ITS THAT TIME OF YEAR

Alleys in my town

Picking these on the side of the road soon, for dying yarn.

     Holy Smokes, (and yes, I mean that literary), it is so smokey here my lungs and head hurt today. No outside, non, nada, nope, not today. I have to say, all these issues we are facing,(fires, environment, political, COVID, etc...) are beginning to wear on me, and yet their is really little I can do about any of it! 

On to things I enjoy doing. I am working on a (reproductive fabric) hexie quilt, all done by hand. I have not bought any fabric for this quilt... yet, and hope not buy any. Use it up or do with out! 

Canning season has started! Caitlin and I have put up 6 cases of peaches the past week, equaling 52 quarts! That is a record canning peaches for me. I hope to have pepper jelly done this week. Canned 16 jars of blueberry jam and it is over the top good.

I bought a new sewing machine! Yes, it is an antique hand crank machine that sews like a dream. I have a real soft spot for old sewing machines. 

Other things happening here at my house: sorting out photos, lots of photo memory making paraphernalia. I use do so much of this stuff and make loads of photo books, cards and invitations. The 'stuff' just kept making its way into my home and today I went thru boxes and draws full of stamps, paper, cute stickers, more paper, cutters, pen and stamps. I blame my obsession with collecting and playing with all this on the fact I went to Catholic Schools and we really did not have art class, I was making up for lost time.

Well, its all organized and now I want to start cropping again.

The last picture of Eric and the kids melts my heart. The three of them watching the lake and bobber for a fish to rise and bite. They had no luck on this trip, but sure did enjoy the experience.

BUS RIDES AND DYED YARN

My dogs woke me at 4am this morning. They are usually late sleepers, so when one is barking it means they have to get outside-now! I decided after getting the puppies re-settled to make coffee and catch up with the news. Nothing changing regarding US news, every time I watch it’s just more bad behavior by our president. lordy, my two and half year old grand little is more mature than the White House or the GOP….sad. Turning that off I turn my attention to the daily meditation that I have committed myself too. I find meditation has been a big help keeping my head on straight and realizing there is so much I have no control over, but ME. When I stay focused on my mental health, my family, taking small steps changing things that need twerking in my world, I find that I am changing the world for good, small steps at a time! And it is so worth my energies! 

Betty asked me to make her a quilt several months ago and of course I said I would. That quilt is now being quilted with a small wondering stitch pattern. It is taking me longer to quilt it due to I am not able to sit long in one position needed at the machine. Yes, the soon to be one year old (Gus) is havoc on my back! But, I can never resist holding that sweet sweet baby boy.

We read Pete The Cat books several times a day here with Betty. In one book Pete wears a yellow sweater with bright buttons, yup, you guessed it, I knitted a yellow Tiny Tea Leaves sweater for Betty! I will have her pick out the buttons sometime this week. 

Wound some yarn I dyed last summer using Black Hollyhocks. I’m thinking I have enough for a child’s sweater or an adult vest.

We took the kids on a bus ride last week and had too much fun! Betty loves buses and talks often of ‘yellow” buses, ‘blue’ busses and ‘green’ buses, we rode the green bus

The calendar has turn to the Christmas Season. I hope to keep ours peaceful, fun and calm. Wishing you the same this Holiday Season.

16 OCTOBER 2017

Rocky Mountain National Park

RMNP

RMNP

RMNP

Yellowstone National Park

Goings On

YARN DYING-I had dyed 3 skeins wool yarn with rabbit brush last year and it turned out BRIGHT lemon yellow,

               not my kind of a color;-{.  So I decided to play in a chemistry lab and gave this yellow                     

yarn a bath in some rusty nails and a TBLS of Fe ( powder iron). I loved the result of a dull green. I have plans for these skeins.

RMNP-We went to the park to hear the elk bugle, met my brother and SIL for a picnic dinner of homemade fried chicken and salad. Went on a walk through the meadow with buffalo grass as high as my hips. We found the Elk and relaxed into an evening of watching and listening.

YSNP- Some left over pictures from YSNP. Lots more that will be sprinkle here through out the winter months. I miss you YSNP!

GARDEN-Pulled out the green tomatoes, squash, cukes, and the end of the lettuce. In the front garden, cleaned out so much over grown perennials that weren't flowering anymore because they were just too old, (like me). 90% of the Irises are gone! Irises here on the front range grow like weeds and crowd out other flowers. GONE now! Discovered a lady bug painted rock that one of my girls painted when they were in kindergarten, ( so sweet). Betty will be soo excited to find it tomorrow, (she loves lady bug rocks).

PLANTING- Garlic and 200 tulip and daffodil bulbs. Betty and I have much work this week while the weather is still Indian Summer Fall.

HARVEST FESTIVAL- Betty and I have hit two different Harvest Festivals thus far. The second one had so much more for us to do...animals to pet and lady bug rocks. Oh, the time we spent with these two attractions. The German sausage lunch with homemade sauerkraut was over the moon.

QUILTING-working on several quilts that I can't show yet. I have been photographing some of the quilts I have made over the years. The quilt pictured on this post is my design using flannels with some fun stitching and penny flowers, the best- is little hands of my four kids appliquéd on the quilt. Be still my heart...

RED BOOTS-I am in LOVE with those red boots. Eric and I bought them in Montana when Betty was way too small to wear them. She loves them now...and so cute!

TUCKING IN-Organizing inside so that we all can keep busy through the winter with projects-re-doing cabinets, painting house, drawing/painting pictures, Christmas gift making, and all the books that will be read these coming cold months. Thankfully our winters tend to have few really bitter cold days, so their will be walks, oh how we walk here, several miles each day unless it's raining hard, or snowing in feet. Cold, is not a weather condition that keeps us in doors. 

5 OCTOBER 2017

New car delivered to this girl in Minneapolis.

My sister's place in Wisconsin. She raises alpacas.

Working with grandpa, getting Mom's new shop opened. Soon very soon!

Found these books left on sidewalk. We read them and left for someone to claim.

A dear friend picked this book up for me...so good!

The season is surely changing right on time. Morning's, cool and crisp, perfect walking weather, my time to think, meditate/pray and look for all the beauty in this world I am journeying through. The sun warms us up during the day but 80's does not feel so suffocating with the cool evenings and 1-2 quilts on nights.

The kitchen has been busy with family in from out of town. Ribs, lots of ribs slow cooking in the oven all day. Served with corn on the cob, lettuce salad, coleslaw and a wonderful couscous salad, all made here in my kitchen and eaten with family on the back porch. Fall is my favorite time to have meals on the porch. The sun casting that fall shadow -its magical!

The above two paragraphs were written two weeks ago. So, so much has been going on since then:
- a six day road trip to Minneapolis and Wisconsin to see my youngest grown up girl and then a short weekend visiting my sister. I drove by myself to Minneapolis in 15 hours, yeah, Im too old for that again.
- finished another 2 inch square scrap quilt for my sister in a week.
-I back our trailer into its storage space for the winter-that's a first for me.
-Walk, walk and walking daily! My A1C is going down! Moving works.
-having a blast with my sweat baby girl
-dying yarn
- starting to tuck in for winter. It's been cold and wet here in Northern Colorado, day and night.
*organizing BB toys. Putting some back to bring out later in winter to relieve winter boredom.
*decluttering rooms and starting a deep Fall clean of the house

So much more to do to get ready for winter here, though I really enjoy the tucking in process.
Oh, and I ordered 150 bulbs! YIKES!

PLANT YARN DYING

On our way home from Yellowstone, my husband made an abrupt stop on the side of the road. Not an easy thing to do when pulling a 25 foot trailer, oh no! I could not for the life of me figure out what possessed him to pull over like a man on a mission. Well, the reason was to cut for me some tumble weed blossoms, ( not sure if this is what it is really called, but a pretty yellow flower along the highway, mixed in with tumbleweeds). He cut about 3/4 of a large bucket full, slicing his hand all the while ;-(.

Today ,was my day, to plant dye some yarn. I have never done this before, but how hard can reading directions be? It is a long process all the cleaning, boiling flower heads, boiling mordant, boiling yarn in mordant, and the finally-boiling yarn the solution from boiling flower heads. My color turned out to be a lovely honey/yellow!

This was fun, playing with flowers, yarn and pretending I understood the chemistry. I have ordered 

Harvesting Color, that was recommended by ginny sheller over at Small Things.

For some bizarre reason, this plant dying yarn appeals to me. I in no way need another hobby, but I grow a garden and love flowers, so why not?

I wonder what kale would do or crab apples?

Happy Monday

It’s back to work for me in the morning ;-0)