Longing for my normal life.

I took these pictures of my workroom/studio a couple of weeks ago. Since I have been driving to the courthouse every day for jury duty, and mentally exhausted when I get home, I haven't spent much time there.








I am really appreciating the luxury of working from my home, and can't wait to get back to my normal schedule that doesn't involve traffic.

She took me out to the ball game!

On Tuesday my 19 year old daughter had an extra ticket to a Giants/ Padres game because the friend she was planning to take couldn't go. She called and said," I can't find anyone to use my extra ticket, do you want to go? I'll be home in twenty minutes and we need to leave when I get there." I hate to admit it but that was pretty spontaneous for me. She drove the hour and a half trip to get to AT&T park in San Francisco and it was nice for me to see that she is a careful and responsible driver, and that she is becoming an adult that I am very proud of.

She told me the tickets were up high, but had a good view of the park. She was right. When we sat down I said, "Wow, I can see everything from here!




Then this happened:





Isn't that just how life is. Seems like there is always some obstacle right in our way! A reminder for me that I always need to be ready to deal with whatever may present itself. In this case it was a big man with a matching big head, but usually for me it is some form of discouragement since I tend to be easily discouraged.

I just had to lean to the right a little, and it was fortunate that the seat on that side of me was empty. In other matters, overcoming the obstacles takes more effort. I just have to keep telling myself, "Katie, you can make this work, just focus on the main event, not the distractions! "

Just hangin' out.

There were so many things I could have done today.... hang some pictures....plant some seeds...pull some weeds...clean something, anything.... but that's not what I did. I spent most of the afternoon watching golf on tv with the husband. Sometimes that just feels right.

Concerning my last post...after the drawing, Angie is the winner of the shoe bag. Thanks to those who participated.

Hope you had a good weekend!

On Hold.

This blog has been on HOLD because my daughter and her baby were here for two weeks and all spare, and not so spare, time was spent HOLDING him. I'm sorry, but sometimes you just have to put down the work projects and take advantage of moments in time that will never return.

On Friday I went with her to San Francisco to be the Grammy-Nanny while she did a photo shoot. I took him in the stroller on a walk at Fisherman's Wharf and paid way too much for a small bag of fruit. I was taken in by the piles of cherries and strawberries and forgot to ask "How much?" in advance. Oh well, I guess I helped someones economy.





Can you blame me?





We just had time after the shoot to run over to an adorable shop that she wanted to visit and then as we were about to pull out of our parking place, the San Francisco Critical Mass road by, and road by and road by.




Here they are coming,



and going. I took both pictures one right after the other. Those are bicyclists as far as you can see up the road. (That haze in air is from the many fires burning in California right now.)



If you have ever heard stories about how crazy it is to drive in S.F., they are true.
It took us an hour to get out of town, but what a beautiful city. Almost every building has some awesome detail.




Well, it's back to work so that I can save up some more blogging time.

Adrift in a sea of textiles.

Last weekend we went back to my daughter's house and I stayed with her and her sweet new baby while her husband and mine went on a men's retreat that involved fishing. I got in some great "baby" time, and if that wasn't enough of a treat, she took me to the L.A. fashion district in downtown L.A. Wow! What a place. We had limited time...one baby nap worth to be exact, which was a little over two hours. He was so cute sleeping in the Moby wrap.

I only bought one little piece of fabric at a $2 per pound fabric store. Now that I know what is there...every fabric, trim, bauble, button, etc., etc. you can imagine... I will definitely have some projects in mind if I ever get a chance to go back. As it was, I was too overwhelmed to have any creative thoughts.




There are blocks and blocks of stores. Lots of stimulating color and texture.




We really had fun taking pictures, passing the camera back and forth.






This store with crowns and tiaras made me think of our friend Vallen who loves making crowns.





This photo that Raya took is one of my favorites.

It was a dark and stormy day....

Here is what I wrote around noon yesterday just before the lights went out:

We've had such a mild year so far that it's hard to believe that the storm we've been hearing about for days has actually arrived. I thought I should do a quick post in case the power goes out.



Big Monterey Cypress trees all over the neighborhood like these across the street, usually guarantee that we are among the first to lose power because of falling branches, but so far we are among the few who still have lights and can watch the weather reports on tv.




But while I was proofreading, all went quiet.

The lights came back on around 4 am. HELLO. While the power was still off, but the weather had calmed down, I took Max for a walk around the block and took a few pictures. These are all from a one block area.











The husband and I were sitting in the dark last night with our handy and oh-so-stylish head lamps on talking about all the things we could do if we had a lantern, so we took a trip to the outdoor store in an area of town that conveniently still had power. Silly us to think that there would be even one lantern left on the shelf. I was there looking at the lanterns a couple of months ago and, believe me, they had a lot of lanterns of every variety imaginable. Hopefully there are more on order and we will go buy one on a sunny day.

What I did today....

I wore my red poppy. I was at the post office a couple of days ago and made a donation to the VFW through the Poppy Buddy program. Thanks, Dad, by the way, for serving your country, and thanks to all others who have been, or are in our military. May God watch over you.



I stood up in front of a room full of people and talked for a couple of minutes. A friend, one time told me that she would rather eat mud than stand up in front of a group and speak. That is usually how I feel too, but sometimes you just have something that you have to say. And if it is an opportunity to honor someone (and it was), then why not?

I bought a TV. Well, actually I took one back that I bought yesterday and exchanged it for a different one. Colleen is going to be here tomorrow to help me spiff up the place, mostly by using her expertise to rearrange what I already have. But I really wanted to get rid of the big clunky tv armoire since my living room is pretty small. Therefore, I also needed a less big and clunky tv.
So we plugged in the one I got yesterday, that took an hour and a half to buy, by the way, due to sales trainee/ older salesman combo, not that I have anything against either, it just took a while, thats all, and to continue this record breaking run-on sentence.... it sounded like the people on the screen were talking into empty tin cans. (Very annoying). So I did what I should have in the first place. I went on the afore mentioned store's website, compared, studied, selected, and printed out info before I packed the tv back in the box and took it back. The transaction took about five minutes. Whew, what a relief. The new tv has 20 watts of sound power, as apposed to 1 in the other one. Yes that's a 1, as in one. No wonder it sounded weak.

When we were first married 30 years ago, I didn't want a tv, but people kept giving them to us. "You have to have a tv!" They said. Now, sadly, I would have some major withdrawals without one.

Speaking of addictions.... I heard today that cats that live in the homes of smokers get a nicotine residue on their coats that they ingest when they clean themselves and that leads to a cigarette-butt eating habit. I never thought about that before.

Keeping the pins flying....

...as in juggling. Having a blog is definitely improving my computer skills and I am also finally learning how to use my camera. I've always heard that learning new skills can help with memory issues as one gets older. So, since I am trying to learn Spanish, learning how to add things to my blog ,and encountering mental challenges in my job, I have nothing to worry about, right? I was discouraged to read the other day that chronic multi-tasking can contribute to forgetfulness. Apparently, it only works if you just learn one new skill at a time.






Yesterday I worked on these pillow covers for Saffron and Genevieve, a beautiful store.



Sewed three rows of my quilt together. (the blocks were already sewn into single rows)



and I worked on a slipcover pattern. Am I FORGETTING anything?
.