In Arkansas for Christmas

Back in early October I made reservations for a cabin the Smokey Mountains (Pigeon Forge, TN) for our first ever Christmas vacation. Since Jerry and I have worked retail hours so much of our lives we have never ad any work time off around the holidays. With Jerry retired this year, he was anxious to go somewhere. Talked to my mom and she expressed an interest in spending Christmas in a mountain cabin with a fireplace. And, that's how the cabin at Pigeon Forge happened.

from rental website

I found a great single story cabin with a fabulous view, hot tub, two bed/bathrooms and near Dollywood! We were so looking forward to seeing the millions of lights and Christmas in the Smokies at Dollywood. I was also anxious to go to the national park. But, something happened between the cabin owner and the leasing agent and they dropped each other which left us without a reservation. Money refunded, no problem, but it left us without Christmas plans.

We hadn't even put up a tree at home because we were going to be away. So, we decided to take the opportunity to spend Christmas with family in Arkansas. My mom's sister Joyce lives near Memphis and I am siting on her couch right now typing this.

We left Florida on Tuesday and drove as far north as Ozark Alabama. Yesterday we continued through Alabama into Mississippi, and then a short stint through Tennessee to reach Arkansas. The weather was awful at times and only sprinkling rain at it's best.  At one time we were very concerned with tornados because the clouds were low, dark, and it was windy. That was around Holly Springs Mississippi.

Despite sketchy weather we made it safely to Arkansas only to learn that tornados followed us. Last night we saw photos of the interstate at Holly Springs with semi trucks on their side and trees sheered off. We also learned there was a loss of life in the area. This all happened only a couple of hours after we drove past.

from Google images

We are very thankful that we made it safely to be with our family this Christmas and the families and victims of the storm are in our thoughts and prayers.

Birmingham, Alabama

We're home! I'll make several posts about our trip to Arkansas. This series of photos is from Birmingham Alabama. Previously I posted about the destruction we saw (on our way up to Arkansas) but I didn't feel comfortable taking photos. Now, it's a week later so I feel better about taking and sharing photo (presuming there are no people buried under debris).
This is where we, and many others, pulled over. It was once a gas station. It was so sunny that my photos are bleeched out but what I am trying to show is the tile floor and plumbing left behind after the building was blown away.

The damage was a somewhat narrow "band" ripped through neighborhoods on both sides of a highway. The neighborhood to one side was up on a slight hill and the other is down in a shallow gulley. It looked like a line of bombs were dropped and you should be able to enlarge to get a better view.

Wide-angle above and zoom in below of the same neighborhood.

Again, same shot with one close up and one wide angle.

Edge of the road.

It was so sunny I couldn't get a good view of what was in my view finder or I would have taken a better photo here because it says it all. HUGE rootball with tree through house. Photo looks like earth or bolder but it is the root ball of a large tree.

The gas station where I got out to take photos, or what's left of it. You can see the cover where the tanks would have been and the mangled sign.

Hopefully these photos will raise awarement of what occured in Birmingham. If anyone was considering donating to the recovery process but wasn't sure, I hope these photos will help your decision.

Enroute to Arkansas

Today we traveled from Clearwater through Florida, Alabama and am now typing from a hotel bed in Tupelo, Missisiippi.

We passed through Birmingham today and just at the edge of town OMG!

The string of Alabama tornadoes at the end of April passed through the area and I could not believe what I was seeing. I can't remember the road, perhaps US78, but I was talking to Jerry (he was driving) and saw a huge tree stump that had been sheered and a house that looked like it was partially burned and partially torn down. Then I noticed the tree stood alone but not because nothing was built around it but because the neighboring houses were rubble. About the same time Jerry responded to what he was seeing to the right and I turned and saw mass destruction about as far as i could see. Seems the torando tore a path through this part of town and tore up everything except the asphalt on the road. It's one thing to see it on TV, another to see it in person and so close up. Was tempted to take a photo but decided not in case anyone is still entombed in this horrible destruction.

While Memphis may claim Graceland as Elvis's home, Tupolo is his birthplace and they are very proud of it. Here's a few photos:

( The old downtown area had painted guitars sticking out of the sidewalk on everyblock. Not actualy guitars but metal, pop art painted ones. Very cool - maybe a photo tomorrow?? We were tired and hungry and only ooh and awed at them. )

The house - a small, shortgun style. There is a vistor center but we wanted to get a hotel and something good to eat (we had been living off gummy worms and chex mix all day, lol) so just popped out for a few photos.
Historical marker at the home. Reminds me, Alabama was full of historical markers. Will need to look them up sometime as I learned nothing whizzing by at 65mph.
A concrete walk circles the house and there are many of these "bricks" of dates and a carving of an event to match these dates.

Tomorrow the plan is to stop in the Memphis area to see a relativem, buy some flags & flowers, go to cemetery to place them on Dad's, grandparents, great grandparents, and GG grandparent's graves for memorial day. Then, it's off to Mountain Home to visit Vern.

Made It Myself Monday & Way Back Wednesday

My computer has a problem....I'm using my Dad's. I've been hesitating to install the software for my digital camera on his computer so that I could share photos on the blog. Tonight I just plugged in the USB and it had it's own program for extracting photos and it was much easier to use than the program that came with the camera so I am back to blogging!

Let's start with Way Back Wednesday - OK, it wasn't that way back as these are only photos from last weekend, LOL. But, since they are of a birthday dinner, I think we can classsify them as Way Back.

Above is photo of my hubby and mother-in-law at her 87th birthday dinner. Below is MIL eating birthday cake. I am such a bad photographer I forgot to take a photo of the lovely cake until AFTER it was cut. It was a marble cake with chocolate moose in it. (I'm such an Alaskan that is the only way I know how to spell moose!)

And for Made It Myself (Last) Monday:

Actually I finished this purse tonight but I have been working on it since Monday. I already mailed the items I finished on Monday. I made two reversible dog coats from this Alabama fabric for an online friend. They are team fabric on one side and corduroy on the other. I also made her two of the harness vest I've shown before but from the Bama fabric. I forgot to take photos, ugh.

I'm trying to come up with ideas to use up the leftovers. Not huge pieces left so it has been a challange. I made this sweet little purse - the first purse I have made since high school. Don't ya just love the handles? I made them from cotton duck, a very thick stabalizer, and ribbon with a floral motif. The handles are my favorite part!

Here's a close up of the ribbon. Just love that very small check. I actually bought three spools and used two on this project. Since I had a big print (the team logo) and a medium print in the starfish (?), thought the ribbon should be the smallest print of the three spools so add variety to the scale of fabrics.

For the inside of the purse I used some fabric a Kodiak friend brough back from Bali. I made pockets of the starfish-ish fabric and trimmed with the ribbon - again three sizes of print. The pattern wasn't particuarily difficult but because I used such a stiff stabalizer, which I found out was only supposed to be used for the BOTTOM of the purse, it made some of the work VERY difficult and I broke two sewing machine needles in the process. I went back and forth on a closure for the purse but I didn't like any I tried so I am not adding one.