Thursday, June 29, 2006

pocket purses


Today I had Casey & Sydney decorate Pocket Purses. I saw the project in a children's activity magazine & went for it. Just have to cut the back pocket off the rear of a pair of jeans (used ones) and decorate. The two large ones are from Brian's jeans and the two small ones from a pair Casey had outgrown. Pretty cute?

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Baby pictures








Here she is. Such a cutie.







And here is her mom (holding her), her grandma on the left and her great grandma on the right.

Then of course we had to get a picture of Uncle Christopher, Mom (Jessica) holding Anessa, and Aunt Kimberly. Don't you just love it when the kids all smile?

Friday, June 23, 2006

Arizona

Well, we made it to Phoenix without any problems. It is hot here.
The baby is addorable (of course). I will post pictures when I get home as I do not have the capability of downloading pictures onto this computer from my camera.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Bat flowers



















One of the girls in the pool told me about this little plant, (Firecracker Cuphea). She and the
nursery attendant call it a bat flower because, if you have a good imagination you can see a little bat face and big red bat wings.

It's real name is Cuphea purpurea. There is another branch of this plant that they call little mice. Much the same in configuration but with smaller red petals.

They say that hummingbirds love them. We shall see.

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Red hat lunch

Our original plan for today's Scarlett O'Hatties gathering was to go to Lake Coeur d'Alene and take a cruise around the lake. The weather has been cold, stormy, windy, wet and only two ladies were going to attend the event. HMMM. My thought then was to change the venue of the meeting to something a bit closer (the lake is 30 minuts away) and less expensive (cost of the cruise if $15.00 plus food). Therefore I opened my home to a lite lunch. The same two ladies who were going on the cruise were the only ones in attendance. Go figure.

The best part of that whole scenario is that my house is all clean (company coming clean) and we have less than a week before we go to Phoenix. With any luck the place will be tidy when we leave so I won't be coming home to a sloppy house.

Phoenix has been having 95-100 degree weather. Ours on the other hand has a time getting into the 70s. I'll pack lite - shorts and t-shirts.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Sewing room organized















As you can see, I had a big mess on my hands. Stuff was brought into the sewing room and placed where ever there was room. Since the room is smaller than the one I had upstairs, rearranging has been a challenge. I have finally gotten the bulk of it done.














Now I can actually get to my machine and find room to cut out a doll dress or two.





My grand daughter, upon seeing that the room was tidy again, said, "can I make a purse"? I had to take some pictures of a clean room before she started.

Now If I could only find my small box of elastic I'd be all set.

My garden




After being scratched this spring by my "attack rose bush", I told her that she had better be spectacular or out she was going. See, she really is outstanding. She stays.







As does the docile, "nice white bush". The first cuttings I brought inside lasted quite a while. Then came the rains and the second cuttings did not fare as well. I think I have to snip off all the spent flowers now to ensure a healthy bush, right? I sooo know nothing of roses.








I had the grass removed (dirt area to the right and in front of the gas meters) so that I could put flowers in. I put sunflower seeds in front of the gas meters. Should block that view in a month. Trouble is the meter readers have to have access to the little dials on the front of the meters or I'd box them in entirely. This

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

More rain

This rain just won't stop. Yesterday the hillside next to a well traveled road near us washed away and took part of the road with it. We have now broken the record for rainfall during the fiest 13 days of June set in 1888. We officially have 2.73 inches this month. The last time June was this wet was 1983 whe we had 2.85 inches for the entire month.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Rain Rain go away

I suppose the farmers love rain but I, personally, am getting a bit boored with it. Sure it makes the grass green and the flowers grow but it also makes weeds grow. (Now I remember why I didn't want a yard to take care of). I only have a small plot so I really shouldn't complain. It will give me something to do when I get boored of sitting on the patio sipping a tall glass of crystal clear water.

Went to "A Chorus Line" yesterday with seven of my swimming companions. We have asked our instructor to incorporate some of the dance steps into our swim routine. That could happen, right? "step, together, flip kick, turn, slide , slide" all in the deep end. Ha Ha We are taking hats today for the routine. I'll let you know.

Called my daughter in law last night - the grandmother of my great granddaughter. Seems the father of the baby is living with them. Now I might be able to agree to such an arrangement IF they couple were married and IF he had a job and was contributing to the household expenses, but guess what? He's not. He has put off asking Jessica to marry him (until after his brother gets married this summer) - what's up with that. He has lost a couple of jobs in the last year and has now been hired by someone who says he really has no work for him. What part of job does he not get? Job is something you do for pay, not something you say you have and do nothing for no pay. Brian must be a saint to put up with this situation.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Garden Project


Yesterday was lovely, not too hot, not too cool, no rain. So I decided to clean up the small bed in front of some shrubs at my front door. There had been a large, old, overgrown sick shrub there and the condo residents voted to remove it leaving a bare hole with the decorator rocks nearly all covered in soil. Simple solution to making it look fresh again was to remove the soil from the rock area and plant a heat loving ground cover/rock garden type plant. Did I say simple? So I got down on the ground and started removing the rocks, separating them from the soil they had rested in for many and many a year. Being as I am, unaccostomed to such activity, I could only work for 45 minutes before I would have to come in and rest my knees and back. It took four sessions of 30 to 45 minutes each. I'm talking a fairly small area here. Dig out rocks, scoop up dirt replace rocks, haul dirt away (thank you Jerry, I could not have lifted those buckets as easily as you did). But I did it and it's done and the portulaca (not sure of the spelling of that) I planted will soon fill the dirt hole that once housed a shrub.


Then I look to the other side of the entry way --- "that's not my chicken". BUT ... it would look so nice if that little triangle were all rocks or all grass. Take your pick. Right now it is rocks, grass, dirt and Thistles. It's only about four feet by three feet. I could do that in an hour. But not today.



Right now my sitting muscles are screaming every time I stand up. They did not like the kneeling position I took for those periods of time. (I finally resorded to just sitting and moving the rocks and dirt between splayed out legs - not very efficient.)

Today it is rainy and gray. Jhary's community had their annual BBQ. They moved it into the staff office. We went early, ate and came home so there would be room for other guests.