Thursday, June 26, 2014

Animal Advent #4: Duncan Dog!

Here is the latest in the series of animal advent characters.  It's not too late to join in on this stitchalong!  You can find the free patterns over at Brooks Books.

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with these.  Might make them into individual ornaments or might put them together as some sort of advent calendar.  Luckily I have about two years to figure it out.

Linking up today with the Smalls stitchalong at Stitching Lotus.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Shop Hop

This past weekend Wasabi Girl and I went on a shop hop to 13 local quilt shops.  I'm using the term "local" rather loosely because the entire trip was hundreds of miles.

Each shop gave us charm squares of batik fabrics and a set of patterns to use with them.  Of course, I took a million pictures of the sample quilts and still couldn't make up my mind so I made hexies out of mine instead.  This was a fun little project and will make a nice memento of the trip.

We saw a lot of fabric and patterns to love.  Wasabi Girl was wearing a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" shirt and several different people we met talked about how much they love the show.

One girl in a shop ran to a back room and got a special bolt of fabric she'd been hoarding for Buffy fans.  It's the famous fabric from this scene.  If you're not familiar with Buffy, this 22 second clip sort of sums up the whole show:


So Wasabi Girl will be making some yummy sushi pajamas this week - which is sort of fitting when I think about the screen name I've assigned her!

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Reading Game of Thrones

related [litandlaundry.blogspot.com]
Lit and Laundry
I laugh every time the kids get on my case about this. Yes I do call Dumbledore a direwolf.

But look how awesome he is.  As he gets older the ruff under his chin gets bigger and bigger.  He's starting to look like a little lion.

Jungle Boy and I are having a race to see who can get through the Game of Thrones books first.  We're both on the second book.  He's a little ahead of me.  He's watched the whole show, I'm only watching the episodes I know I've read through, so I'm way behind.

This is where I get stubborn and remind everyone that the books are so much better than the miniseries.  I don't care how great you think the show is, you owe it to yourself to read the books and get the whole story.

Also, this is another book that I'm happy to be reading on my kindle.  The paper version is fat and cumbersome even in paperback.  My old eyes enjoy the option of changing the font and line spacing when I'm tired.

 Are you a Game of Thrones fan?

Monday, June 16, 2014

The Final Tears

This weekend was the final ballet recital for Drama Girl.  After nine years of study,  it was time to say farewell to her beloved ballet school.

As in previous years, she was asked to use her storytelling skills to keep the excited younger dancers calm backstage.  I got a picture of this during dress rehearsal.

You could have heard a pin drop, they were so attentive.  I didn't hear the whole story, but it was a fairy tale that she made up.

She has worked as a student teacher for each of the classes of younger girls over the years.  She knows every single one of them.  So I was not surprised when the head of the ballet school made Drama Girl the star of the show.  She was the "birthday girl" and each class performed a dance as part of the party scene.

When she came out in her party dress, she was so lovely and happy. She combined her love of acting and dance and just glowed onstage. 

The final dance was the tribute to all of the graduating seniors.  It was beautiful and touching and at their last bow the five girls each got a big bouquet of flowers.  Several were fighting back tears, including Drama Girl.  Many of us in the audience were dabbing our eyes.

This dance school has been a huge part of her life.  She's taking her ballet shoes to college and hopes to make room in her schedule for classes.  As for me, I will be forever grateful for the chance to watch her experience all of this.


Thursday, June 12, 2014

The business of making a grownup

I thought graduation was a big milestone, but this week I've learned that there are quite a few more steps required to get Drama Girl officially into the land of the grownups.

She needs a real i.d. card.  She chose not to learn how to drive, so we went to the DMV to get her an official card.  Two hours of waiting later, we were done with that task.  It should come in the mail in a few weeks.

Next:  a passport for her travels to Scotland next year.  I had made an appointment at the post office to get a passport and I still had her birth certificate in hand, so this should be easy, right?  In a word, no.  The passport office only accepts "official" birth certificates.  We had a "certified abstract of birth," which apparently was just fine for the department of motor vehicles to issue her an official i.d., but not good enough for a passport.  So I've spent the money to get a new birth certificate mailed to me.  Then we'll make another appointment and try all of this again.

Drama Girl had a check that she needed to sign over to me.  Simple, right?  Just stop in the bank and have a teller do whatever she needs to do.  Nope.  Turns out Drama Girl had a "teen" bank account which wouldn't let her do that, so we spent two more hours switching her to a "college" account.

Then a trip to the school district office to get her a work permit.  More waiting. 

Then a trip to the library to pay off the last of her overdue fines.  $39.25 left.  I paid and told her it's the last of her graduation gifts from me.  It probably isn't.

Then today, a very bittersweet goodbye.  It was her last visit with the pediatrician who has been her doctor since birth.

How do you thank someone who has traveled this whole road with you?  I think I might send a card, or maybe even flowers.  I'm sure somewhere I have a picture of Drama Girl's first checkup when this doctor held her.  Makes me a little teary to think about.

It also made me realize that there's so much we need our kids to remember; "get your tetanus shot every 10 years" "see a dentist regularly."  All these things that I remember being totally clueless about when I went out into the world.  It's wonderful that now they give us her complete medical history on a CD.  Wish I could also record all the family medical history and give that to her.  Perhaps a project for another day.

Back home, we're working through forms for student loans, health insurance, etc.  There is so much to do.  We're bonding over bureaucracy.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

The Music of Departure

related [litandlaundry.blogspot.com]
Lit and Laundry
Just a few more weeks until she leaves. My playlist is definitely a lot sadder than hers. 

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Slow Sunday Stitching: Mary Mouse

Slow Sunday Stitching

Here is Mary Mouse, the third in the series of Animal Advent patterns available free over at Brook's Books.  I think she's adorable.

On to catch up on a few more little projects today.  Now that the kids are out of school I have a little more time to put my feet up and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Linking up to Kathy's Quilts.  Happy Sunday!


Saturday, June 7, 2014

On to the Next Great Thing

So this happened:

I held myself together pretty well.  A few tears escaped.  The real trigger for me?  Pomp and Circumstance; it's one of those pieces of music that is pure emotion, like the wedding march or taps.


This is one of my new favorite pictures of Drama Girl.  High school is literally behind her, her gown is off, and there is a look of joy in her face.  Such a happy moment.

It was a day full of wonderful moments, lots of hugs for my "other" daughters who are her friends.  Lots of hugs for their moms who I will inevitably see less of in he future.  A bit of champagne, and of course, a big party.


As usual, I overestimated the amount of food everyone would eat.  We'll be working on this cake for a while.

And what's a big occasion without the gift of a quilt?  I had planned to make a big artsy thing but I realized what she really needs is something sturdy and cozy.


This is a flannel rag quilt that's long enough to fit on her extra long dorm room bed.  The back is minky, so it's deliciously soft.  I've worked on it for a few weeks, when I could do it in secret.  Now I need to clean all the minky lint out of my sewing area of the garage.  It looks like a black snowstorm hit.

Now I'm ready for the next chapter.  In my life and hers.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Graduation Day for Drama Girl

First day of kindergarten

 Last day of high school.

Same front door.  Same mom taking the picture.  Same bright smile. Each time she picked a favorite dress and hitched a backpack over her shoulders.

Tomorrow she puts on her cap and gown and walks across that stage.  And I will cry. 

I've spent some time trying to figure out how to stop myself from crying.  Some people feel it's not acceptable in public.  I have cynical friends who never cry about anything.  I cry at everything.  I was in the graduation aisle of the party store and got misty-eyed at all the celebration supplies.

I think that if I can understand the emotion behind the crying, I might be able to use logic to avoid being overwhelmed by it. So I've been thinking about graduation and what it means, and why it's making me cry.

It's the happy cry of victory.  She made it.  I made it.  I did this parenting thing.  And it all turned out okay.  She's made it to adulthood.  She made it into one of her top choice colleges.  She proudly put her enthusiasm into the decoration of her morterboard:


Not only did she get in with huge merit scholarships, but she got accepted into their study abroad program next Spring.  She'll spend four months in Scotland.  From there she plans to travel to Italy in the Summer to teach English.  She's already made contacts and plans on that front.  She's ready for the world.

Which brings me to the obvious reason for tears.  She's leaving.  Really leaving.  She'll be home for Christmas but beyond that I can't see when. 

Nobody really warns you about this part of parenting.  When you finish your job, if you've done it right, you become obsolete.  Sure, she'll still need some money and some advice, and some help, but the big day-to-day job of parenting is done.  Too late now to make sure the childhood was happy.  Too late now to build any more sweet mundane memories.

It's over.  Summer camps and ballet lessons and sleepovers with friends.  Cooking s'mores for breakfast and late night mac and cheese.  Midnight movie openings and book releases and vacations at Disneyland.  She's working this summer and then packing off to school.

I caught her napping yesterday on the couch.


Wrapped in a quilt, blissfully at rest.  Which reminded me of this:


I'm sorry, if you need me, I'll be over here, crying.

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