..........Thoughts for a New Year..........

Old Farmer's Advice

Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong. 

Keep skunks and bankers at a distance.

Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.

A bumble bee is considerably faster than a Massey Ferguson tractor.

Words that soak into your ears are whispered.....not yelled.

Meanness don't just happen overnight.

Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads.

Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.

It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.

You cannot unsay a cruel word.

Every path has a few puddles.

When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.

The best sermons are lived, not preached.

Most of the stuff people worry about, ain't never gonna happen anyway.

Don 't judge folks by their relatives.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

Live a good and honorable life, then when you get older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time.

Don 't interfere with somethin' that ain't bothering you none.

Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.

Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.

The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin'.

Always drink upstream from the herd.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.

Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in.

If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.

Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, and leave the rest to God.

(Claron sent this to me.)

700th Flower

I just placed this, the 700th flower at a fabric shop just down the street us from us. Actually it was in a display holding eleven. It's on consignment. I check in about once a month and if some are sold I give them an invoice. I do this at two other shops and it has worked out well.

Utah State Fair--September 2010

I took this picture of my quilt on display at the fair. I was a little disappointed more wasn't showing, but with so much blue denim I guess they needed to cover it. I found a great machine quilter who did a beautiful job within a two week period. I bound it the night before I took it in which took me four hours of continuous hand stitching. As always Hunter was my support, driver, and camera man! (video taped the excursion)
We walked over to Creative Arts after visiting the Home Arts building and enjoying the quilts. We saw some amazing carved gourds. I love to see the creative talent at the fair.

Cedar City

We went to the Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City, Utah last week. We enjoyed three plays: Great Expectations--the musical, The 39 Steps, and Pride and Prejudice. I took my knitting along  (I'm making felted puzzle slippers) and we accidentally took movies instead of pictures (so no picture). While walking back to our car, we took some pictures of a plant the gardener called Woolly Mullein.  Somehow I erased the photos so I'll try to explain how the plant looks. It is gray and fuzzy and the thick stems or stocks curve out and are taller than the other plants. It has yellow flowers. The gardener gave me a piece of a stalk with seed pods on it so I could try to grow it. During our time in Cedar City, I was on the hunt for antique stores  and found Betty's on 1181 South Main (well really on a frontage road East of Main Street). Hunter took movies of the place. It is and acre or more of old stuff:  old farm equipment, treadle sewing machine bases, metal bed frames, tractor seats, and plenty of junk. I found a tractor seat to affix to an old Russian Olive tree stump in our yard for a seat. On the way back home we stopped at our favorite store in Fillmore and bought ribbon and rick-rack for 15 cents a yard. It is a  home improvement store that has morphed into a all and everything store. They now have an on line store. They carry Wilton products, party supplies, Halloween costumes, etc. I'm a treasure/bargain hunter and have heard of another store in Salt Lake I want to go to that has collectibles. I enjoy making things from collectibles and found objects.

Headbands and Hair Clips

We did some new photos for another local store. The headbands are currently at Unwind and Piper's. I really like the rosebuds and I always enjoy the wonderfully colored wool roving from which they're made.

Wood and Wire and Pressed Flowers

I have created a new art piece. I used a plain wood frame and stained it with a burnt umber wash. I had the glass cut to fit it and then arranged and glued the pressed buttercups,  feverfew, and forget-me-nots between the panes of glass to look like a meadow. On the face of the frame I created a bee or butterfly ( you can decide) and a wire flower. They are made from rusty found wire and some new wire and rusty garden staples which had been used to hold landscape fabric in our garden. I took the photo in the garden so there are live plants behind.

Hello Cupcake

Janie asked me to make cupcake dogs or "pupcakes" for a BBQ for her dog show friends. We ended up making 16 for the party (Bethany came to my rescue) and I made another 8 for another BBQ. There were Chocolate Labs, Dalmations, Sheep Dogs, Dachshunds, and others. They are embellished with all kinds of candies: tootsie rolls, jelly bellys, candy coated sunflower seeds, marshmallows, mini Reese's Pieces and more. Here is a picture of just one kind of dog we made. Whatever it is!  Karen Tack has another book called, What's New, Cupcake!