Well, Here I Am!

Happy 2020 Everybody! Folks, things are happening in my world. I sold the home my husband and I bought in the '80's, packed up my stuff and put it all in storage. Shasta and I are now living in a little farmhouse on 8 acres in Idaho close to my oldest. It's going to be a good thing. I'm still working on making it home, and I now have my two cats here with us, so that helps. I'm amazed at all the paperwork that is involved in moving from one state to another. I'm still in the process of changing over the "official" stuff, and trying not to make too many mistakes that have the potential to cause major problems down the road. Dealing with government agencies isn't fun, and I find myself getting flustered more now than I have in the past. 

Anyway. I thought I'd share a picture of what I woke up to not long ago. This is the driveway and little tree in the front yard. My kitchen window looks out on this, and it's a nice view first thing in the morning. I look forward to seeing what changes come about this spring and summer. I have lots of projects that need to be done, so there's absolutely no possibility of running out of things to do. 

My Latest.....

So, I'm almost done with this quilt. The binding is about half done, and then it will be ready for the label. Thought you might like a sneak peak at it! These colors aren't really what I "normally" do, and it was a nice change of pace to work on it. I'm super happy with how it turned out!
~~Lori

Fiddlin' Around With Sourdough

I started some sourdough about a year ago, and have been using it off and on since then. It's not the first starter I've had, but my previous one was probably ten years ago or so. I enjoyed having it, and I would make pancakes on the weekends, biscuits, and of course, lots of bread. Then life got in the way, and I stopped using it. 
About a year ago, I decided to start another one, and I've been enjoying it immensely. Since it's calmed down a little since all my Christmas baking, and we were out of bread, I decided that sourdough bread was precisely what we needed. The recipe I started with was just a plain white sourdough bread, but one of my favorites. It requires an overnight starter, so last night I put it together before I went to bed. However, this morning I changed my mind and included oatmeal and whole wheat flour. And, just like that, it morphed into something with a life of its own. It needed a bigger bowl to give it more room, and then halfway through the first rise, it needed even more room. I divided it into my two biggest bowls instead of just one. 
Fast forward about 6 hours.... I'm happy to report that five large bread pans will fit in my oven. It's amazing how you can start with such simple ingredients and end up with heaven on a plate. It's kind of like magic.

Happy Thanksgiving, and my latest quilt

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had a houseful here for Thanksgiving dinner. I wanted leftovers, so we cooked 2 turkeys, and had lots of other stuff, so of course we are waddling around now. Today I had the house to myself pretty much all day, so I decided to bring out my sewing machine. Want to see what I made?? I had finished a quilt top recently, and I have a few pieces of fabric left. I had been thinking of making a little zipper pouch and thought this would be a good time to try out the tutorial. It turned out super cute!

Here's the original quilt top. I bought it as a kit at my local quilt shop, about 6 months ago. Of course it sat on my cutting table until I finished up a few other things. Once I started it, I was able to finish it pretty quickly. It will be going to the quilter as soon as I get flannel for the back.

So, not much else going on here. I hope everyone is happy and healthy.

Summer Trip ..........

Guess where I just got back from?? DisneyLand! Yes, I went to see Mickey and all his friends with my sister, niece and dad. We had a great time, but are happy to be back. I took a few pictures, not tons, but enough to satisfy myself. I thought you might like to see what sort of pictures this weird woman takes when she goes on a trip like this.

There were Mommy ducks.....
 

 And baby ducks!

This is one end of a small grove of birch trees that I really liked. 

Here was a massive eucalyptus tree up above where we were waiting for the train. The base of the trunk must have been at least 3' in diameter. It was obviously well cared for. Really made me rethink some of my huge trees here. I was just in love with this tree!

Lots of different grasses there. And why not?? They are beautiful, low maintenance, and drought tolerant.

Oh, and the fences. I really like this fence. Wood and wire. Sounds like a great cd, maybe George Winston, and perfect for a mellow afternoon.

So, there you have it. Just a snippet of the weird pictures I take. It was really nice to see landscaping on a large scale. Oh, I found out that they offer a two hour, guided botanical tour there, and was all set to sign up for it. Unfortunately, it is only on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday mornings, and we weren't there any of those times. I think it might be worth a special trip there, just for that, yes??? 

Hmmmm.......

Where can I find really cute muck boots when I have feet the size of a boat?? It's time to water around here, and I'm tired of those knee-high black boots. I see the cutesy ones at TSC, but I guess "real" women don't have big feet.
I had a dream last night I was playing baseball. (I woke up when I got hit in the nose!!) Would this count as exercise?
I'm going to plant hostas under the tree in the backyard. I think it would look awesome with my newly recovered lawn chair, eating breakfast, feeling like the queen of my domain. 
How do I fix a flat tire on a wheelbarrow? Maybe I'll take it off, then go see the tire folks in town.
This is a snippet of the important issues I think about in the middle of the night. Serious stuff!
 

Things For Me To Remember

Sometimes, I read inspirational quotes. I like them. I figure I don't really need any other reason but that. Here's a few that I ran across lately.

Two that are pretty cool to remember:
"You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”—Christopher Robin to Pooh, A.A. Milne


“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”—Confucius

And two for yesterday:
 "The pain you feel today is the strength you feel tomorrow." ---Unknown

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.”―Mary Anne Radmacher

So today, I tried again. I think I'm stronger than yesterday, and more courageous, no??

Wimp or Wonder Woman? The Jury is Still Out!

I recently got back from a trip to see my girlfriend, Julie. We have been friends for what seems like forever (45 years) and I hadn't seen her since a few months after Geoff passed away. She lives in Idaho, which is a full 2 day drive from here. Whew! Stressful! I could fly, but that's a whole other level of stress. I did that the last time I went to see her, and was a puddle of tears by the time her dear sweet hubby picked me up from the airport. Just a note here, I'm not your average scaredy cat girl. Actually, I like to think I can do just about anything I put my mind to. But so much has changed since Geoff died, and I get anxious and scared about the stupidest little things. In fact, I don't listen or watch the news anymore. It's just too scary. I think I'm fine at the time, but then I wake up at 2 in the morning, and can't go back to sleep. Ok, confession time.... one evening after dinner, David and I were going to watch Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, but a few minutes into the movie, I realized that it was too scary. Told David we had to turn it off. Yea. Scooby Doo. God, what a weenie. And then I feel bad because I'm not a wimp, but obviously, right now the evidence doesn't really support that.

Where was I? Oh, yea. Julie's oldest was getting married, and she could really use my help in the days leading up to the wedding. My job would be to help lower her stress level. She says I'm good at that, something about being slow and methodical, or some such thing. I was going to be out of school, and it just seemed like the timing was going to be good. I've never driven that far by myself, and the thought of the whole trip was more than a bit overwhelming, but I really wanted to see her, and we had sooo much to talk about. Oh, but a wedding. I knew it would be an emotional time for me, since I would be thinking about Geoff, how he would never see our boys get married. Yes, that was a biggie! Of course there would be lots of people, and I hate to cry in front of people. And, and, and. I went back and forth, first thinking it would be too tough, then knowing I could do it, and right back to, "Lordy, girl, what are you thinking??"

After lots of thought and more than one or two sleepless nights, I decided that I should just "put my big girl panties on" and do it. I'm happy to say the trip was a success! I survived the drive, and didn't get lost. It was nice to see folks I hadn't seen since what seemed forever, and got lots of love and hugs. And, yes, I cried. I cried alot. But you know what? I survived. And now I'm that much stronger.

Shasta

Hello everyone. It's been a long time. Let's see if I can remember how this is done. So much has happened since I last posted. I adopted a new little puppy, although that was a year ago, so she's not so little anymore. Her name is Shasta, she's a black lab, and a total little snuggle muffin. She loves Dozer, and they get along well. He's very patient with her, to the point of being too much so. I found this out after we made an emergency trip to the vet to find out he had about 20-30 puncture holes in each ear from his new little friend. Poor thing! I'd never heard of that happening, but the vet says its common for a very patient and loving older dog to put up with the ear chewing from puppies. We watched extra close after that, and Dozer has had no more issues from that. Isn't there a song called, Love Hurts, or something like that? Anyway, she fits into our little family quite well, and has been a source of much love and comfort.
So, just this quick little post for now. Hope everyone is doing well.
Lori

Yes, I'm Still Here!

I have a story to tell you. But first, I want to say that, yes, I'm still alive and kicking. I've taken a hiatus of sorts from blogging. Well, not from just blogging, but from life in general, trying to get my feet back underneath me. Anyway.....

I have a story to tell you. A story only I could come up with! As I'm sure you can imagine, it's not always easy to sleep after a life changing occurrence, and my case is no different.  A few nights ago, I had a dream. I was home, just me and the dogs, and there were bad guys with guns after us. And not just your average bad guys, but ninja type bad guys. Real bad. Somehow they had gotten into the house, and I was so afraid they were going to hurt the dogs. I didn't want to call 911, because I knew they would call back, and we have caller ID, then I would be totally busted, since I'm sure, at least in my dream, it would say, "911 operator". Luckily, that's when I woke up. So there I was, just laying there in bed, wide awake at 2:00. Again. Then I heard a noise. But, I was really awake and this wasn't a dream. The noise was right outside my bedroom window, and it sounded like an engine. We have no close neighbors on that side of us, just my garden, our trees, then a ditch and the neighbor's pasture. There should be no engine. I thought it was a truck engine, but couldn't be sure. Do ninja-bad guys travel in trucks? Surely not. I opened the window a crack, and realized it was the air compressor, out in the garden. We've been doing work around the house, and the air compressor had been out for who knows what. So now, it all made sense. The obvious reason for it being on was NOT that it had accidentally been left on, but the ninja-bad guys were using that as a ploy to lure me outside, far away from the house to turn it off, when they would take that opportunity to do ninja-bad guy stuff to me and the dogs. Ha! I was not going to play their game, though. I got my trusty, big Mag flashlight, and let Dozer outside. I stood in the doorway, looking rather tough in my robe and big fuzzy slippers, and watched him to see if he could smell anything out of place. Everything seemed fine, so I unplugged the compressor from the wall next to the door, called Dozer back inside, and then locked the door. Ha! Take that, you ninja-bad guys. You lost. I won.

Trying My Best.....

I've been swamped with papers. Probably ten years worth, all scattered in drawers, boxes, and tucked into corners of the house. My goal? To turn this mountain of paper into a cohesive, organized filing system. Hmm, let's see. I can tell you that I've been at this for about a week now, and I have shut down the shredder numerous times due to overheating. Goodness. I've taken out bag after bag of papers and shreddings to the garbage. Shreddings.... is that even a word? What do you call the tiny little pieces of paper that the shredder makes?
So originally, I thought I could get all this paperwork done before I went back to work. Maybe even start cleaning around the house a little. You know, in my spare time. 
Yea. I know. A girl can dream, can't she?

I start back to work in a week. And I'm tired. So, so tired. I'm hoping that being around the kids will give me a much needed spark. And hugs. Lots and lots of hugs. I work with special needs children, mostly kindergarten and first graders, and there are a few that love hugs. This year we will have 12 in the classroom. Lots more than last year. Lots to keep me busy at work. Luckily, we are pretty relaxed the first few weeks of school. We're pretty protective of our kids, and those first few weeks we do lots of bonding, so they know they are safe and loved, and that school is fun.
Special kids are..... Special. There's no other word for them. I thank God for each and every day they are in my life.
      

Sunshine And Roses Interrupted

Normally, I only say happy things on this blog. This is sort of my sunshine and roses spot. I have another place that I give news of a more serious nature, but here I like to keep it to more of the stereotypical happy place. Today, however, I feel like putting something up here, and decided to tell you what has been happening in my life for the past year.
So, here I am. Outside, eating watermelon, drinking wine, and waiting for the quiche to get out of the oven. And thinking. Thinking about the past year, and about trying to find our, "new normal."
Just about this time last year, my dear darling hubby started having health issues. After about a month, he was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma, a rather nasty form of skin cancer. He was given 4-6 months, and surprised all the docs by living over a year. Alas, all things must come to an end, and my hubby of 28 years passed away last week. So, here I am. Outside, eating watermelon, drinking wine, and waiting for the quiche to get out of the oven. And thinking. Sigh....

My New Purse!

So, I'm still here....... just haven't been blogging for awhile. Lots of things going on, yadda yadda. But, I wanted to show off my new purse. Not just any purse, either. This is a CHICKEN Purse! 

Anybody that knows me, knows that I love my chickens. I have all sorts of chicken stuff in the house, and now I am the proud owner of a chicken purse. Want to know the story??? I have this friend. (Yes, I have a friend!) She's totally into sewing, and quite possibly the most talented person that I know. She's also very sweet. So sweet, in fact, that when she saw this purse, she thought of me, and got it for me, and then mailed it to me. Yes, she did all that! And you want to know something else?? When she mailed it to me, she timed it so that it arrived on ....... are you ready?? It arrived on my 50th birthday! Happy Birthday to me! I immediately changed purses, and hubby and I went to dinner at a stylish restaurant. There I was, decked out in rolled up carpenter jeans, sporting my new chicken purse, celebrating my 50th birthday. My new chicken purse is just too cute for words!

Happy Mother's Day

On this day, I would like to wish all my friends a Happy Mother's Day. May you have peace and tranquility on such a beautiful day.
 
I was thinking about all the moms that I know, and the women that have added to my life. From my mother, to grandmothers, sister and sisters in law, and the many women friends I have. Each one has given something to make my life what it is now. Whatever would we do without them?

Bending To Peer Pressure

I don't always do what my sister tells me to. Mainly because I'm more than just a little stubborn. But this time, she must have caught me in a moment of weakness, and I totally caved. I told her I would show the picture of me and my Minnie purse, and now I have to post it. This was the best background I could come up with on a rainy, yucky day. I didn't even look at what was on the floor, and to be quite honest, I still don't know what that is. So, here we are..... Minnie and me. In all our glory!

A Guest Post

My sister noticed it had been awhile since I'd posted anything on my blog and suggested she do a guest post for me. Wasn't that sweet of her?? I thought so too! Soooo, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about her. She's older than me, although not by very much. I think our parents were romantic little lovebirds in their youth. (Ewwww! Our PARENTS??) What a thought! Anyway, back to my sister. She loves animals, especially horses. If there was any way that she could spend her entire day with horses, she'd be the first in line. Well, maybe right after her daughter! And she sews. Boy, does she ever sew! Wedding dresses, bridesmaid and prom dresses, and smocked things that are professional quality. I just look at them in amazement. Girlfriend is good!!
I'm happy to say that she and I live about a half hour away from each other, so we do a few girl things together regularly. I hope you enjoy Linda as much as I do!
~~Lori

Hello and welcome to the guest portion of Lori's Blog. I am Lori's sister Linda and am guest writing for this segment. Fasten your seat belt.............................

So I am, like Lori, a sewer. But I sew clothes, machine embroider and quilt after a fashion. Lori is a better quilter, but I do manage a quilt on occasion. I also am a smocker and heirloom sewer, which is weird in California. But I digress.
I decided that over Lori's Easter break I would go up and help her celebrate her vacation by sewing with her. We both are trying to sew up our fabric stashes (stop laughing everyone) and I had a cool pattern that I bought off of Etsy from Sew Spoiled called the Cabrio Tote. I had made one and felt that it needed a tweak or two. (Like Lori, I cannot leave a pattern or recipe alone. My apologies to Sew Spoiled-Ido love it though.) Anyway, Lori had some batiks that she thought would make a cute purse. I have a Brother sewing machine with built in Disney characters and some Disney cards so we planned a day of sewing and dessert. We started with the fabric and then picked out a large Minnie Mouse to put on the body of the tote. Then we let the machine work its magic:

I am not stoned. Lori took the picture and like the paparazzi only sent me the dorky one. It is her blog after all. Honest we had not been drinking. But we had made this:

What is this???? Straight from Ree Drummond – The Pioneer Woman and Tasty Kitchen Blog hostess it is Birthday Cake Batter Popcorn. Tweaked of course. I am me after all. The original recipe called for white chocolate and white cake mix (Yes, there is 1 and ½ cups of cake mix in this recipe, totally shocking I know.) Me being the chocolate lover that I am I used dark chocolate chips and a chocolate fudge cake mix. We made it festive with the red, white and blue sprinkles supplied by Lori since I forgot the sprinkles. Let’s hope that my post makes Lori as famous as Ree. I am sure that we can convince Geoff to wear chaps for the cause.

Meanwhile, here is a close up of the completed Minnie Mouse embroidery for Lori's purse:

How cute is that?

We originally sewed early in the week that Lori had off and on Friday she had the purse finished. (Not to mention the popcorn!!!)

Can we just say, “How cute!!!” The main tweaks were we made the tote overall larger. We decided that just making the top band and bag body bigger would have been sufficient. Lori and I both get lots of complements on our bags and we are enjoying using them. Sew Spoiled has no idea that I exist except in that I bought the pattern and Ree is also blissfully ignorant of my existence. Lori however, is neither blissfully ignorant nor unaware of my existence. We had a fun day and used up part of both my stash and Lori’s. A huge coup in the world of sewers, who love having “someday” fabric. I find that it is harder to keep the stash to manageable levels than it is to decide which project to make next. I also am looking forward to your comments and hope that we both have inspired you all to shop at home for your next project. I am amazed what I find on occasion.

Cheers and best wishes, Linda

P. S. We also checked in with the hen that I took up to Lori and her chick that is now a teenaged chicken. How cute she is and how big. It was fun to get to see her again and to figure out that we are pretty sure that she is a hen.

My Weekend Was Filled With Shopping

My sister and I got together this weekend to go to a quilt show. We had fun. We had lunch. We had quite a few laughs. And we shopped. I was the one that brought home the most. Does that make me the winner?? Here's what I bought:


A really nice, "Jelly Roll" of batiks and a batik fat quarter. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them, but they were screaming to go home with me, so how could I refuse? That was all I bought at the quilt show, but then we went boot shopping.

Aren't these sweet? I've been wanting some lace up boots for quite some time, thinking that they would be perfect for work. Unfortunately, when you wear a size 12, you can't always get what you want, even if you special order. These, believe it or not, are men's. Not sure how many men buy purple boots, but I'm not complaining!


Here they are again, just in case you want a bird's eye view. Then, as if that wasn't enough shopping for this anti-social girl, I went shopping in my sister's closet. She wanted to get rid of some of her clothes, and I just happened to be right there, raising my hand! Here's two sweet little shirts, just waiting to be worn.



I was able to grab 4 pairs of capris and 2 jeans while she wasn't looking. Score!


All in all, it was a fun day. It was nice to be able to spend the day with my sister, and I think we both needed a day off.

Mama and Baby

My sister loves animals. In fact, all animals would be welcome in her life if she had the room. Unfortunately, she doesn't have space for all of the world's creatures. But that doesn't stop her from finding happy homes for wayward creatures that happen to cross her path. I received a phone call from her recently with the news that she had a displaced hen, and could I provide food, clothing, shelter, and education for this little girl? Of course, nothing is quite so easy as that! It turned out that the little hen had an egg she was sitting on, and unbeknown to my sister, had hatched probably a day before they caught the hen. Which, by the way, was a circus in itself. It was dark, the little hen didn't want to leave the freedom she was enjoying, was worried about her baby, then the baby chick got stepped on. All that happened before they could be moved to the dog crate into the back of Linda's car. Oh, do you know how much a little hen can poop in 20 minutes? Enough to stink up the car by the time she got to me.
Anyway, everybody is happy now; the little hen, her baby, my sister, and me. Here they are, their first family photo, just chillin', mama and baby.




And here's the little baby, doing just fine. Luckily, there seems to be no permanent damage from being stepped on. We are all hoping it's a girl. Still haven't figured that one out yet, since home hatched chicks never come with pink or blue ribbons.

My Beautiful Hubby

We were at the airport, waiting for my in-laws flight to get in. I forgot to bring anything to read. I was bored. I had the camera. He was a good sport.
The End.

Beautiful Morning

I was on my way to work yesterday, and this is what I saw on the way in.



Want to know something funny? Yesterday was an awesome day for me. I wonder if this is why?