Outdoor Wednesday - A rose goes to heaven

One of my friends died recently. After her funeral I took photographs of one of her favorite spots at her farm. It's an old cabin that she made useable.

Outdoor Wednesday - Marbles?

My son has a decent size collection of marbles including some that he inherited from his grandpa H. When we saw these ones I let him take the photographs (we have more).
Now if you have visited any of my blogs over the past few months you have to know that these "marbles" are not quite what they seem. They are in fact part of a series of Dale Chihuly exhibits that just wrapped up in Nashville. This section was in the Japanese Garden at Cheekwood.
My favorite marble is the orange & green one closely followed by the blue discs.
All the marbles on the gravel had the echoing circles raked into the gravel below them. it was interesting to see. Darling son had to do some contortions in bushes to get the above shot of the blue one :)
If you want to see more Niijima floats and learn more about Chihuly's work visit http://www.chihuly.com/ I also recommend looking in google photographs for some amazing views of his installations.
Then head on over to http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com to see more of the participants in Outdoor Wednesday.

LofS Christmas ornament exchange

A big, rattling box arrived in the mail a few minutes ago, all the way from Baghdad, Iraq. The very talented Rand, who does amazing embroidery on the clothing that she makes, and gets teased at work about it helping her do reconstructive surgery (or is that her sister Arwa) sent me some pretty ornaments, needles and a lot of chocolate. The candy had some adventures on the way across but survived the journey :) I will have to hide said chocolate from my son !!!!!

So I now have beautiful gifts from both Rand and her sister Arwa in my collection, and feel very blessed to be on the receiving end of their combined talent.

I'll add another photo tomorrow showing the ribbon work. It's chain stitch which I have heard about but never seen in reality before.

Project update - Fleur de Lis wall hanging

This is one of my wall hangings that I am currently embroidering. The first line of each center panel block is done. Now on to the next color which will be one of the rust/orange colors. This is going to take a while for me to work on but I am really enjoying it so far.
It currently measures 35"x35" but might get larger depending upon how I finish the outer edge.

The stitching outline looks a bit whimpy in relation to the rest of the quilt design but it will beef up as the stitching progresses :) It echoes the shape of the leaves in the fabric which I am happy about. This is my first time hand stitching on Kona fabric and it takes well to embroidery. I don't like the shredding on the outside edges of each block so will have to work out something else for next time.

My mini Christmas Stocking wall hanging that I showed in a previous posting is now finished and in the mail. I'll share when it arrives at the other end. I'm excited about who is receiving it and you'll find out why soon.
Christmas is fast approaching so I'll be putting most non - Christmas related projects to one side till after December.

New to Me - Hanging on by a Thread

I love visiting blogs and being inspired. I've decided to start a "NEW TO ME" posting which will show up every so often. It might be someone who has actually been blogging for a while or a newbie.
Hanging on by a Thread - aka Patty C. from Florida has been blogging since February. Go take a look. She has some fun, small, Christmassy stuff in progress at the moment that I really like http://pccrafty.blogspot.com/ She also has a humungous list of sites to visit that should keep you all busy blog hopping for a looooong time :)

11/3 Outdoor Wednesday #95

I've decided to participate in Outdoor Wednesday sponsored by A Southern Daydreamer. I've dropped in on the postings on occasion and really enjoyed them.

Last week as part of my birthday present to myself I spent a chunk of the day, down the road, at Belle Meade Plantation. It is one of the earlier historic homes in the area and earned it's fame from raising and racing horses. (We were told that ALL the racers at the Kentucky Derby this year are descendants of Bonnie Scotland out of Belle Meade). The original family sold the property because of raids by local Indians. The new owners started out in a small log cabin which is still on the property. Eventually a small mansion was built and added on to later. Personally I find the exterior of the house quite unattractive BUT the inside is amazing. For me what remains of the extensive grounds and the utilitarian out buildings are the real interest.

Autumnal colors in the formal garden where many photographers come with their clients.

One of the peaks of the massive stable building. Part of my purpose for visiting was to take photographs of shadows created by the strong morning sun. I probably should have put a filter on because the light was a wee bit too strong :)

The plantation has trees that are OLD, old, old. I took this photo from inside the lower canopy of one of them. Yes there is a tree growing into the roof and yes that is a whooole lot of moss growing on the wood shingles :)

The original log cabin. Right hand side is  the oldest part. Left hand side is the add on to allow for a growing family. It later became the home for the head hostler. I have photographs of the inside that I will share at another time.

One of the casual walking "avenues".

Outside the smokehouse with part of the stables in the background. The stables had to be completely renovated and now house the family carriages. It is also used for other temporary exhibitions.

Just because I like the effect :)

One of my favorite spots. The "lean to" on the right is the greenhouse. Tiny !!!!! If you look really close you can see a photographer taking a nap under the tree :) The young couple in the background did the house tour at the same time as me. Their baby was a delight to be around.

Part of the entry to the formal garden.

One of the slave houses. It's actually two homes connected with a half dog trot. There is an interesting and very sobering exhibit inside .

The current visitors entry to the mansion. This is where tours start. The house was originally a "two up -two down" (part of which you can see here) and had significant additions made later. The in-costume docents are hilarious. The house is "going green" soon which they reckon will cut heating and air costs by half.

The bell outside the smoke house. If you look at the wall behind, the open brick pattern shows up in a lot of the buildings on the grounds. Probably meant for ventilation. 

Just 'cause I was intrigued by the double doors. This is actually, for me, the prettiest building on the grounds but the rest of my photos did not turn out too well :(

The lean-to greenhouse with early morning sun patterns on the wall from the glass roof.

So now that you've seen my "sun bleached" photographs hop on over to http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/ The link is also in my sidebar.

Project update - a Christmas surprise

This is what I have designed and I am planning on making a few more in different colors:) It's a little wall-hanging with a functioning pocket for a surprise. The rod will go through the stitched section at the top. I have a few more embroidery stitches to do round the outside edge of the fabric boot. Once it has reached it's recipient I'll share more.
Addendum - to answer Semmy's question the boot is 81/2" tall by 7" at the widest part and 41/4" along the top edge.

Project update - a Christmas surprise

I'm working on a surprise Christmas gift. Here's some of the component parts. Now I just have to cut everything out and assemble :)
The cross stitch is by Ink Circles and part of their 2006 freebies series (April Celtic Knot). I opted to do it in 2 colors instead of 4.

Project update - "Columbines"

I decided to turn the stars into flowers. I've started filling in the leaves. I want to fill in the little circles but have not decided "how" yet.

Some British cross-stitch magazines

Himself spent a goodly amount of September in England on a business trip. Look what he brought back for me:)

Some Christmas editions of British cross-stitch magazines and a Digital Photographer magazine. I am a happy camper ..... nay make that ecstatic :) So many wonderful projects. It's going to be hard to decide on which one to start with. (At the moment it's a toss up between "Polar Antics" and "Furry Tales"). I better make up my mind soon because one of them will be for my parents and I want them to get it before Christmas.
I gave my youngest daughter the calendar and we are contemplating stitching up some of the patterns in it. She is interested in learning how to cross-stitch but I think she may have to start out with something a bit simpler.