Before the Rain???

Tuesday, 8:30 a.m.

I check my iPhone for today's weather: "90% chance of rain by10:00 a.m." 

 I step out into the courtyard in my PJ's...the air is so fresh.

 

It's as good a day as any to start my walking regimen...

Besides, I can see if Spring is on the horizon in my neighborhood.

 

Uh huh...

 



 

Flowering Quince....my favorite Spring flower.

Tulip Trees are a sure sign of coming Spring...

 



And paper whites...yeah baby!

 



Whoopsie....somebody didn't get the Spring message yet...

 



I'm almost done with my 45 minute walk and.....

once again, the weatherman missed the timing of the storm.

 



 

Laurel. Good thing I have a hair appointment today.

Rainy days are good for....making dresses!

The West Coast has been battered with rain for the last week.  Of course we haven't suffered nearly the same ravages of Mother Nature that Sandy brought to the East Coast, nevertheless, even I am a little sick of the rain and wind. When it pours non-stop for a week, I tend to hunker down and a work on UFP's (unfinished projects) from my knitting and sewing piles.

Saturday was a Dress a Girl Around the World sew fest, and despite the pouring rain, I wasn't going to miss it.  Thankfully, I wasn't the only gal who packed up her sewing machine and drove in the rain just to gather, chat and create dresses for the little girls in far away countries. We had quite a crowd of enthusiastic volunteers.

I'm starting a pictorial record of the dresses that I make.  For one, when I create a design, I like to imagine a little girl squealing with delight "I want that one!". For me it's important to create something that one of my granddaughters would love, not just whip together "something to wear". Secondly, I pray about the little girl who will eventually get to wear it - prayers for safety, for good health, for self-confidence, for education opportunity. So the photo album will serve to keep them in my thoughts.

I made three dresses yesterday and I returned several that I had made during the month of November. I had taken several "kits" home last month. And you know me - I have to put my creative stamp on everything- so I trotted of to Hancock's and purchased additional bias tape, fat quarters for pockets, ribbons and trims.

 




The original Dress a Girl dresses are made from pillow cases, but you can make them out of any washable fabric. I think I had these striped sheets back in the 70's, only in kelly green, so it was a challenge to make this pillowcase cute!




I also found this yellow pillowcase that had a pretty wide hem at the bottom that added too much bulk.  Solution? Cut it off and make it shorter, add some cute trim and a pocket.  I love yellow and blue together.











The possibilities are endless...some many little girls, so many dresses to make.  Yesterday one of the ladies brought in some pictures from her missionary friend in Uganda.  The little girls were wearing some of the dresses that our group had sewn.  Now that's what I'm talking about - doing something for those less fortunate and actually witnessing the results!

 

 

Another one of those pillowcases that reminded me of years gone by...but it made a cute dress by just adding some bright pink pockets and buttons!

 

 

My fabric stash comes in quite handy for this project.

Every dress must have a pocket.  Yesterday, one of the ladies sized all the finished dresses and slipped a pair of panties in the pocket before packaging them for shipment.  I think the pockets are our best opportunity to add personality to each dress.  I use a blanket stitch to add an applique...

Who doesn't love hearts???

From my heart to yours, sweet child...

Laurel. Loving this...

 

Sharing today with

 

Ready for Fall?

I don't really care if it's going to be 96 degrees today, it's technically Fall and I'm going with it. To me, Fall begins in September when school USED TO start. When you live in the country, you walked to the end of the gravel driveway and waited for the school bus.  The mornings were crisp and smelled like dry grass and tar weed, over baked from the scorching summer sun. Some days, there was a mist hanging in the air against the hillside.  The spring garden by the fence was now home for sprawling weeds, overripe melons and tough skinned tomatoes. Morning oatmeal rebelled in your stomach as you waited.

Fall doesn't seem to last very long around here, probably because our autumns in the valley are more like Indian summers. The sun sets earlier but it stays warm. Before you know it, Thanksgiving dinner is just a memory and it's time to decorate for Christmas. But right now, it's already October and the annual houseboat trip is over, signalling the official beginning of  my Fall.

"Let's decorate", I say to myself. 

What can I do with this room? We have guests coming in a month and I hate it.  Bor-ing!

Okay, let's drag out the mulling spices for the stove...

Two trips to Goodwill so far...did I mention that I'm reinventing myself this Fall...

Less stuff, less clutter.

I finally went through my Victoria Magazine collection and purged the duplicates.

Wish I could find a home for these...

Wonder if Terry at

 

wants them????

 

Anyone??? Some date into the 1990's...

 

At least, Colette is ready for Fall.  I finished her poncho...a luscious Manos wool from Uruguay.  Gonna look great with jeans...if it ever starts to really act like Fall.

 

 

I noticed that my chrysanthemums are ready to burst...

 

 

And I have firewood on the side yard for the "non-particulate days"...

 

 

I'm ready...Fall where are you????

 

 

Laurel.  How 'bout you???

Sweating and other annoyances...

My friends in the Mid-West have been choking on the heat wave for quite a while, and as Mother Nature often does, she has cycled the heat back to California this week.  I grew up here, so I am no stranger to the often hot and dry summers. It's catastrophic for other parts of the country that are not prepared for it, so I hate to be a whiner when in reality it's just a minor blip in the overall scheme of things here in the "Golden state".

Perhaps it's my age (Medicare next month, folks) but it seems to get harder and harder to tolerate 104 degrees.  As a kid, we would just run through the sprinkler or jump in the pond. And let's be real, I do have a pool...so why the complaining, you ask. I just find it interesting that my patience and demeanor changes in direct opposition to the thermometer - the temperature goes up, my patience drops and my normally sunny disposition all but disappears. My body just kind of shuts down and my brain goes into a funk - that's where me, everything around me and all the things that I normally like to do become annoying.

For instance:

My hair is driving me nuts. More than anything else, I hate my hair on my sweaty neck.  I grew it out this summer so that I could put it up in a rubber band.  My daughter the hairdresser keeps my gray nicely colored, so she has a cow when I swim in my chlorine ridden pool too often...so that let's out swimming laps, I guess. Or any form of exercise, for that matter.

TV is not a solution for the doldrums.  There's nothing on in the summer, so laying around under the fan is out of the question.  And forget snoozing in the recliner - it's leather and everyone knows that shorts, tank tops and sweaty skin do not mix well with leather.

Sewing and beading is out...my craft room is at the farthest most point on the air conditioning duct work, so the tiny vent in the farthest most corner of the room is not going to cut it as far as cooling down the room. Let's not forget that running the air conditioner enough to keep your home as cool as you'd like it will mean sacrificing food and gas for the month.

Knitting is problematic, as I am presently working on a lace scarf and I can't see the stitches unless I sit under the lamp...lamps are hot. And since my brain is obsessing about how hot I am, I can't count my stitches...not to mention my readers slide off my nose.

The oven and stove heat up the kitchen, so cooking's out. And forget going to the Mall with all the other sweaty people...your car can heat up to a mere 120 degrees while you are inside shopping.

Forget reading...I forget the plot from one page to the next. Those reader issues again...

Enough already, Laurel! It's suppose to be hotter today, so I am really going to have to pull up my big girl panties and get over it.  After all, I haven't lost a whole crop of corn, I don't have cattle scraping the bare dirt for a blade of grass, I'm not in a shelter because my home incinerated in a wild fire, I haven't been out of power for a week and I know my aging Mom lives in a nice air conditioned home up the road. I really should be more thankful and pray for the folks who are truly suffering under Mother Nature's erratic whims...she obviously doesn't sweat, otherwise she would be more compassionate too.

It just "looks" cool, but it's not.

Laurel. Hot, but not in a good way.