“News and Sews”–now why doesn’t that rhyme? English is a funny language!!

So I need to put something up today so that Pig Post will not be the first thing to pop-up when my blog is opened!!  I did miss a bet though in not telling the story of Russ and the "Pastor and The Pig in a Box"!  No pictures of that incident but you can ask Russ next time you see him!!  So with nothing going on today, I will just do a miscellany of thoughts.  Oh, we are meeting some fellow bloggers this coming Tuesday – can hardly wait.  Stay tuned for updates later in the week!

You remember a few days ago I wrote about my sister Laila and her husband Brian for Brian’s birthday.  Well, today she tells me they are going to be FAMOUS!  Oh yes, we will have to beat the paparazzi off with a stick!  Brian and Laila are huge Duck fans and go to almost every game of every sport.  Yesterday they were at a baseball game and were interviewed by the local news.  It’s a really cute story and I’m proud of them for making the news.  You can see it if you click on the link.  I couldn’t legally upload the video to You Tube so the link will have to do it.  Click on the video to play it after you open the link.  BTW, I made that very handsome hat that Brian is wearing!!

And speaking of making things, all you sewers out there, I need a bit of help.  I know I should know this by now, but I am only a hobby sewer.  I do it for a while and then I go do something else and I never have gotten good at it (or anything else for that matter).  Anyway, I like to make doll clothes.  They’re fairly quick, don’t take a lot of fabric, and the ultimate wearers of these garments are not picky!

I have lots of little scraps of fabric, lace, miscellaneous buttons and trims, you know, all the left overs.  So I have been using up what I have on hand and intermittently sewing up these dolls clothes during the last couple of months.  I have a question about this one.  I did some decorative stitching along the edges of the sleeves and the hem.  Then, I trimmed along that stitching on the sleeves but don’t know if that is what I am really supposed to do.  Before I ruin the hem by trimming, can someone tell me if that is the right way to do it, or does it even matter?  At my age, I should know this but in all honesty, that is the first time since I have had my machine that I have used this stitch!!  Let’s see, the machine is only about 25 years old or so!!

  














So, to trim or not to trim, that is the question???


Just cuz I’m somewhat proud of my efforts (imperfect as they may be) here are the other dresses I made.  Used up some scraps, you betcha!!  Of course my granddaughters don’t really play with their 18” dolls anymore, but maybe they will put these away and save them for their children.



  

















This dress (on the right) is made from two fat quarters that my hubby bought for me around Christmastime.  There is just enough fabric to make this dress.




And that’s all she wrote…

Had Some Jobs to do…

We are probably behind the curve in cleaning up the Christmas mess but we had a big list of stuff to do today.  We were going to get all the boxes down from the attic, de-decorate the house, take the tree out, put the Christmas wrap back in the attic…you know the drill.  The we looked out the window and saw beautiful bright blue skies and decided the Christmas junk would still be here any day of the week.  After all, we’re retired and don’t HAVE to do anything on any certain day.  When you get a gift of sunshine in January in Oregon, you go with it.  The header photo shows 58 degrees and it actually ended up a couple of degrees warmer than that.

So we took Rusty and Poppy and headed for the lake.  Of course I forgot my camera but we had a nice walk and enjoyed the spring-like weather.  Rusty was tired after that so we dropped him off and picked up the camera and set off to climb to the top of Skinner’s butte (in the car of course!).  This is just a small hill in the middle of down-town Eugene and is part of Skinner Butte Park.  Eugene Skinner was the founder of Eugene.  There are great views from the top, especially on a day like today.  We could see all the way to the Three Sisters (only two could be seen) in central Oregon, about 100 miles away.




We could see the river with the I-5 bridge.  A few of you have this used route lately.  We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it!!




We could even see Autzen Stadium, home of the Rose Bowl Champion DUCKS!  (Did you really think I could write a blog today and not mention my Ducks?)




And I could see Poppy straining at her leash wanting to take her Daddy for a walk.




At the bottom of the butte, there is a sheer rock wall that is a popular practice area for rock climbers.  I think this is basalt columns but maybe a soil scientist would know better than I?? I really don’t know much about rocks and such.  This one fella was enjoying the warm sun on his back as he made his descent.



I think this fella was just getting started in the sport but he seemed to be having a good time.  Poppy found this activity incomprehensible but she enjoyed watching!



After all that activity (watching counts, doesn’t it?) we were hungry and went to Marie Callendars for lunch.  I forgot to take pictures but it was sure good.  Russ had a Cobb salad and I had the  special of chicken pot pie, Caesar salad, and a piece of pie for dessert for $10.99.  I had a $5.00 off birthday coupon (tomorrow’s the day), PLUS we both got a free piece of birthday pie so it was a really good deal.  Neither of us could eat pie with lunch, so with our two free pieces, plus the piece that came with my meal, we came home with three pieces of pie…HOT DOG!  Russ chose apple since he didn’t get the apple pie at Carpo’s when we were in Santa Cruz.

We did finally get to a couple of things on our list.  Got the tree down and out to the curb since tomorrow is garbage day, and got the Christmas wrap boxes back in the attic for another year, but that’s about it.  Tomorrow is another day and the stuff ain’t going nowhere!! 

OH, wanted to tell all you grandmas out there…if you want a fun game to play with you grands, try this one.  It’s called Story Cubes.  The games consists of 9 dice which are divided among all players…it really doesn’t matter if you have 1 or 4, it’s all fun.  Each die has a different picture on every side.  Everyone rolls their dice and the players take turns starting a “Once upon a time…” story, using the pictures on their dice.  The next player must take up the story and add to it using his pictures.  The last player brings the story to a conclusion.  It is great for interacting with kids and for stimulating their imaginations…something that is sometimes lacking in today’s electronic age.  At any rate, it sure gets the minds and mouths moving and can become hilarious.  No scoring – it’s just for fun.  I highly recommend this game…might even be fun for adults!

Well, that’s a wrap folks!!

Honey, I’m Home!

Actually, that would be “we’re” home but it just doesn’t have quite the same ring to it!  Just a couple of notes on our journey from Corning to Medford on Friday.  Nice weather almost all the way, except near Dunsmuir.  We stopped at the O’Brien Rest Area near Lake Shasta.  There is a slight view of the lake from here and it is a well maintained rest area with plenty of parking and shady picnic areas. 



And no trip along I-5 would be complete without the requisite picture of Mt. Shasta.  The wind really cleared the skies and we had a wonderful view for quite a while.  Took this out the window as we were rolling down the highway. Snow, anyone?


Friday night we stayed in Medford at the Pear Tree RV Park.  We had noticed this little park before but had never stayed here.  It is adjacent to the freeway and is part of the hotel next door.  When you enter, you actually pull up to the hotel entrance and register there.  We missed it the first time and had to go around again.  There is a very high portico that will accommodate the tallest vehicles so that was not a problem. 


They feature FHU sites, many of them pull-thrus, cable TV, and free internet.  The internet was not great but we found a good signal from the Super 8 motel in the same area. 

The only complaint I have about this park is the placement of the sewer receptacle.  We wanted a drive-thru so we wouldn’t need to unhitch the car, but in order to keep the car hitched up, we had to pull too far forward for the sewer hose to reach.   After trying to stretch our 20’ hose, Russ finally said to heck with it and stuck it in the cleanout hole.  If we were going to be here for any length of time, we would have parked the car in front and moved the motorhome to the rear of the site.  But that is not the purpose of a pull-thru for an overnight stay.  Other than that, it was a good stop.  Cost around $32.



It was SOOO cold last night.  Even though we unhooked the water hose, Russ didn’t get all the water blown out of the filter and it was frozen solid this morning.  Makes those desert winds not sound so bad.  At least they aren’t freezing.



Just down the street is the Iron Skillet Restaurant.  It is part of a truck/travel stop.  They had a good looking buffet breakfast but we ordered off the menu and it was good, but a typically greasy meal geared to hungry truckers.

It was a great day for driving.  Cold but clear blue skies once we got past Grants Pass.  We stopped at the new rest area by Seven Feathers.   The entrance from the northbound approach might be confusing if you haven’t stopped here before so it would be important to watch the signs.  It was really quite nice.  Lots of grass and a fenced dog run.  The dog run is covered in bark mulch rather than grass so Poppy didn’t want anything to do with it.



There is a nice shelter that would provide welcome shade on a hot summer day.


As we got closer to Eugene, our beautiful blue skies became obliterated by this nasty UFO in the sky.



It was pretty much socked in around Eugene, a cool damp fog.  But as we neared Autzen Stadium, where the Ducks won the Pac-12 Championship last night, the clouds parted, a shaft of sunlight shone down on the stadium, and a voice from heaven boomed out, “GO DUCKS”!

That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it!  Good Night all!