The shoes and other details

Well tonight is the night to pack and get ready to head off to Portland for the wedding. It will be a whirlwind trip, and sadly, no time to explore or contact anyone outside the family. We will attend a rehearsal dinner on Friday night, and on Saturday a late morning wedding followed by a traditional reception. There will a second Chinese style reception in the evening, held at the restaurant owned by the bride's family. I am sorry that I won't get to meet some of my cyber friends or go to any great art spots...maybe next trip. If I am lucky, I can glimpse some fall color on my way in from the airport.

Thanks Deb H for your story about the fallen jacket, I will be sure to double check that mine is on the hanger! I am so unused to wearing heels that I have been "practicing" walking around the house in them. What I think of as my "hippie girl" shoes (clogs, sandals, mocs) are more my usual speed. For this weekend's festivities, I finally found two great pair of fancy shoes at Nordstrom's. I am not above patronizing the bargain basement stores, but sadly just didn't find anything that would suit.

Sweet Anne is still with us. Jeff (the groom) is trying to arrange a "live internet" feed so she and her husband (his brother) can watch the wedding from her hospital room. My son Andy will be manning the camera, which is making him a little nervous, but I think he will be fine.
I'll be back to post in a few days.

Terence La Noue

The Papaver "Poppy" Kingdom, mixed media on canvas, 77 x 72.5 "
by Terence La Noue.
Lots to see out there by this artist. I liked this group.

From Art in America, Feb, 2002 by Edward Leffingwell. The tessellated passages of Terence La Noue's abstractions emerge from dense matrices of material riven into shards and exuberantly reassembled into complex, layered fields. (emphasis mine)
Remind you of anything? Imagine, cutting up material and reassembling it. Just thought I'd share.

Thanks Jane Ann, Gerrie, and Barbara for your comments. I have not been good about replying, but I do appreciate your good thoughts.

I have been laid low with a dreadful flu/cold/sinus thing this week but am back to work and feeling a bit better. I managed to find a nice jacket to wear to the wedding in a lovely swirly teal pattern that will look nice with my basic black sleeveless dress. I no longer go "sleeveless" if I can help it, but I like the way the dress looks with the new jacket. Now, if I could just find some shoes that won't kill my feet...

Ordinary Things

Waiting in the line of cars on the freeway onramp, I looked up at the beautiful clouds of early morning. The sunrise was so pink today (rain coming?) that the color was reflected in the west as well. I wonder how many people in their cars looked up for a moment to appreciate the sky.
It made me so happy to be right here, right now. Life is just so fleeting, I don't want to waste a moment. Even a mundane morning commute can be something to appreciate.

We had a scare this week when our little dog Nikki got very sick. She has some kind of doggie flu and couldn't keep anything down. At her fairly advanced age (13 next month) we always wonder if her health will suddenly take a turn for the worse. Two hundred something dollars later (worth every penny) she seems to be fine. Her anti nausea meds are working and she kept down the chicken and rice we cooked for her. We are so relieved, something pet lovers will understand.

I tinkered around yesterday with some small star blocks to add to a quilt I am working on and ended up with a mess. A small adjustment to paper pieced half square triangles fixed the problem. I just don't handle those tiny pieces well without some kind of paper piecing.

Tomorrow we will visit Mike and Anne. I don't know if she will be feeling well enough to talk with us, but we want to show our love and support.

Update

Colors like this are what I miss most here in California, even some thirty years after moving here. Thankfully our weather has turned a little cooler, becoming downright chilly overnight.

It has been a busy, busy time. We gave the wedding shower this weekend, and it was a great success. Determined to make it lovely and fun and special, we decorated, planned, and prepared food. I made two fabulous cheesecakes, pumpkin swirl and oreo cookie. I only tasted the tiniest bit of each one since they are the stuff of diet sabotage. I got to know my nephew's fiance Jean a little bit better, and she is delightful. She loved the quilt we made for her, and it made me so glad that we have that as a family tradition.
Our other nephew's wife Anne is in the hospital and things are not going well. We are heartsick about this, words just fail. Short of a miracle, we pray for peace and strength.