Life Is Good

These two pictures are from a week ago Wednesday!  I've just been enjoying the husband home again and haven't thought to post!  He's been gone from here since January, but mostly gone since last October and in and out (more out than in) since June of 2009!  A short visit, he'll be gone again before we know it but we'll take what we can get.

First Attempt

Sewing intimidates me!  I've always considered a sewing machine to be right up there with a standard transmission and organs - terrifying!!  Give me a piano and I'm in control but these things with motors and foot pedals and I'm paralyzed with fear.  Over the past few years, I have overcome my fear of the organ out of necessity, filling in for our ailing church organist.  Four years ago I was inspired by my sister to by some fat quarters and a quilt pattern.  That's as far as I got, the giddy groupings sitting in a bag gathering dust in a corner of my bedroom closet.  Last year for my birthday, my husband gave me a sewing machine thinking it would keep me busy while he was deployed....that too has been gathering a bit of dust sitting in a corner of the music room.  Well, he is coming home on leave next week!!!  Motivation!!!  

So, here is my first attempt in progress.  Giddy and random!!  I am not showing my sister (sewing goddess extraordinare) until I have the top sewn!!  There are still corner and setting triangles to be added but I am impressed to be this far!

Wordless Wednesday - Tiny Terracotta Treasure

Well, she stayed for a month.  It was amazing to watch her repair her web most mornings.  To be on the other side of the window at eye level to her web workings was just incredible.  I attempted to take some video of her intricately weaving her web - three different techniques to complete it - but I cannot seem to master the focus!  The camera would focus on the trees beyond her and she ended up a big blur.  She disappeared a few times last week, apparently to the top of the door frame.  Then on Friday, she left a big bug all wrapped up in the center of her web.  Coming down Saturday morning, the above sight greeted me.  By eleven Saturday morning, she was back in the middle of her web, snacking on the bug.  Sunday she had completely repaired her web, just moved it up a smidge higher to be closer to the egg case.  Today, however, she is nowhere in sight.  Not only is she nowhere in sight, her web is completely gone!!!

Brain-Fried Friday

Yup, this is about how I feel today!  Utterly exhausted, upside down, deep-fried brain.  Drove into Boston late yesterday afternoon to deliver my grandbaby and her mom for a sleep study at Children's.  Traffic going INTO the city was unexpectedly and unbearably heavy!!  Decided to get a room near the hospital to make it easier.....the parking garage had to be a level in Dante's Inferno!!!  It was HOT, and dark and low.  The back door of my compact wagon could not go up completely as it was hampered by rubber coated pipes.  As I reached up to pull the door down, I expected to see rats running along the pipes.  The garage was also not very accommodating for a stroller, plenty of stair entrances to the hotel were marked but we had to wander around till we were back at the garage entrance to find a handicap accessible entrance. When we left this morning valet parking had double, triple parked in the garage so we had to wait for a valet to come move vehicles so we could leave!!!  The hotel only had one entrance that could accommodate a stroller and our room doorway was barely wide enough to fit the stroller through....on and on and on.  Needless to say, the Babymomma didn't get much sleep although the grandbaby did as she was stressed out beyond measure by a heartless technician who was determined to do his job and lost sight of the fact that he was working on a little human being and not a mannequin.  The Grandmother was a little undone being in a hotel room in the city by herself.  I kept turning on the light expecting to see bugs or mice escaping the bright light.  I was going to open my drapes to let the city lights in but my window opened onto a roof with a ladder coming over  from the next rooftop so that completely unsettled me, sending my imagination into overdrive and the curtains were left drawn tight.  We are finally home.  At least the ride out was easy, hitting all the green lights on route two!!

So, if you don't mind, I'm just going to flop down and nurse a cup of coffee.  If it were sunny out, I'd join this beast.

Sweeping Away the Cobwebs.....Or Not

For a week, I had been unsuccessfully reminding myself to sweep around the front door.  The cobwebs were out of control, catching debris and just not a welcoming sight.  It greeted me every morning as the front door is at the bottom of the staircase.  July 9th, this beautiful creature had taken up residence and I have left her undisturbed.  It has been amazing to watch.  During a ridiculously hot, humid stretch I thought she was a goner.  She had been moving every day - at night she would be on the yard side of her web, and during the day she would be on the house side.  This past weekend she stayed on one side and didn't move.  Her web had massive holes and was torn and hanging in lots of places.   A dry spell with cooler temperatures has moved in for a few days and yesterday her web was amazing.  It spans two panes of my three pane side lights next to the front door and her zipper is quite long and filled in.  Lighting hasn't been sufficient to get a good shot but perhaps I'll try later.  These two shots were taken the first day we met.  Sweeping the front door is going to wait till she has moved on.