T-Ball Practice

Matilda started practice with her new T-Ball team yesterday. Go Diamondbacks!

Quilts Everywhere!

Well Everyone--I finally made it to the laundromat to get all our rag quilts washed. Last Sunday I took a pretty bad fall and ended up with a concussion. As a result, I haven't done much this past week. I've been in quite a bit of pain, even ending up in the emergency room. Anyway, they are at last washed and this was the scene at Margarett's house today. I went over there to take the pictures since her house gets great natural sunlight and since I live in a basement---mine does not. Some of the quilts will be posted to The Red Speckled Hen's Facebook page tonight and some will be taken to the Senior Sampler for sale next Monday. So go on over to the Facebook page and take a look. Just contact me directly if you see one you would like.

Big News!!!

I'm finally able to tell everyone. I've been sitting on this news for far too long. My daughter Megan is pregnant with their first child and I couldn't be more thrilled for them. She's wanted this for such a long time now. At this point the doctor is 75% sure that it's a boy. We will find out for sure pretty soon. I'm so very excited! I just wish I weren't so far away.

At Last!

I came by my house today to pick up some things I needed and I discovered that the work of removing the tree in my backyard was finally completed. I'm going to miss it even though they left the stump with these interesting shelves on which I plan to put some potted plants in the spring.

Feed the Birds

For the past month I've been spending nearly all of my time staying with my friend Margarett and her husband at their home in Golden Valley. Every day they feed the birds in their backyard as well as some cute little bunnies. I took these pictures of the quail as they gobbled up the food. There were dozens of them!

And the work continues...

Came home to find another piece of the tree hanging precariously over my yard.

Cupcake Mining

Took Matilda to the Kid's Discovery Museum today for Cupcake Mining. It was a brief class to demonstrate mining. They had actual core samples there to show the kids and demonstrated how that worked to the kids by having them drill their own core samples in a cupcake with plastic straws. We ended up spending 4 hours at the museum and M had a great time. I brought a book along and I just allowed her to play and play. I love the picture of her that I was able to capture. A great picture of childlike wonder!

Wow! He really brought out the big guns today!

Okay--the way the work was left this time looks a little precarious to me!

The tree continues to disappear a bit at a time. I haven't been home much of the time, but I don't seem to miss much. I think the fellow that's doing the work must be stopping by about once a week or so to do just a bit of work.

My Tree

The ladder goes up against the tree. Looks like more of my tree is going to be disappearing today.

Valentine Cookies

In the past I used to make a layout to enter Page Maps monthly sketch challenge. Don't know why I stopped, but I'm going to try and do it again. It gives me a little creative boost, so it's a good thing. Here I've shown the layout they posted for the challenge and my version. It only calls for the one 12X12, but I've shown you my full double page layout as well. It was fun to do. We'll see how they like it.

Death of a Tree

There is a tree in my yard. They have been saying since I moved in that it is not well and will have to come down. Sick or not, I loved having it there. Now the time has come that my landlord has hired the team to come and take it down. They have been pruning other surrounding trees of dead branches as well. What a process and what a mess! This weekend the area in my flower beds surrounding the tree was piled with big chunks of the tree and my windmill and my fountain have disappeared, being moved out of the way. Today I came home to this giant pile, so little by little the tree is going away. I guess this week they'll probably be taking down the rest of it. When spring comes, I'm hoping that the things I've planted around the trees will have survived the onslaught and will bloom for me. I love my little yard during the Spring and Summer months especially, but I'm sure going to miss my tree.

Quilts Galore

I've just spent a couple of days with my friend Margarett working on our quilts. We kept ourselves busy and I now have four of them ready to be washed. When that's done I just have to take the pictures and get them listed. They are turning out so cute! I've also shown a picture here of the pile of cuddly fabric that is waiting for me to cut it up. I love each and every one of them. Adorable!

Senior Sampler

Today I finally got around to going to the Senior Sampler here in town to put some of my things for sale. For those of you who don't know about it, it is a lovely gift shop located inside the Assistance League Thrift shop at 1701 Vassar Street here in Reno. You just go inside the thrift shop and tucked back in the corner through some gated doors is the sweetest little gift shop full of items handmade by seniors---yes, I am a senior citizen (But I don't feel like it). So far I have taken in rag quilts, 100% cotton crocheted dish rags, and a small selection of my greeting cards. If you're in need of a Valentine, I have some for sale there. My friend Vicki also brought some things there for sale. I hope you will think of us there when you're in need of a gift or a greeting card. We would love your support.

Another Hobby????

I used to crochet many years ago when my oldest daughter was a baby---looong time ago. I'm trying to keep from wasting the time I spend watching TV, so in addition to the other things I do, I have begun crocheting again. I can now be found scouring the thrift stores in search of yarn to make little things with, and the season for yard sales comes, I hope to hunt some down. I began by making some 100% cotton dish rags which I am selling for $5 each. Now I'm working on a baby blanket and a little girls purse. I never used to watch TV without doing something productive. It feels good to get back to that.

Crop Your Heart Out

Had a great time today at the Crop Your Heart Out crop at the Grand Sierra. My friend Bevie joined me and it was so wonderful to spend time with her. We haven't spent a day like that in way too long. Here she is working on one of her AWESOME layouts. Also got scolded for not posting enough here on my blog. I'm going to try and do better, I promise. Bevie also said that she would like to see my layouts posted here to look at---so I'm going to try and do that as well. It may take me a little while because at these events I often get them finished with everything except a title or a little journal box which I need to do at home. That is where the process gets a bit bogged down. I'm kind of inspired to improve in these areas, so keep looking to see how I do. I have one all set to show you, but I'm trying to find a piece of foam core board to use in taking my pictures. If I don't get it by tomorrow, I'll just use a piece of poster board, so---Coming Soon.

My daughter Tracy keeps a stack of used paper at the house for Matilda to draw on. Today She posted this picture on Facebook. Matilda grabbed this sheet frmo an old syllabus of Tracy's and proceeded to grade it. Too funny! I love it!

I got this puzzle for Matilda for Christmas (or rather Santa Claus did) and we worked on it together while she was here this weekend. When I was in high school, my mom and I did jigsaw puzzles together at night. I loved working on them with her. I continued working on the puzzle after Matilda went home and I sure would have loved it if my mom could have been here to work on it with me. I miss her. I crumbled it back into the box today, but I'm thinking I may do another one again soon.

Pickle Tree

I had lunch with Tracy and Matilda today and then we went to the new children's museum here in town. (It is pretty fabulous by the way) During lunch Matilda took this tiny seed out her mouth when eating her dill pickle and declared that she was going to keep it so that she could plant a "Pickle Tree." Are grand kids the best, or is it just me? What joy she brings to me!

Yumm!!

A friend of mine in Colorado saw the pictures of the quilts I've been making and sent me some flannel to have me make one for her. It arrived today and I just had to snap a picture to show you all. Isn't it just yummy/ I love the colors, and it's really high quality, snugly soft flannel as well. Just makes me want to find a baby girl to cuddle!

 

 

My very favorite new show these days is Parenthood. There hadn't been a new episode for quite sometime, but finally last night they aired a new one. This show never fails to move me in some way. With each episode their crazy wonderful family makes me laugh, makes me feel good, and often brings me to tears. This episode was no exception. What a great show! The only down side is that it always leaves me wishing I could belong to a family just like it. I want it to be real, and I want them to adopt me as a new family member. Then when I am adopted I want to live in that absolutely fabulous house. Keep dreamin' Tonna.

A pretty close second of my favorites is Modern Family. This is absolutely the funniest show I have seen in a long time. It just cracks me up!

 

 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I rang the new year in at my friend Jacque's party. I was able to take my grand daughter along with me and she had such a good time. Here she is participating in some of the Minute To Win It challenges. She also danced the night away with their Wii and didn't want to stop when the party was over at 12:30 and we had to leave.