WINE RED

It's that time of year again. The leaves, with their brilliant autumn colors are falling, catching my eye, making me reach for my camera. I spotted this one the other day as I was walking through the yard. It had floated down from its perch in the maple and taken a seat in a rusty lawn chair.



Wine on rust




Tiptoe




Ruffles




Textures of Autumn

This was a lovely day. I drove out to Dundee to take care of my granddaughter, and after a brief snuggle on the sofa, catching up on what she'd been up to, and meeting her new "baby", a teensy white stuffed mouse that still looks like cat to me, we chose flowered tights to go with her dress and put those and her shoes on, gathered up a small bucket of toys she wanted to give to her second cousins, had a bite of breakfast, and headed to my Mom's.

I had the singular pleasure of teaching her a few more words. Megan had asked how soon we would be at G-ma's (G-ma=Great Grandma), and I told her we'd be there after we drove through the woods, the forest.

"Nana," she asked from the back seat, "What's a fowest?"

It instantly struck me how many things we take for granted, such as assuming a four-year-old knows what a forest is. I explained it to her, telling her, "Watch for a whole lot of tall trees. We're going to drive right through a whole bunch of trees. That's a forest. That's the woods."

Then I sang a snippet of "Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we go," and told her we'd do that, too--go over a river.

"Nana. I don't know what a wiveh is. What's a wiveh?"

Why was that so sweet for me, teaching her those terms? I don't know. Maybe it's just that I love her so much, these small conversations are all precious.

Once we were at Mom's, it was, as usual, pretty pandemonious. (If that isn't already a word, it should be!) It had not registered with my niece, Cat, that we were coming, but she and her three little ones were home, and the four children played happily, running up the stairs to join Mama and me whenever they could "escape", and Mama and I fairly tore through our respective to-do lists--bring in the Christmas gifts I'd picked up for Mama, show her how to change her online user name for her banking account, go through the box of costume jewelry inherited from Auntie Jewel, have a bite to eat, run to the post office--we never do have enough time.

Mama wanted to take me to The Elks thrift store, so I could see what they'd done with their recent upgrade/remodel. It's much cleaner, and more open, but it isn't as much fun as it used to be, when it was packed with racks and bins, and they've raised their prices. Still, I did find three painted metal trays for Mega Blossoms, priced "low enough".

As we walked out, I told Mom, "Give it a little time. It will go back to where it was after awhile."

We did have some down and damp and mildly grubby fun. One thing new is a big bin of clothing they put in the covered alcove outside. Anything in that is free, and Mom and I went through the entire thing, picking out a couple of dozen garments. Some of them are so nice that Mama will wash and/or iron them and take them to the consignment store in McMinnville. Others had pretty buttons to cut off. Oh, and they're put a waterfall rack out, too, such as you'd use for displaying purses. I disassembled it and put it into the back of the car. Store fixtures for free are, like, unheard of.

Then it was back to her house, to gather up Meggie, and head on home. Too short a day, by far, but dear.

Now I'm home. DH is asleep beside me, the political shows are chattering at me while I type. Time to say, Good night.

A NEW DAY

Going on ten o'clock at night, Tuesday, November 4, 2008. I think we are witnessing a new day in this country.

INTRODUCING ORIN & VIOLET (2 NEW PEEPS)

I've got two new little Tea Kettle Characters to show off! I'm just going to post the photos.



Orin






I wonder what he's thinking

I sure wish I knew how to do a gif--I'd make Orin spin in circles!

Now, Violet:



Violet and a tiny friend



I love the sun shining through her hat



Such a sweet expression



Going for a walk

It's nearly 11pm Pacific Standard Time. In a few hours, the polls will open back East. DH and I plan to go over to Trillium in the morning and get some shelving taken care of. After that, I'm pretty sure we'll be at home, glued to the television, biting our nails, hoping, hoping...

God bless and protect our country, and this election.

Please VOTE!

LITERAL PHOTO SHOPPING

A while back, my daughter called to see if I wanted to go to the airport with her and my granddaughter, to have lunch. It struck me as a fairly odd idea. I mean, airports are for catching flights to somewhere else, right? They are not, in themselves, a destination.

Turns out I was wrong, and the idea was quite a good one.

We drove to the airport, which is a mere five minutes from my house. The fun began as we left the parking garage. It's been years in the building, and I haven't been there in at least a year. In that time, the architects and builders, and yes, gardeners, have transformed the bulky, looming, concrete exterior of the garage into the Hanging Gardens of Portland.

The view from the skywalk to the airport

We had lunch in a restaurant that had windows facing the blacktop where jets pulled up to gates, little trucks with trains of baggage tooled around, and workers did whatever they do on the tarmac around jets. Meggie and her little friend, Ireland, loved watching the activity. Almost as much as they did inspecting the contents of their juice glasses.


What's in there?

I'm pretty sure our next stop was the play structure near the security check point you go through to get to the boarding areas, the gates.


Slip sliding around

Then, armed with my camera, we went shopping down the concourse. The idea was to scout out ideas for later, when we were actually ready to do a little Christmas shopping. Find the cool things, photograph them, and create a catalogue of items we might want to come back for.


Painting with water

The above was a big hit with Meggie and my daughter. It was a tablet a bit darker than the gray of newsprint, and paint brush. Plain water was the "paint", and when you first brushed it on, it was very pale, then deepened to dark gray, and then gradually disappeared completely, so you could create again and again on the same sheet.


Photoclip mobile

I thought the photo mobile was a great idea, but confess I'm more likely to make my own than to buy one!


Wreck This

I don't remember what the inside of this journal looked like, but it was really neat. Melody and I both fell in love with it.

And we looked at the Bunny Suicides book in front of it, too. I thought it was rather macabre. Big controversy here now over its being in a local middle school's library.


Bicycle bells in a bowl

(Had to add the "in a bowl" for the sheer alliteration of it!) It's been a long time since I saw this kind of bicycle bell, and I think they're absolutely adorable. But I seriously doubt I could bring myself to spend $20 on one.


Eyesore, indeed

My favorite is the one that says, "Keep an eye out". I think of Bruce when I see eyeballs, of course. I carried an eyeball keychain for months after he put his out, and we decided "his" song is now, "I only have eye for you," which still makes me laugh. I know. I'm one sick puppy. It's one of those times when you might as well laugh, because crying won't help.


Robot love

These little guys I may go back for. I love them, especially the Daddy Long Legs type. You should see it bouncing around the table!

And that's how you Photo Shop! Fabulous fun, and except for parking and lunch, we didn't spend a dime. Okay, okay, okay. I bought a greeting card and some stickers. But the card was really funny!

We had a great day, one I'd like to repeat soon, and often.

A BOO-TIFUL FRIDAY FENCE POST

Fences all have their own personalities, some more striking than others, and like people they age in different ways. Apparently, some fences also enjoy getting into costume for Halloween!



oooOO00oo00ooOO00ooo!



Web Head



Jack-O-Rock


Happy Friday, and Happy Halloween to all!

WHOO-HOO! NEW GIFT BAGS ARE HERE!

I feel like I have been working at getting my new gift bags photographed and online forever, although it's actually been just (just?) a month. Even now, I'll be able to show only the little ones. The large size still aren't in the camera. I'm holding out fond hopes for Saturday on that, since tomorrow looks too solidly booked for anything in the Art area.

As usual, I can't just put the photos up. I have to give a little background.

In my family, gift wrapping has always been something of an art form. Mama was so creative, there are still gifts I remember for their inventive packaging, years now since I've forgotten what was inside.

We were also very frugal. I have very fond memories of my Grandpa Parker, setting a gift aside to pull a small pocket knife out, choosing the smallest blade, and gently slicing through the strips of scotch tape that held the paper. All of us were careful not to tear the gift wrap, even if Grandpa was the only one with a knife. We would smooth the paper and fold it, trying not to make new creases, and put it away for the next gift-giving occasion.

Eventually, we had good stores of what came to be known as our "Heirloom Wrapping Paper", the increasingly fragile, but now familiar bits that had survived years of being passed back and forth. Every year, the boxes the old paper would wrap would get smaller, as little tears ate away at the edges.

So you can understand my mindset when I got married, at nineteen. My new husband and I had very little money, but I went to Meier & Frank and bought rolls of elegant and lovely paper, and the ribbon to go with it. It was an investment. I knew I'd be using it for years.

Christmas with the new hubby's family came. The gifts we brought were beautiful. I handed one to my brother-in-law, and then watched in stunned horror as he ripped the paper off, wadded it into a ball, and threw it to the dog to play with. Even now, nearly forty years later, my jaw has dropped, just thinking about it. Holy cow.

You might say I have issues with that kind of wastefulness. And as a society, we are so heedless! I have watched my daughters-in-law throw perfectly good store-bought gift bags in the trash. Why? How difficult is it to fold them flat and put them in the storage container for gift wrap? I do not understand it.

But that doesn't mean I can't come up with a very small way to fight our wasteful tendencies. Last month, I created gift bags from designer fabric samples. Their seams are sewn, rather than glued, so they won't tear when bumpy things are put in them. Their ribbons are sewed on, so you don't have to buy a bow, and can't lose this one. They look pretty. And they don't, somehow, look like something you're supposed to throw away, especially the larger ones.

That's what I think, anyway. Can I get an opinion from someone else on it? Here are the little bags:


A rather funky five



Closer up



A classic trio


With some little gifts tucked into the top, to show size

I can hardly wait to show off the big ones! I took both sizes to a show this past weekend, and they did well, so that's a good sign.

In other news, this has been a rather long, and tiring day. How is it that days like that often seem to start off really well?

We went out to breakfast. When we got back, DH went to get a load of gravel while I cleaned out a little display case left over from when we had stores. I hadn't gotten very far with that when DH called to say the wheel had come off his trailer full of gravel, but he had a spare.

I said okay, and to be careful, and we hung up. The phone rang again, just moments later. I'd taken the lug wrenches and jack out of the van, DH told me. No, I had not, but I said I'd bring them to him. He was tense and yelling about everything, and gave me really pukey directions for finding him. (Honestly, why couldn't he just have said, "I'm on Columbia, west of 60th"?)

But, long story short, he ended up having to call a tow company. He got home, and we struggled and sweated through getting the display case out of the basement, up a flight of stairs that had been moved and acquired an extra twist since we'd taken the case down there. By the time it was upstairs, I was drenched and panting, but hey, he'd insisted I couldn't lift one end of the thing, and I'd insisted I could, and I was right! Na nana na na!

We took the case over to Trillium, forgetting the shelf, but remembering the furniture polish and glass cleaner, so I could spiffy it up.

At home, the rest of the day was less physical. I put a meatloaf in the oven, and edited the photos above and a bunch of others while we watched TV, and then we had dinner. More TV and photo editing afterwards.

I topped it off with a new experience: laptop on my desk alongside my desktop keyboard, working on both computers at once. Confusing, but it was nice to do something while a computer did its "thinking" bit.

Oh, and Etsy Forums. They are addictive, aren't they?

HE'S OURS: #1 HOTTEST POLITICIAN!

I can't resist posting this. It makes me think of all those times on a school bus, coming home from some game we'd won, chanting, "We're number one! We're number one!"

Representative Ben Cannon was interviewed on the radio this morning about his new status as a "hottie". He said it ranks as the most thoroughly embarrassing moment or event in his life. "I promise you," he said, "My name and the term "hot" have never been linked before!" Rep. Cannon also said the news broke on Friday, and he was fortunate enough to escape the school where he teaches before more than a few of his students had heard.

I gotta say, he looks pretty good to me. If I were to set aside my own political leanings, I might have picked Obama as #1 hot legislator myself, or, frankly Sarah Palin, but those choices were probably too politically "hot" right now for AOL.

The #1 hottest politician in America is: Rep. Ben Cannon (D-Portland)

According to AOL LemonDrop:

This guy teaches middle school and is an avid cyclist. He's
also got that grunge-cute look of a guy who plays in an indie rock band
on the side. We like. A lot.