Fabric bowls

Been working on fabric bowls to sell at craft shows this year.  This is the first time I have made such large ones and I like them alot.

This is a pretty orange/white fabric.  I am weaving a set of matching mug rugs to go with it. 

This one is 12 inches across and 3 1/2 inches deep.  Hope my hands hold up,  twisting the fabric on tight is rough on my arthritis I am getting in my thumbs.

So this is what I have been up to this week besides getting my looms warped.  The 18th of May I am doing a weaving demonstration at a local (40 miles away) Civil War deal.  They are raising money to renovate an old school house.  I get to set up a table, with my table top loom  and sell some of my rugs so that is good.  Will be wearing my prairie dress.  Then in June I have another one a little further away (will stay over nite as it is 2 days)  It is a living history farm festival that should be fun, again in costume.  Going to be hot hot hot... Sister going with me and a big booth set up, share motel expense.
Needless to say I have had to change my store hours.  They were interfering with my activities.  LOL  So no more Saturdays.  I picked up Tue. instead.  It will work out as Sat. is usually slow and I have had to be closed several times on Sat. so folks prob don't know if I am coming or going.  There is a sign on a coffee shop on main street that says:  Always open except when closed!  Thats ME!

May column

Tomorrow is May Day, May 1st so I am really on the ball to post my newspaper column today.  So I am caught up and maybe can find something interesting to post before long.  Have been doing alot of sewing and some weaving with my little rigid heddle loom to get some things ready for a craft show coming up in 3 weeks then another one in June.  I am excited about them so will write more soon with some pictures.

May Column:

I have had my book store open since 2006 with the one and half year out in the middle when I moved out of state. I have always been open on Saturday but am rethinking that and have decided that I will change my days to Tuesday thru Friday 10 to 4. Saturday's are usually pretty slow and I have been finding that I have other projects that seem to always fall on Saturdays. I belong the Fiber Folks of South West Mo. Check out our web site http://www.fiberfolksofswmo.com/ I will be at Farm Girl Fest on May 18^th in La Russell Mo. Which is just east of Carthage. They will be raising money to help restore and old school house. The Fiber Guild will have a booth also and we will be wearing our Civil War costumes and be doing demonstrations in weaving and spinning. A good event to check out.

Also want to mention I will be closed for a week the end of May so I can catch up with my friends in Iowa and stomp around again in Van Buren County where I grew up.

Can't believe how many books I have read this spring. It is going to take a bit to catch up with them. This month I have a mix of mystery books that have caught my eye. Usually I don't like mystery's because I am afraid they have gruesome stuff in them. Silly me, they don't all fit that category.

Catch Me

                                                    by Lisa Gardner

Charlene Grant believes she is going to die. For the past two years, two of her childhood friends have been murdered one by one. Same day. Same time, one year apart. Now she’s the last of her friends alive, and she’s counting down the final four days of her life until January 21. But she doesn't plan to go down without a fight. She has been working with a trainer to learn to fight and shoot, and she has picked out a homicide detective, D.D. Warren to handle the investigation should her efforts be in vein.

But as D.D. delves deeper into the case, she starts to question the woman’s story. She would like to dismiss her as nuts but Charlene is very convincing and in her own way assists in finding the killer just as the day gets closer. She is drawn into the drama and you will have to read the book to find out who “done it”. Gardner has written six books with detective Warren as the main character. I think I will read a couple more.

One Second After

                                              by William R. Forstchen

I found this to be a very scary book because of the plausibility of the facts. Newt Gingrich writes the forward for the book and gives warning that the events could happen to us. It is an apocalyptic thriller about a high-altitude nuclear bomb of uncertain origins exploding over the USA, unleashing a deadly electromagnetic pulse, EMP, that instantly disables almost all electrical devices in the U.S. The country is plunged into darkness and chaos. The story setting is a small town in North Carolina. Professor Matherson, who is also a retired army colonel, lives there with his two daughters. The town is just a small cosmos of what is going on all over the country with starvation, disease and roving gangs. I found the story to be very well written with the town working to safeguard their own survival. It really makes you see how vulnerable we are and how poorly prepared we are for any kind of event like this. Actually the only way to prepare would be to be proactive and have our equipment made so that it would withstand this kind of attack. We could be destroyed without a shot fired. Very scary stuff!

Monday Mourning

                                                  by Kathy Reichs

Kathy Reichs has written at least a eighteen Temperance Brennan novels with a voice of authority since like her character she is a forensic anthropologist and formerly the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina. Reich was the producer for the FOX television hit Bones. In this book Tempe investigates three skeletons that were found in the basement of a pizza parlor. She discovers that the victims are young women who were killed in the 1980's. Thru Tempe's forensic sleuthing and attention to details she pieces the puzzle together. There is romantic tension involving Andrew Ryan, a Montreal detective. It is easy to get caught up in her personal life and her dedication to finding the cause of death when she examines bones. I think I will be reading a few more of her books.

April Column

I just about forgot to post my April newspaper column.  So here it is.  Been a busy month as I was closed the first week of April due to a little surgery I had on my shoulder area.  Doing real well and getting back to normal.

April column

First thing on my list today is to report that I will be closed the first 10 days of April. I am having a little surgery on my shoulder and not sure how long before I can drive. So don't forget me and come in when you see my flag out.

Do you believe in synchronicity: I do and love to see it pop up in my life.

One day a couple weeks ago I left the store a little early so I could go to the local country store to pick up a bag of oatmeal that I had ordered. So it took me on a different highway to go home from there. I had the radio on to this oldie's country music. A song was on by Jimmy Dean called Big Bad John. The split second that it came to the part of the song when he sang about him going to the Promiseland, I looked up and was passing a country church with a huge sign (you guessed it) Promiseland! It was really like I had just received a message from someone. You could call it God, The Universe, My higher self, what ever your belief. But it was real and I smiled all the way home with a feeling that I had someone watching over me and they just wanted to give me a little nudge to remind me.

Consider the Butterfly

by

Carol Lynn Pearson

I have believed in synchronicity for many years. I have often read a word that I had never heard of and in the same day seen it on a billboard. When I saw this book I knew I had to read it. The author talks about how you can find meaning in your life by watching for these “coincidences” She calls it “transforming your life thru meaningful coincidence”. Carol finds things almost daily that make her believe that there is someone watching over her. The title of the book comes from an event that in a single day at least 8 phrases about butterflies came into her life that gave her meaning to connect with a child she had lost that had an affection for butterflies. I challenge you to watch for these “coincidences” in your life, and remember there are no coincidences!

I have never actually read and entire “diet book” But I was intrigued with this one when I saw the author on one of the TV Doctor shows. I would call it a nutrition book and after my report I think you will see why.

The Happiness Diet

by

Tyler Graham & Drew Ramsey, MD

The first part of the book gives a very clear explanation of how we have eaten for centuries and what the turning point was that completely changed our eating habits and for the first time in history, too much food is making us sick. They refer to the Modern American Diet (MAD) that is expanding our waistlines but also starving our brain resulting in a big increase in obesity and depression and they explain how they are linked. I found that sugar is the number one “bad mood” food, no real surprise there. I find it interesting how in the last 100 years or so we have discovered so many “new” diseases and disorders while at the same time we have greatly increased consumption of sugar and other refined foods to the extent that for those who eat the MAD diet are most likely to be sick or depressed. I have actually tried to avoid all processed foods and chemical additives like artificial sweeteners for the last 2 weeks. I have focused on whole grains, fruits, and veggies. Also I tried to not eat anything that listed more than 3 ingredients. I honestly can say that I have more energy. I think this is all stuff that we already really KNOW, but it becomes to easy to ignore. Maybe we need to stop ignoring the elephant in the room.

Uglies

by Scott Westerfeld

I enjoyed this teen fiction book. It is the first in a series of 3 books. If you like apocalyptic novels, you might want to find all three books to read. The Uglies is set several hundred years in the future where the Rusties (people of our time period) have left the civilized world in ruins. Living in a Utopian world a young girl named Tally is getting ready to turn 16 and go thru the transformation surgery to make her beautiful and give them a new personality. But she meets Shay who is a rebel and takes her on a trip to the Smoke, which is a primitive settlement in the frontier where the rebellious Uglies go to avoid the operation. The theme of conformity against individualism is strong. Tally eventually learns that she isn't ugly at all and she fights to avoid being forced to conform. I think it was a well written book and can see why the younger crowd would enjoy reading this. The second book is called Pretties.

Lastly I want to mention that a gentleman came into my store this last week. He also writes a column for this paper so you will be familiar with him. Randy Turner has written three books now related to the Joplin tornado,May 22, 2011. I will be carrying them in my store to sell if anyone is interested in them. The first one is Spirit of Hope and is about the tornado and the events afterward. The second is 5:41 and is about the rebuilding of Joplin. The third is Scars-from the tornado and it is composed of personal accounts, mostly from Mr. Turners students of how they survived and are recovering. It looks like he has done a really good job to document this historical event.

My column for March

While I have been reading a lot this winter, I have to say I just finished book 4 of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon that I mentioned I am re-reading. I used to think people were nuts to read a book a second time when there are so many books to be read. But I have to say, I have loved every moment of it. I read the books back in the 90's up to about 2005 and there was many months between them. By reading them back to back the story just flows and I pick up story lines that I think I missed before as I had forgotten a lot about one book by the time I got to the next one. So if you have a favorite series of books I strongly suggest that you take the time to read them again. I think you will be surprised.

Now I did manage to read a couple other books along the way.

Cruel Harvest

A Memoir

by

Fran Elizabeth Grubb

A dark tale of despair, this story based on Frans childhood, back in the 1950's. I didn't know what I was getting into with this book even though the title was a big clue. It is an incredible story of survival and forgiveness, but also very disturbing. That a father would drag his family all over the US to work as migrant farmers is bad enough, but his physical and mental abuse to his family is outrageous. Fran learns as a little girl how to hid her pain and make herself invisible to avoid her fathers hand. This book would not be for the faint of heart as it is pretty explicit in its telling of the story of Fran. What is the most amazing is that she was able to forgive her father at the end of the book and find her own joy in life by letting this horrible past not ruin her life forever.

The Gilded Cage

by Troy Soos

The time and place is 1893 in New York City. Marshall Webb is an independent writer for The Harper Weekly newspaper and Rebecca Davies is a “spinster” from a well to do family. She runs a shelter for women who have been the victims of abuse or casts out of society with no way to support themselves, with no help from her wealthy father. The story deals with the depression that is gripping the nation while crime bosses run the government even using unscrupulous methods to get their votes. Secret land deals and Wall Street swindles are just a part of the City Hall's political machine. Rebecca gets entangled when she invests some personal money in an effort to raise capital for her shelter and looses it. Marshall works to link some of this together and uncovers some of the criminal factors in the city and writes about it in the paper and helps get reforms moving to make life better. Apparently this is a second book written by Soos about Marshall and Rebecca. The first book is Island of Tears, dealing with the immigration experiences at the turn of the century and how they were treated. I think it would be interesting reading.

Thought for the day: “You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be to late” Ralph Waldo Emerson

My new little project board

My little project board I made the other day.  24x24  light padding on one side and just wood on other side.  My cutting board just fits on the wooden side and give me a solid area to cut my fabric.  The padded side will work for arranging quilting squares and what not.  Pretty handy.  I am making some little place mats where you arrange 2 inch squares of fabric on this fusible grid. After you iron them in place you turn it over and stitch tiny seams up each line of the grid and then across.  Then you have perfect corners of your little quilt blocks.  Finish off with some quilt stitch and binding.  And I said I wasn't a quilter.  Paah!

My new little rigid heddle loom

Warping my new baby with some plain yarn. It is an Ashford 12 inch, and I ordered the extra heddle so I have 2 sizes to work with.

Weaving with some gray yarn so I can see how it works.  I love it and it is so perty!!!  Not my weaving but the loom.  For sure I think I like weaving with carpet warp and fabric better than yarn, but maybe someday I will change my mind.  Getting the feel of the loom for now.
The Weaving Guild will be held this month at the home of a gal who will be teaching about the rigid heddle loom. Hope to pick up some pointers and how to do some patterns.  Will probably use it mostly to make table runners and mug rugs.

February Newspaper column

January was a very eventful month and I apologize for having to be closed much of it. We tend to take our health for granted most of the time and actually do very little to really take care of it and appreciate it. My husband is recovering very well from a serious incident that started Christmas Eve. As we look back at the last month we are very grateful for his recovery. So my message is that we really do need to treat our bodies with respect and take good care of what we have.

One of my best memories of my mother is of her reading to my brother and I when we were small children. We were allowed to buy a book each month which she read to us. Remember all the Golden Books like The Bobbsey Twins, Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, Black Beauty, My Friend Flicka and many more?

One of my favorites when I was able to read myself was a book by Marguerite Henry.

Misty of Chincoteague

by

Marguerite Henry

This book was written in 1947 and was inspired by a real Chincoteague pony named Misty. Chincoteague is a small island off the coast of Virginia and the book tells the story of the Beebe children, Paul and Maureen and their efforts to raise a filly born to the wild ponies. Each year the herd is pushed across the water at low tide from the Assateague Island to Chincoteague Island. There the fire department pens the horses, trims hooves and sell a few of the herd in order to maintain the size. The children from the Beebe ranch save their money and buy a mare Phantom, and her filly foal. They work hard to gentle the mare but the next year the stallion from the Island coaxes her back to the wild, but Misty the filly stays with the family. Much of the story and additional books that followed are based on true horses and events. They still do the horse penning and it draws thousands of visitors to the island and there is a Beebe Ranch, where there is a museum. Misty and her daughter Stormy reside at the ranch in their taxidermically preserved figures.

I found the research on the author and the islands to be quite interesting. You can Google the island name and learn more.

The Good Earth

by

Pearl S. Buck

One of my goals in the coming year is to read more of the old classics. Somehow I missed reading them back in the days when I should have. This is one that has been on my list. The Good Earth was written in 1932. A simple story written by a woman who grew up in China, the daughter of missionaries. In the story a poor peasant farmer, Wang Lung, who goes to the great house of Hwang to obtain a bride, O-lan, from the slaves. She is very plain but a good wife who gives him sons. They live thru famine and many hard years, but she works along side of him making great sacrifices to raise his children. Their time is the pre-revolutionary China in the 1920's. By accident they find themselves the recipients of riches beyond their dreams and Wang Lung knows that if he owns property they will never be poor again. He buys land from the house of Hwang, and as he prospers he buys more until he owns this rich house for his family. You can see the different attitudes between one generation and the next. The story is very rich in irony yet told in a simple fashion that has made it a true classic masterpiece.