April showers make me very excited for warm summer days

Today is April 18 and it is a truly beautiful day here in the northwest. Rain has blessed our state keeping us safe from a drought that other parts of the country have been up against. Most of us are truly anxious to get outside and get the garden started, plant some flowers in the yard and just ride a bike. It is coming. Today I will walk and I will inhale the beautiful crips air while staying dry. Karley, is graduating from Gresham High School in June. We will have a party here at the house on 6/30. Kristen is planning the theme with Karley and I will assist in exciting it. The party here is helping motivate me to get some more purging and decorating finished. I am taking a cooking class on-line starring Alice Waters from San Francisco. She is truly am inspiration. Her voice and manners just force me to relax and breath. Always something to learn. We have a busy summer coming up with travel and guests visiting. I am also busy in my studio learning new card techniques. I am also taking a class on line teaching different embroidery stitches - I am actually working on a project sampler to learn stitches and sizings of thread. It is teaching me some new tricks. Always so interested in learning. I am busy o my Audible program with many many novels and books in general. Reading printed matter is also important and something I participate in daily. A few new cooks books have be busy trying new recipes. Love it. Really learning Chinese cooking tips and recipes and I LOVE THE FLAVORS. Dental work encompassed months and months of my life this past year into 2018 Visits to San Jose, Ca with my dearest friend Bobbie has been the icing on the cake. What a gift. I am still pinching myself. My dental work i done....yea. Implants and crowns and now beautiful teeth. The visit rendered me the opportunity to really reconnect with Bobbie and get to know Merv, my dentist. We had so much fun I can't even explain it. Cooking is a big item we share an interest in. Merv and Bobbie are both wonderful cooks. Merv is teaching me some Chinese cooking methods and staples he uses in his menus. Bobbie and I took 2 cooking classes and had a blast. Learned so much. We went to movies, visited gardens, walked, attend our WW meetings and weighed in.......laughed, danced, look at old pictures. So very fortunate to have such a good friend and share so many things. Sheryl is also like that with me. We could live together, I am sure. Sheryl misses cooking as Don an she don't have the same pallet and without her children around she tends to just cook what Don likes for the most part. She can access the foods she enjoys if they eat out. Life does change and that doesn't take away from the pleasures that are still alive and well. Sheryl still enjoys her and making and we make cards for one another regularly.

Rainbow Card Making Class

August was fun for me as I finally got into my Studio. I am participating in an on-line card making class and did manage to get a few cards made. I am frustrated as I can't get them uploaded to the class web site. I can't talk about it right now or I might cry.

Computer Technology a challenge

It is a beautiful summer day here in the Northwest. Retired and keeping busier than ever expected, I sit trying to understand he technology tied to uploading photos to different web sites that I am involved in. What a frustration. Keeping track of passwords and instructions is overwhelming. That said, I count my blessings to be alive and having the freedom to even have this problem. It is my goal to see how in the world I handle this and learn how to deal with this. I would like to learn this once and for all and then come back and forth becoming active in my blog. My goal is to find a human body to come to my home and work with me. If I can do that I will be assured of learning how to move around and enjoy my blog and my classes. Website instructions given, which apparently are excellent for some, hasn't worked for me.

Greeting

Greetings. This blog was created as a door into my STUDIO where I create and play. Inside the STUDIO we paint, sew, color, and just have fun. My granddaughters have their own corner stocked full of everything a child would need to be creative. We can spend hours together, or I can just escape to my STUDIO for some alone time. This is a photo of Karley and me. She is the oldest of 3 granddaughters. She was at a game I believe. Pictures of my girls/family make me happy.

Watercolor Card Class Day 1

This is a watercolor card from first day of class. Background and stencil lesson

This is our outdoor room coming together. The table was designed and built with Stuart's eye.

FAMILY PLAYING TOGETHER

Today being Mother's Day my mind races with all the memories Motherhood provides. Our two girls are now grown and have their own children. So the fun just expands to more hands on play. The girls have also embraced the love of crafting in all different areas. Their pleasure also runs to gardening, animal husbandry, wood work and building, furniture refinishing,photography, cooking and every sport availabe. We all love to read. We all love many of the same activities. THEY ARE BOTH EXTREMELY CREATIVE. Their gift for language makes some of this stuff even more fun and expandable. I will be posting things I have created specifically for any one of them. I will also post and share photos of things made by them for me or our home. When I can calm my mind down and just feel what my body is taking in, it is with such appreciation that I say WOW how blessed I have been. How blessed I am. What joy it has brought to my life to share something that I so enjoy. Both of my sisters are very creative as well. If we just had time on our hands to sit together and play together, we would have sooooooooooo much fun. We done this but not enough. Thank you girls. Lets play more