Just another quick home improvemnt project.....

Here is a picture from Vertical Challenge, the helicopter show at the Hiller Aviation Museum.
There were a couple of other pictures I wanted to put here, but Blogger is having trouble uploading right now.

Yesterday we got Joseph off to camp. I went early because I had to give Janow some Isoxsuprine for his feet and break a $20. Joseph needed $34-$40 in small bills for camp activities and getting meals on the drive to camp and back. The treasurer adult hods the money and gives it to each scout as needed, helping them make wise choices. After I did these, I met Joseph and Dave at the place they were mustering. Joseph was wearing worn out sneakers, so I rushed him home to get his hiking boots. After that, everything went smoothly.

I have been a little unwise in time usage. I logged on to
test adventure games again. I haven't looked there in maybe 5 years or so. These are text based games, no graphics. I get into them easily and have wasted many hours on these in the past. There are new ones since last time. I am in one called Fantasy Quest II, which is supposed to be medium difficulty. I is not hard, probably because I am not stuck yet.

We went up Mt. Hamilton yesterday because Dave had to do something to the spring. I thought we would be there forever. He said it wouldn't take him long, but I know how these short little projects can stretch out for hours and hours. This one didn't! He was done faster than he thought he would be. Then we unloaded a bunch of stuff and put the new Ikea sofa together. We had to come home because Janow needed more Isoxsuprine.

I worked a little on a saddlepad and the pillows I am covering, then we went to La Milpa for dinner and came home to a movie. We watched Once, an independent film about Irish musicians. Chris, I thought about you and you might like it. It was a bit different but I liked it a lot. It was a totally different kind of movie from the last one we saw called Fool's Gold that was all big money Hollywood Glitz and action.

sewing, yesterday and today

Yesterday, I covered the seat cushion for this wicker chair that Joseph and I got at Ikea.
Then I covered the two little pillows with chicken fabric.

The Oakland As fleece that is draped on the chair is from Joanne's, where we were getting the chicken fabric and some other home dec fabric to cover pillows I wanted to get today from Target. You can see that fabric in the saddlepad picture where it is the background. Joseph saw the fleece and wanted a blanket, and it was 30% OFF, so I bought a yard and a half, cut off the selvages and put a zig-zag hem. I had to use the Pfaff Smart 100, which is a very lightweight machine. I am used to bigger more pwerfull machines. Every tiem I went too fast, the thread jammed. The littloe Pfaff likes to go slow. SLow with a zig zag stich is really slow. It was hard to make myself pay attention, I was so tempting to look around for something more interesting.

He is satisfied with his As throw, but it is too hot to use it now.

Then I photoshopped the Small House batik on to the sofa picture from yesterday. The sofa was too wide so I squished it into a loveseat.


I worked on this foundation pieced star yesterday and today. This dressage pad was finished today. The star I am working on is for a navy blue pad. I've been using the Juki TL. Dave oiled the clutch and it makes a huge difference. Now I don't want to sell it.
Janow's feet are Bothering him a lot. I feel awefull. He got new shoes yesterday and I had Phil put wege pads back on. I had to get more Isoxsuprine, but it hadn't come yet. Jay had some I could borrow from Domino, so he got it this morning. His came today while I was at the pharmacy getting stuff for me and at Target getting those pillows and a new coffee grinder for horse pills.

Joseph is at the American Cancer Society Relay for Life With BSA troop 92. He didn't want to volunteer, but since we will be at Vertical Challenge tomorrow when they are having the car wash, I told him he had to. Car Wash or Walk for Life(and miss the helicopter show). Then he found out that some of his friends from our street are going to be there, so he was excited to go.

Today is shorter than you think.

It's turning out to be a busy summer. Tuesday, Joseph lead the flag ceremony at City Hall for the city council meeting. He is helping the set up for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life on Friday with his scout troop. Sunday morning he leaves for a week of Boy Scout camp at Camp Wente. He is signed up for swimming in August.

Dave oiled the clutch on the Juki industrial and now it works great. I don't want to sell it after all. I used it yesterday to work on this pad.

And I took a picture of the sofa to use with Photoshop and put some art into without unpacking it and hanging it up and dealing with the glare from the glass.

I.m getting better at photoshop. Two of my ETSY listings have batik pictures that are photoshopped onto the wall.

Janow's feet are bothering him again, so I am going up twice a day to give him meds and walk him to keep the circulation up. The walking seems to help the most. Of course, it is the hardest to do! He really likes dusk and dawn the best. I think it's the glare of sunlight on a white face with dark eyes. I got out some acrylic paint and put football smudges under his eyes. They seem to water less that way.

Someone on ETSY was having trouble taking pictures of a jar and it was suggested that she try the mountain setting on her camera. I'll have to try that.

warm fuzzies

Warmfuzzies, this one is about 3 feet square. It won a first place at California State Fair.
It's $465.00

Click on it to make it bigger. You can see more detail.

more misk

Still many many things happening at once.

I'm reading "Guards! Guards!" by Terry Pratchet. I really have a good time reading about Discworld.

We have the key to the chain on the gate and we are recorded with the county, so now we own dirt in the mountains.


We attended Joseph's 6th grade promotion ceremony. Dave was sad that the elementary life was over. I was happy to be moving on to a middle school Mom. Joseph was business-like about the whole deal, so I don't know how he felt. Probably a little of both. But....soon forgotten. The boredom of summer vacation began one hour later.


He's been practicing his skateboard.

I've been making saddlepads. Still progressing on the same 13, none finsihed yet. Finally got Google Shopping Cart in place. That was hard, my credit union was having a hard time getting me the info I needed.

Busy? Still?

I haven't blogged much lately. It's not that I haven't been up to something. I've been up to lots. Here are some photos or things I am working on. At last count(yesterday) I had 13 saddle pads in progress. That's not a lucky number, so I really need to do one of two things; start a 14th, or finish one so that I have 12. Which one do you thing I'll pick?
I have been doing a lot of things other than making saddle pads. Bill Wall is the featured artist on my website this month.


Click here to see some of Bill's work in oils.

I've also been reading some books. A wide variety. I get them from the library, or Sarah gives them to me after she reads them. I and up reading some things I wouldn't pick if I were spending my own money on them. When there is less at stake, it feels less risky to begin a book you aren't sure you will like. The spookiest book lately is one I would not have ordinarily picked, but I was in the supermarket, an older smaller one, and the selection was limited. I bough Heart Shaped Box by Tom Hill. It was about a guy who bought a ghost on an on-line auction site. Very creepy. I read how they made decisions on what to do or what not to do, then ended up doing it anyway. I was thinking "No! Don't do that!" "Oh Geez!" "Bad things are gonna happen now!" It was interesting that the characters in this book were not made of what they thought or what they did, but how they thought of the others.


I have also been spending lots of time going here and there and signing papers. Not to mention phone tag. I hate phone tag. There are some people who never answer the phone, they let voice mail take it. When they call back, if they don't get a live person, they don't leave information. I guess they only deal with people who are never in a spot where they can't answer right away. One person, on being instructed to "leave any questions you have so that I can answer them if I call and get your voice mail" left the very informative message: "I have some questions."

Monterey

Here are some photos of our recent trip to Monterey.
We went there to celebrate Joseph's birthday. The main destination was the Prisidio Museum. That was great. It's an old cavalry installation. At one time there were 2000 horses there! That's a lot of horses. There were also a lot of cannons.
We spent a little time in the Maritime Museum, also great. We went on the beach for a while, but it was cold and cloudy. Joseph forgot to pack a jacket or sweatshirt, so I bought him a fleece jacket at a gift shop. We ate lunch at a seafood restaurant that assured everyone they served only fish obtained by sustainable methods. I guess I'm not the only one who won't eat fish because it is not sustainable.

Following the death of Chica(who as a breed and age that made her very susceptible to heat)I tried to get a new chick so Paula would not be lonely. After nearly a week of trying to introduce Audrey so she wouldn't get pecked to death, I got two more chicks. Maybe if Paula had to choose which chick to peck they would hang around long enough to not be strangers needing pecking. Chickens, however, are stubborn in their dim wittedness, and after another week, there was still too much pecking. All three chicks went home.

Joseph's birthday dinner, on his actual birthday which was the day before we left, was meatloaf. Both Joseph and Dave love meatloaf. Dave was going to do the shopping, so I said "Get ground beef for meatloaf." So he brought home a package that was just shy of one pound. So I made a one pound meatloaf. It was about the size of a St Bernard poop. Dave said "That's a small meatloaf."

Now I know the real reason Dave loves meatloaf. He thought it was my special method of morphing one pound of meat into two pounds of meatloaf. Two for the price of one. It was a tasty meatloaf and it cooked real fast in the oven.









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