FALL BEGINS

SEPERATION ANIXIETY
This is the week classes begin for UNC, Chapel Hill. For residents it means no more empty streets and open parking spaces; for parents it is fraught with anxiety as their beloved child leaves the nest. For me the memories of being an undergraduate are bittersweet; the fear of failure was alleviated by the promise success and it was the ritual passage into adulthood. When I became a graduate student is mid-life that was even more stressful; the best of times and the worst of times.
I’m not sure living in retirement is any better, just different. Nor do I think I would be accepted as an undergraduate today; my life skills as a freshman were nil. What I see in under-grads today is far more awareness and sophistication. And more competition!

THE EVOLVING LIFE PLAN
Are we moving to the old age home? The more I study the options the more depressed I become. The meeting Friday was to prompt us to subscribe to the “Ready” list (as opposed to the ‘waiting’ list – BUT the list for the developing Phase IV does not yet exist so the only way to get on the list is to get “Ready” status now and update when the offerings begin. Maybe September. Maybe. More like Christmas. The expected occupancy for August 2011 is now “end” of 2011. More like Spring of 2012. We want to be in that number, whenever….

After the meeting we headed to Meadowmont to the local pizzeria. Pizza for the LAST time – nothing but bread & cheese (fat, fat, fat) and I’m on a 0 calorie (raw slaw) diet.

Meanwhile, at home a situtation change. For years I have been sewing in a bedroom while listening to cd's because the TV was in the family room and I had no access to watching while working at the same time. Then DH informs me that he no longer uses the TV is his loft-work-office because he no longer naps there and therefore no longer turns on the TV (?).
Since we have a cable-jack in the sewing room why can I not put the TV there? As of yesterday it is! Still have to connect the cable line to the outlet but the TV is 'in situ' and soon I can work while watching a movie. Friend Robbie does most of her craft painting while watching Netflex, at least I will be able to tune into to something more interesting than instrumentals. What took so long?

August 21, 2010 - SPOONFLOWER Durham & Mebane NC
LOOK what I found - http://www.spoonflower.com/welcome; Who knew?
Since 2008 custom fabric printing has been possible and no one told me (?). Why am I such a latent textile-designer wanna be? Wasn’t being the Director of Styling for wall-covering mfg. enough? As ever my ambitions are stilling reaching higher than my needs or abilities.

What could we custom print fabric for? DOQ - NC symposium - State Flower Dogwood - NC map - Quilt barn trails in NC (Ha, Who am I kidding?). A bigger than life event with consensus behind it – no not the political election will be needed for a communal fabric run.
Adobe Photoshop for Textile Design doing repeat pattern work digitally is the next book I want. Expensive, but a new challenge for Photoshop skills.
What would the quilters say? Check it out: http://www.spoonflower.com/contests,
or click on “About” and see the video of the former LULU self-publishing exe and his crafter wife, co-founders at: http://www.spoonflower.com/about

ZERO humidity in the house
FINALLY Weeks of de-humidifying and taking gallons of water out each day have finally reduced the interior humidity to a comfortable level. Even at 76 degrees the house has a coolness not felt for YEARS!!

Finished, finally The 1000 Autumns of Jacob DeZoet by David Mitchell. Cannot say it consumed me the way recent books have, it is a lovely story but also frustrating. His pacing of the story oscelates from slow to heightened aniexity and then back to slow. I could stay with it during the up-take but the down-turns did nothing for me. And vagurieties of the time-line was confusing; perhaps I just want too much. Will I read his other books? Probably but not right away.



SCRAPBOOKING status update. Why won’t typing text on a path for circular text work? “Program Error” is the message I keep getting? What did I do wrong?
Pulled up the Digital Designer‘s “Tip of the Week,” about making shapes with negative-text cut-outs. Wow, this is really cool stuff!
Thank you DDs. bbf