naturalfibers

Classic Weekend

I wish I could look like this while gardening.  I'm afraid that I look more like Pigpen from the Charlie Brown series than the above.  I usually end up with more mud on me than in the garden.  Received new knitting book in the mail this weekend.  I can garden in an outfit like that in the winter around here...most of the time.

I was busy cutting out fabric for my Wasabi Quilt, I bought several pieces of fabric with Japanese scenes on them and then matched other material with it, it will be very bright I think.

 

About mid July every year I start to get the bug to knit or crochet again, getting ready for nesting for the winter I suppose.  Watched several episodes of Rosemary and Thyme, so disappointed that they only had three seasons.  Of course those are British TV seasons too so they are very short. 

 

Rosemary and Thyme are about the two above ladies, they run around  England in an old Range Rover fixing people's garden problems for them and then there is always a murder.  Its very light viewing but a lot of fun and of course the gardens are fantastic.  They also get dirty and muddy while gardening but not quite as bad as I do. 

Rosemary wears a fair aisle vest through a lot of the series.  With my new knitting book I can throw together a vest for my winter gardening and look just like the gal on the knitting book.  Now I just need to go find a necklace like that!

Sweet Sweet Garden

 

I just love the greeness of this squash plant.  A green fuzzy young plant.  So delicate.

Little tiny squash, or as my son used to call it when he was very young "squish".

Lucious ripe tomatoes.

Dressed just like Jamie Oliver, except for the nail polish.

Animal Farm

Some of our visitors this weekend.

Welcome to Sleepy Hollow

I feel like I've been transported to another world.  Its been years since I've had two weeks off of work.   My cell phone rang last week and it was someone from work couldn't figure out how to do a certain report.  It off set my balance somewhat but I was able to regroup in about two hours, back into a hazy dazy feeling. 

I have been staying up late and getting up early, I don't want to miss out on any of my time off.

Eating fresh fruits and drinking lots of sun tea.  I have been cooking other things but I don't have a lot of ambition at this point.  Just some quick steaks or burgers on the fire pit and some fresh veggies cut up. 

Mr. Squirrel likes to chitter at me, this tree is right outside the front door and he comes down on the lowest branch to communicate with me.  I'm not sure if he is asking where his food is at, telling me that the food that is out there is his or that he thinks of me as food.

I have gotten some decorating done.  This aqua color has gotten a hold of me.  I love it.  Never have been interested in decorating with anything in a blue shade, love to wear it, but not decorate with it, until now.  Look at these items.

Wall graphics, you peel and stick on the wall, easy peasy.  This one is around 32" high and the seeds come separate you stick them on where you want them.

Excuse the wires and pics laying around, I am still redecorating and moving things around.  Just wanted to give a perspective on the wall graphic.

 

A beautiful vintage lamp shade.  Purchased this on ebay for around five dollars.  Its 18 1/2 " across and gives out a beautiful cool aqua glow when lighted.

See my retro rattan chair!  I saw a picture of a chair like this in a old decorating book from the 50's and I thought I will never ever be able to find one of these.  I found not one but two on ebay, gotta love ebay!  I got each of these for around sixty dollars and the shipping was so low, they are really light weight and the legs come off very easily.

 

I recovered some old pillows with this fabric, its a Joel Dewberry fabric.  I mixed and matched with several Amy Butler fabrics with browns, aqua, cream, gold and small drops of oranges and reds.

Some more wall graphics, I purchased these from the Etsy site from Elly Nellie, its a mother and daughter team I believe, they print out the graphics at whatever size you want and color and mail it to you.  Its very easy to put up and really gives the wall a big punch.

 

I have more to do with this corner.  My husband is making a long low credenza for me that will take up this entire wall.  The TV and assorted electronic gear will go there, I have a sunburst clock to put up on the wall and some wooden floating shelves, two, that will go beside the clock and will hold various glass vases in colors that will go with the rest of the room.  The above lamp I purchased on ebay, I have 3 now, its not good reading lamps but you get a beautiful glow off of them and they were relatively cheap.

This is my puzzle table, I love the way I can zone out while working on it.  The swag lamp is also from ebay, I call it "Spock's Brain".  My analytical son said it doesn't look anything like the sphere that was used in that episode "Spock's Brain".  I chose to ignore this comment.

So the whole redecorating thing is coming along.  I want to make drapes with a aqua and gold sheen out of dupioni silk for the windows, my husband will be changing the carpet out to wood floors, soon hopefully, and slipcovers for all of the furniture to cream soon also.  I have all but one left to purchase. 

The summer vacation from Sleepy Hollow is going too fast though.  I need to slow it down somehow.  I feel like I've been looking through a aqua haze out at the world and it feels just fine.

I'm trying to decide what to do next.  Color coordinate my closet, keep reading "Nine Coaches Waiting", watch my VHS tape of "The Moon Spinners" or zone out with the current puzzle.

Ta for now!

Summer Vacation

I had plans for my two week vacation, lots of them, planned all year long and now it has ended up that I am doing absolutely nothing for my two week vacation.  At first I was mad, people promising and then backing out but now I have two weeks ahead of me that I can do exactly what I want.  No running through airports, no hotel rooms, no crowded relatives houses.  Just peace and quiet.  Quiet contemplation.  I have sewing projects and garden projects. 

I am sitting in my great room right now, the tv is off, I have a fan going, and it rained this morning.  A nice soothing rain.  The heat will build up but thats ok.  The garden is green and I have tomatoes, peppers, squash and candalope ripe and almost ready for picking. 

My son has returned from his overseas travel.  He loved Australia and will probably go back one of these days.  I remember thinking that years ago when I spent 15 months in the middle east, I will return, like Patton.  Unfortunately I never have, I did spend 3 years in Europe but thats not the same.  Maybe one of these days I will return but for now I am content to stay home, old age does that to you I guess.  Or I should say middle age.  I keep watching him thinking that something has changed but not quite sure what it is.  Travel thousands of miles by yourself, well with a group, but sans parents, is bound to change a young person.   

So I am going with my son back to his college town he lives in.  Just for a few days or maybe a week I'm not sure.  I will ride with him in his truck, he has to get back to work to pay off his trip.  I will work on my sewing projects, take his bike out in the mornings and ride around campus, take pictures, while he is working.  Then at night we will stay up late, order pizza and watch old movies.  Perhaps I will be able to put my finger on what is different about him.  Maybe its just the age we have both reached.

I should be packing, I should be cleaning up the house a bit before I leave but I am in full vacation mode and don't want to move yet. 

The sound of the fan is drowning out the birds but it feels so good to have that breeze blow on me and that sound.  The endless sound of summer has always been a fan blowing and me laying around reading books.

I can smell the petunias, they smell like purple, does purple have a smell, I've always thought so, just like green has a smell.

Well must go must go really must go, get myself up and go pack.  The son has gone fishing this morning and will be back here soon. 

I am going to miss being here for even a few days, but this is such a good opportunity to spend a few days with the son, a few days just to ourselves.

What a great way to spend a summer vacation.  I couldn't ask for more really.

 

Queensland Australia

 

Number One Son is traveling along the coast of Queensland right now,  he has called about every other night.  The above is Port Douglas, funky little coastal town, looked like a lot of fun.

Then they stopped for a few days at Cape Tribulation, so named by Captain Cook back in 1779, apparently they ran into some trouble.  This whole area has been declared a World Heritage area.  On land it is the rainforest and out to sea is The Great Barrier Reef.  There still isn't much up there.  Five resorts, most of them in the medium price range, a small grocery store, gas station and thats about it.  Its all wilderness.

Above MossMan Gorge

They are on their way now out to Undarra Lava Flows.

Fiji Time

There is a special time in Fiji called "Fiji time" which means time doesn't mean anything, whatever it is will get done whenever. 

No I'm not in Fiji, my son is though, but I've been reading up on some of their traditions and culture and have decided that I fell into Fiji Time the past two months.  I'm not even going to look and see when I posted last. 

Anyhoo, #1 Son, The Royal Baby, Love Child has gone off on his own.  Well ok with 25 odd other undergrad students, 1 professor and a TA, with a special guide (he's a brit and they have a cute name for him) to Fiji and beyond.

Look at some of the stuff he has been doing.

No thats not him, I scarfed that off of the River's Fiji site.  They are an river/guide/outfitter in Fiji.  But this is what they did day before yesterday.  They went up into the mountains and floated downriver all day.

Again, not a pic he took, scarfed it.  They took cameras but they were told not to bring laptops so we will have to wait until he gets home.  They have all agreed to build a site and post all of the pictures for everyone to see.

Above is the Bounty Island Resort.  They are there now for two days.  It really is a student hostel, everywhere they stay will be but it does look nice doens't it?

They are supposed to be studying Coral Reef Biology and Ecology but I'm betting there is more study going on with the Figian beer, beach and other resort type pasttimes.  Sounds like a great way to earn 9 credit hours towards an undergrad degree.

The above is on the main island.  There is quite a mix of ethnic culture in Fiji.

Just when you thought you found paradise and somewhere unspoiled by modern times you run across the above!!!!  I kid you not right on the main road in Fiji on the way to the airport.

Day after tomorow they are on there way to Australia for three weeks.  Will post as they go.

I myself have been busy with gardening, work, and redecorating projects. 

We will hopefully be in southwestern Colorado and northern New Mexico in June  for a week long vacation. 

Dropping off the Deep End!

I'm still alive and breathing I swear.  Just sick.  So I got up and put my  Easter Bonnet with all the Frills Upon it on my head. 

Am ready to tackle some new things.

The Mod Squad!

I recently purchased the first season of this show.  I remembered watching this when it came on back in I believe '68.  I didn't remember to much about it.  I knew there was a blond gal, a while guy and a black guy, that they had been rehabilitated by the Police and then turned into a crime fighting squad.  When I heard the opening theme song it all came back.

The show had a real impact on me back in those years.  I had totally forgotten that but as the series unfolded it all came back to me.  I have to admit a lot of it was just hilariously funny, I had these waves of memories rippling across my mind as episode after episode played through. 

They were models for the "Counter Culture" in those days, but to my eyes today they were dressed pretty conservatively.  I was surprised, I expected jeans and hippy beads.  Maybe in the later years, it was on until '73, they became more like the Hippies I had imagined.  The speech is a scream also, its well worth the purchase just to hear Linc say "Solid Man".  Every time he was due to say that the whole show kind of stops and everyone just hangs there for a minute while the camera focuses on Linc and he says "Solid"!

All of their friends when they found out they were cops called them "The Fuzz". 

Julie, I had forgotten how influenced I had been by her looks and fashions.  I remember now putting these outfits together. She wears a elastic 2 inch headband through a lot of the episodes and I remember now wearing one for a solid year (I took it off to wash  my hair).  It disappeared one day I bet someone threw it away.  I soooo wanted that straight long long blond hair too, I remember my sister and I trying to iron our hair, we started with our bangs, they stood out straight from our foreheads, I remember we laughed about that for hours.  I can't remember if we ever finished ironing the rest of our hair or not.  I remember wanting shoes like that above, which by the way are SO back in style.  I think we also had wallpaper like that in our room for a while.  Did you know she, Peggy Lipton, of Julie fame married Quincy Jones, apparently they were married for years.

Anyways, I really enjoyed the trip down memory lane, I wasn't a teenager at the time, I was still a child, thank you very much, but the show had a lasting impression on me.

The second part of season 1 is coming out soon and I think I will buy that also.  I've had just too much fun with it at this point to drop out now.

All I can say is....

SOLID MAN!

Show and Tell

Back in time when I was in the 1st grade in Elementary School, about a century ago.  We had Show and Tell in class, I think it was on a weekly basis.  I'm not sure why they do Show and Tell, perhaps they think it contributes to a child's imagination.  I was a very shy child so getting in front of the entire class was always an ordeal.  One time though, that has been etched in my memory forever, I decided I was going to show my new lacy slip.  Now back in the 60's girls still had to wear skirts or dresses, we did not have uniforms.  I received a lacy half circle type slip with matching panties for something that year and I was all excited about showing them off at Show and Tell.  So there I went and stood in front of the class and lifted my skirts to show the slip and then when I was about to accomplish the Epater la bourgeoisie  of showing the real WOW factor, which were the frilly lacy panties that went with the slip, my teacher jumped up out of her chair and stopped me.  I was confused to say the least, I mean wasn't this Show and Tell after all.  So under all that shyness I was actually a Provocateur  with a willingness to shock people.  Who knew?

I have always loved lace, beading, piping, lace edging, and very nice fabrics.  When I read books describing women's dresses from the 1800s I would wonder what lawn, voile, entredeux, soutache and middy were, just to name a few.  I didn't know what they were but I knew they were lovely.

So after my posting from yesterday ref the tops at eShakti I thought wait a minute, I can sew and I'm very good at it.   Although I'm not sure they would be cheaper, but I can make close to most of those tops.  So I went in search of  "Voile" on the internet. 

I found this site www.farmhousefabrics.com. 

They have beautiful European fabrics, trims, lace, patterns, and ideas.  They especially cater to special baby clothes.  I was looking for nice fabrics to make lightweight but nice shirts out of and I found it.

Some of the fabrics are very expensive.

Like the above a Organdy at $45.00 a yard, US. 

Some Liberty of London cotton lawn at around $16.00, which is really a good price.

Peri dupioni gingham with swiss edging.

French muslin with swiss lace.

Italian birdseye pique with grosgrain ribbon.

Rose and Hubble cotton lawn.

Sea Island cottons

Enough lace, edging, buttons and bobbles to satisfy any girl that has Epater la bourgeoisie in her little soul.