Must be Tuesday

Summer has arrived and so far its been rather nice. We have been hanging around the high 90s to low 100s and with AC and a pool no complaints. I try to walk most mornings as the sun is rising and there seems to usually be a bit of breeze and comfortable temps. We have developed by mere happenstance an evening walking group that meets in front of our house around 730. We walk the neighborhood and talk about our days and have become great friends in the process. The other night we all piled into our car and drove to Dairy Queen! Love that place!   Cornelia and Herman have invited us all over for cuppaccinos and belgian waffles this morning. YUM! Cornelia was also a flight attendant so we share stories and have a lot of fun chatting together. I was thinking this morning how much I laugh when I am with them and realized what great treasures to have come into our lives. Reminds me of the saying "A friend is a gift you give yourself"...so true.
The weather has also made it possible for me to be rather prolific in the old sewing room. Someone asked if I sleep and I replied yes but I still dream about whatever I am making and usually come up with some great ideas in the morning!
A friend posted a painting of a rooster on fb and the colors were wonderful so I immediately began to make this bad boy. I know you are tired of me saying this but he really is better in person! For some reason my photo is either washed out or too brilliant. Guess which one this is!?!

So the good news is I am gathering quite a stash of pieces and my goal is to try and get accepted into a local art festival this winter. I just cant give up believing I might be someone of worth artistically~I have phases where I throw in the towel and then I cant find a reason to get up in the morning. Nothing to look fwd to kind of thing. I need this and I want it even more.
I had a friend ask how much for this piece and I felt clueless and embarrassed to suggest one. I always hated asking for money for headsets or drinks on the airplane and it follows me into my art.
Ky said its because my only audience are friends so its too personal to ask for money especially what other fabric artists ask. I am hoping Rande will set up my new website this week so I can post pieces and let others decide if they want to spend that amount without me being embarrassed asking. If he doesn't I am prepared to set up my own...surely I can find a website easy enough for someone of my level of dementia! lol

We are taking a small road trip to San Luis Obispo tomorrow to have our AC in the Westy worked on. Its unfortunate we have to go so far to get this old car worked on but at the same time what a lovely place to 'have' to visit. It looks like its about 30-40 degrees cooler there so I better pull out my winter outfits! (Just kidding!)  We belong to a wonderful winery in Templeton which isn't too far from SLO and plan to do a bit of tasting. If you ever get a chance to try Donati Wines...do it! YUM!

As for the house...hmmm...what's new? JK worked on the baseboards in our bdrm yesterday...been trimming the ficus trees in the backyard...we are kind of at a holding phase simply because the weather makes you want to float in the pool or nap in the hammock rather than do manual labor. JK keeps wondering if its his age slowing him down on projects but he is a pretty darn fit guy so probably not.

OH! I have been meaning to share this with you and never seem to remember once I begin typing. (dementia again...)
As some of you might know I am turning 60 in March and JK is hitting the big ol 65. Kind of a important birthday year I would say. So I have been trying to figure out what exactly I want to do for my big day. I am talking about the big old bucket list. At this point we don't need stuff we need to check off the things we forgot to do before. For JK's 60th we took all the family to Whistler and skied. It was a wonderful time and we both loved being a family again. So last time we were at the PS Air Museum they were selling flights around PS in one of these.

Yep that's right~ I am going to go up in this cutie on March 16th. The thing you don't know about me is I get terribly airsick in small planes. Also the whole idea of me in this open airplane scares me...put the two together and I am challenging myself to go up and keep the breakfast down. I can do it! lol

THEN my real bucket list check off thing is to go to northern Minnesota and backpack and canoe on the Boundary Waters. Over one million acres of nothing but wilderness and serenity. Isn't it beautiful?!?

I had the chance to go with jk, rk and tk about 15 yrs ago and I made the really dumb choice to just camp with kvk instead while they went. WORSE DECISION EVER!! So this is my chance to redeem myself and do something extremely cool and not an old person vacation choice at all. I cannot wait! We are thinking July would be a great month to go and plan to do some research this summer while we are back there.  In a perfect world I want my boys to be there too but I am bracing myself for the fact that they will most likely say they cant afford it. While I understand finances rule the world I also think one misses lifetime opportunities that you can't get back.  Oh well...I have my fingers crossed they can all join us but no matter what WE are going!  How about you? Does this not reach out to you and say YES! I want to help Cher celebrate 60 too! You are all invited but you have to carry your own wine and beer! lol
Thanks for dropping by!

Happy Father's Day!

 I thought this piece was appropriate because growing up and even now it was our sons favorite thing to do with their dad~go camping! If only I could make a grate and have poorboys sizzling on the fire it would be perfect! I had great fun adding all the simple details that go along with camping. For a Christmas gift Timothy drank 30 cans of Coors Light so he could make can lites for his dad. I added some little silver beads on the awning to represent those cans. I made little marsh mellows on sticks and would have done graham crackers and hershey bars if I could have figured them out! Just a whole lot of fun to make and I wish you could all see it in person.

Buster on the inside and Gracie on the outside!

One more completed and now on to something new! Thanks for dropping by!

This and that

I saw this on twitter and it made me want to share it on my page too. Timothy and Jammie flew to Denver last week to spend some time with big bro Rande, see friends, and hang out in some of their fav places..of course which pretty much meant bars and breweries. They say they had a wonderful time and tk realized he misses living there seeing as its the one place he has lived the longest. Get rid of the parents and you can actually stay awhile! So on Tues Timothy went back to work for 5 weeks and it began with a concert in Denver. Rk posted this photo of tk at the show and I thought it said so much more...he posted 'my brother the fancy sound magician'. I know rk is so proud of him and this adventure he is on and amazed just how really good tk is at what he does. I also know tk well enough to know that he loved having his brother there to share his new life with. They have a common bond of interests that keeps them close and this had to be important to them both. It also gave us a really good idea of what Timothy's office looks like! What an awesome journey he is on and one he will treasure forever.

Well I finally had my cancer surgery this week...I was thinking a bigger cut than the biopsy so a bit bigger bandage than last time but still no big deal. So I dressed up and made plans to take my mom out to lunch. This skin cancer was only squamous so they simply remove more to be sure its gone.

I was NOT expecting this...of course I continued on to my lunch date because in this town I am sure everyone sees much worse!

I distinctly asked him to cinch up some of the wrinkles NOT pucker them and make it even worse!
Good golly! I have been wishing it was Halloween because this would be awesome with a scary costume...so believable!  I had a friend joke if I could get band aids to stick to the wrinkles and I might have thought it was funny if I wasn't already wondering the same thing! :^<

Thought you could use a nicer photo after the neck so here is my cute mom at our lovely lunch! It was delicious and fun to return to Melvins where we dined often when I lived in PS the first time.
We have decided to meet for lunch once a month for a girls outing and of course try out nice restaurants.

I will end with a small random blessing that came my way yesterday. I am working on the Yosemite/camping piece and I still had a piece of 'river fabric' left over from the Yosemite piece I made for Eric, and was trying to use it. It was too small so I have been trying to figure out how to place a tree over the seam and a big rock where it doesnt meet the edge...you know...trying to be creative and cheap. I have not seen this fabric again and its just the most dramatic water colors~ I love it.  See what I mean??

I was getting started on sewing it all down when JK asked me to run errands with him. When we returned he came in with the mail and there was a package for me from Gugi.  Inside wrapped in tissue with a note saying 'saw this and thought of you'~it was the beautiful river fabric.
What a sweet friend and could it have come at a more appropriate time?! A lovely blessing falling on me... reminds me to do more random acts of kindness and make someone else's day a bit wonderful. Thanks Gugi! Love you!
Thanks for dropping by...

So and sew

This post is going to be about my latest projects and my new and improved sewing room so I hope you are a little bit interested in that kind of thing. If not, feel free to go outside and play and come back another day.  I totally understand.

I found this pattern last summer in Minnesota and have been anxious to finally make it. I even pictured me making these as Christmas gifts and people thinking "Whoa! These are awesome!"
Well after a week of tedious boring swearing prep work here its my box/leaning bowls. I decided rather than make a lid I would just make a smaller box/bowl hoping I could improve my mistakes on the first one.

While I love the colors and will most likely find uses for both of them I will not be making any more..I just did not have fun and that is essential to me at this advanced age. Fun or get off the boat.

So now I am combining two of my favorite pieces into one and yep I am back whistling while I work!
I am making Yosemite as the background but at night so I can put a big old moon in it. Then in front of the river I will make a camping scene with my cute little Airstream...I can see it all in my head and its awesome so I hope you can too.

I so want to grab that little thread on this photo...

This is where I am so far and I thought you might enjoy seeing a bit of the process...I know hard to imagine isn't it?! Give me a week and it will make more sense.
I went to an art festival this year where a fabric artist mounted her work on a canvas and I have decided I want to try it. You make the piece big enough that it goes around the edges and you attach it on the back. Always something new to try and learn...

So I couldn't sleep one night and came across this woman's blog sewmanyways.com and was so inspired by her creative organizational skills I have spent the last two days working on my artist space. Her theory is the more organized you are the better you work...no wasting time looking for something which I do constantly. I also get very distracted looking for that one item that it can takes days for me to back on tract. Huh??
She also is a big believer in repurposing things and making them attractive in affordable ways. It is such a fun site to check out for cool ideas!
So a friend requested I show some of my improvements...again walk away little one if this is boring.

I added a tension rod for all my ribbons and glue sticks in a jar w/ gun attached.

These hold all (most) of my fabrics and shelves have beads, sequins, paints, buttons etc all where I can find them.

This basket was taking up space in the garage and now it stores all my battings neatly.

I have decided I need one more work table in here so I can have one for my piece I am working on and one for cutting etc. I wish there was a better place for my ironing board too but the twin bed is from my childhood and still the best place to take a nap ever!

 This is my favorite new piece...you can tell from photo above my sewing tray is oh so broken. It falls off and has made what I do that much more difficult. Now I have this wonderful new tray and I can keep this 20 yr old machine humming along until we both die.

Consider yourself up to date on my sewing...subject to change at any moment!

To send you on your way here is a photo from our side yard...I had one of those cute little attach-to-your-window birdfeeders that lasted a week maybe. Well some of the dropped seeds decided they wanted to sprout and viola Sunflowers!
So cheerful that you cant help but smile. Have a great day! Our temps have dropped this last week to the 90s and its wonderful outside. Yep we are off to golf...

goodbye May and hello June

We reached a record breaking high yesterday 114 and this morning it was still 91 at 0500. It is a little known fact that wherever JK and I have moved the locals begin to say this is unusually cold, hot, rainy, snowy....so now we have ruined yet another city. Ginger, our busty weather lady that JK waits for...(is it the weather or her boobs I am never sure) says these temps are normal for Aug not May. Thank you Ginger...

We spent Memorial Day at the PS Air Museum and it was a wonderful day even with the 100 temp. on the tarmac. They began with a P63 doing fly overs...

The pilot appeared to be having great fun as he passed over us and made some fancy turns.
Then they did the missing man formation and it was beautiful...

Can you believe I caught this cool photo? I could not see a thing the sun was so bright! Lucky gal for sure!

Meanwhile they pulled a B25 out of the hangar and had a bit of a memorial speech dedicated to all
our veterans and this grand old plane. It was magical...

This lovely design represents the video I took of his last pass where the pilot opened the bomb bay and 3000 carnations rained down on us. It was awesome and I caught it on video...which you cannot see.... and I cannot delete this box. So sorry...if only I was more tech savvy I might have been able to figure it out. Where is Rande when I need him?!

A sweet story for you...my mom worked at Port Hueneme during the war and would date some of the servicemen passing thru. One was Gene Sundberg from MN as he was going thru pilot training on the B17. He gave my mom this locket during their brief courtship and she gave it to me after I started flying with American. I wore it most of my career and it has been hanging in my jewelry box for even more years, but still a treasure to me. My mom found Gene thru the internet and he has recently  passed away but his daughter lives in Hemet CA which is nearby. So she telephoned her and sent letters and photos of Gene to her and she was so appreciative. Yea mom for making someone's day so much better!
 So I wore Gene's lovely Army Air Corp locket to the memorial to let him know he was special and will always be remembered.

JK says it was the best Memorial Day in years so next year we are hoping to be volunteers at the museum and be an even bigger part of this pageantry.
  I might add the pilot had on a cool flight suit as he climbed into the B25 and JK mentioned he still has his....I immediately envisioned him wearing it and climbing aboard this magnificent plane and being all movie star handsome as he taxied out. Wont happen so we just held hands and walked away carrying my carnations dropped from the sky.

Thanks for dropping by and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!