the new year

I trust that all had a great Christmas season. Goes fast. We took another trip down south, this time to Greenville, SC to be with Emily. We had Christmas with her and Christmas dinner with some of her friends, duck with dark cherry sauce...really yummy. On Christmas Eve, Emily played the keyboard and led a string group in Christmas singing at a Presbyterian church in Simpsonville. There were readings from Scripture inbetween the traditional Christmas songs. Emily did a great job and we are so proud of her and the talents that God has given to her.
I do not have the photos uploaded from that trip and the house decked out for Christmas, thought that hubby had done that, but will get that done soon. Here are some photos from the week before Thanksgiving when were in Atlanta. Are not these the cutest grands you have ever seen....of course, they are not your cutest-grands-you-have-ever-seen....
Oh, forgot to tell you the REAL reason we went south: Hubby picked up a white Toyota Tacoma, 2007--no rust! Drove it back to salt-n-sand country and it is a nice truck, will serve him for many years I am sure.
Later
All from the bush
ME

after Thanksgiving

Good morning. Bet you all thought I had forgotten about this space! Not on your life.
Here are just a few of the photos from out trip to Atlanta and Greenville, SC the week before the
week of Thanksgiving. We had Christmas, passed the Thanksgiving thing altogether. I had bought
poppers last year and then forgot to bring them with me when we went down for Christmas last year.
So, I took them this time. Poppers are an English tradition. They wrap little toys, trinkets in a tube
much like a toilet paper tube and then wrap the tube in Christmas wrap. There are little metal thingys
that snap when you pull the ends out away from the tube, and voila all the little trinkets burst out, plus these
cute little paper hats. My daughter-in-law looks like something from one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, with her lovely dark coloring, her dark eyes and hair. Drew and his family are at the top, Landon being 4' at 5
years old! Lilly is 3.5. They have a dog, a puppy. Lucky. Hummmm, I call him Unlucky.
Here is a photo of Landon taking Lucky for a walk......or is it the other way around??
Then of course, the lovely MFA in the lower pic. Any one know of a great  single Godly guy, late 20's , early 30's...
OK, so. The weather was great until we left Greenville on Sunday after the services at Emily's church.  It rained and was downright cold, after experiencing 70 degrees most of the time.  I had to drive in the dark through the mountains, and in the rain.  The Angel Protection Services were very, very busy with me at the wheel.  Back to the church......
Her small congregation is just a great bunch of wonderful Christan people. They love us because they love Emily so much. How refreshing. Drew's church is much, much larger and so they just have a small group that they interact with most of the time. I think that happens a lot in larger churches.
Tonight is ASG program so I have to get ready for that and wear the top and jacket I fashioned out of that crazy material that I have a photo of on this blog. I will look festive, and I am glad it is going to be warmer today! Last night I got most of the church decorated for Christmas, with the help of a a gal from church and Jerry, doing the manly hanging wreaths and such. Forgot to photo the fall table! Arg! And I wanted to do that for this blog. I will get a photo of the Christmas-look....I promise.
I do that a lot don't I??? I am too much like my Mother. Procastinate--a way of life!
You all have a great day. Thank you so much for reading this blog. Please leave comments. I love them.
Thanks Deb, in advance ;-)
All from the bush.
ME

fall # 2

Hello! Hopefully the pics will hold today! Here are the apples, some fabric with the patterns that will
get sewn and a velvette shrug I made for a 10 year old and yours truly with a Vogue, Marcy Tilton
pattern and some cheap knit . I hope to make this out of some better knit as it is a fun top, most edges are raw
edge. I have a sister, who also is a quilter, who detests raw edges!
We are going to be going down to Georgia and South Carolina to visit the grands and the MFA.
Both visits will be all too short, especiall with the MFA as we will be sharing the time with her with others.
There was a small group of people who came down a year ago to help rebuild a house in the flood-ridden village
of Palo. The town of Cedar Rapids had been hit badly (and we are still recovering from) by flooding in June, 2008
Anything along the Cedar River got flooded, and Palo was basically under water. At any rate, this group will be
gathering for dinner and we will be there, too. Hopefully the MFA will not have to work!
Oh, also, I got new glasses. No one has noticed.....even hubby took a long time to figure out what was different
and he knew I was getting new glasses! I am so vain! BFA would notice, I just know!
OOPS, I just noticed tha the foyer pic is not in the group, I will have to get that to you all yet.
Later....
from the bush, me

Good Morning all. Here are several photos that I wanted to share with you all. The top is my bargain scrapping stuff from my fav store: Target. Then the big apples that I bought the other day. The candle smells sooooo good! It is Coming Home from Yankee. The rest are photos of my fall decorations. The foyer and dining room. The painting is the Pat Bjornseth that I bought some time ago, of Bete Gris, MI. The cards on the foyer table are from my BFA, I save them for my decorating, the winter ones also. The are displayed on a frog! The frogs I buy at antique shops for small prices. Going to one of my fav antique shops today, and gift-y shop. On Highway 1 (on the way to Kalona) you have to stop at Sister's Garden and Bloomers. Also the Rug Cottage. Then there is another shop along the English River. Never been, but am calling to see if they are open this year. OOPS! I think I just lost the apple photo! Why does that happen???
I will try for that later. BUT in the meantime, check out the Coming Home scent. I got it from the new display at Target. They are also carrying Papryus, something we do not have here in fly-over country.
All from the bush.
me

My BFA says :more photos, girl!" OK so here are 3 that I found recently. One is our crazy Himilayan names "Gizzmo". We didn't name him! He came to us as a skinny 2 year old. Now he is a fat 7 year old. Can't believe that we have had him that long. The MFA wanted a cat when she lived at home after college. So after days of looking in the ads, her dad said "OK" and we purchased Gizzmo. Or Gizzy, or Mo, as in "you are covered in Mo-hair"
The second photo is the back side our our house in the winter. The bottom photo I downloaded from the pasty.com site. I am sorry I do not know who took this one, but isn't it just beautiful! It is my fav lake: Lake Superior. I think I know the beach.
One of the paintings in my foyer is of Bette Gris (pronounced bay degree). I found the painting here in town, but I KNEW it was of a Lake Superior shore! Hubby had told me I could buy one painting at this show, I kept coming back to that lovely watercolor. Eventually I asked the artist about the painting and she told me Bette Gris! When you know, you know. Like colors. I am very good at going to the fabric store, forgetting my samples at home and coming home with the exact colors I need. My Grandmother (who died well before I was born, always used to say "back to the bush", that is why I say "All from the bush" Enjoy the photos. me

Ramblings

Today hubby is home to do some home work....you know, when you decide to take apart 2 windows, then go away for the weekend and it rains.....so you get the pic.  Poor guy.  He ordered a new window, just like I asked him to do first.  Some men it takes them a while to figure out that wife may be correct about some things.  But at least he can do these things, and for that I am so thankful.
Got my hair cut on Monday.  Why do stylists, who are much younger than the client, assume that the client wants a buffont??  No I do not do the '60!  Been there.  Done that!  Thankfully, it looks ok when I do it myself  hehe.
Need to photograph the display that I did at church.  We have a ledge between levels and usually I have a very tall vase and tall grass-like stuff coming out of it, on that ledge.  But with fall, I bought 3 bails of hay (smaller ones) and added the fake pumpkins that I bought last year and a couple of swags of leaves and low and behold it looks nice.  I was able to find a nice vase/grass arrangement from Michael's on Labor Day for the big sale they always have and so that is on the communion table.  Photos really tell the story better.
Got my 2 skirts done and now I am working on getting things organized to go on a sewing retreat this weekend.  I will post those things next week.
My BFA sent me a lovely package of a fall hankie and fall dish towel!  I love it--and of course, a trading card that is too cute.  She is sooo special.  xxoo to Deb.
I took an altered picture frame class a couple of Sat. ago.  Using Tim Holtz's distressing paint and grundge paper.  Never heard of the later and didn't know how to use the former, now I do!  The paint (in a very small bottle!) is 2 steps in one.  With acrylic crackle, you need to paint a base, a color and then the crackle.  With the Ranger Ink, you do a base (on wood or canvas) and then apply the ink/paint and that is all.  The globbier the larger the cracks, the smoother (less) the smaller and finer the cracks.  Does this make sense??  We painted the wood frame, that had already been base-coated and then stamped on the grundge paper.  The paper is almost like a leather, heavy weight and flexible.  You need to use a stayz-on type of ink for stamping  and then  we used the Ranger distress inks to ink the flowers on the paper.  The paper can be manipulated to some degree.  Check this paper out at your better craft store, you have got to feel it.
Well, I have got to do some work in my sewing room.  Soo all for now, dear friends.
me from the bush

ramblings

Oops, this is the photo that didn't make it to the blog for some reason. Cut out 2 skirts today, went to Weight Watcher's (why??) then to church to decorate, didn't have camera with so don't have photos yet.....then out to the Ben Franklin's in Iowa City with a girl-friend and then dinner rather late, at a Mexican place...so much for any weight loss!
I made this really neat skirt, cut on the bias, from a Great Copy pattern. Just have to put together a little jacket from the pattern. I will get photos up soon. Funny how I forget about that important part of my life. Hubby is at a men's retreat through tomorrow afternoon. I am taking a class at a new stamp/scrapbook place in town tomorrow afternoon and I will do photos of my creation....
all from the bush
me