Berries to Jelly

Cooking down the berries....

extracting the juice...

Papa...the test taster...

Ta-Da!...seven jars of blackberry jelly!

 Genavive did get her blackberry jelly made the day after we went "picking".  I had a couple gallons of berries in the freezer from last summer so that gave us enough juice to make seven jars of jelly.  It was fun teaching Genavive  from picking the berries to extracting the juice, cooking the sugar/pectin into the juice, canning the jelly and putting them in the hot water bath.  Genavive will now know how much work goes into a jar of jelly when I send her  home with one, every time she comes up to Brambly Pines.

Back to Sweet Home Alabama

It didn't take long to get back to " Sweet Home Alabama".  We stopped at the Alabama Welcome center for a bathroom break and a picture taking session before heading for home.  We have a full fun filled two weeks ahead of us for Genavive's Alabama summer.   .....stay tuned......

Nashville Weekend

Visiting with Vivi at the TN Welcome Center

Off she goes with Aunt Shell for a fun
Nashville weekend.

Build your own pancakes at
your table.

My pretty girls!

Buy a goat at the flea market?

Lego man!

Need a hair bow?

Old man Genavive

Old man Michelle

Old man Vivienne

Genavive was invited by Aunt Shell to come spend a long weekend with her in Nashville.  So, Thursday afternoon, we all headed towards the Tennessee Welcome center just over the Alabama/Tennessee state line.  Michelle/Vivi headed south and we headed north.  After a short visit and a diaper change for Vivi, Genavive climbed into Aunt Shell's car and off they went while we headed south.  Their weekend was filled with eating breakfast out at the Pfunky Griddle, a shopping trip to the Opry Mills Mall, a day at the Nashville Flea Market, a concert at night and a trip to JoAnn's Fabrics.  It was time to meet back up with us again to give Genavive back to us.  This time we met at the Dog Days Flea Market in Ardmore Tn/Al.  Yes,  the town of Ardmore is in both states.  You can go back and forth from state to state by just crossing the road.  The flea market didn't amount to much but we also stopped at a big garage sale and ended up buying a couple of things.  It was time to say good bye until July 4th weekend when Aunt Shell and Vivi will be coming down to celebrate with us.  Lots of memories were made this weekend to go along with a whole summer of memories for all of us.

Berries today...Jelly tomorrow

The blackberries here at Brambly Pines are starting to get ripe so Genavive and I donned our sun hats, sprayed ourselves with bug spray and grabbed a couple of buckets.  Chuck jumped on the tractor to bush hog some paths around the land for us to get to the berries.   We picked until we got too hot and then enjoyed a glass of nice cold water as we sat on the swing in the garden to cool off.  I will  cherish this time with Genavive as we " shared our hearts" talking about things in our lives.  We are planning on using the berries we picked, along with some that I had in the freezer from last summer to make a batch of blackberry jelly.  It's Genavive's favorite and it will be fun for her to see how it's made.  Another " life lesson" from Oona.

Florida Breezes Quilt

The start of the quilt....

Before prairie points and border......

Top all done!!!!!

Checking to see if it's big enough.....

One of my dreams has been sewing in the studio with my grand daughters.  My number one grand daughter is old enough and as soon as we had the first day together we headed to the studio to pick out fabrics for her first quilt.  What we didn't have the first day, we went shopping and collected the rest.  The first full day of sewing, Genavive got the first two rows of her quilt together.  As the week went by  we grabbed time here and there to work on the quilt.  After four days of cutting, matching fabrics and sewing, her quilt top is done! It's sooooo pretty!!! My mother taught me how to make the " prairie points" that you usually put around the edge of quilts but I have discovered it makes an interesting quilt if you put them inside the border.  It did my heart good to be able to pass  this technique on to  Genavive from her Great Grandmother.  We have named the quilt " Florida Breezes" since some of the fabric has mermaids and flamingos on it.  The other colors just look like Florida.  It's just a fun quilt!!!  Next step is to make the label and sew it to the backing.  Then......take it to my friend who has a long arm quilting machine so she can quilt it for us.  Genavive will be here for a couple more weeks, so hopefully she will be taking home a completed quilt....all of her own!  One Grandma/Oona is so proud!!!

Summer times.....

Genavive in one of her new dresses

The start to her quilt

Center done!!!!!

Working on the summer puzzle

Picking out the letters
to Annabelle's tomb stone 

Painting studio shutters

So far we have had some fun summer times already.  We've had a couple of days...ok..maybe more than just a couple....of shopping.  We've found pretty summer sundresses, sandals, skirts and tops.  We bought fabric for Genavive to make a quilt while she is here.  Genavive has been working really hard on getting the quilt top finished so we can take it to my friend who has a long arm quilter, to be quilted before it's time for Genavive to go home.  We have lots more adventures planned while she is here.  .....to be continued..........

House Full

Happy to see this Fla car!

Michelle/Vivi, Karine
Elaine, Genavive
Chuck and Fred

kisses from mama

I will always look up to you big cousin!

Time to leave....BUT....they left someone behind!

We had a fun house full last weekend.  ...Fred and Elaine came up for a couple of days on their way to a weeks family vacation over in North Carolina.  I got the idea of them bringing Genavive with them and leaving her here for however long I could get her parents to let her stay.  My idea worked!!!  We didn't tell Aunt Shell that Genavive was coming.  Another family surprise!  We are good at surprising people.  It's just too much fun not to do it.  So, when it was time for Fred/Elaine/Karine to leave, they left Genavive behind.  It  made this Oona/Grandma really happy!  Best summer ever!!!!

Crazy Family......

You can tell the crazies in our family....

Genavive's first time riding in the front seat of the
explorer with me.  She's not a little girl
any more .  

We had a really fun, busy, full house for the weekend.  Fred and Elaine drove up on Thursday and brought Genavive with them. On Friday they drove to Huntsville Airport to pick up Karine, a long time friend of theirs from France.   It was a total surprise for Aunt Michelle that Genavive was here.  She came Friday evening after work and after she was in the house, saying hello to everyone, Genavive came up behind her and asked if she could please hold Vivienne?....Michelle jumped and squealed.  So funny.!   Genavive gets to spend a few weeks with us this summer.  What a fun time this is going to be...so many plans to keep us busy.I don't know where our little girl went but now she is a sweet young lady we have always had.  

Just Chillin.....

This is how George spends his pre-summer afternoons.  Just chillin in the wicker chair on the front porch.  When he's not sleeping in the chair, he's out " hunting" along the edge of the yard/woods.  A couple of days ago, he caught a mouse and I yelled at him so he dropped it.  The mouse ran into my flower bed and of course George goes after it.  He caught it again and brought it out into the yard.  I yelled at him again and he proceeded to drop it and repeated the process five times.  For some reason, he wasn't hurting the mouse when he caught it in his mouth.  The fifth time, he dropped it in the yard and went and laid down a few feet away and the little mouse ran right up to George and looked at him  like it was a game and wanted George to catch him again.  I went out and started the lawn mower and they both ran their separate ways.   What a funny game of " cat and mouse".  I wish I had video taped it.  It was hard to believe.   George is by the farthest the funniest, smarted cat we have ever had, or should I say....has had us.

What's New in the Yard.

Fire  pit area bigger....

Potting bench

Back steps fern

Last year's Easter Lilies 

Keeping up with the yard and garden on top of working on the studio has kept us busy.  I decided to make the fire pit area bigger so we didn't have to move the chairs every time I mowed.  This way, I can just mow around the big circle.  Soooooo much better!!!!  First, I laid down layers of newspapers before putting down the bags and bags of mulch.  So far, it's keeping the weeds away.  Next brain storm I had was to bring my potting bench up that was behind the green house.  Chuck loaded it up on Little Red's cart and away I went.  I actually like the way it looks on the side of the grill house.  Plus, it's handy now when I want to start a new plant or need more dirt in the ones around the house.
   Melanie had given me this HUGE basket a couple of years ago and I never knew where to put it after Chuck spray painted it blue.  It is too big to be in the house and it's been on the back porch with nothing in it.  I finally came up with the idea to put one of my macho ferns in it and put it on the back steps landing.  It looks really nice there.  ...so there it's staying. ( until winter).

What's New at Studio 22

Two sets of the shutters are painted and up.
The other three sets are in the barn with the first coat of paint on them.

Chuck stained the floor while I was in Florida.
I had painted the posts and railings before I had left so he put the
railings up. 

Chuck made the two trellis and I finally found my
two Carolina jasmines to climb on them. 

A little wren has a nest with one egg ( so far) in the porch
window box

Everyone knows what that means!!!

The steps are done!!!with a little fun to them.
It wasn't easy painting the words in such
a small space, but I got her done!!

Chuck stained the hand rail and got it up
a couple of days ago.

Upstairs is almost done!
Still have the shelf to go over the double windows. 

It's so nice being able to see all my stamps!

My rubber stamp shelves

I moved my antique sewing machine over
under the embroidery threads....makes sense, plus
now you can actually see my pretty antique
sewing machine. 

My little antique sewing rocker next
to my DMC cabinet.  

We've been working really hard on the studio in the past month.  I feel like we can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.  Maybe by the end of summer it will all be done.