fannie & millie .: handcrafted goodness

Thanks once again to The Oregonian for this story that they categorized as “breaking news”.  I mean, it’s interesting to a lot of people I know, but is it “breaking news”?

How’s this for fun: Get a bunch of bike-riding pals together on a drizzly spring Saturday to tackle the most killer hills on Portland’s west side. Oh, and get someone to film the whole grueling adventure, and, of course, post it to Youtube.com.

James Thomas, a Portland doctor, produced the a 9-minute-46-second movie he calls “Incredibly Steep.”

He’s not kidding.  

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Sometimes I wonder if I’m doing enough to help other people.  Although I know that giving is not a competition, a story like this one from The Oregonian makes me think it might be possible to step it up a bit. 

…For 47 years, Guy has been knitting caps for infants in hospitals, veterans in clinics, the down-and-out on the street, and refugees in foreign lands. Donna sews baby quilts, though not for quite as long. Only since 2001, when they married, have they kept an accurate tally of their gift giving.

At last count, Guy, who turns 91 next week, was turning out 3,000 caps a year on the knitting machine in his workshop. And Donna, 76, finished 483 quilts last year.

3,000?  A year???  That’s a lot of hats!

   …feeling like this since Monday’s devastating news out of Virginia. 

please remember to love each other just a little bit more. 

p.s.  this dark and lovely photo was taken in Neskowin, Oregon by my talented daughter.

We just bought this:   on Friday and I have been very happily playing it over and over and over again. Also, much to the dismay of the family, I have been merrily singing along over and over and over again. 

Maybe I don’t officially become a old fogey until I say,”they just don’t make ‘em like they used to.”

“Power to the people, right on.”

Okay, don’t say you haven’t been warned…

Do not look at the following photos or click on them if gorgeous handbags cause you to do things you’ll regret tomorrow!

         

           

  I wanted to give you a little taste of some of the treats to come; so here are some yummy vintage beads I’m getting ready to use + they’re sitting on vintage sheet music - delish! 

Today is the anniversary of the worst day of my life.

Exactly one year ago, the man I love, my life partner, was diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia.

As cyclists, we were big fans of Lance Armstrong’s achievements; as people living with cancer, we became even bigger fans. More than 1.3 million people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cancer this year alone. Three out of four families in America will be faced with caring for a family member with cancer. When my son heard that Chris had cancer, he said, “doesn’t everybody get cancer these days?” That’s not the world I want my children to be living in, and that’s why I support the work of the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Last fall, due to the generosity of Team Rubicon and their large donation, Chris had the opportunity to ride with Lance Armstrong at the Livestrong Challenge in Portland. If you know Chris, you know how exciting an occasion this was for him!

My goal this year is for him to ride with Lance again. Today I signed up to be a team captain for the Livestrong Challenge. Our team name is BFR because Chris never uses anything but the BFR! I don’t even think he knows how to shift!

I’m not very good at asking for help, but I’m going to get over it for Chris and the Livestrong organization. Please join our team or make a donation; or better yet, do both!!! I would be thrilled to exceed our fundraising goal of $5,000.00. If you would like to help, please click here.

Oh, and by the way, today is a happy day because Chris’s Leukemia has responded very well to treatment and I am so grateful for every minute we have together!

  I’m very excited because the shop is open today!  Everything should be working.  Please let me know if something doesn’t.  Also, please feel free to let me know if you find any outrageous typos or anything like that.  I’ve been working long, long hours and I know my concentration was a little shot there at the end there so I can use any feedback you care to give.

On the other hand,  for all you tech people out there, I already know that my shop and blog pages do not match!  Thank you for your concerns but I have decided to let that go for now.  I will be fixing it (soon) but I’ve already been more immersed in code than I ever thought I would be in my life so I have decided that I can live with things the way they are for now.  Functional is dandy!

Robert Schuller said, “Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.”  As a recovering (hah!) perfectionist, I’m trying to make that my motto.

Well, I’m going to open the shop by the end of this week.  I will be opening with limited inventory but will add items every day or every other day for a while.

Oh, and about change…

Don’t be surprised if things look odd here when you come back.  I’m still tinkering and changing lots of things and since I’m not really very savvy about this stuff I don’t know how to do it without it being ‘live’.  I offer my apologies in advance.  If any of you know how I’m supposed to use the WordPress ’sandbox’ please feel free to clue me in.