The Avant Garden

So I have been busy and my neck still hurts and then it was Christmas and then it was 19F at 14:00 in the afternoon with the sun shining and the wind howling. I've spent a good bit of time inside sewing lately, and have some new Avant Garden things.  For example, these driftwood lamps have really caught my fancy:

Driftwood Lamps and snow ... it just says "home," doesn't it?

The goal is to make them solar-powered and to make six of them and put them in a big vase like a half dozen flowers from another time and place and, perhaps, reality. Then I want to enter the thing for consideration in the RiverSculpture Festival over on the French Broad. I was pretty impressed with the stuff they had last year. Toward that goal, yesterday I made my first solar lamp:
No one else has one.

  Though not happy with the lumination, I think the overall effect is nice. Now I am investigating solar products that will put out more light, but are relatively affordable. Ideas are welcome.

In the back ground of that photo, you can see two of my favorites, the Boxwood Chandelier and Tentworms with a Twist. Here's a photo of those two against a wild sky:
No one else has one of these, either. 

 We had a coldfront blow through over the New Year (Happy New Year, by the way -- I kinda forgot) with a hi of 19F one day and winds gusting up to tearing-up-your-eyes times two and I took this pic of Rob's Arch Number 24 (or so -- we lost count) while the River was still caked around it:

Other people do have these, however ...

 
Remember the snake in the bamboo:?

Well, no one ever said he was smart, but I will say this, he doesn't have enough sense enough to get in out of the snow:
I still like him.                             

I have sewn a buncha stuff, too, but this isn't my Suzy Homemaker blog, so let's not talk about it. But I will show off this HillBilly Snugglesack of my own design and stitching:
Wool is wonderful. 

 It's mostly made of old Army blankets bought at a store called "The Old Grouch's Army Navy Surplus" in downtown Clyde, N.C. The Camel-smoke-tinged sign on the Old Grouch's wall says, "Differing political opinions not welcome." So I don't offer any, I just buy Camel-smoke-smelling blankets. And wash 'em. They have about six different kinds of wool army blankets, a virtual cornucopia, comparatively speaking.

Next entry will have some rock photos, I promise, and it won't take six weeks!