ANOTHER CHURCH WINDOW

You all know by now that I am passionate about obsessed with photographing the windows and doors of abandoned buildings in Dorchester County.
One of my very favorites is the header above. It makes a good case for carrying battery operated Christmas lights in your coat pocket. It is on my list of windows I'd like to paint. In the meantime, I've been playing around with this.

This pretty old church has been re-located and is in the process of being restored.

Which I edited to this...

And stitched into this...

Mixed-media quilt. Vintage fabric and paper scraps on linen. Hand and machine stitching.

Every needle tells a story. XO

MORE WINDOW STITCHING: HAUNTED

Still working from my church and abandoned house photos taken in Dorchester county. Finished this today, and couldn't wait to show you because it has a surprise. And because I worked really hard on it.
First, the original photo...

Then my fabric version...

I'm not the kind of person who sees Jesus in her French toast, nor have I ever grown a vegetable that looked like a dead president, but check out the left hand window, top middle pane, on the lower sash. I'd just begun working on this when I realized there was a face in the window besides the one on the right, and I didn't put it there myself. I've cropped it so you can get a better look. It's hazy, but squint a little, or tip your laptop screen. I'll wait.

Can you see her? It was very clear when I printed the photo onto fabric. She appears to be sitting sideways with her head turned toward the window, if that helps. She's wearing a flowered dress. Mike thought it looked like a sheep. I think it looks like a lady, and I'm just dying to go back down there and take more pictures. Do I really think it's a ghost? Of course not! Am I going alone? No way.

SHOOT PRINT STITCH

If you like to photograph creepy, abandoned houses, Dorchester County is a great place to do it. This is one of my faves from from last winter...

Edited down to this...

Printed it onto plain white fabric. Then hand and machine stitched, adding bits of old fabric to  get this...

Then tweaked the finished piece one more time to get this...

Will need to remember this pic for next Halloween. I rummaged through my stash of vintage photos to find a ghost for the boarded up window. I chose a child because they make the creepiest spirits. If you don't believe me, you never watched "The Shining." Even though that was "so three decades ago," I have not fully recovered. Poor Scatman Crothers!
Gotta run. People to feed. Both my children home on the same weekend. Lucky! 
XO.

SPRING WEEKEND

Today is such a gloomy, rainy, Monday. Glad we had a brilliant sunny weekend to remember. All sorts of springtime fun was afoot on Saturday. Took Scout and Nigel to Oxford Day. Mike likes to call Oxford, "Mayberry for millionaires." It is charming and if you long for sailboats and picket fences, it's just the thing.

The dogs enjoyed the parade except for the drums. Poor Scout does not like drums. At all.

The way we should all feel on a sunny Saturday in spring.

Poor doggers were exhausted, and asleep before we left the parking lot.

Dropped the pooped dogs at home. Ate the first Trappe Lions barbecued chicken of the season, and popped down to St. Michaels for Wine Fest.

Glorious bloomers everywhere.

My guy at the St. Michaels Brewery.

Guess who rode 22 miles on her bike on Sunday? This girl. Took the bikes down to Dorchester County, parked at a public boat ramp and pedaled the 11 miles to Hooper's Island and back. Oh the sights you see, when you're on two wheels instead of four!

Thought this looked like a sad sea serpent, washed ashore. I did want to bring it home, but it was about 8 feet long, and it was all I could do to haul my own washed up carcass that distance.

Mike loved this house we spied from the top of the Hooper's Island bridge. It looked as if it was crouching there, bracing for the next hurricane.

Watched Papa Osprey scoop up a fish and deliver it to this chimney nest.

Hope you had sunny weather and a chance to get outside and enjoy! XO.

BRIDGE QUEST

Twelve days until Christmas. I should be doing Christmas-y things. All day. Until I'm done. But the sun (finally), and my girl, and our cameras beckoned. We'll just ride down to Dorchester County for a little while we said. Ha! We had in mind finding the rickety old bridge that Mr. C. and I happened across earlier this fall. Couldn't remember exactly where it was but I was confident I could find it. And we did, but only after going all the way to the end of Hooper's Island, which also happens to be the end of the earth, for those of you not familiar.
Found some treasures along the way. We were delighted by this little chocolate box of a church...

Unfortunately, the hurricane took down a couple of very large trees. The cemetery was damaged but the church was spared.

Saw this pair of old sea dogs cats sitting on a boat. Love their expressions. The one on the right looks as though he's been in a scrap or two. In a couple of the pics, he was squinting his right eye which made him look for all the world like Popeye. 

Saw plenty of geese, of course, lots of intriguing dilapidated buildings, and endless marsh.

A little paint? A few throw pillows?

And finally, just as my girl was concluding the bridge in question was, in fact, a figment of her mother's imagination...The Bestpitch Ferry Road Bridge over the Transquaking River.

If you're a paddler, this has been named one of the ten best paddling rivers within a day's drive of Baltimore. Also, a bird lover's paradise. Also, to my eyes very rickety, and once we had driven across in my trusty Black Pearl, and I had walked back across to take pictures, I wasn't feeling very happy about it's ability to support us. All's well that ends well, however, and we are home safe and sound.
I promised in my last post to focus on joy this Christmas. Today's joys: My beautiful girl. Home for the Holidays, and ready for marshy adventures with her Mama. Plenty of tasty leftovers for tonight's dinner, so no cooking.  A glass of wine, after an afternoon in the chilly December air.
As always, wishing you JOY. XO.

DECKING THE HALLS AND STUFF

Just two weeks until Christmas and so much yet to be done. With the string of foggy, drizzly days we've had, my inclination is to do this...

Nigel napping.

But I am trying hard to focus on reasons to be joyful and not get too stressed about things undone.
Took a little time out from decorating on Sunday to mosey down to Dorchester County with my girl and our cameras.   A perfect day to play with the low-light settings.

The grounds of  Old Trinity Church (17th century) in Church Creek.

The marsh, viewed from Slaughter Creek bridge.

I picked up my wreaths yesterday and had a lot of help decorating them. Fitz, the catboy from the farm down the street helps me with all my outdoor activities. He loves us with a dog-like devotion. I really believe that all he wants for Christmas is to be one of us. He is not a stray cat, he's just a cat who has made a choice.

With the wreaths finished, I grabbed my clippers and Fitz and I went into the woods to gather pine branches and cones. Reason to be joyful: having a little pine woods, all one's own.

Nearly finished decorating now. So many memories come out of those boxes with the Christmas decorations, don't they? This guy makes us laugh every year.

OB/GYN Santa

My brother-in-law gave me this Santa one year. He dances and plays Jingle Bell Rock. Someone, somewhere along the way, rolled his sleeves back, and because of his hand position, he has been known ever since as OB/GYN Santa. We think, he looks as if he is about to deliver a baby or a pelvic exam. Maybe it's just me. I used to be a Labor and Delivery nurse. Family Christmas lore. That's another reason to be joyful.

Hope you are finding some joy and laughter at your house. Remember it will all get done. It always does. All the really important stuff anyway. XO.