Me and Smokey

I have not posted since arriving in Alaska and likely will not be able to again for a couple of weeks until I get home. I am at my daughter's house and their Internet has limits on downloads, which means I should not post photos unless I want to run her bill up. I may put in a few words, but I know this is boring. So if I do, I do, if not, well then it will be when I am home again before posting. Then I will tell of the tales of Alaska.
In this picture I am posing with the grandchildren and Smokey the Bear at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks. It was Fairbanks Days there at the theme park. This park has log cabins and old homes and business from the turn of the century brought in from the area and set up on one street. So of course this piqued my interest. I took lots of photos. Some of these were set up as they had been in the old days, some had been made into little business selling local art and souvenirs.
There is an old ferry set up there with tours, a train that runs around the park giving folks rides, a carousel, mining exhibit, cultural art building, and more.
I am keeping this short. My sleep is messed up because of the midnight sun...it never gets dark here! SO I am off to get to shut eye! Please check in a few days or a couple of weeks.

Queen of the Ranch fabric

This is the fabric I found today at the Quilting Bee Store. It is one in a line of fabrics by Moda called, "Queen of the Ranch." Some of them had cowgirls on them, or were bandana prints in pretty colors, some roses. But I thought this one would be good for my kitchen curtains. They did not have this color, however. So now I must search to find it elsewhere. The photo shows a packet of several of the fabrics in the line. But there was none of this one on the bolt. The blue one in the store was very pretty also. My friend Karen found a green in this packet that she liked. I think it is very old fashioned, pretty, yet simple and cozy. Something my great -great grandmother, Permellia might have picked out of the small mercantile in a nearby township from her farm.

Cunningham Family Quilt

This is my grandmother, Verla Pearl Ogden Cunningham with her Cunningham family quilt. This project was one that I put together about 20 years ago. I wanted a family quilt and decided it would be fun for my aunts and cousins to have each have one as well. So I ask each female in the family to make a quilt block for everyone else. We brought them together at one of our annual family Thanksgiving dinners and traded them. Each person got to choose ahead of time what color scheme they wanted used for their blocks. I choose Americana red and blue for mine. This photo is of the quilt my grandmother made using the blocks we all made. My block is the fan design in the center. My mother's is the blue one to the right of mine, where the black cross is in the bottom corner.
Would you believe I have still not put mine together? This is because some of the blocks were not quite squared and needed to be remade or some people did not use the red and blue theme for me and theirs did not at all fit into my colors. So tried as they might, some people are not quilt makers. You can also see that the nine patch was a favorite amongst family members, I guess this is because my grandmother used this pattern alot and it was familiar to them.
I am the fortunate one to have gotten this quilt handed down to me when my grandmother passed away. I did request it as well as any other quilts she had made that I could get my hands on, which was only a small portion of them. But I treasure these few and take very good care of them.
Wish had that bucket hanging on the line that grandma used for clothes pins. After she had been moved to a nursing home her house had to be closed up for a time with her belongings distributed. Some of my aunts and cousins were there to go through stuff, but I do not think any of them had my tastes for old junk and it probably got thrown out.
My grandmother made many quilts over the years for missionaries all over the world. Her legacy lives on in places unknown. But I know these missionaries must have been kept warm under my grandmother's quilts.
Did you see that she has her slippers on her feet? She pointed this out, but I did not care if she had them on in the photos. I took a photo of each of the quilts she still had in her possession at this time. So glad I did this when I did.

Treasures from the Grave...

Sounds kinda spooky, huh? These things came in the mail today, sent by my sweet sister-in-law, Martha. These items were in my father's belongings and they are believed to have been my grandmother's. Her name was O'Delphia and she passed away several years ago. I am sure she crocheted the table runner as she did alot of table cloths like this. I did not get one of them, but now I have this table runner to enjoy. The little box has some jewelry pieces in it and I do remember her wearing these. The journal has nothing written in it, but it is a neat old one. The fan has flowers on it, with some really soft tassles hanging off of the end.
I am always so thrilled to get 'pieces of the past' especially if they had belonged to my ancestors.

Dressed for the Photographer

My, oh, my is this ever a handsome book. Joan Severa has done an amazing job of using photographs and details on fashion to make this time in history come alive. I am amazed at her knowledge of every little detail on the clothing.
This book will be a great resource for me on trying to date some of the old photos in my collection.
I do feel sorry for the women in our history...they had to endure some pretty uncomfortable fittings to be in the height of fashion. I'll take my loose fitting clothes anyday!

Mennonite Women

Just got this lovely book from Amazon. It has some great photos in it as well as some history on each one. I am so intrigued by the simple ways these women live by. I enjoy learning about fashion has been in our history. This photos show both the Victorian dress and the simple clothing of the Mennonite ways. The Victorian styles actually almost look extravagant in comparision to the simple Mennonite dress. They would surely need an apron while making applesauce in the way they are doing it on the front cover. I love how they are all working together to make an overwhelming chore suddenly one of pleasure as they exchange conversation. It looks like the man in the group has the easiest job, using the apple corer/peeler.
I have one of these old peelers as well as some newer ones that I use. They sure came in handy when I lived on my little farmette in California and had lots of apple trees. Thank goodness we had all of that apple sauce, it was so needed to live on throughout the winter months. Sadly, I never got a picture of the pantry where all of these jars where stored.
I used to take the apple peeler/corer to school and use it with the kids for fall celebrations. They loved the long 'peels' we would make. It is a fond memory.

Organic Farm Queen

Here is MaryJane signing her newest book, "MaryJanes Stitching Room" for a customer. She is so very elegant...and to be a farm girl no less! She gave credit to her sidekick and twenty year friend, Carol, for her contribution to the book. She said it should have Carol's name on it too!

MaryJane Butters Speaker

Well, you can add public speaking to the list of MaryJane Butters talents. She was in Auntie's Book Store in Spokane, WA. tonight to give a talk and sign books. She was warm, down to earth, and interesting. She fielded questions from the audience and gave advice to those who asked her for it. She spoke about an hour. Boy, did that fly by...I could have sat there for another one at least.
She was so kind to mention me by name as someone she knew in the audience...I was so pleased with this. Don't we all like to be made to feel special? Well, she did! Thanks MaryJane.
She looked lovely, put together, professional...and wore great boots. My friend, Karen, loved her handbag.
It was a fun evening and we were both glad we went !

Pamela at Auntie's

Here I am in front of Auntie's Book Store after the MaryJane appearance tonight. Dorky photo of me! We closed the store with MaryJane and Carol!
See post n MaryJane for more.

Union Old Window Wall Cabinet

This old window wall cabinet was another one built by my talented husband, Tim. I enjoy the Union signs used both during the Civil War and on other things as well. So I drew this idea up and he made it happen. The bottom of the cabinet has the pointed part that you would see one a union sign, although you cannot see it from the vantage point of this photograph. It really looks like it is sitting directly on the floor, but it is not. The cabinet has three glass shelves that line up with the wood panels in the window. I love that he did this. I have had cabinets that did not line up and they are hard to place things in and make them look right. As with the other cabinet I got many compliments to pass onto my husband.
I would love to put this up in my house...but at this point I do not know where it would go. I may have to do some moving of furniture to make it happen. I know I have the 'stuff' to fill it up. This cabinet is on the large size and one would need a pretty big wall to put it on.

Old Window Wall Cabinet

Here is one of the cabinets made by my hubby, Tim. He used an old window for the door and then built the cabinet to fit it. This one I asked him to do one to look like a crown. So he did and it turned out great and sold to some very happy customers.

Three Farm Girls

Here is Brenda, founder of Past Blessings Antique Show, MaryJane Butters, author, organic farmer, marketer and lil' ol' me, Pamela.
I bought MaryJanes new book from her and got it signed. Here we are in the tent that was set up in the park in Fairfield, WA.
Brenda is wearing the Past Blessings Crown that I made for her. Aren't we lovely queens?

General Store Cabinet

This vendor specializes in General Store pieces. I loved this cabinet. It would be so fun to fill up, huh?
And believe me it would not take me long to fill it to the brim with trims, laces, buttons, jars of this 'n' that, old books, crocks and whatever else I could stick in it. I would like it better if it was not painted. I am more a fan of natural wood, well, with a dark stain, or old and worn looking.
This was one of my favorite booths at the Custer Anqitue Show.

Wood beauty

This lovely piece was at the Custer's Antique Show this weekend. I love things with drawers and cubbies...it helps with my clutter. This piece was a little outta my price range right now. But it sure would look nice in my studio. I am wanting to upgrade some of my storage containers in there. This would nicely hold my rubber stamps and ink pads, etc. But it did not come home with me. Fun to dream, though.

MaryJanes Farm Quilt

This is a photo of the second quilt put together at MaryJanes Farm. The blocks were made by the different Chapters from all over the nation. My block was made about a year ago and did not make it in time for the first quilt. It is on the second row from the top and the third block from the left. It says "Kindred Spirits." This is the name of our MaryJanes Farm Chapter here in No. Idaho. The block is of some little girls dancing around in a circle, probably playing ring around the rosy. The names of our group are also embroidered on the block, Robin, Karen, Judy, Pamela. The pattern was adapted (with some changes) from a Kate Greenaway coloring book.
This photo was posted on the MaryJanesFarm Forum a few days ago. www.MaryJanesFarm.com is a fun place to visit.
We got moved into our office over the last couple of weeks...so I have been busy organizing and getting my new office set up. So there was no time for posting on this blog. Although, I did get to get away to the Custer's Antique Show last weekend and I will post a couple of pictures of what I saw there. I will also be posting pics of the "new" office soon.

Ready to cook

And cook them I did. My mom used to cook beans with a ham bone...as I am a vegetarian I do not use meat with much of anything. So I just added some spices and we ate them. But I found that these lovely little beans caused me much flatulants! I think this is how you spell it. So I told my husband...no more for me. I will now only cook them when I am cooking for the family or to take elsewhere. They do look so beautiful and innocent in this crock, huh?

BEANS!

I cannot tell you when I went through to get these two bags of beans home from California to Idaho recently. I had three pieces of luggage, two to check and one to carry on. Well, as it turned out one of the bags to check was too heavy. So I had to take a bag of beans from it and add it to my carry on. I already had one bag of beans in it. These bags o' beans weighed 5 pounds each! So my carry on (which also had my laptop and other electronics in it ended up being very heavy. Then I forgot to remove my shampoo bottles from carry on and got taken aside and they were removed from my bag...I did feel a bit like a common criminal! Shame on me for having two bottles with me that were 4 ounces each! I do not know what I was thinking. So I had to be escorted (with the examiners hand on my elbow, no less) back around to go through the line again. I had waited in the line for over an hour as it was. Well, this pushed me back enough to miss my flight. I tried to catch a flight four hours later...but it was not to be. I had to have my neice come and get me and I stayed the night at at her house, she lives about 45 minutes away. I scheduled another flight for the next day before leaving the airport.
Would you believe it? The next day when I went to go through the security line I had a small water bottle with me ( always carry this in my purse because I seem to be thirsty ALOT) and it had about 1/2 oz of water in it and the guy would not let me drink it. So I had to throw it away or go through the line again. I use these small bottles all the time and did not want to toss it...so since I had enough time on this round through I just went back through the line. This is a task in itself...take off belt and shoes and put in bin, take out laptop and put in bin, put purse in bin, put carry on on belt and run them all through the xray. Take self through xray. Redress self and move onto where we board. Exhausted!
So here are the cranberry beans. My sister in law had given them to me from one of the local fruit stands in the Sacramento Valley.

Martha Stewart at Michael's

This flyer was in the Michael's store today when I was in there. You may have seen this same picture in some of the recent decorating magazines as well. I am pretty sure I saw it in MS Living.
On the right is the set of Martha stamps I bought. I was in awe of the beautiful line of products they offered. Lots of labels, stickers, and just about any paper products you could want that relates to scrapbooking or papercrafting.
Many of the color lines are kinda modern...what happened to the Martha Stewart green I love so much? With that said, I still loved the product line. I thought the prices were fair...but be fore warned you CANNOT use your Michael's coupon on Martha's line. I made my comments known on this on the MaryJaneFarm Forum...so I won't go on about it here.
If you love playing with paper go check it out...too much fun!

In Memory

This candle is in memory of my father, Lyndell Witt, who passed away today, April 9th. I do have lots of pictures of him, but none are in my computer files. I can't yet access my scanner to scan one in, as we are still not in our office and the scanner is not hooked up to my laptop. So I found this photo I took of a candle burning at Christmas time and thought it would be the best I could do for now. Sadly, the relationship between my father and I has been very strained over the last few years. I did not agreed with most of his life choices as of late and felt they were not the best for anyone concerned. But one cannot control others, so I could not do anything about it. In reality I had been grieving him for the last five years. With that said...it is still hard to have a parent die. Those left will remember him in the early years when he tried to help people. So goodbye, dad.

My son, Zach

This is my son, Zach, on his 23rd birthday. He wanted Mandarin Orange Salad instead of a cake. Funny kid! So we put candles in the salad and he blew them out! We have this salad at every major family meal. It is easy to make and tastes sooo good. Zach and I have been through alot, but alas he is turning out to be a fine young man that I am proud of. Yippee!