Good Friday: Images

Christians gather at Rome's ancient forum ahead of Good Friday's Stations of the Cross ceremony, commemorating the crucifixion of Christ.

From Photobucket:

From Apologetics:

Is Christianity True? Introduction by Brian Auten (series of essays)

Is Christianity True? Introduction by Brian Auten

Today's essay can be accesses via audio here.

Posted using ShareThis.

Feather and Fan Pattern for Centerpiece

From the beautiful coffeetable book Knitter's Stash (2001) by Barbara Albright, I found her intriguing patterns for elaborate lace washcloths.  She has eight different lace patterns, and suggests using linen as knitting yarn for these small projects.

Knitting a smaller piece is a good way to see which lace pattern repeat you prefer from the eight discussed. 

Using a bright wool/polyester fiber with slubs, here is the completed project called "Feather and Fan":

And here is one use for this little jewel:

It is a canvas for a terrarium placed beneath a painting on an entryway table.  Those bright colors just make me happy. 

And now I am ready to complete a shawl with the same "feather and fan" lace repeat on its edges.  This smaller snippet of lace was helpful in familiarizing myself with that particular pattern repeat.

Needlepoint Facts and Pictures

It's time to use some old pieces of needlepoint that I've stashed for years, waiting for a good use.  Most of  this intricate handwork was performed by long deceased family matriarchal members.

From this source, Marie Reidelback, Curator of the Needlepoint Museum writes:

Every needlepoint is an astonishing achievement, when you think about it.

They take tons of work--even a small needlepoint the size of a business letter has about a 100,000 stitches and took someone maybe forty-five hours just to stitch--an incredible investment of time and energy.

And when it's finished? Needlepoint is amazingly durable, colorful, lustrous, and rich--a needlepoint bag will last for years of heavy use, as strong as leather. And from the canvas to the finished piece, it's made completely of strings. Remarkable.

This same Museum of needlepoint oddities shows dozens of "odd" pieces in its gallery.  Nudes, flowers, landscapes...all are included in their library.  Here are just two of the differently abled displayed needlepoint pieces shown at their website:

Needlepoint is one of the oldest forms of needlework and has long been associated with church vestments, kneelers, and wall hangings. During the 19th century this method was known as Berlin work and is now sometimes known as canvas work. The needlepoint technique is worked with needle and yarn on a strong canvas background.

Below are a couple of pieces of old needlepoint that I previously re-purposed (the rose was completed about 100 years ago by a great aunt and now used for a footstool cover.   The monogrammed "M" on the leather folder and the framed lemon were sewn by my late mother).

This is the last piece of needlepoint that needs to be used.  It is about 9" x 7" with a geranium motif on an ivory background. 

What do you think? Should it be used for a knitting yarn bag?

Lauren Burch has beautiful, hand painted needlepoint designed canvases if you want to create a 21st century piece of needle art that will last for centuries.  It is worth a click to see some of her beauties.

Create Your Own Color Palette using Colourlovers.com

Project:  Guest bathroom needs a paint facelift. 

This has been on the to-do list for a while.  Color choices: narrowed down to reddish hues.  Where to go for color guidance in paints? THIS SITE is excellent!  Colour Lovers opens up a plethora of choices in helping select a paint palette. 

Here is the scheme I made in about five minutes using the software on the site, without downloading anything:



Two walls will be painted in the darker red, and the wood trim will be painted in a very light hue of the purplish grey, similar to this color:

What a fun, easy way to choose colors.  You might give it a try.

On second thought, the red is too dark.  Back to the drawing board for a lighter shade of brick red.

Now to get the paint and do the work.

Color by COLOURlovers

Alice in Wonderland, the movie

Have you seen the movie Alice in Wonderland yet?

Stephen Greydanus gives a far better review than most (the link is inclusive and has an excellent viewer comment included).  Simplistic me, I enjoyed the 3-D graphics, and believe it was worth the price of admission to enjoy the graphics and costuming.

Loved the Queen of Hearts' red valentine mouth!  And Tweedledum and Tweedledee were captivating.

An enjoyable film, and popcorn and soda were not necessary concessions for added entertainment value.

The Arches National Park

This week included a trip to Moab, Utah and Arches National Park, a short visit from a Denver friend, and a new recipe that was pretty tasty.

Regarding the park, the above site says:

Arches contains one of the largest concentrations of natural sandstone arches in the world. The arches and numerous other extraordinary geologic features, such as spires, pinnacles, pedestals and balanced rocks, are highlighted in striking foreground and background views created by contrasting colors, landforms and textures. With the addition of the Lost Spring Canyon area, the park is 76,519 acres in size.

Above is a picture of The Three Gossips, one of many unique rock formations found in the park.

Water and ice, extreme temperatures and underground salt movement are responsible for the sculptured rock scenery of Arches National Park. On clear days with blue skies, it is hard to imagine such violent forces, or the 100 million years of erosion that created this land that boasts the greatest density of natural arches in the world. The more than 2,000 cataloged arches range in size from a three-foot opening, the minimum considered an arch, to the longest one, Landscape Arch, which measures 306 feet from base to base. New arches are being formed and old ones are being destroyed. Erosion and weathering are relatively slow but are relentlessly creating dynamic landforms that gradually change through time. Occasionally change occurs more dramatically. In 1991 a slab of rock about 60 feet long, 11 feet wide and 4 feet thick fell from the underside of Landscape Arch, leaving behind an even thinner ribbon of rock. Delicate Arch, an isolated remnant of a bygone fin, stands on the brink of a canyon, with the dramatic La Sal Mountains for a backdrop. Towering spires, pinnacles and balanced rocks perched atop seemingly inadequate bases vie with the arches as scenic spectacles.

The weather was sunny and warm and a perfect day for a car trip and sightseeing.

Here is a quick recipe that was ready for us when we returned home, since the crockpot did the cooking:

Tangy Chicken

2 ½ - 3 lb. meaty chicken (boneless thighs or a package of frozen, skinless, boneless chicken pieces)
¼ tsp. salt
½ of a 12 oz. can frozen lemonade (3/4 cup)
5 oz. can of chopped green chilies
3 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
3 Tbsp. Ketchup
1 Tbsp. vinegar
2 Tbsp. corn starch
2 Tbsp. cold water
Put chicken pieces in slow cooker. In small bowl combine lemonade, sugar, ketchup, salt, vinegar and green chilies. Pour over chicken. Cook on low 6-7 hours or on high for 3-3 ½ hours. Take chicken out, cover and keep warm. Put the sauce in a small pan, skim off fat, combine corn starch and water and stir into liquid. Cook til thick and bubbly. Cook for 2 minutes more and pour over chicken.

Cashews or peanuts added at the last with a garnish of chopped green onions tops it off!  Served with rice, this is a fast and tasty dinner. (Thank you for the recipe, Darlene.)

St. Patrick's Day

Top o' the morning to all you Irish and others!

Two years now I have been blogging!  This blog experiment started around St. Patrick's Day in 2008.   It has been a self indulgent journey of archiving projects, places, and eclectic facts that are of no particular interest to anyone (except me). 

Tonite, Gene, the Cook, is making a traditional Irish corned beef and cabbage dinner for family and friends.  I'll be whipping up an emerald dessert to keep us in the spirit of the Green.

A short pub crawl in downtown Grand Junction will finish off the evening's activities.

Pretty Birds

Pretty Birds at the Bloedel Conservatory in Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver, BC:

Daybreak Scarf (2)

Notes: Ensure that the edges are very loose as the scarf has a tendency to pull inwards.  Blocking and then ironing with steam will set the edges nicely.  This was a pattern download from Stephen West.

Imagination hand painted sock yarn from KnitPicks in the Munchkin colorway was used along with a plain green acrylic yarn.

Vancouver Pictures

A Week In Vancouver


Create Your Own

Knitting for Pleasure with Betsy McCarthy

This is worth watching; it is a video is with Jane Pauley (NBC) and a Betsy McCarthy, a woman who has traded a professional life for a less stressful retirement of knitting full time.   Her passion has also led to teaching the art of knitting.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Is your life calling?  Can you relate to Betsy?  As an understatement, I surely can.

Moments in the Healthcare Setting

There have been many eventful moments I have been privileged to share with patients hospitalized for myriad reasons, and also with individuals involved in the hospice experience.  Sometimes, the clients have shared personal thoughts and fears.  And quite often, when conversing with those in their last months of life, people have shared inspirational moments.

Here are a few incidents of spiritual, or ironic, or pleasant, or perhaps even humorous moments recalled with people who were ill:

• One patient shared that she knew the secret for a happy life in some of her last verbalized thoughts.
• A 96 year old woman who was raised on a ranch once asked if I had ridden my horse over to see her. (This occured in 2009 in an urban setting.)
• An elderly gentleman reportedly asked why Joe Biden was pitching for a televised baseball game he was watching from his recliner.
• A younger woman was having simultaneous conversations with people in the room that I could not see, but she was sure were present.  It appeared to be a one-sided from where I was sitting, but who was I to question it?
• My personal dream when I believed I had died, only to awaken to realize that I was still living. That dream had me puzzled for quite a while.
• A frightened, elderly patient who wanted someone to sit with her, but no conversation would be allowed. ( her wishes were followed.)
• One young man said that he imagined I was a "pretty hot babe" when I was younger. (love this one...how much younger?)
• One woman explained how she was not afraid of death, because she had a near-death experience when she was a teenager.  She was fully expecting and embracing her life after death.
• A friend who told me shortly before she died that she wanted me to do everything I could to make a happy life.  (That conversation could take a lifetime to interpret.)
• A patient with whom the pup and I were visiting shared her last hours with us as we sat on her bed; she stroked Libby Sweetpea between times of lucidity and murmured for us to please stay for a while.
• The painting below tries to capture the last days of a friend's life in a hospital bed as he struggled for breath, yet with his assurance that he would come into eternal life.  He was Catholic, and looking forward to release from this earth:

(original oil by N. McCarroll, 2002)

Along this line, a poem written by Dietrich Bonhöffer, a young theologian of great promise and was martyred by the Nazis for his participation in a plot against the life of Adolf Hitler. He wrote Who Am I? in 1946:

Beginning stanza: Who am I? They often tell me I stepped from my cell’s confinement Calmly, cheerfully, firmly, Like a squire from his country-house. ..... Ending stanza: Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine. Whoever I am, Thou knowest, 0 God, I am Thine!

The entire poem can be found here. 

A reference about Victor Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning:

Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning. The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her life. Frankl saw three possible sources for meaning: in work (doing something significant), in love (caring for another person), and in courage during difficult times. Suffering in and of itself is meaningless; we give our suffering meaning by the way in which respond to it…Forces beyond our control can take away everything we possess except one thing, our freedom to choose how we will respond to the situation. We cannot control what happens to us in life, but we can always control what we will feel and do about what happens to us.

This post on others who have come through difficult situations comes to mind as our daughter Julie is awaiting surgery today at Carolinas Medical Center for an AV shunt revision.  Your prayers for her well being are appreciated.

Julie with Muggsy, 2009

Painting - Lighthouse and Skyscape

Just started a  landscape including a lighthouse (oils, canvas wrapped edges, 24" x 18")

Here is the original print from which I am painting:

(picture was taken in 2009 while visiting New Zealand and Australia)

This is one of the books I am referencing for painting clouds above the lighthouse:

(by Willilam F. Powell, 1998, ISBN 0-929261-48-8)

Dutch Mustard Soup

A friend visited Germany several years ago and was impressed with a mustard soup she had enjoyed several times while on both the cruise ship and in the local towns.  She never found a recipe using mustard as the main ingredient, so my husband, The Cook, found one and made it very quickly.  We consumed it on a painting break, and she was impressed with the flavor and happy that he had found a replication of the recipe she remembered.

Here is the recipe from Dutch Mustard Soup:

Ingredients:

4 cups water
2 vegetable bouillon cubes
1/2 cup creme fraiche
2 tablespoons coarse grain mustard, with whole mustard grains
1/2 cup spreadable soft cheese, you want it to melt well
4 tablespoons cornstarch
salt and pepper
1 spring onion, chopped

Directions:

1  Bring water to boil.
2  Add creme fraiche, mustard and cheese.
3  Stir until smooth.
4  Add cornstarch.
5  Continue stirring.
6  When soup thickens, add salt and pepper to taste.
7  Garnish with chopped spring onion.

 Substitutions: sour cream and cream cheese in equal proportions saves a search (and also saves money) for creme fraiche.  Velveeta cheese could also be substitued, and will result in a more yellow color.

We ate it so quickly that I failed to get a picture of the soup, so this one will do from Flickr:

Ash Wednesday

A solemn day in the ecumenical calendar, today is the day when

the priest, dipping his thumb into ashes previously blessed, marks the forehead -- or in case of clerics upon the place of the tonsure -- of each the sign of the cross, saying the words: "Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return." The ashes used in this ceremony are made by burning the remains of the palms blessed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year.

From Rock Hill, SC the Herald reports this is a day when Christians

“...confront our frailness, our failures,” ...“and the ashes symbolize our broken dreams.”

Services will start today around sunrise and will go far past nightfall. It will happen all over the earth. People with ashes on their foreheads dispersing into the day and night to try to make a world of record unemployment, broken dreams, and foreclosures.

The ashes do not always inspire.

“One time, years ago in Rock Hill, so many people left a service at the Oratory on Ash Wednesday and went to the old Revco pharmacy there in the Beatty Plaza on Cherry Road...the clerk thought it was a cult coming in. She called the police.”

The cops came to find people with gray forehead smears in the shape of the cross, hands clasped in prayer. There was no cult.

Just hope.

St. Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to all.  Here is a bit of information from Catholic Encyclopedia about how the date and celebration came about:

The popular customs associated with Saint Valentine's Day undoubtedly had their origin in a conventional belief generally received in England and France during the Middle Ages, that on 14 February, i.e. half way through the second month of the year, the birds began to pair. Thus in Chaucer's Parliament of Foules we read:

...For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's day
...Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.

For this reason the day was looked upon as specially consecrated to lovers and as a proper occasion for writing love letters and sending lovers' tokens. Both the French and English literatures of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries contain allusions to the practice. Perhaps the earliest to be found is in the 34th and 35th Ballades of the bilingual poet, John Gower, written in French; but Lydgate and Clauvowe supply other examples. Those who chose each other under these circumstances seem to have been called by each other their Valentines.

So how did chocolates become associated with this celebration?  Your turn to do a look-up.

Daybreak Shawl by Westknits

This is a fun shawl or scarf to knit because it starts out with only two cast on stitches.  It grows from that point to almost five feet in width.

Besides starting from the center of the piece with only those two beginning stitches, it is also intrigueing because  it keeps the interest of the knitter with a myriad of color choice selections.  Many people on Ravelry have knit it, and it looks quite different each time it is constructed.

Washable sock yarn is a favorite yarn to use for this scarf, although thicker yarns may be chosen.  Designer Stephen West says of his pattern:

Daybreak is a semicircular shawl, featuring clear graphic stripes that echo a rising sun. The generous wingspan allows the fabric to drape comfortably around your shoulders and neck. There is plenty of room to play with color in the three sections of this arched shawl. There are three sizes available to knit this shawl.

The photo above shows the Daybreak shawl that I just finished, prior to blocking.  This link displays many more variations of the scarf. It is fun to see others' choices in fibers and colors.

Pattern availability can be accessed here for $6.  It comes in an immediate download.

After blocking, the scarf mimics the look of a sunrise: a very clever and fun pattern.  This is my just finished Daybreak Scarf knit in the medium size; it required about six 50 gram balls of wool, one of which was a sock yarn.

Tips on Painting Flowers

Thursday has become painting day for my friend Shirley and me.  We start at 9 AM, lunch around noon, and keep right on painting until about 3 PM.  We have enjoyed our time together, and mutual critiques have helped us both keep on track.  It sometimes takes another's  discerning eye to catch improvements that need to be made.

Painting flowers is mesmerizing for the artist because so many techniques are used to create shape and depth to both the petals and leaves surrounding the flower.

A bit of an internet search found here was helpful in yesterday's work:

•Don’t be afraid to use bright colours neat from the tube for expressing the colour of flower heads.

•Applying the sunlit or pale colours before the shaded areas will ensure the rich colours of the flower heads will not be contaminated by the dark colour

•Don’t use black to darken the colour of the petals, but its complimentary colour, which is any opposing colour on the colour wheel

•Periodically standing back from the painting and using a wider brush than one might expect, will add boldness to any floral painting

•A good quality sable is essential for detail. A number 3 or 6 round is often ideal

•Over-mixing a colour might kill the life out of a bright colour. Allowing a few streaks of a colour mix to remain will add expression and life to any flower painting.

This is excellent advice which I attempted to incorporate into two current works in progress (below).

More definition and color delineation is needed, but these two pieces are coming along.  Just viewing these petals on screen already shows several areas that need improvement.

Palisade Art Lovers 30th Annual Peach Blossom Show

For thirty years, the Palisade Art Lovers (PALS) have been displaying local artists' work at the Palisade, Colorado Memorial Building.

Palisade Art Lovers began in 1964 in the basement of the Christian Church in Palisade, Colorado by a group of Ladies who simply wanted to paint together. Eventually, they moved their meetings to the Palisade Community Center. Only a couple of original members are active in the group, but Palisade Art Lovers has grown to about 20-25 members. PALS members meet twice a month to paint together and critique each others paintings. A guest artist is invited each month to perform a demonstration using different media. The group's goal is to "Promote Art Locally". The group's major event is the Palisade Art Lovers Annual Peach Blossom Art Show in April.

You can access the 2010 Gallery of Art prepared by this group by clicking on this link.  The meeting schedule for the group may be found at this website.

Artwork for the 2010 show can be no larger than 40" in any direction; all media is accepted.  Deadline submission is March 31, 2010 and the show starts on April 15 and goes through April 18, 2010.  This link provides all necessary information for artistic submission.

Several years ago, I sold a large floral poppy painting in oils at this same show. This year, I'm preparing two florals for display, judging, and sale.

This is a picture of one of the mixed media pieces (watercolor and pastels), that I will be displaying at PALS:

  Hybrid Hibiscus

(27" x 32" framed in wood, double matted)

Come join us in Palisade, Colorado for a lovely show in mid April while promoting our local area artists. 20% of all sales goes to PALS.

Scrabble in Vancouver: Another Type of Olympics

Vancouver, BC, Canada is the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics, but did you also know it is the site of the
9th Annual Vancouver Scrabble Tournament?  The Scrabble tournament will be held the first week of March, so most of the tourism around the Olympics will be only a past memory.

My registration is set, hotel accommodations reserved, and extra studying for the games has commenced. The previous link will lead you to "Important Words to Increase Your Score".  Basic Scrabble Word Lists can be accessed here.

These are the sites my friend Darlene and I will be visiting while in Vancouver:

Butchart Gardens
Vancouver Art Gallery
Old Town
Gas Town
Chinatown and great cuisine



If time permits, I'd love to visit The HandMaiden Fine Yarn: they have several outlets in Vancouver.  One can never have too much fiber in their stash!

Kimono Shawl Sweater in Wool

It took one month of obsessive knitting to finish the Plymouth Encore worsted wool shawl sweater.  I used a bit heavier wool named "City Tweeds" (55% merino, 25% superfine alpaca, 20%  Donegal tweed) from KnitPicks:

“This yarn begins with alpaca and Merino fibers dyed two different colors and then blended together to make a subtly rich, lustrous heather. We chose neutral colored donegal tweed neps to incorporate into the 2-ply yarn. The high ratio of neps gives City Tweed a traditional appeal. The use of Merino and alpaca makes it soft and warm.

It took 11 skeins of yarn to knit the sweater and a couple of circular needles. Here is a video describing how the yarn was made, courtesy of Knit Picks:



And this is the finished sweater, knit in the Morning Glory colorway:

It is warm, easy to wear, and was well worth the effort that went into this project.

Updating Technology at Home

This month was tech update in our household.  From television to internet service provider packaging to the new iTouch and iTunes, our gadgets are now up to date (ha! ... so little I know).

Of course, updating was not without its hazards, as our internet connectivity suffered during the transition.  Why, sometimes, internet Scrabble was not available for play.  That was a serious situation!

Above is a screen shot capture of podcasts that I listen to while knitting, painting, cooking, walking, etc.

The program (free) that was used to capture the screen shot is Faststone Capture found here under downloads.  It was a free 30 day trial.  I will continue to look for the eternally complimentary program.  Meanwhile, the intuitive program is fun to learn. 

Art Submission to Heirlooms for Hospice

Taking color highlighting to heart, and working more on the Red Claret Day Lily painting taken from this snapshot I took a year ago at an Aukland, New Zealand arboretum... the artwork continues.

This is the piece (after highlighting and a few more brush strokes) I will be submitting to Hospice next week:

Next month, in conjunction with the Grand Junction Visitor and Convention Bureau "Arts, Hearts & Tarts" program, Heirlooms for Hospice will be hosting an art sale to benefit Hospice and Palliative Care of Western Colorado.  Anyone who donates art to Hospice will become a member of the Hospice Art Guild.

Again, art submissions will be released for future use in the creation of cards or other applications, always providing credit to the artist.  Artists have until January 29, 2010 to submit their art donations to Heirlooms for Hospice to be included in this year's February Arts, Hearts & Tarts program. (All art sales benefit our local Hospice.)  The Arts, Hearts & Tarts program will occur in February, 2010 in Grand Junction, CO.

Arts, Hearts & Tarts in Grand Junction

Instead of starting a new painting project at the beginning of the year, I decided to dust off some previous oil paintings and make improvements to them.

For instance, here is The Poinsettia (an original 16" x 20"oil which I supposedly finished in 2006) that hung over our fireplace last month during the Christmas holiday season:

 (before tweaking)

After spending most of the morning and all the afternoon painting with friend Shirley last week, and with her helpful critique, more highlighting in yellows and oranges was added to the leaves. The center stamen was also expanded.  IMHO, this tweaked painting has more life to it:

(after tweaking)

This honing, sharpening and refining of the painting process  has led me to believe that there are a few more oils finished in my oeuvre that I'll need to review for additional brush and color work.

Next month, in conjunction with the Grand Junction Visitor and Convention Bureau "Arts, Hearts & Tarts" program, Heirlooms for Hospice will be hosting an art sale to benefit Hospice and Palliative Care of Western Colorado.  Anyone who donates art to Hospice will become a member of the Hospice Art Guild.  Art submissions will be released for future use in the creation of cards or other applications, always providing credit to the artist.

Hmm...which piece should I choose, perhaps tweak, and then donate for the art sale?  Artists have until January 29, 2010 to submit their art donations to Heirlooms for Hospice to be included in this year's February  Arts, Hearts & Tarts program.  (All art sales benefit our local Hospice.)

Again, it is for a good cause, and it should be fun!  (I'll start this week on polishing up another oil work for Arts, Hearts & Tarts.)

The Mother Bear Project for Children who are Victims of HIV/AIDS

Several years ago, Betty Christianson, author of Knitting for Peace: Making the World Better One Stitch at a Time (2006) introduced the Mother Bear Project.  The project has thus far gathered over 47,700 hand made bears for African children who are the victims of HIV/AIDS.

Why send bears to children in Africa when we could perform a similar act of charity here at home?  One of the major reasons is the high prevalency of HIV/AIDS in Africa which devastates many thousands of babies and children there.

Not only have children lost their parents to the disease, but they are sometimes victims of rape by an HIV infected adult.  Some say this horrendous act of rape on girls is a myth; nonetheless, according to this site sponsored by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

"A lot of it has to do with the myth that a man will be cured of AIDS by having sex with a virgin, and how much more virginal can you get than a baby?" Hatfield asked. Rather than decreasing with AIDS education, the myth has taken hold in South Africa, which already has the world's highest incidence of rape. Police statistics reveal that 21,000 cases of child rape or assault were reported last year. Most of the crimes were committed by male relatives of the victims.
Three days before the 9-month-old was attacked last week, a 3-year-old was raped, allegedly by her grandfather. In the same week, a 14-month-old was assaulted by two uncles. With one South African in nine living with HIV/AIDS, such attacks are often a death sentence for the victims, said Glenys van Halter of South Africa Stop Child Abuse. She said that while the AIDS myth is driving the rapes, unemployment, poverty and alcoholism are also factors.

Hatfield said that in South Africa, whose constitution is billed as one of the world's most liberal, progressive laws are often at odds with reality. "South Africa has a history of violence, we communicate through violence, and it will be a long time before we move away from that," she said.

Here is where the Mother Bear Project comes in.  Children in Africa who have been orphaned due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic or who are ill with the disease often have nothing of their own.  A hand made crocheted or knitted bear, including a red heart sewn to its chest, is a small thing that each of us can make and give to one of these ill and/or orphaned children.

The Mother Bear Project is dedicated to providing comfort and hope to children affected by HIV/AIDS in emerging nations, by giving them a gift of love in the form of a hand-knit or crocheted bear.  The simple gift of a hand-knit bear with a tag signed by the knitter has touched children with the message that they are unconditionally loved. (from Mother Bear)

Directions for making a.Mother Bear can be accessed here free of charge. Use up leftover yarns and contribute a bear!

From Ravelry, Dr. Gemma of CogKNITive, one of my favorite podcasters who combines knitting with psychology, says:

:**Send completed bears with $3.00** to cover cost of postage for shipping to Africa to:
Mother Bear Project
P.O. Box 62188
Minneapolis, MN 55426

Volunteers will sew a red felt heart onto your bear's chest. If you did not buy a tag from them, volunteers will also fill out one for you, with your name or anyone's name you suggest on it, to be attached to your bear.

**These bears are meant to be personal, so each child will know the name of a person who loves them and is thinking of them!**

The above is the front page of the December, 2009 issue of Mother Bear.  Note that volunteer Diana Psota (CA) was intereviewed last month.  She has knitted over 100 bears since 2005 and donated them to the Mother Bear project.

Think about making one and sending it. For about the price of a cup of take-out gourmet coffee, and a bit of your time, it is a personally satisfying uplift sans caffeine.

We Made it 20 Years!

Epiphany, January 6, the 12th Day of Christmas, is Gene's and my wedding anniversary. This year, 2010, makes it 20 years that we have been married.

Gene put together this video with pictures from good times over our two decades together.  It is sentimental, showing snapshots of our life when we were (mostly) smiling. If you have four minutes and care to look at it, click on the arrow.

(My favorite photos are ones of us at Dr. Sides' (my late mentor) Christmas parties in Denver and the one showing us dipping our feet into the River Jordan while on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.)

Happy Anniversary, Gene.  Thank you for the past 20 years together, through both the challenging and the better times.  A toast to you for putting up with me!

Free Images!

Let me share a cool website found here that allows you to create a free account where you can download pictures from the internet.  Some are free, and some you can purchase for a small fee.

Here is a picture of snow covered cotoneaster (a prickly plant in our front yard) that came from The Dreamstime Site.

Nice, eh?  And it is a better quality picture than I could take and publish, plus the added feature that I did not have to get out my snow boots and heavy jacket to go out and take that picture myself in our frigid Colorado weather (it is currently 7 degrees!). More snow is expected today.

Just spreading the word of how to access images at no cost without copyright infringement!

Happy New Year!

SIL Jack sent this cool website.  Click and drag on the background at this link to start your 2010 with flowers.

Hope your first day of 2010 is a good one.