Being thankful

photo from aglaw.blogspot.com

I'm thankful for family and friends who have enriched my life so much in the last year. Wishing you all a relaxing day.

Rising Above It...

Remember this guy?

Today is my birthday...and this is what I found floating outside our dining room window this morning when I opened the blinds. This silly little pig has such a capacity to bring a smile to my face.

Last night Mark was working on a project in the garage and told me emphatically to stay out. He was actually building a little portable fence for the pig to peak over. You know, in case we take Porky to someone else's house who doesn't have handy fence posts for him to hang on.

Our friend, Valerie, actually thought Mark had deconstructed our fence. He didn't...but Porky can now travel. Which means, of course, he could show up in your yard!

The value of value

As a quilter, it is always amazing to me how much colors change in relationship to what they are paired with. They can become prima donnas or wallflowers--it all depends on who they are playing with.

I am in the process of ordering woven labels to add to some items that will be offered in our etsy shop. I was pretty sure of the colors I wanted for the words. Look how much the same colors change depending on the background:

When everything is medium in value, it all looks washed out to me.

This was a serious contender, but then I decided I really didn't like the words agains the brown background.

After some definite tweaking with the green to make it brighter so it pops more against the dark background, this one gets the go-ahead.

It's so hard to make the decision based on my computer monitor. I could visualize what I wanted, and then they sent me the Pantone color chart. Yikes. Did I pick the right colors? If I didn't, don't tell me...it's too late.

Ah......

The other night Mark and I watched Charlotte and Levi while Aaron and Christa went to see "so you think you can dance." I had already fed the kids when Mark showed up after work. He had just sat down at the kitchen table when Charlotte looks at him and says in a very grown-up voice (remember, she is only 3), "So, Grandpa...how was your day?"

So smart, and so cute.

Here is a picture of the pink princess pillowcase I made for her bed, complete with the green border of frogs. I am posting it here because the fabric is so cute, Charlotte loves pink and princesses, and this is a good way to make something fast that doesn't involve making an entire quilt!

Would you like a little whine with that wine?

Back in September when we were vendors at Quilting in the Garden, it was over 100 degrees. We melted. Today we were vendors for the Madera Wine Trail. This is what we wore: long johns (tops and bottoms for me), t-shirt, denim shirt, fleece jacket, gloves. And except for the gloves, I wore it all...all day.

Knowing my friend, Candy, who lives in Minnesota where it gets authentically cold, would get a chuckle, of course I emailed her. Her response: "I'm amazed you can type with such frozen fingers! Hope the 'cold' isn't keeping the customers away and that you're having sales success." Do I detect a slightly sarcastic tone to that reply? Nah....I'll admit it. We're weather wimps here in California.

But about those sales....Most of the people were more intent on making sure they didn't miss a single glass of free wine at any of the wineries. Buying something? Uh, not so much...

Even so, we're not whining about our sales. I purchased a couple of gifts from a friend who is a gifted potter, and he thanked me for doubling his sales for the day. So yeah, we're not whining...

Mess Mass Production

Mark and I never seem to learn our lesson. After vending a show, and going nuts for a couple of weeks right before the show because we're trying to get too much done in too short a time, and saying we will NEVER do that again, and will be "extremely organized from now on," we almost immediately lapse back into our old behavior. You know...."we have plenty of time to get ready for the next show." Pfffft.

It wasn't even that long ago. End of September. And here we are, in the same predicament. Only this time we have shows on back-to-back weekends. Yikes! What were we thinking?

The first is the Madera Wine Trail's Holiday Spirit Weekend. We have never vended for a wine trail weekend before. We haven't even attended a wine trail weekend before. Not really knowing what to expect, but based on the assumption that there will be a lot of people who are going from one winery to another, we are making a lot of wine charms, wine bottle stoppers, slumped wine bottles with cute little knives for serving cheese.

This is what it looks like around our house.

Kitchen counter:


Inside our oven. (Because we have to rinse out all those alcohol bottles, so we dry them in the oven before we put them in the kiln.)

In case you were wondering, we don't fuse or slump our glass work in the oven, even though Mark likes to tell people that we fuse and slump in our microwave. He says it takes about fourteen hours in the microwave. You wouldn't think anybody would fall for that, but you'd be surprised how many people say, "Really?" Maybe you have to actually know him. He gets that reaction a lot. Even from those of us who know him well. He says it with such a straight face, and then you I end up feeling so dumb after I fall for it, after all these years. Yeah, anyway...

(Side note to Mom and Dad: Mark doesn't drink anything stronger than diet coke, and while I like my glass of wine every night, I was not responsible for drinking my way through all these bottles. Although lately we have become friends with many a bartender.)

On top of the washing machine,
and the dryer.
Until after our second show next weekend--our annual open house--this is my new motto:

Happy Vertical Day

You may be thinking, didn't she mean "Veterans day"? Coincidentally they always fall on the same day every year, November 11. Rather than explain again what Vertical Day is, you can check it out here.

We will celebrate this momentous day with our annual, carefully timed phone call.

In 2011, we're doing it up big. Mark and I will be in Chicago, eating lunch with Becky, Eric and the kids at Eleven City Diner, an early lunch, of course, because it will be mandatory to be there at....11:11, of course--you did see that coming, didn't you?

Love you, Becky, and Happy Vertical Day!

Oh, and thanks to Google Blogger, which allows me to choose my posting time, because life is all about the details, even if they only last a minute. And don't miss the chance to check out Becky's blog today. If nothing else, you will be cheered by the picture of her tea mug.