Solstice, & Alaska is on Fire

We had a pleasant Summer Solstice evening watching Beatrix Potteron DVD with our friends John & Mindy Meyn. It was a beautiful evening, & they had taken their daughter Christy & some friends to climb Flattop Mtn. which is just a short drive behind our house. The climb takes just a couple hours.

We enjoyed the movie, I would highly recommend it. Beatrix had an interesting life, & Renee Zellwigger did a beautiful job playing the part.

It doesn't really get dark here this time of year, but this morning the sky was a greenish gray & very gloomy. At 3 a.m. I was awaken by the smell of smoke. Initially I was a little worried until I realized it was a campfire smell, not a burning house smell. Actually it was more the smell of 1000 campfires. 1000s of acres on the Kenai peninsula are burning right now, & the smoke had drifted into Anchorage during the night. We're all praying for rain to still the fires & clean the air.
This picture in my back yard this morning shows some of the gloom.

The soy wax I've been playing with, I added wax over the whole piece, let it harden, then crackled it & painted black over the whole thing.

After pressing & washing out the wax & excess black, I added more color. It's still an experiment in progress.

This is the finished cape, for Christy's Irish Dance dress. I've started on the dress now too.

Here's a detail of the light bit of quilting, & the piping I made for the edge. I found I can't quilt very smoothly with my bum shoulder . Speaking of which, I had a Dr visit today, & he said it looked good. He gave me some simple exercises to do, & by the time I left there, I was aching pretty good. Tonight I will take a 1/2 of a pain pill.

We went to lunch & then to the movies. We saw Nancy Drew. It really is a cute film, & if you want a nice clean movie, it's a good one.

Below is the cover of a little picture album I put together for Auntie Ethel. Her mind is slipping, & I thought she might be helped by looking at some of her old photos, that I found in the dresser of her old room here. This is the cover I made from a newspaper add she had saved, & a little thread heart I made a long time ago.

Here are just a couple of her photos, of her & her husband Jack.

This last was her sister Nellie. She died about 5 years ago at age 90.

I have to do a Grandma brag here too. My DD called me tonight to let me know that Darian got straight A's again! She's brilliant!