Girlfriends' Weekend 2010

I'm getting my stories out of chronological order here, but in early December I went up to Virginia and spent a weekend with long-time friends Kathy and Lee at Kathy's house in Manassas. This is our annual get together that always features fabulous meals by Kathy. My favorite dish this year was Quinoa Black Bean Salad with Smoky Lime Dressing. We keep telling her she really should write a cook-book.

 On Saturday, we ventured out and went to the Torpedo Factory -- which at one time was indeed a torpedo factory, but now is three stories of art studios and showrooms down on the waterfront in the historic district of Alexandria.

Almost immediately we encountered Tanya Davis who, along with her watercolors, was selling origami snowflake ornaments. She took the time to show me how to fold one right there. It isn't easy, but between her help and You Tube videos, I'm going to master this one.

This woman has the largest loom I've ever seen and she wove these huge tapestries with wool and some metallic elements. She had family in Mount Pleasant  and I think would have happily come home with me

There was some kind of Scottish Heritage Festival in the area so there were men in kilts everywhere we went. These dancers were on the lower level of the Torpedo Factory. We watched them for awhile but no one asked us to dance so we went on down the street and had dinner at a pizza restaurant. 

The rest of our weekend together was several other good homemade meals, talking, watching movies, dog walking, and playing Bananagram! It's always fun and so comfortable to be with them. We are thinking maybe wait a little longer for next year, and they will come to Charleston in February or March 2012. Boy, that sounds a long time away!

My Personal News of the Weird

Weird little things from my daily life these days:

The pool is closed by order of the health department. What's that about?

Duncan, who never goes anywhere on his own, will be out of town for his birthday. Since he's going south of Atlanta, it only seems to make sense that he should take the car -- that leaves me with The White Rocket for the weekend. It's been a really long time since I've had to use a clutch -- especially one that's nearly 20 years old.

Speaking of which, I've found a wine called White Truck that I've decided should be our standard house wine.

Last Sunday, a family at our church had their three sons baptized. I don't know the mom at all, but she is an artist and a yoga instructor. In my typical judgmental way, I had her cast as a groovy earth mother. Then someone told me that before she had a family she was a -- deep sea diving shark hunter! Wow!

At the exact moment of Debbie's death, I was getting my hair cut. Now, I find myself very reluctant to make that appointment. My hair is not quite out of control, but getting there.

At some point during the night, everyone in my house takes a turn snoring like a drunken sailor -- including Eloise.

When I was on my origami box tear, I made a pretty little triangular box from some very good quality, but old, wallpaper found in a closet during a clean-up day at church. A friend saw it, and said she knew the daughter of the person who bought that wallpaper. She took the box to her friend, who, in turn, gave it to her mother and sure enough, the paper was recognized and the box is prized. Tonight, I met the daughter.

Her mother was an interior decorator and remembers the house and room where she used that paper. She loves the little box -- Lucy said she looks at it and says "How is the world did she make that???"

Her mother is 93. She went to design school in New York City in the late 30s and worked in the city through the 40s before moving to Charleston. Lucy recently took her back to NYC for a few days and mom thoroughly enjoyed herself.

My little blog has turned 1 year old. Happy Birthday Fried Green Tomatoes -- and Duncan -- and Eloise!

Reading Is Fun

Duncan is away tonight at a "sleep-over" with middle school students from church. He is a braver man than I. And the moon is full.

I thought I was done with origami boxes, but then I found easy directions to make this pretty star box This one is done with 12" square paper I bought at an art supply store and cut to size myself. I am going to use it as a bowl when we serve food after church tomorrow.

My year is underway with new books. I have one to read now called I Was Told There Would Be Cake -- you got to love that title. And The Last Campaign about RFKs presidential campaign is on reserve at the library. In excessive payment for origami boxes, Laurie Evans sent me a Barnes and Nobles gift card so I went over there tonight thinking I would indulge in a good biography. I ended up with something called The Big House which seems to be a family memoir told from the perspective of a summer home at Cape Cod "that watched over weddings, divorces, deaths, anniversaries, birthdays, breakdowns and love affairs for five generations. . ." I like that the author is male. I have been creating a list of books I've read for my Facebook profile and notice a preponderance of "women's books". I need to branch out. While at B&N, I found a hardback copy of Mary Pipher's Writing to Change the World on the sale table for less than $3! I have read it before, but am happy to own it. It is good examples of techniques for writing letters, op-eds, speeches -- even blogs!

Since I have always enjoyed reading so much, it seems natural to get involved in a reading program with 1st graders that I heard about at church. Everything I do these days has to be prefaced with "If I get a job, I won't be able to. . ." but until I get a job, I'm extremely flexible and ought to be of some use to someone else. And who knows. . . my next job might be right around the corner from the school and my boss might be very supportive of me continuing with this. I can't sit on my hands just so I won't have to quit something when I go to work.

This particular program appeals to me because it is1st graders -- very nonthreatening -- and it is quite structured. I will go twice a week and meet with the the same child for 45 minutes. We will read familiar things, make lists of words the child knows, write some sentences and finally read something new. There will be a reading specialist in the room if I have trouble. It seems to have more potential than waiting until children are in middle school and not reading. By then, not reading is only one problem. I went to one of two training sessions this week. I think I will actually meet the student I will be paired with right after the MLK holiday.

And when IS the inaguration, exactly?

East Cooper's Crafter's Guild Fall Show

The Craft Show was an interesting experience, if not profitable. Most people walked right by me, obviously there for the jewelry, lighthouses painted on oyster shells and Santa Clauses made from dish towels. A lot of people stopped and looked at all the boxes, sometimes picked one up and looked inside, then looked over at me and said "This is really neat!" And then moved on. But some few people took a look, lit up and said "I have to have one!" Those were the people I liked the best.

I was definitely one of the rookies at this show. Most people came in with very elaborate display set ups with the exact right cart of move it in on. They had professional signage and their own cash registers. I felt a little bit like the kid with a lemonade stand on the sidewalk in front of the house.

I had good conversations with people who gave me ideas about ways to go about it in the future. #1 Don't pay such high entrance fees. Look for shows that cost $10 or less. #2 Configure "floors" for boxes so they serve better as gift boxes. #3 Get business cards made at dot.print.com. #4 Fewer boxes -- the most distinctive ones are the ones that sell. #5 I need bags next time. It was a rainy weekend and I needed to help people protect their purchase from dissolving before they got it home.

I think my bargain basement prices were about right.

Origami Boxes

I have a booth at a craft show in Mt. Pleasant this weekend. All energy has turned to getting ready for that! Will anyone be shopping for crafts with the stock market crashing??? Put that on the worry list.