A quick trip to Bend

A couple of weeks ago we took a quick trip down to Bend Oregon. My husband had not seen the beautiful drive along Highway 20 from Salem to Bend, I have not been down that road in over 30 years but I remember it as an idyllic drive.  My husband wanted to take the 78 Cadillac Fleetwood out on the road to see how she drives on long trips, this drive seemed like the perfect thing. We  also wanted to come around and over Mt Hood to pick up the Trophy Wife from my mothers place in Brightwood. I did not recognize Detroit Lake...it is painfully low, you can see all the docks laying in the dirt. Seeing the area where the HUGE B&B Complex fire was in 2003 was also a shock. A lot of the trees charred black but still standing, it was kind of depressing. We stopped in Sisters where we saw a wonderful exhibit of metal sculpture by Ken Scott. Just before getting to Bend we stopped to take a photo of the 3 Sisters. Those are beautiful mountains. In Bend we wandered around Bend trying the local beer and stopping at Mirror Pond in downtown Bend. We ate at a great restaurant called Pine Tavern looking over Mirror Pond. Leaving Bend we came home over Highway 26, picking up the Trophy Wife in Brightwood. I'm happy to have the Trophy Wife back, she needs some fresh paint and a little tender loving care from a mechanic.  

Another pair of pants for my husband, a new car and kids playing dress up

It's been a while since I have written anything, sorry for my absence. I have been busy with some spring cleaning. I need to clean up my sewing area and make a nicer design board for laying out my quilts. In the mean time I made a pair of linen pants for my husband. He really liked the last pair of pants and wanted something nicer. So I went on-line late one night and bought some linen from fabric.com. I try not to buy fabric on line but fabric.com also had some of the Violet Craft Waterfront Park fabric in stock, specifically the bridges in yellow. So $150 later I had ordered the Violet Craft fabric a couple of nice 100% Linen fabrics and a few yards of knit fabric. I had to go buy a pants and I was off. I cut out the pattern and installed the zipper...I'm very happy with my zipper installation. Front zippers are not easy and it takes me about an hour to put in the zipper. After a few more pairs of pants for my husband I think I will get it down. The pattern is Vogue 8719, same as the last pair I made for my husband. He wanted cuffs and back pockets. I was going to put in patch pocket but he wanted welt pockets and I have never installed welt pockets...so all he got was the cuffs on this pair of pants. When putting in the waistband I tried to make it so I could enlarge the pants in the waist band, you know when you see mens pants that all you have to do is let out the back waist band and voila..larger or smaller pants. Well in the process of trying to line up the back waistband I didn't pay enough attention to the front and I was off by about 1/4" on the front waistband. It's a good thing no one will be looking that close at my husbands fly. He loves the pants and wore them for a week before he would let me wash them. I was having some problems with my serger so not all the seams were serged. When I washed the pants I had to cut off the unraveled threads on the inside. I did zigzag the inside seams so that helped, but next time I make something out of linen I will be serging all the edges of the fabric before I start to sew the pattern together. It makes for a much nicer interior. 

We bought a new car...a 1978 Cadillac Fleetwood with red interior. It has an 8 track player and came with some country tapes. The car is HUGE. It's a gas hog but we really don't go very far, mostly to the store or the bar. We still have the little Santa Fe for long trips if we need it. My husband really wanted a new Cadillac, he had been looking on line for a couple of months. When he came across the 78 he was very excited. We drove up to Battleground to look at it, a very nice older gentleman was selling it for $2500, we got it for $2000. It needed all new tires (that is $500 alone). So there it is...our HUGE 70's car...we can fit 8 people in the car and a couple in the trunk. 

The other night was our friend Jessie's birthday. All the kids came running over to play in the yard and then got excited to play in the basement. They got into the dress up clothes and came out in several outfits. The last set of clothes they had found the strange box of masks, gloves and hats. They all had a great time and even cleaned up the mess. I think we are the strange old couple that lives down the street and these kids will remember these type of evenings for a long time.