Birthday Dinner Alaskan Style

John and I worked together on cracking the King Crab that Frank Neidiffer gave us. Then we threw it into a salad and ate like kings ~ a great birthday dinner!

Rainy Southern California

This was the weather I woke up to this morning...

It continued throughout the day.

Petersburg

I had to make a quick trip to the quilt store before leaving town. It was a nice day to walk...amazing what you don't see when you are in a car.

John was quite proud of the tarp he erected to keep the snow load off of the boat. It had stayed in place and hadn't blown free. I was shocked at the sight in the front yard...all the various bottles he found to weight the tarp down made quite an eyesore! Later I laughed about it and wondered why he had chosen such an assortment...he said he had to go through trash cans to find bottles to hang. Had I know this, I would have saved up milk jugs ~ whew!

 

What a typical sight in the Trading Union parking lot...black lab in the bed of a pickup!

A Quilt for Brooke Anne and Dolly

Brooke and Annie are coming to visit in California. The last time Brooke was there we made a sleeping nest on the floor, which worked well for a nine month old. Now that she's 17 months that wouldn't work for napping or night-time.  I'm buying a Pack N Play to keep for little people visits and need a quilt to go with it. 

My favorite online quilting store, Over The Rainbow,

(www.overrainbow.com) had a new line of fabric I thought would be fun to use. Red Rooster and Arlene Neely Nana's Garden was the line that caught my eye. After Googling Arlene Neely, I found her website, Rabbit's Haven, where she has patterns for sale. I printed a picture of the quilt and ordered fabric. 

Quilt top constructed ~ It was fun sewing on these pastel fabrics ~ love the little rosebuds. After chatting with the artists in the family about possible changes to the quilt (John wanted another flower added and less contrast in the leaves; Annie liked the contrast but toyed with adding another flower.) I decided to forge ahead and begin the quilting.

 

Using Minkee for the first time (as a backing) and a bamboo batting, I was quilting in softness...heavenly!

Now for the binding and this quilt is ready for Brooke's visit!

What should I do with the scraps....make a dolly quilt!

Deer Me

Looking out the back door on a dark rainy morning using John's little camera ~ wish I had brought mine with me. The three have been visiting daily...waiting for spring and my flowers!

John's Christmas Vacation

Poor John...his vacation in Cashmere was spent helping out at Caitlin's house. He had made shelves in her garage and wanted to add another set, so out came the tools and over to Home Depot he scurried. (He couldn't find much in the way of hardware in the local hardware store so he made numerous trips into Wenatchee~12 minutes one way!). He worked out in the cold for days~learning that you must wear warm clothes or you freeze. He spent the first evening shaking from the cold...he listened to me the next day and wore his down coat!

He added the upper shelf and the hanging 2X2 shelving from the rafters. Caitlin enjoyed shelving all of her treasures and organizing her tools.

Caitlin's new Honda fits in the garage with walking room around the entire car...this is a first.

The other side...

The new trash bin with wheels.

Pulling out... a view of the recycle material leaning on the side of the garage.

We had so much trash to get rid of that it was stacked inside her back fenced area for later disposal. 


John also did some work on the bathroom door. It was an original that had at least 8 coats of enamel keeping it from closing. John scraped, planed, and sanded and finally the door shut and latched! Now guests won't have to worry about leaving the door ajar... Two more over-painted doors are awaiting John on another visit.

Caitlin and I spotted this entertainment center, carted it home in her CRV, and put it together...late into the evening. John ran to Home Depot again picking up some bolts to attach the flat screen to the hanger. We think this was a great purchase for her downstairs play room. Annie and Ben were setting up the Wii. Cait's new Mario Game is ready to be mastered...and who better than Ben, Annie, Leah, Kent, and Caitlin!

El Paseo Drive, Palm Desert

We were on our way to Angel View with some rummage and we happened upon the lights. Luckily John had his birthday present (pocket sized Nikon) in his pocket!

 

Christmas Lights on El Paseo:

John wasn't too impressed with their light display. He figured that since it's the ritzy district they should have ritzy lights.

On the Greens

 While Caitlin was visiting we took a trip to Ivy Ranch to hit some balls at the driving range. Grandpa Wally, John, Carol and Caitlin worked on a couple buckets of balls. Caitlin took to it like a duck to water! She had lessons from both Wally and John ~ both do it differently!

Later that week John went out to play and took her along. I think Caitlin enjoyed it...

  

How's that for form?

As Caitlin and I were driving to the Ontario airport we passed Wally and John golfing.

Gulp

We picked up a new bird feeder at Petco and the finches have been swarming. They love the easy access through the wire mesh to the niger seed. The feeder is busy all day long unless I am walking around the yard.

The doves visit but they stay on the ground picking through the dropped seeds and hulls.

I was surprised to find this roadrunner snooping around the back patio. It cruised up to the sliding doors, going the length of the house and then ran into the garden. I took this photo from inside the bedroom through the dirty window, then took the camera outside to snap a few more.

The Roadrunner was quite still. To my surprise all of a sudden his back looked like the wind was spreading his feathers. It was sunbathing! I read where they will spread their back feathers to let the sun warm the downy feathers.

Here it is sitting on the wall...

Sitting on the wall sunbathing...

Tiptoeing under a rosebush...

I thought I had quite the collection of photos so I went in to recharge the battery. Glancing out I noticed the bird dancing around in circles. What was that dangling out of it's beak? Oh no, not one of the resident lizards!!! Poor little lizard was a quick lunchtime gulp.

Headed for Market

On the drive to Ontario we passed two trucks loaded with fruit. I had Caitlin grab the camera to get these shots...coming from Alaska, it is fun to see these sights!