Vultures & Quilts

Check out these pavement drawings, especially the 3-D illusion ones. There are a few towards the end that show the drawings from the "wrong" angle. They really helped my brain comprehend what I was seeing. Just incredible.

These are crappy pictures but isn't the second one better, with the extra black edging around the "flower"? I had also tried it with a stamped background but it was too busy. I have paper picked out to make a turquoise one and a blue one tonight.

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Steve and I walked Reggi along the canal Saturday morning and I took several pictures. But this stupid camera software did some unexplained wacky thing and they disappeared. That will teach me to be so quick to delete them from my camera as soon as I download them. Hmmph.

I was going to show you two things. One is our new $958,000 pedestrian bridge, so people don't have to cross the two sets of railroad tracks to get to the canal path. It also helps people in Gretchen's neighborhood get to the canal path much more directly. I actually had a couple of nice shots - one of Steve & Reggi on the bridge looking down at me and another of the sunlight making this cool pattern through the sides of the bridge. Oh well.

We also saw those crazy turkey vultures again. (Photo credit: Marlene Bruce.) They love to sit in the tall dead trees along the canal. The first time we saw them a few years ago we were so creeped out. They are big and silent and spooky! I guess I was afraid they were going to start circling us and eat our beagle or something. Now I was kind of excited to see them again. I counted maybe a dozen in one tree at first glance. I then turned to the other side of the railroad road tracks and there were about 30 that I could see. Once you know what to look for you can see them everywhere, which is one of the things that's so creepy. They're in the trees, on top of telephone poles and who knows where else. I estimated there were about 50 altogether.

We wondered what would happen when a train went by. One time Steve and I stood on the bridge directly over where a train passes under - and man, what a rush when that train passed under us. It produced such a huge blast of hot air coming up at us! Anyway, on our walk back we heard a train way off in the distance. Sure enough, all the vultures, even the ones not near the tracks, silently took off and flew away. They were starting to come back after the train left but we could tell it was going to take a while so we kept walking.

It was a gorgeous morning for a walk. In fact the whole weekend has been just perfect - not too hot. We had Mom, Dad and Gretchen over for dinner Saturday night and I was really hoping it would be cool enough to eat on the deck and it was. That side of the house is away from the afternoon sun so it's usually not as bad anyway. It's usually good for breakfast and dinner - both cooler ends of a hot day.

We had Sweet & Sour Meatloaf and Macaroni & Cheese. Gretchen brought tomatoes and cucumbers in a lovely vinaigrette with lots of basil. Those were the best tomatoes I've tasted in a long time. (Oh! she brought a bunch of gorgeous sunflowers too!) Mom made a fruit salad that was outstanding. Simon has already eaten the leftovers and asked me to buy/make more. Both dishes were so fantastically colorful, I almost busted out the camera for a few pictures. Wish I had now.

A fine time was had by all.

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When I was asking Gretchen if she had that gen-u-ine Amish quilt I talked about earlier, she said she only had this one, that I made for her son Nick, when he was a baby, almost 19 years ago. I forgot all about it! I was at her house last week checking on her cat and remembered we hung it in her family room a couple of years ago so I took a peak. It's perfect! I asked her to bring it over Saturday when she and Mom and Dad came over for dinner, so I could see if the size and colors would work, for when I make one for our wall. She said it didn't really go in her family room so I was welcome to use it. This is exactly the size and colors I would have used were I to make another one. Now I don't have to. Bless you , Sissy - you're the best!

I finally put matching pillow cases on the pillows, that go with the room better too. I made those out of cool fabric I found at JoAnn's a few years ago. They are black with rows and rows of a white picket fence with quilts hung over them. How cute is that?? I'll probably skip a headboard altogether, at least for now. Still need to dye the white bedskirt black to "anchor" the room a bit more.

Oh - let me ask you about pillow shams. As I've mentioned, I've never owned pillow shams. They always seemed kind of fussy and extraneous to me but now I like them. I looked at them briefly at Linens 'n Things the other day. I must have read the package wrong because they were $30-$40 each - and I swear there was only one per package. Are they nuts? Am I nuts? I could make them - but for now, I'm plenty happy with the quilty pillow cases you see here.

I also hung those two pictures on both sides of the shelves on Saturday. The one on the left is an etching Simon did in school a few years ago that I framed. It was hanging in my studio but it was never quite right in there because you could see some of the stamped leaves on the walls through the float frame. This looks much better. The one on the right is a birthday card that Steve's mom gave him a couple of years ago that made me cry, it was so perfect for him. So I framed it. I like that these are both in float frames, both have black in them and each one is meaningful to each of us.

This sign says, "Always Kiss Me Goodnight". It's 3-D, made of metal. I bought it a couple of years ago, anticipating putting it in here. I love the sentiment because it's one of my "rules" - I've asked Steve to kiss me goodnight even if I'm already asleep.

The last thing I want to do in our room is try caulking a nice thin bead of white caulk where the wall meets the ceiling. The guy that painted Mom & Dad's living room did that and I thought it was such a cool idea. I really hate taping the walls and ceiling when painting - too much time, too much tape, so I wing it and it looks like it. I've had the caulking gun and caulk for weeks but am too chicken to try it. I'll practice on paper a lot first. I just need to do it. Just do it!

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I had the best weekend I've had in a while. I got to do some "design remix" stuff - moving plants and candles, etc. around from room to room to mix it up a little. I finally put all the painting clutter away. I said to Steve at least twice this weekend, "I just love our house!"

I hope your weekend was nice too.