re-styled bag

several years ago, i made this lovely bag from an INDIGO JUNCTION PATTERN . upon carrying it, it did not suit me. so it sat, for a long period of time it sat. then in april 2011, i decided i would pull it out, and give it a facelift. so what exactly was it that i did not care for? it had a 'knife edge' bottom, so it did not stand well, and was too shallow, and the handles were too short. so i unsewed the bottom, added a 3" vinyl piece, resewed the bottom making it flat on the bottom. i then cut the handles in half, found in my stash 4 square napkin rings that i thought would make nice handle rings, sewed from the same yellow vinyl, 2 handle extensions, that were attached with wooden bittons. tried carrying it again, just to discover, it was still too shallow! so unsew the bottom AGAIN, remove the yellow vinyl i had added, cut a new piece of copper vinyl 11" tall X the width of the bag, about 19". resewed the bottom, added a piece of 'stiffener'( i like to use stiff plastic placemats i find at $ TREE, cut to fit the bottom measurements of the bag)) for the bottom. carried it for about 4 weeks, and decided i don't like how 'tight' the opening is. so it is once again .............sitting, waiting for a re-restyle.

FERMENTED beads

for more than 10 years now, we 5 sisters have set aside a time every even year, to spend time together. 3 years ago Candi hosted, and arranged for us to go to this beadmaking class, with someone she knew.  it was loads of fun, and we 5 came away with a nice collection of beads we had made. my beads had not spoken to me about how they wished to be strung, untill this past week. so here are my FERMENTED beads, in thier strung state. i shall wear them often, and remember the summer of '08 in Sequim washington.

Susanne graduates from Seattle Pacific University

so saturday afternoon we headed to Lynnwood Washington, where our daughter and her family lives. we stopped in Toledo Wasington to get our tent trailer, then headed up. we arrived in Lynnwood, checked in at the North Sound RV park, put up our accomidations, then off to see our daughter & family (nearly across the street). sunday was commencement for Seattle Pacific University, held at SAFCO Field in Seattle. it was just the 3 of us(plus her 2 babies) there from our family, showing our support for Susanne. i think they said there were 13,000 people in attendance. her recognition was very near the end, we managed to keep Loerlai entertained, and Melanie happy. then they said her name...............SUSANNE RUTH THIELMAN..cum laude................i felt so proud!! in the past 5 years my daughter has moved away from home, gotten married, had 2 babies, and gotten her Bachelors Degree, and she is only 22 years old! such an accomplishment! i am so grateful i was able to be there for that final conclusion of her education. then back to her home for the party, then off to bed at 11pm. up monday morning to tell her goodbye before she headed off to work, pack up our trailer, say good bye to her family, and we were off, headed south. arrived home, after leaving our trailer again on Toledo washington, about 6 pm, tired. but oh so glad we went!!!!

Jade's graduation

so friday June 10th, 2011 was Jade's high school graduation. it brought back so many memories of my own graduation from AVHS, june 10th 1976. we had a great time at Newberg high school's stadium for the commencement. the speaker was interesting, the beach balls were fun to watch bobble over head, the Lei's that Jade got from her Hawaiian family were BEAUTIFUL, talking with her dad Don and hearing the heritage of giving lie's at graduation was great, so glad we were invited to be there!! thank you Jade & Susan for inviting us and saving such great seats for us as well! it was an event i will not soon forget!