Carousel

It's actually been awhile since I took this picture, but I had forgotten to share it until today.  This nice horse is part of a carousel that's along Main Street in Hyannis, MA.  The last time I was there was the weekend that the remnants of hurricane Earl hit the Cape over Labor Day weekend.  Hyannis was really quiet the day after and some of the stores were still boarded up when I was walking around in the morning.

Pumpkin Lighting

Saw these lovelies on fire sale at AC Moore a few weeks ago.  HAD to get them!

Spinny Goodness

A closeup of NeedleWoman's beautiful spinning wheel in action.  I've never been able to get a good shot of mine while spinning, but at the harvest fair we were spinning all day and I was right next to her and could snap picture to my heart's content.  Her yarn is so beautiful.  She dyes it herself and this one she colored with sage. 

Good butterfly.... now stay very, very still....

Is it bad that I wished he were glues to the butterfly bush he was perched on?  Ummmm..... well... yeah.  But he was so pretty and flew off so soon :(  I think I'm going to have to take a trip to the butterfly place in Westford again sometime soon.  I saw this beauty when I was down at the Cape last week.  Obviously hurricane Earl really did a number on the plant and animal population.  Ok, my snark is now over.

A little bit of wind and rain

My favorite time of year is the fall... can you tell?  We had a reasonably strong rain/wind storm last night and I woke up to the sounds of a tree cracking and falling in the woods behind our apartment.  Then I went to work and I saw that all these leaves had come down around the building.  They contrasted so nicely with darkness of the sidewalk and partially browned grass I just had to take a picture. 

Quilted Art

This is some lovely quilted artwork hung at the Rowley, MA Public Library.  I took these pictures at the 2010 Jewett Family of America Reunion on August 13th.  all this beautiful quilting reminds me of the lovely quilts and wall hangings my friend Shasta made for me in college.  It's one form of art/craft that I have really never had the knack for and therefore leave it to those more apt to achieve greatness in the art form.

This piece was really cleverly done by making each "flower" out of fabrics that really weren't flowers at all.

I love this, but I don't think I would be caught with anything resembling a doily in our apartment :)

Definitely modern and very cute!

A take on the traditional log cabin style of quilting and one of my favorite of the set.

Somebody didn't have a good morning

I found this in the driveway going around the building on my way in to work this morning.  Hopefully this bird survived....

Just a little bit of torture

Let me explain.  These three songs were my little bit of torture this weekend.  And before you ask (if you don't already know) yes I can carry a tune and my voice is ok, so theoretically leading a group of people in song shouldn't be that hard.  Right?  Wrong!  For the life of me I don't understand why I get so nervous when I am in the spotlight.  It's not terrifying up front, no, it's right after I just get started.  Reasonably calm and collected then one line through the first verse and BAM! it hits me like a tons of bricks that I am NOT normally in the spotlight and what the heck do I think I'm doing up there anyway?  You would think that 10+ years of performing in a group setting would make a different, but apparently not.  Sigh.... maybe when I'm in my 80's my mid-performance nerves will decide to leave me alone.  Ugh!

By the Library

Today I got to play photographer.  Tomorrow I get to do it again :-)  In between all the photos I was supposed to take, I managed to grab this one of an interesting flower in front of the Rowley, MA library.  I should have more neat things to share tomorrow as well.  Until then!

Still Life a la Wedding

I have always liked still life photos.  This one is of the beautiful tables at my cousin JD's wedding on Friday night.

It's a College Thing

Brian decided his old lava lamp hadn't seen the light of day for awhile.  It now proudly adorns our dining room table and so fits in with the decor.

Tomatoes Tomatoes Everywhere!

My little cherry tomato plant has exploded.... with fruit!  They are Jo tested and approved.  Today some were made into a tomato sauce although I'm calling it a compote because it was so thick.  Very yummy over pasta with some olive oil, chives and Parmesan.  Basic recipe appearing soon on a blog near you!

My Frog Prince!

Just kidding!  My frog prince and I met in college and now live happily ever after... bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha!  Actually if anyone was the frog I was, not my hubbie.

So, how do I get over that?

I saw this beauty after a short storm during a friend's birthday party on Saturday.  Gotta figure out how to get to the other side so all my dreams really do come true :-)

The Hyper Rose Lives Up to it's Name

Round two of the blooms has begun!

6/19/2010 - Why Hello There!

I found this beauty when I was looking at all the pretty hydrangeas in my parents yard today.  Were you caught in between the glass and screen of our slider last year?  You look surprisingly similar to that one...

6/14/2010 - I needs my caffiene!

I went outside tonight to take some pictures of some fiber and projects that were long overdue and I found this guy clinging onto this coke bottle for dear life.  I can't imagine being so close to a caffeinated beverage without actually being able to get some.  Poor guy!

6/13/2010 - My Tabletop Pretties

One of my lovely new hand made dice bags.  I was going for a very earthy crunchy feel :-)

6/11/2010 - Trending Towards Tabletop

The beginnings of a new dice bag for all the pretty dice I'll use when I start playing Eberron starting in July :-) 

6/10/2010 - For the love of sailing

So, this past weekend we helped put the sailboat in the water.  It was kind of a rough day for it, with over an hour of thunderstorms that we had to wait out in between getting the boat in the water and raising the mast once we motored down to the dock near where it is moored.  Buuuut, she is now in the water and ready for all sorts of sailing adventures when we get to the Cape next.  We can't wait!

6/8/2010 - I just might have a future in pet portraiture

I feel like there should be a little gold letting in the bottom corner saying Olan Mills, lol.  I completely lucked out on this pic.  Molly was feeling nice and there was a lamp whose shade I could tilt to reflect light onto the couch so I wouldn't have to use my flash (flash = yuck).  I got a whole series of her and they basically all came out well.  Maybe she'll be America's Next Top Pet Model.... although I suspect she is technically plus sized (just like her mom :P).

6/7/2010 - The Hyper Rose Explodes!

Ok, so it didn't actually explode in the traditional sense.  It did explode with blooms though.  Here is a closeup of one.  The picture below shows how big it is after just two your of ridiculous neglect on our part.  Please note that this plant was only as big as a regular rose.  I might have been in a pit that was a foot across tops. I just love this rose bush because it blooms all summer and has really natural looking flowers.  They look like you could just see them on the beach.

5/26/2010 - Rare Beauty

Ever since I was a kid I remember my grandmother telling me to watch out for ladyslippers when I was up in Maine.  These little plants were beautiful and NEVER to be picked by my little hands.  I don't know if it was true, but I basically had the understanding that picking them was illegal and if I so much as brushed one I might be carted off to jail by some omnipresent big brother entity whose sheer existance was to punish bad little flower picking girls. 

The ladyslipper shown here is a pink ladyslipper or cypripedium acaule according to Wikipedia, and is one of five rare species of orchids that grow in north america and other areas of the world. This pretty one is only one of a pair in my in-law's front yard that I have seen every year since Brian and I started dating.  Pretty neat huh?

5/24/2010 - I swear I was just born in the wrong century

You know.... I like spinning, knitting, crochet, cooking, growing herbs in a container garden and anything hand made.  Sometimes I feel a little out of place in the modern day with all my old world interests.... then I think about all the fun things I do with my blog, digital photography and social media.  So... maybe I do belong on the present day, I just have strong tendencies for doing things the old school way.  Oh, and this is a picture of a beautiful Ashford Traveller Spinning wheel.  Hopefully I will have a similar one of my own some day soon!

5/22/2010 - Is it getting cooler in here?

A very feisty sheep getting a haircut today at the Wooley Ways in Olden Days textile fair at the Wayside Inn in Sudbury.  This guy put up a bit f a fight and even managed the make the shearer cut himself!

5/20/2010 - Plying Insanity

The center pull ball of one of my hand spun singles wrapped around my wrist so I can pull from both ends and ply them together using the Andean plying technique on my drop spindle.  Very very cool and easy to do so long as you remember to not cut off the circulation to your hand, lol.

5/17/2010 - Bountiful Blooms

One of the pretty blooms on the bushes in front of our apartment building.  I keep on forgetting to check into what kind of a plant this is.  I think I knew at one point but the name has left my brain at the moment.

5/15/2010 - I might just be getting better at this...

This is the beginning of my second attempt at hand spinning my own yarn.  Thus far I am very happy and love the color, which is called Cactus Flower :-)  After spinning up all the roving, I plan to make a 2-ply yarn out of it, which I have never done before... so things could get interesting real quickly!

5/14/2010 - Fuzzy Grill Visitor

We found this guy sunning himself on the grill cover when I got home.  These guys actually skeeve me out a bit, plus they eat trees.  Bad caterpiller!  I blame you for the leaved of our jurassic sized hosta having holes in them.

5/13/2010 - Bleeding Hearts

I seriously need to get one of these plants someday.  They are so delicate and beautiful.  

This lovely specimen is my mom's.

5/11/2010 - Drip Drip

My lilies after the deluge on Saturday.  They seemed pretty happy if you ask me.

5/10/2010 - Fruitizer

The pineapple before I hacked it to bits to make roasted pineapple chunks wrapped in bacon.  Excellent recipe by the way.  We brought it to a friend's house as an appetizer.

5/9/2010 - Calm before the storm

Ah, there's my lovely new hanging pot filled with beautiful pink new guinea impatiens.  I just picked it up at Ferjulians the other day and for this year, I was planning on this one pot being the only annual I purchased.  Well, This morning we woke up and when B was running some trash out to the dumpster he noticed that in all that wind last night my poor impatiens had taken a spill and landed flower side down.  He picked them up they looked a little sad, but I think they'll bounce back.  They fell a good 6 feet, so if they survived that fall without complete destruction, I think they'll make it in the long run.  

5/8/2010 - Time's Patina

An old sundail in my parents' backyard.  I love the color is is slowly getting as it ages.

5/7/10 - Brave Birdee

Found this stalwart defender when I was at my folks house the other day.  Apparently this is one bird the cat has not chased off the property.

5/6/2010 - Ferns Rule!

Anytime a plant comes naturally in my two favorite colors, it is a-ok with me!

5/3/10 - Herbage

Our herbs waiting to be put in the ground.  I'm hoping I can keep them alive until Wednesday night when I finally will have a chance plant them all.

5/2/10 - Cedar - Haha just kidding, it's a birch!

Just one sample of the flora in our back patio area.  So, I'm a dope and this is actually a birch.  Brian called me on the cedar declaration the other day and when I thought about it some more today, I realized I was wrong about the whole cedar thing. 

4/30/10 - My first hank of handspun

So, just this evening, I completed my first hank of hand spun yarn using my drop spindle.  It's not perfect in any way.  It runs think and then thin, but who cares?  I made my own freakin' yarn!!!!  Now to figure out what to make it into :D

4/29/10 - We have flowering trees?

I don't know why, but every spring it's like I've completely forgotten that there are flowering trees in the complex.  I get all excited and run around photographing them like I've never seen anything so beautiful.  I guarantee that if I took the time to go through my pictures from the past 6 years, I would find oodles of these flowers, if not even the same tree.  It's funny how our minds work some days.

4/28/10 - Strawberries!!!

A year or two ago, I bought a strawberry pot and some seeds.  By the end of the summer, there was not much promise and the pot (obviously a quality item) had been demolished by painters working outside our building.  So, the poor little pot with all it's paint removed has been sitting there since.  Recently, we we checking out our little garden and noticed that some of the strawberry seeds had survived and managed to jump off the pot and into the garden bed itself.  This flower holds the promise on 1 strawberry and it was just enough to give me a little bit of glee about the impending growing season.

4/27/10 - Up Close and Pawsonal

Snapped a pic of our Molliwog's footsie when she was asleep on our bed.  She is so much easier to photograph when she falls asleep in good natural lighting conditions :-)

4/26/10 - Mystery Project Yarn

The yarn I'm using for my mystery bag knit along :-)

4/23/10 - Serious Gamin'

A shot of the board game Pandemic, where you have to try to save the world, one outbreak at a time.

4/22/10 - So what if its a weed? It's still pretty!

Dandelions are one of those flowers that people just don't appreciate.  Most of the time all we do is seek out and destroy them, but I have always loved their yellow color and how their seeds just float through the air effortlessly.

4/21/10 - Relaxin' Memory

I used to have a hammock just like this.  It sat is my parent shed for ages while I was in college and grad school and ended up rusting to bits since it was hung on a huge metal frame.  I miss it so.