sooner or later

These are plus size inchies made from handwoven fabric to take to the International Quilt Festival and swap at the Quilting Arts booth.

For a swap that isn't due yet!!! I'm done early. Amazing.

Me and the rabbit are late, we're late for a very important date, no time to wait, we're late, we're late, we're late.

I am dawdling. Doing laundry, thinking about making a list so I can check it twice. No time for that. Mending things, buying locks, almost bought a new suitcase, is that nuts? Yes, it was. I'll just carry three smaller ones. Packed my beading project - seeing stars now. Should I take bottled water? Am I that cheap? Watercolor paper, brushes, crayons, glue. Do I have time to do a journal quilt? Maybe. An extra camera battery and another 2gig of storage? If I spend enough money and carry enough stuff along, will I have a good time?

Can I just buy the postcards and skip the whole thing?

Pouring down rain this morning early. I went out just before it started and soaped down the car and scrubbed so the rain could wash it clean. Now if a good wind storm would come through, I would leave the doors open and it would blow the carpets clean for me.

Pulled a few weeds and tidied up the garden. These are in a pot by the front sidewalk, third year they have bloomed.



Then a bit of time on the computer. I spent last evening starting a new project. Beading with the turquoise and copper paper beads I made. Not thrilled yet with the plan. Still working that out.

We had agreed to baby sit so we also had to vacuum and baby-fy the room. If we curtail his traveling pattern and provide lots of toys he is easy to control. Responds well to NO! Says NO! back to us and folds his hands over his chest and looks gilelessly as though he wasn't really at fault. It was just his wayward hands.

The rest of them went to see Harry Potter's latest movie and then the grill king fired up the grill. I was better organized today for some reason, all the side dishes and condiments got on the table and we even had dessert arranged. M ate plenty of enough things so she could have some. It didn't rain much on the grill while he was cooking. But we had some fabulous thunderhead clouds to watch.

I even got some weaving done during a short period when I let Grandpa handle the little guy. I am feeling very confident that I will be done with the swatch swap on time this year.

The little tank didn't take a nap all day and, for the more than two hours he was with us, was on his feet and moving the whole time. He did enjoy tossing all the magazines out of the basket one at a time. No damage, just made for a slippery floor for him after that. So we had to call a halt to that fun. He has gotten more than his fair share of bruises.

Now that they're gone and the dishes are cleaned up, I think I am going to hit the sack early tonight.

Paper Beads on ribbon with seed bead


International Blue Owl Day ATC

Just a couple of the projects I finished today. Also did a lot of mundane chores and babysat for the grandson while the rest of the family went to the circus on Saturday. Relatively easy except for the fact that after he took a tumble, I move his hair aside and there was a huge bruise and a bump. I felt guilty until his mom told me that was from a face plant on the fireplace the day before. He was really doing the heavy drama and piling on the guilt for a throwdown bruise.

Then today between cloud bursts, the grill king and I drove down to a park-and-ride and took the train from the beginning to the end of the line. Not a big deal, it just runs from the medical center to the University of Houston with stops at the museum, Rice University, the zoo and downtown shopping in between. Huge expensive train very under used. It doesn't really go anywhere I would need to go. By the time I've gotten to a park and ride, I might as well go to my real destination. The only time it was worth anything to anyone was when the parking for the rodeo was not available due to construction of the new sports arena which is one of those really useful touristy things for a big city. So now we know where it goes, found out it is comfortable and easy to ride. Not too expensive, not very necessary. Can't wait till they spend more money to put one in another wierd location like from the Woodlands to ... the county jail. We might take it again for a joy ride to show the granddaughter what it is like to ride the train, except she is so open and trusting, she would introduce herself to all the bums who ride from their sunny morning sleeping area to their covered sleeping area under a bridge during the afternoon monsoon.

I just noticed I had planned to attend a bead exhibition last weekend in Stafford... but I didn't get a postcard reminding me. Wonder if it really happened without me? Can't have been very successful financially if I didn't go.

Yes is a very short word that leads me around by the nose. I have these great ideas and they sort of take on a life of their own. A local group is getting started for a very formalized in-depth study with critique for the next year. I volunteered to manage the communications for the group. Could be/should be exciting. Challenging even.

Every day new opportunities present themselves. New ways to consume nonexistent "spare" time and energy. When do you say NO?
Good friends inviting me to fun events. Time with the grandkids. It's all too good to pass up. I'm going down. Fast.

Everything will be blogged about tonight.


At lunch on Saturday, while slicing through a perfectly cooked, thickly crusted steak, the grill king announced he will be inviting more people over to the house for dinner. We really must get suitable tables and chairs indoors and out. His steak success is going to his head. I plan to bring in chicken parts and perhaps fish. For his anniversary present I have ordered a branding iron that says Road Kill. I can only hope it will arrive in time for the next invitees to appreciate it.

My daughter dragged me kicking and screaming to the garden store where they have nothing but plants and pots and fertilizer. Bought a bit. She bought a lot. We had coupons. It was a weekend that begs gardeners to go spend money and try again. She planted hers around her new gazebo. I put a couple of tomatoes in my raised beds and one and only one zuchinni plant. The sugar snaps are still producing. Can I send anyone some parsley? We harvested the one white radish that came up. Granddaughter refused to try the radish, but she did take three nibbles of a sugar snap (don't say the word pea!) and agreed it tasted good. Which earned her a bit of dessert for her adventurous foray into new green foods.
She stayed over last night and woke up with a smiling, "Good Morning, Grandma" even though she was forced to sleep on the floor in a non-zippered "sleeping bag." In other words, I piled two blankets on the floor with a pillow. If the guest room was cleared out a bit and not so close to my craft supplies, I could trust her upstairs. But she wanders after hours sometimes.

J and I spray basted her quilt at my house outdoors and in the process embedded some oak ephemera in the batting layer. I loaned her my walking foot for the sewing machine and although I believe in it, ran a little test and proved to both of us it was a wise purchase. In just two inches of stitching without it, the top layer had slipped 1/8 inch past the lower layer and the sample was curved. The sample with the walking foot matched up perfectly at each end and lay on the table perfectly flat.

I finished warping the 45" wide loom with the 3" wire warp... seems a waste of opportunity, but the little loom is going to be taken to my daughter's house for her use for the next half year. She's rearranged her house to make room for it already. I have no idea what I will put in my bay window now. It never occured to me that she would be taking the loom away when I said she could use it. But of course it makes sense. I just will miss it a lot and the room will feel strange. Maybe I'll set up the card table for some collage work while I watch summer time happen in the backyard.

Anyway, the wire warp. Was a pain. I had forgotten how much. And I really hadn't planned it all until I got down to threading. Moved from just a plain point twill to a rose path and that meant I was short a few wires. So I had to unroll the warp beam and add those and one of the wires snapped and so I had to move one from the edge to the middle - that will come back to haunt me, I'm sure. Then I felt the need to add some beads. Again, designing on the fly - I undid the warps from the front beam and added some to three warps. Fortunately I had used a 10 dent reed which was wide enough to allow the beads to slide through. This will all become clear later when I post a photo. Patience. I'm still designing. But I have several commitments for this warp. A magazine article, a show entry or two.

I found the right screws for the little loom so that is finished. We should be able to weave on the pink warp the next time my granddaughter comes over. And just warping the looms gets me thinking about projects that I want to do. Washing dishes makes me think of projects to weave. I have a dishcloth I wove. Yes, I use it, it is beautiful even though it is orange. I should weave more of these for the fall sale. In green, not orange. I reason I have this one is because it is orange, I'm sure. No one buys orange wash cloths. I crocheted around the edge and that took a lot of time, but it is really, really, nice and is holding up very well. As long as no one goes near it with bleach cleanser, I'm okay with using it. It stays in the drawer when my mom is visiting. No matter how hard she tries, my green sink will never be white.

Happy New Year! This is the year of the Pig and I was born in the year of the Pig - very auspicious. 2007 is my year. I've got till February 6, 2008 to reap the benefits of all this good karma.
I have to investigate the possibility of a pig collection instead of frogs...not! Frogs are it. No pigs, please. Going to a party today. An open house - the first opportunity to pig out for the new year. Gotta avoid that aspect of pigology in order to take advantage of my best year yet.
I've started off well this morning. Cleared up a lot of stuff on my two worktables. I have neatly organized boxes of things to put in my collage book. A place to start working on the birds on a wire project. And I'm headed downstairs to clear away the zone of destruction following the grill king's spectacular steak event last night. J and I sat down and watched the baby crawl around the floor or bounce in his chair while we did some needle felting. Then I stayed up a bit longer and put some beads on the goddess and updated yesterday's post with her photo. A much more pleasant activity than loading the dishwasher.