It’s time to get those knitting needles out again.
Darlene, who I am a huge fan of, invited me to Alabama Chicks with Sticks – it’s a knitting group that meets twice/month at a coffee house. Everyone there was just so warm & welcoming, and I left knowing how to purl (finally) and making a bunch of new friends!!
Friday afternoon, Av and I went to Artwalk – it’s an annual show in Birmingham, and one of the neatest things about it (besides the art) is that the artwork is shown inside all of these really neat downtown spaces…places you might never otherwise go in. It is so interesting to see what all the different businesses have done with their interiors.
The most interesting thing we saw was John Lytle Wilson‘s work.
In St. Florian, Alabama there is an alpaca farm. And on this farm, fiber from the alpacas is spun and knit into beautiful sweaters and cardigans, hats, scarves, and blankets.
I had no idea that alpacas were raised for their…wool?! Their website says that if you have your own fiber, you can send it to them and they can make something custom for you too.
I know people raise angora goats for mohair, and angora rabbits for their wool, but I never thought about alpacas! The farm even sells some of their herd – and they look really sweet…I wonder if alpacas are the kind of animals that would be good pets, or if they just do their own thing and have a sort-of aloof temperament.
Av and I visited the Mobile Museum of Art last week, to see the Shearwater Pottery and George Ohr (thru September 30) exhibit and the Nall exhibits (thru September 24).
For the ‘Alabama Art’ series, Nall did a portrait of different local artists, and then the museum featured one or more pieces by that artist. For instance, one of the portraits is of Chip Cooper, then the museum exhibited three different photographs by Chip Cooper. Some of the artists even contributed by decorating the frame around their portrait (Bruce Larsen’s nest was sooo great).
In the series were:
Clifton Pearson
Betty Sue Matthews
Flemming Tyler Wilson
Yvonne Wells
Chip Cooper
Bruce Larsen
Charlie Lucas
Frank Fleming
Steve Skidmore
William Christenberry
Jimmy Lee Sudduth
Bill Nance
Mose Tolliver
Kathryn Tucker Windham
The Alabama Art book contains all these portraits and works by the featured artists, so it’s a great reference – I already had it, but they had more available at the museum. Fannie Flagg wrote the book’s introduction (“(Alabama is)…a land of voodoo, hillbilly music, blues, gospel, barbecue, fried catfish, gumbo, and pickled pigs’ feet…”) and Rick Bragg wrote the preface.
The Shearwater Pottery and George Ohr pottery exhibits were *fabulous*. The George Ohr pieces were fascinating, and I loved the Shearwater pieces with the blue rain glaze, especially – Dancing Man vase (1939), Mammy and Child (1940), and Chesty Horse (1940).
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I have to mention two really clever artists the museum features in its permanent collection also:
“Flight from Servitude” (1998), done by (Leslie Ann) Les Christensen is a pair of wings constructed with hundreds of spoons. They also have a carrot cabinet by Craig Nutt, who is just endlessly clever. His vegetable-inspired furniture is amazing!
My favorite season of the year is Fall. The magazines are starting to show nice Autumn features, I saw mums for sale at one of the garden centers, it was finally under 90+* outside this week, and of course today is the first big day for college football (yay!)!
I made this for an LSU fan…it’s a challah cover that’s perfect for this season!
Supplies:
Two colors of fleece, in team colors – about 1/2 yard each
Fabric tack (fabric glue)
Computer, printer
Sharpie pen
Scissors
Ruler
An existing challah cover (as a guide)
On the computer, I printed out three sheets, each with the letters of the team. These are 300pt Arial black. Cut the letters out, and these will be the cutting template.
I gathered the fabric and cut them to size. I put an existing challah cover over the top, measured an extra 4″ around each side (this makes room for the fringe), and cut the fleece to those dimensions:
I centered the letters on the piece of fabric that I wanted to be the top color of the challah cover. Cutting the letters out of the purple lets the gold on the bottom layer show through.
I traced the letters, and cut them out. Next, I placed the gold fleece behind the purple. I took fabric tack and ran a bead of glue around and underneath all the edges of the letters. That needs to dry overnight.
With the fleece together, I cut a 4″ square notch on each of the four corners. To make the fringe, I took my scissors and cut slits through both pieces of the fabric together, about one inch wide and four inches up, on the two long sides of the cover, then knotted the gold and purple strips togethe.
All done! Geaux Tigers!
On our way home from New Orleans, we went through Biloxi and stopped for a little while at the Beau Rivage – it re-opened August 29th. We haven’t been there since early August in 2005.
We didn’t stay the night, but we went inside to see all the renovations. Everything looks really, really nice.
This was our first time to stay at the Place d’Armes in the Quarter. It’s not a chain, and it’s supposed to be more…quaint and historic than some of the other hotels around. Rather than just one building, the hotel is made up of five or so separate buildings around a central courtyard. Although Av and I have our favorites in New Orleans (the Ritz, the W, and the Monteleone), we still like to try new hotels. I had high hopes for this one.
Until I saw the room.
The bed was just flat (and so were the pillows). When I changed into my pj’s and went around the side of the bed to take the bedspread off the bed, my feet got wet because the air conditioning unit was leaking. Yuck!
Anyway, we decided we could manage it one night (since it was pretty late anyway), but we checked out early the next day.
It’s really a shame, because the surroundings are so pretty!
The pool is small but gorgeous:
…and it really has just SO much potential. I mean, can you get much more beautiful than this stairway?:
…maybe we just got one of the last (worst) rooms that evening, since we were so late coming in. Some of the other rooms from their website look so much prettier & nicer!
We had such a great time at the Saints game!
This was a pre-season game, and it was held in Jackson, MS at Millsaps. Traffic was c-r-a-z-y because they didn’t have enough people working, but the nice thing was that some of the houses on the street we were on decorated for the game.
We were wondering who we would get to see play, since this was a pre-season game, but Peyton Manning quarterbacked for the Colts most of the game. We got to see a lot of Dante Stallworth, Deuce McAllister, and Reggie Bush for the Saints. I was really hoping that we’d get to see Reggie Bush do something great, but it just wasn’t a very good night for the Saints (we lost 27-14).
One of the very neatest things about the game was that the ‘Sonic Boom of the South’ – the Jackson State band – played during halftime. This isn’t a great video (when my camera doesn’t know what to focus on in movie-mode, it focuses in and out – but the very best part of this is what the announcer says):
“…and the most delightful and delectable sights and sounds available to any audience any time, and any where. Friends, it’s the apex of excellence…”
There’s another good movie of Jackson State on their website here, from when they opened the 34th Annual Image Awards.
The Saints did better in the second half, but we couldn’t catch up in time.
We loved the game, though!
Av and I have stayed at this Hilton before. We were on the concierge level, so they left us chocolates at night, and breakfast was available in the morning.
We stayed here for the Saints pre-season game. I think almost everyone else at the hotel was there for the game, too!
Av and I are big readers. The funny thing is, we hardly ever read the same things. Even with newspapers, Av reads the big-city papers and I subscribe to The Advertiser-Gleam.
I love the A-G. The only news they cover is news from their particular area (Guntersville / Marshall County, AL). If it happened the next county over, you won’t find it in the A-G.
On the front page of last Wednesday’s paper, there was an article with a picture of a man holding a rattlesnake skin, telling that it would “hang in the Guntersville Public Libary for awhile.”
The story starts:
Fred Lanting loves rattlesnakes. He says they’re delicious.
Knowing that Fred eats rattlers, his neighbor at Parches Cove got out of his car and killed a big one when he saw it crossing the road. He dispatched the snake with a large stick and a blow to the head.
Then it goes on to say how Fred prepared the rattlesnake.
Anyway, I have a crush on this paper. In the classifieds a couple of weeks ago, they had this notice:
The thing that gets me is…they note that the bird was “headed south.”
The A-G is known for writing great obits of the everyday citizens of Marshall County. I generally don’t read obits, just because I make an effort to avoid bad news, but every now and then I catch one that talks about the idiosyncrasies of a particular person, the things that made them unique and wonderful in life. Those are good.
Back in July, I was reading one of the independent papers from Baton Rouge, and in the editor’s letter, he mentioned that he had lost a very dear friend, and he printed the obit. This has to be the best one, ever. It’s long, but it’s a wonderful account of who the person is.
I have always wanted to write an obituary but I always thought it would be my own, not that of my friend Ann O’Brien, who died on July 1, 2006, twenty days shy of her 55th birthday. Her sister Betsy O’Brien told me I could make it long.
Ann O’Brien is now playing with my dead dogs, cats, her grandparents, Carmen and Leandre Marechal and Mary and William O’Brien, her Uncle Rene Marechal, her dear friend Elliot Snellings, other family members, my parents, friends, and total strangers, because that was the kind of person she was and still is.
Ann is survived by her wacky but loving husband, John Preble, and sons, Andrew and William Preble, of Abita Springs. She is also survived by her parents Alyce “the storyteller” and Charlie “God-Loves-You” O’Brien of Covington along with her sisters, Christine Lozes and her husband Bill and their children, Brian and Allison, of Covington, Betsy O’Brien of Washington D.C., brothers Michael O’Brien of Folsom and his children Wesley of New York and Chris of New Orleans, and David O’Brien and his wife Lillian and children Maegan and Sean, of Mandeville. She is further survived by her mother and father-in-law, Marie-Louise and Warren Preble, her brother-in law Warren Preble and his friend Lillian, Uncle Paul “Brother Elias” Marechal, and Uncles Willam and Edward O’Brien and their families. And oh-my-gosh so many friends, more friends than anyone I’ve ever known, at least two thousand six hundred and forty-nine of them, including myself, Francie Rich, and my husband John Hodge, and others who can’t be listed because they didn’t pay to have their names listed in this obituary.
Ann O’Brien was born on a really poor sharecropper’s farm in Oklahoma…skip that part, I’m saving that for my obituary. Ann graduated from St. Scholastica Academy in Covington and, as long-time SSA teacher Alyce O’Brien remembered her, she was a “pleasant child, with street smarts instead of book smarts.” Oh, I’m sorry, she was referring to Cathy Deano, not Ann. Ann studied painting and got her BFA at LSU before becoming the famous jeweler she is today. She was a president of the Louisiana Crafts Council, a member of the Rhino Gallery in New Orleans, the Mississippi Craftsmen’s Guild and a host of other organizations. Her work has appeared in national publications and has been exhibited in fine crafts shops around the country. As Ann perfected her craft she also perfected the craft of helping other artists sell their work. In addition to her own work and helping other artists, she has done extensive volunteer work with children. She also worked as an artist-in-residence in St. Tammany Parish schools and as a tutor at Mercy Family Center in Mandeville. She and her husband, John Preble, founded the UCM Museum in Abita Springs, where Ann loved leading the Push Mow Parade on her bicycle.
She traveled with her grandparents to Europe as a child and made yearly visits to Uncle Paul at the Trappist monastery near Atlanta and to Navarre Beach, Florida. Ann didn’t like to be alone and she never was and isn’t now.
Ann was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier this year. She never liked going to doctors but ended up caring deeply for her doctors, Drs. Carinder, McCormick, Saux, Suarez, Groves, Seicshnaydre, Ehrensing, Bobrowski, and Torcson. Her hospital room was party central and the place to be. Ann’s illness turned out to be an incredible gift to her family and friends. Her room was always full of laughter, love and joy. Personally I’m not one for large group gatherings, but I loved going to see her in the hospital and at her parents’ house, where her mother would tell fabulous stories and I met old and new, all wonderful people who have enriched my life.
Whenever Ann called she would say, “Hi, this is Ann O’Brien,” as if her thin shaky voice and caller ID didn’t give her away. She didn’t like change, so dying is a major step for her. She laughed easily, could talk about anything to anyone and her only fault was that she never talked ugly about anyone. She is the epitome of a gentle soul even when she got mad at John Preble, which to know him is to get mad at him. She was kind and generous and we are still expecting great things from her.
Ann treasured the trees on her property in Abita Springs. She would often give us plants and trees and office supplies for Christmas gifts. Hurricane Katrina took most of her trees in Abita. Maybe she went to be with them. Many of us will think of Ann when we see camellias, azaleas, and trees.
One consolation of dying young is having a large funeral, and anyone who could figure out a way to sell tickets to Ann’s would be set up for life. John Hodge had a dream at the moment Ann died. Ann was driving a truck in Mexico then riding a bicycle with flowing skirts. He kept thinking, “doesn’t anyone know she is sick?” She fell off her bicycle and everyone “tackled” her with love. When it’s your turn to go, be sure to look for Ann if she’s not already at the entrance waiting for you. My only regret is that Ann didn’t have a goofy nickname.
Please feel free to send flowers, plants, or trees, or send donations in Ann’s memory to the Leonard C. Thomas Hematology and Oncology Specialists Foundation, 339 Starburst Circle, Covington, LA 70433, (985) 892-9090.
Relatives, friends and total strangers are invited to attend the Memorial Mass at St. Benedict Catholic Church, 20307 Smith Road, Covington, LA 70435, at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, July 3, 2006. E.J. Fielding & Sons is in charge of arrangements.
…”she was kind and generous and we are still expecting good things from her.”
Wow.
