Driving Inspiration

On Christmas Day last year my guy and I meant to go and walk the beach, but it rained, so we settled for a long drive in the country and (when the rain stopped) a walk in a state park we like. I brought the camera along because although it was a wet, kinda miserable day I like taking pictures of interesting things I see. Sometimes all I need for an idea for a story is an single photo, like this one of an ancient wooden sailboat boat that looked like it sailed onto this property and got wedged in these trees. If you found that in your backyard one morning, would you look inside?

This tumble down barn we passed seemed a bit menacing. What secrets might it reveal if it suddenly collapsed? Treasure? Bones? A tunnel that leads to an underground world, or another dimension?

At the park there are these concrete steps everywhere that are green around the edges and suddenly start and stop in the oddest places. If you follow them, where would they take you? Forward in time, or back?

I loved these little ferns I saw growing out of the side of this step, and they gave me the strongest story idea of all. I wondered how I'd react if I came home and went to take a shower, and found one growing out of the side of my foot.

Maybe the squirrel watching me knew -- or maybe he's someone or something that is just disguised as a squirrel. :)

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Better than Fried

I cut some chives from the kitchen garden to make garlic-chive baked fries for dinner. This is a great side dish for veggie burgers. Click here for the recipe from Taste of Home.com.

Stuff

After finding this Caron one pound skein of lovely peach yarn in my thrifted lot I raided my stash for two cakes of Mandala in Pegasus, which matches it perfectly. For practice and hand therapy I'm going to make another Worth Street Afghan with this free pattern , but this time I'll use the yarn that was recommended for it plus the one pound skein. I'm not quite ready to do the vintage/recycled linen quilt I had planned (still a bit too nervous about the idea), so I'm going to use some color therapy and make a quilt from these thrifted green fat quarters. I considered doing another Yellow Brick road patchwork pattern, but I might go with a split rail fence like this one.

The Mercantile

If you don't mind walking 33K square feet in retail space, The Mercantile may be the vintage/arts store you'd enjoy visiting if you're ever in Orlando. I certainly did. Because it was busy I didn't take any photos in the store, but it's absolutely amazing and chock full of antiques and artisan creations, most of which were pretty reasonably priced. For $21.00 I invested in a picture of sailboats for the guest bathroom I'm redoing, and a fairy mystery jar of cool stuff. The jaw was hand-painted and decorated, and utterly charming. I think I wanted the jar more than the contents. As you can see the contents were both generous and pretty cool, too. I finally have some vintage gloves to use for my art quilter bingo challenge!

Rayen

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