Ye Olde Glass Shoppe

As you all know, I have been cleaning and refurbishing the basement for much of the late fall and winter in hopes of  re-establishing my stained glass workshop of 30 years ago.  The basement, while not completely cleaned is immensely better than it was and much of what is left is waiting for the Great Retirement Garage Sale slated for later in the summer.  My glass shop has been set up and functioning.  As always there are refinements to be made as I begin to use it, but at the moment I am very pleased with the results.


This is a panel I started and finished last week inspired by a bookshelf designed by Eleftheria for their apartment.
She sent me the drawings for it, but neglected to copyright it, so I stole it for my panel!



I did the joinery in lead (instead of copper foil), which has always been a challenge for me.
I felt the panel design would look better in lead.

The finished panel.  The lead joints represent the shelves of the bookcase.

A close-up of my joint work and soldering technique.  I am pretty pleased with my first effort.  It is much better than any lead work I did in the past.  I am anxious to try some more.

I also re-took a beginner's glass class and this box was one of the projects to come out of that class.  This is copper foil work and the lid design is my own.   That's and oyster shell soldered to the hinged lid.

Seville Antique Mall

 A couple Sundays ago, Linda and I spent a couple hours

in Seville at the Antique Mall.

 

 Ian, how about some old clip on bow ties? 

I thought they were really cool!

 

 I thought this was really cool. 

Think of the things you could collect!

 

 This is the fore-runner of the hoosier.

Linda's hand is on the flour bin.

The little black drawers were for spices.

This store had a very nice collection of primitives.

 

 Linda and I recently realized that inspite of 30+

years of friendship, we don't have any pictures of ourselves.

Hopefully our future attemps will be better.

 

 Cool old work bench and stool.

 

 

And look at this scooter!!

I almost bought a set of dishes, but I was afraid

your Dad would notice.

 



Bottle Blog

 

Dear LeAnna, 

 

 

 

Some are old

  

 

 

 

And some are new.

 

 

 

 

Some are green

 

 

And some are blue.

 

 

Some are tiny

 

 

 

And some are tall.

 

 

 

 

You can use none

or

You can use them all :-) 

 

 

 

 And, on a completely unrelated note...

 

91 days and counting. 

 

 

Moonshine

In the wee hours of this morning, I got up to

let the dogs out - they don't seem to "get"

the vacation sleeping schedule -

 

The moon light and the snow and the night

were so beautiful that I went back in

for my camera. 



My snapshots don't do the beauty of the

night justice, but maybe you get and

idea?

 



 

Every season has a beauty all its own.



CHRISTMAS 2012 IN MEDINA

 

Right on schedule, the weather gods blew through

and dumped a lovely covering of the white stuff!

 

This one might be next year's Christmas card.  At that time, as a newly

 retired teacher, I plan to have time to do such things.

 

Last year we had Christmas and a Wedding Shower; this year,

we had a Wedding Shower and then Christmas.

 

Lots of ladies, lots of good sweets, (thanks everyone).

Lots of gifts.

A very pleasant afternoon.

 

Adam, was very excited to find out about all the place settings of

Fiestaware he now has. 

 

And then it was Christmas :-)

 Only half the kids home this year!  Three stockings instead of six.

And, for the first time since 1978,

 NO boys (much less girls) on the steps.

 



But, in the afternoon, everyone arrived for dinner and gifts.

With the Shower and Christmas at the house, we decided

that we needed to go with small tree!

 

Ahhh, at the end of the day everyone was tired and content.

To everyone who was here, thank you for sharing

your holiday with us.  We loved having you

and look forward to the next time we

gather.

To those of you who were with us in spirit, we hope you felt

our presence as we felt yours.  We hope that your holiday

with your family and friends was filled with joy.

We love you and look forward to the next

time we gather.

May our New Year be blessed with love, peace and purpose.

 



Cool Graffiti from our trip to Greece

Art is everywhere and talent is talent no matter where you find it.

 

 

Wish I remembered or had even made a note of where I took these "Urban Artwork" pictures, but alas, I really don't know :-(    So, I think they were taken in Athens (but it seems like Keith

and I were enjoying this together, so that would have been Thessaloniki...???) 

except for the truck, which was on the dock when we left Noxos I think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aren't they awesome!

 

Love you all,

Mom

Fall Colors!

Taking pictures of red berries is apparently one of the small pleasures in my life.  I have dozens!  These are the little crab apples on the tree out the kitchen windows.  It was a gift from Dad's office when G'pa died and we moved it last year from the front to the side yard.  Happily, it was a good move.  The tree has flourished and the birds love it.

I have never had fall blooming iris before, but I guess there is a first time for everything.  This plant flowered more in October than it did in May.  Hope it makes the winter and puts on a new show next spring.

 

 

Arlo out enjoying a wonderful fall day.  Maggie is out also but getting a picture of her is pretty tricky as she NEVER stops moving.  She continues to be a fun part of our family, although Arlo does not always enjoy her attentions. 

 

 

A sure sign of fall - the beach oats turn sand color.  These were transplanted last year and I didn't get very many this fall:-(

It was so dry in the late summer that I was afraid that the colors would not be as good this fall, but it has been beautiful.  This picture is a little washed out and of course, the telephone lines add so much to the view, but the year and the neighborhood really were lovely.

There's Arlo again!  The hydranga didn't bloom very well because it was so dry in the spring, but we seem to have controlled the Japanese Beetle population and the fall color show was great.

 

 

 

 

The Oak Leaf Hydranga has been gorgeous!!  I have has lots of fall flowers in the house and these leaves have been just beautiful!


This week has seen the change from fall to late fall - which is the usual schedule.  The week of Halloween seems to be the turning point.  This past week we had several lovely days in the 70's with sunshine, but  today is the weather that everyone associates (and hates) with Ohio...grey...40 degrees...cold rain.  The last of the leaves are coming down and the furnace is on.  There is supposedly some great confluence of 3 storm systems and this is the forcast for the next 10 days.  The TV weather men are in their glory!

The sad news is that Jeff Ameer lost his fight to pancreatic cancer and died at home surrounded by his family early yesterday morning.  He was 60.  It was really a sad day at school yesterday.  Not everyone thought he was a great teacher, but EVERYONE thought he was a great guy and we all loved his wit and humor.  There will be a memorial service - probably next Saturday and the stories that will be told about him will be so funny that no one will know which tears are from sadness or which ones are from laughing.  That is probably as good a testament to a life well lived as any.

I am missing all of you like crazy today.  Love you so much.  Mom