Indian Rocks Beach, Florida I

At first glance, an astute observer would notice the Great Blue Heron in this picture (can't miss him, really, and on closer observation, this guy was a hot mess, with the avian equivalent of mange or something equally hideous), but what I'm really showing is the utter lack of pebbles and/or shells of usable size for the Project.

Sigh.

But, not to fear... I had the foresight to bring along a small assortment of Curious Pebbles from home, which I had planned to give them to friends along the way. But, after two days of shell seeking for suitable bits to crochet and leave on the beach, all I've found is a rather too large Pen Shell. It's a foot long. I don't have that kind of time, and actually, I think I'd like to keep it... I know. I'm selfish.

So.

Pebbles pre-made in California, with California pebbles, it is.

My friends will have to forgive me.

And here is installment numero uno:




Pebble number one...




Left on the beach between 6th and 7th streets on Indian Rocks Beach.

Did you find it???




If YOU found it, please sign the guestbook and tell us what you think! We (as in, Me, and my utter scads -hahahaha!- of followers) would love to hear from you!

I'm posting from my phone, and it's easier to ask that you click the Guestbook link up on the top right of the page than insert some HTML code... Sorry.... Me being selfish again, I suppose...

There were also these lovely pics today:



A Piece of what appeared to be a red, white & blue striped sea plant. How very American of it....




The view from what I'll just pretend is my forever-house... Even though we're only here for a week....




An Ibis on the shore doin' his Ibis thing.




My boy. He was with his Grandmother and Grandfather in Ohio for THREE WEEKS, and I missed the Dickens out of him... I'm so happy to have him back, that I can't stop taking pictures of my monkey.

Silly mommy.

Stay tuned.... More pebbling to come in the next few days!

/Julianna

Off to far-flung places, again!

Oh, my... It's happening again.

Another cross-country flight with Ziplock full of crochet thread.

I had BIG pebbling plans, as we are heading to a beach house at Indian Rocks Beach near Clearwater, Florida--- big plans that is, until my sweetums reminded me that Florida doesn't really have the pebbles I need.

I knew that. I just conveniently forgot, ok?

Seriously, I spent weeks of each year of my life beachcombing the Gulf Coast of Florida. I have made more tchotchkes out of shells than I should really admit to, and still have bags and boxes stashed away.

I even have a very cool shark's teeth shadow-box that I made hanging in my bathroom. Literally hundreds of teeth, a few of which are the giant, pre-historic kind. Remind me to post a pic of that when I get home. It's awesome. No lie.

But until then... The question remains: with no pebble-pebbles, just what WILL I make sweaters for and leave on the beach?

Stay tuned.

'Cause really, it will be a surprise for me, as well...

Sand Dollars? Florida Conchs? Elusive Banded Tulips?

I have NO idea....

Pebbles for Jane...

Remember the amazing thing where a very nice woman sent me her vintage thread collection? 

And she asked for nothing in return, but a few pebbles made for her to remember her relatives by.

I'm hideously embarrassed that it has taken me so long to complete this task, but at loooong last... I've finally done it.  Jane, I'm so sorry that it has taken me so long. 

In the original shipment, Jane had set aside a grouping of a few of her favorite threads, and requested that I use those, if possible, in her collection.  It WAS possible, and I did, with one small problem:

While I was photographing this essay, the above happened.  Old thread.... very thin thread... and while breakage happened several times as I was *making* them, I didn't expect that the addition of a camera would be the final straw for sweet little blue.  So, drat.  I really liked that one.  Boo-Hiss.  :(

But! There are survivors!  And, I'm actually posting this as the pebbles go into the Mail, so Jane hasn't even seen them yet... here's a preview, Miss Jane! I hope Hope HOPE you like them!

I DID have to take a few liberties with the thread choices, as a few of Jane's set-aside threads were too brittle.  I solved this by combining some of the thinner threads and making new colors in the same spectrum.  You can see this in the Green/Teal/Blue pebbles above.

I ended up using the entire spool of the blue/white/yellow thread (top, middle pebble), so that wasn't available to pose for pictures....

But I DO love that little spring green one in the background - and even though it wasn't specifically one that Jane had asked for, I thought it went nicely with the batch as a whole... so it's all hers as well.

And what ISN'T shown here is a small collection of un-covered pebbles that are included in the package. 

Jane had seen some of my arrangements with both covered and un-covered stones, and liked the way it looked.  So, I'm sending both kinds of stones as apparently ocean-smoothed pebbles aren't so much available in Kansas. :)

And I still have all of this loveliness to play with.... YAY!

So, a huge THANK YOU to my friend for both the thoughtfulness and the patience.  I'm not sure I deserve either of those things these days, which makes it all the more special.

/Julianna

SETS Now Available!



Because One, Lonely Pebble is NEVER enough.
True.  Check it out HERE.



Three probably isn't enough either. They seems to prefer living like sardines
and stuffed into baskets and bowls and things. Kinda like this.

MUCH happier this way.  Infinitely. 

Those Crazy Strings

I have to admit something.

While I Completely Adore the act of crocheting these wacky lil' things, I Absolutely Can Not Stand to spend the time to tuck in all those little ends. Makes me nuts.

I'm sure that reveals something awful lacking in my personality, but there you go.

Feel free to psycho-analyze me. Just make sure you let me know if it turns out I'm on my way to the Funny Farm.

Or not.

Maybe I don't wanna know.


/Julianna

Hey! Where'd My Pillows Go?

Ah.  There they are.

Shh!  We're SLEEPING!

Have a nice "nap", Miss M.

/Julianna

Pinterest? Please?

I mean, seriously. What's a girl gotta do? Hmmmm?


Edit: 7/14/2011 

YAY!  I'm SO THERE. 



Happy Dance.

The Search for Pebbles at the Muskingum River

Ah, the Muskingum River.  River of my dreams.  River of my Home. 

Maybe not the stuff of love songs or Hollywood movie franchises, but certainly the river of my memory.



This is the Bridge. The one my school bus (and later, my own car)
went over twice a day. I know this bridge like the back of my hand.



It is the Muskingum that lazes through my hometown.  The river that my school bus crossed every day on the way to Middle and High School.  The river that fed Zanesville's Art Pottery boom in the early 20th century.  The river that I return to.  Always.



This trip was no exception, and I had a mission.

My goal was to gather pebbles from the Muskingum to transform into Curious Pebbles, and then to plant them around town while I was there.  Ah!  The best intentions! Alas, between family-time and friend-time and memory-time, I really never got around to making the poor dears their little crocheted pebble jackets, and so...



Under the Bridge (Go ahead.  Begin singing the Red Hot Chili Peppers'
song.  I do.  Here.  I'll start..... "Sometimes I feeeeeel.... ")



...In the end, I even left the box of Muskingum River pebbles on the nightstand in my room at my parent's house, because my suitcase was already pushing the weight limits.  Dad says he'll ship them.  He will.

But as I was gathering pebbles, I (as usual) was practically FORCED by the hand of ______ (something?)into taking pictures of this lovely place.  So I did. 



(Stick with me, and in the end, I'll reward you with a photo of the lone remaining Muskingum River Curious Pebble... although in truth, I actually did succeed in making TWO, but gave one away as I'm wont to do)



Perfect place to start a family.  If you're a bird.  And you can make
your house out of mud.  And don't mind the sound of semi-trucks
barreling overhead at all hours. 

The search for the perfect pebble begins.  Huh.  Not so easy here.
These guys are kinda craggy.  And small.  Hmmmm....



... Oh!  Look over here!  It's LOVELY!

And... it is at this point that I forget about pebbles and start photographing like mad.  I live in the DESERT, you know (sorta.  Close enough).



I could build a cabin and just live r.i.g.h.t. here.  I'd be happy.
You know... If someone would bring me groceries and stuff.  And
maybe DVR "Weeds" for me.  That kind of thing.



Ummm... yeah.  We don't grow moss like that in California.  Nope.  Not at all.

There's something witchy and wonderful about these tree roots.
Something permanent and tenacious.  Something very cool.

And then there's THIS guy.... Like a giant yawn, he is. 
The strange thing was that it's still alive.  Still breathing.
And the hole/cavity runs about 4 feet deep.  Cabin?  Who needs
a cabin?  I could just live in this tree....

I adore the bark pattern on this maple.  Adore it.  Spotty!  La-La-LA!

Bug!



Would have been nice if the monarch I was photographing
on this blossom stuck around... but I suppose he had other
things to do, places to go, nectar to suck....




Blurry Bug!  But the antenna we so freaking cute, I had to
post it.  I think he was a'smilin' at me.  Hard to tell,
though.  With a bug. 



Muskingum River Curious Pebble.  Now residing on my mantlepiece.
NO, that's not my mantle.  That's a PIANO.  Piano's don't hang very
well above fireplaces.  A simple rule of decorating you'd do well to follow.

MY! I'm snarky this afternoon!

/Julianna

Lunch at the Old YWCA



I can't for the life of my figure out why we were the only
ones for lunch... Who WOULDN'T want to be here???



One of the perks of going home is seeing old friends.  And I really, really mean that.  I have some very close friends that are still living in my hometown, and while I wish I could see them more often, it certainly makes the few moments I can spend with them even more precious.  This was one of those days.



In college, I had a "twin".  People were forever mixing us up, especially the male Underclassmen.  Indeed.  I suppose it was the shared Mediterranean heritage and the long, dark hair.  Although she is Greek, and I'm Italian... But we were in the same club, and both in the music department.  So, I suppose it wasn't that difficult to confuse us.  I suppose.  And in any case, she is drop-dead gorgeous, so there are worse things.

My friend works downtown and we decided to meet  for lunch at the old Zanesville YWCA, which today is a lovely restaurant/meeting place called "Bryan Place".  The old YWCA gym was being set up for an event, and the upstairs rooms have been made into a furniture store.  And while that sounds like it wouldn't be a very nice thing, it's all very tastefully done, the furniture is shabby-chic, and most importantly, the spirit of the place remains. 

It was like stepping back in time.

It even smelled amazing, and I'm not just talking about lunch. 

A sweet old sign on a sweet old porch.

I hadn't given much of a thought as to what the interior would look like 30 years after the last time I'd visited... I hadn't been inside the building since it STOPPED being the YWCA, when I once took gymnastic classes there when I was really, really small.  At the time, I certainly didn't give much thought to the history or anything.  But, Time and Distance can do amazing things. 

I suppose NOT being a four-year old doing somersaults in gymnastics class also helps, perspective-wise.

So besides the lovely conversation with a lovely friend...

she has a big, shiny BADGE!  It was so impressive!

...in a dining room all to ourselves, glasses of iced tea and salads bigger than our stomachs, I ended up taking some photographs of days gone by. 

And here they are.

So inviting...



This table, too...





A view of one of the many, many churches in Downtown
Zanesville (this one is Central Presbyterian) as seen from
the front porch of the YWCA/Bryan Place.





And it also looked nice, framed by the arches on the Patio.



How many have hung their coats in this hallway?

 

How many have climbed these stairs?





The front doorway, looking out.



These doors stopped me cold.  The hardware.  The scuffed and
missing kick plates.  How many feet?  How many hands?



Hardware Love.



Peeling paint does not necessarily put me into handy-man mode.
The walls and this window frame were particularly nice.

  

The building's current name.

Stay tuned for the river and PEBBLES tomorrow!  

/Julianna