On the Run

I have exactly 16 minutes to post. Tonight is the last regular rehearsal for the talent show. After this, Kate's father takes over. Joe and I managed to book a hotel in Cape May on the very weekend of the talent show. At first I told Kate she could not be involved.  She wailed. I asked her if it would be OK if I wasn't there, and she blurted out, "I don't care!" I suggested that her dad might be able to do it and she was OK with that. Fortunately, he's OK with it, too.

Joe and I are staying at the Victorian Motel. It's about as victorian as the 1960s, when the place was most likely built. Our friends, whom we are meeting, stay across the street at Congress Hall. This place is fabulous, and the price reflects it. We would stay there ourselves, but we spent all of our money on that damned chair...

Anyway, when we were making reservations at the Vic, we took note of their rather draconian cancellation policy. If you cancel at least two weeks ahead of your date, they skim 20% off the top, and the remaining 80% is applied to your next visit. If you cancel closer than 2 weeks, you are totally screwed. We figured we would not have to cancel, so no problem. About 2 days later, we realized that this was crashing into the talent show. It never fails. But anyway, it's gonna be alright. I just wish I could be there to do Kate's hair.

I am probably going to finish a huge project at work in the next couple of days, and then sail into the weekend, which starts on Friday for me. I love going away for the weekend. And, get this!  We are going to stop and see Lucy the elephant on the way down! I promise promise to bring my charged-up camera.

Sweater

A Message from My Husbnd

Joe has apparently read my blog. He took some issue with my post about chairs. He said that I should not have mentioned the price of the art deco chair restoration, because, "people will think we are rich." 

Well, I definitely don't want people thinking we are rich. Next thing you know, we will be solicited by reupholster-ers expecting us to stimulate their end of the economy with more furniture repair, or something. When we instigated that extravagance, we had just sold both of our houses and found ourselves flush with a little cash. Most of that extra cash went towards replacing the entire ancient, crusty wiring in this old house that we had just bought. Another big chunk went toward replacing the 1950's boiler. We figured the chair was a now or never thing, and it's true. We would not think of doing that now.

I'm going to sew, see you later.

Quilt-Saving Mission

People at work are aware that I quilt. A collegue in the department next door brought me a shoebox of patches and material. Apparently, this is something that her Mom amd her Mom's friends started and never finished. My colleague's mom died 12 years ago, she must have been too young. She asked me if I could finish it.

If you've been following this blog you know me as the person who is working on a quilt with a dead baby in a coffin in it, not to mention a person who loves grave stones. This kind of thing is not my cup of tea. In fact, the cuteness of this late 80's country crap makes me want to barf.

That's not the point though. Of course I agreed to do it, because people made this with their hands. Someone who is dead had a vision for this, and they could not finish it. It will be pretty easy for me to put this together, and the person who will own it says I can take as long as I like. I also have free range to do it the way I like. I can handle that. She wants to pay me, I'm not really interested in making money from it. I told her to buy me lunch, and she skoffed. We'll work it out later.

Talent Show

Here are pictures of Kate and her boyfriend Nick at talent show rehearsals.

Someday, I will sew again.

And, maybe, eat dinner at dinner time.

Thanks Marty

Marty sez:

"I'm not sure which is more beneficial, blogging or exercise. One helps the body, the other the mind. They both go about the same time anyway, don't they?"

Good one. I guess it's true.

There is a certain type of woman out there, I see them, 50 years old, rail thin, eating lettuce and water sandwiches, running like their lives depended on it wearing tiny little running pants that cling to their scarecrow butts. I kinda doubt they will live any longer than I will.

I've been on so many diets in my life, I just can't be bothered any more. At the same time, I want to be able to move around, so here is my latest eating strategy. I've quit eating cheese and I've quit drinking alcohol. (That is, until Memorial Day Weekend. If you think I'm giving up white wine on the deck this summer, you are crazy.) I am losing a little. I'm pleased. And, it was 21 degrees this morning, so I didn't walk again.

That's it.

What Day is It?

LAMBS!

Three in a row

I'm real busy, what can I tell you? It's definitely cutting into my posting time. I used to squeeze in some blog prep in the morning before I left for work. I'd write the post and e-mail myself the pictures (They upload much easier at work) Recently I decided it was in my best interest to begin exercising in the mornings again, now that the weather is less obnoxious. This morning it was in the 20s, so I decided to not walk just this one day. So, I am posting.

I got over to the cemetary in Clinton finally on Sunday and found myself some excellent lamb tombstones. I also took the time to observe and record a situation that I find in nearly every old cemetary I see. That is the presence of similar gravestones, as if it became all the rage to use a certain type when a loved one passed on. The trend in this cemetary was markers that look like beds. I think I'm going over in a month or so and plant some flowers in those lamb beds. They are all from one family and none of those kids made it to 5 years old.

I was fooling around in Photoshop and isolated just a lamb image and printed it onto fabric for my quilt. I had been making my own printing sheets using unbleached muslin with crack-n-peel sticker paper adhered to the back. At first it seemed like a miracle just to have an image on fabric, but really it doesn't come out very clear, and I was treating the fabric with bubble jet set, so it was time consuming. I splurged on some fabric printing sheets. I was trying to avoid the expense, but the results is much better. So now I've got me a nice lamb plus I printed a larger lamb to use for some future project.

First Saturday of Spring

The weather is reasonable today, for March. Supposed to be sunny and in the 50's. I think I can get some things done. My week was a little crazy. Monday my parents came over for dinner, Tuesday was ARC talent show rehearsals, home at 10 pm, Wednesday we sat down and did our taxes, 'nuff said, Thursday is Kate's social group, and yesterday she went to a St. Pat's day dance. It went from 7:30 to 9:30, so that broke up the evening just enough that I didn't really do much. On top of this, work has been very busy and that feeling of rushed insanity is not easily shaken off after I leave.

Enough whining. I have already straightened up the downstairs and I think I'm going to take a sewing break. I want to finish up the Gee's Bend Poseur quilt and get that on to Etsy.  I haven't put anything new on Etsy in quite a while. I also want to re-take some of the photos of  merchandise that were taken inside during the winter. When I sell a quilt I am inevitably told that it looks much better in person. 

I might have a conflict this year between my garden and my sewing. I am an avid gardener, and I think it really adds to our quality of life during the summer. It's nice to sit outside and look at flowers, not to mention all of the creatures it attracts. I directed a lot of my creative energy towards gardening when I wasn't making art. A couple of summers ago I turned our garden shed into a project. I painted the inside, then I collaged the ceiling. It became this major undertaking as I searched for images that suited the theme. I have some older pictures of it, fortunately, because right now it is jammed up with lawn furniture. I'm afraid to open the door, it will all fall out on top of me!

PS You realize that the garden doesn't look like this now. This is probably June.

Let's Talk About Chairs

Look at this cool chair. It's upstairs at the Lovin' Oven, outside the restroom. I wish I could have it reupholstered for them. It just seems so worth it. It looks like a big fleshy flower.

A few years ago we took on a very expensive but worthwhile reupholstry project. Joe had this chair in his life literally for decades. To most, it looked like a true candidate for the curb; it was faded, ripped, dirty, stinky and the bottom had given way, but we could see the potential. It was the coolest looking Art Deco club chair I had ever seen. What we did not see coming was the cost of this restoration project: $1600!! I figured it would cost around 1K, so I wasn't too shocked, but still, we had to ask ourselves if this wasn't foolish. We ultimately went ahead with it, and it is one of those situations where we continue to enjoy it long after we got over the price. Side note: Joe at one time had the set, which included another chair and a big couch that went together. His ex-wife made him get rid of it. Perhaps it is just as well. That couch alone would have bankrupted us. (The wall color in the top picture looks a little BRIGHT on my screen. The lower picture is more accurate. The color is called Mission Wildflower.)

We have another chair in the collection that is deserving of a good going over. It has the Hickory brand name at the bottom, and it is so much heavier than it looks. Very well-made. I'm guessing it was from the 50's. It is not nearly as desperate as the Art Deco chair was. While it is waiting patiently in our living room for it's turn, I'll just call it shabby chic.

A Tiny Appliqued Heart

Look at this little tiny heart my husband gave me. He came across it in a little store and thought I would like it. I went nuts when he took it out of his pocket.

Look at the tiny stitches, the miniscule embroidery! The green fabric is appliques in one piece over the pink. The entire heart is less than 2 inches high.

Joe says it was made by the Hmong people, but he doesn't remember much else about it.