Celebrating Quietly

Happy Independence Day! We are having a quiet day here at home, which feels wonderful. We welcomed the last piece of luggage home last evening and so I've been doing last unpacking and laundry today. We'll grill sausages tonight (we have a local place that does wonderful chicken and apple sausage) and then head into town after dark to watch the fireworks.

We were able to spend a few days in Boston when we were in New England, so we got a refresher course on Paul Revere's ride, the hanging of the lamps in the Old North Church, the dumping of the tea into Boston Harbor, etc. It *is* very cool to see where it actually happened. At one point because we were tired of walking in the rain, we hopped onto a tour bus so we finished the rest of the Freedom Trail in a warm, dry vehicle. The tour guide had an odd mix of history and social commentary, but at one point he threw out an interesting fact: that at the time the colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence, there was no democratic government existing in any country. Quite remarkable, really.

So, despite the strange twists and turns our democratic process takes from time to time, our governmental system is something rather amazing. It's an honor to celebrate it, and our nation, today.

I snapped the photo above, by the way, on a walk through our friends' neighborhood in Portland, Maine. I love the delicate red and blue flowers against the white house. Seeing flower-filled window boxes all over New England made me want to put them up on our front windows!

Hope you are celebrating with friends and family and abundant relaxation!

Good to be Home

We are back from a lovely two-week vacation in New England. It is great to be home! The hydrangea next to our front door is in full bloom, which is a lovely sight. I love hydrangeas.

As for the travels... We had a wonderful time. We were in Portland, Maine for the most part, staying with our dear friends Eric and Diane. They are the sort of friends we can just hang around with doing nothing quite happily -- which is a good thing, as the weather was constantly rainy, which meant that all of our outing plans had to be changed considerably. But we did lots of fun things, rain or shine... Lobster rolls eaten outside in the sun in Portland's old port, poking through the shops there, visiting the Portland Head Light and walking around Fort Williams, visiting Old Orchard Beach on a drizzly day, having high tea at a girly-frou-frou teahouse in Freeport ...

I got over to New Hampshire to visit my law firm (a firm meeting!), have lunch with my wonder-boss Bob, and see some old (erm, long-time) friends. I stopped by the house were Roger and I lived for several years and was amazed to find that even after 10 years, 3 out of the 5 apartments in the house are occupied by the same people! I visited with a former neighbor, oohed and aahed over how lovely the property looks now (new owner), and generally felt nostalgic.

We spent a few nights in Boston, too. My plan to walk the Freedom Trail was dashed by rain, so we rode the trail in a tour bus. Much warmer and dryer, and Caroline got a good overview of the historical sights. We especially enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Legal Seafoods, one of our favorite spots.

The only not-so-fun part of the trip was the flight home. We were due to fly out of Boston to NYC, then from there to Oakland, and should have been home in California by 7pm. But thunderstorms along the east coast threw all flights into a mess, and we sat there at the airport from 10:30 am until 11pm. That's right -- 12 solid hours. But we took off at 11:30 pm, and landed in Oakland 6 hours later. I love night flights -- NOT. Our luggage apparently went to NYC without us (hope it had fun!) so after sorting through the missing luggage stuff and driving the 90 minute drive home, we hit our front doorstep at (drum roll, please...) 4:45 am pacific time. We all fell right into bed and slept until noon.

The luggage is trickling in -- Jet Blue delivered two bags last night at midnight, and will deliver the last one this afternoon.

I won't even TALK about coming home to a computer that wouldn't boot up at all, and having to do a total restoration of software and data. Sigh.

Hey, we're home, I can sleep in my own bed... No complaints!!

Summer Reading

You all know I adore a good book. And there is no better time for putting one's feet up and sitting back with a good novel and a cold beverage than summertime. I don't know about you, but I like different sorts of books in different situations and climates. Summer, to me, is for lighter reading -- mysteries, some girlfriends-at-the-beach books, nothing too heavy or classic. There are always exceptions, though, and the best sorts of books are often the ones you didn't know you were in the mood for when you read it but it turned out to be exactly the right thing. The lucky finds, the surprises.

In case you need some suggestions for what to read this summer, here are some favorites from my list -- I might have mentioned some before, but that just means that I really, really really think these books are worth reading! Oh, and please do comment with anything you suggest! It might be just what I'm in the mood for and don't realize it yet!

The Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger (Told in letters, the unfolding between a baseball fan child and his hero -- I don't like baseball or sports books, but this was about the charming relationship. Very enjoyable reading. Keep kleenex handy. Just saying. )

The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Suburban life in Mississippi in the 1960s, from the perspectiv of the black maids in well-to-do white households. You'll read this, and you'll not be able to stop thinking about it, and you'll give it as gifts, and recommend it to everyone you know. It's THAT good.)

The Likeness by Tana French (a twisty, turny mystery about a detective who goes undercover to solve the mysterious death of a girl who looks just like her. Implausible premise, really, and yet totally engrossing and fascinating and believable. I loved the writing.)

There's No Place Like Here by Cecelia Ahern (a missing persons investigator goes missing -- and finds herself in the land of lost things. Magical realism, I guess you'd call it -- charmingly written but with lots to think about. I love everything I've read by this author.)

And here's what's on my summer list. No heavy reading, but novels that look interesting and have gotten good reviews. I've not read them yet so I can't recommend them yet:

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (everyone I know says this is wonderful -- even Oprah picked it)

The Late, Lamented Molly Marx by Sally Koslow

April & Oliver by Tess Callahan (if Joshilyn Jackson says it's good, that's good enough for me.)

Almost Like Being in Love by Steve Kluger (writing this list reminded me I haven't read a few of this author's more recent books)

Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moment of Grace, Essays by Ayelet Waldman (reflections on motherhood, looks really good)

Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz (novel told from perspective on an admissions officer at Princeton)

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (murder mystery compared to Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh -- I LOVED that book as a kid)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson (a thriller that is getting good reviews and promises to be "un-put-downable." I hope.)

Okay -- I'm headed out to return books to the library! Happy reading!

Bee'in Busy

I don't know why I've had a hard time blogging lately. Too much to say, and too little, if you know what I mean.

So here are some of the things keeping me busy lately:

* Reading a great book right now: "Gone Tomorrow" by P.F. Kluge. A story in a story about a writer who becomes a professor at a small Ohio college. Written by a professor at a small Ohio college. The writing is fantastic and it's a wonderful exploration of the dreams of our youth and the realities of our lives. I've already requested other books by this guy from the library.

* With summer travels coming up and my reading pace on vacation, I decided I needed an Amazon Kindle so I won't travel with the bottom of my suitcase lined with books as I usually do. I love it already -- will not stop my library habit -- but it is wonderful to have masses of reading on one small tablet. On board for next week's trip to Boston: "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett and some Mark Twain short stories I've been wanting to read again, plus some Jane Austen.

* Home schooling has been great, but boy, people react strangely when you tell them you're home-schooling. I think I need to format some good stock answers for when people say weird things.

* I've discovered that the best way to get to know a camera lens is to just put it on my camera and KEEP IT THERE for a few weeks, so I'm forced to use it and only it. My macro lens was hard to use at first but I just kept it on the camera and now it's my favorite lens. Lets see if this works for the 50mm lens.

* I have fiber projects in the works, one even finished (and labelled!) that you haven't even seen yet because I don't have a wall big enough to hang it and photograph it well. Maybe I'll try the garage door one of these grey mornings.

* The annual bird nest is showing signs of life in the climbing vine next to the garage door. You'd think that Mama would have learned by now that it's not the most restful spot, as she flies out every time the door opens or closes. Plus there's that pesky woman with her camera trying to get shots of the eggs...

* Why do songs on my Ipod just up and disappear all of a sudden? I loaded a few Stevie Wonder favorites a few weeks ago, and today they're gone from the Ipod music library. Go figure.

see what I mean? Hardly gripping thought.

Golden Windows

During my second year of law school, I rented an apartment over the garage in a home occupied by a lovely older woman named Mrs. Christie. She was a widow and often left treats she'd baked or vegetables she'd grown in her garden for me. She once told me a story that I think about from time to time, and when I took this picture the other evening it reminded me of it. The story goes like this:

One morning, a little girl was looking across the valley from her house, admiring the beautiful golden windows on a house on the top of the hill.

"Mom," she said, "Do you see that house on the hill with golden windows? It must be so beautiful there, and the people who live there must be so wealthy! I'll bet they have no problems and their lives are filled with happiness every day. I wish OUR HOUSE had golden windows."

"Oh, darling," replied the mother, "no one's life is perfect. Even people who live in a house with golden windows."

"No, I think you are wrong! I want to go see for myself!" So the mother packed the daughter a lunch, and away the daughter went to cross the valley and see how wonderful life was for the people who lived in the house with golden windows.

The girl walked all day long. As she reached the bottom of the valley, she lost sight of the house but kept going. It was dusk by the time she reached the top of the other hill. But to her surprise, all she found was an ordinary house. She saw no golden ornaments, nothing that made the house look different or more special than any other house. The people looked ordinary, just like the people in her own family. She was puzzled.

Disappointed, she turned around to gaze at her own house across the valley she'd just crossed. And to her surprise, her house was ablaze with light. The windows shone with gold as the setting sun lit them up. In disbelief, she looked again at the ordinary house in front of her, then back to her house gleaming across the way.

"MY house has golden windows!" she said in amazement. She stood for a moment, struck by how beautiful her house looked from this side of the valley. She took off running back down the hill, eager to return to her family. And never again did the little girl look at someone else's house, or life, with envy.

---

This house -- and yes, it is a single family home (when it was being built, we all thought it was a hotel or a fancy clubhouse for a country club or something) sits on the hill above my neighborhood. It's a bit "king of the county" for my taste, but it sure looks beautiful at sunset.

I'll be catching up on my blogging! I promise!

Latent Color

Today is a reveal date in our Twelve by Twelve challenge, where the current theme is "Identity." Head on over to the Twelve by Twelve blog to see all twelve -- as always, the variety is delightful and interesting.

I went for the fingerprint as an essential aspect of identity -- I've always found them fascinating and beautiful up close, and i like the graphic nature of their lines. But several of us Twelves used them as the focal point for our pieces -- I think it's the first time that so many of us featured such similar imagery.

I've been an absent blogger recently -- sorry! I've been busy with home stuff, the home schooling, planning a vacation, trying to purge a bit of stuff at a time, and even trying to make a bit of progress on the garden!

I'm inspired to try to make a larger fingerprint quilt, tho, and as "asymmetical composition" is my next assignment for my design class, this might be a good subject.

If I can find a wall big enough, I'll get a picture of the big quilt I just finished. One of the downsides of not having a large design wall is that my "photo studio" space is severely limited!

Time to Cuddle

I had a good lesson in attitude adjustment yesterday. Here's yet another fact I'm learning about our new unschool world: I feel better and get more done if I'm more relaxed about my own agenda. I'm discovering that it's not terribly realistic to expect to oversee Miss C's daily lessons, while also doing laundry, cleaning the garage, making phone calls, upgrading software on the computer, grilling chicken, and trying to get a bit of legal work done.

Don't laugh. That really does describe yesterday morning.

So today is different. My to-do list looks a tad more realistic. And we've already remembered to do something that both Miss C and I enjoy -- we take a "cuddle break" in the middle of the morning. We snuggle on the couch, or lie on the bed, and cuddle and read together or look at a book, or just talk. It's lovely quiet connecting time.

Sure beats recess on the playground. I highly recommend taking a cuddle-break with whom-ever is around your house!

Where does the time go?

My mornings always seem to disappear. How does that happen?

I get up, shower, have coffee, and make my plan. I'll get some laundry done. I'll fill a bag with stuff for donation or disposal (I'm on a one-a-day Purge of Stuff around here), and I'll do chores and then get started on a quilting project. I have plans! I'm ready to go! So, I go upstairs and wake Miss C, get the dog out for a romp in the yard or a walk around the neighborhood... I check my email, post my daily flickr picture... I'll do a bit of work (jumping up to transfer laundry around); I'll answer a phone call or two... I'll get Miss C squared away with her lessons for the day...

But wait, somehow, it's late morning, or almost lunchtime.

How DOES that happen?

Today, Miss C awakened with a migraine. Wednesdays seem to be a migraine day, for some reason. I'm keeping track of stuff in a calendar so I can see if I can find patterns. What is it about wednesdays?

Sigh. It's noon and I haven't yet even cleaned up my studio table (today's chore).

Maybe I need to start listing the things I *do* accomplish instead of the things I plan but don't get to. Then I'd feel like I was getting somewhere, even if it wasn't the "where" I planned to get to....

Bokeholic delight

One of the things that I love about photography is that it makes me see the world differently. Even when I don't have my camera with me, I find myself noticing lines and colors and things that would make a great picture.

I snapped this macro shot of a bottle brush bloom in my friend's backyard. I grew up in a neighborhood where lot of people had these in their yards, and I disliked them because they give off a sticky substance that I inevitably got in my hair when I ran and played under them. But they're amazing and interesting blooms, and I had a great time taking macro pictures of them.

I love bokeh. That blurry, spotty, glowy background? The photographic term is "bokeh." I'm a bokeh-holic.

Tiptoe Away from Tip Top Shoes

Every once in a while, a shopping experience makes me so mad that I decide to take action.  

Over the weekend, I decided to order a pair of shoes online, after I'd seen them in a store but was unable to find my size.  My online search led me to Tip Top Shoes, an online site that had relatively positive reviews.  They had the exact shoes I wanted, in the exact color, in my size.  Perfect.

In a big statement at the top of its front page, Tip Top Shoes promises "FREE SHIPPING on all orders over $100."  Go ahead, click on the link and go see.

Free shipping, that's what it says, right?  Do you see any qualifications?  Any statement that it applies only to certain things?  

I placed my order, for a pair of shoes over $100.  Dandy.  And when I got to the part of the order process where it totals your order, I found that it was charging me $7 for shipping.  I went back and tried to find where to activate the "FREE SHIPPING" promise.  Finally, when I couldn't find it, I put a note in the "comment" section of the order form saying that I couldn't find how to get the "FREE SHIPPING on all orders over $100" promised by the web banner, so they should deduct the shipping charge when they processed my order.  

This morning, I received this in my email from Tip Top Shoes: 

In response to what you wrote below, Yes our banner does say free shipping over anything over $100, but please see our shipping policy

 

All website orders will be shipped FREE via UPS Ground within the continental United States on all non-sale orders over $100.00. Sale Merchandise is any item listed with a price ending in .99  Any other requested method of shipping, or any international purchase will be paid for at the customer's expense.

I emailed them back to point out that their "FREE SHIPPING" promise didn't exclude sale items and specifically applied to "all orders over $100," and that as a result it was deceptive, their response was that they no longer had my shoe available!  Hmmmm.  

This is just the sort of thing that makes me cranky.  If you say "free shipping," then give "free shipping."  What's so complicated about that?  

Well, beware Tip Top Shoes.... I'm heading straight to Zappos.com, myself.

Moosewood Memories

When I went to Cornell Law School in Ithaca, New York (more years ago now than I'd like to think), I was a vegetarian. And handily enough, there was a wonderful vegetarian restaurant that quickly became one of my favorite spots, the Moosewood Cafe.

Nowadays, Molly Katzen is in the vegetarian chef hall of fame, and she's produced a whole bunch of really great cookbooks. But the first classic Moosewood Cookbook is still a favorite of mine, along with book #2, the Enchanted Broccoli Forest.

Anyway, I've been craving ratatouille and when I pulled the Moosewood Cookbook off of the shelf to make sure I had the ingredients, it brought back such great memories. My book is worn and spattered, and the ratatouille page is the most rumpled and spotted of them all. So, in honor of the wonderful Moosewood restaurant, here's the ratatouille recipe we're having tonight:

3 Tb olive oil
4 med cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chopped onion
1 bay leaf
1 medium eggplant, peeled and cubed
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp basil
1 tsp marjoram or oregano
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp thyme
2 medium zucchini, cubed
2 medium bell peppers (I usually use red), seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes (with juice)
black pepper
fresh minced parsley (optional)
sliced olives (optional)
fresh parmesan cheese, grated (optional)

1. Heat olive oil in a deep pan. Add garlic, onion and bay leaf and saute over medium heat for about 5 minutes.

2. Add eggplant, salt and herbs and stir. Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes until eggplant is soft.

3. Add zucchini, bell peppers, black pepper, and tomatoes. Cover and simmer for about 10 more minutes, or until zucchini and bell peppers are tender.

Top with grated parmesan cheese and/or other goodies to serve.

Can serve alone (as stew), over pasta (my favorite), or even on crusty toasted french bread, as bruschetta.

Prep time: about 45 minutes
Serves 4-6.

It's vegetable-y, and healthy, and delicious. Enjoy!

Play day

We are entering Week 3 of home-schooling (which around here we call Unschool), and we are adjusting to the schedule. Or lack of schedule. Or the ongoing effort to figure out what our schedule should be... WHATever. All is going quite well, and the happy bubbly smiling girl we know and love has returned to our family. The change has been quite dramatic and has confirmed for all of us that we made the right decision.

Still, I'm the sort who likes a bit of time alone from time to time -- and these days, combined with R's going away for a conference last weekend, had me feeling a bit crazed. So, yesterday R was home and I left the building for a Day Off.

Yee haw!

First, I went to get my hair trimmed and had to try hard not to drool as Molly the hairstylist massaged my head while hot water thrummed against my scalp. I'd like to start every day that way, thank you very much.

Second, I met with Mr. S., a teacher from Miss C's school who is going to continue to work with her as a tutor on math and science. Miss C is darned smart and I am too insecure as an unschool teacher to have all of her subjects in my hands! So Mr. S will be stepping in to work with C on those subjects and we are all delighted about it.

THEN, the hours stretched before me like an expanse of possibility.... It was raining and I was chilly, so I sat myself down in a corner of the couch at Starbucks with a large cup of hot coffee, and I read magazines. For hours! I had the newest issue of Where Women Create so I sat and read and gazed intently at the beautiful studios on display. Oh, the luxury!

It had dawned on me that I've not been into a movie theater for so long that I can't remember what I saw last. So, I strolled on over to the local theater in time to catch a late-afternoon show of "State of Play" with Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, and Helen Mirren. A real movie! In a real theater! With real popcorn! I enjoyed the movie tremendously -- it was just the sort of plot-twisty, charactery, satisying story I'd been craving. While I had the niggling feeling that plot ends hadn't all been resolved satisfactorily, I was still so delighted with the experience that I have vowed to get into another theater with the next 5 years or so. Possibly even as soon as next friday.

AND THEN, if that wasn't exciting enough, I hopped into car and went to Borders which has the biggest magazine selection around. I wandered, perusing whatever struck my fancy, and sat down with a pile of photography books and odd magazines (Did you know there is a foreign magazine called "A Needle Pulling Thread" on all things stitchery?). There is nothing like wandering through a book store without any deadlines.

By the time I got home, I was feeling refreshed and happy and quite happy to see my family. I had quite the successful play day.

Oh -- I snapped that picture up there in Balboa Park, when we were in San Diego after Easter. Quintessential delight!

Birdsong

As long as we're talking about quilting (!) , here's another small quilt I made a few weeks ago. Our assignment in Practical Design was to make something with a horizontal composition and a monochromatic color scheme.

It just goes to show you what you can do on a random Sunday. I was feeling the pressure of the looming deadline, so I started doodling -- and the branch and birds appeared. I drew that on fabric, and just designed around it. Very simple, and although I tried adding various bits, I always took it back to this simple piece.

So it was fast, and fun, and freeing.

I tell you, I just need to play more ... which I suppose means keeping the worktable clear enough to play on...

Book Review: Fearless Design for Every Quilter

In my last post, I mentioned the Practical Design workshop I've participated in for the last few years. I recently got my hands on the newest book by design teacher Lorraine Torrence, Fearless Design for Every Quilter (C&T Pub. 2009) and was delighted to see that she has presented a workshop in design in book format.

Basically, the idea of the book is this: focusing on elements of design and composition, a group of quilt artists take on small challenges and all of their results are shared and critiqued. So this book provides a lot of great information: basic principles on design and composition and color; aspects of positive critiquing; specific challenges; examples of what the artists did; and the critiques each result garnered. It's very instructive.

The book features artists of different styles and abilities, so the challenge pieces they produce vary and will appeal to different tastes. Even when the resulting piece wasn't something I was wild about, I found that I enjoyed reading about the artist's process, the problems she encountered, etc.

Working through the exercises in this book would be a great way to give yourself a home design course, or to work through with a friend. And there are springboard ideas, too, so you're not limited to the specific assignments set out here.

I was very glad to find this book, and I'll be recommending it to my friends.

No Shade in Sight

I've mentioned the monthly Practical Design workshop I attend -- or try to attend! -- and lately I've been working on catching up on exercises. This is my latest small piece, which measures about 11 x 15".

Our assignment was to work with a grid composition, and to emphasize diagonals or "s-curves." We were to work with a warm color palette.

I went straight to the box of pre-fused fabrics I have, and cut 1 8-inch square, and the rest in squares that were 4", 2", 1" and 1/2". I had a very fun time moving them around to play with composition. You can't see the quilting too well, but ultimately I stitched gently curving parallel lines, trying to emphasize where the diagonal block lines went.

It was a fun fast exercise. I realized how the grid superimposed with curving lines makes me see a map -- which leads me to think I'd like to use this construction and composition method for something bigger.

Every month I'm reminded of how important it is to just experiment. The workshop deadlines make me fit the time in ...but really, I should just do it, deadline or not.

My bed is calling me...

The bad news: I was up way too late last night working, and I will be spending today and tonight putting in a lot of hours to finish a big work project. So it will be a while before I can crash into bed to sleep until I just wake up when I'm ready to wake up.

The good news: The solution for what sort of border to put on the Cinco de Mayo quilt I started eons ago suddenly came to me. Funny how I get all sorts of creative ideas when my left brain is wholly engaged in legal work.

One of the BIG questions of life

At our ranch retreat, we presented the quilts from our Second Annual Quilt Challenge. Last
April, a couple of intrepid fabric shoppers selected two different fabrics, and our challenge was to make something -- anything -- using some of each fabric.

Once again, I decided to make a quilt commemorating an aspect of the retreat that is meaningful to me. I thought about how we all get talking while we sew, and how we discuss all sorts of things -- our hopes, our dreams, our families, our failures, our marriages, our kids ... we can cover a lot of pretty personal territory.

So, my challenge quilt commemorated one of the intimate issues that absorbed us during the April '08 retreat:



"Over or Under."

(And don't tell me that at some time or another you haven't discussed this burning issue with someone...)

You can see a slideshow (once again, courtesy of Angie) of all of the challenge quilts here. There is a wonderful assortment!



Challenge Quilts April 2009

Virtual Retreat

Oh my! I've had all sorts of goings-on over the last two weeks, so I have a lot of blogging to catch up.

Before we headed off to San Diego for Easter vacation, I had a lovely 4 days with my retreat buddies at the Bishop's Ranch. As always it was total fun and lots of laughter and very restful and even productive!

I've not yet had a chance to download the pictures I took there but here is a great slideshow of pictures taken by the Official Ranchhands' Retreat Photographer, Angie. She's not only a great quilter, and blogger, and expert on home quilting systems, but she takes great pictures, too!

So click, and sit back and relax, and enjoy this virtual quilting retreat...

Bishop’s Ranch April 2009

Breaking from real life

So, we made a break from our real lives (get it, "spring break?!"), headed south, and have found ourselves in beautiful San Diego. We are staying with some old, dear friends who have a beautiful house overlooking the ocean -- so we are here for the week and will be eating and laughing and getting sand in our shoes and drinking margaritas and reading books and taking naps and generally having the sort of active and culturally enriching vacation we like.

Friends tell me that I cannot, cannot miss Rosie's Calico Cupboard while I am here -- a fabric store I would not have sought out as I don't really need calico for my cupboard, thank you very much -- so perhaps I will take a fabric-hunting excursion at some point.

Relaxation has already begun.

But wait -- a book recommendation for you...



I stumbled onto this book, via someone's list of favorites on Amazon.com ... and what a wonderful book. It tells the story of a modern day woman in Los Angeles, who has written a novel about the photographer Edward Curtis which is being considered for a movie project. The story weaves between her modern life and the story of Edward Curtis and his famous photographs of "the vanishing" American indians. The interweaving stories explore themes of vanished fathers, family life and intimacy, the myth of the American west, and more. The best part of this, to me, was the amazing lyrical prose. I kept pausing to re-read passages that were just so gorgeous.

It turned out to be the perfect thing to be reading as we drove down the length of California.

Hmmm, the fog is breaking so maybe a beachy afternoon IS in store today...

Deadlines can be good things...

Thank goodness for deadlines. Sometimes they push me to do something I wouldn't do ... and this month, the Twelve by 12 April 1 deadline was totally necessary to get me back to the sewing machine.

This time, the theme was window. Boy, did I have a hard time... I had so many ideas but just couldn't seem to get any of them started. I just kept waffling. Finally, I went with the idea that stuck the strongest in my head: using the traditional quilt block called "Dove in a Window." You'll notice that my windows have doves in them. Ahem -- literal, as usual, but still fun to do.

Head on over to the Twelve by 12 blog to see all 12 responses to this newest challenge. As always the 12 results are wonderful AND very different from each other.

I'm so grateful for the women in this group -- they inspire me and make me marvel at their cleverness and artistry and skill. I'm so glad to know them all and I learn from them every time.