A busy weekend

We celebrated our 21st anniversary a bit early on Saturday.   Our guests included Larry, a friend of Kyle's from high school.  And his wonderful wife, Sherrie.  Rick and Mary Jean came, and Mary Jean got to hold a three-week-old baby. (Our neighbors across the street, Jessica and Erin brought over 2year old Jacob and new baby Elliot.)  Cera made and frosted cupcakes for us , then left for Madras with her aunty Michelle before the party started.  We have a whole tray full of sandwiches left over, white wine and lots of sodas.  The pretzel bread sandwiches were soo yummy!

The next day, we met Larry and Sherrie at the Renaissance Faire in Silverton, Oregon.  What fun!  I love the creativity and enthusiasm of the people involved in these things.  If I had a spare $150 I would have bought a Valkyrie headpiece with real feather wings!  As it was, I bought a snood and a headpiece that I could have made myself, but not as cheaply. And I bought an ear cuff that I had to be helped with by the sweetest little girl who was working the faire with her parent.    The faire had lots of costumed little kids running around and grown-ups in all sorts of fantastic attire.  Some were authentic renaissance-style.  Some were decidedly anachronistic.  Some were flat-out fantasy.  Warrior princesses and barbarians and fairies and gypsies.  Some vendors were selling incense and scented oils.  Some of the knights were wearing genuine chain mail and the necessary heavy padding.    And there were horses and jousting and armed combat in the glaring sun in 90 degree weather.  Sensory overload!  Sound and sights and smells and touch.  I avoided taste because I knew we had a tray full of sandwiches at home, but oh, dear, the cold water was welcome!!  It was a wonderful experience and maybe I can get some photos to load later.

Today is weigh-in day, and the yard still needs to be cleaned up after the party.  Guess I'd better gt to work.
 

Ride on.

Spent some time at Oaks Amusement Park with Cera and Kyle.  Wound up riding the Screaming Eagle. Then the thing that spins your little cage around while the whole wheel spins around.  Then the whole world spun around and I decided that Cera could go on the centrifuge by herself.  Kyle rode the roller coaster with her.  It took about 2 hours, a bottle of cold water, and a nap before I really felt like I knew which end was up.  I used to be tougher than that!

We have had a lovely week with Cera.  I think she was a bit bored with us, but I warned her that we were old farts.  She and I did a kayaking trip with Enrgy Kayaks and it was too cool!  The weather was perfect, the river was calm, and the view of Willamette Falls from the water-level is awe-freaking-some! Our guide couldn't have been better.  I didn't want to quit.  In my next life I may come back as a duck.

On Tuesday of this week, Cera and I went downtown and visited the Chinese Gardens, then walked up to the record store on Burnside and 13th where Cera bought genuine old vinyl, then we walked back to Chinatown and ate Dim Sum. Cera is an adventurous diner.  Yay for her!

Aaaaand, another quilt

 MJ and I have been working through that bolt of teal and apricot giant flowers print.  This is the third one we have finished.  The colors look blue and orange, but they are really teal and apricot.  An entire bolt of fabric has backed three quilts, been the prime color in the tops of all of them, provides a bedspread and a set of curtains for MJ, and we STILL have fabric enough to back two more comforters.  All this for five dollars.  That was an awesome sale!

It has been unseasonably hot here, but it looks like cooling down for my tea party tomorrow.  We will enjoy the shade of the back yard, and guests from out of town.  Two of my nieces will be coming up from Madras and each is bringing a daughter.  Niece Shawna is bringing Ava, who is not yet in school, and niece Cheryl is bringing Cera who is 16 and will be spending a week with us.  I'm so excited.  Niece Cheryl is also bringing cupcakes, since that's her thing.  She owns the Cup-n-Cake coffee stand in Madras, and her cupcakes are awe-freaking-some!!

In preparation for this feasting, I have been trying really hard to eat moderately.  Kyle made me this awesome salad for dinner last night.  Mixed greens, apricots, raspberries, and marionberries with a dressing made of fat-free yogurt, and lavender vinegar.  My mouth thought we had gone to heaven!

Anyone have an HP printer?  Ours is experiencing an existential crisis.  Its head is out of alignment, and we can't find a fix for it anywhere.

So today is set-up and baking frenzy.   Orange sugar cookies, chocolate cookies with mint frosting, and curried chicken salad sandwiches.  Tomorrow, assemble sandwiches, plate cookies, make tea & coffee, put out lemonade, water, fix breakfast for visiting family,  . . .

Happy 4th!

Start the Souza marches!  Bring all the cats and dogs inside and make them safe hiding places in the basement or the back of the closets.  Make sure you have the hoses set ready in case the crazy neighbors drop flaming debris on your roof or dry garden.  Set up the barbecue grill and buy a few more bags of ice.  It's predicted to be 97 degrees today.  Kiss a veteran and thank him for his service.  Or thank her for her service.  Obey the law, drive sober, wear a life-vest in the river, even if you DO know how to swim.  This is the most dangerous day of the year, and I want you all to survive it.  It IS possible to have fun without killing yourself!

Friday for retirees.

Almost every week, MJ and I get together and sew.  Mostly we put together pieced comforters for Medical Teams International.  Sometimes we piece comforters for friends or family.  Once in a while we do mending.  There is something so deeply satisfying about doing a task with a friend, and somehow, when we work together, we accomplish more than twice what each of us could have done alone.

Our fondness for pieced comforters has led us to collect fabric stashes.  Mine crowds into cardboard boxes in the bottom of closets.  MJ has hers in a corner of her sewing room.  MJ is a tidier person than I am, and this slumping pile of plastic bags full of fabrics has been a problem to her for some months.  Last weekend, I got a great deal on some wire shelving components, and today, we built cubes.  This is the storage system where you assemble heavy duty wire grids into cubes with plastic connectors.  This system makes sturdy, practical storage, but it’s a pain trying to get all the components to link firmly together in all three dimensions.  Once assembled, they STAY assembled, but getting there is a struggle.

So we built a stack of 18 inch cubes, 5 cubes high, and two cubes wide.  And then we dumped her stash onto the floor and sorted it.  We were like a couple of misers counting our money, reveling in the possession of so much wealth.  This is where it’s funnest to have a friend with you.  “Which  fabric is your favorite?”  “Look how well this goes with that.”  “Does this go on the yellow shelf, or the brown shelf?”

There’s space for more fabric in all of the cubes, and it’s so inspiring to see it all displayed together in one place.  There is the feeling of ACCOMPLISHMENT you get when you have successfully completed a task.  And there is the pleasure   of seeing something that was a mess get organized and made lovely.  We had a GOOD day.

Meanwhile, our husbands were outside in the 90 degree heat, splitting and stacking firewood.  They were using a gas-powered splitter.  It’s not like they were swinging a maul or an axe, but still, they were schlepping a cord of wood around, one heavy piece at a time, and stacking it neatly into ricks.  So when they broke for lunch, they were – well – semi-stunned.  As we enjoyed or iced tea and salads, and they chowed down on honking big sandwiches, we started discussing candy.  It turns out the MJ’s husband likes those yellow marshmallow chicken things so popular at Easter. 

“Next year” I suggested, “We can make them sing and dance so Rick can see a Peeps show.”  The college age sons groaned ao hard.  One of them told me, “You can take your points and go home now.”  That must mean that I am the pun-disputed champion!

Kyle is beat to the ground.  I haven’t seen him this weary in a while.  I’m pouring GatorAde into him and advising against a repeat performance on the 4^th.