Friday, April 30, 2010

A nice trip and quiet week!

We had such a nice time in Havasu last weekend.
The drive there was an easy one. Made good
time, and as predicted I snoozed on and off
the whole way. We stayed an extra day
too which really helped put us all at ease.

Saturday Bob and I went and walked around
the walk under the London Bridge. It was
busy as there was a boat race going on.
Not just any boats, the huge big ones.
Ones that have to be loaded on the trailers
with cranes. Crazy~so BIG!! There was the usual
boat parade on the canal, lots of people, sunshine...
oh it was nice. It felt so good to have the sun on
my shoulders. I think I got a few hundred more
freckles on them too. Bob could have spent the
day watching the boats/people. Or maybe it was
all the bikinis? hmmmm?

Being with family was the best though. In this
picture are my sister, step mom Faye, Dad
and me. Dad couldn't get his smiled timed
right so we settled with the opened mouth
grin?! ha!

Dad and Bob took off in my dad's jeep for a cruise
in the desert. Faye and I stayed home and
napped. ha! They said it was beautiful out.
It is a good time of year for the desert.
Each day there the temp climbed a little.
Monday it was 96, and was supposed to reach
98 Tuesday. When we got home Tuesday
night it was 66. ha.

We drove home on Tuesday. Man it was a long
drive. Seemed to take twice as long to get
home as it did to get there. Ugh. I was so
uncomfortable and ill feeling. Even though I hated
leaving my family, I was more than happy to get
home to my own bed.

Im trying to get into the projects I left behind.
No go so far until late last night. I managed
to sit and do a little hand sewing which I love.
I could hand sew everything. I have been
told to do a hand sewn quilt. But they are so
intimidating to me. All those little
pieces.....yikes! But I am going to make my
grandaughter a strawberry shortcake blankie
for her bday. Its such cute fabric,
Very little girlie.

I just bought a nice piece of oilcloth. Now what to
do with it? A raincoat for olivia? A tote for me?
oh the decisions! ha...

I hope you are all having a wonderful week and
have plans for a fun weekend!

I am thankful for my family!
I am thankful for the ability to travel
and see them!
I am thankful for birthday cake!
I am thankful for sparkling lakes.
I am thankful for children on swingsets.
I am thankful for children snuggled safely in
clean crisp sheets.
I am thankful for my sister and I FINALLY
having a relationship.
I am thankful for today!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Off to Arizona!


Tomorrow morning, bright and early, when Bob gets
home from work we are leaving for Arizona! And
what or who you ask is in Arizona? My dad and
step mom!

I do not get to see them very often. In fact,
last time I saw them was the beginning of
last December. We stopped there on our
way to Texas. And I feel guilty we do not
get there more often, but geez, what can
you do? So I'm looking on the bright side
and I get to see my dad! Yippeeeee!

I sound like a daddys girl or something. I'm not.
At all. My dad is really not that kind of dad. Oh
that sounds bad. But we have a great relationship,
lots of laughs and relaxing close moments in time
when we are together.

Our phone calls are ritual, He says HI Mabel *its Melissa*,
he always asks about the weather *its sunny or raining*,
and 'ya heard from anybody'? *its a no, our family is
not close what little there is of it*, and have you been
up to the lake *no, but he lived there a long time so he
has to ask*. It never changes and I love it the way
it is. Its my dad.

Just before we arrive *we always call just before we get
into town*, Faye *stepmom* says he paces and looks
out the window constantly. That tickles me, and I am
just as anxious to get there, sitting up straight and commenting
on how much this and that have changed and how beautiful
the hills are in the setting sun.

Family always asks how on earth I am able to travel
so far. *another post for another day*. I just say, I
take my pillow and blankie and a pill and sleep most
of the way. Thats just partially true. We listen to
books on cd while we travel, and I do nod off alot
but try not to cuz I hate waking up completely lost
in the story thats on. Oh, Dad and Faye live in
Lake Havasu City, Az. We are in No. Cal. just outside
the bay area.

That drive down central california is booor~ringgg.
As bad a driving through the middle of New Mexico.
a snooo~ooze. Yea we travel alot. But did I mention?
I get to see my dad!

My dad, his name is John. He will be 82 this fall. Loves
a glass of wine. Still works on his boat and jeep. Loves
to go for jeep rides in the desert. *they stop to look at
mines which scare me to death*. Is that not the greatest?
But he is slowing down which is all good but a little
bit sad for me. He is my dad and I think he is perfect.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

the other big mouth in the house!


We have more than one big mouth in this house.
But I do not think I have talked about the
biggest of all!

Her name is Lew, actually Lewis, but we did not
know she was a girl for a while. When we finally
found out we just kept the name because she
seemed to know it.

She is a most unusual character. Doesn't
have a big vocabulary, but most definitely
knows how to use what she does know loudly!

She is quite welcoming to anyone saying
HI HI HI to who ever comes in! Even
when she gets up in the morning you get
a HI! She waits not so patiently for her
breakfast. When you get it to her she yells
hot hot hot in your face. It usually is to hot
when we walk it over to her and she tells
us so until we give her her bowl.

One of her favorite pastimes is playing in the
warm clothes fresh out of the dryer.
Unfolding my linens for me, throwing them,
playing peek a boo and laughing hysterically
when I throw a hand towel over her head.
If I laugh, she laughs. I laugh soft she laughs
soft. I get loud, she blasts us. whew.

She adores Bob. Loves on him, rolls her
head against him. And jealous! Wow!
She comes at me at a run....sometimes
even hissing at me! I'm not
scared of her, much. ha!

Somedays when she is yelling for
attention, she will yell..."Help Bob" Help!
Cracks us up! But man she can get loud
with it. When we tell her to stop, she will
back talk and say uh~oh.
over and over. and over.

Some days she NEVER shuts up.
She hates the vacuum. Hates change.
Hates to be alone. Typical female!ha!
She is so afraid of the meter man. OH my.
She will bust your ear drums. Makes a good
watch dog of sorts. Nobody can get through
the back gate with out her seeing. And
she lets us know.

And who is this big mouth female:



Lew is 10 years old now and will outlive us all.
What will we do with her when we are gone.
We will will her to the kid of ours that has
given us the most grief over the years! ha!

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Enjoy your Sunday!


Good morning~Its nice and sunny. Gonna be
a really nice day! Have fresh roses from my
bushes on the counter, husband doing
grocery shopping, laundry almost done,
lots of fun sewing projects in the works.
It can't get much better than this for
9am! Feeling mighty blessed here.

There is so much I am thankful for. I used
to put that on my blog whenever I wrote.
Infrequent as that was. But now as I am
doing lots of blog hoppin' I see more and
more people writing what they are
thankful for. I like that. Alot.

So maybe,I will start doing that again. It
always did make me smile when I wrote down
my 'loves and thankful fors'. They were
right off the top of my head, from
what was going on that day in my life.
And no matter how bad my day was
going, I could always find something
to be thankful for, and that I loved.

On another note, I am working on this
cute little momma diaper bag. Turning
out good so far. Except I cannot get
the trim on it! I have cut the trim 3
times. Pinned it. Unpinned it. Trimed,
ironed. Pinned unpinned. I'm sure
there are many that know how frustrating
that can be! ha! So today I am going to
start fresh. Cut some strips from the fabric
the main bag is made of, put it through
my little handy dandy bias tape maker
and see if I can finally get the right size.
ha...I can't believe I am keeping my patience.

and~
I'm thankful Bob will go to the commissary
bright and early
I'm thankful he ALWAYS gets all on my list!
I'm thankful we have the commissary to shop at!
I'm thankful for our beautiful roses this year!
I'm thankful for their wonderful aroma!
I'm thankful for the blooms on the apple tree.
Its gorgeous! So's the cherry tree!
I'm thankful for my washer and dryer.
I'm thankful I am still able to do the laundry.
I'm thankful Bob will help when I need it!.


Hope you are all having a glorious morning, and
the rest of your day will be great!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Friday already?

I can't believe this week is almost gone already!
I've tried to keep busy and I guess it worked
cuz time seems to have gotten away from me!

I spend the week doing this and that, dinkin'
around, readin', sewing....anything to keep my
mind off of back pain and stomach nausea.
Both of which plagued me pretty much every
day.

Oh well, at least I had my 'sewing supervisor'
along side when I would put my feet up...

His name is Elvis. And yes he does act like he is
the king.
Cuz when there ain't no place to sit
with momma, he will sit where and
on who he wants. This time, it was
poor little Dawber. Dawber doesn't mind
though. In his eyes, Elvis is just keepin'
him warm!

I am in the middle of making a cute
little diaper bag, sized for a little
girl to carry all her baby treasures
in. I dug some fabric out of my
closet I have had for, ahem, almost
20 years. ha! I can't believe it.
I used it on my daughters baby
doll clothes, then an outfit for
my grandaughter 10 yrs ago, and
now this. Talk about stretching a yard or
two out!!

So when its all finished I will do a pic or
two. Its time to go put my feet back up.
I did a stupid thing this evening. I was
digging through one of my sewing
baskets for pink thread and instead of
bending at hips, I attempted bending
at waist which I cannot do. Lets
just say spasms are on the menu for
tonight.
sleep well everybody!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

baby stuff

One of my favorite things to sew is stuff for
baby. Love it!After making two crib sets, I was
asked to make a caddy to old wipes and a few
diapers. This is the end result. The only pic
I have, sent to me by the mom on her cell
phone. *sigh*, I will not forget to take pictures
again!
It was so easy to make. Just got a fat quarter,
cut four corners off and saved them. Made a
box, lined it with contrast. Added handles,
cardboard for solid bottom. With the left
over squares, I made a little tiny box and
stitched it on the front to hold pacifiers
and such odds and ends. I put a few yoyos
on with crochet flowers in the middle.
OH I wish I had pictures to share. It just was so
cute in person.

I have never really sewed patternless before.
But after spending hours blog hopping, reading
tutorials, I figured I should give it a try. It was fun!

This week I am trying to figure out how to make
fabric flowers. I have been trying to use my
cricut to cut out fabric, having a hard time
with that one. I have a heavy duty cutter,
just have not hit the right setting yet. I
will get there. In the meantime I have
made a few circle templates, done some
cutting, folding, stitching, sighing and trying
again. I will get it. Maybe I should proceed
to zippers. ha!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Daisy kingdom and dinosaurs!

First off, I forgot to put this picture in yesterdays
post. Nothing special, I just forgot. Its my cluttered
bookcase in my sewing room. Again more treasures.
The two sewing boxes on top were my moms.
She had them forever. As they were getting
rather battered up I thought I would put them
up for safe keeping, but up where I could see them.

I admit, I love going on ebay and browsing the
sewing notions section, in the collectibles.
Love it ALL.
But I restrain myself. My moms are enough for me!





I LOVE Daisy Kingdom fabric panels!
This was the first one I had sewn,
and before it arrived in the mail I was
a little hesitant not know what the
fabric would be like. I have sewn pillows
from panels before and never really cared too much
for the fabric. Surprise! This is really nice
fabric! You can almost put it together without
reading the directions too. And I got brave.
I admit it. I have NEVER, not once, make buttonholes.
Ta~da! I was determined, you see I had just gotten
2 bags of the cutest buttons, Daisy Kingdom of course and
I had to, just had to use them on the dress!
And here it is~~~~~
After I took the pictures I realized I should have
done a top stitch on the top. It looks good as it, but
I am going to do that top stitch. I love a nice
top stitch! ha!
Just love the little flower shaped pockets.
You can't really tell, but the buttons are
greener than they look. They match
the little animals in the bottom border.
OH Oh
AND on the sides, the fabric is cut so you can
match up the animals exactly. I LOVE that!
I had started this little raggy quilt of sorts
waaaay before Christmas. I felt so bad I never
finished it up. And its such a simple one at that.
Just big old squares. Can't get much simpler.
But just to give it a little more dimension, or
color, or whatever you want to call it,
I put the dark blue flannel squares staggered
down the middle. I think it looks ok.
I did the usual X that you do on the raggy
quilt squares but I used
a wiggly or snakey? stitch line. It looks
kinda neat. I'm going to tell him
they are snake tracks! ha!

I just got in a nice piece of quilted fabric so of
course first thing I dug through my patterns and
found the perfect tote style pattern. Got it cut
out and will get it together tomorrow. This is my
second red purse in the last few months.
I guess that is the color
of the year for me!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

My Sewing Room




I had read anothers blog a few days ago, and she
asked readers to show their favorite place to
create, read, sew, that sort of thing. I think. ha!
Really, it was something along that line. That stuck
in my mind, so this morning I clicked a few
pictures of my favorite spots
in my sewing room. Now, I did just the
favorite SPOTS because of course I
have a chair, a table a sewing machine, wheres the
fun there? But I have treasures around them that I
love and thats what I am sharing!

This is my mothers side board from long ago.
Its located right behind where I sit and sew.
I have some of my favorite old pictures,
glassware and odds and ends on it. I LOVE the
way my assortment of treasures looks! Pink glass.
I adore it. Old old pictures and frames,
precious. Attic treasures teddies,
make me smile.


And a pretty old bowl full of pretty buttons.
Gee what else would a girl want?


This next picture is of the area to my right,
or right above where I do scrapbooking.
I recieved the doilie tucked in a box of fabric
won on ebay. A hidden treasure!! I love
filling mason jars with ribbons and laces of
pretty colors. I think every room in the house
should have lavender in it. And of course,
tuck it in pink glass. Family pics are tucked
in a ribbon board along with other treasures
made by grandkids and their mommies.

Here is a close up of my mason jars and
ribbons. Love them! Just make me smile.
And see that little hand there on the right?
Its a traced hand of my grandaughter Olivia.
I was in the hospital for quite awhile
a few years ago, and my step daughter made
them for me with a little saying about holding these
little hands until I can hold the real ones.
Does that just not melt your heart?

Well, thats a glimpse into my sewing room.
I love this room. Its a small room to start with
and I have filled it with so many of my favorite
things it does not feel small to me. It just makes
me feel warm and safe and creative.
I like that!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010


I Always knew that Priscilla would be a good mommy

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Easter 1982


Happy Easter! I hope everyone has a
wonderful day, finding eggs, eating
chocolate and being with ones that
you love!

This was taken April 1982, Priscillas first
Easter. This was at her Poppa and Gramma
Barbara's house in Downey, Ca. Poor little
thing was sick. She did great though,
Spending alot of time in mommy's arms.
Note she is loving on a bunny her Grandma
made for her.

It was a good day. Lots of family, cousins,
sisters, nieces, nephews. Home made goodies,
laughter and a yummy dinner. Nothing could
have been better.

Hope you all have the same kind of day.
A perfect one!