Laowai

I’ve unintentionally been making yellow things lately.

First I made a jacket – a new pattern called the Jan Jacket. I used some of the fabric from my Japan shopping spree – it’s a crisp, heavy canvas. I like the starburst darts around the neck of this pattern.

I’m happy with this pattern. My only critique is my fabric might be a little too crisp. Hoping it relaxes a little as it ages.

Next I made a hat with some wool that I got at the Wisconsin Wool & Sheep Festival. I didn’t know what I was going to make with the fabric but when I saw the booth with shelves of so many pretty woolens I couldn’t resist. I found this pattern on Etsy and I’m happy with how it came out. Surprisingly easy to sew.

Lastly, I just finished a decorative collar today. I used some velvet-like fabric – actually a pillow cover from IKEA. I spent a couple days embroidering and I think it turned out cute. A fun accessory – an alternative to a necklace.

Now I guess I just need to try all three on at once.

I’ve been working on some crafts. I got a bunch of felt from mom when we were clearing out her house. Instead of getting rid of it I had to invent a very time consuming craft to use it up.

Here are some dill blooms in my windowsil.

With Bea gone and Brian often gone I have less opportunity to bake things. So when Claire said she was helping with a bake sale this weekend I jumped at the chance.

Bea often sends me signs as German lessons. This one says if you behave on the train your mother will be proud.

My zinnias are still making me smile.

Here’s my bunny friend. He was taking a nap while I sat nearby on my garden bench.

A knitting project – trying to get better at colorwork.

And while I’ve been doing all these things that I do – here’s Brian in a suitably depressing photo at his office.

He’s looking forward to some changes soon.

Gourds courtesy of Jennifer’s very productive vines.

Jennifer invited me to go up to Madison to watch Jenna sail over the weekend.

Jennifer was helping out at the regatta – moving marks around on the course as the wind changed. I tagged along and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

There’s Jenna above (in the front) coming out of a roll tack. It was a women’s regatta with lots of midwest teams like Northwestern, Ohio State, Michigan Tech, Saginaw Valley State University and University of Michigan. And Jenna’s team won!

I’ve learned the Wisconsin students call themselves Team Wisco. What a nice sailing facility they have! And a beautiful place to sail in the shadow of the state capital!

Conditions on Saturday were beautiful and warm (with spotty wind) but then it turned into Fall overnight The wind was blowing hard on Sunday. They got in a few races and it was fun to see all the young women being strong in the very blustery weather.

Thanks Jennifer for inviting me, you always show me a good time! And go Wisco!

I haven’t posted in quite a while – nothing out of the ordinary is happening. Just my usual way of noticing things outside and making things inside.

I made a hat last week – a beret. Used a pattern from Tauko magazine and fabric that I got at the Wisconsin Wool & Sheep Festival.

My zinnias are still blooming strongly.

And as long as the tomatoes keep coming I’ll keep taking photos of them. I’ll never tire of the red green combo.

I finished a window – one of the small ones in Claire’s bathroom.

I decided to do an inventory of my fabric stash. And I made a big pile to donate. So much fabric!

I planted some asters in the front yard a couple years ago and they are finally blooming nicely. I hope their seeds spread all over. I also hope the rabbits leave some of them uneaten.

Insect friends in my backyard. The bees are moving very slowly now that it’s chilly out.

More Zinnias – in a very un-autumnal color scheme.

A Jack-o-Lantern spotted at the botanic garden.

And a few of the beautiful photos that Bea sends from Munich.

The end.

No, not the government shutdown (that’s a coincidence) but the shut down of my original blog. The hosting company Typepad informed everyone a month ago that is would be shutting down on September 30, 2025.

I had an inkling this was going to be happening so I transferred by blog to a new service called WordPress. The only problem was that all the photos needed to be downloaded and relinked to the new site. So that’s partly why I haven’t posted much lately. I’ve been spending hours downloading and replacing all those many many photos – about 2,600 posts total. It seems silly but I’m not ready to let go of all those memories.

I did not succeed. I got through September 22, 2020. So if I go to those posts made after September 2020 I will only see words and broken links to the photos. I have the photos archived elsewhere but I will still need to find them and place them – sort of a cumbersome task.

Anyway – here’s the update on what else is happening around here.

Claire is officially the number two bread-winner in our family. She has a job at a local bakery and cafe called Three Tartes. She is so happy to have a job and I’m so happy for her! She does cookie inventory, she cuts cakes, she organizes the retail area, she cleans a little and apparently she has to shoo customers away after their closing hours. Sometimes she comes home with some cake or a muffin (bonus!!!). She just got her first paycheck this week.

Bea is attending the prepatory program associated with the Technical University of Munich. She’s settling in a her new apartment. She’s over a lot of the stressful parts of this whole transition but she is still waiting for her residence permit and student visa so not all-together out of the woods. Here are a couple photos – it’s located in the Arabella Park area of Munich.

Here are some photos that Bea sent of a foggy hike she took.

And other than that I’ve been enjoying fall. These Zinnias on there way to the compost are prettty.

Brian took me for a hike through a prairie and I was ga ga over all the asters.

Hopefully I will get back to more regular posting and soon I’ll have some Munich photos because Brian and I are visiting soon. Can’t wait.

Oh my goodness – we have been having a trial! Getting Bea into a German speaking school is no joke!

A story: Last week we went into Chicago to an office that issues German Visas – it was a hail mary attempt to get over one of many humps. Bea went and talked to the people and they couldn’t help her. She was seething with frustration. She wanted to go to Uniqlo to buy some socks so we walked there and as we were going along I tried to lighten the mood. When we passed the James R. Thompson Center I said “oh there’s an interesting building it was designed by a guy called Helmut Jahn and it was recently purchased by Google”. We finished our errands and on the way back to the parking garage we passed the Thompson Center building again. I bantered on and then when we were in the car I said “he might be German you know – you should look him up on Wikipedia“. She got out her phone and started to read that he did have German heritage and then she slammed the phone down on the space between our seats. She looked at the ceiling and said “he went to T.U.M.” and tears came to her eyes. T.U.M. – the very University that she was trying to get into! And then tears came to my eyes too.

She spent the time since that day getting up early every morning to call various University or government people and checking her emails. Some things were solved – some things remain. She’s mostly registered, she nearly has an apartment finalized, she has an appointment to register with the city of Munich. Class starts Monday. And so… if everything goes to according to plan it seems that, amazingly, she is going to be a student at The Technical University of Munich!!!

I almost don’t want to type that because it feels so precarious still. We’ve had some really bad bureaucracy moments and she has been working so hard learning German and preparing for exams. I can hardly believe it might be true.

So the last couple weeks that she has been home have been bittersweet. We did a little hiking – she’s laughing because it looks like Brian is wearing a nice skirt.

She wanted some new pajama shorts so we worked on that together and that was fun.

Here she is sorting out all the paperwork and trying to finalize her apartment with Brian – so much adult stuff suddenly.

And then it was time to pack for her flight. She spread all her stuff out in the living room.

Packing the car to go to the airport – she took her bike again.

And now she’s in the air – on her way. My heart is with her.

This summer I did lots of knitting in my backyard hammock. And now that summer is coming to an end I have finished my project. It’s a striped raglan sleeve sweater made out of lovely Brooklyn Tweed wool. I’m excited to be done and also a little sad to be done since I very much enjoyed being outside working on this project.

My knitting class starts up after another week so I’ll be back into some fun projects soon.

Since school started the weather has been so pleasant.. so pleasant! I feel like we usually start the school year with some very hot days – not this year. So the weather has motivated me to do some fall-ish sewing. I made an interesting new pattern from Tauko Magazine.

The pattern has really interesting pleats that are sewn back and forth so they stand up. Sort of an origami or smocking feel. The pattern has a blouse version and a dress version – I sort of split the difference and made it a tunic length.

I’m happy with it. A fun project from a new-to-me pattern maker.

And playing catch-up – another sewing project from a several weeks ago. This is the Honey Dress from Merchant and Mills and I wore it a lot when it was hot out.

Next up I got some lovely golden yellow canvas in Japan – I have a jacket pattern that I’d like to try with it.