The swimming pool runneth over following an all night rain Tuesday night. It is still softly raining, which is so unusual for this time of year. Enough already!!
Bruce is in Vancouver for some meetings and apparently the weather there is not too dissimilar. Chilly, rainy and overcast. Please come back to us Mr. Sun.
Speaking of the sun, I was remiss in my last post for not mentioning Cheryle's big Thursday night showing at the Avalon Gallery downtown. Her very first gallery showing in Orlando at one of the most prestigious places in our area to show art. Arriving early, no being fashionably late for this girl, the sun was setting over downtown, prompting me to pull over to take a few shots.
The little pin dots of white are cars heading into downtown during the evening commute.
Although they don't work downtown, both Bill and Dave work for Sun Trust, the tallest building pictured. Speaking of their work, I am so proud of Mr. Bill for finishing the year as #3 in the whole company at his position. As has been brought up before, he was my most challenging teenager, and it is such a good feeling, as a Mom, to see how he got past all that teenage angst to make a good life. :)
So, here is the gallery:
Don't actually know why that last piece is leaning...hope they've straightened it up by now. Cheryle (in the red) is chatting up Bunker and Cathy.
I am so, so, proud of her. While on the topic of art, I rarely get any emails of significance anymore, however, one that Central Floridians will be interested in is the one from the chairman of the Maitland Spring Art Festival stating that they are canceling the show due to lack of interest! I can't say as I blame the artists because there are so many, many, shows, and the only time I did that one, the attendance was spotty at best. The buyers, mostly nonexistent.
Monday morning, bright and early, well not really so early, but anyway, when I pulled up the women were waiting for the doors to open.
Look...we do have occasional blue skies!! A big group of us got right down to sewing following instructions from our leader, Sharleen. I worked on topstitching the shields and pockets for the shields. It has been fun getting to know the ladies. Susan, pictured in the front, is a former elementary school teacher who was thrilled to retire. Floridians will undoubtedly understand her frustration with how the school system is functioning of late.
Also available were some photographic prints showing the delivery of the kits to Malawi. On the back of the photo it says, "from your hands to their hands, 8,328 miles away." How great is that? And how amazing that the need has been identified.
Just before leaving I got a text from Pam requesting a consultation--I replied, I'll stop by on my way home. Discussing where exactly to cut apart the nine patch block she is making, we sorted it all out. Ready to get home to my honey I hopped in the car, turned the key and nothing. Nada. Fortunately, Glenn was just then coming down the street having left work early because he was not feeling so well. He had a slow charger which he attached to my battery, and there my car sat, all night long. Thank goodness for both friends, and the car dying in their driveway!
In the morning, after taking Bruce to the airport, I rode my bike over, rolled it into the back of the Pilot, and off I went in search of a new battery. Pep Boys had one in stock; bonus points for being super close. The waiting area was clean, but grim.
I think the funniest part of the picture above is that little yellow tree air freshener. The water fountain was held together by clear duct tape. Yeesh! The good news is that it took no time at all to put in the new battery, and before I knew it, I was on my way to the grocery store. My grocery shopping has been so spotty and disorganized of late that one of the things I needed was plain salt. Who runs out of salt???
Back home, I started work on another quilt for Project Linus. Using a mix of new and estate sale fabrics, I used a super simple design on this little quilt. I also used, and have been using, my seam ripper way more than I can ever remember!
On some blog I read the author called using a seam ripper, reverse sewing. Yup. The plaid in the front is from the estate sale and one thing I notice about old fabrics is the tiny selvage and name of the manufacturer. Today, instead of that tiny "Hi Fashion Fabrics..." they use large print, causing you to waste precious fabric. While at Wandering Stitches the other day, I saw some batik fabric for $13.50 a yard which is not anything you want to waste, for sure.
Because it was so simple, I had it done in no time and was ready to do the hand sewing, except I had no purple thread. Hmmm....none in Mom Peck's sewing box, but alas, I found some in Grandma Loveland's sewing box!
Sitting myself down in the living room, I turned on Netflix to find a documentary, and did I ever find a doozy...Best of Enemies.
In spite of me writing that my Mother said I should never wear bangs, there is new evidence to the contrary sent to me by Nancy.....
I had them in the above photo, taken in Buffalo...that's me on the left of my Mother. Carol, too, is wearing a jumpsuit, albeit one that seems as if she needed a diaper change. :)
Then too, when we moved to Florida, I was sporting some bangs....
Again, I am on the left in front. Nancy has grown a bit, held, of course by our Mother who sure looks pretty glam for a woman who has had five children already! She went on to have a sixth, although Lord knows why because she certainly was not suited to such a big family, and that is a fact.
After reading my last post, both sister Nancy and sister Maureen called with bang stories. Maureen claimed that Carol and I cut each other's bangs, and the photo above sure looks like it! Nancy recalled that our Father cut our hair and did not do a very good job of it. I will have to accept these memories as fact because I recall virtually nothing. Sad, but true.
That said, in all of my school pictures I'm either wearing a headband, or my hair is behind my ear, so that validates some of what I had to say earlier! Someone must have convinced my Father that he was not to touch our hair anymore! I only wish I had the photos my sisters have...my batch is so puny, with hardly any of the rest of the family, and those are the ones that interest me the most.
Our weather has been up and down lately; the other morning I set out on my bicycle under a very gray and chilly sky. A big flock of birds huddled in Lake Pineloch. Stopping to take this photograph, it began raining; fortunately there was a big tree I could shelter under. My camera went around my neck and inside my jacket!
David and Michelle live in one of the barely visible buildings across the lake. This chilly weather suits my friend Angela just fine. We had a nice visit on Friday afternoon. Guess what was happening when I arrived? Her friend Cindy was over and they were making some curtain panels for a charity pregnancy clinic!
Angela is doing okay--good and bad days--just what you would expect. I only wish she would eat a little more as she is mighty thin.
I finished the quilting on Friday, attached the binding, and all that was left was hand sewing the binding onto the back side. Saturday morning was a perfect time to do so as it was cold and gray. Plus, Bruce had to go to the job sight, so I sat there for way too long in my long robe, sewing away. While doing so I watched the Glen Campbell documentary on Netflix, and let me tell you, it is good. What is extraordinary is his ability to play guitar like nobodies business even when he no longer recognizes his family. The brain is a mystery isn't it?
So, here is a look at the finished quilt....
the back is entirely different due more to necessity than artistry!
The sun finally shone late in the day...what you are seeing is the sun on the top half, while the bottom half is in shadow. I've got one more simple one in the works for the Linus project, and then I might just make something for us!
We had a fire going Saturday afternoon. Doesn't it looks pretty in the "new" fireplace?
Do you see what I see below?
That would be DUST on them there shelves! I needed to actually use some of the shelving for sewing supplies which forced me to finally DUST them! Looks much better now.
While having my hair cut last week, Monica told me about another Asian street food place situated in the midst of a big stretch of Asian businesses on Colonial Drive. She said it was nice to look at, and she was right. We saw it for ourselves after church on Sunday.
The simple decor was perfect and the food was yummy too. The owners are Malaysian, so I suppose there is an emphasis on that cuisine? I figured we would like it just because I like the font they used for signage.
Mamak...give it a try if you live around here. I used to buy my work uniforms from the place you see pictured a few doors down. Whenever I began to miss working, I remembered how sick I was of wearing uniforms and that little nag went right away!
Following lunch we drove out to Costco to get the glasses and I'm not clear if I can get used to them. It is complicated...
Today was Days for Girls, which I'll show you in my next post.
My goodness, it is time to think of something for dinner.
