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Driving down an average street in Burbank, I saw some interesting houses, had to stop to take pictures.

Most of the houses are a variation on this, a small midcentury ranch. Not ‘high’ mid-century – just the kind of houses being build in the post war years.

I drove by, did a double take. parked the car, got out to take pictures. This looks like a storybook house, something that was popular in the 30s’, long before this neighborhood was built. It has wonderful elements of river rock, an undulating fence.

It also has a bay window, which isn’t common in storybook houses, the roof is clearly new – but then many us have to replace roofs from time to time.

Side view. I’m thinking that someone took the original house and updated backwards. Kudos to them. Yes, it’s messy but so be it. T my mind it doesn’t have to be ‘original’ to be a storybook house.

I should have kept walking, but I got into my car again, drove 3 houses and had to stop again.

This owner either updated the original or build new, in the style of Mid Century. I like it! So many areas are losing the old house to McMansions, its’ happening on my street. And yet, someone will always create that unusual house. My next door neighbor has a crew working extremely hard on renovating his house, it is looking very nice!

The wisteria is blooming, this is a very healthy specimen.

My succulents are blooming. Last year the other one had a very similar flower in orange. This one is yellow.

Speaking of yellow

How perfect is this?

Then there is this little guy!

Speaking of little guys.

Einav and Eyal came with their dads to our synagogue – Einav made a friend!

Eyal and I took out the scooter. Their street is a dead end, but one has to be very careful, cars do come by.

After two weeks of rain, Aytan got to go back and feed the chickens and hang with his best friend Burt.

Back at our congregation, me reading the prayer for the state of Israel – in perfect Israeli Hebrew. Yes, I brought up a sidekick. And yes, Israel is in real need of prayers now. The effects of long term lock down leads to long term protests and anger – not at the lockdown, but clearly to my mind this is an affect. We are seeing all kinds of violent ugly protests around the world, each has their own reason, but they are beyond anything we’ve seen before. Except for BLM and Antifa – that always got a pass to be extremely violent.

Leah

Progress is being made. I really like the center, both circular and some straight edge with a ruler.

No real plan, just quilt as I go.

The flowers now have a center with stamens and petals.

The buds are quilted like unopened roses.

Trying to soften the harshness of the leaves as well.

another flower.

So here is the quilting, I’m pleased how it came out. I do enjoy custom quilting with relationship to the quilt itself. Not just edge to edge.

Quilt with owls. I still need to put on the binding, all the quilting is done.

Just from another angle.

I had two leftovers of the larger flowers, Can’t waste anything, so on the back they went. I also need a label, will do that soon.

Leah

Yes, I am a wimp, I don’t want to walk in the rain, I am so over this rain. Of course I’m praying that some of it is still going into our underground aquifers, since too much is going straight to the ocean. So I’m inside, alot.

Which means I’ve passed the halfway point on this owl. Also, I’ve chosen different colors and where the pattern had light colors, I have dark ones. I doubt the owl cares, he still looks quite owlish to me. there are plenty of motifs behind him, I’m not going to include them all. A little less busy.

I ordered wool batting from Amazon, I made a big mistake. I wanted to save money – that means I got some batting from China and it is very bad quality. Why do I do this????

That big empty center needs something that will stand out. So, feathered circles it is.

Lovely! I traced the top of a small table in order to get the largest circle, then found other smaller circles, like an embroidery hoop to create the medium one. Then it was free form feathers. Although, I am thinking that I will use some roller work to contrast the circle with straight lines.

The flowers? Since they are all straight line, I will probably free-form quilt to make them more organic looking. I’ve said this many times, the quilting is a whole other dimension and layer on the quilt.

I know, pictures of an empty house. It wasn’t empty for long, we had 25 people from our synagogue over for a wonderful potluck evening. We have met incredible people – we truly love each others company.

My neighbor across the streets has been a widow for years. She used to work full time but the lockdowns put an end to that. We would talk from time to time, being Jewish – I invited her to come to our Saturday services. She now comes weekly and has been making new friends. I know believe that at any age -if you put in the effort – you can and should make friends. of course she came over and was delighted. Because so many of us say hello, or sit at the same table for lunch – but don’t have the chance to really get to know people -and at this gathering, we most certainly did.

All the tables were full, it was cold and rainy outside, so even though we had set up the outside table and opened the umbrella – it was too cold for that. I do need to invest in one of those outdoor heaters! Once people arrived, I put down my phone and didn’t take a single picture. I did bring out Scotch and many people enjoyed a shot. One of our members brings Scotch every Saturday – we call him The Cup Bearer – and he fulfilled that job admirably here as well.

Leah

I made this over 40 years ago, and I’ve never washed it. Which is why it is completely stained. Sure I could wash it, but part of me doesn’t want to. This is all handwork – otherwise known as blackwork, but with green.

Each letter was filled with a different pattern. My eyes were young then, this is a simple white fabric, not even weave- and yet, I was able to count the threads to create the perfect patterns. I’m sure I was using my stitch Bible at the time – an old book from Coats and Clark – back when they still existed and their threads were manufactured in America. I also hand sewed the triangle border.

Signed my work, but not the year. That is ok, these days I’m caring less about signatures.

Old and new, side by side.

From another angle. This past week in Synagogue, during the sermon I leaned two very important things.

Bezalel – was tasked by Moses and God to build the tabernacle in the dessert. He oversaw all of the building and the wonderful crafts used to decorate it – from woodwork, metal work and fiber-work.

I should have known this – just from reading his name but I never paid attention. Bezalel means in the shadow of God. When the Jews created and art school in Jerusalem in the early 20th c. it was named Bezalel – unfortunately – it went woke a long time ago. My son has a wonderful metal plaque – from the old Bezalel showing all the crafts they taught there. I’ll have to get a picture.

The other thing was, that many times in describing Bezalel and his workers the word wisdom is used. Unfortunately that was translated to skill. No, those of us who seriously work with our hands are doing so with wisdom from God. There is a holiness in the creation – unlike modern Art today – which is all garbage. Which is why I love the crafts, that is where God given creativity still exists. Of course, the wokeness had permeated the crafts as well, but that won’t survive, unlike my stained challah cover that has and will. Not saying my kids will treasure it – but clearly I have for over 40 years.

A friend gave me a bunch of her old shawls and scarves that she hasn’t used in years. they were quite musty – so out in the ‘sun’ they went. I’m trying to remember what the sun looks like. Anyway, that wasn’t enough, so I washed them with Soak, a wonderful hand soap for crafters that doesn’t need to be fully washed out. I’ve been wearing these ever since. there were double the number of shawls – they are going to Good will.

Leah

I’m not Irish, I have plenty of holidays of my own. We have friends who used to have a St. Patricks day dinner every year – Jewish like us – but he loved to smoke meat. So home made corned beef, boiled cabbage and tasteless soda bread it was. Oh and beer or other Irish whiskey. But the lockdown put an end to that, and I’m sorry, simply because getting together with friends was fun.

So this year, on the 16th I’m with my grandsons and I asked them if anything is happening. Westley proudly tells me that he checked on Google and it turns out that leprechauns love to eat wild flowers.

So, we went to the Greenbelt, what was originally meant to be a tramcar railway – but now thankfully is a lovely walking, jogging, dog walkway surrounded by green. Yes, they are plenty of flowers this time of year. Of course one will always find the dandelion, CA poppy, ice plant flower, daisies and other flowers. This was just the beginning, we filled the bag! One reason is that Cameron pulled some plants out by the root – oops

Here is the house they built. Look at that ladder and shoot. I hope the picture of the dinosaur that Cam drew doesn’t scare away the leprechaun. This is what happens when you limit screen time. As in, no TV, tablets are used for reading or for checking things out on google. These boys spend a lot of time being creative – it is wonderful.

Cam loves wearing his soccer uniform, even when there is no soccer. It may be hard to see, he made a little tray with a handle and is filling it with flowers.

Not sure what the water bottle doesn’t, but look at all the decorations. The doorway even has a popsicle stitch frame.

Stuffed to the gills.

An added welcome note.

Written by the first grader – expected spelling mistakes.

I called the next evening, so what happened? Well, the leprechaun had visited their school and made something of a mess – leaving green footprints.

At home Abba had gone off to Costco, so the house was empty, upon his return there was a mess around the house, the number of flowers had decreased.

Also, he wrote on the note that his name is Sparky!!!

On Passover I’m going to explain that when Elijah visits, they have to look very closely and see that some of the wine in his glass disappears!

Completely different holiday, someone finally got around to getting rid of their pumpkin, well not exactly getting rid of, it is outside the trash can.

Leah

I work on very large projects, in all of my crafts, from knitting, quilting and now cross-stitch. So every once in a while it is fun to make a project that goes very quickly. In Cross-stitch, they call this a small.

Heart in Hand has a series of Tiny Towns. Apparently they had a new town release at Nashville Needle Market. I was interested in their owl Patriotic Tiny town. I would been happy if this was a PDF download, but no it’s a paper pattern. Turns out it comes with 3 tiny buttons. so that it why.

I had a scrap leftover. So lets’ see if I can make this work. I made a crease for the center (which is marked on the pattern. And I counted out 80 stitches on one side. making a large hole every 10 stitches, just to make the counting easier, it fit. Woo Hoo! I can go ahead and start.

I looked through my cotton threads to find colors, The dark blue and white are actually what the pattern calls for! That means with all my projects I am building up quite a thread collection. This one is going very very quickly.

Yup, there was a mistake or two, but who cares. Its’ lovely, it’s a cute town. After I pulled the threads to cut the top and bottom I worried that I may have cut it too close. I am making the drum, and I remembered most of what I learned from Vonnas’ You Tube. Just be careful with the sewing and it will be all right.

Lets get artistic with the camera angle.

Perfect fabric for the top and bottom. If you look closely you can see the three little buttons in the centers of the whirligigs. Yes, those button do add some pizzazz. I didn’t put this into MarkupRXP, I just worked off the paper pattern. It was small enough and simply enough to do it that way.

The making of the drum. Thankfully I know how to use a compass, it took a few tries to get the bottom and top sizes correct. I attached the bottom by machine and started filling with both fiberfill and walnut shells.

I sewed the top on by hand, you will see in the next picture there is one final row of stitches to finish the top off.

Here we go, I now have to decorations for the 4th of July! I’m open to more. I like the idea of decorating for Independence Day!

Also, I’ll be making more smalls, they go quickly, they are fun!

Leah

Among the many blessing this past year is the Minyan, the religious community we now belong to. I have met amazing people. People I can really connect with.

So Sharon, Traci and Ido come to the minyan. Ido has severe autism, he is one of the first to figure out that although he can’t speak – he has acquired language and he can type. As a young adult he does have some minor verbal communication. He wrote two books, with one finger on the computer – because he can’t type with both hands. Ido in autism land which is about his experience in the autistic world, the second is a novel and is an easier read. In Two Worlds. For a while he had a blog, but now, not too much writing there.

So a hobby that Sharon developed a few years ago was Lumbjacking, he started a ‘club’ in his backyard. the lockdown took its’ toll on the that, but when invited to lumberjack, I jumped on the opportunity.

Sharon and Ido sawing. Btw, they supply all the neighbors with firewood. All the neighbors and the local tree trimmers know to call Sharon if there is a felled tree, he has quite a collection by now.

Here is the set up, a log ready for slicing. This is oak, it it was very hard for me to saw, the grain is very dense, so we put a new log in- cedar.

There is a whole pile of these circle, I guess some end up as fire wood, but they do chop wood as well.

Lets take a look at the saw. This is an antique lumberjack saw from Oregon. there are people who go around and find the old equipment and bring it back to life. Sharon explained all the reasons for the different teeth and that the blade gets thinner towards the top. He is an engineer, he explains things very very well.

The handle isn’t antique, but how beautiful. I know there is a reason why this is bowed, it is also quite heavy – which helps saw the wood.

Note the bottle of oil, before every cut, one must oil the blade.

And yes, it is very hard work.

There is the wedge I sliced off, right by my food. When I say I, mean Sharon and I.

Of course I’m smiling, what an experience!

It came home with me, it will probably dry out and crack, otherwise I’d have to soak it in something, but who knows, I might put it in my close anyway – it is cedar – it does repel moths.

Sharon then demonstrated how to use a single user saw. This one is for competitions, and came all the way from New Zealand. The way he got into this is watching Lumberjack competitions and deciding this is something he want to do.

Then on to chopping wood. He did it with an axe. He and Ido go out to a ranch and chop wood. in one year they chopped 4-6 cords of wood, which is a lot! Then the ranch sold the wood to a Pizza restaurant, that wood was oak- which burns very hot and is very good for pizza ovens – in one year they used it all up. I forgot to ask if the family went to eat the pizza.

Sharon went easier on me, I used a wedge and a mallet. and let me tell you, it’s hard work!

I did it, it wasn’t easy, but I spit the wood.

The winner photo! You can see the wedge sunk into the wood and the two pieces came apart very easily. think this might be cedar as well which is very hard to burn.

There it is!

A wonderful afternoon, of course we sat and chatted, along with the wood work. Such a blessing to get to know such wonderful people. The loss of ‘old’ friends due to the lockdowns is fading. Yes, one can make new friends at any age and it is worth it.

Leah

There is a yarn store half a mile from me, I do shop there occasionally, but it is mostly what I call- the Unicorn poop store. 99% of the yarns are very colorful hand dyed yarns. It is nice to have some of those, but some basics are nice as well.

So, often I have to order yarns online which can be a real problem.

I am making a mosaic patterned shawl. And here is the problem, choosing colors online doesn’t allow me to see that the value of these two yarn is exactly the same so it’s not worth the work.

So I went back and ordered a black yarn – just to get major contrast

Here you can see the new project next to the old, you are seeing the contrast!

The pattern pops, which is what is needed.

There was an option to make the whole shawl with just two colors, I opted for the third color. First of all it it really tones down the black, by introducing the green. Second of all, initially I was meant to skip two rows with the green, as you can see from the first section, it is just too tight. So the green is now knit every row, but the increase will only happen every 4th row, we shall see if it is enough. If it isn’t – so be it, not frogging.

Another issue with buying yarn online – this yarn is very crunchy. Which is good for the mosaic patterning, but it is very scratchy, we shall see how it will be to wear this.

I am enjoying the project, so I will knit on.

Then there is the cross-stitch.

Yes, it is a sampler, and guess what – there is an owl! And this is where I start the owl.

I’ve changed colors here, I’m working with silks I have. I think the owl was meant to be darker and grayer, my grey is light purple and I’ve placed it in an area that should be darker – oh well, my owl is different.

Yes, he is a funky looking owl.

also, this past weekend was Needlework expo in Nashville, I’ve been looking at new pattern releases and I’m slightly underwhelmed. Don’t think this means I haven’t been buying patterns, I have, just not the brand new ones.

For Purim, Aytan wore his flying squirrel costume and LOVED the farm animals. Here he is literally using a baby goat as a pillow while other animals congregate around. I guess they like his calm energy rather than wild 3 and four year olds.

Leah

I was getting ready to go to Synagogue when the word went out – there is no power in the building. Turns out that local vagrants set a fire that damaged a power pole and line. Remind me again why it is so ‘compassionate’ to have these people just out on the streets, in this case, actually invading a private parking lot. For all the money spent on repairs and cleanup – they could have built tent cities long ago. I don’t want to hear about their rights – mine have been so curtailed over the years – but that is ok – because I”m the Tax-payer.

So instead, I joined the boys and the grandkids and off to the beach we went. Yup, I’m dressed for the North Pole.

At first there was sun, sunshine is always lovely.

Poor Yish, despite having a booster, I wish he hadn’t – it didn’t help in any way. He got covid and he wasn’t feeling great – this is 6 days in, I’m not worried about him being infectious. Turns out that natural immunity is the best, something we’ve known for 4 thousand years. And the infectious state is only at the beginning. But our overlords had so much fun locking us down like communists – they will never give up the power or the lies.

Making sand castles is always great.

Look, he built a tower with his candles.

Look, Abba and Einav have the same color!

Yoch found two large, as in very large turban shells. One of them has the door closed.

The other had its’ creature half way out – ugh – so ugly and so understandable where sci-fi images come from.

Another angle. it’s a little hard to see, but his door is attached to him as well, when he goes back inside, the door will close. both were thrown back into the ocean.

The innards of a conch like shell.

Two small turbans, empty of course that came home with me.

Atop a wonderful smooth round rock that got this way because of the sea and the sand. We also saw a lot of beach bricks – sort of like beach glass, but large pieces of brick that get polished smooth. I think Eyal took some home.

Two cuties on the beach. As cold as I was, it is nothing compared to what is going on in the San Bernardino mountains. the snow level is unbelievable., towns are buried, no gas, no groceries, very few ways to get down the mountain, if at all. And our dictator Grusom is off on some private vacation. The Assembly is no better, this is what happens with dictators – they don’t care in any way shape or form. And no, I don’t believe they were legally elected, they have controlled CA for so long now, it’s all a show to have elections. And of course, let people die in the snow – they don’t care. and they will simply deny that maybe all of this has halted the drought – they will never give up on that power grab.

Leah

What happens when the dog eats your new hat??? Yes that happened to the hat I shared just a few months ago. No, not my dog, someone else’s puppy. Oh well, knit another hat.

I ordered some yarn from webs for a different project and I don’t like it at all. My local LYS (local yarn store) is the unicorn poop capital of the world – it is very hard to find basic yarn there.

My friend Diane dyes yarn! I know what you are thinking – isn’t this in the category of unicorn poop? Well, this does fit the bill, but for a hat, it is perfect. Next big project I will confer with Diane and get some solid colors.

This is gorgeous. I sent her a message asking for a skein of yarn in blue/green/purple and let her choose herself. It arrived two days later! She has great taste and knowledge of color, I knew I could trust her.

but what hat pattern you ask? I have a book I bought years ago with plenty of different styles, I chose this one. Designed by another friend from the old knitting group I used to go to.

I got to work immediately. Look at beautiful the yarn is in a ball. That is not always the case.

The pattern is a chevron and that helps distribute the colors so they don’t pool

I worked very fast, because although it has been a very cold wet winter, it will probably end very soon.

It is done, it is lovely.

I no longer have a selfie stick, I was too lazy to set up the big camera – so here we go, a few mirror shots.

A little blurry, slouchier than the original, but I am very pleased and will be very careful around puppies in the future.

Leah