Goodie, Goodie! Some fresh, farm-raised venison from our farm! Beautiful lean meat.

No preservatives. Fed on our cotton crop, garden, fruit and flowers. Not run by hunting dogs, so the meat is mild and more tender.

We've ground venison into hamburger meat, spicy cajun-style sausage and mild Italian-style sausage. There are packages of venison roast, venison tenderloin, venison steaks (like minute steaks), venison stew meat, and venison ribs.
It is quite a production of Cloroxing all the surfaces in the kitchen and all the pans we will be using.

The table gets covered with white butcher paper . Freezer bags are labeled with our custom freezer labels.
These freezer labels were the result of a burst of Martha-Stewart-itis one day after we had cleaned out freezers, finding so many packages of unidentifiable food that had to be thrown out because of freezer burn.

(Grrrr, It hurts my feelings to throw out those packages of freezer-burned food.)
I've taken off the farm reference and Gordon has turned these pages into a .pdf file for you to download if you wish.

(Next I have to figure out how to upload a .pdf for you to download. If I can't figure it out tonight, please check back the next few days.

)
enamelware baking pans. These are a sunny yellow and an avacado green, but I'm collecting this shape pan in any color.
We made a big batch of little venison patties for the dogs.

They are about the size of a squished golf ball, and we let the dogs eat them raw.
If you have not heard about enhancing a dog's diet with the same type of raw foods that canines in the wild would eat, then Google the BARF diet sometime. No kidding, that is the name.

I forget what the letters stand for, though.
We are not on a full BARF diet around here, but I do like to supplement the dry kibble with vegetables, fruit, yogurt, buttermilk and raw meat, all of which the dogs LOVE!
This Dog Treat label also works for the little liver cookies we make for the fur-babies.

I ran into a recipe recently for yogurt and bananas made into frozen treats.

If you like, I will share the recipes as well as the labels. You should taste our Venison BBQ and Venison Crockpot Lassagne!

They are fabulous!
The labels are printed on one large sheet of sticky (adhesive-backed) label paper, 8.5 x11 that you can find at office supply stores.

You could also make a freezer label into any pre-cut label size.
Does one sleep better when the freezers are organized, food is being eaten before it gets too old, and space is being made in the freezers for the summer veggies and fruit? Yep.

..I sleep decidedly better.

*laugh*
Time for some of that contented sleep-of-the-organized-freezer-people. *wry grin*
This adorable sign was in the window of in Port Gibson, MS.
Today Gordon and I traveled through Port Gibson to visit the abandoned town of Rodney, MS (Lots of pictures and prattle to come in future posts.

)
I had heard from fellow Mississippi Quilt Association members that had moved to a store-front in Port Gibson. Before the move, it was truly in a very hard-to-find spot deep in the countryside, thus the name.
It was only about 4 pm, but the store was closed.

The sign on the door said the store should have been open at the time I visited. There must have been extenuating circumstances.
These pictures of the inside of their spacious store were taken with camera pressed to glass.

Goodness, I hate they were closed this afternoon. I was looking forward to spending a little money! A girl can go only so long without SOME shopping!

Their seems to be expanding, and I have heard they are super efficient with online orders. Maybe it is time for my shopping haitus to end after all! *cheeky grin*
I had hoped to ask at the shop about the Block of the Month quilt kits they would be offering this year.

My into this fun challenge earlier this month was so motivating, that I want to start another Block of the Month (shortened to BOM in quilt circles).
The signs in the window pointed to two upcoming opportunities for quilt enthusiasts. I think the 1776 quilt thing is a book that is expected to arrive in the shop, but I hope it is a BOM project!

The other sign is about a quilt contest sponsored by the Mississippi Cultural Crossroads. Visit my list of Mississippi Quilt Shops for phone numbers to call .

Now I am not sure what the is all about, but just down the street from is a huge vibrant mural depicting quilts (photos below).

There is a large converted store front with finished quilts on display. It looks more like an art gallery, and apparently the quilts and other merchandise are for sale.

Just next door to that is another old store-front that apparently has been turned into a community place to come in and sew on quilts.

That place is identified as this .
According to the website, it is the local art agency for Port Gibson and Claiborne County, Mississippi. is where the operating money is coming from.

One of the city/county administrative buildings, new construction, depicts some quilt artwork in a sculpted mural . Visit my to see these photos plus more pictures from our trip to Port Gibson and Rodney, Mississippi.



A few pieces have come in after Christmas.

..always, it seems, on days I need a little Y-T Treatment!

It intrigues me that there are so many shades, textures and opacities of Yellow Tupperware. My personal favorites are the sunshine yellow like the long celery container and the yellow lunch box/ice cream box above. Sunny, one of the English Shepherds, snitched a little square cutie like the top box, and escaped outside to open it and devour the contents.

Then she proceeded to chew on it like a chew toy. I'm glad to replace that one in my collection. Maybe it is fitting that Sunny the dog went for the sunny little box!

LOL All that yellow tupperware stacked on open shelves looks so warm and cozy in our temporary kitchen in the studio. When we eventually get moved into Grandma's house (that we are s-l-o-w-l-y renovating), I'm thinking about keeping the yellow tupperware stacked on an open shelf..

..part contemporary art and part visual therapy.

You know, there are actually art installations made entirely of Tupperware pieces?
I've got some cool photos and stuff to share with you from this week..

.as the weekend allows a tad more time for blogging!
You can see in my many photos that do not appear on the blog.

To my knowledge, one does not have to sign up for anything just to go look at photos. Be sure to click on the sets on the right side to see all photos in a particular category.
Time to count little Tupperware boxes (in my sleep) and stack them neatly on their shelves.

...

Here is yet another picture of a flower.
I've read that comment from time to time, in a dismissive tone, as if a photo of a flower could no longer be creative or worthwhile.
Well sign me up for the One Can Never Have Too Many Photos of Flowers club.

And if I was involved in nurturing that flower from a gnarled, ugly bulb, then I am even more excited about yet one more photo of a flower !
This particular amaryllis should have bloomed before Christmas, but it just would not grow. The green stuff grew about a foot and stopped.

The two sisters of this blub, planted at the same time, bloomed, did their job of pleasing my mother for several weeks, and have gone about their business of feeding their bulbs for next year. We put this shy little fella with the orchids and watered him with rain water. He started growing like the Jolly Green Giant and now we have this brilliant red thank you .

..that is bringing vivid color to Blue January .

Some folks are like this stunning flower...

slower to start, demonstrating nothing special, but when the right ingredient is added, that person blossoms and wows everyone with their brilliance, beauty, talent, etc
Where are you in the blooming phase? Do you need something to nurture and refresh you and push you toward a beautiful blooming season, or do you need some rest time and nutrients to prepare for your next blooming season?
You are as unique as this flower blossom.

There is new beauty and talent to be discovered in you each day. Yet another picture is another chance to find more beauty and value in you.
We can learn a great deal from flowers.

They absorb God's nourishment (rain), giving them a needed burst of growth upward. Flowers continually turn toward the sun, keeping focus on God's brilliance which, in turn, brings out their magnificent beauty.
See more flowers from the farm at my .

You do not have to be a member of flickr to view these photos that Gordon or I have taken. Flowers is one of the sets or groups on the right side of the page.
back in November of 2006.

The Mississippi State Society Daughters of Natchez, MS, to Franklin, TN, and back to Natchez.
It was a superb trip with beautiful fall leaves and brilliant blue skies. Mount Locust Stand (Inn) was the first stop on our bus trip.

This is one of the oldest structures in Mississippi, built somewhere between 1780 to 1784.
At the height of human, horseback and carriage traffic on the Natchez Trace, there were as many as 50 Stands or Inns along the Natchez Trace. Mount Locust was one of the first stands in operation on the Trace, and structure.

the DAR marker? The Mississippi DAR started marking historic sites along the Natchez Trace in 1905, and worked for decades to raise money and interest in paving the Natchez Trace. The result?

Some 60 years after the Parkway was begun, the last section (around Natchez) was opened in 2005.
From February through November there are re-enactors at the Inn. Before you plan a trip just for those interpretive programs, you should call to be certain the schedule has not changed.

A detailed list of sites on the Parkway and a printable Parkway travel guide can be found at or call 1-800-305-7417. The Mount Locust Stand is at the Natchez Trace Parkway Milepost 15.5.

See that VIVID peacock blue on the door and window trim and fireplace. It is on the shutters and baseboards as well.
paint chip analysis, the National Park Service determined that this before steamboats made travel going UP the Mississippi River feasible.

Indigo was a huge crop in the Mississippi River Valley Basin, specifically Louisiana, so it makes sense that the readily available uses.
down to the picture with the hanging capes and knapsacks. Do you see the modern element that is definitely in the wrong century?

he he It is fun to find little things like that at historic sites. As hot as Mississippi is in the summer, I would never begrudge a person a comfort item like that.
How do you scratch that Mommy Itch to dress up a little baby in hand-made adorable clothes.

..when you don't have a baby?

Torture the dogs! he he he
It has not been cold enough here in Mississippi to knit little sweaters for the . Their little Perpetual-Teddy-Bear face and body have brought out in me a huge need to sew little cutsie things for them to wear.

Gordon says I am embarassing the dogs and giving them a complex! Well, I figure if those little powderpuffs are willing to accept the pampering (special food, sleeping on the bed, special baths, brushing, walks and toys), then those little furry white critters have to accept a few fancy/frilly collars every now and then! *grin*
Now I have posted the for the Triangle Collar Slipcover that you can size up or down on a photocopier for a smaller or larger dog, and even for a cat!

These were super easy to whip up by hand, but you can certainly use a sewing machine.
Embellishing these slipcovers is limited only by your imagination!
Right now, I'm perfecting the Scalloped Collar Slipcover (top two pictures) pattern, and I hope to have it posted to share with you in the next few days.

Let me see what you make with these free patterns! I've started a Flickr Group called just for us to share ideas and designs!
Not familar with ?

Then feel free to the picture to me, and I will gladly size and upload it for you!

Today is special. I spent four hours with a hands-on lesson in Humility, and it only cost $6.

15!
This week I received a little packet with the colorful fabric and directions for the January block of my first-ever Block-of-the-Month Quilt!
Everlyn at in Starkville is offering two colorways of this BOM.

Each month would only cost $2.50 IF I could manage to be at the store in Starkville the second Saturday of each month..

.and that includes pattern and required fabrics. For January and February, that is not possible, but $5.

00 plus shipping is still a fab price for this painful torture fun adventure. *grin*
So, when the little kit came in, I jumped in and cut out the pieces required. That is in the top photo.

There was fabric left over, and I was purring over these scraps that I could use in applique. I've been pleasantly day-dreaming how I would organize and store these scraps as I thought about washing and pressing the many scraps we had found in Grandma's house from her lifetime of sewing.
Today, a cold, dreary Saturday afternoon, I took my little up to the old farmhouse (just 50 steps from the studio), put in Mama's lap, and settled in for chatter and piecing of my first BOM quilt block.

This was going to be easy. After all, I had pieced some on a Double Irish Chain and a Trip Around the World back in the early 80's. I took to this past summer like a duck to water.

I've done oodles of hand-sewing, including just whipping up my own pattern for dog collars and such. Why, I could whip up this simple little Ribbon Star block with one eye closed and one hand tied behind my back! (*grin* Have you been this overly-confident before?

)
Well, to spare me from reciting the painful details, this little 12 inch square has 94 inches of hand-sewing in it...

and I had to rip out and re-hand-sew 66 inches for this one little simple square! Almost four hours of teeth-gritting-determination to get it right this time .
Mama and Unc, who did not have the pattern and were not following my efforts, could just look at the block across the room and tell me which pieces I had sewn incorrectly.

*hummph*
We laughed and giggled over this teriffic lesson in humility. Mama tried to reassure me that even experienced quilters we both knew had to rip out and re-do. (Not 66 inches per 12-inch block, I betcha!

) LOL
So, if you know some prissy-priss-miss who needs to have her humility-setting adjusted a little, I know a perfect and inexpensive gift for you to give her! *grin*
Take a look at my growing list of . Most of them have Block-of-the-Month projects you can join, and not all of the projects start in January!

Many of these Mississippi shops have websites and Internet specials along with teriffic service. Let's support our Mississippi Quilt/Fabric shops!
If you know of a Mississippi Quilt/Fabric shop that I do not have listed, please let me know.

This list is a free service for my quilting friends...

a one-stop-list with phone, email, address, hours, etc.
The Journey of Discovery on Mac's first days on the farm has been delightful for Mac and especially for the four humans on the farm.
Mac has decided that his new purpose in life is to keep the four English Shepherds under control.

He herds them on our walks each day, while Gordon and I laugh and try to snap pictures.
Annie is Mac's pretty little Girl Friday on these little outings. In the studio, she becomes Top Dog, and Mac obeys her instantly.

We are going to get videotape on this funny little Westie Drama and share the video here on the blog. (Gotta learn how to do that first, but we will.)
Mac is SO VERY serious about his job of keeping those big girls in line.

He is such a happy little man.
He and Annie play each morning after their breakfast. The first morning, the play was short before Annie remembered that she did not like this new kid.

Each day, the Westie-only play time lengthens.
They dance around, stiff-legged and stiff-necked, with little ears and carrot-tail taunt in attention. It looks like a fencing match without the sabers.

The little Westies make muffled growly sounds as they lunge forward and spring back, and dance around each other, their little nails making staccato statements across the floor. Often, Mac and Annie break into a chase around the room, and then they stop and fence some more.
This is indeed a memorable week among the fur-clad gang here on the farm.

For the humans, it is a week of smiles and giggles.
Would that I could approach every task with the zest and excitement that Mac has demonstrated about everything and everybody this week. He is a joy!

Rosalie looks down on the from her perch high among the shelves in the lower level of the studio. Mackie just does not seem to even SEE Rosalie.
Rosalie was found under a house in Natchez, MS.

She was about a month old when she was found. Her mother had been run over by a car, and she was the only kitten to survive from that litter.

Rosalie was my birthday present in 2004.

We drove to Natchez (about 3.5 hours away from the farm) and adopted her from the local animal shelter. A friend in Natchez had alerted us that there was a Siamese-mix in the shelter.

Sweet little Rosaile had such vivid blue eyes and such very long, long legs!
She has grown into her legs now, and she is a beauty! Gordon insisted she should be an indoor/outdoor cat, so she hunts outside and brings us little gifts of dead field mice, dead moles, dead birds.

So far, she scratches at the door to come in at night, tank up on cat food, and settle down for a nice nap.
She will eventually adjust to this new Westie, Mac, and we hope she will return to snuggling on the bed with us. Until then, we enjoy our Rosalie moments when we can pet her without little white dogs underfoot!

The bottom picture is of Rosalie and Sunny. Sunny appointed herself to be Rosalie's nanny from Rosalie's first pretty paw-step on the farm. If we wanted Rosalie to come inside, Sunny would find her, stick her cold doggie nose under Rosalie's tail and just nudge and guide her back inside.

Rosalie, as you can imagine was not pleased!
The little basket below began life as a remote control keeper and phone keeper on the bed. If you have ever searched through a sea of pillows and covers for an missing remote control, you know how frustrating it can be.

Add to that all the other little remotes Gordon has for the surround sound, etc...

even a remote-controlled fan, and this little basket was the perfect answer...

.until Rosalie decided it was to be HER basket.
We could carry her around the studio in this little basket, while she posed like Cleopatra on her royal barge.

Just the sight of this little basket in our hand would prompt Rosalie to race to hop in it.

She and Sunny would play many rounds of their own Nose-Nudge games. When Sunny's nose crossed into the airspace around the basket, it became the target for Rosalie's pretend attack.

Rosalie was had outgrown her basket by the time this photo was taken a couple of years ago, and we finanlly weaned her to a larger basket that now has her own private heating pad that stays on the low setting for Her Highness to enjoy a warm cozy nap at any hour of the day.

Sleet is falling at this hour on the farm. The temperature is below freezing, so it will accumulate.

We may have a fairy wonderland of ice by morning, or we may just have slippery steps and roads. I vote for that fairy wonderland of ice!
Before the sleet started to fall, my uncle Charles Hamer (Unc) picked yellow daffodils that have been bursting from the earth several months early, and he cut some branches of white and red japonica that were beginning to bloom (also very early).

We always have some japonica and even yellow bell (forsythia) inside in January or early February to force . That means if you catch the branches in various stages of budding, you can bring them indoors where it is much warmer and force the buds into bloom.
As a child, I remember putting food coloring in the vases to watch the dye appear in streaks in the petals of the emerging flowers.

That was magical to watch as a child.
Now my equivalent magic entertainment comes from Photoshop CS2.
The Sopranos is on A E tonight.

We never saw the series in the first few years when it was all the rage. Now that A E is carrying the series, I can see why there was a big fuss over it! What is it about Mafia movies that is so addictive?

We're ready to be ice-bound for a number of days. The vehicles are gassed up; antifreeze checked; extra gas and diesel in cans; propane tanks have been topped off; groceries and essentials stocked; generator ready; a big pot of soup is ready; and we cooked a turkey today.
We know the drill here on the farm.

As the last telephone and electrical customer on this line, we have to be able to last for days without the essentials. When you are ready for it, it can be kinda fun.
Oooh, I just remembered.

..We need to charge the camera and videocamera batteries and reformat the memory cards.

..to be ready to photograph that winter wonderland I hope will be draped over the farm when we awake.

By the way, if you have a favorite quilt or fabric shop in Mississippi, please so that I can add it to my !




Mr. and Mrs.

Gordon Fikes are the proud parents of a new Bouncing Baby Boy Westie named Mac or Mackie.
The 20-pound, two-plus-year-old West Highland Terrier arrived at Hamer Hills Farm Sunday, January 14, at 6:30 p.m.

The new arrival is already excelling in his job of lap-sitting with his Grandmother, Alice H. Sanford and charming everyone with his overwhelming cuteness.
to the.

...

uh...

.rescue..

..again!

When the little old gentleman Westie the day after Christmas, we had to find another lap dog for Mama as soon as possible! It is breath-taking to see how calm and happy she stays as long as there is a little furball around, preferably snuggled against her.
Gordon and I drove to Brookhaven where we met Vickie of Hammond, LA.

Vickie has been a foster home for rescued Westies for quite a while. She was the foster home for , that we adopted in early October, 2006.
We took Annie with us to visit with Vickie and her two Westies, Dougal and Lucy.

Annie was nervous because she had changed home a good bit in the latter part of 2006. We gave her some herbal travel anxiety drops and tried to keep our energy calm and happy.
There were wags and wiggles aplenty when the four Westies greeted each other.

I had never been around that many Westies at one time, so I was on Cloud Nine!
Annie recognized Vickie right away, and pulled against her leash to reach her favorite foster mom.
With all of that wiggling, squiggling, yipping sniffing and wagging going on at once, it was difficult to take care of the paperwork.

So we put Dougal and Lucy in the back of the Westie-mobile to curl up in their own padded beds (that fit perfectly in the back of that adorable car!) The windows are perfect for the little Westies to lie in their beds and look out at the world around them. BMW's MINI Cooper should consider a Westie as the car's mascot!

Annie and Mac had a chance to greet each other while the humans signed paperwork and a check. After a short human visit and some skeptical lip-curling and growls from Annie who was not pleased about this overly-enthusiastic little boy, we were ready for goodbye's and a three-hour trip back to the farm.
Gordon and I have HUGE admiration for these foster Westie moms!

They can't help but fall in love with their little charges as they nurse them back to health and work through any bad habits or fears the Westie-rescue might have. It was hard for Vickie to see Mac leave her..

.just as it was hard for her to let Annie and Rebel go to a new forever home .
You can see that Annie well remembered Vickie's obedience training (with treats), and Mac must have been a top student in Vicki's Good Manners class!

Vickie was not holding any treats, but both little dogs, with no prompting or commands, sat and looked up at her in anticipation when Vickie stood up.
In the first picture on this post, notice that little Mac is balancing on his hind legs. His little paws never once touched my skirt as he negotiated for the return of his beloved chipmonk.

He is such a little gentleman!
It broke my heart to see how uncertain Annie was about the whole trip. In the past quarter-of-a-year, she had traveled long distances only when she was passed to a new home.

My heart hurt thinking she was afraid we were giving her away.
I wish we had had the videocamera on when we returned to the farm and she hopped out. She was soooo happy to be home again, and I think she finally accepted that this is her forever home.

Annie has spent a lot of time snuggled against me since we returned...

either sitting on top of my feet or in my lap or lying on some part of me when she slept at night. She is such a loving little eight-year-old Westie. I just cannot understand how .

..but I am thankful we have Annie now, and she will have love and people around 24/7 here on the farm.

Little Mac is a dream Westie! He gives lots of kisses, and he is just so HAPPY! Max is quickly melting Annie's initial jealousy.

He has gotten her to play with him yesterday and today...

.and then she will stop abruptly, remember that she is supposed to be indignant over the new addition, curl her lip and pretend he does not exist. It is hilarious!

Mac was turned over to a shelter with two other dogs (different breeds) when his owner moved to an apartment that would not accept pets. Mac is a happy little fella, and he was apparently not overtly mistreated.
His coat was impossibly matted, and he did not want to be brushed, so grooming and dog baths were apparently not part of his life.

The mats in his hair were so bad that when little Mac was under anesthesia to be neutered, his hair was detangled only then.

Would you believe he was absolutely perfect when I gave him a bath in the shower with me yesterday? Not a peep, no attempt to get out.

..he was perfect!

That little boy has a huge heart to learn what he needs to do to fit into his forever home! We did not know he could bark until today when he joined the pack announcing the propane supply truck!
The new-mama-to-be in me could not stand the anticipation Saturday afternoon, so I whipped up this new bandana for Annie with some cute little yo-yo's.

I can't seem to get yo-yo's off my mind since my last !
Then on the drive down to Brookhaven, I a M for Mac and embroidered some vines and daisies on this bandana for Mac.
Oh my.

...

.how quickly two adorable little Westies can turn an otherwise sane and stable 44 year old woman into..

...

...

.(I'll let you finish the sentence. *sheepish grin*)
Gordon is not in much better shape.

He adores these two little powderpuffs, but I won't tell you how silly he can get while playing with them. You know men and their macho reputation! *chuckle*.

The English Shepherds met Mac with calm resignation that they had yet one more furry critter to watch over. The English Shepherds are not completely convinced that the Westies are actually dogs. I think the Shepherds think there is part cat in the little fluff balls!

Rosalie the rescue Siamese mix, has observed this new addition with haughty disdain...

.from some safe high perch. To our knowledge, little Mac has not clapped eyes on Rosalie.

...

yet...

.but we know he smells her presence. He discovered the obscure little box with buried tootsie rolls this morning.

(If you don't know what I am talking about...

..don't worry.

...

and don't ask. You don't need to know! *laugh*)

You can be sure to see more pet pictures in the months ahead.

For now, I am going to get some puppy-snuggle-therapy!

This past week, I met a Mississippi woman who was inspiring, super talented, an accomplished hostess, and just great fun to be around!
, whose vibrant paintings you are seeing in this post, lives in Inverness in the Mississippi Delta.

Her lovely restored home was the site of the January meeting of the Iklanna Chapter of the .
She SAYS she is retired, but I am not sure whether to believe her on that or not! She told me her age.

...

but I really don't believe that she is the age she says! She looks to be in her 40's. I'm 44, and she looks much better than I!

When Gordon and I arrived at her graceful 1935 English Tudor (with a Spanish influence) style house, our senses were nourished by paintings of brilliant color in every room, even the kitchen!
only started painting seriously in 2000, and she has aggressively worked with some very respected Mississippi Delta art mentors and oher well-known Mississippi artists to develop her personal style.
Before I make the first stroke, I ask God to hold my hand as I paint.

I usually know what I want the result to be but many times it ends up entirely different from my plan, which is ok too. told me.
I've talked before about the .

is originally from Monticello, MS, which is south of Jackson, but she has lived in the Delta long enough to be saturated with its boldness, and I think that shows in her art.
even thought about, much less taken the time to see. I just bump these colors up a little, she said.

There is one more painting that I especially want you to see...

grandson fishing. She is going to send me a picture of that painting when she can photograph it outside.
made Gordon's day by asking to paint from one of his photos of Mississippi Cotton!

I want to buy one of her Cotton paintings based on my husband's photography! (I promise to blog about his photography soon.)
By the time she adds the spice of her sense of color to that picture of cotton grown on this farm, it is going to be a WOW piece!

We are saving a long kitchen wall in Grandma's house (that we are slowly renovating) for a really big piece of artwork...

.either something I paint or something we really like.
is involved in the Mississippi State Committee of the .

That Washington D.C. museum is the ONLY museum in the world dedicated to art by women.

and I share interests in the MSC-NMWA and the . I hope to bring you more sneak peaks of her work in the future, especially her cotton!
The next sculpture I create, I will be thinking about strong strokes of color.

I want to see how her feel for color inspires my sculpture! In fact, I feel the need to get my hands into porcelain this beautiful Saturday afternoon!
You can contact through email.

Every time you see her name highlighted and underlined in the post above, I have linked it to her email address.
Computer Tip: I dare not put email address in text here because robotic *bot* computers troll the Internet to collect published email addresses in order to flood those addresses with spam! - - Another safe way to share an email address in print on the Internet is to do this: carolynreed(at)bellsouth(dot)net.

This computer tip has been brought to you by my computer-geek husband!
You have not lived until you watch a city-slicker Westie try to impress a pack of country English Shepherds!
Annie, the Westie Rescue who from all accounts lived a pampered city life in Vicksburg, MS, until her owner died, and his wife abruptly dumped outside in the back yard 24/7 in the terrible heat and cold.

What followed was more than a year of neglect, no baths, no grooming, no human love, doggie depression, and being menaced by street-savvy dogs in the kill-shelter. Their haunts me, so instead, I try to focus on giving all of our fur children a wholesome country life with lots of love.
Thanks to , Annie and Rebel came to live on Hamer Hills Farm with our four English Shepherds and one Rescue Siamese-mix in early October, 2006.

Rebel was feeble and required a good bit of extra TLC. Annie needed time to trust that this was her Forever Home. She is very bright and has a huge heart to please her people.

You should see the changing expressions on Annie's face when she finds in our studio living quarters and decides to NOT chase the cat and to NOT bark at the cat because she knows that is what her people want from her. Her face shows a mixture of heartache, despair and resignation. *laugh*

Westies have a HUGE prey drive, and they need to be kept on leash at all times when outside of a fenced area.

You cannot see it in these photos, but there is a fence around the open meadows surrounding our three structures...

old farmhouse, studio and Grandma's house that we are s-l-o-w-l-y renovating. In addition, Gordon and I were supervising the walk, continually training the dogs to return to our side when we call.

We have been taking Annie and The Girls on a walk to help all those walking to become more fit.

Now that she is off-leash (within the enclosed meadows) she is trying SO hard to impress the English Shepherds!
It is so cute to see her, not run, but leap and bound over the tall grass after her new sisters, trying to keep up as one of the pack . *grin* They let her boss them around because either they know she is a special little dog, or they just like to see her being bossy.

Westies have ATTITUDE!
I don't think Annie has had the opportunity before to smell wild turkey, deer, rabbit, bobcat, cougar, wild dogs, coyote, armadillo, raccoon, opossum, fox, and an unknown number of other critters!
These daily walks are, for Annie, probably equivalent to locking me in a Godiva chocolate shop overnight.

*Great Big Cheeky Grin* Now THAT is a fantasy!
Oh where, oh where is Meighan Morrison?
I bought this Vintage Meighan needlepoint kit around 1998.

It came in a sleek printed carry bag. There were three colorways. The ad was in the back of Martha Stewart Magazine (I think).

This was such a lovely canvas to work! I started it during an ice storm, worked on it , and finished it before the end of that year. It was like chocolate!

When I finished that canvas, I searched for more Vintage Meighan needlepoint, and I have not been able to find her designs anywhere!
Have any of you run across Vintage Meighan or Meighan Morrison designs?
Google and I have spent quite a few late night hours over the years searching for Meighan.

There is a Meighan Morrison writing children's books with a quilting theme. If this is the same Meighan, we need to needle her to return to needlepoint!
There is mention of a Meighan Morrison Designs in Fairfax, VA.

, contributing to a fund-raising effort.
Beyond that, *POOF*! No more Meighan!

I could understand if Alien life-forms kidnapped her because they wanted to go with a Victorian-Vintage makeover in their spaceship, but you'd think they would return her to continue to create designs for the rest of us!
I wonder what Renoir would think about his art being turned into needlepoint? I've admired Renoir's work, but I've never enjoyed his art as much as stitching this Girl With Hat tramme needlepoint kit.

It was my introduction to tramme, and I was hooked on the smooth finish of the padded stitches. You can see that I added a sage green border and a small ivory accent border to increase the canvas size and add presence to the canvas.
This and other Renoir reproduction kits are all over the needlework catalogs.

I might do the Girl and her Dog as a companion piece...

.or I might not. Not much of a challenge here.

Here is Casa Lopez's Fall Wreath, another in their Four Season set that I the other day. I discovered that I have never finished the coral-red apple! I started working the apple in petit point, wearied of that, and put the canvas aside for a while.

I can still see the apple in petit point. Probably I will pull out the full-size stitches from the apple and do that pettit point on a trip. Probably, I should ask of the in Gulfport about using some different thread for the petit point.

That would work better than trying to separate the individual threads of the existing fibers.
What do you think? Petit point apple or standard apple?

! Still searching for more Casa Lopez canvases.
The 2006 project was the happy little Westie canvas.

We had just adopted Molly the Westie Rescue from , and I wanted to needlepoint a Westie canvas and have Molly's beautiful strands of hair become woven into the tapestry. (I must talk about Molly soon!)
The little photo in the bottom right corner of that canvas shows the lovely salmon-coral background color of the original printed canvas, but I am glad I changed to a Robin's Egg Blue and used a different needlepoint stitch.

It still needs something. Maybe some thin pinstripes in the background like a striped wallpaper? Maybe a needlepoint border around the design?

On eBay, I found a scrap of some perfect silk upholstery fabric for just a couple of bucks to make the back and a border of a pillow. this canvas needs?
This was my birthday present to my mother around 1979.

She had just completed 12 needlepoint chair seats, and I thought this would be the perfect new project for her.
Well, after a short while, Mama put this canvas aside. She just didn't like trying to figure out how to put in the colors on a printed canvas.

There are many judgement calls when stitching a pre-printed needlepoint canvas. Mama preferred the precison of counted cross stitch, and that became her passion.
Years later, I picked up the project, and fell in love with the process of painting with thread!

The little company out of England that produced this kit has long since closed. The shading and blending is primitive compared to the designs that are more easily available today.
is the original painting in all of its multi-tonal glory.

Breath-taking!
Have you noticed that none of my finished canvases have been actually made into anything? I am noticing that too.

What am I waiting on?
How many finished needlework pieces are lurking around your home, waiting for a frame or a pillow form? ?

*grin*
This is a sneak peek at the new Mississippi River bridge between Arkansas and Mississippi at Greenville.
Apparently rush hour traffic over the current bridge is wicked, so a new multi-lane bridge and the appropriate access roads are being built. The existing bridge is a snug, two lane span as you can see in the picture with the Welcome to Arkansas sign midway across the Mighty Mississippi.

Gordon and I traveled today (well, more accurately yesterday, as I prattle away after midnight) to Greenville, in the Mississippi Delta, to give a speech to the Deer Creek Chapter of the . The program we presented was Great Women of the American Revolution .
The sight of road and bridge construction is an uplifting sight.

..a demonstration of the expectation for the future of this area.

Yesterday we traveled to Inverness, also in the Mississippi Delta. The speech I gave on Antique Roses, Heirloom Fruit Trees and Historic Hardwoods was to the members of the Iklanna Chapter of the .
There is an artist in Inverness to whom I want to introduce you in the coming days.

In my years of traveling to the Delta for meetings and to give speeches, I have met many accomplished artists. That rich black soil grows more than cotton, rice, soybeans and catfish. From that flat fertile land comes a people with deep currents of talent.

There is something else about the women of the Delta that I find hard to describe. The Mississippi Delta is vast, and to travel from one small Delta town to a larger population base with cultural opportunities can require a significant investment in travel time.

And yet, it seems that because Delta women grow up expecting to criss-cross the Delta to reach Memphis or Jackson or other population-draws, they have a wide-angle view on the world with a powerful built-in zoom focus in their minds.

close social bond with other women in the Delta. They are well-educated and culturally savvy. They are indefatigable volunteers and organizers.

Don't believe all the negatives you read about the Mississippi Delta. Who was on the cutting edge of agricultural developments when mechanization transformed rural America? Who continues to lead the world in the area of agricultural research?

Who led the nation in developing the catfish industry (on former row-crop land)? Who introduced an entirely new species of kitchen appliances that transformed the industry when many American companies were outsourcing beyond US borders?

I adore how the phrased the Viking comet that has lit up the Delta sky.

Viking is one of those rare U.S.

brands that have evolved into a cult object, like Harley-Davidson motorcycles and Martin guitars. These brands have an aura of exclusivity that entitles their producers to charge premium prices- which helps keep their relatively high-cost U.S.

manufacturing base viable.

There is a super , story about the super-sized economic footprint of Viking Range all over the Mississippi Delta.
So what's with the flowers and fruit, you ask?

That was the lovely floral centerpiece at the head table today, provided by one of the members of the Deer Creek Chapter. It was designed by a local floral design shop.
I thought the peachy-pink-coral-lime and yellow centerpiece was perfectly lovely, and I am sharing it in hopes it will inspire you to some peachy-keen January decorating!

Before you ask, yes, I sewed the entire travel time. The project is a new embroidered Christmas ornament in free-hand embroidery to represent Christmas 2003. I'll share it with you soon.

1/22/07 Update: Thanks to Mary Patricia in Greenville, I can share the artistic mind behind this beautiful floral arrangement. (Click on Will's name or his business name, Stems, to send him an email.)
, owner

[Reminder: To prevent Spam robotic computers, bots from harvesting Will's email address from this published webpage, I have his email address as a link from clicking on his name, or clicking on the business name, Stems.

The only other way to publish his email address and keep it safe from Spam-trollers is: stemsfloral (at) aol (dot) com]
Remember making a Gumdrop tree?
Lori Tosches, owner of Gumdroptree.com, told the that the origin of gumdrop trees can be traced to around World War I.

and get a branch and bring it in and stick candies on it. It would be their table centerpiece or even their tree, with the gifts under it, Tosches is quoted in the .
This is our twist on the old favorite gumdrop tree.

We thought it would be fun to make one for dreary January.
The base is plaster with holes drilled in it for the mock orange branches from the farm. We used just the green and white gumdrops.

I could not find blue gumdrops for a blue and white palette.
I did spray the mock oranges branches with a dusting of silver spray, but it does not show up well on these photos. Then the base is covered with Reindeer Moss also gathered here on the farm.

Be sure to microwave the moss to kill the little mites that inhabit it.
Sure, you can purchase a plastic reusable gum drop tree, but this was loads more fun.
Mama suggested we save the red gumdrops and use them for Valentine's decorating.

Unc and Gordon were disappointed at that suggestion because they had visions of leftover gumdrop snacking dancing in their heads! *grin*
If you would like, we can take some photos of the assembly process, especially the plaster base part. .

First I must correct a mistake I made in the post, . The blooms I are from the variety of narcissus that does bloom in January. What I was remembering is the heirloom variety of narcissus that blooms in April after all the other varieties of daffodils have bloomed.

The fragrant blooms my uncle picked this past weekend are the that one forces inside in the winter. The cute little things bloom early even when planted in the ground! The last six or so years, I have started a new needlepoint canvas between Christmas and New Year.

Before you ask, yes, I do finish the canvas during the year! *grin*
During that delicious isolation here on the farm, I'd needlepoint by a window during the day to the subdued light, and at night, we lit the kerosene lamps, some of which my grandmother and grandfather used on this farm in the days before electricity.

We live so far back in the woods that we were the last electricity customer on our line.

Thieves were stealing the downed power lines for their copper content which delayed our re-entry into the 20th Century. This past year someone stole some downed phone line on our farm, but that is another adventure story for another day.

I actually enjoyed living without electricity for those many days.

One's work was limited to daylight hours. The dark hours were for resting and sleeping. There was a healthy rhythm to life dictated by natural light.

I can't help but wonder if the subdued winter light and shorter days are designed to make us want to hibernate and sleep more and renew from stress.

The quiet of no electricity/no phone can be almost hypnotic! I felt insulated from the the world because no phone, no vehicle, no mail, no television, no radio and no Internet could import the problems of civilization.

I miss the concentrated needlepoint time of that ice storm. That year, I started a canvas by a designer I have not seen since. When I find that finished canvas, I will be able to show it to you and ask if you have seen any more work from that designer.

It was a stunning muted colored Victorian-styled piece.
To catch up with the photos: The first two photos are of my needlepoint canvas for this year, actually started in November of last year. It is a tramme canvas that I bought from eBay seller out of Hong Kong.

The prices were rediculously low! Until I finish this canvas, I cannot tell you whether there is enough thread to complete the canvas (because I am doing a basketweave stitch everywhere possible), but it appears to be sufficient.

With so many colors in the design, it would not be a problem to supplement the fibers if necessary.

I've bought two from him, and the service was excellent both times. The thread is a tad small for the size of the canvas, but that may be just my preference. I like a full stitch (no canvas showing and no thin fibers).

is a good explanation of a tramme/trammed needlepoint canvas.
The wreath on an ivory background is one of four large pillow canvases (for the four seasons) that I ordered from a catalog maybe a decade ago. I've finished three of them.

Casa Lopez is the company that produced the tramme kits. It is not the same company as the . If you know where I can find other Casa Lopez needlepoint canvases, please .

I have adored working those canvases!
Now, Fast-forward to next month. The , of which I am a new member, holds a retreat at each year.

February 26-28 is circled in Happy Yellow on my calendar! is one of our Mississippi Treasures that we don't let just anyone know about!
When I dropped in on the Retreat last year to give a program on my , I just fell in love with the work going on in the different classes.

Those ladies had come to do some serious stitching, and I invited them to stitch away while I was gabbing. They were my kind of people !
This year, I have signed up for a hooking class!

he he he (You should have seen Gordon's face when I told him that! LOL) We will be making Christmas ornaments with a rug-hooking techniques, under the skilled instruction of Candace Ballard.
At the Jackson Stitchery Guild Retreat, I will also be beginning this cat canvas that will be customized with special threads and intricate stitches.

of the in Gulfport, Mississippi, has been designing the stitch guides for the class participants for a number of years. I'm hoping she can take the canvas that I bought from eBay and help the kitty-cat look more like our Rescue Siamese-mix, Rosalie (see the photo of the sleeping Rosalie). I'm looking forward to a challenging stitch guide with many new-to-me stitches and exciting fibers!

It is not too late to join us at Lake Tiak O'Kata in late Februrary. is the president of the Guild. You will need to join our Guild, but that is a nominal fee, and the newsletters and activities throughout the year are fabulous!

Rosalie was my birthday present from Gordon in 2004, and we adopted her from the Natchez shelter; thus, the name Rosalie, after . Rosalie crawled into my knitting bag while I was knitting the first few days of her life on the farm (bottom photo).

Breaking news: Oh, my!

Gordon just stuck Annie, the Westie Rescue, under my nose, and I detect a faint but distinct fragrance of Eau de Skunk! OH NO! More to show you.

...

...

...

after we find the gas-masks! PHEW-WEEEEEE! (Life is never dull with a Westie!

)

I wish you could smell these heavenly narcissus blooms! These are really ! They should not bloom until after all the other daffodils here in Mississippi have bloomed, but a few brave little clumps are strutting their stuff this first week of January!

This little pungent bouquet is indeed a special and unexpected decadence from the bountiful earth!
The Dallas Cowboys are playing the Seattle Seahawks tonight, and I am too nervous to watch. Gordon is energetically talking to the television screen from his off-site-mental-telepathy coaching position.

Annie the is curled up behind my knees where she is safe from hyperactive Dallas Cowboy fans! *grin*
Let me show you what YOU have been inspiring me to do lately! (If I mention a project to you or even show a photo of the process, I feel quite obligated to hurry up and finish!

That is an excellent, but unexpected, benefit of blogging!)
First, here is the finished . I that I decided when Gordon and I married three years ago that I wanted to make a special ornament each year for our Christmas tree!

(Now, after our third anniversary, I am finally getting to this little project. HA!)
The 2006 ornament symbolizes a number of favorites for us at this point.

..renovating my grandmother's house here on the farm in Mississippi, some of the happy yellow fabric I am using in the renovation, and the heirloom roses on the farm.

I embroidered over the fabric design, front and back, and I really had not intended to do so much embroidery...

just a little embellishment here and there. When I got into the project, the embroidery was so much fun and surprisingly fast that I just kept playing stitching.
But folks, the next time I decide to make a box edge (or whatever it is called), especially around something with as many twists and turns as the state of Mississippi, someone please shoot me and put me out of my misery early!

! *grin*

Once completed, however, I am rather pleased with the outcome. Yes, I see a number of things I would like to do better or differently, but that is part of the adventure of whipping up a design from the picture in your head.

I adore the journey and the challenges!
So yesterday, I started on the ornament I never got around to making to represent our married life in 2005.
Back in the summer of 2006, the sponsored a two-day class with national applique artist, designer and quilter, .

Folks, if you ever are near an applique class with Mary Sorensen, RUN to . Do Not Walk..

..RUN!

This woman was funny, talented, challenging, experienced in the industry...

just wonderful! She will be teaching on some at the end of this month and in the Fall of 2007.
(Gee, I would love to be on one of those cruises, but not this year.

We will be on a renovation budget all year. *grin*)
The class I took from Mary this summer was itty bitty applique, Needleturn Applique. We were doing skinny little stems barely larger than a match stick and little circles the size of English peas!

I ADORED it! The rest of the ladies in the class were long-time quilters and veteranns of the many classes MQA sponsors throughout the year. I was the only newbie in the class, I think, and My Goodness, I am thoroughly enjoying learning from these very talented, helpful and quilters in Mississippi!

So, to combine my new love of itty-bitty applique and my ongoing fascination with heirloom monograms (back when monograms were embroidered by hand), I decided to applique our intertwined initials!
In 2005, leading to our second anniversary, we were continuing to learn how to be married, thus the symbolism of the intertwined initials. (This is a first marriage for each of us.

)
First, I sketched our initials on scrap paper, freehand. Then I cut out the initials and traced them in pencil onto the background fabric, editing a bit as I went along.
To make the letters, I cut bias strips from several fabrics.

Cutting bias strips has always been fun. I have this thing about working with bias. Some folks complain about it, but I love it!

Then, using the bias strips and , I simply started stitching the applique.
My first attempt is on the green background. Today's attempt is on the violet polka-dot fabric.

As you can see I am not finished, but I do like the F in the bolder yellow. It stands out better..

.to represent my new last name.
As you can see, I trimmed the bias fabric too tight to make the triangular flourishes that I intended to make at the ends of the letters.

(I was too busy visiting with Mama in the big house both days, and I was not paying enough attention to what I was doing! *grin*)
So today, I just did some fussy-cutting and appliqued curved triangles on the ends of the letters. Actually, I think I like the multiple-fabric version better than my original plan.

The S does not yet look like I want it to look, so there will be at least a third version before I turn this into an ornament for 2005.
Decidedly, there will be more Applique Monograms in my future! This is FUN!

Now that you have seen my unfinished project, I am even more motivated to finish it and show you that I CAN do an intricate and tidy job!
I must soon show you the new Woman Sewing I finished this week. thanks to the mold-making and casting talents of my husband and Uncle.

The first Woman Sewing brooch is in the kiln tonight!

If you have appliqued letters or monograms, . If you have taken a class from before, I'd love to .

If you are interested in the from the , just . I love your emails!
What a fun, refreshing day it has been.

..sunny and beautiful.

I helped Mama update her address book by calling some of her friends, letting them enjoy a good chat. Unc has puttered diligently on some wood-working projects and a joint project for the blog (another Blue January decorating project that harkens from the past.) Gordon has stayed busy with the phone (yes, orders come in on the weekend!

), porcelain, computers, walking the dogs, and now football! The dogs have worked extra hard shadowing all of us!
Poor Gordon is about to have kittens just seconds from the half and a couple of yards from a Cowboys touchdown!

I'd better help my husband and Tony Romo score!
Bath day yesterday. , who fostered Molly, our first Rescue Westie (I promise to tell you that story soon), told me about putting the little white dogs in the shower with you to give them a bath.

It works great and is LOADS easier than trying to wrestle a soaped-up dog in the sink or tub! I've had two Westies in the shower with me at one time..

.easy as pie!
After I towel Annie off (we are a at present), I let her out of the bathroom, and she races down the long hall in the old farmhouse.

Just like Molly, she sees that hallway as something of her personal cat walk, and boy, does she work an already adoring audience! By the time I emerge from the bathroom with my layers of creams and lotions, Annie is almost asleep in my mother's lap, under the warmth of a reading lamp and the massage of a gentle hairbrush.
So yesterday after her shower and brush-out and massage, Annie was ready to come down to the studio (where Gordon and I live until we renovate Grandma's house).

Here she is wearing her while watching TV with Gordon. My mother always called January Blue January because everyday life seems a bit drab after a sparkly December.
The next photo is how we see Annie much of the day.

...

either standing or sitting right by one of us with that intense look of contemplation on her precious face. She studies everything!
I recently shared the following Annie-funny with The Aunts .

(That is what I call the Westie Rescue heroes who have blessed us with Molly, Rebel and now Annie.)
I wrote this short story just 2 weeks after we received , age 13, and Annie, age 8, from . On this particular night, was stretched out as far as he could stretch between Gordon and me as we propped up in bed, communing with our respective laptops.

...

.and Annie, tired and satisfied from a very active day, lay inhabitants of the studio. (She was really waiting for Rosalie the Rescue Siamese-mix to surface so that they could play chase!

) Gordon and I had paused our computer reverie to look at our babies, fill presence. As we have done a thousand times already, one or both of us commented on how sweet, how precious, how loving, etc..

...

these little white bundles of soft fur are, and how we feel blessed to have them in Miss Annie Bright Eyes either had this experiment planned, or she made Annie looked over our heads at the ceiling above us, and panned the area with her sharp, observant eyes. Gordon and I looked up to see what had caught Annie's attention. We saw nothing, and we looked back at Annie, in unconscious unison, to see Annie's eyes sparkling at us, her face now in a Full Alert.

Annie looked up at the ceiling to see what we were looking at...

.. (Do you recognize a pattern here?

) Well, as we looked up at the ceiling again, I commented to Gordon how this had become a contagious game, and none of us were actually SEEING anything. We had stumbled into this ping-pong-game by sheer chance. Gordon and I became giggly as the game continued with the same rhythm.

...

. 1. Annie looked at ceiling.

2. Gordon and Penny looked from Annie to ceiling. 3.

Gordon and Penny looked back at Annie who, in turn, peered intently Giggles turn to belly-clutching laughter as the game continued. never stirred between us, and Annie continued to sit primly at the end of the bed, her eyes sparkling at us as she messed with our Annie thought this was delicious fun, and even more interesting than a squeaky toy! She nosed our faces with her sweet little wet nose to see what was wrong with her human subjects, and she wiggled all over with glee, rolling around in what was probably Westie Laughter!

eyes, and discovered, to my satisfaction, that Miss Annie was playing a game with us. What may have started innocently, Annie intelligently Several times since, she has tried to start this game with us, and we have played along for a while. Annie, I think, has been disappointed that her human toys did not squeak and gasp as we did for the first game!

Ahhh...

..Life with a Westie is never dull!

I was just reading , one of the first blogs I started reading for the pure enjoyment of the way Anne expresses herself. She has quite a few original knitting patterns she has developed/written in her Knitspot store.

I am often impressed with the many knitting projects she has underway.

...

without GUILT! That is somewhat freeing to just concentrate on the enjoyment of a project without holding onto any guilt over not meeting my own unrealistic expectations! Life has enough deadlines without imposing self-deadlines on the projects that are intended to relax and refresh!

At this moment, I can see:

(1) a large trame needlepoint canvas
(2) an applique project
(3) the almost-finished annual
(4) the
(5) another needlepoint canvas of a Westie (all completed but waiting for me to block it and sew it into a pillow)
(6) a couple of European square pillowcases I cut from an irregular Ralph Lauren bargain sheet - waiting for me to hand sew them while traveling. I've made oodles of pillowcases by hand, French seams and all, while we travel.
(7) shoe bags to be cut and sewn from that I have talked about before

.

...

and those are just the projects I can see from my bed! There they sit, in their or other special project box or bag, waiting for me to get the notion to pick one up and stitch away some stress, or waiting on us to go somewhere so that I can sew while Gordon drives.

was talking about organizing her knitting room/studio and all the books she had been collecting--with no way to organize them.

That reminded me of !
One relatively new long-range project here on the farm is cataloging the books the family has collected over at least three generations. A passion for books must be in our DNA!

is also a bookworm, and his addition to the family brought several hundred (or more) books into our disorganized library.