Whoooooosh! That's the sound of summer whizzing by!

How is it possible that the middle of July is past?  I'm not sure where the time is going - but it's going fast.

Here in Brookings, I've been going to aerobics at our outdoor pool every day I'm here.  It's been a great summer - about 20-30 participants and lots of room for conversations!  Then Monday and Wednesday it's TaiChi and we're really getting oh-so-much-better at the long form.  It's fun and it seems short when you're doing it well!!

The Sisters show was great.  My postcard went for the maximum bid on just the second day!!  $250 was raised for the HS scholarship!  But now, I'll have to be sure to enter by the deadline every year!  I'd told DH that I'd like to buy it back, his response was "Make another one!" And good thing - cuz that bid was WAY-OUT of my budget!

Lots of wonderful quilts in the show - modern quilts are getting so interesting!  Fun to see some of the Quiltcon winners.

This year four Stashbusters were able to meet in front of the Sisters Library for our annual meet and greet.  AND there was an awesome computer keyboard quilt hanging there for the photo-opp!

Jean Wells inspired landscape.

Theme this year was "Every quilt tells a story" (just like I've always said!) They had a book with small quilts and their stories.  Delightful!

Just a simple Logcabin with the dotted sash adding interest - fascinating! Must not start anything new ...

We had a great time at Sisters - the weather was average until it was H*O*T.  But we were staying at Black Butte and they have 5 swimming pools .... we were sure to frolick in 4 of them!

We had some disappointing meals, but the landscape made up for it!  Miss P, Mr M and I did the Letterbox contest and they each got a prize.  I bribed them with the pool when we finished!  Yep, I'm an 'experienced Nana'!!  What the moms don't know won't hurt them!!  What happens with Nana stays with Nana!!

The Hydrangea's are in full bloom around here - gorgeous this year.  This bouquet is from a quilting friend who gave them to me to thank me for consulting!  She doesn't know me well enough to know that it would be hard to keep me away!! I loved the flowers, thank you M.

I'm gradually joining in Fabric Art Post Cards again.  June bug seemed like a good time to stick up for the bees.  I put reptile stamps on the back to eat the pesky bugs!

Saturday was Fun Day at Guild.  I took my mini-log cabin blocks.  3/4" finished logs - 4" finished and made 17 blocks!  I'd decided to do a repeating block design vs a center-out design - mainly so I can start building them as I finish more mini blocks.  Each large block uses 16 minis.  It was so-o much fun!  I love the way it's turning out, much brighter than I thought! It seemed they were going together so fast (with a couple that needed some ripping :<) so I timed myself!  10 minutes from start to finish!!  Hope to get up to that speed again when I have time to restart making the blocks.

When I got home from Sisters I did what I swear I will never do again ... yep, I entered a quilt in the Newport show that wasn't finished! GASP!!  Working on it - but this week A&J2 and the 3 kiddos are here.  No time or energy for quilting today!  Miss E - who is only 3 weeks old is a party animal all night long!! It's downright impossible to sleep thru a crying baby - Mothers never forget!  The boys, 6 and 4 have been a hoot to hang with.

Last night the boys and I went for a walk.  As we passed the beach trail, Mr D (6) asked if we could just walk to the beach.
"Sorry, no - low tide is over and it's late.  We'll hit the beach tomorrow."
He asked, "We get to go to the beach tomorrow?"
I said, "Sure, that's what you come for, isn't it?"
He (buttering up dear Nana!) said, "No, we come to see you!" Too Cute!

Mr K racing the waves.

Dr D collecting water for ?????

Miss E on the beach for the first time!  She ate, she pooped, she got sand in her diaper - - it was the whole experience! LOL!

Hope you're taking the time for the 'whole summer-time experience!'

This Just In!!

High Desert Frameworks in Bend Oregon Just released the pictures of the Postcards accepted to be framed for the silent auction.  If you follow this link you can see all of the postcards honored.  All proceeds of the silent auction go to Wish Upon a Card charity that helps raise scholarships for Sisters High School students.

I love what they did with my postcard.  It was the first year I was included in the framed cards silent auction ... what an honor.

Who could resist such a beauty??  My DH is hoping I can!

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig!

We were on a babysitting gig for 8 days!!!  Two locations, four adorable grandchildren, one tired (and cranky) Nana and Papa team!!  But what fun to connect with our grandchildren!

At Portland - starring Mr M (8) and Miss P (10) it's all about the schedule! Both are on a Baseball or Softball team.  That Saturday we had two games and a birthday party at the Trampoline center!!  Thank goodness for the other Nana, we were given a ride home from Miss P's game, she was able to get ready for the party, and rejoined Papa and Mr M for the second game.  It dripped, drizzled on us all day.  But no game was cancelled - they've already missed too many with soggy fields.

The party was still going strong when I came to pick up Miss P.  I had to hunt her down and watch the bouncing antics of fourth graders!!  It's amazing - what we would have given for that type of facility when we were growing up!

We played Pictionary one evening - had a few discussions about "that doesn't look like a (insert assignment here)  This is what (insert same assignment here) looks like = another indecipherable drawing here!! LOL!

Mr M drew "Grave".  He drew a gravestone with a rounded top, R.I.P. written on it, Threw his pencil down (mike drop??) as he declared "DONE!" No one had guessed yet!  But he was right, it was easy!

We had Monday to ourselves.  It was finally a nice day - I sent DH to the golf range after he dropped me at the MAX station.  He practiced and I spent hours at Powells!  Win-win!!

Tuesday, off to Medford (5 hours).  It seemed like a good idea to link these gigs - but at this point, not so much!!  Starring Mr D (6) and Mr K (4) - the challenge here is energy!  As in, they've got a lot left when we've run out!!

Wednesday was the challenge day! They go to school 20 minutes away from where they live.  Mr K got out of Montessori at 1.  Mr D got out of kindergarten at 1:45.  Mr D has karate at 4!!  We spent some time at ScienceWorks - the children's science museum between. Nana was tired by the time we were headed home.

Mr K thought his backpack was too heavy (lunchbox and water bottle!)  I carried it just to get him to the car.  As I was strapping him in he whispered, "You're the best Nana ever!"  Who can resist that??

They don't usually have tv in their schedule but mom and dad said, "do what you have to!"  The good thing about that - it makes an awesome reward!!  So Wednesday night we watched the first part of "The Secret Life of Pets" and the 2nd part on Thursday night.  We absolutely loved the happy peals of laughter from the boys during the movie!!

We came home yesterday - good thing!!

There was quite the rockslide on 199 today.

As this article remarked, not our usual basketball sized rocks!!  They cleared it pretty fast, but going down a mountain beside a river, there are no alternate roads to detour on!  I shudder to think of sitting on the road waiting for it to clear, or even worse - mom and dad trapped at the coast and Nana and Papa still babysitting!!!!  LOL!

As I got caught up on all things 'normal life'  I was able to check my email.  There was a notice that MY postcard for the Sister's contest "Wish upon a Card" was chosen to be framed and be in the auction!!!  Woo-hoo!!  Only 11 cards were chosen ... the charity raises money for scholarships for the local high school students.  I'm pumped!

You may remember this project - but here it is again.  In all it's glory!!

YAY! Can't wait to see how they frame it!!  More to come...

Rain rain go away

Mean old Mother Nature (!) gave us 5 days of sun in a row last week, and then she took it away!  Ok, it wasn't "full" sun but it wasn't rain all day every day. Can you guess what we're getting this week! Yep, back to too much rain -in my opinion! Darn!!

I'm in full sweat-shoppe mode.  April 24 is the last day you can register a finished quilt for the May show.  It's the "finished" part of it that creates all this work!  So I have 3 more little quilts to finish.  And it always takes longer than planned to do so.

I entered a fabric post card in the "Wish Upon a Card" exhibit for the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show in July.  It looked so innocent ... but I ended up making 1" finished Half Square Triangles.  They were not easy!  I was inspired by a block on Pinterest (of course) and reduced it way down to be 4x6.

Here is the original link of the heart block.  It's cute and very 'modern'!

And here is my post card.  I ended up taking scant seams (quarter inch looks enormous on 1 1/2" squares!) so had to cut off parts of the outside rows.  Luckily the required fabric (black square) was close enough to the heart to make the cut, the other black square got cut away.  What do you think?

Another task that took up more time that planned:  Miss P's Target Brand 18" doll (American Girl Doll Wanna-be) was having trouble with her hair do!  It was a mess, and P had been trying to comb it, and make it better.  A friend gave her a new doll and now the first doll really looked bad!  So I asked her if she would let me take "Evie" and have her hair done.  She immediately agreed and then spent the next 10 minutes deciding what Evie would wear to go to Nana's!

I tried to find someone who would redo a doll's hair - and couldn't.  The local doll gal retired, so to speak, (She passed away.) last year.  So I got on the web and googled doll's hair.  I didn't take a 'before' picture of the doll, it didn't even occur to me. I may be on instagram, but I'm not of the instagram generation!!

Here's what worked.  BUT don't go volunteering to redo anyone's doll hair - it was a pain in the neck!!

Apply Fabric softener or Human conditioner to doll's hair.  I used Suave $Tree conditioner - a 1/2 bottle of it!  Rub it in, making sure all of the hair is covered.  (You do know the secret for shaving legs - shave with a cheap conditioner!!)   I left the doll hanging off the edge of the sink because it gets messy.

Leave conditioner on for 2 hours or more.  Do not rinse yet.  Separate the hair into small bunches. Taking a very wide tooth comb, and starting at the ends, comb the snarls out.  It's surprising how little hair comes out! This is tedious and took me two hours!  I recommend watching tv while combing away!  You comb and comb and finally you're on the last bunch of hair!  Celebrate!

Using warm running water, rinse the conditioner out.  Lay the doll out on a towel, fanning the hair out and let it air dry overnight.  You shouldn't use heat on doll hair - nylon hair would, of course, melt.  The other type of hair ... well, who can tell which is which?? Better to play it safe!

The next morning, the hair was still slightly damp and I cut chenille sticks (pipe cleaners) in half to make curlers.  Taking small sections, I rolled the hair around the pipe cleaner, twisting the ends to keep it in place when done.  Then let it sit for a couple of days. (We do have high humidity on the coast.)  Then carefully unroll the 'curlers' and arrange the curls a little.  I haven't brushed it, but so far so good!  It's a good bet that the hair is going to be easier to play with - you can get a wide-toothed comb thru it!

Evie reading a book while waiting for her hair to dry!

Finished curls!

I'll let P fashion it around her face - Evie doesn't have bangs.

And that is the start and the end of my career  "Hairdresser to the Dolls!"