Pleasant Surprises

Sometimes surprises can be way too much fun. In this picture, for example, we see what was to have been a caramel-brown product of Weatherby, EarthHues(TM) natural dyes and colors, and my expertise. The end result was a wonderful surprise, because one of my all-time favorite colors is peach. Ta-daah! (Please note that I take full responsibility for the end result. I also want to point readers to the ever-gracious Nancy Zeller of Long Ridge Farms if they want top-notch personalized service: she knows her products and knows the craft.)

Now that vacation time is over and the Say-This boys will soon be up to their eyeballs in homework I hope to have another go with another EarthHues experiment and see what comes out of the pot next.

Another happy surprise is what that wool is posing on: a volunteer tulip poplar that's growing right next to our deck railing. According to Say-This kid #1, "Tulip poplars are among the tallest trees." If the leaves on the sapling are any indication of future size (like the paws on a puppy), then this tree is going to be a whopper. Those leaves are bigger then one of my hands, and that baby is only about 3 ft tall. I have many fond memories of climbing a neighbor's tulip poplar and sitting in branches that were way, way above the house's roof. Ah, good times! So I have the motivation to transplant that baby -- the challenge will be digging it up without killing either it or my back.

And yet another happy surprise is the "yarn thing" that my sister-in-law bought for me at a yard sale for $2. She assured me that I could use it however I liked -- including for firewood -- or not at all. So, I went to pick it up, and this is what I found...

Yes, it's leaning; however, what you're looking at is an old yarn-winding "thing." I have no idea what to call it, but even though it's a wobbly wreck, I love it. It's obviously been used and loved for a long, long time. Once I got over my surprise (I was expecting one of those umbrella-type yarn winders), I started poking and prodding and cleaning. I haven't figured out exactly how I'll use this little baby, but it's one of the happier surprises I've had lately.

Last, but not least, here is a pic I took of Say-This boy #2 this morning to mark the first day of school. Something funky is going on with my camera, and I almost deleted this picture. However, I thought about it and realized that here was an actual picture I could use to experiment with retouching. Brilliant!