Ahhh, California

I just got back from a week in Southern California, where I met up with my sister to visit our mom at her senior living place and soak in the beach atmosphere from LA down to Oceanside.

We hit the beaches from Oceanside north through Hermosa. The weather was perfect, ocean warm and skies blue.

Our mom is doing well. She's been there over two months and has settled into the routine of meals, bingo and the occasional other activity. The staff all know her personality and take it with good humor.

We visited the park, above, where our parents used to go for picnics on the Palos Verdes Peninsula where they lived. They would bring their lawn chairs, a little table, food and wine and look out over the ocean.

This is the cliff top path that connects to the picnic area. I can't believe I've been walking those cliffs for almost 40 years, but when we sell the house I probably won't be back. Have to soak it all in while I have the chance.

 

We also went to a great little Mexican restaurant minutes from their house that my sister didn't know about and I hadn't been to in at least 15 years. It had colorful chairs outside and great mural inside.

In Oceanside we went to Petite Madeline and were gaga over the bake case! I had French toast and bought an apricot Danish for later that was heavenly.

We also explored Carlsbad, and the beach was wonderful. The sign above this mural says "The Colors of Carlsbad."

This is Rat Beach (stands for "Right After Torrance"), where my sister swam with some pelicans.

The rest of these photos are from Hermosa Beach, where it was hopping because it was a sunny Sunday afternoon.

My 30-year-old Tevas bit the dust after too much time in the saltwater. The bottom of the right sole came unglued. I didn't actually wear them for 30 years because during one of our moves they got packed away and I forgot that I had them for a long while.

We found another good cafe in Hermosa.

Back at the house I had my coffee in the backyard, getting wistful knowing we'd have to sell the house soon. I'm sure going to miss it. My kids have been coming here since they were born.

I brought a stitching project along but didn't work on it much because we were either busy or I was too tired.

 

Now it's back to life in the desert.

Have a colorful day

 

Stormy Saguaro is done, I think

I'm pretty sure I'm done with "Stormy Saguaro," but I won't staple it around the stretcher bars just yet in case I want to add more elements.

The clouds are building up this afternoon, but rain isn't forecast to start until tomorrow. Maybe it will be the summer monsoon's last blast.

Juniper update: She LOVES the water! She took swimming lessons this summer and in the last week has played in the water at Lake Coeur d'Alene, a beach on the Spokane River, and a community pool.

Speaking of water, I finally bought one of those nifty spin mop systems where you step on a pedal and it spins  the mop out. WooHoo!!! It's really speeded up mopping time, which is major because I have a huge expanse of floor tile (very common in Tucson houses).

Have a colorful day

A new photo/fabric piece

This week I started a new desert photo/fabric piece. I'll stretch it over a 16"x20" frame when it's done. I took the photo of the magnificent saguaro as storm clouds were moving in several years ago. I printed it on an 8"x10" piece of cotton, which is as large as my printer can handle, then I needed to paint fabric for the borders to make it bigger.

I'm not used to mixing stormy colors. I figured a dab of black with one of my blue paints would do it, but my black Setacolor fabric paint was totally dried out. Panic! Then I remembered some ancient Colorhue dyes that I bought at the IQA-Chicago Festival in 2007 that I haven't used in probably 10 years. They can be mixed with paint, so I added a drop of black Colorhue to my blue and tada! I bunched the fabric up a little to let it dry, and this is the result.

The card stapled to the bag of dyes shows that I bought it in 2007 -- 18 years ago! I could have raised a child from birth to college in the time I've had those dyes, and they still work just like new.

I decided it was time to use those dyes, so I colored some silk organza the way I was shown at the quilt festival, putting the dye and fabric in a baggie and squishing it around until all the dye is absorbed. That's it! No fixative or batching. You can iron it dry and it's ready to use. 

I didn't put enough blue in to color the whole piece of organza, so I colored the rest with a mixture of pumpkin and canary.

This time I painted it on so I could be more targeted.

I also baggie dyed another piece of organza with the pumpkin and canary and love the result. You can see how the color is intensified as you put more layers on top of each other. That's what I like about working with organza and other sheers.

I bordered the photo with some crinkled green silk from my scrap bag and then added another border of the blue organza that I just dyed.

Then it was time to pick embroidery thread colors.

I looked at some of the fancy stitches that I used on a crazy quilt project for inspiration ...

... but I ended up using my good old big cross stitches because the desert isn't fancy or delicate.

I still have more stitching to do, and then I'll think about adding beads and maybe dove feathers that I collect from my back yard. I think the feathers might be too big and distracting, but I like the idea of them blowing around in the storm.

It's 95 degrees outside, so now I'm going to settle down in my nice cool house and stitch.

Have a colorful day

Spokane and family time

Last week I got back from a week in Spokane where I had some great family time, with little Juniper being the center of attention. My son, Keith, flew out from Madison to meet his niece for the first time and she adored him. My ex even showed up, so the whole nuclear family was together for the first time since Julia's wedding two years ago.

My sun hat was a big hit with Juniper, who looks like a real life Sunbonnet Sue. She's so cute I can hardly stand it! It's really hard living so far away from her.

She loves, loves, loves books and knows every image in every one of her dozens of books. They had to cover their "new" vintage couch that we're sitting on with a sheet because the cats think it's a giant scratching post.

She loves dogs even more than books and talks about them enthusiastically and constantly. (They have three cats and three bunnies, but no dogs.) She met this gentle dog one day at the park. And did I say she loves parks and playgrounds? Here she is with dad Jade headed for the slides.

Their house, which they bought last year, looks like a cute cottage, and the front and back yard are full of activities.

My kids had the same turtle sand box when they were growing up. She plays in it nearly every day with the neighbor kids.

And the kid is organized, just like her mother. While Julia was clearing out the fridge, she let Juniper "help" and Juniper carefully put every item on a separate floor tile on her own with no prompting.

At the end of Keith's visit, he and Dave drove directly to the North Cascades for a backpacking trip that took them on the challenging hike up to the Desolation Peak fire lookout tower, which was popularized by Beat writer Jack Kerouac's "Dharma Bums" and "Desolation Angels."

They hiked in through rugged terrain about 16 miles over two days and then climbed over 4,000 feet to the tower. They were among the lucky ones to get a permit to camp near the peak, meaning they didn't have to hike down on the same day. Those days are past for me, but even Keith said it was tough.

Have a colorful day