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Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

Studio Time

Monday, June 17th, 2013

redorganzacollage

 

I gave up on the painted batting that just didn’t work. I used gray felt for the batting which was perfect. The gray felt is covered with gray organza squares. I started tearing my organza pieces to collage, but the plain gray areas were not working for me so I took a deep breath and painted some marks with black paint.

graffitiorganza

 

It is drying and hopefully, this will work. At any rate, I am having fun, again.

I also did a test swatch of cotton stitched to pre-felt and then shrunk in the washer and dryer.  Not thrilled with this. I think that silk works better.

redcottonshrinkydink

 

We had a nice father’s day family time yesterday. I made oven fried chicken, roasted potatoes, asparagus and a couple of salads. Stephanie made the annual strawberry shortcake for Mr. C. She bakes the best biscuits.

I am finally feeling rested and able to get caught up on every thing that I have been neglecting. My mojo has returned!!

A Happy Day with Touches of Hot Pink

Monday, June 3rd, 2013

lcbunting

I am exhausted and in pain from a pinched nerve in my right hip. But, I know you have been waiting to see some photos of our happy times with Lisa and Clay. I will start with the bunting made by a friend that hung in their  backyard for the rehearsal dinner. We had delicious catered tacos and had a wonderful evening with family and Clay and Lisa’s closest friends.

KarynandPaige

Jayme’s mother flew in from Denver to help them with Paige this week. Jayme is taking the medical school boards this week and is studying like crazy!

The wedding day was beautiful. Steph did all of the flowers and the bouquet so she was very busy on Friday and Saturday. She was so nervous, but ended up loving it and doing a great job. You will see the flowers in some of my later photos.

poufybackdrop

Lisa conceived of this backdrop for the outdoor wedding. Several of her friends came to her house last week and helped make these poofs and other ornaments. It was very pretty and very Lisa. There were tissue paper flowers tied to the backs of chairs at the dinner.

We all arrived early to have lots of family photos take. Here are some that I took so I don’t have any with Mr C and I in them.

lcandwalshfamily

 

With Clay’s family.

 

lcandsiblings

 

With their siblings and partners.

 

lcandmarksfamily

 

With Mark, Jayme and Paige.

 

lcandpaige

 

With just cutie patootie, Paige.

 

lcandbarnesfamily

 

With Steph, Mia, Miles, and Jack.

 

lcandmygrands

 

With my grandchildren.

No photos allowed during the service. Let me just say that it was beautiful. It was officiated by my niece, Robin, a Presbyterian minister, who is also a lesbian. Mia did a lovely reading. The girls had written beautiful vows for each other.

Here they are, newly married, with beautiful smiles.

lanc

 

This is my niece, Robin, and her partner, Rhonda — love them so much.

 

robinandrhonda

 

There was a lovely sit-down dinner of delicious vegan foods — the paella was so good. Each person got a stone, painted by Lisa’s friend, Diana, and a little hot pink tag identifying the table.

 

paintedrock

 

Here is the lovely table decor with little birch logs and glasses of flowers. Of course, Lisa did the table numbers.

tabledecor

 

Each of the girls selected 3 people, family and friends, to give toasts. Stephanie’s was funny and hearkened back to her idolization of Lisa as a child. Steve was the last to go and it was the best. There was not a dry eye in the house. All of Lisa’s gay friends came up to him and thanked him.

Then, the dancing commenced. Here are L and C doing their first dance. I managed to spend most of the evening on the dance floor, boogieing my buns off. Had a great time. I love Lisa’s friend and made an attempt to talk to each of them —many are  among some of the more famous style bloggers on the internet.

 

firstdance

 

I had to get up early and get stuff together to fly to San Antonio for the Surface Design Conference. I was still smiling as I flew to  LA and on to San Antonio. I have some great photos of my time here and my workshop with Kerr Grabowski – I will get to that tomorrow.

This was one of the happiest of family events for us. Our brothers and sisters and spouses came and it was so good to have them with us for this special event.

 

 

Quick Check-in

Friday, May 31st, 2013

Scooterreadyforcamp

 

We have been ensconced in our lovely Mill Valley, CA home for a couple of days. We had an uneventful drive down except that I had a raging sinus headache which miraculously disappeared after being in this lovely, warm dry climate. Scooter was happy to go to the K-9 resort for a few days to catch up with his doggie friends.

When we got to CA on Wednesday, it was warm and sunny with beautiful cloud formations.

cloudysky

 

I always love to see the golden hills of summer as I drive through CA.

Our Mill Valley rental is up a canyon and in the redwoods. This is a view from the wrap-around deck.

redwoodsfromdeck

 

This lovely Bougainvillea is growing on the deck. You can see a fuchsia behind it.

bougenvalia

Steph and her family arrived at lunch time yesterday. The house is very spacious and with nice amenities so we are having a great time. Last night, Clay’s family came over for dinner so that we would have a chance to get better acquainted before the big events. I made roasted veggies and quinoa and potato salads — all vegan and gluten free. And, Mr C grilled assorted sausages. I had fresh berries and ice cream for dessert.

roastedveggies

potatoquinoasalads

Here is Clay’s Mom with Stephanie and Lisa.

dianestephlisamvparty

 

And, Clay, chatting with Jack, her brother Mike and her Dad.

jackmikedaveclaymvparty

 

Miles and Mia have been enjoying the hot tub.

MIAMILESHOTTUB

 

Today, Steph and Jack got up early and went to the SF Flower Mart to buy flowers for the wedding. She is now working on Lisa’s bouquet.

weddingflowers

 

I am waiting for my New York family to show up for lunch and then tonight is the rehearsal shindig at Lisa and Clay’s home in Oakland. I am having a wonderful time seeing so many people I love. Not sure when I will check in again.

 

Ready to Crash

Monday, April 15th, 2013

paigewaiting

 

We are home, arriving at lunch time. I had to hit the ground running as I have mucho work to get done — an updated report for the SDA conference, Guild newsletter and many e-mails to answer. I realized when I got home that I had left the power cord for my laptop in the hotel this morning. Even if I get them to mail it to me, I can’t wait. So off to the Apple store. I didn’t quite finish the guild newsletter. I hope to have a clearer head in the morning. Before I crash, I thought I would do a quick post.

So, back to Paige’s birthday. There she is up above on the morning of her party. She loves to be outside and she was waiting patiently for someone to take her.

We went to the backyard and played in the sandbox.

paigesandbox

 

I decided it was a bit chilly so I went in and found a sweater for her. She continued to amuse herself and watched her daddy cleaning up the grill and the patio to get ready for the party.

fountainplay

 

Later, everyone got in the act of preparing food. Her Grammy Karyn made two cakes  — a gorgeous carrot cake for the adults and a healthy baby cake with no sugar for the kids. My son grilled pork loin. I prepared slaw and asparagus for grilling.

birdypartyfood

Here she is with her Daddy ready for guests.

MarkandPaigebdayparty

 

Here is Paige enjoying her cake.

paigebirthdaycake

 

She is just learning to use utensils and often likes to have two of them.

twohandedeating

 

Later, she opened all of her presents — sort of — she has not quite gotten the whole present opening excitement, yet.

openingpresents

 

Her parents gave her a shiny red piano. I have an hysterical video of her playing it.

newpiano

 

It was a wonderful week-end with plenty of Paige time. I got to see Lisa and Clay’s new home in Oakland, and we also stopped by the venue for the wedding in Mill Valley on our way back to Oregon, yesterday.

I am gearing up for a month and a half of lots on my plate as I continue with SDA conference registration and helping with Artists Among Us at Trinity. I need to get some small works done for the Trinity show and sale. I need the balance of some creative work.

My heart is saddened over the bombings in Boston. I am sending out good thoughts and prayers to all the victims.

Happy Days

Saturday, April 13th, 2013

paige4-11-13

We made it to San Francisco on Thursday afternoon. We had beautiful weather for driving. We stopped in downtown San Francisco so that I could run through some stores to see if there was anything I might feel like wearing to Lisa’s Wedding. We received our invitation before leaving town.

 

lisaclayinvite

 

It was a very discouraging venture. I found only one thing that I felt like trying on. It was too big. I could find nothing that would fit me that I liked.

Fortunately, our next stop was at Paige’s home where we found that smiley face up there. What a delight she is. She is on the verge of walking and is learning new words every day.

On Friday, we got to spend most of the day with her. Here she is chowing down on yogurt at breakfast with us.

breakfastwithpaige

Later in the day, we took her on a walk to the park. We pushed her in the swings and played on the slide.

playgroundpaige

 

Some sights seen in the neighborhood as we walked through the neighborhood.

Love this chartreuse home.

chartreusehouse

And the names of these two enterprises.

sushibistro

 

sfpuppyprep

 

Friday night was our daughter-in-law, Jayme’s, graduation from the Master’s program for her medical studies, a joint program between UC Berkeley and UCSF Medical School. The graduation took place in Berkeley. We went over to the East Bay early so that I could check out a boutique in Oakland. I think I found my mother of the bride outfit. It is very un-mother of the bride and very artsy and me. Maybe I will talk about it more at a later time. Lisa gave her blessing.

Here is the lovely courtyard of the venue for the graduation.

berkeleycourtyard

 

Here are Clay, Lisa, Jayme’s Mom, Karyn and her Grandma, Joyce.

claylisakarynjoyce

 

This is Jayme taking part in the program.

jaymems

And here she is with the class of 16 students. Each one had such interesting backgrounds and experiences. Paige was cited as their 17th participant since Jayme had her while in the program. They all love her so much.

jaymesclass

 

We are so proud of her!!! In two years we will celebrate her becoming an M.D.

I leave you with one more photo of the sweet Paige. Today, we celebrated her first birthday. Lots of fun ensued. More later.

paigeinsunlight