Egads how time flies. Now, why doesn’t the fat fly away with it? She said, grumbling a bit about still wearing the extra weight munched on during my first trimester with him…..

We are, of course, so proud of our wonderful boys. Eli had a grand 10th birthday at home, even though it was immediately after Mom and I came in from California! It was further complicated by the fact that Joshua had a wrestling meet after school that day, so time was short. But when we finally got home around 8, it was cake time:

And old age is creeping up on him… ten whole candles challenged him LOL!

And presents. … Eli wanted two things: an iPod (the iPod Shuffle from his generous Aunt Joyce died after Eli left it in his pocket and Paul did the laundry; electronics and water don’t play nicely together) and ski stuff. All Camden 4th graders get 3 free ski lessons from the local Snow Bowl (clever folks they are). Of course, now Eli, the kid who hasn’t met a sport he doesn’t want to try, wants ski equipment and a season pass for next year. So…. with generous gifts from Aunt Joyce and Nana, he is on his way to a decent set of used skis, boots and poles (we’ll be at the ski swap meet next November!).

And here, from Mom and Dad:

And there was one more thing….. Paul had asked me what I thought of this idea, and I said in about two years, maybe at Christmas… so of course while I was in California, Paul placed the order!

What’s this you ask?

A cell phone for Eli. Fortunately, we have a family plan, so the phone is free and a modest monthly charge in addition–we share 400 minutes a month which is enough for all of us:

It will be useful next winter–we can drop Eli off at the Snow Bowl, then when he’s ready to come home he can call (or heaven forfend, if he falls on the slope and needs help). Still… a phone for a ten year old? Remember when we were kids and there was ONE phone for the entire family? And my Aunt Katie, in the boonies of Wyoming, was still on a party line?

No, I have NOT fallen off the face of the Earth, though some days I am tired enough to do that! Instead, I’ve gotten mom settled in to her new digs at Quarry Hill. On Wednesday, the moving van arrived a day early, so I’ve been unpacking like a whirling dervish. We are down to the last few boxes in Mom’s place, the rest is safely stored in a storage unit, and today or Monday it will be paintings on the wall!

We survived the trip intact, Mom is settling in, and thought I’d share a few quick pics of mom’s first visit to our house. Of course, the critters had to come meet Mom:

This one is Yeti, the ginormous dog-beast (aka Tibetan Mastiff). When he was about 2 (and as large as he is now) he tried to climb up and sit on mom’s lap when we lived in Friday Harbor, which was hilarious! Fortunately, Mom thought it was funny too, and wasn’t scared! And here, Zeus comes to check out the newcomer:

Next blogpost: Eli is TEN (and how the heck did THAT happen so fast, and why haven’t I lost the pregnancy weight????) and then, I promise, some art. Alas, not mine, but art!

Well it has been a busy week, or three, but Mom is now moved to MAINE! WOOOT! I’ll post some pics in a while, but just a bit of internet surfing for your entertainment today. To make a long story short, my dear 89-year old Mom has just made what we all hope, for her sake, will be her last major move….since she’s gone from Wyoming (birth), to West Virginia, to Japan, all over the Orient, South America, Europe, back to South America and finally to California in 1964. Anyway, now she’s here and we are all starting to de-stress. On our last day in Marin, we went to lunch at Insalata, in San Anselmo (the town I lived in from 7th through 12th grade). My beloved sister in law Joyce came up to help with the moving days… the first photo is of Mom and Joyce, the second of me with Ma.

One good way to de-stress is by surfing the internet, so here are some tidbits for you which I’ve visited in the past few days:

Alicia Merrett is an art quilter in the UK. I particularly like her Shakespeare and Sonnet 18 series–click on her Gallery tab, then scroll down and click on the link for that gallery.

Color Chart: Reinventing Color Since 1950 is on the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) site, and I’m putting the link here in this blogpost so I don’t lose it… I want to go fritter some time away playing with it!

I also got myself on the e-mail list for Folkwear Patterns... I’ve been a fan for 25 years plus (as in from the beginning!). I’m so thrilled they still exist and have expanded their line. I must have at least a dozen of the patterns, and have made and worn most of them. They don’t have to look costume-y or outlandish… it all depends on how you select your fabric and wear them…. you can go funky, hippie, or just artsy chic! Anyway, the Photo Gallery I hadn’t seen before, and there is some real inspiration here.

More anon… it is REALLY good to be home!

EUREKA!

The California State Motto, meaning “I have found it!, ” is appropriate both for the state where the gold rush happened and for my state of being when –while rambling the aisles of the Bangor Target store– I stumbled upon THIS:

This mug, from Contigo, is my Holy Grail of Travel mugs! It has every feature I have wanted:

Grippy base so as not to scratch a table (or roof of my car when I set it down) or tip as easily.

Grippy middle so as not to accidentally deposit the mug in my lap.

It’s not boring silver.

Handle, for when I want to use a handle.

A CARABINER-style handle….

the bottom of the handle opens up so that I can hang it on a handle or slide it over the edge of the crates I use to lug stuff to teach quilting classes:

Keeps things HOT–tho according to reviews here on Amazon.com, I may soon be able to get an even better thermally insulated version (so we’re holding off buying another one, for Paul, until we can get that version… and perhaps bequeath mine to the kids as long as I can get the other version in not-silver).

And DRUM ROLL PLEASE!

This is me pouring hot water into the mug:

This is me, after screwing on the lid, holding the mug upside down…. and it DOES NOT LEAK!!!!!!!!!

Now my $%*(_) cup-holder in my car won’t slosh tea all over the dashboard!  Now I won’t slop tea onto stuff in my teaching crates.

I am a HAPPY CAMPER!

Another surprise during my last trip to California was at the retirement community where my mom lives, Smith Ranch Homes in San Rafael, California. On the lower level, they have monthly art shows in the corridor from the Grill Room (a lunch cafe / restaurant) past the mail room to the lower lobby, shop and beauty parlor. In February, they had textile/fiber art, including an art quilt! Some of the pieces were quite modern and abstract, some representational, and many were interesting. Here are some of my favorites, starting with this glorious piece of art cloth (all pictures are clickable to enlarge, most include the tags with the name of the piece and the artist, but alas am not sure they can be read! I tried!):

Here is another piece I particularly liked, made of discharged fabrics fused or otherwise adhered to the black background:

The “kimono” was fun, too… made of metal I think, with glass affixed– the piece on the far left was cloth and encaustic (I think)….

All in all, it was interesting, nice to see fiber art, but a bit lacking in color! I remember one purple woven piece, and an interesting face made of denim worked punched-rug style, but as loyal readers know, I’m ALL about COLOR!

Here are some of the other pieces I liked. This one is fairly 3-D:

This one is copper foil applied to the background with thin strips of copper sheeting or copper tape wound around the piece:

The one art quilt needed a bit of help in the hanging sleeve department and the quilting was fine if uninspired, but the threadwork to make the 3-D flag was intriguing:

and a detail of the flag:

All in all, I was happy to see fiber / textile art being shown, but apart from a denim piece (a portrait, worked in hooked rug style) and a woven in purples and greens, it was rather lacking in color…. and loyal readers know, I LOVE COLOR! I’m hoping to be able to afford a major dye-fest when the weather is warm this summer to indulge that vice <GRIN!>… stay tuned!