Monday, December 3, 2018

Holiday Open House at the Outback Studio of Louise Schotz

Just in time for christmas -  I’d love to have you come to see my studio and what I do here.  I’ll put out all the jewelry, wall quilts and other miscellaneous pieces I have made recently.  I just made cookie dough for the occasion and will get them baked soon.  We’ll have cookies, coffee and cider.
 
Dates will be:
Thursday, December 13, noon till 8 pm
Friday, December 14, noon till 8 pm
Saturday, December 15, 8am till 4 pm
 
Address:  W4884 County Road J, Irma, Wi  
Phone 715-536-9392
 
I will be keeping my jewelry room available so that I can make minor repairs on pieces you may have or change chain lengths on a piece you may want.  Look through your jewelry and if you find a piece that needs a clasp or has just come apart, bring it over and maybe I can fix it.  Minor repairs are free.
 
Here are a few things I have made recently:
 

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Getting ready for Church Mutual holiday craft show this Saturday.

I have recovered from a very fun and successful Arttour weekend and am getting ready to go to Church Mutual this Saturday for their holiday craft sale.  It runs from 8am till 2 pm. Below are pictures of a few pieces I have made recently with heavy gauge copper wire.














Thursday, July 19, 2018

(Backup) My Swedish 3rd cousin

I’m sitting in the Amsterdam airport waiting to board for MSP.  Had a brief nap and woke up for a bit.  Yesterday was a great day!  For about a year and a half I have been messaging with Nicklaus Maldahm on Facebook. He found me through my mother’s obituary and is interested in researching the family. His mother and I are third cousins.  We arranged to meet at a boat landing dock where we boarded his small boat.  The cottage is on a small island In the Baltic Sea.

At the cottage we met his two children, Heldwig and August, his partner Thomas, his mother Brit Marie, father, brother, sister and more. We all enjoyed a swim before lunch.  The water was very comfortable and slightly salty.

Say what you will about Facebook and technology, but without them this party would have never happened. I’m hoping to have visits from some of these newly discovered relatives!

This is the pier where we parked the boat


We swam off a pier on the other side of the island while lunch was in the oven.
Lunch was really good.  Nicklaus made meat and vegetarian pies and salad for lunch.  His mother Brit-Marie had made some great cookies and pastries. We swam while the pies for lunch baked. 




This is the cottage.  


To swim we walked out the back of the cottage to the pier on the back side of the island.  The water was clear and deep.


There were about 10 of us in the water all treading water and chatting.  I loved the conversation. We all seemed to find the same things funny.  


We left about 3 in the afternoon to drive to Arlander airport where we had reserved rooms in a decommissioned plane which had been made into a hotel.  Before turning in we sat at a table on the wing and had a drink. The table was not level as the wing is not flat.





This is the hotel.  The room in the engine space is for rent, but if you have it, you need to exit your room, go down a ladder and up another to the main part of the plane to use a bathroom.   With our rooms we didn’t have bathrooms in our rooms, but there were plenty for our use.  Showers and all

























(Backup) My Swedish 3rd cousin

I’m sitting in the Amsterdam airport waiting to board for MSP.  Had a brief nap and woke up for a bit.  Yesterday was a great day!  For about a year and a half I have been messaging with Nicklaus Maldahm on Facebook. He found me through my mother’s obituary and is interested in researching the family. His mother and I are third cousins.  We arranged to meet at a boat landing dock where we boarded his small boat.  The cottage is on a small island In the Baltic Sea.

At the cottage we met his two children, Heldwig and August, his partner Thomas, his mother Brit Marie, father, brother, sister and more. We all enjoyed a swim before lunch.  The water was very comfortable and slightly salty.

Say what you will about Facebook and technology, but without them this party would have never happened. I’m hoping to have visits from some of these newly discovered relatives!

This is the pier where we parked the boat


We swam off a pier on the other side of the island while lunch was in the oven.
Lunch was really good.  Nicklaus made meat and vegetarian pies and salad for lunch.  His mother Brit-Marie had made some great cookies and pastries. We swam while the pies for lunch baked. 




This is the cottage.  


To swim we walked out the back of the cottage to the pier on the back side of the island.  The water was clear and deep.


There were about 10 of us in the water all treading water and chatting.  I loved the conversation. We all seemed to find the same things funny.  


We left about 3 in the afternoon to drive to Arlander airport where we had reserved rooms in a decommissioned plane which had been made into a hotel.  Before turning in we sat at a table on the wing and had a drink. The table was not level as the wing is not flat.





This is the hotel.  The room in the engine space is for rent, but if you have it, you need to exit your room, go down a ladder and up another to the main part of the plane to use a bathroom.   With our rooms we didn’t have bathrooms in our rooms, but there were plenty for our use.  Showers and all

























Monday, July 16, 2018

Finding Grandmas birth place

Our business today involved driving to Torshult in Smaland to find the small town where my grandmother was born.  On the way we saw a sign for a loppi which by now had learned meant yard sale.  We followed the sign down a short dirt road to a sale site.  It is a permanent sale!


This lovely lady was manning the store .  She spoke no English so she wrote down numbers when we wanted something.  




There was lots to see


I got these two plates and the table runner plus a bag of pretty generic buttons that had looked good through the plastic they were in.  Oh well, they will be a good souvenir.  Maybe they will end up on a Swedish themed quilt!




We drove on to Torshult. The family emigrated to the US because of bad crops, religious persecution and bad luck.  Farming here had to be near impossible.   So this is the edge of town.  

We had stopped to take some pictures from the road and this dog came out to greet us which was a really good thing because this girl came out after her and we got to visit with her.  She lives quite remotely yet spoke very good English.  She was really sweet and told us about her school and her family.  They have sheep, horses and one dog.


This is a typical house and these are typical rocks.  The soil must be quite shallow and there are rock piles everywhere


The Pasteur 




My grandma left here over 120 years ago and we have no idea where her home was.




Nature Day In Smaland

Smaland is very rocky and totally forested. It’s no wonder the emigrants had to leave for other places.  It great here for everything but farming. This day we dedicated to nature.  After a stop at a glass foundry we went to a nature preserve for a hike.  The ground was soft and good to walk on.  The trail was quite narrow and soft


The lingonberries are just starting to ripen


I ate about a pies worth of blueberries on the hike


Eric tested out the softness of the moss


This reminds me of a photo I took 20 years ago of Eric and Liza walking in a forest in Alabama


The map of where we hiked




This pile of harvested timber was alongside the road


Beautiful rock fences were everywhere.  No shortage of rocks!  I’m sure there is a new crop every year


When you drive on the local highways there is usually a crimp in the road as you enter a town. This slows the traffic.


In the late afternoon, we rented a canoe and took a ride on a small lake.  Fiona was a part time canoer and part time swimmer


At the bottom of our canoe ride there was a raft.


Here Fiona is moving along pushing herself along using the rocks on the bottom of the river