Busy in Nashville

Yes, William keeps us busy. But there are other things as well.

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Church Home away from Home. 
When we are in Nashville, we go to the services of St Mark's Episcopal Church, Antioch, very near to us.

A little church on a huge property.

This greets you right before the Sunday School Building. The sign post says:
May Peace Prevail on Earth.

This Sunday was Rally Day. James and I were very impressed with this vibrant congregation.
This Sunday only: a 9:30am service instead of the usual two at 8am and 10:30am.
After the service you were invited to walk around to look at the different stations about Time and Talent opportunities.

And afterwards there was a super potluck lunch in the true Episcopalian fashion.






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Meeting Williams other grandma and great-grandma

Sunday afternoon Helen lead us to a u-pick orchard in Lebanon (read: Leb-non). We got a big bag of the last white peaches. Delicious.

Afterwards we met Ben, his mother Joy and grandmother Jessie at the Cracker Barrel. I should have said THE Cracker Barrel, because this is the oldest one. Jessie went to school with the original owner/founder. We had a lot of fun. William liked to see his Mops and GeeGee.

Prince William on the barrel.

















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More quilt squares for Blog Lotto (see a previous blog)

Now there are six. But I think this is it.









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Got to play with William !!!
William loves gadgets. I wonder where he got that from? You can see him here.

William likes stairs. Good exercise too!

If you want to see him claim Mt. Stairs click here.

What then? When he is upstairs he likes to explore ... first the closet.

William likes doors  ... even closed doors.

(click on the bolder words and then on the link to watch videos on YouTube)

Free Entertainment

A lot of good things in life ARE free (well, except that you pay for it with your taxes, haha).

William likes to go to story hour at the library ... any library. Tuesday morning it was the one in downtown Nashville. Very impressive building. You can park in the parking garage which is free for one hour and a half. Then you take the elevator up. When you get out of it you can see this impressive hall.

And art all around.

There is even a court yard where we wanted to take a rest later. But a free concert was about to start and it was just too loud. What are they doing to our ears? Seems like ours have not yet been damaged enough and are still quite sensitive.

The entry to the Children's Theater is very interesting. the showcases have very interesting displays, marionettes and hand-puppets from different countries.

Danke means thank you in German. This special hand-made marionette was donated in 2001 by the Magdeburger Puppet Theater. Magdeburg is a (university) town in Germany.

We were a little early.

But actually a lot of people were late and the program started late. 

It ended up very full though. William was mostly interested in the other children. 

William and I sat on the floor close to the front but for the last few minutes we crawled to the back because he seemed to have enough. I took this long-arm photo. 

Besides being a library which makes it interesting anyway, the building is also very interesting and I could have done a lot of exploring and photo-taking (without a toddler).
This statue outside of a pile of books is called La Storia della Terra, which means The Story of the Earth, is a 20 foot tower of stone books commissioned by Judy and Noah Liff. The sculpture was created near Mainz, Germany by the Kubach-Wilmsen Team. There are 26 books, one for each letter of the alphabet. The stones - granite, marble, and quartz - come from all over the world. Five continents are represented.
When Helen was working for the company who built or remodeled city libraries and schools, she was responsible for arrangements for the statue to be shipped from Germany since she is fluent in German.

The Library's great bronze doors were created by Alan LeQuire, a Nashville artist. The doors depict the native plants and animals of Tennessee, as well as scenes of people reading and learning. These scenes are visible when the library is open. When the library is closed, you see the reverse side, which is a simple, classical design.











I think it will be even more fun when William is older.

Exciting blog site: Block Lotto

Ever since I found this blog site I am so excited and couldn't wait to try it.

http://www.blocklotto.blogspot.com/

If you are a quilter ... you have to look at this. If you like textile art ... you have to look at it. I am a very beginning quilter and don't have much time to devote to it (very unfortunately) but it is just fun to browse around here in a spare minute and dream what you could do. I find most ideas here very doable and stimulating.

The August blocks are 'violets'. Here are my first three 8 inch squares.



It is really not necessary for me to win. I just enjoyed making these. And I like that some winners finish the project for charity. And I want to make more. I have the feeling I might blog a lot in the future about quilting.

Taking William to Cheekwood

Spending time in Nashville again. Helen has gone back to school. She wants to be a TESL (Teacher for English as a second language) and we are so proud of her. So we are helping out a little with William. What a hardship, haha.
Sunday afternoon Helen held a training class for the READingPaws program she is very active in  http://www.READingPaws.org  so Grandpa and Omi went with William to the Cheekwood Botanical Garden.

Every time we visit Cheekwood there seems to be something special to see. This time:
TRAINS! TENNESSEE IN G
April 9 - December 31, 2011

http://www.cheekwood.org/Gardens/TRAINS _Tennessee_in_G.aspx






The miniature landscape with many different trains, bridges and buildings was surely built with love. William was a little young for it but James and I enjoyed it. 

An overview from the back. The size of it!

A little rest for the ones who are walking.

And then there was the sculpture garden. This is huge.

Crawling Lady Hare (1997)
Artist: Sophie Ryder (England)

William doesn't mind where we go or how bumpy it is. He is happy.

Another sculpture. Be open-minded!

The Order of the Present is the Disorder of the Future - Saint Just (1988)
Artist: Ian Hamilton Finlay (Scotland)

Is that a skeptic look?

A sculpture on the lake:

Reflection (2011)
Artist: David Wood

I should have taken a video of this. It was quite lovely when it moved.

But I do like natures art the best !!!

 
We really wanted some refreshment in the Pineapple Cafe ... but it was closed. Bummer. Crawling around on the grass in the back of it was nice too though.

And here is something cute to see:

William  enjoying the grass

William likes music on Pandora

What can I say? That happy smile is worth everything.

Sarah's Wedding Garter

      
Something old, something new,
something borrowed, something blue.


Old: the engagement ring was made from Wade's grandma's ring

New: the dress

I wonder how many dresses Sarah tried on? She was very good about it since she is good at making decisions. It still was a bit of an adventure though. The problem was she looked good in all of them. And then it was finally ordered ... in January already. It took its time coming though which made the bride a little nervous. 

The three fittings took all place in secret. Ha!


Borrowed: the brooch on the bouquet

The brooch was my mother's. She gave it to me many years ago. I am not ready to give it up yet.















Blue: the elastic and ribbon on the garter

Info for my lacemaking friends:
The Garter is a design by Sherry Graham. I used 34 pairs of linen 80/2 and 2 pairs with gimp.

This is what you get when you DON'T pre-prick your pattern. You also get a callus on your finger.

I found that a little more then 1 1/2 of the circumference is good. If it is too ruffled it doesn't show the pattern.

We know that is not were it is worn.  Got to have some fun!

I could not find any blue elastic suitable for this ... so my friend Lise came to the rescue and mailed some to me from Missouri.


I cut it a little shorter then the circumference and attached a piece of matching ribbon to each end. Put it around the leg and tied a (secure) bow.   

Now I have put it into a candle-holding glass tube for Sarah (Bed, Bath and Beyond).




The ends are tucked under and a little bow made from the ribbon pinned to each end. She seemed to be pleased.


The veil was home-made too ... but by machine. Sarah didn't want anything too elaborate because it would clash with the dress.

I bought tulle. There is quite a selection out there and relatively inexpensive.

I cut the right length (top and bottom layer in one piece) and rounded the four edges. I cut strips about 2 inches wide of Sulky Solvy lightweight water soluble stabilizer (with coupon about $4), used two to sandwich (ironing) the tulle edge all around.

I used silver thread to sew two decorative stitches (one after the other) all around.

Mistake: I only had white in the bottom bobbin not realizing first that when I would turn the top shorter layer of the veil over, the underside of the stitch would now be the top. It was easily corrected though. Just another five-minute job, haha.


 Next time: Use silver thread for top AND bottom thread.

Moral of the story: So many things you do only once and the knowledge gained is wasted.

Trim the excess tulle/stabilizer next to the border carefully. Soak and rinse the whole thing well and iron dry. Test the heat setting on a piece of the scrap tulle. All the craft stores have the wire combs to attach it too. Satisfying work.