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Archive for the ‘Just for Fun’ Category

The Birthday Fun, cont.

Monday, October 6th, 2008

On Sunday morning, we awoke to some clearing of the skies and this was the view from our bedroom window — Mt. Hood. It only lasted about 10 minutes. The elusive mountain disappeared under a cloud, once again.

Stephanie made Dutch babies for breakfast and we enjoyed celebratory mimosas. She used some of the apples picked on Saturday.

M & M enjoyed a celebratory sparkling apple juice.

Mr C and I took a hike along the nearby irrigation canal. I found some beautiful leaves showing their fall colors.

After lunch we drove up the Columbia river past The Dalles and crossed over into Washington and went to the very eclectic and wonderful Maryhill Museum of Art. It is hard to describe this place. It has something for everyone!! We saw a really cool exhibit of Andy Warhol work. There was also an invitational show of outdoor sculpture, which we really enjoyed along with the resident peacock.

The permanent collections were a treasure trove. There was a very informative and visually pleasing display of Native American artifacts.

Mia brought here journal and took lots of notes.

We were enthralled by the display of chess sets from all over the world.

The best exhibit, and the main reason I had wanted to take Mia, was of the Theatre de la mode:

The fashions of post-World War II France are highlighted in this 1946 exhibit, which shows one-third human size mannequins wearing fashions created by the country’s finest designers. After their premiere in Paris they toured Europe then America. The last stop of the original 1946 international tour of Théâtre de la Mode was San Francisco where the mannequins remained until the early 1950s. At that time they were acquired by Maryhill Museum of Art. They went on a second world tour in the 1990s visiting Paris, New York, Baltimore, Portland and Tokyo.

These were really fabulous. The fabrics, the style, the attention to detail. We were enthralled.

You can see all the great stuff that we enjoyed and more fun photos of our family gathering on my Flickr. It was a wonderful time for me. I enjoyed the attention from my children. They put together a fun slide show — a sort of This is Your Life montage. I cried.

Lisa set up her camera on the deck and set the timer and we were able to get a family photo. Here is one of the outakes (we couldn’t get Miles to stop making faces!!) Be sure to click to see the Miles face.

The final portrait:

We came home today. Mark and Jayme left last night. Lisa flew home tonight. Now, it is back to work, but I still plan to do some celebrating because my birthday isn’t until next Sunday!!

This and That

Monday, September 1st, 2008

Where have I been? I have been working in the studio. I finished Urban Sunlight (new name) and I have been playing with a piece I am calling Red Sky. Here is a very preliminary layout that I started with.

I have actually started the quilting on the final design.

I am feeling soooo much better since I stopped walking the stubborn old lady dog, Maggie. And, guess what? She is happier, too. I thought I was doing her a favor – dragging her on those long walks. Here is something else that I acquired yesterday that I am loving and is helping my body feel better, too.

These are BMT shoes. I went to The Walking Store to get new shoes and saw these strange looking and very pricey shoes. They are made to simulate walking barefoot in sand. I think it feels like walking on a trampoline. You cannot lock your knees. You are required to have good posture and you use your muscles more efficiently and put less strain on the joints. I love them. They are pretty funny looking. Here is a LINK if you want to find out more about these shoes.

This is filed under: Show Me Yours and I’ll show You Mine. My friend, Terry, recently posted her collection of Political Buttons she found when packing to move to her new home. I have a collection that has moved to several homes with me. I just added a new Obama button to it and I am waiting form my  Obama/Biden to show up soon. the only Republican button I have is Ike. I think he was the last decent Republican president that we have had. You can see that I have a lot of Bill Clinton buttons. It was the first time I actively worked in a campaign. He greatly disappointed me.

Mr C and I were married on Labor Day Week-end 44 years ago. This year it came so early that our anniversary isn’t until next week-end – Friday to be exact. Steph and Jack are going away for the week-end so M & M are going to take us out to dinner on Friday night.

In light of McCain’s VP pick, I have been amusing myself coming up with his cabinet, should he get elected (not). Attorney General: Judge Judy; Secretary of State: the very well traveled Paris Hilton – she must know a lot about the world, she is namd after a foreign city! Secretary of Interior – Martha Stewart. Help me finish this!!

Good Family Times

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

I have been busy hanging out with Jayme and Mark, who arrived on Sunday. We had a nice Easter dinner on Sunday night. On Monday night, we ventured out to Le Pigeon, a newish and much talked about new restaurant in SE Portland. The chef has a big imagination and a quirky food sense. He loves to use organ meats in strange ways. We had four starters – one was foie gras on banana bread with grilled banana and peanuts. It sounds bizarre, but it was quite delicious. My favorite was grilled scallops with tongue and a slaw. For my main course, I had grilled Arctic Char, celeriac slaw and oysters. One of the desserts was a cornbread cake with maple ice cream and caramelized bacon bits. It was fun and adventurous, but I don’t plan to go back any time soon.

Yesterday, Mark did some planning for my my backyard kitchen garden. The plans look fantastic. I can’t wait for it to happen. I will take a photo of the plans tomorrow and post it. It is too late tonight. I went to the airport to pick up Steph, Jack and M & M, back from North Carolina. They were tired from a long travel day so I just dropped them at home.

I am feeling like such the computer geek. I have spent a lot of time this week updating my website. I still have more to do. I also want to update my blog links. They are very out of date. I also had a lot of other web work to do for SDA and the church youth web pages. So my day was spent in front of the computer. All I needed was a bag of
Skittles and I would not have had to come upstairs!!

The rest of the family had more fun than me. First, there was a scavenger hunt. Here are the lists of things to find.

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Mark took photos of the excursion for me.

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Mark & Jayme gave the kids some books. One was a cook book and so they decided to make a chocolate cake.

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Enjoying the fruits of their labors.

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To top off the day, everyone pitched in and made pizzas for our supper.

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It was a great day. I got lots of work done and still had my family around to entertain me.

Wednesday Potpourri

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

First, some eye candy. Look at this gorgeous fabric that has been arriving. I am working on a commission piece that will be a collage of vintage Japanese fabrics with reds and yellows as the main color theme.

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Next, I just had to share this delightful e-mail that I received through my website contact form. It really made my day!! I disguised her name, but she is from Scotland.

Just found your blog and website whilst trying to find a reason why after 10 years doing a proper job I can’t get my procien dyes beyond the level of wishy washy! I’m not a blogger-haven’t got any idea what its about, but thought this woman thinks a bit like me when I meandered facsinated around your website-I hope I haven’t got completely lost here-I am talking to the lady who has a bottle of pinot gringio in amongst the threads-aren’t I?
Anyway, I’ll work the recipe out, I always work stuff out or remember in the end, I’ll have multi coloured fingers for a while but I’ll get there. I just wanted to e-mail you and say its nice to know that I’m not the only middle aged woman who finds fibre, colour, and cotton wrapped round the vacuum cleaner exciting, in fact more exciting than most things except homeless people, running, chocolate, cats and maybe that other thing that people do when they’ve got time!

Be interesting to hear from you-great site.

Rxxxxx

P.s I’m a lapsed textile designer, batik in particular, but the ex-husband wanted ‘stuff’ and I meekly responded by getting a proper job. I’m now divorced-yeehaa! Liberated and making my way back to my creative soul-and for the first time in over ten years re-discovering textile, colour, design, dyes, cloth, beads and art! What a relief, I thought I’d lost not only passion but even interest forever-but its back!

Fatima, on the other hand, is making our lives a living nightmare. Someone, or some robotic Internet form filler, is using the name Fatima and our phone number to apply for every loan and mortgage available on line. In fact, I got one message that she was pre-approved for a business loan of $270,000. The calls have been coming about once an hour on average for two days. A live person that I talked to says that people often use a fictitious phone number so that they won’t get phone calls. I have taken to answering the phone with, ” Fatima does not live here. Don’t ever call here again!”

On the weight loss front, I lost almost 2 pounds today. I am at a new low weight. I think it is because I gave up cheese for Lent. I can’t wait for Sundays, when I can break my fast and have a little cheese, yum!

The big news is that I finished the Art Cloth. I produced a computer journal of my process with photos — it was burned to a CD and all will be overnighted to San Antonio tomorrow. I am really happy with my final result.

Tomorrow is STASH meeting. We are going to meet at Terry’s new house and get a tour of the estate, then out to lunch. It will be a lovely day. Mr C is taking me out for Lover’s Day tomorrow night. If I am not careful, I will gain the 2 pounds back!

And Liz, if you are reading this, I am so behind on my week 4 homework!!

Happy Heart’s Day to all my blogger friends. I really do love you!

Saturday Satisfactions

Saturday, January 26th, 2008

It has been a pretty darn good day for me. I have been sitting on my hands for a couple of weeks as I endured the behavior of our former President and his wife. Which one is running or are they a team. Anyway, I digress. I think their political tactics are reprehensible. I hope I don’t have to hold my nose and vote for her in November.

However, today, in South Carolina, perhaps something magical is on the move again. Obama won big. I mean, it was a rout. I couldn’t have been happier, unless the Clintons had come in third. Now that would have been seriously good. Tomorrow, Caroline Kennedy is endorsing Obama. That is good news. A big time New York Democratic woman is endorsing Obama.

This morning, Mr C and I ventured out in the freezing rain and went to the coliseum to check out the home show. It was pretty much a bust. So then we went to George Moreland to check out bathroom furnishings as we are planning a major master bathroom renovation. I discovered the Villeroy and Boch brand. Ooo la la. Here are a couple of examples of some cool vanities.

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I wasted the afternoon doing some errands. I didn’t go for a walk because it has been very rainy. We enjoyed watching the SC returns come in. I made roast pork loin, roasted veggies and spinach salad for dinner. I worked on my sketch book for the design class, pasting my compositions in and labeling them. I was thrilled with the critique that Liz gave my work. I am trying very hard to be the teacher’s pet.

We watched a movie that Terry recommended. I think she loved it so much that she purchased the dvd. It is Once, a sort of musical set in Dublin. Mr C was a little leery, but we both loved it.

Then!!, I got to watch the ice skating nationals for women. This is another weird love of mine. There are some really wonderful young skaters.

So, it was all in all, a very satisfying Saturday. The only think that would have made it better would have been some M & M time.

P.S: did you know that Steph and Maria are doing a year of evenings at 3191? Click on the link in my sidebar to see their wonderful photos of their evenings.