Friday catch-up

I put these two small things together and they now await borders and any interesting finishes I can come up with. Mostly I can't believe it's Friday again. What's up with that? I'd say time flies when you're having fun but um...no. I haven't been feeling well the past few days and have kind of pushed myself to do anything. Some days I feel like I could tackle anything and then I get a couple of days like the last few. Blah!

I am in the process of finding some things to wear for a trip coming up in the not too distant future. We will be in a place where it's way too hot for me. One of my dirty little secrets is that when people complain about the rain and cool I may outwardly sympathize but inside I'm cheering. Don't like heat and I can't sit in the sun at all so it holds no interest for me. When I was a young girl I would bake on the beach for hours and turn golden brown. No more for me. The medicine I take makes me burn almost instantly. Not just burn, but big watery blisters...ugh! The house we are renting has a pool and the relatives all live in Florida so no doubt they will revel in the pool and the sunny days. Roger enjoys the sun so he will enjoy. My idea of sitting in the sun would be more like being covered from legs to head with stuff. So anyway, I'm trying to find some stuff to wear that won't look too stupid on me. Not an easy task. While I'm not a moose, neither am I a delicate little person. I cannot tell you how stupid I look in Capri or cropped pants. My legs are short and I look like a cartoon character who has high water pants. Really dumb. Not going there. I have linen pants in multiple colors which will have to do. They are, in fact, my fav pants and I have two new pair from last year I haven't even hemmed yet. I need some light tees and cool tops. Also on the list is a robe and some new jammies. I will head out next week and see what I can find. Land's End is my fall-back option. I got some great tees recently from them. We'll see what comes up. I need to consider what to take for handwork and will probably take some redwork in an effort to look busy and not make eye contact.

My initial response to this adventure was not positive for several reasons I can't go into here. Family drama-nuff said. My husband has suggested to me that I view it as theatre, which is what I usually say to him when faced with this type of thing. So, I will now view it with theatre in mind. I plan to take the camera, of course, so I can give you all a glimpse of crazy when we get back. Anyway, all of this isn't happening for a good while so I'll keep you posted. Looking for clothes is about as painful for me as surgery. I hate it with a passion. Clothes today are made for tiny little women with tiny little tushies and cute, perky boobs. W

Well I'm off to the mighty Viking to do some sewing after I give the place a once over with the Super Sucker. The dust has become dramatic. Talk to you soon.

Friends..near & far.

Thanks for the nice things you had to say to me. My mantra for the near future is, I will not wallow, I will not wallow, I will not wallow. That takes the place of a recent promise not to snicker about the Bushtit- made to my friend Terry Grant who is much more mature than I am. See her blog for explanations. Sometimes I really need to be followed around by an old, very large, Nun with an equally large ruler.

I love cartoons, both drawn and on T.V. I am blessed with a son who grew up with cartoons and was given the gift of the ability to mimic voices. My son does a perfect Cartman and although now that his voice has changed and it is harder for him, he would still sing "Sail Away" if I begged him. That still makes me fall down screaming. I thought this cartoon was very amusing.

Anyway, my sweet friend Dorothy in Vermont tagged me for 7 weird things and I think I've done that a couple of times. Of course I could do it several more times an not run out of things to list but just how strange does one want to reveal themselves to be in print?

So instead I am going to deviate from the norm(what else is new) and list 7 things that I am grateful for. I will leave out the customary things that we all adore like husbands and children and even BILs named Bob. This is strictly a list of things that make me happy to be alive.

1. Lemon blueberry Cake from the Copenhagen Bakery.(what? you didn't think food would be last did you?).

2. Music. There is almost nothing that moves me and defines my mood like music. My taste is very eclectic. It runs from Mozart to Pink Floyd and Jamiroqui to Charlie Parker.

3. Time. Even though I often waste it shamefully I am keenly aware of how fortunate I am to be able to have time to do nearly anything.

4.Goldfinches. Several years ago I discovered Goldfinches. My husband is probably sorry that I did since his sole purpose in life is to work to support the Goldfinch population of out Village-all of whom live outside in my yard eating us out of house, home and retirement savings.

5. I am grateful for every day that I am well enough not to have to deal with doctors. They scare the crap out of me. That God- syndrome thing is horrible to deal with. It has become blood-pressure-spike-inducing to deal with medicine men.

6. I am grateful for reaching this age and finding so many women to share the experience with. There is something wonderful about the company of women. Especially at this age. We are mostly over the angst of hormones stuff and younger women's issues so we can just compare notes and laugh about stuff. Watching young mothers is especially fun.A lot of their percieved problems are so amusing, they just don't know it yet.

7. on/off buttons-so I can turn off people like Rev. Wright-he serves no purpose except to insight anger and hatred. The on button can be used for good like this morning when I turned on the radio and discovered that The trouble-making gasbag Al Sharpton-while inside causeing a public nuisance and trying to drum up a race riot-had his Jaguar towed to an impound lot. The only thing that would have given me more pleasure would have been if they ran over Rev. Wright on the way. Someone explain to me why these hate-filled idiots always hide themselves behind the mantel of the church?

Anyone can play-consider yourself tagged and don't write me any snarky comments about my political opinions. I never do that kind of thing on here but those two are just begging for it. A public flogging would be too good for them.

Well, if you're still with me, I hope your day is a sweet one.

Let's Ponder the Possibilities

Ponder what you say? If I only had a brain. Why ponder at all you may say? Because once, long ago in a place far, far, away people came to me to make decisions and I would tell them what to do and it was good They admired my ability to organize work problems...and they told me so. The thing I may not want to ponder too much is how long ago that was. I was walking on the treadmill watching a chapter of the Sopranos on A&E and waiting for my almost 24 year old son to return from a Doctors appointment(it's allergy season to the max-he needs an inhaler poor guy) when I got to thinking about life...pondering, as it were, why it is that I can't stick to a single thing, finish a single thing, or concentrate on one thing till completion or basically organize anything. If I were my previously organized self, I would have planned how many fat quarters I had and in fact planned a quilt. Funny thing is, if it's a gift, I can organize and finish. What's up with that?

I think it has a little to do with letting go, which is a recurring theme in my life but would be really stupid in this case. The possibility exists that it had something to do with lack of concentration and a return to child-like behavior(shut up back there). The problem was I didn't really have a childhood and maybe I'm looking for it now. Case in point-Those stars I've been making. They're fun and pretty fast and I would love to have a piece on the wall like that but instead I justify my fun by saying I'll give it as a gift. Somewhere in the straw that passes for brains I have convinced myself that it's ok to make someone a gift as long as the someone isn't me. I thought for a while that it was some hormonal side effect and it turns out that it's just...well...me. I fear being happy. That comes from childhood and serious major lies and disappointments. You would think at this age I could get a grip on that but most of the time I'm really afraid of happiness. Imagine me talking about happiness with my head down and in a whisper in case the gods hear me and shoot me a wake-up kick in the ass. Imagine someone telling a table full of people that they never had a car accident. I would have to clamp my hand over their mouth and make them say sorry out loud three times. That's just asking for a Karmic slap in the head. So along with being finishing challenged, I'm superstitious. Gad...color me hopeless.

Back to the stars- in making them I rounded up all the fat quarters I could find in the Closet of Shame and realized that over the course of the last year I have dramatically reduced the fat quarter stash to nearly nothing(again..settle down you) Not that I don't have any. There are many of them but not the ones in a packet from Keepsake. I used to save them for the illusive shrouded-in-fog someday. Now I find that I have used and given so many as gifts that there is not only a dent in the stash but a gaping hole where all my interesting fabric used to be. Horrors! I could have belonged to Judy Laquidara's stash busting group and I didn't even know it. I may try to alleviate this sad situation soon by visiting places on trips and re-stocking the stash while trying to avoid the family drama. The only thing there to ponder is how low I will hide my head in shame and whisper.. Yippee!

As an after thought I wanted to answer the comments about having a cook-it is the best and he's very good at it. He worked his way to a Masters Degree in Engineering in a delicatessen. His potato salad alone makes me swoon-not to mention him

Libby made a comment about having wanted pen pals as a kid. She's right. This reminds me of that very thing. It's very much like having pen pals and in so many places-blogging is very much fun.

Random weekend thoughts

I hate to keep showing the same boring thing but the madder and red colored blocks are what I'm up to right now. I need to find a large space to lay out the Lavender Passion blocks for sewing and I just can't find one that I can leave things laid out for a couple of days. The hearts above are one of the first things I made and they are...da, da, dah...applique. That was probably 15-16 years ago. There was this company that you could buy pre-cut squares of multiple fabrics by a company. It was kind of a crap-shoot in terms of getting what you wanted but back then there were no Packets of 5 inch squares in one line. The end result was that I got some nice pieces to use in mini paper pieced blocks and I still have the many ugly squares that I never used still hanging around. At that time I was discovering what I liked best to do and hadn't tried applique. My eyes were a lot clearer than now so I think I did a pretty good job. Always keeping in the back of my mind my grandmother shaking her finger at me for poorly done stitching. I made the applique hearts by ironing them onto freezer paper(ouch-nothing like steaming ones fingers a bunch) and the other method I used was to sew them to used dryer sheets-slit the back and turn them them applique them down. Lots of prep work. The quilt I donated to Quilts of Valor was all done this way. I sewed those blocks while my friend's husband was in intensive care and I watched her kids. This one was made with left over blocks and is only wall hanging size.

I'm making the stars for a birthday gift for a friend. First I put together 4 blocks and then I thought better of it and am now enlarging it to nine blocks. I should say I'm thinking of enlarging it. Why is it that I don't think a sweet little 4-block mini is enough. This is how I get in trouble and bogged down.

On a pleasant note, I received a very nice comment from a lady whose name is un-clear to me but I think she is a patron of the Library and knows my best buddy Terry, who works there. I hope she knows how very nice it is to have someone say such kind things. Many thanks to her and, in fact to everyone who is kind enough to leave a comment. You all make my day much brighter. I can't get over how cool it is to get comments from all over the country and, even such far away places as Japan and Italy. What a hoot! I always think of what I would do if I won the lottery- I'd try to visit everyone, everywhere. Don't panic people...I haven't bought a lottery ticket for years so you're all safe....for now that is.

My husband made the most delicious BBQ ribs last night for dinner and I think my BIL Bob is getting take-out for tonight so I'm free of cooking for today. This may be as good as it gets!