Rayen

Last week my guy and I went wandering, stopping first to walk through the farmer's market in Celebration and hike around the big lake in the town center. I love Celebration. It's a beautiful town, and there are so many neat places to walk. From there we went to Lake Alfred and hiked around the Mackay Gardens and Lakeside Preserve. This is a gorgeous and very quiet spot for anyone who likes Nature walks. There are plenty of trails that wind through the preserve that make you feel as if you've stepped through a time portal and are visiting old Florida. There are also lots of pristine manicured spots that likely serve as wedding and party venues. Finally we found a lovely little antique mall, Country Primitives, in Winter Haven that has become one of my new favorites. Definitely stop by there if you want to see unique antiques and wonderful gifts for the vintage lover.

Last month I didn't post much about the tote for my calendar project, so here's what happened with it. It started as another fail, as if May's problems were still clinging to me. The thrifted fabric I chose was too short. My hands wouldn't cooperate with hand-stitching so I doubted I could do any quilting or embroidery. I felt defeated before I even began. My spiritual studies have taught me that it's important not to linger in the past or worry about what might happen in the future, so I set aside my negative emotions and started problem solving. I went out and thrifted fabric to solve the shortness issue and to line the tote. I picked out embroidery threads I love from my stash and did a little stitching at a time, as much as my stiff fingers would allow. I embroidered intermeshing circles, which I also love, over as much of the top portion and some of the print as possible. With this tote I wanted to express my happiness (and relief) over s...

Sometimes I get ideas from the stories I write that are so strong and clear I can't ignore them. That's the reason I bought a giant ball of bejeweled handspun art yarn back in April and then started looking for a basket, which took two months and I only found a week ago in an antique store in Winter Haven. I sat down to weave the art yarn into the basket. Please note, I have zero experience with weaving. Didn't matter. I knew what I wanted to do in my head. Several hours later, this was the result. It was inspired by a character in a story I'm writing, and that's about all I can tell you about that, but it is 100% what I saw in my head. That really never happens. I can't tell you how satisfying it is to make something that only existed in my imagination. I will probably crochet a lining for the basket next month, but I'm so happy with the final result I'm fine with leaving it as is. Wonderful experience.

Since I'm officially turning into an antique this month I want my calendar project tote to be very vintage, like me. :) That's why I invested in an old, banged up, stained feedsack from The Coop. This is the kind of textile I love to work with in art quilting. I also invested in a bundle of quilt scraps from my favorite Etsy seller, 14carrot. I don't have a design in mind yet, but will let the elements guide me. This bundle of antique lace and linens, also from 14 carrot, should work nicely as trims and embellishments, and I might use the panel with the two pups as the back of the tote. Anyway, stayed tuned to the blog to see what I make of it all.

I've reached the last page of my desk journal (the messy thing on the right) so it's time to break in a new one (the one with the handsewn cover on the left.) Although this working writer's daily jots are a bit cryptic, and probably not very interesting, I thought I'd give you a peek inside. My desk journal is a hold-all catch-all and allows me to store bits and bobs from my personal life as well as my work life. I started this one back in Spring 2024, when I was still tracking my word goals by hand (I do that with Excel now.) That's what's on this page, along with a note about what state produces the least toxic rice (California) and an address for Trader Joe's in Orlando, which we visited for the first time that week. I was building our emergency pantry that spring, and deciding what sort of rice to buy for it. My NDA means I can't show you all the work notes, research jots, sources and such, but here's another page with some perso...

Two hundred and fifty years ago, a bunch of ungrateful upstarts forming a baby government passed a radical document that was, in its essense, a request for their country to not longer be under the rule of King George III and the British Parliment. There were thirteen established colonies in their country at the time, mostly filled with criminals, religious extremists and people who fled their native lands to come there for other unsavory reasons. You could call them the riff raff and that would be kind. The radical document contained 27 specific problems these guys had at the time with King George III's specific behaviors in regard to this little nothing of a country; all of them inflicted without the consent of the criminals, extremists and other unsavory folks. It was like a long-distance impeachment. It was their wish for freedom from oppression. It was also for the time completely audacious, highly shocking, and absolutely committed this bunch of malcontents to a war wi...