The Ayes (i's) Have it

I just finished reading The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. It's a fictional account of Ernest Hemingway's first marriage as told by his wife, Hadley Richardson. It takes into account their time in Paris in the 1920's whe he wrote The Sun Also Rises and all of their real life friends such as Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

This was a time after WWI. They were survivors. Celebrating every day as though it were their last. As Cole Porter wrote, "Anything Goes".

This is my "i" quilt (18" x 20"). We each took a vowel. Many ideas came to mind (like ice cream) but I like the graphic quality of the lower case 'i'. I originally thought of solid backgrounds with printed fabric i's but then I came across this great fabric in the stash that I had purchased from Kari (see earlier post) and this is what evolved.

Yesterday, the whole bunch went to Kalamazoo to celebrate my dad's 81st birthday. It was a beautiful day to travel and a fine day for a birthday party complete with corned beef and cabbage, of course!

Another Birthday

Another year. Happy 2012 and Happy Birthday to me! It was also Ian's birthday so we celebrated together.

Cubby is always up for a party.

My sister gave me a present of fabric money. I hope it doesn't upset Jan's tummy.

Fall Fun

Last Saturday we travelled to Lowell to the Fallasburg Fall Festival.  It was a blustery, rainy day so I didn't bother with the camera. Despite the weather, we had a great time.  There was a play structure with a 10 foot climbing wall, three slides, a fire pole, a bridge and lots of nooks and crannies, just right for an almost 4 (!!!) year old. We also drew a scary face on a softball sized pumpkin and Cubby had a Jack-O-Lantern painted on his cheek. He's getting to be an old pro at this face painting thing. He managed to get through the day and all the way home before he"accidentally" splashed water on it. 

Look what came home with me! I couldn't resist this happy face. He's going to find a place in my garden if I ever find my garden. Oh, well. There's always next year. For the older crowd, there was an arts and crafts show, music and lots of yummy treats including warm baked apple dumplings with whipped cream ...mmmmm!

 
I won't say it's been awhile since I've mowed but.... look what's growing in my backyard.

Now who planted these?

National Library Week

Happy National Library Week everyone!  Here's a photo of my sister in California and her two collies, Matthew and Timmy supporting the Burbank Public Library.

I was at a jobs networking meeting last week and a woman said that she's always been interested in being a librarian. An IT geek said something negative about books being on their way out.... so I told him there is SO MUCH more going on at libraries than just books.

Check out your local library this week!

Sledding - Who me?

This morning Claire and Cubby came over to help me shovel and brave the winter snow. Yesterday, I waded through knee-deep snow to make sure that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle plastic sleds were still out in the shed. First we sledded down the hill in my front yard and then all (including Gennie) piled into the car to go to the BIG hill at Post Oak. We had a really great time.  I almost got Gennie to sit on my lap on the sled but I was worried that she would try to bail out half way down and we'd end up in a tumbled mess.  More pictures on Claire's Facebook page.

Yes, gamma gamma, I AM the king of the mountain. Hi Ya!

Milestone Birthday

My Aunt Eva in Pennsylvania is celebrating her 75th birthday this week. She has always been one of my favorite relatives and is now my only remaining Aunt. (Unfortunately, that happens as you get older - did I just have another birthday recently? - oh well.) I wanted to send a little surprise in her birthday card so I made this little heart (4"x 4") to let her know how much I love her. The center heart is beaded cross stitch on perforated paper and the rest is wool felt with more beads. I hope she has a wonderful celebration!

Last night I finally finished Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade. (Linda, see you at Foster on Wednesday.) It's basically a murder mystery with other stuff - war, politics, a little hot gay romance, thrown in. Not as good as the Outlander Series but Lord John is one of the story lines in the latest Outlander - An Echo in the Bone - so I wanted to catch up on his character before I started reading Echo.

One of the Coffee Jam quilters loaned me a Sharyn McCrumb novel - The Songcatcher. A long time ago, I read She Walks These Hills also by McCrumb and just loved it.  I can't decide if I'll take a break from the 18th century and read that or go on to Lord John and the Hand of Devils.