Mish Mosh Time!

The first mish mosh post of August! 

What's a mish mosh post? Several small things, too small for a full blog post, combined into one. ("Mish mosh" was also a common answer when we kids used to ask our mom what she was making for dinner. In other words, she really didn't know at that moment! LOL)

My BreyerFest Volunteer Model

This gorgeous guy arrived yesterday - Salut, the 2025 volunteer model.

His paint job is stunning and he is very, very matte.

I liked all three colors (it was a gambler's choice) but black was the color I liked best. I am thrilled to have this pretty guy in my collection. Thanks, Breyer!

Some New Dala Fabric

The theme for BreyerFest 2026 is Midsummer Fair (I love that!) and Scandinavian horses will be a big part of the event. Daughter-in-love Emily is Swedish/Canadian, and I know from her that Dala horses are very much a part of their culture.

I have begun to buy Dala-themed fabrics in anticipation of the event.

I made two XLTs from each of these stylized Dala fabrics

and they sold before I could even advertise them! I've got more more of this fabric on order - I really like the black and red and may make one for me.

One new order of fabric has arrived while another is still on the way.

Some of the fabric (like this one) is already spoken for - I've had people contact me after they heard the 2026 BreyerFest theme and ask specifically to make them an order using Dala horses.

Since I am currently awash in all fabrics Dala (LOL), I'm trying to think of something I could make Emily from some of it. This fabric would make a nice pillow.

I will send these pics to those who asked me to make them some haversacks using a Dala print and then I will use the rest of it for my stash of completed haversacks. (Which is very depleted at the moment between recent sales and donations to a couple of shows.)

I reordered more of this Halloween fabric. It's sold out twice and is very popular. (I like it, too.)

And I got more of this burro fabric in. Burros are also a very requested print for haversacks.

Cambria & Titan Keep Busy!

Shrek the Musical (and the infamous How Now Brown Cow video) hadn't been over for more than a few days when they were back recording another video.

This was a different composer and it was a Christmas song that they were recording. Titan is in the middle with Cambria to his left in the back row.

New to their experience was a modeling gig.

After seeing the kids in Shrek the Musical, Christy Marshall Photography contacted Jessica and asked if the kids would do a photo shoot for her. As I understand it, it is to be used advertising mini shoots for back to school pictures. (Photo by Christy Marshall Photography.)

That's new to their wheelhouse (and their mama's!) but Cambria and Titan are having fun doing projects like these.

Summertime! And the Livin's Easy

Leslie and Rick plant a huge garden every year, and they focus on heirloom varieties and indigenous plants.

This was their corn a few weeks ago...

... and this is that same corn right now! I think Rick stood in the bed of the truck to take that photo. Wowza!

Hmm, I actually had more mish mosh to share, but this post has become quite long so I'll share the rest in a day or two.

Stay 'tooned!

Time for Some Mish Mosh!

It's been a while, but it's time for a mish mosh post - little things that I'd like to include in my journal but which don't make for a full blog post. So, they get combined into one post as a mish mosh!

Between Torlinie and Ella, I've mentioned soccer several times this month. Ian, Mila, and Lukie are all on teams again this spring, with Ian playing on a traveling team down by Indianapolis, and then Mila and Ian on teams coached by Curt. 

Vanessa's photography business, Pearl, is sponsoring both Mila and Lukie's teams, so it's a real family activity.

Guess who scored a hat trick in his last game? (A hat trick in soccer is three goals in one game.)

Lukie! And then Mila scored a goal in her game later in the day. Congratulations, you two!

It took us some time to convince Tammo that, while he was staying with us, it was okay to sleep on the bed and the couch. Not any more!

Now, it is not uncommon to go looking for him and discover this.

That sixth grade boi makes us smile all the time.

Lisa invites him over occasionally to spend the night with Nash. She has a doggie door and a fenced in back yard, and those boys run in and out of the house, playing hard for HOURS.

Tammo has spied Craig and me walking up to Lisa's door.

Of course, he has called an alert and now the pack is milling at the door in excitement. (Not that we will be able to get in without some effort!)

I took a quick snap of Lisa's "wall o'dogs" in her office. Gifts from us, an artist friend painted them from pictures I sent her.

Top to bottom: Millie, Nashie, and Mama.

Some of my students have chosen to stay in touch after leaving my classroom. This gal, Ryan, is one of them.

She texted me a few weeks ago, said she was going to be in Indy with her folks, and asked if Craig and I could meet her and her parents for dinner. Of course, I said yes!

I was her 4th and 5th grade teacher and she was one of those kids you are delighted to have walk through your doors every day. (I also taught two of her brothers and a sister.) Lucky me to have gotten two years with Ryan, and how fun it was to see her again (taller than me!), hear what she's been doing, and what her future plans are. 

These gaudy buttons have been sitting on my desk for weeks. I'd ordered a bunch of buttons to make sleeve buttons, and someone goofed at the warehouse.

These are enormous and not even remotely 18th century!

Still, they made me laugh and the company told me to keep them. (And then sent the buttons I'd actually ordered.) Leslie thought they were pretty funny, too, and we made a lot of jokes about them and how I could use them in my 18th century sewing. After all that, now I am trying to come up with a trick to play on her with them sleeve-button wise. Stay 'tooned on that.

I've gotta scoot - Ian has a soccer game at 8:15 this morning and Mila's game is at 11:00.  (Lukie's was last night.) 

Ian last night watching Lukie play. 

Mila chose to watch the match from a different vantage point - up in a tree.

It's also Ian's birthday today so the plan is to give him our gift after the game, but it's raining and the games may be cancelled. We may need to make alternate plans for that.

Stay 'tooned!

A New Mish Mosh Post!

It's been another busy week, much of it spent either at the sewing table or at various appointments. Time for a new mish mosh post as a result!

Doggy Fun

Ever tried to go to bed only to find your dog has already claimed your spot?

Try this to get them to move:

And the bed is already toasty warm, too. Win-win!

Poor Pepper! Yep, I did it AGAIN.

Smart girl that she is, she knew where her frisbee had landed and ran around underneath it for a while hoping it would slide down, but it didn't. I had to buy her a new one. Sorry, girl!

Sewing Surprise

I don't do alterations or sew things to order for folks - it is just too stressful. But once in a while I make an exception, and this week I was asked to hem some pants that were too long.

I'll say they were too long! I ended up cutting twelve inches off each leg and then put in a 1 3/4 inch hem!

On another note, there is always a learning curve with a new sewing tool. I've used rotary cutters for years, but the angle on my new one is different and I had a little mishap.

Finally! I Found It!

Model horse collectors know the thrill of hunting for that one special piece or variation. And when you find it, it's a sweet feeling.

Well, I finally found the elusive 1985 Feast of the Hunters' Moon button! 

My goal had been twofold - to find all the buttons that my mother had drawn (done!) and then to have one for each of my kids' birth years.

Local Son Curt's button proved to be highly elusive despite many checks of eBay and other sources. Other buttons were plentiful, but not the 1985. I've been looking for several years and finally Leslie surprised me by giving me the 1985 button from her own collection. (Thanks, Les!)

Miscellaneous Mish Mosh (M^3, Right?)

I found this surprise a few hours after Ian, Mila, and Lukie went home after a visit.

A rubber chicken sitting on my Russian egg and leaning against my Dad's old clock!

The story behind it? The chicken is from a lawn game called "Flickin' Chicken" where you try to thrown rubber chickens into a hoop on the ground. (The grands were throwing them into the trees instead. Um, yeah.) When they put the game away, someone decided one of the chickens needed to "incubate" the Russian egg. 

It made me laugh when I found it and I've left that chicken out on my buffet and on the egg because it still makes me smile every time I walk past it.

The Flickin' Chicken game was a gift from Moutain Mama Jessica. Speaking of her, here is one last photo of Jess as Mama Bear with two other cast members from Shrek the Musical.

I mentioned that I've had a lot of appointments recently. What a lovely surprise when, at one of them, the doctor's nurse walked in and it was the parent of one of my former students!

Her daughter Hannah had invited me come to her Senior Night as her most influential teacher last January. I wrote about that in a blog post titled, "Flying High," which now is true in more than one way.

This is Hannah skydiving last week to celebrate her 18th birthday! Flying high indeed!

On a sadder note, a teacher I taught with in Illinois passed away a few weeks ago.

Vickie and I taught on the same team at when we lived in Illinois.

There were four of us on our teaching team. (Left to right: Pam Green, Vickie Cromwell, Nancy Blanford, and me.)

Rest in peace, Vickie. Your beautiful smile and quick sense of humor will be missed.

Today is the last day to comment and enter for the August Give Away! All comments must be made before 11:59 PM Eastern time. Good luck!

A Mid February Mish Mosh

The weather has warmed up here and the snowpack that's been on the ground for over a month has finally melted. Reason to celebrate!

So, here's a mish mosh of some things that might also make you smile - they sure did me. And a couple other things thrown in because, you know, mish mosh!

Gesundheit, Molly!

Mama had a sneezing fit the other day and Lisa was able to catch the very last part of it on video.

In case the video doesn't work, here's a link to it on YouTube. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/Grb4pYpglBU?feature=share

Sweet girl, no one sneezes like you do!

A Letter Blitz from Titan

Pony Pals Kate, Cambria, and Titan are my penpals. I love getting letters from them and I save every one of them.

Sometimes those letters sit for a while after they've been written while waiting for a stamp or a parent to take them to the post office. When that happens...

I get a letter blitz! 

Which I don't mind at all. I grab a coke, settle into my cozy reading chair, and enjoy opening and reading those letters.

All three kids draw me little illustrations on their letters, and almost always one of them is a horse or pony.

Western Earthquakes? Should I Worry?

The west has been having a lot of minor earthquakes this year. Sarah has felt them in Montana, and Jessica in Utah. The epicenters have not been close to either of them so I wasn't too concerned until Jessie sent me this map.

The red lines are fault lines and they pass very close to her home. (The brown portion of the map indicates that that land is actually elevated and part of Dry Mountain.)

Their home is up on Dry Mountain and they have a retaining wall surrounding their back yard to hold the mountain back. The two fault lines are just beyond that sagebrush covered rise.

Honestly, I haven't ever worried about earthquakes for Jessie's family. Wildfires? Yes, and with good reason as they have come very close to her home in the past.

But now that I am aware of how close those fault lines are to her and that the area has had some shaking, I do feel a little trepidation.

Gimme Some Elsie Mae, Please!

The western part of the Isenbarger clan gathered in Idaho this past weekend to celebrate Elsie Mae.

Gimme was thrilled to be holding her first grandbaby and it looks as though Elsie Mae was equally thrilled, too.

The occasion was Elsie Mae's baby blessing. 

Andrew, Titan, Jessica, Cambria, Dondao (Todd's Grandpa name), Jayci, JC, Elsie Mae, Gimme, and Kyle.

Great Uncle Kyle holding his sweet great niece.

Thanks to a Zoom link, we were able to be there for Elsie Mae's blessing. We hope to meet her at a family gathering later this year.

Now That's Service!

Our local Bob Evans has really good food. And Friday night, we had a server who topped all other servers.

Lisa ordered a breakfast plate and asked if she could have a little more syrup. 

When our server brought that extra syrup to her, it was three pitchers! And, she'd brought us all fresh biscuits and extra butter. "These are hot and just out of the oven, so I thought you'd all like to have some," she said. Yes, ma'am, we sure would!

Giddy on Up and Into History!

I don't know who these people are, but when this photo appeared on one of my living history social media sites, I had to take a screen shot.

Full marks for keeping that living history vibe going! And how wonderful that, despite their need for assistance to attend, they found a way AND did it with smiles!

Hmmmm... I wonder what I could do to my walker to make it horsey...

It's Wednesday, so Mama and Nashie are coming to spend the day. With the warmer weather, we will be able to be outside with them more today. 

I'll be sewing the very last trade shirt for Kalamazoo when its my turn to be upstairs, and cutting out bedgowns when I am downstairs keeping Molly company.

Should be a great day; hope yours is as well.