Mauri and Sherry

Posted by Sherry on January 25, 2012

After several disastrous sessions of church directory photography, I knew something had to be done. It’s not like I could proclaim a do over. I won’t blame the whole debacle on my cameras—one a point-and-shoot Lumix, the other a hand-me-down SLR Pentax—but I’ve been taking pictures a long time and don’t remember ever having such lousy results. I’m afraid I don’t have the attention span required to do thorough research. I’m not even patient enough to narrow options in a Best Buy store. Cousin Helen Katherine just got a new camera; she’s even better than a current “Consumer Reports”! So an e-mail to her and a quick Google search resulted in the purchase of a new Nikon Coolpix S9100.

It arrived yesterday. Today’s mail brought a package from the aforementioned cousin. She’s been going through old family stuff that was passed down to her from our grandmother. It’s lovely to receive these artifacts in manageable portions to savor rather than store for some who-knows-when time.

New camera, family relics. Put them together and what do I get? Something to practice on and to share here!

I recently put up a picture of my grandma (my dad’s mother) wearing a mink around her neck.

And somewhere in the bowels of this blog’s archives I’ve shown this favorite picture of my grandparents.

After receiving today’s package, I looked for (and found!) a picture of her as a 15-year-old girl, her first tintype. It was fun to have this frame of reference as I photographed these:

It’s a book of sewing cards.

It looks like she first drew the pictures on paper, poked holes along the lines, then sewed or embroidered them. According to the date, she was 13.

Precious!

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Posted by Sherry on January 23, 2012

Our photographer “kids” John and Erin have been shooting our expectant “kids,” Pete and Linsey.

Head on over to Photo Macy to see the whole batch.

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Posted by Sherry on January 22, 2012

Mauri’s been out at the coast this month as part of the leadership for Sabbath by the Sea. That leaves me at home, keeping the dog alive. She’s matured a lot and doesn’t get into mischief when I’m at work like she used to.

I live one block from where I work, which makes my world quite small. Though I hear and read about the awful weather we’re having here in the Pacific Northwest, I pitter patter back and forth in my one-block commute twice a day, oblivious to the weather woes of those around me. Today is my day off, so I decided I’d hop in my little red puddle jumper and take a drive in the country to see what I could see.

No games on this field today, unless you’re a duck fan.

And look who I found in Forest Grove! He had come from the other direction, heading home for half a day between retreats. And yes, we planned to meet. That would’a been some coincidence, huh?

After lunch, we went our separate ways, though headed to the same destination: home!

Where is my gentleman to lay his coat across the puddle?

Raindrops conceal the restaurant’s identity.

On the drive home I slowed to snap this driveway/lake. Do you suppose the owners own a boat?

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Posted by Sherry on January 21, 2012

Almost exactly one year ago the women of our family gathered at The Feller House to shower “Little Macy” with love and gifts. That time Erin was the mama, and Little Macy turned out to be Sage. This year we have Baby Macy due to arrive in another month or so, grand #8! This time Linsey is the mama, and today the women of our family gathered at The Feller House to shower “Baby Macy” with love and gifts. Again we know neither gender nor name, so more big surprises are in our near future.

This much we know: it’s a baby.

And here’s the evidence. We didn’t even need to put our hands on Linsey’s belly to know there was life in there.

But I’ve gotten ahead of myself.

Erin and my niece Amy made some colorful flags—bunting—for decorations. Feller House hostess Barb Mitchell and her grandson Derric helped hang them.

Erin had some fun “activities” (not to be confused with shower games).

Everybody plays.

Praying or nodding off? Could be either one.

Goodies came next!

And then the gifts! Goodness…..we have some creative ones in our family. Only after Linsey had opened two beautiful crocheted/knit blankets and hats and booties and cocoon and stuffed bear and even my own sewn gift did I think to snap pictures. When will I learn?

It was a lovely afternoon. Now all we have to do is sit back and wait.

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Posted by Sherry on January 14, 2012

A while back I hinted that we were getting ready to update part of our cookin’ room (a.k.a. kitchen). We are thrilled with the result. It started with me saying to Mauri that if we asked our friend Russ to rebuild the cabinet above our refrigerator, we could buy a regular-sized fridge to fit under it. By the time Russ came to talk it over, we’d enlarged our vision, which grew from there. Creativity is a process that starts with a seed. And the seed was planted.

To completely appreciate the finish we’ll step back in time to one of my pre-marriage visits to 514.

First you’ll look at the people, which was the real reason I took this shot. I was a long way from thinking of this corner creatively. After you finish admiring the people, you’ll notice the cabinet, the back door, and the window (and the food dryer, which now lives in the garage, and the ancient microwave, which long ago bit the dust).

Between our engagement and our marriage, Mauri oversaw the addition of half a house and a total remodel of the cookin’ room. Those were unusual days as we faxed plans back and forth. Note the “island” the guys are leaning on. That is a floating cabinet on wheels.

Some time later, we traded in the windows and the old back entrance for a deck (for the smoker) and French doors. Champ’s presence on the scene lets me know we made these changes within seven years of the other pic.

Over time we made some aesthetic improvements with a bookshelf and an awkward attempt to cover the Gorilla rack. Gone is the bin of dog food! We will consider this the before picture.

Enter Russ Ragsdale. He was up for the challenge of taking our loose ideas and making them into a concrete plan of attack.

We dug into our assignment of choosing a new refrigerator. His patience with our creative process helped us all enjoy the project. Part of the goal was to give Mauri accessible spaces for his coffee roasting equipment.

We basically stayed out of his way while he performed his magic.

And then, well, maybe Russ could finish the French door (that has been unfinished all this time) to match the cabinets. For reasons of toxicity, he needed to remove the entire door and work on it at his shop.

Thankfully, we have other access to the backyard. Our dog was especially glad about that.

We’ll call this the after picture. You might understand our joy in the improvement.

A pull-out cabinet for the coffee gear.

More coffee gear and snacks!

A drawer big enough for garbage and recycle.

It wasn’t part of the plan, but it works perfectly to have trays handy for catching the hot dishes that come from the microwave, which isn’t close to a counter.

Remember the “floating cabinet”? Its deep shelves made accessibility especially difficult, so while you’re at it, Russ, how about building us some pull-out drawers?

Done!

And how can we use that old cabinet? Russ hung it in our washin’ room, where our freezer used to live. Get this…our small fridge fits perfectly under it! I love how a plan comes together.

Thanks, Russ! We love the work you did for us! See his other work here.

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Posted by Sherry on December 30, 2011

I think upcycled is what we’re calling it these days. Take something you no longer use and change it into something else. I thought I’d give it a whirl.

I’d already cut one sleeve off of my no-longer-worn sweater before I thought to take a picture.

Zip zap and I’d made my sweater into a pair of leg warmers (from the sleeves), a skirt (from the waist section), and a scarf (from the top sleeves, because that’s where the purple stripe was) for Sage. I sent her mama this picture and asked if Sage might pose in it for a picture.

I got more than I asked for. Sage wore her new outfit to our annual Christmas time breakfast (usually at the Benson in Portland, this year at the local Allison resort).

What a bunch!

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Posted by Sherry on December 29, 2011

I made a quick trip to Arizona after Christmas to enjoy a few days with the Anderson family. Yes, I was just there a month ago but the added draw was the presence of son Ben, there from Michigan for some sunshine and family. Not necessarily in that order, of course.

We heard quite a bit of commotion in the lower level of the house and then learned why. Cassidy had received as a Christmas gift several American Girl scripts for the play “Actions Speak Louder than Words.” She had recruited her siblings for the production; we were the willing and appreciative audience.

Everyone had a role, sometimes two!

Yes, Paul had his share of lines and didn’t mind too much playing the part of a girl. Might even have enjoyed it.

Spellbound!

Take a bow.

Individual introductions.

And then back to the work at hand. Puzzles seemed to be the theme this year. There were the puzzles I made for Liv and Sam. And Rachel posted a picture of Oscar putting together the puzzles I made for him.

And Quinn sent me pics of her kiddos putting together the puzzle I made for them. It was hard (they told me), especially because their mom withheld the cheat sheet I sent along with it. Here’s what it looked like before I trimmed the edges and cut it into small pieces.

And the kids working on it:

“diggin’ in”

“frantic”

They did finally finish it.

So with equal tenacity we all worked on the 550-piece puzzle begun before I arrived.

Progress!

My family (and not only those pictured) is extremely patient with my photo requests. So here you can see we finished the puzzle. It might not be a major accomplishment, but we sure had fun working on it together.

Before I could blink, it seemed, it was time to take Ben to the airport. He gets the coveted white-hanky farewell reserved for visiting dignitaries.

Bye Ben; we sure do love you!

I stuck around another day and got to share in a pre-13 party for Marissa, whose actual day is next Monday. Between now and then the Andersons will drive to Disneyland and back. No grass grows under their feet.

Well, will you look at that! My departure warranted a white-hanky farewell too. A Gus could get spoiled by such queenly treatment.

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Posted by Sherry on December 25, 2011

Don’t even think about touching my Christmas poodle.

She’s all mine.

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Posted by Sherry on December 21, 2011

I had me some fun today. So of course you have to hear about it.

It all started a couple of weeks ago when I started making some Christmas presents for my young friends Liv and Sam.

I pilfered pictures of them from their mom’s Facebook albums and printed them on 11 x 17 paper.

Using some high-powered spray adhesive,

I attached them to a sheet of Borden’s foam board (easy to find).

With my trusty exacto knife, I trimmed the edges.

I based how many cuts on the age of each girl, guessing, of course, their level of puzzle expertise.

A nice stack for each one.

Then just one layer of Mod Podge to add stability.

All of this was fun enough, but the real fun happened today.

The little sweethearts came to the office (their grandma is my coworker Denise).

What is this? Of course you know, but their eyes were filled with wonder (not the awe kind of wonder).

Sam gets the idea.

Liv too.

Some “You can do it!” “Good job!” encouragement from mom, Abbie.

Victory!

Victory! And before you could blink, they had messed up the pieces to do it again.

And I just stood there and grinned.

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Posted by Sherry on December 20, 2011

It has become an annual event at Newberg Friends. I knew Wendy Goodwin when she was Wendy Clark and attended NFC with her family. She played violin in one of the regular music groups. Now she’s married and the mother of a young daughter and has made music her way of life.

For the Christmas season she pulls together various musicians to offer free concerts in the Portland area. It was especially fun for me this year because I’m acquainted with more than half of the group…even related to one! Living in one place for more than 17 years offers that benefit.

I walked around some during the concert, trying to get a couple of decent pictures for the church newsletter. Lighting is a problem added to the simple fact that I’m still, after all these years, an amateur photographer. But here are a few pictures to give you a sense of the event.

Little is much! These nine musicians filled the room with elegant sounds. Aaron Pruitt was credited in the program with only the piano, but his tenor voice added delightful vocals to the mix.

Bethany Cibolski sings high ?s without raising her eyebrows.

This is Wendy. There was no chance of getting a “still” photo of her!

I’m particularly fond of this picture because it captures four of the five that I know. Nate Macy on the left is my nephew; Nolan Staples on bass attends NFC and regularly helps with worship leadership; Jacob Jolliff on mandolin is the son of our friends Bill and Brenda (Brenda, a nurse at Friendsview Retirement Community, helped us sing to Mom as we kept her final vigil); and I’ve already introduced Wendy.

The audience. You might see someone you know.

I might have saved the best for last. This is Wendy’s daughter, V.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? This girl might have a future.

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