Busy Times

I have two shows done and 5 more to go. So I have lots more dyeing to do.  Today I turned my dye pots on early. Yesterday it poured sheep and goats (formerly known as cats and dogs), maybe 2-3 inches. Not good for drying yarn. So today I dyed and dyed, up the steps with armloads of wet yarn, then down again for more. 

I never tire of hanging my yarn on the fence. Oh yeah. I got my sheep back because the FENCE IS DONE!!! They are happy to be back, even though they loved being at Camp Ann's. I picked out this gate at Southern States specifically for its many rungs, plenty of space for hanging yarn to dry.  (Nearly every photo I take has a sheep butt in it. When they see my camera, they immediately turn their butts my way!)

I lined the fence (isn't it lovely...the fence, that is) with the chicken coop in the background. The chickens all ran over to look at the colors   see if I had any treats. 

Oh, speaking of chickens, yesterday during the deluge, one of the chickens really made me laugh. The coop run outdoor 'floor' is very hard because the men dug down a foot to bury the chicken wire. This exposed the shale base that water cannot penetrate. So when it rains, Lake Chickamauga forms in the chicken run. This happened soon after the coop was painted a nice, bright white. When the water subsided a bit, it left behind 4" of mud. The chickens came out and threw mud up onto the pristine white wall. :(  So I had the bright idea of putting down a long piece of plywood, about 2' wide and 6' long. That really helped until it all the rain fell yesterday and the plywood floated up and acted like a raft. When I went into the chicken coop, one of the hens jumped out the door onto the plywood. Imagine her surprise when the board moved over the lake. Her legs broadened, she leaned forward a bit and she was actually surfing. Oh how I wish I would have had my camera. 

Anyhootie...these next two weeks are split between painting yarn and painting furniture. 

Krista and I have been pickin' at various places, including the local dump. Can you believe I got all this juicy stuff when I went to the 'beauty spot'?

A really nice mantle or organ top, a wooden stool, an antique rocker and 3 fabulous windows that I have a plan for. 

WE are  going to be known as the 'Chair Chicks'. I counted our chairs yesterday and we have 40, yes 40 chairs to re-do. But we all need to sit down and they're easy to carry around and lots of people like chairs, so we'll keep getting them. There are so many different styles so we probably have one for you. 

 Today we painted 8 pieces of retro, 50's furniture that will be going into the Stylish Patina October Barn Sale. And primed a heap of chairs and sprayed a cute little typewriter table. 

I had promised the dogs a walk and river swim, and they reminded me in late afternoon. So I turned off the dye pots and we walked down Harris Road, our beautiful rural road that leads to Sugarloaf Mountain. Today was in the mid-80's and with the fall colors, I felt so lucky to do what I love, live where I love to be and have a full productive day. 

Whimsy

Whoo boy! I have been doing so much lately, I haven't had time to blog. I need to catch up. A couple weeks ago 7 of us from our felting group travelled to Michigan to take a 5-day felting workshop. This was my kind of workshop as there were 5 different instructors teaching us 5 different things. I get a bit bored taking 3-day workshops so this was a perfect ADD type retreat. Our first day was making these fun and funky little creatures. But more on that later.

Bev, Paige and I drove up in a day, arriving in early evening. Creative Felt Gathering is held at Dainava, a Lithuanian religious retreat center. We stayed in a sort of dorm room, Bev and I sharing a room. In the mornings we would get coffee (damn good, rich and strong) and walk down the lane towards the pond.

The fog rose in the morning, making everything seem unworldly.

Sandhill cranes entertained us on our morning walks. They perform a dance, usually for mating but also for staking their territory. This must have been the case, as they mate in May. They mate for life, usually around 30 years.  

 Sandhill cranes make a very loud bugling sound, which we heard from a distance, getting louder as they approached. Similar to a honking geese, the sound is deeper and stranger. 

I was a bit familiar with them, as they were near the Missouri River in South Dakota.

Our first day was off to a fun start with Andrea Graham from Ontario, Canada. She is known for her amazing pods and has branched out to creating these delightful little monsters. 

She's showing us how to make the pointy things protruding from the bodies of the critters.

All her whimsical creatures sport bright colors, bumps, tags, wild hair and legs.

Arranging floral wire creates them their legs, usually three and bending them this way or that, gives them their personality.

Her felting is perfect, very smooth and takes a long time. (around 5-7 hours).

We started out with a mess-o-wool, wadded up to form the body and wrapped with wool yarn. Next comes the prefect to wrap around the body, sometimes embedding marbles.

Here is my little monster, not quite finished.

Mr. Bee Bop Bojangles is the right. 

Everyone's turned out so different. That's what fun about these gatherings of creative spirits...the talent is amazing.

They just make you smile!

We took them all outside for a little photo session near the rocks.

They seemed to come alive and really like the fresh air. Except Carrot. He just wouldn't get up.

We worked outdoors whenever possible. Here's Zita happily rubbing away.

Jone, the super organizer/felter/teacher/comedian kept everyone entertained while teaching a late afternoon class.

Lithuanians are known for their carvings. I don't really like the traditional cross (can't religion be about happier things?) but these cross are a thing of beauty.

Set upon a hill overlooking the pond, the crosses form a large circle. 

A bench in the circle of crosses provides a nice viewing point overlooking the pond. A great place to watch the sunset and the emerging stars in a black sky. And to review what we had learned in our fun day of felting.

More projects in the next posts.

Mom Comes A-Visiting

I get to see my mom, Darlene, only once or twice a year. How sad is that?! I wished we lived closer, not 2350 miles apart. But she likes Arizona and I like Maryland, so we can't just run over for coffee on a random Monday.

I told her if she was going to come now, that she had to work a bit because this is the beginning of my busy season. So we started out with lots of parties, beginning with a breakfast party.

 We also did some shopping at barn sales.

I thought I should get this knee sign in hopes that it would bring good juju to my knee.

Got the whole fam together...Forrest, Aramin, Garrett, Houston, Dalis, Darlene, Deidre

 All three grandsons in the same place at the same time...doesn't happen too often.

 Beer makes everyone smile!

 I did let her relax a little bit...

 

 reading on the deck to supercharge herself for more work.

 She got right to work on our furniture, scrubbing and painting. She also labeled about a gazillion skeins of yarn for me.

 We even had a Pinterest challenge, making these adorable little paper birds.

 Speaking of birds, Seal did this beautiful mosaic cardinal for a client. 

We had a delightful lunch at Seal's place.

Enjoying the beautiful weather

 and being with my mom.

 Seal lives only about 10 miles from her mom...lucky!

We had a marvelous time, but two weeks just isn't enough. My dear, dear mom just had her boyfriend break up with her, so I wanted her here to give her a little boost. We talked and talked, like I was the mom and she was the teenager, giving advice and consoling her broken heart. I told her that she is so warm, loving and adorable, that she'll find some lovely man to keep her company soon. I just hope he's as wonderful and she is!