sooner or later

Monday morning is not always all good or all bad. Battery was dead in the car. A friend came over to get the car started. Only an hour late to work.

While I was waiting, all the birds in the neighborhood came to the fence to wait in line for their turn at the seed buffet. One morning dove decided he couldn't wait for the seeds to fall, so he sat on top and rocked the feeder while the sparrows chowed down sloppily. A couple of blue jays had an aerial discussion about who was next. Then a pair of cardinals flew in for a looksee and decided on scavenging below instead of waiting in line on the fence. And then . . . a brilliant yellow parakeet stopped by to see what all the fuss was about. By the time I got my camera set up, it was all over except for bussing the tables.

Wednesday was a good day all around. The A/C got fixed before midnight Tuesday. E-cards arriving from friends. Opened presents first thing in the morning. Ahhhh. Then party lunch and another present at noon.


Called my mom while I walked around the garden. Rain in the late evening. What more could a person need?

The finished basket ball for 2007. A year in the making. Unfortunately I didn't start another basket at this year's swimming party, so I won't have anything to finish next summer.

Saturday's activities included adding the black tile to my daughter's mosaic tile and playing with the grandson. I addressed all the birthday RAKs while he played with and ate a little of tissue paper they were wrapped in. Then dinner with the kids at a new place, the Kona Grill to celebrate my birthday. Lovely dinner but I missed my granddaughter who was spending the weekend with her other grandparents across town.

Been feeling a little overwhelmed lately looking at the to-do list. I have a lot of stuff started and am trying to work a little on everything at once. Lots of ideas crying to get out. It seems like inspiration comes on me just as I hit the on ramp on my commute to work. Occasionally the traffic is so bad that I am parked for just long enough to scribble something down so I don't lose an idea. The other day, it was a mess waiting for construction trucks to clear out of the way, that I had time for a full blown sketch and lots of notes about materials and processes. Now if only I could find time to get them actually made.

My daughter is in full production mode. Running through the handwovens I've given her like rain down my roof gutter spout. She needed some notions to finish more, so we went shopping, first in my closet for more handwovens and then to the store to get thread, interfacing and linings. We found a few wonderful things and lots of other things to try. A twin needle! Spent some time trying out all the stitches. Then after she went home, I couldn't get the dang thing to do the satin stitch for a while, it was changing stitches in the middle of sewing... I'm not sure how I did it, but after turning my own head counterclockwise three times and swearing profusely, it finally started to sew correctly again. I do not know how I "fixed" it. It has happened before and it just takes patience, I have to try every combination of needle up, turn this all the way left and that button all the right to the right or vice versa and voila, it is hunky-dory again.

I have a fabric page laid out for the round robin book. I'm the last one to work in it and it is really fun to see everyone's work altogether. Much better than looking at the posted photos. Mine will be home in a month or so. And that's a good thing, because I've joined up on a couple of other round robins and I really shouldn't have. I have art camp coming up and the weaver's sale and I just really need to think about doing a lot of other things, the usual cleaning, and did you realize that the holidays are almost here? Well, not really, but you know it won't be long till it's Halloween and then Thanksgiving and well, I just can't keep up in the fall.

Tons to do, gotta run. The granddaughter is here and we're busy looking at everything on my worktable.