Really Random Thursday, 7/18/19

As you are reading this, I am in Minnesota at my yearly quilting retreat. Fun pictures coming up next week!

The grandkids had another sleepover last week while Aaron and Christa went to the coast with friends. On Friday night, we took them to Oakhurst, the foothill town about an hour away, to see an old-fashioned melodrama at the Golden Chain Theater. I have been wanting to go to a performance there for years, and this one looked like a lot of fun.

It was about a super hot town in Mesa, Arizona, and included a damsel in distress about to lose her business, the villain who wanted to steal all the money, and the good guy, along with not one but two cow stampedes! The melodrama genre by nature is very cheesy, but this performance was well cast, and well performed, and the cow stampedes (very cool, using strobe lights) were a fun addition.

We all had a good time!

Here's a funny thing about Gabe--he sleeps with a lot of quilts. Seriously. I would have died from heat stroke. We normally keep our house at 80 degrees at night, sometimes 78 if it has been a particularly hot day (we have had solar for years so we are able to stay nice and cool). He always declares that our house is "soooo cold." So he sleeps with six quilts!!

Gramps likes to spoil them with a made-to-order breakfast--blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon. Yum.

On Saturday, we headed down to Reedley to see my dad.

First we had lunch, and the kids got to play with wiki sticks while they waited for their food.

 It had been awhile since the kids had seen Papa. It has gotten to the point where my dad has a hard time recognizing them or remembering their names. But he certainly enjoyed the visit.

There is a pool table downstairs where they played pool for a bit while Mark wheeled my dad back to his room.

Speaking of my dad, awhile back we discovered my mother's birth certificate, only to find out that her name was spelled Beverley, rather than Beverly. It remains a mystery, as every other piece of formal ID--passport, driver's license, social security, Medicare card, etc., is spelled Beverly.

And then we found my father's birth certificate. His name (we thought...) was John Wesley Gunther, although he has always been called Wes. Again, every piece of formal ID. Imagine our surprise...

Haha, number 1.

I might be teaching some friends to sew. This will be the textbook. :) I highly recommend this book by Shea Henderson.

I have been working on my crochet afghan. I love the progression of colors. One more set of 15 colors and it will be complete!

I made some cute pincushions from some little planters I bought on Amazon. Only after I checked my bill after they had been delivered did I discover that rather than the three for $15 I thought I had paid, they were $15 EACH! They sure are cute, though.

I'm really enjoying this "summer sampler" as well. This is block 3, the first time I have really done any improv. Although it was out of my comfort zone, it was a lot of fun.

Haha, number 2.

Hope your weekend is a good one!

Really Random Thursday, 7/11/19

Happy 7/11 day.  In years past, we have taken the grandkids to 7/11 to get free slushies, but they are busy today. Have you ever done that?

Last Thursday was July 4, and Mark made special plans. He bought tickets to see the fireworks at Bass Lake, a mountain lake about an hour from us, which included dinner.  Normally, we sit in lawn chairs on our front lawn and hope someone down the street has bought fireworks, so seeing fireworks over the lake sounded like such fun.

The weather was perfect! First we stopped to see our friend, Marilyn, whose place at Bass Lake has the most gorgeous view.

Then we headed over to Ducey's Lodge for dinner. Mark had reserved the perfect two spots and our table was in an ideal location. I wish I had taken pictures of dinner because it was so good! There was so much to choose from. Then we just needed to wait for the sun to go down.

I LOVE fireworks. And while I wish I could have taken pictures, I really just wanted to enjoy them, but not through a camera lens.  I did take a couple of pictures, however.

This was my very favorite!

On Saturday and Sunday, Aaron and Christa headed down to Santa Barbara to see good friends, so the grandkids spent the night. They still love having sleepovers at our house, for which I'm grateful.

We were still in a red, white and blue mood, so Charlotte made these most delicious meringue ice cream sandwiches, filled with Talenti raspberry sorbet. Yum!

Mark came up with a fun game--we need to find a better name than tee ball golf. But basically you put out a couple of large buckets, hit the ball off a batting tee, and then use your golf swing to get it into the bucket. Easy, but so much fun! And no wifi required.

Charlotte is such a good big sister. Playdoh for the win.

Haha number 1. Mark and I start our day with a chuckle each morning by reading Pickles. And Mark has been known to volunteer a time or two to take a nap for the kids. :)

We both found some time to be creative. Mark made these beautiful dichroic fused glass plates. A few people expressed interest in purchasing them, so we finally figured out our costs. Wowsers. We are always surprised at the price of dichroic glass per square inch. But if you could see them in person, they are stunningly gorgeous!

I'm working on the Summer Sampler 2019. Although I usually purchase the patterns each summer, I have never actually participated. I'm enjoying this one--a new block is released each week, and it focuses on a specific skill. This one was obviously half square triangles.

Haha, number 2. Guilty...

Levi is going to summer camp in a couple of weeks. I looked at the bag he brought to our house with his toothpaste and toothbrush--basically the plastic bag he received from the dentist. I decided that wasn't going to fly for camp. So I made this cute zipper pouch, lined in laminated cotton which can handle some dampness.

Haha number 3. I only update my iPhone when the camera has some cool new features...

NOTE TO HEATHER: If you are Heather and left a comment a couple of weeks ago inquiring where my father is living, it is Palm Village in Reedley. If you have questions, don't hesitate to email me! You are a "no-reply commenter" and I have no way to get in touch with you.

Have a fun weekend.

Really Random Thursday, 7/4/19

Happy July 4th to those of you in the United States!

Last Friday, we completely cleaned out my father's room as we moved him from memory care to skilled nursing. He didn't take much with him--a few clothes, a recliner, a CD player with CDs, that's about it. He shares a room so there is not much extra space.  We saw him yesterday, and the initial anger about being there instead of his cozy room seems to have subsided.

There were a few things that we weren't quite sure what to do with. These handpainted switchplate covers that I made my mother, probably around 1985, were given to a dear friend of hers, who is thrilled to have them, which makes me very happy as well.

Some things I took a picture of but didn't keep, such as my brother's doctoral dissertation, recycled per his instructions. I couldn't even begin to tell you what it is about. Probably why he is in charge of a department in the Washington DC Federal Reserve, and I'm a quilter. :)

This odd newspaper I found in a box. That baby girl would be me.

Mark decided to hang this in his fused glass workshop--it was just too hard to let go.

An American Legion medal my mother received at 8th grade graduation, 1942.

My least favorite quilt of any that I have ever made was this one--not a good picture of it but the only one I have.

About 20 years ago, my mother wanted me to make a quilt for her, which I was happy to do. She chose a popular pattern at the time, Garden Twist by Sharon Yenter. The original pattern was made with a splashy floral print. So beautiful. So not my mother's style. Instead she chose ivory and medium blue. If you could see a close-up of the main fabric, you would see that it is a tone-on-tone tiny rose print. I didn't enjoy making it, and I didn't like it when it was done. But she LOVED it, and that was the important thing. So last week, as we were cleaning out the room, I thought, "NOW what do I do with this quilt??" A good friend of Mark's was helping to load the furniture in the rental truck and mentioned that his wife had always wanted a handmade quilt. I happily gave it to him, and I know it will continue to be loved.

I repurposed some more of my china painting--a soap dish holds pins, a cup holds pens on my cutting table.

And I think that is pretty much the end of things. So many memories...

Levi read scripture on Sunday morning, along with two of his best friends.

A quilter on Instagram started something called "mid year roundup" where she wanted a collage of things we had accomplished in the first six months of 2019. I struggled to find nine things--I pretty much spent most of the first four months of 2019 curled up in the corner of the couch doing nothing, as I regained my energy from radiation therapy. But I did accomplish a couple things. And then I realized that actually completing radiation therapy was a huge accomplishment, so I added that picture in the very center of the collage.

I then decided to make a couple of collages that corraled all the "month markers" I have posted on Instagram. I like month markers because they are a good frame of reference in what can be an endless time continuum of photos.

I can always tell by the receipt who has filled up our two cars. Mark works really hard at making sure it ends up with an even dollar amount. Me? When the gas tank is full, I'm done, no matter what the amount is. This is so him!

Charlotte and her friend Grace are saving money for summer camp, so they started doing some baking. This is nothing new to them--they have done a lot of baking together and know what they are doing! They even built their own website, Bake It 'Til You Make It, with pictures and descriptions of everything that is available. Very professional.

We bought some carmel corn and some rice krispie bites. The packaging is cute and I know it will taste as good as it looks. I'm so proud of them.

And my friend, Kelly, posted this. Happy 4th everyone!