COLLECTIONS

What prompted this blog post? Two things really. First, my parents have moved from their home to a retirement mobile home park down the road. This meant that I needed to clean my stuff out of their attic. Boy, was there a bunch of STUFF! Secondly, my oldest brother has begun sending me items for my latest collection.


I think it's because of my oldest brother, Peter, that I have all the "collectibles" that I have. I don't know, maybe I've always collected and he & I are a lot alike? My earliest memories of collecting go back to when we would vacation and I wanted knick-knacks to take home. I've had collections of small "ceramic" animal families, mushrooms in fourth grade, shells, rocks, balloons and bears in college, angels, cows, Noah's Arks, and now of course, sheep. I found many of my earlier collections packed away in my parent's attic. Many were broken and were disposed of. The rest were repacked and are now in my in-law's attic. Can you guess that we have no attic?



My latest collection you see here. My brother came for a visit from Pensacola, FL in the spring, and he brought two unique gifts for me. The first gift he brought was of a dachshund (we have a live one) that is colored like a Holstein bull with horns and it says, "100% all beef hot dog." He thought I was still collecting cows. I still have a few around but that was about 15 years ago. (My favorite is a black and white cow clock with a swinging udder for the seconds.) When he found out I was collecting sheep, he purchased a sheep made of cauliflower with a mushroom head. It is adorable! (You would think with all the real sheep we have, it would be enough. Nope, I have many inside as well.)

We discussed what fun it would be to collect these "Home Grown" animals and keep them in the kitchen. Well, leave it to Peter. I received my second one in the mail in April. The next one came in May for my birthday and yes, I received one in June. He calls them my "jelly" of the month. I so look forward to each month to see what critter I will get next. My brother loves me and keeps me collecting after all these years. (When I was collecting mushrooms at 9 and 10 years of age, he helped me set up a mushroom display in our local public library!)

Cauliflower Sheep Lemon GoatLime RabbitOrange CatsI can't wait until July to see what the next "jelly" of the month will be. Thank you, big brother! I love them.

Hand Painted Roving

One of my projects this summer while I am home was to hand paint/dye roving. We have never tried this before. So, on one of Katie's days off, we gave it a try. We found out that too wet wool and too much dye can make a mess. Also, not having the right kind of pot to steam it in made for the use of a microwave. We found out why they suggested using rubber gloves, which we didn't.

We used white Shetland wool that Katie had accumulated from the only white ewe we have ever had. I like to spin consistently but this didn't let me. So, as you can see my yarn is a little lumpy.

I may use it to make a shawl with some fuschia yarn I had spun a while ago. I would like to add ribbons, too.

Katie is the dye expert... so ...we'll try this again!

Happy 18th Birthday, Lauren. We love you!

Graduation gift...a trip to the beach!

This trip was to be a surprise graduation gift for Lauren, but as it turned out it wasn't. So, the morning after graduation, Katie, Lauren, my sister Cindy, and I left for North Myrtle Beach, SC. We stayed at a little mom & pop motel on the beach. It was old but clean, and it was on the beach. We had 5 days and nights of great weather and a lot of fun! The picture above is of me, Katie, and Lauren.

We spent the day on the beach and by the pool and then out to supper each evening. On Sunday night we went to Calabash, NC and ate at a good seafood restaurant. Then we walked across the street to the greatest gift and Christmas shop around. I always purchase at least one special ornament. This year it was of a sea urchin.

Katie and I were always on shell hunts. Hunting it definitely was! We found some amazing things. Sea treasures such as olive shells, augers, eye shells, ear shells, shark's teeth, and we were blessed to find some sea urchins without their spines. I found several with spines that were still alive but I threw them back into the ocean. I also found a live, large starfish. I threw him back, too.

We splurged on Monday night and went to the Dixie Stampede in Myrtle Beach. I have been to the one in Pigeon Forge, TN. The girls had never been. It was a lot of fun and the food was great, too. We were on the south's side.

Tuesday night we ate at Johnny Rockets at Broadway at the Beach. We went in a lot of the shops. The candy shops are amazing. I ended up with some salt water taffy and some of my favorite Jelly Belly flavors. At 10:00 we saw some amazing fireworks as we were standing in the fallout area.

Wednesday was the last day there so we stayed near the beach and pool. It was a great trip. Lauren and Cindy are tan, Katie used 1 1/2 bottles of sun screen (yes, it does work) and I have sunburn in several places.

We left early Thursday morning. Where does the time go? Well, it's back to the real world again. Someone needs to help feed the sheep!!

CELEBRATION TIME!

May 30, 2008- Lauren's High School Graduation- pictured above with Josh and Sam (Lauren is on our right.)
Lauren was valedictorian of her class. We are so proud of all she has accomplished. Here she is with her maternal grandparents.
Lauren plans to attend Gardner-Webb University and study nursing. Here she is with her paternal grandparents.
A group of Juniors pose with Lauren along with one of her teacher's children. Graduation was great. The slide show was wonderful! I think that most of them were sad that this time has come. This is a neat class. They were one of my favorite 6th grade classes that I have had the privilege of working with.

Afterwards Lauren went to a graduation party at the school put on by two other graduates' parents. I went home to begin packing for our trip to the beach. Pictures tomorrow!