Last Friday of the Month Flaunt

We're settling into a routine with our daughter and family living with us until around August 15. Thus far it's been Jill, Celina and Tay. Beginning Saturday, Maher, their husband/dad will be here too. Then, if all goes well, the family will move into temporary, furnished housing in Overland Park, Kansas while their house (don't know if it's really theirs yet or not!) is being updated, and Celina starts middle school (sixth grade) on August 17. That start date seems terribly early to me. In Iowa, schools wouldn't dare begin to have classes until the Iowa State Fair is over! That's August 22.

Because we're in a routine, I'm getting a little creative time during Tay's naps. I managed to finish stitching July's seventh block in Willowberry Design's (Cheryl Goss's) "Under the Sea" BOM. As always, it's cute, and easy to color and stitch. I've finished it just in time for the release of the August block on Sunday!

Eleven year-old Celina likes spending time in my basement sewing room. Who wouldn't, what with bins of colorful fabric, and bits and bobs of this and that to create anything one's heart desires?! She's scrabbling together strips and scraps to make a collage-y thing that she's yet to determine what it will be.

While she's busily playing, I'm in the same sewing area, digging through a large box full of a decade of saved blue jeans. I've decided to upcycle old jeans to make Marie-Madeline's Route 66, 12-gore skirt. Twelve gores means picking out jeans with a backside large enough for the flare of each gore! Who would ever think that it's desireable to have "big butt" jeans!
Celina suggested I could ask my larger girlfriends for their old jeans. We dissolved into giggles trying to figure out how I would diplomatically make such a request. Thankfully, I discovered that Mr. Flourishing Palms' old jeans have just the right backside width.

That's been about it for creative productivity this week. But it's worth the sacrifice of my time when it comes to this adorable little guy. This is what I get to see, Tay in his travel bed, when I'm the one who gets him up from his nap. He awakens so cheerfully!Disappointingly, this is the guy who's been our challenge during the family's stay. Six year old Hogan is a mixed breed (beagle-chow-chow) dog Jill rescued from a shelter in Kansas City. Hogan's been with us since Jill began working in Australia about three-and-a-half years ago. We love Hogan to pieces, and he's generally pretty friendly... except when it comes to very small children. Knowing Hogan had been abused, we speculate that at one time he was mistreated by a child. As much as we have tried to gentle him into accepting Tay, it hasn't happened. This fence is one of two barricades that separates him from crawling Tay.

Let me leave you on a happy note... This is one of the comments received as an entry in my recent giveaway. Agus from Argentina offers this funny:

I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day

but I couldn't find any...