What I'm Weaving

I haven't forgotten the loom.

This first scarf remains unfinished. The weaving is done, but I have a bit of hand work to do, adding all the "effects" I want on there -- trees, clouds, rain, flowers, etc.
I suppose I'd call it a tapestry scarf.

It has a bold sunset.

The blue parts are supposed to be water, and the green parts are land. 

The gray are buildings -- high rises, with the gleam of the sunset on one side.

 The clouds turned out okay, and I'm working on the rain and/or silver linings.

To the green hills I plan to add trees and wildflowers. Some of the weaving was rather tricky. I can't say it's very realistic-looking, but I like the whimsical nature of it. It is a very labor-intensive project.

On to scarf #2 -- some of the same green/purple/teal yarn, which was a rather fine, pricey yarn from Weaver's Webb, the swanky yarn store in New Bern.

The warp is nearly invisible; this scarf is all about the weft. And the yarn is so light-weight it's like air on your neck.

The beading took almost as long to do as the weaving.

And scarf #3, made with thrift store yarn, but very nice -- mostly alpaca. It's soft and silky feeling.

The yarn is brown, not gray.

 A little edging detail and a neat diamond-pattern fringe.

What'll be next? I'm not sure. Not many scarves are selling as summer heats up, so I may be simply building up my inventory for fall/winter. I do think I'll sell quite a few woven scarves then.

Birthday Love from Japan

Yesterday the long-awaited package from Anna arrived! Squeeeeeal!

She's adorable. It's an Adidas shoe box that she secured using hot glue. Yes, my daughter took her hot glue gun to Japan because she's a crafter through-and-through. But she realized when she arrived there that she really needed a pair of tennis shoes for all that walking. Haha :) I bet she hasn't owned a pair of tennis shoes in about a decade ... because she's no athlete, but she can wield a crochet hook and a hot glue gun like a pro!
This is my beautiful little card. Sigh. You know how I am, Anna. I will now keep this forever.

And because I didn't have enough yarn. One can never have enough yarn ...

But look! It's Japanese yarn! Actually, one is from Uruguay to Japan to the U.S. That yarn is a world traveler! (The yellow one is sparkly.)

First I thought she'd sent me a cupcake from Japan. I wouldn't put it past her. However, it's a candle. Phew!

And my very favorite thing: an apron. It's adorable. Look at the fabric!!

It is such a farmy apron! I love it, and I wore it all last evening. Anna, the  button back-cross is designed for a small Japanese woman, so I'll turn it into a neck-loop. I asked Adam to take a photo.

My face had that deer-in-headlights look in all three photos. Oh well.
That was my birthday happiness, and I thank you, sweetheart. It is wonderful!! You didn't want me to wait until my birthday, did you?
Anna also sent presents for Julia's birthday, which is later in the summer. One is a hoodie with this picture on the front:

It's quirky and mystifying, and just right for Julia. And perfect coming from Anna, because both those girls are unique. I can see people staring at Julia when she wears this around. And she sent her some stickers and a card.

Thank you, Anna! It was SO fun to open the box!

The Pastor's Picnic

This year Adam and I decided to have a church picnic at our farm. What could be easier, right?

Well, last weekend we went to Peter's graduation, so we planned to do all the prep work for today's picnic this past week -- especially all the mowing.

Until the mower died ... before we'd mowed a single blade around the house. Some of it was a foot tall.
So Adam weed-eated it all, oh yes he did. And lo, it was wearying!

Two friends loaned us their gas grills (which you can see above against the fence) but neither one worked, so Adam adapted them into charcoal grills instead. But he did spend a lot of time this morning trying to get them to work!

Yesterday afternoon the sky opened and dropped torrential rain on our town for several hours. I left work early (5:45) because my van was about to be flooded in the parking lot! Adam met me there and we went to Aggie's Sub Shop for supper. When we came back to the house, the entire house lot (about an acre) was submerged. The house was an island in a pond of 3 - 4" of water. It was quite depressing. The house sits on about a 3-foot crawl space, so it wasn't damaged.

Later I dropped Adam off at the house, but I kept driving and sat at Vandemere away from the sight. The water was draining away slowly. I think some of the town's roadside ditches and drains are not functioning properly near our house. Other than our house and the farm next door, nobody else in the area had so much water.

After the water drained away our yard was left a gray, muddy mess -- no place for a picnic! I went to the farmers' market this morning, and we both hoped the yard would dry out. But in the end we moved the picnic back to the pasture under the near pecan trees -- shady and pleasant, with a good breeze to keep bugs at bay.

It was a delightful time. The breeze was too stiff to start a bonfire for s'more-making. And as we tidied up, it began to sprinkle again. So everybody loaded up their leftovers and drove away. For a first annual Pastor's Picnic, I thought it went rather well! I gave away about ten tomato plants, so I only have about 30 to go!

Poor Adam worked himself to death to make this simple event happen, against all odds of broken equipment and horrid weather. But it did happen, and I'm proud of him. And hopefully next year it will be just a bit easier to pull off a simple picnic in the back yard.

The Old House

This post is primarily for my parents.
Hello, Daddy and Mother. Here are some photos of your old house at Ridgehaven. As you see, they've stripped off the side porch and seem to be redoing it.

They've also put on a metal roof.

They are keeping the yard quite tidy, and all your rocks appear to be in place, Mother.

The azaleas are blooming well. And the rhododendron and mountain laurel are blooming now as well.

This bed is looking a little sadder, I think.

I did not knock on the door or sneak into the back yard. But hopefully this gives you an idea of how the old place is faring.

He's a Graduate!!!

We've come to the North Carolina mountains this weekend for a wonderful celebration -- Peter's graduation from Western Carolina University.

He's certainly made us proud! From a high school senior who didn't have a clue about what he wanted to do, Peter has turned into a phenomenal student with a drive to succeed academically and perform brilliantly for his professors. He's done great work in the College of Business as his work study and graduated magna cum laude with a double major in Business Law and Management.

Philip and Kara drove over from Chattanooga too -- that was wonderful! Philip's cheerful, funny conversation helps keep everybody in a happy spot while we visit, and I loved spending more time with Kara. It was a high point of my weekend.

We ate at Soul Infusion, a bistro and tea place in Sylva.

We ate outside because we had the puppies along.

Peter has been part of WCU's Honor's College, so he graduated with that group first at the ceremony. He was fourth to walk in. Philip captured it all on video (thank goodness!). Ramsey Arena was gorgeous -- I enjoyed the strong feel of ceremony and joy there. I met his favorite professor who told me, "You have a great son!"

Both my boys stopped at the same store and bought me the same bouquet of flowers for Mother's Day -- without meaning to! So sweet :) Oh how lovely to have one's children grown and to have them be kind, thoughtful, noble people. I'm proud of both my boys.

The flowers did survive the trip home and look lovely all together in a vase!

We came back to Ridgehaven for the night. Adam grilled us steaks and after dinner we roasted marshmallows and enjoyed s'mores around a lovely fire. Peter's friend Shani came. She's sweet and funny. I said something ridiculous that made Peter scrunch up his nose.

Philip has the established reputation for making the BEST roasted marshmallows in the family. Has a well-honed method over the coals.

However, he is aggressively challenged by his little brother.

This time, I'm inclined to side with Peter's marshmallow (the second one). It is his big weekend, after all, right?

We left Sunday morning but had difficulty getting into the groove of a LONG, 8-hour drive. So we stopped in Brevard with Philip and Kara for a bit. We sipped coffee at Quotations:

And stopped in at O.P. Taylor's toy store, of course. I think Julia and Philip were reliving a bit of childhood:

The obligatory photo with the nutcrackers:

We're back home now, with noses back to grindstones. It was a lovely weekend with almost all of my kids (we missed you, Anna!!), and reminded me that no matter where we go, or what we do, these folks are my peeps!!

Bits of Beauty

Roses now in bloom:

A hardy amaryllis:

Astilbe already!!

And ... a couple of thrift store finds.
I love this pattern (whatever it is). This container holds about a cup or so. Is it for storing butter? Haven't a clue. What do you think?

I adore this pattern. My mother has a plate in it, and now I have one. See the ever-so-slight indention on it where the tea cup should go? I love square plates.

Into the Fire

Last Thursday, after a night's rain, Adam decided it was time to burn up the four piles of brush in the pasture. He started early and by the time I went outside, one good pile remained. Adam and I sat nearby and played with Ned and watched the fire. Later Adam rolled the massive crape myrtle stump onto the glowing embers so it could keep drying out and burning up. Remember when he dug that up? We've been burning that stump since late November!

Adam told me the strangest thing -- he'd never seen anything like it before. The morning was quite damp and cool, and as he tended the fire before I arrived, two young grass snakes crawled out of the grass and straight into the fire. They didn't recoil when they met the heat. They longed for it, and he said they wriggled straight into the glowing coals. Looking for warmth and comfort, they slithered into the fire and burned themselves up.

I immediately thought of similar human behavior. The world is a cold, cruel place for many. They seek comfort in things that consume and destroy them. Alcohol? Drugs? Damaging relationships? Porn? Self-harming? How many of the things we turn to for comfort actually kill both body and soul? What a warning to us!