Glass Class 2 - A Mother's Day Ornament

Round two of my glass blowing workshops! 

This time I took some girlfriends with me - and Himself of course.

Everyone had a lot of fun.

Isn't this the most beautiful trash you've ever seen?  Next time I'm going to pull some pieces out and try some jewelry making with them.

These are pieces Al is going to use in making 'milliflora' vases.  The making process is amazing but that is for another blog post.

Algar fetching my glass from the crucible.

I used a LOT of 'topaz' for the base color.

Humph... totally ignored...

Going into the shards to get texture and a bit of color.

Here's where the shards come from...balls that have been blown thin then broken up.

And this is my final color... an indigo.

See how they melt into the glass blob?

Time to blow... and blow... and blow a bit more.

That's one hot ornament!

Just kidding!  The flame is from the pipe warmer behind the table.  I was pleased the twist in the pattern worked out.

My friends' ornaments.  Love how they each turned out so differently!

Himself's ornament (a gift for a friend).

And my ornament...my Mother's Day gift to Mom.

Not A Fan...

If you haven't seen these opera hating penguins, get ready for a laugh!

Volunteering For Franklin

On the 3rd of May, Himself and I were volunteers at the Tennessee stop of Franklin Graham's "Decision America Tour".  It was held at the 'Capitol Plaza' in front of the TN capitol building.  As you can see from the above photo, it made a nice background.

Here is what the area looked like the day before.

24 hours later.

Himself was selected to help with security right there at Franklin's bus!  He says that if the photo went just a bit more to the right, you'd probably be able to see him, or perhaps he was up next to the bus.

Me?  I was to the right of the photo, back next to the trees.

That's me the arrow is pointing to.  My job was to greet and answer questions.

Wasn't too bad of a spot.  Got to see Charlie Daniels and Michael W Smith perform.

And I saw the man of the hour.

(I saw Billy Graham at the Nashville Crusade in 2000, and heard Will - Franklin's son - in 2005.)

Franklin's message was one of civil responsibility and people's responsibility to get out and vote.  And if you are able, to serve in a leadership position in your community... be it in local or state government... or even on the school board.  

If you wish to hear the message, I have a video embedded at the bottom.

At the end of the event and after we volunteers had cleaned the plaza grounds, we gathered for a group photo.  Himself and I are top and center.

It was a great experience!

Grass Fed Beef Open Barn Event

Just down the road from us is a sign for "Tennessee Grass Fed Beef" that points down another road.  I've noticed it but never have we made the turn to go see what it is about.

That is, until last Sunday afternoon.

The farm hosted an open house event and Team Red, White, and Blue was there with an information booth.  

It was held at this cute barn.

Not only do they have shop hours at the farm, they are all over the area with set-ups at farmer markets and organic stores.

A local store which cares their meats was one of the info booths at the event.

We were surprised to find a little buffet set up for the attendees.

Yum!!

Ahhh... there's our friends!

An activity for the families was a 1 mile-ish "pasture walk".

There were a lot of cows on the pasture walk.

If you didn't feel like walking, you could get up-close and personal with this sweetheart...

This little darling is about 6 weeks old.  She's a bottle baby and LOVES attention.

(Don't worry... she's a 'keeper' calf!)

When we entered the event, we were given a ticket to put in the drawing basket.

Well guess what!

They called my number!

I came home with a huge chuck roast (I see a pot roast AND some Lega Tibs in our future) and some beef neck bones (there will be some delicious beef broth made from those).

Now that was a good day!

Little Bird Has a Field Day

On our recent trip to Missouri, we got to watch Little Bird participate in her kindergarten field day.  What fun watching the old fashioned games being played!

Our Little Bird isn't so little anymore!  She's the tallest in her class... maybe even her grade!

Taking it down the lane in an egg race!

Don't you love the flying pony tail?  LOL

Her class came in 3rd in the tug-of-war... but were 1st overall!

And Little Bird had a handful of individual ribbons too.

So much fun!

Tea Time Treats: Colorful Israeli Couscous Salad (Recipe)

At Tea Time Treats, the recipe challenge for May was 'colorful'.  Rather appropriate for spring, isn't it?  I immediately thought of this light and delicious salad.  So good!

http://hedgecombers.com/2016/05/02/tea-time-treats-linky-party-may-2016/ 

Auction Roses

I left out one thing from yesterday's post about the Amish auction... the roses.

I think this year was the best ever for beautiful and unique (at least to me) varieties.  I just had to share them in a separate post.

Aren't they wonderful?