Life continues on

Somewhere, miles away, crops push their way toward harvest and waves roar and tumble onto shore. Windswept forests sing their timeless songs, and desert animals scurry in the shadows of cactus and rock. Within a matter of hours night will fall, the dark sky will glitter with moon and stars, and sleep will force itself upon us. Life will continue on uninterrupted. Appreciated or not, the canvas of nature will go on being painted by the fingers of God.--Charles Swindoll

Thistle House

Thisitle House has an awesome Autumn giveaway contest! Check it out: http://thistlehouseprimitives.blogspot.com/

What season are you?

You Belong in Fall

Intelligent, introspective, and quite expressive at times... You appreciate the changes in color, climate, and mood that fall brings Whether you're carving wacky pumpkins or taking long drives, autumn is a favorite time of year for you

What Season Are You?

Cute card

I found this adorable card on eBay by a talented crafter who's eBay ID is scrappinlindy. Check out her awesome cards!

Grassy Creek Primitives

I just came across an awesome website, Grassy Creek Primitives! The talented crafter there is 83 years young! How inspiring! I hope you'll check out her site!

Tagged!

I've been tagged by Birgit from http://theprimitivecountrybug.blogspot.com/
I have to list 6 random things about myself and then tag 6 others.
Let's see...

1. A secret dream of mine for many, many years is to write a Christian fiction novel. I have one started in an old spiral bound notebook. I wrote a couple of chapters, panicked and packed it away somewhere! lol. It seems I have a fear of failure and a fear of success. I recently had my first print article published in The Country Register and the editor responded to my statement that I'd always wanted to be a writer with "You already ARE a writer!" That made me feel good. =)

2. Although I'm not teaching right now, I taught Sunday School for almost 20 years! And I'm only 37!

3. I'm from the rolling hills of southwestern IN. My Grandparents pastored a tiny church on White River. My Grandma was an old-time fire & brimstone preacher and she baptized people in the river. When I wanted to get baptized, my Grandma was dying of breast cancer and couldn't baptize me, so she sent me to a nearby church that was pastored by a young man under her tutelage. I was baptized on a cool autumn day outside in a horse trough! It was September 1981 and I was 10 years old.

4. I am not a "phone talker". I'd rather email! lol

5. My other grandparents were from the same area in southwestern IN. They live WAY out in the country. (My grandma is deceased). I was 10 years old (1981) when they got indoor plumbing! 1981! They used a hand pump on the kitchen sink to wash dishes prior to that. And of course there was an outhouse. My mom got bit on the leg by a snake in that outhouse! Grandpa was so stingy with the water when they got indoor plumbing that I remember he'd run the bathroom sink full of water in the morning and put the stopper in. Everyone was to use that same water ALL day to wash their hands! He thought it such a waste for each to run clean water to wash their hands. Never mind it was well-water! lol I never told him I didn't use that dirty water to wash my hands in! Grandpa is now 93 and I wonder if he still remembers all that? He's pretty sharp most days. Both sets of grandparents have tin roofs on their houses.

6. I am on the hunt for an old log cabin that someone will give to me free or really cheap. I want to dismantle it and reassemble it on our property for a primitive shoppe!

I'm going to tag:

~NeeNee at KKL Creations (http://thekrazykraftlady.blogspot.com/)

~ Anna at Sweet & Sassy Designs (http://sweetmissdaisy.typepad.com/)

~Diane at A Primitive Journey (http://aprimitivejourney.blogspot.com/)

I'm gonna have to work on coming up with 3 more! lol

Prim Candy Corn

I found these adorable prim candy corns and their super easy instructions on The Krazy Kraft Lady's Blog (http://thekrazykraftlady.blogspot.com/):

Instructions:

1. Draw a triangle, but instead of pointed corners, make them rounded. Make as large or as small as you'd like, keeping in mind, that the finished item will be smaller than the pattern you created by approximately 1/2 inch. My drawing is 6 1/2" long by 4" wide at the bottom. My finished candy corn is 6" by 3 1/2".

2. Trace your pattern on to piece of muslin fabric larger than the drawing of your pattern. I like to use an electric 'box' that has a lightbulb under it. I purchased mine at Joanne Fabrics. Plug it in, place your pattern on top, then your fabric. The light shines through the pattern allowing for much easier tracing. Trace the pattern onto the fabric using a Mark B Gone marking pen. You can purchase these also at Joanne Fabrics & Walmart.

3. The tracing line is your sewing line, sew all around, but leave an opening at the bottom of your fabric for stuffing. About one inch is good.

4. With your scissors, cut within a 1/4 inch of the sewing line, being careful not to cut into the sewing line itself. When you come to the opening that was left for stuffing - don't cut straight across - cut down about 1/4", then over the length of the opening, then back up to within a 1/4" making a 'tab'. I like to do this with all my 'openings' I think it makes for a cleaner finish.

5. Turn fabric right side out, tuck in the tab and stuff firmly with fiberfill. Slip stitch opening closed.

6. Now you're ready to paint with some acrylic paints! Paint the lower 1/3 of the candy corn with antique white. Paint the middle section with either gold ochre or raw sienna. Paint the top 1/3 section with terra cotta. Use a dry brush and blend the lines from the top color into the bottom color to blend so you won't have a harsh line.

7. Let air dry overnight or oven dry on the lowest temperature, watching carefully so it doesn't burn, turning over every few minutes.

8. When dry, lightly sand with fine sandpaper. With 2 strands of embroidery floss, sew X's across each 'line' as shown in photo.

9. Final step is to stain with a mixture of instant coffee & vanilla. I mix approximately 1 cup of hot water with 3-4 T. of instant coffee and add 2-3 T. of vanilla. Mix well. I brush the liquid on both sides & then air dry. Again, you can oven dry, but be careful your candy corn doesn't burn!! If you'd like your candy corn to look really prim - while still damp with the coffee mixture, generously rub in ground cinnamon and let dry.

Neenee, owner of http://www.kklprimitives.com/

I think I'll give this a try! let me know if you do too! I'll post pix of your results!

Published!

I've had my first print article published! Woohoo! lol

It was published in The Country Register. I did an interview with a shop owner (QUILTS N GIFTS) and you can read the article here:

http://www.countryregisteronline.com/Papers/IN%20CURRENT%20ISSUE.pdf


My article begins on page 19.


If you'd like one of the actual newspapers, let me know!


If you have trouble with the link above, try this one:

http://www.countryregisteronline.com/indiana/index.html

and on the left hand side, there's a menu where you'll click on "read paper online".


A sampling of the pictures I took at the shop:

Smokies

We just got home from a wonderful week in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee! Just wanted to share some pix, etc.

We left home last Sunday...well, we actually left from church in Indy. We took I-65 south to Louisville and what a mistake! Remnants of Hurricane Ike hit while we were still in Indy and the rain poured! When it finally quit, the winds were HORRIBLE! Fred could barely keep the SUV on the road! Once we got to southern IN, the traffic was stopped. Turns out, hundreds of trees were down all over, including the interstate! What a mess!! Tree cutting crews were ahead of us cutting the fallen trees enough to get them off the interstate so traffic could move. All of this was just in the southbound lanes, of course. lol The northbound lanes were full of crews from various electric companies from other states coming to help restore electricity.

After going between 4 MPH & 10 MPH, we decided to take the next exit and stop at a Cracker Barrel. We were so tired of sitting in the traffic that went further than our eyes could see in front of us and behind us. The Cracker Barrel was deserted! The entire exit had no electricity! McDonald's locked up their doors...everything was shut down. No working gas pumps! We went to a motel and went to the bathroom inside in the dark! Just in the motel parking lot alone, I think there were 10 trees down.

It took hours to get to Louisville and it should have taken 2 hours or less.

We eventually made it to the Smokies and loved our cabin!!

Here's some pix we took this week:

This isn't the only one of these signs we saw at gas stations in TN.

Our bedroom. Right outside on the deck was a hot tub. We had a huge Jacuzzi inside.
Yes, that's Miss Ryleigh on the bed! lol

Had this game room right outside our bedroom. The pool table made for a GREAT changing table for Ryleigh! lol

Loved these flowers on an old fence.

Our cabin. It was way up there! lol

Our cabin
Our cabin

Miss Ryleigh was trying so hard to crawl!

Our dining area

View from our living room!

I came out from a shop and found these two characters on the porch!

We saw a black bear in the woods!

Guessing it was about a year old.

Cades Cove, TN. My favorite spot on earth.




This mama was standing right beside the road in Cades Cove.


Here's the fawn. She was really small...this was taken with a zoom lens.

The mama


Church in Cades Cove


Cades Cove

Cades Cove

Cades Cove

Ryleigh with a black bear lol
Mill flume

The mill flume was a device used by Cades Cove's pioneers to divert water from a stream to power a mill. The water turned a large waterwheel by falling on the large paddles

Standing in front of the Cable Mill

John P. Cable Mill--In Cades Cove there were few sources of power which the frontiersman knew how to harness. One of those power sources was the water wheel such as drove the early grist mills. Cable Mill is one of those. The Smoky Mountains Natural History Association keeps Cable Mill running in Cades Cove to teach the Smoky Mountain visitor a little about life in the 1800's. The mill is operated April-October.A handful of enterprising residents in Cades Cove built water driven mills to grind grain. Their hope was that other Cades Cove families would prefer paying them to grind the grain rather than to struggle with the small inefficient tub mills at home. The tub mills were only capable of processing a bushel of corn each day. The entrepreneurs were correct and ran fine business in Cades Cove as a result.Cornmeal was the only grain that could be ground in the tub mills and so the waterwheel driven mills that could grind wheat into flour was a welcome addition to the cove. Now biscuits could be eaten some of the time instead of cornbread.Payment for grinding grain did not always mean money exchanged hands in Cades Cove. Sometimes money was paid but other times the miller was paid a portion of the resulting flour or meal. Besides John Cable, his son and also Frederick Shields operated mills. Cable and Shields took double advantage of their waterwheel by using it to power saw mills as well. Cable was the only person in Cades Cove to use the overshot water wheel. Like most business men in the Cove, Cable was also a farmer. He could be summoned from the fields by a large bell he had on the property for that purpose.In the history of Cades Cove, the saw mills were important because they changed the way people built houses. Before the saw mills, homes were built of logs. After the saw mills, the homes were built almost exclusively of lumber and frame construction. Also, most owners of the log homes in Cades Cove bought lumber for siding to cover the fact that they were living in old fashioned cabins. This practice of siding cabins was very common in America. Some people with homes from the 1800's are rediscovering their homes past. As they remove siding in order to make repairs the discovery is made that their house is really a cabin with board siding over it. Some choose to restore their house by removing the boards and letting the original cabin show through.. (taken from cadescove.net)

Gregg-Cable House

Gregg-Cable House had two locations in Cades Cove--Cades Cove's Becky Cable died in her Cades Cove home in 1940 at age ninety-four. At the time she and her house were located on Forge Creek Road but after her death the Great Smoky Mountain National Park service decided the Cable Mill area was a better location--for the house that is. Becky Cable was a remarkable lady who lived a long productive life in the cove. For one thing, she raised her brothers children after he and his wife became ill. But that is not all. She also ran a boarding house as well as her brother's farm. She raised gardens, cattle and food for herself , her family and her borders. In the early Cades Cove culture, Aunt Becky had help of course from adult family members, neighbors and her brothers children. (Taken from cadescove.net)

Early morning view from our cabin

Smoky Mountains

Smoky Mountains, viewing Mt. LeConte

Overlooking Gatlinburg

Peacock in Norris, TN

Glamour Girl

Took these last two on the drive home.

I've been a "student" of the Smokies and especially Cades Cove for many years. I have quite a library of historical books by descendants of the original pioneers. The history of the place draws me like no other place does. If you don't know much about Cades Cove, please go here: http://www.cadescove.net/cades_cove_pioneers.html

and

http://www.cadescove.net/auto_tour.html

Rakes

These two silly characters are made out of rakes! I spotted these two in TN this week!

9/11

©Michelle Peterson

September 11, 2001

We will never forget.

God Bless America!

Seasons of Change

There's a definite chill in the air at night now...in the 40's last night...and I'm thrilled that autumn is knocking on my door.

I love everything about autumn:

• warm days, chilly nights


• rustle of the dried corn stalks in the fields around our house


• Indian corn


• from-scratch, hot fried apple donuts from a neighboring orchard


• pumpkin patches


• wearing big sweatshirts


• scarecrows


• festivals


• red, yellow and orange leaves


• walking through deep fallen leaves and kicking them up with my feet


• spice scented candles


• bonfires


• hayrides


• hot chocolate


• kettle corn


• s'mores

The list goes on and on! I LoVe AuTuMn!

For me, autumn brings good changes. I'm not a big fan of hot, humid summer days. I'd take 70* temps year round!

Sometimes though, change can be so hard. Especially when you know you've made the changes you needed to make to do what you need to do and be what you need to be, but you aren't supported by others whom you thought would support you. When you know you're in the place that God has chosen for you, somehow, it has to be OK that others don't support you if they so choose and you have to find peace anyway. Something better will come along!

And so it's the same with autumn. I love it. I can't wait for it to come in full-swing. But the sad thing with autumn for me is the change that follows- winter. Each year I just batten down the hatches and trust that as usual something better will come along eventually... in the form of spring.