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Archive for the ‘M & M’ Category

A Great Summer Day

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

aspenbackground

I had a fabulous day with my grandchildren and Mr C and still managed to work in the studio. This is a temporary layout for a fused background for the next aspen landscape. I fuse the fabric to parchment paper and then I lift the whole thing off and fuse it as one piece to the batting. This way, I can rearrange pieces. Once it is fused to the batting, I will add the backing and quilt it. The aspens get added after that.

This morning Mia and Miles arrived early. I have been promising to take Mia to the Escher exhibit at the Portland Art Museum. Miles did not want to go, but Mr C wanted to go and promised him a visit to the gift shop.Here is Mia with Abe Lincoln on our way into the museum

miaandabe

We really enjoyed the Escher exhibit. It was so neat to see his preliminary drawings and sketches. The Metamorphose which was a continuous changing and morphing design was awesome.

We also enjoyed the tattoo exhibit and watched a slide show of tattoo art on people from Portland. You can see them at this Flickr site. You will be warned about this site because it shows body parts!

Here is a shot of the Sculpture Garden as we were leaving. I am quite fond of these horses. There are 3 or 4 on the entrance to PDX airport.

sculpturegarden

We bought some goodies for M & M and some jewelry for me. I love glass rings because I am allergic to some metals so I picked up a couple. Here is Mia’s choice — The Pocket Guide to Girl Stuff. She read this instead of eating lunch!!

miaspocketguide

Miles scored a book of fake Geek Tattoos. I put one on his arm and forgot to get a photo.

geektatoos

Miles was adamant that he wanted sushi for lunch so we headed back to our neighborhood sushi restaurant, Tani’s.

tanidecor

Mr C and Miles were trying to decide what drinks to order.

milesandmrc

Because Mia was reading, Miles ate both California rolls. She did eat her miso soup.

It was a great day and then I got to watch 3 hours of Project Runway. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Good News and More Good News

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

aspenplacement

The good news is that I feel as if I am getting back into a creative groove and feeling more confident about what I am doing. I was really stymied and about how to do the aspens. I cut some paper pieces to try out some options. I got brave and started cutting from my shibori stash, using some linen, first. It just was not working. I got on the computer and googled aspens and just looked at photos of how aspens appear in the natural landscape. Very often, you just see a stand of them sort of in a row and I decided that was what I needed to do, but abstracted. After several trials, I am quite happy with this. I haven’t stitched them yet. They are lightly fused. I ended up using a silk charmeuse shibori piece because there was more contrast in the markings. I was a little worried about the value change in this piece, but was pleasantly surprised when I changed it to black and white.

aspensblackandwhite

The other good news is that I saw my oncologist today for my annual visit. He says I am fine and do not need to come back unless I want to. He is such a fine man that I might go back just to visit with him. We always find lots to talk about.

M and M arrived after lunch to spend the day. We didn’t do much. Miles watched Muppets in Space. Mia kept me company in my studio and played with Scooter. Tonight, we headed over to the Farmer’s Market to shop and have dinner. They didn’t see anything that appealed to them so we went to the never fail Stickers Asian restaurant down the street.

potstickers

Here is Miles enjoying a sticker. Mia loved the new vinyl lime green and gold flecked upholstery on the booths!!

mileswithsticker

We walked back to the Farmer’s Market to do some shopping and the kids enjoyed gourmet ice cream sandwiches.

miabigsmile

I call this photo Doing the man walk in tandem.

manwalking

Mmmm! Brought home berries to eat and freeze.

oregonberries

Tonight, I found the two munchkins staring with intense interest as they watched Mythbusters, one of their favorite shows.

scarystare

Tomorrow is a play day with STASH at Terry’s house. I have my supplies all packed. We are going to do sun printing and maybe some monoprints. I will take my camera.

A Little 4th of July Fun

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

kirstendinner

We had a great dinner with M and M and their mom and dad. Above, you see the meal prepared by them for Mia’s American Girl doll, Kirsten. They gathered bits of things from my garden and from the pantry and found that one of my sherry glasses was the perfect size for her.

mandmdinnerplace

They also set up their places on the deck. Oh look there is Kirsten with Mia, waiting to be served.

We had grilled pork and turkey tenderloins, roasted potatoes and carrots, Asian slaw and grilled sweet corn. Steph shakes the corn in a plastic bag with olive oil, lime juice and chili powder before grilling. It is so good. For dessert, she made blueberry cobbler with blueberries they picked yesterday on Sauvie Island. Mmm, good.

blueberrycobbler

There was lots of running around the yard and playing ball with scooter. He is totally worn out — one pooped puppy.

poopedpuppy

We don’t try to find fireworks. Too much trouble and too many people. We can here some of our neighbors setting them off. Scooter doesn’t like them so I am glad we are here to comfort him.

I did some work on the Aspen Landscape this afternoon. I didn’t want to quit, but I had to get ready for our special guests.

Hope you have had a good day, too.

Up with Pizza

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

milespizza

Today was a grand day with the grand-kids, M & M. It was very hot — above 90°. We thought about going to the pool, but the idea of the crowd looking for relief  just didn’t sit well with us.

After a quick scooter ride and Scooter walk, we ventured out for pizza at Pizza Schmizza. Miles ate two big slices of cheese pizza. Mia was satiated with just one.

miapizza

Miles entertained me with funny faces.

milesjuly2

milesmakeaface

Mia tried to ignore him.

miajuly2

Then it was off to the air conditioned movies to see UP. I knew nothing about this film and was pleasantly surprised to find the main character was someone of my generation. Mr C and I laughed and got misty eyed. M & M loved it. We all loved the dorky hero dog who had some of the best lines.

Hope you have a great Fourth of July!

The Indigo Blues

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

auditionfusingtable

I have been selecting and fusing some of my indigo fabrics for an Aspen themed landscape. In addition to the indigo blues, I am using some of the colors of Aspen leaves. Here is the palette, so far. I love how those golds and oranges look with the indigo.

aspenlandscapefabrics

I have been struggling this week, but not because of the bad sinus headache, that is gone. On Monday, I had my physical with my doctor. I had all good reports — my blood pressure was 114/68. I was given 2 vaccinations — pneumonia booster and shingles. Well, I have had a very bad reaction to the shingles vaccination. Yesterday, I could barely do a thing. I had a temp of 101 and finally went to bed quite early. I managed to start fusing some fabrics, but really didn’t get much done. Today, I finally felt better, but still have a hot, painful rash on my arm where I got the shot. Argh!

Tomorrow, I am taking care of M and M for Steph as she is updating her shop with some adorable new animals on Friday. How cute are these? You can find them here, on Friday.

plaid+party

Tomorrow, it will be in the 90s, so I think some water play will be in order!

I tried to take some photos of Scooter with my iPhone at the end of our walk today. He has grown quite a bit. We love him so much. He is gentle and funny and a wonderful addition to our life.

scooterJuly

scooterjuly2