Piddling and Playing

Playing around with stitches.  Because that's what makes me happy.

I'm hoping that you will be so impressed that you won't notice the glue smears on the black bookcloth, or the split threads where I stabbed in the wrong spot!

I'm going to be in so much trouble with the teacher... that would be Miss Moss, over at Dispatch from L.A. -- I have signed up for her "Ticket to Venice" class and have idle hands until the class starts in December.  Check it out for yourself - it's going to be an awesome ride...
   (Ticket to Venice here.)

Meanwhile, back at the Persimmon Tree

I haven't forgotten my nature studies from the summer.  And I haven't forgotten my plans for a nature book of the sketches and photos.  I just got temporarily side-tracked.  (And if you know me at all, you know my middle name is Side-Tracked... and thankfully a lot of you also have that middle name and totally relate!)

I have tried over the past couple of months to get pictures of the persimmon tree in its various stages.  Unfortunately, there was a lot of rain during the time it had green leaves and green fruit, so I didn't get pictures of that stage.  I have some new pictures of the branches, plus used some older pictures from a couple of years ago for my sketchbook.

I used two sizes of punchinella for the page backgrounds.

 I had a really great quote about persimmons, but that scrap of paper has disappeared somewhere, and I'll have to search the internet again to try and find it.  In the meantime, I grabbed the comments my friend Jan made about persimmons and how her dad cut open the seeds to see what shape was revealed and thus what kind of winter was ahead.

But I still don't eat the persimmons.  Too much trouble, I say!!

The Mystery Trunk

Usually around the first or second week of November every year, I have a post about my trip home to Tennessee to help my mom celebrate her birthday.  And there are usually pictures of the leaves, or the lake, or the cotton fields. 

But this year I didn't take a single picture.  Plus, the trip was a little different.  My mom fell the week before her birthday and broke her arm/shoulder area.  She has since had surgery and is in a nursing home receiving physical therapy.

She was doing well enough that we got to spring her from the joint and put her in the getaway car for a short trip home.  She enjoyed being in her own house for a few hours, sitting in her own chair.  We still had some cake and presents, but it sure wasn't like past birthday parties.  But it could have been so much worse, and we are thankful for the little things.

When my mom sold her house earlier in the year and moved to a rental house, she got rid of a lot of things.  One thing that she still has is a camelback trunk similar to this one, except hers is in much worse shape, with broken hinges, and it's painted pink and white.  She keeps trying to get one of us to take it.  I don't think it's been opened in over 30 years, and she wasn't sure what was in it.

So, during this visit, my siblings and I went to the garage and went through the contents of the trunk.  It was mostly baby clothes, toddler clothes, little shoes and booties, some costume jewelry, some cards and letters, doll clothes for my sister's bride doll, my mom's high school basketball programs, things like that.  Everything was in very, very bad shape.  None of us felt sentimental enough to take any of the clothes or shoes, especially since we didn't know which of us wore the little outfits.  The only one I took was this little bitty dress, and that's because it actually had my name embroidered on the front.

 There were also lots of magazine cutouts, mostly of children, babies, furniture, pets, articles about things we weren't familiar with.  I assume these were intended to go in a scrapbook eventually.

 I'm not sure what it says about me that I wasn't sentimental enough to want the little shoes and clothes, but I just had to take some of these magazine clippings, because they made me laugh!  These will find a place in future journal pages or collage pieces.

Silliness has it's place in life, that's for sure!

November Panic

Holy Cow - it's November!

I'm not usually one to panic over the sudden loss of time, but it seems like this year, there are more unfinished items than usual on my "List of Things I'll Probably Never Get Around To But I'll Make a List of Them Anyway"....

I was going to do some fun things with leaves, but wasn't factoring in the fact that, well, you kind of have to spring while the leaves are falling so to speak.  While I was busy doing other things, my box of pretty leaves were drying up and falling apart.  I may still be able to find some that have not blow away or disintegrated, but I did manage to play around a little.

Nature experiments are not for sissies....