St. James Court Art Show

Day one.  A successful day of sales, seeing vendor friends that we see only once a year, visiting with returning customers....what else could anyone ask for?  Maybe pictures?  Well, I have to laugh at myself.  I took my camera and did not take one picture.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better photo day.

The quality of vendors on Fourth Street is super this year.  I love the creativeness of each vendor.  Unlike fiber festivals/shows,  the variety of art work is so diverse.  I would love to have the time to stay in a booth and just soak up the energy emitted by each artist. 
But, the time out of my own booth is limited to just a few minutes each day....less than, I would guess, ten minutes.  Therefore, I will never be able to see the work of many vendors....only those in my immediate area.  

The show is located in a historic area of  Louisville, called Old Louisville. The home behind our our booth was build in 1863.  The area is the nation's largest Victorian neighborhood in the United States! 


The residents of the home are Rikki and her husband.  He is a professor at the University of Louisville.  She is an avid collector of anything Lion.  To walk into her house is to walk into a walk into a museum of Lion art.  There are Lion paintings, sculpture, stuffed Lions, Lion jewelry etc....  


Rikki always had a "spread" for artists in their area.  Food abounds.  Delicious food and a BATHROOM!  She also shares her recipes.  


She told us a joke yesterday and I am going to close today's blog with the joke.


"There was a woman, 
she was driving down the road and saw a frog.....
she picked up said frog.....
while driving, the frog asked for a kiss....
she kissed the frog....
the frog turned into a super handsome guy.....
THEN the frog  asked her  if he could kiss her....
She said "OK"
and She turned Into................


tune in tomorrow night  to find out what.....


Good night and God Bless y'all.....

Fab Friday!

Now, the day has yet to get into full swing, but I am thinking positive!  Thanks to Big Bad John, I now have a cough to beat all coughs.  At first, I thought it was my allergies as the first symptoms came immediately after mowing, but this has lasted for almost a week.  It is wearing me out, but is much worse for John with his existing breathing issues.  Right now, he's out picking up a prescription, that his lung specialist has ordered, along with cough medicine with codeine.  Needless to say, this is going to put a stall to finishing his installation of our Ultra Allure flooring in the motorhome.  That's the way it goes, sometimes....

I started a H. U. G. E.  felting project.  I am making a rug.  Right now, the lay out is six feet square and the fleece is seven inches high.  When finished, the rug will be much smaller and thinner as the felting process shrinks as it felts.  The fiber scales open up, lock together and the air between the fibers is pushed out.

The scene on the rug will be a primitive view of hills with trees.  Very minimal looking.  This will go the the St James Court Art Show in Louisville, Kentucky the first week end in October. 

Finding a spot for the motorhome is difficult in Louisville!  We had to pay fifty dollars a night for a hook up at the Kentucky Expo Center for water and electricity!  I hope we can find a less expensive place this year, but I'm not holding my breath. 

I just received a telephone call and  have been admitted to Ribber Rendezvous and Fancy Stitches Too the Danville, Illinois COWS Crank in.  There will be no livestock there though.  For the life of me, I cannot remember what C O W S stands for, but it is a gathering of circular sock machine crankers.
 
This does not mean that I will be cranky though, I promise!  This is a photo of the kind of sock machine that I have.

Another reason to be happy about attending COWS is that we will be out in the motorhome at the Kickapoo State Park in Danville.  We have never been there and are looking forward to presenting you with a positive report.

This brings the thoughts of boondocking.  We absolutely love boondocking!  We love the privacy, the quiet, the scenery when boondocking.  There are no neighbors "next door" or next door is a half mile away!  The solitude speaks to our souls and quiets our hearts.  Many people have called it cheap docking.  The fact that we pay nothing when we boondock is only one small factor.  Yes, it's nice to choose to spend our money in other ways, but the reasons I have previously stated are the best.  Boondocking is not for everyone.  Some could not do without their electricity, their television,  people to talk to, etc.  Different strokes.

Well, I must get to the rug.  I hear it calling to me from the studio.  If I am lucky, I will start the felting process today.  With the hot, hot weather returning tomorrow, I prefer to have most of this done as the air conditioning  is not the best in the studio.

Until later............. God Bless

We Have a New Great Grand!

New babies are so precious.  Especially when they are our grand children and great grands.  Today, Harper Howe entered the world at 6 pounds 7 ounces and she is just beautiful!  I even have the photo to prove it! 

We have been waiting with a bit of anxiety.  She has created a stir for the last 2 or 3 weeks.  There was an irregular heart beat.  Cause for concern!   An ultrasound showed that there was an umbilical aneurysm and the physicians were fairly confident that the increased pressure created by the aneurysm was pumping too much blood into the heart creating the heart rhythm problem.  But we had to wait until delivery to be sure.  On top of that, our little darlin decided to present her tush, rather than her head.  Therefore, a Cesarean delivery was scheduled for this morning. 

The parents to be were to be at the hospital at 9:00 this morning.  The hospital personnel told them that it was "all clear" for their delivery.  When they arrived, they went through the registration process etc.  And then they waited, oh, oh,  the OR was needed for an emergency delivery.  Then another emergency... they had to wait their turn for the operating room.  Finally, it was time and Harper entered the world, easing every concern we had about her health. 

Megan had visitation all planned.  First she and Adam wanted to be with her for the first hour.  Just a nice quiet time to bond with their loan from God.  Next they wanted the grandparents for the next hour followed by the greats!  We calculated that if Harper was born between nine and ten o'clock, that would mean Meg and Adam would be alone with her from say, ten to eleven, followed by grandparents from eleven to twelve o'clock.  Then, last but not least the  greats at noon.  Now, I added about ninety minutes to that schedule based upon past experience.

I passed some of the waiting time reading and then I decided to spin some yarn.  But when the ninety minutes stretched to two hours, we decided we would make our way toward the hospital, hoping that we would get a call and we would be close by. 

We went to Camping World to make a couple purchases for the motorhome, then drove by Sam's Club. We decided that since it was a Sunday crowd, we did not want to stand in line, so we just moseyed on down the road.  While driving, we called daughter #1 - Karen to see what the progress was and she informed us of the delay, but said she was on her way to the hospital.  We knew from that it was going to be a bit longer, so off we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant to wait.  The good food helped distract us and made the time go quickly and suddenly, we get a text from Meg telling us to come meet our new little one. 

She is so petite and cuddly!  The hospital has swaddling blankets that make them feel nice and secure.  She looked so cute in her white blanket and her pink and white hat.  She's just a "knock out".  Can you tell I'm a bit biased?  Oh well. 

Well, the rest of the day is history. 

Yesterday, we spent time spring cleaning the motor home in preparation for next week's trip to the fiber festival in Wooster Ohio.  I was amazed at how much dust and grit there was from the desert of California.  Now all the wood is cleaned and polished, mirrors are shiny, windows are clean, exhaust fans are cleaned, etc, etc.  I even cleaned closets and drawers!  We are ready to roll and are looking forward to meeting up with our friends that we have  not seen since last fall and those we have not seen for the last month or so.  This begins our busy time with art shows and the fiber festivals.  Having our home on wheels makes our travels more comfortable and we are looking forward to hitting the road on Thursday. 
The gas prices have gone down fourteen cents a gallon.  Nice timing, don't you think? 
Well, it's been a great week and a marvelous weekend.  Till next time....God's blessings to you....

Why did we do this? A Motor Home? Why?

As people discover that we have purchased the motor home, some look at us as if we have lost our minds (or what's left of our minds). They don't come out and ask why, but the looks on their faces speak volumes.

Let's go back a few years,,,,,,,,,,,,,
.
A few? Don't think so.

Well, you know what I mean.

Back on the thinking back....One weekend, we visited with John's cousins from Bloomington, IN. They had invited us to where they were camping for a visit. They had a camper for their family of 5. Everyone was having such a wonderful time and they were outdoors! They were not cooped up in the house with the A.C. going. They were next to a lake, in the woods, enjoying what God had provided for them. Hummm, that felt pretty good.

That week, we purchased what seemed to us. a huge tent. The very next weekend, we were off to enjoy the camping life. Nearly every weekend, we camped with our daughter. We even potty-trained her while camping. No better place to put "big girl" panties on her. If she had an accident, nothing was hurt. We fished, we hiked then sat around the campfire at night and listened to others talking about their camping experiences. Hey, some of these people even went out of state! Now that was a great idea.

The family grew, then our summer activities shifted to Lassie League softball which took up every week end and we just didn't have time to be camping. So we thought. The girls grew older. We, as a family, got busier. Life got in the way and no more thoughts about camping crossed our minds until now.

Now, we have art shows and fiber festivals resulting in hotel stays. Those stays can get old. I wanted my own bed, I didn't enjoy eating out day after day. We enjoyed participating in the shows, but I wanted my own bed and to be able to eat my own food.

The first of June, 2010, we were driving to the Hoosier Hills Fiberarts Festival that I am a co-chair. Luckily for us, that festival was only 15 minutes away. At night, I could sleep in my own bed. woohoo!

On our way to the festival, we were at a stop light and low and behold, there was a Winnebago with a for sale sign in the window. Just to make conversation, I said, "that is what we need". The rest is history.

We almost purchased that motor home. We asked for a week to think about it (giving us time to do some research and to look at other motor homes). We took more than the week and finally purchased a Winnebago, not 27 but 35 feet. I thought John was going to have a mental breakdown right there on the spot! He was sure he'd never be able to drive one THAT long.(stinkin thinkin) We needed the storage space and this had sooo much more, was sooo much roomier, was sooo much newer. I'm sure you get the picture here.

Now, we are looking at even longer, newer models and guess what. I think John may be considering faking a mental break down this time. (big sigh)

So far, our Winnebago "Road House" has taken us to Wisconsin twice. We have camped in Illinois on Lake Michigan. We have participated in shows in Kentucky, southern Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, North Carolina then traveled on to South Carolina, back to NC and then on to VA and Tennessee. W H E W!

It is great that after a day of work a festival, friends new and old, can sit and chat at a pitch in. If we choose, to be able to walk the trails, enjoy the mountains or the beach....just to enjoy the outdoors that we love so much. John can fish all he wants. He can visit every Bass Pro Shop on our path.

We had John's mom living with us for eight years. The last 8 months of her life were not good. In April, when I was at the Fiber Event, in Greencastle, IN, John called and said that his mom fell and "broke her hip". It turned out that it was not her hip, but her femur and it required Surgery. For a short while, she was in a rehab facility. It was a lovely place....to visit. This made us think about how we wanted to spend our "retirement". We decided that we do not want to just wish we had done this or that. While we have reasonably good health, we want to live our dreams. We want to experience a full life traveling as much as possible. If we get to the place we cannot get out and go, we want to have no regrets.

We enjoy vending at the art shows and fiber festivals. We enjoy our children, and grand children, someday our great grands.... Also there is traveling, being outdoors, having new experiences, trying out food of the area, visiting with old and making new friends....and having our own bed .... all to be enjoyed.

Not to say that we don't have frustrations along the way. We are supposed to be either on day five or day two of our trip west. It would have been day five, but on Friday evening, our grandson got married to a real sweetheart. We would not miss that for anything. We had planned to leave yesterday after the wedding, BUT, (enter Murphy)..... the motor home was in the shop for brakes, oil change, water closet fix etc. The etc. has turned out to be a BIG ETC. Four days later....need I say more?

I had mentioned to John that I thought I heard "something" as we came home from our last trip in November. I forgot to tell the service department, but they heard it too and there was a problem with the power steering so that had to be repaired too. One thing led to another and......eyeroll here .... the part that they installed turned out to be defective, so out it goes and another ordered...

what did they say about "made in China"???? Good grief, let's put our countrymen back to work! I'm sure they can make things better and have more human rights than the people in China.

oops! I strayed...(keep me off my soap box....please)

Sooooo, with all that being said, do I dare say it???? Will it jinx it????
dunno, but here goes......we are to get the motor home back tomorrow. HOPEFULLY, we can pack up and be outta here either tomorrow afternoon or first thing Tuesday morning...

I have waited soooo long to see daughter # 2, Jojo, ..... the waiting hurts .... physically hurts. But, each day passing makes seeing her that much closer....unless there is the dreaded phone call of something needed for the 'Road House'. Today, I will have faith...