Orcas, Ferries, and Seahawks, Oh My...

Now that we're home, I can tell you we were gone! Our friends Will and Briana were married last Sunday on Orcas Island in the San Juan's in a beautiful ceremony, and we were part of it. Dan was a groomsman, and I was part of the kitchen help. Ann, Eric, Cameron and Keaton went too, and we extended our stay to make it a real vacation.

To get to Orcas Island, you take a Washington state ferry from Anacortes. Apparently it's a popular destination because although we arrived in what we thought was plenty of time, we were too late for the 11:45 ferry. To make a long story short, because of fog, we had a five-hour wait for the next ferry. Trapped like rats at the dock, we eventually found ways to keep busy: grilled sausage dogs at an outdoor eatery, finding four other couples from church also waiting, reading the paper from the motel room the night before, watching other ferries come and go...

But we made it! Eric had found a farm house for rent and it turned out to be a wonderful, relaxing place to park for the week. It was on the quiet end of the island and we loved it. We stocked up on food at a store in Marysville, and our kitchen was well supplied with utensils. But no dishwasher. Here's how we managed:



The wedding was outdoors on a deck in the town of Eastsound. Briana was a beautful bride and Will was beaming.


The ceremony ended with a bubble machine and the sounds of the theme from Chariots of Fire.

Dan was quite handsome as possibly the oldest groomsman on record! :-)


With the wedding over, we relaxed and did some sightseeing which included going up to Mt. Constitution to see the amazing view of the water and islands.



Ann, Eric and the boys did some paddle boating on the lake near our house and had great fun. Grammy and Papa guarded the towels and snacks on the beach. :-)


Our last great adventure (including surviving Seattle traffic!!!) was to attend a Seattle Seahawks training camp on our way home. Here's part of our gang. I should tell you it was 95 degrees, with no shade anywhere to be found. Hot, it was hot. We can only hope the 'Hawks will be as "hot" this season!


It was a wonderful week.

A Couple of Projects...

Just a quickie post to show what I've been up to in the last few days. The first is a "piece in the hoop" project for shop display. It was interesting to do even though I started with the wrong size pieced heart and had to enlarge the design for the appliqued heart to match. A learning experience! The colors match the star quilt I did earlier this year. Guest room accessories??


The other project is this tissue cover for a big size Kleenex box. I'm doing an embroidery retreat at the shop in a few weeks and the projects are all bath related, kind of a "redo your bath" concept. I created this pattern and added the designs using my Explorations software and I was so greatful for the articles mode so I could specify the exact size of the top and front of the box. Now I just need to write up the instructions.


And now I'm off the the laundry room to take another load out of the dryer! Happy weekend!

Easy, Adorable Dresses

As promised, here are a couple of pictures of the simple, but oh so adorable dresses to be sent to little girls in Africa.


The first two I made are identical except for the hem area. I used a stitch on my machine that looks like ric rac and used yellow thread on one and purple on the other. Here's a closeup of the purple stitching:


The last one I made is trimmed with some blue satin ribbon I found in my brief case. I think it was used by one of my students to tie around a present when I retired last year. It was perfect for this dress.



As my friend Nancy says, "Imagine a world where every little girl owned at least one dress. What if that dress were made by you?"

These dresses are so fun to make! They're almost addictive. If you'd like to give one a try yourself, here's the link to the site with information and the pattern: Little Dresses for Africa

White Blog

Apparently The Cutest Blog on the Block, the provider for my blog background is having to change hosting sites and they are swamped with people trying to change over code to keep their backgrounds. I was able to get on for a brief moment, copied the new code, and pasted it into my blog design. I must have goofed somehow, and now, my blog is . . . UGLY WHITE!!! Oh well, sooner or later I'll be able to get on the site and fix this. But I did love my background and hope I'll be able to find and keep it.

Meanwhile, it's (sorta) cleaning day here at the resort. The rest of the staff from the shop is coming over on Saturday and we're having an all-day sew-in. Should be lots of fun, but I'm thinking I should probably dust and clean a few sinks before then. Bruder Bear will be down at my parents' this weekend for his 40th high school reunion (have I mentioned he's my younger brother??) and Mom has invited us down for lunch with them tomorrow. Dan has to work, but I'm driving down, so that means the cleaning has to happen today.

Other news? I've been making some of those little dresses for African girls featured on Sewing with Nancy (link on her website) and they are so fun to make! My friend Nancy tipped me off to them and now she is organizing a sewing day in August for ladies in our church to get together and make as many as we can. I'm working on dress number three right now. I'll post some pictures next week.

And now I'm off to, um, dust? Clean another sink? Ahh, as usual, the excitement never ends here at The Resort! Meanwhile, happy Thursday. :-)

UPDATE Saturday: Got my background back!! Yay!

Changes!

Just when you assume life is puttering along and you know what's going on, things can change! We celebrated Father's Day a day late here at the resort as Ann and family were gone over the actual day. They brought over a yummy Cyrus O'Leary sour cream lemon pie and Dan's present. It turned out to be a doozy! Inside the card was a note from Ann with hints of his present. Hints like:

It would keep him young
He would treasure it for years to come
It would make him smile
It couldn't be 2-day expressed because it was a custom order
It would stay mostly with Ann and Eric but could come stay at our house anytime

There was more, but in case you haven't guessed, it's a new grandchild!! We are so excited and look forward to meeting our new little man or little miss in January!!

And then, less than two weeks later we received a call from Matt telling us they are moving from Virginia to Colorado!! A two-day drive away in our car, with a stopover at Bruder Bear's house on the way. Wahoo!! After having them so far away for five years, I feel like they're moving next door!

So, excitement is in the air here at the resort. Change. Blessings. We are very thankful all days, but especially so in the last few weeks.

A Little of This 'n That

The sky is blue today, and big white fluffy clouds are floating around. We had a terrific wind storm yesterday and the temperature has dropped about twenty degrees. Definitely cool. I just made cookies and am taking a well deserved rest for my tootsies. The recliner footrest is up. :-)

This morning Dan and I were up fairly early and decided to take ourselves downtown to the bakery for breakfast. I had a huge and wonderful cinnamon roll, half of which is in a container waiting to be finished at tomorrow's breakfast. I love sitting in the booth, facing the window, and watching the people go by as Dan and I visit. Our town has quite a mix of people and this morning I watched a tall, slender grey-haired lady in shorts and jacket walk her large dog across the street. She looked marvelous. A small girl went by on her daddy's shoulders and her smug smile told us she thought she must be the luckiest girl in the world. An older lady walked slowly by with an obviously handicapped young woman. Our town has a number of "group homes" and we often see small groups of residents being shepherded around streets and stores by caretakers.

Last week I was busy cleaning less than fun places around the house: under the kitchen sink, wiping down the kitchen cupboards with lemon oil, etc. This week I'm cleaning too, but it's computers. Or maybe arranging would be a better word. Or maybe shuffling. I've got stuff on three different ones. Mostly I'm dealing with embroidery designs, but old discs of pictures are being unburied, too, which has been fun and nostalgic.

I'll leave you with one:


April, 2002. Cameron is one, Ryan, two. Where does the time go?

Isn't it Strange...

how one little thing will lead to a progression of things.

I was in the kitchen this morning and took a good look at the rug in front of the door to the garage. Charming. Not. So I picked it up, along with the rug in front of the dining room slider and our bathroom rug, and flung them into my washer. (By the way, I don't think I've mentioned how much I love my new washer and dryer. I do!!!!) Later, I put them in the dryer, and even later, I went back down and took them out. Uh oh. That backing stuff had disintegrated and the inside of my dryer looked like the Sahara Desert.

Ponder, ponder. Stuff must come out. I'm not about to ruin my wonderful new dryer with latex crumbs. How to get it out? Ponder some more. Ah ha! The vacuum. Hauled it downstairs, hooked up the hose and the crevice tool, and it worked. The crevice tool even fit into the space where the lint filter fits, so I was able to get that area clean, too.

Well, since the vacuum was out, why not do the basement. Check. Hauled it back upstairs, and thought, what better time? Check. Ooooo, where did those spots on the carpet come from??? Hmm, damp rag, some elbow grease, and voila--no spots!

What an incredibly good girl I have been today.