Hillbilly Wedding Belles

 L. participated in the one-act play competition on Sat. with some of her large cast of friends. They did a comedy called "Hear Those Hillbilly Wedding Bells." They did a delightful job with an ambitious show. We spent the last month listening to her and sister M. (who helped her practice lines) speaking in a Hillbilly drawl.

With Friend Cassie.

We served the cast a lunch of meatballs, fruit and vegetables with dip before their play.

Farm Family

This week a bunch of us went to the supper honoring Glenn and Gaylin as Farm Family of the Year. It was a nice evening and a good opportunity for a picture. As I grow older I am beginning to realize more and more what a blessing a large family is. This is just a small fraction of  husband's immediate family. (back-David, Brian, Mike, middle-Karen, Dena, Andrea, Rebekah, Nicholas, Jannell, Husband, front-Al, Mother, Glenn, Gaylin, Edna, Ron)

Waffles

We didn't know what to have for supper the other night, so L. made waffles and smokies. The girls were giving me the evil eye while we ate, because I had not made waffles in recent memory. We put frozen fruit and powdered sugar on them and they were delicious. Guess we'll be doing that again.

Recycled Wrist Socks

Since we finally got significant snow, I have been thinking about wrist socks. This is something we invented a couple of years ago, and it was one of my first blog posts. These recycled socks are worn under gloves and coat to keep icy wrist syndrome from occuring. Cut and wear as indicated out of any old pair of socks.

Crocheting

M. has two friends who are twins, and each of them knitted (crocheted?) one glove for each of their friends for Christmas gifts. So fun! (Pix above)

W. and I were haunting the thrift stores a few weeks ago, and she chose a bag of purple yarn over a stuffed animal as her fun thing to buy. When we got home, she expressed interest in how to make things out of the yarn. I hunted up a crochet hook. (Yes, we had a couple, even thougn I don't crochet-this is the art house, after all.) My Grandma had shown me how to crochet one time eons ago, so I pulled up the memory and got her and M. started on a chain stitch, then we turned around and went back the other way, so we're crocheting.

We don't really know what we are doing, but we are having fun! We can always ask Daughter Mac for tips, she is a master crocheter. (above: blue yarn-M, pink yarn, W and I)

Felt Slipper Pattern

I thought I would post these pictures of the felt slipper pattern and the first step so you could understand what a simple, neat pattern it is. I love the moccasin look and the fact that it is all one piece. The pattern is found at marthastewart.com, Stephanie's felt slippers.

Books-Gene Stratton Porter

We have been reading Gene Stratton Porter books for "read alouds" this last semester. The girls and I have enjoyed them. Reading aloud together for school make up some of our best "joyful moments."

Both of these books are set in the 1920's in the Limberlost of Indiana. These stories reflect Porter's own life. They include a lot of natural history and we often found ourselves looking up flowers, birds and moths on the internet to see what she was talking about. These stories evoke the feeling of  another time when society was much more concerned with truth, honor and manners. Lovely life lessons taught in passing. While looking on Amazon, I found  they have a Kindle edition with 10 Stratton Porter books for 3.99 that we downloaded to our Fire. Great find! 

Felted Slippers

 

I'm still doing some felted wool moccasins. I made a red set for myself while on vacation, and then forgot them in FL. Bummer. I made this purple set for Daughter A. The red ones were the same style.

I made the flowers out of three different-sized rough circles. I folded the circles into fourths and cut a triangle from each side of the rounded part, toward the point. Then I ran some embroidery stitches  from the center to the edges of each petal, stacked them large to small and sewed them together on the pinched bottom. 

Muted Beauty

Miss M. got a new camera for Christmas and is out honing her photography skills. She took these great shots before our recent snow turned everything white.

 

Farm Family of the Year

Our farming partners/brother and sister-in-law were recently honored as Chamber of Commerce farm family of the year. Whoo hoo! Congratulations.

We were at Bible study with them this week, and the study was on I Corinthians. Some of the verses talk about "marital relations." After the study, Sister-in-law and I were talking to some of the 20-somethings and referred to these verses in a joking way. One of the twenties told us, "You two are dirty old women!" To which S-I-L instantly replied, "We're not old!" Preach it sister!

Normal?

Ummm, yes.

Christmas Golf

It has been an unseasonably warm, "open" winter. So warm and open that these guys went golfing the day after Christmas. (L. to R. Nathan, John, Husband, Marshall, Darren, Brian) It was great fun. Much better than the usual temperature and conditions, as seen in this picture from Dec. 2011. (below) Pix by Brian.

Florida!

Husband had a meeting in Ponte Vedra, Fl. this week. I was able to go along. Yippee! This is where we stayed.

While Husband was in meetings, I spent some time on the beach picking up shells and watching the birds and surf. It was nicely(unseasonably) warm--in the 70s.

We also enjoyed good meals and the beautiful buildings and landscaping. I especially enjoyed their tea accoutrements.

Repurposed Wool Slipper Moccasins

 I have been making wool slippers out of recycled, felted wool sweaters. These are the first ones I made. Had to do a practice set. I used this pattern from Martha Stewart's web site. They are like Indian moccasins, and I love the design. The pattern is only one piece. Very simple and beautiful. I altered them a bit. Martha has you sew them and turn them inside out, but I did not like the seam on the inside. I have added embroidery and beading for fun.

Then I made these for the three girls at home. I am starting on A's now and will probably post them later. The grey pair with the fringe are W's. The sweater it came from  had a wrap style across the chest. I cut the pattern to use it and trimmed it into a fringe. The green pair are for M. and the last grey pair with the blue beads are L's. I like the way they look a little Native American. These have been fun. Until I made these, I never realized how much more "toasty" real wool is than other materials. To care for them: wash in cold water and lay flat to dry.