Guess What...

It's Saturday again...Not live just Saturday. Live comes later tonight. My sewing machine is back. Yahoo. A few weeks ago I talked to North member Merna who our resident clown. She is so good at it going to nursing homes as well as our farmers market. She has two of the cutest granddaughters Emma 4 and Mattie 7. And I suggested that they might like to be clowns as well going with her. Merna said yes...so this week saw two of the most colorful (words of 4 yr. old Emma) clown suits going to the granddaughters. I had so much fun sewing them and thinking of the girls being with their grandmother. I had a blast. Lots of stripes, rick/rack, ruffles. The costumes match their grandmothers costume almost to a T. When Emma saw her sisters suit her eyes got almost as big as saucers. So...Of course Emma needed one and she made that wish known in no uncertain terms. Lucky for us all there was enough material. Fnk fun. The week has been busy with volunteer hrs at church once again. Monday was supply the cabinets among other things. Tues, I volunteered at the front desk for most of the day. The other volunteers were unable to work. Wed. was my regular morning to work and I did a lot of work with North Notes which comes out this week. Kat comes to church Wed. morning and I always get to see Andrew. What fun. He is a dear little guy. Wed. night of course was bell practice. Thurs was soup kitchen morning, evening choir, Friday we prepared North Notes for mailing and I took a trip to the downtown postoffice with the mailing. I also found some material to make 4 more little table that sit outside the children's S.S. rooms in the upper hall in the Ed. wing. I made 4 with fall colors. These will be used during Dec. and then I'll need to think of something for the winter months. The clothes certainly spruce up the hall area making it look more child friendly. And of course all the little minutes inbetween the big minutes were used for clown costume sewing.
This morning I tackled a job that has been waiting since last Dec. We unrapped the large advent candles, finding them impacted with a blue color coming from the paper and seeping into the candle wax. Uck. I couldn't believe it but something needed to be done about that. So...I brought them home and they have been sitting in a corner. I thought I needed to remelt them which is something I've done before and just hate the process. They are about 30 inches tall and about 6 inches across with the mold being plastic sewer tile. No easy job to say it mildly. But...today I scraped them, rinsed them well with wax cleaner and I'm saying that they have been reconditioned ready to be used again. I'm not going to pour 40 lbs of wax. This is the easy way out. Yahoo again. We had our first frost this week so I'm hoping to get out in the flowerbeds and get rid of the plants that have melted away. Winter is coming. I'm ready for a change.

Sat. again!

These weeks are just flying by. It's crazy. Last night Eric/Kat and Andrew came for supper. Andrew's vocabulary is exploding. What a funny little guy. He pulled out a little stuffed dog and told it to "STAY". He loves the stairs and knows enough to back down and told Doug to do the same, which he did! What a crazy grandpa.

I continue to work on the stuffed animal shipment to Kenya. The project just gets funnier and funnier. And I'm ready for it to be finished. The container carrying stuffed animals for Christmas's gifts will not arrive until January. Plan two. Retreive animals from the shiping company and send three trunks traveling with medical students going in Nov. So...the challenge now is stuffing 100 animals into a trunk. Max. to send will be 300. The animals were ALL out of the house at some point last week and now 300 are back. Uck. The other 400 animals will arrive by container.

I've spent most of the mornings at church this past week on some sort of project. Two mornings were front desk work. Yesterday I took grasses and hydrangea to create altar arrangements. That's because the reservation book had no altar reservations and I love to make a contribution from what I can find in the garden. Looks less contrived. So it's two arrangements in two wonderful pottery pots with two kinds of pink hydrangea at the base of a tall stand of ornamental grasses. They are at least 5 ft tall.

Bell practice as usual Wed. night. Thurs. morning was soup kitchen and Ellen and I spent time on the Circle in Indy in an initiative for hunger concerning children of Indianapolis as well as children in western Kenya in the Umoja Project. Our table display was picked up by the Indianapolis Star and posted on their web site for Oct. 16 in the multi media part of their web site. Yahoo. The picture is my secreen saver at this point.

We had gourd bowls of beans and corn and barley, lots of pictures all surrounded with colorful Kenyan fabrics. I must say it was well done. Then it was the last day of farmers mkt. and choir practice.

Tomorrow is our finance drive at church for 2009. Lots of music and a small orchestra. It should be fun. Rehearsal this morning. North has been known for it's use of the classics in music but not Sunday. It's typical gospel music with an orchestra and a full set of drums. I'm already looking forward to my regular Sun. afternoon nap...then it's COLTS!

Saturday...

I'm writing before I forget. Wed. we had a great bell practice but my month off with the shoulder thing really makes me feel behind. Thursday morning soup kitchen. LOTS of people came to work. Wow...and we had a great group of people from the community eating. Thurs afternoon was Farmers Mkt. and then Choir practice. Friday Mary K and I went to see Guys and Dolls at the Circle down town. Great music. Then I had a group of 8 come to church in the afternoon to prepare a finance drive mailing. Another great bunch of workers. Last night we went to Steak and Shake for supper and visited with Jay Smith who was also eating there. He's one of those 40 year friends. And...Kat and Eric, Andrew and Kat's mother and grandmother walked in to the restaurant while we were there so talked to them for just a bit. This morning I finished the banner that will be used for memorial services. And...I'm taking lots of grasses to church to decorate the altar for tomorrow's service. Kat and I are playing handbells at both services which will keep us more than busy. I plan to get ready for hospitality time this afternoon since I won't be around much to help tomorrow because of bell practice. Wow...tomorrow afternoon is already appointed nap time. Well, after I watch the Colts.

Tuesday again.

Good grief. I knew I was busy but the days just got away from me. I can't remember all of it. Sat. night I went to the symphany with sister Mary K. Sunday it was the opera with Doris D. And inbetween it all I started another pulpit banner that I just could sit and work on it every waking moment. Such fun. Kevin wanted a white banner for funerals and we have a beautiful gold on that he has been using but white comes up in conversations all the time. So...I got my act together, looked through my material and found enough stuff to make a pulpit hanging. I've bought sequins and gold thread but that's it with the exception of some white muslin I bought for backing. The banner is white covered with gold sequins, a big gold sequined alpha and omega...God being with us from our beginning to our end and many gold crowns on the lower portion of the banner stitched with two different colors of gold thread. It's been such an intereting project. I know how to sew hundreds of sequins. I finished one box of 450 and I'm on to the second one. It's a sparkling addition to our collection of banners. Still work to do but it's coming along. It's been an evolving project. Tonight I'm joining a group of people at church in a book study lead by Ellen D-H and Kevin Armstrong. They are the best teachers. The book is Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century. Walter Rauschenbusch is the writer. Each chapter has some additional comments written reflecting on what W. R has written. I'm going to get some learning for sure.