It has been a long time

Well I have not posted in a long time because of family issues and travel. Over the past three weeks I have driven over 2200 miles. I had the opportunity to go to one of my favorite retreats, Workt By Hand in Ohio, with Sue Spargo, Melissa Becker, and Alice and Sally of Kindred Spirits. It was bittersweet since my normal roomie moved to Germany and I was sleeping solo. Of course, since I have attended this retreat for the past 8 years and knew a great deal of people there. We worked on bolster pillows that are all going to be awesome. I particularly like what I am doing.

 Sue Spargo's design. I loved the butterfly motif.

Her pillow was just happy.

Melissa's pillow was soft and delicate.

Sally's pillow really inspired me. My name means the bee.

My sentiments exactly.

Ali used rug hooking and needle felting on her pillow and I really liked that.

Her pillow was just lush.

This is mine so far. All pinned, but not stitched yet. More on Bee attitudes to come.

I got home late Sunday after the retreat and left again on Tuesday morning in order to go and pack my mom up to move to an assisted living in Baton Rouge. She did not want to move to Memphis and I wanted her to be happy. I will post pics of her new apartment and the cleaning out process of her home of 53 years soon. It is going to probably take me all summer to clean out her house and put it on the market. In a few weeks I will make a huge push to get things ready. In the meantime I am having to replace my huge windows in my living room, because after 19 years of living here they are rotted. On my way to the window store to look at options and make decisions shortly. After the windows are in we will have to replace all of our hardwood floors that were damaged last month when we had in line winds of 80 mph that pushed water through the doors and lifted/ruined the floors. I told my DH that it is the year of doors and floors. Ouch!

My life has been really sad lately and I just could not get enough energy to blog. My mom is abusing pain medications, which has been going on for years, but her doctor is quite angry about it and I have a feeling it will be coming to an end and I will have to deal with her. It has been so much easier not to do anything and I am letting her face the consequences that are coming from her actions. On top of that my son cannot seem to keep his behavior in check. He is back in trouble with the law for having undesirable people in his car that had drugs on them. He has also been letting everyone and his brother drive his car. He has to meet with the dean on Monday and then we will know if the university will send him packing or not. I hope not as his grades are so much better and I love him, but really don't want to live with him.

Depression or "the funk" as I call it has kept me from doing too much. I did make a few pieces of jewelry and start and complete a proddy rug for my friends two year old grand child.

I used leftover bits of silver chain and beads that were left over from old projects. It is 45 inches long and can be worn a number of different ways.

I finally got my angels hung up in my sewing room.

This anka was gift from my friend Nancy when she went to Egypt a year or so ago. I used brass findings and oyster shell discs and bone beads all from Ethiopia. It was fun to make.

The focal on this necklace is also a finding from Africa. I have had it for a long time. I used fresh water pears and aqua opal beads to create this necklace.

My son came home for spring break and left all most immediately to meet his birth mom and siblings for the first time. They made things quite easy for him and he had a great time. I was on pins and needles that he would fall so in love with them that he would never come home, but even though he had a great time he came home and seems happy to be here.

I was dyeing today!

I spent today in the kitchen dyeing four yards of wool. I dyed sharp greens, pale pinks, lilac and fuschia, purples and one spot of pink, blue and green. I am getting ready to proddy a rug for my friend Nancy's two year old grand daughter. It will be a fun "shag" rug. I would load some photos, but for some reason the server is rejecting my photos. More later.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by what needs doing and the pull from others for my time. I know that none of you have that problem. I should be extremely grateful that I actually have a home that needs cleaning, that I have an abundance of fabrics and fibers to work with and that I have dear friends who want to do things with me. In short I have been blessed and should not complain. Okay already.... I have been working on three purses at the same time. Three new ones that are not finished. Hopefully one will be completed by Saturday night, the rest will probably take longer.

This was a fun little bag that I finished shortly after I got back from New Orleans. It is small. The opening is only five inches across and it is seven inches long. I intend to wear it across my body and put my cell phone and money in it when I don't want to cover a larger bag. The background is part of an army blanket and the wools are from my overflowing scrap basket. It was a lot of fun to make.

I recently picked up five balls of sari silk. The colors drew me in and I had the most fun knitting these small bags. Whether they will be used as purses or as storage bags I don't know. The top one I am keeping. I embellished it with vintage buttons from my large collection. I know they blend in with the bag in the picture, but in life they stand out. This bag is more muted than the others and I am keeping it for myself. The other four turned out a little larger. I think there was just more on the balls of sari silk. I embellished them with felted wool balls from my collection. Some of those small balls, less than an inch across I made some time ago, before I discovered that you can buy them fairly inexpensively. Some of the balls were beaded for a little sparkle. I made them for the four teachers and long time friends from the Workt by Hand retreat I go to every spring in Ohio. I hope that they will like them.

I came home Sunday night and have experienced "jet lag" all week. It takes me forever to unpack and just get back to the realities of life, but finally.... We had a lovely time in New Orleans. The temperatures were in the high seventies and it was such a nice change. Of course we are cool, not really cold, but rainy and yucky here in Memphis. My daffodils are blooming so spring must be coming. I am ready already.

I had a sweet three block walk from my hotel to Jackson Square.

I shopped in the Paris Boutique and bought a wonderful spring hat and vintage pin.

Me getting ready to leave for a tour of the French Quarter.

My grandfather drank Jax beer. The brewery has been converted to shopping.

No beignets for me as I was unwilling to wait for over an hour to be seated.

I saw many beautiful homes, including Brad and Angelie's, Sean Penn's and Johnny Depp's.

My DH played golf all day Friday and all day Saturday, so I was on my own. Seriously it was great. I found a super knitting store and sat and talked for hours. I enjoyed the park and leisure breakfasts. I went to two museums and the cathedral. When DH came in we were off to wonderful restaurants and had dinner at K Paul's, the Redfish Grill, G W Finns and the Court of Two Sisters.

This is what happens when you don't close your pocket knife and sever two tendons and a nerve.

I am a few days late posting about my visit with my son. I drove to Canton, Mississippi on Saturday to attend a meeting of the Magnolia Wool Dust Society and drop my friend off for the rest of her ride home all the way to the gulf coast. I then went to visit my son at Mississippi State. I did great navigating my way there with the assistance of my faithful gps unit. I got lost on campus almost immediately, but thanks to Elliot actually watching me drive around he helped me find him at Hull Hall. I spent the night at a small guest house immediately next door to his dorm. We went to dinner and then on to see Sanctum at the theater. The next morning we sat outside of the cafeteria before going in for a lovely breakfast. His hand looks very uncomfortable. He is bandaged up with strings tied to keep him from moving his last two fingers.

I am beginning to feel more at peace than I have for a while. I am getting excited about going to New Orleans with my DH on Wednesday. I have a new wardrobe for the trip with two new LBD's and several new slacks and tops to wear during the day. It felt so great to get new clothes. I have not had a real shopping trip for clothes in a long time.

Today Nancy and I went fabric shopping and before we left each other to go our separate ways we tucked into Anthropologie. I could not resist taking out my camera to take some pictures of some intriguing displays.

This bed just made me want to jump right in. I loved the strips of fabric hanging like an exotic canopy.

Intriquing spools of ribbons displayed like cogs in a fabulous machine.

Owls are so in fashion now. I have been interested in them for many years. This owl was beaded and framed and looks amazing.

This set looked just like a sweet little porch I would love to sit in.

You cannot really tell, but these are old mirrors.

I feel like even though it is February and we had a big snow storm just last week that spring is here. I am so ready.

A satisfying Day

Today was nice. It is always nice to get things that need to be done done. More importantly I got the dirt washed off of my car. By the end of the day I felt very successful. I didn't work on a purse, or hook on a rug or applique or punch needle, but I did get my duffle bag finished. Sue Spargo designed this bag and I loved making it. The outer pockets are log cabin blocks. It is quite roomy at 27 inches tall. I am pleased to say that my friend and her husband set the eyelets for me, but other than that I did everything else on this bag. I will be breaking it in when I take it as my overnight bag to visit my son tomorrow. Ahhhh!