Spanish Presentation

Stephanie, in the picture here, has to do her final presentation for her Spanish class.  She decided to do it on this amazing place, the Great Mosque of/in Cordoba Spain.

She got to visit this area last summer on her trip to Spain.
She has to present the whole thing in Spanish, of course, and she 'practiced' for me last night....did great!  I even understood some of the words...probably because I got to look at pictures while she talked.  Ole!
I thought it rather interesting that Mendofleur is working on something that ties in with this, at least to me.

The Mosque has over a 1000 columns, made from jasper, marble, onyx, and granite and must be amazing to look at all on their own.  The building had been added to over the centuries.  The first arches were made from stone and brick to give them the red and white color, but the later ones were painted to save money, something we can relate to today.

Steph didn't get to do her presentaion because her powerpoint didn't work. Next week.

Cuff and Backaches

Steph made this bracelet/cuff after browsing through a beading book.  We didn't have any leather, so she used a piece of vinyl curtain backing and lame!  Talk about different ends of the cha-cha-cha scale.
And of course, beads, threads, paints, glue, soldering iron....I adjusted the top image so you could see the colors better, since I didn't get a very good shot of it, because.....

My lower back hurts.  I don't know what I did to it, but I have been walking around like a cock-eyed-zombie for days now.

I remember how I sprained my neck one time. {making up a sofa bed}

I will never forget when I sprained my ankle. {volleyball on lawn}

Twice I tore the soft tissue-stuff between ribs turning a mattress over. {there won't be a third time!}

I of course remember where I was when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, Princess Di, 9-11....

I remember 5 close encounters with bears, 2 skunks and a rattlesnake.

And the earthquakes I have been through.....I even know where my children were during those!

But what the hell was I doing when I skee-uuu-ed my back???

Color!

Beads

Fruit

Thread

This are from other bloggers, one who quilts, one who draws, and one who appliques.  Click the links!

A New Sign

Cool name for a street, huh?  Some of the others I have seen myself.

a town

How's It Hangin'

But first....the Stick.  Ashley and Danny got me this stick on their trip out to the pacific ocean* {Ocean Shores area} last week.  It's the perfect gift for me/us!!!

click to enlarge
See....isn't that a cool stick?
So I added it....
to this wallie I quilted from a 'whole cloth' piece of fabric.....
that I have shown you before.  We didn't like the way it hung on the wall, we felt it was "upside down".  This last picture is how we have it now, but is that right?  Which way would you hang it?

*we are here in the Puget Sound {Tacoma} area, which is sea water, but the ocean itself is out on the coast, where most oceans are of course. It was raining here and sunny and wonderful out there, again, of course. 

And we have winners!!

Jo said the counter read 10,000 when she first got here, so that works for me! And since I can't figure out the exact person for the 9999 and 10,001 placements, I guess all 4 commenter's will have to get a prize!!!  

So Dorothy...I have your address.  Warty Mamm....need yours.  Fitzy....need yours too.  Jo....need yours too!   So send 'um onto me and I will finish up the gifties, which have been waiting to see who won.  I may even come up with another one or 2 in case anyone else wants to join the fun!

Start Commenting

The number is really close to 10,000 so start leaving comments people, so I know who you are for the giveaway!!

I found some pix

I got a car for Steph for graduation.....
a crab for me...
says it all....
and more fabric....
and some more.   I am trying to do my part for the economy.  In small parts.

The car for Steph is actually a clay version of some she would adore having, and has magnets on the tires!!  these are all from etsy.com

Almost there....

to the big 10K.

Have the latest quilt quilted, but no pix.  

Have had my granddaughters around a lot lately, again, no pix. 

Got into bed last night and found a stranger tucked in on my husbands side. No, it wasn't any of those guys.  Not him either.  It was a her.  

hehehe....it was a doll tucked in all nice as you please, thank you Megan!

Helpful Raffle

This Grandmothers Flower Garden quilt is being raffled to help pay for medical expenses for another bloggers husband, and herself for that matter.  Anyway, click the link to get the details!  And buy tickets!

Almost there

to the magic number!

Photos

Prom Dress, color Coral.  That's all you get to see for now.

Lily, future scooter rider.
Megan, future adult wearing aunties prom shoes.
Baby with baby.
Daddy does hair.

schools winding down for us....

With Steph in her last tri-mester of her last year of grade school, things are either winding down....or picking up, both ways work.

Portfolio presentation- Done.

Spanish presentation- April 30th

AP exams- Gov- May 4

                  - Calculus- May 6

Other class exams, etc- gotta be done by June 5, because after that, the seniors are NOT allowed back on campus!!!!

Prom- May 30th

Prom dress shopping- Done.

Prom shoes shopping- Done.

Date for Prom- TBA

Prom misc.- not done.  {ride, jewelery, etc.}

Graduation- June 5th, 7 pm, Tacoma Dome. {need room for thousands of family members that come with the 1000-ish students!!!!}

Curtians!

Well...curtain...singluar.  For my corner. So I don't show up in the window in the middle of the night.  

The fabric has silver threads running through it, and slubs that make the dots.  I love it.  Found it in the bargain section of Joann's last year.
This crochet lace was made by my paternal grandmother.  She had stitched it with teeny tiny stitches to the hem of a pillowcase.  I have only this bit, so I left most of the cotton-linen {not sure which} fabric.  I may add more lacy stuff on either side as I come across it in my stash.
the fabric color is off white...ish.
I did lots of other sewing yesterday, too, but no pix yet.  

Have a play skirt started for Meg, from fabric scraps.  

Got misty-fuse on other fabric for another project. 

Got the binding  prepped for the baby quilt, which I did some quilting on last night. {the bright one from a few days ago...}  

And stitched a bunch of sq.s together for another quilt for Meg and Lily, from 3 charm packs I got from eBay.  Those pre-cut square packs are handy.

Haircuts and Comfort

The dogs got their annual haircuts last week.  Here is Abby.  She is soooooooo soft to touch now!

And this...well...this is me with my cat, book, quilt, and dog....Dog? Page joined us in the sunny corner too. When the cat gets too hot in the sun, she goes up to the back of the chair where it's still shady.
I love this corner!!!!!!!  But I did learn something about it the other day...or rather, night.  That window behind my head becomes a mirror when it's dark outside and I was reflected in said mirror-window before getting into the shower.  Luckily it was my husband, coming home from work, who noticed it, and not some mom informing me her son is traumatized for life...

Jaw Dropper

No pix, but boy do I wish!  

Scene set up- me reclined in chair in window corner, eyes closed, cat curled up on chest.

From outside- sudden sound of bird "screaming".

Me- sit up in a hurry, piss cat off, look out window.

In sky- one large bird flying by, something in claws/talons, smaller bird following closely. Larger bird drops item, flies up and curves back around, gliding just above the hedges and such in my neighbors yard, turns again to fly above power lines, etc, and out of sight.  

That last curve is what let me see that the large bird was an EAGLE, no more than 20 feet from my window!!!  A full grown, white headed, bald Eagle. 

No idea what the second bird was.  I did talk to the neighborhood kids, who had been outside at the time, one confirmed he saw the eagle too, and the other had found a fish on the road and was wondering how it got there!

Quilting Content

Oh look, an ironing board.  I use this for now for cutting fabric on. Actually kinda handy, can be set to any height.  Dan is going to make me a cutting cupboard on wheels.....at least it is on his list.
6 FQ's all in Woodland Bloom fabric set.  Cut, sew, cut, sew again. Arrange. Sew again. Ta Da.....a quilt top.
Now for the next step....sandwiching.

I am also putting together gifties for when 3 of you hit around the 10,000 mark! 9999, 10,000, and 10,001. Provided I can figure out who you are!  Leaving comments at that time would be helpful, please!

Mostly Cats

This is a Charles Wysocki print of Maggie the Mess maker.

His art is always full of whimsical bits, like the mice on the lace in the picture, and any books in the pictures have wonderful titles!  I've always thought of these as  Hidden Pictures.  These prints also come in Cross Stitch patterns and Vicki Welsh is working on one. I always enjoy an update on the progress she is making.
As I uploaded years worth of pictures off the floppy discs {remember those?} recently, I came across lots of fun pix, of course.
Like this one of RocketMan. {the cat who died recently} He never let us down. If there was a container to jump into, no matter the material, he was there!
This is, was, Baby. {Precious on his left}  He had been part of a litter we had managed to give away.  He loved me! He would leave the pile of cozy siblings to sleep with me, would feed from his mother, then race around the house looking for me, and other such antics.  He was also given to a new family because they wanted him so.  Well, he didn't want them.  Two months later I heard a meowing outside....heard it again....thought, naw, can't be....Yup, there he was!  He had run away from the other family and come back to me.  I kept him. I didn't know where the other family lived, so what choice did I have????  Unfortunately, he encountered something dangerous outside and didn't come back in one day....we never knew what was getting our cats when we lived there. I was always amazed that Precious and RocketMan managed to survive the area.
Not a cat.  I was trying to figure out the ways of paper piecing by designing my own!  Doesn't everyone start a new technique that way?? A witch for the Harry Potter quilt faze.  It didn't work. But looking at it now...maybe it did. I don't remember.
This is made from ceramics.  It moves. I love it. Go look at the other works by these students!

Biology Anyone?

I wonder if a real rat/mouse was used for a model?  I found this here....warning, there is some really funny stuff there!

New View

From my chair.  Taken about 10 minutes apart.  Wed. evening.

Yesterday, while in my chair, Page, our Jack Russell, came to me, gazed into my eyes with her doggy-brown ones, wagged her bitty tail, and wouldn't take the ice cube I thought she wanted.  After much conversation, mostly on my part, I asked her if she wanted 'up'.  That's what she wanted all right.  She wanted to gaze out my new window too! Not sure how I will get a picture of us there in my chair, but I will try.  

As soon as Page spotted the neighbor-dog from the window, Abby, our much bigger pooch, though she would just jump up and join us.  HA!  

She didn't like being denied, what with Page hoottin'n'hollerin' doggy style, out the window!  Tough. 

I think the cat had left the room before all this ruckus began.

Variety

I have been hunting through other peoples pictures of their sewing/craft table spaces. I like the one above, big ironing surface, access to all the stuff on the shelves, from both sides, and on wheels. this one made by the husband, as I recall. I haven't found where I found this...darn it. I Found It
This one is 'store bought'. Kind of a OneSizeFitsAll sort of table, huh?! Light table, iron board, 2 leaves, storage space AND a power plug!
Look at this ice!  What texture.  I am not sure where I found this picture...
Need I say anything about this pic?  I found this picture here at Ravelry. Aren't the yarns perfect with the sea life???