Coffee Pot People

FRIDAY FENCE POST #80: Raccoon Highway

2011-08-19T13:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a Long time since I did a Friday Fence Post, and this one is kind of a cheater. It has a fence, the one right outside our bedroom window, but I'm reasonably certain that isn't what will get your attention. I was sitting near the window when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye....

Isn't it beautiful? I got quite close to it, even closer than these photos. The fence is only about six feet from the wall, and our not-so-little friend here was at eye level. It was only when I opened the window to get a better shot that s/he backed up, away from me. I thought to myself, when it did that, Huh. Apparently, this raccoon understands the difference between an open and a shut window. Now isn't that interesting?

I wonder how often raccoons use the top of our fence as their highway....

SUNDAY RERUN: Dad Tells Me a Story

2011-07-03T12:15:00.000-07:00

This is an entry from my diary, May 12, 2003. It includes a story Dad told me, one which I'd forgotten:

There are times I'm intensely aware that any journal is a series of choices--what to record, in how much detail, what to omit. You may even have to choose whose stories to tell. I'm deciding tonight, here in the time-share vacation condo I'm sharing with my parents, Mom's sister Charlotte, and Dad's brother's widow Jewel. Already a week has passed since the fund-raising dinner/theatre entertainment for the new production of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Mother's Day was yesterday, Bruce's hearing with his supervisor's superior was this morning, and I have spent a rare five hours alone with my dad as we drove from Portland, (actually he joined me in Hood River) to Leavenworth, followed by dinner here, a round of crafting stick-pins, and swapping reminisces until Mom and the aunties were too tired to stay up any longer. Dad went to bed shortly after dinner. The trip had worn him out.

Now here I am, sitting propped against the wall, sideways at the head of the Murphy bed. I'm trapped in pajamas, as the living room is my bedroom, and perspiration beads my forehead. Aunt Charlotte was worried some Peeping Tom could see through the vertical blinds. What would she think if I opened a window? I am ready to go out and sleep in the van. Anything to cool off. I am going to open a window.

I surprised myself by being ready to leave when Mom and Dad arrived this morning. The car was packed, I'd had time to eat, RC had checked the tires and transmission.

Mom rode with me as far as Aunt Charlotte's, in Hood River. We had a brief visit there with cousin Cindy, and a light lunch, and then loaded Charlotte's gear into Mom and Dad's little red Taurus and drove over to pick up Aunt Jewel. Dad was my passenger now. Said he didn't want to get stuck in a car with three gabbling women. He'd told me in Portland he'd switch with Mom. Sometimes I've felt as though Dad and I didn't have a lot in common. I think it's a male/female thing. Duane told me once he always fretted about what to get Mom for Christmas and birthdays, but Dad was easy. It's just the other way around, for me--with Mom, I have to take a l-o-o-o-n-g list of possibilities and pare it down; with Dad I walk around wondering what one earth he might like to get! But there's one thing Dad and I have always shared: Our love of music.

We sang together for long miles, reminding each other of songs we hadn't thought of in years, resurrecting lyrics in a patchwork fusion of mental filing systems.

And Dad told me stories.

He told me of the time he'd been out logging with his brother, (my Uncle Walt) and a couple of buddies. They'd set out from camp one morning, Dad and one of the guys. Uncle Walt was still in camp, and the fourth man was already out in the woods. Dad had a double-headed clearing axe over his shoulder, which they used the way I suppose one would use a machete, to clear brush around the trees they wanted to cut, or to clear a path through the forest. It was honed every morning until it had an edge you could have shaved with.

Well, it was cold and frosty, and Dad stepped up onto an icy log lying in the path, lost his balance, and tried to keep his feet by bringing the handle of the axe down, slicing his neck quite neatly at the base of the skull.

His buddy managed to get him back to camp, where Uncle Walt hustled them into their old car. Dad's friend had a thick, folded cloth over the gash, trying to staunch the bleeding, but it wasn't working. At the sound of the car's engine, the fourth man came out of the woods wanting to know why they were going back. Uncle Walt jerked a thumb at the back seat, where Dad and his friend were.

That fourth man took one look at the two of them and said, "Stop the car!" to Uncle Walt, yanked the back door open and said, "Get out!" to the friend, who did, and scrambled into the front seat. Then the latecomer climbed in with Dad and pushed his thumb into the pressure point on the side of Dad's neck, stopping the flow of blood. Without his knowledge and action, Dad would have bled to death.

Now, back to 2011, with the latest photos from the yard:

SWAP-BOT SATURDAY: Altered Bingo Card, ATC, Chunky House

2011-07-02T21:42:00.000-07:00

What? It's been a month since I blogged?! Oh, dear. Well, I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things, and I'll start with a Swap-Bot Saturday post.

These are the things I sent out this week. I enjoyed working on them, and am hoping their recipients like getting them in the mail.

This first one is an ATC (Artist Trading Card). The swap theme was "Altered Photograph". I had several to choose from, and was leaning toward a pretty child.

As I went through my little stash, this one grabbed my attention, as it does every time I see it, but I set it aside. I know my proclivity for the quirky and irreverent. It would be too easy to make fun of her, I thought, and I don't want to do that. There's always been, for me, something compelling in this woman's face. I feel a little sad looking at her sometimes. Her name is Rebeccah. I look at her eyes and mouth, and think, She must have been beautiful as a young woman.

A little while later, I fixed a cup to tea to drink as I worked, and read what was on the teabag's tag. I knew instantly that I'd use Rebeccah's photo after all. The tag is on the ATC. (You may need to click on the picture to read it.)

Then came an Altered Bingo Card, my first. I thought at first that I'd do something vintage-y and frilly and feminine, but....

Last up, a Chunky House, with the assigned theme of "something to do with the sea". Here's my creation, with the "porthole" closed:

And then with it open:

In two days it will be Independence Day. Already the fireworks have begun. I love that part, everybody setting off firecrackers all over town, in spite of the fact that most of what I can see and hear are quite illegal here! I'm so glad Washington still lets people have big, loud, showy fireworks; what would Oregonians do, otherwise?!

Almost Summer in the Garden

2011-06-04T23:01:00.000-07:00

Well, I think I've been brain dead for the last couple of months! Odd what dealing with even a non-threatening bit of cancer will do. (Update: My DH has been through the surgery, and the first six treatments, and is doing fine. No more treatments now until mid-July. As you'll see from the photos, he's feeling a Lot better!)

Today marked the first real day of spring/summer here, and was it a wonder. We went from day after day of cold drizzle, to mid-sixty temperatures yesterday, with more drizzle, to brilliant sunshine and a high of 90 degrees today.

There was just one thing to do: Get out in the yard and garden!

Bob and I had been working for a couple of hours when I looked across the yard and realized, It's finally coming together. After all these years...look how beautiful! I had to get the camera, even though some of the photos are littered with spades, wheelbarrows, and other tools.

We've lived here now for eleven years. When we bought the place, our main thrust was to keep the weeds mowed. The "lawn" was up to our thighs the first time we mowed it. There were no arbors, no benches, no swings, no paths, no flower beds other than the ones along each of the houses, and they're only about 18" wide. (Unusual property alert: We actually bought five houses on half an acre. We live in one, and rent out the other four.) Now...Well, I'll let the photos do the talking.

Okay, so what have I been doing? I have a new passion, or an old passion with a new twist: For the first time in my life, I'm taking voice lessons, something I'd always dreamed of doing. The new twist is what I'm singing--opera! Coloratura, to be exact. What's coloratura? Usually soprano, I'm told, and rather acrobatic, with lots of movement and runs and jumps from one octave to another. I am having SO MUCH FUN! Our teacher's master class is having a get-together tomorrow, and we'll all sing for each other. This is one of the tunes I'll be singing:

FRIDAY FENCE POST #79--Child's Eye View

2011-04-08T23:23:00.000-07:00

I'm two weeks past due for a Friday Fence Post. I do apologize for being away so long. I got kind of distracted with the DH's illness, and to tell the truth, kind of misplaced the big WHY of blogging, a bit of lame on my part.

But I'm here, with some cool fences, and even cooler, several of the shots were taken by my 7-year-old granddaughter, Meggie. She has a real eye, that one, and her own thoughts about framing. I was told, in no uncertain terms, that she did not want me rotating any of her pictures, that she had taken them the way she wanted them to be seen.

So now, here are some of the fences we shot on our walk today, hers interspersed with mine. I'll tell you which were hers at the end. I think it will not necessarily be obvious.

The fences are: Meg's, mine, mine, hers, hers, hers, mine, mine. Did you get them all right?

A word on the last two, also. The next to the last, if you look closely, especially at the right side of the sidewalk, is the shadow of a picket fence. The last is chain link, reflected in rain water on some corrugated sheeting.

Click on any photo to see it large.

Your turn! Has spring brought out the fences in your area? Post them on your blog, and drop the link here so I can come see them! And be sure to leave a comment. I love them anyway, but comments in my inbox let me know something's going on over here!

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SUNDAY RERUN: Brain Teasers

2011-03-27T09:35:00.000-07:00

Brain Teaser: Balancing Four Nails by MadeContact

Time for a Sunday Favorite! If you want to join the party, click on the button in my left hand sidebar--it will take you to Chari's instructions on Happy to Design.

This is an entry from my old diary, dated April 17, 2003. Hope you enjoy the Brain Teasers!

These brain teasers were sent to me a few days ago by one of my readers. I say, "Thanks, Phil!" And I'm adding one to his, an old (1933) jigsaw that gave you the brain teaser on the back, and then you could put the puzzle together to read the solution on the picture, which they didn't put on the box.

So, written teasers first, picture teaser next, and answers after that.

Brain teasers that will make you groan ...
1. A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires, the second is full of assassins with loaded guns, and the third is full of lions that haven't eaten in 3 years. Which room is safest for him?

2. A woman shoots her husband. Then she holds him under water for over
5 minutes. Finally, she hangs him. But 5 minutes later they both go out together and enjoy a wonderful dinner together. How can this be?

3. There are two plastic jugs filled with water. How could you put all of this water into a barrel, without using the jugs or any dividers, and still tell which water came from which jug?

4. What is black when you buy it, red when you use it, and gray when you throw it away?

5. Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday?

6. This is an unusual paragraph. I'm curious how quickly you can find out what is so unusual about it. It looks so plain you would think nothing was wrong with it. In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is unusual though. Study it, and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out.

Here is the back of the box, with the captions to pictures below:

Rich princess want to marry a poor peasant. Her father objects.
King decrees on following day he will offer poor man two slips. One reads "marriage", the other "death". Peasant must abide by his choice.
Poor peasant is secretly told the night before that both slips will read "death".
Peasant goes before court, and after making his choice, marries the princess. HOW DOES HE DO IT?

Answers to the brainteasers:

1. The third. Lions that haven't eaten in three years are dead.
2. The woman was a photographer. She shot a picture of her husband, developed it, and hung it up to dry.
3. Freeze them first. Take them out of the jugs and put the ice in the barrel. You will be able to tell which water came from which jug.
4. The answer is Charcoal.
5. Sure you can: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow!
6. The letter "e", which is the most common letter in the English language, does not appear once in the long paragraph...

Answer to the Jigsaw teaser:

Peasant swallows the slip he chooses. The King said one of them would read "marriage", and the "other" death, so the peasant must have chosen "marriage", as the one in his hand is "death".

Hope you enjoyed the Brain Teasers! Now I'm off to see what Chari's got for us today....

SWAP-BOT SATURDAY: Mail Art, Tag, ATC

2011-03-26T17:30:00.000-07:00

Shhh. Don't tell anyone, but it's really Sunday. I didn't get the photos taken early enough to do this yesterday, so I'm pretending. And Blogger is so cooperative that way--you can tell it to post something on just any date you want, and it will do it. What will they think of next? Time machines! I know it!

I got several lovelies this week, beginning with a piece of mail art:

Mail Art Envie by MegaMar

Don't you love it? Let me tell you, I went right out and got myself a unicyclist rubber stamp. Lucky me, too, 'cause Michaels had one for a dollar. Yes!

I also got this awesome chunky tag, created with a coffee theme because, well, you know me and coffee. That made me smile big.

"One Cup Is Never Enough!" by Tootheri

And then this darling ATC, with a fairy theme, in a perfectly wonderful holder. I need to figure out how she did that, but she glued it, and I don't want to destroy it in the figuring. Maybe steam? Hmmm...

Pink Fairy by BeverlyBling

And then, because my little collection of ATCs is growing, I picked up a funky old photo album at Goodwill. (Another $1 wonder!) The sleeves hold photos that are 3.5" X 5", perfect for two ATCs.

It's not beautiful, which makes me think there's a project lurking, and the sleeves, oddly enough, work much better if you put the ATCs at the back instead of the front, but I like it, because it let's me flip through and see them easily. A person could put four in each sleeve, but doing just two lets you see the back of each one, and who created it.

Also, the fact that the sleeves are double-sized means that ATCs with extras can be slipped in sideways so nothing gets smushed. (Would you believe Blogger thinks 'smushed' isn't a real word? Honestly, that's just silly. Of course, it is!)

Time ATC by Veronica

What about you? Did you send or receive art this week?

FRIDAY FENCE POST #78

2011-03-25T20:43:00.000-07:00

I love this time of year, when Spring arrives and photographing fences becomes an excuse for taking pictures of what's in front of them! AND I got out of my car! My foul weather fence photography secret is I park across from the fence I've chosen, roll down the window, and shoot from there. What can I say? I have a strong distaste for being cold and wet!

Today's first fence:

At the left edge of the photo above, you can just make out the hellebore in these next three. Isn't it beautiful? I love the new varieties that have come out in the past several years!


Filters R Fun

How about bright yellow forsythia against a white picket fence? Is there a brighter harbinger of Spring?

Last one, an "owlish" fence on the next corner:

These photos are all much larger than they appear, sort of like things you see in your sideview mirror. Click on them to bring them up full-size.

Now it's your turn! Post your Friday Fence, and come back here with the URL, so I can come see it, too! (Make sure it's the permalink to the post itself, so I can find it.) You've got a whole week to bring back your link, so be sure you leave a comment, so I'll know to look. (By the way, I'd love it if you'd grab the button in my left sidebar for your own blog. Let's get more people, with more fences!)

BLADDERS ON ETSY

2011-03-24T21:16:00.000-07:00

No, this is not an entry about shopping 'til your bladder threatens to pop. It's about finding bladders on Etsy, proof enough for me that if it can be thought of, it will be created and sold on that most eclectic of websites.

Bladder Patch in Neither Sparky's Shop

I know what you're thinking. Why on earth would anyone be looking for bladders, on Etsy or anywhere else, for that matter? Well, in my case, it's because my DH had five, count 'em, five bladder tumors removed this Tuesday. There was supposed to be just one, but the CT scan lied. They're cancerous, but the doctor thinks they got all of it, and to make certain of that, they'll do some chemo of a rather strange (to me, at least) variety: A liquid infused with inactive tuberculosis germs will be put into the bladder, causing the DH's immune system to freak out and come rushing to destroy the germs, at which point the white cell minions will discover any cancer cells lurking and destroy them, too.That is the plan, and the doctor seems quite confident in it.

Three more finds:

Dr Kilmore's Swamp Root Bladder Cure (Mary's CrochetnMore)

Bladderwrack Pendant (CorryVrecken)


"I Laughed So Hard" Magnet (CrossEyedCatGifts)

Looking for bladders on Etsy taught me another thing: Bladders, unless they're the plant variety, seem to be inherently funny. I mean, honestly, can you even say, "bladders on Etsy" without smiling?

This Week's Project: Fabric Envies

2011-03-23T07:15:00.000-07:00

I have a couple of envelopes to show off this week! I was really pleased with them, and they were easy to do, so there will be a tutorial, but it will show up on ThinkCrafts first; I'll post it here later.

Here they are:

I showed them to my DH, and told my Mom about them over the phone. Both of them said exactly the same thing: "Well, can you mail something like that?!"

"I'm pretty sure they'll be okay," I said. "Heck, you can wrap up a crowbar and put an address on it, and the post office will send it!"

Sure enough, when I laid them on the counter at the post office and asked if I could mail them, the guy didn't bat an eyelash, just said, "Sure. We get all kinds of stuff through here." He did say they were so pretty, didn't I want to put them in something so there wouldn't be any risk of their being damaged? but I told him no, as the object of them was to have something really pretty arrive in the mailbox of the recipient.

Have you heard about the 52 Weeks challenge over at Fabric Fascination? The idea is to finish a project a week for 2011, and post it. I'm a bit late arriving to the party, but it sounds like fun to me, so now I'm going to post this, and drop the link over there!

Oh. Forgot to mention: These are my creations for the Mail Art #2 Swap on Swap-bot.com!

SUNDAY RERUN: Attila the Pillow Fighter

2011-03-20T23:13:00.000-07:00

It's time for Sunday Favorites, hosted by Chari over at Happy to Design. It's a fun party, and you can get there by clicking on the Sunday Favorites button in my left sidebar. Come join us!

This is an entry from my personal blog, back in April of 2003. You know, one of the things I most enjoy about re-posting a favorite entry is that I get to reread it myself. I'd forgotten nearly all of this afternoon, and remembering it made me smile. Hope it does you, too.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Monday is dance class for Jen, after school. Joe and I sit in the waiting room, and usually he does homework while I read. Their mom stands at the wall, watching Jen dance.

This week there's no homework. The school is testing the kids to see if their learning is up to standards. Joe brought his Gameboy, and sat on the bench. I came in after helping Jen into her leotard and tights, and putting her hair up, and sat down next to Joe, with my pile of magazines, searching for yellow, yellow, yellow...

I sat next to him, not touching. The moment I was settled, he changed position, put his elbows on his thighs, and his right knee against my left thigh. Each time one or the other of us stood, he made sure his knee was against me when we were both seated again. It felt very much like there was some kind of emotional bond that physical gesture was echoing.

At home he finished his dinner before Jen, and stood behind my chair, asking, "Can I braid your hair?" "Sure," I said, and he went to work. Of course, just braiding it wasn't enough, and I soon had a pile of hair on top of my head.

"Oooh. The mean old school-teacher look!" he exclaimed, and we all laughed. I put on my mean old school-teacher voice, half screech, half speech.

"Sit in your seats and turn to page 37!" I cackled at them. "You will read without moving from your desks to page 700!" They were both already giggling.

"But, teacher, I have to go to the bathroom!" said Joe.

"Deal with it!" I shot back.

"But, I already peed my pants!"

"Well, then, you'll be dry by the time you finish!" He's a typical nine-year-old--that had to have been the funniest thing he'd heard all day, and he practically fell down he laughed so hard.

When their dad got home, we had to go through that whole routine again, and at the sight of Joe standing behind me, hands full of my hair, his eyebrows rose slightly, and he murmured to me, "There's a certain level of comfort being indicated here," and I nodded. It's a good feeling.

The kids went downstairs to play, and I took a moment to tell their Dad what else had happened at dance class. Joe and Jen's mom had asked me if I wanted a coffee. Joe offered, "My mom's secret is that she likes you. That means she trusts you."

I was taken aback, not so much because she liked me, but because I didn't quite know how to respond. Could I honestly say I liked her? The words wouldn't come, she has done and said so much that is harmful to her kids. I sat there, stammering, and finally managed to blurt, "Well, what a nice secret to have!"

She didn't seem to notice anything amiss, and as we left the studio and walked together down the sidewalk, we laughed and chatted about...movies, I think. But it was a friendly conversation, and I saw the likeable side of her.

On the way home, I told Joe, "My secret is: I like your mom, too."

I saw his grimace reflected in the rearview mirror. "Why!?" he asked.

Oh dear. What to say to that? I told both kids, "Sometimes people...we all do things that aren't good, but we can still like the person without liking everything they do." Joe was quiet, and I could tell he was thinking about that.

Craig thought I'd handled the situation well, and the kids were standing at the bottom of the stairs calling, "Anitra! When are you coming down? You said you'd come down and play!", so I told him I'd better get down there before they came and got me.

I tiptoed down. They were hiding behind a wall they'd made of an over-sized hassock, sofa cushions, and a big body pillow. I could see them in the mirror that hung on the wall and faced both the stairs and playroom. Joe's head popped up, he saw me in the mirror, and cried, "Jen! She's coming! Attack! Attack!"

Oh, man. We had the hugest pillow fight. They were the Chinese, their "wall" was the Great Wall, and I was the Huns. All of them. Joe told me once, "Lie down. You're dead...But there are thousands more Huns, and they all look like you, and they're all dressed like you, so you can get up...aaaaaggghhh!!!"

Toward the end it was almost more wrestling match than pillow fight, with the three of us grappling and screaming on the floor. Again, the physical contact with Joe seemed to disguise a longing to be touched, a show of affection even when he was flinging himself across my back and urging his sister to do the same.

We were a tangled heap of arms and legs when their dad came down. He stood with his hands on his hips and said, "Kids, your babysitter is the best sport in the world. I hope you know that."

I couldn't find words to tell him, although it should have been easy. I was having as much fun as they were. How could that possibly make me a good sport?

SWAP-BOT SATURDAY: Mail Art

2011-03-19T08:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I got a piece of mail that was so wonderful on the outside, I forgot to actually open it! Seriously, I showed it off to my DH, took photos of it, laid it where I would admire and study it from time to time, and it was evening when I realized it was still unopened!

Isn't it wonderful?

Click on the pictures to see them full-size.

You know what I'm a tad concerned about? I think I'm supposed to send my own mail art to this artist. eeek. Well, my salvation is that I can't draw like that, and I know it, so mine will be completely different as to medium. Rescued by apples and oranges, maybe?

FRIDAY FENCE POST #77

2011-03-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

I went trolling for fences this afternoon, expecting to use one I saw yesterday. I did take its photograph, but wasn't content. One street over, two blocks down...Look! It's Spring! It's really spring. I don't care if it is raining buckets. I don't care if I am still wearing two long-sleeved shirts around the house. It's spring, and this proves it:

Isn't that a wonderful sight? And there was more. I'll admit it. Sometimes the fence is less important than what's near it:

It's your turn! We had several great fences last week--show me more! Just drop a link to your Fence Post into Mr Linky here, and I'll come visit. Oh, and grab the button in my left sidebar and/or link back, so we'll get even more fences!

BUTTON, BUTTON, PAIRS OF BUTTONS...

2011-03-17T20:24:00.000-07:00

I recently participated in a Button Swap on Swap-Bot. I figure no matter how many buttons you have, someone else will have different ones, so sending off some of my duplicates and waiting for new buttons to come back to me sounded like fun.

When the time came, I gathered up the requisite number of buttons, plus a bunch, sent them off, and honestly, just kind of forgot about the swap. (One of the advantages of having a short attention span is that so many lovely little surprises arrive in my mailbox, lol!)

Today, a packet of buttons arrived. I suspect I will never use them. Because, tell me, isn't this absolutely the most fun "button card" you ever saw? I just love it! How could I bear to remove the buttons?

In other news, I really needed to bake something today. Some version of Dump Cake seemed to be in order, but...but...something new. Lemon Peach Crisp has made its debut, and it is YUMMY.

LEMON PEACH CRISP

2 Large cans peaches (about a quart each), drained
1 Peeled apple, chopped
1/2 teaspoon Almond flavoring
About 10-12 teaspoons strawberry jam
1 Lemon cake mix
1 cube butter or margarine

Mix the fruit and almond flavoring together, right in the 9"X13" cake pan you'll be baking the crisp in. Drop a dollop of strawberry jam in the center of each planned serving. (I figured the pan would divide into about 12 good-sized servings.)

Now pour the dry cake mix over the top of the fruit mixture and jam, and spread it out evenly. Slice the butter thinly into pats and lay them out over the top of the cake mix.

Bake at 350 degrees F, until the top looks lightly browned and crispy. To be honest, I forgot to look at the clock, but it was about an hour, maybe longer.

It really was good! Now, a note or two: I'm not sure the strawberry jam made a difference, so you could probably skip that. Or mix the jam in with the fruit. Either way. I didn't want to go overboard with the almond flavoring, as it can easily be overpowering, but I think the amount could be doubled to a full teaspoon, for even better flavor.

Happy St Patrick's everyone!

FRIDAY FENCE POST #76

2011-03-11T21:50:00.000-08:00

Time already for a Friday Fence Post! I've been thinking about this one all week, ever since I got to go up to the Hood River Valley to see Mama. She and her sister, my Aunt Charlotte, go for a two-mile walk just about every day. My brother Duane was also visiting, so the four of us all went.

The daily walk takes place on a road near Aunt Charlotte's, with this on one side:

and this on the other:

Now, when I go walking with other people and have my camera with me, a routine usually develops quite quickly. I stop to take pictures. They keep walking. I run to catch up. Same number of steps, but I like the extra exertion it gives me!

My "little" brother (he is younger!) encourages me:

Between the two photos just above, there was a fence. A great fence. Close-ups first:

Look how the lichen and weathered knothole have formed a heart:

And then this last one. I didn't even see the horse until I had the gate in my viewfinder. I love it!

One last shot of the dog who joined us at about the half-mile mark. You may not be able to see from this shot, but this is one BIG dog. When he stands on his hind feet, he is at least as tall as Mama, and he quite easily bounces up to eye-level with that six-foot brother o' mine. And we are all convinced he's just a puppy still! He has that goofy galumphing playfulness that only puppies have, and when he isn't suddenly putting his front paws on your shoulders, he's quite the charmer.

Puppy was entranced by the newly-constructed igloo in this yard, and almost went inside, but there was this other dog...We didn't see him for a while after that, but he did rejoin us on our return.

Your turn! I haven't seen any fences but my own lately and I want to see yours! Post your fence on your blog, and drop the link into Mr Linky here, and be sure to leave a comment!

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THRIFTY THURSDAY: Finds and ATCs

2011-03-10T23:43:00.000-08:00

This is a combination entry--First I'll show you the treasures I found this week, and then two ATCs I made using one of them.

Above are my treasures. (I also got some sheet music, but am not showing that, for no good reason.)

I was most excited, I think, about the spoons. They were in a ziplock baggie with a bunch of other stuff in multiple patterns, mostly cheap stainless. The estate sale people wanted $15 for the bag, but I wanted only the spoons. They're Mama's pattern, Oneida Brahms, and in a whole 'nuther class from the rest of the flatware. So, holding my breath so to speak, because you really can't talk while you do that, I asked the lady if I could just buy the spoons, and if so, how much they'd charge. She pulled them out, looked them over, said something about their being "cheap stainless like the rest", and I was given a price of $1. Not each. For the three of them.

Do you know what those puppies cost at Replacements.com? I do. They are $30 each! It was all I could do not to tell the people at the estate sale what a great deal they'd given me. But discretion is the better part of valor, and I did not.

The next most exciting items were the old books. Here they are, opened to show a couple of pages. The one with the line drawings is what I got Tuesday's Take Out from, the lovely watercolor ladies. The other one, the geography book, is full of maps and illustrations, and I used two of the maps to make the ATCs below this photo.

That's it for today. As usual, I'm up a lot later than I intended, so I will now trundle off to bed, and sleep the sleep of the Very Tired.

Good night, and God rest on your pillow.

TUESDAY TAKE-OUT #6: Vintage Ladies

2011-03-09T00:17:00.000-08:00

Quick post with some lovely ladies, as I'm running behind today (tonight!) These beauties are from an undated book I picked up at an estate sale this week. The artwork throughout points to the 1920's, so I think it's safe to say you needn't worry about copyright infringement, especially if you're just using them for your own artwork.

You'll make me very happy if you leave a comment! (Look hard. The comment button is light blue on a lighter blue background and hard to see. I've tried any number of times to change it, but it simply will not be changed, and I don't know how to find it in the template's HTML coding. Waaah!)

Click on the pictures to make them come up full-size.

And now I'm off to bed. (It's after midnight, but I'll tell the computer it's still Tuesday!)

SUNDAY RERUN: My First Piano

2011-03-06T07:51:00.000-08:00

This morning I came across a list of my earliest memories, and decided I would write about the first one on the list. I suspect, since I was still a toddler at the time, that I've gotten some things wrong. Mama, you have my permission to correct me!

Photo on Etsy

We were traveling from California, where Daddy was stationed, to Oregon. Daddy had leave and we were going to visit all the family up there. I'd have been two and a half or so.

It was a car trip and took two or three days back then, on the roads of the day and in the cars of the time. I seem to remember Dad telling me we drove a dark forest green Hudson. Picture the big rounded cars of the late forties, early fifties. We stayed one night of the trip with friends of my folks.

I remember just one thing: They had a piano.

I'd never seen one, didn't know such a miraculous object could even exist, something that made singing when you touched it. It pulled me, entranced and wondering, until I stood with the keys just at the level of my eyes. I can still see them, striped from that angle, a strip of white layered atop the tan of pale wood, and then the recessed stripe of the piano black beneath that.

My older brother was on the piano bench, kneeling, plunking at the keys, and I raised a tentative finger and touched one, softly, making it sound.

And then I looked up, and my mother was there, closing the lid to keep us from making too much noise. My eyes widened. I can still remember the thoughts tearing through my mind while she did that, although I couldn't express them in speech. No! NO! You don't understand! I'll be gentle! I won't make noise! It's music! Ple-e-a-s-e....

She'd taken away the miracle, and then turned and walked into the other room. I could only stand there, staring at the door, mutely grief-stricken.

Now, in case you're thinking I was deeply scarred, and resented Mama for life, or something like that, don't! The strongest memory is simply the miracle of that instrument. Of course, being able to remember the experience has probably colored my ideas of what goes on in the minds of very young people. I suspect we routinely give children too little credit.

(By the way, the view of the piano above is still one from above my eye level at the time. Even standing on tiptoe, I couldn't have seen the keys from that height. Of course, my view of the edges of the keys wouldn't have made a very attractive photo!)

FRIDAY FENCE POST #75

2011-03-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

Here we go again! A new Friday, and a new fence! Someday I will learn this: Never leave home without the camera. This fence was alongside the parking lot of a thrift store here in town. I hadn't intended to stop, but I knew I had a tail light out and didn't want the cop in the lane next to me to notice it, so I swung in. Isn't that awful? But then there was this fence...which I had to come back to the next day, because I didn't have the camera. Tch tch.

Click on them to get the full effect!

Your turn? Anybody else have a fence this week? Drop the link to your photo(s) in Mr Linky so I can come see it!

FRIDAY FENCE POST #74

2011-02-25T23:09:00.000-08:00

Didn't know if there'd be a Friday Fence Post this week, since I was down with a bug for most of it, but today dawned bright, and the only cold was outside. Mine was (mostly) gone. Out I went, with the camera in the front seat of the car, to do the grocery shopping and see what I could find.

Once again, a fence I must surely have seen many times grabbed my attention:

The last two I used filters and other adjustments on. In fact, if you went out and found that fence, you'd see that the ivy is actually green right now. But isn't it lovely in shades of brown, rust, and purple? Pure happy accident, just playing with the "Adjust Hue" window.

Anyone out there spotted a good fence this week? Let's see it!

THRIFTY THURSDAY: Do You See What I See?

2011-02-24T20:10:00.000-08:00

This Thrifty Thursday is a little different from what I usually do: I decided to take you shopping with me!

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” (Marcel Proust - French Novelist and Author, 1871-1922)

I spent some time today helping a friend with her mother’s estate sale. I love estate sales, especially this kind, where the estate belongs to someone who’s still alive, but has moved. I spent my time almost exclusively standing in the basement, answering questions, and making sure nobody stuffed something in his or her pocket and walked out with it.

While I performed the task of “basement sitter”, I vividly remembered a trip to a thrift store with my Mama and two aunts. I was busily filling my cart with bits of this and that when I heard Aunt Charlotte say, “I’m just going to follow Anitra around and see what she puts in her cart.” I laughed and said, “But if you do that, I’ll get all the good stuff before you can get to it!” Aunt Charlotte told me it would be okay, because I was seeing possibilities she didn’t, and she wanted to learn how I did that.

It occurred to me that my Aunt Charlotte might not be the only one who’d appreciate a lesson in “seeing with new eyes”, so during those moments when I was alone in the basement, I turned on my camera, and took a “voyage of discovery”. What would “new eyes” see? Junk? Or art supplies?

The first photo is easy. It’s a pile of actual art supplies, proving estate sales are art supply stores, too. But do you see the bag o’ bottles? Those went to someone who planned to use them as bud vases. I see them on a window sill, with a single daisy in each.

Look it’s sputnik! No, it’s an octopus! No, it’s the framework for a solar system!

Just what I need—a wire-bending jig for heavier gauge wire:

Hmmm…these tiny figures of a king and queen would be the perfect start to a handmade chess set:

And what have we here? The world’s ugliest necklace?

Or some really cool brass beads?

Are these napkins?

Or the start of a pair of gauntlets?

These were just some of the hidden art materials I found in a single room. Now I wonder: What will you rescue and turn into art, the next time you look at something and see, not what it is, but what it could be? I’d love to know!

TUESDAY TAKE-OUT #6: Vintage Smiles

2011-02-22T17:14:00.000-08:00

More vintage photos this week, not of typically beautiful people, but of some that made me smile just to see them. You can feel the joy of these free spirits, I think, and I often wonder what sort of people they grew into, and in the case of the children, I smile for the bright ebullience of their children, and the happiness they must have brought the adults in their lives.

These photos are free for your use, as you see fit. Please don't sell them. And you'd make me very happy if you left a comment, especially if you choose to save them to your computer!

As usual, clicking on the pictures will bring them up to full size.

FRIDAY FENCE POST #73

2011-02-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

I know it isn't spring. C'mon. It snowed yesterday! It's supposed to be in the twenties tonight, and may snow over the weekend. But there are flowers. I smile just to think it. There are flowers.

Click on any of the fences to see them full-size. If you do that, you'll see I've played with the filters on several. I Do love those Photoshop filters!

Your turn! I want to see some fences from other places, found by other eyes! Post yours, and drop your link in Mr Linky here, and I'll come visit. (I have a feeling I won't be the only visitor you get, either!)

In other news, if you're in the Portland area, this weekend is the Yard, Garden, and Patio Show at the Convention Center. My booth is #128, against the back wall, straight back from the entrance. It's a wonderful show, and will have you itching to go out and get gardening, all the while giving you great ideas and showing you new plants. (I spotted a couple I'll HAVE to have while I was putting the finishing touches on my booth today.)

And I'd love to see my friends there, especially some of those I haven't met in person yet!

THRIFTY THURSDAY: Lovely Handkerchiefs

2011-02-17T21:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, just because I was mere blocks away from it, I stopped into one of the thrift shops I frequent. (PACs, on 108th & NE Halsey, for those in the Portland area.) As I parked, I realized the date was the 16th, just one day past their tag change day, when everything that hasn't sold for half-price drops down to a mere twenty-five cents. Yay!

So, okay. The handkerchiefs above weren't on sale. But full price was fifty cents apiece; I got the whole ten for $5!

And while I didn't take pictures, I also got three LIFE magazines from the 70's for twenty-five cents each, plus several vintage childrens books, and a novel by an unfamiliar author, all for a quarter apiece, plus one tee shirt for me that I spent a whopping dollar and a half on. Oh, and four really pretty note cards for fifteen cents each.

Do you have a favorite thrift shop? What sorts of things do you look for when you go?

SWAP-BOT SATURDAY: ATC's, Altered Puzzle Piece

2011-02-12T21:53:00.000-08:00

I am loving Swap-bot, both for the creative outlet it gives me, and the inspiration of other artists! This week I worked on several ATC's and my first puzzle piece. The ATC above was sent to me by one of my Foreign Language ATC swap partners. Isn't it glamorous?

The piece below is my very first altered puzzle piece. I'm happy with the results, and was surprised to discover that the hardest part of it was finding a puzzle piece to use! When it was finished, I used a leather punch to punch holes in the top, and attached jump rings for the slender silver necklace. The dangle at the bottom is an old earring I found somewhere, and saved, quite literally, for years, because I just Knew there'd be something it would come in handy for. The recipient has already written to say she loves the necklace--YAY!!

These next to ATC's are my creations for the Foreign Language ATC swap. The first is simple and straightforward, but

don't ask me what this one "means", because I have no clue. It just seemed to happen.

The last two ATC's, I created for a swap that required you to use at least one piece of punched paper. I couldn't decide whether to glue that word, "Deal", down or not, so left it loose in the ATC envelope, putting the decision of whether or not to use it in other hands.

This last one I've already shown, but since it was my other piece for the Punch Art ATC, I'll put it in again.

What about you? Do you make ATC's? Have you posted any lately? I'd love to see them! Just drop a link in a comment, and I'll come look!

FRIDAY FENCE POST #72

2011-02-11T17:42:00.000-08:00

It's Friday, and I have fences! (I also have a wheel, but that's a freebie, lol.)

This first fence was one I drove past, thinking it wasn't a very interesting edifice. Then I did a U-turn and photographed it anyway. I just had to. This is February 11, and look! The camellias are in bloom!

Then came this one. I just love a fence with a window. Honestly, they're nothing but nifty:

Same fence, but around the corner, and there it was, another unusual feature--ceramic planters between the fence and its top rail:

Did I say something about a wheel? I sure did! I was walking from my car to the front gate, when this wheel, strapped to the trailer in our carport, whispered, "Take my picture. You need to take my picture."

Now it's your turn. Seen any good fences lately? Drop a link to them in Mr Linky here, and I'll come visit! Oh, and grab my button in the left sidebar for your blog, if you will. Let's invite more people, and more fences!

The wheel prompts me to restate something I've said before: If you can't find a fence you find 'different' or unusual, look for that different or unusual angle, and/or get really close. You might be surprised by what you see!

THRIFTY THURSDAY: MORE Buttons!

2011-02-10T18:03:00.000-08:00

Whoo-hoo! Another jar of buttons at the same Goodwill as last week! This was a smaller jar, but it was priced at just $2.99, so I didn't even hesitate. Off the shelf, and into the cart.

First, an apology for the photos, which are blurry. Must be time to recharge the camera batteries. But I think they're clear enough to show how really cool they are, even the brown ones:

Some really great black buttons, too, especially that one with the red rhinestones:

Interesting white buttons:

A number of clear buttons were in the jar, including the two larger, cupped, buttons. I realized when I picked those two up that they're glass:

These red buttons are a lot prettier than they appear here:

Ceili (KAY-lee) thinks they're Very Interesting!

Oh! I have to tell you about Mama's score at the local thriftstore yesterday! They were having a bag sale--anything you could get into the bag they gave you, for $5.

I think I remember what she got in her $5 bag:

An old fashioned pitcher and bowl set
Two pieces of Depression Glass, one in Lariat pattern, the other I can't remember
Two pairs of shoes
Three unopened packages of tissue paper, in gold or silver
Two pair of earrings, one heart-shaped, one jade
A linen-look blazer
A dress
Four gift bags

My Mama rocks!

How about you? Picked up anything wonderful/cool/super-thrifty lately?

TUESDAY TAKE-OUT #5: Feb, Pt 1

2011-02-08T16:46:00.000-08:00

I thought for this week's Tuesday Take-out we'd do something a little different--vintage faces, instead of line art. Feel free to save these and use as you will. (Leave me a comment, if you'd like to make me smile really big!)

These images are quite large. Just click on them to see them full-size, and if you're not sure they're at their biggest, try pressing the F11 key. That will get rid of all the extraneous stuff at the top and bottom of your screen. To get it all back, press F11 again.

These are photos I've collected over time. Such wonderful faces, and interesting expressions. Who were they? What were they thinking?

SUNDAY RERUN: Bob & The Logging Truck

2011-02-06T13:59:00.000-08:00

Peterbilt, by Haystack Studio

It's time for a Sunday Favorite! Do you have one? Join the party over at Chari's! Just click on the button in my left sidebar, and you'll be taken to her blog, and the instructions for joining in.

I wrote this entry in March of 2003:

This happened in October of 1999, and for some inexplicable I reason didn't write about it at the time, in my handwritten journal. I wrote all around it. I have drafts of letters I wrote to editors, and questions I wrote to myself that I needed answers to, but never wrote down what actually happened. About time I did it, I think.

RC spent nearly three months working to fix up his mom's two houses after she'd moved into a retirement center, scraping and painting, re-roofing the older house and garage, putting everything in order so they'd be good rentals for her.

Her houses were on the corner of a T-shaped intersection leading, sort of, to a big warehouse. At each corner leading to that intersection were signs stating in eight different ways and locations that trucks were not to use the street, and telling truck drivers what route they should us. It was, and is, a residential street where you would often see children playing. We weren't aware until RC's stay out there how frequently the signs were just ignored, and huge semi's would lumber through the little neighborhood.

After a few weeks, and mounting frustration with the noise, and the danger of having these behemoths roar through, RC began making some noise of his own. To the police. To the city. To the business they almost all went to. Everybody talked a good line. Nobody, absolutely nobody, did anything about it.

Finally, as RC worked in the kitchen of the littler house, he heard yet another truck turn down the block. Frustrated beyond measure, he did the only thing he could think of: He ran out into the street and stood there. Just stood, as a fully loaded logging truck advanced, looming above him. He told me later he didn't even stand as high as the top of its radiator.

The truck driver leaned out the window and yelled at him. What was he doing?

"You aren't supposed to be on this street!" RC yelled back.

"I know," said the driver.

"Then why are you here?" asked RC.

"I didn't see the sign until after I'd turned."

"Well, I'm not letting you by."

RC had figured the trucker would use his radio or cell phone to call the police, and they'd come out, but he thought they'd ticket the driver when they got there. Nope. The cop had a friendly conversation with the trucker and sent him on his way, but hand-cuffed RC, arrested him, and put him in the patrol car and hauled him off to jail. Here's a sixty-five-year-old man who has never been in trouble with the law in his life, and who is acting to protect his mother's neighborhood, and he gets arrested!

At the cop shop they made him take off his shoes and socks and put him in a holding cell. He told me the toilet in it was stopped up and full of shit, and the place reeked so bad he nearly vomited, but he refused to be cowed. After a while, when it seemed he was going to be there a while, he just started singing! "She was in the flowery garden when first I saw my dear...." He said he sang at the top of his lungs, and when an officer finally came to let him out, he didn't stop singing until he'd finished the verse. Still makes me chuckle to think of it.

He was arraigned on charges of Disorderly Conduct, a Class something-or-other misdemeanor, with a maximum penalty of a $2,000 fine and/or six months in jail.

We fought it. Oh, we fought it. There were letters to the editor. Two TV stations came out and actually filmed trucks coming down the street, and interviewed RC. We retained a lawyer, naturally, and he cost us over $1,000. All because several truckers a day broke the law, (at least three city ordinances were violated each time), and no one would do anything about it.

In the end, the judge said he wasn't going to fine or imprison RC, but he found him guilty. Guilty. What a farce. Guilty of creating a disturbance, and interfering with traffic!

With all that publicity, the City Council finally agreed to put up another sign! Like the ninth one was going to do any more good than the first eight! And it hasn't. Four years later the trucks are still looming over the little children playing on the sidewalks, and occasionally riding their bikes or running in the street. They can't even be seen over the hoods of the monster vehicles.

We did get one laugh. The Oregonian, in their big issue summing up the year of 1999, listed RC's stance in front of the logging truck as "Best Tiananmen Square Re-enactment"!

Semi Backs, Series 3, by Semibacks

FRIDAY FENCE POST #71

2011-02-04T22:46:00.000-08:00

Time, once again, for a Friday Fence Post. Today's featured fence has been here before, but my Dear Husband suggested I do it again, because time and weather have worked on it. An update seemed appropriate.

Here's how the fence looked, back in September of 2008:

And here it is now:

This is the other side of that same fence, where the sage has pushed the boards away, and come through.

And this is also the same fence, but I took the shot to show off one of my latest projects--a garland, which I sent off to my Swap-bot partner, earlier this week. I loved making it, and loved the results.

In fact, I enjoyed this so much, I'm thinking of making them to sell:

What do you think? Opinions, anyone?

Your turn now. Got a fence you'd like to share? Drop the link to it in Mr Linky here, and I'll come visit! Mr Linky is here all week, so don't feel like you've missed your chance if you don't get yours in on a Friday. Stop by with it anytime!

FRIDAY FENCE POST #70

2011-01-28T17:20:00.000-08:00

Isn't it funny how you drive by something day after day after day, and never notice it? Okay, so I'd seen this fence a bazillion times, several of them within the last week or so. How long has the coat hanger been there?

Now it's your turn! Create your own Friday Fence Post, and drop the link to it in Mr Linky's magic box, and I'll come visit! Feel free to grab the button in the left sidebar, too--this is definitely a "the more the merrier" situation!

TUESDAY TAKE-OUT #4: January, Pt 4

2011-01-25T21:30:00.000-08:00

It's still January, but February is coming, and that means Valentine's Day. And that means I have Valentine clip art for you today.

Click on the pictures to bring them up full size, and then save them to your computer, to be used as you will!

A picture of my day today:

Our water heater sprung a leak. It had been in this house for God only knows how many years, certainly since before we bought the house, ten years ago. Fortunately, my Dear Husband prepares for such exigencies (isn't that a great word?), and we had a "new" water heater waiting to take its place.

So the DH took out the old electric water heater, and put in the gas line needed to hook up a gas version, which meant turning off the furnace, water, and range for the day. By early afternoon he was ready to get the old heater out of the basement, and together we wrestled the monster up those fourteen basement stairs. We both survived, but my clothes probably did not, as they are now covered with blackish dirt and rust.

While the DH did his bit, I cleaned out the under-sink and under-range cabinets, vacuumed the entire upstairs, went through two closets and a dresser culling clothes, and then got everything that had been removed from the cabinets back. Oh, and did my quarterlies, and some other housework, and fixed dinner.

After that, it was eyes and ears glued to the TV for the State of the Union address. The DH has been asleep since about eight o'clock. For some unaccountable reason, I am not tired. Go figure.

Oh, and amn't I the lucky one, to have a husband who can replace an electric water heater with a gas model for which he has to run the gas line, and not blow up the house?!

SUNDAY RERUN: Let It Be a LIVE Baby!

2011-01-23T11:49:00.000-08:00

It's time for a Sunday Favorite, hosted by dear Chari, over at Happy to Design. (You can click on the button in the left sidebar to get the directions for joining the party, or go straight to today's meme there by clicking on the link at the end of my first sentence.)

This entry is from March 18, 2003. The baby born is now fifteen years old, and a lovely young woman. Lots of words, but an amazing story, I think.

I went to a baby shower at my eldest daughter's Saturday. As often happens at that sort of party, the women talked a bit about doctors, pregnancies, that sort of thing.

One of the doctors in town, who had been my youngest's OB/GYN, has been forced out of practice, apparently for incompetency. Talking about him, that daughter stated, "Well, I don't know, but I lost two babies with him, and he was great." Those miscarriages had been so emotionally painful for her it was both a shock and a relief to hear her talk so matter-of-factly about them.

I'm remembering how, I think during the first Revels show she was in, the cast was circled up on stage before the house was opened, all of us gathering and joining our energies in preparation for the performance. One of the cast members suggested, since Revels is all about the cycle of life and death, light and dark, that we share the names of those loved ones who'd died during the year, and honor them. It seemed like a loving thing to do, as several cast members had lost friends or parents that year. But suddenly I realized December had turned and practically run from the stage. I followed her to the women's dressing room and found her standing alone, sobbing.

"December. December, what is it, baby?" I asked.

"Mom, I lost two babies this year, and they didn't even have names! I can't even say I lost them, because they didn't even get to have names!"

I don't know what I said. Something. I just remember holding her in my arms, my spirit weeping with and for her, until she quieted, and was able to stop crying.

I'm glad she's healing.

Then I remembered this morning what it had been like, being with her in the delivery room when Caitlin was born.

They'd induced labor. I seem to remember that something wasn't quite right about the baby, but that wasn't something December shared with us until later. She was in labor thirty-six hours, and by the wee hours of the morning was so exhausted she was falling asleep between contractions that lasted two minutes or so and were spaced only about thirty seconds apart. She was sitting up on the bed, and a contraction would start and she'd get through it as best she could, and then as it ebbed her eyes would close and her head would droop and she'd be asleep, only to lift her head with a kind of shrugging roll as the next wave of pain spread its ugly mantle over her belly.

By the time she was ready to push, and the baby was coming, we were all exhausted. I have no pain during childbirth, and watching my youngest, my own baby, my joy, suffer so much was excruciating. And then the excitement, layered over that fatigue, when she was finally able to push and we could see the baby's head crowning. I think I must have hyperventilated. I was standing next to her bed, and I looked across at her husband, who's a paramedic, and I said, with more surprise than anything else, "I'm going to pass out!"

He looked at me and said, "Yes. You are." I didn't want to cause a disruption. I went slowly to my knees, still holding the railing of the bed with one hand, and as I knelt there, the room spinning in blackness, someone put her hand on my shoulder and said softly, "You don't want to miss this." Oh, she was right! I shook off the vertigo, and rose. Just a couple more pushes and the baby was out! She had a girl!

I realized in a great sweep of fear that the nurses weren't handing her to December. They'd whisked the baby over to a little table and were working over her. I heard them urging the infant, "Come on, baby. Breathe. Breathe!" I was horrified. December didn't know what was happening. I stood there, holding her hand, listening to the nurses, listening to my daughter. She said, "I have a daughter, mommy! I have a daughter!" I looked down at her and said calmly, "Yes. Yes you do," but all I could think was "Please let it be a live one. Please let it be a live one!"

The nurses were bagging the baby--they had a bag with a mouthpiece on it, and they were squeezing it, squeezing air into her lungs. "Breathe, baby!" My eldest daughter was videotaping.

On the video you hear the little cry as Caitlin finally, finally, finally gasped air into her tiny lungs on her own. You see the room spin, the floor is on the screen, the sides of hospital furniture, and you hear December's sister and mom sobbing with relief, but you don't see the baby. There was no control left for filming.

Later, I was talking to my eldest, Melody. I asked if it had been she who'd put her hand on my shoulder and spoken to me when I almost passed out.

"No, Mom. I was too busy with the video camera."

"Oh, then it must have been one of the nurses."

Melody gave me a puzzled look. "No, Mom. There wasn't anybody near you. You were the only one on that side of the bed, except for me."

I will believe until my dying day that an angel was in that delivery room, too, and that I felt the touch of its hand, and heard its gentle words.

MEGGIE'S FIRST ATC

2011-01-22T20:09:00.000-08:00

It's always a happy day when I get to take care of my granddaughter, Meggie, so yesterday was a happy one.

As usual, I brought art materials, and this time, something special: My little box of ATCs. It isn't yet a large collection--just twenty, so far--but I thought Meggie would enjoy looking at them.

She was fascinated. She took them from the box, one by one, laying them carefully face up in a grid on the floor. (We often sit on the floor with our backs against the sofa. It feels cozy.)

We talked about initials. She already knew her own--MO. I told her, "Well, ATC? Those are initials, too. They stand for 'Artist's Trading Card', and they're for trading. Do you want to try making one?"

She did, so we pulled out the paper and card stock, and Meg chose three she liked, and decided which of them she wanted for the background. I cut that out for her. After that, she chose a punch she liked, and punched out two flowers, and went through my stickers to see if there were something she wanted to use. She decided on an arrangement, glued her components down, and then decided gold glitter would be the final touch. (She had eight or nine glitter options, but she held the little flasks to her art-in-process, and decided very quickly on The One.)

This is her finished ATC. Quite a nice piece for a six-year-old, don't you think?

And mine, which Meggie opined was a bit "too pretty" for her tastes. "I like mine to be kind of a little wild," she told me. Actually, after her comments, I took steps to up the contrast, and even added some white glitter.

Meg decided she did like my ATC. But she still decided against trading with me!

FRIDAY FENCE POST #69

2011-01-21T10:09:00.001-08:00

Time for our Friday Fence Post! I took a new way home yesterday, and found these two fences right across the street from each other. Awesome.

How about you? Met any good fences lately? Put them on your blog and drop the link into Mr Linky here. I promise you'll get a visit and a comment from me!

THRIFTY THURSDAY: BUTTONS!

2011-01-20T19:15:00.000-08:00

Feel free to call me a cheapskate. I've been known to turn down a $5 jar of buttons because I thought the price was too high. I almost did that just the other day, but...but...it was a quart jar, and the buttons weren't all white. In fact, there was quite a lot of color visible, and a vintage button or two, too. I put the jar in my cart. Still, I thought about putting it back. Several times.

I'm so glad I didn't! The photo at the top of the page is all the buttons, poured into a 13X9 cake pan. Here are pictures of some of the more special buttons:

I'm a happy camper!

By the way, did you notice that little green button kind of to the left, in the green bunch? It has three holes, something I've never seen, ever. There were a number of those. Have you ever seen buttons with three holes before?

Tomorrow is another day in Dundee, taking care of my six-year-old granddaughter. Sweet happiness. Time to go downstairs and decide which projects to take which materials for. Hmmm....

TODAY'S ATC: PUNCH ART

2011-01-19T19:42:00.000-08:00

I'm really enjoying ATCs, both making and receiving them. I'm planning on getting the ones people have sent me photographed and here on my blog, but for now here are two I finished this morning.

As you can see, they're nearly identical. I did them for another Swap-bot trade. For this swap we were to make an ATC for each of two partners, using any media or method, but including at least one punched element.

Because it's hard to see the layering of paper on paper, I'll tell you I used nine punched pieces. (The black you see around the two scalloped flowers is paper, not shadow, and accounts for two of them.)

I did the paper part, and was satisfied with the composition and colors, but the ATCs didn't 'pop' the way I wanted, so I added the buttons. That seemed to do it. Those buttons were a find--I got a quart jar of them at Goodwill yesterday for $4.99, and there were all kinds of wonderful lovelies in it. I'll have to show them off tomorrow!

By the way, check out Swap-bot. It's free to register, and there are tons of swaps going all the time, for crafters, knitters, seamsters, people who like to send postcards, you name it. I'm finding that joining the ones that interest me is really sparking my creativity, and it sure does make for a happy mailbox!

TUESDAY TAKE-OUT #4: January, Pt 3

2011-01-18T17:19:00.000-08:00

I think we'll do owls today. These are royalty and copyright free images. Feel free to copy them to use. (But don't go copyrighting them yourself, okay? That would absolutely fly against the spirit of these posts!)

Clicking on the pictures will bring them up full size.

Oh, and a birthday cake!

SWAP-BOT SATURDAY: Chain Stitch ATC

2011-01-15T17:38:00.000-08:00

My most recent swap on Swap-Bot is for an ATC (Artist Trading Card) that features chain stitch embroidery.

As frequently happens with me, it took me almost until the deadline to figure out what I wanted to do, and then that idea didn't pan out. So late last night, I started over. At midnight, I felt I had a good start on it, and I knew I was meeting my daughter and four granddaughters for a day of crafting today, so no worries--I'd finish the ATC first, and mail it before I came home.

HAH! I worked on the thing All Day. Couldn't believe it took so long, but I'm really happy with it. In fact, I kind of don't want to part with it! But that wouldn't be right, lol, so I'm showing them off here.

If you click on the pictures they'll come up full-size, and you can see that not only is the envelope chain-stitched, the lettered disks are chain-stitched together. It was a fun project!

(Mom, if you're reading this, I used a piece of that paper I won at the Parker Ladies' Night Out to make the envelope!)

FRIDAY FENCE POST #68

2011-01-14T20:31:00.000-08:00

I created my own fence for today. See if you can guess why!

The background is a shot I took out on our Oregon coast, at Ft Stephens. I found the candles online. (Hmmm. Just realized there were none to actually blow out, but I'm not real concerned about that--I finished the last piece of Mama's birthday cake just last night!)

I've been very remiss in posting anything lately. Don't know what's the matter with me. As my Dad used to say, "My get up and go just got up and went!" But I'd still like to see your fences! Put the link in Mr Linky, and I'll come visit, and that's a fact.

TUESDAY TAKE-OUT #3: January, Pt 2

2011-01-11T20:08:00.000-08:00

Time for another installment of free clip art! Use as you will. (If you let me know you've taken something for you own, it will make me smile!)

ART IN 3-D, A TUTORIAL

2011-01-06T18:53:00.000-08:00

I’ve been helping my mom move, and in the process have helped her decide where to hang the numerous photos, prints, and paintings. One little set of butterflies reminded me of the hours we’d spent indulging in the craft that produced them. They were worth reproducing, as well as introducing to others, so I went home and made a pair for myself.

You’ll need very little to make your own:

• Two wooden drapery rings
• Paper with a repeating pattern
• Silicone adhesive/sealer
• Clear stiff plastic, or a background paper you like
• A snippet of ribbon in a coordinating color

What you’re going to do is create shaped layers that will simulate a 3-dimensional object, so first choose a picture you have at least three copies of that will fit inside a drapery ring. Wrapping paper is great for that, or you can use three identical note cards.

Cut one image out in its entirety. It’s the bottommost picture you’ll use. Figure out what’s going to stick out farther than the first picture and cut that out. Your last picture, you’ll cut so that only the parts that stick out the most remain.

(I cheated. I wanted to my butterfly to be a little bigger, so I used an extra set of wings. You can ignore that step, or copy it, your choice!)

Trace a circle that’s a little smaller than the outside dimension of your drapery ring on a sheet of clear plastic, and cut out. (The lid from a box of greeting cards works well for this.) I like the clear plastic because when the butterflies are on the wall, their background will automatically match the room, but you can use a pretty paper as your background if you prefer. If you do that, you’ll want to use a fairly heavy paper so it won’t be flimsy.

Now glue your first, largest, layer to the circle. I glued down my extra pair of wings and then glued the full butterfly atop that. This layer is flat.

Take the middle sized layer, and shape it a bit, curving the wings, and making a crease along the body where the wings join.

The silicone adhesive is what you’ll use to hold the shape of the layers. Put a little blob of it where it will support an upward curve. Toothpicks work well for getting good placement. The advantage of the silicone is that it’s both malleable and sticky. If you think the layer looks like it sticks out too much, just squish down on it a little, or you can pull up a bit on the paper if you want more depth. The silicone holds its shape while acting as glue, too.

You won’t be using much silicone, but do work in a well-ventilated area.
Do the same thing for the remaining layers.

Let dry. Flip over and glue to the back of the drapery ring. Carefully twist the metal loop at the top of the drapery ring so that it faces you. Tie a bow at the base of the drapery ring’s hanging loop.

TUESDAY TAKE-OUT #3: January, Pt 1

2011-01-04T17:11:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! I've been away, a mental vacation, and must apologize for being so absent. If you missed me, please be assured it was mutual. I thought about all my online friends pretty much every day--I just couldn't make myself do anything about it. No excuse, and I am sorry.

So I'll return with more free clip-art, to try to make up a little for my absence. Here's the latest installment, which you may feel free to capture and use:

These images are all pretty fair size, but if you click on them they'll get even bigger.

FRIDAY FENCE POST #67

2010-12-03T12:01:00.000-08:00

I love this! Do you see the dog? (It's cool when you click on it, too.)

Time for a Friday Fence Post! I found some great fences this week--had a hard time whittling down the ones I'd share today, but forced myself to limit it to five or six images, lol.

Join us! It's easy--find a fence you think is interesting, and take a picture of it. Then create your post, and drop the perma-link to it in Mr Linky, at the bottom of this post. Be sure and grab my button (left side bar) for your own blog, so others can join in the fun, too, and please leave a comment here. It absolutely makes my day when people let me know they've visited, and makes my week to see fences from other people! I will visit every poster, and let you know I've been to your blog. =oD

Here are my fences for this week:

I loved the muted, watercolor feel of this.

Okay, so this is mostly gate, but...wow.

It is NECESSARY to play with my photos!

Wouldn't you play, too?

Almost ethereal.

Your turn! Seen any good fences lately?

TUESDAY TAKE-OUT #2: December, Winter, Fairies

2010-11-30T19:21:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late with the Tuesday Take-Out today. On the plus side, though, it won't go away! Feel free to use these images for any project you like, but don't sell the images themselves. (No problem selling what you use them for.)

ME (MARY ENGELBREIT) MONDAY

2010-11-29T20:53:00.001-08:00

Today I'm joining up with Vicki, over at Cherry Chick for ME Monday. It's a party for those of us who love Mary Engelbreit's art, and it's SO simple--just post a photo or two of something Mary Engelbreit, or inspired by her art.

My choice for today is the delightful cup and saucer set I got from my daughter, December.

Can you read what the cup says? It's "Won't you BEE my honey?"

And this is the shelf it will live on. Just as soon as I make a little room for it!

Really, that won't be hard. There's an old sugar jar that doesn't need to be there, and a little ceramic flask. They can go, and that will be that!

Stop over and see Vicki if you a fan of Mary. She has some GREAT jewelry!

SUNDAY RERUN: THE SQUIRREL

2010-11-28T06:03:00.000-08:00

Time again for Sunday Favorites, hosted by Chari, over at Happy To Design! To join in the party, click on the link in my left sidebar, which will take you to the easy-peasy instructions, or just click the link in the first sentence, which will take you to the latest installment. I've chosen another poem, this time from a blog post back in 2002:

My family & me, when I was 10 or 12.
Yes. That's a skunk, our darling Taboo.

THE SQUIRREL
The winter I was twelve
A squirrel,
I think it was a squirrel,
Got into the engine compartment
Of my grandfather's car.
It must have felt like Heaven,
An oily, black, warm
Nirvana.
Bliss was short-lived.
My grandfather, all unawares,
My gentle grandpa,
Drove the car
Into town
And back.

It was the smell that informed us, finally,
Of tragedy.
The smell.
Four decades later I wonder:
Where was that tiny corpse
That grandpa could not extricate it?
We suffered for weeks,
Tearing full-tilt through snowscapes,
Windows down
Coats buttoned
Eyes streaming.

I do not care for dogs.
That winter I would happily have been one,
Head out the window,
Face forward,
Tongue flagging
Icy crisp
Clean
Fresh
Air.

FRIDAY FENCE POST #66

2010-11-26T05:00:00.000-08:00

Seen any good fences lately? Post them in your blog, and the drop the link into Mr Linky below! I'd love to come see them! And please grab my button from the left sidebar and put it somewhere in your blog or blog post, to spread the word--the more the merrier, yes?

These two fences I spotted a couple of weeks ago, when I got lost in an unfamiliar neighborhood. Did I have my camera with me? Oh, nO0ooo, of course not! But I made a point of coming back, which would've been a Lot easier if I'd just written down an actual location. Wandering up and down and around streets looking for all the world like I'd completely lost my sense of direction and was trying to find Planet Earth by following the bread crumbs made a Whole lot more sense, lol. I did find them again, though, and didn't even run out of gas doing it.

The first time I saw this, the family was outside--Mom, Dad, and two little ones. I'm guessing we know who painted the fence, and I love the thought of the parental units allowing their children this spontaneous burst of colorful creativity:

This was part of another fence. What struck me was the way a wrought iron section seems to be sandwiched between the boards. (By the way, I used a filter on this one. Click on it to see what that did.)

And this last photo isn't of a fence at all, but i had to shoot it. From the driver's seat, while stopped for a traffic light. I just liked all the meandering curves and lines, which I accentuated with those fabulous filters:

Your turn! Show me your fences! (I have an show/sale all day today, but I'll be looking forward to evening, and the pictures from you!)

TUESDAY TAKE-OUT #1 November & ThanksgivingI

2010-11-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

From time to time I've posted backgrounds and photographs for people to copy and use. This marks the first of what I hope will be a long series of free clip art. These are royalty free images, so use as you will, but please don't sell them (except as pieces of the art you create, of course). I do plan on selling the entire collection at a later date, so for now, at least, that option remains mine alone.

Just right click and copy. This is a set of Autumn/Thanksgiving clipart.

Oh, I do just want to say that if you do take a helping of clipart, I'd love a comment saying so. Giving away things makes me smile--knowing there was actually a recipient makes me smile even more!

MONDAY MINI: BIRDS, BIRDS, BIRDS

2010-11-22T15:23:00.000-08:00

A while back I signed up for an Ornament Swap, over at Marsha's SassyMiniDolls. The idea was to create or buy an ornament to send to your partner, and when they were all exchanged, Marsha would post them on a virtual Christmas tree. Well, I love all things Christmas, and I adore Christmas tree ornaments, so I was in quicker than Kris Kringle!

Marsha will put the tree up on November 30th, but in the meantime, I wanted to show off the ornament I created. It's right there at the top of the page. You can't read the ribbon, but I hand-stamped it with "Christmas Joys winging their way from Oregon". My little bird will soon be singing on Lily's tree, over in England.

And now that I've shown off mine, why not look at some other bird ornaments, over in EtsyLand? I found these that delighted me:

Yellow Bird in His Soft Nest is by Moonsty and Floonsty

Pink Robin is by The NightJar

A lovely Upcycled Eco-friendly bird by From My Darling

And last this Tidings of Joy Bird, by Pink Buttercream

I love all the little birds I found! (And I have to say the last one reminded me of mine, only better!)

So now then, how about you? Do you love Christmas ornaments, too? Do you have favorites?

SUNDAY RERUN: Tell Kids They CAN'T HELP!

2010-11-21T08:04:00.000-08:00

It's time for a Sunday Favorite! You can join in on the fun, too. Chari, over at Happy To Design, is our hostess, and you can find her very simple rules by clicking on the button in my left sidebar. Got a favorite entry? Re-post it, and drop the link with Chari! I'm doing a bit of a montage here. The picture above is one my daughter Sarah did some years back, and I loved. I'd still like to see it as a t-shirt.... And then there's this entry, not a favorite for happy reasons, but because it's important. We need to protect our children, and this is an easy rule for them to follow with strangers.

From July of 2002, an entry detailing a conversation with my nanny charge, CJ: I was fixing little CJ's breakfast yesterday morning when he walked into the kitchen.

"Ani," he said, "Did you hear about that little girl who was only five years old and she was playing at her house with her friend and a man told them his puppy was crying and to come with him and help and maybe they could have it?"

"No, I didn't," I said, with a sinking feeling. "What happened?"

"One little girl was kinda smart and she stepped back a few steps," he said, "but the other little girl was kinda not so smart, and the man grabbed her, and he took her and he killed her. And now they found her body."

Jeez. Why? Why?! Why would someone do that? And why should a six-year-old ever have to know they did? But if he doesn't know, then he's in danger himself.

I was so saddened, it took me a minute to say much that was helpful, but I suddenly remembered a 60 Minutes segment on the subject.

"CJ," I asked, "What should you do if a grown-up you don't know asks you for help? Say, his dog is lost or sick? Or he can't find his daughter? What should you do?"

He thought. "Say 'no'," he said, and then, "Step back."

"No, CJ," I said. "RUN!! Run as fast as you can to your grown-up--to Mom, or Dad, or your teacher, or me. Run! Do you know why?"

"Yes. Actually,no." he said. (He and his sister are both so cute that way. They want so badly to be able to say they understand or know everything, but then they back off that yes answer. Every time.)

I answered my question for him. "Because grown-ups don't ask kids for help. Not kids they don't know. Never. When a grown-up needs help he asks another grown-up. They don't ask kids."

He was listening, paying close attention. "So, if a grown-up you don't know asks for help, what do you do?"

"Run," he said, "and go tell my mom or my teacher."

"How fast?" I said, and at his perplexed look, I answered the question for him again. "Very fast. Because grown-ups never ask kids for help. If they do, there's something wrong. Run and find your grown-up as fast as you can."

I repeated this to his older (almost 8) sister when I picked her up from her Reading Evaluation.

Please, people. If you have children, tell them this! Little kids want so badly to please, and they're trained to obey. They love to help, and learning when not to can save their lives. Let's not lose any more of our precious little ones. No more.

FRIDAY FENCE POST #65

2010-11-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

Seen any good fences lately? Post them in your blog, and the drop the link into Mr Linky below! I'd love to come see them! And please grab my button from the left sidebar and put it somewhere in your blog or blog post, to spread the word.

I did a quick U-turn when I saw these fences. Dusk kept them soft-focus, a few too much so to even show you, so I'll have to go back, but here's what I did get:

TODAY'S ATC: CAT'S PAW

2010-11-18T07:03:00.000-08:00

Still playing with ATC's over at Swap-Bot.com, although right now it's all I can do to keep the obligation balls in the air, so play is WAY down on my list. But not non-existent!

The idea, with this ATC, was to create a collage from junk mail or magazine images. This is what I made:

Pretty simple, really, once I found the cat and orange images. Then it was just a matter of adding in the fish, and a pair of earrings from a catalog. But I was happy with the final effect.

Now, you aren't allowed to sell ATC's. They're for trading, which is why they're called Artist's Trading Cards, but people can and do sell ACEO's, which are pretty much the same thing, except they're called Art Cards, Editions and Originals. I wondered what Etsy would have, and found literally thousands! Here are three I loved with "cat" themes:

Dancing Cats, by 3Crows

Tortie Cat with Fish, by AlisonEKurek

Mr. Darcy, by TaraFly

Clicking on the ACEO images will take you to the shops where they can be purchased. Aren't they wonderful?

SUNDAY RERUN: BROKEN (a poem)

2010-11-14T10:19:00.001-08:00

It's time for another Sunday Favorite! Click on the button in my left sidebar to see how you can join the fun--it will take you to Chari's blog and the instructions.

This is from the summer of 2002:

Broken

You used cleaning the kitchen
to show me how angry you were,
chattering the silverware,
clattering the plates,
and toppling the cups
into their positions on the upright prongs
of the dishwasher.

You used the dishes to show me.
It worked.
You broke my favorite glass
and
we both wept.

FRIDAY FENCE POST #64

2010-11-12T19:51:00.000-08:00

Oh, I am SO late doing this! I actually found a couple of really great fences yesterday, over in the Hawthorne district, but (have I learned my lesson yet?) did not have my camera.

Then, instead of getting back there today, I took more time than expected to get art over to Trillium, checked in, and displayed in the store, and ended up snapping a couple of fences through my car's window whilst sitting at stoplights. Dusk was coming on, but there was still just enough light. Of course, once I "got the fences home", I had to play with those lovely Photoshop filters, too!

This last fence is from my cousin Darla! It was such a delight that she'd participate, even though she doesn't have a blog. I'd never even thought about that: You can send your fence photos to me if you don't have a blog, and I'll see your Friday Fence Posts get published here, so get your camera, and start clicking that shutter!

And now it's your turn! Create your Friday Fence Post for your blog, and put the permalink in Mr Linky down below. Also, please grab the button from the left sidebar, and put it somewhere on your blog page, so other people can join the fun. I promise to visit every fence and leave a comment!

TUESDAY TUTE: WRIST WARMERS

2010-11-09T07:46:00.000-08:00

Time for a Tuesday Tute! I haven't turned this into a meme (yet!), but if you have a tutorial you'd like people to see, feel free to put a link to it in a comment. You'll get at least one visitor: ME!

From me, today:

There’s a chill in the air, but there’s fun on my hands! We’re talking darling fleece wrist warmers here, and a quick-as-a-wink gift to make. Here’s what you’ll need:

• A scrap of fleece, about 12” X 18”
• Buttons, bows, or other low-profile furbelows
• Thread

Begin by cutting two rectangles from the fleece, each 6” X 8”. Before you cut, check for stretch. You want to have stretch across the 8” side, which will wrap around your hand.

Fold each rectangle in half the long way, right sides together, using a ½” seam allowance. You should have two tubes now, each 3” X 6”.

Slip one of the tubes over your hand so that one edge of it just covers your knuckles, and the seam is at the outside edge of your hand. Feel for the bone at the base of your thumb, and for the first knuckle of that thumb, and draw a line between the one and the other.

Slip the wrist warmer off and flatten it so that the line you’ve drawn is right on the edge of the fold. Notice that the seam will NOT be on the other edge, but will be turned to the underside. This is important, because it allows for the thickness of your hand. After you’ve cut the thumbhole and put the warmer on, the seam will have magically moved to the edge of the warmer.

Cut a sliver of fabric out where you’ve drawn the line. Don’t worry about making the cut too narrow. You can always enlarge it if you need to.

Cool! Now you can decorate them! Use buttons, or little appliqués, or a bit of embroidery, near the knuckles, roughly centered.

When you know what you want to use, slip the warmers on, lay the adornments in place, and mark. Doing it that way is important, because I promise you, when you take the wrist warmer off and look at where the mark is, you’re going to think you’ve got it wrong! Centered will not look centered, but that’s an illusion.

Sew your trims on, and you’re done.

SUNDAY RERUN: Library Fine of $1642.25?!

2010-11-07T08:15:00.000-08:00

It's time for a Sunday Favorite blog post! Click on the button over in my left sidebar to join the party over at Chari's, and post your own favorite!

A favorite photo of my cousin Angie

This is one of mine, from my other blog, posted on June 15, 2002.

Not long ago my Uncle Darrell was going through some stuff up at Grandma and Grandpa's old place, when what should he run across but a library book his niece, Angie, had checked out, oh, eighteen years ago, and never returned. It seemed like a perfect opportunity for a little fun.

Angie, at about the age she was when she checked out the infamous library book.

Darrell knew someone who worked at the school, and got her to give him some of the school's stationary. Then he wrote Angie a letter to the effect that the school had been going through old records and trying to put some of them to bed. Part of that organization effort was to get people with overdue books to ante up. Their records showed that she had checked out a book in 1984, and not returned it. The fine for that would be $1,642.25. Oh, and she'd need to buy the library a replacement, too, if she didn't still have the book.

In the meantime, Darrell enlisted the help of Angie's mom and sister. He gave them the book, and Angie's mom, my Aunt Charlotte, put it on her bookshelf. When Angie got the letter, she ran with it over to her mom's place (literally--they share a driveway) in a panic. Her sister, Cindy, was there.

Angie was panic-stricken all right, but she maintained that it had to be a mistake--she'd never even checked that book out! Cindy said, "I don't know, Ange. Seems like I saw that book just the other day..." and walked over to the bookcase, and "searched" through the titles. "Yeah! It's right here!"

Angie was totally freaked out. For exactly as long as it took Charlotte and Cindy to call Darrell so he could share in the laughter. At Angie's expense, of course. Thank goodness she's a good sport. Our entire family is still enjoying the joke.

FRIDAY FENCE POST #63

2010-11-05T10:21:00.000-07:00

It's Friday! Seen any good fences lately? This is the place to let us see it, and it's easy: Post your fence photo on your own website/blog, and then paste the URL to your post in Mr Linky, down below. And please grab my button, in the left sidebar and post it somewhere on the page so others can join the fun, too! (Highlight the photo, right click, and select Copy as HTML from the dropdown menu that appears. That will give you the code.) I promise to come by and see all your posts, and leave a comment!

The picture above shows only a part of a fence. I took it because I liked the rickrack effect of the curving brick edging the path. Ceili is clearly interested in a visit to that inviting door!

I really liked this aging, interwoven fence, and wish only that the several other photos I took had actually turned out. They're worth clicking on, to see full-size, I think.

And now it's your turn!

TODAY'S ATC: DESIGN A...

2010-11-02T20:25:00.000-07:00

I sat down to work on this ATC a couple of days ago, and wondered, What was I thinking?!

The idea of this swap was to take this image of a snail

and create an ATC with it. I hate googly eyes. Pretty much always have. And those look like googly eyes to me. Furthermore, they're out there on the ends of the snail's antennae. I guess that's not altogether unreasonable, since those feelers do act as eyes, but they bother me out there! And then there's the shape of the shell, an oval. Aren't snail shells round?

But I'd signed up for the swap, and that was that. Had to make an ATC.

The first thing that happened was I worked on another swap for awhile, an easy one: Gather up thirty different beads, and send them to your swap partner. I was looking through a tray of beads when I unearthed a card of self-stick yarn. Don't know how it go there, but it started me on my snail project.

A bit of scrapbooking paper, some paint, glue, glitter, buttons, and wire later, and I had this:

My snail is cozily dressed for fall weather in an autumnal sweater and coordinating headwear, and I think she's adorable. Should I say that? Is that being too vain? I can't help it--I didn't even want to send her off when I finished, and that's a pretty big change from wishing I hadn't signed up for the swap!

In other news, I reached a bit of a mile post today: I applied for Social Security. Should start getting benefits early next year. Feels funny writing that here. It's like shouting, "HEY, World! I'm OLD!!"

I am going for the early retirement option, in spite of the fact that if I waited until I'm 66 the monthly payout would be larger. They tell you what your monthly benefit will be at each age, so I subtracted the lower monthly benefit figure from the higher one, to see how much more per month I'd get at 66, and then divided that into the total of what I'd draw in the four years before turning 66. Turns out it would take twelve years to make up for what I'd lose by waiting, and we decided it really wasn't worth the wait.

So, as of about February of next year, I'm officially a retired person. Wow.

SUNDAY RERUN: Santa Pinch-Hits for the Tooth Fairy

2010-10-31T12:21:00.001-07:00

Here I am, with Mama and two of my brothers, Gary, and Walter (Skip).

Time again for a Sunday Favorite! Click on the button in my left sidebar to join the party over at Chari's!

This is from my "other" blog, a personal diary, and was first posted in June of 2002.

Okay, so it isn’t exactly a seasonal entry. This coming weekend is the get-together of all the women on my mom’s side of the family, and we’re all supposed to arrive with stories and anecdotes about our relatives, living or dead. Doing it here let’s me get it into my own journal, too, some 45 years late.

I was a woman of “a certain age”. You know the one I mean—old enough to lose her teeth, and young enough to be excited about it. Also too chicken to speed the process up in any way, which is why one of my front teeth hung by a mere thread for what was, apparently, too long for Grandma P to handle.

I was standing upstairs in my Aunt Charlotte’s old bedroom, talking to Grandma, when all of a sudden she stuck her hand in my mouth, grabbed the loose tooth, and yanked. I yelped.

“Well, it was just hangin’ there!” said Grandma.

I got over the shock pretty quick. After all, a gone tooth meant money from the Tooth Fairy. I went downstairs to the bathroom to rinse my mouth, setting the tooth on the edge of the sink. Guess I splashed too much, because an instant later it was gone. Down the drain. Lost. I was crushed.

I don’t remember anything else until the next morning, which just happened to be Christmas. Under the Christmas tree was a little cradle that I knew instantly Grandpa had made for me, and in the cradle was a doll, and on the doll’s cheek was a dime. That puzzled me, and I asked Grandpa about it.

“Well,” he said, “you know that tooth you lost last night?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it went down the drain, and through the pipe, right down to the crick out yonder,” and he gestured toward the woods beyond the pasture (strawberry patch back then) to where the creek was. “This little fish saw it come out, and he told a little bird, and the bird flew to the North Pole and told Santa Claus. And Santa got on the phone and called the Tooth Fairy, and she said, “Santa, since you’re going to be out there anyway, could you drop off a dime for me?”

And yes. Of course I believed him. It was Grandpa.

FRIDAY FENCE POST #62

2010-10-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

There are several fences for today, including our last Halloween-y fences. (Halloweenie? Holy Hot Dog, Batman! Okay, forget that even popped into my brain, lol.)

I loved this fence, or rather long row of fences, with the brightly-colored foliage above, and the contrasting colors and materials of the different fences themselves:

And in this same row, but to the right of the shot above, the fir branches sticking through...

And now, Halloweenish moments!

Messing about with the Jack-o-Lanterns netted this:

A Spidey fence and tree:

And this must be the web, huh?

I LOVE how the Ink Outlines filter made it look like night. Never have seen that effect before.

And NOW, it's your turn! Put your link to your own Friday Fence Post here:

And to Really join the party, grab my Friday Fence Post button, over in the left sidebar, and put it somewhere in your own blog. I would love to see more fences, from more places, and I promise to come visit all of them!

TODAY'S ATC: ANTLER PEOPLE

2010-10-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

I'm baaaack! With another swap from Swap-bot.com.

This time I want to just share the ATC I finished this afternoon. The theme was "antler people", and the concept, if somewhat odd, was simple: Take a person or persons, and put antlers on his/her/their heads.

Being somewhat (I admit it) odd myself, I took great pleasure in this project, with the following result:

In another vein, I'd been wondering what I would do when I ran out of flowers to photograph on my walks, and mildly concerned. The answer was right in front of my lens. Winter, too, hath its charms.

I suppose it's appropriate, with Halloween so close, that we should be finding beauty in what remains. Aren't these "dead" blossoms lovely? (And even more so if you click on the photos to see them full-size.)

I'm enjoying an unexpected day at home today, having been every day this week at our dear friend Bruce's for a number of hours. I've been helping him get organized as he faces the loss of his home. He is 58, lost an eye in a fall several years ago, and has been unemployed ever since. His unemployment has run out, Social Security says he could still work (I seriously doubt it), and he has no money left to stay afloat. Please pray for him, if you're moved to do so.

Jack-o-Lanterns Gone Wild

2010-10-27T22:58:00.000-07:00

Hmmm. I wonder if that title is a little misleading. Can something as inherently wild as a Jack-o-Lantern go wilder? Maybe I should have added the "er"....

Decorative Envies, another swap group I belong to (you can find it in Yahoo Groups), has a monthly swap of what I think of as "happy mail". This month's swap had a Jack-o-Lantern theme, and I wanted to show off the envies (envelopes) and notecard the group's ringleader sent me.

This is the outside front of the envelope as it came out of my mailbox:

And this is the back:

Do you see why I call it Happy Mail? Who wouldn't smile, getting something like this?! It's tough, though. I'm kind of compulsive about checking the mail, and I always check it on the way to my car, so when I got this, on my way to somewhere, I had to just put it in front seat and drive around and not open it! No opening something like this until you can do it properly, so as not to damage anything!

It was worth the wait, though. Here's the envie that was inside, ready for me to address and send along to some lucky recipient:

And here's the note card inside that:

That's a little teensy envelope glued to the front of the card, and the little paper that says "Trick or Treat!" can be taken out. I LOVE that!

I think Sarah did such a beautiful job, and I can't wait to send the card out.

Another swap was for book-themed postcards. My swap partner, Lynette, sent me this amazing postcard, with an Iris Fold window, collage, and stamping, from New Zealand. I'm am just bowled over at the work she put into it, and the lovely results.

Okay now, Sarah, if you're reading this and you haven't received the Jack-o-Lantern envies I sent you, you have to stop reading now, because I'm going to put in pictures of them!

This is the outer envelope:

And for the card, I did this on the outside:
(If you can't read what it says, it's "It was bound to happen someday. Little Cedric asked what was in the dessert.")

Inside the card, you find this:

I hope Sarah gets as big a kick out of receiving this as I did making it!

I didn't get to visit anyone's blogs today. Unexpected company derailed me, and I didn't get to my computer until after 10:30. I'm thinking of all my bloggy friends, though, and will be making the rounds tomorrow!

Sleep well, dear ones.

OCTOBER TAGS

2010-10-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

I am so enjoying Swap-Bot! Have I said that before? The thing is, it sets me up with a creative outlet whenever I need one. And there's a new challenge, a new art medium to try, whenever I feel the urge, too.

My latest love is making decorated tags, so when a swap appeared to send three "October" themed tags out, I signed right up. I mailed them today, and I'd like to show them off.

Three October-themed tags:

I knew there was a reason to save all my page-a-day calendars from Mary Engelbreit. I do love her art, and have a very difficult time parting with it.

And now I'm going to skew into an entirely different area. I sometimes get emails from well-meaning people that they've read, gasped with alarm at, and then forwarded to me. Warning! Antiperspirants cause breast cancer! Alarm! Rats pee on soda pop can lids! Take care! People are being bashed on the head and deprived of vital organs!

Those are bad enough. You have to wonder if people don't have anything better to do than to make up stuff to scare people.

But for the past several years, I've received emails claiming that one person or another has done heinous things, anti-American things, anti-Christian things. They're hate emails, with no purpose that I can see other than to stir up outrage, anger, fear, and hate.

And almost none of them, None!, have any grain of truth to them. It's So easy to check this stuff. Go to Snopes.com, and do a search on keywords from the email. These viral things are almost always there. If that doesn't work, go to Politifact.com.

I'm going to put in a scripture here that keeps coming to mind: "Thou shalt not bear false witness." To put it simply, that's a command not to lie about people.

If you read an email, allow yourself the gasp! and the outrage, if you absolutely must. Heck, it feels good to be "righteously angry", I know that. But then check to see if it's actually true, because if it isn't, and you "forward this to everyone on your email list!" you are "bearing false witness". You are lying, whether you started the email or not. If the commandments mean anything to you, you owe it to yourself to be sure you're spreading truth.

You can't unspread a rumor, but you can make sure you aren't helping to smear a falsehood around.

SUNDAY RERUN: Catsup Flowers

2010-10-24T08:33:00.000-07:00

It's time for a Sunday Favorite, hosted by Chari! Do you have favorite blog posts, too?Just click on the badge in the left-hand sidebar to see the directions for joining this meme.

These are not mustard flowers, but I like them!

This favorite of mine is from May of 2002, titled Catsup Flowers:

Grace (the three-year-old I take care of on Tuesdays) and I were walking to the car, and passed a leggy plant with yellow flowers dotting the end of its stems.

"What kind of flower is that?" she asked.

"It's mustard," I answered. "And when the flowers make seeds, you can grind them up, and that's how you make mustard. They're very small seeds, though, and it takes a lot of them."

She thought it over for just a moment, then asked, "Do they make catsup from catsup flowers?"

FOUR QUESTIONS

2010-10-23T21:16:00.000-07:00

and four answers!

MizMollye tagged me to answer four questions. Here they are, along with my answers:

1. Favorite Bible Story: Wow. That's a toughie. I mean, there are so many to choose from! I love the story of Esther. She was so courageous, and beautiful, too.

2. A WOW moment in your life: The first time I ever saw my husband. He was so beautiful, I was hooked from the get-go. And each of my beautiful daughters, too; so amazing, and so wonderful, and smart, and full of personality. I mean, first they were part of me, and then they were, all of a sudden, brand new people! Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

3. Something you'd like to do better: Clean house. Honestly, I'm just not very good at it, and I Do try. sigh.

4. Favorite snack food: Cookies! I LOVE cookies!

And now I'm tagging Athena, Deb (StoryBeader), Margaret (SplendidLittleStars), and Edi (MemoriesForLife), to answer these four questions:

1. You're at a bookstore. What section has sucked you in?
2. What is your favorite holiday?
3. If you could live in (or at least visit) any era, which would it be?
4. What is your favorite literary genre?

Thanks for the tag, MizMollye! I'm looking forward now to reading the answers from my chosen four!

FRIDAY FENCE POST #61

2010-10-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

It's Friday, so time for a Friday Fence Post! Join this meme--it's EASY. Just grab the Friday Fence Post button in my left sidebar, and put it on your own blog. That's first. Then make your own Friday Fence Post on your blog, come back here, and drop the link to it in the Mr Linky. Be sure the link is the perma-link to that particular post, and not to your general blog, so that we'll be taken to your fence(s) when we click on it.

I promise to come see every Fence Post you drop and leave a comment!

This new routine of walking a couple of miles every day has had a side benefit: Lots of fences! I've got a whole collection saved up now, for use in future posts.

As I've walked and checked out the neighborhood fences, I've pondered the question: What makes a fence interesting?

Answer: The decision to photograph it!

Granted, there are some boring fences out there. Brand-new, spiffy fences are generally harder to capture, for me, anyway. They simply haven't developed any character yet. But if you look carefully, and experiment with camera angles and range, it's amazing what you'll see in a lot of fences that strike you, at first, as not worth the effort!

Here are today's fences:

And one fence I couldn't get, because my little friend refused to stop blocking it:

And that nasturtium at the top of this post? It was on top of a fence!

It pays to looks up, over the tops of the fences. You just never know who's watching:

WALKING THE CAMERA, WITH DOG

2010-10-21T13:25:00.000-07:00

What? You want to see the dog, too? She can be hard to photograph! (Unless you want to see her little hiney trotting along in front of me, lol.) Here's what she's like when we're trying to get out the door:

And some of the sights we saw:

This was our first "spooky" sighting, but I'm sure it was unintentional on the part of the owners. This rocking horse has been outside long enough that most of the paint is gone, and the underlying plastic has faded to white. The sun shining behind and through it made it look positively spectral:

Other Halloween-ish views:

We walked rather farther than I'd realized, and the day was warmer than I realized. By the time we were a few blocks from home, we were both thoroughly ready to Be There. About a block and a half from the house, Ceili took advantage of a handy lawn, and lay down.

I told her, "We're almost home, baby. Let's go home," and she gamely got to her feet and trudged on, but the next house had another lawn, and she lay down again, panting. So I stood there, and let her rest for a few minutes, and then told her, "We're almost there. You want to go home? Let's go home." That time we made it all the way to our own back yard, where she promptly walked up onto the grass, and lay down, tummy pressed against the cool lawn.

I decided she was on the right track, chose the nearest bench, and took off my socks. Ahhh.

Ceili was So tired.

I mean, Really tired.

She was not the only tired "dog" in our yard, either!

I'd been sitting there for a few minutes, enjoying the late sunshine, when I looked down at the base of the rosebush I was near. What is my little cherub doing there?

Doesn't she look like she's resting her nose on the base of that wire table, and sighing?

WALKING THE DOG, WITH CAMERA

2010-10-20T08:52:00.000-07:00

I'm really enjoying my walks with Ceili. She is, too, as evidenced by the fact that she wiggles and squirms with excitement so much that I have a real time getting her halter on. Once I do, though, we are out the door and on our way in a flash.

Today, we got about a quarter mile away from the house and had to turn around and come back. I'd left the camera card in the laptop! How could I go walking without my camera?!

Here are the shots I got:

There are eleven days until Halloween. What do you think? Will I be able to find something spooky every day until then?

And it's going to start raining, day after day after day, on Friday. Will I weather the wet and cold? Oh, dear. Resolution, help me now!

ON THE SHELF: ORGANIZING THIN BOOKS

2010-10-19T21:35:00.000-07:00

When it comes to patterns, brochures, magazines, and booklets, we crafters can be a bit compulsive. I try to sort through and weed out, but even so, I have dozens and dozens of slender "volumes" to keep track of. I'm sure many, if not most, crafters are similarly blessed.

How to keep them all straight and accessible? Stacking those slim items is inefficient and untidy. Since they don't have readable spines, shelving them with your books doesn't work either.

A filing cabinet might be the first, most logical, choice, but that's not always an option. My solution is one I ran across years ago, in The Messies' Manual. The authors were talking about children's books, but I quickly saw a personal adaptation.

I use the big tins you can buy cookies in. They're available new, full of cookies (my favorite!), or you can find them at yard sales and thrift stores, and they are just exactly the width you need for the average magazine.

Stand them in the tins with the front pages facing the front, and put the tin on your book shelf. Now, when you want to find a particular leaflet or magazine, you can slide the tin out, and riffle through until you spot it.

I've got four of those tins so far, and use each for a different crafting category--sewing, beading, crochet, and miscellaneous. Since they are all basically an elongated octogonal shape, the front and back are narrower, which is handy for the smaller booklets, and also makes a good place to stash my crochet hooks.

Oh, and it's still a really great way to keep children's books organized, too!

SUNDAY RERUN: But...

2010-10-17T21:38:00.000-07:00

It's time for another Sunday Favorite! If you want to join the party, just click on the Sunday Favorites badge in the left sidebar, and it will take you to Chari's blog and the instructions.

I seem to be on a poetry kick with these. This is a poem I wrote in August of 2001, posted on my personal diary site:

BUT...

It can surprise me sometimes.
The paint looks so good--
smooth, not checkered, not bubbled, not chipped.
But
the head of the screwdriver rips along
where siding and window trim meet,
and suddenly,
strips of color curl away
and other colors reveal themselves.
Sunshine yellow and stormy grey and robin's egg blue.
I wonder if each color suited the mood of the painter
when they were brushed on.

You surprised me, too.
Under all the endearments,
the "I love you"'s, the kisses,
just where your words and your eyes come together,
a strip of my heart peeled away and curled up on itself.
It was only a word, just one word to jolt and astonish:
But.

These boards I'm scraping were never primed,
never prepared.
I wasn't either,
but
I will be next time.

SHOW & TELL SATURDAY: The Things That We Saw

2010-10-16T20:36:00.000-07:00

I'm trying really hard to get up and out and WALK. So far, it's easy, because the weather is so beautiful. Ceili and I walked two and a half miles today, according to my pedometer.

Here are some of the things we saw:

It sure is October!

FRIDAY FENCE POST #60

2010-10-15T21:00:00.000-07:00

This is, ta-da!, the 60th Friday Fence Post! Yeah, I know the title says that, but I need to say it again.

I have new fences for you, and (deep breath) a new meme. Will you join me? I'll put the badge in the left sidebar, and if you run across a fence that grabs your fancy, post it on Friday, and let me know! I'll do a Mr Linky, and you can put the link to your post in, and then we can all come see your fence, too.

It would be great if you were to grab the Friday Fence Post Badge and put it in your own sidebar, and of course, link back to here. That way we'll get more people to the party, which is Always a good thing, right?

And now, without further ado, this week's fences:

One more note: If you join, do feel free to play with your fences. I Love Photoshop filters, and often alter my photographs with them. You may want to do that, too, or draw them, rather than photograph them. You might print them out and alter them in other ways. However you do it, I want to see them!

AND WE'RE WALKING....

2010-10-14T20:09:00.000-07:00

There was an article on the front page of the newspaper this morning on the value of walking. Like we didn't know walking is good for us, right?

According to the article, though, walking not only keeps you fit, it keeps your brain healthy. Women who get in a couple of miles a day have a much lower incidence of dementia, and a smaller pants size. Okay, they didn't actually say that last bit, but the woman they profiled wears a size two. You are allowed a certain amount of inference, I do believe.

Also, our little dog has been gaining weight since we switched her to canned food. She has half an acre to run on, but will sleep most of the day, left to her own devices. She needs to walk, too.

So we both turned over a new leaf (I hope) and took advantage of a day of purely glorious fall weather and set out.

We have a new harness for Ceili that puts pressure on her chest when she pulls, rather than her neck. She's an eager little thing, and I have known her to pull so hard on the leash that she walks on her hind feet while her front paws paddle through thin air, so I was willing to try something different. Sure enough, that chest pressure calmed her right down, and walking with her was pure pleasure!

I took my camera. Of course. Here are some of the day's photos:

Mahogany Red

Shhh! I'm hiding.

The Curl

On the Sidewalk

Furled Again

As is my habit, I played with filters on several of these, and clicking on them will give you more detail. And do you see the bug in the one I captioned "Shhh! I'm hiding."? It's there, and you'll see it if you do click.

FINALLY! TAGS I LOVE

2010-10-13T20:46:00.000-07:00

I have struggled with this for all the years I've been making Coffee Pot People and Tea Kettle Characters: How do I tag them?

That struggle has a lot to do with some of the tagging I've seen in the Trillium store. A lot of them were practically works of art themselves, and after seeing them I developed a severe case of raging envy. But, try as I might, I couldn't seem to come up with something both eye-catching and artful AND easy to produce.

Until Tuesday, when I had a brainstorm: Use bottle caps. Use card stock tags. Add magnets to the back!

Here are some of the new tags:

I had a number of these finished yesterday, and promptly tied them to several Tea Kettle Characters, and drove them to Mag-Big, a new store opening on Hawthorne, a very popular shopping street in Portland. The owner was thrilled with the Tea Kettle Characters, and their tags, and even consigned the rest of the tags I had to sell on their own, as refrigerator magnets!

Imagine that. A product tag that is itself a product. I AM happy!

Big Green Book of Recycled Crafts: Book Review

2010-10-12T23:24:00.001-07:00

If I were to make a list of Favorite Things, "Books" would be right up at the top, and angling for position right next to that would be "Crafting", especially using found/recycled materials. Imagine my delight then, just reading the title, The Big Green Book of Recycled Crafts.

And then I opened the book....oooh.

Flowers from pop cans

The book is divided into six sections, Plastic, Paper, Glass, Cans, Textiles, and Throwaways. That is, by the way, all the Table of Contents tells you, along with the page numbers that begin each section. It's all right, though; you are going to want to leaf through page by page anyway. Be sure to have a stack of bookmarks handy for all the projects you'll want to do!

Pumpkins from dryer vent hoses

Each project has it's own page, sometimes two, with a photograph, materials list, and very clear instructions, with copious illustrations and photos where mere words might not suffice. Sprinkled throughout the book are extra tips, and at the end of the book are full-sized patterns.

Who doesn't have a bunch of Cd cases lying around?

This is a book I'm going to use a lot. I found myself thinking, That would really be fun for the Crafting Week with Mama! or Wouldn't that make a great gift for the grandkids!

There were projects I wanted to make as gifts, projects I wanted to make for myself, ideas I wanted to share with various relatives, and ideas that sparked the creative brain waves for new projects of my own.

My prediction: This is a book that will garner a lot of fans.

An elegant throw from recycled sweaters

SUNDAY RERUN: The Taste of Figs

2010-10-10T08:41:00.000-07:00

My Sunday ReRun for today is a poem I wrote and blogged on another site, back in 2002.

Do you have favorite blog posts? Join the party over at Chari's blog by clicking on the Sunday Favorites button in my left sidebar! It will take you to the easy-peasy instructions for participation.

The Taste of Figs

In the dead of winter he ate dried figs,
watching through windows where snowflakes settled,
and melted against transparent warmth.
He remembered the geese,
flying overhead, beckoning,
while he lingered,
Stayed.
Outside, the twilit air was suddenly
summer-scented.
An apple glowed, rose flame
under the frost.
And, alone,
I tasted figs.

FRIDAY FENCE POST #59

2010-10-08T21:18:00.000-07:00

I played with today's fence a lot. The gate, with the trellises to either side of it just made for, I think, an awesome background for collage, particularly now, when Fall has arrived and Halloween is just a couple of weeks away.

Feel free to take these images for your own use. Just click on them, and they'll enlarge. Use the F11 key to eliminate all the top and bottom stuff on your screen, and they'll get even bigger. Then right click and select either "Copy image" or "Save image". Press F11 again to get back to "normal". (Sorry for not knowing the Mac commands!)

In another vein, I'm planning on making this a blog party! Next Friday will (should) mark my 60th Friday Fence Post. It seems like an appropriate time to ask others to Meme-Along-With-Me, and I'd be thrilled if you did!

Crafting with two of my daughters and three of my granddaughters Saturday morning. Bliss happens!