From the ice dome

Greetings! Today is bright and clear - not like yesterday which was frozen rain, sleet and snow. It is much colder today though and the ice is just as heavy - but at least looks pretty from inside the house. We lost power sometime in the night of the 11th but it was back on by about 9:30 am on the 12th. I am posting some pictures. Last night was a full moon and with a clear cold sky it was absolutely stunning.

with ice/before snow with ice/after snow

Ted fixing the mailbox after the plow hit it - but before the snow came.

and then a brilliant morning...

Our Christmas Tree 2008

Happy Thanksgiving 2008 - wow time does fly...

Good morning - Happy Turkey Day! The Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade is on today and all is right with the world. I hope that you enjoy a happy, healthy Thanksgiving and have a bright and beautiful Holiday Season. We celebrate Christmas and this is the best of times. Cookies to bake and fudge and other treats to make! Ted started his chex mix batches and even put up one of our trees. The decorations are out and just need to be sorted and displayed. So much warmth even in the cold of late autumn/early winter. We are spending the day with Becky and her family in Vermont. Ted is doing the scalloped corn and I am making sweet potatoes and maybe some jello. Orange jello so that I can use the two mandarin oranges that have been growing on the little orange tree that my brother Jack and his family gave us for Christmas a couple of years ago. They are wonderful little oranges - we had one last January and now we have two more that are looking ripe and beautiful. We also have Myer Lemons rippening on the lemon tree Jack and family also sent another year and those are the best lemons I have ever had.

I hope that you all have a safe, happy, and joyous day full of all the things that make you feel at peace with the world. (Even if that something is football....) (How American is this????)

I made a couple of Dragons for the girls last weekend. Jacquelyn's request was for purple and Samantha's request was for pink. I took some pictures (which is good because Samantha has already damaged hers and is needing repair) and will post them soon. I'm also working on three sculpts (Christmas ornaments) that I can't post yet until the swap is over on BPACG. There is also a Blue Angel in cloth in progress that I seem to be spinning my wheels on. I like her so far but now am stuck. Hopefully I "un-stick" soon. LOL.

Hopefully more later and pictures - I have to work tomorrow and we go to NYC on Sunday to get Mike and bring him home for a couple of months so there isn't much time to do anything. Next weekend is a big one too - we go to NYC on a bus trip with friends and then spend the night in Albany so that we can go to the TransSiberian Light Orchestra concert at the TU Center on Sunday. We plan Christmas shopping for early next Sunday so it will be a very busy weekend. Makes me tired already....

Take care and have a happy.
K

November 2, 2008 Post Halloween

Time just flies by....don't know where the rabbit hole is but my time is fleeting down there - I just know it.

Mike has gone back to the city after a couple of week break up here. We miss him. Friday, Halloween, Becky and Kevin and the three children came over for trick or treating and the annual Halloween Parade. What fun. I'm attaching pictures and yes - I'm even adding one of me and one of Ted that shows that goofiness doesn't fall far from the tree. (Maybe it's just contagious?) Even the cat isn't sure about the pumpkin???

Crazy just runs in the family...

I also finished and mailed out my pin for my swap partner, Karen Mallory on Pin Doll Alley. The theme was Gravely I speak - ghosts all around...

Thanks for visiting and Happy Halloween!

The October Chill - Halloween is in the air!

Happy Sunday, October 19th. The three pictures above are from last week. Ted went out to get some pictures in the area we live to send to Aaron in France. We are truely blessed to live in such a wonderfully beautiful place. Now, the weather is crisp and clear, the deciduous trees are starting to shed their glorious crowns of leaves and Jack Frost is back in town. I both love and dread this time of year. I love the colors and the brightness and that hint of how spectacular life really is. I think of baking pies, crisps, cookies, cakes, stews, soups and chilies. We've pulled out our sweaters and heavier clothes. Boots are at the ready-just in case. That's the part I dread - the ice and snow to come. The dark when I awake and the early dark that makes you want to go to bed by seven o'clock in the evening. I don't know how the true north does it - darkness is draining. Thank goodness for the light and warmth of home. I took a picture early yesterday morning as the light was just out so that I can share just what a hard frost looks like. (No this isn't snow - it's just the dampness on the ground as coldness seizes it. The beauty of Jack Frost.

I haven't gotten much farther on my three sisters - although I have begun work on their accessories - no woman or man is quite complete without accessories. LOL. I also came up with an idea on how to finish the little "fiends" that I started last year. Hopefully I will finish them soon and post pictures.

I just put windows live mail on my account so I am struggling to figure that all out. It says I can manage all of my email and photos etc. from one place. We'll see. Well, that's all for this post. I'll put more pictures up as I get things finished. Ted picked a whole box full of hot peppers though and that needs to be taken care of too. I think I may make hot sauces out of these myself and actually can them. Oh - we went to the Adirondack craft show at the Washington County Fair Grounds and bought some jarred butters and conserves. Ted printed out a recipe for Pumpkin Butter so I think I'm going to make some of that too. Hmmm, I think I already know what Christmas gifts will be this year.

October - whoohoo

I have progressed on my three sisters and have done a little more work on two little guys that I started last year. I'm hoping to finish all of these this week. My Wendy Froud project is completed except for the base/setting which still needs a lot of work. Here are some pictures. If at any time you are interested in my things just send me an email and I will get back to you. Thanks for looking and I hope that your day is going along happily.

I also made a pincushion as a September swap for a friend on Pin Doll Alley - Mary Mangini. This is a rather large pincushion with two happy personalities. He will also be a good weight and has a needle book to hold those needles so they don't get lost in his body. (I speak from experience.)

Last Saturday in September - Adirondack Polymer Clay Guild Day!

Good morning - hope the day finds you healthy and happy. I'm spending most of my day at my polymer clay guild meeting. We're making beads today -something that I'm not very practiced at and looking forward to. Hopefully my beads will come out well since we are swapping beads and I don't want to disappoint anyone. :)

This week seemed like a long one. Days at work drag along and are not very satisfying, but I guess that is the case with many people so I'm not complaining - at least I have a full time, paying job and I work with pleasant people and we get along well. I've been working on my three sisters and the third one is almost complete and I will post pictures soon. I'm also working on a pin cushion for another list and that has come along nicely although I haven't picked it up to finish it and really need to since it's my September swap - and what did I title this post? oh yeah - last Saturday in September.

Well, I need to gather my supplies for my bead making extravaganza and get myself in gear. Have a lovely day and a great week end! Tomorrow I will hopefully make it to a couple of Alpaca farms to visit those lovely creatures and see about getting some of their roving for doll hair. (Oh happy day!)

Good morning Happy Last day of summer!

Another chilly morning here. Brrrrrr. Today I have to rearrange some of my plantings outside and try to winter them. After that I will work on some polymer and hopefully also get my three sisters finished or at least mostly. Costuming always takes it's share of time and thought. There are so many things to do that it's hard to know where to start - so I guess I'll have another cup of coffee and just enjoy the sun coming through the window. Have a lovely day. K

Three Sisters for 2008 - in progress

Good morning! It's a very chilly morning here in the Great Northeastern state of NY. Turned the furnace on for the first time this year - very sad day when that happens. I've been working on three cloth dolls that I have named the three sisters. They are still in progress, all in different stages. The first one that is the furthest along is the Green sister, second one is the Yellow sister and the last one is the purple sister. I paint on the bottom of the stump part of the doll and only the purple sister still needs painting. What will it be? I'm leaning toward a black cat. We'll see.

Now for the wedding...well pre-wedding fun anyway...

I didn't post much in the month of August and so you missed all the info on the Wedding in France! We had such a fabulous time! Annelise's family is wonderful and made us all feel so very much at home. Provence and especially Baume de Transit is very beautiful - the sky, the vineyards, the lavender - all gorgeous. I didn't mention the cyprus and the olive trees and how huge the rosemary grows there. I have tons of pictures - most of which aren't that good because I'm not a great photographer - but they will provide memories for life and that's all that matters. I am going to share a couple of video clips here (if I can get them to post) of the day before the wedding where Aaron and Annelise were the leaders of two roman teams that trekked through Baume de Transit on a scavenger hunt and a good time. Esteve, one of Annelise's brothers, is the creative mastermind and a very fun person who came up with this. Everything was so much fun! The first clip is Aaron getting prepared and the next two are Annelise - she was a much more particular master.

I also want to put up a couple of other pictures just to show the scenery. I think I'll put some up in my picturetrail and also in facebook. Probably not tonight - but soon. Of course there was also the Bell Family Reunion that was held on August 2, 2008 at Tom and Marie's house on Hedge's Lake, which somehow got lost in the shuffle - more to come, and also the post-France-now-in-Cambridge party to celebrate the marriage of Aaron and Annelise that was on August 26th. So much to share and so little time and I haven't even touched on my dolls and art work. Whew!

September - approaching Fall!

Hello - time is definitely flying by. The weather today said there is a chance of a light frost out here tonight. We have plans to bring in the more tender of the house plants to protect them - such a quick ending to the summer season.

I have been very busy this last month - I've worked on clay and cloth and various house projects and life is good. Ted and I went for a walk tonight. It was the usual walk but with the purpose of taking some pictures of the corn fields with tassels for our grandson, Zachary. Zachary was with us for May and June and part of July and didn't get to see the full grown corn - so here they are Zachary - pictures of the tasseled corn! (And a few bonus pictures - especially of the "wild" asparagus plants that you and papa hunted for dinner. Ones that got away...)

A blue heron lives in the grassy area by the road where we walk, where the stream comes in. I never get tired of this walk.

Now earlier this month (while I was in the house working on a doll) Ted came in and told me to grab the camera and come outside. There in the sky over our house was a beautiful hot air balloon - and it isn't even the Cambridge Balloon Festival time! How lucky can we be?