Goodbye to 2012

2012 was a pretty crappy year in so many ways but there were a few bright spots that I hope will carry on into 2013.  Here is my perspective on 2012 and some notes for 2013.

Stupid things I heard in 2012

1. Guns don't kill people, people kill people as an argument against gun control.  Who came up with this stupidity?  Does anyone remember MAD - Mutually Assured Destruction when major international powers had so many nuclear weapons that if anyone started to use them life on this planet would cease to exist?  About 99% of all the guns out there were purchased legally by someone at some point in time.  Yet there are many in the hands of criminals.  Wonder where they came from?  The guns used at Sandy Hook, the West Webster shootings and, locally, in Bellaire last week, were all purchased legally so please stop the empty rhetoric....or are we already in a state of of MAD?    
2. This won't hurt a bit.  Mammograms, injections, tooth pulling and exercises have occured with this assurance and it was wrong!  I have finally figured out that when someone says it won't hurt I am now prepared for torture.
3. This will look great on you.  No it doesn't!  It's too short, the wrong color, the hem is uneven and it shows off the bits I don't want people to know about. 

Smart things I heard in 2013

1. When in doubt, iron.  Don't know where I heard this but it is so true.  If you ask yourself if you can get away with not ironing something then you need to iron.  This applies to not only to the wrinkly shirt you left in the dryer overnight but to even more critical issues like your health.  If a doctor says you really need to take this pill get all the facts before blindly taking the 'required' pill. You could save your life.
2. I can't think of anything else smart.  I guess 2012 was pretty crappy.

Notes for 2013

1. From Couch to 5k.  Yet again I am going to eat less and move more.  I can walk a 5k in about one hour but this year I would like to do it with some jogging included.  The couch to 5k program looks pretty straight forward and, as an added incentive, I have already registered for an official 5k in early February.  When money is on the line I tend to do better.  Next goal is to figure out if my sneakers will work for this energized Alice.
2. Money in will equal money out.  My income has continued to be modest but my out flow is a little less modest. I might actually have to write out a budget and follow it.  A new experience for someone who wrote and managed multi-billion dollar budgets in a former life.
3. My mouth will finally heal correctly.  I have not written about this earlier but I had a tooth pulled eight months ago and my jaw does not want to close up the hole.  The hole goes into my sinuses,and even though every thing heals nicely, my body seems to like having a hole into my sinuses.  January 11 is another surgery to seal the hole.  It better work this time.
4. Google will finally let me post more than one picture a month.  I really like writing with pictures but Google has messed up big time.  When have I ever posted one picture that was half a gigabyte large?  half a megabyte maybe, but half a gig?  Never.  Grrrr.

No creativity goals, no sewing UFOs to complete, no clutter to organize although all are needed, but I better find some smart things in 2013 that don't key off house work!

Happy New Year!

To Copyright or not to Copyright

....That is the question, at least for some designers out there.

Recently I have read a whole slew of postings about fabric designers saying that their copyrighted fabric designs cannot be used in anything that is sold for money.  I have also seen a bunch of quilt designers saying that their patterns are copyrighted and you can't make a quilt from their patterns and have it judged in a show without the designer getting full credit and giving their permission for it to be shown.   Can anyone out there make a quilt exactly as it was shown in a pattern?  If you can, then it is a copy so why bother making it in the first place?

As far as I know none of these issues has been litigated fully...that is a judge has not ruled on the legality of all these threatened lawsuits.

I decided to make my own test of all of the issues by making something based on a copyrighted design and see where it lead my not-so-legal mind.

I purchased the April 2011 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting because it had an article about Edyta Sitar... a recent guest of the Kingwood Area Quilt Guild.

Edyta designed a handbag that had some interesting lines in it so I decided to make a copy.

Here's how mine came out versus the original article:

Does my bag even look remotely like the one in the magazine?

Should Edyta get credit for designing my bag?

I believe the most credit she could get would be as an inspiration for my bag but even that would be a stretch as my bag is different than hers in the following ways:

I redrew and re-sized the pattern to meet my needs.
I used pre-quilted fabric rather than custom quilted fabric for the body of the bag.
I added interior and exterior pockets.
I eliminated the gathered embellishment.
I eliminated the gathered corners and turned them into tailored ones.
I did not hand apply the binding and used a double rather than single layer of binding.
I reinforced the handle with heavy nylon rope.

What about these other bags I have made that contain similar design points:

If I ever sold this bag would I need to get permission from all of these designers and pay them royalties for specific design elements?  And let's not forget that I bought the fabric at JoAnn's so maybe they should get credit as well.  And what about the threads I used or the old binding from the bottom of the stash?

I think you can see why I am so confused by all this craziness.

If you want to copy my bag, I have a pattern you can trace and I won't make you pay royalties but it would be nice if you gave me some credit somewhere sometime when you are become a big time handbag designer for Dolce and Gabbano.

Five Years

Five years and two days ago I was told that I was being laid off from the Big Bank where I worked.  After twenty seven years of service they caught up with me and determined that I was no longer needed.

Five years and one day ago I started this blog because I knew I would need to write even if it wasn't financial analyses of the performance of certain groups within the Big Bank.

Five years less nine days Alex came into my life.

Right now I am a little over-whelmed by all the things that have happened in the past five years.

In so many ways I am not the same person today that I was then.  I became an orphan, took up knitting again, spearheaded a charitable sewing group, lost my gall bladder,  developed RA, made some true friends and lost some not-so-true friends, decided to tough it out and not look for a new paying job and, in a couple of months, I will turn sixty and officially be eligible for many senior citizen discounts.

In so many other ways I am still the same person.  I still do not suffer fools gladly, cannot sing or dance without causing pain to myself or others, or keep a 'company ready' house.  I still insist  that I should do my own lawn mowing, though my neighbor insists on doing the front lawn.  My teeth are still crooked and my allergies just keep getting worse.

And every morning I wake up and I am glad that I did.

Not a stellar record but that's my story and I am sticking to it.

The Long And The Short Of It

This weekend has interesting around here at Alice's House.  The long of it started with the completion of a project that took me approximately two years, ten months and three days to complete while the short of it took about thirty minutes.


Let me explain. 


First, the long of it...


Back in early April 2009, I visited the Knit Picks site and came across a posting for a knit-a-long for the Classic Lines Cardigan.  A nice simple cardigan with a couple of advanced techniques just to make it interesting.  (Photo from Knit Picks).  




I read a couple of posts on how the arms and body were a little skimpy so I added a couple of inches to my basic measurements in order to pick a size.  Glad that I added the extra inches as the final product is anything but skimpy.  In fact it looks rather over-sized to me which is bonus to me.  So rather than looking/fitting like this: (Photo from Kelly at Knit Picks)



Mine looks like this:

Despite the crappy picture you can see mine is very loose, much  longer and my neckline looks more like the one in the pattern.  Here's a better photo that does show off the wonderful yarn - 

The subtle stripe is obtained by using two strands of Shadow for every row and an additional strand of Shimmer every few rows.  The more solid color is Forest Heather Shadow while the stripe is Bayou Shimmer.

I did learn some lessons with this project.  One is that I can do anything I put my mind to but that doesn't mean I can do it well.  The steek wasn't so bad but I discovered that my row counting for the front bands  left a lot to be desired.  (Hey Al, six rows are not the same as nine rows!!!)  The other thing I learned was that every knitting pattern designer has their own ideas when it comes to sizing.  It would have been helpful if the chest measurement given was for the wearers' chest or the garments' chest, as an example  Of course, if I had read the blocking diagram I would have realized that the sizing was based on the garment and not the body that would wear it.  Lesson learned again....read and follow the instructions.

I am cuddled up in my extra extra large sweater today as it was just above freezing this morning when I walked the dogs and I am still feeling a bit of a chill.  I will probably not do this pattern again but if i do I will not almost three years to complete it!

The short of it you ask?

I got my hair cut the other day and lost about ten inches of length.  It is really short but I think it will work for me.

Here's the back:

And I think you can get a concept of the front from this crappy shot:

I love wash and go hair !

So that's it... the long and the short of it..literally.

Have a great week...and stay warm!

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

In some ways I am really glad to move away from 2011 and move onto 2012.  I think I have shared in the past how, as a child, I couldn't imagine living to the year 2000 whereas now I wonder how I can make it to 2050!  

The baby Kimora

2011 was marked by the sudden and horrific passing of Kimora, Kelis's sister.  Kelis still looks for her at Paul's house and at the vet's office.  Even Alex, who only seems to live for treats, belly rubs and naps,  has become a little hysterical when we visit the vet's office since her passing.  They know something horrible happened and that the vet was involved.  On the other hand Kelis has adopted some new habits, like learning how to steal bones from Alex, and my little escape artist has not made any attempts to leave the yard since it happened.   


On the other hand, 2011 had many moments of personal satisfaction for me.  The wheel chair and walker bag project has been taken up by a couple of churches here and we were able to supply a local nursing home with 200 bags this summer.  I even had my name in a Methodist church bulletin, very odd for someone with my mixed religious roots.  I just about burst with pride when I saw the bags in use and that they really worked.  In addition, although I have never sought recognition for these projects, the Kingwood Area Quilt Guild honored me with a Silver Thimble Award this September and you couldn't get the grin off my face for weeks.


On the project side of the ledger I have changed my habits quite a bit.  I noticed that, in the past, I made a lot of things (totes, purses and other accessories) just to test out a book or a technique.  I ended up with a lot of little useless things.  I learned a lot from these projects but it seemed like a waste of time and effort.  I have tried to become more focused in my sewing and knitting and have tried not to add to the UFO pile.  The whole upstairs of my home has become more organized for creative work and I have become morefocused because of it.  My unorganized mess has become restricted to just one closet and even that has become less cluttered as I have sorted out its contents.


 I have no specific goals for 2012 but Alex and Kelis have made some specific requests.  Their requests run something like this...More walks, more treats, more naps, more belly rubs, more quilts and, most of all, more bones.  I think I can handle these without breaking the bank or my back.  For myself, just waking up everyday is wonderful with everything following that a bonus.  I intend to make the most of those bonuses and who knows where that might lead me (besides the pet store)?

Quilt Across Texas Shop Hop - Part 1

Those wonderful folks in Quitman, TX at Stitchin' Heaven have come up with a great way to force traffic into a lot of quilt stores in Texas.  They have created a shop hop of about 90 stores, in eight different regions spanning the whole state of Texas and we quilters have a whole month (THIS MONTH!) to visit as many as we want or can for a chance at some pretty spectacular prizes.   Called the Quilt Across Texas shop hop it gives people like me an opportunity to see different shops, explore the back roads of Texas and to find unique quilt related items that are not available through the big distributors while hoping for a big prize.


Today is the day that I started my adventure.  There was a little method to my madness.


First of all, I wanted to see how Alex and Kelis would handle a long car ride.  The shop I went to today was 75 miles away which seemed like a good test of their ability to tolerate my ignoring them as the miles flew by.  


Kelis handled it like a pro.  She spent most of the trip sleeping in the back seat on an old wool afghan.  Good Girl!


Alex, on the other hand, spent most of the trip whining and trying to get between my face and the wind shield.  When he wasn't in the front of the car driving me nuts he was laying on the shelf behind the back seat with his head wedged between the head rests looking for to all the world as a dog getting ready to heave up his breakfast onto the the back seat.  


Maybe I'll try drugs on him next time.


The shop I visited made all the Alex drama worth it.  Heavenly Threads Quilt Shop is a delightful little store in Trinity Texas with a sweet owner and a Chuweiny(?) named Lucy as the shop dog.  Lucy got to meet Alex and Kelis and really didn't know what to do with them.  Alex made several attempts to sniff her in her nether regions so no wonder she wasn't interested!


The shop is in an old house, well signed and contains many things for the quilter including several civil war themed prints, embellishments for art quilts and a broad range of fabrics.  Patricia, the owner, recently published her first pattern which combines an appliqued cowboy boot with blue jeans into a nice wall hanging.  It's not on the website but you can see mine if ask nicely.


My hear sung a little when I saw her backing ready bolts of fabric for 50% off and her pillowcase kits for $5.00 each.  I have enough backing fabric for a small quilt factory but the pillowcase kits will be used almost immediately for a project I saw on Facebook.  Country Living Quilts (1816 CR 427, Marquez, TX 77865) is collecting pillowcases for those who have been burned out of their homes due to the huge wild fires around Bastrop, Texas.


 If I am ever near this area again, I will definitely stop in and enjoy all the quilt goodness here.


And that's the other method to my madness.  This shop is WAY off the beaten track for the shop hop.  When I mapped out everything else in that region, all of the other shops are concentrated between Houston and Austin except this one.  Making it to that shop while doing the other shops would be a bit of a pain so doing it by itself made sense to me.  


I also got to enjoy some very pleasant back roads.  I drove up to the shop through a lot of construction on I-45 but came back on a lot of country roads so I could stop and have lunch at Florida's Kitchen in Livingston. Yum, Yum!


I love back roads in any part of the world and today was no exception.  For a while I followed an old boat trailer with a skiff on it.  The trailer had weeds growing on it and the boat lost little bits of itself as we bumped along the road. I wonder what they were going to do with such an unseaworthy vessel after they left the road at a public boat launch?  They may have been thinking about sinking it in the lake, but the drought had made the lakes so shallow that I don't think they would have been successful.


I saw no evidence of wild fires in the area (a good thing!) but I did get to see how low some of the lakes and streams are in this area.  At one point there was an ugly stench coming through the air vents. Before I panicked I realized that the smell came from rotting vegetation exposed by the dropping lake levels.  Glad I don't have a home near there! 


The next part of hop that I will attempt may include an overnight stay somewhere as the distances are pretty significant...especially if I want to loiter at any of the stores.  Kelis will go to Paul and Alex has been offered a place at his foster family's home.  I just have to get the planning done so I can firm up the dates.


If you are in Texas check out some of the stores you have never visited before for a road trip treat.  If you are out of state...see if you can get one going in your state.  Shopping, back roads and unique quilt related stuff will make it all worth the energy to make it happen. 

Another Mother's Day

Mother's Day and I have a love/hate relationship.


As a child, I loved giving my Mom little things that I thought she would love... toilet water, handkerchiefs, hand made cards and weed bouquets were all accepted by her with much fuss and sloppy kisses.


I was at a loss as to why my Dad would give her sappy cards but chalked it up to some crazy parent thing.


After Paul came, I got to be the recipient of his largess.  One of my favorites was a teeny, tiny Dixie cup planted with a violet that his first grade class had planted at school. 


Another favorite, I rediscovered the other day.  I found a card from him in a pretty pink envelope.  Written on the front of it  was the message...MOM - DO NOT OPEN UNTIL SUNDAY unless you want to. My son and I both have a hard time waiting to the assigned time to open a present!


These memories and more make me love Mother's Day.


My hate relationship with Mother's Day began seven years ago when my own Mom collapsed at a special Mother's Day mass with a stroke that ended her life three weeks later.  Since then I have dreaded this day and its memories.


This year is particularly sad with the passing of my precious Kimora.  There is nothing that makes you feel more useless as a human being than when you cannot protect those in your care from random dangers whether its poisonous snakes from attacking your dog to protecting your child from a school yard bully.


So yes, I love and hate Mother's Day but it always reminds me that without those in our care, for however short a time, life would not be worth living.


And, in honor of Mother's Day, I have a chance to embarrass my child a little by sharing a picture of him at his first birthday celebration in Korea before he even entered my life.

Thank you Paul for being in my life this Mother's Day.

Workshop Houston Update

Workshop Houston is having an Open House on April 2 and some of the kids I have been working with printed and made tote bags that will be for sale.  I am so impressed with their skills and energy on this project!

Check it out here!

I am a Dog, Not a Thing

By Peggy Ems at the Examiner.com.  Not for the faint of heart..

I am a dog, not a thing.

I am a dog. I am a living, breathing animal. I feel pain, joy, love, fear and pleasure.

I am not a thing. If I am hit - I will bruise, I will bleed, I will break. I will feel pain. I am not a thing.

I am a dog. I enjoy playtime, walk time, but more than anything, I enjoy time with my pack - my family - my people. I want nothing more than to be by the side of my human. I want to sleep where you sleep and walk where you walk. I am a dog and I feel love...I crave companionship.

I enjoy the touch of a kind hand and the softness of a good bed. I want to be inside of the home with my family, not stuck on the end of a chain or alone in a kennel or fenced yard for hours on end. I was born to be a companion, not to live a life of solitude.

I get too cold and I get too hot. I experience hunger and thirst. I am a living creature, not a thing.

When you leave, I want to go with you. If I stay behind, I will eagerly await your return. I long for the sound of your voice. I will do most anything to please you. I live to be your treasured companion.

I am a dog. My actions are not dictated by money, greed, or hatred. I do not know prejudice. I live in the moment and am ruled by love and loyalty.

Do not mistake me for a mindless object. I can feel and I can think. I can experience more than physical pain, I can feel fear and joy. I can feel love and confusion. I have emotions. I understand perhaps more than you do. I am able to comprehend the words you speak to me, but you are not always able to understand me.

I am a dog. I am not able to care for myself without your help. If you choose to tie me up and refuse to feed me, I will starve. If you abandon me on a rural road, I will experience fear and loneliness. I will search for you and wonder why I have been left behind. I am not a piece of property to be dumped and forgotten.

If you choose to leave me at a shelter, I will be frightened and bewildered. I will watch for your return with every footfall that approaches my kennel run.

I am a dog - a living, breathing creature. If you choose to take me home, please provide me with the things that I need to keep me healthy and happy.

Provide me with good food, clean water, warm shelter and your love. Do not abandon me. Do not kick me. Do not dump me when your life gets too busy. Make a commitment to me for the entirety of my life, or do not take me home in the first place.

If you desert me, I do not have the means to care for myself. I am at the mercy of the kindness of people - if I fall into the wrong hands, my life will be ruined.

I will experience pain, fear and loneliness. If I wind up in an animal shelter, I have only my eyes to implore someone to save me, and my tail to show you that I am a friend. If that is not good enough, I will die.

I am a dog. I want to give and receive love. I want to live. I am not a thing. I am not a piece of property. Please do not discard me. Please treat me with kindness, love and respect. I promise to repay you with unconditional love for as long as I live.

Thank you Peggy Ems for a great editorial.

The Quilt Artist

The Fantasy


The morning sun streams through the east facing windows of the Artist's palatial bedroom.  As the sun strikes her smooth brow she awakens and stretches her well-toned body under her pristine 10,000 thread count, hand-made sheets.  


Her lover has left a beautiful tray of assorted pastries and Blue Mountain coffee on the hand carved side table.  The table, made from reclaimed wood gathered from a centuries old farm house in France, sits in the sunlight shaded by lace curtains woven from recycled silk by cloistered nuns in Rome.


All is right with the world as the Artist sits to break her fast and glances at the dozen art magazines from all over the world that makes up her morning reading.


Suddenly she tenses as she reads about Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine's latest challenge.  The challenge is to take a half yard of fabric, transform it by your preferred method and send eight nine inch squares of it to the magazine Arts for a fabric swap/exchange.


"Yes" she declares aloud, startling her pack of rescued, pure bred, dogs and cats from their  postprandial slumber, "This is just the thing for me."


She dresses in a white smock, made from an Irish Linen table cloth that her great-great-great grandmother hemstitched, and rushes to her secluded studio back in the woods of her mountainside retreat.


Using her portfolio of Japanese wood block prints as inspiration, she selects a piece of fabric sent to her by the Sultan last year and, as her assistant prepares it for dying, the Artist gathers her dyes from Bali, silk screens from Tibet, inks from Ireland and brushes from her badger farm in Montana.


She is now ready to create her masterpiece.


Skipping the next seven days of creative chaos, including three crying jags, 75 yards of fabric sent to the recyclers and the demise of one great dying table from the weight of her frustration, the Artist produces this:

  
The Reality


The Artist awakes to the yapping of three small dogs wanting to get outside to chase the squirrels.  While eating her Cherrios over the kitchen sink, she sees that Cloth, Paper, Scissors Arts has another challenge.


"Yes" she declares aloud, startling her pack of snarling mutts competing for her leftover milk, "This is just the thing for me." 


Using her 1949 tourist guide to Japanese wood block prints as inspiration, she gathers her materials consisting of fabric from the sale table at WalMart, leftover dyes from a friend's class three years ago, silk screens from a door prize package and inks from a calligraphy class when she was in high school.


After eight hours of washing, drying, ironing, wetting, dying, ironing, stenciling, ironing and ruining the top of the plastic table she uses for dying outdoors, she produces this:

  I would love to resemble the fantasy but, alas, my life is the reality.


Have a good week!  

Donations

I think I have mentioned before that I have collecting donations for the local quilt guild garage sale in April.


I have been getting lots (and lots and lots) of stuff to sell for the benefit of the guild.


I have also been collecting knitting supplies for the middle school knitting group that I work with as well as sewing supplies for the kids I have been working with at Workshop Houston.


Sometimes things don't work out as the givers intended.


For instance:

• heavy macramé cording for the knitting kids is now in the garage sale,
• nasty smelling fabric has ended up in the trash,
• magazines for the quilt guild with key articles or patterns missing have ended up in the recycling bin,
• tiny scraps of fabric for the quilt guild have ended up in the dog bed stuffing donation bag and
• one yard cuts of upholstery fabric for the quilt guild have been given to a group that makes wheel chair bags for a local charity hospital.

Sometimes though the donations are amazing.


For instance:

• a beautiful  piece of Hawaiian style appliqué given to the garage sale is now being hand quilted for the quilt auction,
• yards and yards of colorful linen blend fabric destined for the garage sale are going to the fashionistas in the third ward, 
• about 50 pairs of knitting needles, some still in their packages, were given to the knitting kids,
• wonderful, high quality yarn, including some wonderful silk and wool blends was given to the knitting kids, and
• the sewing kids are getting a whole set of pressing aids (tailor's ham, sleeve roll, sleeve board, clapper and a tailor board) and a huge cutting mat, all brand new.

I will take almost anything and find another use for cast-off arts and crafts supplies.


The tough part is not trying to find homes for all the donations but the unknown stories behind the donations.


The other day I got a wonderful pieced quilt top with Raggetty Ann and Andy fabrics.  It was incomplete but came with extra fabric for binding the finished quilt.  Who made this top and then abandoned the project?  Is there some child out there missing a quilt from Grandma?  Is the intended recipient now in college and therefore past the joy of Raggetty Ann and Andy?  Did the maker piece it for a charity project and is now too embarrassed to turn it in after many years?


Or how about the bags of fabric I found on my door step the other day.  They were filled with old dry cleaner bags of exquisite fabrics.  In many cases the fabrics were matched with coordinating fabrics, notions and patterns.  In one bag was enough fabric, with patterns and trimmings, for a whole wedding night peignoir set.  Did the wedding not happen and if it didn't, what happened?  Did the maker decide that bright coral was just not her color anymore?  Did the maker decide that sexy lingerie was just not her thing after the divorce?


Or how about the CD of relaxation music that showed up a while ago.  It had never been opened.  Was it a freebie from somewhere?  Was part of a gift package of spa products and the CD was unwanted?  Is there a stressed out someone out there trying to relax and who can't find her CD?


I'll never know.


I will, however, keep collecting and redistributing donations until people stop giving them to me.... with or without the stories behind them.

Gifts Part 1

If you need some inspiration on gifts for those you missed this holiday season watch this video clip by Ben Stein for CBS Sunday Morning.  I am humbled by its simple message even with the trashy ad you need to 'enjoy' first.

It was a dark and stormy night...

...not really but my four legged buddies are not happy with this chilly weather. 

Even with their coats on they are very reluctant to do their business outside.  I've noticed an increase in 'accidents' around the house and it is getting old fast when I have to get down on my knobby knees to clean up after them.

Right now, though, all is right with the world as I just cleared out the Thanksgiving decorations from Sweet Sadie's to install the Christmas ones which means a BBQ flavored quilt is now available for their sleeping comfort.

Yes, there really are three dogs under this quilt.

See..

that's Alex wondering if it would be worth his while to get out from under the quilt to see what I am doing with the camera.

I don't have the heart to switch this smelly quilt with a freesh one just to get the smelly one into the washing machne.  I think it can wait a day ot two .  After all, its not smelly to me and I could use some down time from their 'loving' antics.

I hope your first night of Hanukah has gone well and that the run-up to the big day..Chistmas, that is...has not worn you out already.

I have a few projects that need to be completed within the next 24 hours for a couple of functions I will be attending so I better get back to the grindstone/sewing machine!   

Weekend Work

Even though I don't work for a company any more the weekends still take on a special meaning for me.

Here are the things I should be doing this coming weekend:

• clean up the backyard
• move and trim the grass in the backyard
• mop the downstairs floors
• flip the cushions and vaccuum out the sofa
• join others in creating quilts to be auctioned for M.D. Anderson
• finish my Twisted Yarns socks
• cook and bake meals for the coming week
• make/finish three projects for charity events

What I will probably do:

• Nap with the puppies
• visit Sweet Sadie's for some BBQ
• work on duplicating a purse a friend brought home from Florence
• go to the soft opening of a new Cracker Barrel restaurant just down the street

I know I will accomplish the first item on this list, probably the second...not so sure about anything else.

Have a great weekend!

Another Thing I don't Understand

While driving on the freeway today I passed an eighteen wheeler transporting cars.  Each car was covered with a custom fabric cover. 

That makes sense to me as a way to protect the cars in transport but what I don't get is that each cover had a transparent bit over each window.

What?

Why would a car in transit need the windows uncovered?

I just don't understand.

How Things Have Changed...

This is a silk hanky I found in a bunch of old linens I have had for quite a while.  Not sure where it came from.

Seen on the Road

I drive in heavy traffc a lot in Houston mainly because there is a lot of heavy traffic in Houston.

In the past day or so I saw the following weird behavior:

• a woman driver eating noodles with chop sticks while driving at about 60 miles an hour while also yelling at a young man in the back seat who was holding a small dog out the  window.
• a couple on a motorcycle with the male driver fully kitted up in protective motorcylce duds but without a helmet while his female companion, wearing shorts, flip fops and a tank top hung on behind him with a helmet on her head.
• a car stopped partway into an intersection backed up a tad and bumped into another vehicle.  The driver of the vehicle that got bumped came roaring out his car, removed the keys from the first car's ignition and threw them into the bushes at the side of the road.

I'm sure there are reasonable explanations for each of these bizarre behaviors.

Any ideas?

Why I Have a Big Car

The reason I have a big car is that my Father gifted me with it, a couple of years before he passed away, because he could no longer drive safely. 

It was quite an admission on his part that he was a danger to other drivers but every once in a while he forgot his problems and would still drive. 

No car = no driving.

My taking his car was also an effort on his part to get me out of my little red pick-up truck.  Most men have trouble with women having their own pick-up trucks though I have no idea why.

Although he had the means and opportunity to buy another car he never did... for which I am eternally grateful.

So now I have a big ass 2001 Mercury Grand Marquis.

The gas mileage is not horrible and it is so comfortable to drive.  The back seat is big enough so that when we evacuated for Hurricane Rita, I was able to nap comfortably on the back seat with three dogs (Lady Jane, Kelis and Kemora) while Paul drove. 

The real bonus with this car is that the trunk is big enough for a small family to live in with room for a full bathroom....

not really but it is big.

When I came home on the last day from teaching the Fashion Design Course at Kingwood College, the size of the interior and the trunk were invaluable.

Here's what the trunk looked like as I was unloading it from the class.

Both the front and back seats were full of stuff as well and nothing blocked my vision.

It took me a couple of days to get everything out of the car with lots of 'help' from Alex and the Girls.  Their help consisted of sitting by the storm door whining and trying to sneak out while my arms were fully of classroom materials.

I really need to get rid of this albatross.  Things are beginning to break and I have dripped enough coffee init that the carpet and seats are beginning to get nasty.

For years I drove small fuel efficient cars. 

Heck, my first car was one of the original Honda Civics that got about 40MPG on the highway.

Here's what I need...great carrying capacity, smooth ride, good gas mileage, comfortable seats and a cast iron interior.

Any ideas?

Road Trip

Yesterday I woke up feeling a little antsy.  I just knew I had to do something different or go stark raving mad.

Walking the dogs backwards or changing the font on my blog were not going to cut it.

I had a piece of paper on my bed side table with the address of W. C.Mercantile on it and I knew what I had to do... Road Trip!

W. C. Mercantile is yarn shop that donated some marvellous yarns to the World Wide Knit in Public Day last year and I have been curious about them since then.

I put the dogs to bed, stopped for gas and suitable sacks and headed out at about  11:00 AM to the beautiful Texas Hill Country.

It was a pleasant drive and Navasota has some beautiful homes.  Main Street is a little run down but you can see that the community is trying to offset the Wal-Mart shopping mentality that has taken over America.

The yarn store has a small but selective group of yarns and I was able to snag some great sock yarns, one of which I had never seen in other stores.  What sets them apart from other yarn stores is that they have an extensive selection of locally processed wool.  Some is in the raw roving state, ready to spin, while some of it is ready to cast on the needles.  They also have a small selection of pint sized wheels and looms that looked very intriguing.. 

There were two groups of women knitting while I was there.  They represent the whole range of yarn lovers... one group was of friends my age and older while the other was teen girls.  The former group was making teeny tiny baby clothes while the latter one was playing with florescent yarns, crochet hooks and knitting needles.

I hope they get a chance to expand the shop into all the space that they have available to them because they really have a great shop... with most of it closed of from active use.  There is even a second floor.

If you need to get away for the day, Navasota is a good destination.  I warn you, however, that you just may fall in love with it. 

Fashion Design I - Some Photos

Behind this door chaos reigns and creativity abounds.  Enter at your own risk!