The Gathering Place Again

Well, Friday I decided to go The Gathering Place again to shop for a Christmas gift for a friend.  It was pouring down rain that day, but I was determined to go despite the downpour and I had a great time!  It would have been more fun with someone else, but I decided on the spur of the moment to go and I felt like it was pretty short notice to ask anyone to go with me.  Anyway, I went and I took some more pictures with my new little camera.  Here they are:

Another great place I found was called Art Crafters.  They have a huge art gallery where their main purpose is to frame artwork, but they also have some artisans who rent spaces in their store and sell their stuff.  They had one really pretty framed jigsaw puzzle.  I have read that you can frame them, but I've never seen one framed and it was awesome!  I didn't get a picture of it.  But, it got me to thinking that maybe I can do a jigsaw puzzle and frame it myself.  I have some great puzzles that I have never put together.  I hate the idea of putting them together and then just disassembling them again.  Framing them would be a great way to preserve them and keep all the hard work that was put into assembling them.

Now, we are just trying to finish up our Christmas shopping and wrapping.  I think we are finished now except for wrapping some last gifts.  I can't believe that Christmas is at the end of this week.  Where has the time gone?

Pictures

This weekend while I was at The Gathering Place with Melba, I saw her take out a really small camera and take a picture of a gingerbread man that she thought she might be able to make.  As I was watching her I remembered that I had intended to bring my own camera and left my house in such a rush, that I forgot it.  It got me to thinking about how clunky my camera is and how heavy it is when I have to carry it around when shopping.  You never know when you want to take a picture and usually I have no camera with me.  So, I decided to buy myself a really small digital camera that I can carry in my purse all the time.  It's not much bigger than a cell phone and there is a pocket in my purse where I can keep it and it will be convenient for me any time I want to take a quick photo.  It's also small enough to fit into a fanny pack, which is what Melba had with her on Saturday.  This little camera was on sale at Sears for $59.99.  I did have to buy a photo card, but that was on sale for $7.99.  This is what it looks like:

I didn't even read any reviews, I just winged it and went and bought it, so who knows what I'm in for.  But, I do have another Fujifilm Finepix larger digital camera and it's great, so hopefully this one will be ok too.

Here are some more pictures that I took with it this morning.  Just a few photos around my office.  First, my ribbon tree that I made this year for Christmas.

Next a little push pin beaded kind of tree that I made last year.

Then a couple of my African Violets that are in my office.

The Gathering Place

Yesterday I had the most wonderful afternoon. I went to Dayton to visit my cousin Melba, and we went to this wonderful place called The Gathering Place.  The link is here. It was so wonderful. While we were there, Melba's daughters, Karol and Sheila met us there. We had the best time. The Gathering Place looks like this:

I also love Melba's house. I love the way she has it decorated. She has a simple, country theme with lamps on her kitchen counters, country washtubs and dried flowers hanging from the ceiling. It's just awesome.

Here is a picture of the beautiful dried flowers in her kitchen.  I would love to take a camera and take more pictures. I always feel so inspired after I've visited her home. 

Mom's Home!

Today my mom went home from rehabilitation from a broken hip.  It's been a very stressful 7 weeks.  We were hoping that we would have someone to stay with her during the day while I work so my husband could stay at night.  But, that didn't pan out.  I'm really discouraged over it, and feeling like I can't depend on anyone, but my wonderful husband said, don't worry, we'll work it out.  What a gem he is.  He's the one who has been keeping me upbeat when I feel so down about everything.  At least this way my mom will save some money.

My mind has been so all over the place, that I haven't had the time or the energy to work on anything related to knitting or sewing.  By 8:30 every night I'm already nodding off and struggling to stay awake awhile longer.  Usually, I just say the heck with it and go on to bed.

So, that has been my life for the past 7 weeks.  I'm really glad my mom is doing better and I know she's glad to be home in her own environment and comfort zone.

Pocketful of Posies

Our library just cataloged a wonderful new children's book by author and illustrator Salley Mavor.  She is a brilliant needleworker and this new book Pocketful of Posies is illustrated completely in what she calls fabric relief pages.  The pages are just full of beautiful embroidery, needlework and all kinds of cute, whimsical creatures that she has made herself.  Each page is created by gluing or attaching in some way the embroidery, etc. to a backround fabric and then are photographed for the book.

I'm very intrigued and interested by this type of art and she has also written a book with actual projects that you can do yourself.  The book is titled Felted Wee Folk.

I went ahead and ordered an inexpensive used copy of the book.  I'm always interested in how others make their artwork and how the artwork is used.  I think it's really interesting how she has used her art to illustrate children's books.

Stressed

September has been a stressful month.  I haven't been on here much, and I'm sorry about that.  My mother fell and broke her hip on her birthday of all days.  Not that it's good any time, but on your birthday?  That's terrible.  She had surgery the next day and they put screws in and by the second day she was already transported to rehab.  This is her second week there and she's making pretty good progress.  She's not confined to the bed anymore and she doesn't stay in the bed unless it's at night and she's sleeping.  She is spending most of her time in a wheelchair so she can roll herself around the rehab facility and also so she can roll herself to the dining room for her meals.  She's getting therapy 2 times a day and it's really helping.

But ... and I feel so guilty for saying this ... I'm exhausted.  I'm her only child, so I'm the one doing all the running around errands, doing things for her that she can't do herself right now.  It's hard because I work a full time job and after work, instead of going home, I go to my mom's apartment and then to the rehab place.  It puts me getting home usually no earlier than 6 p.m. and by that time I'm not in the mood to cook.  My husband, Eddie, helps when he can, but he's out of town right now and I really miss him.  Plus, his mother is not doing well, and he's been helping out alot with her too.  His mother has had 2 heart attacks in the last 3 years.  Her arteries are almost completed blocked and she elected not to have the open heart surgery because of her age and the risks involved.  So, the sad truth is that she will never get better.

Well, on a more upbeat note.  I decided, for some reason, to start a latch hook project.  I was in Hobby Lobby the other day and I saw this cute Santa Claus and since I had a 40% coupon, I bought it. It looks like this:

It's really cute and so far pretty easy. I thought I'd better get a fairly easy one since it's been years since I did latch hook.

Origami Cranes

I've been away from here for awhile.  I've been working on different things, but I really have nothing to show for most of it.  I seem to be going from one thing to the next lately.  I've been working on something fun, though.  I have always wanted to learn origami, but never had the courage to try it.  I learned to make an origami crane and then I made more origami cranes and then I thought, what in the heck am I going to do with all these cranes?  So, I decided to make a couple of origami crane mobiles.  I made one for the bedroom and one for the sunroom.  Now, I can't seem to stop making them, so I'll probably end of making more for the house.

This one is one I made for the bedroom.

This is the one I made for the sunroom.

I really think they are pretty and I love looking at them.  There is something relaxing about seeing them gently flying.

Oh, there is one other thing ... I bought a Kindle from Amazon last month and I absolutely love reading on it.

And the other exciting thing is that our library dean in the library where I work is buying us all iPad 2's. I've never had one before and I've coveted the ones that others have, so I'm looking forward to getting it and using it work pleasure as well as work.

Quilting Fever

For the last couple of weeks I've really had quilting fever. It all started when I watched Sewing With Nancy and they were talking about Bargello Quilts With a Twist. It looked really complicated and it was challenging for me, but I actually managed to make a couple of wall hangings and I will share pictures soon.

So then, after that I was in the grocery store and bought a Quilt Almanac for 2011.

It was around $9.99, but I hadn't bought one in awhile and I thumbed through and saw several things I was interested in. And I ran across this.

And I thought, oh boy, that doesn't look hard at all. And it wasn't hard. Not at all. It was fun.  The least fun was cutting the pieces out, but the hardest part for me was being able to find batik fabrics in my area. Most of the very few quilt stores that we had have all closed up, so I've been getting most of my stuff from Joann's, Hancock's and Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby doesn't have batik fabrics at all, but Joann's and Hancock's have a little bit. Enough for me to make this:

I didn't want to tackle the big quilt, so I decided to make a small wall hanging. I'm really happy with it.  I haven't quilted it yet, but tomorrow I'll be marking it and quilting it by hand.  I've tried my hand at free motion stitching and that didn't go very well.  I guess it takes practice, but I was really discouraged and I don't know if I'll try that again.

Then I found this pretty thing:

It's called Flip Flop Flakes. I may have seen it advertised in another quilting magazine. I can't remember now where I saw it, but there was information for how to order it. It doesn't look too hard and I'm looking forward to making that one. I went ahead and ordered the kit for it from Quiltmaker. I must have seen that in Quiltmaker magazine. I started to just try and buy the batiks, but I wasn't sure I could find everything in the colors and I really liked the colors of the one in the picture, so I broke down and bought the kit. I can't wait to get it and try that pattern.

I had to go today to the Singer Sewing Center to get a 1/4" presser foot for my sewing machine because I'm tired of trying to guess what 1/4" is. I love my new presser foot. I also needed a new foot pedal for my machine since my old one had started sticking and it was very frustrating, especially when I was trying to free motion quilt and it was hard to keep a steady pace going.

I'm trying to decide if I'm going to the American Quilter's Society quilt show in Knoxville in July. I haven't been in 2 or 3 years and I would love to go again seeing as how I seem to be having a quilting fever right now. I'm used to going to Nashville, though, to the Opryland Hotel, but for some reason they stopped having it there. It could have been the big flood that had awhile back. Anyway, I'm sure it's just as good in Knoxville.

More Flowers

Just a few more flowers from my garden.  My peonies and white irises are doing really well this year.



It's Spring!

I haven't been blogging much lately.  I've been working on several projects, some knitting and sewing some small purses.  I plan to take photos soon and post them here to share with you.

I did get outside and take some pictures this week.  I couldn't help myself.  Everything was in bloom and I thought I'd better grab my camera before they were all gone.  So, here are a few pictures I'd like to share with you of pretty blooms in my garden.  Most of them are of the beautiful wisteria that was blooming a couple of weeks ago, and my hens and chicks are green and healthy and abundant this year.  I have some more pictures of my pretty peonies that I will post later on.