lick

Here are some pictures Dave took last weekend at the Lick Observatory. The air was so clear. Amazing after the smoke from the fires.

You can see the road we came up. One of the turns was so tight it had a mirror posted so you could see around it.

You can see a lot form up there! We took binoculars and just looked at everything.
Here is Dave by the seismograph. He has those flip up sun glass lenses so he looks real touristy. Never try to look like a native, people might ask you for directions.

Tuesday, he did not have those lenses. We were in the car and he remarked how much they helped. "Mom was right." So there you go Peggy! Thirty years later, you were right after all. But you knew that, didn't you?

Maura, I spelled seismograph right!

Beneath the Planet of the Laptops

My laptop has returned for the sequel. There are many pictures still in the camera, waiting to be uploaded.


This is the last saddle pad of it's kind for the summer. It's finished now, but this is what it looked like before. The finished pictures are 'still in the camera.'







over and out

bags

Bags? Well, the pictures on yesterday's post are saddlepads, not bags, but Ambleside Designs makes bags. Carryall size and handbag size. Not being a bag type person, I hadn't even noticed. I have enough baggage, I don't need more. But Kyra noticed, so even if you are not a horse person, you may want to look.

The bags Kyra mentioned are on this page:
Ambleside bags

I went to Kyra's blog by following her name/link in yesterday's comment. Can you imagine metal quilts? "No?" Go to her blog and see them. "Yes," you can imagine metal quilts? Not like these, you can't! You still need to go to her blog and see them!
Black Threads

Still no laptop.......

I saw the movie Donnie Darko. I had read the reviews, but nothing could have prepared me for that. It was very good, I have to see it again. It was weird.

Ambleside Designs

Look at these! Great saddlespads, each is unique. I don't know how they got the machine to do this. I wanted to do this, but found that I needed a walking foot to go through this thickness with layers, and walking feet are not good for machine quilting.
Ambleside Designs


Still no laptop and no pictures, but I have somebody else's pictures! Here are some great pads from Ambleside designs:





I put their link in the sidebar to the right.

still no pictures

Still no pictures, no laptop, no photoshop. Today I plan to sit and stare at Dave while he does it. I think that's what he has been waiting for.

BSA Troop 92 is going to Raging Waters water slides today. Joseph is supposed to be ready and at the departure point at 8:30. So far, at 7:47am he has migrated to the sofa. I have placed apple juice and bacon nearby. I have blown the smell of the bacon onto him. I think I'll go turn on the TV.

I don't understand these people who try not to move until noon. They miss the best part of the day. I have already read some of my current book: Reaper Man. I boiled another batik and it is now cooling. I finished prepareing the second canvas and blocking it out. Then I applied the first layer of color. Now I have two of those ready for wax.

After that, I cut PFD, four fat quarters for crackle dying, and three 14x14s for pumpkins. Pumpkins are fun to batik, and they always find homes before Halloween. Not like other holiday stuff that hangs around until next year.

I dried and folded two loads of laundry. Silver came out and went back in when she was ready for her raisens. She always goes back in by herself and she always gets raisens, or sometimes bannana.

I fed the cats. We are almost out of cat food.

Janow is much improved. I will see him after I drop Joseph off with his troup.

I'm looking forward to doing hot wax today. It has been too hot all week, the wax would not have hardened enough and would have wicked out into the wrong part of the fabric.

Snap Fish was having a penny print sale so I ordered a bunch of snapshots. The shipping is high unless you get a lot of pictures printed, so I save them up to do big batches. I ordered over 100. Some are copies for granparents. If they come, I will hold them for ransom. For the laptop.
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Just checked on Joseph. Still comatose. The bacon was gone. The apple juice was not. I woke him up.
"Did you eat the bacon?"
"No."
"whiskers!"

You snooze, you lose.

still

Still no laptop, so no pictures. I started two new pads this week, and completed the batik on one. It is ready for wax removal.

I had an embellished pad almost done, just needed to add the binding. When I started to put it on, it was the wrong color, so I picked a new color and made binding, but when I started to put it on, it looked aweful, so I tried the old binding that I had decided was wrong. It was much better, very nice, in fact. I don't know why it was wrong before. I can sew that on today and get that pad done.

I also did some sketches for a window shade. I came up with four designs, two that I like enough to work on more. I cut two pieces of canvas and got them stretched out on tubes, now I wait for them to dry. When that is done, I will look at my sketches again and see how much I still like them.

The the design on a foundation-pieced embellishment based on flying geese is finsihed. I drafted the foundation for a pad and a half before I ran out of foundation stuff. I can select fabric today when there is better light. Right now, there is no light, but the birds say it is coming soon.

Dave and Joseph are going up to My Hamilton for the 4th weekend. Janow is still needing lots of care and I am not going. If I went, I would be a mess and not have a good time. I would also be likely to ruin everybody's good time. There was a lot of pressure to go. I can't do everything. If I went, and Janow died, I would take the hate to my grave. Sometimes there is no 'right' answer and you have to pick between wrong ones.

I had a new primitive sweatshirt idea, so I got it started. Then I had another idea and I started that too. The next part is hand work and I can take it to the barn today to work on between handwalks and medication.

I can hang with Silver this weekend too. She is so funny. I need to get her a new project towel at Savers soon. The old towel piece is mere lace.

bummer fun

Summer continues. Having a preteen with friends on myspace has somehow resulted in my laptop being corrupted. I had just recently backed up, so a lot of files are saved. I have managed to save the rest, I think. Now the whole think needs to be wiped out and everything reloaded. I don't know when that will happen.

Everybody waiting for pictures is going to have to wait longer.

The Boy Scout returned from Camp Wente with three merit badges and ready for rank advancement after a conference with the troop leader. He also has some pretty good respiratory irritation from breathing smoke from wildfires. He wa shoarse when he got back, and has a bad cough still, three days after getting back.

As you may know, California has hundreds of wildfires burning, really, over 800 at last count. Most started by lightening. This counts as weather. We may not have ice storms, blizzards, or hurricanes, but we have this. This state leads the nation in wildfires, both by acreage and perecentage. They destroy homes and businesses, cause evacuations, effect health. Billions of dollars are spent fighting them. We are not dangerously close to any here, but we get ash falling on our cars, and the sun has been shrouded for weeks. The air quality is so low they are advising people to stay indoors if they can. People with allergies and asthma are having a particularly hard time.

Janow is still having a lot of difficulty with his feet and I am medicating him three times a day. It is wearing me out. I feel so bad for him, and scared too. That is throwing a lot of summer plans in jeopardy, if not out the window. I want to not care about my summer plans, but it is disappointing other people.

I am getting more pads started,as well as finished, but with computer problems, I cannot upload photos to show you.

I also have three good floor cloth/window shade plans and I need to prepare the canvas for those this week.