Into Fall now

How does time fly by so fast. It seems only yesterday that we were in the hot sun, swimming, hiking and around camp fires. Now the trailer is in it's winter spot, the trees are  wearing their fall leaves and our wood for the winter is tucked away into our wood shed. We have started to use our wood stove again. It was a sad day for me when we light our wood stove because that means that summer is truly over. 

Now to go back a few months. In July we were camping at a campground near us. We do this every year with a few families and have a great time. This year I brought some rocks from home, we are never short on those! Loaded paint brushes and acrylic paint into the trailer for some fun rock painting. I love the personalities of all the rocks! One of my friends Janet enjoyed it so much that she bought paint for her own creation for when ever she wanted to paint a rock or found one that was begging for a make over. 

Table is set for painting  ... rocks?

Bright and ready to be put into my flowerbeds or be taken home by the creators.

The one with the white flowers was painted by a woman that is a graphic designer. I am loving it.

This one is amazing. Seamstress had her husband come up and asked who painted this one? It was at her spot and she was dumb founded by this question.

Camping along a river makes for many beach days. Here they are once again enjoying splashing around. Buster the ever present rottweiler cross loves the water. I guess I should say the lab in him loves the water. Logs were tied together and he would pull them into shore and ground them. He is one strong dog! 

Lounging and enjoying the cooler water.

The pizza raft was another hit.

You can just see Buster in the water. He is tethered to the logs with his human child relaxing and enjoying the ride. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joanne and I are early risers. We would wake up, I would join her at her site because it was just a wee bit warmer there. What did we do besides chat and making memories? Why crochet of course. Jaime was not able to knit any more because her hands hurt too much. She learned to crochet and was well on her to be becoming an expert hooker. Hooker= crocheter. 

Boris loves his momma as she was crocheting. Now this is the life!

Joanne and Joanne working on their project.

For one week we were home. I went to get our oldest granddaughter. A few days more at home and this it was off to Ephrata WA for a wonderful two weeks. I don't have a picture to show this but Joanne and I rode the men's bikes down while the towed the trailers. The families that gathered for this time were us, Craigs, Campbells and Tarasoffs. 

Here are a lot of our highlights.

Our oldest granddaughter Paige and Arianna at a very cold river near where we live.

Love this picture of the girls. It looks like they are sitting on the water.

Sunshine, water and children = great times.

After a dinner of butter chicken we celebrated Stephanie's 22nd birthday. How did she get that age without me noticing?

Paige and the lizard she found.

The above picture has a bit of a story. Paige rounded the corner and saw something moving on our railing by the kitchen. She investigated it more to see it was a tiny lizard. Can you see the joy she had in discovering this little guy. She even named him/her Lizzy. Later that evening she released Lizzy to the rocks and hopefully to find a safe place to spend the rest of the summer. 

The campground we stayed at in Ephrata. A golf course was our back yard for two weeks.

Gordon and Jaime making use of the golfing closeness. He so enjoyed the time spent on the course.

A beautiful sunrise. I loved to watch the sun saying good morning before we began to crochet.

These windmills were huge!!!

 Above you are seeing one of the many windmills we saw on one of our excursions. We were actually looking for the Petrified Forrest. This was such a fun place to see and explore. There is even a museum or information center there to explore and learn. This was the high lite of the day. Petrified Forrest was not as interesting. So glad we went on this journey.

 

Paige, myself and Arianna above the Dry Falls

Of course the Sun Lakes beach was a big hit with all the kids and adults alike.

Water slides, water surfing and just playing in water calls for an ice cream .

Meanwhile the adults got to relax in the shade or sun.

Muddied up from Soap Lake

 Soap Lake is amazing and very very stinky! But oh the mud does wonders for your skin. We all look like the creature from Black Lagoon. Did I mention how much we all stunk?

Gwen helping me wash off that mud. This had better be worth it.

Later that night Jim brought his guitar and sang for us. Loving it.

Another excursion: Grand Coulee Dam Tour.

Later at night we went to see the Grand Coulee Dam light show.

 If you have never been to the light show at the dam I highly suggest you do. It is educational, entertaining and beautiful. Also make time to go see the museum which tells you about the history of the area and the dam as it was being built.

Another excursion ... this one is at the Lenore Caves

In front of Starbucks in Leavenworth WA. Loved this little town.

That is a part of our summer. More to come tomorrow or maybe even today. I will have to see what time I have to post. Hope you enjoyed the trip with us. I would say a huge yes to visiting this area if you are able to. 

Till the next post. Take care.

Joanne

Rain Rain Rain

We have had an interesting week. I was blessed to get three maple trees. One red maple and two regular ones. Other than that I have no clue of what kind they are. I got one planted which took a lot of work. I now have three levels. One level was worked on last year which was made to park our motorcycles during the riding season. The next was made to plant some of those yucca plants I spoke of last week. I needed another level to plant one of my maple trees. It is not quite the way I would like it too look but I could work on that more maybe in the fall. 

Work in progress driveway level: flowerbed level and then top one is where my maple tree is now.

That was a lot of rock moving and removing. I have been hauling the rocks and dead vegetation or weeds that I cleared out to this place ...

Fill area. We use this for our trailer storage during the winter.

So far I have raised this almost two feet. It is a lot of work because this area must be at least 40 feet deep! Yes me and my trusty wheelbarrow or dolly have done this. Ok a lot of it. There was some added  a few years ago by a back hoe (small one that is)

I love doing this work. 

Friday the teachers made food of all kinds for the volunteers at the school. Once again it was fantastic. Salads, pickles, chicken wings, buns, crackers and cheeses lastly a really nice lemon square was enjoyed by all the ladies and gentleman that joined the luncheon. 

For a lot of people the children are out for summer. Ours usually aren't out until the end of June but the teachers voted for a strike. I wish all the teachers strength during this very difficult time. You deserve so much more than what is being asked for or given. 

On Friday evening I went to another scrap booking weekend. It was a great time and I got quite a few pages done for my Disney 2011 album. I have filled one 12 X 12 album and I am sure I will fill another one as soon as I can find one. The one I have is a Creative Memories Disney cover set black with some red writing on it. I should really look for one in earnest now. 

Today is one of those rainy days. It has rained on and off all night also during the day. Just about 15 minutes ago it was a down pour! Came down in sheets. But between the rain and more rain we managed to bring in a cord of wood. Yay once again we will be nice and cozy this winter. 

Joanne

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