Decorating the Balcony

I don’t require much convincing to take a road trip. I commented to the husband one Sunday morning not long ago that I was about ready for another one, even if it meant just going to Missoula. When I got to church later that morning, my friend Twila asked me if I had any plans to go to Seattle again. Her daughter lives barely a mile from DD#2 and had her car stolen a couple of months ago. Car theft has always been a problem there, but it’s getting worse along with all the other crime. This young woman came home at Easter and borrowed another car from her parents until she could buy one. She found a replacement car and now had two, and Twila needed to get to Seattle to bring the borrowed one back. Twila is the manager of a clothing store in town, so I told her to figure out when she could get time off and we would work around her schedule.

Twila and I have done this trip before. One big advantage is that we’re both morning people, so when she suggested we leave early, I was all for it. We left her house at 4:30 this past Sunday morning. At this time of year, it’s just about light by then. Traffic was very light—so light that I set a new speed record. I know that trip can be done in eight hours in the summer, but I usually hit traffic and it ends up being more like nine or ten. We left Twila’s driveway at 4:30 am Montana time and were pulling into her daughter’s driveway at 11:30 am Seattle time, almost exactly eight hours later.

We don’t mess around. We also solved all the world’s problems on the way. Twila and I work well together.

After I dropped Twila off, I went to DD#2’s apartment to deliver the patio furniture cushions. We had about six hours together because I was planning to spend the night at a hotel east of the city. (I just saw DD#2 a month ago and I’ll see her again in a few weeks, so I didn’t feel the need to linger.) We spent that time doing some shopping to finish off her balcony into a nice outdoor space.

I think it turned out well:

Now the weather needs to warm up so she and her roommate can enjoy it. Seattle has had a cold spring, too, just like the rest of the Pacific northwest.

I was back on the road by 5:00 am Monday morning. I love this time of year because we have enough daylight that I can drive that early without worrying too much about hitting wildlife. I got back to Spokane around 9:00 am. I could have driven all the way back to Montana by mid-afternoon, but I had already decided to treat myself to a night in Spokane—thank you, hotel points—and do some shopping. Over and back to Seattle on two consecutive days is grueling.

There are two quilt stores in Spokane. One is The Quilting Bee, which is a mega-store destination quilt shop. They were closed on Monday. The other store is called Regal Fabric and Gifts. I shop at both. Tera and I took our Laura Heine collage class at Regal Fabrics a couple of years ago. The owner is a Juki dealer. When I was there in January, she and I chatted about scheduling some serger classes. Alas, the past couple of months got away from me and I didn’t follow up.

Regal Fabrics was open on Monday. I thought I could sneak in do my shopping without the owner seeing me, but it’s not a big store. She saw me come in and said, “Janet! I have been thinking about you! When are you coming over to do a serger class? I have a couple of students for you!”

[The husband says I am going to have to start traveling in disguise.]

We talked and I promised to get something on the schedule soon. While I was there, she filled me in her tentative plans to move her store closer to downtown. She’s currently paying ridiculous rent for a tiny space because of her location. A move would give her almost twice as much room for less rent, AND she would be moving into a spot with a lot of local history. I hope it all comes together.

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My high school art teacher passed away last week. I saw her a few years ago on one of my trips to visit my mother; she retired from teaching and was running an antique store in my hometown. I only took one year of art, as a high school freshman. I was hardly a star pupil because I cannot draw to save my life, but I learned solid design principles that have served me well through the years. And this fall, I will get out and finish my “88 Squares” quilt, which is based on a color study project she had us do in art class. I’ve been using it as a leader-and-ender project for a while. It deserves to be completed.

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I get Rufous hummingbirds here every year starting around April. This year, for the first time, I also have a couple of Calliope hummingbirds. I was walking back from the garden one day last week when I saw them. The Rufous hummers are red (females are brown), but the Calliope hummers are a brilliant grass green and hard to miss. I might have to put up a few more feeders.