Local Color

Here are pics I've taken while out and about in our little town and parts of Knoxville. Our trees are not leafed-out yet but will be in a couple weeks, and then they will be Audacious Green... you know, the color that only God and little children color trees. LOL.

Each pic has a caption below, telling what it is. Enjoy our beautiful E. Tennessee!


A patch of Wild Chives in my daughter Des' yard. They're delicious in just about any savory dish!




Tiny blue wildflowers in the grass. I don't know what they're called, but they are ubiquitous.





This is looking down a side-street in Knoxville. Our car was on a main artery called Kingston Pike (US route 11).





This is from Kingston Pike, an exit going on to I-140 in Knoxville. When the tree is leafed out, you can imagine how pretty this is!!




This picture and the one below it are of daffodils growing along the major highways. This is the intersection at Clinton Highway, going North out of Knoxville. The picture below is a hillside along Pellissippi Parkway (I-140/TN 162), another major roadway.





This picture was taken at the entrance of our "Greenway" here in Lenoir City. It roughly follows Town Creek, and goes for 1.7 miles (2.735KM) in one direction. Walking it down & back is a 3.4 mile (5.47KM) walk. I usually start at a small park at the 1/2mile point and walk down and back. Because it is up & down hill, it's quite a workout! Several pics below were taken along this Greenway.
















Yes, this really is a car, embedded in the bank of Town Creek on the opposite side from the greenway walk. LOL!




Some moss growing on the North side of the path





These beautiful, blooming bushes are called Forsythia. They are very common here, and will bloom all summer.




This is either a Redbud Tree or a Red Oak. Either way, the leaf buds & new leaves are a deep maroon color. Beautiful!




Our Bradford ornamental pear tree is budding, in a week these clusters will all be little white, highly-fragranced flowers. Gorgeous Sinus Hell. LOL




This planting bed is in the Walmart parking lot. The tall bush is Holly, short one is Firebush, and flowers are Hyacinths.



Last pic... this is a pink Flowering Dogwood in the parking lot of the Loudon County Clerk's office. These grow wild here too, among the mountains!

A Tale of Two Tattoos

I have wanted a tattoo for YEARS. Well, two. No, three. Um, four, but that's pushing it. I've always, always wanted the Rolling Stones Tongue tattooed on my arse. Never was a huge fan of the Rolling Stones, but when I was in High School I had a patch of that sewn to the butt of a pair of my jeans, which drew more than a few suggestions. I don't think that one will ever happen, but it's funny.

I also want a band like my son-in-law Tony's, which has very medieval-looking tendrils and a sun in the center. But his has a broken rock in the center of the sun, & I want a smiley face with round purple glasses like I wear. That's another maybe.

Wanted Richard's name in fancy tiny script like Emma got on her arse in The Importance of Being Ernest, only on my upper thigh near the pantie line, but I don't think I'm going to do that anytime soon.

A few years ago my dh suggested I should have an ice cream cone just above my breast, for reasons all his own. But then he said, it doesn't matter, because he doesn't want me to have a tattoo at all. Ever.

Then on Valentine's day he changed his mind. Might have had a little to do with the fact that a while back I told him that when he dies, I'm gonna step over his corpse, go get a tattoo, and *then* call 911. So on Monday the 15th I went, took my art to the tattoo parlor, & on Tuesday the 16th I got inked.

The place I went is Alter Ego Tattoos in Knoxville, on Kingston Pike. Cleanest place I have EVER seen! Jon is the owner there, and has done tattoos for my daughter Des & her dh Tony. They said my artist would be Boyd. Here is my outline...

And hereon the left Boyd is, mopping up some extra ink. He has very WARM hands, by the way! Don't look at my face, didn't get a chance to put any makeup on! Arrggh!


Over there on the right, Brand new!


and here on the left, two days old. Healing nicely. Never did even get pink around the edges.

Alright, on to the next one! My ds#2 Artemas recently turned 18. When he was about 10 years old, he said, "Mom, you know that lizard like on the Sobe bottle? When I'm old enough, I'm gonna have a tattoo of that!"

I was like, "Sure you will." Everybody knows that between 10 years old and majority, little boys change their minds a bazillion times.

But he never did, and after I got my tattoo, he was like, when can I get one? He earned money this past year on Etsy, so I told him to get a pic he liked, we'd draw something up, & he could get it done.

So we took his drawing, along with my interpretation of it and a few notations, on over to Alter Ego and would you know, Boyd had an opening on Monday Feb. 22!

Artemas just about worked himself up into a state over whether it was going to hurt or not, so that by the time Boyd got started, he was beside himself. About 5 minutes in, he got to feeling light-headed. Didn't help that he only had a Mtn. Dew that morning.
Boyd gave him a glass of water & some skittles, took a short breather & got started again. Artemas handled it fine after that.


Here (above, right) he is getting the work done. There's also a video on Youtube called The Awesomest Lizard Tattoo, in which I am talking in the background. Maybe I was kidding, heh heh.

Here it is in the first hour, covered (& bleeding a little).


And here it is about an hour old, washed & dressed with chapstick. Great job! I love it, and Artemas does too!

Six Hours in the Car with 5 Kids

So this is what we did yesterday. We needed some oils for Richard's soapmaking. We also wanted to go to Seymour (which is about an hour's drive for us) to see about a minibike for the kids. We also had lost our internet connection that we pay so dearly for, the night before.

So I got on tech support and got the internet back, and while I was at it, had them reset the password to an email account I have been locked out of for 6 months because some idiot at the cable company didn't know how to spell the word I asked them to reset my password to the LAST time. I had 753 unread, mostly-spam emails. I cleaned out the inbox.

We made a batch of soap... Fish Away, which is an odor-removing cook's or gardener's or mechanic's or fisherman's soap with sweet orange oil and coffee in it.

I started moving code for our infamous Weird and Ugly Fabric Challenge, to a free site so we can relinquish the Rossoaps website we have had for 12 years, and which costs us big bucks but doesn't net any sales. I got about half of it done. After years of writing code, where if you left out ONE little quote mark " or caret > you spent an hour looking for it, now they have made it just about idiot proof. I could just cry.

UPDATE: I finished the N2Quilting Weird and Ugly Fabric Challenge page. If you want to see the quilts (and you are very brave), click the link above (it will open a new window) and enjoy!

Then we all piled in the car, and off we went. First South and East about 25 miles to a warehouse grocery where we have been buying our cottonseed oil for the last 4 years. Guess what? They don't carry it anymore!! So we got some cookies, toothpaste, and packages of eco-unfriendly styro plates and all piled back in the car.

Next about 20 miles North and East into Knoxville, to the oils supplier. We smelled fragrance oil samples until I was sick with a headache and bought gallons of olive oil, palm oil, and coconut oil.

Then we plunged headlong into Knoxville Rush Hour traffic on the Interstate. Please note, unlike some major metropolitan areas, Knoxville does NOT have backups going 15 MPH on the interstate at rush hour. NO. Knoxvillains (great pun, LOL) go 70 MPH in a 55 zone, right through town, no matter what time of the day or night or how heavy traffic is (with the occasional officer passing you). You take your life in your own hands here at rush hour. The good news is, you get where you are going in record time. The bad news is, if you are in the wrong lane when your exit comes up, you are S-O-L.

We took the wrong exit. But fortunately we only drove around the bad part of town for about 5 minutes before we got oriented and headed South to Seymour. Then we took the wrong branch of the turnoff to the guy's house and only drove 3.5 miles out of our way on a twisty country road.

Turns out the minibike was a pocket bike... nothing wrong with that really, but this one was styled like a crotch-rocket, with the handlebars down level with the seat. And the whole bike was only 3 feet long. Josiah fit on it fine, but I think he would be a danger to society in general on it. Veronica and Diantha, both of whom I would like to learn to ride about now, were both WAY to big for it. Their elbows were down behind their knees and no way could they have controlled it. ~~ sigh ~~ Happy thought: it saved us a bill and a half.

Meanwhile Beverly wet through her pants. Too much DEW! So we hit the closest Big BoX store where we found that you can only buy Capri pants or Shorts, because it is 50 freezing degrees outside, but some buyer decided it was SUMMER. Finally found a pair of little stretchy pants for her on a bottom shelf and after 20 minutes of milling around and buying bullets, we left.

BACK into Knoxville, where we ate at the only Rally's in the area, and it was the greasiest hamburger I have had in a while. Maybe YEARS. And then 25 more miles back home. Got home just in time to have missed all but 10 minutes of Bones. Arrrggh. And this is what we have to show for the day (not pictured: the disappearing cookies and the eco-unfriendly plates). The fabric is fuzzed out because it is the ugliest fabric I have ever seen and I don't want to scare anybody.

Until Then...

I have other stuff to blog about tonight, but until then, I thought you might enjoy this Shine article on The Top 10 Worst Foods of 2009. I am happy to report I didn't eat a SINGLE one of these. But that's not sayin' much...

Well today I reached 200 sales in my My7kids Yarn Shop at Etsy, less than 9 months after my first sale ever! Woo Hoo! My current series of recycled yarns I am putting up is called Man-swers... things like Put The Seat Up, Walk the Stupid Dog, Mow the Lawn, Be Nice to Her Mom. I could probably do this one for a while.

Meanwhile I also put a new item in my HeartFeltFun Boutique at Etsy. It is a little felted basket or bowl with a rolled rim, built-in handles, and beads. I knitted and felted it out of one of the handspun yarns that were sent to me from Japan to donate to our Youth Center. I hope it sells quickly so that some little girl can have a darling Easter Basket!

Yesterday in our rainy-day travels, I took some pictures out of the car windows. This picture on the left is the Bull Run Steam Power Plant run by TVA just on the North side of Knoxville. It is HUGE... the building alone (at the base of the taller tower) has 12 stories of platforms on the outside, and it is dwarfed by the steam stack and tower. The steam was such a great contrast to the dreary sky I couldn't resist this pic, even through the windshield!

You may notice across the bottom of the stem plant pic, the continuous "cloud" of fluffy white. These are the dreaded (or coveted) Bradford Pear trees that are so ubiquitous here. These trees do not bear edible pears, but in the Spring they bloom entirely white. The fall of the blossoms could, I guess, be referred to as our last "snow." Then they are covered in the most audacious chartreuse new leaves... which develop into glossy deep green, wonderful shade. In Autumn the leaves turn scarlet red to deep plum.

They are all over the place, as evidenced by this picture of a major intersection in Knoxville, at Cedar Bluff Road and I-40 Eastbound. And, there are 5 of them in my yard. Oh so beautiful but I think the flowers stink (smell like vitamin B1) and the pollen has me acting like a mouth-breather for weeks. Hey, beauty has its price.

One more picture of community beautification for those of you not lucky enough to live here. All over the place, on the sides of highways and overpasses and in medians, some soul with foresight planted (or caused to be planted) millions of daffodil bulbs. This hillside isn't in full bloom yet... that will take a couple weeks. But for several weeks in the Spring we are treated to these cheery yellow blooms, just about everywhere we go. Guess you only have to take the time in your commute to actually notice them.