First, I have to tell a funny story that the Realtor told us about the couple who are buying our house. She is apparently an interior decorator. Every house that he took them to see, they would look at each other and say, "Beige, too beige." When they walked into our house, they looked at each other and said, "Not beige!"

Last night, Mr. C and I got gussied up and went to the Mardi Gras Ball to benefit The Living Room, our day shelter for homeless and at risk women and children. One of the clients was there and told a powerful and heartwarming story of how The Living Room had helped her and her children get on their feet. She lived for months in shelters with a new baby and two older children. She now has a job and an apartment.

Here is the Tropical Trio hanging out with other art in the silent auction. I am not sure what the final bid was, but the last time I looked, it was $375.

Mr. C and I had a great time dancing to the music of this band, Blue Moon. One of the members is a Doc at Kaiser Permaente.

This is what our Rector, Fr. Matt, does on Saturday night, when he doesn’t have to preach a sermon the next day. That is his gorgeous wife, Rose, with him.

They had a costume contest and those who entered got a pouch. You voted for the best costume by putting money in the pouch. Here is Mr. C with his choice for best costume!

This afternoon, Numina, our center for spirituality and the arts, had an afternoon of Art and Music ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù chamber music and wildlife paintings by my other friend named Diane. She travels all over the world, photographing wildlife and then creates these stunning paintings from the photographs.

Here is Diane and some of her paintings:

The music was fabulous. Diane usually does the food for the receptions following these events. We decided it would not be appropriate for her to put on her own party so Sharon and Helen, who are on the board pulled together a fabulous feast, and I helped.

Now the last 24 hours is catching up with me. I need to catch up on my beauty sleep. I just want to say, "YEAH! Drew won Dancing with the Stars!"

It is Saturday. Just about lunch time, but thought i would post some pics from yesterday. The buyer’s Realtor came by for a walk through before the closing next Tuesday. I crashed last night after my marathon beading the night before and an outing with my good Friends yesterday. So I was making a mad dash this morning to get the studio cleaned up. I was still sitting on the floor picking up the spilled beads when he came in. He made some comment about vacuuming the floor in here. Mr. C says "She does it and even as her own vacuum."

Yesterday, I had lunch with these wonderful people:

From left to right, Me (ye gads, I need to lose some weight!), Rita, Pat, Diane and Janet. I had a fantastic fresh crab salad. And we had a bottle of champagne! It was a belated get-together for Diane’s birthday. I am going to miss these women so much.

Before lunch, we stopped at the yarn shop next door and I bought this yarn and pattern to make Milo a sweater. I am going to make the v-neck in the upper right corner.

After lunch, we stopped at Beverly’s, a local shop similar to Michael’s, only they have fabric. I bought these goodies for the next fish quilt. I really love that big piece for a possible background fabric. Not sure yet.

Yesterday we nailed down the details of our move. On March 13th, they are coming to crate some art work and glass table tops. On the 14th, they pack up the fragile stuff. On the 15th, they load the van.

We are going to pack the rest of our stuff. We found a place online where you can order boxes and packing supplies at about 50% of the cost at a store. They deliver it to your door in just a few days. On Tuesday, we are flying to Portland to take care of some stuff with the new house and coming back on Friday, so guess what I will be doing after that. We have Steve’s brother and wife visiting on the 10th – 12th, and we will celebrate Mark’s big 40 birthday. (How is it possible that I have a 40 year old son!)

Tonight is the Mardi Gras ball. I’ll try to get some pictures of interest!!

And just for fun. One of my high school friends sent this photo of the rarely seen Central Florida Squirrel:

I took better photos of the Tropical Trio this morning. I still don’t have a design wall so this doesn’t look squared, but it is!

Close-up:

I have been beading almost non-stop and I have a very sore right hand as a result. When I do the commission fish quilt, I must remember to give myself enough time so I only do a bit of beading per day. And, yes, I got a call and I will be making another fish quilt for the pool house in Los Altos.

I am not thrilled with the beading on the bottom of this one, but it is what it is and it is off to the venue tomorrow morning.

This is called Tropical Trio. The photo was taken at night and is not the best quality.

This afternoon, we sold a house and bought a house. I must have signed my name a hundred times. The we went to Kaiser to ask about how we transfer our health care to the Portland facility, and I saw the vampire to have some blood drawn for my quarterly cancer follow-up.

We then stopped off at the men’s store and bought Mr. C this really cool tie to wear to the Mardi Gras ball.

I just noticed that it is 1:15 in the morning. Better get to bed. Tomorrow, I will be having an outing with my good friends, Rita, Janet, Pat and Diane. We are going to lunch and to see the exhibit that two fiber artists have at the Taft Street Winery in Sebastopol.

Nighty-night!
 

I have had such a lovely day, watching American Idol and figure skating and beading the fish quilt. I don’t often give myself the luxury of sitting on the sofa doing handwork. I got in my zone and it was difficult for me to tear myself away to do the mundane tasks of the day.

Here is my beading companion. Most of the afternoon she was on the back of the sofa, resting on my shoulders.

When you are feeling the zen of beading, you don’t even worry that you have spilled a container of beads on the floor:

You also need a good supply of beads (I’ve got more arriving tomorrow, just in case I spill more!)

Here is a close-up of the beaded fish so far:

There is a lot more to do before Friday morning when it gets delivered to the site of the Mardi Gras Ball. But I will be enjoying every zen moment!

As an aside, a big hurrah to Steph who opened her online shop today with eight of her adorable stuffed animals and she sold half of them. They are super fantastic – take a look!