Inez & Cookie

Thursday morning (4/26) Inez and I left for quilting.  I think she had a good time getting to meet another group of my friends and I also got a bit more beading done on the wall hanging.  Seven of us stopped at the local BBQ place on the way home and that was great as well.  I got a tiny bit of crafting done in the afternoon before Bob picked us up at 3:30.  The band had a gig at an assisted living place in Charlotte, so Inez got to hear me sing.  One of the coolest things about the gig was that one of the residents came up to sing with me.  She had a lovely voice and Inez asked her if she had ever sung before.  The woman said she had sung on the radio in the 40's and that she had just turned 91!!  Michael stayed home, since it was opening night for the SCCL ‘legends of TV’ performance.  Michael is playing Rob Petrie and Johnny Carson.

I can’t remember now what we did all day Friday, but Friday night was the dinner theatre at Fort Mill.  There were 15 of us and the play was Steel Magnolia’s.  The cast was EXCELLENT and I think everyone had a good time.  By the time we got home, Michael was already home with another successful performance under his belt.

Saturday morning (4/28) my knitting students came from 9 – 11.  Once they were gone, Michael, Inez and I headed up to the yard sale.  I managed to score 2 wine glasses (many of ours have hit the dust over the past year) and we all had something from The Tailgator’s grill before heading home.  We had an early pizza dinner, then Michael left for his 3^rd performance, while Inez and I settled in to watch HARVEY and A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM.  Inez was VERY complimentary about The Devo’s acting chops, and Michael got home in time to watch the end of Forum as well.

I've taken several cute pictures lately...here's 'learning to sleep in my downstairs bed':

Here's 'who is this new person visiting us'? 

And finally 'I think I need to get a little closer and lick her neck': 

In case you haven't already guessed, that's my friend Inez getting her neck licked!

Michael left early for golf Wednesday (4/25) and I got a bit of crafting done before Inez and I headed up to the Lake House for the ’shredding party’.  I took up a large box of old check registers and checks and bank statements and credit card stuff as well as old utility bills.  We dropped it off at the truck, had a quick tour of the Lake House, then headed to the pavilion for hot dogs!  We got to relax in the afternoon, and I put together a pizza for dinner.  Michael packed a sandwich and took off for dress rehearsal, and our square dance called joined Inez and me for dinner.  We headed back to the pavilion at 6:30 to meet some new square dancers and to collect money for the dance.  We only stayed ‘til 7:30, then took a quick tour of the rest of Sun City, made a brief visit to Walt and Jan and were home by 8 to watch TV and knit.

Tuesday (4/24) morning Michael left for golf, while Inez and I baked and frosted cupcakes and got ready for the tea.  We had 12 – 14 ladies show up for the tea and I think Inez appreciated meeting all of them.  After cleaning up just a bit after the ladies left, Inez read for a bit…I just lay around and tried (unsuccessfully thanks to Cookie) to take a nap and Michael planted flowers in the back yard.   We all had a pretty light dinner, then watched TV before heading for bed.

Friday (4/20) was a great day….Michael had rehearsal in the morning for 3 hours, then headed to an ear appointment.  I got Baked Potato Soup made in the morning, and in the afternoon finally got to visit with Nancy.  We had a great time together…and got into trouble as well.  We are bad for each other as far as yarn acquisition!!!  I told her that while I was in the waiting room at the hospital I was knitting.  One of the nurses stopped in to see me and we talked at length.  She mentioned a sweater she had just finished that sounded intriguing.  I hadn’t looked it up yet, so Nancy and I decided to do that.  Well, of course, we both want to do the sweater and of course, we both wanted to look for yarn RIGHT THEN and we found something and have decided to order it!!!  As I said, we are bad for each other J.  Nancy left around dinnertime and Michael and I relaxed for the rest of the night.

Saturday Michael left for golf and managed to get in 18 holes before the rain came.  I made a coffee cake in the morning before my knitting students came at 9.  We had a good time (as usual) and they enjoyed a bite of coffee cake before leaving at 11.  I got a bit of reading done in the afternoon, and it was champagne and puffy things for dinner while we watched BEST IN SHOW.

Sunday morning (4/22) I made waffles for breakfast.   We had to give up our bike ride because it was rainy and cold…so I worked in the studio for a bit while Michael cleaned up the kitchen.  I put together rolls after that (they are supposed to be a knock off recipe of the Outback’s brown bread) and took them over to Phil and Gale’s along with baked potato soup and some coffee cake.  Michael went to rehearsal (it sounded totally useless, and he spent 3-1/2 HOURS there!!!) and came home with a few groceries.  We had Italian Wedding soup for dinner and watched TV before bed.

 

Monday (4/23) morning I got ham/bean/barley soup in the crockpot before leaving to pick up Inez at the airport!!!!!!  We had a little bit of a mix-up, I never got her cell phone number, and I gave her the wrong one for me, or it was written down wrong…but anyway…we finally connected!!!  We did a few errands on the way home, then sat and talked and talked and talked!!!  Susan and Joe came over for dinner (the crockpot soup and brown bread rolls) and then it was TV and a bit of sewing before bed.

Cookie & Elsie, garden iris

Sorry, the posts have been a little scant of late…I have a friend in trouble.  My friend Jan’s hubby has been in the hospital since the wee hours of last Monday morning, with bleeding from an unknown source.  They ran all kinds of tests, finally transferred him to the bigger hospital downtown, still nothing.  Today he is swallowing a camera for more exploration of the problem.  He has not had ANY food (and very little water) since last Sunday!!!!  He was very disoriented on Wednesday, but by the time I saw him yesterday, he was back to his old self.  Jan’s son has also been in the hospital for 10 days.  They thought he had a stroke…then thought he had a blood clot…he has survived brain surgery to take out a piece of his skull to help with the swelling of his brain.  Just last night they decided that maybe it wasn’t a clot after all, but some kind of infection.  An infectious disease doctor is supposed to be seeing him today.  Jan’s been stopping by here on her way home from the hospital to have dinner with us…but she’s really just in a holding pattern right now.  I have another friend with a very bad pinched nerve, who also just fell and sprained her ankle, PLUS she developed a cold that has turned into bronchitis!!  I took a bunch of meals over to her and those seemed to go over well.  I hope to make a couple more soups and get them over there today.  Other than trying to support my friends…and cook for them…and work on a secret project J  I haven’t been doing much.  I am really looking forward to the visit from my friend Inez…she gets here on Monday.  She’ll stay for a week…then I’ll have one day to pack…then it’s off to retreat with the CT crew.  Michael's also been taking a lot of pictures lately that I've finally had a chance to load and post:

There was one thing over the weekend at the Natalie Cole concert I forgot to mention.  When we went to the Michael Jackson tribute concert about a month ago, I wore one of those ruffle-y scarves.  A woman sitting behind me noticed it and complimented me on it.  I gave my standard reply ‘thank you, I make them and sell them”.  She asked what I was selling them for….I said $25.  It’s a good thing she was already sitting down because she was flabbergasted.  She had seen them in Asheville and fell in love with them, but they were $75 a piece.  I gave her my email, and she eventually wrote and I sent her pictures and she ordered 4 scarves.  We were both going to the Natalie Cole concert, so we talked about meeting there to exchange the scarves.  I sent her an email 2 days before the concert to tell her that they were done and that I was bringing them, and I suggested a place we could meet.  She never did show up for the meeting, and she was no longer seated behind us, so I just figured I would email her after the weekend and mail them to her.  At intermission she came by our seats….she hadn’t seen the email….was thrilled to know that I had them there…went to the ATM and took out a hundred bucks  and viola!  Now I’ve received another email from her…she wants 2 more…and also asked if I could make her a coat like my chenille one!!!!  I wrote back to tell her the cost would be pretty prohibitive (since you buy 5 TIMES the amount of fabric you would normally buy because the whole thing is layered), but I think she is still interested.  We will see…I would actually like to make a chenille jacket again….it was fun, as long as I made the cuts in the coat a little at a time…..it really bothered my hands.

 
Anyway, Tuesday morning (4/17) we went with Jan to help her buy a golf cart.  She ended up with a spiffy black one, with a white racing stripe and white seats.  Once I was home, I started doing stuff around the house and never did make it to knitting club.  Michael brought home pizza for dinner and we both watched TV in the evening.  I finished off the body of my sweater and got picked up for the sleeves

I walked with Beth early Thursday morning (4/12) then took off to pick up Jan and head down to The White House.  This is a beautiful, old house that sells Jim Shore figurines and fabric.  About 20 of our quilt group headed there for shopping (after dropping off charity stuff at the Pregnancy Crisis Center and the Children’s Home) and lunch.  Shopping was good and lunch was FABULOUS!  For $5 we got cheese and crackers for an appetizer, then assorted rolls, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, ham, turkey, chicken salad, egg salad, potato salad, macaroni salad, something to drink…and chocolate cake and cheesecake for dessert!  Unbelievable!

It’s Sunday morning now and I’m trying to remember the rest of last week!  We saw Natalie Cole on Friday night and my knitting students came over on Saturday morning…otherwise it’s been a peaceful, relaxing time!  Michael golfed in the morning (got an 89) and went to Rock Hill Sunday night to turn in his script for the Shakespeare play.  He decided that it was just too much on top of everything else he is doing.  And since the play doesn’t come up for 9 weeks, it gives the director more than enough time to find someone else to fill the part.  He felt bad about dropping out, but the director was very gracious and told him that she understood and didn’t want someone on stage who felt that uncomfortable.  When Michael came home he said he felt like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

Monday morning (4/16) dawned with bad news…a friend’s husband ended up in the hospital in the wee hours.  He had lost a lot of blood from an unknown source and as of right now (Tuesday morning) they still hadn’t figured out what was going on.  I had a volunteer meeting Monday morning, a machine embroidery meeting Monday afternoon and a meeting with the accountant (taxes….ugh!) later in the afternoon.  Michael came home from golf with an 82 and when he went to the movies in the evening, I visited with my friend to do a little cheering up!

Jeri/Marsha/Barbara bread baking

Michael left for golf Wednesday morning (4/11).  I got a couple of loads of laundry done and was ready for my bread students when they showed up at 10.  Marsha, Paula, Barbara and Jeri all came and made dough, then sat with me and played QUILT_TOP_OLY until the dough had risen.  They formed the dough into 20 rolls, they rose again and were baked.  The ladies brought lots of great food to share: potato soup, homemade pimento cheese, egg salad, chicken salad, and of course some butter and jam.  I think everyone learned something and had a good time.  As usual, I forgot that I wanted to take a picture until the very end…so I only got Jeri, Marsha and Barbara:

They left just before 2 and one of my knitting students showed up at 2 for some help.  I got through that and just had a few minutes to take 2 of the buns to make mini-ham and cheese sandwiches for the square dance instructor.  He was VERY appreciative, since he had missed lunch!  We had a square dance for 2 hours, then Michael came home and had a quick dinner before heading off to rehearsal.  I worked in the studio for a bit until he came home, then headed upstairs for TV.

Cookie, pizza

Tuesday (4/10) was a very productive day.  Michael vacuumed the upstairs in the morning, while I cleaned up downstairs.  I have some ladies coming for a bread demo on Wednesday and some of them have never been here and I know they’ll want to see everything!  I went to stitch ‘n’ chat in the afternoon and worked on my sweater, while Michael relaxed on the porch and studied his lines….he had company:

 Jan and Walt came over in the evening for pizza (onions and mushrooms):

and movies.

Monday morning (4/9) Michael left for golf and I tried all day to get motivated…but it didn’t work  L.  I had all day to myself (a very rare occurrence) but just ended up reading for most of the day.  As I mentioned before…I think I’m a bit craft-ed out at the moment.   Michael left around 6 PM  for rehearsal and I finally got motivated and cleaned and dusted the upstairs!  Once he got home we just sat on the couch and watched TV.

quiche

HAPPY EASTER!!!!  We had a scrump-tee-us  early morning breakfast for Easter.  Michael fried up some bacon and I made the quiches I had planned to make on Saturday: a broccoli/mushroom for Michael and asparagus/onion for me: 

The rest of the day was very relaxing….Michael spent it watching The Masters, while I was in my studio knitting on a sweater.  Anne and Bryce came over at 4 (they’ve been gone for 10 days and I figured they didn’t have time to pull together anything for Easter dinner) for potatoes/carrots, Kentucky corn pudding, ham and rolls.  I didn’t make any dessert, but luckily Jan and Walt stopped on their way to their daughter’s house and dropped off a plate of cookies!  We played a new card game….ROOK…for a few hours after dinner, then Michael went back to watching golf and I went back to knitting.

starting seeds, garden flowers

Saturday morning (4/7) Michael left early for golf (eventually coming home with an 85) and after my walk with Beth I started to get ready for my luncheon guests.  Luckily before I got very far, I got a phone call letting me know that no one could make it.  There was a death in the family and everyone would be going to the funeral.  I spent the morning in the studio working on things, and spent the afternoon getting a bunch of seeds planted (I'm weeks behind, but at least they are finally out there):

Neither Michael not I really remember having a lot of yellow iris in the front of the house…but they have been up for a week and look really nice:

 If you look really closely at the second picture, you can also see our first rose bloom, right beside the tallest iris. 

Michael spent the afternoon and early evening watching The Masters, and I spent the time knitting on a sweater.

postcards

It was very rainy for most of the day Friday (4/6) and I spent it in the studio…trying to get motivated.  I think I’m a little craft-ed out and I just need to take a break from knitting and quilting and weaving for a bit.

I think I can finally write about one of my secret projects, because I believe they have all been delivered.  I have wanted to make fabric postcards for at least 2 years!!  I finally talked to some people at my Thursday quilt group and picked their brains on everything I had to do…and I was ready to go.  I got 10 postcards made, then gave them to Michael for further embellishments (gluing bunnies and things on them).  I thought of a few other people I should send to, so made 4 more.  The ‘4 more’ went much faster than the original 10 because I thought of a few things to make them easier along the way.  It really was a fun time, but the best part was hearing of the delightful surprise from the people who received them (although one friend immediately said ‘you have WAY too much time on your hands’!  Here’s a pic of a few fronts and backs:

 

 Michael and I got cleaned up at dinner and dropped Cookie off at grammy Jan’s before heading off to the theatre to see CLYBOURNE PARK (which will also open on Broadway in about a week).  It was a play about race, and it was really very good.  We were home by 11:30 and dropped exhausted into bed.

knitted scarf w/ ribbon fringe

Thursday morning (4/5) I got my walk in with Beth, then came home and formed my dough (made Wednesday night) into rolls and was ready when Jan picked me up at 9:15 for quilting.  We had a good meeting and way too much food!!!  I was home at 2 and wanted to take a nap, but worked in the studio instead.  I finally finished a scarf that had been laying on my table for months.  I finished knitting the scarf awhile ago, but never got the fringe put on.  When I went to do the fringe, the yarn just looked thin and cheap and I didn’t like it at all.  I took the scarf to Joann’s with me and found something I think made it look great:

The organza ribbon really looks nicer than it does in the picture…I’m very pleased with it.  The weather got progressively colder as the day wore on, and Michael and I spent the evening snuggling on the couch and watching TV.

Wednesday morning (4/4) Michael left early for golf and Beth and Rose and I headed to Joann’s first thing in the morning.  I got the 2 pieces of fabric I was looking for, as well as some ribbon to put as ‘fringe’ on a knitted scarf.  We stopped at WALMART for groceries on the way home, and I was home by 11.  I read my book until Michael came home (with a great 83) and then we both relaxed until we had leftovers for dinner.  The evening was spent weaving and watching TV.

Tuesday morning (4/2) Michael left for golfing and after walking with Beth, I putzed around the house getting some chores done.  I got 50 meatballs made and baked in the morning while it was still cool and then wove a bit in the afternoon.  Jan and Walt came over for Asian meatball dinner and then Walt and Michael watched THE A-TEAM movie upstairs while Jan and I knit and talked downstairs.

Michael's last art class

Michael left early for his last art class on Monday (4/2):

and I took a walk with Beth, then headed out for the finalization of my secret project.  It was kind of a bumpy road….and (hopefully) you’ll hear all about it by the end of the week.  I also stopped at Lowe’s on the way home, only to find out that they are not making the wire free standing shelves anymore that I have all over my studio  L.  Maybe I just should have stayed in bed today?  Anyway, the day started looking up once I got home…Nancy came for a visit.  She and hubby are flying to Los Vegas tomorrow, so we scheduled our weekly visit for today.  She did not have a good morning either…so it was VERY enjoyable for the 2 of us to bitch to each other  J.  She also helped me to re-wind my warp (for 2 new scarves) before she left.  In the afternoon Michael and I ran a couple more errands, then I started weaving and he took off for his rehearsal (this is for the play in June….did I mention he is in 2 things?  THE LEGENDS OF TV here at SCCL at the end of April, and MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING sometime in June…he is CRAZY!!!!)

Cookie sleeping

I made a pear/ginger coffee cake Saturday morning (3/31) that all of my students seemed to like and I had that again for breakfast on Sunday.  I worked in the studio for most of the afternoon, pulling together more purses to work on at retreat….I think I am going to be sick to death of doing them….I’m certainly already sick to death of getting them ready  J.  Michael had rehearsal in the evening and I knit for a bit while watching TV.

This is what someone was doing most of the afternoon while I was in the studio: