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Archive for the ‘M & M’ Category

A Little M & M Time

Saturday, September 22nd, 2007

This week, I had a few deadlines to finish and appointments to keep. On Wednesday, while I was waiting for the WW meeting to start, I made a to do list in my new Moleskin journal. I am carrying it with me and trying to use it to keep track of things and to amuse myself while I am waiting around.

Yesterday, I took care of a couple of the things on my list. I purged the pantry of old outdated stuff and reorganized it. After that, I cleaned and sorted stuff in my computer area. I have a tendency to make piles which soon become piles on top of piles. I reach a point where I can’t find the scanner and I start losing important papers — and my mind.

Feeling energized by the work accomplished, I called Steph and asked if she would like to bring Mia and Miles over to spend the night so that she and Jack could have a nice evening alone. No arm twisting involved. She packed their bags and brought them directly from school.

Here is evidence of their presence from the breakfast table. They devoured whole wheat pancakes and syrup, bacon, cantaloupe and apple juice with raisins on the side.

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After breakfast, we made some stuff from Sculpy and baked it. Mia made the flower and some dishes for her dollhouse. Miles made balls. I made the Maggie figure.

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They also spent some quality time with Grandpa playing with the Legos.

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This afternoon, I worked at the Japanese Garden Show with Terry. Another piece of hers sold this morning. I sold another one a couple of days ago. There were lots of visitors this afternoon, but no sales.

Tomorrow afternoon  I am going to start on the studio clean up. I will take some photos of how bad it is and post them. It will be somewhat of an archaeological dig as I haven’t done a major clean-up for some time.

Happiness is

Friday, August 31st, 2007
  • finding this on my walk yesterday.

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I have been looking for my own piece of construction fence for improvisational screen printing. I had seen a lot of it around a new section of sidewalk and thought about asking the owner of the house for a piece when he was finished. Well, there it was, yesterday. They were dismantling it and I just asked for piece and it was mine!!

  • spending the afternoon with M & M. I served a lunch of macaroni and cheese, hot dogs and watermelon. We dined on the deck and I taught them to say al fresco, which they thought was quite amusing.

It was quite hot yesterday and the siblings are getting a little testy with each other after a summer of togetherness. I finally suggested setting up a little installation of their little things on the back slope of our yard. It was a miracle. They suddenly were cooperating and having a great time.

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They also made some chalk drawings on my studio patio. Here is Mia’s self-portrait.

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Milo did these drawings of weapons. He is fascinated with knights and vikings and pirates.

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But, look, isn’t he just Mr Cute?

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Tomorrow Mr C and I are going to work the food pantry at Trinity in the morning and then go out to lunch and take in Art in the Pearl. I will try to remember my camera. Labor day week-end is always a special time for us. We were married on this week-end, 43 years ago. Our actual anniversary is the 5th. Mr C has made reservations at the Willows Lodge in Washington State wine country. We will drive up on Tuesday and come home on Thursday. I am a lucky lady!!

Week-end Wrap-up

Sunday, August 26th, 2007

We had a great family dinner on the deck on Friday night. We had chicken pesto sausages, corn on the cob, Sesame ginger slaw, roasted rosemary potatoes, tomato-basil-mozzarella salad and for everyone else, ice cream and raspberries. M & M spent the night so that Steph and Jack could go out with Mark and Jayme.

After a hearty breakfast of pancakes and bacon, Mark and Jayme packed up to head back to California yesterday morning. Here they are in front of a nice clean car (compliments of M & M, well sort of).

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Look at the dewy grass in our landscaping – so pretty.

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After they left, Mia and I got to work in my studio. She started stitching the quilt that we are making for her American Girl doll, Kirsten. Notice the hand embroidered square with Kirsten’s name.

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After they went home, I got some work done on my Japanese Garden pieces. Mr C and I went to the 5:30 showing of Bourne Ultimatum! It was a white knuckle experience. Then, after dinner, we watched the very charming Breakfast on Pluto, an Irish film about a transvestite who discovers that his father is the parish priest. I was on sensory overload and couldn’t get to sleep.

Today, I worked some more to finish the Japanese Garden pieces. I bought a couple of matted frames at IKEA last week, and I thought I would make a couple of small pieces for them. Here is one possibility. It is not stitched, just a possible use of some of my shibori pieces.

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Tonight, I splurged. I made pizza margharita with Trader Joe’s whole wheat pizza dough, Roma tomatoes, basil and fresh mozzarella. It was soooo good.

Good Things

Friday, August 17th, 2007

Yesterday, I weighed in for the first time since my vacation and I lost .6 pounds. I am so happy with that. It was great to know that I can be in control of my eating, even when I am eating all of my meals out. Even better, is the way my clothes are fitting. I have a few things left from the last time I lost 10 pounds, but once I get to the next ten pounds – look out – ’cause I am going shopping!!

On my way home from WW, I stopped at Mill Ends to buy fabric for curtains for the bedroom because Mr C was anxious to get started with the painting. Here is what I picked out. Isn’t this a cool and modern print?

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Yesterday, he finished painting my chairs. If only I had time to sit out there and read!

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In the afternoon, Steph, M & M and I went to IKEA. It is a little overwhelming to take everything in, but the cool Swedish design is just wonderful. Suits my aesthetic to a tee. Miles helped me find ice cream dishes. He wanted the tall sundae dishes, but I opted for something smaller and more simple. Mia was getting a kick out of the Swedish names for things. I was excited to fnd these bag clips which is what I was using in my shibori class last month.

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After a trip to the Farmer’s Market, I came home with lots of wonderful fresh and organic fruits and veggies and these zinneas.

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Under the zinneas are my new kitchen placemats from Target. They are a knock-off of the much more pricey Chilewich mats that I have been coveting. Plus, the color is perfect for my kitchen color scheme.

Another good thing is this little saying that I find in the cap of my Sobe Green Tea at lunch.

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Last night I panicked when I realized that there were two quilt show deadlines in the next two days. I scratched one of them, since A Thin Place is going to IQF and it was the only fit that I had. Today, I managed to get organized and e-mail and entry to Art Quilts XII, Current. I love it when I don’t have to deal with slides and Fedexing an entry.

This morning was the monthly STASH meeting at Beth’s home. Before Reva picked me up, I had to run to the paint store with Mr C to pick out the paint. We have cocoa brown for the curtain wall and something called reflection which is the bluegreen in the fabric. And sand for the woodwork. I had to make a decision on the fabric, but I don’t think there will be any curtains made for awhile!! Fortunately there are fabric shades there for now.

It wasn’t ideal weather, but we did enjoy sitting in Beth’s beautiful backyard. Click on an image to see it larger.

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She had challenged us all to get something finished to bring for show and tell. I was too enthralled to take pictures, sorry!! She served us a great lunch of sesame noodles, veggies from her garden and blueberry tartlets. Yumm!

I got some paper work done this afternoon and had hoped to get some studio work done. Tomorrow morning is critique with June and Terry — always a great time.

Summer Delights

Friday, August 3rd, 2007

That would be painting t-shirts, eating watermelon, shopping for take out dinner and taking a scooter walk — all with the company of M & M.

Is it possible that five and seven year olds have so much energy at the end of the day because they take yours? M & M came with their little suitcases, early this afternoon. I had prepared some t-shirts for them to paint with Tee-juice markers. Here is Mia working on hers:

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Here is Miles’ creation. This must be a formal t-shirt — note the bow tie.

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Mia was very interested in the fancy stitches that my Janome makes so I set her up with some fabric and showed her how to program it and away she went.

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Later, we took a trip to New Seasons to get some take out food. Thankfully, Mr C came along to keep tabs on the munchkins while I bought food.

Watermelon was on the menu and enjoyed on the deck.

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Here is Mia modeling her new tee-shirt. Front and back.

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Here is the view from our deck in August. So cool and green. I love it.

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They are now bathed and sound asleep, and I am starting to revive.

On a completely different note, this arrived in the mail today. It is a 12 inch square art quilt which I purchased from the SAQA auction.

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It is by Elizabeth Fram. Click on her name to go to her website. I love her work. This piece was even better in person.