Early Halloween

Erin is doing well. She can't talk much and sleeps a lot, but the medication has kept the pain pretty much under control, and she has been able to eat some mashed potatoes and some scrambled eggs in addition to the liquids.

Last night Eric came over to take the kids to the Halloween Event on LSU's Sorority Row. Mila thought her mom needed the boa around her sore throat.

Mila wanted to wear the pink puppy dog costume Erin made her a couple of years ago. A little short, but otherwise still fits. Erin took her medication about 30 minutes before Eric brought the kids by for pictures so she could enjoy the time. Mila plays photographer, too.

Max was not especially pleased to be in his teddy bear costume, but with some persuasion from his dad, he managed to cheer up.
Oops, he unzipping the zipper again...
Mila was eager to get started.And they are off to get the loot...

Tuesday Tales

Came down to Baton Rouge on Sunday. We were at the surgery center by 6:30 Monday morning for Erin's tonsillectomy. All went well, and we were home by noon. Fee did the grocery shopping before he headed back to Shreveport.

Erin has been doing very well considering all the horror stories I read on the web about adult tonsillectomy. We love hydracodone!

Right now I'm doing laundry and playing with these...Sunday afternoon, Mila and I took a walk and gathered fall items for her to take to her kindergarten class for their fall wreath.

When we got to Mame's (pronounced MOM), Mila had to stop in and say hello. Then we gathered these lovely seed pods from one of their trees. Mila and Max are staying with their dad while Erin recovers.

Erin can't talk much and has slept a lot, so I'm prepared with some reading material.

Vintage Whimsey!

Remember the vintage thimble I bought the other day? Well, My Aunt Debbie has an idea about how to use vintage thimbles and snaps:
Fun piece, eh? Now I'm going to have to go back through all of my vintage treasures with an eye for whimiscal uses. Ideas for for the pink shoulder straps?

This and That: Birds, Tonsils, Books

A little more on the weird birds...


The garden is winding down,
but there are still spots of color...

Will be heading to Baton Rouge on Sunday as Erin is having her tonsils out Monday morning. Having this done isn't fun, but Erin is thinking positively about the fact that she won't have to deal with the same problems every year.

Lots of liquids, popsicles, yogurt, etc. I'm thinking of some soups for when she begins to improve, but initially, broth.

Speaking of yogurt, I took Laddie his frozen yogurt a while ago. He doesn't respond to much any more, but he does love Frosties and ice cream and frozen yogurt.

For those of you who enjoy mysteries, I just finished an excellent one: In the Woods by Tana French. I reviewed it here, but had to be discreet because I didn't want to give too much away.

This Bag Is Made For Shopping

What to do with all of those plastic bags we end up bringing home after shopping? I try to remember to take in my various green shopping bags (the kind you can now get for $1 at many stores), but often forget and leave them in the car. Which means I still come home with plastic bags...

Sew Take a Hike created a lovely version of the fusion bag with shapes and words fused in between the plastic bags. Perfect for any kind of shopping, but especially for those cold items from the grocery store. Check out her tutorial.

Ocean Blue Gentian

Ocean Blue Gentian
Originally uploaded by virginiarose

I love this! What a beautiful combination of papercutting and collage! Here is a link to Virginiarose's flickr photostream.

Love the use of stamps, cartoon text, map, silhouette, and color. Virginia Rose Kane also has a blog and an Etsy Shop.

Weekend Review

Made myself some more spinach and lentil soup and froze lots of little bags for lots of lunches throughout the fall! I've worked on the recipe a little and will organize my combined version of 2 recipes so next time I won't have to think as much.

Also made a batch of Louisiana Hayride Bean Soup for Amelia, who loves it. Lots and lots of sausage went into this batch.

From TipNut, a Recipe Hit List of 12 pasta dishes. I do love pasta and will give some of these a try.
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Thought I'd published this on Friday. Hmmm.
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Back down to the country and work this weekend. I had more fun digging and lifting and moving dirt and leveling uneven areas with this! I spent hours playing on the little tractor, learning to work the bucket and getting unbelievably dusty.
Bryce was stylin' after lunch, some of which is still on her face!
Amelia and cousin Katie are quite a pair. When Katie was at the office this summer, the two of them would sneak off to showings at the Robinson Film Center. Now Amelia has no partner in crime.

Marty is explains. Robin pretends to listen. Fee is walking bad boy Mac in the background.

Strange Birds

In addition to the moodling, I've begun a new little embroidery of strange creatures and weird flowers similar to the one I attempted with machine stitching. Ugh. Was not at all happy with this one. My machine was giving me trouble with tension, which was eventually remedied, but did not improve my feelings about this practice piece.

So...time to try again. Using a water soluble pen, I drew another version on a small piece of linen (now wish I'd used the beige linen instead of the white; will try that on another day). This experiment is already more enjoyable, if much slower.
For Chocolate Lovers Everywhere: Did you know chocolate could be GOOD for your skin? Check this out. Hot chocolate is always a delicious treat in my book.

Vintage Sewing Paraphernalia

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”

I love that quote.

On Wednesday, I took my camera with me as I planned to visit a couple of antique shops after the meeting downtown. First stop, Timeline Antiques (a kind of antique mall). Spoke to the owner and asked if I could take pictures, then discovered I had my camera, but not the card!

Had a good time anyway and made a few sewing related purchases (which I had to wait until I got home to photograph):The latch hook is a Shillcraft Readicut.I like pretty needle papers and advertising thimbles.Forbes Magazine posted this article Eight Reasons Why You Can't Pay Attention (which applies to both children and adults). I found #'s 3, 5, and 9 to be frequent problems.

I never used to watch television very often and would spend my evenings reading. Now, I do enjoy watching television at night while doing handwork of some kind. A few favorite shows and my Netflix movies provide entertainment as I ply needle and thread.

When Fee brought home this spaghetti sauce, I protested.

No! Your sauce is the best! Your sauce is divine! Your sauce is homemade in the skillet not the jar! Your sauce is all fresh vegetables and lovely aroma! Your sauce is visually and tastefully delightful!
But the Tuscan Vodka Sauce was pretty good! I had two helpings. Large helpings.

Blog Action Day (belated)

After seeing posts about Blog Action day on Crazy for Fiber and on Mouse Medicine, I've done some research and wish I'd known about it earlier. Not that it is too late, but I would have posted earlier about the movement. I recently contributed to First Book and do believe that providing books to children of low income families is a worthwhile cause. My brothers and I have contributed to the our local Community Foundation in honor of our parents. I will be looking locally for more opportunities to help-- as our area, like Kim's, has a high percentage of the population that fall below the poverty line.

In these difficult economic times, it is important to remember that those in the lowest income brackets hurt in ways we can't always imagine. Our family may cut back in many
areas, but we won't be worried about paying our bills or putting food on the table.

Monday Musings

Another weekend down at Raft Bayou. Working, mostly. Last night, after a shower and some Advil, I read and worked on some more moodling ("long inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering") :

I moodled last fall as a means of relaxing and had a great time just playing with the stitching while watching television. It was fun playing with the colors in the cabin last night and listening to Selected Shorts on NPR which featured two Eudora Welty stories.

Yesterday morning at 5:30, the sky was alight with stars: it looked like a planetarium's perfection. The Big and Little Dippers and Orion's Belt are the ones I always pick out, but the view was so spectacular that I may check out a book on constellations to be able to recognize more. Down in the country with no city light-glow, the night is very, very dark and on a clear early morning the sky was a-glitter with stars.

This morning, no luck. Overcast and no light-show. Left the cabin about 6:00 AM and home a little after 6:30. Feeling very lazy, although I have dozens of things that need to be done.

Finished Pillow

Here is my new little pillow with my strange little bird. I love it.
For some reason, I kept thinking of this poem by Emily Dickinson that Mother loved:

HOPE

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
As I worked on the pillow and decided to do a line form the poem on the back, I knew this little pillow was going to mean a lot to me. And it does carry a lot of meaning...it reminds me of Mother.

Flowers, witches, and more books...

Fee brought me flowers the other day, and they are still gorgeous!

Don't you love this tea towel? When I saw it, I couldn't resist and each time it catches my eye, I smile!
More on the pillow...
Here are the books Danielle of Sourcebooks sent me:

My Lady of Cleves by Margaret Campbell Barnes
Mansfield Park Revisited by Joan Aiken
and
The Ladies of Longbourn (The Pemberly Chronicles - another one based on Jane Austen's characters.

Thanks, Danielle! I will review them on A Garden Carried in the Pocket soon.

October Pleasures

Isn't October a lovely month? Those cool snaps that occasionally make their way to our area provide such delight, such energy, such improved spirits. Fall has always been my favorite time of year, and certainly the relief from our hot, humid summers justifies a celebration.

Time for banana bread...
and Louisiana Hayride bean soup (my version...
There has been no studio time lately. I've mostly been attending to daily chores, playing catch up on several duties that tend to get put off (delayed, forgotten), reading...anything but sew.

The table began catching books and laundry and (although not yesterday) newspapers.
Thinking about what to do with our little cottage and small garden area down at Raft Bayou requires searching through some of my books and magazines...
Have Laddie's laundry folded and ready to go. That little spray bottle has a quick mix of spearmint and lavender for a sweet scent.
Avoiding the studio has not been a deliberate choice-- more a too lazy to think period--but the fallow period has gone on long enough.

I began working on the back of a pillow yesterday. I had already uses scraps and left over borders, so I just added here and there until I had the right size for the back. Then I decided to embroider a little...

But there are still a lot of book distractions and Daniel Jackson of Sourcebooks sent me some delicious books that made my day yesterday which I'll tell you about later, but I'm very excited about these!