It's May 1st!

And May is Self-Helpy Month!   Did you know?   Perhaps you are unaware because it is something I just now invented. I’ve always wanted to invent something worthwhile, and I think Self-Helpy Month is just the ticket. According to Google (and really, who appointed Google God of All Things anyway?), September is “Self-Improvement Month,” but “self-improvement” just sounds lame and pretentious to me. Also it sounds like a diet and possibly exercise might be involved.   Ick.   Self-Helpy Month will be much more fun, informative, and helpful - and there might be doughnuts!!

Let me make this clear at the outset, I am rereading, for maybe the thirty-trillionith time, a book called “Living Successfully With Screwed Up People” by Elizabeth B. Brown. It is a self-help book, no doubt, and I know some people dislike self-help books and that’s fine, I understand.  I do not normally read these sorts of books, either, but this is an easy read; it’s the sort of book you might pick up in the grocery store book and magazine aisle because the title caught your eye (I picked up my copy in the grocery store because the title caught my eye). Let me also make this abundantly clear.   I mean, really, really clear:   I do NOT believe I live with a screwed-up person (so glad my hub doesn’t read my blog); nor do I consider as screwed-up any of my family, friends, or acquaintances.  In fact, I’ve come to believe that the author’s point is that the reader is the screwed-up person anyway.   I mean, come on, it’s a SELF-HELP BOOK!

Probably the most important lesson I’ve taken from this book is the fact that it makes me think more, about relationships, but also about other stuff too.   Thinking is so good for us.  Reading and thinking would bring about world peace.  In fact, if I get any more Zen, I’ll not only be looking like a fat, happy Budda, but sounding like him as well. I only wish I’d come across a book like this 40 years ago.  Never too late for a bit of self-help; however, I do turn 60 in September - during frickin’ Self-Improvement Month! Oh, the irony. --cds

Same Truck (Almost), Different Color

It had to be done. The brakes on our 2004 red pickup failed twice in three weeks, so it was time to go new truck shopping.

So now we just need to hit the Lotto in order to fill the gas tank.

Wouldn't it be cool if trucks would run on orange juice?  I may invent that this week.  I'll keep you posted.  --cds

Toddler Time

What a lovely week we had with our Vermonters.

Ruthanne is beyond cute - I love watching her learning new things.

Miss Fish enjoying the pool. 



They are home safe and sound now, after a discouraging flight delay out of Orlando.  I'll be spending the day scooping up toys from under the sofa and looking at my photos of our week.  Oh yeah, and new car shopping -- ugh.  Our red truck is making its last gasp.  --cds

The Batik Collection

Previously all mixed up in a couple of fabric bins, these are now all sorted and ironed and ready for stitching fun.

Ummm, delicious colors.

It's kinda like having a brand new box of crayons.

However, I must get them all put away as the Vermonters arrive this weekend for a visit and there will be no time for sewing!  Miss Ruthanne and I have some serious playing to do.  --cds

Hot Flowers Update

Just some progress pix on the hot-colored flowers applique piece.

I've been gathering up a good collection of commercial batiks for applique use and have been thinking about how I want to use them.

In the meantime, I'll practice stitching on wild flowers and leaves.  --cds

Porch Sittin'

As soon as the sun comes up a bit more I'll try to snap a photo of our newly screened-in front porch.  I'm sitting out here with coffee beside me, listening to crickets and the birds waking up and once in a while a far-off car on Old Dixie Highway that runs a couple miles behind us, and that's it.  Also there's a breeze rattling the palm branches of the trees in front of our house - one of my favorite Florida sounds.

A sound that rather freaks me out, however, comes from the osprey that circles high above me when I'm swimming laps just before dawn.  It has a nest on the light pole just above the tennis courts, so I know it's probably just patroling the perimeter of its territory, but I feel as though he's thinking I look like a nice fat old grouper slowly moving in the water far below and would make a tasty breakfast for his osprey babies.  Things to worry about when swimming with your face in the water.  --cds

Experimenting

So here's what I've been messing about with lately because I can't seem to focus on just one single project.  I have lots of favorite fabrics that I like to pull together in a crazy-quilt sort of way.  This is emerging out of my obsession over the movie Midnight in Paris. 

Also playing around with printing photos onto fabric.  This snowy shot is one of my Dad's from the 1950's, taken from our old house at the causeway across the ponds (lots of snow for Jersey, huh?).

I surrounded the transferred photo print with some of my hand-dyed that looked all icy and sunrisey.

And then had huge fun pulling out matching threads and ribbon and beads. 

I also fabric-printed one of those iconic Moose River upstream shots during a no-bridge era.  I liked the colors in this one - lots of silver/gray/green in the clouds, trees and river.

And then for something completely different, the colors of the Gulf off of Anna Maria Island.

And little Evie floating in the turquoise sea with her Daddy.

 
These are just a few of the things that keep me from doing what I ought to be doing, like taxes and cleaning windows.  --cds