Autograph of Jets

No...not the football team...jet trails in the sky.
I love watching jets flying overhead and then following the vapor tails they leave behind.

Here, you can see what's left of the trail and down below, the lights from Mount Ashland ski resort are shining in the dusk.

One Guess..

Just one guess where I hung out today when we went to town:

I have some girls at school I want to give little gifts. Too much fun.

There is so much put into the nail polish these days....diamonds, glitter, hearts, stars, metallics....every color under the moon and who knows what else!

Going to town is such a pain in the ___, I hate it. I don't know when I've been to town and made it home again in under 8 hours! That's a job, for crying out loud! Then the unloading the car and putting everything away takes another 45 minutes.

I usually come home with part of my list crossed off, saving it for next time! Yeah, sure. I think I've had some things on my list for a year and never seem to manage to buy it. Either I can't find what I am looking for, I can't make it to the store where they sell it, or our stinking "city" just does not sell it!

Oh well, I'll make some sweet girls happy from my excursion so that's what matters, right?!



Cat Nap

Just more of my Hookster. When I get home, I enjoy going outside or down in the basement to love on my cat. One day, he just peeked out from his new, soft bed and that was it. I can't reach him on that top shelf so I grabbed my camera and took some photos.

Hot Apple Pie

I walked by my freshly baked apple pie and saw the steam pouring out of it. Mmmm. Just thought I'd share the scene with you.

Come on over and I'll share my pie!

(In case you don't see the steam...it goes from the pie up into the white triangular jar opener that's mounted under my cabinets.)

 

Demo Has Begun

Demolition team in action....
Having way too much fun knocking down walls and building new ones.....
Out with the "old" and in with the new.

Yup, we are remodeling our bathroom. I guess Jack just loves building things then changing them. Either that or we watched too much HGTV when we had satellite service. We stopped the service to "save money"...Hmmmm, now we are spending it? Makes no sense to me but I'm along for the ride just the same.

It seemed that everyone on t.v. wanting to buy a home would get all ga-ga over the double bathroom sinks. Jack and I share quite nicely but we decided for "resale value" we would add a sink. (No we are not selling, but as long as he is able to do the work and wants to do it, now is the time.) Then came the thought that we had to somehow "hide" the toilet behind a privacy wall. Finally, we will get a jacuzzi tub for Jack's back so that will take more knocking things out.

In order to make the vanity longer, we needed to go into our closet. Then for the toilet space, we had to go into the closet too. So where to put more closet space? In the attic, of course. Since I emptied the attic of everything EXCEPT the bats, we had the space to expand.

I didn't think I'd have to select things like faucets, sinks, lighting and toilets, but we will be out looking on Saturday and making our selections. We have surfed the net to narrow down the basic styles we both like so it should be just a matter of getting what we like to fit our budget.

 I thought I best take a photo before it all started breaking down.

 Attic space to the left as you exit our closet.

 Attic space straight as you stand in our closet.

Attic space right (you can see our current closet door with the white frame.)

I'll post more as the work continues.

Highly Prized #3

Okay, I just don't seem to be sketching like I should. But three little ones are three more than I sketched all last year so it is an improvement. I woke up at 4:00 a.m. while quilting and decided not to run my sewing machine so dang early. I read for awhile and sketched this little drawing of my sewing machine. I do love my Bernina!

I'd like to learn how to photograph my artwork. The paper always turns out yellow even after I adjust the exposure in my photo editing program. Oh well, it is only for practice. I'm almost embarrassed to publish this, it is so out of whack! So no comments, okay?



I've Got Mail! (Again!)

Life is so delicious...I received more mail from my granddaughter, Zoe. She is so precious. Evidently, she just writes her notes/letters then gets the envelopes and stamps out and mails them all without saying a word to her mom.
I love our rural post office....as long as Zoe gets the zip code and house numbers close, the letter arrives in our mailbox. Amazing, but true!
Okay, okay.....this is what I'm so excited about.....marbled paper she made with her mom. How cool is this?

Silly Me

I had no clue that I actually posted something with that collage of photos. Too funny. Okay, now the details: I went on a 4-day quilting retreat. If too much fun were against the law, I'd be in prison right about now. It was the best.
My sis, "Tiny Iny", flew down from the San Juan Islands and joined us. (I won't discuss her many problems with her flights just now.) We laughed and giggled and even piled into the same bed together at night. Neither one of us wanted to be all the way across the room from one another since we don't have much time together. We didn't even know we were in the same bed. In the mornings, I asked if she'd snuck out of the room; she'd ask the same of me. We have the same sleeping styles: curl up in a ball like a cat, sleep and don't move until morning.
The only difference is I'm awake and my feet hit the floor about 4:00 a.m. and she likes to continue dreaming. She also lays awake at night for about two hours before falling asleep....hey, not me.

There was good food, good laughs, good quilting, good learning and good hikes. I'm ready to go back and stay a month! I didn't want to come up for air it was so amazing.

 Ina learned to machine quilt!

 One of the creeks we hiked along.

This quilt was pieced by one of the gals, then three of us machine quilted it and a fourth one sewed the binding all around. It is to donate to a nonprofit. Pretty sweet, huh?

I'll post the photo of the quilt top I made when I'm finished quilting it....say this summer?!



Up and Running??

I'm going to test our new internet connection this morning...

Temporary Leave

I am on a temporary leave from blogging. We are expecting to have a new internet provider some time this week. Once that is all up and running smoothly, I'll be able to upload photos again. (Hopefully!).

We loved, loved, loved Clearwire. The tower is just too far away from our house and the interference has grown over the years, leaving us with a very unreliable service.

Since we no longer have satellite, (yes we and are down to just two television channels), we don't have internet choices. Much to my dismay, the only other option for us is through our phone company. My expectations are low so maybe they will surprise me!

Meanwhile, I am enjoying reading other's blogs.

99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall...

We all know the song.....
I'm singing the tune with some different words:
99 School Days Left of the Year.....99 School Days to Go!

Oh yeah! This is one song I don't mind singing out of tune - it brings a smile to my heart.

Solar

We have a solar hot water heater. We re-route the water during the winter so the pipes don't freeze. For some reason, Jack didn't want it on the roof of the house so it sits out near my clothesline. This is a good visual of why we disconnect it.

There is nothing like solar. It feels so good to know that the sunshine did all that work for free! I say "for free" because this water heater has more than paid for itself! 

After this photo, the sun popped out and melted the snow only to turn to freezing fog all week long! Brrrr, I can't find enough layers of clothing to keep me warm. Each day, I add more and more layers hoping that I'll find the magic combination as I stand outside doing bus duty or yard duty.

(I am so not a snow person.)

Highly Prized #2

I'm not going to sketch every day. I've decided not to rush the process of getting back into sketching.

This one was done rather quickly. What I've learned from this one:

1) I need to wait until I've drawn more before using a 6B pencil.

2) The cross poles are too thin.

This will be a good subject to attempt again later in this process.

Practice, practice, practice!

My clothesline is very important in my life. I have such wonderful memories of both of my grandmothers hanging laundry and Mom hanging laundry. Mom even hung hers outside when it was freezing. She'd bring them in stiff as a board.

Not only do I have great memories of the laundry, the wringer washing machines, the wash board,  the wooden racks by the stoves; but also of the women doing the work at hand.

I'm thankful for Jack who has provided me with my clothes lines wherever we have lived.

Both of my girls hang their clothes out to dry as often as they can.

Hopefully, they too have good memories of their mom hanging clothes on the line.

Puzzle Solver #1

Those of you who guessed melting snow were right. This was a huge mass of snow that slides off of the metal roof on our house. It makes for some wild photos.

As it melts, it brings with it pine needles and leaves from the roof.

The lines are formed by the ridges in the metal roof.

Highly Prized

The first theme for the Sketchbook Challenge is "Highly Prized". I have so many people, places and things that I highly prize; it would take well over a month of sketches to capture them all.

My short list looks like this: Husband, daughters and their families, Mom, my siblings and their families, my friends, my cat and horse, my home, health, our woods, my clothesline and clothes rack, sewing machine, sink, washer, camera, van, books, craft room, porch swing, sunshine, France, anything French, Interstate 5, my job and health insurance that comes with it.

I figured if I didn't sketch something right away, I wouldn't have anything to measure against how I'm progressing. I've already learned something: use a larger sketch book!

What Is It? (#1)

Now that I'm looking at things to sketch, I thought it might be fun to post a photo from time to time for my followers to guess what the subject in the photo is.

Here's the first attempt at stumping you: