Out of Africa...

My oldest friend and her girlfriend left earlier this week for Africa. They saved up money, quit their jobs, moved their stuff into storage, and took off for the Dark Continent. They're planning on being gone for months, hoping to be back in the States for Christmas.

While I can't say that backpacking and staying in hostels throughout Africa is my cup of tea - my idea of roughing it is staying in the Holiday Inn - I think the trip sounds, at least for them, unbelievably amazing.

Think of all the things they'll get to see and do, the people they'll meet, the places they'll go.

They're blogging about it when they can - go here to read about their adventures - and they're sending email updates when they can as well.

Did you know the flight from the States to Johannesburg is fifteen hours? Non-stop?

Yeesh.

Safe travels, my dear, sweet friends.

And come back to us soon.

Work in progress...



First, the fabric selection...



...then, the pressing...



...and the cutting...



...and the layout...



...and an almost finishing project.



We should be able to finish this in the next week or so. The Girl wants some "squiggly stuff", otherwise known as rick rack (for which I have an unhealthy love), and we have to do borders and a backing.

(Small quilt pattern from Nancy Halvorsen's Count On It, available at Amazon.)

Weekend love (part two)...

Weekend love (part one)...

Welcome home...

I came home to over two dozen people standing in my front yard tonight. It was a surprise housewarming, a scheme cooked up by some very dear friends and former co-workers.

Suddenly, the worries I had about picking up kitchen towels and dishdrainers fell to the side. The list of supplies I needed grew shorter. The burden became so much lighter.

Some of the people who were here tonight have known me since I was a small child. They've watched me become a teenager, grow up, get married, have a baby, have my life flipped upside down, and start over. They've celebrated those birthdays, that wedding, that baby, mourned that upside down business, and now, they're celebrating our new beginning.

It makes my heart sing with happiness to feel so loved, and to know the girl is so loved as well.

She and I are so very, very lucky.

The thing about unpacking...

...is that you find things you forgot about. Pictures of happier times, a wedding card, an anniversay card from long ago.

Our marriage license.

Detrius of a life together.

What does one do with these things? It feels wrong to throw them out, but at the same time, I can't place our framed family photographs around this new home when the picture of our family is different now.

I suppose I will pack them away for now. They'll surface again, though.

Maybe next time I unpack them, I'll know what to do with them.

Birthdays are for...

...hanging out with friends...

...and opening presents...

Oh my goodness.
SEVEN.