Mountain Drive and Wildflowers...

We went for a drive in the mountains near here today...headed up to the Mountain Park in Beulah and then over into the San Isabel National Forest.  We made numerous stops for picnics, playing in the water, visiting Bishop's Castle...

...and to take pictures of the wildflowers and wildlife we saw along the way.  These are just a few I grabbed with my cell phone, I still need to download the big camera...

It was a gorgeous day, refreshing to the soul to see so much of God's beauty.  It was so green, everything was growing, blooming, and ever so beautiful!

Memorial Day 2013...

Today was Memorial Day for us here in the United States...

I hope that those of you celebrating the holiday had a wonderful day!

I mostly crafted with the girls today...it seemed like a lovely way to spend the day.  We made remembrance poppies.  I love the poem "In Flander Fields" by John McCrae...

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

 The remembrance poppies are something that is not as much a part of the holiday here as it once was.  Most everything has gone to Red, White, and Blue and you rarely see the poppies any more.  Occasionally, I still see someone  from the VFW selling the buddy poppies and always buy them.  I genuinely like and appreciate the sentiment and it is something that I want the girls to know of and make a part of the day...they should know that to wear a poppy honors our fallen heroes and the history of how that came to be.

We filled our bulletin board with a variety of things, some coloring pages we found on line here, and some paper crafted poppies from here.  My favorites where the coffee filter poppy flowers and the little poppy pin I found the time to put together.  

I would have liked more time to play with that pattern and tweak it a bit to my own tastes...but little Rosie Posie required considerable help with her projects and the big girl needed help today working on her sewing for 4-H.  I also saw a little poppy on InTatters that I wanted to play with and had a poppy embroidery I wanted to stitch, but I really need another 24 hours in each day for my own creating whims...

Finished with Monet...

Finally finished with the Monet afghan from this post and this one...

I just made myself sit down and finish that edging today. I love how this afghan looks now that it is done, but I sure can get bored with these things.

Here is a photo of the full afghan...

I finished the afghan while my Rosie Posie was sleeping and took it in to cover her (on the right)...

On the left, she is declaring it "so soft and pretty" when she woke up!

I hope that it will be treasured all her life...

Now, on to one for my big girl.  The yarn has been purchased...pink, grey, and black.  I wonder how long that one will take me to finish!  That will be the last afghan until I'm a Grandma, some far off day in the future!

Crosses in school colors...

Well, it has certainly been a week!  I last posted on Sunday, and it seems like forever ago...so many things going on with the end of the school year!  I spent about 10 hours volunteering at older daughter's school this week, in their school garden and then helping them make ice cream and tie dye some shirts later in the week.  We have been to school orchestra concerts, talent shows, end of year picnics, field days, and I'm not sure what else...it's all kind of a blur at this point.  The last end-of-year family picnic was today though, and these crosses went home with three wonderful teachers...

This first one, I showed when it was almost completed...

This is Mary Konior's "Small Cross" in size 70 vintage thread, the navy is Star, the gold variegated is labeled "Fil Pour Crochet CtB France" and "Cartier Bresson", I have not seen that before, but it is very nice thread and looks superb in this pattern with the navy thread.

This second cross is "Christina" from Tatted Bookmarks ~ cross-shaped by Lene Bjorn.  The thread is Lizbeth size 20 Navy Blue and Golden Yellow Med.    It's a beautiful pattern, as are each of the ones I have tatted from this book.  The photo could be better, but I was trying to get a quick picture after I finished it this morning and before it left my hands...

Here are the three crosses together, the one on the left I showed a week or so ago in this post.

Hopefully, life will slow down a bit now.  Today is my Birthday, I had wanted to get a giveaway together for today...but it will have to wait another day or two until I have caught my breath again.

Antique Edgings and a Doily...

A little bit of antiquing a while back found these...fairly basic edgings, for the most part, but I always get excited when I see some tatting.  The pink variegated edging is my favorite of the lot I think...

...and then I found this...

 

I thought this really a quite nice example of vintage tatting...really lovely!

In this next photo, a better "up close" look at the pattern...

It's all rings, nary a chain anywhere.

Most intriguing really,

and very, very lovely...

Here is the reverse, so that you can see how the linen centre is finished...simply folded over and crocheted round...but it seems to have held quite well...

All in all, a fun day...the doily was the only piece I brought home in the end.  I am just intrigued by some of the design elements in it and wanted to have it for future reference...and to share with all of you!

Playing with Rocks...

My Darling Daughter's and I have been playing with rocks this afternoon...

They started out like this...

The ones that I painted became these...

I used a base coat of sage green acrylic craft paint, then decorated them with metallic sharpies and did a top coat of clear acrylic sealer...

A nice addition to my herb pots, I think!

 

The girls did these...

Older Daughter's on the left, Rosie Posie's on the right...

A fun way to play and a fun way to decorate the garden!

First Stitches and Things...

I KNEW I still had this somewhere...even though I didn't pick it up again, this was something I treasured.  This is my first bit of tatting from probably close to 23 years ago, when I was about 15 and Grandma Stella tried to teach me to tat...

This is the shuttle and practice thread she sent me home with all those years ago...

Very messy, it looks to me like I only "got" half the stitch...I had trouble with this when I picked it up again 3 years ago as well, I actually dreamed of Grandma's hands tatting one night and then showing me the second half of the stitch and telling me it should look like a little boy's pair of pants the second night before I "got" it...  It was like she came back to show me...so I still claim that Grandma taught me to tat...because she did.

I have been thinking of her so much the past few days, since finding this.