Small Celebrations

Today is our 39th Anniversary. I got a cheerful good morning wake up call from my Rob who is in Los Angeles today. Our anniversary always reminds me of our wedding day as it probably does most women.

My two best friends had just celebrated their wedding vows with big weddings in November and December. I'd watched them fight with their mom, call it off, call it back on, struggle with the financial side, worry themselves sick over details...so I decided we would keep it small. Small as in our parents and us, at my folk's home. As the weeks passed I could see even this was too many people if one of the people was a mean drunk.

So we decided on the following Friday which I had off, to meet when Rob got off work, grab two friends, and go to the Justice of Peace in Montesano. Which we did, and I've never regretted it for a moment. Kathy happened to have her grandmothers camera in her car so we did get three fuzzy photos which are very special to me. The picture here shows us forgetting to pay the Justice of Peace about 4:30 in the afternoon.

We then took a drive out to Westport and for our wedding dinner we had burgers from a burger stand, after which we drove to my parents house to tell them the news. Who loved and respected Rob already. Except Rob had a hard upbringing so when my dad came tearing out of the house Rob jumped back in his car and locked the doors.

My folks donated all the money they'd saved for the wedding ($35.00) to the cause and we spent our first night in the Aberdeen Holiday Inn which was the noisiest hotel I've ever been in, before or since. I got up the next morning at 6 AM and went to work. Thus endeth the story of our wedding, February 27, 1970. I love you Rob, you still look 25 to me.

Friday Thankies
Cell phones
Photos
Good burgers, which are much harder to find today than they were in 1970

(((Hugs Computer)))

I suppose those with wildly active and interesting social lives don't find the on-line connections as important to their daily life as I do and more power to them. But most of my adult life we have had unscheduled schedules making it really difficult to plan for dinner with friends, meeting at the beach, joining clubs and organizations... so when my first computer entered my life in 1996 an on-line social life was like a bomb going off in my heart. Yes I know real-time people may be more important but I don't know anyone that wants to play at 4 AM or go to lunch on the spur of the moment and those are the sort of times I'm free.

And suffice it to say that I've made some lasting friendships via long distance and have traveled across the country and ocean to meet some of them, and had some of them travel across the country and around the world to spend time with me. And I can say I've never met an internet friend I didn't like. Bless you all, you warm my heart and my days with your presence.

So while on the theme I thought you might like to see the precursor to our marvelous machines of today. In some circles, the clunky box shown here with two floppy disk drives and a 5-inch screen introduced in 1981 is considered the world's "first really popular portable computer," found today in the Computer History Museum. The Osborne 1 weighed 24.5 pounds, had a detachable keyboard that served as a lid, had a carrying handle and was small enough to fit under the passenger seat of an airplane. The machine also came with a bundle of software, including WordStar for word processing, SuperCalc spreadsheet, and the BASIC programming language. We've come a long way, baby.

I'm off to the farm for a few days, I'll miss you all.

Wednesday Thankies
Automatic Microsoft updates
McAfee
Snopes

Sewing In The Bone Yard

I find comfort in a good old fashioned cemetery. I've been known, on a beautiful spring or summer day, to throw the dogs in the car and do a bone yard run, visiting many family and friends who have preceded me in death as the obits say...What I've been doing the last few years is buying little metal stands at the dollar stores, probably meant for the smaller garden flags, and hanging metal wind chimes on them at the gravesides. It gives me comfort to hear and think of them, softly singing to those I miss so much.

I love stopping at old country graveyards, seeking out the pithy inscriptions on the lichen encrusted slab style stones, reading the dates and connecting them to their places in history. Do you bone yard?

The worst job I ever had was receptionist at a law firm with nine attorneys. The only thing that made that job worth getting up for was the beautiful cemetery next door where I'd take my sack lunch and stitching and let the tension roll off my shoulders. A favorite spot was on a corner under a tree where I could see the marker for a little 6 year old boy. Every couple of months the tokens at the headstone would change. Little wheeled cars, rubber dogs and cats, a Little Golden Book... I don't have children but I could certainly empathize with the loving grief of his family.

Sunday Thankies
My new Graven Images Oracle
Jewel Quest Solitaire
Google Maps

Yes, I've Been Busy

I've been at our farm the last few days riding herd on my in-law's live stock while they have been sick. 'Tween times my sewing machine has been tearing along on this big stack of half-square triangles for quilt tops for Victoria's burned out families.

I started with a stack of 18" squares, stitched my double lines corner to corner, both ways, and when I started splitting them last night was astounded to discover I now had four pockets rather than four half-square triangle blocks. Those pockets needed to be split again, creating 8 half-square triangles per set of 18" squares. Cool Beans...twice the bang for my buck! I still don't understand how that worked out though...

Saturday Thankies
My Rob will be home tonight
A fun date planned for tomorrow
Fresh milk

Colors of Winter

Know how a certain song will instantly transport you to a certain time and place? I think these cotton candy green and pink colors, like gorgeous marbled fabric, will always remind me of this winter.
I can't remember the last time I've used a commercial car wash because my car is one place where I'm willing to spend my hard earned cash for top of the line. I've seen what car washes do to paint finishes and strips and wipers, or used to anyway... and shuddered at the very idea of scrapes and swirls in the finish.

But this year Rob and I have both been busy, (and tired) and rather than drive a filthy car I broke down and got an $8.00 wash. Imagine my surprise to have my rear wiper slipped into a protective case, to have a prewash spray before entering the tunnel, to be lavishly bathed in this coating of soft and colorful foam, and to be encased in all sorts of different configurations of gentle lapping draping circling blue tongues dedirting my car.

And what a beautiful job! It wouldn't take long to get addicted to WashMan. In these hard times I'll save this ride for special and appreciate that somewhere someone has been building a better mouse trap.

Wednesday Thankies
Every so special yoga practice, thank you Peggy
Two little dogs who wait patiently for me to come home
One little dog who rides with and should have to help with the washer dollars...
It has been a lovely day from start to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Beavering Away

My One-Block-Wonder continues to grow, here are the first two sections stitched together, another few days and this will be ready for it's borders.

Note the finished sections on the right are a full block shorter with all the seams taken up. Good thing I have lots of border material. I'm trying to think of something clever to do with the leftover sections from the sides. Although I promised myself this year I wasn't going to try to reinvent the wheel. I'm sure that is how I ended up with so many projects in the works. Stopping to think and then forgetting what I was thinking about.

For the next few days I have my agenda cleared and will be making tops for a friend in Alexandra Victoria to turn into quilts for the burned out families they know. This is where all those precut blocks will show their worth in time savings.

Tuesday Thankies
Making decisions and moving on
I'm lucky enough to be able to make decisions regarding my life
Things always turn out ok in the end...the big blessing~

Here an Ort There an Ort Everywhere an Ort Ort

Ort \¨òrt\: noun; a snippet or leftover bit of thread, usually resulting from a voracious addiction to handcrafted needlework.

I heard the term ort early last year, it went in one ear and out the other like most things I hear... But I heard it again this week, with a photo attached to it. Well, a photo is worth a 1000 words, and here are some blogs with great ones.

Stitching Obsession

Sweet Pea (scroll down)

Dani Black Belt Stitching

If you know of any others or will share your own, give me a link, cyber photos of Ort containers would be a fun collection, one that didn't take up any room or need dusted. Like blog posts... I think this is the 100th for this blog. Off to my farm in a few minutes, y'all be good, ya hear?

Friday Thankies

Self-sufficiency

Barter

Multiple streams of income

Sunday Stitching

My One Block Wonder continues to grow, this is going to be a smashing top. I picked up some used movies at Hollywood Video this week to watch while I'm sewing today.

Iron Man, Wall-e, and Brandon Fraser's Journey to the Center of the Earth. Now there is a variety!

Sunday Thankies
Raisins
Pop corn
Oranges

Is It Love?

Approaching Valentine's Day brings thoughts of love and like and what it takes to make a marriage or relationship last. I've been a close observer of two marriages for the last 40 years that make me wonder how they ever did it...or more to the point why. Everyone's tolerance level is different though for a variety of sins; some will put up with infidelity but not drugs or alcohol, others might stay for a beating a month but leave if the finances got tight. Aren't people interesting in all their coats of many colors?

My Rob is the light of my life. This is one of the marriages I've been observing for 39 years. And the one I wonder most about, what has kept him here? Yes, I have a few good points but I have a hair trigger temper that frightens even me sometimes...

When I was a kid my mom would sometimes make our pancakes in the shape of something...balloons mostly :-) but the pleasure stuck and since Rob is our resident pancake maker and he knows the way to my heart I often get a pancake surprise with my Sunday morning coffee. I guessed at this one being a Volkswagen with CB antenna...just kidding...it is our brown and white double dapple dachshund Xing-Xing. Well Duh, of course it is. Yes, it's love and I am so blessed.

Yes, I know I could use some new dishes. I've been using 50's lusterware from soap and oatmeal boxes since we got married, a thrift store find in 1970. I love blue willow, but I've never been able to make up my mind about which line or manufacturer. I wonder if the lining of my stomach is lustered?

Friday Thankies
TGIF
Lots of work this week
The weekend to play

RV and Small Space Quilting part 4

One more space tweak-ed-er in our 5th wheel RV. Call me a square peg if you will but we don't watch TV, no time and no interest. So when I bought the 5th wheel I asked the seller to take the TV out. Better them than me, those tube TV's are heavy!

Anyway that left a big wonderful space

for an ironing center to the right of the sewing machine. And you can see my little travel iron and small board fit great. I took the measurements of the space and stopped by a cabinet makers shop one day and ask if he'd cut me a board from his scraps plus four legs, he used beautiful wood and only charged me $10.00 which I thought was very reasonable for his time.

It doesn't show very well in this photo, but I also put nails in the cupboard outer facing and hung my acrylic rulers up. I was starting to put a third nail in and my Rob asked me if I'd thought that nail through...What? Think something through? He pointed out that I'd take the hide and hair off my head every time I sat down if I put a nail in that low. Bless his observant heart.

I'm off to the farm again tomorrow, and every time I step into the 5th wheel my sewing center greets me with a smile...and vice versa.

Monday Thankies
Amazon
Our volunteer service people
Animal Shelters