The Trip to Oregon!

Over the weekend Nate and I traveled down to Oregon to visit his family.  We got up at 5:30am (!!) to fly into Eugene.  Nate's dad picked us up at the Eugene airport and we made the 3 hour drive through beautiful country to Medford where Nate's Grammie Janet lives.

Quick stop for  brunch, then back into the car that felt like a shuttle from Star Trek!  It had onboard GPS computer that would talk to us.  Creepy and cool at the same time.

The sweet little green house on Clover Lane is where we stayed.  This is the house where Nate's dad spent part of his childhood.  Two bedrooms, one bath and a spacious backyard in a quiet little neighborhood.  Each night as I fell asleep with the windows wide open, a chorus of chirping crickets serenaded me.  It was so peaceful and quiet.  

I  had hoped for a weekend that would be relaxed and lazy.  Sitting about with Nathen's family chatting.  It turned into helping get more of Janet's things into boxes for Goodwill.  She recently moved into an assisted living facility because she has small strokes and just needs a little more help caring for herself.  She can putter about just fine, it's remembering how to do the little things in a day that are troubling.  

I am very comforted to see how well cared for she is by Nate's family.  Aunt Cathy loves on her just like my mother cared for grandparents.  Gentle bullying because they need it and won't ask for it.

She had a minor stroke while we were there and it was hard to watch her sons watch their mother change into a woman who needs their care.  It was all so old hat to me; elder care has been a part of my life for the last several years that my taking care of Grammie Janet was second nature, but was remarked upon by family.  I am happy to take their hands, carry and fuss over elders, they've all loved and cared for young people that it shouldn't be any trouble for us to fuss a bit over them.  Regardless of if they are family or not.  Alright, on to another soap-box...

I played around with taking pictures through the lenses of a broken Brownie Camera (It was a No. 2A Folding Cartridge Hawkeye Model B) made sometime between 1926 and 1934.  Very cute little thing.

Finally Bob and I dismantled it for the lenses and felt very cavalier for our treatment of this artifact of early photography.

I was given many, many utterly adorable pictures of Nate as a little boy.  I'm being good and not posting too many (he doesn't like it) but I must leave you with this one.  It's too sweet!  In retaliation Nate guarded a ceramic hand print his dad had made as a child to give to his mom.  Bob may or may not have tried to help the ceramic hand have a tragic accident before it reached Sue.

I took home many pictures that no one needed or wanted.  I believe it is a reflex that comes from growing up in a family that is very genealogy oriented.  I couldn't let the stories fall into the trash.  The above picture is of Nate's paternal grandparents, Janet and Bill on their wedding day.  They married in 1951.  She was only 16, and so very pretty.

I also got to take home Grandpa Bill's wedding band, seemed to be fitting since I have her wedding ring too.  If Nate wasn't allergic to nickel he could wear it.

The Elephant Dress made its debut for dinner on Saturday night.  I still have some tweaking to make on the fit of it.  Our plans to see Henry V at Ashland were thwarted by misreading the tickets, but it worked out just fine.  We were pretty bushed anyway so we went out to dinner at a local pizza/salad joint called Kaleidoscope.  Very good food.

We found some relics of hair care in the bathroom.  It actually smelled kind of nice.

And so, early on Sunday morning we departed sweet Clover Lane for probably the last time (my first and only) and made our way to Eugene for a family picnic with Nate's mother's side of the family.

We met Nellie.  She is absolutely sweet but gives new meaning to the phrase "dumb blonde," for a dog, she got herself wrapped up around all the table legs and posts in the picnic lodge.  She then whimpered when she couldn't reach her family.  I spent much time giggling at her and helping get her untangled.

Nate tried to nap...

...Bob was about ready but didn't take one.

I soaked up sunshine by the river.

It was a good trip over all.  I am very glad that we went to spend the time since we're not sure how much longer Grammie Janet will be with us.  She is at that stage in life where she's just tired and is ready to go to sleep one night and not wake up in this world.  So I am glad we had the time to hold her hand and stroll along with her.  

I'm only sorry I didn't take more pictures.  My usual camera is on loan to a friend so I was armed with the iPhone and several processing apps.  While I am happy to have such a good little camera on my phone, I miss having an SLR that I can play with.

Edit - Many thanks to my personal editor for pointing out my gross grammatical error and making sure I spell things correctly.  xo

"Window" Shopping

I've seen these lovely clogs on lovely ladies around the blogging community as well as around Greenlake and I did a little poking around to see what was available (and how much they cost!).  I wear Dansko (and Sanita) clogs all the time since they help my back and because I work in places where I'm standing a lot.  I would love to give one of these babies a whirl (I think the blue ones!) and see how they work for me.  Enjoy!

Swedish Hasbeens - "Brick Me Up Heel"

Lotta from Stockholm - Peep Toe Clogs

Lotta from Stockholm - Highwood Mary Jane Style

Thrifted Curiosities

This is going to be a weekly round-up of things I've either found and brought home or passed up this time around.

I bought this little switch plate to spiff up the bedroom decor.  I used the existing screws and simply placed the other plate in a zippy bag for when we move out eventually.  Little mods like this can help transform your living space more "yours" while still staying within the requirements of your apartment managers.

This salt and pepper set made me giggle.  It wasn't too expensive but I wasn't sure if I would actually use them.

I tried coloured jeans for the first time and I'm rather hooked.  There was a green pair that I really wanted, however it wasn't in my size.  Perhaps I'll hunt up a white pair and dye them.  Simple and easy way to spiff up outfits!

These were a yummy linen blend but several sizes too large, someone else will get lots of good wear out of these.

My treat this round was to bring home these cute little flats with an ankle buckle detail.  I already have one pair of black flats but they are quite flat whereas these have a little more arch support.  And, really, who can say no to $4 shoes!?  Not I!

Frock Update

I've been busy stitching (and photographing) but not blogging about all the wonderful yumminess that is coming out of my sewing machine.

First project was The Anchor Dress

Revamped from a beloved bathrobe that starred in a play many moons ago, this languished in my closet until I decided to turn it into a dress.  It's really hard not to wear it almost every day!

Sonya calls this stitch the "chicken foot" because it's like a bird foot.  Makes me smile.

The Cornflower Dress

Yet another length of material that has been patiently awaiting my summer break.  This was just itching to be stitched up into some soft summer sweetness.  It's been hemmed and is awaiting the zipper to be stitched in.  I really must do that.  The rain has dampened my desire to sew summer frocks...

AT LAST!!!  The Elephant Dress!!!
Yesterday I purchased the zipper and fussed it in last night!  Fits like a dream and despite hesitation about elephants giddily rampaging all over my body, I am extremely pleased with how this has turned out.

What's next?  Oh the possibilities are simply endless!  I've got some black and white stripe, cute almost 60's floral, green bamboo with golden dragonflies, pinky-mauve in a Art Nouveau style...the list goes on.

I also have a pile of vintage upholstery fabric that I got from school (Thanks Carl!).  Once washed, it has softened considerably from it's former stiff shiny state.  Some of it is going to become clothing for me, and what I do not use will be given to friends and put up on my Etsy.

Thrifting Finds...and things left behind.

I've been doing rather a lot of shopping in ye olde thrift stores lately and wanted to share some of my finds with you!

Firstly there is Rupert, the patron cat of crafting.  I have yet to mount a hook in the ceiling for him to hang from, but he is sitting quite happily on my sewing table for now.

Then there is this sweet little tea cup that simply had to come home with me.  It lacked a saucer, so I kept setting it on the lonely ones until we found one that suited it.  Oddly enough it's a Pottery Barn saucer which feels so 1950's when combined with the cup I keep thinking it's older.  I must admit, every time I go thrifting, it is incredibly difficult to not purchase all the lonely tea cups.  Just the ones that have no mates, the ones that have no set to go with, just sitting there with the other orphaned tea cups waiting to be adopted.  I keep wanting to open an Etsy shop called The Teacup Orphanage where sweet lonely little cups go to find happy, loving families.  I am restraining myself because I'm not sure I could store all the cups until they were shipped.  Someday.  When I have space.

These plates were so awesome!  I have a bit of a thing for the way a plate sounds.  It may seem odd, definitely my particularity about certain sounding plates.  I think it's because I like the way plates sound in period films, that certain clack sound rather than the higher pitched tinkling of say, Corningware.  Stoneware is lovely, and some china.  These sounded lovely.  20-22 plates, two bitty torueens, one large tureen, two HUGE platters and one normal sized platter.  *sigh*  Lovely things left behind for someone else to love as much as I.

This marvelous piece of furniture would be a fabulous way to store crafting supplies.  It has a secretary desk that folds out so you could even have a little work station that tidies itself when you need to take a break!  How cool would that be?!  I didn't even care that some of the window wood-work was gone.  It gave it more charm to me.  Clearly this piece has a story and had adventures.  

Well, those are the thrifting finds and leavings.  I should do this kind of post more often because I find many interesting, bizarre, and amazing things!  Excepting the teacup and saucer these were all from the Capitol Hill Value Village.  It's awesome!