Whew, time for some Java! These cups just crack me up, my guy is home for a month or so after the summer session is over, so it is  a blessing to have him around! I drink from the cup on the right, with Vincent’s stars and he gladly drinks from Moonet’s cup on the left.

I have been working like mad for over two months on my classes for Joggles this summer session. I have five classes, and all of them are new, so this meant new samples, new photography, and new text for the handouts.

Here is what we will be doing this week:

These are samples of the Flora Dora and Daisy Chain Bracelets, RAW (right angle weave bracelets). The bottom two bracelets were designed to understand the stitch. The middle bracelet is the Flora Dora and the top is the Daisy Chain. This class started today.

On Friday I will be teaching the third lesson of the Scrumptious Scraps class. This is what the lesson will be covering:

The first lesson of the class was to make the lace base. The second lesson was to dye all of the ribbons to make the flowers. On Friday the class will cover making the ribbon worked flowers and leaves. This class will run for two sessions after this one.

Next week I have a third class starting, Beadazzled Somemore. This class will be learning how to peyote stitch beads to fabric. This class will run for four sessions.

The last class for the summer that I will be teaching is BEBE, beginning embroidery with bead embellishment. This is the new sample that I am working on:

These are traditional embroidery stitches that will be further embellished with beads. I am only halfway finished with the thread embroidery at this stage and have not even begone to get the beads ready for this project. This class will also run for four sessions.

So I am off again, back to work, as always it is a pleasure to be part of such a wonderful group of tea-sipping mates! For a look at what the rest of the gang is up to please stop by Kimmies place!

Enjoy, Christen

Happy T-Tuesday to all!!!!

I am actually just sitting outside of my house having a sip of Apple Cinnamon, and watching the world go by. This  truck has been parked outside of the house for a few days, and I just love the color, and the rusty parts that still seem to work…

We have been working in the garden a bit, and here are some photos of the seed packets we planted a month ago:

We have six pots sitting on the front porch on the chairs, I can’t hardly wait to see what blooms come attached to the leaves here.

Our trusty rose bushes are blooming with wonderful yellows, crimson and pink. This one was particularly pretty.

In the backyard the Christmas Cactus was happily creating color for the birds and Butch (our outdoor cat).

I found this feather amongst the leaves of the rose bush, it was about 1/2″ long.

It touched my heart to see it sitting there, as my heart was touched last week by all of your kind comments.

Thank you dears, you helped greatly.

Please join Kimmie and the rest of the tea-group here.

Happy days, Christen

Good day ladies, I am slowly getting back into a routine that is healthy and happy and good for my soul.

The past month was spent primarily being concerned with my mom, which means I don’t have time for the things that I need to work on for my health, like meditation, walking, exercising and enjoying yummy cherries!

I think though my daily walks will be confined to the weekends when my husband can join me. Last Sunday when my husband was out of town I went for a walk on our normal route which was by the park. It was a beautiful day, lots of people out walking, running; and many cars and bicyclists driving up and down the street.

This however did not deter a young man from following me for five blocks. At first when I heard the footsteps I thought “how rude, why is this person following so close?”. I slowed down to let them pass, and they didn’t, so I walked normally for a bit and then sped up my pace. Still the person kept the same 10 steps behind me.

I began to get nervous but had no defense on me. No cell phone, no pepper spray, no defense class training; and no ID in case I was left and couldn’t talk! I felt mad and angry, but not powerful enough to confront the person. I passed my street, but wasn’t going to walk home. At this point a police car cruised by us very slowly. I thought to myself “Come Back!!!”.

As I approached the curb of the next street, I saw that they had driven around the block and were driving towards me so I kept walking across the street in front of them. The police car stopped at the curb, between my follower and I. They quickly got out of the car, with their hands on their belts and began talking to him. I believe that either he fit a description of someone they were looking for or someone called them because they saw him following me.

I walked to the next curb, turned the corner and doubled back around the block to see what was happening. The police seemed to be running his ID, but the young man was not handcuffed. I quickly turned around and began to run up the block for as long as I could, then I walked as fast as I could towards home. I wanted to get as much distance between myself and the man in case they did let him go.

As I was nearing my block, the police car drove past me, and I could see that he was not in the back seat. I must admit that this made me even more nervous. I got to my house, quickly opened the door and locked myself in!

When I spoke to my husband about the incident, he felt that the young man would have been more likely to rob me than anything else, which in retrospect is better than the alternative offenses.

I have decided to look into a self defense training course for my daughter and myself this week, because you just can’t be careful enough! In the mean time a little yoga, tea and meditation will work towards restoring some balance.

Thank you Kimmie, who is our T Mistress for having us to tea. Please join her and the rest of the group for a cup!

Thankful to be back, Christen