Blossom Trail

If you ever get an opportunity to visit central California you might want to plan your trip when the orchards are in bloom----between mid February and mid March. The weather is usually in the mid to high 60's and the scenery is breath taking.

This is a view over the tops of the orchards looking toward the Sierra Nevada Mountains:

The peach, nectarine, plum, apricot and almond orchards put on quite a show. Here are some close ups:

 

 

 

Dark pink, light pink, white, it's hard to pick a favorite.

 

Hope you enjoyed a taste of California.

 

Til next time Ronda



 

My little "Stitch Me Up" project

Today is my day to show my "Stitch Me Up" project.

 Sending many thanks to Madame Samm of Sew We Quilt http://www.sewwequilt.com/ and Jane at Jane's Fabrics and Quilts for hosting and cheer-leading this stitching party. Also thanks to Debbie, Cyndy and Mdm Samm for the fun patterns.

I chose to use the flowers from the tea time/coffee time pattern and put them on a little antique coaster:

The pink flowers represent Dogwood Blossoms and the purple represent pansies.

The little coaster reminds me of my Grandmother and brings a touch of spring to my tea time.

I hope you'll stay awhile and grab a cup of tea and look around.

Once you're ready please visit the other blogs that are participating in the bloghop today:

Beverly @That Other Blog

Betty@That Other Blog

Stitches to Sprinkles

Stitch Duchess' Crazy and Sane Quilting World

Bejeweled Quilts by Barb

Kathy's Quilts

Mountain Delights  You are here

Tea and Quilts

Charlottes Creations

Quilt Obsession

The Slow Quilter

Cali Quilter

Little Pieces of My Life

Creating My Comforts

Enjoy, Ronda





Rug Hooking update

I am taking Deanne Fitzpatricks "Hooking People in Rugs" online course. It started this week and the first assignment was to go to a coffee shop (this is good) and start observing (I can do this) and drawing (you're kidding right?) people.

Drawing is not one of my strengths, in fact when my family played pictionary they could never guess what I was trying to draw. I'm so envious of people who can draw what they see. It's a good thing the people in the rugs in this course will be in primitive style, maybe you'll be able to tell the one's in my rugs are suppose to be people.

The next lesson showed how to make patterns from photographs (oh boy now I can get back at my family for laughing at my drawings, wonder if they'll recognize themselves). I was happy to know I didn't have to rely on my drawings.

Thankfully for those of us who are drawing challenged Deanne had patterns we were able to purchase. I bought her Big Boned Girls patterns. This pattern has 12 different women to work with, it's like having paper dolls to play with.

I spent the day yesterday working on my pattern. I chose 4 of them and worked out this pattern for my rug:

 

I transferred it onto the primitive linen:

 

 

I'm a little intimidated to begin hooking it but hopefully by the time I finish I'll have learned a lot about hooking people in my rugs. I'll keep you updated on my progress.

 

Til next time. Ronda





 

Bye Bye Mini

After enjoying my Mini Cooper S for 18 months I decided it was time to get a more practical vehicle.

 

The Mini was fast and fun to drive but it was basically a two seater. Mountain Man has a jeep and to get in and out of the back seat of that is a task---no way to enter or exit gracefully. I was frustrated that we couldn't take other people with us if we wanted to so I decided to sell the Mini.

 

I'd seen the CarMax commercials so on Saturday I took the Mini in to see what kind of offer they would give me. I had a number in mind and was pleasantly surprised when that was the amount they offered.The appraisel took about 30 minutes because there were 3 cars ahead of me. Once they give you an offer you have 5 days to think about it. I discussed it with Mountain Man on Saturday night and we decided to sell them our Mini. There weren't any hassles at all. Either you accepted their offer or you didn't.

 

Okay I had sold the Mini now what? While waiting for the appraisel on Saturday I checked out some cars on their lot. I was thinking I wanted a Kia Soul so I looked at them and I also looked at some small SUV's. I test drove a Soul and a Chevy Captiva---again no hassle or hard sell, you can look at, sit in or test drive as many cars as you like.

 

On Monday when MM and I went in to sell the Mini I had him test drive the Captiva, an Outlander and the Soul. We narrowed it down to the Capitiva and the Soul, now it was my decision. We decided to finalize the sale of the Mini and take some time to think about it---you guessed it no hassle from the CarMax people. The actual sale of the Mini took less than 20 minutes.

 

I went to the Kia dealership and drove a 2013 Soul and then back to CarMax to drive the Captiva one more time. My dilemma, did I want a brand new car or did I want a more luxurious slightly used car? Sporty or comfortable? Heated leather seats or nice cloth ones?  Was keyless ignition necessary? My choice:

 



A 2012 Chevy Captiva Sport. The picture above is from the web. The picture below is my car:

 



CarMax set up a personal web page for me that had all the pictures of my car that had been on their website. I can email them, post them on FBook or download them.

All the cars on the CarMax lot has the haggle free price on them, what is on the sticker is the price they are asking, I wish all car dealerships worked this way.

I am enjoying my Captiva and all it's luxury. This was my first time doing business with CarMax and I would not hesitate to do business with them again.

NOTE: I do work for CarMax or have any family or friends that work for them. The information I gave in this post was from my own personal experience and I will in no way profit from it.

Til next time, Ronda

Roxy's afternoon walk

Roxy may only weigh 5lbs but she is definitely not a lap dog. She loves her walk and loves to lead the way:

 

She hates when we stop, she wants to keep going.

 

 

Our neighbors lilac bushes are starting to bloom and they smell wonderful:

 

 

Ground cover is loving the warm weather:

 

 

I stopped by a rock to get a picture of Roxy. She does not like to have her picture taken and will not pose so I get what I get:

 

 

She's looking at Mountain Man asking him to save her:

 

 

Back on the trail we see the first Camellias:

 

 

And a Tulip (magnolia) tree beginning to bloom:

 

 

Almost home:

 

 















Hot girl.

 

I'm afraid to give her a summer haircut this early because the weather is still unpredictable. She won't wear a sweater so I have to time the haircut just right.

 

 For a bitty girl she sure is stubborn and has a big attitude. She was incensed I was taking of pictures of her while she was trying to get a drink of water. She likes her privacy.

 

Another sign of spring--- these wonderful California grown asparagus were at the grocery store this morning, we had to have them.

 

 

Mountain Man fired up the barbeque and we had a wonderful dinner, steak, potato and asparagus:

 

 

Hope you see signs of spring in your part of the world.

 

Til next time, Ronda

 



 

Spring Weather

We're enjoying spring temperatures this week, mid 70's to low 80's. Blossoms are popping out all over.

My daffodil's are in full bloom. (The metal mosquito is one of my son's creation).

 

More flowers:

 

 

 

Tiny yellow flowers on the mountain side:

 



 

Trees are in bloom and full of bees:

 

 

 



And the critters are out and about. We saw rabbits, quail and a grey squirrel on our walk today and the frogs were singing. I could only get a picture of the squirrel.

 





If you're not having sping weather I hope it comes to your part of the world soon.

Til next time, Ronda

Wild with Wool Class

I'm taking Deanne Fitzpatrick's Wild with Wool class. Deanne doesn't follow too many rules and challenges us to use materials other than wool strips. Here is my little project, a house in a field.

First version:

I didn't like the sky. I decided the sky stitches needed to go across instead of down so I changed it:

 

I like the sky better now. Not having a pattern is hard for me but I'm learning a lot.

 

Miss Roxy had a tramatic morning:

 



It was bath time. The good thing about having a 5 lb dog is that she doesn't have much say about it. She can try to hide and she can make herself VERY HEAVY but I can still pick her up and put her in the sink. Afterwards she has quite the attitude, zooming around like a puppy letting me know her opinion on the matter.

Daylight Saving time makes me appreciate being retired. I can get up whenever and not worry about the time. When I was working I hated the Monday after Daylight Savings Time, I was in a very bad mood because of losing one hours sleep. It took me an entire week to recover.

Hopefully the time change isn't too hard on you. I hope you have a good Monday. Ronda





 

Something new on my blog

You may notice a new addition to my sidebar, yes that is Miss Roxy our 11 year old Yorkie. She keeps us smiling.

I had a busy week. On Tuesday I took my 80 something Mom to the Apple Store to get an IPad. It was fun watching the kids interact with her. She was so proud when she could use her fingers to close a page.

 At home I showed her a few things and after working with her a little bit she knew how to go to her email, read and send a message, how to open Facebook and how to use Safari. I also added a few Apps for her. A few more lessons and she'll be a pro.

On Wednesday I went to wool club, there wasn't much new happening there but it was nice to see everyone. I did learn that Quilters Paradise is undergoing a remodel and will be adding a wool room, that made me very happy.

I finished my punch needle project:

 

 

I found I really enjoy punch needle, it is so quick. I need to learn how to finish my projects, the back on this one turned out a little rough, good thing it's just for me.

 

Last week I told you we had dinner with our good friends and that I had forgotten to take pictures of R's projects. R was good enough to send me pictures of her spring table topper:

 

 

 



Isn't it cute?

 

Today I'm going to figure out how to finish my chicken mat so I can hang it.

 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and don't forget to set your clock ahead one hour (at least here in the U.S.).

 

Til next time, Ronda and Miss Roxy

 

But Honey, it was on sale.

On Saturday I went used wool clothing shopping. (I'm trying to build up my wool stash). Imagine my delight when I discovered that EVERYTHING in the Salvation Army Thirft store was 1/2 off.

I pulled all the skirts that looked like they were wool and came home with this:

Nine wool skirts and one jacket. Each one cost $2.25. I got at least a 1/2 yard of fabric from each piece. With new wool starting around $25 a yard these were good buys.

I found most of the pieces above at the first store but there was a second Salvation Army Thirft store in the area so I had to visit it as well. I found a couple of the wool skirts there but I also found this:

 

A gently used Lazy Boy recliner priced at $84 but remember everything was half off so I got it for $42. I had to move fast so I didn't get to run it by Mountain Man before I bought it, not sure he's as excited about my purchase as I am.

 

My second problem, I was in the Mini and had to come up with a way to get it out of the store. I could have waited until Monday but I didn't want to take the chance of leaving it there. I called my youngest and he was nice enough to come and pick it up for me. I paid for the chair and sat in it until he was able to get there. I can't tell you how many people came by and looked at it wanting to buy it. It's safely in his garage until we can get it up the mountain.

 

 I've been wanting a chair for my studio and I am so excited I was blessed with this one.

 

I finished hooking my chicken mat:

 

 

I've blocked it and now I have to finish it so I can hang it.

 

I'm in the middle of Deanne Fitzpatrick's Wild with Wool class and am enjoying it. One of the assignments was to do a sampler rug to see how different wools hook up I began that rug yesterday, I'll post pictures later this week.

 

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Ronda



 

Received my pinkeep

Today is my oldest Son's Birthday. Happy Birthday D2!

I participated in Wendy's Pinkeep Swap, you can visit Wendy at Ravenwood Whimzies. My swap partner was Sherry from Blessings From Our Nest.

I received my pinkeeps, yes keeps, in the mail today:

 

Aren't they sweet? I love red and I love the redwork. Here are the backs:

 



 They are color co-ordinated. The little one will be my travel pinkeep.

Here is the one that I sent to Sherry:

 

We were suppose to make something we liked so of course I had to make it out of wool and do a little embellishment.

 

We had dinner with my first follower and biggest cheerleader and her husband last night. We went to Chevy's where I had a very needed Margarita and some other food---a taco I think. Afterwards we went to their home where she had wonderful homemade brownies for us.

 

R showed me a beautiful quilt she's making and hand quilting, two cute table toppers and a diagram for a wall hanging she's designing. I can't believe I didn't think to take a picture of any of them. It's probably because I'm still fighting my cold, it couldn't have anything to do with the one margarita I consumed.

 

Sorry R. If you'll email pictures I'd love to share them on my blog.

 

Mountain Man's working tonight so Miss Roxy and I are on our own, who knows what trouble we can get in.

 

Til next time, Ronda