Thanksgiving

Normally we do not have dogs at the dining room table, the boys did think this was pretty funny though.

Tigger kept jumping onto Josh's chair, he would have eaten right off the plate had we let him.

Mr Tinky looks pretty content don't you think?

Supposedly if you stare at it hard enough it will pop right into your mouth.

Last night when I was cooking the boys brought Denzel in, he looks a little concerned, there he was sitting on the fence sound asleep and he is whisked into light and warmth and confronted with a box of stuffing. Disconcerting to say the least.

And no we don't eat anyone we have been introduced too, Denzel is safe, he has had his cat food treat for his Thanksgiving dinner, he and Katie Google are fine and happy

embroidery

After much internal debate and a ton of procrastination, I have decided to embroider a single bird for the back of the antique couch I am finally finishing.

The couch is an Eastlake style, beautiful mahogany, with three back panels of fabric insets. They will be plain natural linen except for this single bird.

I will post pictures of it when it is finally finished, Thanksgiving cooking might get in the way of finishing it off, but I am making huge progress on the thing.

Everything has been stripped the wood given a new oil buffing while retaining the old patina, the springs retied, new burlap straps, and really all I need to do is layer the stuffings for the seat and staple the linen in place.

Then when it is finished it will be covered in plastic with razor wire all around it to protect it, there are just too many animals in this house, somebody will be overly tempted to pee on it.

Okay maybe not razor wire, but plastic?, yes.

Photos

Some more photos from the Great Salt Lake....don't know why I'm posting these except I really, really like 'em.

Spiral Jetty explained

Probably should have explained the Jetty a bit, it is an "installation" art piece literally installed into the Great Salt Lake. It was done by an artist by the name of Smithson and it think it was in the seventies? not sure of the date.

The area surrounding the lake is covered in black igneous rock, the bed of the lake is white from salt deposits, sometimes there is an algae bloom which turns the water red. Smithson wanted to play off the colors of the water, the rock, the algae (and when the rocks had been submerged by water rise and fall they become encrusted with salt crystal), the contrasts between the black rock and sparkling crystal.

The dike itself and massive rocks were laid by a company in my own town, about an hour or so away from the sight and about a half an hour away from the Golden Spike monument, where the last spike of the trans-continental railway was laid.

The Jetty is off a small promontory in the shore line and juts into the lake, it is simply a gigantic spiral of black rock.

The west desert of Utah is spare, wild, outrageously beautiful, barren, windswept and an extaordinarily odd place for an art installation and yet there it is. Smithson is gone now, he was killled in a airplane crash, but the Spiral Jetty is still there and still seemingly solid and unmoved.

Spiral Jetty

A friend and I went out to the west desert along the Great Salt Lake to see the Spiral Jetty. The lake was a bit high so only the top rocks of the Jetty were exposed, it was oddly misty over the lake, the far mountains were barely visible. They looked as if they were floating in air.

The alien sign tagged out in the middle of nowhere was pretty amusing.

Spiral Jetty, its much larger than it looks.

Great Salt Lake....

wide open vistas....

Quilt top

Well its pretty much finished except for a few tiny applique details, but now to quilt the dang thing!

Yoda is pretending to be a muffin. She loves her one-size-too-small antique bowl.

Rogue, my extra fat dog, and I went for a short car ride the other night, just down the street. She loves car rides, that and hot dogs are her favorite things. I was feeling a bit down because I had just been to the Dr. to schedule knee replacement surgery for the end of December. He says I am too young for it but I have difficulty walking so I guess it must be done or continue with pain. Oddly it is one of the few things I am to young for, that, retirement, AARP....neither Rogue and I can walk very far, we are quite the pair. I would like to think I am not as fat as she is but according to my sons it is a close call.

This was taken not far from our house, and at my favorite time of day when the light is low and gold, it seems to grace and beautify everything it touches. It something like this does not lift the spirits then the only alternative is a massive dose of chocolate.

Quilt

This is the applique quilt top I have been working on while I 've had a totally craptastic cold. A few more borders and it will be done. Then to layer and quilt it!