I got awards!!!

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/

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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...........

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.........

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.............

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!

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..........

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.............

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.........

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?!!!!

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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............

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............

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............

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.......

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.