small hands

This is my sweet girl sitting at my sewing machine, wearing a shirt that I bought for myself in New York City a couple of years ago and never wore. I like the look of intense concentration on her face.

There are 92 days until the end of the year. I am making steady progress on the Blue Coin Quilt and experiencing the typical frustration that quilting is not going as fast as piecing.



I am also frustrated by the fact that a pen to mark the quilting is relatively expensive ($2.39) and doesn't last very long (not a whole quilt). I have even bought marking pens which were dry out of the package. I am tempted to use some of my kids' water soluble markers, but I need to make sure they are actually water soluble.

The marking pencils are a pain in the ass (you have to draw back and forth several times to make a mark) with very poor visibility.

Still it's very peaceful to sit in my study and listen to books on CD and quilt. Just to offset dork overload, I'm also sticking it to PGE by staying in one room and keeping the rest of the house dark. I've already noticed an increase in my energy bill. I've got to get my furnace serviced so that it can be at its best when the time comes to fire that baby up.

I like autumn.

Yesterday I went on a field trip with my girl’s class to the Chabot Space and Science Center. It’s located in the Oakland hills and it’s a beautiful facility. I drove my girl and one of her classmates, who I haven’t previously had the chance to meet. She’s really sweet and really quiet. We saw telescopes, learned about the planets and spent time in a biology lab.

I wondered how I got to be 40 without knowing that Venus is the hottest planet. In the biology lab, I had flashbacks to chemistry labs in college, but I had a lot more fun yesterday. I was put in charge of a table which had a substance called Water Lock. The experiment is described here.

We ate our bag lunches on the terrace, where the hot autumn wind blew over us. I observed how the kids share lunches, sampling each other’s in a very fluid way. That would explain why my daughter doesn’t eat everything that her parents pack for her.

Afterward we drove back to school and I had to hang out while my daughter did her after school classes. I saw my boy come running out and said hello to him, but he wants me to keep my distance while he’s at school. Eventually he came and sat with me and then he and I went together and were invited to participate in my girl’s ceramics class. It was fun. The teacher has a real gift with young people. I wish I had some of her serenity.

I decided to be more involved this year with the kids’ school.

* * *

Super Nanny: Margi asked which kid bugged me in the shows. Well, the episode where the kids were spitting in their mother’s face was difficult to watch. On top of all their destructiveness.

When we were watching the shows, we noticed that there was either parental discord or a disconnect between the two parents on how to deal with their kids, from which a lot of the atrocious behavior flourished. My son commented that he never wanted me to get a husband during one episode where the father seemed particularly inept.

The episode which I found most interesting was the one with the wife with the enormous gold choke chain with a heart around her neck, really large fake breasts, the investment banker husband, the BMW and Escalade parked in front of the McMansion in the sterile suburbs, and four out of control children. They had a pantry just for snacks, all of which were loaded with sugar and preservatives. Even the 1 year old baby was used to toddling in and getting a bag of chips. They were perplexed why their children wouldn’t eat dinner.

It was a caricature of an American family, rich and privileged beyond belief, with awful children. The father was very slack on discipline, second guessing and undermining his stay at home wife.

I had to walk out of the room. I came back in when the family was all gathered in their backyard pool at the end of the episode, the wife crying tears of joy and relief that the Super Nanny had “given me my family back.”

* * *

Thank you for the compliments on my Back-Tack II project.

Also, hello to the folks who lurk, read regularly, but don't comment. It's always a treat when someone reveals herself/himself.

From Yarn-A-Go-Go

California readers who like me and believe in civil rights, this is for you (and it really did take less than 30 seconds):

If you support equal civil rights, please read. This takes less than 30 seconds of time. CA is so close to the passage of a same-sex marriage bill. All we need now is the Governor's signature. Though he's threatened to veto it, he HASN'T yet.

He's claiming he is going to veto it because the voters voiced their opinion on the issue already, but that was five years ago - and this guy just announced that he's running for reelection, so he should care what you think.

We need to tell him that the people of CA are for legalizing same sex marriage. So please call him! It only takes a few seconds.

Call his office at (916) 445-2841 and follow these simple steps. (You don't even have to talk to anyone!)

1. Press "2" to comment on legislation

2. Press "1" to comment on AB 849 (AB 849 is the gender neutral bill that will allow same-sex couples to marry)

3. Press "1" to support it

That's all there is to it! Please forward to friends and family who might lend their support.

It's easy-peasy and you don't have to talk to anyone.

It was a good weekend. I worried that I would be too tired this morning because I was very tired last night. But I feel well.

Saturday we smote clutter. My children actually pitched in, my daughter collecting all of her too small clothes in two plastic bags, which are now sitting in my car to be donated. I found a distressing number of my kids socks in my closet, but the good news is that they are now laundered and in their sock drawers.

We watched a few episodes of Super Nanny. I made an intemperate remark about one of the unruly children, which I think distressed my son. In addition, during the commercials there was a commercial for The Sixth Sense. What is wrong with these programmers? The commercials frightened my boy, so he asked to sleep in my bed on Saturday night. I let him and I slept very poorly. He slept well.

Sunday was good. We went to Mass, where the priest gave an electrifying homily condemning the Vatican’s stance on homosexual priests. We all burst into applause when he was done. Next Sunday is the blessing of the animals and people get to bring their pets to Mass. My kids are bringing their hamster, which lives at their dad’s house.

We stopped off at the fabric store to get my girl some fabric for a project which she sewed on my machine for the rest of the day. I intend to get her a new, fancier machine for Christmas. Any suggestions? My boy wanted some fabric with flames on it, so we got a yard of that too. I didn’t buy any fabric for myself. *Bowing*

Back at home I changed my clothes and declared the rest of the day as put stuff away day. First I made myself a salad with carrots, lettuce, peanuts, dried cranberries, toasted sour dough bagette slices torn into pieces, and champagne dressing. It was quite good.

I washed a ton of laundry, folded it and put it away. I excavated and sorted more clutter, recycling and putting the rest where it belonged.

My boy wanted to play baseball in the back yard. We went out while the backyard was still in shade. The air was hot and dry–autumn, leaf drying, apple ripening weather. We played and then took a break for a drink, then played a little more. He kept hitting the ball over the fence, which is a first. Our back yard is now too small for him to play baseball. His swing has improved a lot and he practices at the after school program.

We have a wasp infestation. I don’t know where their nest is, but there are a distressing number of them.

We played more baseball in the afternoon and then watered the plants in front and marveled at the enormous spiders.

I made a new recipe–rigatoni with tomato sauce with Italian sausage and ground beef, baked with mozarella on top. It’s from this cookbook (a lifesaver for me) and I went through much rigamarole with the sauce. My son declared that he wished we could eat it every day. My daughter declared that she didn’t like the Italian sausage but wanted me to pack it in her lunch. She doesn’t like sandwiches and prefers leftovers for lunch.

And now I don’t have to cook dinner tonight; we have plenty of leftover, including half of the sauce in the freezer.

* * *

My Back-Tack II partner got her package, so I can show what I made for her.



She said that she liked green and orange and was interested in quilting. I was very excited to be able to use the fabric for the lining of the green bag, which is cheerful and happy.



I saw this post on Molly Chicken and was inspired to make the medium sized bag. I kind of reverse engineered it–looked at the picture and then made a drawing of how I thought it was done. I used all Japanese fabric, which I thought my BTII partner would like.

Here’s the back:



This is the first time I used the magnetic clasp.



Finally, I made the pouch from this tutorial in a quilting square, not really Log Cabin:



I have to admit that for some reason, I am besotted with the fabric I used for the lining. It’s a Ralph Lauren sheet called Clementine.

I sent her a couple of books to get her started on quilting.

I had fun participating in this swap.

Today we are vanquishing clutter. I write we, but I'm being metophorical. My children aren't technically helping. I am vanquishing clutter. Smiting it. See my stash, all folded and neatened?



Later we have to venture to the grocery store. Or not--it only costs $5 to have it delivered, but I might not get everything I want/need.

I made this cosmetics bag for myself this morning. I found this fabric at Stonemountain and Daughter.



Three good things (at least) happened yesterday.

1. My washing machine was fixed.
2. I took the day off of work.
3. I finished the Blue Birdcages piecing.



Now I can finish the three quilts that are stacked up waiting. After I vanquish the clutter in my closet.

I got these two Japanese quilting magazines from Born to Quilt. I didn't read the subscription information and thought I would get them for a year for $38.85. It turns out that they would be sent to me 6 times a year for $38.85 each time. That's way too much to spend on magazines for one year. The magazines and the quilts inside are magnificent, but $240 a year? No.









Good thing for those of us who don't read so carefully that I can cancel now.

acechick has a superb idea: instead of a knit-along, of which there are plenty, she thought of a finish-along.

I bow down to the brilliance of this idea.

I don’t knit, but I intend to participate because I want to finish three more quilts in the next 100 days. The first day of Autumn, when nesting and crafting go together like peas and carrots, is the perfect time to start.

Think about it: the majority of knitters have vast stashes of yarn, needles and unfinished projects. Vast. I think people who do crafts probably have vast stashes of raw materials, projects unrealized.

This is a waste. To me it represents hours and hours worked to earn the money to buy this material.

Here is my fabric stash (for the most part):





I realized the other day that though there are some fabrics that I love and hesitate to cut,

what is the point of having it if I’m not going to make something of it? No point.

In addition, there’s a really interesting (to me) dovetail between my mortality and my stash. When I die, I want my stash to be non-existent because I’ve completed so many projects–mostly quilts, but aprons, bags, whatever. My taste in fabric is not the same as anyone else’s, including my daughter, so it’s not like my fabric is my legacy to her. I would prefer my quilts to be a legacy.

So! It’s time to finish projects and make more things, instead of buying more fabric.

So who is in on acechick's finish-off?

ETA: A variation on the swapping idea is to simply resolve in the next 100 days to finish languishing projects and then post pictures of them on your blog.

This morning I took my son to the doctor to get his stitches taken out. His appointment was for 10AM. First we dropped his sister off at school and went into his class to retrieve his jacket and baseball cap. (He’s supposed to wear the cap for the next six months so that he scar won’t get too much sun and be more noticeable.)

Then we went back home because I needed to clean the area behind the washer so that the repairman could do his thing without being surrounded by 4 year old, dust covered baby socks.

My washing machine stopped working yesterday. It’s 16 years old, but I can’t get my mind around it not working. I’ve had one washing machine and three dryers.

I cleaned it up pretty well, then we had to go to the doctor. We were on time but the waiting room was full of people. I was worried, but we actually go out of there at 10:45, which was better than I had any right to expect. My boy was brave during the removal, but it hurt so he cried a little.

He wanted a hot dog when we got out, and there was no way I could refuse him. We went back home to wait for the repair man, but since the cleaning lady was there, I didn’t have to wait around for him and could take my boy back to school. (It turns out that he will not make it today anyway.)

We got back to school at 11:35. School let out at 11:45. I walked him to the area where he was going to line up for after school care and his classmates said “Oh look how late [my boy] is.” I stopped and explained to them that he was not arriving to school 3 hours late, but that he got his stitches out. I showed them his owie and then they wanted to have a good look and a second look. They’re sweet kids.

My parents loved the quilt. I was really, really nervous about giving it to them. It’s so imperfect. It’s my ham fisted offering, to quote Paul Scott. My mother sews, so she is discerning.



I bought this Liz Claiborne garment storage box to present it. The box looked bigger in the package and I had to cram the quilt slightly into the box. I knew my mother would be pleased to be able to reuse the box.



I need not have worried. They were surprised; my stepfather didn’t really know that I sewed.* I showed them the label that I made and my mom said that this provenanced it. She said that she’s never going to put it on her bed, but she wants to hang it in the hall where they are going to have the big anniversary party. I explained to them that all the colored fabric was Japanese and discussed where I got it from. My stepfather said that he wished his mother was alive to see it, because she would enjoy that aspect of it.




*My family doesn't know about my blog. I prefer it that way.

Such a good morning!

I woke up at 6AM, still dark outside, very well rested and ready to go. (Sleeping without my kids in my bed is amazing. Ten years of elbows, pillow hogging and [occasionally] pee was enough.) I got up and cleaned the kitchen, then had a big cup of coffee and a bowl of blueberry granola for breakfast.

I like the sound of the garbage trucks and the rumble of the garbage cans.

Since I finished for real the Anniversary Quilt last night (the kids and I are giving it to my parents tonight), while watching the lunatics on the Oakland City Council (Lost? Dude, I got your survivalism, factionalism, desperation, back stabbing right here!), a whole new vista of projects opened up to me. New energy to tackle them, new ideas, new confidence.

I was also inspired by this wallet posted on angry chicken.

I continued piecing the Blue Birdcages last night and this morning.


I also got two loads of laundry done, one folded and put away, before I had to shower and get dressed and go to work.

I am so thankful.

This morning I got my kids to school early and then hurried to get to court for an 8:30 AM appearance before Super Mean Judge.

The car was steering funny on the way down the hill and it didn't feel right just as I got on the freeway, so I got off to take a peek. I had a hissing flat on my front right tire.

I called the court and they were mean and unhelpful. I called AAA and they sent a guy out. He was nice, but he (skipping boring details) couldn't get my spare on, so he had to order a flat bed tow truck to come out and drive me to the tire store.

I am thankful I didn't have a blow out on the freeway. With my kids in the car.

I am thankful I renewed my AAA membership last week.

I waited and waited and waited at the tire store until they put two new tires on my car. I read too much People magazine.

I hadn't had breakfast, so when they finally finished with my car (two and a half hours after I was supposed to be in court) I needed a really big cup of coffee.

I had called my boyfriend while I was waiting for the tow truck and he was, as usual, superb in an emergency. He gets very focused and very funny and affectionate when I'm in the middle of a crisis. I am thankful for that too.

I expect Super Mean Judge will sanction me for missing my appearance. I just want you all to know that in 14 years of practice I've never been sanctioned and I'm still a good lawyer. Ha!

On Saturday my son and I took my daughter to capoeira and then went grocery shopping. We talked about what he would eat in his school lunch, which is a very limited category of foods and cannot involve peanuts because one of the kids at school has a peanut allergy.

We took the food home and put it away and then ate some chips and salsa sent to me from New Mexico. It was so good and my boy ate it with gusto and said that it was a great day.

I dropped the kids off at their dad’s house and later in the evening I went to dinner at my friend J.’s house. She lives in about 50 miles from me in Sonoma County. She’s also a gourmet cook, so 50 miles is no big deal to drive. We had a fun, laughter filled evening and I got back on the road around 8:45PM. There was a message on my cell phone, which I had left in the car. It was from my children’s father telling me that my son had gotten hurt in a pillow fight with his cousin and he was taking him to Children’s Hospital to get stitches.

I never give my children permission to have pillow fights. I think they’re dangerous. It turns out that the cousin decided to have the pillow fight after my ex told them not to.

I raced back home at 80 miles per hour, trying to reach my ex on his cell phone. He wasn’t answering it, so I didn’t know where they were. I went to Children’s Hospital and arrived after the stitches had been put in over his left eye. My girl’s eyes were red from crying and my boy looked pretty wrung out. He said that he had cried a lot when they gave him a shot in the wound before sewing it up. I hugged the kids and we talked and reminisced about other trips to Children’s Hospital. I told them about how my epidurals during labor involved big shots into my spine which I could still feel three years later.

It was really hard to be in the hospital and to see my bleeding boy and my distraught girl. After he was released and given a popsicle (and one for his sister), his father took him home. That was hard too.



Sunday was quiet. After Mass and blueberry granola and the Sunday papers, I finished my BackTack II project and that makes me very, very happy. Here is a teeny tiny peek.



Now that it is completed, I’m going to concentrate on my quilts for the rest of the year. I wrote down some piecing ideas, but it’s all about the quilting.

When the kids came home I hugged and kissed my boy as much as he’d let me. He didn’t manifest the least fragility, though I kept a sharp eye on him. The kids hadn’t been fed dinner, so I whipped them up some penne carbonara. They had their baths and we watched some of the Emmys before bed.

Friday I took the day off work and spent time with my boyfriend. It was quite relaxing and restorative.

Congressman John Lewis

It has been wonderful to listen to Congressman John Lewis today during the Roberts hearings.

I need to apologize to my BTII partner because the assignment of this swap is to send your swapee materials for a secret craft aspiration. I've been plumbing the depths of my consciousness to come up with something which fits in this category:

Beading, like this
Rug hooking

* * *

Thank you for all of the interesting comments and questions.

Elizabeth (from Osaka–neat!!) asks: I wonder if you're not concerned about the pedophilia in the Church.

Yes, indeed I am. I am sickened by the extent of it and the way the church hierarchy has dealt with it. However, as religion is a personal experience, you find that your sorrow and anger about the pedophilia overshadows your experience of Mass. I do not have the same experience.

In law, there is a principle called ultra vires. It is defined as an act which is beyond the express or implied powers of an organization under any circumstances or for any purpose. Clearly, pedophilia falls within this definition.

I do not consider Catholicism as synonymous with pedophilia or the Spanish Inquisition or inaction in the face of genocide in Rwanda or all the nonsense of Opus Dei.

Wouldn't it be pathetic if the only people who speak to the Almighty are of the ilk of Pat Robertson? Sad for the Almighty I mean. Like the song goes:

What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on a bus
Nobody calling on the phone
Except for the Pope maybe in Rome


Elizabeth writes:

I really can't figure out how the all-time pride of his Catholic prep school, our nominee for Chief Justice John Roberts, keeps failing to convince me that he gets it that all branches of our government must be devoted to pursuing liberty and justice for all.

My personal opinion is that Roberts is a clone of Rehnquist. I would characterize him as a stealth conservative, if not for the fact that the flaming conservatives are salivating quite ostentatiously about his nomination.

I believe he is mean spirited in the same sense that I believe the majority of conservatives are. They do not believe that racism or sexism should be dismantled, they are not troubled by the institutional inequities in American society or the rest of the world.

It would be difficult for him to be more mean spirited than Scalia and Thomas. But he can move in lock step with those two scurvy bastards. Thus, who will fill O’Connor’s place will decide the direction of the Court. Since the vacancies occur during the Bush administration (and spineless Democrats in the Congress), I expect the Court to move more to the right, from which we will get rulings like Bush v. Gore.

CFM asked me some interesting questions about religion.

First off, religion is a tricky topic. I think of it as a deeply personal matter, on par with blogging about my sex life. (Keep that in mind if anything you read below offends you.) Then again, I have alluded to my sex life on this blog and I like a blog that goes there.

When I ask someone how he or she is doing (in the generic social courtesy sense of the inquiry) and the response is “I’m blessed”, I am taken aback and I experience great distaste. Because I didn’t ask that person about his/her spiritual life and I consider that response Too Much Information. Moreover, I think the statement implies some sort of belonging to an exclusive club, as if the Almighty has taken particular interest in this person and not some other person or millions of other persons.

I was raised Catholic, the religion of my mother and her family. My father is Baptist. There has always been a tension between those two religions in my family, my father’s family stating repeatedly that because they were Born Again (or “saved”), they would be going to Heaven and no one who was not saved would be there. My father and his church members also demonstrated a huge amount of hypocrisy and cliquishness, which informed my opinion about outwardly religious people.

I went to Catholic school from 4th through 9th grade. I liked Catholicism; the stories of the saints, the ritual and imagery, the smell.

I stopped going to Mass regularly in 10th grade and stayed away until now. I would go to Mass during the holidays, but I found the repetitiveness off putting.

When my daughter was born, I wanted to have her baptized, just in case there is a hell. So I went to the Newman Center in Berkeley. Her father and I had to attend a couple of classes and then we put her in a beautiful 100 year old christening gown and got her baptized.

After my son was born, I knew I was going to be getting a divorce and did not want the Catholic church delaying this necessity with its dogma. Then I was embarrassed about being divorced, so I didn’t want to have to explain it to a church staff member.

My cousin got married this May and had a Catholic mass. The priest presiding over it was terrific; a Caucasian man who has obviously been serving an African American congregation for a long time. He would say “Say Amen, church”, which priests never say. At the reception, he asked for a vegetarian plate and danced with the mother of the bride all night long.

Finally, my younger brother mentioned that I should get my son baptized. My kids have been asking questions about God, to which I had been giving vague answers, so I figured I would fill the gap with Catholic dogma, which they are free to jettison in whole or in part.

I’ve been very disgusted with the conservatism of the Catholic church hierarchy. So I figured if I had to deal with the institution, I’d get the most liberal version I could find. Back to the Newman Center. I contacted them about the baptism in June and they said it could be done in July. I was elated. Then they said not so fast, we want your kids to have more religious training. Drat! So we’ve been going to Mass, the kids going to Sunday School during mass, biding our time until I can get my boy baptized.

And I’ve been enjoying it. There’s plenty of singing. It smells good. It’s liberal. It touches something that was embedded in me when I was a child. The priests are entertaining. It’s relaxing, a chance to meditate. It’s one hour a week. There are donuts afterward.

When I blog about religion, unlike so very many of my fellow Americans, it is not to make myself seem virtuous, or to make people who don't go to church feel like shit. I deeply despise that aspect of American religiosity. More so, I despise how racially segregated churches are in the United States. No one ever questions the profound hypocrisy of this reality.

What I like about the imagery of the Catholic Church is not the abundance of Europeans in the paintings, but the whole mother worship aspect of it. I think of the paintings as representational and not the least bit accurate. God is not white, God is not male.

Religion has always been garbled and misused, the obvious examples being its use to justify slavery, misogyny, war, genocide, etc. The Catholic Church has a shameful history, for the most part.

On the other hand, the folks at the Newman Center have not offended my politics, as there is plenty of inclusion of the GLBT community, women deliver the homily from time to time, they share their collections with AIDS programs, etc. If tomorrow the Newman Center decided to veer right, I’d stop going.

Erica asked me to post pictures of my latest quilting projects. I am quilting this project, which I call the Blue Coin Quilt:



While I was quilting it (which is strenuous in the hands, wrists and forearms) I had a thought that a Birdcages quilt using the same fabrics would be cool. I have a thing for blues in quilts, more than any other color.

So I wrote a note to myself in my quilting notebook about the Birdcages quilt and kept working on the Blue Coin Quilt. I decided to keep a quilting notebook to compile my completed projects, inspirations, and ideas.

Since piecing is not strenuous (and is fast and easy), I got started piecing the Birdcages quilt and now I'm two-thirds of the way through the piecing.





On Saturday, I was standing in the shower thinking that I would like to make five quilts a year. I felt that this was extremely ambitious, bordering on hubris, and I started second guessing myself.

Then I went back and looked at the quilts I've completed in 2005.



That's five right there. So it is not hubris, I guess.

I can get three more completed (quilted, as they're already pieced) before the end of the year, if I concentrate really hard:



These two plus the Blue Coin Quilt.

I figure I should quilt while I'm inspired to do so, while I am physically able to do so. What makes me laugh at myself is how reluctant I am to use the fabric in my stash. I think it's Stash Mentality: it's too beautiful, I can't use it up. What makes it worse with fabric is that once it's gone from the store (3-D, online, ebay), it's gone.

This weekend we made our first Autumn apple pie, using apples from our tree in the back yard. It was delicious and made the house smell good. It was a low key weekend all around, with some errand running, Mass, yard work, sewing, cooking, reading and getting ready for the start of the week.

It's getting chilly around these parts.

Yesterday I went to Trader Joe's after work to pick up some coffee. I like their Bay Blend. The check out staff makes small talk, asks you how you are doing. I always ask back and the checker said he was happy because Autumn is here. It had been seriously overcast all day and generally this summer has been pretty mild. I like living near the Pacific Ocean. I like how mild the climate is here, though I sometimes wish for more heat.

I packed my groceries in my shopping bag and the check out guy thanked me for bringing my own bag and packing it myself. Such manners. His mom should be so proud. :0)



I'm participating in Back Tack II and I'm very excited. I was too timid at first, but someone commented that I should, so I decided to give it a whirl. Thank you for the suggestion.

I think that in this space, I'm supposed to tell what I like.

candy (except white chocolate and sour candy)
Mix CDs--I'll take anything; I like learning from other people's taste in music
Chococat

Japanese stationary
Miyazaki

I didn't mean for so many days to pass without an entry.

I took Wednesday and today off from work because a case scheduled to go to trial this week settled. Time off makes me realize how burnt out I am at work.

It is so much easier to only have to get my kids ready for school, rather than myself also ready for work. I can shower when I get back.

Today I had a date with my boyfriend after I dropped the kids off at school. My boy doesn't want to kiss in front of school and just zooms on in.

We went for a late breakfast and then to the movies to see Four Brothers. I enjoyed it, though shoot 'em up movies are not really my flavor.

I am really digging this Tie One On theme for September: making aprons out of dishtowels.

The Tie One On theme for September is making an apron out of dishtowels.

This is a brilliant idea because dishtowels are so absorbent and can endure a fair amount of wear and tear.

My first thought was to go to K-Mart and get some Martha Stewart dish towels. K-Mart also has a line of great dish towels called Essential Home.

So yesterday I got these Martha Stewart dish towels on sale (20% off):



And today I made this:







I made sure to wash the dish towels first, because some dish towels lose a lot of dye during the first wash. I love this apron--it is so thick and soft--and I plan to make some more from dish towels before the month is up.

I hope.

Hurricane Relief links

This is my big boy showing me where his backpack is hung up and all the good things in it.

When I arrived at the school (about 25 minutes before the first bell), his father had dropped him off and he was playing on the swings. He tried to shoo me away from the kindergarten area. I could tell that he felt that he had complete control of the situation, but I explained to him that the school gave the parents permission to hang out for the first fifteen minutes of the first day.

I got to sit behind him at circle time and then I had to beat it.



After school he came racing up to me, smiling and happy. And tired. I got no details about the day, other than that one of his classmates wanted to take some of his lunch, but it was just playing. He was almost too tired to eat dinner, but since there was mashed potatoes and a well executed gravy, he did.

I gave him a bath and a shampoo and at 8:30 he asked if he could go to bed.



In the last couple of weeks, he has turned into a total big boy. Sleeping in his own bed. Setting his Spider Man alarm because "I wanna wake up at the same time as you, mama." Wanting privacy. That boy tried to lock the door to take his bath. I told him to unlock it in case there was an emergency and I had to get to him.



It happened overnight I tell you.

Later I will post pictures of my boy's first day of kindergarten.

My parents are Louisiana natives and I've always loved New Orleans. When I first became a lawyer, I had to spend weeks at a time in Mobile, Alabama and the Gulf Coast. I had a wonderful vacation in Point Clear, Alabama.

The pictures of the devastation are unfathomable.

If you can, please donate to the organization of your choice. It's very easy to donate to the Red Cross from the Yahoo web page.

ETA: Thank you to Emily who posted that Quilts, Inc. will be matching your Red Cross donation. I forwarded them the e-mail I got from the Red Cross confirming my donation so they can match it.

And you can get some crafty goodness from these fine folks.

It looks overwhelming, but if you can help, please do.