How Quickly Things Change

I awoke on Monday, the day after a fun, wonderful Christmas day with friends and family to find myself smack dab in the middle of chaos. Mind you I knew what I was in for, and I had prepared for the onslaught, but nothing really prepares you for having your entire home turned upside down. What am I talking about?

Some time ago, my husband and I decided to remove all the carpeting from our home and put in hard wood flooring. There ensued the enevitable shopping and picking of installation dates and prepping the house. But, when the installers said they would start one room and work their way through the other three I thought there would be a transferring back of what was removed.

Silly me. As some point yesterday there was probably a few feet of usable space for me to try and tuck my laptop into and try to work. AND, the kitties think they have been moved to a noisy, excessively rude planet...and they want their old space back!

In the middle of this my desktop system died and all hopes of getting scans done for my current project were totally, totally dashed until, taking a deep breath, I said there has to be a way. Then low and behold that simple scan app, downloaded to my iPad on a whim a while back, came to the rescue.

Here are a few pictures of the mess.

Edgar finally found a place of refuge after I moved his fav pillow to the floor at my feet.

Looking into the master bedroom - yes, there is a bed in there somewhere.

Here Edgar winds his way through the stacks of wood awaiting installation.

Today is the studio!!!!!

shhh...everyone's still asleep

Merry Christmas, Everyone!
The cats and I await the household to awaken and for the day to commence.
So much wonder and anticipation.

Enjoy your day, and your own celebrations....

Wild Weekend

The weekend had been filled with friends and visitors stopping in for my Open Studio, but right in the middle of the whole thing came the announcement about the arrival of a full lunar eclipse way earlier than the crack of dawn on Saturday.

I could not resist the idea of seeing this happen first hand, so I headed out around 5:30 and headed up the hill for the seemingly best vantage point. Many of you know that I live on a hill smack-dab in the middle of Long Beach and on a clear day I can see downtown Los Angeles to the NE, Catalina Island to W and up and down the southern California coast.

Well, I was not disappointed. I pulled up and found that I was far from alone in my desire to see the red moon. Cars were already beginning to line up along the two lane road that sits along side of the hill top park, and folks young and old were taking up the watch.

I took over a spot to enjoy the spectacle both in the sky and there in the park.

Not really thinking about serious picture taking I just grabbed my digital camera...of little value in the middle of the darkness of the early morning.  Not worrying too much, for it was obvious that there would be plenty of documented photos to be found, I settled in.

The full moon was slowly being engulfed. Brightly it still lit the sky, and I sang quietly to myself an all time fav song; John Renbourne's, Travellers' Prayer. There were more than a dozen stars making themselves known even with the lights of LA trying to outshine them all.

As more and more of the shadow of the earth took it's bite out of the moonlight in front of me, I could feel the sun rising to my back. It was a grand feeling watching the moon disappear as the colors of the dawn light spread further and further.

I was happy to have chosen to get up and out to experience this for myself.

Remember that silly camera? Well, as the dawn light came it provided a fun backlit photo opp of those others who chose also to see this for themselves. This is the picture I'm sharing with you here.

Open Studio Sneak Peek

I've been working to pull everything together for my Holiday Open Studio and thought I'd share a bit of what's up...literally in some cases.



Quilts...of course!




big and small...



silks, silks, silks...




patterns & stuff...




and my greeter, Edgar...resting up

there's lots more, and goodies to nibble, and a holiday tag crafty fun project...hopevyou an stop by!

Winter Quilt Continues

Yesterday was a fun-filled, yarn-filled day, and all the couching for my winter piece is complete. Thanks to mom the quilt had been sandwiched up and was ready to go. I just needed to pick out some yarn...



Set the machine for zig-zag...throw my couching foot into place...



and keep stitching...



Today I'll be working on the machine quilting.