Empty Nest.....again

So Tech Guy will be moving out this weekend....again. You may remember he came back home last December to take a bit of a breather from the demands of life out there in the world of stress and high electric bills. He'll be about an hours' drive from us, and he is being thoughtful enough to rent a truck for the move, thereby saving us from countless trips in my small station wagon. I did make a point of reminding him that I have no intention of cleaning any more manly bathrooms when he decides to move out of the new place, and whether or not he gets his security deposit back will be strictly his responsibility.

I did learn that his landlords are a nice Italian couple who seemed pleased to learn that he too comes from Italian stock. The Mrs. gathered a few veggies from her garden and sent him home with tomatoes, peppers and basil. It seems he mentioned that his mom liked to make Pasta Putenesca which is one of his favorites. I may be able to relax a little now that it looks like he'll have an Italian aunt of sorts down there looking after him. I can only wonder if she makes cannolis....

So, after Saturday I'll be an empty nester once again, and I can't say I'm not looking forward to it. Last time Tech Guy moved out, I quickly vacuumed out his room and painted it a warm peach. Then I moved the fabric and yarn in. I'm not sure what I'll do with more space now, but I'd better decide quickly.....before he changes his mind....
Here are some of the dragonflies.....out on the lawn having a pow-wow. And here are a few having a little nibble on the pumpkin pie.

I'll be moving on from dragonflies now. I've "done" dragonflies. Now I'll be taking on a couple more sewing projects. Since the capris seem to fit well, I'll just lengthen the pattern a bit and make some long pants. And if I have time, I'll make another skirt. I found festive prints for both at Joann's the other day while I was browsing the aisles in the company of a big spider.....and not the embroidered kind. I thought about leaving him to enjoy his shopping, but then I realized there might be children walking around with mom. And I thought of Big City Girl, who while in college could not go down in the basement of her apartment in the old house to check the oil tank level because of the spiders who resided there, and the oil tank ran dry. So I notified one of the sales clerks, thereby averting any potential need for a child psychiatrist, or possibly more burst pipes. See, I'm always thinking.....

I will leave you with this photo. Mr. Gadget and I enjoy inviting the local wildlife into our yard, and it's nice to know they feel so comfortable here.

"D" is for Dollmaker

It took a few days of serious pondering to come up with a good "D" word. Then it hit me like a ton of poly pellets*. I'm a dollmaker! I love making dolls. Not the real complicated time-consuming ones though. I like making quick dolls.....kinda like making quick breads or something wearable with an "easy" sewing pattern. Tasteful and attractive without too much fuss. Although, I must say I admire dollmakers who can invest hours or even weeks in their creations. Well, now that I think about it, I did put in a few hours on this one:

Even though I like to make dolls on the quick, I often take a little extra time to add details. These seem to bring favorable comments from people at craft fairs. I've put little wire glasses on Santas and earrings on Red Hat Ladies. I've sewn bees and ladybugs on collars, and stitched spiders on witches. Once I found buttons that looked like clocks, and added watches to a few dolls.
Sometimes I get so carried away with the details I forget more important things......like deadlines. Now, as I find myself in the last few weeks before my dad's memorial celebration, I should be figuring out what readings I'd like, and what exactly I will say..... since those gathered will no doubt be expecting something poignant. Instead, I'm making more dragonflies.

I put the clay aside for now and decided instead to dive into my fabric stash. What fun I've had searching through it looking for whimsical prints. I drew a pattern for the body and traced around it on the wrong side of the fabric.......then stitched and stuffed. I'll use other silly fabrics for the wings, which I plan to make with two layers of fabric joined with fusable web. I thought about gluing mini-clothespins to the bottoms so they could be easily attached to things, but decided instead to use jewelry pins. I'm anticipating that some of the children might want to take one home to attach to a backpack or a bedroom curtain or something-er-other. In the meantime, they will be pinned to raffia bows I'll tie around the tissue paper flower vases, or they'll sit nearby on a table.

Good thing Mr. Gadget told me he'll have extra space in his suitcase this trip. Did I mention I found some chocolate hugs and kisses on sale at the local grocery store? They were always one of dear ol' dad's favorites. He'd be proud of me for saving a few bucks......

* the little plastic pellets I use for weighting my dolls.

"C" is for cats

By now you've probably guessed......I'm a CAT person. Cats have wandered in and out of my life in different forms over the years. This is some fabric I bought to make one of my beanbag cat dolls, but the finished product was disappointing. Too busy. My best-looking cat dolls have usually worn a checkered outfit with a big bow tie. Well, except for this one. He came out OK. I named him Henry, after Henry the neighbor cat, and the lady who purchased him on eBay was quite pleased.

Here's another one. I did this during my needlepoint phase. I never really got in the mood to sew it together though. The needlepoint is the fun part; the assembling not so much. I should really look in the classifieds for someone I can hire to clean bathrooms, do windows, and assemble pesky craft projects.Here's one that might make a nice Christmas tree ornament.

And there's this one, which doesn't really please me, although I was enticed by the pattern.

He might be more lovable with some new whiskers and an embroidered nose and mouth. That would give him a more friendly demeanor. It's worth a try, and so much better than the alternative.....a trip to the cat adoption center.

This is a ceramic cat that belonged to my mother. I saw lots of cats like this in China; I think they bring good luck. I vaguely remember my mother telling me this cat had been buried in her backyard when she was a child. I have no idea why or by who, but it would be wonderful to know the whole story. I wish I had asked more questions when I had the chance, especially about how she made the pickled peaches at Thanksgiving. And finally, here's Sparkle. She was our family pet while TG and BCG were growing up. BCG named her. She was three when Sparkle joined our family, and she thought she looked sparkly. Sparkle wasn't much of a lap cat, which is what we had hoped for. But cats are kinda like kids....they're pretty much potluck. Just like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates.

Sparkle followed the kids everywhere....out to the swingset, around the neighborhood, and down to the bus stop. She was a three-legged cat, the result of a mysterious mishap early in her life. But she bucked up and carried on, and lived happily for many more years in spite of her disability. In later years, when she began to slow down, I fixed her up with a little step stool so she could get up on her favorite chair. I even shoveled a special path on the deck so she didn't have to walk in the snow. Mr. Gadget liked to tease me about how much I spoiled her, but he was known to feed her bits of deli turkey when he thought I wasn't looking......

So now we're catless. But someday, when our cruising days are over, Mr. G and I will have another cat. He wants a Siamese. I'd like a big ol' tabby. I can already hear the hissing......

The Sunday B's

I didn't have to think too hard over the weekend for a good "B" blog subject. Yesterday, Mr. G and I met Big City Girl and Big City Boyfriend for a baseball game at Yankee Stadium. I'm quite fond of all three of those "B's".

Lucky for me, BCG hasn't decided to add to her tattoo collection like the guy sitting next to BCBF, who obviously has no available space for another one. And I'm happy to say that the Yankees won, even though this early view of the scoreboard doesn't show it.

BCBF happened to be sitting in a lucky seat.....wouldn't you know we were in Row B. A Yankee Stadium employee approached him and asked to see his ticket stub. Seems he was sitting in a seat that entitled him to a $100 gift certificate to use at a big sporting goods store. He certainly was a good sport about it too..heh...heh....

So I've finished Lucille and she's waiting patiently here in the treehouse for our next trip out west.

Her spots are smaller than previous ladybugs, only because I was having trouble locating some fabric with the bigger spots and I had the smaller ones on hand. Waste not, want not....or something like that. The little ladybug decorating her wings is one of the polymer clay ones I made for the tissue paper flowers. It's had a change of assignment.....

Yesterday I spoke with BCG about an idea I had to do some embroidery on my jeans jacket. In fact, I had my jacket and my pen at the baseball game and thought she might whip out a little design right there on the spot. But she said she would prefer to draw it on paper first, so I'll pin her down next month when she's out in SoCal with us for the memorial. Maybe I'll work on it during the next cruise, since knitting isn't the best activity when passing through tropical climates.

My next project will be the capri pants. I was driven to the idea of making them by the lack of festive-looking pants in the clothing stores. I had no problem finding lots of festive fabrics in the fabric store though.

I'm sure there will be plenty of jokes about the domino pants. People will wonder if I'm headed for the casino....or maybe the game room. I'm not a dominos gal though, and I'm not a betting gal either. But I have been known to eat a slice of pizza....

So it's another cool day here in these parts. I'm not complaining. It's just that I've had to get out some of my winter clothes a little bit early.

Here are my feet, nice and toasty on a cool Connecticut August day. They're dreaming they're on a tropical vacation. The waitress will be along shortly with the Mai-Tai.....

Mountains & molehills

Here is Yarn Mountain. Mr. Gadget seems very impressed with it. He even suggested I take a picture of it for the blog. I built it on the top shelf of the set of shelves he installed for me last weekend. It's what's left from the yarn delivery I made to my friend yesterday. I'm not sure what I'll use it for, but it should be safe up there.....collecting dust but no snow.....until I decide.

And as a "thank you" for the special delivery yarn, my friend made me lunch, and sent me home with this cute little window bird feeder.

I stuck it to the window outside the treehouse, just a couple of feet from where my sewing machine sits. Now I'll have to wait patiently for some feathered friends. I noticed my neighbor's cat, Henry, sitting out on the lawn this morning. More than likely he was waiting for a little wildlife too. I'm pretty sure Henry won't be able to get up this high; I'm not so sure about the squirrels.

And speaking of Henry, his owner Jen has a new blog. Go over and visit her here, and check out the wonderful pictures of cats and veggies and other gardeny goodness. There's a real cute one of Henry back a couple of posts. Once you see the results of Jen's gardening talents, you'll know why I hardly ever share a picture of my attempts.

While everywhere else in the neighborhood, Black-Eyed Susans are standing tall and blooming profusely, mine is cowering in the mulch. I'm hoping it's because it's still a wee babe, and by next year it will have gotten with the program.

Not long ago, while reading other blogs, I came across a blog-writing idea called the ABC's of Me and was slightly intrigued. I think it would be much easier and maybe even more do-able than 100 Things about Me, which could end up being way more than you'd ever want to know anyway.

For the 12 years before I married Mr. G, I was an Airline Employee. I was not a flight attendant, in case you're wondering. That seems to be the first thing people ask me when I say I worked for the airlines. But I did get to take advantage of flight passes, and I made great use of them. Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, and Egypt were some of the destinations I visited. When the company was awarded the Hawaii route, word was slow getting out to the traveling public which was great for those of us traveling stand-by. It was easy to get a seat leaving right after work on Friday, and one on Sunday afternoon for the return. It was a nice time to work for the airlines. I think not so much now, what with full flights and security checks and all that sitting on the runway for hours.

This reminds me of my favorite airline story, told to me by a friend who had been a flight attendant for many years. A lady on a flight from NY to Miami had kept her busy during the flight with demands for all sorts of things.....drinks, playing cards..... probably even the little plastic pilot wings. If it was free, she wanted it. After they landed and as she was getting off the plane, she noticed my friend the flight attendant holding a little paper bag and exclaimed, "Oh, I didn't get one of those!".....to which my friend quickly responded, "Please, take this one." I'm sure the lady was very disappointed when she took a peek inside. Seems it held a dirty diaper, deposited there by a dad who had inquired earlier about where best to dispose of it.....

A blast from the past

Today I was browsing through some old pictures, and I came upon this one of Tech Guy and Big City Girl. This was taken back in the day when I knew where they were, who they were with, and what they were up to......although I do detect a guilty expression on TG's face. Obviously the seeds of those turbulent teen years were already firmly planted and taking root. Sorry about the smudge. Spaghetti-O's most likely.

And then I came across this one.

Our pet box turtle, who we allowed to roam free on occasion, had made his way into the garage of BCG's little doll house. I'm not sure whether a crowbar was needed to pry him out or not. Maybe just a little vegetable oil on the driveway did the trick. This turtle's idea of Heaven was a big pile of worms, collected from the driveway by TG after the rain, followed by a nice helping of mandarin oranges.

So it seems that a couple of you think I might need some sort of intervention for my cruising addiction. OK, well I did check on the Internet to see if there was a local meeting of Cruisaholics Anonymous, and there was not. And I'm not sure I want to drive a long ways for one. Besides, I'm living with an enabler. It might be hard to give up the habit.....

And I did check back to see if I had named a ladybug Lucille, and I don't think so. There was Lorraine and Loretta.....but no Lucille. If I ever make another one, she'll be Laverne. And then the next one will have to be Shirley.....

Earlier today I went to lunch with a friend who I've known for a long time, and who I met in a most unusual way. She used to live on my street and we shared the same address. No, we didn't live in the same house. There were two houses on our street with the same number. It's a long story and one I won't bore you with, but we got acquainted going back and forth re-delivering mail and packages. Now she lives on the other side of town. I guess the mail challenge was just too much for her. The people who bought her house aren't nearly as friendly or good-humored about it, but we do have a relationship that's cordial enough to handle the postal give and take.

And finally, here's an article I thought I'd share. I came across it on someone else's blog and found it very inspiring. I've decided that when and if I ever grow up I'd like to be just like her.

Goin' buggy

You may remember a long-ago post wherein I referred to Tech Guy's talent for creating interesting critters out of polymer clay.

Yesterday I bribed him, with some yummy left-over chicken cutlets, to make me a few dragonflies. These will join the ladybugs in decorating the tissue paper flower arrangements at the memorial celebration next month.

These are fresh out of the oven and still need painting and wings, but I'm pretty sure they will make for some interesting table conversations.

And while I was on a bribe roll, I cajoled Mr. Gadget.....with the promise of chocolate chip cookies.....into putting up a couple of shelves in the treehouse. And since he really likes those cookies, and was very much looking forward to them, he also hung my bulletin board and a couple of pictures. It's so cozy in here now I really don't want to leave. But I'm sure with the right bribe.......

So this morning I made the trek downtown to see my friendly phlebotomist. Her name is Gail, and she's personable and always asks how my summer is going and what I've been up to. It must get boring asking everyone that, since she rolls people in and out of that chair of hers every ten minutes. Well, except for me. It takes about 15. I don't give up blood willingly. It usually takes several tries and then she finally zeros in on my hand. Lots of veins there. I got her to promise to start there next time.

As for current projects, I'm making some progress on another ladybug doll. This one will be traveling with me to the west coast next month. It's Lorraine's sister, Lucille. She has smaller spots than her sis, but they shouldn't diminish her attractiveness. Now I'm wondering if I've already named a ladybug Lucille. I'd better go check that out......

After I finish Lucille, or maybe even before, I'll be starting a clothing construction project. Capri pants. Did I mention Mr. G and I are going on another cruise? It was Mr. G's idea. That's probably a good enough reason to leave the treehouse.....

Mostly maintenance

It's a cool, rainy day here in the northeast, and I must confess I gave some thought to putting on socks this morning. But then I decided to just tough it out. After all, it is August. The long-sleeved shirt feels pretty good though....

So Mr. Gadget and I have been in maintenance mode for the last few days. He finished the garage-door painting project.

I did feel a small bit of guilt, so I offered to help. He assigned me a job perfectly tailored to the amount of effort I wanted to expend.
When I finished I hurried up to the treehouse to escape further assignments and after a short break, and in spite of the long list of things I have to do with deadlines, I decided I would tidy things up. I had recently purchased some canvas storage boxes with the idea of categorizing and organizing my junk. The boxes have embroidered labels that are perfectly suited to my stuff....how did they know? Junk, Things, Stuff and Odds & Ends. I realized as soon as I got home that I'd need more, but when I returned to the store I was disappointed to find they'd sold out. Darn those college kids. So I had to settle for the pink and lavendar ones with no labels. Now I'll just have to try remembering where I stashed This & That, Paraphernalia, Accouterments and Trappings.....
Mr. G was so impressed, he offered to install some bookshelves and retrieve my old bulletin board from the basement. And once he arrives with his drill and screwdriver, I'll kindly ask him to hang a couple of pictures too.

And now for some random tidbits. A hummingbird has been spending his idle time sitting on top of the wrought iron feeder holder. When other hummers come around, he goes into fight mode and chases them off. Once in a while he flies down for a drink. And since it's raining, he's getting quite a bath. I guess he's the vicious guard hummer. Why can't they just get along?

I now have enough cereal box medallions to get my free projection alarm clock, thanks to Mr. G's daily habit of eating cereal for lunch.

I was hoping he would offer to mail away for it, since he's king of the rebates in our house. But he says this isn't a rebate, and isn't even remotely related to one, so it's my job. Maybe Tech Guy would do it if I promised him a couple of turns with the clock.....

And look what came yesterday.

More yarn. From Knitters' Heaven. Yeah, I know I was just there. But then the sale catalog came and they had offerings for too-good-to-pass-up low prices. I'm going to share it with a friend who loves to knit, but can't get out and about too easily because of health issues. In addition to special-order baby items, she knits lots of hats and mittens for charity. This yarn is 100% acrylic....great for throwing in the washer and dryer which makes it great for kid stuff. I'll let her have first dibs on the colors, and I'll use the rest to do a little something for charity too. The word around town is that school kids aren't allowed out for recess in the winter if they have no hats or mittens......and who likes to miss recess?

So that's it for today. I'm going to look for some socks. Hand-knit of course!

The Weekend

Let's just call Sunday the weekend, shall we? Sunday was one of those days to die for--plenty of sun, a gentle breeze and low humidity. Very rare indeed for August in these parts. Not at all like Saturday, which I'm quite sure must have set some sort of record for hot and humid and just plain yucky. Mr. G and I attended a BBQ in the afternoon, where the guests roamed around in a continuous circuit, first outside onto the hot deck and then back in the house for some A/C.

Our friends have a lovely yard. They have landscaping talents I can only dream about. They seem to know just what to plant where, and just which yard decoration will accent the whole thing just so. I thought about going out to pull weeds yesterday, and then I decided to knit and think about it some more. I wonder if I can find some yard ornaments that could actually sit on top of the weeds? Maybe a family of frogs, or some little bunnies......

Mr. Gadget found time yesterday to address a nasty home chore he's been putting off. He scraped some of the old paint off of our garage doors in preparation for a new paint job. I didn't help very much, although I did take him some old newspapers and I replenished his ice tea. Oh, and I did buy the new paint. That was enough wasn't it?

Meanwhile, inside and out of harm's way, I decided to cut out some capri pants. Yeah, I know. This is a pretty bright floral print. I'm probably not going to actually wear these. It's some fabric I've had on hand for a long time and I figured I would use it for some "test" pants. The idea behind this is that I would sew these together with a long basting stitch. This would make it easy to rip out and restitch while fiddling to get just the right fit. Then once that was established, I could zip out lots of pairs in no time at all. Well...heh...heh....I forgot about the hip issue. Isn't "hips" a four-letter word?

And then there's the birdbath....

It used to sit on a nice pedestal. Probably some pesky night visitors knocked it over in their quest for a drink of water. I could probably fix it with some special glue made for cement, but I figured why bother when I have perfectly nice planting pots sitting unused. I worried that maybe the birds wouldn't like it, but I shouldn't have. They showed up in huge numbers to enjoy a little frolic in the newly-renovated bathtub. It just proves once and for all what I've known all along. My yard decorating skills are strictly for the birds.......

Show and Tell

When I was in school, back in the day as they say, we just called it "Sharing." I think that allowed us to just show without having to actually tell much, which was just fine with me because I was extremely shy. If I had to tell about these, of course I would have to say that they are made out of clay and that's why they don't need any food or breathing holes.

This all brings to mind an early story about Tech Guy. When he was about five some neighbor boys were playing in the yard. One of them, a little older than TG, had a jar of ladybugs he'd been collecting. There must have been 100. He was a very nice boy and he let TG hold the jar. Then, one of the even-older boys (and did I mention mean?) whispered to TG that he should let them go.....and he did. I have often wondered if that boy is serving time somewhere.....

Here's a garden pose. I think Tech Guy's suggestion about giving them a little shine was a good one. If only they would eat the pests.

So in my last post I mentioned the doll head I made out of polymer clay. Today I brought it up from the basement to the treehouse, where I had to evict someone to make room (Mr. Snowman was about ready to melt anyway). It's a little scary-looking, but should look much more socially acceptable with some clothes and hair and maybe some eyes.
It's pretty much impossible to decide beforehand what kind of doll to make, although I'm sure dollmakers with lots of experience can do this. It's kind of the same with needle-sculpted cloth dolls. Something emerges near the end of the process and you just have to learn to love it.....unless you want to smush up the whole thing and start over. Potluck was perfectly OK with me. I considered a Red Hat Lady:
But I think it's destined to be a Santa.


It's the nose and the cheeks. And with that mouth, I think Santa will look like he's stiffling a chuckle over some child's humorous gift request. He'll have to bake in a low oven for a little while, which I'm for sure not going to do on a 90-degree day. This will be a winter project....just like the quilt.

So after all of this, I must admit I don't think I'm a clay doll person, although I did enjoy taking the class to learn how. I'm much more of a cloth doll gal. But I won't throw out the clay. I may get in a mood to make more ladybugs. Maybe I'll make a couple hundred and put them in an old mayonnaise jar in the back of my closet. TG and BCG will be scratching their heads long after I'm gone wondering what in the heck I could have been up to. Pardon me while I stiffle a chuckle.......