Coming to Indiana - The 2026 Family Bocce Tournament!

First Post of the Day 

Scroll down if you missed the accidental Third Post of the Day from yesterday!

Not only did Sarah want to make stepping stones, she asked if we could stop by Craig's family's graves while they visited.

The graves are in a lovely, out in the middle of nowhere cemetery about twenty miles south of Lafayette.

 

It's an easy detour as we headed down to Indianapolis, 

and since Craig and Sarah are avid genealogists, we made the trek out to Colfax.

Even a mowed cemetery lawn can defeat my walker so I stayed back with Craigs' parents' and grandparents' graves while he, Todd, and Sarah hiked up the hill to pay their respects at the much older family graves.

Craig's parents' graves. Finished, we were  back on the road to Indy.

Jenny was very excited to use the tablecloth she had embroidered and it looked lovely. So much work! But so worth it, too.

I am in charge of awards, and so I'd brought this year's ribbons to Indy with me. The trophy is always brought by the person who had won it the previous year - in this year's case, Lisa. (She hadn't arrived yet when I took this photo.)

After eating a pitch in lunch, the bocce tournament was organized and we began.

Trinity and Rick played the first round.

A win for Trin Bin! (Makes that long trip from Billings, Montana worth it, right, Trin?)

Next up, a mother/daughter duo. Yeah, I drew last year's champion for my first match.

And got squashed. Ah well - maybe next year!

Sarah drew Jenny's elementary school friend, Ellen, and they shook hands before their round.

Ellen has a Friesian and I always enjoy talking with her, but I was rooting for Gimmee.

"Wait! What?? I won? I'm moving on to the next round??" You sure are, Gimmee!

Craig then competed against Trinity. Hard to know who to root for when you are married to one competitor and Grammy to the other.

Which means you are happy regardless of who wins - in this case, Trinity!

Quarterfinals round: Lisa versus Trinity. Trin got some encouragement from her parents beforehand.

Trying to intimidate Lis didn't work - it just made her laugh.

The winner would go on to compete for the trophy; the loser would play again for 3rd or 4th place.

Lisa was last year's winner and very much wanted to repeat.

 

And she did it - she moved on to the championship round against...

Aunt Leslie. She who is already a two time winner herself.

Talk about some tension! 

It was a good three rounds.

And Lisa walked away...

The winner for the second year in a row!

Of course, we then had to have our traditional awards ceremony with everyone standing on the podium Jenny's front steps.

The mother/daughter duo from Montana got 3rd (Trinity) and 4th (Sarah.)

Leslie graciously accepted her second place ribbon, 

While Lisa took the blue ribbon and the trophy home again for a second year! 

And of course, ever since the Great Bocce Mishap of 2021, we always sing We are the Champions to celebrate the winners, and so the family broke into song.

Craig always gets to sing solo that fateful, final line that nearly took out Jenny's friend in 2021.

Big thanks to Todd and Craig for managing some rowdy, competitive family members on a hot July day. You are the champions, too!

Making Progress, a Mistake, & More Icy Weather

After nearly selling out at last year's Feast of the Hunters' Moon, this month it was okay to just start sewing whatever I wanted to work on. The size didn't matter, the block print patterns I selected didn't matter - I needed to restock almost everything and so I could get to work without  taking inventory.

I hit the tipping point this week. While I still have many items to make, it was time to stop randomly sewing and check what I have already made and see what I still needed to sew.

I started with the trade shirts, my biggest seller. Ten are completed, including two kids' shirts.

Then I looked at chemises. Six are finished with two more cut out and prepped for stitching up.

I took note of sizes and the number of each that I had in one list,

and then made a second list of what I want to be sure I make in order to have a good assortment for the Kalamazoo event in mid March. 

I also looked through my patterns - I was planning to draft a 2XL pattern for a chemise, but I had this nagging feeling that I already had that pattern. And I did - I found it in some things my mother had sent me. It was labeled "queen," the old, 1980s catch all size for larger women.

I laid it out and put the XL pattern pieces over the queen sized ones to compare them. I was right! The queen sized chemise pattern from my mother was the next size up from the XL. Queen is what is now called an XXL or 2XL and the size I'd been looking for.

It's now cut out and prepped and ready for sewing.

Notice anything familiar about the fabric weights I am using instead of pins to hold my pattern pieces in place? (Aside from the very obvious magnetic pin cushion, LOL)

They are Yankee Candle toppers! I usually have a candle burning while I am in my office or sewing room and as I was disposing of a depleted candle, I looked at its topper and had a light bulb moment. (Er, candlewick moment? Hah!) Why not try that topper as a fabric weight?

It worked very well, so I have begun saving them for use when I cut out patterns.

This week's work was very productive - three new chemises. Since all but the most recent are already pictured above, I'll just show the one I completed Friday afternoon.

This is a size XL

with sleeve buttons of silver and "paste" (rhinestone).

I was doing the final pressing and was ready to close down the sewing room for the evening, and I guess my mind was too much on our evening plans to go out to dinner with Lisa.

I set the iron down, went to remove the chemise from the ironing board, and bumped my arm into the edge of the hot iron.

Oooo, did that hurt! Luckily I just grazed the side of the iron but it was a good reminder to not get preoccupied with other things while using it!

My plans for today may be changing. Lisa just texted me and said that it is very slick outside - we had snow and ice again last night. Right after her text, I got one from Leslie who also said the roads were very bad.

I was going to get some flowers and head to the cemetery later this morning. A friend lost two children on this date years ago, and I do that for her every year. I'll see what the road conditions are later this morning but if I have to postpone going to the cemetery for a day or so, my friend will understand.

Wish me luck and stay warm!

A Day Trip with Lisa

I'd planned to spin to win for the October Give Away this morning, but we still have a house guest here. The guest bedroom abuts my office, and I don't want to wake her up by talking and recording. 

She's leaving later this morning, so for sure the winners will be posted tomorrow! Sorry for the delay.

Saturday morning Lisa asked me to help her look for some carnival glass for a gift for a friend. I'd already looked for her earlier this week and had found a few pieces, but she had a specific out of town shop she wanted to visit. A road trip with Lisa that gives me more time with my daughter? I was all in. 

I was also planning to look for HSOs but, unlike the place I visited Thursday, the HSOs were scarce.

I did find this sweet Hagen Renaker robin.

I debated, but left it behind in the end. I do have a collection within my collection of non horsey Hagen Renakers, but I'm not actively adding to it right now.

I wish I'd thought to put my hand in this photo to show just how big this bust is. I'd say it was at least two feet tall! There was also a white bust last time I visited this shop, but someone must have bought it.

Believe it or not, I have a comic book collection tucked away in the sewing room closet. It's all StarWars and goes back to the original movies.

I had started giving them away to the grands when Lisa's friend, James, stopped me, asking me to send him a close up photo of one of them. I did and it turned out I had at least one that was very, very valuable - it had recently sold for thousands of dollars on an auction site. Needless to say, I  intend to do some research before I give any more of them away!

Aside from some early Superman comic books, I don't buy comic books anymore. But I did enjoy seeing these horsey ones.

I was pretty sure this Susecion and Le Fire set was the original set from 2002 - 2005 and not the re-release set that came out in 2014. I already have both plus the seller wanted $94. I left it behind.

Lisa found lots and lots of carnival glass as we walked through the store. She was able to get a gift for her friend that she thought would be a nice addition to an already nice collection.

As for me, I did bring something home, too. Some Williamsburg Pottery.

Williamsburg Pottery made replicas of 18th century dishes, candlesticks, vases, pitchers, and more. Lots of it used to be sold at The Feast of the Hunters' Moon. But the pottery closed about ten years ago and it's getting hard to find it second hand.

So, when I spied this creamer on a shelf for just $6, I snapped it up. I also found a small basket that I knew was made by one of the basket makers at the Feast, but the seller wanted $35. It was probably worth that, but I already have five similar baskets of assorted sizes, so I did not buy it.

Several of the baskets from the Feast basket maker that I already have.

On the way home, Lisa did something very special for me. There is a very tiny cemetery just beside the road to the antique shop. For years I have wanted to stop and look at it, but never have. She knew that, and surprised me by pulling off the road and parking so I could get out of the car and take a look.

It was a very old family graveyard that extended back to the Revolutionary War, with the largest grave marker that of a soldier who served in the Revolutionary War and seemed to be the father, husband, and grandfather of everyone else who was buried there.

I find cemeteries, especially old, out in the middle of nowhere ones, peaceful and even sacred and holy. 

I like to wonder who the people are that are buried there, what their lives' stories are, and what brought them to Indiana when it was still a wild and remote place.

Lisa patiently waited until I finished, and then we hopped into the car and headed home. It was a fun day that ended with something very meaningful to me. Thanks, Lis!

I still have two "mystery finds" from Thursday to share with ya'll and a couple other things. And look for the spin to win tomorrow. 

Stay 'tooned!