Yep, it's me!

 I really think this is the first picture of me that I have ever posted.  I don't like to post pictures of people, mostly to protect their privacy.  The Mr. and I took a trip to Vegas last week so that he could play in an international pool tournament.  He played for 4 days with his teammates and although they did not get in "the money", they had fun!  On the way back we went to the Grand Canyon and totally loved it and want to go back to spend more time sightseeing.  There is so much history there and this watchtower is something that shouldn't be missed!!  I have much to do now that I am home again so this will be short and sweet?  Maybe not sweet.  Maybe not short.

 This summer, my buddies and I will again have our retreat, but it will not take place as it has in the past years, at Elk Mountain.  We will be here.  One of the projects will be this stepping stone project above.  It will not be the moose, but another set of patterns which the girls have chosen to do.  But just to note;  the date on this is 2001, so they are very durable as long as they are out of the winter elements.

NOW....this crazy cat woke me up one morning and it took me a while to realize what I was hearing.  She had crawled into this framed sewing bag and even though I had only a few things in the bottom, she was scratching at a book cover trying to make a nest.  While we were gone, we had kenneled the pets (we have a terrific kennel) and she was in a room with several other cats.  They had toys, scratching posts, little cubby's and windows everywhere.  A couple of cats were in their own spaces as they didn't get along with the others, but when we went to get her, she was curled in a cubby, another cat on the shelf above her and she was reluctant to even get out.  In addition, she was angry with us and totally avoided me for the most part of the day.  She got over that though and is helping me this morning as I blog.  I am off to try to garden and eradicate the little critters that are eating all of my plants...sorry, but they carry fleas, ticks and dig holes everywhere in my yard and I don't need another broken ankle.
Also, on a bright note, we are now seeing the doe antelope drop their babies, a coyote pair here travels back an forth to the river for water and hunt for their young...I saw a doe actually chase a coyote  away from where her baby probably was hiding, and we have hummers at the feeders and both tanagers and bullocks at the oranges we put out. 

"Nature has been for me, for as long as I can remember, a source of solace, inspiration, adventure and delight, a home, a teacher, a companion."  ~ Lorraine Anderson

A little bit of everything I love

 May is such a busy month for me always.  Not only is my birthday in May, but so many, many of my friends and family have May birthdays, including my son and my friend down the road.  So above, Coalette was given a balloon after we had a birthday dinner here with a birthday boy and she very carefully carried it away.  She loves sacks and I had given her a rather large plastic coated sturdy sack to play in.  Treasures of a couple drinking straws, small bouncy balls and a small piece of bubble wrap are hidden there, and she carried this balloon also to add to her stash.  She played with it for several days, before it broke.  It was funny to see it clinging to her belly from static electricity as she tried to walk and she would pack it in and out of her bag.  Also this month, on my birthday, a wedding was held and I made the cake for a great niece and her groom.  I also had to deliver it and the drive was about 2 1/2 hrs away, but the wedding was beautiful and was held on the Hereford Ranch grounds east of Cheyenne.  Luckily, although it was cloudy and a threat of rain was near, the weather did cooperate and the bride was lovely. 

 My gold fish plant is blooming and it is spectacular.  Never have I seen so many blooms!!!  Usually, there is one bloom per branch, but this year, it is producing several blooms per branch!!

We finally are having some signs of warmer weather and I have wonderful patio/porches on both the front and back of my valley home.  When we moved here last fall, we brought nearly everything we had, including probably some of what we didn't need.  But I love my stuff and we did cull out a lot of our belongings.  We don't have a basement and this home is smaller by about 500 square feet.  There are no out buildings and very few trees.  (lots of sagebrush)  I had no patio table here as I had left one behind so that was a birthday present and and now we are ready for the grilling season to begin.  Bring it on!!! I am so ready for planting, but will have to be diligent in what I choose as I do have wildlife to feed if I am not careful.  I do plan to try a very few veggies also...

"Happiness must be grown in one's own garden"

Rocks and more on Mother's Day

 Happy Mother's Day to all of the mother's who read this blog.  I have a birthday coming up and told a friend earlier this year that I wanted a big rock and pointed to my ring finger on my left hand.  Oh...there is a nice rock there.  But really I love rocks--the real thing. I got an E-mail from this friend the next day telling me that she could get me that rock.  Having grown up where we had lots of rocks, I never understood the fascination of relatives who visited from the east wanting to haul back rocks.  However, as I have had many back yards to put my signature on and having an abundance of "free" landscape materials, I have found a bit of pleasure in rearranging these rocks in a manner that pleases me.  I am an embellisher!!! This rock weighs about 3,000 pounds and it was free from a wonderful friend who even loaded it for us onto our flatbed trailer.

 We had to haul it about 10 miles on back roads, but then had no way of getting it off.  Thanks to another wonderful friend and neighbor and payment of supper, he brought his skid steer up and this is how we did it.  There was some damage done to the floorboards of the trailer, but nothing the Mr. said would be a problem.  I happened to mention how much this would have cost me from a certified landscaper and he indicated in jest that I owed him that much and submitted a bill to me as he left on his grocery list from his pocket.  In pencil it read-" $250.00 for ugly rock moving."  I also received a new patio set from the Mr.  We have over $800.00 worth of lumber now sitting in the back yard for a permanent fence which will go up as soon as we can get it done and this same neighbor will be submitting me another bill on another scrap of paper for digging post holes for the fence with this same piece of equipment.  He got a new post hole attachment for this piece of equipment and is dying to try it out I am sure.

This quilt below is Revolution Square.  This pattern was mentioned in a book about quilters from one of my favorite authors and downloaded the pattern as I needed a new quilt for my bed.  The older one was getting a bit faded...I feel that quilts are made to be used, so I use mine.  The only problem is that I like large quilts and they are sometimes difficult to handle on a smaller domestic machine, but like arranging rocks in my gardens and yards, I get pleasure in arranging the fabrics so I guess it doesn't take much to make me happy (nor Roger here, just a soft bed).

"Being a mother means that your heart is no longer yours; it wanders wherever your children do." ~
unknown

Another what is it?

 After the moose visit and it finally quit snowing (and it snowed for a week!!!) and I was unable to sit on my little deck, the sun came out and within two days, spring came back.  The birds came back.  Neighbors have told of seeing lots of dead bluebirds down by the river, no doubt as a result of the zero degrees weather.  I love bluebirds!!  We have boxes out and had several pairs checking out the new digs, but have not seen any since the snow.  The blackbirds are enjoying the buffet we provide and we have several yellow headed blackbirds as well as red wings and tricolors. 

 So my what is it for this time is below.  We have had a wonderful shop to explore, but because of illness it will be closing.  I have looked at this piece several times, but when the 50% sale began, and it was still there, I was able to get it.  Have you heard of a weasel?  Not the critter, but the yarn weasel?  This is only part of the mechanism that was used in days gone by to wind and measure yarn.
There would have been little pieces at the ends of these arms that the yarn would rest on and the arms were attached to another geared piece.  When a certain amount of yarn was wound the weasel would make a "popping" sound to mark that measurement. That is where the song"Pop goes the Weasel" originated or so I have been told. 

In addition, you can see my "make do" pincushion, an old bobbin, an old canning jar with treasured buttons atop a chair re-purposed as a shelf and two other bobbins given to me by a dear friend and re-purposed as candle holders.  The thread is still on the bobbins. 

On another note, we had our health fair this past week and got our results back and discovered that we will probably live to see another health fair.  All was good!!! And do any of you remember cars without power steering?  In helping our friends move after their home sold in record time, we were involved in re-locating an old Fire bird with no transmission and not moved for many, many years.  After the Mr. pulled it over here and the owner arrived, I was elected to sit in it while they pushed it off the trailer in order to put it in it's new garage.  (how many years it will abide there is unknown).  With no power steering and questionable brakes, it was a reminder of driving my Dad's old Plymouth which is what I learned to drive on and my arms got a work-out. (Now we have to use weights to stay in shape.)  But the car is really a pretty light blue, and the interior is white and in pretty good condition, so I hope that it will be running as retirement for the owner is coming and yesterday was his birthday as well as my Baby boy's birthday.  I became a mother 45 years ago! Happy many more guys!!!

"Be kind to the women for they make up half of the population...and are the mothers of the other half."
 ~ unknown

Winter what is it?

 We have had snow for a week now.   Be DONE!  Above, what is it?  3 days ago, I got up awakened by my alarm cat at 6:00 a.m.  She always wakes me up with a built in alarm clock.  I stumbled out of bed, let the dogs out and pulled the shade at the front large window to see how much snow had fallen. The furkids did not stay out long, let them in, and started my coffee.  I turned around and my eyes could not believe what I saw.  The snow was falling heavily, but at the living room window was a moose. It was walking slowly in front of the window and I could see snow flakes on his back.  He was literally just a few feet from the window, perhaps 4 or 5.  By the time I came to my senses, and woke up the Mr., and got the camera, he was trotting away, across the sagebrush.  So this is moose hind side through a lovely snowstorm.  Always awesome!

 I saw one of those market shows on TV..the kind where people buy flea market items and redo them to flip and make a profit.  Well, this project just hit home with me!!!.  As a person addicted to sewing (I am ashamed to admit that I own 5 sewing machines..each with a specific purpose), I decided to try this.  Living out on the western range, I don't have access to a big box store or a craft store and I needed some Mod Podge.  I searched for a homemade version, but I was reluctant to try anything I found.  So I decided to try a water-based varnish.  The old Singer cabinet, minus drawers, treadle and machine was found at a shop for $25.00 last year and the surface was badly scarred.  I had the Mr. cut a space out of the top and reinforce to accommodate my newest machine.  It still looked a little bare.  So following the idea I saw, I ripped up an old pattern that I had and began attaching the pattern pieces using the varnish to both adhere and seal the paper.  The market warrior used soy sauce to antique it, but I tried it and it didn't work for me so I mixed some brown acrylic paint with a glaze I had and am so thrilled with the look!  I think I need to antique to stand, but will do that when it quits snowing.

"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort." ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

That darned cat!

 It is winter here, the roads have been closed and some are finally open, but it is nasty out there! So what do you do when you are cooped up in the house?  You entertain yourself!  Me I quilt, read, hit the tread mill or watch a good movie.  Coalette?  She rips up things.  A couple of blogs ago I posted this wonderful plant full of blooms and nearly reaching the floor.  I got up and stumbling to the door in the dark (it still is a little dark at 6:00 a.m.), saw all of this stuff on the floor.  After turning the dogs out and the lights on, imagine my horror to find wilted leaves, stems and blossoms on the floor.  This is all that was left of my plant.

 This snap below was taken yesterday and it continued to snow all night and blow and blow and snow.  Really, it is difficult to say how much we got as it was a wet snow, but the dogs did not get off the patio this morning.  They relieved themselves ON the patio!!!  It is too deep for the little guys and evidently too cold for the old girl!!!!

 This morning from the balcony off my sewing room and as I type this, we have just lost satellite connection so the dishes will need to be scraped clean again. So, off to the sewing room today with no guilt feelings and maybe a good movie on the boob tube. 

"Remember, the faith that moves mountains always carries a pick." ~ Anonymous
  (and maybe a snow shovel?)

Winter this spring

 My crazy cat crawled into this plastic bag which held the batting from the quilt sandwich below and went to sleep.  I went upstairs and she was asleep completely in the bag, then I checked later and finding her head in the handle, lifted it off and by the time I got the camera, she was partially out of the bag.  Silly cat!!  I posted earlier the old quilt top belonging to a dear friend and have had to improvise the assembly process I used at my previous house.  So with a tip from a quilt show, I used blue painter's tape to secure the backing and although the tape really didn't hold very well (and maybe I didn't use enough), it worked pretty well.  I am now quilting it.

In my absence from this blog and I didn't realize it had been so long, I had my friend whose quilt top this is, come to visit for a few days.  We gathered some other friends for a dinner for her to celebrate her birthday and worked on preparing for our summer projects for our girls' retreat.  One of these will be a few stepping stones each with glass flowers in them so we planned for some patterns and purchased some glass.  I also had a sister and niece come to discuss a wedding cake I am do do for a great niece and they were able to stay for lunch.  They left just before our winter arrived this spring.  We have had snow for two days straight, maybe more as I can't remember!!! I know the roads were closed.
The afternoon before the snow began, with the wind at our backs (and fronts) the Mr. and I finished a backyard fence with which to contain the dogs and I might add that they are none too happy about this fence.  We discovered a tick in the house before we finished the fence which was unsettling and hopefully the dogs will not have as much access to the sagebrush now.  With deer and other tick carrying critters so close, I fear we are fighting a losing battle so will just be vigilant and see that the little guys get short haircuts when the snow is gone. 

"I try to take one day at a time, ...but sometimes several days attack me at once." ~ Jennifer Unlimited