Hey everybody--great meeting last night. Thanks to everyone for attending and contributing all the drieds and kewl stuff. Maggie--we are so sorry to have missed you--we are keeping you in our thoughts. And a huge THANK YOU to Patrick for volunteering and taking the time to teach his fascinating French wire technique. This is such a beautiful art and we are very lucky to have Patrick in our midst. As time goes on we hope to learn more from him. He was so generous with his time, temperment and materials and we really appreciate it. I know Rosie will go forward with learning this technique and hopefully some others will too.
Okay--now to the meeting--we covered a lot of ground at this one and made some good future plans.
First off--our Lurie trip--I will get with Ben--looks like the first Sat. in November is the chosen day--that way if the weather tanks we can reschedule for the second Sat. It doesn't matter how you get to Lurie--most of us will probably take the South Shore, but its really immaterial. Once I have conflabulated with Ben we can firm up our timetables and travel plans.
We also threw the idea around of making a fun trip to Jasper Pulaski to see the Sandhill Cranes. This really is something worth seeing--it should be on everyone's "Bucket List". I will get some particulars figured out and post more on this later. This trip will take place on a Sunday--we want to include Dave in the group and that will work out best for him. It will be a morning trip and we will have Breakfast together someplace.
Next--the October meeting will be at the North Liberty Library on Oct. 14th--this is a THURSDAY at 6 pm. You need to phone the library ahead if you weren't included in the head count we took at the meeting. Free plants may be involved, so be sure you are counted ahead of time. See the "Current stuff for this month" sidebar and the top banner for more info. Mary Ann A. spearheaded this whole endeavor and thanks to her for pulling this together. It will be great. After the program we will walk across the parking lot to Bluebird house for a quickie meeting. Debbie Brown will be our hostess and will tell us a little bit about how she rescued this very special house from the brink of destruction.
Next on the list was the upcoming district meeting. This will be in Middlebury on Oct. 20th. Registration forms were passed out--get in touch with me if you need one. If you want to go you need to get your registration form sent in or at least email and let them know you are coming by Sept. 30th. The fee for the day is 17.00 and you must be paid up beforehand. Rosie, Shirley and I are going--anyone else is welcome. Shirley volunteered to drive--she can haul 5 in her car. We can carpool more drivers if necessary. This will be an enjoyable day and you will meet a lot of really terrific people. Thanks to Rosie for filling us in on a lot of particulars. As a life member of the State and National clubs she knows a lot of stuff about how these things operate--and its great to have that knowledge base in such a generous club member.
In connection with this--I got a letter from Joan Stone about the State Convention in 2011 which will be held in Merrilville April 6 and 7. This is an important event that she would like as many members as possible to attend. Our district will host this in 2012 and she wants us to be informed of what the meetings are like, since all hands will be needed on deck to make our 2012 meeting a success.
Next--SHIRTS from the fabulous Jan at Squirrel-de-la-Renta. Jan is a wonderful person whom we hope will join our club in the future. For now we can enjoy her terrific skill with an embroidery machine as she puts logos on our shirts for us. Cindy will act as a liason with Jan--and all you need to do is buy the garment of your choice, wash and dry it as you normally would, and then get it to Cindy. Her phone and address are in your member list, or you can just bring garments to the meeting and she will take it from there. The fee is 5.00 per garment. If you want something other than a shirt--say a tote for instance--it will depend on the individual piece as to how the logo will be applied. Use some common sense here--she probably can't stitch the logo on a piece of chain mail you want to wear at the next Rennaisance fair. Normal garment weight fabrics should be fine. Colors are up to you--keep mind the image will show up best on a light or medium color. Green might not be the best choice because some of the design elements will get lost. Many thanks to Cindy for spending the time needed to make this a reality for us.
We talked about some other meeting ideas--Thyme of Grace Restaurant for December, Unity Gardens, a JF New tour, a trip to the wonderful Botanic Garden Sue found in Elkhart, maybe a Panera dinner with our laptops sometime to make some books like the one Susan sent me. Ideas are abounding. Keep them flowing.
Rosie filled us in on details of what could be a fabulous fun weekend driving through LaPorte county enjoying the Sunflower Festival, Garwood Orchard, Barn Fest and the Botanic Boutique. Hop in the car and spend an amazing day.
Okay--at that point we quit the meeting--forgot to "adjourn" it--OH WELL. But we were focused on the fun at hand and Patrick got down to work showing how to construct the incredible beaded flowers that he learned to make in times gone by. And in truth, it is a skill FROM times gone by--having been one of the gentle pursuits of Victorian times, when gardening was at its zenith in society. We have some members, Marianne and Rosie for sure, whose skill at this kind of lovely precise work will most certainly lend itself to making these charming objects. Patrick is a wonderful teacher--friendly and patient. I know more than one person commented to me about the breadth of his knowledge. We thank him so much for contributing.
As for me--I gave a quickie demo about working with dried flowers--something I used to do a great deal of--but am kind of rusty at now. Marianne was nice enough to bring some teacups so I could show the basics of cutting and using "Sahara" foam for dried flowers. Bobbi had a darling old watering can she found in Boston and I made an arrangement for her using dried materials contributed by different folks. Thanks to Shirley for the pheasant feathers--they were the perfect textural touch and to Sue for her contributions of Helen's flower, phlox and salvia. They added another textural dimension to the piece. And thanks to Shirley for reminding me to bring the world famous pick machine; it really is a cool gadget and I am glad you all got a chance to see it loaded CORRECTLY and in action.
By the time we were all through it was quarter to ten and we piled out of Shirleys pole barn and headed home. Time with friends is ALWAYS time well spent. We are a neat group of fun, creative people, and I am really priveleged to be "large Marge in charge" of it. Thanks to all for making such a fun night.
