Becoming a teenage sleuth

Contests can be fun.  Sewing contests that stretch creativity can be fun.  Provided one can reach inside and pull out some semblance of creativity.   The current contest I am attempting really involves some imagination, and I didn't know if I was up to it.  However, succeeding at a challenge is rewarding, so I really put on my thinking cap.  But just how does a book provide inspiration for creating a wearable garment?  Not a costume, not a period piece, but something appropriate for wearing currently, yet reflecting a particular literary work.

While some contestants were considering abstract themes, I needed something more concrete.  And suddenly, the inspiration arrived.  I'm going back in my own world about 55 years to a favorite character who I'm taking back about 15 years earlier than that.  I'm turning myself into a 1940's Nancy Drew!

25 years later after Destination: Paris

Once upon a time, we were a totally typical American family of two parents and three offspring, all born in different states and regions of the country.  While we entertained the unreachable dream of "going abroad" since we were young marrieds, we occupied ourselves with the world we did live in.  While Doc Leo started traveling all over the US and into Canada (it was so exotic to get an emergency help phone call from Vancouver!) in the first half of the 1980's, he started spending more time in Europe than at home in the second half.  Not being Florida natives in the first place, it became quite interesting contemplating living where all the current business was.  When the company finally agreed, and gave us the choice of where to locate ourselves, the Doc picked Paris, as he thought he knew the language and it was quite centrally located with a major airport to everywhere.

Thus began an experiment on this date that actually continues until this day and probably for the rest of our lives.

A very cold princess

Having close friends who are the same ages as my own insanely old middle aged kids, I sometimes get to participate in a totally different lifestyle than my own. One of my friends has a life that really closely parallels mine 30 years ago, and I really enjoy watching her be involved in her three kids' lives.

Recently, her youngest had her fifth birthday, and it's becoming standard now for us to help her out with the birthday parties.  This particular one was quite an affair.

Embracing Age

Time marches on, and once again the earth has orbited the sun on the day I was born.  While I'm not too excited to reach the halfway point of my 60s, as that seems like a real turning point in life to me, it's better than the alternative.  So I decided to make a bigger effort to appreciate the positives of where I am in life rather than the negatives of where I'm not.

Helping me out over the whole weekend were a number of small pleasurable moments as well as a few larger ones.  I thought you might like to share a few of them with me!