A nature walk at Huntsville State Park

 Huntsville State Park is a 2,083.2-acre recreational area, six miles southwest of Huntsville, in Walker County

This heavily wooded park adjoins the Sam Houston National Forest and encloses the 210-acre Lake Raven. The park offers camping, hiking, biking, boating , guided horseback trail rides, fishing, swimming in an unsupervised swimming area, canoe and paddle boat rentals, and nature study.

The Nature Center features live animals, a fish tank, bird nests and other collections, as well as information on a wide variety of topics. Programs and special events are planned on a regular basis.

Fui com a minha familia visitar uma area natural  quase 1 hora da minha casa,  um parque estadual , muito bonito. Essa area e predominada por arvore de pinha. Com lagos e muitos animais selvagens. Pica- pau, esquilos, jacare, cobras... Tirei algumas fotos.

 We enjoy walking  and taking nature pictures ,unfortunately the nature center was close when we visited.

   The park is located in the southern pine belt, so the predominant trees in the park are pines( loblolly pine) the trees are majestic and add so much beauty to the park. But among the pines there are sweergum, sassafras, red maple, oaks and dogwood.

                                                        Pileated Woodpecker

                                     Purple Beautyberries (Callicarpa Americana)

                                                  A unknown berry to me

                                 A bracket fungus, common form of Polyporus found on dead wood.

                                                                   Fall webworm

                                                                 Gulf Fritillary

                                          Caterpillar unkown to me.

 

    This park is peaceful  retreat, I hope to visit often. Just in case you are curious, here is the park web page.

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Sewing up a deal

     Sewing runs through our blood, I could say that about my family and myself, and  if so, my daughter got those genes too. Fabric, needles and threads are parts of her gift requests . Her room is her studio, where many creations from dolls to beaded rings are created almost every day. Her dolls have super creative wardrobe. Tiny bits of fabrics are everywhere, pins and needles too (ouch!!!)



 Her passion for sewing start just about 3 years ago, I gave her a cross-stitched project and she went after. The project didn't look perfect, but my goal was to get her expose to sewing, and to practice something that would require hands/eyes coordination . Also using pieces of fabrics(mostly burlap) with plastic needle gave her more practice and more confidence to start with other small projects. Later on, she start using my needles to make little bags and little quilts, where she would join 2 pieces of fabrics together to make a bag (right sides facing) or little square to make a tiny quilt.



So after teaching her to use my sewing machine, she got her own. Learning to use the sewing machine wasn't hard ,the hardest part is learning to control the speed, and that has to do with getting used to the pedal. I just had to get her some time . Also remind her to concentrate and to pay attention, since she loves to talk and can get easily distracted.



Little doll  above was all hand sewn by her.

 Using my sewing machine...on low speed.



All her dolls have a heart," So they can love", she says.




        Letting my daughter using a sewing machine still scares me, but I can see that by setting the time to teach her the correct way to use the machine has pay off. I am always surprise with her abilities, but in truth children are capable beings that when given the right tools amazes things happens!

Now that she is a accomplished seamstress ,she tells me that she wants to sell her goods on Etsy too.(oh, what have I done ?! )

Our favorite sewing books:

Made by me by Jane Bull (the pattern for the dolls on this post came from this book, perfect for handsaw or machine.)

Sew It, Stuff it by Rob Merrett (cute soft toys, and some simple for beginners)

Mollie Makes Magazine

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Christmas in July - The conclusion

A cidade dos Carvalhos

 A cidade de Houston e uma das maiores do Texas e ate do pais, porem nao e nada como eu imaginava das cidades desse lado do planeta, Houston em comparacao a Nova York, Rio, Sao Paulo e uma cidade bem pacata. O centro e uma area profissional ,mais por alguns anos a cidade vem tentando modificar essa impressao com novas  atracoes como teatros, shows,jogos, e ate um parque.

Uma coisa bem interessante aqui em Texas e ate no E.U.A., e que as cidades sao bem distintas ,como por exemplo temos o CENTRO, DISTRITO DOS MUSEUS, DISTRITO MEDICO e os SUBURBIOS. O centro por maioria e area profissional, o distrito dos museus e uma area sempre legal para visitar, o zoologico, museu de ciencias, museu de crianca .... O distrito medico onde tem muitos Hospitais e clinicas e algumas universidades tambem e suburbio e onde a maioria da populacao vive.

Porque Houston e uma cidade grande, trafico e distancia e sempre um problema por aqui. Carro e realmente uma necessidade, apesar que termos uma linha de onibus, porem tem que ter um carro para ir as linhas de onibus nos suburbios (as ruas nao sao realmente feitas para pedestres).Porem no centro e nos distritos e um pouco mais facil de pegar onibus.

Tirei algumas fotos do centro e algumas do distrito de museus.
O centro e bem distinto aqui.

 

O centro de Houston - Downtown

 

Os estadios de jogos profissionais estao sempre no centro.
O auditorio de musica e artes
As ruas do centro
Centro
Aqui uma foto do museu de arte
Dentro do museu de arte,gosto dessa visao de fora
Picasso

As arvores de carvalhos sao predominantes aqui,como ver sao manicuradas ,jardinagem e bem importante aqui.
A bandera do Texas. E chamada a bandeira do estado da estrela solitaria (The lone star state)

Gostou do passeio? Sempre queria compartilhar um pouquinho sobre o Texas. 

Christmas in July - The conclusion

I am happy to say that I  finish the dolls on time for Operation Christmas Child  for Samaritan's Purse. The dolls were the perfect addition for some of the small gifts we already had... I enjoy immensely making those dolls,  I specially  love to imagine the little girls receiving the dolls. Hopefully they will like it.By the way the National Collection Week is November 12-19.

The dolls are from the book Stitched in Time by Alicia Paulson. By the way she has the most sweet story.

My daughter also made a doll ,funny that she wasn't happy in just letting me make dolls, she wanted to help too. Her doll pattern come from the here.

Read more about Christmas in July in here.

New in my Etsy shop

                  I just add 2 more dolls and a vintage style dress

           in my etsy store

                                                                Lady Juliet

                                                                      Scarlet

                                                                Vintage Style dress