Molly Bee's Attic

I think llamas are beautiful mystical creatures.They are a study in opposites. They look so delicate but are really sturdy. They look friendly at a distance but are really shy and stand-off-ish. That said, they put aside their demure, retiring attitudes when the cameras come out apparently. Llamas, at least some llamas, are media hams... Hey there Thor and Mick. You boys are looking particularly handsome today! Mick, since you're already standing up, do you mind if I take your picture? Just hold still for a minute...  Oh. OK.  I guess a little closer wouldn't hurt .  That's good...now just stand still. Uh, now you're getting a little too close there, Mick.  Can you please  back it up just a bit? Uh, Mick...which part of stand still don't you understand? Oh probably you don't speak English, being from South America and all. How do you say 'stand still' in Spanish?  OK-Now we have to have a serious talk about personal space and boundary issues,...

Had another first to mark off my life list today: prepared Thanksgiving dinner for the turkeys at the barn. That's right. Thanksgiving FOR the turkeys! I was surprised at how like a human Thanksgiving it was... The feast was prepared by cutting up acorn squash and filled them with yummy things like pumpkin puree, cranberry sauce, string beans and grapes. The dishes were arranged on a linened table. Pretty no? The guests started to waddle in...  The guests of honor arrived. At first they were more interested in visiting with guests than eating. Other guests started hovering around the table waiting for the feast to begin.  Crazy Phil was particularly anxious to dig in!  Finally the feast began and guests started coming to the table. Eddie prefers to be served rather than dine 'buffet-style'.  It's just not Thanksgiving until someone jumps directly on the table to eat the pie is it Rosie?!  Food coma commencing in 3...2...1... Rosie...

 I've been promising these pictures for two months now!  When I was home this summer, Mum and I popped across the border into New Brunswick and went to King's Landing Historical Settlement in Frederickton. This is a living working historical settlement composed of late 1700s to early 1800s homes and businesses  that were moved from all over the province to this location on the bend of the beautiful St. John River.  These pics aren't in order and I have so many it was hard to narrow them.  But these are most representative. Homestead on the banks of the river. View across the village common. Beautiful parlor set in one of the wealthier homes.  Peddler's Cart Rug hooking frame set up in a small bedroom The Saw Mill.   One room schoolhouse Spinning wheel in the kitchen Grant's General Store (Grant was my maiden name) Piggies (have to have animals in every post! )  Horse drawn hearse at the livery. It could be outfitted with whe...

This week's Diva Challenge was to tangle around a red line. It was fun to add a little splash of color!  It kind of looks like it was corrected after the fact. LOL!

The challenge this week over on The Diva's site was to tangle a square, circle, triangle combination.  Here is my line:  And here is my finished tangle. An additional part of the challenge was to use tangles you've never used before. I have a ton of them so it was fun to choose which ones to incorporate.   Thanks again Diva for the wonderful challenge!

Cut 8 slices of bread (I used home made bread-don't use Wonder bread type loafs)  into cubes and mix in a large bowl with 1 stick melted butter, 1 c. packed brown sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg and a dash of salt until thoroughly coated. (Can also add 1/2 c of raisins and/or nuts if desired). It will look like this. Peel and dice 4 medium sized apples-the juicier the better.  I used Honey Crisp. Layer in the crock pot as follows : apples, bread, apples, bread, apples (layers will be thinnish). Let her rip on high until the apples are done to your liking. I like mine fairly soft so I let it go 2 and a half hours or so. I checked it every 30 minutes. I even gave it a couple of stirs in there somewhere.   Oooh ya baby!  Ooey gooey good!    It would be great warm with ice cream or: Whipped cream! Bonus: It smells heavenly cooking!  Enjoy!

I was kind of disappointed that I wouldn't be able to do the Diva's Challenge this week. It's a poignant one about Canada's Remembrance Day and our Veteran's Day.  She has Flander's Field posted which explains the significance of the vets handing out red poppies.  Lovely challenge, stressing remembering not only our warriors but friends and family that are no longer here and working the poppy into the piece....But I really wanted to get the test for the warm colored 'motes' done to see if it would be OK for the upcoming art show and time was running short.  So I forged ahead on the 'Motes' piece but specifically set the time aside for memories....  I reminisced about my Dad, my grandparents, childhood pets, and friends who were taken away too soon. When I finished I realized... The poppies were there all along. Remember your loved ones and smile and celebrate the family and friends that are with you now. Tell them that you love them often bec...

The Diva extraordinaire is sponsoring a contest over on her site  to celebrate 200,000 hits. The link here will lead you to her awesome site and detail what you have to do to enter the drawing for amazing prize packages. What are you waiting for?!?!?! Go!!!

I've been working on this piece for a couple of weeks for the art show at work.  I call it 'It's The Little Things' because the entire piece is made up from one little, repeating motif called 'Nzepple' which is a repeating triangle with a bean shape in it. Yesterday while I was scooping up llama poo, I was struck by the fact that the little llama pellets look just like the bean shape in the triangles.  Maybe I should have called it 'It's The Little Llama Things'?  The sheet of paper is 19 x 24.  I gridded it out into 1/2 inch squares in Sharpie pen.  Then I drew an 'X' in each square and drew the bean shape inside each one.  Once I did that I started outlining circles and coloring them in in my favorite 'melted peacock' color palette.  Circles on top of circles... Circles over circles.  Just lots and lots of circles. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. It kind of looks 3-D in person and the photos don't do the col...