How This Blog Got Its Name

As I embark on coming back to this simple little blog, maybe I should share a bit on how I came up with the blog's name.

                                            Picture Source:  my sister Teresa’s truck

Someday I want to have a flower farm.  Entrepreneur I am not, so this flower farm dream is not necessarily a realistic one.  I can’t just strike out there today and do this – need a steady paycheck, you know?  This is the “when I win the lottery” dream.    This is the dream of what I "gift" back to the world.  I don't want it to be a business, I want it to be a gift.

                                 Picture Source:  www.kenridgeevents.com

It was so long ago that this flower farm idea “came to me”.  Someone asked me recently, where did you come up with your blog name?  I like to think that it didn’t come from me . . . that the Holy Spirit whispered it to me.  The vision first was the “Sunrise to Sunset Daytime Retreat Center” and then it worked into the “First Fruits Flower Farm.”

                                                Picture Source: 3.bp.blogspot.com

I’m not thinking that I’m going to describe this flower farm today, what I’m hoping for it to be all about. That’s a big task. Yet, somewhere I got the idea that the farm will need a blog and that’s where this blog got its name.

                                                             Picture Source:  www.thefirlwhokeepsdreaming.tumblr.com

So far this blog is just a little of this, a little of that . . . and not much of anything about the flower farm.  Yet for so many years I’ve thought that I just need to do these little things as a symbol that I really do believe in this dream.  So there are now business cards for the flower farm and a computer mouse pad with the farm’s name.  I even bought an old VW bus years ago that I thought would be great for the farm (it wasn’t – the engine caught on fire).  It was my hippie van – complete with flower stickers all over it.  So now I think that something more like this pink beauty one day belongs on my farm.

                                            Picture Source:  Pam Evans Cate

Sometimes it’s just a hobby farm for me and my love, complete with sheep in the pasture and chickens roaming the grounds.

                                            Picture Source: Joani Schofield

                                                          Picture Source:  www.gardenofsimple.tumblr.com

And sometimes it’s the one that’s shared with others.

                                                            Source:  www.hgtv.com

I guess only time will tell.  Deep in my heart I know that my dream will one day become a reality.

So for now, I’ve returned to this blog.  Last week I attended a Blog Forum hosted by the Vintage Bricoleur (www.thevintagebricoleur.blogspot.com).  It was fun to meet and get exposed to some other folks that have a blog.  And I committed myself to once again take up this endeavor. 

                                            Picture Source:  Brave Girls Club, Melody Ross (www.bravegirlsclub.com)

Welcome back.

More To Come Soon

I think it's time to come back . . .

Kaffe Fassett - Spectacular Quilts

Well, the time has finally arrived.  It's silly how much I've been looking forward to just being in the same room as the textile artist that has inspired me to quilt, knit, do needlework and explore mosaics.  I have been buying his books way before I ever tried any of these things.  Especially the quilting books, I would salivate over the pictures yet I was too chicken to ever give it a try.  Finally a new quilting co-worker came along and showed me the basics.

Kaffe Fassett will be in the Bay area for a few days - I am going to his lecture tonight.  I believe he is going to be focusing on his latest book - "Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts".  Then on Wednesday I'm going to one of his all day workshops.  I just want to be in the same room as he and his team, to just absorb and take it all in.

I'm also excited because I'll be staying at the Berkeley home of a former roommate (some 20 years ago!).  We lost touch after her first marriage and only recently became re-acquainted through Facebook.  Tomorrow is a free day to hang out in Berkeley as well as haunt the Gourmet ghetto - which is within walking distance from her home.  We have a dinner reservation tomorrow night at Alice Water's Chez Panisse Cafe.

More to come, I'm sure . . .

There's Always A First Time

Well, I did it . . . I created my first "Art Quilt".

Last year, my visit to the International Quilt Festival inspired me to no end to one day aspire to make beautiful art quilts.  So far, I've thoroughly enjoyed putting together quilts by using patterns and fabrics from my favorite textile artists.  And I'm content to continue in that manner for a while longer.  However, I had purchased a bit of fabric while at the Quilt Festival with the hopes of using it for my interpretation of Klimt's "The Kiss".  Realistically, that quilt is a long way off so I decided to make a wall hanging for above the bed in our Master Bedroom.

The fabrics that I considered

My inspiration

Buttercup loves to sleep on my works in progress . . .

There are definitely things I'd change - I wanted to do uneven and crooked pieces yet I didn't know how to achieve that result.

I think it's alright for a first attempt, a first time . . .

And it fills up the blank space above the bed

Yesterday was my birthday - we had a wonderful meal at the Manzanita Restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton in Truckee.

We've been spending the week at Lake Tahoe.

Vacation mode has settled in nicely.

Wordless Saturday

An Escape From The Heat