"HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!"

 No news here, but I did want to wish you a very HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!  And, many more to come, hopefully.  Since there is nothing going on here (and frankly, we are hoping for a QUIET long weekend), I thought I'd just show you some photos from our home on Pioneer Road as it is these days.  This is my Bird Nest on the Ground Studio.  If you've visited this blog before, then you recognize it. 

This little house will be ten years old in August...and beginning to look a little shabby, but it is still my sanctuary and as far as I'm concerned...a sacred place.  My grandson, Tyler, is keeping the outside neat as can be......although some work on the "Nest" and my home await attention.  We can all only do so much....and right now, it is one thing at a time.   I am very grateful to have this little house.  In case you wonder....it's 18 ft. x 26 ft.  The 26' is the side you see here.  I wanted a little porch on it to 'match' the porch on our home and this is what the contractor came up with from my little drawings.

 I often move this old furniture around....right now I have that 'kinda ugly' covered table right by the door...I can paint there if I want....canvases, collages, fabric and such, as I don't like to use paint inside with all the fabrics.  I sometimes DO that, but prefer not to.....I can hide a few things under this table, but right now, there is nothing under there.  Yes, I try to keep my hoarding tendencies on the inside of the building!

 Behind that little settee, you can see my neighbor's house.  I love that old pecan tree and Jimmy's flag pole is always there to see...love that.  They are 'somewhere' around eighty and keep their place neat as a pin, making me ashamed of myself sometimes!!!  

I have three or four old birdhouses on the porch.....and that nest is from my recent Robin tennant who gave birth in it on the upper drainpipe of this house.  I also decided to let my old wool embroidery out of storage for a while....it's been hidden in the garage for who knows how long.  I embroidered it in 1976....from a kit.  The land is appliqued and all the rest is embroidery.  I can still remember stitching it...so long ago.  My daughter, who is now 46, would have been nine then....where did that time go?

After looking at these photos a little more carefully, I see that maybe my hoarding tendencies are NOT all indoors.  Well, as Popeye would say "I am what I am."  Me too.

A closer view of that wool embroidery.   This is one of the things that convinced me to love French Knots...see that blooming fruit tree!!!!   It's made up of many French Knots.......

Yeah, that piece was fun to do.......and I'm very surprised it's still around considering where all it has been and what it has been through.  Some things go on in spite of us, it seems.

 

Oh, yes....LOVE that big old tree too.  Reminds me of Jimmy's pecan tree.  And, in my opinion, there is nothing much that is prettier than a big, old tree!

 

We moved into this house in 2001.  It's a small house, which is why I needed a studio in the back yard.  I actually think I chose it because of this porch!   My brother-in-law, Rick, build the front steps onto it just a few years ago.  It did have only two little steps...you could almost miss them, and these look much better.  We needed a hand rail, because, as we all know....I am quite clumsy and can fall easily...and without any reason.  I so appreciate having these steps!  (Yes, I walk into door facings quite regularly!)

It's fun to sit out here and watch the traffic go by....just like we used to do when I was a kid...only then it was in Texas and we had a tiny porch.   My grandson (twenty-eight this month) heard me say once that it was fun to sit on the porch and watch the traffic.  He laughed and thought that was 'crazy.'  Until he decided to sit there with me one day.  He sat for a while and eventually, after several people he knew drove by, he said, "Well, this IS kind of fun!"

So, a quiet Fourth of July weekend really does sound nice to me.  Maybe spending some of it on the front porch.  Wishing you a fun one too!

Take care, pat

PS.  It occurs to me that it's highly unlikely I will ever be able post anything on this blog containing just a few words.  Crazy, I know, but as I have said - "I am what I am" and there seems, to me anyway, to be a 'story' in just about everything.