December 26th

I did all these photos opposite, oh well. this was in the mail from "daddy". He made Tori this beautiful milo (rare hawaiian hard wood, sells by the pound not board of linerar foot). The hair is absolutely scarry. Spent hours this a.m. brushing out and braiding...she says this does not happen on Kauai...guess it is so dry here or something.

Off to the mail box...wonder if there is any goodie for Tori from her daddy. Snow Snow Snow

Tori collects porcelin dolls, this is her third. I got at a thrift shop for her. She is quite lovely. I will box up all her Christmas stuff and mail back to Hawaii. Doesn't need to go to California and get lost.....ah.....that hair!!!!!!!!!!!

The walk was about a mile in deep snow but was weel worth it. Now we want to go when the spring flood is on. There is a very nice fenced in board walk after you get to parking lot. Needless to say, they didn't plow the road down to the parking lot.....

Here we are at the top of the road at Bond Falls. The first thing Tori did was flop in the snow, she only is wearing jeans, not her snow suit. She is wearing my old sukuluki...she will take back to Kauai with her. She loves it! She loves the snow! Maybe when she gets a little older she will want to come back to ski.

The weather is funky today, about 22 with light misty rain, with more rain to come before it starts to rain sleet and then more snow. We are going to Iron Mountain cause Mark has big messy house project and he wants to get rid of us. Hopefully I can take her to a mantinee or something. More later...........

almost december!!!!!!

Well here I am, finally...it started to snow a little again Thanksgiving day, just enough for Mark to shovel the walk way and path to garage.

I love the snow...it looks so much better than dead grass don't you think.

Okay, here are a dozen blocks out the 72 needed for our wow bed quilt. Isn't it amazing? I am so glad i decided to float the colors on black, and that is Kaufman kona "premium" black which I have run out of and need to order more of from e-quilter. I have all 36 of the black center ones and 6 of the colored center with a dozen more black petals pinned to color center and that is it for now. I have some other stuff I need to work on anyway. But I have really enjoyed working on this one. I have some neat ideas for the quilting too.

This is a thread painting I started in the summer of 2002 and finished it 2 weeks ago. I am just going to stretch it and frame it. Turned out okay. This is all free motion straight stitch with feed dogs down.

These two wall hangings are from that Love Is book. They were really fun to do. Christmas gifts I think.

This is another hand embroidery I made for a Christmas gift. I just got into this hand embroidery jag. I really enjoyed myself. I want to do more. In fact, I have one I really love but need a bunch of DMC pearl cotton and they don't sell around here. Maybe the Ben Franklin up in Marquette does...more like a really nice quilt/craft shop than any Ben Franklin I have been in. No flat fold at this place.

In two weeks we will be driving down to Chicago to spend the day/night with Libby for her 21st birthday and then the next day........Victoria!!!!! I am so darn excited! I know it is going to be alot of work. I haven't taken care of an 8 year old kid for a very long time but I have been collecting projects and maybe, me and Tori will go to Marquette on our own, they have a Micheal's there...craft heaven...and pick some stuff up. Just looking through that place should tucker both of us out. I have to do all her Christmas shopping (her daddy will send me the money he would of spent on her) I haven't a clue! I haven't been with her for almost two years and she has grown and changed a bit. I think I will tell her we are going "window shopping" so she can help Santa out on what he might be getting her. So much to do and running out of time. Our guild Christmas party is Thursday night (making my turkey enchiladas) I am making some cute pressies for the active members...the ones who totally bust it out for all the charity projects we do. There is this one cute ol gal, i asked if anyone wanted to make Christmas stockings for the troops...i got info from a list I belong to...well, on her own she made 32!!!! Well, I better scoot and get in gear. Have a great weekend everybody!

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Okay, Dana at Old Red Barn is giving away, three, I tell you three very lovely quilts. Just go to her blog and make a comment and you could win one of these lovelies.

Monday November 10th

Well, no photo today, camera is being cleaned and repaired. Should be home in less than a week or so. I sure do miss that thing, I guess I took way more photos than I thought. But, it is snowing, snowing and more snow. I thought it was just going to be a couple more days of light dusting but it hasnt stopped snowing since last night. Only a couple of days of none snow and then more snow. I really wanted to get all the leaves out of the yard....at least they are in big piles.

I have been doing some hand embroidery for Christmas gifts, finishing up old projects. One was a thread painting of a yellow hibiscus I started on Kauai in 2002 and I just finished it Thursday. It was fun, I think I am going to design a new floral one to thread paint. Mark likes them...just straight stitch free motion sewing. I use polyester embroidery thread, can never remember the maker...not the ususal ones you hear about but I really love there product.

Really need to get some quilts done before guests start arriving...cannot have them keeping us awake with their chattering teeth... :-) Looks like winter is here. The hunters will be happy with the snow, opening day is on Saturday.

Will blog latter on in the week. Hope everyone is well and keeping safe. Aloha nui loa....

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

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.

October 26 2008

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.

I am finishing up about three months of a nine patch exchange I belong to. I usually do several months at a time. It would be good to do it monthly but I always seem to find something else to do. I was down in the basement looking for something and my gammill was glaring at me. Poor Mark probably wonders why he spent so much money for the upgrade and repair...I know I know, I really need to get quilting. I just have to piece the backing for Libby's quilt and then I will quilt that one. I cannot wait to see it finished. I want to get some thread from Signature...it is called Lava....red and black...the quilt is red and black batiks with a kona cotton black. We will be taking it down to Libby on December 14th when we go and pick up Victoria. We are going down the day before, take Libby out to dinner for her birthday even thou we will be a week early. She turns the big 21!!! She will probably have a drink since she has had a fake id for three years...kids! :-) I better get back to sewing before I poop out. I have to help Mark make the manacotti for dinner. I mix the grated cheese, ricotta and sauce in my kitchen aide and then I got a pastry bag and large tip to fill with...I was using just a cone I made from wax paper. It will be so yummy.......

October 20, 2008

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!

I got the greatest book last week, "Wool Pets". I ordered a kit for "Ski Sheep" but do believe I will attempt the bumblee bees and lady bugs first. They are so darn cute and will make killer Christmas ornaments and great gifts. I am addicted to wool pets and I love her blog! Check her out!