I love making sculptures. If you look back at some of my posts from a couple of years ago I was making them with a product called Powertex. I still have lots of my supplies which has me thinking about making sculptures again. Especially watching this video which had me in awe!
Wednesday, August 12, 2020
Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Toadstools or Mushrooms or Championnekes
What's a mushroom? "They describe a variety of gilled fungi, with or without stems, therefore the term is used to describe the fleshy fruiting bodies of some Ascomycota. These gills produce microscopic spores that help the fungus spread across the ground or its occupant surface".
Mushrooms or toadstools have always caught my interest (see needle felted toadstools earrings I used to make or the baby shoes with needle felted toadstool designs I've created in the past) but never to the point to go foraging for them. I'm too scared to end up picking a poisonous one.
While taking these pictures I started thinking about "Toast Champignon" my mom used to make and while I'm not crazy about eating mushrooms that did make my mouth water! I found a recipe on a Flemish site: https://dagelijksekost.een.be/gerechten/toast-champignon. My mom used to make it with some kind of Alfredo sauce which toned down the flavor of the mushrooms a bit.
The reason I'm talking about mushrooms is because I found these beauties in my yard a couple of days ago after storm Isaiah came by. The ones in the backyard I had to get rid of because I have two dogs that love to nibble on grass. I wouldn't want them accidentally eat one of these since I know some of these are poisonous!
I think the lighter colored ones are "parasol" and the darker ones
"shaggy parasol" but I might be wrong I'm not a mushroom
expert!
I did find a page that talks about these and if that's what these are they are edible ...
but trust me I'm not going to try to eat them, better safe then sorry.
Here is the link to the article on how to cook them if that's what they are:
I think these are called "Yellow Patches" or Amanita flavoconia
Poisonous
When I went searching on the internet to find out what these were called I ran into this article "15 worlds funkiest fungi" OMG!!
Here is the link to it: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/89768/15-worlds-funkiest-fungi
Mother nature doing her thing!
So guess what I'll be making for dinner!? Toast Champignon ... but definitely with store bought championnekes!
Sunday, August 9, 2020
Always in my heart
Since I missed a couple of years out of this blog I thought I'd share some of the things that happened in between then and now. It might not always be in chronological order. Things that pop into my head will be popping up as they come to me.
Today I was thinking about the floral heart arrangement I made for my honey to put on his grave. Looking at the pictures I want to make another one soon. This next time I'll share how I go about making it with step by step instructions. But for now, here are pictures of what the one I made looked like.
They are all real flowers, greenery and moss. The base is a grapevine heart shaped wreath that I took apart and used only a few of the grapevines which I then wrapped with chicken wire to get the elongated shape of the heart. I used oasis inside the chicken wire. I used rosemary from our garden since that was one of the plants we always had to have in our yard wherever we lived ... it was his favorite herb so I made sure it was part of the arrangement.
Saturday, August 8, 2020
Life Goes On
I know it’s been a long time since I posted, but here I am. So much has happened since my last post. My dear husband ended up passing away December 31, 2017. 54 is just too young to die. He put up a long hard fight with his kidney cancer but finally lost his battle. I miss him dearly but I’m ready to move on and look forward to make the best of the next chapter of my life. Kinda strange to think it will basically be my last chapter. I don’t have any plans to leave this earth any time soon. I’m hoping for at least another 20 years!
I started working part time a couple of years back but I’m happy to say I’m planning on retiring come January 2021. I must say I’m really looking forward to doing so. Ready to work in my garden, ready to bring all those art projects to fruition, ready to keep the cat toy business going, ready to relax a bit and ready to catch your interest with the things I’ll be posting.
Friday, February 3, 2017
Wow, time flies
Yes, it's been a long time since I posted. So much has been happening. My mom passed away from a stroke shortly after I did my last post in July. The good thing is she didn't suffer very long, the sad thing is that I didn't make it back to Belgium in time to say goodbye. She passed away a couple hours before my plane landed. On the other hand I'm okay with the fact she didn't hang on and I got to see her and say goodbye to her earlier in the year after she had her first stroke. I kinda had a feeling back then I wasn't going to see her again. My brother, who lives in Belgium with his family was amazing in regards to taking care of all the stuff that needed to get done. I can't believe we were able to put mom's house up for sale and basically sold it in a matter of a couple weeks! Anyways, my mom was 80. She had a good life I think and she really wanted to be with dad who passed away 6 years ago. It's not easy having to say goodbye to your parents that's for sure.
As far as my husband is concerned, he's one strong man! I've lost track of the amount of radiations he's now had done for the spread of the RCC (renal cell carcinoma). We also discovered (while I was in Belgium and he stayed here in Virginia) he has a big tumor in his humerus (also a met from the RCC). He had surgery where they inserted a rod through the humerus and through the darn tumor so his upper arm will stop falling apart since the tumor has eaten away a lot of the bone. I hate cancer! Did I tell you yet how much I hate cancer! Anyways, besides that he's had more radiation for two mets in his brain and also on the arm before they did the arm surgery. Another radiation for a met on his T11 and we just found out he has more mets on his T8 and his femur! But the good news today was that all the tumors he's had radiation for are either stable or getting smaller. We know it's not going to go away but his life is being extended which we are thankful for. Can you believe he's still going to work! The cancer meds he's taking causing issues with a bad cough which is also enhanced by having pneumonitis which is an inflammation inside his lung around the tumor due to the radiation. He's been on prednisone for that for weeks now and we're hoping him coming off the prednisone might make a few other side effects go away. I took him to the hospital a couple weekends ago when he was having severe stomach pains and a blood pressure of 237/135!!! I don't know how his body and heart can withstand all of this but he's a trooper and presses on that's for sure. Watching a loved one having to go through this sucks but together we try to make the best of what we got and we'll fight till we have nothing left to fight for.
Enough about sad stuff! I finished a couple of sock dolls these past couple of weeks. These are so much fun to make. Both of them are listed in my BitsOfFiber shop on Etsy so if you like what you see don't wait to get them since I usually make things without a pattern they are all unique and OOAK.
Here are the links and some pictures of them.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/496377908/sleepy-bunny-doll-soft-sock-doll-plushie?ref=shop_home_active_1
As far as my husband is concerned, he's one strong man! I've lost track of the amount of radiations he's now had done for the spread of the RCC (renal cell carcinoma). We also discovered (while I was in Belgium and he stayed here in Virginia) he has a big tumor in his humerus (also a met from the RCC). He had surgery where they inserted a rod through the humerus and through the darn tumor so his upper arm will stop falling apart since the tumor has eaten away a lot of the bone. I hate cancer! Did I tell you yet how much I hate cancer! Anyways, besides that he's had more radiation for two mets in his brain and also on the arm before they did the arm surgery. Another radiation for a met on his T11 and we just found out he has more mets on his T8 and his femur! But the good news today was that all the tumors he's had radiation for are either stable or getting smaller. We know it's not going to go away but his life is being extended which we are thankful for. Can you believe he's still going to work! The cancer meds he's taking causing issues with a bad cough which is also enhanced by having pneumonitis which is an inflammation inside his lung around the tumor due to the radiation. He's been on prednisone for that for weeks now and we're hoping him coming off the prednisone might make a few other side effects go away. I took him to the hospital a couple weekends ago when he was having severe stomach pains and a blood pressure of 237/135!!! I don't know how his body and heart can withstand all of this but he's a trooper and presses on that's for sure. Watching a loved one having to go through this sucks but together we try to make the best of what we got and we'll fight till we have nothing left to fight for.
Enough about sad stuff! I finished a couple of sock dolls these past couple of weeks. These are so much fun to make. Both of them are listed in my BitsOfFiber shop on Etsy so if you like what you see don't wait to get them since I usually make things without a pattern they are all unique and OOAK.
Here are the links and some pictures of them.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/496377908/sleepy-bunny-doll-soft-sock-doll-plushie?ref=shop_home_active_1
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Live goes on!
Yep, life goes on if we like it or not. Lately it's been a bit crazy to say the least. My dear husband who's been battling kidney cancer that has spread to different parts of his body has now been going through radiation this past week. At first it was only for a treatment of one of his vertebra's but while that was getting set up he started coughing up blood coming from the bigger tumor in one of his lungs which really really sucks. So he's been getting radiation to stop the tumor from bleeding and also radiation to the vertebrae to hopefully stop growing. He's a very busy person and is always on the go even with having the metastasis from the kidney cancer he's kept on working and doing all the things he's always done but this darn radiation really got him down and on the couch this past week. He has two more days of treatment and hopefully he will get some of his energy back soon so he can focus on some other things again. We're trying to stay positive which hasn't been an easy task this past year that's for sure.
Anyways, I keep myself busy with making stuff for my Bits Of Fiber shop as well as our MauveMoose shop on Etsy. I've decided to try a different site for my Bits Of Fiber shop called TicTail.com. If you haven't checked it out yet do so now! Here is the link to my shop on Tictail.com: http://bitsoffiber.tictail.com/ I don't have lots of things listed yet but will be adding more of them as time moves on I'll be moving things from my Etsy shop into this one. I'll be keeping my shop on Etsy as well but will be focusing on adding different kind of stuff in that shop.
These are the two items I just listed this past week:
Alright, time to do some laundry. Thanks for stopping by and I'll try to post more often again.
Cheers,
Anyways, I keep myself busy with making stuff for my Bits Of Fiber shop as well as our MauveMoose shop on Etsy. I've decided to try a different site for my Bits Of Fiber shop called TicTail.com. If you haven't checked it out yet do so now! Here is the link to my shop on Tictail.com: http://bitsoffiber.tictail.com/ I don't have lots of things listed yet but will be adding more of them as time moves on I'll be moving things from my Etsy shop into this one. I'll be keeping my shop on Etsy as well but will be focusing on adding different kind of stuff in that shop.
These are the two items I just listed this past week:
Alright, time to do some laundry. Thanks for stopping by and I'll try to post more often again.
Cheers,
Monday, May 16, 2016
I know it's been a long long time!
but, but, but I do have excuses for not writing. I had hand surgery back in December and then my mom had a stroke which meant I had to fly to Belgium to take care of her. In the meantime, hand is doing much better and so is mom. I'm back to making and listing things in my Etsy shop. While I was in Belgium visiting mom in the hospital then visiting her at the rest home she's now in I knitted and crocheted to keep myself from going crazy. I've just listed a couple of things so far here they are!
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