EKjourney Backup

For Christmas gifts, I followed these directions  http://rosiepink.typepad.co.uk/rosiepink/tutorial-how-to-make-a-wet-felted-pod.html  and made felted pots.  I made mine thick and dense with hand carded wool from my stockpile and with bits and pieces of roving, and locks, and special needle felted wool batts.  After they were shaped and dry, I needle felted in details and made the polishing touches.  The wet felting is actually quite a physically demanding process (and blister inducing LOL) but I love the final product so much!  Each pot takes about 7-10 hours to make depending on the detail.  Each one is unique in shape and color despite using the same materials and form...the one of kind results of the felting process.  I would love to make more, I can just see them in my studio space filled with buttons and bobbles.         These last two, I decided to keep for myself.  I still need to needle felt them.  

Ready to begin gift opening Stockings        Playing Love this picture!  Gram with 3 of her great granddaughters  Woodfire oven turkey   Delicious squash and sage grattan  Glorielle getting embarrassed at the table and being comforted by Daddy and B.  

Edited to add...the blog feature has done something weird to to these pictures by changing the black to green, making it a bit grainy, and darkening the edges and they are not as stunning as they are just in my picture folder.  The sunset Christmas Eve was absolutely splendid!  The colors, the cloud streaks, the pockets of fog nestled in the tree line...Oh my!  The heavens declare the glory of God!  The skies proclaim the work of His hands! (Pslam 19)  We marveled at it the entire drive over to my parents.       Christmas Eve was a little unfortunate...when we had arrived, Gram was recovering from a bad fall where she missed the step down into the kitchen.  It was decided that she better be checked out at the emergency room so my brother and I went with her.  It ended up being a very special time just being with her and talking with her.  She was quite a trooper even though she ended up with 3 staples in her head, an elbow cut ...

My Sister-in-Law, Tina, found a scarf in a yarn shop back East when she was visiting a friend and fell in love with it.  The one she liked was knit but I though I could duplicate the size and colors and make something similar in crochet.  She managed to find out the dimensions, the yarn, and find a pattern so we had something to work off of http://littleknits.com/basalt-scarf-and-wrap-pattern.html  .  She chose her colors in a lovely superwash wool and I crocheted up some sample stitch swatches to choose from.  I worked on it every spare minute, whenever we were in the car, and some generous chunks of time over the weekend.  I managed to get it done in only 10 days, an impressive feat!  It is approximately 88 inches long and 14 inches wide.  After I took these pictures, I did end up putting another row of blue on each end so it is a little more of a noticeable stripe running down the sides.  It is certainly cozy and has a nice softness for a ...

Evangeline Virginia Joy Kelly made her arrival 14 days overdue on December 21, 2007.  It was this little girl that really made me fall in love with babies.  My previous experience and her sweet temperament made the whole experience one of such joy.  I can't believe that she is now 6 years old!  She is indeed still a child of such sweetness.  She is always cheerful, always smiling and giggly, a loyal friend, eager to help, eager to learn.  I love her spirit and I am so thankful and blessed to be her mother.   Oh my, what a bittersweet lump in my throat as I look at these.  My little family with 3, 3 and under.  Sawyer had just turned 3, Jubilee was 18 months, and Evi was our tiny little newborn on her first day. Look at that perfect round little face To this darling little toothless smile B dressed up to celebrate.  He is wearing a skirt as well.  Opening presents  What a festive, cozy, and cheery house.  I love this pictur...

Jubilee really wanted to give gifts to the neighbors this year so I arranged a cookie baking morning with my mom.  It was definilty a two person job with 5 little helpers - one to bake and one to keep the littest two distracted.  Getting set up  "Washing up"  Mixing Portioning out the cookis   Using the mixer (2 chairs, 4 children)  Putting the cookies on the cooling rack  This isn't the most beautiful display but we had to work with what was available and plastic wrap seems to stick to nothing except for itself.  Jubilee wrote all the notes they said "Thes is a chresmis gift for yor famly from my famly."  I love beginning writers! They made a delivery run with Daddy after dinner and I think it was a success.

Phil took a sick day today (long hours, headaches, he needed a bit of rest).  I decided to disappear early afternoon and head up to the Falls for a second try at photographing the ice.  This trip wasn't much more successful than the last!  I had a new camera battery but the trails were all closed.  Upper North Falls was the only one I could walk to.  I was a bit disappointed, the ice formations up close were so incredible that I really wanted to capture the images.  I noticed that even from a distance, much of the ice had already melted.  I think it was truly an unusual event to have temperatures that cold, that many days in a row, to create the ice formations that we saw on Saturday.  Even slightly warming temperatures still below freezing quickly melted the ice. Click on the images to see them in a bigger, slide show format.  Upper North Falls I intentionally waited until the sun was overhead before I ventured out for a bette...