Gardenias! LOVE the fragrance

I bought this gardenia plant several months ago from Valley Medical Center's gift shop (where I volunteer once a week) and this is the 2nd time it has bloomed. Look at all the blossoms!! I remember my first corsage was a gardenia and I've loved the smell ever since. Indoor plants are something I've always had and I've tried my hand at many different ones and some are stand-outs in my mind. Unfortunately after awhile some of them bite the dust. Another favorite is the Hibiscus plant. Such lovely flowers in pretty colors. I may need to get another one soon. The downside is that if you go out of town for more than a week and there is no one available to water them, they don't do well.
 
Right now I'm watching my Betta fish closely. Poor little guy. Remember that I posted a picture of him a month and a half ago and I thought he was dying then? He's still alive and I usually find him in the morning lying on the marbles at the bottom of his "tank" and when I wiggle the container he moves his fins and looks at me. So sad. One day I know I will have to flush him.....

Progress! Dresses for South Africa

Yesterday was the sewing session at church from 2 until 8 pm (dinner included.) I could only stay until 5:00 because I told Shauna I would babysit the girls so they could go out to dinner with friends. Even so, I managed to make several dresses during the 3 hours I was there. Ladies came later in the day so I didn't feel too bad about leaving early. Besides, I brought the 4 dresses I already made and volunteered to sew extra at home if the group didn't get all 100 dresses stitched up. There is another group of people who volunteered to provide T-shirts for the girls to wear under their dresses and I discovered that these dresses and shirts will not be traveling on their way to South Africa until September. Plenty of time to finish!

I had purchased about a dozen pillowcases from the Goodwill (Wednesdays are 20% of days for seniors) so instead of $.99 each, they were only $.79. My friend, Kim, scoured through the stash that her church sewing group has accumulated and donated 5 partial bolts of fabric, but our church group didn't need any more fabric. Now I'm thinking! Another friend, Tamie, suggested that she and I begin stitching up a bunch of these sweet dresses (some out of pillowcases and some out of yardage) and find a missionary group that would like to provide dresses for needy girls. Shorts are super simple to make for boys so don't know why we couldn't work at that too. Might even find several more friends to help with the project. I will keep you posted about our progress in finding a mission to work with and PLEASE, let me know if you would like to be part of this. I feel like I'm putting the cart before the horse, but I have had this in mind for several months now. Just need the right venue! I know God has something in mind.

Here are some photos of yesterdays sewing. Notice all those dresses hanging up? By the time I left at 5:00 there were over 30 complete and many more in various stages of completion.

This is where I set myself up. Patty showed up about 45 minutes before I left and she sat at the other end of the table. I LOVE my nice little 12 lb. "travel" sewing machine. It is a Babylock Audrey model. Of course, I still had to make 2 trips in with all my stuff!!

Up and down, cut, sew, iron, find the binding, sew, iron, sew, iron and on and on!

There is the beginning of our finished handiwork.

Some ladies set up their sergers, some used sewing machines and some ladies only wanted to iron.

And yes, where there are women, there is lots of talking!

Wouldn't you know that I skipped going golfing with Dave and Dave and Sharron so I could go swim at the pool at 11 am with Kim and spend the day sewing at church. We didn't take into account that it was Spring Break and there were too many kids in the pool making it too crowded for us. There was no crowd on Monday and we got a good workout in, so don't know why it was so busy yesterday. Then after all the rain we have had, the weather got SUNNY!! And here I was stuck inside. The upside was that I got to spend the evening with Shauna's girls and that was fun. I am a blessed grandma!!

Dresses for Africa!

This Friday our church is having a special time for those who sew to gather together to make dresses for African children. Pretty neat! I have made a few pillowcase dresses for Annika and have several pillowcases that I had purchased from thrift shops so I have spent some time yesterday sewing 4 pillowcase dresses. They are SO simple! The white eyelet fabric needed to be lined and that was a simple fix. I still have 4 more pillowcases as well as some other fabrics from my stash that I will be taking with me for Friday's sewing adventure.

It feels so good to make these little dresses and imagining the little ones who will benefit from my efforts. Won't those white dresses look fabulous against dark skin? I will be stopping by my local thrift stores tomorrow to look for more pretty pillowcases. They take just a bit less work than making these dresses from yardage. The goal on Friday is to make 100 dresses. I hope that lots of ladies show up!!

Saben's 6th Birthday Party - STAR WARS!

Dave and I drove up to Bellingham this afternoon for Saben's birthday party. Reminded me of the old days when it was Dave and I who had planned the party for our kids! And to think that Andy Lamb brought his 3 boys to celebrate, when he used to come to Kyle and Jason's birthday parties at these tender ages! That was way too cool! After everyone left, Kyle's family and Dave and I went out to eat dinner at Shari's, which was Saben's choice. I'm sure he has a tummy ache from all the cake and then a "Pancake Face" dinner!! Here are some snaps from the days events.

 

Lovely sunset on the way home AND a fabulous rainbow that I didn't get a photo of

Charlotte is ready to crawl!

Charlotte has been sitting by herself for the past 2 weeks or so

 I watched Shauna's girls last night for a couple of hours and was amazed to see that not only can Charlotte sit by herself (she was six months old yesterday) but she is beginning to crawl. She can lift herself up on all fours and push herself forward. Shauna told me she was beginning to crawl, but I was skeptical. Holy cow! I was amazed at this sweet little Charlotte! I guess she is taking after her Uncle Jason, who crawled early and was walking at 10 months old.

So, is she creeping or actually crawling?

And Hailey is such an innocent little thing, so sweet and loving....until boom, she dances over to her sister and pushes her over! I had to give Hailey a time out and spoke with her sternly about being nice to her sister and that it was not good to push her over when she is sitting on the floor. I don't really know why she does this, because she is always giving her sister kisses and patting her on the back and treating her nice. That's kids for you!!

Hailey loves her little sister.

She loves playing in the tunnel

                                                                  The Dancing Queen!
        

Happy Baby!

And I'm one happy GRANDMA!

Hellebore Tea

Here are some photos from the annual Hellebore Tea that I attended on Sunday afternoon at the Lake Wilderness Country Club, put on by the Lake Wilderness Arboretum. The first photo is of our table (Issaquah Garden Club) all set and ready to eat. We all contributed table decorations and food for the event. I made the floral centerpiece, using that same champagne glass that I used for our January garden club meeting. There is always a contest to see which table makes the best presentation and the judge is our local garden expert, Marianne Binetti . There were over 20 tables and lots of garden clubs were represented. Our table was one of two from the Issaquah Garden Club. Good food, good conversation! Silent auction, and a "best hat" contest. I don't wear hats so didn't participate. But next year, some of us are thinking we could get very creative and have our table mates each make a fun hat.

Our table decided to do floral mis-matched china and butterfly theme

Here is our table again, from above

And....the WINNING TABLE...the other table by our own Issaquah Garden Club members! Isn't it beautiful??

Stitch and Fish

I thought that might get your attention! 
This morning I attended an hour and a half talk by one of my favorite artistic quilters, Libby Lehman. She is from Houston, Texas, and was invited to speak at the Bernina dealer in Renton today. I paid my $20 a few weeks ago and was I ever glad I was there! 

Libby Lehman, author of the now out-of-print book Threadplay, which I already had so was able to bring it with me and get her signature in it! Check out that jacket!

  These are some examples of her work:

 

 

 

Of course Libby uses a Bernina sewing machine, but my Baby Lock machine will work equally as well, except for one foot that is a Bernina exclusive. I think I can live without it! Maybe. The reason that I have so admired Libby is that she is an abstract artist. Just my cup of tea! And she uses all sorts of threads and yarns to make her quilts come alive. Sometimes I have felt like a....ahem.....fish out of water because I like the wonky, wacky and colorful in my quiltmaking. I know it is not for everyone. But it does sorta make my heart sing! I learned several new techniques today and I can't wait to put them into practice!! Now to the fish story.....


My beta fish that I have had longer than probably any other beta I've had, is sick. Somehow he lost his ability to float. I forget what they call that. There is a name for it.

Here is my friendly beta fish. I don't like to call him a Siamese Fighting Fish. That sounds too mean!

He has been living either on the bottom of his tank or in amongst the roots of the peace lily plant that I have at the top. The thin roots hold him up. A few times throughout the day I check on him to see if he is still alive. I know it's "just a little fish" but I feel so sorry for him! I pet the side of the tank, he looks at me and sometimes swims over to my finger. More often than not, he is lying perfectly still and I have to wiggle the glass tank to see if he is still alive. He slowly begins flipping his little "wings" and struggles to the top for some food.

Pool guy!

Do you think God cares about this little fish? I do! If He cares about a little sparrow, I'm sure he cares about the fish of the sea as well. And if God cares about the life of a little bitty fish, I guess I can too. The only thing I know for sure is that God cares for me and you! Makes me wonder if God is "wiggling my tank" checking to see what I'm up to! I hope He is not disappointed!

The Hidden Dangers of SEWING!

I have had a cold. "So what?" you may ask. But I haven't had a full blown cold for a LONG time! So yesterday I was feeling like I could survive it and decided to lay low and spend the day in my sewing room. Then at about 9 pm, when common sense told me to call it a day, I said to myself, "Nah. Just one more piece to embroider. Then I will quit for the night." So much for my common sense ruling me!

Just a bit of carelessness and inattention mixed with my computerized, push-a-button embroidery/sewing machine and DANG if I didn't somehow manage to drive the needle into my left index finger! What a shock that was! ME???? I've sewn since I was a kid. HOURS and HOURS and YEARS and YEARS of sewing. Only the stupidest person could possibly sew through their finger!!

Ah, the loophole. I didn't sew through my finger! I just made the needle go part way in and then break, leaving the tip of the needle in my finger, totally in and under my finger nail. WHOA! And I wasn't actually sewing. I was working toward changing the bobbin thread when I don't know exactly what I did, but it did involve pushing a button. Must have been the wrong button! And why my finger was UNDER the needle is anyone's guess.

I knew I was in trouble when I saw the middle part of the needle hanging down but the eye of the needle was missing. I even looked for that needle tip after I saw this:

Look! No blood, no swelling, little pain.

Anyway, after a trip to Urgent Care in Bellevue, a shot of antibiotic in my behind and a tiny splint applied so I wouldn't bump it, I was sent home and told to call the orthopedist in the morning to find out when to come back to get it removed. It was suggested that I would need to have my fingernail removed to get at it. YIKES! The thought of that with only a pain blocker in my finger was enough to drive me bananas!

So this morning Dave drove me to the doctor's office and the Physician's Assistant managed to cut away my fingernail around the hole and dig down enough to expose the metal piece and then pull it out. I did have to have injections to block the pain in my finger, but it worked! And I'm really no worse for the wear. I can do whatever I want and the nail will grow out with the hole in it and I should be able to golf right away! Yahoo! (Today was ladies golf day, but I woke up with laryngitis, much to Dave's delight I'm sure!)

So there you have it. When using machinery, always employ your common sense. Stop when you've put in a full day's work and protect those fingers!

Oh. By the way, the nurse that helped me at urgent care told me I was the 2nd one of these in the past week. The other lady came in with the needle all the way through her finger! Nice to know I'm not the only one!