Thursday Thoughts

I am blessed with so many good friends.  We aren't related by blood but I love them all dearly.  When I have a problem I don't know how to solve, they are always there for me.  They listen, nod, counsel, and care.  They hug me and make the hurt go away.  What more could you ask for?  We were all brought together by our interest in crafting but stayed for the friendship.

Getting it together, slowly

Thanks to some good vibes from my sister Renee and a heart to heart with my friend Eddie (thank you both!) I am starting to get it back together.  Every little area of my life was coming unglued at once and I'm finding a way to work through it all.  There are just some things that you can't change.  Things that will come up in your life and disappoint you.  People will disappoint you.  Life is full of disappointments, right?  It's how you handle them that determines your happiness.  I have a plaque on my craft room wall from an art fair that reads 'Never let yesterday use up today'.  I need to keep repeating that wise phrase.

In the meantime, I've been doing my quilt guild Treasurer duties tonight and I must say I got a bit frustrated.  I had a bank deposit slip and NO cash receipt form from a corresponding guild member.  I searched high and low, certain that my inept organizational skills had let me down AGAIN.  Ugh.  Then.......it hit me......the deposit was for the wayward door prize check that took two months to get to me (very long story) and there was NO cash receipt form in the envelope when it arrived.  Thank goodness.  I was proving Kevin right that when my apple cart gets upset I do indeed turn into the Tasmanian Devil.

Now I can sleep well, knowing everything is right with my Treasurer's books.  At least I know I'm tired enough to conk right out.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be stormy all day so I'm not taking the bus.  I'll also get home earlier by driving and that will work because I've got a meeting before the quilt guild meeting and I always have a bunch of things to get ready to take to the meeting.  Now, where's my nametag???

Quick Thought

When I was young I often heard 'if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything'.  So I'm not.  At least not today.  Everything is a bit out of whack.  It all needs to get back into place.  Soon.

Happy Mother's Day and Wool Coat #4

I know, how can I possibly combine two completely different subjects in one blog post?  Easily.  I wish every mother out there the best possible day.  I had a super day and have a few pictures to share with you.

I started the day by going the Royal Oak In Bloom sale, where Kevin and I picked out what will hopefully be a great plant for my pots that sit in front of my porch.  Last year we got pansies and Kevin was disappointed because they didn't last all summer.  We picked out something that I will hopefully photograph in the next few days and after leaving them out today, I brought them inside because it's supposed to go down to 32º tonight!  I talked to Holly from her up north house today and she said it was snowing!  Egad -- May 9th and snow!!

Here's a shot of the plant sale today ~~

That's Kevin in the middle of the picture holding the two baskets, yakking it up with some people he doesn't know.  He's very friendly.  Until he realizes we're late picking up our crepe order at the What Crepe? restaurant.

Here are a couple of things I didn't buy ~~

Kevin nixxed both items, especially since our crepe order was ready.  Men don't usually get the concept of yard art.  There's always next year.

I put the finishing touches on Wool Coat #4 today.  I waffled on the lapel embellishment but finally decided on this ~~

The design on the back of the coat was my version of a design in the '1000 motifs for crafters' book by Alan D. Gear and Barry L. Freestone.

I enhanced three of the flowers with hand-stitched glass beading and outlined each leaf with a green wool yarn.  Someone asked me how many hours I had put into the work and I wasn't sure so I'll try to keep track of my time on the next coat.  At the very least I think there's about 8 hours into it.

Here's a close up of one of the flowers ~~

Kevin said not to put too much on the coat (remember he thinks like a man) but it is a large coat, probably size 14 or 16, so I figured it needed a bold design.  I'm really enjoying the beading and I remembered I had a nice little stash in an old tea tin -- woohoo!

I had to re-sew a couple of the buttons that were loose and tack down the corner of one pocket flap but now it's ready to be sold!

I had the chance to tidy up my craft room a bit since I was in search of some colorful roving.  It seems like it gets to be a mess when I turn my back.

Tomorrow I'm heading out to meet Holly after work for dinner in Rochester.  We'll be joined by my Mom, sister Denise, and niece Carla, who Holly is picking up at the Flint airport since it's so close to her school.  I know we'll have a great time, gabbing up a storm.

I'll leave you with a couple of shots of Columbine flowers in my front flower beds.  I love the ants!

I hope you have a great week!!

Hodgepodge

Today I worked on another wool coat.  I'm stuck on the lapel but the back is complete.  I'll post pictures tomorrow, woohoo.

I picked up a Mother's Day gift for my Mom and I don't want to give it away but I can say that the store smelled wonderful!  I also finished knitting the felted hat and I must say I'd forgotten how nice it is to knit a hat up so quickly (I knit 10" in 2 1/2 hours last night at the concert).  I cast on a new 4x1 rib hat in orange and got about 1.5" knit so far.

This morning I stabbed my index finger badly with the felting needle so I picked up some rubber finger gizmos at Office Depot.  I think they'll help keep the needles from drawing blood and leaving such sore spots.

For now I'm off to bed where I'll no doubt dream about more fibery projects for tomorrow.......

Oh, I'm DVRing the Saturday Night Live episode hosted tonight by Betty White -- I bet it will be great but on too late for me to watch tonight.  Something to enjoy while I'm lounging around tomorrow.

Do Overs

Tonight I attended a chamber concert at Hagopian's Rug Store.  I know, it's an odd location but it works, mostly.  It felt like it was 90º there -- I think I was melting as I knit.  My friend Sally provided the ticket for the event and I always enjoy the music.  I was knitting my little heart out -- I got about 11" done on my red hat while I was roasting.  Unfortunately I didn't have a tape measure with me and now I find that I knit 2 rows too many.  No biggie -- I'll just un-knit it tomorrow.  Good thing as I'm not sure I have enough yarn without ripping it back.

Something unusual happened during the second half of the performance.  The cellist introduced the piece by Mozart and mentioned that Mozart had played the viola part during its debut.  I don't know if that rattled the man playing the viola or not but the trio began to play and the violist stopped and asked to start over.  There was some laughter but I didn't quite hear what it was about.  No doubt Mozart's name came up.

Life presents us with do-over opportunities quite often.  Seeing the potential for improvement and acting on it makes all the difference between settling for mediocrity and getting it right.

The weather has been lousy all day with thunderstorms and gray skies.  Tomorrow is going to be chilly and breezy.  Wish we could 'do-over' the the forecast.

Detroit Sports

Tonight the Red Wings beat the San Jose Sharks.  Not just beat them but whipped 'em good.  The final score was 7-1.  Nevermind that the Wings are down 3-1 in the series.  It's not looking good for them but at least tonight they played their hearts out.

I've always been a big sports fan, a trait I attribute to my Dad.  Whatever the season, sports were always on in our house.  If it was Summer, then the Tigers were on the radio.  I listened to so many games, with Ernie Harwell calling the game.  He always made me feel like I was at the game.  Even when the Tigers weren't playing well, and there were plenty of seasons like that, he had something good to say about the players.  I was amazed by the way he would call games -- when a player hit a foul ball he somehow 'knew' that the fan in the stands who caught the ball was from Jackson, or Walla Walla, or some other town.  How in the world did he know, I would ask myself.

Ernie died Tuesday at the age of 92.  He lived an exemplary life.  Married for 68 years to his sweetheart LuLu, he was the consummate Christian and when he was diagnosed with inoperable cancer last year, spoke so eloquently about his pending death.  He was honored at a ball game last summer but could only speak about how warmly he had been treated by the fans and how much his career as a broadcaster had meant to him.  He was the only broadcaster ever to be traded for a ball player!  Check out Wikipedia for more on his amazing life.

Ernie called his last ball game in 2002 -- at the age of 84 -- can you believe it!  But he wasn't done working -- he was the spokesman for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan, signing a 10 year contract in 2003.  Reminds me a lot of George Burns.

Thousands of people lined up today to pay their respects with Ernie lying in repose beside his bronze statue at Comerica Park.  Like so many others I'm saddened by his passing -- such great childhood memories flow back.  I remember listening to close games, begging God to let the Tigers win in exchange for my promise to be nice to my little sister.  Sometimes they won and sometimes they didn't.  Either way, Ernie always made the games interesting.  He will be missed.