This part of my blog is all about the things I collect or the things I make myself. I love so many things, I paint and draw and want to learn oils and pastels. I knit and crochet but want to learn tatting. I embroider and can turn my hand to most things given a chance. So much still to learn and do. I live in hope of some day reading all my books, learning all I want to learn and now I am learning to blog. You will often find my original poems, poor as they are I offer them here. I also appreciate other people art and will feature things I find that I have enjoyed. That includes pictures of fairies and fantasy or maybe just anything beautiful.
I try to use my own photo's as much as possible, sometimes I borrow from the web. If I inadvertently use your picture without giving credit, please do let me know and I will either credit or remove it, I hope you will do the same with mine.
If you wish to leave comments on my blog you can do that by joining google if you do not have a blog yourself, please comment if you can I appreciate that.


Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Rock collecting.......................

For a very long time I have been interested in rock collecting. I am a pack rat, or a Magpie or something like that. Something that makes me want to "collect" things. When I was a child I remember looking for pieces of broken china. One would inevitably find such things when our dads dug up the garden. Pieces with pretty patterns on them. Many things get dug up in English gardens. So I collected them and had my little storage place under the gooseberry bush.
Moving on, here where I live now, we have many wonderful beaches and so it is inevitable for one such as I, to find pretty stones. My Dad had the same fascination. I can still see him on the beach pockets stuffed with wonderful things and mum saying "Harry you are not carrying those all back on the plane with us".............No matter when or where we went to a beach we would find something to pick up and take home.
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The above is a picture Laura took at the beach on Monday, the water is so clear you can not see that it is there, but all those stones are under water. These are Petoskey Stones, our state stone.
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Petoskey's do not look like that on the beach, they are often hard to spot unless they are wet and that's what makes it fun. Often my husband will bring some home when they dig a new basement. They are found far away from beaches and that tells us that this was once all under water. The Petoskey is an ancient coral that once lived here.
Well since we discovered Leland Blue stones the simple Petoskey is now not so much fun to find. Blue stones are hard to find. I used to have a whole bunch that I brought home long ago from somewhere in the UP on one of our trips. They are not real stones, but are the slag from the mines. One time dumped in Leland Harbor they now wash up looking like Turquoise. They come in many colours such as green, purple, grey and blues. The Blue is most sought after for jewelry making. As it's rare it is fun to find. I did find a couple of nice pieces that I had stashed in the garage, I don't know what happened to the rest. I had put no value on it because I knew it was slag, but very pretty and so it came home with me.
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When I die, and people go through my stuff (If I have not cleaned up my act by then) they will wonder why my cupboards are full of rocks and I have them sitting around the house in dishes. Blue and Green stones set in dishes
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Tiny blue stones sitting in small glass things all over the place. We pick up the very small pieces and save them for the day I get creative.
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The small worn pieces of what looks like coal, probably from the furnaces back in the day. It sparkles, so I brought some home.
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These are Apache Tears, I got those when we went out West many years ago.
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Coffee table bowl of Blue Stones in the rough. Also a small dish of flat stones tha t maybe I will paint on some day. If not I like how they look.
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I have picked up Crystal bowls at Thrift shops and this is how they are being used.
Just a bunch of rocks.
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Now I have so many Petoskey and other stones I am thinking I must make things for the garden. I will get some wire baskets maybe and fill them up. Trouble is if I set them out as I do in the house they get slimy and don't look pretty any more so I need containers that will keep them nice.
When we first started we bought a pick and when we went out west we looked for all kinds of pretty things. I bought books on the subject and tried to identify them. Well now I just collect them because they are pretty. We had gone to an Amethyst mine and brought a few pieces back and some geodes and things like that. they are scattered around somewhere. In the Upper Peninsula it's Agates. I find those hard to recognize in the raw but think I found a nice one the other day. You can see through it so it has to be one.
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This fossil came home with us, it has crystals inside
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Yes beach glass comes home too and goes in a small crystal dish.
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I know you can buy bags of manufactured beach glass at craft stores but it's not the same. Laura found a beautiful blue piece on Monday, made her do a happy dance.
We Magpies want to find our own thats what makes us happy.
I am sharing this post with Inspire Me Monday

Saturday, February 18, 2017

sketch book pages........................

This blog was supposed to be about things that I enjoy. Be it my art work, things I collect or that I make. Sometimes there is not a lot to talk about. I am always doing something, but I don't always have much to show. I can show a few pages that are probably almost done. They are never really done because I keep adding stuff that fit in small spaces. I will just post the pages with out a lot of comment because the pages are full of words.
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That was obviously unfinished.
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There will be a few that I will post and as before, these are just ideas, sketches and for practice. Not sure exactly what the purpose is anymore but I am hooked on doing this.
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I am not sure why I bother putting them on a blog, probably because I don't have much else going right now.
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I have quite a few more to go so hang in there
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The bee is not finished
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I am using the quotes that I find and put on here to do some Memes for Facebook.
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I have always liked to find quotes, I have done it since I was a kid. Back then it was a notebook or paper clippings that I kept.
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Just a few more, I didn't realize I had completed so many pages.
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Thats it so far, I will try to not leave it so long so the post is shorter next time. Actually I don't know why I am even doing this.
The next picture is one where I had no plan, I was just doing a sky and the rest sort of happened with no purpose..............I am not sure what to do with it. I may cut part off and see if I can make a picture
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Maybe this piece?
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Or this one.
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No, maybe not. Oh well, that's maybe a rip it up one. Anyway, thats that for today. Hopefully something less tedious next time.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Sewing and stuff...................

Oh boy, not a lot going on around here, same old, same old. Edna and I went to lunch on Thursday and after that we stopped at some resale/thrift stores. Not much going on there either. I found two things. One a pair of pink glasses that I will use to put my beach stones in. The other a sugar bowl.
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Nothing really exciting.
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Later though we stopped at our friends quilt shop. I really didn't want to buy anything. I had been sorting fabric for Edna to pick some pieces for a quilt she is making. She took the stuff that worked for her and I left everything on the table. I hope to get to doing some sewing this week. Although all the work I was going to catch up on this weekend didn't get done. So.....that's debatable.
I really must get some sewing done, I must, I must.
Anyway, while Edna was looking for things to finish her quilt I looked around and saw (oh no) a panel I had wanted to buy. SO I did. It goes with a fabric I already had. Chickadees. I have a load of other fabrics, like pine cones and pine trees and so on that I can also use with Chickadees for my house.
The panel is more Christmas themed but, well I will be lucky if it's done by Christmas anyway haha.
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When Tristen was here at the weekend I asked if he would like me to make him some pillow cases and he said yes. So, I had bought some fabric to do that for him and will now give me some incentive to get cracking maybe. Also I promised Gabrielle an apron for when she is baking. I have plenty to do. I need to finish off all the quilts I had going last year and get them to Barb when she gets back from Florida so she has plenty of time to work on those. Once out of my house I am not worried how long she takes to fit them in with her regular work. I will then have gifts on hand for whatever comes up. Woo Hoo.
I also want to make tote bags for everyone and Laura wants a lunch bag. I should make one for Robert too.
Yes, I need to get sewing.
Maybe I need to let the house go a bit more, do a little at a time instead of worrying about cobwebs and such?
My African Violets are beginning to bloom and so is the Geranium that sits in the Kitchen Window.
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One job this week needs to be re-potting a lot of my plants. They need food too. Some of the Violets are not looking so good at the moment. They are getting old as well so need some care.
While we were out we stopped at The Red Dresser. That's a favourite place to get ideas for hand crafted things, I very seldom get out without buying something. They moved so we wanted to check out the new location. Well, one thing I saw and liked was 60 dollars. Phew!!! nice but way over priced I thought.
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One idea was a cover for a soda can, nice and simple and for me practical. I may make a few of those. I have to laugh at myself, yes that will get done (most unlikely haha) I am full of good intentions and ideas.
Just look at this mess
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Oh its all sorted but I just have to get this fabric under control. I have a whole cupboard full of fabric and then loads of baskets of fat quarters and scraps. Shut up woman and get sewing.I really must, this week. Really.