fairly boring life right now

finshed cleaning the house thursday morning in time to wait around for people to show up for Bunco. My turn to host and of course I worried about people showing up, having enough food, what they would think of my house (most have not been here) I had not heard back from most of them so I wasn't certain who would show up. There are twelve people in the group and I got calls from two that were sick. I had already found a sub for the one girl who was getting back from her European vacation that day... we ended up with only 8 but had a very nice time. Everyone really liked my prizes. I gave them choices between felt balls and woven mug rugs.


The rest of the week has been spent warping up in red and sewing rags. Today I wove four rugs. We got in the audio tape of Deathly Hallows and were able to listen to it while warping and weaving. Maddie's room is across from my studio so I played the tapes quite loudly so she could hear while she sorted clothes... she is going through her wardrobe to see what still fits. Unfortunately almost everything still fits... She is going to be hard pressed to figure out what clothes she will be able to fit in her tiny dorm room.

We have been watching movies too. Tonight we watched Running with Scissors not the best film I have seen, but Jill Clayburg was wonderful.

I finally got all the latest movie aquisitions catalogued too which was quite an accomplishment. I think that puts us at about 1,000 movies now... perhaps a bit of overkill, but we do watch them.

Buffalo skull front

Buffalo skull

This is the skull Maddie made from fimo... a sort of plastic clay that you can bake hard... I wish my picture could be better, but this is as good as the digital seems to take

Have not done that in a very long time

got up too early waited and waited for the mail... books came in right on schedule at 9:30 ... tore them open... have now finished 11 hours later... no spoilers from me.

Maddie got distracted by her boyfriend (he has been away all week) and is way behind me.. I am eager for the discussion :)

now I am starving!!!!

Tipi so far

Maddie sewed the beadwork on and set it up.. she plans on making some little fimo items for the inside including a tiny buffalo skull, but we shall see :)

Oh and the box in the background is the huge box of books Maddie bought at the booksale this morning and has not yet put away. I mostly bought videos and audio books (they were only a quarter each) and one book on puppetry and another on folksongs... Maddie now has a complete set of Patricia Cornwalls works

Giant Black Panther sighted in Tipi

this would be Bella being Bella

Still keeping busy

I have newly discovered the online part of our local library and have been putting in requests for movies. I think I have about 15 requests in right now and they have been coming in about one per day. We have been spending our days watching movies, cutting rags, rushing chairs and beading.

Watched The Prestige (very interesting), Kinky Boots (love love loved it), The Lakehouse (liked that too) Prairie Home Companion (enjoyed it despite my problems with Garrison), Date Movie (hated it), Little Miss Sunshine (adored it)

The guy picked up two of his chairs and dropped off two more so Puck has been busy with that. I have been sewing rags and pricing balls and cutting rags. I need to start cleaning up. I am hosting our bunco club party next thursday and most of them have never been here. Maddie has been beading and finally finished her last bead project last night. (see pictures below)

Monday I had lunch with some girlfriends to celebrate one's graduation from college. She has worked so hard and we are so proud of her. We had lunch at the Olive Garden. I stopped and picked up some balloons so I could embarrass her a little and she seemed to like it. We had a rollicking good time.

Yesterday Maddie and I went to dentist for a cleaning and Maddie had her first cavity :( It was a little one though so they got it filled right away. They also reccommend her wisdom teeth come out next summer. Oh Goody!

Now Maddie and I are just counting the minutes till the HP books are delivered. I think we will go insane if they don't come on Saturday.

It is very hot and humid here and we are pretty well holed up in the nice air conditioned house. Puck is off to pick up another of the movies (it is kind of fun wondering which it will be) and tomorrow is the library booksale so we need to get up early and stand in line... that is always fun. It is always the same book collectors waiting and greeting each other. Puck said they deaccesioned most of their video cassettes so that should be fun. I need to create a list of what the heck we own so I don't duplicate too much.

Rossettes

These are the two Sioux Rosettes she beaded to decorate other parts of the Tipi

Read Beaded Bear

this is the red bear that Mad made to add to the Tipi decoration. The fellow that runs our Rendesvous' camp name is Red Bear so she did this as an homage and little bit of a suck up

Still Busy

in between cutting rags and felting balls I have accomplished a few other things.
Thanks Urban for all the sheets. they will be wonderful in rugs.

I finished the last of my wool last night so should be able to felt the end of the balls today.

On Tuesday Puck and Maddie and I went to our second play at Spring Green. This time the weather was lovely and cool with a nice breeze. I even was able to walk up the hill without sitting down for a rest. We saw "Much Ado About Nothing" and it was a terrific production. They set the play in the Napoleonic era and Don John had the loveliest cream wool great coat that both Maddie and I drooled over. We had supper with our friend Michael just before the show so got a chance for a brief visit too. His hats in the show were great. We happened to be there on a night when after the show the cast comes out for a question and answer period. That is always fun. It is interesting to hear some of the questions. One person asked if the actors had any say in the design of the set. I could hear Puck sniggering at that and all the actors on stage sort of giggled. When the question was repeated the actor who played Don John dryly said "uh no!"

We got home a little after midnight

Wednesday morning I took Maddie to get her physical and shots for college then we were off to see HP. My friend Jean had gotten tickets so we were all set for the noon show. While we were at the doctors a friend of Maddie's called to see if he could get a ride. He is a former exchange student from Portugal who is visiting his host family for the month. I was a little worried that he would not be able to get a ticket, but we found directions to his house and picked him up. We got to the theater about 45 minutes early so he had no problem getting his ticket.

Maddie's boyfriend was in the lobby waiting for her and Jean had already been in and saved us seats. I really enjoyed the movie and so did Puck and Maddie. Andre was a little dissapointed in the things that were left out. Jean had just re-read the book so much was fresh in her mind and I think she too was dissapointed in the large parts that were cut from the story. I didn't really see any disasterous cuts although they never spent much time at the Black house and I think that will make the next film more difficult to understand. I would have liked to see more of Tunks as well. she was cute. I loved the way Luna was portrayed. It was a different characterization than I had imagined when reading the story originally, but I really liked the little actress that played her and she came off more quietly wise than dotty. And I would kill for those radish earrings.

The Thestrals were cool, especially the little meat eating foal.

We had planned on running a few errands after the movie, but Andre had no means of getting home so we brought him home and set to errands. Puck rushing a chair, Maddie beading a bear for her tipi and me winding wool balls.

Last rendezvous 12 miniature tipis were given to select people to decorate over the year. I think Andy (The guy who runs the rendezvous) got them at the American Girl sale. He proposed a decorating contest and those that wanted to enter put their names in a hat. Maddie was one of the winners.

As I was cleaning for the graduation party a month ago I found a bag next to the china cupboard, pulled it out and said "Oh Shit" We had forgotten all about it. She got a postcard from Andy reminding her when they were due and so is now working rather feverishily to complete it.

It looks like a beautiful morning so I think I will have a cup of coffee on the porch swing

We be Jammin

Seems I can never remember to blog unless Spidey comments so here goes.

Last friday I got a call from my fellow Red Hat group that they were meeting for breakfast the following day at Cracker Barrel. I was, as usual, feeling oppressed by the amount of work I need to accomplish, but decided that I really could use the break and it is difficult enough for me to keep my friends so I decided to go. I am so used to my other friends driving me to these events that I was not really certain where I was going but had a fair idea of the locale. I left myself with plenty of time and got their almost an hour early. Just enough time to do the shopping I was planning for afterwards.

There were 6 of us in attendance and we had a lovely time. It is sort of nice being the youngster at the table. I was bemoaning my small crop of raspberries commenting that I had hoped to make raspberry jam for Maddie to take with her to college since it is her favorite and Jan who was sitting across from me asked if I was interested in picking from her patch. Her husband had picked 8 quarts the day before and they were leaving town. I jumped at the chance and planned on picking on the following tuesday.

Jan called me shortly after I got home and said there were lots of berries ripe now and if I liked I could come today and pick and then come back on tuesday. I grabbed containers and Maddie and off we went. Her husband even helped us pick and we quickly filled up a couple quarts, actually almost three, of berries. I brought them home, cleaned them and measured them out for jam batches. After I seeded a portion of them we had enough for 1 batch of jam and enough juice for the start of a pie.

Four o clock rolled around and suddenly I realized that it was Saturday and that I had totally missed my friend Susan's daughter's graduation party. I felt terrible. The party was in Janesville and had ended at 3:00 so I really missed it. I sent her an apology e-mail, but still have not heard back from her. I am a little afraid to call. I think she will understand, but she is a little unpredictable sometimes. I might get brave enough this afternoon.

all my spare time has been spend making felt balls. Dying wool, rolling balls, needling balls, felting balls, drying balls and over again. My whole living room is filled with wool.

Tuesday Maddie and I went out to pick again and the patch was loaded with berries. We spent well over an hour picking and came home with a couple gallons of berries. I made a cold rasperry glace pie and prepared enough berries for three more batches of jam. Froze them.

Yesterday Maddie and I made the jam. It was nice to just pull the bags out of the freezer, add the sugar and sure jell and fill the the jars, but it still took most of the day. I had reg and low sugar sure jell and I need to remember to just stick with the low sugar. The berry flavor is so much better even if the yield is lower.

I ran out of cute little half pint jars and did the last two batches in plain old pints. I think those are the ones I will send with Maddie to school. They will take up less space... especially as empty jars which wont take too long at the rate she eats Jam. I think she thinks she is Alice at the tea party 24/7... She adores toast and jam.

Today back at the felt balls. last night Puck and I set up a drying screen in the basement for the balls. I hope it works better than leaving them on the porch. They take a couple weeks to dry out there when the humidity is high. I am hoping that the dehumidifier in the basement will help with the drying speed.

We had a little bit of rain one of the days this week and some more flooding in the basement. Good thing Maddie and I were down there when it started and could stay on top of the flooding. There were a few surprise leaks that we still need to address. Oh well such is life in an old home.

That about covers the week.