Saturday-5:45am

This is a near sunset picture but--good morning!  I know.  Too early for me to be up, but I've been awake since 4am.  My hours have been a bit out of whack for days.

Our pseudo-summer 70s weather has dropped back to...well, it's 24 degrees right now.  Too cold for Karma to be dozing outside...or even on the floor much...so she was catching some morning sunrays in her chair. 

The camera wanted to focus on my water thermos.  Karma hears the whir of the camera and her eyes pop open--LOL! 

Well, I started working on all the pads for Leah once they got Miss Brother working again.  (The Diva doesn't like stopping and starting to go around curves, either.)  I finished them and brought them over on Tuesday so she'd have time to attach all the snaps before they left yesterday.  :)

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Leah had this idea to make a zipper pillow for Ian.  He loves zippers right now...so while Leah was running errands she picked up a bunch of zippers at JoAnn's.  When I dropped off the pads Tuesday evening I brought home the zippers.  First I searched YouTube to get some ideas of how to shorten zippers...and adapted what I saw to work for this project. 

First I cut them all down to about 8 inches long total and then hand-sewed around the zippers at six inches.

I decided to add a glob of hot glue to the back sides, though, so that if Ian chewed through the thread or got it so drooly wet that it broke there would still be a stopper on the backside.  (Made for some inadvertent "decorative" sewing later when I sewed the zippers on to the fabric--never thought that far ahead, but still managed to sew them on--LOL!) 

I needed to tuck the bottoms into the seams, so I had to cut along both sides of the end of the zippers... 

...and chop out the teeth.  Good thing they were all plastic zippers and easier to cut. 

Then I sewed down four zippers on each of the brown squares of duck cloth. 

Sewed them together, turned, stuffed... 

...and hand sewed it closed. 

Only one zipper out of eight gives a bit of trouble but the rest work pretty well. 

I made a quick trip over to drop off the zipper pillow on Thursday during the packing chaos.  Got to hold and kiss that little Ian and say goodbye to everybody before I went back home to collapse.

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Been extra stiff and sore, of course.  Seen too many early mornings...   

...like this gorgeous one yesterday. 

And that is why I was up at 4am this morning.  But am so thrilled that I got the pads made and Ian's zipper pillow to play with on the long flight.  :):)  Happy happy me!

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Yesterday Caroline went grocery shopping for me.  (Yes, I dealt with my bank--had to repeat the story to four different people--got back on to the Cashwise website, too--hopefully for good now--tada!)  And I made my monthly orders...with extra birthday money thanks to you generous souls who sent me gifts!!  (Thanks--you all know who you are!)  

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I am excited to finally order myself some Artbin satchels for my sewing supplies.  I'll show you why it is about time--LOL!  I've been keeping them in a banker's box and have to dig and dig to find anything.  

Embarrassing to admit that somebody who loves to organize like I do has been living like this for decades.  I have stuff stuck in tiny boxes (paper and plastic), altoid tins, an itty bitty jelly jar, old craft supply containers, zip lock bags, and some bigger boxes, too.

Anyone from Minnesota would recognize this yellowed 40 year old box from Daytons (parent to Target stores).  Click here for some wiki-history.  

Does anyone else remember (with tremendous embarrassment) being drug to Downtown Daytons in Minneapolis to get measured for their first bra?  Or making the sparkly-evening-annual-family-walk around the Daytons building (which took up a whole city block)--gazing in awe at the animatronic Christmas window displays?  Or either going yourself or taking your kids (I did both) to see Santa up on seventh floor where they had the entire floor (or most of it) made into a different themed piped-music wonderland every year?  (At least I remember it being on 7th floor but wiki said they originally built six floors and never mentioned them adding on to the building?)  

Ahhh--Daytons.  :)

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And, yes--I have also been using these shoe boxes from Dagan's tiny shoes days. 

Trying to find thread in them is a jumbled mess.  (A few of these spools are 40 years old, too!) 

Anyways, I'll show you the new satchels when I get them--whoohoo!  

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But...will I be able to part with the old Dayton's box and Dagan's baby shoe boxes?  Does anyone else get attached to odd things like this?

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I have some really-fun, not-needed birthday things coming, too!  Okay, I know you guessed ink and pens--LOL!  But I also have a couple washi tapes coming (you might have guessed that, too) and a new billfold (never saw that one coming, did you!).  I've been using the same wallet I bought at Concordia college when I started there in 1999 and it has been falling apart in important places...like my change falls out into my bag--LOL!  A few other more boring things and some more PUL and Zorb fabrics.  :) 

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Now, in family news:

McFamily left for Japan yesterday.  They took a flight to Minneapolis, then boarded for Japan, and 13 hours later (2am our time) Leah texted me that they were doing paperwork in an airport in Japan.  I texted a little with Leah a while ago.  They were going to eat and sleep and would talk to me more tomorrow--but she said Ian was great on the long plane ride!  :)  Leah's brother, Aaron, was there with them and had gone on a food run for them.  They are in Japan!!  :)

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My Dad (94) has been in the hospital (down in Florida) for a few days.  Fluid on the lungs and swollen legs.  He's doing well, they are getting rid of the fluids, and he might be going home this weekend.  

Love you, Dad!  Be nice to those nurses!  ;)

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It's 7:30am and the sun has just come up.  Karma is warm in my lap under the laptop table.  I will be going over to visit with Sammy and Annie this weekend...but, other than that, I am on R&R for a while with a microwave heating pad on my lower back--LOL!  Life is good!  Everyone is okay.  And since I am not moving much right now, I am delighted I haven't had time to watch House of Cards yet.  ;)

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Have a delightful weekend!!  :):)

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"The little things? 

The little moments? 

They aren't little."

Jon Kabat-Zinn

Tuesday-10:30am

Well, good Tuesday morning to you!

You may have noticed from my last post that I have been loving the clouds rolling past for the last week or so. 

White clouds or dirty clouds... 

...the scenery changes by the minute!  :) 

Miss Karma's peaceful life was rattled to the core on my birthday.  She discovered that the noisy new creature that Dagan and Leah bring over can look her right in the eye and, quite fearlessly, touch her bed.  She hissed with great enthusiasm...but it didn't listen.  Just as Karma was about to smack it in the head to make her point (she has no claws) I rescued Miss Crabbypants...and her precious bed...and shut her in the bedroom...to her great relief.   

Several hours later, after they left, a nervous Karma combed every inch of the apartment (and the porch half a dozen times, too)...hissing to herself...jumping from imaginary attacks...searching for the creature she would have been terrified to actually find.

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And who was the stranger danger?

Little Ian, of course--LOL!

They brought his activity table with because he LOVES to just stand and move parts and make music and listen to the words it says.  Well, not sure he's really listening to the words yet, but the table says colors, numbers, and the alphabet song.

As I took these pictures one right after the other you can see that he kind of walks himself back and forth.

He can slowly make it all around the table if he wants to. 

Ian prefers to stand and stand and stand rather than crawl about.  Crawling seems to only be good for getting to the next place to pull himself up to stand.  Which is a good thing at Gramma's not-kid-friendly-house because they could bring with his favorite place to stand and play and Ian was one happy boy...for hours!  He would have liked to touch Karma, too, but that was not in the cards.  Never will be, I'm afraid--LOL!

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The amazing news....drum roll, please!!

Between Leah and Dagan they got Miss Brother working again!!

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Our tool girl went to work examining The Diva almost as soon as they got here.  Turned out that when I bumped that lever while the machine was running there was an attached piece right behind the needle that got caught up on the needle.

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But then, once she freed the needle, it would only sew 1-3 stitches and the thread would jam up...over and over.  It was Dagan who suggested that we try a new needle.  Apparently Dagan really had been listening to us when we were discussing how Miss Brother IS so very fussy about everything--fabrics, threads, needles, touching anything but appropriate buttons.  So, even though the needle looked perfectly straight, Leah changed needles and...voila!!...The Diva was working again!  (As well as she chooses to work, of course.)

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Leah even stuck a post-it note on the lever to remind me not to bump it--ROFL!           

 It didn't stay on very long once I was sewing, but it made me smile while it stuck there.

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And...they got the new spacesaver together for my bathroom!!  TaDa!!   

 And...they ordered Chinese (my choice--love friend rice) and even brought a birthday cake!!  Ariel (Leah's youngest sister, moved to Minneapolis) got into town before they finished the spacesaver so she stopped by, too.  Ahhh!  What a nice birthday it was. :):)

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So, since then...I've been sewing...and sewing.  (Miss Brother is still being a pain, but she is still functioning so we won't get into that.) 

This morning...everything is pinned and ready for the final top stitching--tada!! 

Leah does the final step of attaching the snaps, so I plan to bring these over tonight after they get home from visiting Leah's other sister, Michal--who lives in town here with her hubby, Chuck, and Ian's cousin, Julian, who's going on two years old.  Tonight I can get instructions on everything I need to do for the cats and the house before they leave on Friday for Japan to visit Leah's brother, Aaron, who's stationed there (Navy).  I need to know important things--like how to work their remotes so I can watch Netflix on their giant TV--since I am going to be spending quite a bit of time over there visiting with Sammy and Annie.  

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Sammy (the gray cat) gets lonesome.  He's more the friendly people-cat, but even shy Annie (the black cat) will come around for a bit of attention, too, when I visit.  I will be bringing my laptop, books, letters...and watching Netflix--LOL!  I like to pop in and out different times of the day.  Chuck and Michal will probably be checking here and there, too.  They're also my back up in case I get sick or can't make it over for some reason.  

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I am really going to miss McFamily!  Three weeks is a long time in baby time.  How much you want to bet Ian will learn to walk in Japan.  :)  Thank goodness for Google video chats.  I wonder how fast texts will travel from that far away?  And emails?  Anyways, it is so exciting!  Leah's even found a powdered healthy baby food she is bringing with.  I hope they have a wonderful time.  This is a trip of a lifetime!

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Anyways, I'll be sewing this afternoon, so not sure if I'll get around to the T-Stands For Tuesday group today or not.  Oh, goodness!  I forgot to take a picture of what I am drinking.  I actually had some Pepsi on my birthday!  I so seldom drink pop anymore, but I was always a Pepsi gal...and Dagan loved his Coke.  We never could agree on pop--but he suffered (how kind) and got a liter of Pepsi because it was my birthday--LOL!  Oh, the sacrifices your kids make for you, right?  ;)

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Oh, and no--I haven't dealt with the other two annoying issues I mentioned last time.  Once I get done with the sewing project...they will still be waiting for me.  ;)  Have a great day!  Hug a loved one today!  Literally or virtually, doesn't matter.  :):)

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“Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” 

Mark Twain

Saturday-10:15am

Been a lot of clouds roaming the plains since last we spoke.

We've had drizzly rain off and on. 

I love me some clouds against a blue sky, though. 

Been on the nippy side... 

...but it's supposed to warm back up to the 40s and 50s this coming week. 

For me... 

...today is my birthday.     

I'm 64...but for some reason I thought I was already 64 this past winter--LOL!  I never was very good at math. 

Last night I heard Miss Karma crying loudly.  She had gone headfirst up into that little space in the TV cabinet...and couldn't figure out how to back out...and couldn't quite turn around. 

Just as I was going to go over and pull her out, she managed to contort herself enough to turn herself about, quit crying, and settled right down for a rest. 

I picked out the next writing journal.  This very old blue suede one, that I seem to recall I picked up for cheap at an Office Depot when I lived in Moorhead maybe 14 years ago, turned out to be the best one with fountain pens so it won--LOL! 

I do have to whine a little.  Been very annoying things happening one right after the other.  First, I can't get on to the Cashwise website again to make up my grocery list for Caroline.  For the third month my password (now passwords) doesn't work.  I even give up and ask for a new one and then the new one doesn't work.  Over the past three months I have accumulated 5 or 6 new passwords.  None of them, or my old ones, work.  But finally one of the times I went out of the site and came back in I was suddenly logged in (how safe is that!)...at least for the past two months.  Not this month...so far.  So I will probably have to call them.

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Then I got an email from my bank telling me that someone had tried three times to log into my account so they cancelled my password--and if it wasn't me (wasn't) they recommended that I change not only my password but also my user name.  I went in to my bank my usual way (not from the email to be safe in case it was a scam) and my password does not indeed work.  But neither does my pin number from over a decade ago...so I can't prove it is me.  So I will have to call the bank and have them mail me a new pin number.

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Annoying stuff, right?

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Meanwhile, I am sewing away...and do you see that plastic pedal hanging down from the machine to the left of the needle?  I was turning the fabric and I bumped it somehow.  Don't ask me how.  I talk with my hands flying about and I guess maybe I sew that way, too.

Anyways, I bumped that lever and The Diva went wild!  Did her jiggling, screeching error routine.  The trouble is--her little pea brain thinks there is a thread jam.  There. never. was.  She does not believe me and will not change her mind come hell or high water.  I have turned her off and on many times, unplugged and plugged, and re-threaded her three times.  I have tried cajoling, sweet talking, and patience...that disintegrated over two days into yelling at her and trying to physically move the needle (you know how she doesn't like manual adjustments).  

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She will not move.

She will not sew.

Just angrily tells me the thread is jammed.

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Miss Brother is useless.

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I bought her through Amazon.

In October.

She's been nothing but a pain in the a$$ since she arrived.

I will have to contact Amazon.

And probably Brother.

*sigh*

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I was still too aggravated to deal with all those things yesterday...and today is my birthday...so forget it.  Nothing is going to change in a couple days.  Tomorrow is another day (said Scarlett).

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Meanwhile...people have been so wonderful for my birthday!  I have gotten cards in the mail, ecards, Amazon gift cards, and even had sweets delivered in these cute little boxes!  

Thanks, Janie!  

Karma loves cookies, too.  We haven't had any sweets around here for so long that she was really pushy and demanding about getting her little pieces of sugar cookie--LOL!

And McFamily is coming over this afternoon...and bringing lunch!  I haven't seen Ian (in the flesh and not a video chat) for a long time.  Got some pics from Leah, though.

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When we had our faux-summer weekend a couple weeks ago Ian was sitting out on some brown grass in the 70 degree weather! 

He's getting so big!  Here he is helping Mama with laundry. 

He loves feeding himself finger foods now. 

Crackers and Cheerios and veggies.

He loves standing next to his cool musical table or any furniture he can pull himself up next to.   

He can even bend and pick up a toy while holding onto something with one hand...and very slowly "walk" his way along furniture or around his cool activity table.  I think this little guy just might be walking early.  He's nine months old already.  Where did the time go?!

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Well, I had best get some clothes on before they arrive...and pick up Karma's toys so they don't end up in Ian's mouth--LOL!  What a wonderful birthday!  I am so glad to be alive to see all this and to know all of you!!  

Have a great day!!  :):)

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"Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!"

Dr. Seuss

Tuesday-9:30am

Good Morning!

It's 32F (says it feels like 19), dark, damp, very windy, and looks like it rained during the night a little. 

The wind has been pounding against the building and rattling the windows all night.  But I finally slept long and better (10 hours!).  Been sick since last Thursday.  Of course, I wasn't sure I was sick-sick until Saturday--LOL!  I finally realized I seem to have caught some kind of stomach flu bug (possibly combined with spring allergies) because it got so much worse than my normal bad days stuff.  ;)  Started feeling quite a bit better yesterday--for part of the day--and am hopeful for today.  Was bound to pick up something, I suppose.  I have been lucky all winter with all the crud being passed around.

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   Meanwhile...I had a big flat box arrive last week (maybe with stomach bug germs on it--LOL!--you never think of packages and mail). 

Here's the new large red cutting mat on the table.  It's orange on the other side, too.  Quite flashy...and good for sewing and bookbinding projects.  

Dagan dropped off that additional red flannel Leah picked up because Leah and Ian had caught colds...and later Dagan caught it.  But I think mine was different, either that or combined with something else, as they were only running from one end--ROFL! 

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I also got a large acrylic block so I can stick the smallest gelli plate (3" X 5") on it--like you see here--and use it like a stamp. 

Before I got too sick, I was cutting and cutting fabric.  This is the stack of the backside of the pad flannels paired off with the waterproof (PUL) fabrics. 

This is the stack of tops with the core (zorb) fabrics pinned on and ready to sew.

That's as far as I got before I had to take a sick break.

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I did putter for a couple days on this project, though.  Something I could do while blowing my nose or drop easily to run to the commode.  ;)  I wondered if I even had a shot of a cup of coffee for T Stands For Tuesday...well, there it is.  :):)  

Anyways, I am down to the last page in my daily journal today--the turquoise QuoVadis has been my current one.  I have part of a drawer filled with journals that have remained untouched for years and years.  I'd already tested a few of them (and they weren't good for fountain pens) and decided to test the rest of them.  

I gathered up all my currently inked fountain pens plus a few gel pens, too.  I cut out the back page that is usually glued funny anyways and used that as the test page.  Out of that whole stack you saw on the table there were only two of them that did okay (not good) with FP ink.  Most of them failed partially or totally...as you can see here where the ink would bleed right through the page. 

These two were the best of the lot... 

...and that is why all these have been sitting in a drawer for years.  Some of these have been waiting to be used for over 20 years!  Why?  Because I love using my fountain pens for journaling in the mornings and for writing most of my letters...and you don't know until you try to write in them if they are going to be horrible or not. 

Luckily we have the internet now.  I have a really decent shot at finding FPfriendly paper...like QuoVadis, Rhodia, Clairfontaine...ahhh!  But I really, really do need to use up all these rejects.  *sigh*

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Anyways, I fold the page and tuck it inside the cover...adding a post-it note reminder in case the sheet falls out or gets misplaced.  They've all been tested now. 

I told myself that I HAD to use these journals up.  That I couldn't buy another quality FPfriendly journal until I had used at least one reject.  I foresee being much chummier with my gel pens in the very near future--LOL!  But I can still use my fountain pens to write letters.  :)

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BTW--I am still not getting some of my blog comment email alerts so I cannot respond to some of you.  Beginning to wonder if they are ever going to fix that issue.  If a few of you don't hear back from me, that's why.  :(

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 I did watch The Theory of Everything and Birdman while I was sick.  I was fascinated by The Theory of Everything because I didn't know much of anything about Stephen Hawking's personal life and Eddie Redmayne's oscar-winning performance really was amazing.  Excellent movie.

Birdman, on the other hand, I didn't care for at all.  Comedy?  Won best picture?  Well, that only makes sense because it appeared to be a picture made for all the people in the industry...and they were the voters.  Watching it felt kind of like going to a class reunion with a spouse who went to a different school...one long evening of private jokes, everyone else having a good time, and you sitting on the outside, politely smiling, but not really getting any of it, you know?  

Was anything but funny to me.  Depressing, disjointed, and one big, long downer...with a crazy, ambiguous, unsatisfying ending.  I really enjoy dark humor...but this one totally missed the mark for me altogether.  I still can't believe it got best picture.

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Sorry.  I usually figure if I don't have anything good to say...well, you know.  But best picture?!  I am still totally baffled by that.  Did anyone else see it and love it?  I am mystified.  Except for knowing who the voters were. 

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I did love The Theory of Everything and am looking forward to seeing The Imitation Game which is coming out the end of the month on Netflix.  I haven't even watched the latest season of House of Cards yet and the newest season of Mad Men just showed up on Netflix, too.  Always plenty to watch.  :)

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I hope this is a better day and I can get back to the sewing machine.  That's the plan.  (But that was the plan yesterday--LOL!)  I am on the mend now, though.  Today is bound to be better than yesterday.

  Have a great week!!

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"I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road."

Stephen Hawking