COLORADO COTTON CANDY AND BIG BUNCHES OF BEADS!

Here are two balls of finished hand spun. The large gray one is a little less than half the Icelandic I've been working on for a year. The little variegated ball is the "Colorado Cotton Candy" I spun up this week. See pics below for the "Cotton Candy" in the various stages of construction--reverse order! I am starting a lace scarf today using these two together as contrasts. Pictures coming in the future!

I'm excited to share pictures of the paper bead necklaces I've been making. I gave many away as Christmas gifts. This little craft is addictive! I can't wait to see what a magazine page will roll up to be! So far, my favorites are pages from gardening catalogs! Very bright!

Next is the finished yarn from the roving I named, "Colorado Cotton Candy." I purchased this pretty bit of fluff on our last trip out west in September. I thought it looked like cotton candy. Sorry, for all you fiber enthusiasts, I think I threw the tag away and can't vouch for the exact fiber content, but I remember Merino, silk, and some rayon (the metallic blue thread, I think.)

Here is it in the process of spinning. I am not totally happy with my spinning at this point. I feel once it's plied, my yarn looks too "loose." Any tips? I think this turned out as a fingering weight or sport weight when it was done. There's not much of it and so it will have to be knit along with something else to make a project. I am thinking it will be pretty with a bit of the grey Icelandic I've been working on. I am pretty sure I can see grey Icelandic socks with this yarn as a design in the pattern! Blessings, LORI

OUR CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

Welcome to Christmas in our parlor! The stockings are all hung by the.....piano??? with care??? Well, no mantle or chimney at our house! The tree is right next to the piano.

Our "pencil" tree. We had to go to a skinny tree ever since we moved into the new house. No place for a real full tree. I'm surprised we didn't think about space for a tree when we built this place after living in the Victorian for 10 years and going all out with a huge round 9ft. tree and four other trees elsewhere in the house!

Looking at the tree from this view, you see my fringe curtains that adorn the archway separating the living room and formal parlor. The parlor is one of my favorite rooms in the whole house, though I use it very little. Many of my family heirlooms and antiques are kept in there.

I hope you got to see my paper beads on the last post. I have some amazing pictures of the finished projects coming up soon.

I hope you are all ready for this most wonderful season when we remember Christ's birth! Blessings, LORI

CHRISTMAS CRAFTING

Thanks to Rebecca for asking what I've been up to! As well as working many hours at the library, I've done some crafting for Christmas gifts. The first picture is me assembling one of the six or seven footed cake stands I made for gifts.

Using second-hand store glassware or dollar-store items, I glued "pedestals;" glasses, ice cream dishes, or candlesticks to the bases of pretty plates to create a footed dessert plate. I gave one to each of the ladies at work. The next picture shows a finished cake stand, complete with one of our miniature pound cakes made with eggs from our own hens! This is a very old recipe and requires a lot of beating. Kori, my daughter in law, made me one of these wonderful plates for Christmas and that's where I got the idea!

Next is an assortment of Christmas tree ornaments I found yesterday while shopping. The little frames were only 50cents each so I snatched two complete sets. I made up one for my mother in law and one for me using parts of Christmas cards for the pictures!

Yesterday, Rhiannon and I went shopping for a few gifts. I was interested in obtaining more candlesticks for making footed dishes. We ran onto a half price sale at Goodwill and I purchased these lovely candlesticks for $3.00! I intended to use them for cake stands until I brought them home, wasshed them up and saw how absolutely gorgeous they were. They are very heavy and etched. I will give them as a gift instead of glueing plates to them. They are quite tall, though you can't tell from the picture.

More projects coming up in the next few blogs. I trust you are all having a wonderful Christmas season! Blessings, LORI

ANOTHER PAINTING PROJECT!

In addition to Christmas crafting, I've gotten the card table back out and set up the paint set Rhiannon gave me for Christmas last year. The other night while we watched a program, I painted a picture of Jenny Lake in Wyoming--the first picture below is one we took probably 11 years ago when we first took the kids out west. Now one of them lives out west (Colorado) and can view scenes like this daily! My how things change! I do regret that the color on the picture of my painting is "off." The colors on the actual painting are much closer to those in this photo, but for some reason the camera didn't capture it correctly in the painting. Blessings, LORI

MAKING BEADS!

More of what I've been up to--making paper beads! Yes, paper! I learned how to construct beads from paper and have been enjoying this little craft now for the last month or so. I have an egg carton just filled with these potential necklaces! Round ones are the biggest challenge for me so far.

Beads from grocery sack style paper. Various pages from magazines. If you work with a page of a predominant color, you will get beads with a "marbled" effect of that color--these green ones, for instance.

This is a view of the larger assortment--only a few! Here are the first ones I made--still my favorites! They are a beautiful black/rose color and look like cloisonne. I have begun to string them with other beads for a necklace. The way I do the beads, several can be made from each page of a magazine. These particular beads were from a colorful picture of pink flowers in a garden catalog.

It's a fun hobby, but now every magazine and piece of paper looks like a potential necklace to me ! I have a hard time, especially at work where I am in charge of the periodicals. I view every page with a critical eye, wondering just how it will roll up into "jewelry!" It keeps me constantly experimenting with color schemes! Blessings, LORI

BACK TO BLOGGING!

Since it's winter, we're baking more. Rhiannon made this lovely pie the other day; yum, yum!

Been too busy to blog! I'm glad to finally post! I've been crafting, working lots of hours, and visiting with family.

Here's what we woke up to on the last day of November! I think we got about 7 inches and still have some on the ground even after several warmer, sunny days! This pictures looks out over our back deck.

Here's a picture of Clint and I a few months ago at a wedding. I thought I'd post it just because I kind of like it. Clint's outfit is one I made him a few Christmases ago. Though he has several western outfits that I made him, this is my favorite. I can sew these tab-collared shirts and silky vests for about 1/4 of the price they would be in the stores. This wedding had a cowboy theme and we had line dancing at the reception. The couple is/was from Texas!

Had a productive day. Besides blogging, I worked three hours this morning at the library and then did some cleaning and ironed 12 shirts, made some Christmas presents and enjoyed lunch out! Blessings, LORI

PICTURELESS POST

Yes, I'm still here....just very busy! Working 6 days this week and starting to add in Christmas parties in evenings. My family from Colorado got home safely Monday morning and we are missing them. Even though Kori and the kids visited for 5 weeks, the time was too short.

Will be back with more pictures and updates soon! Blessings, LORI

ALL ABOUT FAMILY

Papa and Huxley--notice the similar facial features?

Princess Emma getting her gloves on for a royal tea party at the other grandma's house! Princess Emma and Lady Lori at the royal tea table!
Emma and Sophie in their harvest party costumes making some very good looking treats at our church.Sophie at our farm--"Wow, it's hard work for a cowgirl to break in a new pair of boots!

Papa and Emma on the tractor.

More genealogical news coming soon--any more guessses? Blessings, LORI

FARMING IS SERIOUS BUSINESS!

Couldn't resist posting this picture of Sophie "driving" Papa's tractor! She is all business, isn't she? On a recent trip to our farm for the afternoon, the girls enjoyed picking a few beans (in the field in the background), feeding french fries to the chickens, and taking tractor rides! Can't wait to post some very interesting genealogical discoveries made just last week! Can anyone guess which famous New England family I discovered that I'm related to? Blessings, LORI

HOMECOMING!

It is so good to have our family back home again for a visit--well, everyone's home but JT. He'll be here in a few weeks.

Here is a picture of Huxley and me. He wouldn't need the saying on his shirt, he looks like a boy--no mistaking him for a girl! He's a very calm baby and soooo sweet!
Next is a picture of Sophie looking very serious. She is growing so fast. She is talking quite a bit now--a very smart and sweet little girl.
Last is a picture of me and Emma gathering eggs. Here we are inside the chicken coop. Doesn't she look like she's having fun! Emma is so grown up. She can write and spell her own name now!

SOME REAL GOOD DIRT!

Well, it's that time of year again! Time to plant tulips! It's an act of faith in a way. You plant them in the fall and trust that they will come up exactly as planted in the spring. This is a picture of me showing off the prettiest (an appropriate description for dirt?) compost you ever saw. We made this mixture over a couple of years just by saving our kitchen scraps, cleaning the coop occasionally, and adding leaves and yard debris. Makes dirt all the more precious when you know you worked to reclaim it! These 50 bulbs of 5 different colors that we planted today were purchased during our trip to the Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan earlier this spring. We've been waiting for a hard freeze before we planted. We were discussing today whether our great, great, however-many-greats-grandfather and his family were tulip farmers while living in the Netherlands. Just this week we uncovered a bit of information that indicated that the family originally fled from France to Switzerland to escape persecution. Later they moved to the Netherlands where this grandfather was born in the 1700's. Eventually some of them came to America. We are blessed because of their courage and determination. I am so thankful for the earlier generations that left us a legacy of faith.

As we delve into more family history my faith is strengthened in discovering such truths. Clint's family has long known their history of fleeing religious persecution, coming from Switzerland to America in the 1800's. And....just today we learned an amazing tidbit of information that I think is the most amazing yet! Care to guess what that might be? I will post on this in the near future!

Meanwhile we are enjoying the return of our grandchildren and daughter in law from Colorado Springs! Blessings, LORI

MY HOW YOUR PROPERTY HAS CHANGED!

I couldn't help thinking of this blog title when I started writing! When I posted property pictures yesterday, they were of things a few weeks ago. Please take time to compare! When I was little it never failed every year at the family reunion, older aunts would look at me and exclaim, "My how you've changed!" The same can be said for the rapid color changes we saw in the last several days around here! Michigan is lovely right now! Fields and hills...
More fall color!
An aisle of red sumac!
The pond
A woodland trail
Beautiful trees

I hope you are enjoying the pretty fall we're having. They say our weather is about to change. We are gearing up for an early winter as this last ten days seemed like Indian summer--a bit early! Blessings, LORI

A COUPLE OF PICTURES

Just recently I spent a little while at our new property. Clint mowed lanes around the 29 acres. This is what it looked like about 2 weeks ago.
This is the pond at the back. I was hoping to get a nice fall color picture but it was a bit too early the week I took this. On Sunday afternoon I spent quite a while over there walking the hills and lanes. The view was very different than just a week ago. I will try to post those new pictures soon so you can see the comparison! The family will soon be all together again for a visit. Kori and the children will be home! Hooray! Later JT will join them and we will be together for Thanksgiving! We are anticipating that with great joy! I hope we can all go over to the new property to walk the trails together and possibly take our family Christmas picture.

We've had some amazing times with the Lord just recently as we met up with His servants--some from far away--one person we had met for the first time and another we hadn't seen for a few years. We've also had some wonderful prophetic encouragements given to us recently that make us eager to keep the faith and press on! I trust the Lord has been blessing all of you as well!

Had a day off today and was surprised at all I got done--seemed so good. Ironed 9 shirts and 3 pants, did laundry, cleaned various areas of the house, started a sewing project, read Bible, pulled weeds, took a walk, cooked (a rarity lately) and probably more I can't remember! Blessings, LORI

SUMMER IN A JAR!

THIS IS A QUICK POST ABOUT PUTTING THE FLAVORS AND BOUNTY OF SUMMER IN JARS! This is the wild black raspberry jelly I made from berries on our property!

Here is a picture of the moms cutting apples for sauce! Thankful to have a laundry tub for this!

Next is the operation of squashing the apples down for sauce. Isn't it a pretty pink? No artificial color! I use a mix of equal parts Jonathan, Cortland, and McIntosh every year and this is the lovely color product I get!
Running the pressure cookers to process the jars.
Many, many crabapples from our 200+foot windbreak down on the front of our farm. This is the first year I've picked them since I got a longing for crabapple jelly like my Mom once made when I was young.
Jewel-like jelly in jars. I am very, very pleased with the crabapple jelly. I didn't get much--4 jars in all, I think, but it was the easiest jelly I've ever made. It required no pectin since the fruit is so full of natural pectin! Sugar and juice and that's it! I could have picked more, but I decided it was a lot of work and the wildlife appreciate the winter snack!

We are very, very busy right now. Our weather is beautiful, the whole family is working long hours, and we are trying to enjoy what is probably the last of our nice fall weather. Blessings, LORI