I gave myself a small gift today.

It's warm and sunny today (well, ofcourse!!). And high tide near me was about 8:30 am. So just after 9 I packed the dogs into the pupmobile and headed to Pt. Pinole. (I'm sure I mentioned this park before. it is NOT the dog park... it's a gorgeous point of land with lots of water front and trees and stuff.). We all really like this park.

We walked 1 mile to the north of the parking lot, to a very private deserted beach. Good thing, probably, and the dogs sensed the final destination and started jogging the last 1/4 mile... disappearing completely ahead of me. These dogs and swimming...

The water was calm and cool, the breeze light. I removed my sandals and did a little splashing of my own while the dogs swam after tennis balls. We kept this up until the seams on both balls popped and the balls sunk into the bay.

The only noise was my own voice. When I could shut myself up, I was really existing in the moment. Just aware of the sun, breeze, water, the dogs splashing in the bay. It was calming and restorative.

I'm thinking that we might return tomorrow morning. If I plan ahead, I can bring a book and a snack (or lunch), and wear a pair of shorts under my sweats. Spend a couple hours out there just taking it in.

Now we're home, and the pooped pups will sleep the rest of the day. After I finish some lunch, I'll sew more on eucalyptus, and maybe finish up another skirt.

What Does Your Birthdate Mean?

Your Birthdate: June 30

Your birthday on the 30th day of the month shows individual self-expression is necessary for your happiness. You tend to have a good way of expressing yourself with words, certainly in a manner that is clear and understandable. You have a good chance of success in fields requiring skill with words. You can be very dramatic in your presentation and you may be a good actor or a natural mimic. You have a vivid imagination that can assist you in becoming a good writer or story-teller. Strong in your opinions, you always tend to think you are on the right side of an issue. There may be a tendency to scatter your energies and have a lot of loose ends in your work. You may have significant artistic talent and be very creative.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

I thought I'd share...

So Monday night we were discussing something that was particularly not nice. Like really really sucky...

And a friend who reads this blog regularly and I started thinking how to encorporate the level of sucking in what we were discussing (is it remarkable that I remember the level of suckage but not the cause of the suckage??).

We decided that it either sucked sucked bilgewater toast on rocks... or sucked rocks on toast through bilgewater... or something like that. Maybe it wasn't worth mentioning...

If you totally don't get this, then you need read my blog more often.

On another note, my husband has these coffee cans that hold "attachment items", similar to the button boxes in sewing rooms. One has nails, one has bolts and washers... some of which actually go together (but are not as yet joined together), two have screws... which do not obviously differentiate by either size or function. So you can find machine screws and wood screws in either containter (I think). You can definately find straight blade heads and phillips heads together. FWIW.

Today I was fixing my Bissell floor cleaner and lost 2 of the machine screws to put it back together. With his collection, you'd think it would be easy to find appropriate replacements... just go to garage, dump the can and scrounge.

Nope.

Go to the garage (the cleaner was out on the deck where there's good light), sort through one can, find one screw that might work. Put it all back, and sort through the second can (remember there are two unlabelled cans of screws)... find a couple more that might work. Back out to the deck, where I try appropriate screws A, too thin, B, too thick, C too long... D, the wrong sized head. Back for trial #2.

After 3 trips back and forth I finally decided that the 2 (which don't match because although he has about 9700 screws the ones I want are always singles...) I have in there are just gonna work! And I think I put about 500 steps on my pedometer achieving this simple thing.

Are our button boxes as inefficient? If I went into mine to find a white shirt button with 4 holes in it, would it be this hard? Go check your button boxes and report back.

If I ever develop an illness that requires me to sit all day long basically resting, I may dedicate myself to sorting out those stupid cans. I'm sure putting them all in a different kind of organizer would be more efficient.

Time for a look at my gardens.

OK, I've figured this out. Pictures = comments. SO...It's been a few weeks since I've shown you my flower gardens. Time to catch up!!

This is the shrub border next to the house. Notice the hydrageas in full bloom. Also notice that I have no front yard. Well, this sideyard IS my front yard...

One of the bushes starting to bloom. Do you think my soil is alkaline enough?? Look at how pink these are.

A closeup of one bloom. It's as big as my hand!! And note the sad thing: it's June and I'm still wearing polarfleece.

The terraced butterfly/hummer garden. This is Salvia, white Lantana, and a new blue plant (so I've forgotton it's type).

Lantana and Lavender.

A red ornamental grass. It really moves in the wind around here.

A species buddliea bloom.

And they say you can't grow rhubarb in California! Luckily I have just the right conditions for it to grow. And I remember to pick enough for about 3 pies before it gets too dry and fiberous to use.

Working...

I've been working on Eucalyptus for a week, attaching the leaves that go on over the quilting.

I've decided I need to enter this quilt into something where it will win me a sewing machine... one that cuts the bobbin thread. Imagine sewing oh...100 3-5" long leaves (maybe 1/2" wide)... and then having to go back and trim all that friggin bobbin thread off the back. And no.. ain't no way I'm gonna flip the whole thing over to cut the bobbin thread every time I sew one leaf on...

Today I'm was going to drive up to Gerrie and Diane's group, the Pointless Sisters, in Santa Rosa. It's just over an hour each way, which is a bit of a pain... but when I went last month, I smiled all the way home. Unfortunately, I overslept. I'm always up by 7 am., but the dogs let me sleep until almost 8. And to get to this meeting, I have to leave by 8:30. Now way I can feed the dogs, shower, dress, eat, check my blogs and emails, and get this all done before 8:30. So it looks like I won't make the meeting today. Guess I'll go pick up the art supplies I wanted to get instead.

Monday night is my get together with my friends the Pickles. At one point, we were talking about menopause and periods... Some of us are almost through menopause.. and the younger women are just starting to get their first symptoms. So we can all share. One friend and I have pretty much matched our symptoms all along the last few years. We're about the same age, so not very surprising... but... here's the real surprise. We found out we both started getting periods on the same day: the Beatles' second appearance on the Ed Sullivan show.

How freaky is that???

Home Improvement Finished.

Remember when I showed this view a couple weeks ago, and mentioned that it was going to change with a redwood shade cover?

Well take a look now:Here is the change in the view. 


It's a dramatic but small change. However, that part of the house seems to stay in shade now until late in the day, so it should result in a cooler house from this summer on.

Now, I have morning glory vines (annuals) in pots by the posts. Do I have to attach them to the posts for them to climb up it? Or will they hold on their own?

Playing with Paper Dolls

This was a wonderful way to amuse myself while watching some fairly mindless tv.

You get to "design" your doll... face shape, eyes, lips, hair and clothes.

What is My World View.

Thanks to DebR at Red Shoe Ramblings, I now know that somethinks this is me. I'm don't think it's totally true. It looks like all the other Artful Quilt Bloggers are 100% Cultural Creatives... Once again, I'm the misfit... (sigh).

You scored as Existentialist. Existentialism emphasizes human capability. There is no greater power interfering with life and thus it is up to us to make things happen. Sometimes considered a negative and depressing world view, your optimism towards human accomplishment is immense. Mankind is condemned to be free and must accept the responsibility.

Existentialist 88% Postmodernist 75% Cultural Creative 69% Materialist 69% Idealist 50% Romanticist 44% Modernist 38% Fundamentalist 25% What is Your World View? (updated) created with QuizFarm.com

Thursday and Friday...

After deciding I needed a couple simple light skirts to wear this summer, I hied myself off to JoAnnes (coupon in hand) to see what they had to offer. Not much. The PERFECT crinkle gauze in the perfect green... but not enough to make a skirt. I opted for a pretty green linen with pink embroidery on it.

Then a stop at the little shop near my house. I bring EVERYONE into Sammy's shop (FABRIC DEPO in Pinole, Ca.)... so he gives me discounts. I found some great silk in a really nice solid green that I will make up in a couple days.

Back home, and digging through the fabric I always have. Wait. First I guess I should see what tops they need to match. OK. A tan tshirt, a red tshirt, and green tshirt. A black shell. A rayon tank in a batiky print.. and rayon "vacation" top... white with bright printing.

NOW go look for possibilities in my stash.

I found a nice red linen that I'd bought a couple years ago and never did anything with. Two hours later, it's a nice panel skirt. Only thing I'd like to change about this, is it needs pockets. But it's not going to get them. Maybe the next skirt.

I found a cool batik in tans, blues, greens and a gold. I've owned it for years without using it; it will probably be the next skirt.

I make simple panel skirts. Front and back are (for me) 24" wide and 34" long. They are seamed to 2/3rds of the way down the thigh, and are open below that. So turn the sides in and stitch, seam these together, fold down a 1" waist (insert elastic) and fold a hem. Voila.

Today we are planning on going to see StarWars III, and probaby go out to lunch. The rest of the day, I'll be weeding gardens, and prepping panels for skirts. Photos to follow.

Vacation planning, kind of...

Early in July, Steve and I are heading to Illinois for a week. While most of the time will be spent with his mother (trying to figure out how to get her in a home that's safer for a 86 year old woman), we are spending a couple days as tourists.

After we fly in, we will drive up to the Wisconsin Dells. Get there in the late afternoon, try to time adjust that night, take a trip on the upper Dells the next day then leave for Galena, Ill.

Hmm... Galena, Il.. why would we go there? Well, Steve is a civil war nut, and Galena is the home of US Grant. He wants to visit the museum and also spend a day at a state park nearby.

So much for the vacation. We'll drive down the Mississippi from there to the quad cities where Steve grew up.

The good news: the motels we are staying in all boast high speed internet connections... so early in the trip I should be able to upload photos and whine about the heat and HUMIDITY.

Once we get to the quad cities, it looks like we'd have to drive out to the airport to get a wireless connection. That would be no problem for me... but I doubt we'll really feel like it much.

Looking through my wardrobe, I am not equipped to deal with midwest humidity. (I was born there, and NEVER equipped to deal with it). So, inspired form several sources...I will be sewing a couple loose and easy skirts to wear.

Incredible news.

This is WOVENWORKS II. It's been donated to Virginia Speigel's fund raiser for ACS. (one of four cards donated).

Today this piece was one of three purchased by Karey Breshnahan to become part of the permanent IQA collection. One friend said that now I MUST take that wannabe off my blog title... even if I like the way it sounds.

 

Using Everything you've got.

I think I've mentioned this before, but maybe not. When I paint or dye fabric, I always have an extra piece or two of cheap muslin around that I use as a rag. These pieces wipe up any messes during the work session, and wipe clean the jars, bottles, brushes and surfaces when I'm done. So there is no plan with these pieces.. and they end up with lots of color on them, but not in anything approaching a regular or necessarily pretty fashion.

This is a piece of "clean up " fabric.



When you look at this, you might think that it has nice depth. But it's never going to be something you could imagine using. It would go into your "ugly" fabric pile. (OK, lots of make gorgeous things from ugly fabrics. And this is kind of the point here.) This isn't the first fabric you would grab when designing a piece.

But LOOK at the wonderful leaves made from this fabric. They have variety and depth that couldn't be created easily except by using this kind of fabric. So try this technique next time you are dyeing or painting.  

Monday ToDo

I'm having a couple friends show up here today, and we're heading to a couple of the shops in my area. We visit and catch up and have ever-so-much fun. These are the gals with whom I usually end up eating Thai food. Don't know if that's in the plans for tomorrow or not.

So after I get up, I need to dress for public, vacuum some of the dog hair off the floor, and take the dogs for an early walk. Then a couple hours fun. Home to make some more leaves (I still haven't completely decided what to do... but I'm kind of leaning to partially stitching most of the leaves down, and maybe leaving just a couple loose). Monday night, the Pickles get together.

Have I mentioned the Pickles? I'd say we're a minigroup, but we don't do the same type of work, and rarely work on anything when we get together. We meet every Monday evening. Some eat dinner together, some don't. We usually share a dessert, but not necessarily. It's a couple hours of companionship to anchor the week.

An easy day, then...

The "fun" of a travelling spouse

Those of you who have spouses who travel. Ya know how almost every time something happens around the house that you have to stop and think about?? A maintainance problem, a neighborhood problem, whatever... something that would be easier to deal with if you weren't the only adult around?


And sometimes you choose to let the problem slide... but sometime you can't. I've learned to cope with these situations so well that now I'm a pretty good electrician and plumber with social skills who can sew! Just don't let me near a can of housepaint.

I had one of those nights last night.

First some background: my dog Katy is very calm and almost nothing upsets her, but odd situations in the house do make her a little nervous at times. Her way of coping is to lie in her cage and hope it goes away.

Jake OTOH cannot abide loud noises. He hates the noise of truck's airbrakes on the freeway a mile away; he hates the squeak of opening a couple drawers upstairs. He really cannot cope with smoke detectors beeping. His reaction is to run to the door by the garage. We call it his hidey-hole.

MORE BACKGROUND: We have a house that is built with lots of high ceilings and changing ceiling levels. Some call it California dramatic. I call it a pain in the ass for decorating/painting. Whatever.

Those changing levels, high ceiling mean one other thing: we have WAY TOO MANY SMOKE DETECTORS. Really. There is one right outside our master bedroom and TWO inside the room. The two inside are because we have a "normal" ceiling height at the doorway, but a very high ceiling in most of the room. And the stupid building code requires that both ceiling surfaces be covered with smoke detectors.

And last night the one way up started to beep.

Jake spent every 10 minutes running to hide. Usually, that's kind of humorous...(I'm easily amused). Katy went into her cage, but the noise wouldn't stop. She became stressed enough that her heart was racing, her muscles were tense and quivering and she couldn't stop panting.

I couldn't let it beep until Steve comes home on Saturday. It wasn't bothering me much (though I would have had to sleep in another room), but the dogs were beyond stressed.

So.

Ten pm, I'm walking out into the sideyard where the extension ladder is hung. This the door I let the dogs out from. What do you thing the odds are that I wouldn't find some dogpoop on my shoes? Doesn't matter. I did.

I lifted the 11 foot ladder off it's hooks, jockeyed to balance it, and started carrying it through the house. I want to tell you... my house is tall, but it is not wide (or is that long??) It ain't easy to move an 11 foot ladder through the house!!

And curved stairways?? WHO THOUGHT THAT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA?? I'd often like to shoot them. Yes, they look dramatic.. but I could have a coat closet next to the stairway if I weren't dealing a curve. Now it's just wasted space. Anyway...

I had to lean the ladder against the stairway, go up to the top and lift the ladder up and over the railing. No fun. LOTS of arm strength. NOTE TO SELF: START WORKING ON THAT ARM STRENGTH THINGY. The good thing? Not a scratch on the railing or the walls.

Slid the ladder through the door, and set it up. Unextended it just reached the "plant shelf" below this friggin' beeping smoke detector. Hmm... is this safe enough? but if I extend it will I be able to crawl off??

Pause for a possible chance of planning ahead.

I went back downstairs, unlocked the front door and grabbed the cellphone. This way, if I fell (but didn't break my neck) I could fall 911 for help and they could actually get in. If I did break my neck? Katy has gotten good as sliding the glass door open to get into the dogfood. She's be resourceful enough for a while.

I decided to leave the ladder the way it was. I crawled up onto the shelf and spent 5 minutes trying to figure out how to undo the friggin smoke detector from it's wiring. If I had had a hammer with me, I'd have smashed it.

NOTE TO SAFETY DESIGNERS: Smoke detectors need a uniform design. And they need to be battery-replaceable with one hand. That way the replacer-person can hold on for dear life to something.

Got it open, changed the battery, and then could not get it plugged back in. U'm 12 feet or so above floor level, kneeling on some 2x4s covered with plywood and drywall (and wondering how much weight it can carry) on a "shelf" that is about 18" wide. It's all in shadow because nobody tried to actually light high ceilinged rooms and this connector needs me to be in my bifocal range to line things up right. How??
(our detectors are hard wired together... I'm guessing in case we had an alarm system? My alarm system sleeps on the bed with me, barks, sheds and lives. and hates the sound of beeping alarms.)

I decided to "screw it!" and threw the smoke detector down to the floor. Guess I reached my patience level. Never knew it ran so shallow. We now have a charmingly unattractive partial appliance on the ceiling... but heck, it's my bedroom nobody sees it.

The dogs followed me downstairs, where Katy laid at my feet for the next hour. Her panting slowed, her body relaxed, she became her old self. Jake moved from his hidey-hole position of safety back into the family room with us. We ate icecream at 11:30 pm to celebrate.

The ladder is still in the bedroom. I think getting it back down the stairs will need to be a 2 person job. It surely isn't an emergency.

So now I can "expert at working at heights" to my list...

Adding to the "suckage verbage"

Ok, so Deb Richardson's work Sucks Rocks. Kinda hard to swallow??H

And Carol Logan Newbill's work sucks on toast. Ala Shit on a Shingle??

To add to this list... when something is horrible (in my mind)... it sucks bilge water. Hey, atleast water IS suckable... but bilge water??? not in my life.

Look!! Pictures!!

Eucalyptus completely machine quilted and about 1/2 way bound.

A closeup of eucalyptus. I'm "test applying" a bunch of these leaves. They are loosely attached to the quilt to hang free. If I like the look, and if they do not tangle on themselves too much, I will attach about 200 of them to make a limb overhanging the quilt. If it doesn't work, I'll have to decide if I want to applique them partly down. Or leave the piece just as it is. I want this piece to be entered in a couple shows... so what do you think?

Tuesday Night Class/Wednesday ToDo

Last night was my first WATERCOLOR ON FABRIC class. We are going to hear today how things shake out, as we were below the minimum enrollment. Of the three of us there, two can switch over to the daytime regular watercolor class (and simply use slightly different materials), and one can't. So we'll see...

The instructor (Cintra) wanted to develop a technique for painting on fabrics; but her chemical sensitivities meant she couldn't chance using some of the standard materials. We will be using Createx Pure Pigments. and playing with paint, paper and silk. Nothing to show at the moment.. the class last night was a run through the supply list.

I had friends over Monday night, so I cleaned then... and my cleaning Wendesday is FREE!!

So my ToDo:

Walk the dogs and do some strength/stretching exercises.
Make leaves for euc.
Mow grass and pull my daily bucket-o-weeds.
Start gathering materials for the class.

Postcards for Cancer Fund Raising

About a month ago, I posted this piece and said I didn't know how I would use it.

Then a couple weeks ago, I mentioned that I had turned it into 4 postcards for Virginia Spiegel's ACS Fund Raising effort.

Today I got the notice that the postcards have been received and are up on the page. Along with GOBSMACKINGLY BEAUTIMOUS cards from Karen Stiehl Osborn, and works by Rosemary Claus Gray and several other artists.

Take some time to go visit the site. Buy a card if you wish (they are 100% tax deductible).

Oh, yeah, since it ain't obvious ... click on the title and you go to Virginia's page.

Turquoise Jacket

This is the jacket I got compliments about last week. It kind of looks like a sack here, but it's cute and "pettable" when worn. Mainly because it's flannel. The pattern is from the Rag Merchant. (Fran's Jacket). If you were at the first session of AQT last year, you saw it... cause I think I lived in it for the entire week. (Gerrie, old roomie, can you confirm??). Sorry it's on a hanger and not a human.. but it's so hard to wear something and take a picture of it at the same time.

And, can you believe I was wearing flannel in June in California??


This is the back of the same jacket.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Yesterday I saw STP... and I'm still trying to put my finger on my reaction to the movie. It was not the sweet "gal pals" movie that I expected. It was both more and less than that. Each girl went through her problems of summer on her own... until she returned to their hometown. In the end, they again banded together to save one and help another.

But the parents were conveniently uninvolved a whole lot of the time. And I wanted to THROTTLE Brad Whitford's character. The invisible parents is a theme in teen-based movies, but that doesn't mean that movies have to continue this theme. When the character's daughter reached out to him, he chose not to respond at that moment. Instead the daughter's friends had to intercede to bring about a reconcilation. Bah!

So parts of it felt false.

There were lots of tears in the second half... and not much in the way of comedy (though I thought it was billed as a coming of age comedy). The girls had insights I felt way beyond their 16 year experience.

The scenery was STUNNING. Made me want to stay in Greece for a while. And maybe visit Baja, Mexico.

But there were major flaws in scenes... when an object wasn't "needed" in the scene anymore it was forgotten (a sketch box, a boat, a dog, that we noticed right away... surely more if we looked closely).

It might be a good movie for a "girl friend's pizza and movie" night; it MIGHT be a good place for a mother and daughter to begin a conversation. For me it was an afternoon in free Air Conditioning with a friend.

I'm not saying don't go see. But I think I am saying to only see if the matinee price is right and you have friends to share it with probably with lunch before. Part of a female-bonding experience. For the most part, it's a NETFLIX worthy film.