2014- Pumpkin Patch - special pumpkins

Once again its that time of year when I'm busy in the pumpkin patch.  Its so much fun and I find it really rewarding to volunteer there doing the things that I do. 

Here's what it looked like when we unloaded the pumpkins.  We literally get a whole 18wheeler full of pumpkins and it takes a lot of help to unload it.

 They form lines and just pass them down with a sorting going on as they get them.

 This year w had help from a group of girls. 

 Here's what they look like unloaded.

 I thought this was such a pretty sun set I just had to get it with the pumpkins in the forground.

We unloaded the pumpkins on Sept 28, 2014.

Here's the patch during a typical week.


The children came for my discovery center during the week of Oct 13-17.  And here are some of the pumpkins, gourds, ect that I talked about.

 This time I did try to take some photos of the unusual ones so that I could have them as a slide show if I needed them. 

I like to point out the stem verses the vine and how you are not suppose to lift a pumpkin by the stem since they break off easily. 

    With this one I pointed out not all pumpkins are orange in color.

 I was playing around with different color background to get the color that this was easiest to see.  This image did not do justice because this was a bright red one.

 This one had more than one color on it and its good for the kids to see those too.

 I usually try to get some pink pumpkins.  These are specially grown for Breast cancer awareness and when you see the specially marked ones a donation is made to the Susan G. Coleman foundation.

  Since I'm usually showing things to 3-5 year olds I try to make it interesting and show them some of these funny shaped gourds.  We never know if we will get gourds or not so its good to have these backup images.

 I liked this little star gourd.  Plus I liked its yellow color.

 I do talk about the different shapes and how unusual some of them can get to be.
This one was used because of its grey color too.

  But this turbine one is more of a hit.

  I liked this gourd because it looked like a goose to me.  It was a big hit with the kids too.

 

  Sometimes we get pumpkins that are twins but this year this was the closest we got to having twins. 

 I also point out the texture and how these are lumpy.  I love seeing the kids reaction to when I show them this one. 

 This one was used because it was squarish looking.

 

 And this one looked like it was smiling. 

After spending so much time with these special pumpkins I can get attached to them.  I usually end up bring them home where I know they will be well taken care of till Hallooween.

 

 And as usual my cat has to check them out and then keeps watch over them. 

Hail at my house on 10-6-2014

We got some hail at my house.  At first I didn't think it was that bad.  But then it sounded serious and the puppies/dogs didn't know what it was so one of them rain outside to investigate.  I couldn't believe it when they brought a piece of the hail back in.   After I saw it I decided to keep it so I could show it to my husband.  He wanted me to take a picture of it in case we had roof damage.  I thought I would keep it here so I could find it. if I needed to use it again.

Now I'm glad I've done it because the neighbors have been asking about the hail.  It appears some roofs were damaged by this storm.

Another blog anniversary has come and gone

I realized yesterday that I had had another blog anniversary come and go.   I hardly ever have any traffic anymore and because of that I've really scaled back on my blogging.  Also I have a life outside of blogging that has been keeping me pretty busy. 
   I was going to do a blog post yesterday but the weather didn't cooperate.  Now I'm having to deal with them upgrading the powerlines in our area.  We have sporadic power outages.  I'll be so glad when they finally complete the project and we can get reliable electricity again. 

2014- My annual pilgramage to the Gem & Mineral Show

Its that time of year again and I've made my annual pilgramige to the Gem & Mineral Show in my area.
I did not get too many pictures on my camera because I was having too much fun looking at all the wonderful things.  Then I started to buy some beads to work with and forgot all about it.  The next day I did go again to pick up a few items I didn't ge the day before but wished I had.  I did not have my camera with me and was only able to take some pictures on my cell phone.

I thought this fish was really intersting to see.

 

 Look at this crynoid - I just would love to own something like that but the price was out of my range.

Now to see what I've made with some of the lovely's that I got while I was there and from previous years..  
This is not turquoise but a stone that has been dyed to look like turquoise, I think its howlite.

 Freshwater pearls with daisy brass spacers.

 Amozonite with freshwater pearls

 Rose Quartz with fresh water peals and spacers with brass&glass.

 Adventurine with decorated brass spacers.

 More Turqoise dyed beads but this was a lighter shade than the other set

 Hematite beads of various shapes.

 This is a manmade stone called goldstone but its popular with my friend and its fun to work with.

 This was a petrified wood that I think they were calling picture jasper.  It has hematite spacer beads.

I got a lot more but some of the designs are similar and so I haven't included them.
In case you are wondering why there are so many hearts its because with a couple of groups in my area my title is 'Lady of Love' and when I give these to my friends it shows my love for them.

I find beading to be extremely relaxing and a great hobby to have.  I just love it when I can get new materials to work with and let my creative juices flow.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art- Bentonville Arkansas

   I went to visit some of my husbands family up in Arkansas.  While we were there we decided to take a trip and see the Crystal Bridges museum.( http://en.wikipedia.org wiki/Crystal_Bridges_Museum_of_American_Art )
I had heard a little bit about it before I had gotten there but really didn't know what to expect.  I was thinking it was a nature park with a small museum - boy was I wrong!!  It was a world class Art museum up in Bentonville Arkansas.  It blew me away that a small out-of-the-way town like that could have something like that.  But then you find out it was built by Alice Walton, daughter of Sam Walton who founded Walmart and it all made sense. 
      While we were there we were told we could take pictures of the structure but not to use the flash and also some of the galleries were restrictive as far as taking pictures.  I didn't want to take any chances and so just got a few that I thought would be okay.  These pictures do not do it justice and its worth the effort to go visit it.
 
This was the entrance to the place. 

 Across from the entrance was this beautiful sculpture that fit right in with the surrounding scenery.

 I wasn't expecting the museum to be down below and got these images as we were walking to the elevators to take us down.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

 Inside it was so bright and cheery looking.  It was also very modern looking too.

 This was one of the rooms I felt okay taking a picture.  Notice the surrounding nature.  There was a path outside but at the time they were getting ready for a wedding and we were not allowed to go out on it.

This was looking across the building.  The one closest to us on the left was a reception area. The galleries were to the right and the restaurant was in the center building in the back.

Crystal Bridges Art museum.

Updated:   
What really got to me was after I visited it my newspaper had two articles on it in December. One was on Dec. 7, 2014 The Times E1& E5 - Life section  shreveporttimes.com and the other Dec 12, 2014 in the Lagniappe C-1 & C-10.

A Weavers Heaven

   My husband and I went on a trip to visit some of his family in Fayetteville Arkansas. Fayetteville-Arkansas. While we were there we got to visit a friend of theirs.  I love to weave and this friend loves to weave too.  It was decided the two of us had to get together.  I'm so glad I was able to make that connection.
  I couldn't get over her place and the looms she had.  She had a room added to her house just to do her weaving in.  When I saw it I was totally captivated by her stuff and it was hard to leave.

Just look at this loom and all the harnesses that it has!!!! (The harnesses are where the thread goes through & what gets lifted up to create the patterns).  Its a programmable one that she had just gotten and was having troubles figuring it out.   All I knew was this was out of my league - I had never done more than four harnesses on a loom.  But oh the things she'll be able to do once she figures it out.  I'm still drooling over this machine. 
  

 Here's another loom that she had.  It is just as nice as the other one.  I was envious of the threading device she had where she could warp the loom by her self.

 Here's some of the things that she's been able to make.  Aren't they fantastic?

 Now this loom was more my speed but just look at the pattern she was able to create on it.  I loved it.

I do hope I get to visit this person again.  It was so much fun seeing her work.
She was such an inspirations to me.  I know I'll never get to this level but I sure did enjoy seeing her stuff and admire what I saw.