That’s Life!!

 

And so it began!  A hurricane that blew across many islands to land in the Gulf.  Of course, it doesn’t stop till it hits land which happen to be Texas.  The eye of the storm passed directly over our house, bringing high winds, heavy rain fall, toppled trees, downed power lines.  No power is not on my list of good things!  We’re whimps!  We loaded up our car and headed west!  Very selfish of us, I know.  Usually, we’re the ones that says to all those without power to crash at our house.  Not this time—over 2,000,000 households had NO power!  These kind of days neighbors help neighbors.  If you have food that needs to be cooked, out come the smokers and bbq grills and there is a block party.  Sleepless, hot nights are the standard.  Some have generators but otherwise you just keep as cool as possible in 90+ temps. 

Luckily after a day and half some locations came online.  Our daughter, grandson came to our house to empty our freezer.  We didn’t want any spoilage.  The smell of rotting meat is awful!  So thankful they did that.  We had just shopped week before and loaded up on sales!  Daughter exclaimed “ stop buying meat”!   Needless to say family members will enjoy good eating for days ahead. 

There was no damage to our house!  We’ve been  blessed!  Power has been restored so we can offer our house as lodging to friends in need. 

We drove to Keystone, Colorado as we already had the trip planned and paid for.  Coming from below sea level to 9400’ altitude is definitely a strain on our old bodies!  Walk short distance, out of breath, can’t sleep at night—But—it’s cool!  The mountains are gorgeous!  Worth the discomfort!  Part of me wishes I was with family and friends as they struggle with the aftermath of Beryl—then there is the other side of me so happy we left.  

And so July begins…

 We are traveling to Paris via Italy—what a fun adventure this will be—because, it is virtual!  Yes, Tour de France began June 29, only this year it began in Florence, Italy due to Olympics being held in Paris.  As we have physically been in Paris several times and enjoyed a month long tour in Italy, this is an exciting journey!  I did not start my spinning on June 29 as planned.  The wheel turned first thing on Monday July 1 with the silk/cotton blend. 

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind!  A new great grand baby was added to the family June 18–he is named Stetson James and eagerly embraced by big brother.  Our CDH great grandson endured his 11th surgery and hospital overnight stay coming through with flying colors.  Travel was necessary between hospitals—we certainly enjoyed those rounds this time! 

Back to subject—July 4th was filled with parades, celebrations, fireworks and friends.  Nothing like family and friends!!  

Finished-finally-pair of socks!! 

There is enough yarn left to knit fingerless gloves.  Knitting next is Knitmas in July!

The yarn is sourced, balled and cast on. 

Of course, life deals some rough times, that’s where our faith takes over and we soldier on.  

I managed to sit at the loom and weave off the cotton warp with hand spun cotton weft

Once the warp was cut from the loom and hemmed,  towels were washed, dried and folded.  I like to hem before washing.  Too many bad experiences with yardage in washer. 

So happy to have that finished!  A new colorful warp has taken to the warping board—shouldn’t leave the loom naked too long!

Emotional Support Fiber Animals

 Are you caught up in the emotional chicken craze?  Nope not me!  So many of my friends are going goofy over that knitted or crocheted chicken!  My friend has a group of knitters flocking to this!   Have you seen it? 

This designer has sold a ton of this pattern—guess she knew someone needed an emotional fiber animal.  There are many you tube videos on “how to”to work up this pattern as well.  If you need this fowl in your life, go for it! 

Me? I’d rather enjoy my fiber animals. 

My support lamb has been sitting by my loom for years.  Just a little touch of her woolly locks and I’m good.

Basket full of bears!  Yes!  All created from handspun fiber! 

This “chocolate” bear named Godiva!  He’s handspun brown and white cotton

Little snuggly bear is knitted from my handspun naturally dyed wool leftovers from an afghan

Octopus was for a conference theme one year—things you find in an ocean

My pin cushion is a sleeping sheep, woven with hand spun wool

My first emotional support animal was this spirit animal 

Support fiber animals leaning on each other for added reinforcement in times of happiness and sadness.  

Do you need that “bear”ing in your life?!!

I love my “emotional” support fiber animals!!

cheese whiz

Decided it was time to prepare the freezer for summer.  The freezer is overstocked--not necessary with good stuff either!  When something in the frig starts to go bad, into the freezer it goes.  Then comes the day, when there is time to sort through that freezer stuff, you can find all sorts of  possible eatables'! 

 Put on your gloves--you're going to need them--otherwise, it's cold cold hands and you're trying to warm those little mittens up every few minutes.  Or the darn freezer alarm goes off--buzz, buzz, buzz--and if you leave that door open too long and don't heed the warmings, the power shuts off and bam! darkness--can't find a thing then! 

On a recent boring day (yes, in my book, it's a boring chore to sort out the freezer), the gloves are pulled on, counter space was cleared,  ready to dig into that vast mass of what??  Who knows what was thrown into that dark conveniet space?  Pull out bits of bags--wth is that?  There are bits of chopped something; closer inspection, it's green onions--well, that makes sense.  

This is the day I could use that--

next out--plastic wrapped small bits of  white/and yellow cheese; chopped cooked bacon, bread of all kinds--hamburger/hotdog buns, keto, white, brown bread, rolls, biscuits, etc.  must be dried out by now.

An idea formed in my pea brain--I'll make pimento cheese spread!  Yes, what a clever idea!  I have those cheese bits, chopped green onions and bacon--oh, yea!  there is a small jar of pimentos in frig--surprised, it isn't in the freezer.  Dig some more to find frozen cream cheese!   

Shut the freezer door!  I"m done sorting! onto conquer pimento cheese

All the ingredients are gathered--just need some help grating the cheese--"oh honey!  Are you busy? "  he grates so much better than I.  

Mix, mix, mix--taste. add more of this, more of that--till it is just perfect!

Every true Southerner loves pimento cheese spread--if you are tired of of using it as spread, make grill cheese sandwiches or quesadillas,   Add to your eggs in the morning.  Or one of the many ways described here

That was a good way to clean out the refreezer!  Although, it didn't make a dent in freezer space!  I'll try again on another boring day!

'

Summer

 Yep!  It’s officially summer here in Texas!  I’m ready for another hot day! 

In this “Blessed Nana” is my iced tea

In last year’s Tour de Fleece is my iced coffee.  Speaking of TDF, the event begins June 29–gather your fiber, oil that wheel, be prepared to spin, spin, spin!!

It's peach season!!  Delicious peaches are on the menu every day.

For breakfast, there is biscuits slapped with peach jam and hot/spicy honey--both local.  Some good eating!

Italian Grinder Sliders--that website has other easy summer dishes.

Any recipe that I find on Instagram easy to prepare is on my list for dinners.

We celebrated our friend's birthday with this pecan peach cake with bourbon icing, topped with sugared pecans!!  Served along side was peach ice cream!!  DELISH!

We attend cowboy church in Luckenbach on Sundays and this past Sunday was a special day as our great grandson and his parents attended.  This church was our prayer warriors for little JD--they visited to thank everyone for their uplifted blessing.  JD was quite the hit with the congregation; the pastor even had a message on "miracles"--that is JD for sure.

Hondo Crouch is the founder of the Luckenbach as we know today!

Our little JD visited the gift shop to purchase a special Willie shirt--in the earlier years of Luckenbach, Willie Nelson had his July 4th concert there.  As his popularity grew so did the crowds, the picnic was moved to different location.

Want something to sew this summer?  Here you go...................

Hope your summer is fun and adventurous!

Lucet

Who knows what you'll find in the lost closet of fibers?  Only the shadow knows!

-I found this handy little tool that has been hibernating for years.  Pulled it out to do some work and forgot how to use this!

I'm a beginner learner again!

Luckily the instructions were still attached

And the ribbon I was using to make the braid was still ready to use

It's a lovely wood-=smooth and elegant>  Luckily, there are plenty of directions and videos available on You tube and other sites.  Didn't have that convenience 30 years ago.

What is a lucet , you ask?  

A lucet is a tool used in cordmaking or braiding which is believed to date back to the Viking and Medieval periods, when it was used to create cords that were used on clothing, or to hang items from the belt. Lucet cord is square, strong, and slightly springy

The Lucet was found in European Archaeological records in medieval times when the Vikings used them to make cord and rope for ships.

How  old is the Lucet?

It is not necessary to have a fancy elegant wood lucet--you can use a plain old 

dinner fork==maybe a plastic one that only has two prongs

Go for the 'fork'!  Have fun making braid; teaching youngsters this art;

reconstructing history!  

 

Quilting We Go

Many hands and many hearts is sponsoring their annual block drive--if you like to use stash to build blocks for worthy causes, consider this one. The block is to be fall colors, titled 

Two Step tutorial 

The blocks will be assembled to make charity compassion quilts 

If this is something you're interested in, check out their website--Quilting is more fun than housework

I need to spend some time gathering my tops to quilt.  Since we don't have the use of long arm machines at our local quilt shop anymore, I"m learning new ways to accomplish quilting on my tops.  I did finish one quilt via domestic sewing machine; now, I have this one ready to hand quilt--I ordered a stencil for open areas.

  It's been years since I hand quilted--looking forward to that in my spare time.

I have several loose blocks that have no top idea so those I'm quilting by machine individually and decide how to arrange them once quilted. 

Once I've cut backing and batting, the blocks are layered and then the blocks are ready to be quilted by machine.  Using stitch in ditch method, it didn't take long to quilt the block.

I have a stack of 10" blocks.  sandwich as usual and stitch.  On these, I did stitch in the ditch for a few; then got bored and did an elongated zip zap stitch across the block--

coming up--how I sew them together.