So Many New Obsessions

Merry Christmas to Everyone in cyber space. I haven't been here for a very long time so there probably isn't anyone listening. In fact it's been so long that I now have two new obsessions. Making furniture (not from Ikea) and painting. I guess I should let the pictures speak for themselves.
I totally ripped her off and can't give credit to the originator as I don't know who it is. I did another one in secondary colors and a slightly different woman but it didn't turnout quite as good. But I like my naked ladies and they are hanging in our Florida house. By the way, don't be fooled by Michael's 50% off framing sales. You can go to a nice frame shop, get a nicer and likely better quality frame and probably pay less than at Michael's. Their sale prices are outrageous!

My next painting project got very THEMEY. I did a series of these. Some star fish and some palm fronds. They sort of look like something you might buy at Pier 1. Oh well, they're original at least and will cover some empty wall space in the Florida house. There are a lot of empty walls in that house so I'm going to be painting for a while.

I think my latest painting is pretty cool. I got a request for a painting of poppies from Marg. So after much procrastination and aimless searching for something to rip off, I finally found a picture I thought I might be able to recreate. I'm going to show you the original and my version.

Here's the original. -------------------------------------------------------Here's mine. I know. It's not going to be mistaken for the original, but I like it. I eliminated the peak of blue sky cuz I just couldn't go there. Skies are HARD!

Back to Work

I'm home from my travels and working on projects. The green lace dress is coming along beautifully. I have a few more hand stitches to take in the lace overdress and am starting on the underdress. The scallop is all sewed on and looks like it was born there. My goal is to have nothing but hand sewing left by tonight. Which begs the question "what the H E Double Hockey Sticks are you doing blogging"? What can I say, I'm a procrastinator.

I ordered the silk charmeuse for the underdress from a fabric store in Denver. I called and asked specifically "is it SILK"? Yes, I was told. Okay, DF needs to show their employees the difference between silk and 100% cheap polyester. This stuff drapes about as well as gunnysacking. But there's nothing to do about it now except be grateful it's under the lace. And, when I was pressing it to get it ready for the cutting table, my iron spit at it. Guess what? It left black dye on my ironing board. So I had to hand wash it and give it a good soak to get the excess dye out of it. It spent the night in my shower getting dry. Ordering fabric online is not something I do often as I'm a very tactile person and need to touch. The times I have done it the results have been pretty good. But this experience has me doubting whether I'll ever do it again. The real pisser is that I called to confirm it was silk and got bad information. Lesson learned? Doubt it.

All that said, the lace part of the dress is looking gorgeous. And I'm going to put this computer on the desk and get to work right now! But first you have to see a picture of Lily Grace in her University of Saskatchewan Bunny Hug. She is so hugable in it. She'w wearing my hat but she has such a huge head it almost fits her!

New Project Fails

Oh, I never change. My new "Julie and Julia" type project is pretty much a failure. I did drag out all my unfinished projects and make a list of them. I then took apart a lot of the unfinished knitting projects because I didn't like them or was so stuck that I couldn't imagine moving forward. The sewing projects are a little more complicated because you can't simply unsew them and roll the fabric back onto the bolt. But there are several that just don't appeal to me in the least. Grandma style dress pants for example. The only reason to finish some of these projects would be to donate them to a shelter or some such. So that begs the question, do I want to spend time working on dead end projects when I could be working on my quilt or any of the multitude of things I want to dig my teeth into? With my horrendous time management skills, I think not. So back to the closet they go. I had a photo of all my projects piled on my work table but I can't find it. Probably for the best.

I am currently working on this dress for the Respite Care Holiday Ball. It's gorgeous. The fabric is a fabulous french lace (Alencon for you fabric buffs) its a dark green re-embroidered with an even darker green. The underdress is a black silk charmeuse. Unfortunately I sewed a dart in the lace on the wrong side of the fabric and I'm having a heck of a time getting it out. Curses to thread that matches too well. The sun is shining today so hopefully I'll be able to see the threads good enough to get it undone. The past two days have been snowy and overcast. If I can't see them today I'm going to have to get Jill over here to be my "ripper". (Update: Sun = Vision = stitches out. yeah!) I'm trying to get the lace part of the dress finished before Oct 5th so I can take it with me on my Thelma & Louise trip. All the scallops need to be sewn back on by hand. There's about 300 inches of scalloped edge on this dress so I figure a month should be long enough to get it all done. I still don't know what I'm going to do for that strategically placed bauble. You can rest assured it won't be a giant peony! Maybe a neon flashing arrow pointing down. Whatever I decide on, it will have to be low profile and subtle.

Have I mentioned that I've been hiking the Colorado Trail this summer? Wow, what an endeavor. By Oct 2nd I will have done 303 of the 485 miles. There are 7 of us doing it and we're called "The Magnificent Seven" or "M7's" for short. I'm the youngest and the oldest is 68. If you want to have your Burly Mountain Woman ego challenged, go hiking with some 60+ year olds. These women rock! Mary Ellen is our fearless leader and has done all the work getting us organized. Marilyn did the trail about 10 years ago so she's our sage. Weezie keeps the whole thing FUN, Pat is trying to single handedly fertilize the National Forests, Sherrie is our scribe and Sue is the negotiator. Me? Well, I have the best damned bruise so far. I was trying to run down a 3 mile section that was..... downhill. It's less painful to run than walk so I decided to get in a tempo run. I was doing great until about 200 yards from the trail head. Then, of course, I caught the toe I'm in the habit of catching and went flying. I landed on my arm and it left one helluva bruise. Even two weeks later it's still many lovely shades of purple and yellow as you can see.

LILY UPDATE

My granddaughter loves me. I get the most beautiful gummy smile whenever she looks at me. This girl is no fool. She's knows a happy grammy if a gifty grammy. She's growing way too fast and is so interactive these days. She a fabulous maker of bubbles and loves to give you the raspberries. We drove all the way to Utah and back in a 3 day span and she was perfect. She is trying so hard to talk. Sometimes when you're talking to her she's just staring at your face and is concentrating so hard. Then she starts trying to imitate you. It's just amazing to watch.

I'm a Failure as a GrandmotherAND My New Project

Oh woe is me. For the last week or so, Lily cries pretty much everytime she looks at me. This doesn't bode well for Jill. How can I be the go-to babysitter if I make the baby cry just by showing up? I'm trying really hard not to take it personally but I have to admit it's challenging the new softer kinder me.

I invoked this softer kinder me when Lily was born. (There's a good chance a lot of you probably haven't noticed this paradigm shift in my personality) Her entry into our family brought actual tears to my eyes that I was unable to squelch or explain! I know that Nescafe commericals and cars honking in the tunnel can reduce me to tears for reasons I can't really get into in this forum, but actual life events don't usually reduce me to a blubbering tearful idiot. So now we have a situation where the very person responsible for bringing about this softer kinder me is the same person challenging its' very existence. What are we going to do about that? Well, it just so happens I have a solution to help take my mind of the self pity that is beginning to create a sad cloud over my head.

A NEW PROJECT!

It's perhaps not so much a new project, as it is closure on a large number of ongoing projects. I arbitrarily pick Bob's birthday as the day all my UFO'S (UnFinished ObjectS) will be finished. Included in that list are going to be some as yet unstarted projects that have to be done in the interim. What better solution is there for bolstering the drooping self confidence of a failing grammy than sewing and knitting all winter? Yes, let us be clear. This is JUST my knitting and sewing projects. And before you start getting all up in my business about this not being a challenging enough project, come visit my loft. I have a sufficient number of unfinished objects to keep a medium sized sweat shop in work for several months. Never mind that most of them ground to a halt because I was stuck. I don't know who writes those f**k*** knitting patterns but they're clearly not left handed or visual learners. More on this later. I'm sure it's going to be much much more.

Every worthwhile project needs a plan in order to succeed so I guess the first step is for me to make a list of said UFO's. Then I'll need to priortize and set reasonable goals for each with the ultimate goal of 100% completion prior to my deadline of April 22th. (Ha, I didn't even have to look that up all you people who think I don't know when Bob's birthday is!) That said, my first dealine is going to be getting the list put together by noon tomorrow. Actually, let's make that 6pm because I have to go to a thing tomorrow morning. Can't be failing before we even start now can we?

I'm a Grandmother!!!

Yesterday my life changed. Jill gave birth to Lilian Grace Benbow aka Lily Grace. I had no idea a grandchild could steal your heart so completely. My friends had warned me but I thought they were all on baby crack or something. Turns out they were understating what transpires, most likely because it is just so hard to verbalize without sounding like you've lost your grip on reality.

Lily Grace was born by C-Section on May 13th. Jill and Dillon haven't gotten much sleep since then and Jill is still a bit woozy. She's banned everyone from visiting today so she can recover and it's probably a wise decision on her part. She may as well get as much rest as she can while she's got a nursing staff to take care of things. Sucks for me because all I want to do is rock that beautiful little girl. I suppose I'll get lots of opportunities in the future but that isn't making today any easier.

Bob and Tyler drove up from Denver yesterday afternoon so they could meet our new girl. Everyone got a chance to hold her and make cooing noises in her face. She slept through the whole thing and had to be nudged awake so she could have her dinner. So far, she's a great sleeper and doesn't react too much to noises around her. Of course, she hasn't heard Moly barking yet. Poor Moly knows somethings up but she can't quite figure it out. She's staying here with us and kept us awake most of the night with her crying. She's seems to think she's been abandoned and isn't too happy about it. Little does she know what's in store for her. In her confusion, she's taken to wearing one of Lily's little hats in the hope that it will help somehow.

So begins a new chapter in our lives. Stay tuned for more updates.

What Have I Been Doing Since June?

Holy smokes. I've been neglecting my once beloved blog. What on earth have I been up to since June? Well, I did the holy terror ride known as "The Triple Bypass". Unfortunately for me I did it with the beginning of an injury and ended up with a complete injury which sidelined me for 6 weeks. "The Triple" as it's lovingly referred to, is 120 miles over 3 mountain passes. My riding buddy Arnie and I started so early that the first descent down Squaw Mountain felt like a polar ride. The sun was up but not high enough to hit the road. It was a little chilly and hard to keep a grip on the handlebars and brakes because even my full finger gloves weren't enough to keep my digits from freezing into a painful position. But I've done it, and don't ever have to do it again. The ride serves as a sort of Rite of Passage for the riders around here and now I've got the bragging rights. yeehaw

In August we had the 1st Annual Guthrie Ride to honor our friend Bob Guthrie and raise money for his pet project, the Swan Mountain Rec Path. We had over 400 riders register and almost everyone showed up despite the horrendous weather. So many people worked really hard to make this ride a reality and they should be really proud of a job well done. Hopefully next year we can get twice as many people and some warm sunshine.

In October we went on a bike trip to Japan. We spent the majority of our time in the northeast corner on the island of Hokaido, which is where this photo was taken. The riding was great most of the time. One or two of the roads were a little to trucky for my taste but all in all it was a great ride. After Hokaido we went to Nara and Kyoto. These locations were amazing. Lots of old temples, gardens, etc. I loved the food. Not just because it tastes so good but it's so low fat that no matter how much we ate, we didn't gain any weight. yeah. So bottom line is that biking in Japan, even on the island of Honshu which is heavily populated, is really a wonderful experience. There a lots of narrow back roads with very little traffic and some great climbs. One or two of which I couldn't get all the way up. Serious incline on some of their roads.

Since returning home I've made a evening gown, which I draped myself. I had two weeks to get it done as we were going to the Respite Care Ball in Fort Collins. This dress was a pretty big challenge for me as I was copying, as best I could, a dress designed by Diane Von Furstenberg. I had only seen the dress in an American Express commercial and on her website. The print she used is pretty graphic so it's hard to see where the seams are so it took me quite a while to come up with what I thought was the pattern. I think she may have used a knit of some kind, but I used silk and did the entire dress on the bias. Sewing on the bias takes a special kind of dedication and stubbornness. So here's the final product. I'm a better seamstress than I am a photographer. The red trim on the hem was my own artistic license. The necklace and matching earrings were made by galpal Penny. Thanks Pen. One niggly little issue with this dress was undergarments. As it's quite wide over the shoulders and dips down pretty good in the back, hiding bras and spanks was tricky. Things were patched together under there. One of these days I'll think to put the undergarments on the dress form before I start draping!

By the way, I'd like to nominate the inventor of Spanks for the Nobel Peace Prize. Hey, if Al Gore can win it for making a movie, the inventor of Spanks should be no brainer. I think I'll start a letter writing campaign to the folks who make these decisions.

So what am I doing now? Well, I'm a grammy in waiting so I'm knitting my first ever baby sweater. Knitting for babies is liking working on tiny models. Everything is miniaturized. The yarn, the needles, the size of the pieces. I'm not really loving this. As soon as I get this little number finished, I'm going to work on something life sized. I'm trying to figure out how to adjust a regular pattern to to a maternity pattern. I'm not really sure what I'm doing but I did find an article on www.knitty.com so hopefully that will help. And I'm also making a coat for the incubator otherwise known as Jill. She has barely managed to get a little bump going so there is no dire need for the coat yet. My goal is to have it under the tree. I'm also working on converting a pair of regular jeans to maternity jeans and I want to knock out a couple t-shirts based on the ones we saw at Gap Maternity. I'm busy busy busy.

And to make time management (never my strong suit to begin with) more challenging, it hasn't stopped snowing for more than 24 hrs at a stretch since the day after Thanksgiving and so I'm trying to get in some skiing, skate skiing, skinning and hopefully snowboarding. AND I still have to get in 3 days of volunteering for the Nordic Center to earn my free pass. Of course, it may take until closing day as they seem a tad disorganized with the right hand keeping secrets from the left hand. I may just have to break down and pay for the dang pass.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG BROTHER DENIS. I hope the day is wonderful. Yikes, it's son-in-law Dillon's birthday in two days. I wonder if any of the gifts I ordered online will be here by then. Doubt it, as I did it all yesterday. I'm having a cyber Christmas this year. If I can't order it online you probably aren't going to get it. And it better be on sale or have free shipping. Damned economy!

So, that's what I'm doing and I better get back to doing it.

A Brazilian? And Other Memories of Ride The Rockies.

On Saturday 2,350 riders rolled into Breckenridge after a week of riding our bikes around the Colorado Rockies. As Mary Ellen and I pedaled side by side through the throngs of spectators (okay,maybe it was only 200 or so) lining Adams Street into the finish line, my mind inevitably travelled back to the high and low lights of the preceding week.

HIGHLIGHTS

You can eat and drink pretty much anything and it's all in the name of fueling your ride.

You can ride places you normally wouldn't for fear of being killed by traffic because most of the locals know there's a big ride going on, so they stay away. And the State Troopers do such a great job of keeping motorists under control.

Jim. He is the greatest person to ride with. He just knows when you really really need him to drag you in. I wonder if it was the sobbing.

You rarely go more than 15-20 miles without an aid station so you don't have to carry as much and you don't panic when you enter an area with no trees or shrubs. You cyclists and runners out there will understand the significance of that last bit.

There's always someone new to talk to so you meet a lot of interesting people. Well, some of them are perhaps not so much interesting as they are unusual. It helps to hang out with Kay and Deb as they are people magnets. That's how I met Jay the Brit. Jay has been an Olympic athlete, a commerical airline pilot, a race car driver (I don't know if that ties into the Olmpics in any way), a charter pilot and an amateur writer. It was the writing angle that was intriguing and why we posed butts forward for him. Who knows what Jay is planning to do with this photo but you saw it here first!

The discovery of Butt Butter. But I didn't use it on my butt exactly. A shout out to Mary the Calgarian for making the suggestion. She's a doctor so she knows what she's talking about right? The rest of the story on the Lady Tool Box is under Lowlights.

Cottonwood Pass. This pass is so achingly beautiful that you didn't even care it wasn't paved or that the local mosquito population was having dinner on your butt. This is a sad testament of how slowly I climb. The mosquitos were having no difficulty keeping up and many were passing me.

Summits. It's always a party at the summit.

And last but not least, it feels so damned good when you stop!

LOWLIGHTS

Wind. Oh my gawd, the wind between Montrose and Crested Butte. Who was the brainiac who decided to add 28 miles into a brick wall of wind at the end of a 92 mile day that started with 15 miles into a brick wall of wind. The wind was so strong in that first 15 miles that at one point I was in my granny gear, pedaling with all my might and going between 10 -12 miles per hour. The bad news is that I WAS GOING DOWNHILL!!!

On that very same day I wore the shine right off the Lady Toolbox. The Lady Toolbox has seen some long days in the saddle but this one left a mark. Mary the Calgarian was on my wheel and noticed that I was standing more and more frequently in that tell tale "oh my aching Lady Toolbox" pose. This is when she suggested butt butter to which I replied I had tried it on a previous occassion to no avail. (Stupid me had taken the name literally) After a few more knees locked, butt up, head down, groan, groan, stretches, she tried again. "Maybe you should get a Brazilian"? Being a couple IQ points smarter than the current leader of the free world, I knew we weren't talking numbers but I didn't immediately grasp her theory. My mind wandered to a long stretch of deserted beach lined with coconut palms waving gently in the warm ocean breeze. My Brazilian (bought and paid for from the proceeds of selling my once beloved Trek) emerged from the quaint beach hut clad scantily in an orange speedo carrying a small tray laden with a gigantic umbrella drink and a plate of freshly cut assorted local fruits. My hammock swayed slightly as I leaned forward to take my drink from his tray as he knelt on one knee, smiling and drinking in my flashing blue eyes. screeecccchhhhhh Oh shit, I nearly ran into Jim's wheel. Not that kind of Brazilian you idiot!!! Focus. Warm ocean breeze, my ass. This is a hurrican force wind we battling here. And as far as getting a Brazilian, well, that's not going to happen any time soon. A Lady Toolbox with no shine is no place for wax let me tell you.

People who let a tired old lady with the aforementioned affliction pull them up passes and serve as a wind break without taking their turn. Or even offering for that matter.

Rumble Strips and narrow or non existent shoulders. Death to CDOT!

OVERVIEW

All in all it was a great ride. This is our group. Front Row: Mary Ellen, Jim, Kay. Back Row: Brian, me, Joan, Deb. Unfortunately, Martha wasn't with us that night and missed the photo. Actually, she missed all the group photos.

In review, I learned the following.

Butt Butter is not necessarily for your butt.

Daydreaming on a bike can be dangerous.

The early rider gets the clean portapotty.

12 miles is a long way without breakfast.

A couple glasses of wine and a good dinner make you forget how miserable you were two hours ago.