Family, WAGE meeting at Joan's, Ice Cream Supper, Linda and GEM's visit

Here's Jimmy with his great-niece Tazia and his mom, Mama Wanda, when Tazia was up here to visit from Columbus last week. While she was here, she asked me to start teaching her to draw and paint, so we started to draw my Luanne teapot.


We had our July 9th WAGE meeting way down in Coshocton County at Joan Staufer's house last Thursday. Here are Joan and DAE, admiring our picnic spread, and Rene loving up Joan's dogs. it's so peaceful at Joan's, we're happy to make the hour long trip. After the picnic, we moved into her studio in one of her barns, and had our meeting, with lots of good art to show and tell. Thanks, Joan!


Here are Jeanne, Rene, Deb, and Julie, at the WAGE picnic at Joan's.


On Friday, July 10th, my cousin Linda came in from southern California, and my sister Debi drove down from Rittman, and we spent the day howling locally, in Smithville and Wooster. Linda came now, so she could attend our annual Snyder Ice Cream Supper, which she had to miss last year. So it was a big deal to have her in town for a week.

The pic above is the magical loom room of the Smithville Historical Society. I didn't know this was there!!! And I grew up outside of Smithville (though I went to school in Akron through ninth grade.) Mom had a Union Loom, and she made gorgeous rag rugs. She'd have loved this setup, which included three Union Looms, along with lots of other, more fancy ones.

Volunteers work the looms and make dish cloths and dish towels to sell, to raise money for the historical society. If I could drive, this is one place I'd go, and I guess I'd have to learn to weave a little then!


Here we're posing in front of some of the rag rugs made there in Smithville.


Before I take you to the Snyder Ice Cream Supper at my cousins Bonnie and Dave's house in Creston, check out this picture of my mom, Marie's family. Mom's on the far left, above my Grandpa Snyder. Linda's mom Hazel is between my grandparents. All of the people in the picture have passed away now, but those left here gather in July and at Christmas. So let's go!


Here's my brother Jimmy, my husband Jimmy, my nephew Matt (Debi's son), his wife Amber, and their daughter Olivia. As I call my kids GEM (Gretchen, Eva, and Mike), Debi's kids are MAO.


Here are Linda, Margo, and Bonnie. All are my first cousins. Margo and Bonnie are sisters, and their dad was Mom's brother Floyd. This party was at Bonnie's house.


This is my sweet niece Nancy, my oldest brother Larry and Donna's daughter, who's the oldest of my parents' grandchildren. She's talking with Eva, who's her first cousin once removed, and in the background are Debi, Gretchen, Mike, and Margo.


Eva and Olivia are only 7 months apart in age, and are second cousins, as Olivia's Debi's granddaughter. They're enjoying the special chocolate homemade ice cream that just came out of the ice cream maker. Yes, we had a potluck picnic before the ice cream, but this is what the kids waited and waited for!


My Great Aunt Alta is almost 97. She's got some arthritis, but always has this happy smile. She was my mom's aunt, though they were only six years apart in age. She was born in the Snyder Community near Plainview, TX, that our great grandfather and others started in 1907. She lived near Smithville til about 10 years ago, and then moved down below Loudonville to live with her daughter Mary Jo, who has my mom's old loom now.

Here Aunt Alta's talking with Debi and Debi's husband John, when we're all getting ready to go home. What a good time we had, with family coming from very far away.


Eva and I had our Sewing Lesson #3 during their three day visit. The job this time was to make a quilt sandwich out of our Doll and Bunny Blanket's top, with some bamboo batt and a pretty pink patterned fabric. Eva was kinda tired, so we didn't get it done, but now it's been sewn together and is ready to machine quilt, the next time we pull out our Hello Kitty.

I taught Eva how to pull off selvedges this time. And she's working on perfecting her pinning skills. Remember that the goal is to get her to be able to "drive" the machine by the time she's 5, in October.


Another day, Eva made sure she got down to Jimmy's studio, to help Poppy make some leather stuff. She loves sitting in the middle of his big table and helping him make things. This was Leather Lesson #2.


Jimmy got Eva a bigger wading pool this year, and we invited our neighbor Haley to come swim with Eva. Haley's a month or so younger than Eva, and I knew they'd hit it off! The water was really cold, but they still had fun, and enjoyed experimenting with goggles.

Here's Gretchen, cold Eva, cold Haley, her sister Olivia, and their mom Nichole, all having had a big time at the Mermail Lagoon.


Eva had actually gotten me to draw this scene before Haley came over to swim. We included Olivia in it, though it turned out she wasn't able to come. Eva's working hard on coloring it in.


We're all there!



Here you can see it better. It's just Rub-a-dub, markers, and a little colored pencils on paper.


Here's our yummy barbecue here at home, with GEM and Cousin Linda.


And here's the really cool picture of Eva boldly diving into the pool in her goggles. You had to be fast to get a picture like this, because she would dive and then jump up in about three seconds, due to the cold water! :)


Here's GEM with some of the Shasta Daisies that are blooming all around our yard right now. I have to show you them, and not all the weeds! I've gotten way behind again! And I leave to teach at Peters Valley Craft Center at Layton, NJ this next Thursday, so don't expect much weeding to happen!


Here we are, walking up Walnut Street in Wooster, after eating breakfast at the Parlor. Yum!


And here's Jimmy, measuring Eva's height on the door frame between our breezeway and garage. I'm so glad we finally started that, this last Christmas. She's grown about an inch already!


Monday Linda and I went to lunch at our Aunt Mary Jo's house in Smithville. (Mom's brother Harold was her husband.) We were so happy to see her and our cousins Ellen and Howard, Joe and Gail, along with Aunt Mary Jo, because they'd all been at a reunion of the other side of their family and missed the Ice Cream Supper.

Above are Mary Jo, Linda, and Ellen, after we got the grand tour of Mary Jo's beautiful garden. Since Linda lives in California, and Ellen lives in Venezuela, this was a really rare gathering!

OK, that's it for now. Maybe I'll get around to adding a picture or two, before I take off for Peters Valley this next week. Lots to do before then, including a C0-op meeting on Sunday. And I hope to get some sketches done for a new piece, a commission for collector and friend, Jack Walsh. You'll see a lot on that in the next couple of months! I'm so psyched!

Be good. Lucky