She's Very Difficult to Resist !~!

CatCat 2.0 has grown into a valued and delightful member of the family in her four months with us. A New Years Eve arrival to LyndaLand, she staked her claims and appreciates affection most of the time. She's gentle with her pointy parts and for the first time recently drew blood on my hand. She was as dismayed as I was, I think. She loves to purr which CatCat 1 never did. It's a cool deal when that motor gets going so loudly and she head butts me...

Sitting in Baby Boy's Bumpo Seat-why, you may ask? I haven't a clue.

Stretched out on the couch taking a break from all her kitty duties.

Striped Neutral Mobius Cowl Finished

It took less than a week.
In my copious free time !~!

Mobius Striped Neutrals Cowl
wool yet soft and squishy
Love the colors too.


Linking up with Linda at Natural Suburbia's Creative Friday.

Wordless Wednesday - Our Kids

Iris and Berkeley outside her home Jan 2014.

Go Outside Every Single Spring Day

“

On days with high pressure—the clear, sunny ones—people who spent more than 30 minutes outside saw an increase in memory, mood, and flexible thinking styles. Those who spent the time indoors, though, saw a decrease. In a second experiment, the researchers asked 121 subjects to either spend time inside or outside on a warm, clear day. “Among participants who spent more than 30 minutes outside,” they reported, “higher temperature and pressure were associated with higher moods, but among those who spent 30 minutes or less outside, this relationship was reversed.” The participants who spent more time outside during the spring, but not during other seasons, had better moods.

“Temperature changes toward cooler weather in the fall did not predict higher mood,” they wrote. “Rather, there appears to be something uniquely uplifting about warm days in the spring.”

In summary, across the studies, spending more time outside on clear, sunny days, particularly in the spring, was found to increase mood, memory, and openness to new ideas. People who spent their time indoors, though, had the opposite effect, and “one possible explanation for this result is that people consciously resent being cooped up indoors when the weather is pleasant in the spring.”

People in industrialized nations spend 93 percent of their time inside, but the authors suggest that “if you wish to reap the psychological benefits of good springtime weather, go outside.”

”

—	How Spring Opens the Mind - Olga Khazan - The Atlantic (via myserendipities)

Throwback Thursday

On a Sunny Summer's Day

Totally Re-purposed Blanket

The center twelve squares are reclaimed cashmere from sweaters I either owned or thrifted and felted.

The outer circle of  light blue and red squares used to be sweatshirts.

I appliqued that all  to a "garage sale for a buck red fleece blanket" that a neighbor was letting go.

It's warm and cozy and fuzzy and pretty if you like those colors. It fits a twin size perfectly and we use on the couch when it's chilly. I love its cheerfulness.

Linking up with Linda at Creative Friday.

Piper and Wyatt in the Hammock Chair

Fourteen Years Ago I Came for Fireworks

St Patrick's Day and the Trip Cross Country on Amtrak

I came cross country on Amtrak with a small entourage I picked up within the first hour of leaving Orlando. The four of us women stuck together all the way across the southern route-eating and talking story.
When I got to Berkeley I hoped for St Patty's Day Fireworks--no such luck I discovered.

Amtrak-in one of their own photos.

Arriving in Emeryville at 11pm on Friday Mar 17, 2000, my daughter and husband met me and my six containers of household stuff. We went home... to a studio apartment in Berkeley in which he and I shared the main room, our daughter bunked in the closet sized kitchen and for privacy we took a shower in the only room with a door. I arrived with Six Containers full of stuff. Where I thought it would fit is beyond me...

Iris and Ormond next to our home in Berkeley-ready for a cycle ride.

That studio apt was bigger than most of the houseboats we had lived on in Key West and we were grateful to be in the heart of the Gourmet Ghetto. Amazingly good food abounded, albeit expensive.

The view from our apartment next to Vegi Food on Vine at Shattuck.
Looking up Vine St toward Peet's Coffee.

Three years later we bought a share in the Atchison Village Mutual Home Association and moved into our own place with yard and off-street parking.

Hope to spend the rest of my life here.

We're closing in on 10,000 pageviews. Thank you so much for stopping by; with literally millions of blogs to choose from; thanks for making mine one of yours.

Sincerely,
Lynda

Finished Flimsy-Still Lots to Do However !~!

I have to baste and quilt this bad dog. (I tied it-simpler!). As of Apr 2nd I still have to finish the sides. The top and bottom I sewed like Diamonds only prettier with a blanket stitch.

Linking up to Barb's Cat Patches March FO Party.
Linking up with Linda at Natural Suburbia's Creative Friday.
Linking up with Richard and Tanya.

(edit) finished it off by turning the Front over the edges of the backing, sewing it by hand with a blanket stitch on the short ends and a wide, multi-stitch, machine zig-zag on the long edges. Now to get it to her in a reasonable amount of time...April 5, 2014)

Charlie's Quilt Started

Gift of Love from Across the Sea

In my world there's a family and I love them every one. The matriarch lives in the Netherlands and comes to visit regularly. She and I are sisters of different mothers. Each time she comes she brings me fabric. I am fashioning her latest offerings into a quilt for her oldest grandchild who lives in Oakland and visits often.

A Finish

Started a few days ago to really finish this piece. So today as I am applying the backing, my daughter comes into my kitchen and says, Wow, can I have that for my door? Who can say no to that smile ?~! Not the Mama that's for sure.

Backed with the softest rayon.

Window cover for her door.

Sleepy baby after a busy busy day.

Wordless Wednesday

Sometimes a Picture is All You Need

Concerts-Two in a Week-Delightful

This last week brought four most consummate performers to our town and I saw them all.

Pint & Dale

Last Saturday evening, Sally Greenberg hosted a House Concert featuring Pint and Dale. They sing nautical songs and sea shanties and tell interesting stories of life as the daughter of a sea captain and the many years that passed while a new Hurdy-gurdy was being built for her. Stories of life on the road and the arcane and esoteric audiences to whom they play. They're a marvelous evening out and hadn't played Sally's in five years. Too long to go between the harmonies of White Horses.

Felicia played Hurdy Gurdy, violin
and several penny whistles during our concert.
(undated photo)

 performing one of my favorite tunes

Hurdy Gurdy-a bowed stringed instrument that produces music by turning a crank.
It sounds unlike any other instrument I have ever heard.

Martyn Joseph & Willy Porter

Last night Ormond and I went to Freight and Salvage to see my most beloved performer ever, Martyn Joseph, open for an unfamiliar to me act-Willy Porter. We had a rollicking good time. This is the eighth or ninth time I have seen Martyn and he continues to impress me and audiences all around the world with his style and his philanthropic doings. He has started a Foundation-Let Yourself Trust, to further spread good works in his homeland and around the world. A small donation will go a long way. Ten British Pounds is less than an American twenty so Go !~! I did.

photo from F&S website, thank you F&S.

Martyn signs his album and songbook for me at an earlier concert
at Freight when they were on San Pablo Ave

How Did We End Up Here?


As most of you may know I lost my only biological sister very suddenly and unexpectedly in July 2008. For months after I was unable to listen to anything except a CD I had of her singing two songs in Russian. She was a musician, a fine one with a voice that reached high into the clouds.

When I was able to move on, I stuck Martyn's latest CD in the player and heard the "Whoever It was Who Brought Me Here Will Have to Take Me Home" album over and over and over for longer than a year, maybe even two. The songs on that album speak to me in a way no other ever has.

The opening chorus starts "Love is soaring symphonies and dance band serenades." A few lines later "Love can't be diminished now by the death or body blows".

It got easier to drive while crying as the years passed. 

Martyn sealed his place in my life, my heart, my CD player nearly fifteen years ago; last night's performance again cemented and reaffirmed my earlier decision. 

Teri (right) and I at the Deerfield Beach High Band Reunion in 2005.
 This glorious week together was our last visit.
The light over her head was prescient.

"Feeding Necklace"

A sweet young Mom in Europe makes these pretty necklaces to wear while babies are eating. It keeps their little fingers occupied and out of the mouths and noses of the people feeding them.
Here we finished eating and he's chewing it.

Linen and wooden beads components make it easy to clean.

Friday's Gratuitous Picture

There are times when words are few and feelings run high.
Today is one of those days.

Do you get days where you haven't much to say and yet feel the need for contact ?

Yeah, me too, so let's look at some fun pictures and call it a week. A busy week that included extra kids, mud, sidewall tire blow-outs that ended well, short naps, cutting teeth and lots and lots of drool. Did I mention the mud ?~! And the mopping !~!

The Crafting Continues

Cowl of silk crocheted for Baby's Mama
This came from ExpressionFiberArts.com where
Chandi dyes the most glorious colors.

Some of this 100 gm skein went into the weaving during the Summer Session at RAC. The remainder became a cowl for the baby's mama.

The multi-colored silk on the loom at RAC
with bamboo/silk as the rest of the weaving.

How can one resist a bowl such as this-chicken and flowers ?~!

Where's that Baby these Days ?~!

Pan Handle Covers on Their Way to PA

I promised a follow-up to the potholder post for my friend in PA.

The pan handle covers are on the way via USPS and that's the best in the land, is it not !~!

The cat card is four by five and a half inches for size comparison.

Lined with Insul Bright for heat resistance. Linen hanging hooks.

Lifetime repair warranty on all my work.

Orders taken.

Needle & Thread Thursday NTT

This starts March !~! Step out of my normal color range and into summer and autumn hues.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

CatCat2 Makes Herself at Home

CC2, what's your plan here, silly grrrrl ?~!

She's purring so mustn't be all bad from her perspective altho from mine it looks quite precarious.

Wordless Wednesday

Toby's Choice

I'm deeply in love with this border fabric.

Red Makes its Appearance

This cute mug rug uses my favorite red fabrics. Hand-stitched the binding down on both sides. Inside there's a piece of Insulbrite with two layers of gray linen sandwiching it. Makes for a nicely padded piece finishing at nine by nine inches.

Same front and back-unusual for me-wonder why I did it that way ?~!

Makes a superb Bus Stop for the most-played with toy in the chest !~!