Odds and Ends

Summer is in the air in our neck of the woods and I am loving it.  The heat invigorates me.  It is a wonderful feeling.

We've had a wonderful week filled with grandchildren.  They were all out last week for Easter vacation so we always enjoy some of the extra time that we get to spend with them. 

J and B spent a couple of days with us midweek and we got to explore some fun places with them.



Boys will be boys and climb anything.



A visit to the alpaca farm.




Is this cute or what?




Next stop was to the fish hatchery.




These were waiting for any escaping fish.  There was heavy fencing above the tanks to keep these fishers away.




They were hoping the lake looks like this when we go fishing this summer.



We had to stop at the rose nursery so Grandma could replace two rose bushes.



A great time to visit the rose garden!!!




Can we take one of these home????




Sunstruck was the rose of choice for me.   I love this rose and now have three of them in the rose garden.



We wondered why the citrus were covered.  They are seedless mandarins and are covered to keep the bees out.  Interesting!



We had our eldest son's children for the weekend while their parents went to Santa Barbara to celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary.  To us, it seems like it was just yesterday.




We went out to breakfast after church.




Trying to pull the palm branch down.  It's harder than it looks!!!



They all love playing with the sewing machine.  They made a fabric postcard for their folks anniversary.  The teen embroidered his initial on his socks.

As a thank you for watching the children they brought us two of these lovely creatures to enjoy.

Needless to say there was not much sewing of my own going on,  I did manage to get some binding done on two of my quilts that were returned by Mary who did an amazing job on the quilting.  If you have never seen her work you have to check out her blog.  She has several special projects going on right now that will be published sometime next year and she has shown a few sneak peeks.  As well, she is such a delightful person.

From the Thread Head Quiltalong.



This one has been claimed by a granddaughter because of the cherries.




Look at the wonderful cherry quilting that Mary did on it.

 I had lunch with a high school friend yesterday and she gave me this fabulous bag.  She made it using her own hand dyed fabrics which are to die for.  She really knows the colors that I love.  I am still trying to convince her that she needs to start a blog.

Has anyone ever had their keyboard die?  My keyboard, I must admit, needed replacing because most of the letters were no longer visible on the keys.  However.....did it need to die?  DH brought home a fancy new ergonomic looking thing that I am having the most dreadful time adjusting to.  I know that eventually I may appreciate it, but I would love to have my flat old thing back again.  Can you tell that I am not big on change?

Lastly, Linda passed this traveling book onto me and I would love to pass it on to someone else to enjoy.  If you would like to read it, please let me know and I will mail it off to someone.   I will select a name next Tuesday - May 10th.