Another Class Today

Today it was Linda C, and I have no clue whose stamps she used, and I'm not entirely sure whose dies she used, either, except that the cards with the curved tops used a Lawn Fawn die for the curved cuts. Several companies have the faux-stitching dies.

All of the designs were pretty simply, and except for one card, all we had to do was color and assemble. The one card which required a bit more was the first one, and involved a punch and a bit of fussy cutting.

This is the one which required the punch and the fussy cutting, and we had a choice of three options for that part. And that card stock is actually white; I scanned the card, and the popped-up "Nerd Alert" caused the shadowing effect on the card.

Obviously, this is the one with the curved top. The person sitting across from me brought a cup of ice in with her, and didn't have a lid on it. Fortunately, when she knocked the cup over the spilled ice only hit the envelope and not any of the card elements. She also had to hum along with the radio. And chew her ice. I did not pack up and move to the other end of the table. But I was not disappointed when she left.

Wow! Craptastic scan! Yes, mine are bluebirds, whereas Linda's were yellow. Pretty much all of my birds will be either black (condors and many corvids) or blue (hello! Buffalo Springfield fan here!).

That's it for classes for at least a couple of weeks, methinks. Linda has one in June which will be on a Sunday, and I seem to remember Shirley has another coming up in June. Also, there will be another MISTI class next month.

A week of vacation this week, and I'm already planning a day trip away from home, to get away and see the sites.

Happy Valentine's Day

I failed to photograph the three Valentine's Day cards that I made. And failed also to photograph the birthday card I sent out this week.

Last Sunday while on my way home from the Hollywood Collectors' Show in Burbank, my camera came out of the trunk case on the front rack on my bicycle, and I didn't stop to see what the metallic crashing noise was. So I've lost the photos I took of a Queen Anne Victorian home/doctor's office in Santa Ana last weekend and the pictures I took of Starsky's Torino (including some of my bicycle "The Black Pearl" with the car). So I have one crummy picture of The Black Pearl and the Torino that I took with my phone to upload to Facebook.

And have to buy a new camera before May's trip to Boston/Salem/Newport/Mystic Seaport.

Moon Shots and Magic, Day One

Just a travel day, really.

I decided not to take a chance on the Metro Green Line and ordered a shuttle. Which arrived shortly after 2 AM, after failing to follow the specific directions I put on the website. Hello? There's no parking on the north side of this street. Hello? Turn on C-------- St and then come up the alley. No, don't drive past the alley. Um, it's a dead end; you'll have to go out the same way you came in.

The flight was scheduled to take off a few minutes after 6. So we all (there were 4 of us in the shuttle van, besides the driver) arrived at the airport at 3 AM. Then the driver dropped my laptop as he was attempting to hand it over to me. Nothing's open at the Southwest Terminal. TSA agents start wandering by about 4 AM. Southwest agents finally start showing up about 5 AM. Then I somehow managed to miss taking the fingernail clippers out of my pocket, so I ended up with getting a government-sanctioned grope.

By the time we got through the Rethuglican "how can you call yourself a proponent of smaller government and then create another governmental agency?" nonsense there was no time to do more than grab a couple of croissants and a cup of Starbucks' crappy coffee before time to board.

Lousy weather, the attendant turbulence, then a late arrival in Denver because we were routed in from a different direction. With only about 30 minutes between scheduled arrival and scheduled departure and the late arrival, I had just enough time to hunt down a schedule monitor, find my flight on the list, and scurry over to the gate. Where, of course, my boarding group was nearly done and they were getting ready to call the next group.

M (the MH of last year's OKC/DFW trip) was trying to text me when we spotted each other. We had three seats to ourselves, since the flight was only about half full. And she, bless her, had picked up a turkey sandwich, a chocolate chip cookie, two bags of chips, and a couple of bottles of water. So once we'd settled in our seats and they'd taken the plane over to the de-icer (yes, it was raining in Denver and cold enough for ice to form!), and we were finally in the air, we had lunch.

More turbulence on the Denver-to-Orlando leg, with the worst of it coming as we were on final into Orlando--one of those heart-stopping altitude drops.

CR (the C of last year's OKC/DFW trip) was waiting for us at the food court, so the three of us headed down to baggage claim, got M's and my luggage (C had already collected hers, since she arrived about half an hour ahead of us), then went over to pick up our rental car. Then off to the hotel, where we checked in, dumped the luggage in our rooms, and then went to dinner at The Golden Corral. Which, by the way, isn't as good as the one in Greeley was back in the mid-'80s.

Back to our rooms, where we chatted a bit, then crashed.

Gardening 2011

Got a couple of patches cleaned up today and planted:
2 varieties of muskmelon, including Rocky Ford Green, a green-fleshed cantaloupe;
1 "Moon and Stars" watermelon; and
2 packages of heirloom carrots, "Kaleidoscope Mix"—white, purple, and a dark red-orange.

In a couple of weeks, we'll start some more heirloom carrots.

We also have a yellow pear tomato and a "Big Boy" tomato growing. The "Big Boy" is planted in a topsy-turvy planter.

I hope soon to be able to post about my Orlando trip.

San Diego Weekend

Okay, I have a bunch of pictures uploaded and labeled here. I'd love to go back to see more the museums at Balboa Park.

GTG in Alameda

No photos for later blackmail, if you can believe that! But saw the Gidget of Whiz again (for the first time since CATS Las Vegas), and met in person on-line stitching buds 'chelle and RaphaelRay. Made a bit of progress in my newest start, the Mary Wigham Ackworth Quaker. 'chelle is even more enjoyable in person than online, an absolute delight! RaphaelRay (Jill) brought along some pieces to share with us, and is quite the bunny nut, like another bunny nut I know and love. AnnaMarie isn't a part of our little online community, but is also a stitcher of Teresa Wentzler projects and brought along her in-progress "Stretch" and her recently completed "Tradewinds." Needle in a Haystack is a very nice shop, in lovely downtown Alameda, which is chockful of Victorian and Craftsman-style buildings.
Edited to add: I also picked up a few more possible threads for the counted canvas project, since my LNS doesn't carry these.

Santa Clara

Well, here I am, in a Motel 6 in Santa Clara, relaxing after the long drive up from Anaheim. I didn't even think about charging the pump for the air mattress, so it's taken several hours to fill the air mattress. Tomorrow we'll have our GTG at Needle in a Haystack in Alameda. Sure wish I had more time for the touristy stuff, but I have to be back at work on Monday. Dinner tonight was Beef Stroganaff at a little Russian deli and cafe in Campbell, not too far from Winchester Mystery House. And managed a couple of drive-by snapshots of that, into the setting sun, so I'm not sure yet how they'll turn out. And the mouse for my laptop seems to have died, so I have to use the pad thingy. Ack, but that's annoying!