Getting Excited

We're leaving tomorrow for the vacation of my dreams. My daughter Naomi's quilt will be part of an international exhibition which opens this weekend. Not only do I get to spend a lot of time with Michael away from our jobs, but I get to see my darling oldest child be praised for the great talent she is. And I get to see a lot of art. Not only are we going to the art quilt opening, but we also get to go to the awards ceremony and banquet.

After we've seen the exhibit, we're pushing on to see one of the things on my life's bucket list, Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright. We'll spend a few quiet days in Southwestern Pennsylvania soaking up history and architecture and then back home.

The only little bitty downside is that the iris and the rhododendrons in our yard are starting to bloom. We have a whole bank of iris in our front yard. It's my favorite flower. We missed them last year as we were in Europe when they bloomed. I'm hoping they'll still look good when we return.

Here's what they looked like in 2009 in case I miss them again.

Camp Acahela

This blog is about my experiences up here in NEPA but I felt like I needed to share one of Michael's experiences. It does have something to do with me.

My whole life Dad has been talking to me about Camp Acahela and how wonderful it was to be at Boy Scout camp there. I knew that the camp was close to my home, but I also knew that it was used mainly as a Cub camp now. So when Michael was given the opportunity to go there and be a leader for our church's Boy Scout trip on a rappelling trip, we were excited and I sent him there with the camera.

No wonder Dad talked about it! Be sure and click on these pictures so you can see all the flowering trees and details. That's the Lehigh River which runs through the camp.

So often when you go back to look at some place your parents raved about, it's smaller (or closer as in the three miles they walked to school in the snow) or disappointing in some other way. But this has got to be one of the most beautiful Scout camps anywhere.

Michael also saw a leader from another troop. Troop 1 of Honesdale, PA! This troop does go back to 1911. BSA doesn't recognize any troop in the US as being the first (it's too hard to call) but this is one of the very first.

So there you go. And when Dad looked at the pictures, it looked as he remembered it. Also something that doesn't happen every day. Some things are as good as you remember them.

Wait here for the present

"Wait here for the present." The picture of Ramona Quimby sitting all day on her first day of school waiting for the present always makes me laugh.
I like making things. I always have. And so holidays give me an ideal chance to give a handmade gift. Here are a couple that I made recently. Mom's pennant is made from vintage handkerchiefs. I just lucked out and found one with the monogram "J" for Jones in my estate sale hunting. The dress is from a piece of vintage fabric I was given and a vintage mail order pattern I fell in love with. This was granddaughter J's gift for her 4th birthday.

 And a couple of pix of Michael and me on Mother's Day with the gorgeous Calla lilies he gave me. He also got me a lovely planter full of dark purple geraniums to hang outside my kitchen window. In addition to phone calls I also received a beautiful coffee table pop-up book of flower bouquets. And, since this is Pennsylvania, the entire yard was in bloom for Mother's Day. Lilacs, cherry trees, narcissus, and the lilies of the valleys just waiting to open up. Sweet!

Happy Mother's Day!

What more can I say than to wish my mom a lovely and happy Mother's Day?

She has always been one of those "go the extra mile" moms and I'm grateful. She created a lovely home for us, she fed us, clothed us and was our best cheerleader. There is no end to her talents. She is a font of knowledge. I am constantly amazed at things that pop into my head that only my mom could have taught me. And she's been a listening ear for more years than I want to count.

And although you would never guess from the photo, she's coming up on her 90th birthday. That's a lot of years of good mothering and grandmothering. And as all moms of adult children know, the mommy job never ends.

So have a happy day, Mom. And a happy and blessed day to all moms as well. But I wish an especially happy day to my little girls who have a houseful of small children. Every day is Mother's Day for them.

The Daffodils Last Longer This Way

Happy Earth Day! It's 43 degrees and cloudy in Shavertown today. Only sixteen degrees below average temperatures. Br-r-r. But the upside is that the daffodils are looking just great. And no, this isn't a photo of this year's daffodils. The yellow ones have started blooming but these have appeared yet. I pulled this picture from my files from my first spring here. It was obviously much warmer. I really don't feel like going out today and doing photos. But the ones in bloom are beautiful. The cold weather is like a refrigerated case for them. They last longer.

I'm not sure how much longer I will last though. It's been a cold spring. And our beloved bishop and his wife have announced they are moving as are my wonderful soprano and fellow Texan and her family. And my tenor is leaving in June. Woe is me!

It was sad remembering my nephew, Gordon, this week. And GL sent a picture of our newest grandbaby smiling yesterday. It's been a long spring knowing I haven't even met her yet. I will never get over missing my family while we live here.

My writing goes better some days and worse others. My brothers would be shocked to know I'm writing a book about a boy who loves baseball. I'm no expert, but I absorbed a lot about baseball growing up with two brothers who were both fans and players.

On other fronts, I'm doing ridiculously well selling 1980s fabric on eBay. Rainbow Brite, Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake. Who knew?  And I am cutting out an adorable pink plaid dress for granddaughter number three for her birthday. I'm enjoying having the best pattern collection in the area and am trying to sell it as fast as I can.

Even so, I welcome spring. I remember a very hot first Earth Day in Baton Rouge so many years ago. But  up here in PA, I have on a nice heavy sweater and central heat and can admire the beautiful daffodils  through my office window. And I keep a beautiful daffodil in a small vase on the dining room table.

Where to walk?

 So here's only a small part of a huge stash of patterns I bought last week. It was impossible to walk through the living room for days. I'm still working through them and so there are still boxes stacked high in the living room. (And let's not even mention the store pattern catalogues she gave me. I just sit and read the over and over. And yards and yards of vintage plisse and some silk shantung thrown in for good measure.) But hundreds of them have migrated into the office and a small handful have made it to the attic. An even smaller number have sold as I have had time to list them. The one box you can see into is the oldest box and it was full of 1920s, 1930s and 1940s patterns. Some of the most amazing things you can imagine. I am particularly fond of the mail order pattern for aprons for your bridge party.

You could make four aprons, one for each of the four suits in a playing card deck. It's in my shop right now for an exorbitant price. Right here! We'll see if anyone will pay it.

I also acquired a huge stash of 1980s fabrics. So far I've managed to auction off one of the Rainbow Brite doll panels, a Rainbow Brite Sprites panel, and several patterns from the above stash. Amazingly the Sprites sold for 53.00 and the American Girl doll tent and backpack pattern went for 70.00. Too bad I don't have a lot more of this stuff!

Michael has been doing some acquiring of his own. He had really been going through a slump and a down period and there's nothing like a vintage Studebaker pickup to pick up your spirits.  Happily for me, it doesn't live at my house. I haven't even met it yet. But Michael is thrilled and he goes to visit it every Saturday. Here's the photo:

In other news, I'm still working on my new novel and waiting to hear about the Louisiana one. Plus, I got my first newspaper byline last week. I've started working for the Times-Leader as a correspondent.  And it's birthday season in our family and that's keeping me busy too.

I guess if idle hands are the devil's workshop, I'm pretty safe for now. I've got my hands full.

St Pat's

 St Pat's is a really big thing here in Northeast PA. Michael didn't know he was part of an ethnic group until he moved here. Irish people take their celebrations seriously and while we don't participate in the green beer and parade thing, we do enjoy the corned beef briskets and rye bread on sale in every supermarket. Last night we did have corned beef and cabbage and tonight it will be Reubens. So that makes the day after St Pat's better than the original day. I did succumb and make green cupcakes with green icing. After all those years with small children, the idea of having a holiday without using food coloring just bothered me.

I tried something new this holiday. I made a pennant (or bunting as the Brits call them). I also made them for the grandkids' houses. Their buntings were a little less fancy as I had some nice twill tape to use for theirs but ran out when I made the third one so had to use lace. This would probably be a bit frou frou for my girls, but I liked it. In the closeup, you can see that I used garage sale acquired fabric I had on hand and some vintage hankies. The hankie on the right is real Irish linen. I found a whole stack of them at an estate sale last year. They still had the original shamrock stickers on them. So we had a bit of Ireland in the dining room. If you look closely in the picture, I had on the lovely green sweater MF gave me for Christmas.

It's been a while since I posted to this blog so we have a new grandbaby girl to brag about in Utah. And we'll be having a new Texas grandbaby in September. Sweet!

And the snow is almost gone from the yard.