Polka dots...

Does anyone else feel very shy about feet?? I feel so nude posting them.... so exposed. It is quite a funny feeling. I hadn't made HST (like the lingo? Half Square Triangles for those of you "out of the loop") in a LONG time, I forgot how much I adore them. ADORE THEM!

That is about it.... but wait....

Yup, it is hung and I am excited... very excited! (I like to keep posting about it, because I am THAT excited!)

JMB

Opportunity is everywhere...

Sometimes you just have to yell with food in your mouth.... somethings are that important.
Lot's of things are that important to my little Mango... I can not stop taking pictures of her. I love dressing her in zany outfits and then I love taking pictures of her. My excuse is, she will not always be so willing to let me pick her clothes so I must play while I can. Right?!
I was playing with my telephoto lens a few weeks ago and caught some new (to us) backyard birds... Western Tanager (above), there was a whole flock of them flitting around in the back laurel hedge.
Then a male Black-headed Grosbeak (above, he blends in to that pine REALLY well) and a female one (below) feasted at our feeder. I LOVE seeing new birds in the yard.
Additionally, I would like to say "WATCH out WORLD!" I am finally understanding Photoshop AND learning Illustrator... I could be unstoppable in the very near future.

Additionally, X2-- My sweet Eugene Modern Quilt Guild and I hung our first show today!!! Woot-Woot! Another one of the bucket list items people!! I feel like it kind of just fell in to our laps and I would have been silly to say no. I will admit that it is WAY harder than I thought to make some of the crucial decisions like-- "Which to hang first??" I am so grateful to all of the awesome Quilt Mafia/Quilt Club members that helped make this a reality. Whether you helped hang, brought a quilt in, or even just have had a encouraging word-- THANK YOU SO MUCH! I am so happy with what we put together. I am especially thankful for the wonderful couple that offered us the space and then helped us put up the quilts. Thanks Don and Mary Jo from Our Sewing Room. Just to give them some more love-- I love to sew there. They have a great open space, large cutting tables and (my FAVORITE!!) a huge design wall. I would be making only king-size quilts if my design wall was that big. Design walls are the best.

Our Opening and Reception is, Thursday, June 2 from 6-8PM. If you are in the Eugene-Springfield area please come, it would be so fun to meet you! I will be the one with the very short hair, spazzing out because she is so excited.

Something to think about:

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

-Thomas Alva Edison

JMB

Yup, it is about Cancer-- but there is a quilt!!

By night I have been working on my EMQG bee quilt. I love it. I love to puzzle a way to put the pieces together. I like that you can take the work of 9 friends and have it make sense.

I am putting it together with some urgency-- because it is concrete and I can figure out an answer to it. This past week we had to go to another one of those "uh-oh" oncology appointments--- I knew it was going to be dreadful. What made it The Worst for me this time, was that the bad news didn't rip out the rug from under my feet-- it was that I expected how bad it was going to be and that is the "normal" for us now.

Cancer is just feeling like this grey cloud that is always with us now, and will always be with us. It will. Sometimes I just want to go back to before. Before I felt this urgency to stop putting off things, where I felt like EVERY holiday maybe wasn't the last-- before.

But then, would I have pulled off the road after the appointment? Would I have pulled off the road and got out of the car and sat in this HUGE yellow field and listened to the bees? I just don't know. I do feel like I value all that I have learned since my mom's diagnosis-- I value the time that it has allowed me to spend with her, that I have had to carve out of the craziness that has been our life in 2011. I value the closeness that I have with my sisters. I have a deep gratitude for that. But if someone mentions the "Gift of Cancer" to me again, I think I will scream! I think we could have made to where we are now without this grey cloud.

If you do ever have the chance, stop and listen to the bees. It feels like Life.

JMB

Things that make you go hmmmmm...

The lens focus function on my little powershot is dying... but I just love this picture.

as an aside- I keep asking myself "Why is life so great right now and so awful?"

-- What I mean is:

1) Is it really so great?

2) Is it really so awful?

3) Or does the contrast of the REALLY great make the awful seem so sucky?

4) Or does the SUPER suckiness make the Little great seem so HUGE?

5) Then, do the semantics of it really matter?

Is life is just a contrast of sweet and bitter, a big soup of opportunities and loses?

it just is.

and I don't know.

I guess I will keep on making stuff, taking pictures, hugging kids, going to the library, making dinner, crying, writing, planning, and dreaming... wait, I almost forgot the laundry.

JMB

Being a mama...

Just when you think the sinus pressure and the days are going to GET you... they put on their helmets and ride an old skateboard together.

Little joys.

Three of them.

Melt me.

JMB