Cakes!

A friend requested cupcakes for her wedding today. These are white cake and decorated with butter cream and fondant.

Happy Wedding Day Mim!

More of my crafty family (and our trip to the La. Folk Festival)

Back in March, I started telling you a little about how I came to love sewing. Today, I’m going to tell you a little more how I came to be a crafter—I was born into it.

Every July, part of my Mom’s family gathers at the Louisiana Folk Festival in Natchitoches to share a little bit of their creativity. Let me show you…

This is a collection of my great-grandfather’s whittling. Pop was born in 1899 and died in 2000 ( I think.). He had wonderful stories to tell of the changes he saw during his lifetime. Pop and his son, my Uncle Ken, would bring their chains and wooden toys to display and sale every July. (Note: Both of the above links are links to the artist biographies at the Louisiana Folklife Center’s website.)

These days, Pop’s living children carry on the Folk Festival tradition. My Uncle Ken and his wife Aunt Mary, my Aunt Dorothy and my Aunt Frances and her husband Uncle Sonny bring needlework along with the wooden toys.

Uncle Ken brings the wooden toys and demonstrates them with Uncle Sonny (and any of the rest of the family who happens to be standing nearby.) Uncle Ken also brings a sample of his whittling.

Aunt Dorothy brings the most wonderful Swiss Embroidery guest towels and Chicken Scratch aprons.

Aunt Mary brings the BEST crocheted pot scrubbers, pin cushions and Cathedral Window Christmas Ornaments. Aunt Mary’s dad Mr. Gandy was always a part of the folk festival also. He passed away last year and his presence (and his walking canes) were notably absent this year.

This year, Aunt Frances brought delightful handmade cards decorated with Sun-Bonnet Sue and embellished with tatted flowers. (And the all the family loves to shop. Kathy couldn’t pass up the cards!)

She’s also the very best toy demonstrator.

Across the arena, my Uncle Bill and Aunt Lynn are part of the Los Adaes booth. Bill makes wooden thimbles. The LM had the best time watching blocks of wood take shape.

The rest of the family who visit the festival takes part in another favorite tradition—FOOD! This year we enjoyed fried chicken, fried shrimp, fried onions, fried potatoes, fried alligator and fried soft shell crab. yum!

My little scuba diver

We watched our Big Girl demonstrate her new scuba skills tonight! She participated in Scuba Rangers at our local Swim School.

On Monday, she learned to snorkel and some safety skills.

Then Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, she learned to SCUBA!!!!

She and her scuba buddy demonstrated how to share air during an emergency. I wish I’d been in the water with an underwater camera to catch these pictures. I guess I’ll just have to learn to snorkel and scuba for myself.

Before they finished, all the kids waved good-bye!

This is a test. Please let me know if it works!

I'm trying something new today.

I'm hoping that this link will lead you to a Google Document.

If this works, I'll have a much easier time sharing tutorials with you. Please let me know if you can open the document, or if you have any trouble.

Thanks!

For Uncle David

Someone said my blog was "stale". I agree. But, as I have nothing new to say, I haven’t posted. I have sewn very little the past month and I forgot to take pictures of the two projects that I finished while I was lying around convalescing.

So, just for fun, here’s a look at two of our favorite things that we’ve done this summer:

This was our second year to visit a local blueberry farm. Last year the kids picked about 5 berries each before they began to whine. I don’t know what possessed me to tell them they could go again this year. But, go we did. And we had a blast. The kids picked as many berries as I did. Granted, Little Man ate most of his…

The Big Girl started swimming on a swim team last year. This year she competed in 25 Free, 50 Free, 25 Back, 25 Breast and several relays.

She did great. And she has the greatest cheerleader in her little brother. That is, until he decided to compete too. He woke up one day and declared he was going to race. He beat 3 of the boys in his heat, coming in 24th out of 28 in his race. I was pleased. At least he finished!

Jumpers and Jonjons

Now that I'm feeling up to sewing again...