Alas, I Have Failed in My Blogging!

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I just don’t have anything to blog about today.  It has been a wonderful weekend with lots of food, a couple of naps and an iPhone.  I have finally stepped into the 21st century with a smart phone.   Randy and I went to the 2013 Block Street Block Party.  Had some great food, heard Candy Lee sing and just wandered around.  Oh, I did see some of my bags at the 4-Legged Bird booth!

After a quick nap, we met my brother, my niece, her boyfriend and Christy and her lovely children for dinner.  I think everyone left full and happy.  That is the definition of success!  Here are some pictures from our day:

Block Street Block Party 2013

Block Street Block Party 2013

Brandi and Brandon

Brandi and Brandon

About the same time as we were dining, a tornado touched down in Edmond.  My brother sent this photo:

Edmond tornado

Edmond tornado

This wasn’t the only tornado in Oklahoma today.  Luckily, my brother and his family were in their hidey hole and are safe.  Sadly, I did hear that someone died in the storm.

Well, that is the sum total of what I have.  I apologize again for my lack of stimulating blogging.  I will try again soon.

How was your weekend?

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Mother’s Day and Moving!

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Mom and my aunt

Mom and my aunt

Mother’s Day has come and gone.  We are still packing for the move and not getting much of anything else done.  But this time of year I tend to think of my mom, Patsy.  Between Mother’s Day and May 18th, her birthday, my thoughts simply turn in this direction.  You will recognize this picture as Mabel & Jean, but in reality, it is my mom, on the left, and my aunt!  My mom died 27 years ago at the young age of 60.  When I think of her, it is with very fond, yet distant memories.  My mom could be a force to be reckoned with!  She was a tiny, tenacious Texas woman.  She always found the best in people and they gravitated towards her.  I miss her.  Here are some pictures for you to peruse.

Mom

Patsy

Engagement Party

Engagement Party

Wedding Portrait

Wedding Portrait

Young Mom

Young Mom

My mom raised 6 children and I have to say we turned out pretty well!  That is not to say there weren’t times when “hell” seemed to break loose.  When you go see the movie AUGUST, OSAGE COUNTY, you might just see shades of our life in there.  I have only seen the play, which was written by Tracy Letts of Tulsa and was filmed in my hometown of Pawhuska and the surrounding area.  It is definitely not a “feel good” movie.  You can check out the trailer here.

Mom, just thinking about you on Mother’s day.

All in all though, life is good, things are getting packed and the blog is getting written!  If I am absent next week, you will know the move didn’t go well!

Thanks for being here and as always, leave comments!

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A Little Housekeeping and a Beer Fest!

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Well, we move to a motel in 8 days and that means quite a bit of housekeeping needs to get done.  I am not actually talking about cleaning the house, but rather how to manage being without one for 6 weeks.  To that end, I decided I could either tote my totes in the back of my car for 6 weeks to handle online sales on Etsy, or I could pack them away and deactivate Etsy during this time.  What I wound up doing was deactivating Etsy and consigning the bags to a store in Fayetteville named Four-Legged Bird.  That killed the proverbial two birds with one stone.  If you can’t get to Fayetteville and you really, really need a bag, you can always contact me and I can mail you one!  If you can get to Fayetteville, check out the Four-Legged Bird.  It is truly an awesome place with something for everyone.

The other housekeeping I handled was to make motel/hotel reservations at 3 different places in 3 different towns!  We need a place in Tulsa after the furniture is loaded, a place in Fayetteville for when the furniture arrives, and then a place to spend the Memorial Day Weekend.  The 3 reservations will almost get us to the end of May.  That just leaves half of June left for our homelessness.  ”Woohoo”, she said laughingly, with no conviction!

Okay, with those worries solved, it was time to have some fun.  We went to Fayetteville this last week to attend several events:

The Spring Banquet was wonderful.  I saw people I hadn’t seen since May of 1979.   Several of the people attending were from my class, oh so many years ago!  How come I aged and they did not?  Life can be so mysterious.  The food was excellent, the drinks were wonderful and visiting with long lost friends was priceless, even though it cost us money!

Now the strange part of our visit was the weather.   This is May.  We all know May.  May is warm and can be very wet.  However, because we had so many things planned for outdoors, May decided to be weird.  Since record-keeping began in 1819, it had never snowed in Arkansas in May.  But for our trip, mother nature decided to break a few records and bring snow to Northwest Arkansas.  It didn’t just spit snow, it snowed up to 5″ before it was done.  In addition to the snow, ancient temperature records also fell.  It was the coldest first week of May on record.  This did not bode well for outdoor activities.  Everything was cancelled, moved indoors or in the case of Foam Fest, held anyway!  Here are the pictues:

May snow in Fayetteville

Another view of May snowfall

Another view of May snowfall

Yes, it was cold, wet and gray all four days we were visiting.  It seemed like November instead of May.

After a fun visit to the ceramics show (why yes I bought something, are you surprised?) we went to Foam Fest 2013.  We joined hundreds of craft beer connoisseurs at the Walton Arts Center parking lot to sample over 250 craft brews from around the world.  The beer was great, the crowd was large and the weather was lousy!  Luckily, the rain that fell was more of a mist then a downpour.  It was a great time and a great fundraiser.

At the very beginning

At the very beginning

beerfest before the crowd-001

Randy and James getting ready to sample

Randy and James getting ready to sample

Picking up the free hand warmers!

Picking up the free hand warmers!

The crowd just kept growing.

The crowd just kept growing.

Suffice it say we enjoyed the “cold” beer at Foam Fest and hope next year it will be a tad bit warmer!

We also got to spend some time with MJ and Ray.  Ray has painting deadlines in his classes and MJ is pretty tired of seeing so much of us that we kept the visiting to a minimum.  However, we did manage to get in three meals with them, so it all worked out well.  We also got to have lunch with a friend on Sunday and watch the OKC Thunder win.  Good times were had by all.

Well, feel free to drop by and pack a few boxes.  I always have some kind of candy on hand to share with “packing buddies”.  As always, I love reading your comments.

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Where are we going to put it all?

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Randy’s sister came this weekend to help us sort, pack and throw out.  She is brutal on the throwing out!  Of course, that is why she was so helpful!  We loaded the back of my SUV with clothes to go to the consignment shop.  With our work life behind us, we had lots and lots and lots of black pants, black skirts, black pumps, button downs, ties and khakis that we could remove from our life.  Here is the shot of my car:

Consignment store, here we come!

Consignment store, here we come!

Next we loaded up boxes, bags and sacks full of stuff to give the local thrift store.  Wow, we had been hoarding a truck load of unneeded stuff in our closets. This doesn’t even address the stuff the kids still need to go through.  Whew, I always think of myself as a minimalist, but this is embarrassing.

Stuff to donate

Stuff to donate

Everything else is either already in boxes to move or hanging out waiting for Randy’s packing prowess!  The linen closet got its turn today and my, doesn’t it look fine!  Of course, we don’t know what to do with that box of old video recordings.  Hey, don’t tell me you don’t know what those are!

Almost empty linen closet

Almost empty linen closet

Of course, with everything getting packed and the movers still two weeks away, this is what the rooms are looking like!

Boxed and waiting

Boxed and waiting

Boxed and just hanging out!

Boxed and just hanging out!

More patient boxes waiting to go!

More patient boxes waiting to go!

We will have a month between moving out and moving in.  Now we have to figure out what is essential to take with us and what can live with us in a motel.  How big are the rooms at Motel 6?  I have heard they leave the lights on, but never have heard a peep about their storage!  Well, probably not really staying at Motel 6.  We will be making the rounds of relatives, friends and maybe even strangers!  Luckily, we both come from big families.

That about closes out this edition of “what in the heck is going on” with the move.  I have been a bit sad, discontent and disquieted by all this change.  This, of course, surprises me.  I am usually the one that is like “let’s make changes, let’s move, let’s do something new”.  I suspect this will pass when we get settled, but until then, keep your fingers crossed for me.

As always, I would love to hear from you.

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Art Shows, Good Food, Baby Boots. Life is good.

On · 3 Comments · In DIY and Tutorials, Life

Well wonderful people, it was a fabulous weekend of art shows, good food and blue baby boots.  Let’s start with the boots, shall we?  This is my first try at working on leather baby boots.  They are done in blue and gold leather for a future University of Kansas fan.  I sure think I can improve on my pattern, but that is fun for me!  Here are the pictures:

Baby Boots

Baby Boots

Baby shoes are a bit difficult for me due to their small size.

After baby shoes, I headed over to Fayetteville to look at tile and exterior paint colors.  Haven’t picked the field tile yet, but the colors are set.  Another “to do” comes off the list.  I spent the rest of the day with my sister and her husband.  My brother in law is an oil painter and he was getting ready for a show.  While he got ready, my sister and I cooked for the show.  When I say “we”, I really mean “she” cooked.  I kept her company and dipped strawberries into chocolate.  That is my kind of cooking!  MJ made some delicious southwest corn, chili and pecan dip.  It was fabulous.  I found a similar recipe here.  ”We” also made a cake and some peanut butter cookies.

After “we” cooked up a storm, we headed out to the show, which was held at a space called LaLaLand.  Guys, I could not make that up!  The show was completely packed with people.  Ray was sharing the show with Mia Buonaiuto.  Her art was stunning!  The crowd was a great mix of young and “young at heart”.  Music was provided by a lovely musician named Candy Lee.  I really enjoyed her music.  The absolute star of the show was Sophia, the youngest subject that Ray painted this semester.  She was even asked for her autograph!  Well, enough said, here are the pictures.

My brother James with his portrait

My brother James with his portrait

Girl with Bow aka Sophia

Girl with Bow
aka Sophia

Ray's former English teacher with his college roomate from long ago

Ray’s former English teacher with his college roomate from long ago

Ray, the artist

Ray, the artist

photos are from Shelley Buonaiuto, James Willett and Ray Parker

In addition to all the people I did not know at the show, I got to spend time with 3 of my 5 siblings.  That was nice!  I met so many interesting folks and am looking forward to being in Fayetteville permanently.

Today I embroidered a piece of handmade, hand dyed felted wool.  I made it into a small pouch.  It was a fun project.

small wool bag

small wool bag

I will try and develop tutorials for both the boots and the wool bag.  However, it might be a while before I get back to similar projects.  I also need to get pictures of the house renovation taken and posted.  Unfortunately, except for the new deck, windows and doors, there isn’t much that is photo worthy.  Somehow, pictures of insulation in the wall just doesn’t do it for me.  Oh well, LIFE IS GOOD!

As always, please leave comments!

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The Soundtrack of my childhood includes Maria Tallchief….

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You know how you go along day to day, never giving your childhood a minutes notice and then someone, in this case Maria Tallchief, dies and it all comes back.  When I was growing up in Osage County in Oklahoma in the 60′s, life was pretty sweet.  We walked  everywhere, rode our bikes far and wide, and pretty much ran roughshod through the prairie.  It was a pretty magical place for a kid.  Osage County is home to the Osage Indian Nation.  Now, I didn’t realize I wasn’t Indian until around age 7 or so, though with red hair, it should have been obvious!

cathy_red_head-001

But I digress!  Osage county was and is home to many notable, famous and infamous people.  You can read about some of them below at Wikipedia, Osage County History by Jenk Jones, Jr.  and other links:

Photos above from here, here, and here.

Well, I am still digressing, but it is so fun!  Here is a short list of current “famous” people from Osage County:

Ree was just a twinkle in her parents’ eyes when I was a kid.  I did, however, serve wine (and maybe did a bit of tap dancing) at her first book signing in Pawhuska!

And of course, there are famous places and items of interest in Osage County as well:

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and a good blog post about it here with wonderful pictures.

Famous stained glass window Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Pawhuska Oklahoma

Famous stained glass window Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Pawhuska Oklahoma

Photo from here

Amazingly, as a young child, all I thought about the church was it was pretty, I had to wear a kleenex on my head and I had to pray for the (despised by me) nuns that taught us.  I have a post here that gives a hint to how I felt about Catholic school.  One of these days I will tell the often told story of getting kicked out of Catholic school in third grade!  Yep, just call me a willful child.

The first Boy Scout troop in the United States 

Which I heard about from one of the first members, a neighbor, Robert McGuire.  Of course, I had to look up his first name as adults only went by Mr. or Mrs. to us children!  Here is a picture of the commemorative statue.

bronze Boy Scout statue dedicated on July 5, 1976 Pawhuska, Oklahoma

bronze Boy Scout statue dedicated on July 5, 1976
Pawhuska, Oklahoma

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve

Here is what Wikipedia says about the Prairie Preserve:

Prior to its purchase by the Nature Conservancy in 1989, the preserve was called the Barnard Ranch which had been part of the Chapman-Barnard ranch of 100,000 acres.  The foreman of the Chapman-Barnard ranch, Ben Johnson, Sr. was a rodeo champion. His son, also a rodeo champion, was Ben Johnson, Jr. who appeared in more than 300 movies and won an Oscar for his role in “The Last Picture Show.”

Bison are the most prominent attraction of the preserve. The herd numbers more than 2,500 and grazes 21,000 acres of mostly open range. Bison are rounded up each fall and the excess numbers sold. Cattle are grazed on 11,000 acres. The preserve supports 755 plant species, many unique to the tallgrass prairie, and more than 300 bird species. Forest trees include several species of oak, cottonwoods, ash, red cedar, elm, sycamore, and others.

The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is on the Osage Indian Reservation. The Osage Indians retained sub-surface mineral rights on all their former lands and the petroleum on their reservation made them the richest people per capita in the world in the 1930s. There are still more than 100 producing oil wells on the preserve. Bison graze unhindered among the oil wells.

Here is a picture of how I think of the prairie!  Pretty much no trees in site.  The photo is from here.

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve

You can see more pictures and get more information on the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve here.  Let me tell you that July and August on the prairie can be brutal in the heat.  If you plan to go, try spring or fall!  Oh, and you should plan a visit.  I haven’t even scratched the surface in cool Osage County stuff.  Can you say “triangle building”, “swinging bridge” or “chinese gardens”?

Okay, after a circuitous wandering around Osage County, I will come to the reason I am doing this post.  Maria Tallchief died.  You can read her obituary with an Oklahoma perspective here and from the New York Times here.   The New York Times article has wonderful pictures.

Back when I was a young child in Pawhuska, we could dream about growing up to be a doctor, a lawyer, a banker, a rancher, an oilman or an Indian chief!  Of course, that last one wasn’t possible for me.  Looking around Osage County, I decided to make the ballerina, Maria Tallchief, one of my heroes.  Scrappy Decker was another one, but that is another story all together.  When we were elementary age, many of us took dancing from Mrs. Whitsett.  She taught ballet, tap and modern dance.  Of course, I dreamed of being a prima ballerina when I grew up.  However, if you had seen me dance, you would have called me delusional.  I still do a bit of tap dancing, but haven’t been on toe shoes in many decades.  Okay, there I go digressing again!  Maria Tallchief was one of Oklahoma’s five Indian Ballerinas.  And she and her sister were from Osage County!  Just imagine what dreams I had.  This ballerina, from my neck of the prairie,  became famous the world over and danced some of my favorite ballets.  I remember writing book reports on her, watching her dance on our local PBS station and dreaming of the life she was living.  Sadly for the ballet world, we now must mourn her death.  She died last week, one year to the day after another one of the Indian Ballerinas, Moscelyne Larkin, died here in Tulsa.

As it turned out, I ended up picking “Oilman” as my destiny!  You can read a bit about that in this post!  That doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes dance in my dreams.  And I want you to know, I am FABULOUS, but only in the dreams am I able to dance in SWAN LAKE.

Maria Tallchief’s Indian name, bestowed to her by the Osage Nation, was ”Princess Wa-Xthe-Thomba” (“Woman of Two Standards”).  I have also heard it translated as “Woman of Two Worlds”, which I think pretty much sums up her wonderful life.

 

Maria Tallchief

Maria Tallchief

Rest in peace Ms. Tallchief.  You gave many a young girl the chance to dream big dreams, here in the Osage.  You won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

Well, thank you again for letting me stroll down memory lane!  It was pretty fun and brought up so many memories.  If you read this post and all the links, you can probably get college credit for “Partial Oklahoma History”.  I will have to check with OU or OSU to see if you qualify.

As always, leave comments, questions or memories below.

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Can you say “We are moving”?

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Well, you know we are moving.  Might as well send me to the funny farm now!  Not only are we moving, we don’t know where we will be until our house is finished.  Patrick came home to give us a hand at packing.  Certainly enjoyed his visit.  The first thing he and I tackled was my dad’s stuff.  Yep, it is still exactly where he put it when he moved in!  The sad news is that he has been gone for 2 years and I hadn’t touched a thing.  So, Patrick and I went through and packed what we are keeping.  We did find some Texas Tech yearbooks and one OU yearbook from the past.  I just had to crack them open and, lo and behold, found pictures of both my mom and dad and my aunt!  Here, take a look:

 

Papa as a really young college student

Papa as a really young college student

He is the cute guy on the right, top row.

And my mom was in the same yearbook.  Here is her picture:

Mom, the cute coed

Mom, the cute coed

Mom is the cutie right in the middle.  You might recognize my mom, Patsy, as “mabel” in the header picture.  Aw, these two were really cute, sweet people and I sure miss them.

Moving on (pun intended) to other packing news, here are the boxes with Papa’s stuff neatly packed away:

2 of 3 boxes of Papa's stuff in the bathtub

2 of 3 boxes of Papa’s stuff in the bathtub

Okay, the bathtub seems like a good storage place.  Heaven knows we haven’t used the tub in years!

The rest of the house is looking like a BOX repository as well:

Hall Box

Hall Box

The hall box should not be confused with the living room box.  Here is that box:

Living room box

Living room box

And in case you think the dining room is feeling left out, take a look in there:

Dining Room boxes

Dining Room boxes

The dining room is always one of the hardest to pack!  For reasons only known in my faulty brain, we have 12 place settings of china, serving dishes, a coffee pot and several platters.  That is before you throw in crystal!  I should have registered MONEY for my wedding.  I could have retired several years ago.  Here, take a look at the china cabinet before:

FULL China Cabinet

FULL China Cabinet

That ostrich egg, that sits front and center, was hand carried home from London by James.  I think they used it to make a really, really big omelet.

And now, the after:

Almost empty

Almost empty!

If only I could figure out where to pack that LAST platter, my life would be complete.  Well, no surprise here…Randy is an awesome packer. I suspect he might have been a grocery sacker in a former life.  He is able to pack things so well.  He maximizes the volume and minimizes the breakage.  Yep, I took a picture of him packing the second floor stuff:

Rand, the master packer!

Randy, the master packer!

The other big task this weekend was to pick out tile for the new fireplace.  Yep, major fail there.  We are  looking at several thousand tile pieces to use as a highlight on the surround, but have yet to jump in and order any.  Here are two that are in the running:

Love this Fay Jones Day tile!

Love this Fay Jones Day tile!

Check out the Fay Jones Day website to see all her wonderful tile!

And this next one is from Motawi Tileworks:

Love this

Love this Motawi tile

I swear, I have looked at 9,000 tiles.  Why, oh why are they all so fabulous and so expensive?  It makes it so difficult to pick one.

You can check out my pinterest.com boards if you want to see more!  My link is http://pinterest.com/mabelandjean/.  If you have any suggestions, just pop them in the comment box and I will take a look.

Well, God willing and the creek don’t rise, I hope to get over to the house this week and will take some pictures.  Of course, I don’t own a camera and Randy’s Iphone will not be with me.  Hmmmm I might need to rethink this.  Talk soon…

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Chicago, Red Boots and an Orange Coat!

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I am back, literally (from Chicago) and metaphorically from my blog break.  Randy and I, with 2 of our children, and the super Liddeke family traveled to Chicago for spring break.  Of course, someone should have told the snow that it was spring!  It was pretty chilly while we were there, but it did not slow us down much.

While I was in Chicago, I went to shoe school.  The teacher was fabulous!  You can read all about her and the Chicago School of Shoemaking here.  There were four of us and we made boots.  I picked a red leather with black stitching and black rivets.  I was thinking “hey, I will have razorback boots when I move to Fayetteville”.  Oh my, they turned out so well.  Here are the picks of school and boots:

Hard at Work

Hard at Work

shoeschool-001

Classmates working the mallet!

First Look at Finished Boots

First Look at Finished Boots

 

These boots are made for walking...

These boots are made for walking…

My brother cleverly said they looked like Pope shoes!

While visiting the windy city, we did a lot of eating, walking, shopping and sight seeing.  We also got to see some friends of the kids.  Emily’s friend Josh took us on a “tour” of the Chicago Arts Institute.  The view was wonderful.

Josh took us to the BEAN

Josh took us to the BEAN

He also joined us for lunch and we finished up eating s’mores.  PERFECT!

S'mores for lunch...what is better?

S’mores for lunch…what is better?

After touring the museum, which was varied and fabulous, we went to drink at the John Hancock building.  We loved the views and the fact that a friend of Christians was able to join us.  Her parents were friends of my husband when he was in high school.  Such a small world sometimes.

Oh, the view

Oh, the view

Chicago from on high!

Chicago from on high!

Knowing that Chicago was going to be unseasonably cold, I bought a new, orange coat to rock in the windy city.  In my mind, I was way cool:

What do you think Nick and I are talking about?

What do you think Nick and I are talking about?

 

Cathy holding court in her ORANGE coat!

Cathy holding court in her ORANGE coat!

While I was at shoe school, the others went to visit the University of Chicago and the Robie house.  The Robie house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and here is the link.   I do think they enjoyed it.

Robie House

Robie House

Here are two more pictures from the Museum:

Similar to Charlotte's print

Similar to Charlotte’s print

Proof James was with us!

Proof James was with us!

Well, Chicago, the red boots and the orange coat were all wonderful.  It was nice to get away with the Liddekes.  Looking forward to our next trip, wherever that may be.  Also really enjoyed James and Emily coming along.

Hope everyone had a lovely Easter and feel free to send leftover chocolate eggs my way.

Come back later this week for a fun filled post on MOVING, PACKING and other weekend fun!

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Break Away!

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I need to take a break from blogging, due to life.  Nothing serious, just lots of other commitments.

I will be back to blogging on April 1, 2013.  No fooling!

Check out my etsy store here:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MABELandJEAN

Don’t you just hate it when life gets in the middle of your fun!

 

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It is Cold and Dreary and Perfect for Making Bags!

On · 6 Comments · In DIY and Tutorials, Life

This weekend was cold, dreary and busy.  Randy had his LAST Home Show EVER.  He always enjoys the show and is always relieved when it is behind him.  Our youngest son, Patrick, came home Saturday afternoon.  I had asked (maybe begged) him to come be an assistant bag maker.  He obliged and we treated him to yummy barbeque from Albert G’s.  I think we both thought it was worth the effort.  Here are some pictures from our “BAG MAKING EXTRAVAGANZA”:

Leather Choices

Leather Choices

Hanging around with leather

Hanging around with leather

Patrick rockin the rivet!

Patrick rockin the rivet!

 

And TADA – Leather Bags!

Bag Assorment

Bag Assorment

And more bags!

And more bags!

 

This week will start off busy.  I am taking a sewing class as I am enamored by serging.  We also are having inspections on both houses, which means Randy will be making a very quick trip to Fayetteville.  The windows will also be delivered while he is there.  Wow!  Hopefully they can get the house finished in the next 8 weeks.  No pressure John and Brandy!  Okay, maybe a small amount of pressure.

Well, everyone have a wonderful week.  Let me know if you have any grand plans this week.  I live vicariously through you!

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