Tutu Dress and Yuccas

I have been working on different project this past week. I finished another two pair of the slippers, Which was very good. 

I also worked on a cute Tutu Dress for our youngest granddaughter Caelin.

Some of the people have commented that it looked like a dress from Frozen. They are so right.

I got this as a free pattern from Free Patterns by Ness and Crochet Buddy's a group on Facebook. Patricia Klonoski is the creator of the pattern which she shares in that group for free!

Join here to get this and many many other crochet patterns for free. There are many wonderful patterns and talented ladies in the group.

Now here is the dress. The changes I made are that I picoted the edges (neck and armholes) as well I crocheted a flower. 

I am working on another two dresses in different colours for the two older granddaughters. I just wish I could figure out what I could make for my oldest granddaughter. She is 13 now and she is  getting her own personal style. Not always liking what Gramma would pick for her anymore. 

It has been very lovely here the last few weeks and so I have been spending time outdoors. I received a few yucca plants to put on our bank. It is quite a steep bank and so it is hard to work on. Not to mention all the weeds that have grown there over the last nine years.  

My yuccas are a very nice substitute. I am loving them. 

Yucca and weeds on the bank

My stray lupin among the snow on the mountain.

That about covers the last few days for me. 

Have a wonderful weekend sharing good times with family & friends.

We will be off tomorrow for a bike ride with the group we are trying out.

Joanne

What a great weekend we had

We don't have a long weekend here in Canada, not in BC anyway.

So we are back to a normal Monday, Jim is at work and Arianna is in school.

Although Arianna and her class are going on a field trip. She was excited that they didn't have real school work to be doing today.

Friday while at the school a teacher that has ordered four pair of black slippers asked if I would make another 2 pair for. That is 6 pair from just one person. Wow that is a lot of slippers. She really likes them. I have one pair almost done.

 

Friday night I finished that mermaid costume. It looks pretty good if I do say so myself. I just hope it fits the young girl that I made it for. We have not been able to connect so far. I hope to be able to go over this week. It isn't needed until later on in the summer. Her mom is a photographer and she wanted it to take pictures of her little precious girl in one. 

Here is the completed outfit.

Mermaid photo op costume about 18 months size

A close up of the head band and top.

On Saturday we went for the first time with a group of bikers. They are the West Kootenay Roadrunners. Nice bunch of people so far. I know Brian and Joanne of course. There were 7 of us that started out but we dropped on at our first stop. He needed to go home to be with his wife. So six of us left for a nice ride along the lake. I even made it around the hair pin corner at Coffee Creek! Woo hoo for me! That corner almost paralyzes me. I slowed down and took a deep breath and all was well.

I was quite tired by the time it was 8:30 and went to bed for the night. I didn't even wake up just before 5. Was asleep till almost 6. Nice

Have a great day and Happy Memorial Day to those in the states.

Joanne

Another project on the go

Last weekend my daughter and her friend came for a weekend visit. They traveled for about 6 or so hours to get here. 

We had such a wonderful time. I was able to teach them some crocheting. Kristine my daughter crocheted a pair of combat boots for her boyfriend's grandson. I loved the colours she chose for them too. She did a very good job for her first project ... sort of she did crochet some dish clothes many years ago. 

Kristine with her very first pair of combat boots

You can find the pattern for this here. The pattern includes the boots, some hats and a few other items.

There is a dog laying on the back part of the couch and that is why it is so saggy. Jax is a very sweet Boston Terrier.

Alina had been working for a long time on a baby blanket. She was very proud of all the work she had been putting into it. But she did make a few mistakes which of course bothered her. So after a couple of days she decided it was time to take it apart and start over from scratch. The original blanket was done in a very strange stitch that I have never seen before. I call it one of two things a cross between sc and hdc or the Alina stitch. After taking apart and starting over again I had her crocheting rows of easily done dc. She was happy with how fast it was. 

Kristine helping Alina take her first attempt at a blanket. She is sad

I have been working on some more slippers, I made a pair for Alina which are a bright blue and bright pink. Those are my favorite so far. The colours were such fun to work with.

I have also gotten back to working on my great niece's  mermaid costume. I am not done yet but here is what I have done so far. 

Not quite done yet but you can see it is a mermaid costume.

I am not going to share the pattern for this one as I am not happy with the one bought. It was not anything like the picture or the pattern didn't correspond with the picture. I went onto youtube and got ideas to help me along and here is what I ended up with so far.

That will be it for me this week. I am off to a PAC meeting this morning. Have a great weekend

Joanne

Looking out

Yesterday I went out onto our deck and admired the greenery and new life out there. I love this time of year. The birds that begin to chirp at about 4am, the sun rising over the mountain that we live on, the grass being mowed (I love to hear that sound from afar for some reason), seeing the small water sprays coming off the rocks as I ride my bike some of which I could hear even over the sound of my bike and through my helmet. I am excited to see that my lilac bush is about to burst with these lovely lilac and white blooms.

I love flowers. I just wish we were around more during the summer where I could enjoy more of them around my home. So having these two bushes makes me happy.

Hope your day is putting a smile on your face.

Joanne

Spring is here

Spring is so here. I look out and the trees are leafed in now. I love this time of year, Although summer is my absolute favorite of all. 

The past few days I have been crocheting a little dress, headband and diaper cover. They are quite quick to do up to and so very cute! 

 I still have to complete the Diaper cover but it is looking very nice so far.

 This is the little set I worked on. The diaper cover is not done yet. I like it though. 

I got the free pattern here for the Little Sweetie Dress and headband. You can find the Diaper Cover here. I did follow the pattern for the Diaper Cover up until the ruffles were to be added. I used the trim from the bottom of the dress to make my own ruffles. They look quite nice.

We are having a good week with some sunshine. Last night Jim and I went on the bikes. It was my first ride of the year. Hope I can get a few more in over the summer. 

That about covers my crafting and creativity for this week. Enjoy your weekend 

Joanne

Busy busy

Good morning. As the post title says I have been very busy.

In January I started to crochet some slippers for a few family members and somehow managed to make a very small business out of it.Not sure how long people will want me to make some for but I am enjoying for the time being.

Here are a few pictures of the Crocodile Stitch Booties I have been working on. I made this pair for my mom while I visited for two weeks. She was quite happy with this pair.

Harlequin Crocodile Stitch Booties

Gradient blues Crocodile Stitch Booties

These are for four of our daughters. 

And this is only a few of what I have been making. Today I have worked on a pair of solid black. They are quite nice. I also added the buttons to a pair that are black with purple and a bit taller than the above booties. I am really enjoying this. 

If anyone would like the pattern for the lovely crocheted booties go here. The instructions are very clear with a lot of helpful pictures.

At the beginning of March my mother came for a wonderful two week visit. We sat around, chatted, went shopping in near by towns and went to some wonderful cafe's and restaurants. I think she was quite impressed by all the variety that is around our area.

I drove her home while our daughter Arianna was on spring break. We got to visit and see old friends and family during that two weeks. It was quite something to spend so much time with my mom. I don't think we have ever spent any one on one time together like that before.

On the way back home I got to take our three youngest granddaughters with us. They were here for two weeks. I have to admit that I was quite concerned about having the youngest for that length of time But she was such a sweet pea and I made it with not much troubles. Caelin was happy with me as her sub mom. She was a busy little gal though. 

Caelin rolling around at the park

Payton, the oldest of the three, got a Mike Wazowski t-shirts. She wanted for her and grandpa to wear their matching t-shirts. So they did!

I have my eye on you

We did lots of fun things such as go to the park, walk along a walking path, trampoline jumping, collecting rocks, setting up our trailer, make their own play dough and slime.

Makayla loved her slime

Three girls making the slime

When mom and dad returned from their Mexican vacation I was done in. I loved every minute of the my time with the girls. As they pulled up the driveway the girls were just finishing up their "practice Easter egg hunt"

Practice Easter Egg Hunts are fun too

Once the girls left I was quite ready for a rest. Lots of activities wore me down I guess. I am not used to so much activity especially with a 15 month old. 

After resting up and getting my energy back Joanne and Brian invited us to go on a day trip. We went to an old light house. It is not in use now but it is kept up by an historical society or something like that. It was a lovely day. 

Restored Lighthouse

Jim, me and Arianna in front of the lighthouse

There is a lot more that has happened over the last few months but these are just some of the highlights. 

Now off to start a new month. I am off this morning to bring another pair of slippers away.

Joanne

Happy New Year!

As the saying goes where did this past year go?

So many wonderful things happened and things that we have done over the past year.

Next week we will be celebrating my youngest granddaughter's first birthday. A year ago I was soon to be leaving from my home to stay with my grand daughters while Becky was in the hospital delivering  in our newest grand child. She is so precious and being a regular curious and adventurous little girl! 

Spring came which brought us to our second trip to Florida with our friends the Craigs. Because we went on a Disney cruise and again to Disney World it was a magical time. So much fun was had. We brought our second granddaughter with us this time as well as my mom and second daughter Holly joined us. Great memories were had that is for sure.

During our summer vacation we did a lot of camping. One week at Syringa with our annual group of friends, one week down in Idaho (Wallace) then a road trip on the bikes to Wallace Idaho. I was fortunate enough to be able to have my three oldest grand daughters here for a week. What fun we had!  Finally to end the summer with a bang we traveled to the coast (Vancouver) for two weeks of camping near my side of the family. Got to see our daughters, son in laws and grand children there too. We were also able to celebrate Arianna's 11th birthday while there. The whole family came by and we had a huge meal outdoors.

Fall was back to school for Arianna as well as the wood splitting and stacking. We are currently enjoying the warmth from all that wood now. As Jim says we get to enjoy that wood heat 7 times over, getting it (which we have not done yet, We pay someone else to do that), splitting the wood, stacking it, bringing it into the house and the burning it! It is also a great workout.

Christmas has come and gone. This year we had the dinner at our house. Jim and I brought in the huge 4' X 8' table. We sat around that table in our livingroom for the Christmas turkey feast. Unfortunately Jim was working night shift and so he was not able to join in the eating until you were just too full marathon. 

Our matching cards

Christmas morning we did the usual get up (at 6 am because Jim had worked night shift and he wanted to be there to watch Arianna open her gifts)

Here you can see that we are a real couple. We bought each other the SAME card!!! The funny thing is mine is once again a sappy card and his is the "you are so lucky to have me type" lol. He likes a joking card. How can one card be both? 

 

The outdoor 4X8 table as our Christmas table. It works well

 Above is us at our table in the living room. Our dining area is too small for all of us to sit there. So here we are in the living room. We had the Craig family and the Tarasoff family join us. What a spread we had and we were all very full by nights end. 

Our delicious deserts deep dish apple pie, ginger crust pumpkin cheese cake and pumpkin pie

Jaime and Janet made the deserts and what a way to finish off the night! Even more stuffed than the turkeys were!

For about 8 or maybe 9 years we have been bringing in the New Year with a fondue feast. This year our friends the Harshenins  hosted the fondue. We really go all out and have such a good time. Lobster, shrimp, steak, chicken, veggies, bread cubes, cheese fondue and hot oil are our usual items on the list. Plus all the dipping sauces. To finish off the night we have a chocolate fondue with fresh fruit and all kinds of desserts which includes pretzels, Rice Krispie squares, gummis, cookies and oh so much more.

Adult end of the table.

Children's end of the table

 That concluded our year. Hope you all had a wonderful New Year and I pray that the coming 2014 year is a good one for you all. May your life be filled with health, comfort, ease of finances  creative outlets. 

Joanne

October already?

Good day to you all.

I have a hard time believing we well into October. Where has the time gone?

We had a very busy summer and continued right up to now. 

The usual camping, swimming, yard work, having my three oldest granddaughters here for a week and that sort of thing. Once September rolled around it was time to get working on the 10 cords of firewood. It is all done and stored away for the winter now. Woo. Lots of dusty work I have to admit.

I know last post I said that I would try to share some of my cutting files but still have not figured out how to share them. I will continue to work on finding a way to do that.

Some of the highlights of our summer.

 Paige our oldest granddaughter and Arianna were outside and discovered another one of our skinks. This one is a adult because it doesn't have a blue tail.

Our oldest granddaughter Paige and Arianna.

The two younger granddaughters, Payton and Makayla, enjoying our trampoline. This was something they looked forward to everyday.

The girls enjoying some bouncing exercise.

A friend of mine celebrated her 50th birthday. The three of us have been friends for a long time ... about 20 years I would say.

Lisa the birthday girl, Wanda and myself

We are a family with a lot of girls! Jim, the only male in this picture, calls us all his estrogen pool.

Back row: Me (Joanne), Mom, Arianna, Holly and Paige

Middle row: Becky, Payton, Jim, Kristine and Makayla

Sitting in Jim's lap is the youngest our granddaughters Caelin (unfortunately there is one daughter missing here ... Karina)

Jim and the estrogen pool.

My four girls and I. Becky, Holly Kristine and Arianna. 

Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!

After our really fun time of camping for two weeks we returned home to this. Yes my wood pile that I had to split.This is not the full ten cords but close to it. It is all now safely tucked away in the wood shed ready to be burnt and keep us warm.

In early September we went to Penticton with our friends the Craig family. We camped in Penticton for two days. Saturday we spent the day on our party dock floating down the canal. What fun we had!

Jim with our party dock inflated and ready to ride the canal.

Now we are into fall and the trees are changing colours, the days and nights are getting cooler.

Till my next post

Adieux

Joanne

I was thinking...

Lately I have been posting about the things I have been doing. Not that this blog isn't suppose to be about that but when I first started this my intentions were to show off or share what I have done in the crafty sense. Life has taken me into a different direction of late. So all the camping, bike riding, painting etc have been on the forefront. I love every minute of it too. 

But I think it is time to share a little bit of what I have done in the way of craftiness. My granddaughters are coming here for a much anticipated week next week. I have looked forward to this time of just Arianna, the girls and me. I have four granddaughters now. HoseAA (for explanations on these nicknames go here) is 12 now, HoseAB is 5 (she came with us to WDW in March), HoseAC will be 4 on the 6th and our very last precious girl HoseAD is just about 7 months. I am not bringing home HoseAD because I don't have the room in the truck for her nor do I have a crib. I am not sure that I could handle all the girls at once either. 

So for one of the crafts that I thought I would do with the girls was to make some chipboard books with them. Name books to be more precise. Now I am thinking that I am being over ambitious. I might do this with the two older ones though. That would be HoseAA and Arianna.

Once I have figured out how to share these files I will start to post them on here. I have made up a few SVG files on my own. It was a fun process too.The program I have is called SureCutsALot2 other wise known as SCAL2. You can't get this version any longer. Mine works with my Cricut Expression. Today you can't use SCAL (the newer versions) with Cricut and I think it is one of cutter. But if you have a cutter check out SCAL3. It is pretty easy to find but go to SCAL3. This site has a lot of cute cut files for sale and daily freebies. I highly recommend them. There is a list of what cutting machines you can use with SCAL3. Another fantastic place to get some SVGs is here. Penny is a very talented woman. She is such a sweet person too.

Now off to see if any bloggers out there will share how to post them :-) I know quite a few have them up on some sharing places like 4 share etc. So will see how that goes.

For those British Columbians have a great long weekend and for the rest of the world a good weekend.

Joanne

Motorcycles and friends

This past week we have spent a lot of time with friends and motorcycling. 

Last weekend Arianna and I went down to Spokane with our friends Brian, Joanne and family. Brian towed the trailer down, Gwen drove the motor home and I drove our little Vitara with Arianna and Alex in the back seat.

We stayed at an RV resort and took little trips into Spokane.  Brian and Joanne went to the local Harley shop and test drove one bike (much to their dissatisfaction! Only one used one could be test driven)

It was a quick trip and we were home again by Sunday night.

Joanne, my bestest buddy went into the local MVB and wrote her class 8 passing with flying colours!! It was a few days before she get onto a bike. But alas finally on Monday Jim was able to take her out to the college for some learning. She has ridden a dirt bike for many years and was familiar with a bike. Only this is a road bike and they handle a bit differently. But she adjusted pretty quickly and off they went onto the road. 

Tuesday was a big day for us all. We went for a very nice bike ride for the day. Left at about 9:30 am and returned at 5 pm! It was an amazing day for the road. Joanne did very well and no accidents were to be had. 

Brian and Joanne ... Jim and Joanne ready for a days ride.

The Joannes at the end of a fantastic day.

I think that is about it for now. 

More riding to come with these friends this coming weekend. 

Have a great rest of the week and onto the weekend.

Joanne

Down south of the border

Good morning. 

I wish I can say I have been really busy but that is not the case. I took a couple of days to just do little things like laundry and babysitting kids while their parents went out for a much needed day on their motorcycle. A big highlight though was our nephew Jeremy came for a visit. We were very excited to see him. He will be 19 next month. He is so much like his father, Jim's brother Fred. 

Jeremy probably from last summer.

I few days ago I said I would post our little trip down to Kellogg/Wallace Idaho.

After a week of camping at Syringa we left for Kellogg Idaho. It is about a 5 hour drive or so but when you are towing a 30 foot trailer behind you ... lets just say it takes longer. Not to mention stopping for lunch in North Port, some Walmart shopping in Colville and a little shopping at Cabella's in Ceour D'Alene. (they have some delicious fudge there)

We called home for those 5 days at the Crystal Gold Mine RV park in Kellogg Idaho. This is adjacent to the mine tour. It is quite the operation. Got there on Thursday night. 

Friday morning we just had to walk to the mine tour. It was a good tour and I learned a lot about mining in the late 1800's

The group of us at the Crystal Gold Mine tour.

 At the end of the tour we got to pan for gold in some baths. It was fun, I was bound and determined to get some gold. I did find a few flakes too. 

I found some gold in them thar tubs.

Our friends the Craigs, which I am sure you are getting to know by now are celebrating their 13 year of marriage! Thirteen years ago they came to Wallace for part of their honeymoon. The doorway you see them standing in front of in the picture below is the where they went up some stairs to a small hotel. The Ryan Hotel. It is quite old and the furnishings are from the late 1800's or maybe the early 1900's. You wouldn't know it from looking at it from the outside door! After 13 years of marriage this is the family they have now.

Brian, Alex, Joanne, Elizabeth and Stephanie Craig

After a bit of touring in Wallace we decided it was time to eat lunch. Stephanie really wanted to go where there was a spaceship. Jim had done some net touring finding this restaurant "Red Light Garage" Both were in the place! How fortunate. The restaurant has a huckleberry shake (among other huckleberry delights actually the whole town has huckleberry stuff). The restaurant is full of antiques and other things of interest. I am sure there was at least a license plate from every year and every State!

Alex, Arianna, Elizabeth and Stephanie in the spaceship

 Just to show you a sampling of the interesting things in the Red Light Garage here are the kids making funny faces. They are seated in the tub sofa. There is a little painting at the back of the tub. What fun and such interesting things. Can you see the wall in the back ground. This place could keep you busy looking at all the walls and ceiling.

Arianna, Alex and Elizabeth in the tub/sofa

The following day we went on the Sierra Silver Mine tour. It is in Wallace but on the outskirts of town. We took a trolley to the mine.  Most of the section of the mine that we toured was a class room. They showed you how they worked a mine. The machinery works and Bob demonstrated it. One part showed you how the explosives work. But it was only red lights that would demonstrate the sequence. The last part of the tour actually went into real mine.

Our little group just shortly before entering the mine.

 While we waited for the tour to begin and Bob our guide did his introduction we got to watch many chipmunks hoard the seeds laid out for them. Not only were there adult chipmunks we saw many little ones too.

Can you see how full his cheeks are?

Another place we went to was in Kellogg. Silver Mountain are gondolas that go up to the skiing mountain. The gondola ride is about 20 minutes up the mountain. It is gorgeous at the top. We brought a picnic lunch. Sitting outside near the restaurant/cafeteria we ate our food and enjoyed the scenery. There was even a little playground for the kids to enjoy.

Silver Mountain

At the bottom near the end of the day (about 4 in the afternoon) we stopped to have our picture taken, Our aim was to get the picture with one of the gondolas over our heads as it came in. Not successful at all. But here we are ready to be on our way to the next stop.

At the entrance to the Silver Mountain gondolas

Between Wallace and Kellogg there is monument that was erected after a disaster in 1972. The Sunshine mine had a fire in it. Smoke and carbon monoxide killed 91 men. 

Monument of a miner

That was pretty much our trip south. We did get to do some shopping. 

On our way home we stopped in Ceour D'Alene at Costco. Loaded up the trailer and away home we went.

Three are  a few sites you can look up what is in Kellogg and Wallace. Look and you will find interesting things especially in Wallace.

Joanne

Summer is a very busy time!

After Arianna is out of school I find that I am spun into a busy vortex.

Don't get me wrong, I love this time of year. In fact it is my favorite time of year.

Every year we have our annual camping at Syringa Provincial campground.

Not as many families this year but it was still a lot of fun. How does a week of camping go by in the blink of an eye? 

Last year for the first 4 or 5 days it poured rain. 

Not this year. I am so thankful for that.

Families started to arrive Thursday afternoon. We were surprised with one family we didn't know were going to be there. So happy that Keri and her boys were there even though it was just one day of our stay.

Keri packing up her camp while I visited.

Stephanie likes to sleep in her tent. She has been doing this for years. Last year she bought herself a nice sized tent.

Stephanie and Hammah setting up the tent

Jaime talked about making fire starters last year. We never did get around to making them over the winter. So she took it upon herself to make each camp a set of them. Thank you Jaime!

Jaime and Joanne with the fire starters.

 Our second annual progressive dinner at Jaime, Janet and Gordon's campsite to have delicious salads (rice and Caesar)Not a huge group but a lot more manageable. And what fun we had!

The whole gang for the 2nd Annual Progressive Dinner

Jaime, Janet and Gordon the hostess' for the first course

 I don't have a picture of the next stop which was our site with seafood skewers (course #2)

Course #3 Shana serving up vegetable skewers

 The following stop was at Joanne and Brian's site for course #4 with delicious steak bites and garlic bread. 

I did take pictures but not a good one of Joanne serving up the delectable food.

Our next and last stop was at Darlene and Dave's for desserts. Darlene is an amazing baker and she didn't disappoint. She served ice cream with all the fixings you could have wanted and then some.

Course #5 Desserts at Darlene and Dave's site.

The finally of the night was our campfire get together.

Shana and Myles popping popcorn over the fire. No smores needed this night.

One of the dogs that comes camping every year is Buster. He is a rottie/lab cross. Buster loves the water. You can tell he has lab in him because he loves to retrieve kids, logs, sticks etc. But his very favorite are logs ... big ones! 

Buster retrieving a log with the kids on it. They just have to come ashore!

One of my favorite things while camping is watching all the butterflies.

Here one landed on my foot as I watched the kids and dog play in the water. Joanne my ever faithful friend was there too.

Small butterfly on my Keen

Last year we walked to the beach and saw about 20 butterflies on the sand drinking the water (I think that is what they are doing).

This year we didn't see as many but here are a few that did come to entertain us.

I wonder if these are monarchs as well?

A few days after we started camping Jim had to go in and have a wisdom tooth extracted. An oral surgeon had to come in for this procedure. After the tooth was extracted Jim needed to rest a lot. Here Jim and Arianna lay in the new hammock we gave him for father's day. He really appreciates this mode of relaxing.

Taking it easy after surgery.

Every night we have a fire with roasting marshmallows and making smores, Texas smores that it.

Janet and Jaime roasting their Texas smores over the fire and a few of the other campers.

Of course what would camping be without the beach and playing in the sand.

Myles, Elizabeth and Arianna making hot tubs in the sand. It was a lot of work

Another fun thing we get to do thanks to Brian. BOATING!

The kids all wanted to go for tubing time. I think Elizabeth was the first lucky person to go out on the tube.

Brian with his boat & Elizabeth ready to be swept away on the tube.

Boris is the smaller member of our canine group. He is probably not much more than a couple of pounds. Jaime is his owner and she got him a life jacket. The life jacket even has a handle on it.

Jaime has seen a dog drown and never wants this to happen to her beloved Boris. So he may not like the jacket but he will be a live unhappy puppy.

Boris' new life jacket.

Darlene had suggested we all make stepping stones. Here are all 12 decorated stepping stones.

Stepping stones

One of Joanne's bucket list items for this summer was to get a ride with Jim on his bike. He has a Mustang seat which is very comfortable.

One more thing crossed off Joanne's summer bucket list.

This was the first part of our camping adventures. One whole week. 

Tomorrow I will share our trip down south of the border.

Stay tuned for adventures in Kellogg and Wallace Idaho!

Joanne