Thu., Jul 10

Today was N's & J's first piano lesson. Since Donna (Her 16yo daughter, Amy, is the children's currently-volunteer piano teacher.) offered for me to borrow her sewing machine to hem/alter the capris of the outfit that was bought for me by the stranger, we arranged last night for me to take the children over to their house for this first piano lesson, and I could do my sewing downstairs. Well, Donna's MIL, Betty, who lives seven houses down from them, is far more skilled at alterations than either Donna or I; Donna invited Ms. Betty to come over for this project, and Ms. Betty did!!! [I like to call her Ms. Betty because a.) I highly respect her in every way, and b.) she is such a Southern Lady that I feel practically *compelled* to use a title of some kind!] After working on getting the capris 'just right', Ms. Betty said, "May I take these down to my house and sew them up for you?" And she did!

After meeting Jeremy at work for lunch, it was time for me to go pick up the capris. We stayed at Ms. Betty's a while, though, because she was showing us her work. She is an artist!! Her business is porcelain dolls. She used to just decorate them, but for the last number of years she has been creating molds to sell to porcelain doll artists for their work. Now, everyone who knows me knows that I'm not into 'decorative' stuff. However, for those who enjoy the pretty things, more power to 'em! Annnnnd, I can definitely appreciate the artistry that goes into the project!! Ms. Betty even designs and builds all of the dolls' old fashioned, fancy clothes. Here is a link to her site, if you're interested. :) [Thanks, Amanda, for the link lesson!!] The "Gallery" at that site shows the dolls we saw today, in addition to others of course. Natasha, especially, was (not surprisingly) extremely interested in the entire process, although she wasn't *quite* as gentle with Ms. Betty's dolls as I would have preferred; Ms. Betty, though, didn't appear at all nervous. lol At one point, Ms. Betty said, "These dolls (They were 24" ones.) are, kind-of, 'Titanic era' dolls." Natasha said, "They look English." Ms. Betty said, "They sure are." Then we had to talk about c-o-r-s-e-t-s. Those tiny waists! -holy smokes-

We got to go to the library again. :) I really like the library. I would like to stay there all day, neglecting all my work. lol

Jeremy and I were preparing to start supper. [I made wild rice and a 'Sauteed Garden Vegetable' blend, though the only ingredient from our garden was some fresh-snipped basil from out front. :) ] Jeremy grilled some catfish our friend Gaelon caught yesterday morning and gave us last night!!] Just then, this bird visited our feeder!! I learned that it's an Eastern Goldfinch, the State Bird of Iowa. How 'bout that?? Jeremy took the pictures!!! :)





And, as I expected: