Necklace

I will be out of town for the Seventh Annual Kettle Creek Music Festival on the weekend of August 10-12. (http://www.kcmusicfest.com/ ) It is a benefit for the Kettle Creek Ambulance Association. Since I won't be able to be there spending money, I decided to donate a necklace that I made for their Chinese auction. It has turquoise, bone, coyote claws & fangs & a raccoon baculum. (penis bone-the reason that raccoons don't need Viagra)

cabin pics by request

Deirdre requested more description of our cabin construction. Here's a couple of pictures from last winter. A short history of the project. When I met Charlie 26 years ago, he was finishing the inside of a 12' X 16' cabin-1 story with low attic. (The section with the peaked roof on the right of the unfinished portion) He was only able to work on it 1-2 weekends/month & with a 5 hour ride to get there, that really means only working Saturday & there was no electricity.
The next section to be built was a 12'X12' shed on the right side of the original cabin. After that, the electric Company decided to wire our mountain & we got electricity.
Next project was a large 8'x8' outhouse. (We do not have running water.) It's not visible in the pictures
He decided that he wanted to add a large lodge 24'x32' with a barn roof & a second floor 20'X 32' because of the roof angles. He wanted it 12' from the original cabin. I persuaded him to hire a local contractor to dig a foundation & lay blocks instead of pickaxing & building footers which would have taken much backbreaking work. We built that section & a deck between the 2 buildings.
Now we're working on the "tower" connecting the 2 buildings. It will be 2 stories with a deck on top for hunting, sunbathing (not me) & relaxing.
I'm proud to say that Charlie & I have done most of the labor ourselves with technical assistance & help from his brother & occasionally a few friends. The only other thing that he has contracted out is the roofs. He hates doing roofing.
I keep 4 sewing machines & an 8' long map table for cutting etc in the lodge so I can entertain myself when not involved in construction.

A good day for pictures

We went to camp Tuesday to do a little construction. It turned out to be a good day for pictures. First-a beautiful clump of indian pipes just pushing out of the leaf litter.
Second-a beautiful Red Admiral butterfly. It seemed very friendly-flittering around us & landing to sun itself. (The temps were in the low 60s when I took the picture.
On our way into Cross Fork we saw 2 birds in the road. They were Marsh Hawks AKA Northern Harriers. This one was in the sun. I zoomed the camera as far as it would zoom, took a picture & then we attempted to inch closer to try again. The second one grabbed what it had been pecking at (A small mouse?) & they both flew away. Oh well, at least I got the one picture even if it's a little pixilated.

This is what we were working on. A little wall on the first floor of our tower addition. above, you can see the second floor wall that Matt built when he & Linda visited a few weeks ago.
When I was not chasing butterflies or helping Charlie, I worked on a bracken fern basket coiled with hemp. I love the color variation in the stripped stems-from a rich red brown to a pale green.

Buddies sharing a favorite food

Charlie & Ashley-scallion buddies. Ashley has decided that she loves scallion greens & charlie has always enjoyed them.

Garden pictures

A view from our front porch. The tall lillies in full bloom. The aroma is incredible!
An unusual daylily that I bought at a Mennonite multifamily yard sale. The lady didn't know what color they were, but thought they were the common orange tiger lillies.

birthday pics

I finally got around to downloading the pictures we took on my birthday of Charlie & me between my tall lillies & a mullein (Weed/wildflower.)

The "kittens" are growing up. First, a picture of the magnificent Fuzzy Wuzzy. I couldn't resist taking this picture of Ashley & Junior. Ashley must have fallen asleep during a bath & she forgot to put away her tongue.

Lots of lillies blooming in the garden this week.

Update-project completed-a personal challenge

I won a door prize at the quilt show last month- 4 fat quarters. I love the stripe, the tans are useful. but the white doesn't really talk to me. One of the quilt guild members challenged me to have something made with these fabrics by the next meeting, so I'm taking it as a personal challenge. I found this sew on embellishment on a stretch velvet evening gown at the Goodwill store($5.99) I'm wearing the dress as a lounging dress-very comfortable. I'll be using the embellishment in my project.
Another evening gown that I bought at Goodwill. I will be using some of the dark green velvet & the embroidered sequin trim.
Stay tuned for the finished project-tentative title-"The Singer" (& I don't mean sewing machine.) ....Update 7-8 follows:
It's done-just in time for my quilt guilds' annual picnic today. The name is now "Lady sings the Reds" I decided to use the green velvet (so dark that it almost looks black.), but not the sequin trim. The rosette on the hat was fun & easy to do & turned out better than I could have hoped. I'm happy with it, but I have to ask myself why I tend to make women that look like roaring '20s? I keep thinking that my sister-in-law, Lani should put some red streaks in her beautiful gray hair. Now I know that I'd better get to those cushion covers.

Happy 4th of July

Junior doing the kitty version of flag waving.

finally done

I finally finished the comissioned shower curtain. There are parts that I could have done better, but overall it looks OK. That's one less commitment breathing down my neck. I want to play! I guess that I'd better finish the cushion covers that I promised Charlie first. Sigh!