May your New Year be Bright

 Enjoying a quiet Boxing Day before heading back to the store tomorrow. 

Yesterday was  filled with family, love, and laughter. I am blessed to have such wonderful people to call family.

Today, my younger brother is headed to town from NC. He will stay with my nephew until tomorrow before heading back to NC. He and his wife have offered to replace the elements in my kiln. I have them on hand, I just have not had the time (when I have had the energy) to replace them myself. I am grateful to have the help. ** They tried to replace them, but when I ordered the replacements 2 years ago, I ordered the wrong ones. These are for one of my larger kilns, not for my little one that I use most of the time... I just ordered the correct ones. **

My "excitement" this holiday season was being the "victim" of squirrels snacking on the power cable running from the power pole to my house. Luckily, the worst of it happened while I was home after work on Friday. The Christmas lights began to fade in and out, and blink (they were to stay on steady), and so did the tree across the room. I unplugged both. Then, the ceiling lights in the sunroom burnt out. Next, as there were multiple times the power blinked off and on, my microwave made a loud popping sound and died. The house smelled like hot electronics. What I didn't notice right away is that the electronic control panel on my gas stove also died. 

I put in an outage report to Duke Energy, stating that there were power surges and partial outage in the house. They arrived within 20 minutes or so, I think. He spent a while up in his bucket truck working in the wind to repair the line. 

I thought all was good to go. But, there is one breaker that keeps switching off almost as soon as I reset it. My brother said he can take a look at that as well. It controls the ceiling lights in 4 rooms and the lights are all turned off. But, I have been managing with what I have. If my brother cannot fix it, I will contact an electrician. I was waiting until after Christmas to call one anyway. I didn't want to pay the extra fees for one to come out on a weekend or holiday. And, I did survive 6 days without power after the hurricane came through.

Regardless, I am still grateful for all I have, especially the emotional and moral support of my family and friends.

May you all have a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year.

A Belated Merry Christmas!

Sending wishes to all of you for a wonderful remainder to 2019 and a happy and healthy 2020.

I had a wonderful Christmas at my sister's home, surrounded by family.

A Fitting Tribute

Dogwood trees and blossoms were a favorite of my mothers.

While growing up, we lived in an area that Dogwood would not grow.  When my father retired, they moved South and Mom was finally able to enjoy Dogwood in her own yard.  Although the photo does not show it, in addition to the large pink Dogwood in the yard, up closer to the house are several young white Dogwood that were no longer in bloom when I took this photo (a few years back).

Pink Dogwood in the side yard... Mom's favorite tree in the yard.

Mom passed away nearly 4 years ago.

In our area there is the Upstate Heritage Quilt Trail.  A group pf people create quilt "squares" out of wood (or now aluminum) boards & paint to copy a fabric quilt that already exists.  They are then mounted on buildings and added to their web site with map coordinates so people can find them.

Fabric quilt made by Sue Congdon (my sisiter).

I noticed that there was currently only one such quilt square in our downtown area.  (Since then 7 more have been added with 2 more to come, that I am aware of.)  I talked to my sisters (I have 3) and we all decided that it was a great idea to commission a quilt square to mount on the side of the building that our store is located in.  And we all decided it needed to be Dogwood blossoms.

I scoured images of Dogwood quilt patterns and nothing really "spoke" to me until I saw this one (design by Annette Ornelas).  The fabric quilt pictured above was made by my oldest sister Sue.

We raised money through family (I also have 2 brothers), including my father, one of my mom's sisters and a close family friend.  Then, I filled out the paperwork and sent them a check so they could begin the production process.

They borrowed the fabric quilt to use as a guide and they chose paints, drew templates and started taping off areas to paint.

 The painting was done once a week (or so) at a facility about 15 miles from us.  Because of work, we were not able to make it to their painting sessions, although we (and anyone else) were welcome to help.  But they were sure to send photos of the progress.  (See the fabric quilt on the table in the background?)

Once they had put marine grade varnish on all surfaces to seal it, they delivered it to us and we waited a few days until the installation crew could come by.

Blue Ridge Electric - you guys know your quilt installation "stuff" - Thank you!

With my sister Terri Brooks on the day the square was installed.

Once the installation was complete, the 4' x 8' copy of the approximately 2' x 4' fabric quilt looked quite small...


We know Mom would have loved it.

Creatively, all I did was find a pattern I liked & asked if my family agreed.  The rest was completed by others.





Here is the wooden quilt :