Wow and more wow, more creativity over at Annie's place. We made elkhide rattles today, Ken was the leader of the workshop, Chip was there, and a new lady Gail, who lives near me here in Corkill Palms, plus Sharon and Annie.
We cut out the rattle body from elk hide, 2 mirror image pieces, then learned to sew it together after we used a Tandy leather punch, kind of like a 3 or 4 pronged fork which we used to punch the holes all around the body and the neck of the rattle.
We kind of used a blanket stitch, to close the 2 pieces together, and then we stuffed them very tightly with sand to hold the shape of the rattle as it dries in the sunshine at Annie's house for the next few days.
We'll return Thursday evening to Annie's to dump out the sand, fill them with the kind of rattle material we want, and do some embellishments on them. Should be great. I can't wait.
We went out with Sue, Jen, Heather and baby Royal to eat dinner together on their first day, Monday, we ate at Billie D's in the Holiday Inn where they were staying. Food was good, their renovation seems well done, and the staff was friendly and helpful.
Tuesday we went to Manhattan in the Desert for supper with Sue and Jen, we had ordered a new living room chair before that, as Lary's recliner had broken and needed to be replaced. Before that we had a swim at their hotel. Nice hotel, newly rehabbed.
Wednesday Lary carved, he has nearly finished painting his Northern Pygmy Owl, and we girls all went out for retail therapy, first to TJ Maxx, then over to Westfield Mall. The lady guests Sue Jen and Heather didn't seem to find that much, but we mooched around anyway.
l had a swim with them at their hotel, and then we watched a movie outdoors by the Holiday Inn pool. It was a fun one, something about Traveling Pants 2.
Thursday we had all the girls with baby Royal and Dave and Wendy for lunch here, cous cous and chicken, and chocolate cake, we ate outside on our patio as it was quite hot. We took the guests back to their hotel, and I raced back to DHS.
Then we rushed off and went over to Chip's for dinner, corned beef and cabbage, and carrots and many types of potatoes, with Irish soda bread, and freshly baked green chocolate chip cookies made by Chip's niece, Susie. Annie was there too, and Chip even fed us green coated cheese for appies, it was in a green wax coating. Chip was wearing a hilarious green t shirt. Susie was attending a conference for computer teachers, as that's what she does.
It was such fun, then after that we played our flutes. Chip's house is just incredible, it's over off Dinah Shore near Costco, it's in a small development, each lot is .5 of an acre. His home is so gorgeous, huge high ceilings, a pool, funny dog Lucy a hungarian dog, who was very entertaining. The development he's in only has 10 houses in it.
Because of the high ceilings the acoustics are incredible, and the best word for the house is handsome. Soft olive greens, handsome granite countertops, big airy rooms, and a prettily landscaped yard full of fruit trees with the fruit still on them.
He has had a lot of the furniture hand made for the house, it works so well, and he has many things all around him that have a lot of meaning for him, like some older family furniture and a large collection of hand bells, which was started by his parents, and he has carried on collecting them. His Dad was an architect, so he travelled extensively. The decorative touches in the house are just lovely.
Chip was an animator for Disney and Hanna Barbara, he made costumes and heads etc. for the walk around characters, pioneering some new techniques for the lighter weight materials for that. He told us that he had had older homes that he had renovated extensively before this home, his brand new dream home in the desert. He has been in it for only 5 years or so.
He has a big huge bed, and on the railing at the head of the bed are tons of his neckties, somebody told him that he doesn't have to wear them in the desert, so there they sit on his bed head rail. It was such a fun evening together, we all enjoyed our fluting so much too.
On Friday we sprang out of bed and off to Al H's place to see his flutes and flute making equipment, it was incredible, he explained what he does, and how he makes his flutes, and does the woodburning, too. They are so very distinctive, and his workshop is to die for, every tool known to mankind seemed to be there, not to mention a huge stock of wood of varying types, and his large inventory of flutes.
He has a shop with a large studio in it, we had a chance to try out many different flutes, and Chip and I had to get a new flute each. We played them with his microphone, they always sound so lovely that way.
We hadn't seen Jen and Sue either Friday or Saturday, so we'll get together with them tomorrow and go to the College of the Desert, the massive elegant flea market, it's not really a flea market but an upscale weekend market, that is all year round, here in the parking lot of the College of the Desert on Monterey Ave.
They went to the Thursday night market in downtown Palm Springs on Thursday evening, and ate at Maracas downtown. Today Saturday they moved over to Riviera Spa and Resort, where they have 2 rooms. We'll see their new digs tomorrow when we pick them up. I'll drop Lary off at College of the Desert then go pick up the girls and Royal. We need a bigger car for the ferrying of the group.
About Me
- Di and Lary
- Di and Lary are both retired, Lary was in the Canadian Armed Forces as an Air Navigator, 32 years, and Di did many things, but the most fulfilling was teaching, for 3 years on an Indian Reserve in Central BC and later 7 years teaching ESL, both in Canada and in Europe, in Spain and later Germany.