SETTLING IN AND MAKING IT OUR HOME

It is a bit of a mess here right now.  You can see that in the photo!  Being a short one, I use the stool in the upper right, but it is foldable and should have been put in it's  place.

Then there is Noah's litter box.  For a while, it was under our dining table, then we moved it in the space between the "navigator's chair and my seat, but that is where my case with my circular sock machine is now located.  The only place I can think to put the litter box is in the shower.  Any other suggestions?

And ladies and gentlemen, on the right just above and behind Oliver, you see a full trash bag.  That dandy item now hangs on the hand rail.  I REALLY do not like that!

With John's COPD, I thought I had to bring our small room air filter.  Again, there is no good place for it.  Last night, it went to the campground dumpster and I will look for a smaller, less obtrusive filter.

Now, for what we have accomplished.  First is our floors that John installed last summer when he felt much better than he does now.  Then there is the Karastan oriental rug on which  the fur kids love to rest.

Well, maybe not so much to rest all the time.  It is  also used as a wrestling mat for Noah (the cat) and Olivia (the dog).  And guess who always wins....Noah!

 Oliver just stands in the background and asks "when will these two ever grow up and be more dignified, LIKE ME?"

After the rug went down, John removed one of the light fixtures on the wall and hung my cherry Howard Miller wall clock.  It is no longer hanging crooked as you see in the photo.


Next to the clock and waiting to be framed and hung is a pen and ink drawing of Talley's Pub.


John also removed the traditional Winnebago watercolor that comes with every rig.  There, we are going to hang one of my pieces of fiber art work.  This "painting" is composed of hand dyed fibers then blended and laid out to create the picture.  


This "painting" won Grand Champion, Best of Show at the Hoosier Hills Fiberarts Festival. 


The holes left by the watercolor is where this picture will be hung. 

There is another fiber painting to be hung in the bedroom.  A few years ago, this was a Father's Day gift for John.  I entered this "painting" in the fine arts division at our county fair and won a blue ribbon.  What a surprise.

As we travel and John and I take pictures of scenes that we like, I will take the photo and recreate it by painting with the fiber.

I have my dye pot, dyes and all other equipment with me.  I guess we could say that our motorhome is an art studio on wheels.  From our traveling studio, I will be selling the artwork as Merikay and Karen in the Woods will be selling their works.

The final, so far, touch of home we have added is the last quilt John's mom made before her death.  This quilt was even made for John which gives it special meaning to him.

In the lower right corner is a small, portable washing machine.  This baby saves us a lot of money on laundry bills.  It was two hundred dollars and has paid for itself many times over.

As we begin our search for a newer motorhome, a built in washer/dryer is just one of my must haves. What is so funny is that although we have sold our house, we just have not felt a rush to purchase our next motorhome.  For me, that is a good thing.

Enough for today.  If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to head to the comment box!  Thanks for stopping by.

God bless!

Catching up on Home Duties

Laundry and other chores are about completed.  We are working on the mowing and oh my gosh, the rain brought out the weeds.  How it makes me long for the open road.  Let the highway road crews mow and take care of weeds with their huge tractors and bush hogs.  You go fellas! 

I've been looking at inventory and checking it twice....to order more inventory.  Hum, vicious circle, isn't it.  We have a short break until the next show.  This affords me to get fiber artwork done for art shows and to work with the circular sock machine......knitting socks.  The dye pots are also coming out.  Lots of  work to prepare for the coming shows. 

It has cooled off a little and I am thankful for that.  We actually were able to shut down the air conditioning and open windows to sleep.  I love a fresh breeze as long as it is cool. 

The silk worms are growing, and growing.  We have increased the size of their habitat four times.  The runt died yesterday.  He had a case of failure to thrive or something.  He/she just did not grow.  So, now we are down to 26.  The day is coming that they will be spinning their cocoons of silk.  Then the cycle will continue.  They survived the traveling.  Mulberry trees are everywhere, so we had a good supply of food for them. Collecting stems of Mulberry trees created quite a few questions though, and the critters had quite a few inquisitive observers. 

Good wishes go to Marilyn and Ed, The Happy Wanderers /www.mytripjournal.com/travel-607759  You can read about their RV fire and see the photos of the damage. 

Thanks to God for the successful surgery of Gene Woodard.  Gene's wife, Barb is a fellow sock machine cranker and had asked for prayer.  Gene's surgery was yesterday and he wants to go home today~!  God is good!

Blessings to all, God speed till next time.   ..............

Iowa to Indiana

The Iowa Sheep and Wool is now history.  Wow!  What an experience and what a successful show, both in sales and in new friends.  It's hard to tell Deb and Bob Cline from Maple Row Sheep and Wool and Carol Larsen of River's Edge Fiber Art both from Michigan good by till the next show.  We have been vendors  at the sames shows for the last 3 weekends.  We have a pitch-in pot luck at each show as we sit around and chat about our dogs and fibery things. 

Our trip started out on a rough note.  Thursday morning, we had an eight o'clock appointment for a front end alignment and oil change for the motor home.  The expected wait was said to be two and a half hours.  When we pulled in, the technician asked if we were also replacing our "old" front tires.  Oh, Oh,....we just purchased those tires last fall!  Hum, something is rotten in Denmark!  They explained that the tires that the other company said was recommended for "motor homes" were actually for trucks.  A special Michelin tire is recommended for the Winnebago motor homes.  Lessen learned....Not all RV tech's at RV dealerships know what they are talking about. Well, THAT added to the expense!

We were finally on the road at two thirty, three hours later than estimated.  Catch the word estimated?  Arriving in Davenport, Iowa was a relief.  We pulled into a Wal Mart Superstore at eight thirty, fixed dinner and we off to bed for a peaceful nights sleep to the sound of a gentle rain.  Then BOOM! Oliver jumped about 3 feet into the air, I sat straight up....a bolt of lightning and a huge crack of thunder woke us up at 4:00.  Well, that ruined my good night of sleep!  I tried and tried to go to sleep.  Nope, no luck.  I tossed and turned, planned my display, and desperately wanted a nice cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows.  I tried to get the hot chocolate out of my mind knowing I'd wake John up.  (nothing ever keeps him from sleep, ever)

I kept track of the weather on my new Droid X and at 7:30, saw that another storm was moving in, so I woke John up and suggested that we get on the road before it reached us.  It was good that we did leave at that time.  We arrived in Adel, Iowa just as they were allowing vendors to set up.  We were able to pull our motor home right next to our display area and unload.  What a blessing! 

The Festival was great.  We had a ball and now are back on I 80 on our way back to Indiana.  We will stop off in Moline, Illinois to visit the place we lived when we were first married.  We actually lived in East Moline and I am eager to see the house again.  It was a cute Cape Cod across from a park.  The park had a large pond where in the winter, we ice skated.  Late summer, we collected walnuts put them in the basement where we promptly forgot them and the worms hatched.  Lovely, just lovely!  Little did I dream that someday, many years later, we would collect walnuts  and I would use them for dyeing wool a beautiful chocolate brown.  As I "cooked" the walnuts I thought of those pesky worms and kinda felt sorry for them simmering in my stew that I would use for dyeing. 

Well, we are about one hundred twenty five miles from Moline.  Will keep you up to date....Bye for now

Busy Days

Yesterday as a very productive day.  More work in the motor home was completed.  Those little things that seem to bug us when we are having a quiet evening have been fixed or cleaned.  Why is it that we pick, pick, pick.  It's almost impossible for me to just sit without visually inspecting everything to see what needs to be done next.  Oh well, really, it is fun to work on the "roadhouse". 

I also worked in the studio.  At the last show people were happy to find our knitting, weaving, handwork lights.  We almost sold out!  I ordered more and they have arrived.  Also, the wet felting kits were a very popular item, so I made more for the Great Lakes Fiberarts Show in Wooster, OH that is coming up this Memorial Day week end.  This is a super show and again we look forward to seeing the friends we made last year. 

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....

The Joy of Having Children and Grandchildren

Wow!  Double Wow!!

What a time we have had since last talking to  you.  We have celebrated our grandson Ross' third birthday.  He is such a sweetie.  Beautiful red hair and energy to the max.  Ross has the sweetest temperament I  have ever seen.  He is totally into the Cars cartoon movement.  Ninety percent of his birthday gifts were in one way or another in the Cars genre.  He loved each and every gift and was totally overwhelmed with the entire celebration.  This is the first year that he "got it" as far as birthdays go.

Now the age spread between grandchildren is quite a spread.  Our two oldest are 23 and 21.  The younger two are 3 and 6.  A bit of a gap there, isn't there.  Megan, at 23 is expecting her first child, our second great grandchild.  Megan seems more like one of our daughters than a granddaughter and needless to say, there have been baby showers.  We took Meg to Babies R Us and she showed us the items they need for our little Harper.  We, being the stingy curmudgeon, of course did not listed....... HA!    We did our part to make her showers a total haul.

Harper is to make her entrance into the world this Sunday morning.  She has been a bit of a concern the last week or so.  An ultrasound has brought to light an aneurysm in the umbilical cord and arrhythmia  AND she is going to be a breach baby.  What more could be expected?  Nothing, I hope.  We trust that God has both mom, Megan and little Harper in His hands and we will have a healthy little girl to dote upon.

Today, Megan, her paternal grandmother and I all had lunch together at Bravo's.  It was funny to see the appetite an expectant mother can have.  Little Harper is not really giving her mom much room to breathe or to put food into her stomach, but Megan still managed to tackle her lobster bisque and salad.

After lunch, we went to Gymbore to look at baby clothes.  What fun!  The styles are so neat, I could have just purchased the store and been done with it.  Alas, that takes capitol....so we continue to spoil a bit at a time.  After our little shopping trip, we said our goodbyes and each of us headed to our homes.  Megan, for an expectant mother's nap, Gam's Pam home, and I went off to library and to our rental for a confrontation with our renter.

He is behind in his rent and is totaling up a lot of  late payment charges.  I decided that instead of a letter, I'd just show up on his door step.  What I found was very upsetting.  He opened the door and all I could smell was stale cigarette smoke - in a non-smoking home!  That really set me off!  Not good!  I asked for him to pay his rent to date and to add all the late charges.  Then I told him that he was not supposed to be smoking in the condo and he needed to be smoking outside.  Ohhhhh, the fun of being a land lord.  It is tempting to just sell the place.

I cam home and ranted to John, then retreated to family room to "cool down".  Following my cool down time, we went to dinner, but not before calling Megan and asking her to join us since her husband, Adam, works evenings.  We had a lovely time together and that just made the day complete..

One week from tomorrow, we leave for Wooster, Ohio for another fiber festival.  If you are in the area, this is a great opportunity to stock up on fibers, yarn, and all kinds of fiber arts supplies.  Today, I ordered more knitting lights and hopefully they will be in for the Hoosier Hills Fiberarts Festival that is June 3 and 4 in Franklin, Indiana at the Johnson County Fairgrounds.  You might want to check our our website: www.hoosierhillsfiberartsfestival.com to find more information about classes and all the vendors.

Well, tomorrow, John and I resume our exercise.  We have slacked off since returning from our winter tour.  But tomorrow, he hit the road - walking.  After our walk, we are going to tour some garage sales so John can get an idea of pricing items.  He insists on having sales to begin selling off things so we can think about full timing.

As for now, it's time to go, - God go with you and bless your walk. -  This reminds me of a sign I saw this week.  It read "If you want to make God laugh...........  just tell him YOUR plans!  ..............

Blessings..............

Happy Birthday Ross!

Today is our grandson Ross' birthday.  You can see Ross' pictures along the side of this blog.  He is a hoot and a sweet, sweet boy!  We will be attending his birthday party Saturday.  Some of his gifts came from our travels this winter.  While at the Grand Canyon, then at Joshua Tree Nation Park, we admired the cutest Junior Park Ranger outfit - including a Ranger hat!  We didn't get it and now we are so sorry!  Next year! 

The sun has been shining all day.  Most of the ground is no longer wet so I mowed.  It was good to be outdoors and I plan on working outside again tomorrow - if the weather man will let me.  I still cannot get all the way back on our 5 acres.  A huge "pond" of standing water blocks the way.  I think we will have to bale it if it does not dry up soon.  If not, we will have to have a bush hog and that's expensive. 

What do you think about the price of gas?  It has gone down from $4.29 to 4.15 in the last two days.  Thank goodness the Miata gets wonderful mileage.  We have just parked the truck for now.  I sure wish Obama would do something about the gas prices. 

I want to knit another sock on my circular sock machine tomorrow.  Looks like I have a big day planned!  Oh, I also have a hat in the studio that I need to finish felting.  The St. James Art Show in Louisville, KY is sneaking up on me.  Art shows, fiber shows, oh my! 

Have a great day all!  Blessings....

Rain, Please GO AWAY!

It has rained so much that we have not had a day to mow the lawn.  It is about long enough that we could cut and bale it!  The rain started a week ago as we went to Greencastle, IN for The Fiber Event.  The Fiber Event was great!  Sales were up and I met many new friends and had such a great time talking with old friends.  Dinner at Greencastle's restaurant, Almost Home was again a treat.  A great big YUM! 

After coming home from Greencastle, I taught a felting class.  The class was using a resist in felting.  When one uses a resist, they can make an object with no seams such as a vessel, mittens, slippers, etc.  This time the student wanted to make a saddle pad for one of her horses.  By making the pad by using a resist, she will be able to add padding to the hollow inside of the pad.  This project is the largest using a resist.  I was very thankful that I have the felt rolling machine or we would have been totally exhausted!

Late Thursday, Edmundson RV called and said that the motor home would not be ready for our trip to the Fiber Arts Festival in Kendallville, IN.  (again)  We loaded the truck and were on I 69 heading north.  Since we had such a late call from Edmundson, we arrived with only about an hour to set up our booth, but we made it. 

Friday, we were greeted with more rain and a cold that was totally bone chilling.  Since my silk long johns were in the motor home, I was totally unprepared for the cold and drank more hot chocolate than I had all winter!  Surprisingly enough, the die hard fiber artists came out and shopped for supplies.  I was very pleased that our sales were as much as they were and looked forward to Saturday's sales since it was not supposed to rain before 7:00 p.m. and the show was to end at 5:00.  Saturday's sales were also good and for a first time show, I was mildly pleased with our sales.    We packed up and headed home and of course it began to rain as we approached Indianapolis.  

It has rained all day and we have had a quiet, thoughtful Easter.  Our California daughter, Jojo, sent me a picture of Joshua Tree.  They are camping there this week end.  Later, she called and we talked for a wonderfully long time.  It is so hard to have a child 2000 miles away.  Her phone call made the day wonderful! 

The rain is supposed to continue all week.  This will guarantee that I stay in the studio and get some work done.  I also need to order more pottery knitting bowls and the knitting lights.  I have sold about 50 lights in a week.  They are truly a hit with knitters, weavers, and those who do other kinds of needle work and reading! 

The end of this week we will be heading for Nashville, IN and the Brown County State Park.  John will be fishing and I will be attending a 3 day crank in for owners of antique circular sock machines.  This is going to be a great time.  I have yet to make a second sock because I keep running into a problem when I get to the increase portion of the heel!  There will be plenty of people to help this newbee cranker.  So far, I have just been a cranky cranker and I plan to leave as a happy cranker! 

Wow, this week is going to be really productive!  I'm going to felt hats and vessels in the studio and then crank some socks!  What else could I ask for other than 2 dry days to mow!  Hey, maybe we will meet some campers in Brown County! 

Till next time.....may the meaning of Easter bless your lives.....He is risen! 

“One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.” -Oscar Wild

Wet Felting is my passion. I love to create pieces that people can wear and feel very "special" when wearing them. Teaching classes, teaching people who appreciate fiber brings me joy and brings the student joy.

As I continue to schedule my 2011 felting classes, I think of the joy that felting has brought me and then schedule these classes. The classes can be from making a light weight, drapey scarf to window treatments. From a wonderful messenger bag to a dainty handbag ..... from a warm winter cloche to a stylish "Derby" chapeau.... from a piece of prefelt to an enchanting landscape.....

I am looking forward to teaching at the Smoky Mountain Fiber Festival in Townsend, TN in March, the Hoosier Hills Fiberarts Festival in south central Indiana (20 minutes south of Indianapolis) in June, then at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in early September.

All these classes as we travel in our RV....the "roadhouse".... While in Indiana, we can either camp at the Johnson County Fairgrounds, or stay at our "bricks and sitcks" 5 minutes away...guess where I'd rather be.....no contest....Anyone want to purchase a home on five acres with two barns and ready for horses, etc?

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...

T Minus 4 .... Finally

In four days, we are outta here! OH Happy Day! After installing the cherry hardwood floors in the majority of our home and being dog tired from the effort, we are ready for a break. We have and more delays than there are M & M's, but finally, the brakes are fixed as well as the list of other fixes on the motor home. Sigh......

Zack (grandson #1) and Danielle's wedding is Friday evening, then we are free to roam westward. Ya know, it seems like yesterday that I was rushing from Indy to Cincy to be with my daughter and help with my first grandson. Oh, what a joy he was! (and is)..... And his big sister was such a hoot. Now, they are adults, making their own decisions, planning for their futures. What is a grandparent to do? We pray. We pray for them to have God's guidance and wisdom as they make their life choices. We pray for their safety as they go through life. That, my friends, is what we are here for...... to pray for our children and our grandchildren. That is the best thing we can do for them.

Speaking of children, our first direction will be westward to California. Daughter # 2 is there. She has been there for a long time (a mother speaking here). It will be so good to see her and share her new life for a while.

After California, we will head for Texas - taking our time. We will then spend the rest of our time exploring the "wild, wild west".

I will be taking my spinning wheel, fiber to spin, wet felting supplies and my new to me antique circular sock machine. Oh my gosh........what a learning curve there is to mastering making socks on that dear ole antique Legare 400. Let's see, I've started and restarted a sock so many times that I have lost count. BUT....each time, I get a bit further along on the sock. Today, I finished the heel and started on the foot before I dropped stitches and took it off the machine.....again! big, big sigh along with an eyeroll. Oh yes,,,, John will be taking his new rigid heddle weaving loom. Thanks goodness we have plenty of room!

I don't think I will be able to work on the CSM any more until we are on the road. Tomorrow, we shop for my shoes for the wedding, get a wedding present, pick up some food items from GFS, do some health food store shopping. Then we make a stop at the vet for micro chipping of Noah, the cat and Oliver, the dog.
purchase more ink for the printer so that I can finish copying information for the Hoosier Hills Fiberarts Festival that is coming up in June.

I am co-chair of the festival and this will be my first year directing the activities from a computer in route to many destinations. The classes have been scheduled, most of the vendors are set, competitions are in the planning stanges, so most of the work is done.

We pick up the motor home Thursday, pack and be ready for the great escape on Saturday. My suggestion was to take the motor home to the wedding and head out right afterward, but for some strange reason there was a veto....spoil sport!

We have another winter storm watch,...another 6 inches of snow predicted....oh happy day! Calgon....(motor home), take me away!

Until next time....

Gentlemen, Get Ready to Start your Engine!

With the holidays over and the hardwood floors installed in the house, we are a few steps closer to leaving the Indianapolis area and heading on to warmer country. The Motor Home is at Edmundson RV, located in Taylorsville, IN for it's oil change, brakes, new water closet and a few other minor repairs to make our road trip worry free, (we hope) and more comfortable. Since we are new to this lifestyle, we are learning new things every day as we read the blogs of those more experienced. Oh, what a learning curve!

As of today, our first stop will be Savahna, Ga. Then on to Florida to watch the launch of the last space shuttle. Once we have experienced that, we are off to Gulf Shores, Alabama to meet up with family for a day or so then to New Orleans. After that, it is off to California to visit with daughter #2. After this, we hope to spend time in south west TX before heading home for the Smoky Mountain Fiber Festival in Townsend TN March 18 -20. From there, we head to Bowling Green, OH for the Black Swamp Market Day on March 26.

During all this time, we will be stopping off at antique shops and yarn shops seeking our dreams. We dream of any fiber related item, and John, also, of coins. Since I have discovered the antique circular sock machines and knitted my first sock, I'm on the look-out for more sock machines. Oh, my gosh, what fun the sock machine is....and when good at it, I will be able to knit a pair of socks in an hour....did you hear what I said???? AN HOUR!!!! Holy cow! I'm on one pair of socks I started knitting at the Michigan Fiber Festival in August of 2009! These sock machines were popular in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many were sold or given to people to knit socks for the soldiers in the war. Now, these machines make socks that exceed the quality of any sock made in China or wherever.

John has started weaving on his birthday present I purchased at the southern Indiana Fiber Festival in Corydon, IN. He is learning to weave on a rigid heddle loom. I have a 4 harness loom, but he wanted to "start small" and work up...He's about to get hooked!

The drawback to this trip? My niece, who is more like a sister (6 yrs diff), is having total knee replacement. I wish I could be here to walk through the experience with her since I had my first TKR 12 years ago and my second 4 years ago.

Enough for now, but as the "blast off" date grows closer and arrives, there will be more.

quote of the day: "Success if the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." Winston Churchill