Flying and Feasting

After enjoying the Zip Line Canopy Tour, I went back with Mary and her family to their timeshare at the Resort.  I've seen these places and wondered what they were like inside.  They've got an amazing view and lots of wildlife.

I had fun taking photos from the balconies and enjoying the wild life.

The sun was starting to go down.

The sky turned more beautiful than usual.

They are all lined up like soldiers, very orderly.

It was dusk, the sun was setting.

Such a pretty sky.  So we jumped in the car to go up to the top of the ridge.

I grew up in a house with a view of Massanutten Peak, it was the landmark of my youth.  Whenever I got lost, all I had to do was look to the Peak and then I would know exactly where I was.  Now I'm looking out at my "home land" from the very mountain that I looked to.

The sun had set, we were hungry, it was time to make some dinner.

We played with the groundhog, who didn't mind eating right from our hands.

Fat ol fella.  That peanut butter cracker seemed to slow him up a bit.

Later on the night shift came out to gather up whatever the groundhog had left behind.

Jody did steaks on the grill.

I fried up some green tomatoes until they were nice and crispy.

Now THAT'S a feast!  I don't think I've ever eaten such a big steak!  And there were hot fresh biscuits also.  And yes, I ate it all.  And it was good!

A lovely time around the table with friends from a distant time in my life.  It was so fun to enjoy their time together, it was a place of warmth and lots of laughter and stories of practical jokes.  I nearly laughed myself off my chair with the tale of the imaginary bear.  Mercy, it was good!

Some moments in life are so sweet, often made more so when in contrast to the darker things.  This was one of those and I'm so grateful.  I have the best friends in the whole wide world!

Flying and Feasting to you,
-Carmen Rose

A Find!

A friend of mine came across this, don't ask me how:

http://k-silent.livejournal.com/2909.html

It's a blog in Russian discussing three necklaces, the first one shows is a necklace I made in 2005 that won some awards and was published in a variety of adds and catalogs by the good folks at Fire Mountain Gems.  It was FUN to get this link from a friend and realize they were talking about my work.  Some friends and I tried a variety of online translating services and from those we were able to piece together the general idea of the text.  I don't speak Russian but the general idea of is some rather nice compliments about the work and then the comments responding to the blog are even more lovely compliments.  

The second necklace shown is one that bears a striking resemblance to mine, same materials and colors.  This work was made in 2009 by Natalia Walton.  I think it is lovely!  

Anna, a friend who speaks Russian (along with a couple other languages) said this about it:

Hi, Carmen, I read all that comments, in all of them, commenters just admires how beautiful they are, mostly pointing on the first one. One person was asking how she can get them, . The other person answered. You should ask Carmen Sh... M...  I like how they describe your designs. They are using very beautiful words describing them. There was one person who said , she has in her mind to make one like this for herself. The other answered It's OK if you do just for yourself. The first person replied "Anyway it will turn out differently"

Another friend checked with someone with a BA in Slavic Linguistics who summarized:

She's talking about how she often looks at the website firemountaingems.com and how she doesn't like to close the window and how she always wants to buy the jewelry because of the colors, etc.

Compliments are fun in any language!  I am very grateful!

What a lark!

Happy Creating,
-Carmen Rose

Fabric, Roses, Guests, Projects and Warmth

I have started another quilt and I’m not real sure where I’m going with this one. I want something to go on the dining room table in a room that will have this painting on the wall. I painted it a few years back and even though there is a little damage to the surface of it, it still feels much like a personal statement since my name is Carmen Rose. I do love roses! The more vividly fuchsia/magenta they are, the more I love them!

I pulled out a piece of very special hand dyed fabric from Frieda Anderson and put a few things with it, all batiks. I just love these colors and wanted to try to bring out vibrant color by contrasting it with more muddy murky tones. I am pretty sure that was badly unsuccessful but it was an interesting experiment. Now I’m going to need to consider it a while and see where it wants to go from here. The temptation is to cut into it to bring some strong contrast but I am not quite there yet. I think it could be pretty all quilted up and on the dining table under a large glass bowl with water and loaded up with floating candles. Sounds good, right? I will continue to give it some consideration.

I have two girls coming to spend their Spring Break with us, that will be fun. I also have a few furniture projects I would like to accomplish this week. Will I have time to paint a bedroom, make curtains and get them hung? Never a shortage of things to be done. I’ll try to remember to take “before” and “after” photos. I usually forget the “before” photos because I’m so impatient for transformation.

Oh, I almost forgot my other great news! My hubby and friends have been working on a big wood stove for our basement. As I was working at this quilt project yesterday evening, they brought in this big stove dangling on a chain from an engine lift (the thing must weigh a ton) with wheels. The apperatus looks a bit like a miniature crane. Then they carefully lowered it into place and hubby installed the needed pipe and damper and it is a thing of beauty! Well… not physically beautiful, just lovely and warm! And now we can keep the fire mess downstairs instead of using the family room fireplace when it gets ultra cold. It is a cold one here today! Brrrrrr!! I don’t know if it will really heat the whole house or anything, but it certainly makes my studio a lovely temperature! I am lovin it! Fire is good!!

Pearl Necklace

Good morning World! I am once more tickled pick to announce that a photograph of my jewelry design is on the back cover of Creative Jewelry, Volume 7, 2008. A few years ago I entered a contest for jewelry designers at Fire Mountain. People from all around the world enter this contest so I was SHOCKED to find that one of my designs had placed THIRD overall, and won the natural pearls category. They also chose a second necklace as a finalist. There was some prize money involved so I bought myself a kiln, which I haven’t really used. Hmmm… It is on my “to do list” though!

Anyway, they used photography of both pieces in back cover advertisements on national beading magazines and also in their catalogs to sell the products used in the designs. I got an email the other day from someone asking for a kit or instructions so they could copy it. I got those emails the first time this piece was featured so I went to the store to see if I could find a magazine with the ad in it. Sure ‘nuf – there it was grinning back at me. So I giggled and showed it to the check out girl and other folks in line (complete strangers) and they made the appropriate appreciative noises. My necklace! On the back of a magazine! So I called hubby. And then I called my Mama. Yep! I’m one happy camper!