Meandering Pines

A couple of weeks ago, my son Andy moved back home for what I expect will be a short time due to a change in job location. I went up to Long Beach last week and helped him pack up his apartment. As we were walking from my car to his apartment building, we were passing a lot of pine trees and we were walking down a meandering path. Actually, it was kind of pretty. And since I had just recently changed the name of my next pattern to Meandering Pines, I had to take a picture.

I have just found an interesting blog called Kim's Big Quilting Adventure. She has posted some useful information about blogging which I am going to try out right now. I am sure many of you know all this, but it is new to me. Thanks Kim.



These are photos from my backyard. Looks like I will have a good crop of lemons this year.



I forget what this bush is, but I love it's little flowers.

Early Morning

Good Morning! It's still pretty quiet in my household. The others are still snoring away and I can hear the birds chirping! And Tess has had breakfast, so she isn't giving me that look. So here I am at my computer again looking at some wonderful blogs. I just visited Crafty Girls Workshop. They are having a fun giveaway and there is still plenty of time to enter. The winner will receive a charm pack, a pattern and a yard of fabric. You can't beat that for a free giveaway. And while you're there, tell them I sent you.

Today is Dave's Friday off, so I am hoping we get back to work on de-rusting and priming our back fence. It's certainly not a job I enjoy, but I am looking forward to the results. We are going to change the fence from white and rust to black. Hopefully it will just fade into the background of the hill and not show up so much.

My Second Distributor

I forgot to mention on my last post some very exciting news for me. I sent off my first order of Stitching Lines to Checker Distributors. And it was more than enough to fit into one box! Yeah!
I am pretty sure that Nancy's Notions is picking up Stitching Lines for their fall catalog, so I am very excited about that also. Dave keeps asking me if Stitching Lines is our retirement. Ha Ha Ha! I don't think so. But this is a lot fun in the meantime.

Changes Are A'Comin"

You may have noticed a different look to my blog. I have been playing around with it and it still might change some more. I like change. It's like moving the furniture around. I'm never happy with the same look for too long.

Mother's Day

Daughter Carol invited the whole family over for Carne Asada on Sunday night. As always Doug grilled it to perfection. Jill brought over lots of her leather purses that she is making for all of us to see. That girl is so creative. Can't wait to see more. She even made little leather flowers to adorn the outside of her gift for me which was a beautiful little dried bouquet of flowers in a frame. And Carol was not to be outdone. She has been busy making jewelry again and packed two very pretty sets of earings in a beautiful little card. I am so proud of anything Carol makes for me, as she has never been crafty. But she enjoys making earrings, although I don't think she does it very often anymore. Dave was gone all day racing his S2000 down at Qualcomm, but Andy and I had lunch at one of my favorite little Mexican restaurants. And I even took a nap in the afternoon. All in all it was a good day.

Tessy's Secret

I think Tessy went wandering the neighborhood today. She has lost her collar and license. Andy went for a bike ride and I went to meet my friend for coffee. I passed Andy on the road when he was coming back, so there wasn't more than 10 minutes where Tess was by herself. Andy found that the gate was left open. She must have snuck out the open gate. So, I figure maybe someone tried to kidnap her and she wiggled out of her collar. I am expecting a call asking for ransom for her collar. They may not know where we live. Maybe they will call the pound and ask who owns her and then bang on our door in the middle of the night and scare the beejeebees out of us. Tess will scare them off and we still won't get her collar back. WOW! We will never know what happened. Only Tess knows and she's not talking!

My Birthday Day

I had a very nice birthday yesterday. Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday.
In the afternoon, I got to do one of my favorite things. We went looking at houses for Carol and Doug. They are contemplating buying their first house. So we went out and looked at five houses. They didn't find anything they really liked, so Carol and I are going out again this afternoon.
Doug would prefer that Carol prescreen the houses before he looks. That's OK.
Then in the evening Andy, Jill and Carol and Doug took Dave and me to dinner at the Catamaran restaurant in Mission Beach. That was a very special treat. Afterwards, we took the ferry across Mission Bay. It was a little chilly coming back, but it was a fun adventure. I'd never gone on the ferry before.
It was getting late when we got back to Jill's apartment (lucky girl.....she lives about 100 steps from the beach, and right across the street from the restaurant).So, I just had time to open my gift from Jill. She made me some beautiful hand soaps with pretty flowers on top. And Carol and Doug had given me a beautiful bouquet of yellow tulips.

More Photos of Leo Carrillo Ranch

Frustrating Day

I am unhappy with my little baby size quilt. Not happy with the colors at all. I should finish it anyway. I have started this tree quilt so many times and been unhappy with it. So, I will have to force myself to get back to work. I am also contemplating a name change for this new pattern. Today, everything is in limbo. I used to be able to pick fabrics without any problem. It's all a "brain strain" right now? Tomorrow's my birthday. Maybe things will look up.