MOVING DAY!!!...Readers Take Note

I've decided to abandon this fabrical fanatical blog, and start anew.

I'm not feeling excited about blogging these days, and I'm hoping a more philosophical and expanded daily (almost) blather spot will get me going again.

Please come visit me:

http://cynthiasroad.blogspot.com/

No Wedding Bells, But Lotso Cake

Phoebe is the la-de-dah pooftah on her deck chaise. Don't you forget it. And don't even think about moving her off of her spot!


Well, yesterday was the big finale of my needle felting and cake making extravaganza.

I needle felted a cake topper that was a replica of his dog and her cat, both with leis (they spend lots of time in Hawaii).

The dog wore wire rimmed glasses (like Patrick), and the kitty wore a bride's veil (unlike Lillian).

The furry couple was quite a hit!





My dear friend from across the river, Lillian Halseth, married Patrick Taylor on her beautiful deck.


The day was clear, warm, and perfect for a wedding by the river.

Yikes! I'm Turning Into a Vegan!

So I tried another recipe from "Vegan with a Vengeance." It's called "Orange Ginger Baked Tofu," and is ever good.

I served it over Jasmine rice with baked mango on the side, and some steamed veggies. The tofu marinade is made with ginger, garlic, jalapeno, mangos, orange and lime juices, allspice, salt and pepper.

This vegan diet is darned good!

Blew Berries

This was a lazy Sunday.

I decided to use my new "Vegan with a Vengeance" cookbook to make blueberry pancakes for breakfast.











They were outstanding... made with soy milk, no eggs, and home grown blueberries. Luckily the recipe made only a small batch. If there had been more we'd still be out on the deck stuffing ourselves.

Yummmy!

Out with the New, and In with the Old

I recently came across a sack full of pieced together quilt blocks in an antique shop. The woman at the shop told me that the pieces were found under another quilt top, when they took that quilt apart. Apparently, someone had used the old battered quilt as the batting for a newer quilt.

Anyway, I LOVE these blocks. I'm a sucker for old tattered, soft fabrics, and these charmers were all hand pieced.

So I decided to stabilize each block by hand stitching each one to muslin, turning under the edges as I go. I'm using embroidery floss to stitch them, and I'm letting the wonky edges dictate their final shapes.

















I haven't decided what I'll do with them yet.

I have seven of the antique blocks, all with a six inch square in the middle, and all with fairly similar colors and fabrics.

I do love the embroidered animals that African women do on their textiles (like this one). Maybe if I can find some muted colors, I'll do something similar in the centers of my blocks. Then I'll piece them all together to make a whole quilt top.

My Favorite Family

Here's Kelly in my studio putting together a fab-u-luss quilt. I think I've made an addict out of her.

What fun to do this stuff with my willing grown daughter.

She left to go back to New York city yesterday. I miss her already.






Saturday, we had lunch in Portland with the gang. Here's my cute boy and cutest girl.

















Lori and Josh are teaching Mia to read...

well, maybe not quite yet!

Herbal Heaven

Last Thursday, we went to an incredible organic garden outside of Alsea, Oregon, called the Thyme Garden.It's an 80 acre spread that accommodates their medicinal herb garden, their cooking herb garden, a butterfly garden, lots and lots of flower gardens, a habitat area for salmon and water birds...it's just beautiful.


But the creme de la creme was the lunch.

The salad was adorned with edible flowers. and bordered on too beautiful to eat.








Same with the main course. We had wild salmon baked in a pastry crust with a cream cheese and herb stuff spread over the salmon. Then there was quinoa and a wonderful squash bake.















And as if that wasn't enough, we then had a baked meringue that was filled with a creamy sweet custard and blueberry compote.

Yum.

Family Ties

Last week, I went to my son's house in Portland to pick up my daughter Kelly. She'd arrived the day before from New York city, and had stayed her first night of her visit with Josh in Portland.

I got to pal around with granddaughter Mia for the day and we all took tons of photos.

Kelly gave Mia a photography lesson.

More Sisters

Outside of Sisters, near where we stayed last weekend, a stone mason had created this wonderful entrance to his ranch.

I love rocks. I wish I could make something like this. It looks so beautiful, but also rugged and strong.
















I'm still atwitter from all the inspiration and ideas I got from the weekend in Sisters.

Quilts were hanging all over town, on all the buildings. What a beautiful sight!














It was especially fun to see Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran who were signing copies of their latest book.

Isn't Freddy's hat wild?

And check out her long red fingernails and red glasses.

Gwen may not look as eccentric, but she's the true comedienne. Very dead pan and so funny.

Sisters and Scarf Sisters

This weekend, my friends Bonnie and LeeAnn and I spent a few days in Sisters, Oregon, to attend their annual quilt show, and to take a few classes.

Lucky Bonnie and LeeAnn got to do a workshop with some quilters from Gees Bend, Alabama. On Saturday, the Gee's Benders had several of their quilts hung, and they were at a table singing and signing their books for people.

Aren't these quilts stunners?
We stayed at the Long Hollow Ranch Bed and Breakfast, about 13 miles outside of Sisters. It's a sprawling beautiful cattle and horse ranch where Shirley, the owner, cooks up wonderful (and filling) breakfasts.





Here's the main house, where there are guest rooms and a vintage looking breakfast room.













We stayed in the "guest cottage" and made friends with one of the resident cats (named "Fluffy"). LeeAnn, me, and Bonnie (left to right) were calling ourselves the Scarf Sisters because we all were wearing the new scarves we scored at a shop in Sisters.

Aren't we fetching?


On my first day, I took a class in hand appliqué. I learned so much, and hope to use what I learned in some of my folk art pieces.

My second class was in machine quilting. We had several hours education in choice of threads, needles, tension settings on our machines, and batting. It was truly interesting.

Then we designed a whole cloth quilt design that I'm finishing at home now.

Flower Power

I've been sooo busy moving back home, cleaning up after the construction, weeding and pruning, etc. etc. etc. that I haven't had much time for anything else...especially blogging.

Above is our new deck.

It's heaven to be home. The house looks great, and the garden is starting to produce.

Look! Strawberries!







And blueberries and flowers.










I've had the same quilt project on my wall for over a month! I like it so far, and hope to get back to it soon, but the last time I worked on it, I got stumped as to whether or not I needed to add to it.

Maybe the time away from it will spark some inspiration.

Summer Fun in the Mountains

I'm not sure how I could have had a nicer weekend.

My sister's daughter, Katy Cox, (who lives in Austin) and bandmates, spent the weekend with us. Josh, Lori and Mia came to spend some time with them, so we got some good eating and chatting time together.

Mia has grown about a million inches since I last saw her on Mother's day. She is the cutest little thing.



Then Katy and her band "Shotgun Party" gave a concert at my friend Sharon Moore's Hayloft Concert venue in Salem.

They rocked the audience with some truly amazing bluegrass music, and the audience went wild over Katy's playing. I was so proud!

The fiddle player on the left is Katy, then there's Jenny, who sings, plays guitar and writes most of their music and lyrics, and Andrew is on the base.




They spent the night at our house, and (as you can see), Katy and I did some bonding in the morning.

I love all three of these adorable musicians so much. If you ever get the chance to see them perform, it's not to be missed.

They're touring all over the West coast right now. Last night they were in Portland, then Vancouver, Washington, then Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, and on and on until they get back to Austin in a couple of weeks.

Spring Fever in Oregon

Today was a perfect day for lolling around on the deck in the warm afternoon sun.
And having a good long stretch always helps too.

oh boy! a wedding

So here you have the bride and groom on the right, and a goofy spectator on the left.

These are fun to make, but I must have jabbed my fingers 100 times with the felting needle in the process. Ouch!

Bird Bride & Groom

I've been elected to make a wedding cake for a friend's August nuptials. I haven't found a cake topper that suits me, so I'm thinking of making one myself.

Here's my first idea.

My thought is to make little felted bride and groom birds, and attach them to some sort of wood base that I can stick on the top tier with frosting.

Maybe I'll make a little net veil for her, and a top hat for him.

Mothers Everywhere

I know it must seem like I'm fixated on our geese babies, but I can't help it. They're like little fuzzballs, and so danged cute.

Here are mom, dad and babies on our lawn yesterday (Mother's day).







And here's one of mom on Saturday, with her gaggle of five and a tiny straggler that hung around with them all day.

I have no idea how she got all these babies to our side of the river. The nest was on the other side somewhere, and the river is quite wild and high right now.






This morning, Jim and I went walking in a park near our house, and guess what we saw on one of the ponds. More babies.

Ahh Spring!!!

All of these photographs were taken by Jim.

It's A Boy...or A Girl...or Three Girls!

They've arrived! Our baby goslings are here, and are they ever cute. We've spotted only three babies, but there may be more.

Oh joy!

Juicy Goose

Since moving into our rental house while ours is being repaired, we've had the educational experience of watching a pair of Canada geese that hang out on the grassy area next to the river adjacent to our house.

I started studying about them and discovered that they mate for life, unless for some reason they're unable to reproduce with their partner.

We've studied our pair since January, and have seen them watch each other's backs while they feed, chase away other geese if they come too close, and make friends with the little ducks that consistently come into their territory to feed.

When the female was ready to lay her eggs, they evidently found a hiding place for their nest somewhere in the brush across the river. The male would come back to our side to stand guard, and the female only returned twice a day to feed. When we didn't see her all day the first few times, I got worried, so I started reading about them. I learned to watch for her return in the early mornings and evenings, and sure enough...

I've read that it takes about a day for her to lay each egg, and that she'll come back to see her mate and eat during those days. When all the eggs have all been laid, she doesn't come back over. That's what's happening right now, I think.

For the past few days, I've only seen her once. She'll stay on her eggs until all of goslings have hatched, then the male will join her full time again, and help care for the babies. The babies can swim from day one, so hopefully we'll get to see them before we move back home. Can't wait.

I'm a Person with too Much Time

I've been goofing around with making wire sculptures.





Here's a replica of my hand. I started this by wrapping wire all around my hand and fingers.









I'm still trying experiments with fabric on canvas board. On this one, I painted the face with acrylics and then fused fabric pieces to it.