The US Open

We are so fortunate to have friends that have box seats to the US Open in NY. What a very special experience it is to not only see the matches but to spend the day with good friends. Yesterday was ladies day! We met in Riverside and drove in. The traffic was very agreeable so we made it in about 45 minutes! Parking was part of the deal; although we couldn't get our first preference on lots, we did just fine! The matches were wonderful. The highlight of the afternoon was Nadal playing Jones. Jones was a wild card and gave Nadal quite a run for his money! Nadal was suffering from tendinitis in his knees. The first set and half of the second were pretty difficult for Nadal; so he won the first, lost the second and came back to win the 3rd and 4th. Hope he has a day or two to rest up; hard to heal when you're busy playing! The weather was beautiful, sunny and, thankfully not humid. Even without the humidity it was hot! When I came home and took a shower I could feel my body temperature drop by what felt like 20 degrees!l What a lovely way to spend the day!

Summer flowers

This year we have had the most magnificent flowers on our deck every! Instead of planting the dahlias in the ground we put them in containers on the deck. This last few weeks, with the weather getting cooler they have gone wild! The colors are beautiful and one of them is so large it is falling over on the stem! And, not to forget the sweet peas with a little visitor!

Felting 101

Just had a wonderful relaxing weekend catching up on some knitting projects. Felting has become my new area of interest. The projects are relatively easy and the end results are always a surprise. Here are two pictures, a before and after (not of the same project). As you can see the original knitted item is loosely knit and rather oversized. The next step is to do what anyone who has ever washed a wool sweater is most concerned about...shrinkage. Well, in this methodology that is exactly what you want to have happen. You WANT the item to shrink. When it does that it has the look of felt. Rather interesting since you are not quite sure how the colors will mix and the denisity of the item you will end up with. So, the bluish project is done; the purple will be complete in the next few days. I'll post again when it is complete so you can see how it came out. These are going to be purses, still have to put on handles and zippers! After these are complete (one additional to make) I'm going to try and make slippers.

Well, here we go!

It's 8:30 in the morning and I'm doing my ritual check of my email! This is how I start everyday. It is the way I stay in contact with my kids; find out what meetings are going on and who has the latest joke to share! My commitments include being Campaign Chair for the 2008 Campaign of the Federation of my area. Today is the first meeting to plan the Major Gifts event for the year. This being Israel's 60 anniversary, we will make that the theme of the event. Now to plan an out of the ordinary and exciting event!

This past year I completed a family cookbook. I included as many family pictures as I had. It seems that people spend more time with the pictures than the recipes! I have now come up with the idea of publishing another book that is nothing but old pictures. What I plan to do is borrow family member's old pictures, identify them, copy them and then publish them divided by family groups. So, in affect, this will be a pictorial family tree. Wonder how long it will take me to do this one? The cookbook was only 2 years!