You never know when tragedy will strike

Yesterday my long time online friend Terry received some terrible news. Her husband was run over by a bulldozer at work and it pinned down his right leg. He had to have it cut off below the knee and is scheduled for a second surgery today too. That's all I know so far , I only hope he can heal and get well again. It's not just a physical tragedy, a very emotional and mental one too.

I am in shock, I have known Terry for years, and we email each other every day with a few words. She and her husband have two young children too who must be so devastated.

Please if you can, send prayers and good thoughts to Terry's husband John and their family, and if you would like to help out even more, our mutual friend Laurie is asking for our help making quilt squares so that she may put together a quilt of love and comfort for the family. She is even offering a giveaway if you get involved, which is the huge jelly roll of fabric you see in this post. I also will be keeping it in my side bar, just click on the link there to go find out all the information.

Terry and Laurie are quilters, and two of the most sweetest and kindest women I have ever met. I think this is a wonderful idea Laurie has , so if you think you can be involved somehow it would be lovely.

Terry has made quilts for project Linus, for the tragedy in Australia when they had the bush fires and for many other good causes, she is very giving and never asks for anything. You can visit her blog at Terry's Treasures and Lauries blog at A Yankee Quilter.

Thank you,
Lynn

Microwave Flower Press Part Two

Look what I found when I went outside this morning. It bloomed last week after the others had already dried up and I thought for sure it would have started drying too by now, but it is still very fresh.
So I plucked the poor thing to test my Micro Flower Press because Kelly was wondering how hydrangeas or roses would dry.
I have the small size Micro press and I thought of putting the whole thing it but it didn't want to squash down, so I plucked a piece off of this pretty fleur.

Below is the before and after.......

The pink seems to dry a pretty purple color and it's not bad, but I may take some smaller cuttings and try it again. It was a bit tricky to get the petals to lay flat. You will have to look at the close up to get a better idea of what I mean.

Now I will show you how my pink hydrangeas dried out this year......
This was a black pot I found at a thrift store, it's an iron pot and I spray painted it heirloom white. See how beautiful they dry, and I just let them dry right in the pot.

You can see some dried roses beside the pot too, I just took them out of an old dusty arrangement I had made 2 years ago and they are still going strong. I havn't decided what to do with them yet, maybe tie a nice ribbon around them and leave them laying on the table? Any ideas?
Something just came to me :) I have a huge bush of Limelight Hydrangea. They bloom a gorgeous yellow, then turn to a green and yellow hue, then some of the petals turn pale pink.

I am off outside to cut one, be right back..........

10 mins later, cut and dried, here is the before photo of this beautiful flower. Thank goodness for digital cameras, what did we do without them?

Here they are dried along with a few dogwood leaves :) Now these, I do like, so guess what I will be doing all day? When dried they don't seem to change color a lot, they still have a pinkish hue to them, just so pretty if you could see them in person. They are almost transparent.
Click on the photo for a close up

Ok ladies, that concludes my experiment for this morning, and I just wanted to say if you missed my post yesterday and havn't a clue what I am talking about, go check it out.
Have a great day, and do something fun :)

Microwave Flower Press

My new toy, a tool for drying flowers in your microwave. I have been meaning to post about it for a while, just never got around to it. It is made of earthenware if that is the correct name for it , a nice heavy clay and very nice looking too.

I only wish I had found this sooner this year because there are not many flowers left for me to dry. I did try some mum's from my garden, they were a dark pink and just look how they turn purple. You can click on the picture for a better look if you want.
I keep meaning to go out and pick some wildflowers that grow along the highway but you know how it is, I forget or when I am on the highway I am usually on my way somewhere, like the dentist today.
This is how it looks inside. There are 2 thick layers of wool and two layers of cotton. You put your flowers or leaves in there, then layer the cotton, the wool and then the other piece of earthenware. Pop it in the microwave for 60 seconds, check on it and if not ready put it back in for more. I have found that most things have taken 2 minutes to dry.

After they are cool I put them in one of my flower presses until I am ready to use them. Which could be next year the way I am, there are so many things I want to play with in my art, just too many really, but at least they are there when I do need them :)

Look how pretty these leaves dried and they are quite close to the original color.
They had fallen off my Virginia Creeper which is now turning red. The leaves first turn a lovely pinkish color then they turn red, then burnt orange. These are going to be so pretty on something :)
This little gadget my husband picked up for me at Lee Valley , not sure if that is just a Canadian company or not. There is another one called Micro Fleur Microwave Flower Press, which is made of plastic and that was the first one I was looking for but couldn't find it without ordering from the U.S. Then a friend told me about this one, and I am very happy with it.

The nice thing is that if you need a leaf right away you can go pick one up outside and dry it in 2 mins, then use it on your art work.
Hey Patty, (she's been wax crazy lately) I was thinking how they would look with some wax, either glue them on art with wax or layer over them. What do you think?

Autumn Fae Journal Page

After weeks of setting this aside I decided to finally finish it this past week.
She is a Faery who lives in a magical forest where the leaves turn to gold as they float the ground. The fae use the leaves to make clothing and to sleep upon, it's a beautiful forest, you really should visit sometime :)

Cooper is snuggled beside me on the couch as he does in the mornings when his mom is on her computer, and he wants to say thank you for all the lovely comments on his post, especially from the other dogs who understood where he was coming from :)
Have a great Sunday my friends, it is wet and gloomy here this morning a great day for relaxing and doing nothing much unless you feel like it.

I can't believe she did this......

Hi, this is Cooper again. I can't believe what mom did, just look at me......

Purple? Orange? What the heck? Is this normal?

Mom left me alone while she went to run some errands and I always sniff the bags to see if she brought me anything when she get's back. She usually does *snicker*... well, I did not expect this.

So she puts this thing on me and it just fits, takes me outside, and it's like 23c plus humidity, then she pesters me to sit still. I think she lost her marbles while she was out.

I told her, I just want to play with my ball, but she kept following me and snapping photos.

I finally said "Look mom, I will sit still but hurry up", and here I am talking and complaining...

Then if that wasn't enough, she asked me to be scary, like, be a scary dog.
Who me? LMBO......
Well I tried, and I must say I do look some vicious , crazy dog don't you think?

Well, relief, she gave up after that, said she was too hot. Well duhhhhhh, what about me? She really was just having fun, please don't go reporting her due to my complaints.

She showed this coat, as she calls it, to my dad when he got home and he said she was crazy *giggle* I had to laugh, I thought so too.
"Oh but I couldn't resist" she said," it was only $1 at Dollarama, how could I not, just for fun?", then she said, "At least I didn't buy the matching booties"...waaaahhhhhh heaven forbid.

Hey, I am thinking maybe if I gain some weight before Halloween it won't fit and then she can't send me out in it with all the kids on my street that I play with :)