Okay, this is what I woke up to, it is 7:30 a.m.
Little bit later, the backyard off deck.
It is now about 1:00p.m. and there is a bit more snow and you can see the snow flying.
More snow flying. When I came home from guild meeting the most snow was still up here in da tobin, and it is still snowing. At least it is not sticking to the streets yet but there are some scarry icey places out there in the yard...especially the deck.
That is a black rug and that is NOT salt it is HAIL!!!! I was out raking leaves and it started to rain and by the time I got into the house it was a bit chunky. We are supposed to get 2-4" of snow tonight and another 1-2" tomarrow. I have a guild meeting tomarrow night, hope it doesn't snow and the roads aren't icey...I am not a very good driver under those kind of conditions.
You have heard me rant about "Wool Pets"...well here are my first two at temps. That is a piece of my hand dye in the background....anyway...the bumblebee turned out great and so did the lady bug. They do take a bit of working, but I found tucking the wool in places and then poke poke poking did alot to help shape. I need to find those rare earth magnets so I can glue on bottom and hide with more wool. Then I can put on my fridge :-) One of my black kitties is here too...the eyes, nose and mouth are needle felted (free hand). I have one totally made and several others tacked to this board waiting for completion.
Glenna of Quilts n Things designs her own patterns and this is "Pansies", the one I did for her shop using two batiks she picked out (the background and large border print) all the rest is my hand dyes. I made two and this is the one Mark liked, so it now hangs in our bedroom. This type of hand dye works great for applique because of the mottled mix of colors and shades. I really like it. I had so much fun I did another one.........
I thought the grapes were appropriate since a picked a bunch of them to make grape jam. Only the brown and purple are my hand dyes but if you enlarge the photo, the green is from the packet of goodies I got from Cinnamongirl93...thanks Barb...when I saw this fabric I just grabbed it, took it upstairs and started cuttin away, it worked out great! This hangs in the hallway just before the bathroom upstairs.
Another week blown by....as you can see, the leaves have blown out of the trees too! Hard to believe that just three weeks ago they were green and just starting to change. We went to Escanaba yesterday, thought maybe they would have more leaves over there but it rained real hard for three days and washed all the leaves off the trees. Did go to Glenna's Quilts n Things, they had a big shop hop but nobody wanted to go with me, so I got Mark to go to Escanaba, a nice Sunday drive. I delivered a wall hanging that I did out of her pattern, two batiks she picked out and the rest was my hand dyes. Turned out really nice. I made two, one for me and one for her, I let Mark pick out the one he liked. Will photo tommarow and post. Glenna was happy with what I had done and she has my hand dyes displayed way better now, looks like she sold about half.
Look what arrived in the mail today from CinnamonGirl!!!! I totally forgot, lucky me, and it was a welcome surprise on this cloudy and cold afternoon. 4 very nice fqs; pretty note cards and yummy......chocolate...dark with blueberry; cherry; and almond ... that is, three different bar flavors. Have to hide from Mark. Will take up to sewing room...ya know...when I need that boost of energy when I am up there slaving away! :-)
Lastly, Mark said he wanted indoor plants this year. I love plants and in Hawaii didn't have to bother to bring them indoors. But it adds a bit of color and warmth. This is just the start I do believe. From left to right...snap dragons, petunias and the two smaller pots are HOT peppers. I dont know what kind, a friend gave to me. They do have pretty little purple flowers though. I am going to get some full spectrum light bulbs for my pole lamp and am going to start to grow another pot of flowers and see what happens. Maybe I will pick up a couple of miniature roses and put in a decorative pot. I absolutely love roses and have always grown them, but I think they would be such a challenge up here, so the small ones will do for now. There are such other beautiful flowers and plants to grow! The sun is out! Of course it is 4:30 and 39 outside....it is supposed to get down to 29 tonight and it has been raining=snow?!! When I looked up the extended forcast for this area, they had the first "scattered snow showers" sometime latter in the week. SNOW!!!!! I need new tires!
Another Monday, another week and with the wind blowing, these leaves will be gone fast! But today and yesterday it is/was in the 70's. Yesterday not a hint of wind and today it is a nice brisk breeze, warm. This will not last, a friend said we are supposed to get snow this week from some big storm. It won't stick, but snow already?!! I am going to have to check out the weather page I use.
I wish I would of taken this photo last evening. With the setting sun shining on this maple it literally vibrated with color. There is this pink/orange the leaves change to...before they turn red. I don't know what color it actually is but I love it!
I made another batch of concord grape jam last night between homemade enchiladas. Yes they were scrumptious! and........I have in the freezer two more dinners. If I am going to make enchiladas, I am making enough for several meals. This jam really turned out great! I gave two jars to a friend of mine, and her son and his girlfriend ate almost an entire jar Saturday morning for breakfast on their toast.
It's another Monday and I cannot believe it! It is about 46 outside right now. We had three really bad frosts this past week...buy buy to Mark's peppers. I had him bring in my pots of snap dragons and green peppers. They are back on the porch for now doing well.
Isn't this pretty...if you enlarge you can really see the fence...just up the road from our house. I think it would make a lovely quilted wall hanging.
Okay, you really have to enlarge this one to see the bald eagle. We were driving along and there were many many eagles in the sky. We saw this dirt road and turned into a sand quarry and yep, dead dear, before this shot there were lots of bald eagles mature and immature; turkey vultures; ravens...as we walked closer this was the only one who held his ground and then we got too close and off he went. I wanted to park in this little side place in the shade of the trees. I believe it was far enough away they wouldnt feel threatened but Mark is so freaking impatient that he just drove away...creep... :-(
Finally made it to Ewen and Richard and Kimberly and SweetPea were home. Sheri was out working like usual...hardly ever see that gal! We did walk down to where she was working before we left for a quick visit. Was very nice to see her, looks like she has lost more weight, she looks great, a little tired but great! After a nice visit, Richard brings out his old gun and since Mark has never fired it, off to a rock quarry for some target shooting. Mark hit the target his second shot...went right through 1/4 steel...pretty scarry. The dog didn't like at all and begged to come into car with me. She sat quietly behind my seat for the rest of the shooting. The guys had a grand time of it!
and finally....I picked some concord grapes at my friend, Rebecca's house on Thursday...about half or more of a large brown paper grocery bad. The first half are in the bowl (that is the largest mixing bowl tupperware makes by the way) and now the sink is over half full with more grapes. It took several hours to pick them all off the stems and disgard the old ones and stuff. I am going to put them through my juicemanII...it gives me the juice, about half the skins and spits the seeds and everything else out the back...works perfect. I think removing the grapes from the stems is the most tiring and time consuming part of the deal. But nothing tastes quite as good as fresh homemade concord grape jam...welshes doesn't even come close!
