What Do You Do While Waiting For a Tropical Storm?

Stormy Weather and Swaps

www.artjoystuff.blogspot.com

Living in Florida, we know the "Hurricane Season" lasts almost half the year, June - November.  As June approaches we start collecting our supplies: bottled water, non-perishable foods, batteries. Time to check all the flashlights, portable radios, portable generators, etc!

What's this? Work in progress ....

A few years ago after a week with no electricity, constant rain, mosquitoes,  high winds, and fallen trees, I was so jealous of one of my co-workers.  When we finally got back to school and started comparing stories, he said he'd spent the week watching movies on his battery-operated dvd player! 

Note the $.49 price sticker! Many beads left over from the original satin and lace project!

Now there's so much wireless technology available - a big help!  After that storm our local power company put all the electrical cables underground.  Before that we could lose our power any time, just by a small branch falling on one of the lines.

Last weekend we experienced our first 2012 storm - Tropical Storm Beryl - before the official start of the season!  

Jacksonville has been extremely fortunate - blessed - for many, many years by not having any direct hurricane hits, but TS Beryl came straight across our city last Sunday and Monday.  While not a hurricane, TS Beryl had pretty high winds at her peak (up to 70 mph - has to be 74mph for a hurricane).  Lots of rain and wind, but not nearly as bad as it could have been!  

The Mayor and other leaders cancelled quite a bit of the Jacksonville Jazz Festival and all of the Memorial Day activities. That was sad because the Jazz Festival is very popular and we had many visitors here for the US v Scotland Soccer  game too!  

Since Monday was Memorial Day the schools, government offices and many businesses were closed.  Everyone was advised to stay inside and "hunker down", after spending Friday and Saturday gathering supplies and preparing for the storm.

Sewing beads on bits of satin and lace carefully saved from  both my daughters' wedding gown fabrics saved me from just sitting here worrying while watching the treetops wave around in between torrential downpours.

Was it just a week or so ago that we were so thrilled to have some rain after months of drought? Between that week of rain and TS Beryl, everything's looking pretty green around here at the moment!  Best of all,  while there were plenty of downed trees and branches, no deaths or serious injuries were reported. Several dried up lakes a bit further west were filled up as Beryl passed by.

Now that it's June and officially "Hurricane Season" who knows what will come next?  The only good thing I can say about hurricanes, which have destroyed so much in many of the coastal areas of our country and others, is that we do get the warnings ahead of time.

Both my daughters asked me to make their wedding gowns. What wonderful summers those were! Precious memories!  As I collected the fabrics and pearls for these ATCs,  I realized that almost every one of the stores that carried wedding fabrics and lace at that time has since closed. That makes me so sad.

For the Sew Many Flowers ATC Swap, Kimberly asked us to make only three instead of the usual six.  I made an extra one for Kimberly and kept the first one for myself. I almost always make a few changes after the first one for any swap. I forgot that the Post Office would be closed Monday, so had to race out to mail them Tuesday morning - the drop-deadline day!

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else did with this theme. Thanks to Kimberly of ArtJoyStuff for hosting this lovely swap!

Memorial Day

REMEMBER

"A whole lot of tomorrows were sacrificed 

so we could enjoy today"

Grand Avenue  May 27, 2012

http://vintageholidaycrafts.com/

Ferns and Flowers and More

Rain At Last!

Darkening sky - early afternoon

Recently had a week of rainy days, or afternoons, after many months of drought - oh, so welcome! 

Raindrops on thirsty leaves and ferns

Another attempt to capture the welcome wetness

The ferns on this little overhang were totally dried-out and looked dead before the rains.  Now  a week or so later without any rain, they're totally dried-out again.

The rain and cooler weather that came with it inspired me to buy some flowering plants.

I bought the coleus because it reminds me of my mother. I purposely bought one with that big side piece hanging over so I could cut it off to root.  She always had coleus "rooting" in the house - just a piece of the plant stuck in a jar of water on the kitchen windowsill.

And I bought the red geranium because it reminds me of my Virginia grandmother who always had them on the doorstep or back porch. Every time I smell a geranium I think of her - and also of a friend who had left instructions to use geraniums at her funeral service.  She had loved the book, Stick a Geranium in Your Hat and Be Happy, by Barbara Johnson. They had hundreds of little geraniums all over and encouraged everyone present to take one home to remind them of her lovely spirit during her courageous battle against cancer.

My flower pot doesn't look quite so pretty today because some wormy creatures have snapped off the zinnias! But it still adds a bit of color to all the green around here.

One of our cute but pesky raccoons came out looking for something to eat. Don't be misled by that cute face - they are wild animals and can be quite fierce! I was almost afraid to get so close to snap the photo! They shouldn't even be out in the daytime.

Hoping for some more rain soon, but not too much, of course!

Bonjour! "April in Paris" Mail!

Bonjour!

Kimberly's package with the April in Paris ATCs came a few days ago! She always includes something fun, like this super sweet tag!

ArtJoyStuff

All  six of the  beauties I received!

Danielle (Missdaniellerenee.blogspot.com)

Kelly (kellydeal.blogspot.com)

Laurel (laurelsquill.blogspot.com)

Marlene (uniquelyella.blogspot.com)

Sherry (Createology.blogspot.com)

Sylvia (littletreasures-sylvia.blogspot.com)

I forgot to take a photo of these little things I sent Kimberly to thank her for hosting another lovely swap. Luckily for me, she posted this photo! Hope you don't mind that I "borrowed" it, Kimberly! My father had brought the Folies-Bergere fan back in the late '60s or maybe early '70s, and of course we can all use a few pages of old French text and a 1970's National Geographic "Traveller's Map of France", can't we?!!

These swaps are so much fun because everyone interprets the theme differently and we receive all these unique little works of art.

Thank you all for these lovely ATCs, and many thanks to our swap hostess, Kimberly! 


Looking forward to the next swap, "Sew Many Flowers"! It's not too late to join, but don't wait too long.  Lots of fun!

Happy Mothers' Day!

Happy Mothers' Day to all!

Every woman may not have children of her own 

Large teacup arrangement, from our son and daughter-in-law

but everyone has or has had a mother 

My Mother - late 1930s or early 1940s

My Mother-in-Law - early 1940s

Oh, the memories!

April in Paris - and in Jacksonville too!

April in Paris ATC Swap

Kimberly's swaps are always so much fun, and this was no exception.  With a theme like "April in Paris", who wouldn't have fun?

The first one I made - I always end up changing them a little - 

or a lot!

They're pretty much the same, except for the bottom trim and the larger flowers. Also used a pearl to dot the 'i' in Paris instead of the tiny gemstones. I liked the girl's pose. She looked like she was dreaming  about something - Paris?  

Slightly larger view of one.  

and April in Jacksonville .....

At the time I was making these, or thinking about them, we visited one of the local museums, The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, to see the exhibit of Impressionist Art on loan from the High Museum in Atlanta as part of Jacksonville's celebration of our French Heritage.  Wonderful exhibit! No photos of the artworks, but a few from the gardens.

The azaleas and camellias had finished 

but some other flowers were blooming the day we visited

One of the huge old oaks leaning down into another part 

of the gardens. Perhaps  this ancient Live Oak was just a tiny seedling 450 years ago when Jean Ribault landed and claimed what became Florida for France. The settlements he left here were soon destroyed by the later-arriving Spanish, but there are still quite a few place names left from the French era.

A glimpse of one of the bridges going across the St. John's 

 This special exhibit of  the Impressionists - French and a few  American - must've inpired me to make my "Dreaming of Paris" ATCs! It's been a long time - maybe time to go to Paris (again)?!

May Already?!

May Day

May already! With a couple weeks of various computer problems along with lots of "this and that", I've sadly neglected this poor little blog.  I believe I'm a better Follower than Poster -- no question about that!  

Kimberly's Celebrate Spring ATC Swap was lots of fun! 

Art Joy Stuff

Last time I posted my ATCs.  Now here are the beauties I received:

Individual views

Chris - Perfectly Printed

Debbie Kayner - no blog

Jewels - Just Tickety-Boo

Kathy - Country Chintz

Marlene - Uniquely Ella

Oliva - Olivas Creative Quest

Aren't they all lovely!  It's always such fun to see the many different interpretations of  the theme and all the different techniques and materials used by our fellow swappers.  Do go visit to see what else they're doing!

Lots of beautiful packaging and extra 'goodies' came too!

Celebrate Spring indeed! 

Thank you, Kimberly, for this lovely swap! And thank you all, Ladies, for your beautiful work! Can hardly wait for the next one!