Hello, all. I popped over to Lisa's blog to read her latest, and realized I'd not posted for quite a while as well! I always think summer will be slower, but it never is. Ah well.
Adam has been on his summer break for a week, and he's hit the ground running in his sewing adventures. There is so much creative energy in the house! It's lots of fun chatting about what he's making, what I'm making ...
I'm sewing little fabric bowls. They are ridiculously easy, and it's silly that I love them so much, but I do. I've made four, and will certainly make more.
Like Kate Jackson, I saved all my little scraps of fabric from the other projects I made. Then I decided to sew them together in a hodge-podge sort of way, and then cut it square, put some batting in it and a back on it, and run some bias tape around the edge. It's not fancy, but it sure was fun!
It was supposed to be a doll's blanket for my granddaughter, but it's really too stiff. It's sitting in my studio instead, being decorative.
This is a new piece of kit that Adam got me for my birthday -- a tapestry loom. I finally admitted that my big rigid heddle loom was NOT going to work for tapestry weaving, and I'm so very happy with this loom. It's made by Grebstk. I'm almost finished with my first piece on it:
I had many more cards printed this past week, from watercolors I'd painted and scanned before.
All of these are pretty new, except the geraniums. I especially like how the sunflower turned out. I sell 5 of them (with envelopes) in a pack. These sold very well at the market today. I thought this batch of 300 cards would last me for many months, but now I'm not so sure!
The chickens have been rather naughty. Mr. Sparky, the new roo, is often too scared to enter the pen if I'm in there. He's spent a couple of nights on the loose. The hens have been quite naughty and started laying their eggs in mysterious places in the yard. Today I discovered 8 eggs under our deck. They may have to spend some time in Chicken Pen Prison, so they remember how they are supposed to behave!
This lovely book is my new, very favorite devotional book. It's all Scripture.
The man who compiled the book, Jonathan Bagster, has combined many various pieces of Scripture for each day, twice a day, on various topics. Combining 7 or 8 passages of the Bible like that takes a deep knowledge of the book, and it's done in such a way that it makes connections among the passages that I'd never thought of before. It has sparked many new thoughts and feelings of wonder and thankfulness for God's Word.
It's nearly mid-June, the weather is heating up, and our schedule is speeding up. I hope to have some time with the grandchildren soon, which I'm over-the-moon thrilled about!
The first cold weekend, we had ice, a thick slab of ice that didn't melt on our north-facing deck for days. A bit treacherous! This past weekend we had a dusting of snow. It lasted for an hour or two before disappearing in the sunlight.
Leo the Cat has been such fun. He's photogenic.
I've been spinning and painting a little, and finally have started weaving again.
It's too cold to be outside (except to check on chickens), so I am hibernating. Our house is COLD. The heat runs and runs, and we bundle up, but we're still cold. I make pots of hot tea and go to bed early under my heavy comforter.
Poor Adam has to get in the car while it's still dark and drive a half hour to teach all day in the cold. And he doesn't really feel well. But he loves his job! He loves the kids and what he does, and he suffers through the cold, which he loathes. He did get one "ice day" that first weekend, and he used his time at home to start making books again -- books with medieval binding. The first one had a ropey spine, the second one had a simple flat spine, and the third one has a leather-rope spine.
So, we old people are surviving over here. To be honest, our cold weather lasts for about 3 weeks each winter, and by mid-February we are all enjoying daffodils and planting our peas in the garden. We can hardly complain!
Sometimes, it's true, the world seems to spin around us in a frightening way -- people's lives falling apart, world events looking ominous, fussing and fighting. I am trying to silence the din of sorrow with prayer. Prayer and blessing -- Praying for others in their trouble, and asking God to pour blessing into their lives, His favor and His grace.
May you experience our Lord's favor and His grace in your lives too!
Adam and I took a trip to West Virginia last week to see my mother (at last! after 16 months!) and my brothers and two sisters-in-law and one nephew. It was lovely. It was chilly. It had been way too long, not only since visiting dear family but since seeing the state I love.
(As an aside, the greatest obstacle to my blogging these days is the difficulty uploading photos. Google's storage limit keeps me from connecting my phone photos directly to Google Photos now, so it's a pain to get photos all the way over here to blogland!)
Here's the view from my mother's front porch:
We did go out to eat once, but otherwise we mostly enjoyed the beauty of my mother's home and my brother's farm. He has baby lambs!
Those are bottle-fed lambs from sets of triples or quads, whose mothers could not manage them all.
I've been saving my figs from last summer in my freezer, having promised my dear mother that I'd make her LOTS of fig preserves (with many, many lemon slices) to last her at least a couple of months.
I've never been much of a fig fan, but I think she's converted me. It's delicious on morning toast. When my figs ripen this summer, perhaps I'll make a few pints for myself.
Mother's doing pretty well for her age. Beau gave her a brief moment of affection.
It was hard to say good-bye!
Now we're back to our usual routine. My little "side business" of soaps/lotions/watercolor cards has grown slowly over the past year, and now I find that it takes much of my time each day. I am constantly making something. I paint for 2 -3 hours each morning, make skin care products after that, and try to film for my youtube channel along the way.
Oh! Let me share my latest weaving project -- 2 little baby blankets for my two precious grandsons, woven on one warp. It was challenging because I don't weave often and make lots of mistakes.
There will be youtube videos of both the WVa trip and the baby blanket weave, but they're not quite ready yet ... almost!
Sorry I've been so absent, and thank you for dropping by.
Hi, friends. It seems that spring is sprung (as they say), and now we are creeping into those warmer days ... not summer yet, but we can see it from here! Mowing, gardening, air conditioning, light cotton skirts and cool showers. Let me see if I can catch you up on some of our highlights lately.
I took Adam to Beaufort, NC, for his birthday. We stayed overnight at a nice Bed and Breakfast hotel with a view of the water. After a year of illness and staying at home so much, it was strange and wonderful to eat at restaurants (outside on their porch/decks, by the water). The weather was windy and cool, but we had a most delightful, restful time.
Adam's riding mower is broken right now, and we have awaited three (!!!) mower parts to repair it. So the buttercups and clover are abundant and high, and the yard and pasture smell amazing. I am nervous of snakes (haven't seen any though), so wear my tall farm boots and WADE through the blooms. It's really rather magical.
Julia is finishing up her last year of college, just a bit more to go. That's an important milestone that I don't want to pass unmentioned. We've been educating children since about 1995. Is that 26 years or so? We're very proud of her; she's a very dedicated student. She's getting a Bachelors Degree in Psychology.
Adam is doing major work on our back deck! He's putting in a new flight of stairs, giving us easy access to the cars, but also plans to build a cooking area (grill, cooktop) out there too. I'm quite excited.
As usual, I'm spending much of my time painting, tending chickens, making wares for the market, and fiddling with yarn. I'm spinning again (sigh - that makes me happy!) It does feel that things are slowly returning to something that feels old and familiar. What a relief! I ate lunch (on the restaurant porch) with 3 friends yesterday, without masks. We are all fully vaccinated. Hooray! Tomorrow our church will gather at one family's creek-side home and have a big picnic on their lawn. We've done this twice during Covid, but it was so much fun, we're doing it again. In July, we hope to have a potluck dinner indoors at the church -- just about everyone in our church has been fully vaccinated for a while now.
Some of you may wonder how Adam is doing and would like a health update. His steroid intake now is very low, and soon he will wean off it entirely. He has been able to lose a bit of weight, and his doctor is rather pleased with him. His attitude is good. He remains on extremely high dosage of immunosuppressant medication every day. This puts him at great risk for getting viruses especially (of all kinds), so he must be more careful than most people, probably for the rest of his life. He will continue to wear a mask. It's preferable to being in the hospital from catching a flu bug! He now has esophagitis and and gastritis rather badly. That is inflammation of the esophagus and of the stomach. Many foods now make him feel quite sick, and he must avoid them -- dairy, sugar/sweets, heavy meats like beef, and on and on. Cooking has become problematic, although he is perfecting his sourdough recipe.
But we are thankful for so much and are doing fine. The upcoming months should bring visits with family again, and we are thrilled about that. I'll end with a few photos of some cards I've painted, and maybe a few youtube videos for those who would like to watch.
I read Elaine's post today ("Retired Knitter") about how she's felt during the pandemic. What a kindred mind! She says she feels she's "slipping." I'd say I'm putting things off, putting off laundry, and especially house cleaning. How long can one put off dusting and vacuuming when one never has any company in the house at all for eight months? It's too too easy to become a sluggard. As Elaine says, the world won't stop turning (ha! the world will neither know nor care!) if I don't vacuum today. It makes one ask, "How much do I really care about all this fiddly stuff I do every day?" One of the first things that left my brain was writing, which was sad -- a little bit of anxiety makes creative stories vacate my brain.
Daughter Anna and grandbaby Isaac are here for a visit! I snapped this photo in WalMart. Why have I not taken more photos? I must correct that. He's a delight and so fun. Anna is getting some good naps, and I'm inwardly bubbling with delight that my little home gets to be a "granny house" for a while, Nana's house. Sigh. How wonderful to have them here! We went for a long walk on the property looking for plantain, and strolled out to the garden. He loves being outside.
Adam may or may not travel this winter during the pandemic; his health is pretty delicate. So Anna felt strongly that she needed to come see us while she could still fit behind the steering wheel. (She's pregnant now too.) Plans are not so much called off, as uncertain. Will we travel? When? How? For how long? It's hard to know.
I'm thankful I had my back surgery before the surge in Covid-19 cases began. I'm recovering well. I had a large lipoma removed and am sporting a 3" scar. That lipoma must've been putting pressure on other things, because so much of my general back and torso discomfort is gone, and I haven't had acid reflux since the surgery. What a relief to have that thing removed!
Adam made some yummy pizza tonight. He can't eat cured meats now, so my pizza toppings were pineapple, sauteed onions, and smoked pork.
I met the sweetest dog on Saturday, named Frankie. He's a Bernedoodle.
I made cookies for Anna and Isaac,
and now they are all gone.
A little chicken painting:
This last is a scarf I finished this past week. It's time for these at the farmer's market. But painting and yarn work are put away while Isaac is here, of course! Nana priorities are in full swing! The house is strewn with toys, and all my vacuum attachments are scattered around. It's his favorite toy. It's a good thing somebody around here is willing to vacuum!
Well, hello friends! How are you? We are tootling along okay here in our little corner of the planet. But tomorrow ... oh, tomorrow!! Tomorrow will be quite awful. Tomorrow:
Most of you know what that means. And what follows the day after! Adam says a colonoscopy just feels like a very nice nap. I'm hoping!
I wove a scarf using some of my newly handspun yarn! The warp yarn is a store-bought acrylic (for strength under the warp tension), and the weft yarn is homespun.
The little lady below is an treetop Christmas angel. She's very old. A dear friend asked me if I could give her (I'm calling her Angela) a serious make-over, so I started that project today. I'll have a youtube video about that later.
Adam is trying so hard to cook for my health. I'm pre-diabetic. Long-grain brown rice. Lots of fruits, veggies, and lean meats. No more ice cream in the evenings!
For at least one meal each day I eat an assortment of some of these: prunes, crackers/cheese, cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, celery with PB, natural applesauce, walnuts, raw carrots. No more sweet drinks or juice. I'm drinking my herbal tea each day.
Here's the blue/pink yarn I spun.
Back before my doctor read me the riot act about my eating habits, back when we were still eating naughty ...
bread pudding and rum sauce for dinner ~
and a pumpkin danish from the bakery in town ~
No more of that!
The other day I was cleaning out an old purse, and I found some items I'd forgotten I'd left in there. One was a very precious thing, a small photo of my brother and me, taken on the seawall steps leading into Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans. I was 5 years old.
My mother gave me that short haircut. We lived there for only one year. I think this photo was taken by a couple who babysat Marshall and me for the weekend while my parents traveled somewhere. The steps are still there, just the same.
One more yarn photo. I think it's the prettiest one so far.
If you haven't seen my recent youtube videos, here are a few. Some are longer and chatty, some are shorter. Feel free to fast forward through any boring parts! Spinning is so exciting right now, it's hard for me to do anything else!
This is about making herbal tea:
This is about my brand new spinning wheel that I was able to buy!!
This is a long chatty video about lots of things, but mostly finishing handspun yarn:
Thanks, dear friends. I have lots of various medical things coming up, and will be in and out of blogland 😁 Subscribe to my youtube channel, if you like, and you might see me over there!
