You're Excused

Sweet! I have excused from jury duty!!!!

I have anxiety issues, panic attacks, however you want to classify my mental weirdness. I am on medication, but I still get the 'need to flee' feeling when asked to wait....for anything! One way for me to overcome that feeling is to talk or play my game boy [yes, old school].

Don't think any judge is going to allow that by any juror.

Progress....Dad On Beach...part 6

I have no idea what 'numbered part' of this project I should be on, but 6 sounded good. Last night I got past the water and into the sky, but didn't take a picture of it.

Craft with drawls. Poor Steph was sitting in her dorm room with only a new, large set of Sharpie pens that I gave her for college, which have earned her the name of Sharpie Girl by her dorm mates,BTW.

Anyway...there she sat having serious with drawls...the need to create weighing on her right brain. It might have been the Art History exam that started it...after examining all those old paintings, something is bound to rub off. So how to fix this problem....off to the College Book Store for some art supplies!!!!!

I know...OMG...don't you know how costly the book store is?? She says she didn't get that much, mostly paper. But I can see that she is going to need to snag a few things from home next weekend, for the next time she needs to create! And take pictures for me to blog!

After all....Home is where the heART is..... hehehehe.....

Saw Giant Pumpkin

Not this one, I just used this picture for visual aid. When I went to pick Megan up from preschool yesterday, I passed a truck with a giant pumpkin sitting in the bed, and a dozer trailer on the hitch. I have no idea what the story was, but it was still there on my way back with Megan, so she got to see it too!

Kittens and Eyebrows

I found this picture on a blog....isn't that a fantastic color on that cat???

I had mentioned a while back about babies and eyebrows...or lack there of. So here is an update...3 months old and maybe 3 more brow hairs....

or not.

Yesterday was Tuesday

and I was babysitting my youngest granddaughter. Which meant the rest of the bunch came by too. Megan got the camera and took photos....of the dog on the bag of dog food....and here you thought I had gotten a new dog...

I took this picture of my babes....my oldest, Ben, and his Lily, left, and the youngest, Rhiley.....her mama is .....

right here, Ashley, another picture by Megan.

I thought Meg had set the camera for a soft look....turned out to be smudges on the lens. Sure fooled me!

Mom Came Up With....

a title...."Quilt Makers Guide To The Universe"....I guess if I write a book, this will be the title.

Progress....Dad On Beach

I think I am done with the quilting in the sand area and have picked the blues for the water. I kept the color choices down to a select few this time. I didn't even have the lightest blue picked out until I could see I needed a really light thread for the froth-spume of the waves.

I am trying to keep the stitches of the water on straight paths, which is really easy because of the way Vicki Welsh dyed it!

Precious joined me. Notice her ignoring the camera....

Pointedly!

Fabric....and a way to pick it....

Ok, so while reading yet another blog this afternoon, I followed her link toMorecloth.

Click on a color strip and it gives you a sample of fabrics sold by Etsy people. This section of screen shot will give you better idea of what I mean. {the link to etsy is one of the 'vender's' showing an unusual print....}why

why the trike picture? because i found out that Schwinn makes them. i found this picture at wal mart!

Blog Action Day

So this years Blog Action Day is all about Climate Change. Personally I probably don't do much to help other than use CFL light bulbs and recycle everything I can. The oxy machine for my mom puts out a lot of heat, so I move it around the take advantage it ! I drink a lot of water, and the 'dregs' of it get dumped into plants...dog water dish....pitcher for watering elsewhere. We don't water the lawn in back over the septic, it does just fine on it's own. I also air dry clothes when I can.

If solar panels were more affordable, we would get those in a minute! Our roof is a perfect place for them even though we are here in the NW.

I am hoping to get more LED lights, also.

When we need a new hot water heater I want to get the instant kind. { I don't think its a good idea to just junk the working one now.}

Chief Bottlewasher

That was me on Sunday. Ashley and BirthdayGirl Steph went shopping, and I stayed home. A. needed all this washed up so I did it for her. She is breast feeding Rhiley, so she has to pump and save her milk on work days. The stored milk was souring to fast , sometimes in mere hours, so I suggested she use glass to store the milk in. So far so good! Of course getting a bunch of jars is simple....head for the canning section of WalMarche.

Before College Girl went back to school Sunday afternoon, I had her take the kick plate off the front door.

So I can clean and then paint it with this cool paint Dan picked up. The finished look is "Hammered Aluminium" and it's perfect!

Here is the door knocker I sprayed...and the 2 other door knockers I got....

to replace the original.......won't work because the holes in the door are different and it's a steel door.

I will use these on the deck anyway.....maybe as plant hangers. [these 2 were white]

Otherwise I have been doing very little of anything. I have been ill. Doctor wants me to give up the Paxil because I can't lose weight taking it. [it's for panic attacks] So as soon as I switched to Prozac, I started to get to feeling crappy. After 2 weeks of steadily getting worse, I took myself off the Prozac and back onto the Paxil until I get something different from the doc. I know self doctoring is not that smart, but I also know my panic level better than my doctor does!!!!

Yipee College Girl is Home

For the weekend! I haven't taken a picture yet to show any difference, if any yet, in grown-up-ness, but I have gotten 2 ginormous hugs! Ashley was standing next to us and in the middle of hug heaven, she said, "hey I want a turn, I haven't gotten my hug yet". My immediate response? I clung even tighter as I said, "You mean I am getting first-hug?"

Why the big deal about hugs? Because somewhere back in the last couple of weeks, Stephanie texts Ashley, "I miss hugs". Wish Granted!

On top of it all, Stephanie will be having a birthday tomorrow, her 19th!

Comment on Quilt

Christine said..."Your Dad quilt is going to be so beautiful. What a wonderful memory piece."

Thank You Christine.

I think what adds to this piece is having mom sitting next to me as I work on it. She touches it and says "Scott"....with a bit of sadness, but also a bit of gladness that I am doing this.

Migraine anyone?

Ben called last night because he was in the middle of a migraine and a panic attack was complicating it. So as I talked, and soothed him, I Googled migraines and found this picture on Wikipedia.....an artist rendition of the 'zig zags' that often lead up to the headache. This is exactly what I get!! But without the headache.

I know, I am very lucky.

The latest in Grandpa and Rhiley pix. She is now 2.5 months old.

Dad on Beach progress. As I suspected I had no pearl cottons to fit this piece, but then I don't have a collection of those threads that I do in DMC colors.

I pulled out the colors for the 'sand'....pale pale pinks and lavenders as mom suggested. I am following the dye 'lines' because I love to do that vs. going in a 'regular' pattern. I pulled out some stitching on the left side of Dad. I needed to change thread colors....

Old Home Week and Answers

My previous view. From my kitchen window. Seriously. My view was framed by lovely trees, but that picture is buried in the photo albums.

The Sierra Buttes in California were the view out my window. I miss that view something fierce!! and it's been like...17 years since I gazed daily upon it.
Besides the bird....check out the old wood and rocks.
Here's the house that has a kitchen window that gazes upon that lovely view! Of the Buttes you nut, not the bird. Enlarge the picture to see the really cool railing that follows the fun steps up to the house. Here's where my crooked ideas come from. Mom called it the Crooked Man railing, as in "There was a crooked man who walked a crooked mile..." The stairs that don't show in this picture, are cement and follow the contours of the land...around the propane tank and a tree stump or 2.

I still call it 'my house' even though I haven't lived there in 17 years. My mom sold it about a year after we moved here to WA. I was very upset for a long time, felt like a safe haven had been taken away from me. Not to mention losing something I loved loved loved.

Comments needing comments from me...."Warty Mammal said: Sounds like there have been some unexpected bonuses from the tonsil removal." [in ref to Megan] Oh you bet WM, Megan is doing really well with the whole thing. Though I did notice last night that she wasn't hearing as well, which could be selective. But overall, Megan is happier, still eats like a growing child, answers questions with something other than "what?", besides having a girly voice now.

Christine said: I think this is going to be an outstanding piece.[ Dad on Beach] The photo lines are perfect with the hand dyed background. How did you do that? Actually Christine, Vicki Welsh did it! I asked her to do the 'sand and water' dying on the diagonal, and this is actually the back side of the fabric because it worked out perfectly!!

Dad On Beach

I have finally gotten back to Dad and the beach picture. I machine quilted his part down because the high-thread-count-fabric is a bitch to hand stitch through. I will hand quilt the rest of the fabric and boy am I looking forward to that!! Do I go with the usual pearl cotton threads, the strand-embroidery threads, are use both????

Won't know until I work on it, but I have a feeling the pearl cottons will be left out only because of my current supply of colors. I want to stick with threads that 'match' this piece.
I couldn't resist taking a picture of the back, held up to the window, if you click to enlarge you will see the holes made in the fabric on the front!
This shot of the back makes the quilting look like birds flying.
and a wider shot of the whole piece. The fabric was hand dyed by Vicki Welsh especially for me for this.

And Now For My Next Trick....

I am going to reset the computer.....it's full of files we I don't need, like Steph's music, sheesh, she has had her own pc for over a year now and has all her MP3 files on it!

Hopefully I will return unharmed!

What a cool idea!

What am I talking about? Painting leaves....not painting leaves on something, I mean painting the actual leaf! Geninne has done just this! I have a leaf I could do this to too....

I have kept it for it's leathery look...on the fridge.
Onto other things....like chipmunks....
and deer on the Pine Lake quilt. I am so glad to have it back on the wall. I liked the rocks quilts, but I really like this one better. You will notice I have turned the pine cone right side up also....on older pix you will see that I have it pointy side up, like having a horseshoe wrong on the wall, ya know?!