This and That

Troy Went to see Troy this weekend. We met in Lexington, Virginia, burial place of General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson. Did you know he was mortally wounded by his own men and had to have his left arm amputated? Its buried behind a 7-11 somewhere. He's buried in the... get this... Stonewall Jackson Cemetary. How original is that?? Beautiful, quaint, friendly southern town. We spent the day shopping and eating. Originally I wanted to go to this particular hobby and craft store but we couldn't find it and ended up in a variety of other establishments, including a store called, "Celtic Tides," where we purchased a celtic cross, necklace, and a lapel pin with my family surname on it with a brief explanation as to origin and meaning - no small wonder - my surname means, "defiance." (Celti, you would have been in 7th Heaven!!) Troy also found some old vinyl records at an antique store. At another store, where we purchased a Traveller's Writing Chest (guess who that was for?), the lady began talking to us and Troy told her he was on his way to Afghanistan shortly, she looked at him and said, in the most sincere voice, "May you be safe, and thank you for your service." I could tell he was touched. After we left I passed along all of your well-wishes and he smiled and thanked me... and now I thank you. Oh, and that original craft/hobby store? We found it. The bottom floor is 70% BEADS!! BEADS!! I also found some Das air hardening clay and a new bead book. I hope to go back there. In the meantime, I'll be using the beads for a multitude of projects. I'm still working on the one choker, a bracelet, and amulet bag. I'm selling all of these. Poor Troy, he's so left-brained he has no concept of this type of creativity. The Relic It was fairly anti-climatic dismantling the relic. I didn't even have to use the damn crowbar. I used a $2.00 screwdriver from Dollar General and puny Nanner muscles. I will probably use a crowbar to further dismantle parts of it. I had no film but I will at least take a picture of the pieces. It became apparent this will be a rather long project. More Projects * I'm attempting to fix my dryer. I know its not the thermal fuse. With my luck, it is indeed the heating element. * Cleaning the computer/laundry/craft room. See, I can't work on the quilts if I don't have my table. No table... no quilts. I still need to send swatches of the material I have received from Trashman and Cybele to Angi to see if she can further match for me. Perhaps I can do that while continuing to get this room into shape. I have waaaaaay too much junk!! * Beading, even more beading... lots of beading. I'm going to try and get enough together for some summer festivals and things. There's a big Arts & Crafts Fair every November in the capitol city. I'm not sure how much a booth is but I'll have to see if I even have enough that if I sold every piece I could get my money back from the booth. I'm thinking of combining projects and doing a series of amulet bags using quilt patterns as inspiration. * I'm also going to try my hand at sculpting faces for bead dolls. I suppose they would be similar to Aimee's sister's dolls except they would be made of beads. Well, I guess they would have similar faces. I'm not so sure how this is going to turn out. Should be interesting to see. That's it from my end of the world. Hope you guys had a good weekend!