Growing Older

Molasses, my beloved pooch, and I are growing older. She turned 11 this past December, and I hit 45 last Sunday. I generally shy away from the camera, but today I thought I would take a few pics of us and pay tribute to growing older. (Note I say growing "older" not "old". There is a difference!) Ever since I was a little girl I was determined to view the aging process as a thing of beauty. I loved the dignity and assuredness of Georgia O'Keefe. I adored the spirit of Ruth Gordon, especially in her role as Maude in "Harold and Maude". (If you have never seen this movie go rent it now!) As a 10 year old girl I vowed that I would be a woman who embraced what ever age she was, and who wore her wrinkles with pride. As a 45 year old woman, this is proving a bit more difficult to master than I had thought it would. The changes that I see in each passing year have alarmed me at times. Things aren't as toned, and it seems that age spots are appearing everywhere. I wear bifocals now! But it's all good. I look forward to each birthday. I love that I am still here! I really enjoy the process of growing into myself. Maybe it has to do with being fortunate enough to have a birthday that coincides with the arrival of spring. It's all about hope, rebirth, renewal and joy. That's how I view birthdays. I sincerely hope that I get to celebrate another 45 birthdays, and I wish that Molasses could, too.

Ugh!

So I haven't gotten to any quilting this week!!! I said I would sew a costume for an upcoming choir/play thing at our church and should be getting that done, but I don't want to and I know I need to get it done before I quilt anything. Frankly, I've been procrastinating!!! My quilting buddy came over last night so we could sew together, and I forced myself to cut out the costume. At least it was more fun to do with her here than it would have been on my own. Cutting out is always my least favorite thing to do. So at least that part is done and I can get it sewn and out of the way. She told me that she felt guilty sewing on her quilt while I had to work on the costume. She didn't really feel bad, she was just rubbing it in!!

Here's a picture of Niquie's blocks up on the design wall. We took the picture because sometimes it helps to look at a picture to see where some thing isn't working. Even on a design wall if you can't get far enough back it doesn't show up, but it usually will in a picture.
I was reading this interesting article by Jerry Johnson on LDS Living this morning and he ended his article like this. I thought it was WAY cool!

God is the quilter.

The spirit is the thread.

We are the scraps of cloth, joined into a layer of warmth, tradition, beauty and strength.

We form a "whole" much greater than the sum of our parts.

Hope you have a GREAT quilting day. I will be stuck sewing a costume, but hopefully will get back to quilting SOON!

1970's Boob Tube (They Just Don't Make Them Like They Use Too)

Our 1970's boob tube died last month. We knew that it would eventually have to go to that big appliance store up in the sky, yet it was a sad day when it finally happened. It was a mammoth boxy thing with fake wood veneer, and ugly silver plastic dials. Conspicuous looking amongst our more refined retro items that stood nearby, like my cool 1920's Westinghouse copper heater, my sleek 1930's art deco Paymaster machine and our lovely old 1950's Smith-Corona typewriter. I admit I was horrified when my in-laws gave us this old set of theirs. It was back in the 80's when we were super young, newly married and barely scraping by. The folks took pity on us, as all we had was a tiny black and white TV that I brought to the marriage, (and which I still have!) The big boob tube was a dinosaur, even back then, and just screamed ugly. My husband was in heaven. At the time, I figured it was bound to die soon, I mean how much longer could it last? And we'd either go back to the tiny old B&W, or save up and by a new set. But it didn't die soon, and after a while it just became a part of the family. And after a while longer I grew to find it beautiful in it's own hideous way! When the day came to put it out for the trash collectors, I had to turn away, I couldn't bare to watch. And when we went shopping for a new TV, I turned my nose up at every ostentatious looking big screen and flat screen I saw. Finally we settled on a small retro looking new TV, and with each passing day I like it more and more, but I know I must refrain from getting too attached, as they just don't make them like they use too.