Happy Birthday!

A special post today to wish my father-in-law (John Anderson) a Happy Birthday. We're glad that he's out of the cold and snow, and hope he's enjoying the sun we ordered for today!

Where does the time go?

It's been over a week since my last post. I really did think about things to write but I was never at my computer when those thoughts occured so it didn't get done. Lots has happened during these past 10 days and I'll try to get caught up on at least some of it. A note to those in ND: This post contains forward-looking expectations for all of you. I just read this morning that the southern part of ND received an additional 15-inches of snow this week. Bismarck has now received over 70-inches for the winter...I don't care who you are or where you live, that's a lot of snow. So, while I'm impatiently waiting out here, knowing that Spring is just around the corner in the Pacific NW, I know that all of you back there are probably not going to see any sign of Spring for a very long time. Really sorry about that. Really.

We worked in the backyard, trimming overgrown shrub roses and pruning the lace leaf maple, as well as pulling weeds - I swear they grow throughout the winter.

There are signs of the first flowers in the yard...like this one.

And I was very happy to see the first shoots from a peony - right there, do you see it? I added the arrows in case you couldn't find it.

Peonies, along with hollyhocks, are among my favorite flowers.

Here is what the path looked like after pulling weeds.

And here's what it looked like after I picked up the weeks...much better. Randy later hosed it down so it was nice and clean (his parents were coming out so we wanted it to look nice).

The daylilies are always some of the first plants to start growing in the backyard and while I know it'll be another couple of months before they flower, I always look at these new shoots as a promise that Spring (and warmer weather) is coming. These are all going to need dividing this year - just add it to the to-do list that just never seems to end!

We still need to pick up the old leaves that we scattered at the base of the bananas last fall. It wasn't on our "short list" of things that needed to get done now...another list addition! These are going to have to be thinned, too. This grove that started with one banana plant was 18 plants last fall. They're starting to remind me of zucchini. My friends better make sure their car doors are locked!

I'm pretty surprised the mint survived. We didn't cover it before all the snow and cold in December but I found these little shoots after clearing away the dead branches. Good thing, too, because it's almost Mojito season!

The windmill palm also came through without damage. Remember this photo?

Here it is now...much better. It looks happier, too, doesn't it?

Randy really knocked back the shrub roses - these guys really like the hot, dry hill they're planted on. And while I know trimming at this time of year means we'll lose some of the flowers, if we don't trim them, they'd soon be inside the house having dinner with us! (They don't really grow quite that fast but you get the picture.) I did find some new growth after all the trimming so there will be some flowers.

The other thing that says Spring is that the goldfish start spending more time near the top of the pond. And that's always fun to see. I counted 15 at one point.

A traveling brother

My brother works overseas and whenever he travels, he buys things for my sisters and me. And sometimes my nieces get in on the presents, too. The thing is, he doesn't need to buy us things but he does anyway. And he has really nice taste so we're always happy with whatever he gets us. Like these wooden tulips and porcelain vase from Amsterdam. We got these a couple of years ago - I get to put mine out a couple of months earlier than Janis and Jean!

Ray did a couple of shifts in Iraq and while he was there, we got all sorts of wonderful things - from a deck of playing cards showing the "most wanted" to a water pipe. We'd have preferred that he not be there at all, though.

We haven't used the waterpipe but it's a great conversation piece!

He took his R&Rs in Thailand and other exotic lands...we reaped the rewards of those trips, too. We received wood carvings, beautiful silk tableclothes (the red one below), shawls and scarves (the blue one in the above picture), and a string of pearls with matching earrings.

He was only in Africa for a few weeks but managed to bring us back treasures from there, too...crockadile purses and hematite necklaces. And on a short business trip to Germany, he bought us glass angel ornaments and porcelin houses. This last trip home, Ray brought us each 5 beautiful cups from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. He has a layover there whenever he flies between Kazakhstan (his current work assignment) and ND. The cups, as you might expect, feature paintings by Van Gogh. My sisters told me how nice they were and boy, were they right.

This one is Poppies.

This one Sunflowers.

This is Almond Blossoms.

This is Iris.

This is, I think, Thunderclouds over Wheat Field.

And this is Charli...always trying to get in on the attention!

Finishing details

It’s been two years since we updated the downstairs bedroom… …and well over one year since I stripped the border wallpaper print from one section of the adjoining bath. I would strip all of the wallpaper off but I swear the person who hung it used super glue for the adhesive. It’s not that it’s just tough and time-consuming to remove, it’s almost impossible to remove without stripping off pieces of the wallboard. I’ve tried the paste remover from Home Depot; I’ve tried using a steamer; I’ve used that goofy scoring tool to ensure the hot water/remover gets under the paper…none of it worked very well. The paper actually came off in 2-inch pieces. It was awful. So after working for well over three hours to remove 16 feet of border and paste, we decided to just paste a new border over the old one in the other section of the bathroom. Here’s what the old border looks like…just slightly dated.

Shortly after removing the border, I headed to Home Depot to pick up a border print that we’d looked at before. It wasn’t until I got home and was ready to hang it, that I discovered the new border was 9-inches deep not 7-inches like I needed. So, that wallpaper went back to the store. Since I didn’t find anything else I liked, I decided to look elsewhere. Jump ahead 1+ years to yesterday. Randy and I were talking about some small remodeling projects we wanted to finish up before his folks arrive next week. At the top of my list was getting that border wallpaper hung. Since Home Depot no longer carries wallpaper in the store and we didn’t want to wait for an order, we headed to Lowes. We found a border that had the right colors and with a print that would complement the bedroom’s warm tropical theme. But best of all, we discovered Lowes is closing out its wallpaper stock. As we gathered our supply, we noticed the sign…border prints were $1…per roll. If you’ve ever priced wallpaper, you know how cheap that it. So for three bucks, we got what we needed; it cost us more to drive there. After verifying the colors would work in the room, we started gathering supplies…that’s when we suddenly noticed Charli was no where to be found. Randy was sure she’d come in the house when we got home. I went out on the back deck and called to her…no answer. So, I walked downstairs but she wasn’t there. I headed back into our bedroom but she wasn’t back there sleeping either. As I got to the kitchen, Randy opened the door to the garage and … Charli came bounding in. She’d evidently followed me back out at some point and I hadn’t realized it. Randy said she was sitting patiently on the step waiting for someone to let her in. She’s such a goofball sometimes! Anyway, here are some pictures from the hanging project. Since we only needed 16-ft of border for this little room, it went pretty fast.

We learned early on in our wallpaper-hanging days, that it’s sometimes better to cut when you get to the corner and start a new strip from there. Otherwise, as it dries and shrinks, the paper has a tendency to pull away from the wall leaving a little gap in the corner.

And by the way, the cut I made is actually very straight; the gray pieces you see are actually leftover remnants from the old border.

I do hate cutting out around corners, though! The walls are never straight and I end up using my quilting rulers and rotary cutter to ensure I get it right.

So, old wallpaper border…

New wallpaper border…

New is definitely better!

Making choices

I've been busy using up fabric from my stash. I've finished two quilt tops and am now deciding how to finish them off, or whether they even need anything to finish them off.

As you can see, this Pineapple Blossom already has a pieced sashing.

I'm considering not even putting a border on it. If I do put a border on it, I'm just not sure what it should be - just strips or pieced borders - single or multiple borders. This is a pretty bright quilt already, so should the border be a "quiet" color/print, or should I stay with the theme and go bright. Or do I use a quiet inner border and a brighter outer border?

This is the other top. It's the third one I've made using the scrappy mountains pattern. I don't know how to finish this either. I'm thinking I might do a very thin black inner border, then use a autumn-toned batik fabric I've got as an outer border.

I was pretty smart last Spring and actually cut out enough 8.5" squares to make two tops in these colors. Here's the first one I made; you'll notice they're the same blocks, just a different setting.

Randy's Aunt Jean got this blue/green version to donate to the MS Auction in Spokane last October.

It's a great pattern; easy to make and it goes together so fast. Now if I could only decide how to finish them! I'm wide open to suggestions...

Where does the time go?

As the days have gone by, I kept reminding myself that I needed to get a post written but something always seemed to come up. It's just been a very busy week and weekend. So, I'll try to catch up a bit now... We took the son and daughter (both teenagers) of some friends out for dinner on Friday night. Their Mom had come down with flu-like symptoms in the morning and their Dad was busy with work-related meetings Friday night. It's always fun to get around the kids. Our first big decision was where and what to eat. A short but lively discussion followed. One doesn't like burgers (or more precisely, ground beef) and the other doesn't like pizza. Now, these are teenagers...how do you go through teenage years without eating burgers or pizza? Randy and I just shook our heads in amazement. We ended up at a restaurant that served "American food." The kids got what they wanted and Randy and I had...burgers...with fries, thank you very much. What a beautiful day Saturday turned into! Full, warm sun after morning clouds, and it must have been 64 here at the house. We worked in the front yard, getting it ready for spring. Randy had the electric trimmer out and made short work out of the ceanothus, lavender, shrub roses and rock rose. I cleaned up after him. Charli? Well, she sat in the middle of the street watching us and acting as the official greeter as the neighbors drove in and out of the cul-de-sac. Somehow, she always gets the easy job! That evening we met up with an old friend from college. He's living on his boat at a marina in downtown Portland and is a pilot for American Airlines. It was fun seeing him again and introducing him to Randy. I know we'll spend more time together. We shared a few glasses/bottles of wine and caught up on the last 30 years (can it really be that long since we last visited?) of experiences and memories. Sunday we headed up to "The Confluence." It's a winery that is owned and operated by our former neighbors Jae and Greg Weber. They started the winery just before Thanksgiving and have had a tremendous response to their wines. We'd been out a few weeks back but didn't get a chance to visit with Greg then because he was working. Yesterday, however, he was there and we spent almost 2 hours catching up and sampling their wines - merlots, cabs, petit verdot - all very tasty! It was great fun, and we promised we'd bring Randy's folks out for a visit while they're here. Sunday night we watched Mama Mia! in the theater room. First let me tell you that it was Randy who ordered this...not me. I did want to see it but was very surprised when it showed up in mailbox. I laughed when after the first 15 minutes of the movie, Randy looked over at me and said, "Do you think they're going to sing all the way through the show?" (He was just kidding...really.)

Entrelac

My sister-in-law Mary asked me last October if I’d ever made a scarf using the “entrelac” pattern. I had no idea what she was talking about. I’ve been a knitter since I was about 6 but I pretty much stick to the standard knit and purl stuff, although I have done a fair number of fishermen-knit sweaters and more complicated afghans. I really enjoyed those but I don’t, as a rule, stray too far off the “normal” path of traditional knitting – stockinette stitch, seed stitch, and maybe a cable thrown in here and there. And I do like to make felted things but again, that’s plain old stockinette stitch. I've included a picture showing two variations of scarves knitted in the entrelac pattern. Pretty cute, right? To me, it looks like a patchwork quilt…a skinny patchwork quilt, mind you, but a patchwork quilt none-the-less. Before I continue, I’ll include what it says about entrelac from my Knitter’s Bible. “In entrelac, squares are knitted diagnonally in rows; one row of squares being completed and the next row worked on in the opposite direction on top. “The knitted piece is started at the bottom from a cast-on edge and finished at the top. The squares can be worked in stockinette stitch, as well as lace, cable or textured stitches. If two colors are used, one for each alternate row, a woven effect is achieved.” (Here’s what a two-color pattern would look like.) The Knitter’s Bible, by the way, is great encyclopedic resource for knitters. If you knit – or are just starting to knit – you might want to take a look at it. Here’s what the cover of mine looks like.

I like to knit when I watch TV but since it’s pretty dark in the theater room, it’s usually against my better judgment to try knitting anything that has complicated instructions - I just end up ripping it all out later.

So, Mary sent me a copy of her pattern. I looked at it, read a few of the rows, shook my head and rolled my eyes, and set it aside as something I’d tackle when I felt more adventuresome. I just wasn’t ready for that much concentration! Then I got the bright idea to take it to Spokane over Thanksgiving and have Randy’s Aunt Jean work on it with me. She’s an expert knitter and I knew would whip right through it…really, that's what I thought...and hoped for. The problem was that we were busy while in Spokane…and not just busy eating, mind you; we really were busy doing things. So, it wasn’t until almost our last day there that we even took out the yarn, needles and pattern. Jean made it through the first row but then something else came up and that was all she finished before we headed back to Vancouver. So, now it was up to me. Since then, I’ve carried it with me to Tangled Threads on Tuesday nights and have managed to put on a few rows.I’ve pulled this picture into Photoshop and added the pink squiggly lines to show the side where you pick up the stitches for the purl rows and the pink arrows to show the direction you purl (of course, you do the purling on the other side but I'm sure you knew that). The lime green squiggles and arrows show the side where the knit stitches are picked up and the direction you knit – it seems more confusing than it is. Really. I wouldn't lie...not about knitting.

It’s a neat pattern and would go fast, I think, if I actually worked on it for more than 2 hours a week. But it’s too complicated to work on in the darkness of the theater room. Which means it will be finished somewhere in the year 2012…if I don’t make it too long…or end up having to rip out a section because I messed up...I just hate that. The unfortunate part is now that I’m getting the hang of the pattern and have decided I’d really like to finish it, I’m wishing I’d made it narrower. It’s 9-inches wide; in my mind, that’s a bit too wide for me to wear with a coat or as an accessory with a sweater.

The pattern Mary sent calls for 10 stitches for each square. The pattern in my Knitter’s Bible shows 8 stitches per square. I’m almost thinking of starting a new scarf (using a second ball of yarn) that has 6 stitches per square just to see how wide it would be. Both patterns show three squares so using fewer stitches is the only way I can think of to reduce the width. I also think reducing the number of stitches would even out the variegation a bit more so each square is a unique (or fairly unique) color using this yarn. Which, by the way, is simply a supersized skein of Red Heart. Of course, that means I need to push my finish date out to somewhere in 2014. And now that I’ve gotten all the way through this post, there’s something else that I’m wondering.

Mary was the one who got me started on this project and yet, I don’t know if she’s working on one herself…hmmm. I’m going to have to find out. I’ll keep you posted.

Charli and Bathtime

Charli doesn’t get baths very often. As dogs go, she really is clean. Dirt just doesn’t stick to her and we’re lucky that she doesn’t smell. Some dogs, well, let’s just say that it’s not pleasant being around some dogs…they smell. They smell bad. Even if they’ve just had a bath. That’s not the case with Charli. Sunday, however, she needed a bath. She’d had an “anal gland” issue and the smell wasn’t good. And we didn’t think our Super Bowl party guests would think it was good either. We didn’t think they’d want to be confined in a room with a dog that had anal gland problems. So, after a run in the Fetchin’ Fields, I announced to Charli when we got home that she was going to have a bath. She is a smart dog and she does know a lot of words. Bath is one of those words. And as much as Charli loves to swim and run in the water…well, she really doesn’t like baths; in fact, she hates bath. So, at the word bath, the ears dropped, the head dropped, and the tail dropped. I told her I was off to fill the tub with water and that she should stay there. I smiled to myself as I walked away…I knew she was high-tailing it for the theater room without even looking back. The theater room is Charli’s hiding place. She thinks we don’t know where she is when she goes down there. Okay, so maybe she’s not quite as bright as I like to think. After I started filling the bath, laid towels on the floor and got the baby shampoo out, I headed out to find Charli. I asked Randy if he’d seen her. Just where could she be? I grabbed the camera on my way to the theater room…and there she was. She’s not really good at hiding. The shiny eyes kinda give her away. But she’s got this other thing; she thinks that if she doesn’t look at us, we don’t know she’s there and she can pretend she doesn’t hear us. Anything to avoid a bath! Her next move was to roll over on her back so I couldn’t lift her up. That didn’t work either. When we got to the stairs, she just stopped and decided not to budge. I had to lift up the front feet while pushing from the back. And yes, eventually, we did make it up to the bathroom. She’s actually very well behaved in the tub. She doesn’t squirm or shake (until told) or try to get out. She just stands there, head down, humiliated at having to have a bath. But the real indicator that she’s unhappy…it’s always the tail. When she’s happy, the tail is curved up and wagging. This is how it looks when she’s unhappy. Sorry, Charli. But you needed the bath. Hopefully, you won’t have to have another for a long, long time!