Fat Friday!

Friday evening we attended the Fat Friday activities at Mariposa Place, an arts emphasis, adult day center that our son attends on Fridays. They do not call their patients "clients", but rather "friends", which I think is great way to help everyone to recognize folks with disabilities for who they are, actual people, not defective, unprofitable burdens on society. They offer an outlet for friends to profit from their abilities through art, music, and drama. They offer items made by them to the public for purchase. The center gets a portion and the artist gets the larger portion. Our son is a photographer. He sold two framed photos this evening!
While he was handing out phamplets to passersby, Larry and I walked around and looked in some of the little shops along the Avenue. There are many eateries and galleries as well, all as diverse as the people who run them. There are price ranges for almost everyone but you can have a nice time just strolling on the Avenue with free parking, or riding the free trolleys. There are street musicians to entertain you as well. I just might.....you never know!

I plan to organize some of the Louisville Dulcimer Society folks to come and strum in the courtyard alongside Mariposa place in July. We can put out a mason jar and collect donations to the center, maybe to help pay for a friend, like our son, who does not have funding to attend the center, if we are allowed to do that. He attends 3 hours a week because we have to use respite care funds to pay for it until January, when his waiver kicks in. I have emailed the Frankfort Avenue Business Assoc. and requested information on street music policy.

This week was short, with a holiday on Monday, but it has been very busy and seemed very full. I hope your week was full of good things too, even if the "good things" feel like "too much", as they sometimes do!
Strumming???? I planned to practice on the deck this evening but after mowing grass and grilling chicken for dinner, I fell asleep in the adirondack chair instead! Busy day....

A Day in the Life

Last week was filled with much strumming, that's for sure; wish it were that way every week. So, back to normal, it's Monday and the start of another week.
Over the weekend, I repainted an old wooden rocking chair that we purchased at an auction a couple of years ago. I've been meaning to repaint it ever since we brought it home. It's been out on the deck since then too, so I figured I better do it now because I don't want it to end up in the landfill before it's time. I painted it a deep, dark navy blue. I plan to stencil some stars on it but I'm waiting for a sunny day to do it. I do my painting outdoors, so the weather is a big factor. I also am going to paint an old ladder back chair in Americana colors to match. Guess we're gonna have an Americana deck this summer!
I planted elephant ears in 2 old half whiskey barrels and they are beginning to grow. Tim gave me several flowers for Mother's Day and they are in a barrel too. The deck is my "respite place" and it is beginning to come together. I am using trimmed branches from the bush honeysuckle to build a trellis for the cypus vine to climb. They aren't up yet. The hummingbirds love them but they grow in a barrel because they could be invasive if allowed to. The bush honeysuckle is very invasive, so I am cutting it all down. It had begun to fill the back of our yard. It is pretty in the spring and provided some privacy but I want to find something native to replace it.
I am making a list of native plants that I would like to use in the yard. Researching it on the web, I have found that some of the best sources of native plants are sites that list "weeds" for those who prefer to not have native yards. I have chosen this, not because I am card carrying tree hugger, but because I am proud of Kentucky's natural beauty and I prefer to have it around me. That it provides habitat for things displaced by urban sprawl and a healthier environment is icing on the cake. Native plants require less water and less in the way of pesticides and herbicides because they are adapted to our climate and have developed immunities to many pests and disease. So less yard work sounds good to me..... ; ) More time to strum and "respite"!

In another jam!

Well, it's always one jam or another going on around here! But this one is at the Kentucky Welcome Center on I64 in Simpsonville, just west of Shelbyville, KY. This is KY Tourism Week and we have been invited to jam at the center every day this week! I can't go every day, but I managed to get out there today! We had about 8 folks playing hammer duclimer, mountain dulcimer, guitar, fiddle, and mandolin. It was pretty good, especially the hammer dulcimers. I was not familiar with some of the songs so I just used chords and played along. One guy came in for his lunch break and played guitar with us for about a' half hour. Some of the tourists were from North Carolina and others from Michigan. It is neat to meet folks and find out that they play instruments too. Unfortunately, no one had theirs with them, but we had a good time jamming anyway. Many people have no idea what a mountain dulcimer is and this was their first introduction to it. It's fun educating them on it. (It is the official musical instrument of Kentucky, just in case you didn't know.) Hope you're having as much fun as I am!!!

Step Around the Mountain

I was listening to a video of Jean Richie's Family Reunion on YouTube that showed a quilt that her mama was making for her that year, she called the pattern "Step Around the Mountain" and I recognized it as the same pattern as the quilt hanging in my family room! My mother passed it along to me a few weeks ago and I display it on a wall. It belonged originally to to my Granny, Martha Bayes. I don't know who made it, but I do know that it was given to her by someone, a friend, I think, because no one in the family quilted, that I know of.
I searched the internet for the pattern and could not find it anywhere, only a mention of someone else not being able to find it, so I decided to do it myself! I think it is a version of the "Trip Around the World" quilt, or vice versa. I figure that living in the mountains 5o years or more ago, the mountain would be "the world" to those who lived there, much like the Waltons' of Virginia. So either way, the name is appropriate, no matter the origin of it.
I also create digital graphics, so I decided to make my own digital version of the quilt pattern and this is what I came up with! I was so engrossed in this project that I worked nearly all night finishing it. That is nothing compared to the months of work that would go into creating an actual quilt. I have dabbled in quilting, making table runners, place mats, and other small projects, but I have not made a bed size one as of yet. I hope to someday, though.

MoRe CrOws!!!!

This "Patriot Crow Gathering" is a grouping of items all handmade by me. The crow makedo is hand painted, rolled in cinnamon, stained, sealed, sanded, and dusted again with cinnamon. It is sewn shut with rusty wire and has rusty wire legs wrapped around the vintage textile mill bobbin base. It is holding a rusty bottle cap flag, my own original graphic from my bottle cap collection. The heart is handmade from a flag printed fabric which I have sewn together in a raggedy style and hand aged to look old. The sign is painted on a chunk of heavily weather wild cherry wood, from my family's farm in Eastern Kentucky.

Derby Weekend Jams

The Louisville Dulcimer Society had a jam for derby visitors on Friday and Saturday morning in the lobby of the Executive Inn West. This was the first public jam I have been a part of. I am still learning new songs but I was able to chord and keep up with most everything. We will play again this Saturday at Locust Grove's spring garden sale and I look forward to it, just hoping the weather is dry!

Catching Crows!

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It seems that crows are catching! Here are a couple
of my "crow creations" that have sold on eBay recently!

Beautiful Spring Day to you!