Taking a Break

I will be taking a break for a couple of weeks. Will give you photos and details later.

Ooo, it's My Birthday!

O.k. it's not the big 40, only the not-so-big 39. My last year of the 30s decade. I better make the most of it.

For my birthday, Anna and I went and got our hair cut this morning (it was the only time she could get both of us in). Then we went to the thrift store. The birthday gods must have smiled on me for 10 minutes, because all the shorts I tried on fit me. When does that ever happen? Not because I've lost any weight but I must have picked the right sizes (which you know varies from brand to brand). And the clothes were 50% off. Now I have a couple of pairs of nice shorts (one was LLBean) and a skirt for about $8. Nice present.

We also found more books for Anna (like she needs any more. She already has an entire shelf she hasn't read yet. But I'm sure she will get through them all eventually). Then Anna and I went to lunch. Back home to pick up her friend and take her to her class at the art museum at which I just stayed and worked until class was over. Home again and Anna is at her friends house. I have time to use on the computer. Yoga class tonight and then birthday is over.

Saturday

It was a typical Saturday here today. Except that the annual Lakewood garage sale was going on today. Lakewood is a nice neighborhood area and every year they have a weekend that is for garage sales. Lots of people in the area participate. We rode our bikes, which is much easier to get around than with a car, because there are lots of cars! There were probably 30-40 garage sales or more. Some people would just set out a table with stuff on it because they knew there would be a lot of people coming by. Some people had few items laying out on the lawn. Most had more.

Besides the usual clothes, books, baby items and toys, we noticed lots of printers (many which happen to be just like one of ours), small box t.v.'s (as opposed to the flat t.v.'s that are so popular today or the hand held kind) and microwaves. Frank happened to be looking for one of those small t.v.'s to use in the garage and for real time video at his rocket launches (geek!). He had the bargain of the day finding one color working t.v. which was made in 1990 (not too old) for $3. Despite all the stuff, I didn't buy anything (that's good). Frank had to go back for the t.v. later since we were on our bikes. That's one way to limit shopping, usually.

Here is another "rebel who doesn't follow the instructions" piece I did. I used the same background and same motifs as with the previous one, but with printed paper instead of solids. I call it Crossroads and it has little bits of a cut up map on it.

I Did This?

Yes, I did do this. It doesn't look like "me". I was just playing and working quickly. This was part of the homework for the third lesson of my online class. When I was in school, I was a pretty good student. But now? I did not follow the directions exactly for this lesson. It was suppose to be made with Lutradur that we paint. I made mine with paper. The stitches that should have been added are wax pastel lines instead. I did complete the lesson; I just changed it a little.

I have the same problem with patterns (mostly cross stitch), I always want to change something: change a color, take something out, move something, add something. I guess it is just a small way to make it my own.

This time I just didn't want to buy the Lutradur.

Serviceberries and Summer

Today was the last day of school for Anna. Last weekend it was a record high at 100 degrees. On Monday, the 6th graders went to the water park. So who would have thought they would be worrying if it was going to be warm enough today for the last day bbq? It was 47 degrees this morning and windy. A 30-40 degree shift in a day or two is hard to adjust to. I've been trying to enjoy the chill feeling as it will warm up again quickly.

Today was also yearbook day and time for signings. Anna said a couple of sixth grade boys (today she's now done with 4th grade) came up to her and said, "It's the girl from Napolean Dynamite." And asked her for her autograph. For those that don't know, that was a film that was made in Idaho. The teenage girl in the movie looks very much like Anna. When the actress was younger she was in Corrina, Corrina and several people have mentioned that Anna looks exactly like her in that movie. Anna's not into signing autographs yet, so when another sixth grader said the same thing, she ran away.


It did warm up enough for us to pick some serviceberries from our tree. Looks like serviceberry pancakes for breakfast. Yum!

Just a Flower

Here is another piece like the previous personal symbols one. But I wasn't really using symbols, just making something.

Abstract Chair Study #3

Here is my third attempt at the chair. This time I went back to my original intent to try to make the chair a little more abstract to blend in more with the blocks. Here's what I did differently:

1) I started with a "nine patch" grid pattern (like tic tac toe for those that aren't quilters).
2) I moved the chair a little off center.
3) I used the jean stitch thread on all the lines. I do not have any quilting except the black line.
4) The overall rectangle is wider. The edges are square and I have not finished them yet. I am thinking I will stitch around the edge with the jean stitch thread like I did the rest of the lines and just leave it like that. Any other suggestions welcome.
5) I echoed shapes from the chair in other blocks.
6) I reversed the original blue background/green chair to green background/blue chair.


I am happier with this one as it achieves my original intent better. If you turned it upside down, you might not know it was a chair. Do you think it needs anything else?

Personal Symbols: lesson 2

Here is my homework completed for lesson 2 for my online class. It is 4" x 6" on Peltex.