A Seven! Lucky or crapped out?

Birthdays with sevens are weird for me. Today marks my 57th orbit around the sun. The solar astrophysicist that owned the AirBNB we stayed at in Boulder told me to think of birthdays that way. I love it.

I’ll choose lucky, Alex, for $3000!

^^^She knows that you parked there, and she is judging you.

Okay, it’s good to start a birthday being silly. The man in the house is still sleeping, but I’m going to make him get up and take me to Raleigh in about an hour. We’re going to visit the Triangle Book Arts exhibit “Re(f)use” at Artspace, then go to the North Carolina Museum of History where I’ll meet a new fiber artist friend who is doing a millinery demonstration there today.

Right now I’m listening to a YouTube feed of beach music. That means something different for those of us who grew up in the Carolinas. It’s really R&B with an easy beat to “shag” to, which is not a sex act in our world but a dance that is like a slow jitterbug. The best beach music is from the 50s and 60s. This is my favorite beach music song: Sixty Minute Man by the Dominoes, from 1951. My voice is really low and I can sing right along with Dan and hit all those deep notes.

The big stress-reliever of the week was stitching together the WandeRBeuteL bag that I’m creating in India Flint’s Bagstories online group. I still need to add a long strap because I like to wear my bags across my body. Easier on the shoulders and back, since I tend to fill them with lunch, books, and a project or two. I will keep embellishing it with scraps from the original pants. The patchwork squares are five inches square.

Of course, Pablocito had to check it out and I couldn’t resist posting this photo with him in it. You can still get the gist of it.

Flipping it inside out, there is a pocket for my cell phone and I will probably add other pockets.

I have been wandering about the bag stitching paths, dreaming of Cornish coasts, Irish walls, and forest deer trails.

The tapestry diary from earlier this week is below. My first string of beads for Mardi Gras weren’t very round, so I added a second string. They look square. Size and fiber makes a difference, as well as practice, with woven circles. I’ll finish the week tomorrow.