Five on Friday: Between Storms

1. This month our worship art group worked on a mixed media piece.  Our facilitator gave us a printed sketch of the back of the heads of three women.  Using our facilitator's work as an example, I cut out the shapes of the three women. I glued them onto a watercolored painted background.  I used watercolor, acrylic paints, and a fiber tipped pen to paint over the three women and write the words.  Our facilitator's idea is that the women are looking with hope toward God from their complicated stances in the world. [Be anxious for nothing. Phil.4:6,
Fear not. Isa. 41:10, Think on lovely things. Phil.4:8, Our eyes are on You. Psalm 141:8]

2. On the way home from the art group I stopped by the Tsuru Japanese Garden in Gresham to get a picture of it at the height of Autumn. I was surprised to see so many oranges, reds and yellows.

3. On 302nd Street  several blocks from home I stopped to admire the deepening coat of snow on Mt. Hood and took a picture so you could admire it, too.

4. Expecting some possibly hungry Bible study members I picked six apples to make an apple crisp for them.  I counted 21 apples left on the tree...not fully ripe yet.

5. Rosie has developed a fondness for the media character, Hello Kitty, so we had fun celebrating her third birthday Sunday afternoon with a Hello Kitty theme for her party.

Thanks to Amy from her blog, Love Made My Home, I am posting this on her Five on Friday link, but next week I hope to be driving to and from Sonoma, California, just north of San Francisco, to take my oldest sister out for brunch to celebrate her 75th birthday so I may not be able to visit with you, but I will be wondering:  Are you between storms in your life?

xx
Gracie

Five on Friday: Progress!

Hi!  I hope this finds you enjoying the season of life you are in!  It has been mostly a good busy week here in Boring, Oregon, USA, except that several of us in our household have been fighting off viruses.

One thing I enjoyed this past week was sewing together fifteen patches on a Featherweight Singer sewing machine...the first time in many years I have tried to use any sewing machine.  The squares are practice squares I cut several years ago with a rotary cutter, and I need more practice cutting, and stitching on the machine.  I pieced together a backing and have stuffed some polyester fiber in to form a pillow shape but not sewn up the end yet. I had it stuffed firmly at first and decided I did not like that so I took out some stuffing, but am afraid it will shift around too much. Since this is a practice piece I will probably stitch it up and call it good enough.

 Secondly, I am halfway through knitting another preemie blanket using 100% acrylic yarn in the Beachy colorway. Where my knitting needle is pointing I did four rows of purl stitches thinking I would get a flat section after knitting all the other rows...but I did not...a mystery I can not get my brain around.

 Thirdly, I had fun filling in some more pages of my Leaves of Promise album I started years ago.

 Fourthly, I knit two small [35 stitches in the center row] Grandma's washcloths using size 3 needles and size 3 100% cotton Lizbeth thread while watching a video about Tiny Houses, and then watching some of the first episodes of Fixer Upper on HGTV. I just read "The Magnolia Story" by the stars of the show and was interested in how their lives progressed to bring them to produce their program.

Fifthly, my oldest son texted me a recent photo of my two wonderful growing grandsons who I visited two years ago back in NY at this time of year. How can time fly by so fast? Kenny is now in middle school and Aron will be in two more years!

As I join, thanks to Amy in her Five on Friday Link again on her blog, Love Made My Home I am wondering...

Have you been making any progress this week?

Gracie xx

Five on Friday: Fall Around Here

 One: After swimming on Monday, my friend, Teresa, and I went to Jonsrud Viewpoint in nearby Sandy, Oregon, to try to take some photos of Mt. Hood with our cell phones.

 Two: Using the zoom on my cell phone I snapped this so that you could get a better look at the new snow on Mt. Hood.  Mt. Hood had been hiding under valley rain clouds for days and I was hoping the mountain was collecting some snow, and it was!

 Three: On the way home I stopped at a grocery store in Sandy, Oregon, and had to take some photos of the gorgeous trees in a nearby parking lot so that you can enjoy looking at them, too.

 Four: After swimming on Wednesday I remembered to go out to our apple tree and pick some more apples before the next series of rain storms.

Five: A new rain storm rolled in today, but we braved the storm to go to the roller skating rink in Gresham so that my oldest daughter and her four oldest girls could skate with thankfully little falling. Most of my photos were blurry due to the girl's speed, but I managed to catch Joy happily still enough for a moment :)

My days have rolled by rapidly this week, with some crocheting and knitting and fiddling with a Featherweight sewing machine.  I've gathered with several groups from church, done some reading in "The Writing on the Wall" by Elizabeth Mattox...a mystery set on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. I am working my way through a new to me Beth Moore Bible study, and I am asking the Lord for mercy and love for those in harms way around the world...trying to think of practical ways I can help...

Thanks to Amy, I am posting this on her Love Made My Home, Five on Friday link, and I am looking forward to doing some blog reading to discover what is new with some of you.

Are you doing any skating through this season of your life?

Gracie xx

Five on Friday:Winter Project Link Party

Ahoy Mates!

Posting on  Amy's Five on Friday on Love Made My Home and on Jennifer from Thistlebear's  Winter Project Link Party  I have five confessions to share with you about my progress with Anastasia Robert's Ruby Shawl pattern I am crocheting.

One: To see when I started crocheting the shawl click HERE.

Two: Because I admired two shawls Teresa has made with Anastasia's pattern, I decided to try it and have kept at it sporadically for y.e.a.r.s.

Three: Deborah Norville has some beautiful colorways in her yarn and I love the autumnal tones I chose to use for my shawl. I also love the softness and drape of the yarn, but it does split easily which prompts me to fuss a bit.

Four:  I have four skeins of yarn left to finish the shawl.

Five: [Secretly I am hoping to finish this shawl before winter 2016 starts!]

Have you checked out what others have posted on Five on Friday and the Winter Project Link Party?

xx
Gracie :)