New Bracelet

Here is a new bracelet that I made today, being modeled by one of the many cucumbers in my sink, destined for the pickle jar tonight. ( The cucumber, not the bracelet. )
It is not cool as a cucumber here today though. The high was around 100 degrees.

Wildflowers and Pickles

Not much going on art wise these days. Everyone is keeping me too busy. I seem to be at the mercy of everyone else's agenda. That's okay, it's nice to be needed. I just thought I'd post a picture of one of the wildflowers from our field. This is a purple passionflower and it is Tennessee's state wildflower. The vines grow wild all over our farm. They make a fruit that we call a Maypop and my boys used to have Maypop battles with their friends. Oh what strange things you do to entertain yourself in the country. The flowers are very fragile when picked, but I got a good scan of this one before it wilted.
My next project will probably be to make dill pickles with my husband. They are his specialty and our family and friends have put in their orders for this year's batch. He makes them super hot with three or four kinds of peppers, including habeneros. The zucchini and tomatoes have been keeping me busy also. If you were here, I'd send you home with a bag of them.

Wedding and Building

Wow! Has it been a whole month since I last posted? I have been so busy that I've barely had time to check my email.
The first big news is the wedding of our older son that took place on June 30 in Sarasota, Florida. It was a beautiful, simple ceremony on the beach with immediate family and a couple of their best friends. The lovely photos were taken by the minister's wife, Natalie Evans. This past Saturday, we had a belated reception for them at our home. I did almost all of the food preparation, including two cakes, and also had some help from my other daughter-in-law and my sister. We had at least 90 people here. I've decided that I have no desire to take up catering. That was a big job.
My other occupation for the past 3 weeks has been to help my other son and his wife with the house they are building. My older son is the contractor, but we are doing some of the work and not subbing it out, in order to save money. We have been cleaning and staining the concrete floors and laying tile in the bathrooms. When we get it all cleaned up and finished I will post pictures of the tile. In the master bath shower, we used slate on the walls and added accents of ammonite fossils that they found in the rocks on the property. The floor of the shower is covered with smooth river stones that they picked up in Chattanooga, where they used to live. It is quite unique. Later this week we will be tiling the counter tops. In a couple of weeks they will be moving in and we will have an empty nest again.
Life is constant change and lately it has been wonderful and exciting. I pray daily for the strength to keep up. Uphold your family daily with prayer and cherish every moment with them. Blessings to you and yours.

A Smile From My Garden

Today's harvest. Rain today! Hallelujah! This is the first substantial rain we have had in 2 months. I thought we were going to turn into a desert.

My Softer Side

It's so hard for me to settle down to doing one thing for very long. There are so many fun things out there to do. I've been doing some crocheting, felting, and sewing lately. I crocheted a couple of purses that I finally finished yesterday and am listing them on etsy. I also started felting some more beads. Those are things that I can do while I watch TV (which I don't do a lot of) or ride in the car. I made a necklace from some of the beads and listed it for sale too. The model for the necklace was my lovely daughter-in-law, Christina. I don't know if these will appeal to anyone, but I can't help making stuff and I have to do something with it. I've also found that if you don't consistently list things on etsy, your item goes way down in the list and rarely gets viewed. Listing on a regular basis insures traffic to your shop. My goal of one thing every day was a little ambitous but one or two things a week is not too hard.

Elderberry Truck

I just finished a painting for my husband's birthday that I wanted to share with you. For special occasions I do a painting for his office. Usually they are of scenes from our farm or community. This painting was done from a photo I took last summer in our small town. There was a broken down truck parked in a field and the bed of it was filled with elderberry flowers and it was surrounded by Queen Anne's lace. I loved the faded blue color. What could have been an eyesore was transformed into a quaint summer scene.
This summer, that truck is gone and they replaced it with a red one. I'll just have to wait and see how this scene turns out.

Mosaic Pedestal

I just completed a garden pedestal for myself. Sometimes I have to do a piece just for me and not for sale. Don't muzzel the oxen that treadeth the grain. I have had a couple of pieces of salvaged pvc sewer pipe for several months, waiting with this project in mind. The tile is also salvaged from various projects of my own and my mom's and sisters's. I't is about 3 feet tall and 7 inches in diameter. I am using it to cover the unsightly pipe that goes to our septic tank that I've been looking at for 11 years. Now it's covered.