Friday, June 22, 2007

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!

6 comments:

Vicki W said...

The photo album is such a wonderful idea and I can't wait to see that dress done - it's going to be so beautiful! I have a friend on a hiking vacation in Alaska right now - I hope she's not near the fires!

Micki said...

The soy wax project looks interesting. Your cape is beautiful. And the album is a great gift.

Shirley Goodwin said...

What a lovely thing to do for your aunt.

jenclair said...

The photo album is a great idea. We have pictures all over Laddie's room, but an album he can look through would be such a nice idea.

Granny Fran said...

So sorry to hear about the forest fires, I sure know what that is like from 2002.
The cape is gorgeous.
I love your idea of a scrap book for your aunt, hope it is a comfort to her.
Keep on healing that shoulder.

Rian said...

I was thinking about you and the fires yesterday. I couldn't get online to find out more. My cousin lives on the Kenai, so I'm worried.

Nice thought for Auntie Ethel. Here's hoping the pictures jog her memory (but don't get your hopes up too high...)