Craft retreat

 My friends met here last week for our annual craft retreat.  From Monday thru midday Thursday, we worked and played at new projects.  The Mr. helped me assemble the above mini birdhouses and these will be mounted on posts and placed in our flower gardens.  Below, with 4 bags of leftover mortar from last year, we hand molded stones for the gardens. By placing bits of glass and sculpting them, a plant can actually be placed in the center.  How about a black petunia.  This one is the other "Pat''s.

 We also placed glass pieces onto purchased stones, embedding them in a thin layer of mortar and I will post more of these later in addition to the other two projects that we completed.

The most important part of last week was the company of these long-time friends.  We laughed and argued and ate....oh, maybe that was the most important part.  No, I really am blessed with these true friends and can never thank them enough for their loyalty and support.  This year, we were missing one of our co-harts as she has moved and had family visiting, but next year hopefully she will be able to join us again.  The Mr. was a big help also and gave up the garage for a week so that we could play.  Stay tuned for more!!!!

back in the saddle again

 I have been enjoying the great out of doors so the computer is sporting cobwebs.  With the celebration of our nation's independence, I began a whirlwind of activities too numerous to mention.  However, this past week we had family here and although it was short, the visit was wonderful.  The Mr. and I finished our fence and with family gone, our calendar continues to stay full.  I delivered 12 quilts to the museum today to be displayed this weekend, a couple of luncheons this week and preparation for the "crafty girls retreat" next week all demand time.  The critters are bringing the new babies out into the world and above are new baby hummingbirds teasing Coalette and below an adult resident eagle has coaxed a young feller to the favorite perch just south of the above patio.

We have also seen baby antelope finally as Mom takes them down to the river for their first venture that far.  I will be posting pictures of our retreat projects which will be taking place here this year rather than the cabin at Elk Mountain.  Scheduling becomes a greater problem each year...guess I am not the only busy one!!!

"All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child. ~ Marie Curie

Summer!

 My absence from the blog is a result of summer!  We here in windy Wyo (and it has been so windy!!), have to take advantage of our very short summer and we have been building a fence to keep the critters in and out.  The ground squirrels have been raising havoc with all of my flowers as they emerge from the long winter and I have been fighting them with everything I have, but the traps have been eliminated as the magpies are drawn to the peanut butter used as bait.  The critters also carry lice, fleas, and ticks so I have been busy!!  Roger is oblivious to it all and truly knows how to spend summer.

 In addition, when I am not at war with the wind and the squirrels and the feeble attempt to garden, I have been cutting and grinding glass.  This year, our craft retreat will be here rather than Elk Mt. and I am getting projects for that.  One of our projects is a series of stepping stones with glass images embedded. So far  have twenty pieces almost ready.  So after using a few patterns I had, I decided that I could do a better job. (ha ha...I lack no self confidence).  Maybe I am just too ignorant to think otherwise.  This is a series of the steps I have taken with my version of an Iris.

This has yet to be ground in order to get the edges smooth, but although it is time consuming, I have 2 lighthouses, 2 butterflies, 2 dragonflies, 3 pansies, 1 pear, 1 tulip, 2 lillys, 2 lady bugs, 1 daisy, 2 iris, and a couple of other flowers....20 in all I think.  So as this project progresses, I will update when the actual time comes the first full week of August. We will have at least 4 different crafts and intend to spend 4 days with these projects.  Don't give up on me, I just get a little busy in summer.

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