Pretty fall colors

 With all of the crafty people and artisans displaying their talents, I always am up for a new challenge when I see what can be created with little or no expense.  We have so many leather scraps from the Mr.'s hobby that I decided to try my talents.  At our small library, there is a box in the entry way for people to leave discarded magazines and are free for the taking.  I leave mine there, but I also scrounge for things I have not seen.  In a batch of old magazines from the 90's I found a few to take and peruse.  There was an article about making fall pins from leather and the leaf patterns were included.  So these are about 1" to 1 1/2" across and all that is left is to add the pin backs.  I got help from the Mr. to determine which tools I needed to cut the patterns into the wet leather and shape them and when they were dry, I painted them with acrylic and sprayed a sealer.  Voila!  No cost and now I am thinking of making a leather cuff.  I saw them for as much as $65.00 in shops not long ago. And now another gorgeous sunrise taken from my back door this weekend.  Love the fall colors.

"Every man is the architect of his own virtues" ~ Sallust

Stretched out for a nap

 Hunting has been a little slow this summer for this cat and like all cats, she can sleep anywhere and any time.  I caught her above stretched out on the bed, across a "grabber" that the Mr. uses.  I love my cat!!  I have been sewing a quilt, in a race with my neighbor to see who can finish first.  This is really not a fair race as I have many quilts under my belt, and she is still somewhat a beginner, although a skilled one, but it has been motivation for both of us to finish.  Her mom participates in a large craft fair this fall in Sheridan and we are embarking on another craft project, hoping to test it out for her mom.  Below are some of the items we will be using.  Stay tuned!

Orange

 This is the "Blood Moon Rising" in the east last month and this is the carrot that grew in my garden.  This is the ORANGE. We put everything to bed this weekend....the watering system, the garden, the yard.  Orange pumpkins are popping up everywhere. Actually, although it is fall, we got our first snow yesterday.  According to the weatherman, it is supposed to be warm this week, even summer-like. May have to drag out the hoses.

I was gone this past week and have spent time putting up veggies like the carrots so the blog is still suffering with neglect.  However with winter approaching and our fall fading from orange white, I will be spending more time indoors.  So, I went to Sheridan last week with my neighbor and that drive of nearly 5 hours was beautiful and our destination was even more so.  At the foot of the Big Horn mountains and 12 miles out of town, the tree-lined road was sprinkled with ranches and signs of an earlier era. The deer grazed in pastures in large herds and the wild turkeys roamed in flocks in numbers I had never seen before.  We have a small flock near here, but these had to be shooed away from the front steps of our hostess. The remains of the ranch land, most of which had been sold earlier, had been in this family for years.  Janet, who was the mother of my friend and the only resident left on this parcel, greeted us on Monday afternoon and we stayed until Thursday.  We walked down the graveled road, along side trees still laden with yellow leaves, and crossed Big Goose Creek to find more ranch homes nestled at the base of the mountains.  Spectacular country.  While there, we went to a quilt show, traveled to the small mountain town of Story to a quilt shop that was amazing, drilled holes in some glass blocks for Janet, had blackberry apple pie baked by a neighbor bachelor (at 9 o'clock at night) and went for long lazy walks.  I do have pictures on my phone, but haven't taken time to download.  Will do!  

Still Fall

I just realized that I have not blogged for a long time.  Guess I am spending too much time enjoying life and not missing the computer much.  It is still fall here and I do not even have any new pics to post.  Lots going on this fall though.  Since we got new Iphones, we have been using them for snaps and I have not downloaded any pictures!!!  Gotta get busy! Life has been happening though.  The mister has recovered finally from the hip replacement, and he played in a pool tournament this past weekend.  That is a sign that summer is over.  We have taken many day trips to the forest and the trees have been spectacular this past couple of weeks. I also went south of the border to Colorado with a buddy here for 4 days and we had gorgeous weather, but we also hit a wonderful yard sale in LaPorte, did all of the flea markets on south College, did the French Nest on Saturday when we met a friend from Brighton, and did the Brass Armadillo in Denver on Sunday and met with her son for lunch in Cheyenne on Monday before coming home over the Range.  We came back with some great finds.  I am off to sew with my quilt group this morning and plan to go to Sheridan with a friend for a few days next week.  But now it is time to get the garden finished.  With the early frost a few weeks ago, I had to bring my tomatoes in and they are getting ripe, a few each day.  The carrots still need to be pulled and will do that this week.  My catmint was so large that I had 4 loads in a wheel barrow of stems, or branches?, to haul out to the prairie and had to use a tree branch snipper to cut it all.  I watched the small herd of antelope stop to sniff and eat some of it.  Hope it didn't make them too loopy.  In the pasture next to our property, we have a very large herd of cattle grazing, a small herd of goats and a herd of 8 antelope...all grazing together and as I sit out on the back porch to watch all of this taking place it is no wonder that I don't get to this computer more often.  As fall is in the air, winter follows and I will be forced to be indoors more so I may get back to the blog.

Fall on the horizon

 Fall is on the way!!!  Yes it is!  But a couple of weeks ago we took another marvelous adventure with friends, packed a peanut butter sandwich and headed out to take in some of our high desert beauty.  Look at what we found!  Among the wild flowers and miles and miles of nothing...no vehicles, no homes, no people -  these ancient stones.  So many are perfectly round, some embedded in others.  What ever caused these?

 Here are some of the other formations, all are sandstone, weathered from the wind and at some point, probably water, however this is now a desert with only a few antelope and lots of gas wells.

So on another note, I still have a couple of stepping stones for people to get finished and hope to get that done this week. But I needed more mortar and it apparently only comes in 80 lb bags.  Really? 80 pounds? For a couple of old people, 80 lbs is HEAVY.  Not to mention the fact that we bought a new mattress and foundation so we took the old one upstairs and brought that older one downstairs.  More HEAVY!

Thank goodness for my quilting group.  Really it is a sewing group I guess.  We sew quilt tops...and don't do much actual quilting. I don't think I could handle another winter (which comes after FALL and sometimes skips FALL), without the support of these gals.  As I age, the arthritis kicks butt during the winter months and I have a pretty high tolerance for pain, but winter is long here.  So if the roads are not closed on Mondays, I will survive winter.  My buddy and I are starting a big quilt project and I will start to post these...but we have to get the vegetable garden and the watering system ready as it is supposed to be 28 degrees tomorrow.  FALL? give me a break.  We are skipping fall this year I fear.

More retreat projects

 Taken in the garage, this is probably not the best way to address this project, but we found glass blocks, drilled holes in the back side (Whichever you determine is the back), inserted a small string of Christmas lights and tied a bow on top!  That makes a great night light and can be changed for the holiday or decor you prefer!! And below, three of the banners....the last of 4 banners we started last year.  We did spring, summer and fall previously and now have winter done.

 This is the other project we did. We always like painting projects and this year we did 3 with the angels, banners and wine glasses. These are to be topped with a small metal encased candle and make a great addition to a table during the holidays.

So now we have already begun to collect ideas for next year.  This past Fri and Sat, I participated in a quilt retreat in the small town of Encampment at the historic Opera House.  There were over 30 gals who had signed up for several classes and demonstrations.  Let me say that this was the first for this type of activity and it was a terrific success! It was sponsored by their museum, one of which this community can be extremely proud! I also get to sew and quilt every week on Mondays in their library in Encampment.  Most of these gals come from hardy ranching families and with our great distance from any city, it is a way to socialize and get knowledge about our community.  In addition, we get to joke around and laugh a lot! (very important to laugh a lot) A quilting vendor came from Rock Springs..(150 mi.) and brought lots of fabric and notions and participated in teaching a class, a new technique for me and my understanding is that they want to come back as they sold so much fabric.  School begins soon and that is an indication that our summer is coming to an end.

"Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about." ~ Oscar Wilde

Retreat projects

 I just couldn't resist adding another Mt.Sheep picture as this curious lady above was watching us take pictures of the herd!!  And below, two of the garden angels that we constructed and painted for our yards.  These will either be placed on re-bar in flower beds or hung on a fence.  With aluminum flashing wings, steel wool scrubber hair on wooden pieces from my old bar stools and a tart pan for a hat, they are constructed from scrap 2 X 6's.  We had a great time giving them personalities.

 Another angel sits next to two more stepping stones.  These bunnies also came out terrific!  We did discover that springform cake pans work well for unmolding.  You can see that the angel below has copper wings and the glass block was another project I will post.

Blessed to have such good friends for close to 50 years, we have always gathered periodically for this and other kinds of times together!!