Merry Christmas!

Well here it is, Christmas time again! We are so grateful for our dear freinds and families. My dear niece Amy has such a beautiful family, and I wish them the best Christmas ever. Rachel's family and Amber's family are our constant joy and I am so blessed to watch all of them raise their sweet families. The best memories and happy times are the simple times of being together...

Where have I been???????

This fall has zoomed away from me, and here we are, right before Christmas! We had a wonderful time at Amber's house for Thanksgiving. The girls did all of the work and I sat back and just enjoyed the grandkids! We got some family pictures snapped and just had a great time. Perfect meal! I sure couldn't cook that well in my 30's! Way to go girls!

A Touch of Fall

Here is a peek at fall. I got these lovely things at Michael's, while visiting Amber in Flagstaff last week. What a time we had! We visited the Riordan Mansion, which I highly recommend to anyone. A 1904 Arts and Crafts mansion with Stickley furniture and beautiful stained glass. What a treat! Also got in a bunch of shopping and of course some beautiful new Dolce Merino yarn, at Purl in the Pines yarn shop. I can't wait to get started on something special with this yarn. As I'm writing this, Steve is cutting the last of the hay. A perfect day for cutting, warm and sunny. Annie, my dog is frantically guarding the house from this crazy machine that is going back and forth on "her" field and scaring the poop out of her!

But back to my trip. I got to see Morgan and Lorilee and their precious children, and even got to sit in on a sonagram of Morgan's new baby. Try as we might, we couldn't figure out the sex of the little one, but she is going in next Tuesday, so we will just have to wait. Lorilee tried so hard to find out, on her husband's sonigram machine in his Dr. office, but no luck.

Morgan is a fantastic cake decorator, and blessed us with the most scrumptious cupcakes I've ever tasted! They were pumpkin with a cream cheese frosting and a pumpkin cream filling. I am getting the recipe and will pass it on to all of you. It rates right up there with the macadamia muffins I posted! Super yum! More on my trip later.....

Color that just makes me smile...

Here is what I've been up to! I wish I could take credit for this, but I have found a wonderful blog: attic24. It's from a dear lady in England who is in love with color as much as I am. She uses wool, I use cotton. But someday I will get the beautiful Rowan wool and have the brilliant colors she uses. I am amazed at how these projects are so much like the pillow I made for Livy. Brilliant colors and fun crochet. Steve is away at NASCAR and I have been having a crochet orgy! Today I must get back to my respectable self and actually do some housework. Also, must throw out the cake I baked last night before I eat it all today. OINK!

More fun with crochet: The Big Bag!

This took about 5 days to make. You really can't tell from the photo, but this is a really big bag! I can't wait to use it while shopping, or carrying goodies to my grandkids. I am just so inspired by the many colors, and I'm saving up for some wool in brilliant colors to make another one. I guess I should call this the antidepressant bag, because anyone making it has to feel the joy in these colors! This is made from cotton yarn, but look out wool, here I come!

Old treasures on the ranch!

This ranch is about 130 years old, and we are lucky to own just a small part of it. One of my favorite places to scrounge around is the dump, or treasure spot (that's what I call it!). It's up by the irrigation ditch and by the old wagon road that leads to Colorado. Here I find beautiful pieces of purple glass and old bits of 1930's coffee cups. I keep them in a big glass jar in my studio and just love the faded out colors of too much sunshine. Here is an old Vaseline bottle circa 1910. Can't believe it's still together when you see all of the cracks! Also, a cup piece with wonderful fruit design and a bit of purple glass. I guess there was a house up there at one time and this must have been their dump. After every rain, I never know what will surface. But in the high desert, we don't get much rain, so I have to be patient!

Livy's Visit

Here's little Livia in her self created outfit. She's been staying with me for a week, and everyday we are treated to one of her fashion creations. I love you Livy and please never change!

Just to remember.....

Here are some flower pins I crocheted for the memorial service for my Dad. He passed away on June 15th.

Livia's pillow

Livy just loves these colors and asked me to make her a pillow. This will be a surprise for her when I give it to her next weekend. It's 16x16 and will take up most of her bed! It was fun to make.

A few of my new crafties!

Have been busy with family stuff for quite a while, and am only now getting around to crocheting again. Here are the pillows I've made. Having lots of fun with trying out new motifs. These pillows are 14x14 and 16x16 inches.

Where have I been?

I just realized it's been far too long since my last entry. I guess winter has just been plunking along and so have I. I've been seeing my sweet little Molly a lot, and she is actually getting excited to see me! She is a shy one, but knows who Nan is now. Still a tiny little thing, but growing. I've had a peaceful winter, just doing house things and having a fun time with my friends. Kathy and I go to lunch and the movies and love to get together and do projects. It's a truly golden time in my life, and I'm loving every minute of it. Steve and I have started training again and what a difference it has made. I notice when I get in groceries or lift the grand kids or even get up off the floor, that things are much stronger! We've had two days of 60 degree weather and I'm anxious for spring. The mud is finally dissipating, and we are outside a lot. Today Steve is digging up an old culvert in our road and replacing it with a pipe. Good to be working outside!

A few new crochet items...

Here are the cell phone covers and a little evening bag I have made recently. I use the cell phone covers a lot, when I'm grocery shopping, or any kind of shopping. I put my cell phone, debit card and some cash in tere and go! It's great not to have to watch my purse in a shopping cart or lug a big purse around in a store. I just put that in my trunk!

It's too early to get up!

These little critters got me up super early when we were all together a while ago. But it's a great way to wake up. How can they possibly be so cheerful this early?