of books and magazines from this building over the years and now the "powers that be" have decided we need a newer and larger building. They could have added another story above; and another wing in the rear; and another wing to the right that would connect/butt against the beautiful old courthouse.
........so this is going to be the "front" entrance to the humongous new library building, only one block away. With very little parking. And no "character" at all. But it has LOTS of space and little rooms and big rooms and computer rooms and research rooms, etc. And three entrances! And all that high-peaked roof space up there?.........well it's not another story to be used for anything.........it's FULL of miles of ductwork for the heating and air conditioning units.
I'm just too old for this and don't like change anyway. Especially to the tune of millions of dollars from us taxpayers and property owners, who can ill afford this new luxury building. By the way, our Warren County is about 97th down the list of North Carolina's 100 poorest counties! I only hope when they move my beloved books they will also find space for the memorials that were given in honor of loved ones, like the main counter and wonderful old original oil paintings and the children's little chairs and tables with the memorial plaques attached. I'll go sit there and do my reading and grieve for my beloved "old" library building.

On a happier note, I took off across the farm to a neighbor's house the other day and saw what our "farmer/cousin/neighbors" next door had done in their old vegetable garden space! Aren't these the neatest corn shocks you ever saw?!! I thought for a minute I was in Williamsburg, VA! But they assured me there were more shocks to be made, and pumpkins growing down further in the field........won't they be ready for Halloween and Thanksgiving?!! I'll keep you posted..........

Autumn's coming!

2008-08-25T17:20:00.002-04:00

The squirrels have been having a big time eating the pecans, hickory nuts and everything else in sight here on the huge field rocks along the driveway. And they are all nice and fat and sleek, so if they're storing some of this food away for winter, they will not go hungry!

Click on this photo to enlarge it in order to see how overcome my hummingbird feeder is with honeybees! And the ones inside have drowned when they couldn't get back out! This is the first year in the 40 yrs. here that this has ever happened on my feeders............I'm wondering if there is a wild or "humanized" colony of the bees nearby that has not been living there before now. I'm trying to decide whether to just take it down and let the poor hummers find food elsewhere in the neighborhood in order to save the honey bees. Or to keep feeding what few hummers come thru the bees and let more bees die! And hummers get stung only to die! What a mess.......the hummers in this region usually feed through October; we have many "stragglers" coming out of Canada and states up north that pass thru here on their long and arduous trip to South America for the winter. Thank God we've heard of a new kind of feeder for next year that is designed to keep all bees, hornets, wasps, and yellow jackets OUT!

Now for some beautiful beading going on at our Sunday afternoon "beading bees" recently.......this gorgeous shell cabochon above has glints of pink and gold and greens in it. My dear artist friend "Dee" is doing wonderful rounds with the tiniest beads to make a nice brooch....... and left-handed, at that!!! I'm amazed................
And the other artist friend, Betty R. is working on this humongous, gorgeous dragonfly........with aqua water and green leaves and pink lotus blossoms! And what amazes me is that she's using those wretched teeny-weeny size 15 delica seed beads!

We laugh and cuss and drop beads and eat snacks and have a great time; and most of the time we EVENTUALLY finish our projects and it's always nice to get compliments on things we've put so much time and effort into!

Now and "then"...............

2008-08-24T11:56:00.002-04:00

These koi/goldfish of DH's at the back deck are getting huge! We're still feeding them twice a day; I guess when they get the signal from Mother Nature they'll slow up on eating for the winter months. I don't know if he will put their heating elements in each pond this winter or let them freeze over. Either way, the fish begin to slow down eating in October and finally stop altogether, so their systems can go into "hibernation" mode. Heck, we humans should/could learn a lesson from this fish lore, couldn't we?!! Heh, heh......... I tend to just "hibernate" all winter and KEEP eating!

Each and every week we can see more and more mud at the edge of the big farm pond. DH cut the grass last week down there and was able to mow a wide strip of the dark green grasses that are usually under water! We were counting on getting the remnants of the weird "Fay" storm that sat on Florida for a week, but that may not happen now. It's pretty bad when we pray for rain ............. even from a hurricane!

This is a newspaper from 1945 telling of President Roosevelt's death, and Truman taking over . I came across a slew (that's a LOT!) of old newspapers that my mama had saved and packed up very well over the years recently in the old storage building on the farm. She always loved to read, both newspapers and books and magazines, and saved the issues of important happenings of the times. I also have papers of President John F. Kennedy being asassinated; also his brother Robert Kennedy's asassination; and others of Oswald's being arrested and then his being killed. And some about Winston Churchill's death and something about General McArthur........surely there must be someone wanting these types of things for safe-keeping!? I don't know enough about ebay, etc. to find them homes, but if any of my readers know any collectors, please let me know! Thanks very much! If nothing else, the pictorial advertisements in these newspapers would make for GREAT art in collage and mixed-media!

Read, read, sew............

2008-08-22T19:49:00.002-04:00

I just finished this new book by James Frey, and it was no way as good as the others of his. Of course the very first one was the best; the one he later had to admit to being all "made up"!!! We "hard core" readers will read
anything sometimes!

Now this new novel from Joyce Carol Oates is very good, and you can see who is learning to read with me every afternoon or night! This child is turning out to be very sociable; that's why when he was an "outdoor" cat, he worried our other old yard cats to death, wanting to play with them. Or he'd go across the road to bug my cousin's cats......they didn't want to play either. So now he follows us and Baby Sister cat around the house to "help" with everything we do.......shower, brush teeth, nap, sew, read emails.......and he's finally chosen "his" corner of the bed for night-time. MOST nights go smoothly; once in awhile he decides to play under the bed around 3 a.m., so he gets put into the hall 'til the rest of us get up!

Here's the finished mermaid pin........and I'm blessed enough to have already sold her to one of my dear friends here in town! This was a joy to make with the bright colors and the clay mermaid bead and little glass fishes. I already have another slightly different one started for a gift ......don't forget that four months from now it will be Christmas week! Ho-ho-ho!!!

Garden goodies............

2008-08-20T18:59:00.002-04:00

I don't know what these little pumpkins are officially called, but I've always loved them and "had" to buy a few in the fall when they showed up in the local grocery stores. Well, this year my dear cousin Boltons next door grew their own (!) AND shared them with me! I've got them on the screened-in porch out of the weather where I see them in passing several times a day. I've already gotten nice comments on them, Ann and Don, so watch out! You're gonna have your summer produce in demand again! Halloween and Thanksgiving are coming! Many thanks for mine....!!!

I could not believe DH brought home MORE pretty little string beans yesterday for the new little freezer! But he does all the preparations, so I won't fuss too much........we had a little batch of these tonight with supper, but I never got them soft as we like. Hmmmmm..........and these green beans have a "sheen" instead of being dull, right off the vine. Don't know what kind they are, but they'll be pretty durn good next February, I'll bet!

Dear Husband (DH) brought home this tiny Eastern Box Turtle last night; we ALWAYS stop to get turtles out of the road. This one was so cute and smaller than what we usually find in this area, he turned the car around and brought him back home to me, and we both took photos of him/her/it.

The underside of the shell is just as pretty with the design as the top; and the little bugger wasn't but about 2 1/2 inches long. I took him down to the farm pond and put him down near the water so he could either go swimming or hide in the grasses/woods. At least he's got another chance at life!

......two surprises!

2008-08-17T17:30:00.002-04:00

WOW! Is he a surprise, or what??!!! I don't think trees would pick these concrete "faces" for themselves, if given the option, do you? This tree might be a girl tree, and she certainly wouldn't want THIS face! That's okay; it's not my tree nor my "face" and I don't have to see it often.........heh, heh.
My second surprise that day was these fat black walnuts, and loads of others filling out on this walnut tree! On my walk I couldn't believe all the walnuts and hickory nuts and acorns around the place.........and with the drought and no more rain than we've had all summer. I hope it isn't a sign of a harder/ longer/ colder winter than usual. At least the wild creatures will have plenty to eat in these parts!
**************
I actually had yet another fun surprise left on my doorstep this week by my cousin/neighbors who were kind enough to share their watermelons and beautiful little decorative pumpkins with us! But I'll tell you more about them when I cut the melon and get photos of that and the cute little pumpkins...........and hopefully by Halloween, their lucky and cute grandkids will have some BIG pumpkins to play with! These folks have "green thumbs" all the way up to their elbows! They have a beautiful garden every year; can root anything from a sprig off a tree or bush; and get any kind of seeds to produce beautiful flowers and veggies! Thanks again, my Boltons next door!

Two "treasures".............

2008-08-16T17:44:00.002-04:00

I am having the most fun sifting through this bunch of vintage treasures I found this past week! Five plastic baggies filled to bursting with jewelry parts, lots of rhinestone pieces (my favorite!), buttons, glass beads, Cracker Jack toys and little thingies to make new jewelry from! And to sew onto beaded/embellished art wall quilts! I met a new friend, Stacey N., who has a great web site: http://flotsamandjetsam.blogspot.com
Thanks, Stacey! More goodies from her to show another day: wonderful German scrap paper hearts, stars, valentine boys/girls, bunnies, and pumpkins just in time for decorating handmade Thanksgiving cards!

.......and check out this new "treasure" that just came into the lives of my cousin Susan and her DH, Bobby, who live across the road from us. They are "animal people" like we are, and literally saved this baby's life last week when it was abandoned at the local shelter AFTER closing time! The poor bitty pup only weighed ONE POUND, and was covered in ticks and fleas and starving/dehydrated to the point of death. Quick action and a good vet's care saved it, and look what a darling (part Lab?) puppy they have now! Thank you, cuz! Don't you just love happy endings?!!!

Tough love flowers..........

2008-08-15T11:16:00.002-04:00

Our crepe myrtle tree is full of blooms, but most are not lasting long and have brownish areas from lack of rains. This color is "watermelon", and it really looks it........hmmmm. Which reminds me, we haven't had a watermelon this summer yet! I wonder if they are sweet with no rains.
And this is another new lily of DH's from the bag of unknowns that he bought on sale in late spring.....I love this color; it's more of a dark red or burgundy than this photo shows.
And this lily just popped up on a perfectly straight little stem and had one huge bloom, again with no watering! We forgot the bed of lily bulbs when the first ones bloomed and got no rain, but when I saw buds coming from these last two, I took buckets of water to them quickly! Also my durn zinnias, which I LOVE, are laying all over the ground twisting up into knots and once in awhile give me (begrudgingly) a gorgeous bloom or two..........but never but one at the time! Next year I'm going to be the first customer at the nursery near here and just buy zinnia PLANTS already blooming and fill up the bed! That way I won't have to agonize all summer long wondering IF and WHEN they MIGHT decide to bloom from seeds.

funny feline..........

2008-08-13T13:34:00.002-04:00

.......his face needed washing before I took this one! But click to enlarge, and check out his nose "sweating"!
.......here he's just about ready to smack me so he can get back to his nap. .....and he was "stalking" me from behind the storm door while I was sitting on the top step of the porch! When I noticed him, he had scrooched down low and squinched his eyes to slits and lowered his ears...........glad I wasn't a bird and he was wasn't outdoors! I'da been a goner!!!!!!

A morning's walk...........

2008-08-12T19:32:00.002-04:00

I always carry my smallest digital camera on the daily walks; I've missed too many "perfect shots" by seeing something gorgeous and not having it with me! This week we've been blessed with COOL mornings, and low humidity.......just wonderful for a change. These passing storm clouds brought us a whole 3/10ths of an inch of rain! (Better than none.)
Within one stretch of road, I found these three large spider webs! They are a sure sign that fall is on the way........for some reason known only to Mother Nature, these spiders KNOW when the season turns and it's time for them to start with what we call the "spider months".......being usually the beginning of September. So this year they're about three weeks early.
.........this web had torn loose some at the left/top section, but be sure to left-click on this picture to enlarge it and see the thousands of tiny dew drops all along the "architecture"! The hole means something flew into the web during the night and probably fed the spider. Yuck. I have arachnaphobia and cannot look at spiders. Not even pictures of spiders. Much less get close enough to kill one.......I don't bother them unless they get in the house. Then they're dead meat. But usually DH has to come smash them before I faint or the cats eat them...............
I was lucky on this day's walk to find all three webs empty of their occupants, or I wouldn't have been able to take the photos. We had oodles of black widows in the yard when I was small, and our parents killing them and clearing our toys left in the yard every morning before we could go out to play evidently stuck somewhere in my brain cells and never left!
Spiders eat mosquitoes and other insects we don't like; and I certainly admire their artsy webs, but I always give them a wide berth (and love my telephoto camera lens!)

Shrinking pond............

2008-08-11T18:07:00.002-04:00

Our three-acre farm pond full of nice big large-mouth bass and bream and a catfish or two is steadily evaporating and without any significant rains this summer, the ongoing drought in this area really shows its damage.
All of the dark green grass to the left in these photos used to be under water; as did the muddy areas where the round bream beds used to be. And the poor pier's "legs" are barely standing in the edge of the water. We shall just keep the faith and keep praying for rains; sometimes we get the edges of hurricanes passing by the Carolinas' coasts this time of year, and they bring heavy downpours and flooding of creeks. I guess that's what we need this year. (There's nothing like being picky with my prayers! Asking for the heavy rains, but no actual hurricane damage!) We have been known to get it ALL, at one time or another.

How many babies in this wren nest?! I can't tell, but at least three, and the parents are stuffing the BIGGEST insects into these little mouths I ever saw! This is the nest the wren built inside DH's work shed; today he had the air compressor going and the electric drill and doing some hammering.

None of his activities seem to bother the little mama wren.........she just keeps on truckin'...........um, stuffin' I mean.

I love color!!!

2008-08-10T18:13:00.002-04:00

This is a new beading book I got last week; aren't the colors of beads gorgeous and make you feel good just looking at them?! The book has lots of great projects that even I might be able to do! (But not that wonderful neck piece quite yet!)
And just check out some of my markers and colored pencils at my work space........loud colors again! I just can't get enough....at least it's a cheap obssession to feed!
.......and here's you-know-who "helping" me find my pens and paints. Check out the hot pink duct tape holding down the glass worktop! It comes in blue and purple and great colors now! And in the home building supply stores you can find all kinds of neat stuff in colors now that used to be plain old black or white. Check them out next time you need some inspiration!

Assorted trivia............

2008-08-09T12:04:00.002-04:00

I'm getting through this funny book slowly. Not because it's one of those books you have to "wade" through, but because it's so full of actual facts pulled from the bible. This author (Jacobs) spends a year of his life trying to live as "literally" as he can, according to all the rules, regulations, laws, commandments and so forth that are listed in the King James version of the holy bible. One of the interesting things I hadn't caught during my perusing thru that book twice in my lifetime is the rule about Christians aren't supposed to wear clothing of "mixed" fibers! Holy moly! My closet is FULL of sinful clothes!!! But it's better now than back in the '60s and '70s when we had "double knit polyester" and mixes of unknown origins! I love pure cotton anyhow because it's simply much cooler in the summer and if I take the pieces out of the dryer and hang them up right away, I don't have to find the iron. Linen is nice, but I can't afford it and it also wrinkles very badly. Silk is super-nice, but has to be hand-washed AND ironed, plus it's also pricey. Wool (winter is coming) itches. Plus I still have hot flashes and don't have much PURE wool in my closet. So. What's a good Christian to do?!! I'll let you know when I finish taking lots of notes during the reading of this book. At my age, I guess it's too late to worry overmuch about it.
Isn't this the sweetest little pitcher?! I found it (cheap) at the local vintage shop and don't need it or have anywhere to even display it in our little house. But I kept carrying it around and just felt like it wanted to go home with me. It'll hold a few tiny flowers if we ever get any rains. And it might end up being a gift for someone I like a lot. Or not.

.......isn't this the cutest bar of SOAP you ever saw?!! I am blessed with the sweetest girlfriends EVER! One of our Sunday-afternoon gang, Betty R., is an artist in her own right, and a quilter, among her many talents. (She's also a NASCAR race nut. She just got back from the race in the Poconos in PA and had a ball; we'll probably have to hear all about it tomorrow afternoon!) But this gal is one of my most dear pals ever, and we have shared lots of good and bad times together. And she brought me this cute Mary Englebreit bar of soap one day, just because she knows I'm a "chocoholic"! Is that "sweet", or what?!!

.......more cat pix!

2008-08-07T20:32:00.002-04:00

........is this child comfy taking his nap, or what???!!!!!! He never even knew I took his picture several times. Aaaahhh..........to be able to sleep like that again. Only the young can do it..........
........and he is fascinated by the front-loading washing machine! He entertains himself just watching the clothes go around and around when I do a load of laundry. Sometimes I get a chair and watch with him! I'm not used to this new washer yet and we've had it a year, but it does strange things. Like turning the clothes clockwise. Then reversing and turning them counter-clockwise. And it's so quiet, when the buzzer goes off and I'm sitting next to it here at the computer, it scares the daylights out of me!

And finally: a new sewing project......(don't look if you're under-age; this pin has a "nekkid" mermaid on it!) It's a heart shape that I cut from a nice piece of thick felt and I'm adding beads and little glass fishes. I hope it turns out to be a cute pin/brooch when finished.

Fresh veggies..........

2008-08-06T12:34:00.002-04:00

Here's some of the four dozen ears of wonderful sweet corn DH brought home from our local farmers last week. He shucked and de-silked it and it's in the freezer waiting for a winter day to enjoy! I don't remember the name of this new corn, but it's even sweeter and better than the wonderful old standby, Silver Queen. And the kernels are variegated white and yellow all over!
...........and this is part of the beautiful small fresh string beans he brought home another day. Needless to say, they were quickly dispatched to the freezer also........and the small batch I cooked with some wonderful little newly-dug red potatoes was SO GOOD!
But pretty soon I'm gonna ground DH if he gets carried away like this "butterbean haul" he brought home yesterday! A whole, full bushel. We sat and shelled all afternoon and finally got'em into the fridge last night. This morning I blanched them and they are beautiful, with lots of the tiny sweet ones. Boy, are they ever good! They are our favorite and like gold around here, and will be especially good in the deep dark winter when nothing is "fresh"!
************************
With all the reading and messing with fresh veggies, I'm missing out on my art projects! I did just get a new beading book from Amazon, though and it's stirring my creative juices! I'll show you soon my next project from this wonderful book, and show a photo of it. But right now it's time for my nap with the cats. Later, people!

Reading frenzy...............

2008-08-05T20:07:00.002-04:00

This is the latest of Sandford's "prey" novels; not his best, but worth the read.
My cuz Irene loaned me this book, and it was a great weekend read! Thanks, cuz!
My online friend Susan in Alabama suggested this book to me, and it was so VERY good! Thanks for the note, Susan.............if this was the author's first novel, I'll be waiting for more from him, won't you?!!
.......and this guy writes of his awful, abusive childhood and makes us feel so VERY lucky to have had "normal" parents and happy childhoods! He has other books also, but this is his latest one. They are all hair-raising good, and will make you count your blessings!

So this is how I'm spending the hot, humid days of summer heat...........try it........you might like reading on a regular basis! I'm so fortunate to have had a mother and grandmother who loved to read and who read to me as a child, which instilled the love of books in me. If you love to read, you will never be bored or lonesome!

Cat tales...........

2008-08-04T12:34:00.002-04:00

Well, we found out what the new cat does at night while we're fast asleep.
How he mangles this long carpet runner up into a ball all by himself is a mystery...........and he does it quietly, or I would hear him. I've already clipped his toenails but it looks like I need to have another go at them!

A crock of..................

2008-08-02T17:28:00.002-04:00

Check out this HUGE nest the little wren has made in my old cracked pottery crock under the shed! It's about 10" high and filled to the brim with pine straw, broom straw, some moss, a piece of black plastic, and no telling what else! She's laying her third clutch of eggs for the summer..........and is high on a shelf under a "hot tin roof"! The little brown-speckled eggs might be poached before they hatch!

Last time this wren laid eggs, she had five; so far these four are in the crock-nest. Wonder why all the eggs have a brown band of heavy speckles at the large end of each and every egg? I wish Mother Nature had an 800-phone number to call and ask all of my nature-related questions........do "normal" people notice stuff like this?! Heh, heh......I've been told I'm NOT "normal" for a long, long time!

****************

In case anybody missed me last week here on the blog, it was because the first few days Life interrupted my "retired" routine (which is VERY dangerous, because I get VERY cranky!) And the last few days whoever is in charge of letting me post here decided to NOT let me post here, until today at 5:30 p.m. That's twice in my first year of blogging. Instead of celebrating my new blog like most bloggers do, I think I'll celebrate each time "they" shut me down and tick me off!

********************

I'm supposed to remind everyone here that the bidding/donations have started for the beautiful Pink Artist doll ("Love Squared"); with all monies going to the breast cancer research thru the Susan Komen foundation. To find out all about it and see photos of all the hundreds of decorated 2" squares from artists all over the world, go to Monica Magness' blog:

http://girl-gone-thread-wild.blogspot.com

A "First" for me!

2008-07-27T17:20:00.002-04:00

My Cousin Mary up the road found this cicada/dryfly while it was still crammed into the little brown shell and put it in her pot of rosemary. The next morning, lo and behold! It had crawled up into the branches and burst open the back of the shell casing and already emerged into its huge "new" self! It was still this beautiful green color most of the day, but gradually turned to the normal gray/brownish color. It's the first time in my 64 years I've ever seen a newly-"hatched" dryfly! It's fascinating........be sure to click on the photo and enlarge it to see the intricate designs in the wings; and how BIG it is to have come from the SMALL shell that it's clinging to!
One of my fondest childhood memories living here is finding and collecting the empty dryfly shells on our trees and fence posts. I still love to bring a few home from my walks even now. Thanks, Cuz, for such a fun visit to your herb garden!
This is a handful of our yard flowers blooming this week. I always feel a need to bring a few indoors so I can see them all day, and then feel guilty because the bees need all the pollen they can get! These little sunflowers after a few days suddenly "dropped" all their pollen into neat piles on the shelf, so I collected it and put it outside on other flowers..........maybe some wayward bee will find it!

Flora and Fauna.........

2008-07-26T12:40:00.002-04:00

I just could NOT stop myself from taking more photos of the hot pink zinnias that are finally blooming! And I could NOT stop myself from showing this one to you; this hot pink is my fave color in the world. It fascinates me to see it both in man-made things and Mother Nature's things!
And the reason you're having to see my sunflowers again is because of the tiny little star-shaped pollen thingies that have popped out on this one's brown face! I did not know sunflowers did that! And some are growing little seed-stems that stick out of the face like porcupine quills! The bees are having such a good time. (I HAD to pick a few for me inside the house, but I also left the bees a few, too.)
This gorgeous white moth with black spots was hiding under the bird bath out of the sun one recent morning. Isn't it lovely?! I wished I had picked it up and looked closer at that beautiful iridescent turquoise on his body!!! Click to enlarge the picture, and you can see the sliver of blue near his "tail feathers"!

Around the yard........

2008-07-24T19:30:00.002-04:00

Check out this pine straw the wren is putting into the Williamsburg pottery birdhouse! How in the world can she wrap those stiff pine needles around into a circle with no hands?!! I love it. I am amazed.

Kiss me, you fool !!!!!

"C" words today..........

2008-07-23T10:19:00.003-04:00

Look what my friend Mary Jane sent me thru the mail !!! Little baby cactus plants (cacti?).......whatever plural is called. Hey, MJ, do they bloom? How old before they do? Thanks.........the outdoor cats are steering clear of them!
Does this child look stressed out to you???!!!!!! Cuz Susan........you can see he's adjusting just fine indoors since his little surgery, and we believe he's growing and not a "kitten"........... he eats pounds of dry cat food!
Yep, this is what I'm off to do this afternoon, while it's still hot and humid here. What I didn't get done early this a.m. won't get done outside. We might be lucky and get one of those scattered storms and some rain this week. OKay, that's all the "C" words for today.........Cactus, Cat, and more Cat. Check out my dear husband's blog for more silly cat photos..........
http://earlkingphotos.blogspot.com/

Art projects!

2008-07-22T10:16:00.002-04:00

Look what I got in the mail yesterday from Patsy M. in Colorado! A piece of her gorgeous Victorian lady fabric I had admired on her blog........and also some slices of her embellishing laces onto felt..........and the beautiful hot pink fabric sun image! Can't wait to use that on something.......I love bright colors as much as "vintage" browns. Thanks VERY much, Patsy, and your swap is going in the mail today! Be on the lookout.........
And received from the Art Queen herself (Monica Magness), some of the extra beautiful breast cancer squares to be made into an art wall quilt! The wonderful Pink Artist doll she made will start being auctioned next month; so anyone interested, please let me know. I think she says she had received more than 300 squares, which covered the 39" doll's skirt, and also oodles of squares for this wall quilt. I am only one of many who offered to do something more for the breast cancer project, since I'm a survivor of same.

I'm supposed to take these beautiful squares and make them into ANY kind of 10" block I can think of, and return the block to Monica. This fall when all the blocks have been returned to her, she will work her magic again and assemble the blocks into a quilt to also be auctioned. The proceeds of both these ventures are going to the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Thanks, MM, for letting me play with you all again!
Well, my beading buddies came again Sunday afternoon, and I almost got this dang sunflower finished. Now we decided it needs a background and some green leaves! And I don't like FLAT beading much, so I'll be digging in my bead stashes looking for something else to perk it up. Stay tuned!

Maypops are here!!!

2008-07-21T11:00:00.002-04:00

WE've been watching the field of passion flowers for blooms and looking for their green fruits (maypops), and they're finally "doing their thing"! The fragile, delicate blooms just stop me in my tracks in wonderment. How can anyone not believe God will take care of us when He can make such intricate things as live and grow on this earth?!! These plants move about in the fields here and are VERY hard to transplant, or to raise from seed.
So we just let them, like our wildlife living here, go on about their business while we admire them.
And check out this storm cloud DH and I took pix of the other day! We saw the clouds coming in and jumped on the golf cart with cameras to go as close as we could to see the clouds changing. Maybe this little one gave somebody a shower, but not here! We are still in need of rains, and the hottest month of August to come yet.

This is my monthly beaded block/pin for August..........it started out to be a sunflower, and then I didn't like it, so am adding some green leaves. I might be able to save it, and love the iridescent brown beads in the center, but my stock of beads doesn't have many shades or sizes of yellows/oranges, because I don't like those colors much. Hmmmm.....time to go order some yellows (in case I need them again one day)!

...more nature stuff..........

2008-07-19T21:18:00.002-04:00

My little cousins who visit their grandparents next door recently found this box turtle on one of their excursions down to the creek. They came by my house to show me the turtle in this white bucket and the nice ferns and soil and mosses from his natural habitat. They were going to take him home and keep him in a terrarium and feed him flies and lettuce and blackberries..........they've done this before, and were very knowledgeable about what turtles need to live happily ever after in what they THINK is their creek-side habitat! I LOVE it when the cousins come to see me and share their doings........Harley: "Come back soon and tell me how "Snappy" turtle is doing!"
You'll need to click on this photo to see the little toad frog trying to hide from me between the rocks. The pix are supposed to enlarge, but I never can swear to it! This froggy is new to the addition of the waterfall to one of the koi/goldfish ponds DH has installed.
And speaking of our wonderful cousin/neighbors next door (who have green thumbs up to their elbows!) here's Don's watermelon vine blooming and growing like crazy........ that means more little melons in the making!
This is actually a small watermelon in the same patch, but there's nothing nearby to compare the size to. I love the shapes of the leaves; and after a rain, I swear you can almost SEE those vines' little "feeler" ends grow! And they wrap quickly around the nearest thing to support them.......another amazing day with Mother Nature, right here almost in our back yard! Thanks for the opportunity every year, Don, to watch your garden grow! (And also for generously sharing its bounty with us!)

Big Mama

2008-07-18T19:38:00.002-04:00

This big, beautiful dragonfly has a wingspan of 4 1/2 inches across! And it measures 3 1/2 inches long from head to tail..........not much color in the body or wings, but I found it dead on the street and brought it home just to admire it and save it from being trampled. The intricate designs in miniature in the wings are just awesome. I plan to trace it for a beaded design...............
And on our early a.m. walk one morning last week, DH took this photo with my little camera of some beautiful wet, dark green mosses on the trunk of a cedar tree; then he found this leafy stuff. A kind of lichen, I suppose. Mother Nature never stops working! Around the clock! Oh, and the full moon last night was gorgeous..........we tried but failed to get a good shot of it and the mosquitoes ate us up!

Buds and beads.................

2008-07-16T18:48:00.002-04:00

I couldn't resist a close-up of this bright red zinnia.........you'll be sick of my blooms by summer's end, but I can't resist. Deal with it.
And this shot of these HOT pink petunias I took at the Lowe's store this week turned out looking like DH had played with it in his PhotoShop thingie to make it look weird, but he didn't!
And here's my July beaded block............supposed to look like a wavy flag pin, but I think I'll sew the pin back on so the flag stripes point down instead of across. Almost done with the blue........I hope to post the finished piece soon.

Foods for body and soul...........

2008-07-14T19:35:00.002-04:00

Here's a bag of DH's very first REAL home-grown local tomatoes given to him by a friend.........he is eating tomatoes twice a day or more and just can't get his fill after a long winter and spring without them! And we are SO fortunate to have good neighbors with a beautiful garden who have given us beautiful produce........OMG, the silver queen corn is so delicious!
I am thankful for friends and neighbors who share with us!
Mary Jane, look this little bird up in your bird book for me, please.......it hit the storm door and sat here for awhile the other day. Thankfully he wasn't killed, but he let DH pick him up and he took flight into the tall pines at the porch before the outdoor cats found him! I'm sure he had a bad headache, because I heard him when he "thunked" into the glass door!

On our morning walk this weekend (already hot/humid at 7 a.m....ugh!) we saw these huge morning glories! I wished we had something with us to lay beside them to show the width...........we both commented we'd never seen any so large...........if that's what they are! The foliage looks the same as normal-sized morning glories; and can you see the "star" shape made with the five creases in each flower? It's more visible on the left one.........another one of God's little daily miracles that most folks sadly don't even look down to notice. I love the little daily miracles in nature here in the country. I wish busy people could/would slow down enough to smell the roses and "see" the ants building their condominiums; or watch my wren starting to poke pine straw into the pottery Williamsburg bird house........more on her later!

.........mostly cats

2008-07-13T17:31:00.002-04:00

I cannot remember if I already posted this lily or not, but here it is again; it's beautiful enough to see it twice at any rate! It's one of dear husband's
(DH) stargazer lily bulbs he bought on sale at Lowe's and "saved their lives" 'cause the poor things were trying to sprout with no water or air or food in their plastic bags! And save them he did! Oh, they've been so lovely, and all different colors...........a few more to bloom yet.
And here is Mr. Yellow Cat/Buddy-row/Sweet Boy/no-name-yet house kitty making himself at home on a little winter blanket. He loves it, so we can't put it away for the summer. (You can tell who rules in this house.)
Here's Baby Sister for you, Edith.........she's found the new bird bath in the yard and thinks she's Miss Big Stuff 'cause she can reach it and drink rain water. When she yowls enough twice a day to take her outside for a few minutes, this is where she heads for first........
............yummy, Mummy! (And don't mention her fat tummy; it might hurt her feelings......she doesn't know it's there.)

........more pinks!

2008-07-12T13:07:00.002-04:00

Isn't this pink bead and white pearl brooch lovely?! My best buddy Deborah is beading a new pin since she finished her beautiful blue cuff bracelet. Our little Sunday afternoon group is so much fun; I can't wait to see what the others are working on tomorrow! (I'm behine on my beaded pin, but will finish it tonight so they don't fuss at me tomorrow!) Heh, heh. And these gorgeous pink/ lavender/ blue hydrangea blossoms were on the same bush! I cannot get over how Mother Nature does these beautiful things.......I had to bring some indoors so I can enjoy them.
And all my bouquest seem to fit best in my maternal grandmother's old chocolate pot with pink roses hand painted on it. I do believe I'll have to try to do this photo in watercolor.......I just love the blends of colors.

Hearts and stars..............

2008-07-11T13:13:00.002-04:00

This vintage heart-shaped metal buckle and all the beading around it and inside its holes is finally finished! This is my June challenge pin. Or it WILL be, afer I turn under the white edges of pellon and put a nice backing and pin on it! I already have July's square about half done.........

I couldn't resist a shot of this group of cows in the shade and the beautiful star over the barn door! I love stars and have one of these big ones (rusted) in my kitchen. I took this from a moving car, so if you enlarge it, it may not be sharp and clear..............DH was driving and cars were on our bumper, so he couldn't slow down or stop!

2008-07-10T14:06:00.002-04:00

Are these not some of the most gorgeous daylily blooms you've ever seen?! This plant was a gift of our good friends at the local Oakville Farms, which raises and sells hundreds of different varieties of daylilies. I've waited a year to see what color this would be, and it's SO very pretty; and best of all, these blooms last two or three days! Thanks, Sherman and BJ!!!
Well, you can tell I've been to the local vintage shop again. I couldn't resist this red plastic necklace and pin from the 1950's.........I love red and I love heart shapes of all sorts. I might take the necklace apart and make it into a heart charm bracelet. Short entry today; I'm behind in my beading projects!

Ridgeway cantaloupes!!!!

2008-07-09T08:55:00.002-04:00

Our Ridgeway, N.C. community of farmers is known country-wide for its famously sweet cantaloupes. They used to be shipped by train to upscale
restaurants in Richmond, VA, Washington, DC and New York, as well as
points south of Warren County. There is something in a small acreage of soil in this part of the county that makes the cantaloupes so good, and each summer nearing July 4th, we all wait to see the few families who grow "the REAL cantaloupes" to put out their signs and park the farm trucks at the end of their driveways which front US No.1 Highway. I wish I could send everyone some through cyberspace to enjoy, but this photo is the best I can do!

These two little books I found last week at our local vintage shop.....this first one is full of short and sweet little verses of grace to say before meals on each day of the year. It was published in 1911.
And this little book was published in 1923 and on the inside first page states:

"Birthday wishes and greetings from Tennyson". There is a photo of Lord Tennyson and each page of the book has birth dates on the left, and blank lines across from each date for you to enter favorite relatives and friends' birth dates. I still am using my old "birthday book" from 1965 and surely wish some publisher would print new books like these! Mine is falling apart and I've heard other friends say also they wish they knew where to find a little hardbacked book to list people's birthdays in. Then all you need to do the first of each month is to check your "birthday book" to see whose special days you need to send a card or give a phone call to wish them another "Happy Birthday"!

Mother Nature again.........

2008-07-07T10:32:00.002-04:00

We have been blessed with several good rains the last week or so, but some trees are shedding leaves. These perfect little heart-shaped redbud tree leaves are plastered all over the deck.
And finally, some wonderful bright colors of zinnias! One of my summer favorites; I can bring some into the house to enjoy and they last for many days! This rich yellow just looks like a burst of sunshine.
This hot pink zinnia is my favorite so far! I don't know what it is with getting older and liking brighter colors, but I'm hearing the same from others enjoying our "golden years"! These make me want to get out my watercolors and brushes again.............

........more parade photos...........

2008-07-06T19:29:00.002-04:00

.......okay! Here's one of the gorgeous vintage cars that came for the old car show.......that wonderful 1957 Chevrolet (with tail fins!) that we all loved and dated in back in the old days! Mmmmmm......sweet memories of drive-in movies and drive-in restaurants!
And this little train engine is blurred, but was sponsored by the Ruritan Club, but the driver was in high spirits for the day!
This is the Hawtree Volunteer Fire Dept. truck, which serves this rural area of 400 residents. Of course it travels into other townships if needed........we love and appreciate our volunteer firemen out here in the country! The fire dept. co-sponsors the little parade with the Wise Baptist Church......when you park your vehicle in the lot you are asked to drop a few dollars into a fireman's boot for your entrance fee.......what a great way to show the firemen our support.
The live bluegrass band was set up in the side yard of the Wise Baptist Church, the other main sponsor of the annual parade. And I didn't get a photo of the big tents and cookers that were serving BBQ and all sorts of other good eats (all home-made, of course!). It all smelled wonderful!!
This little parade has been held for seven years; and this is the usual way the residents come out to watch it go by their front yards. By the way, their yards face directly onto US No. 1 highway, and the state highway patrol actually shuts down the main drag long enough for the parade to go by! I reckon the truckers and travelers at either end of town (less than a mile) wonder what's going on, and some have been known to park and join in the fun! Warren County is a wonderful friendly place to live, work and play.....come on down and join our parade next July 4th!!!

4th of July parade in Wise, N.C.

2008-07-06T18:02:00.002-04:00

Even the puppy dogs attending the parade and pig-pickin' were dressed up for the holiday!
There's nothing like children and homemade floats for a small-town parade! The Hawtree Volunteer Fire Dept. was one of the sponsers......and here's its ladies' auxiliary! Well, a few of them anyway!
With dark clouds and on-and-off-showers, not many boy scouts turned out, but these braved the rain and heat .........
This guy is riding a unicycle, which is hidden behind the little boy's car!
**********************
I don't know how to load but five photos at once on this blog yet, and I have lots more pix. Bear with me and I'm going to go upload five more until you get to see most of this parade...............

In my front yard.............

2008-07-05T12:25:00.002-04:00

The other day when we backed the golf cart out of the shed, this beautiful moth was sleeping underneath on the cool, dark gravel !! Isn't it pretty? And I'm sure those black dots that look like eyes to his predators are enough to scare them away! When I get time, I'll get online and look him up to see what kind it is.
Honeybees! We have five honeybees in the yard!!! And look how fat their little legs are with pollen they've collected.........I've been sad since reading how our honeybee population has dwindled frighteningly all across the country. We need them to pollinate almost everything! If we weren't so old and decrepit, I'd see about setting up a few hives to attract some, but we have enough to tend around this place already!
"Mama Cat" came to help me weed the petunia patch the other day and she cooperated nicely for me to get her photo with her "cat crossing" sign! It should state "Fat Cat Crossing"!!! Heh, heh............we believe a fat cat is a healthy cat around here.
**************
DH and I just came from the Wise, N.C. 4th of July parade, and I will post pix here tomorrow. They nearly got rained out, but it's let up for now. We also need the rains, but the little parade carried on in spite of showers. When we left the Wise Baptist Church side yard/parking area, there were lots of folks sitting around in their beach chairs under the shade of huge old oak trees watching the cooking and listening to the live band........what a nice way to spend the day! I hope all of you are having a nice holiday weekend, too!

Happy 4th of July!!!

2008-07-04T15:32:00.003-04:00

I hope everyone is having a nice holiday weekend; usually our relatives are here this week and they're going to be later coming this year, so DH and I are entertaining ourselves.........more about that later! My cousin Ann B. next door let me take a photo of her set of three flags today she has flying from her deck.........they are so pretty riffling in the hot breeze.......thanks, Cuz Ann!
When DH cleaned out one of the goldfish ponds last week, he found two of these babies in the pine straw in the bottom! The baby goldfish are born black and slowly turn gold.........this one is lightening up from the belly, but still has a dark face and back. We didn't know we had babies; they are so dark it's hard to find them in the black pool unless they happen to swim above some light colored rocks or flower pots.
WHAT????!!!!!!!!! "I don't believe my eyes!!!" Isn't this the cutest frog you ever saw? He was sunning in the yard near the flags today; I wonder what he saw during the night to get that expression on his face?!!
********************
One of the things DH is doing today is adding a little waterfall to one of his goldfish/koi ponds. First he took the old tractor off into the woods and came back with the scoop half full of huge, beautiful old field rocks. And proceeded to dump them out at the back door and washed them down with the water hose where we'll track in dirt again. (I just cleaned the kitchen floor/rugs this a.m.) It's awfully humid outside today and the temperature is 90 degrees, so I'm napping while he's building a circular rock wall where the waterfall will go. Now he's gone to scoop up dirt to fill the rock enclosure and insisted I needed to come take photos of his project in the making! You'll be seeing pix tomorrow probably, because once he starts a project, he does NOT stop until it's done. If it gets dark, he'll set up lights to work by. Stay tuned................!

Bronze lizards.................

2008-07-03T10:00:00.002-04:00

Don't these little critters look real?!! I got a bag full from the dollar store years ago for some unknown/unremembered reason and found these few hiding in the craft room. I stuck them to a rock with super-duper glue and then sprayed the whole thing with a can of bronze/copper spray paint! They're near one of the bird baths and have been known to scare folks who almost step on them! Heh, heh.......(I have a naughty streak!)
One of my best buddies, Betty, (who lives uptown and has a HUGE and VULGAR yard FULL of glorious blooms) was so sweet to share her baby sunflowers with us when she weeded out hers. Or thinned them out. Or whatever you do when you've got a green thumb up to your durn elbow and can just throw seeds out on the ground and have dozens/hundreds to come up!!!!! One morning at breakfast, she gave DH a handful and he brought them home and here's the first baby one open! I love sunflowers.......the bigger the better! But can't grow'em. These babies have stems almost an inch thick, and are taller than I am (which isn't saying much at 4" 11")!!! But I'm thankful for Betty and DH and the blooms this beautiful week of weather we're having! Will share more flowers when they "do their thing".........oh, be sure to go visit Betty the Gardner at her blog:
http://knotsewsquare.blogspot.com ..............you've never seen anything like her flowers and quilts and other creative wonders!

Since we had a good rain last weekend, the tiger lilies are finally opening up.......aren't they weird with their spots?! And purple stamens?! All flowers fascinate me because they will always have the SAME number of petals, stamens on EACH FLOWER, no matter the species! Mother Nature is so smart and wonderful to give us mere mortals things like this to marvel over................ I wish more people who rush through life would stop long enough to LOOK at God's wonders and SMELL the flowers, etc. I'm doing it more since I've gotten old and am retired, but thankfully all through my life my mama taught me to "stop and smell the flowers"............she had a pretty mean green thumb, too. Thanks, Mama! I miss her like crazy...... and wish I had her back to show her these blooms.

Rain makes flowers!!!

2008-07-02T17:21:00.002-04:00

This weird bloom looks like a mix between an iris and a gladiola; but it's a water plant in the koi pond. We got several on sale recently, not knowing what they'd look like and this one is pretty colors, but very strange to say the least. The fishes don't care because it's way above their heads; they're more interested in hiding in the top of the pot underwater!
You'll have to enlarge this photo to see the water mark on our rain gauge; but thank God at last we got a night of storms that brought two and 7/8ths inches of rain last weekend! We can use this much twice a week, and will continue to send up prayers and also do our "rain dances"!
One of the light yellow and orangey daylilies.............the row of the light colored ones are showing up pretty in front of the darker lilies below......
This daylily is one of 5 colors we now have. And the sunflowers are beginning to open!!! Oh, we hope the deer don't nip the buds off before they can bloom and get photos...........the other night they nibbled off the black-eyed-susan buds, so I won't be showing you any of those any time soon!

A beading good time!!!

2008-07-01T15:16:00.002-04:00

Last Sunday afternoon my beading buddies came to my house to play because our loft space uptown is too HOT, even with A/C..........because it has one huge room and 14' ceilings and a tiny window air conditioner! And some fans..........but this time we spread out around my old round oak table and just look at what we made and worked on!!!

The blue square pin above is mine; I finished putting the beads around the vintage heart-shaped half of an old belt buckle. Now to finish the holes in the metal piece somehow......hmmmmmm. And finish the backing. This is my June square; and since today is July 1st, I've got to get it in gear and start July's beaded square! I think it will be patriotic: red/white/blue of some sort.......I love the USA and our flags, especially.

Playing with us on Sunday was also my young talented teenage friend, Crystal.....just look what she whipped up with a length of pretty golden sheer organza ribbon, an old key, and some gorgeous seed beads! Click to enlarge all photos and you can see her other beads used..........she definitely has inherited her grandmother's artistic talents! (Her grandmom, Betty R., is one of my most cherished friends and a fellow beader.) And quilter. And painter. And knitter.......on and on! One day I need to tell you about these two friends of mine and all their talents.
Speaking of friend Betty R., check out this wonderful hummingbird cuff bracelet she's beading..........with tiny size 15 seed beads! She just sketched off (freehand!) the bird and vines and leaves onto her heavy-weight pellon, and commenced to beading! And the little round pin she made from a fabric-covered button form, using a darling little clock face and also a tiny polymer clay face she made; seed beads, and three dangles from an old broken earring! I do hope this photo will enlarge for you to see her detail work..........these friends of mine are new to beading, and have just taken off and are making professional looking jewelry like crazy!!! It took me almost two years to master it!!!! Duh. My only explanation is that I'm way older than they are, and my brain cells are slowing down........that's my story and I'm sticking to it! Heh, heh..............

And I must tell about my third beader buddy/dear friend Deborah, who was there Sunday and nearly finished up her gorgeous pink/white brooch made on a button form..........using pearls and pink seed beads! Forgive me, "Dee"; the photo of your button brooch is in the OTHER camera, so I don't have any pix of it to show here! BUT: I promise to download and show it here one day this week! These gals are SO talented in so many mixed media; and they keep me going when my creative muse is on vacation......thanks, girls! I love you very much!

I missed Sunday!!!!

2008-06-30T20:15:00.002-04:00

.......I missed posting yesterday (Sunday) because my best girlfriends for the longest time ever came over to play with me! And we beaded and ate and laughed and had a wonderful time.......I hope we do it again often! I will post pix of all our projects in a day or two.............. .........but this book cover is an ugly rascal, isn't it?!!!! Heh, heh.........but it's a library book of short stories that are surprisingly good and I'm almost finished with it. I don't care for short stories or essays as a rule, but when I finished Patricia Cornwell's book over the weekend when the library was closed, I started this one out of desperation! My days are NOT complete unless I have read something.........either newspaper or magazine or book. Thank goodness my mama and grandmama loved to read and read to me as a child, and instilled a love of books and reading in me at an early age! These lavender and hot pink perle cotton threads were on sale last week at the Walmart, so I HAD to add them to my stash.........you other hoarders out there will understand! Heh, heh..........

"Vintage" embroidery?!!

2008-06-28T08:40:00.002-04:00

While digging through stuff stashed in our little log barn looking for something, I always find other stuff we'd packed away years ago and totally forgotten about! The art/craft/needlework of the day back in 1968 was crewel embroidery; needless to say, I had amassed designs and yarns, both of the wool crewel yarn, and these two framed embroideries I did with plain old embroidery floss................
..........I don't even remember doing this orange/yellow piece; I've never liked orange, but my initials are on it! And I even used a thin paper mat and painted a frame orange to match! And I also found a box of wonderful old embroidery patterns/designs that can be used for lots of things nowadays. I don't remember if I ever found whatever I went looking for in the barn or not. Duh. (At this age/stage of the game, I'm thankful I can still embroider, even if I won't remember next week what I did with it!)

Books, birds, baubles..............

2008-06-27T11:24:00.002-04:00

This is currently on my side table for reading, and I'm half through. It's not her BEST book, but it's interesting enough to go through the motions of reading it. This author has one of the most intelligent minds; so much talent for writing books you cannot put down; so unusual for her to be a forensic pathologist (among other titles). I wish she'd write her autobiography........and I'd love to meet and talk to her. I find fascinating people...........well.........FASCINATING! I'd ask her all sorts of personal, improper things just because she's had an amazing life so full of learning and doing things most of us never even consider or think about! I'm so perfectly happy staying home and enjoy my own company, and am able to keep myself occupied with artistic endeavors of one kind or another for hours..........or days.......at a time! I'm not a "people person"; so I of course admire those other "adventurous" souls who barge into the world and do exciting things. But I only want to READ about their adventures, not participate!
This little weird red bird with a green/polk-a-dot breast is from a cute bird pattern on our Cloth Paper Studio group online. The members are making several to swap, but I only wanted to make a few funky ones to keep, and am planning to reduce the pattern some and bead the body for a Christmas tree or window ornament. We shall see.................oh, if the photo will click and enlarge, you can see her little brass locket on her necklace!

........and this is my 2-inch pin block for June coming along slowly.......I love the vintage metal heart; it is half of a ladies' belt buckle! And the old pearls from a costume jewelry necklace are all pretty together. Then when I added one corner of the blue sequin and beads for some contrast, I didn't like it, so set it aside to ponder a few days. I need to hurry and finish it because NEXT week will be time to start beading the July square!!! Bye, now!!!

Happiness is...............

2008-06-26T11:21:00.002-04:00

A nap or two on "daddy's" blanket with the air conditioning going and the ceiling fans keeping my tummy cool........ ........and helping "mommy" check her emails; I have lots of admirers!!!
And this is the latest finished library book read last week. It's dense with details like this author's other book "Snow Falling on Cedars", but it's worth wading through for the wonderful story. Up next: Patricia Cornwell's newest!!

Ribbon fetish................

2008-06-25T19:23:00.002-04:00

I just wondered if anybody else out there in artist cyberspace has a ribbon fetish?! I have always coveted pretty ribbons and strings and cords and such............these three photos are just the tip of the proverbial ribbon "iceberg" in my stash. (That's visible without looking in drawers and shoeboxes.) And these are only the readily available rolls like you can find in craft shops and florist shops............I haven't shown you my stash of VERY LOVED hand-dyed silk and satin and velvet ribbons! I use great snatches off big rolls to wrap packages all the time, and never use it up; I hardly ever get to the end of a whole roll..........(and another reason I still have so much is because when I see more on SALE somewhere, it needs a home!) What's a girl to do?!!

Natural beauties...........

2008-06-24T13:43:00.002-04:00

The sun late one day uptown here looked like a molten circle of gold......it
was one of our hot, humid days with smoke in the air all the way from the NC coast, where they are still fighting forest fires. That is about 170 miles southeast of here, but most of the eastern part of the state and up into Virginia had drifts of the smoke for days. I most worried about the innocent wildlife, of course. Thankfully, the fires are being contained now.

Ahhhh............a perfect example of the old-fashioned common southern "daylily". Nearly every yard has them now; and even clumps of bulbs thrown away years ago alongside the roadway ditches are blooming. They are good and drought-resistant; it's a pity they only show their beauty for one short-lived day for each bloom. But just gaze upon the splendor.........it makes the day worth it, I suppose. Only God knows the whys and why-nots of the wonderful world of Mother Nature we have all around us; we are so blessed in this rural area of the south to have such beauty. I wish everyone who is in such a hurry would stop and LOOK at these little daily miracles happening all around us. Don't wait until you are OLD.........there is beauty all around, if you will slow down and look around you!
And is this not a beautiful FIRST beaded cuff bracelet?!!! My friend Deborah (of our Sunday afternoon art group) tackled the job like a pro and used this poly clay focal piece to start. Then she added fat round glass beads along the center sides and filled in with various tiny size 11 seed beads. I'm so happy to get my friends into beading with me!! Now "Dee" is working on a new pink and white round brooch..........and it's time for me to go add some beads to my own June square! Stay tuned...............

June favorites..............

2008-06-23T22:30:00.002-04:00

The pink coneflowers and blue hydrangeas make a pretty arrangement together, and both last a long time indoors and drink lots of water! And the poor coneflowers are blooming with NO rains for weeks! They are truly a "dry weather" flower and re-seed themselves also.
I just found this cute enameled metal frog-on-a-stick when I cleaned out weeds, etc. beside one of the goldfish pools. He's been living in a flower pot for several years out in all kinds of weather and not changed his pretty colors at all !

And our daily walks have turned up the dainty Queen Anne's lace blooms this week all around the farm. We have one field just full of them; but the fields also are full of redbugs and ticks, so I don't venture into deep grasses this time of year! That's why I don't use this flower/weed in my little indoor floral arrangements! And our crops of maypop are up and growing like crazy, even with no rains. They will bloom soon and all so far are pale lavender; I will post pix when they come along. I love their intricate blooms, also called "passion flowers".

Cats, cats, pond..........

2008-06-22T11:37:00.002-04:00

Well, as you can see, the new yellow boy cat is making himself at home since his surgery. He has a sweet disposition and has not ONCE asked or tried to go back outdoors!!! Some days Baby Sister will let him nap this close by, but she prefers her privacy mostly! They nap and eat and play and nap again...............such a hard life they live.
And here's Baby Sister drinking out of the newest koi/goldfish pond that DH installed last week. There's nothing as good as that good old cold, sweet well water! She checks it out every day............today it had fishes in it, but she didn't pay them any mind.
And here the pond is coming along with rocks alongside and water plants;
it's finished on the outside with plantings of greenery to hide most of the ugly black pool edges. I need to post a new/finished photo soon!

Latest projects.............

2008-06-21T19:08:00.002-04:00

This will be my monthly pin/brooch for the month of May; now to bead up another for June! Since June is associated with brides and weddings, I think I'll do an all-white pin with pearls, white beads and some gold or silver. This pin above needs the lavender sequins straightened up and the edging finished off.
This cute bird pattern is being used in one of my Yahoo groups, Cloth Paper Studio as a swap. I didn't join that one because my project cup already "runneth over", but I love the primitive look of the pattern, so I had to sew up at least one. Lots of ideas here for using the new hot summer fabrics together; and also I got DH to reduce the pattern by about half and I want to bead a bird for a Christmas tree ornament. Can't you just visualize her nestled in the evergreen branches with little white lights glittering off her white and silver beads and sequins?!! (Wow, it's only six months until Christmas week...........better get my act together!)
One day this week it was too hot and humid for my morning walk, so I did it late in the afternoon, and this soft golden sunbeam was so pretty spread across our little pink petunia bed...........and the CATS are everywhere, of course!

Hydrangea days...........

2008-06-20T19:16:00.002-04:00

We have two of these huge bushes, planted side by side. They each bloom different colors now after a few years. They used to be both blue; now one of them has some lavender/pink shades of color in its blooms. Either way, they are welcome each year...........I cut a vase of them and they last a long time (if the cats don't play with them).

This has been a hectic week, today especially. And we need rain again very badly............I hope tomorrow I will make time to finish a couple of small projects and upload pix of them here!

....this one's for Maggie R. in Canada!

2008-06-18T16:45:00.002-04:00

......this is the BACK of a satin top to wear.................
.........and this is the FRONT of the same top! And check out the gorgeous(my favorite hot pink ) sleeves with gold lacings.......
........and this is the wonderful end of the sari with its matching design of pink and green sequins and gold beads and threads! Some parts of these designs I can already visualize as being 100% hand-beaded brooches, using the beautiful glass beads........especially those that are silver-lined, making the light flash and gleam
when gazed upon! Oh, let me go find beads and sequins and start a pin tonight........just finished my 2" square beaded monthly block and will post it here tomorrow.
............my talented beading friend who lives in Canada also loves COLOR and her motto is: "Life is short; wear sequins!" I agree, Miss Maggs!
Thank you for sharing your talents and friendship with me............

Luscious "finds"...........

2008-06-16T13:16:00.002-04:00

Recently I was lucky enough to buy a cache of wonderful Indian saris and blouses and pieces of dresses...........this dark pink one is nearly 12 feet long!
........and the beautiful white embroidery and sequins design goes all the way down two sides!
I don't know what this piece was originally; it's almost too heavy to be worn as clothing, but man, does it ever have "bling"!!! And that's my thing!
When I was younger I was more traditional, but the older I get, the more I love glitter and shine and bright, happy colors! One of my online friends has as her motto: "Life is short---wear sequins!"

Look how the blues turn into pinks as the fabric is moved..................... .........and all of the intricate gold embroidery on the hot pink background is so very gorgeous. Be sure to click on the photos and see the embellishment details larger. I'm not sure what these fabrics will become, but for sure some are meant to be fabulous purses and pillows and parts for art quilts for the wall. But right now I have to finish beading a little square pin so I can show that to you tomorrow, perhaps!

We are still in the grasp of the awful heat wave with high humidity today and DH is outside installing his fourth koi pool. I'm not much help to him except for keeping him full of liquids and telling him how great it looks; then I have to escape indoors with the A/C. (Something to do with "getting old", somebody told me!) I don't mind getting old, I just want to do it in comfort! Heh, heh...............

Lucky twice

2008-06-15T17:33:00.002-04:00

I found this four-leaf clover in the yard a few days ago. I have always been able to find one in most any "clump" of clover, near or far, all my life! Occasionally I will find one with five or six leaves........I don't know what they are supposed to mean!
.........and here's the lucky new cat at our house. I guess we should name him "Lucky"; he was fortunate to choose OUR house to come to visit daily and end up adopting him! We have been amazed at how easily he has settled into being a house cat.......except this morning at 2:30 a.m. when he woke us up jumping from the bed onto the top of the tall wood wardrobe!
DH jumped out of bed and caught him before he knocked my grandmother's beautiful old chocolate pot to the floor! We will have to get used to the idea of having a young cat again that is curious and will JUMP up onto tables, etc. And I'll have to keep my beading supplies better organized in case he thinks to check out THAT table one night!

Colorful cone...........

2008-06-14T16:57:00.002-04:00

I had the best fun time making this teal felt cone for my dear friend Sue K. last week! The CPS yahoo group was making cones earlier and I didn't have time then, but loved the idea of May Day cones of paper like we made as children and hung on door knobs with flowers in them. So when I had a gap of time and the muse "moved me", I KNEW what to make and had all the elements for it on hand...........ha! (I have enough supplies "on hand" to make cones from now 'til Doomsday!) I get as much satisfaction digging through my drawers and boxes of stash to make an item as seeing the finished product! And I always find "lost" thingies I haven't seen in months that will be perfect for yet another project! Be sure to click and enlarge the photos to see details. I'll show the back side of this cone tomorrow; the blog wouldn't let me add but these five pix at one time!

Keeping cool.............

2008-06-13T18:03:00.002-04:00

Our three little goldfish ponds full of koi, goldfish, black "bug-eyed" goldfish, and various mixtures (two albinoes) at the back deck are the only things around here this week that are keeping cool outdoors! DH put in one pool abut 6 years ago for one of his "projects", and because he'd gotten the pre-shaped pool for $4.00 at a yard sale. We had forgotten how hard the ground around the yard/house is, and how full of rocks and tree roots.
But after attacking the hole with the back-hoe, tractor, ax, shovels and anything else we could find, we finally got the hole large enough so that half the pool insert was actually down below ground level.........the other half is above ground, because we also didn't think of how slanted our entire yards are............downhill ! Duh. He's not a quitter, though. We got the pool in, got some water lilies and hid the ugly black edges of the pool with grasses that stay
green year-round and pretty field rocks from all over the farm. Voila! One beautiful goldfish pond. A neighbor who sells fish bait minnows gave us a few gold minnows (one's still here!) and DH added some Walmart fishes and we've watched them grow. When a couple of our dear friends moved away from Warrenton, they gave us their koi fish which were just gorgeous and huge and beautiful !!! Every few years DH gets another wild hair to put in another pool, a little larger than the rest.
You'd think he'd get tired of putting heating elements in for them in the winter, and cleaning out the aeration filters OFTEN during the summers, but he loves them and the projects. On spring and fall days I can sit in my rocking chair on the screened-in porch and read and listen to the water trickling over the little waterfalls. But in winter and this hot summertime weather you won't find me out there.............I'll be reading or beading or napping indoors with the air conditioner making its beautiful noise!
P.S.......be sure to click and enlarge the photos............

Mimosa time............

2008-06-12T08:22:00.002-04:00

This is my cousin's mimosa tree up the road......I get to see and smell its sweet blooms on my daily walks. Our old mimosas died a few years ago, but I see new baby ones coming up where they used to be.

*******************

CAT UPDATE: yesterday we took the yellow cat and had him neutered, and he did fine; but we also got bad news.........he has the fatal FIV virus for which there is no treatment. The sweet vet told us he's about three years old, and has only had the virus about 6 months. If we keep him as a "house cat" (indoors all the time), he won't spread it around the neighborhood in case he bites another cat, which is how it is spread. The other option was to just let her put him down right then, which we just could not do. So we cried and we prayed and brought him home to be a "brother" in the house for our old "Baby Sister" cat, who is already 20 yrs. old and diabetic. So we now have TWO ailing house cats............we shall see how he settles in. He's very sweet and loving and follows Baby Sister around. It's entertaining for her since she's been lonesome a full year since our last old house cat died.

And the vet said he could live a normal life for 10 to 15 years, if he doesn't catch respiratory infections, etc. from other cats. And thank God this virus is NOT contagious to humans! The truth of the matter is that we are ALL living a life that will become fatal at some point in time. So I'm going to just live and enjoy each 24-hours we have as we are given them, and be thankful for all the loving kitties we've had to come and go in our lives the last 50 years! (And it wouldn't hurt if all you wonderful "animal people" out there would send us little cat prayers once in awhile........thank you!)

Clematis and cats..............

2008-06-10T14:44:00.002-04:00

I'm glad I snapped this photo of our pink clematis bloom last week; our drought situation is worse with no measurable rains and everything is suffering. We've watered several early mornings a few select things, but our faithful deep well that has served us for 40+ years may or may NOT have plenty of water left! I'm afraid to push it; I'd rather we have drinking and bath water in the house than more blooms outdoors...........we are still under the awful heat wave that's sitting on the east coast. Today is another humid and very hot day at 100 degrees........at least I've been productive in the art rooms since I'm house-bound until it cools off! My early walk this morning at 6:30 wasn't too bad, but now I need a nap! DH is determined to clean out the shed and rearrange things out in the heat; it doesn't seem to bother him as much. Men are just tougher than women in some ways!
...........and here is the newest adopted family member who has taken up residence here for breakfast and supper every day for several weeks now. We've treated his ticks and fleas, and hopefully tomorrow if he shows up for breakfast as usual, he's going to be taken to be neutered...........if we can get him into the cat carrier! And I'm praying he won't catch and eat any little wild thing tonight; and also that when we turn him loose after his surgery, he will stay nearby. He's not a feral cat, but his owners wherever they are evidently don't care enough to feed or take care of him. So he's not exactly fully "tamed". Send us your kitty prayers tomorrow, please!

Our first stargazer lilies.......

2008-06-09T12:22:00.002-04:00

Aren't these pink stargazer lily blooms just the most beautiful shade of pink?! DH bought a bag of mixed lily bulbs several weeks ago because they were on sale and the poor things were trying to sprout in the bag....with no sun or water! We decided if the bulbs tried that hard to grow and bloom, we'd give them a little help.....and all seven have come up, but this pink one is the first to bloom. They are mixed colors, so each one will be a surprise!
My creative muse finally woke up yesterday, and is still pushing me to finish this felt cone with embellishments for a friend. I missed out on making "May Day" cones (like we used to make and hang on doorknobs for flowers) on one of my Yahoo groups. Not enough time! Too many beading projects still waiting! But when I saw the photos of the girls' finished cones, I wished I had made the extra effort to make one. So here's my first effort in the making.........hopefully it will be finished tomorrow and ready to mail.

I also started and finished a swap art quilt for the wall yesterday, but won't show the pix of it until it reaches its owner! Some of the things used (just to get your curiosity up) were cuts from a vintage/damaged wedding ring quilt; beads; buttons; and all sorts of fun embellishments! It's going out in the mail tomorrow also. Whew! This heat wave is keeping me inside and producing art, but I did go walking this a.m. around 6:30 and the heat wasn't bad at that time of day. The birds were singing and the early golden sunbeams were on everything.........a nice way to start the day; now I'm off for my mid-day nap!!!!!!!! (I am NOT a "morning person".)

Relay quilt.........

2008-06-08T17:23:00.002-04:00

Our annual Relay for Life event has come and gone, but I meant to show this pretty art wall quilt my artist cousin Wanda made and donated to the cause. She's so industrious and can make beautiful things out of everyday objects, snips of lace or fabric others would throw away; she's always inspiring to me when we visit! The background of this quilt is an actual satin quilt she found at the thrift shop and cut out a chunk for her background. Then the added buttons, rick-rack, laces, ruffles, little pieces of crochet and oodles of other things. Don't forget to click on the photo and it should enlarge to see details............thanks again, Cuz Wanda!

Yellow climber...........

2008-06-07T17:44:00.002-04:00

This little bright and cheerful flower vine in my neighbor's yard just fascinates me. It's full of these blooms, and daily when I go by on my morning walk, I can tell it has grown another inch, reaching for the wire trellis put close behind it for it to climb on! One little tendril made it and I "helped" it wrap around to get a good hold......gotta remember to ask what this is! I imagine by summer's end it will cover the side of the little tool building and be glorious!

Beads aplenty!

2008-06-06T12:26:00.002-04:00

I got these treasures unexpectedly in the mailbox today!!! Gorgeous glass beads in lots of sizes and shapes and colors; mostly seeds which I use plenty of in my projects. My dear (and generous!) friend Sandy in Florida included a note to say her "beading days" were over and she was moving on to other handwork that she loves better, and she was giving me her little bead collection! I am still trying to get my jaw off the floor...... thank you, dear one! I'll think of you when using these gorgeous babies on many upcoming projects already in my head..........now please excuse me while I go call Sandy to thank her so VERY much!!!

I've been to the vintage shop again.........!

2008-06-05T09:01:00.002-04:00

What wonderful little old porcelain dollies I found! Check out this little guy's top hat cocked at a sassy angle on his head! And poor baby with no legs has the sweetest face; I will have to use her in a way to hide her from the waist down. And her little arms move and are joined with wire!
And this little clay bird sings when your pie is done in the oven....and he's made of clay and has a little hole in his beak and one in his side.

The little pewter whale is very heavy and had such a sweet smile and eyes I felt like he'd love to go live with my Cuz Susan............she and I are souls of the sea and love the ocean and all its critters!
This little box is two inches by three and one-half inches and the top opens to show a Christmas carol printed inside the lid............
Here are the words in case you've forgotten them since childhood............
And when you turn the music box key, the tiny people dance around the Christmas tree on the circle in the floor! They're dressed in party long gowns for the ladies, and black tuxedos for the men..........don't forget to click on the photos to see them all larger!

Pink, pink, pink!!!

2008-06-03T09:49:00.002-04:00

I needed a quick birthday gift last weekend and found the very thing for my cousin who loves the beach and flip-flops! A dear friend of mine in Florida has one of those computerized embroidery machines and sent me some little flip-flop sandals in different colors about a year ago. Well, I KNEW I'd "need" them someday, so here they are........stitched to a pink pillow with gold thread and a cute button that looks like a pair of tiny orange sunglasses! The great thing is that the pillow matches the birthday cousin's two new Adirondack chairs on her deck.........one is PINK and the other is ORANGE! And this beautiful piece of muslin was hand-dyed by another talented online friend, SuZ, and it has both pinks and oranges in it! Thanks, girls, for the goodies to play with!
This is a climbing/rambling/crawling rose bush near the neighbor's mailbox up at the highway. It's been neglected and now looks very much like the wild pink rosebushes we have growing along the roadsides in this area every summer. They are full of blooms, but NO fragrance! I like for flowers to have nice fragrances as well as being beautiful, but sometimes they don't do both. Like the beautiful stargazer lilies DH planted this spring and the first one is open; watch for its photo here tomorrow! (And guess what COLOR it is???!!!!!) heh, heh.............

Summertime things...........

2008-06-02T14:20:00.002-04:00

This is the new non-fiction book I asked our local library to order recently, so I got to be first on the list to read it! Ta-da! Isn't there just something great about knowing you're the first one to open and smell and feel and read a BRAND NEW book?!!! It has 431 pages, and lots of photos, and is fascinating reading. It's heart-rending also, though; reading about the brainwashed beautiful, intelligent children being kept in another "world" totally. This teenager (Elissa Wall) escaped after a forced marriage at the age of 14, and the terrible abuse and miscarriages she suffered at the hands of her husband who she couldn't stand; not to mention the older men in charge who were mentally ill and kept the people under their thumbs with threats of their surely going to hell and being forever separated from their family and relatives at "the second coming of Christ". The ones still in the "camps" and "cities" surely have my prayers. I'll need to read something a little more "upbeat" next; my summer reading list is very long!!!.......and this is another of our favorite summer treats.......to watch the man who comes to cut and bale the hay (such as it is!) from our pastures! He wheels around fast to cut it one day; lets it dry a couple of days and then rolls it into pretty rows. Then we all pray for NO rain until it cures another day or so and he comes with this huge baler which sucks up the rows into a neat, round bale! When it's ready, he flips a lever to tie it around and around with twine, and then the huge 1,000 lb. bale of hay rolls out all finished! That's a LOT of hay, people!!! And what a wonderful fragrance of fresh-cut and then drying hay in the air everywhere for several days.........
now we look forward to his cutting another time at the end of summer. And while we're waiting, we pray for enough rains to "make hay while the sun shines"!

Purple power!

2008-06-01T11:20:00.002-04:00

This old clematis vine in the neighbor's yard has been sadly neglected recently, but it's tough and without any lime or fertilizer or trimming back of old growth, it surprises us every spring once again with this amazing windmill full of blooms!
It's true, I COULD pull that huge, healthy weed growing at the side, but I usually just admire the big purple flowers and keep walking. It's just one of many glorious sights on our daily walk. I find it amazing that EACH and EVERY bloom on this clematis has five petals. That's true of most any bloom on any plant, in case you didn't know it........I have a NEED to count petals on different species just to see if God makes a slip-up once in awhile, but so far He hasn't.

I love color!!!!!!!!!

2008-05-31T12:37:00.002-04:00

.......can you tell I love bright and cheerful colors in this beaded cuff bracelet I finally finished?!! Remember to click on each photo to see it really close-up.
I used a light green felt for the lining, because that was on hand and blended okay with all my colors of beads.
And the light green edging took almost as long to do as the top of the whole thing! Three little beads at a time. I don't know why I love doing the beading except it's sort of like meditating.......and to see a design come together two or three beads at a time is VERY satisfying! I wish I had kept up with the hours this one took. Can't wait to start another soon, but one of the beaders in my online group suggested a different thread, so am waiting on that. In the meantime, I'm finishing up neat backings on the two-inch square pins and starting on May's square. Gonna be late with that one, but the muse has to move me!

....this says it all............

2008-05-30T10:12:00.002-04:00

While roaming around in our historic cemetery one gorgeous spring day I came across this tall granite stone. I was so taken with this engraving on the back that I didn't even get a photo of the family name on the front!
This saying is fitting for ANY time of year, so here's your bit to meditate upon today! I've always loved it.

And this isn't what I intended to post today on the blog, but I'm determined to finish about two more inches of the edging on my beaded cuff bracelet today, so be prepared to see it here tomorrow!

Kissing cousins?

2008-05-28T18:32:00.002-04:00

These two cuties are my cousins, and they're also first-cousins to each other. They entertained the grownups at their yard sale over the holiday weekend, and were very kind taking turns at riding their toys.............Josh "owns" this John Deere tractor and decided he didn't want to sell it after all! Harley rode it and delivered stuffed toys around, trying to sell them.

Harley's mom is 34 and fighting a battle with breast cancer; she finishes up her radiation treatments in two weeks! She has two daughters, four and thirteen, and they have done numerous things to raise money for their mom's gas for their daily trips for radiation; each round-trip is 90 miles. What a wonderful attitude they all have, even through the last Christmas when their mom was sick with chemo, and now seeing her bald and growing new "baby" hair! Harley rubs her mom's head and tells her it feels like a baby elephant's hair! Four is a wonderful age sometimes. Pray with me for my sweet cousins to be able to keep their mom around to see them graduate and get married like "normal" families. Thanks.
Here's Josh showing us how his scoop works; at 5 yrs. old, it won't be long before he's helping his grandad next door to us disk up the garden every spring! He already helps keep their tackle and bait shop open and can tell you which is the best lure for catching the best fish, in case you don't know!

Froggy weekend..........

2008-05-27T12:53:00.002-04:00

This huge stuffed frog/prince helped my little cousins next door have a big yard sale on Saturday! He's wearing a plush velvet purple cape and wearing a gold crown and his heart-shaped pillow says "Kiss Me"! And nobody bought him! Hey, Diane in TX.......do you want him for your collection?!

2008-05-25T20:32:00.002-04:00

Here is our little town's decoration for Memorial Day......one cross and flag for each of the fifty states. And the big granite marker that's been there since I can remember as a child, way back in the '40s or '50s. Our local American Legion tends this every year, and today there was a service on the lawn. (Notice our pretty little library building in the background).........a huge new library is being built about two blocks behind this one. But those of us who have been using and visiting this old one for the last 55 years or so surely hate to see us so big and modernized, especially at million-dollar figures!!! We also used to have ladies the Friday before Memorial Day uptown in Warrenton selling red crepe paper poppies and a corsage pin to pin it on your collar for you! Of course, people donated some change or a dollar or two, and the day just wasn't done until everyone you met on the sidewalks was wearing a red poppy! Hmmm.........I'll have to look into why no one sells poppies any more. I think the DAV (disabled American veterans) in the hospital in Durham used to make the flowers and send them out to make money. Happy Memorial Day everyone! And don't forget to give thanks and send prayers to any and all vets or servicemen and women you see! THEY are the reason we have so many freedoms, after all. God Bless America!!!

2008-05-24T18:44:00.002-04:00

I wish this "bigger than life" mannequin had shown up better, but the store here in town where she lives is very dark. Isn't she a hoot?!!! She was "nekkid" for months, but her mom put a vintage dress on her this spring!
This is our local vintage shop, "Catchpenny's" and where I find wonderful things to play with! I hope these photos will enlarge when you click on them so you can check out her pink "crown", too!

Cat-fish!!!

2008-05-23T11:18:00.002-04:00

This is our old Baby Sister cat who never went outdoors her first 17 years of life and was perfectly happy. But since the other two old house cats have died, she is lonesome and for some STUPID reason one day last year, I started letting her outside the front porch area. Well after a few days of finding grass to eat (and puke up indoors) she hurries first thing to the koi ponds to drink and drink. (And puke up indoors.) She's got DH and me almost into our daily routines...........she starts digging the covers off me some days at 4 a.m. so I put a stop to that. I also ignore her antics and stay away from the front door until DH comes in, and boy, does she go to work on him! Needless to say, they go in and out now several times a day. She's a happy old cat; I just hope when she croaks, we cat lovers can resist getting any more!!!!!!!

Beaded bracelets, finally!

2008-05-21T14:31:00.002-04:00

Here is my cuff bracelet, beaded onto heavy weight pellon........it's almost done! For a first try, I guess it's okay, but now I have to decide whether or not to trim it closely and glue it onto the metal cuff form, and then line the form on the underside. OR: just sew on a pretty vintage button to one end and make a little beaded loop on the other end for closure. And line the underside with some pretty felt or ultrasuede. Below are the bracelets of the two gal pals I play with every Sunday afternoon! I think for beginners, we all did nicely.........and most of all had a great deal of fun! Thanks, girls!
Above is friend Betty's wonderful Victorian bracelet with a pewter center-piece; two pink polymer clay hearts, and even a couple of pink dragonflies!
(Can you tell she likes lavenders and pinks?!) Betty's the fastest; give her a new idea and she's off and running.....um.....beading.......and always the first to finish! Love ya, girl !

And this gorgeous bracelet is being made by friend Deborah.......she loves blues! Hers has a centerpiece of a poly-clay button and also large round glass beads with little raised "dots" on them; then she's filling in the rest of the background with seed beads. "Dee" is left-handed, but always does meticulous work, whether we're quilting, weaving baskets, or any other of our fun Sunday endeavors! Thanks, Dee, for keeping me and Betty going!