Tuesday's Thoughts and Schnibbles Completed

It seems impossible that January is rapidly coming to a close.  It is, however, fun to know that the Parade of Schnibbles will be taking place in just six more days and then we will be introduced to our February pattern.  My Schnibble is finished and ready for the show.  I managed to quilt it and put the binding on this week.

Since we had a week of rainy weather I was taking advantage of staying home and sewing.  I always love it when I can string a few days together with no commitments and no reason to leave the house. 

I completed my 101 Modern Siggy Exchange blocks, except for signing all of them.

In the process I managed to accumulate 202 HSTs and now need to figure out what I will do with them.  I am sure they will make a great wall hanging or table topper of some sort.

I have finished my first four Pineapple Blocks using all 1 1/2 inch scraps.  I am liking the look that is forming from the design.  Some of the blocks that I have seen have been stunning.  There are so many color variations that you can do with this block and each one is striking.

The embroidery machine has also been busy while I have been sewing away.  I had a large order of shirts to do and it is always nice to finish them and get them back to where they belong.  Sorry, but I forgot to take pictures of them.  They were for our local pony club so they had horses on them.  Sorry Midlife Mom.  You would have like to see them, I'm sure.

One last project I finished was for a BFF block swap with Em.  This is an interesting project as we each do four blocks per month - two of the same design.  Then we swap the two with our partner and at the end of the year we will have twenty four matching blocks each.  Our color theme is blue and yellow.  I will post a picture of my blocks after Em receives hers. 

We have more rain forecast for today so I am looking forward to spending more time sewing.  The rains that we had last week made for some beautiful sights around our part of the world.  DH and I took a drive on Saturday to check out our local streams and mountains.

I love the look of the raindrops through the morning light in the garden.

 

The surf has been absolutely huge which has been a dream for our family of surfers.   It doesn't look too big in these pictures, but it was running at about 15 feet.

Since the storm was also cold, the mountains received snow at the lower elevations.

Of course we had to try this road, but it was closed a little further up the road from here and I can understand why.  The snow was about 8" deep when we turnded around.  We had 4WD and we would not attempt it beoyond a certain point.  This road actually goes past the Mich*ael Jackson Ranch. 

The streams were so full that they were running over the road.

These falls will normally have just a trickle coming over them and they were the prettiest that we have ever seen.  It was definitely worth the hike in to see them. 

Someone offered to take a picture of the two of us....wasn't that nice of them?  I don't know why the picture has little polka dots all over it.

Finally....since you have all heard of California Happy Cows I thought you would enjoy a picture of them.  What do you think?  Do they live up to your expectation? 

Can You Tell.............

How much we love rain in Southern California?  It's not like an everyday event here!

Maria has asked me to be a participant in a Pay It Forward project.  Would anyone like to be the recipient of a handmade gift from me anytime in the next year?  All that is required is that you also do a PIF to three additional people.  You have a whole year to do it.  That should be easy enough.  Right?  I'll take the first three people who wish to do it.

We've just had our first big winter storm and got 1 1/2 inches of rain.  Not bad for us.  We have three more forecast for this week and they are suppose to be stronger with winds, thunderstorms, possibly hail and more rain.  We need it badly and are enjoying every drop.  I can already see how happy our reservoirs are!!!!  I did not enjoy loosing power three times yesterday.  How do you people who live with power outages often deal with it?  I was so tired of resetting clocks all day.

Saturday Events

We had a wonderful day today as we attended the Baptism of our newest granddaughter.  The service itself was just lovely and the brunch that followed at our son and his wife's home was just as delightful.  The little angel was perfect despite the fact that people were pouring water over her head.  These celebrations within the family are always so touching.

Our son and his family.

The newest little angel.

Nothing but smiles after becoming so holy!!!

Since our son lives about two hours north from us, we drove up yesterday and spent the night at a hotel right on the beach.  Most rooms have a beautiful ocean view and I must say that the weather was perfect for enjoying strolling along the cliff overlooking the ocean.

This was at sunset last night.  Don't you love the dolphin topiaries?

This was the perfect start of today.

Last evening was also the Friday Night Sew-In.  Considering the fact that we were going to be gone and away from my sewing machine, I had to do some hand work.  I needed to make a get well card for a friend of mine who had surgery this week so I started it before we left (on the machine) and then finished the handwork in the car.  These were made from the strips of fabric that I had leftover from my Schnibbles quilt this month so I guess it also counts towards my No Strings Attached Challenge.

Four more siggy blocks have arrived in my mail.  Not only do I love swapping these wonderfully creative blocks, but each one is also accompanied by a short note telling me about the person who has made it.  I find it so fascinating to read a little about their lives.

We are forecast to be in for some really good storms this week.  They are actually saying that we could get up to ten inches of rain in the three storms coming Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  I'll believe it when I see it, but it is nice to think that we could be getting that much help for our drought.  Keep the rain dances coming!!!!!

Rain, Glorious Rain

While the majority of my blogging friends have been in a deep freeze for a long time, we have been enjoying summerlike weather.  Last night we finally got some rain.  I love sleeping with the sound of the rain.  We only got .1 inch, but we need every drop we can get.  The sun is now out and the temperatures are suppose to reach the 70* mark today, but it was a glorious night.  We are forecast to get a good series of storms next week so I hope we will enjoy more rainy nights.  Meanwhile, the skies have been stunning.

Sunsets that light the evenings up like fire.

The skies announcing the pending storm last evening.

We were busy over the weekend babysitting eight of our grandchildren.  The cousins always enjoy spending the time together and a sleepover at Grandma and Granndpa's house is always sure to share a lot of giggles.

Rub a dub, dub....six boys in a tub.

Granndpa taking the children on a tractor ride up to the creek to find crawdads.

I have finally finished the pruning and am now able to get back to a little sewing.  I finished the top to my January Schnibbles project and need to quilt it so I can bind it for Friday Night Sew In with Heidi.

Three more Siggy blocks have arrived in my mail.  These are such fun to collect.  If you have not signed up for this swap, you should give it a try.  Annalies does such an incredible job on it and sends us updates on participants every three months.  I believe there are close to 800 people in the group now.  Amazing.

This weekend will be the christening of our newest granddaughter.  Family get togethers for such important celebrations are always so meaningful.  We are looking forward to getting together with the family of our DIL as well.  They live in Northern California.

Well, here we are in the middle of January.  How is everyone doing with new year's resolutions?  Well....you still have eleven and a half months to go!!!

A New Year

It's hard to believe that we are already a week into our new year.  If this continues, it will be Christmas again before we know it.  Yikes!

We had a delightful time rolling out the old and bringing in 2010.  New Years Eve we had a small dinner party with my mom, my sister, BIL and our daughter and her little guy.  Her husband works on New Year's Eve so she enjoys hanging out with the "old folks." 

The next morning we headed off with my sister and BIL to visit my brother and SIL for the weekend.  We have enjoyed celebrating together for a number of years and this time we were able to join them in their new home.  We had a great time cooking a delicious chicken and shrimp paella dinner.

The whole gang cooking.

That can't be right!!!!

We also spent a lot of time over the weekend playing Wii together.  There is nothing like a group of adults making total fools of themselves.  If you haven't given it a try, you must find one.  We enjoyed the sports, but I highly recommend the Wii Fitness and Wii Fitness Plus.  My arms were so sore from flying like a bird as I attempted to land on a ship.  My legs were also sore after pedaling my bike while I retreived flags.  Whew!  It is a really good workout.  The graphics are so amazing and had all of us in stitches for hours as we watched each other attempt various tasks. Seriously, workout has never been so much fun.

I know so many folks are in such a deep freeze at the moment and it doesn't sound like there is relief any time soon.  We, on the other hand, have been enjoying delightfully warm weather.  I have taken the last few days to start pruning my roses.  I always hate to cut them back when I have so many gorgeous roses still blooming, but they do need to be done at some point.  It is a huge job as I have close to 100 roses in the yard.  After two days of steady work I am over halfway done with them.  The warm temperatures are forecast throughout the week so I hope to finish them soon.

Lots of sunshine here.

Warm temperatures too!

Still producing beautiful roses.

The mail was fun this week.  I had a couple of nice wins that have arrived.  The first was from Karen at Badlands Quilts.  It was a lovely charm pack and she included a great fat quarter of black and white fabric as well.

I know a lot of us were playing the Jolly Holly Bingo Game over Christmas.  Well.....I am the worst word picker known to man, but I was lucky enought to win one of the daily drawings.  It was for a whole roll of quilt labels.  I didn't even know something like this existed.  I've always made my own, but I am set now for awhile.

Are we all excited about the new projects that we are going to get involved in this year?  It is almost like we have a clean slate - like a new box of crayons.  I don't even know where to begin.  There are so many ideas floating in my head and I know eventually they will start working their way out.

I do hope that many of you will enjoy a warm up soon.  If there was a way, I would share my heat with you, but in the meantime I will enjoy it for you.