Friendly Fungus Beetle

This is your warning that if you don’t like bugs stop and turn close this, you won’t like this post. When I camp I take hundreds of pictures with the hope of seeing and learning about new things. Like my last post, this was a new discovery. My husband and I saw beetles that we never remember seeing before. Pretty cool huh? I think their name says it all. Plus I found out that it is rare to even see them at all since they are generally nocturnal. I guess they were out since it was a rainy dreary day.

Photo Surprise

Ever notice how sometimes you get so caught up in looking for one thing you miss something else that is even better? That is what happened here. I was so busy photographing and looking at the flower that I missed the little fellow to the right of the flower! Only when I got home and was able to look at the pictures did I even see him. I had to do some research to find out that he is a southern two-lined salamander.  I can tell you that he is VERY small since the flower is quite small. I believe the flower is a “common violet” even though these were white. For anyone who wants to tell me what it is, the picture was taken near the horse camp in the Cataloochee Valley part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in April.

Luna Moth

I follow E.C.’s blog and she does these post where she simply shares pictures and that is pretty much it. I love them. They always inspire and make me happy. So when my husband brought this in I thought of that. Enjoy.

 

Beeswax Candles from my bees

My husband was cleaning the hives and I decided to make my first (hopefully of many) candles from the wax. After getting all the honey out I could, we put the wax in a double boiler and melted it down. Then the honey separated and after I poured all (I thought!) of the honey into a jar, I started on the candle part. I used The Prairie Homestead website post on making your own beeswax candle. This is my first candle. There is a little spillage of wax but it is for me and not resale so I wasn’t obsessive about that.

Fishing Flies

We are planning a trip to Great Smoky Mountains NP during spring break to go fishing and wildlife watching. My husband asked me if I’d make him some flies for the trip. Years ago I learned how to do this from a guy in Blue Ridge Georgia. It has been over 15 years since I made any but I still had some supplies. Anyway here are ones I made today.
They are green caddis larva, just a bug and 5 Gurgle Pops. I am hoping to make about 30 flies before the trip.I will make other varieties in the next few weeks so he has a plenty to choose from and can’t say it was just a fly of mine that was the reason he didn’t catch something!

Floral Baby Blanket

Recently I started making things for granddaughter that is on the way. Here is one of the blankets that was sent to them. It was a combination of a design I found here with a sun I came up with and a small butterfly. I am not going to say much about the blanket but let it speak for itself.

Little Duck Blanket

Jenni Sholter, a friend, forwarded me a request someone had for 6 baby blankets made in 2 weeks. I have done custom work for her in the past so I guess she figured I could do it. Since the request came over the 2 week holiday, I decided to take on the challenge. (It turned out she needed 2 one month and 2 the next 2 months.) The customer makes custom reborn dolls. She had a very specific blanket in mind, Kerry Jayne’s Little Duck Blanket.  So I ordered the blanket pattern and went to work.

Let me just say this about the pattern, in case someone is interested in purchasing her patterns. DO it. The detail in the pictures she includes are well worth it. The duck would have been much harder to keep even if not for the pictures. I would have prefered the pictures to be closer to the actually section of the pattern I was working on but it was easy for me to go back and forth. She took pictures of every part that you might had been confused by and made it simple. Here are 3 of the blankets done and ready to ship. BTW the customer received the blankets and was thrilled! Always a good thing!

Man’s cardigan

Recently my husband asked me to make him a cardigan. It is rare that he has a crochet request and even rarer that it be piece of clothing.We decided on this design. 

After years of me “working my magic”, as he puts it, he just knew I could make what he wanted from the pattern. Then we went upstairs to see what yarn I had in my stash to make what  he wanted the sweater to be made from. After all, it is even more satifying if I didn’t have to spend money to make it.

Here is the finished cardigan. The hardest part was getting it off of him long enough to sew the buttons on. Nothing makes a person happier than making a one of a kind garment that is loved. Now to finish the special request my 14 year old grandson put in!

Bee Hive in the House

Have you ever seen an observation bee hive? This summer I had the opportunity to see one in action at Rossman Apiaries in Moultrie, Georgia. Since we already have a Flow Hive and a horizontal hive along with a couple of traditional hives, I wasn’t surprised when my husband started talking about doing one of these kind of hives.

I went so far as to check into how to make an observation hive myself. Look at this one 

I mean they even have them in classrooms! 

So I found a handbook and started studying. Still not sure if I wanted to take the risk of 4,000 bees getting loose in my house. But if others could do it, why not me?

However, I have decided I am not that brave or curious. My husband and I have decided the bees are nice as long as they are outside not inside. Besides I found out this week that the sound of bees near my face still freaks me out. So not a good idea to have them in my living room where I would really hear them. I admire all the people who can do this though.

Baby Blanket

So I found out over the Thanksgiving holidays that I have a granddaughter on the way. This is after 4 grandsons. SO finally an excuse to play with patterns that I wanted.

This is the first blanket for her. ( I have 2 other ones I am working on.) The yarn was picked by my husband and the open sky stitch came from  Here is my version using Bernat baby sport yarn in tiny tulips color and size F crochet hook.

Now to work on the next blanket!