Digging this

This is my winter perfect weather to do an outdoor project project.  I'm digging up the courtyard.  Grass will not grow in the courtyard, actually nothing much will grow, no sunshine, which we love because it stays cooler.  So I'm replacing the dirt with quarter-minus gravel and then setting potted plants all around.  I began today and it was so nice outside.  But I'm telling you digging dirt is a hard job, the ground is HARD!  I water soaked some of it and used the yellow handle tool..pick? ... still a hard job.  I'll have to dig down about 2-3" and grade it for drainage.  I have to dig dirt, move dirt, haul dirt and order gravel, haul gravel, move gravel, lay gravel, rake gravel, water gravel....omg what am I thinking????  I'm thinking no more dirt, dust, mud, dog digging and nothing but beauty.

This is only about a third of the courtyard area!

What do you do when you have time on your hands?

You go to movies... saw "Safe House", Denzel was awesomely Denzel, saw "Gone", okay movie but could of been more suspenseful.  I still wanna see the new Tyler movie and of course The Vow, I know super chick movies

You water plants, plants like that.

You read, I'm reading "61 Hours" by Lee Child & "Eyes of Prey" by John Sanford

You check out Facebook, love seeing family's photos

You read cool blogs, stumble on to this one and she's so creative. http://donnadowney.typepad.com/

You download the millions of photos off storage card.  This is the latest photo shoot.  Birthday gift idea for my dear friend.  Her kids did these same photos 7 years ago.  I wanted to find them to compare but I just can't seem to find the CD. 

You make wheat tortillas, yummie.

You make lists of things to do and projects to start.... hahaha

You blog post......finally.

Jessie's birthday gift

It's my friend Jessie's birthday this weekend.  We're meeting up Friday for lunch.  I found this tea blend called get happy.  It's perfect for her. I found the happiest looking coffee cup. too.  Here's how I packaged it.....

punched out and stamped some floral circles
stamped and trimmed a tag

used some eyelets a scrap to decorate the tag

put it all in a clear bag  & ta da...gift

Whitney Houston - Rest in Peace

I watched her funeral on Saturday morning.  It was a nice celebration of her life and a sad day, too.  I was so very moved by their words and music, very uplifting and spiritual.  Prayers to her daughter and family.

I had one of my energy field meltdowns...

This thing happens to me every once in awhile.  This time caught me completely by surprise!  It began with a warning light with Mini, a light was out but I couldn't figure out which light it was.  My laptop kept freezing up...now that's way too serious, it's only six months old.  Finally, my cell phone found it's way out of my hands and crashed on my concrete driveway!!!  Shattered the glass screen.

Now if that's not enough.  Each time I made a call to Dell or T-Mobile my cell would drop the call, my home phone would go to dial tone, and I struggled like crazy to get solutions to my electronic madness.  I was terribly frustrated cuz I couldn't get anything accomplished or resolved. 

When this energy thing happens to me it's usually easy for me to see why.  This time it wasn't so easy so I forced myself to set it aside each time I got overwhelmed.  The whole thing took all week to resolve.  Laptop is working fine.  Mini was in the shop for her regular service appointment and she's fine.  I bought a new cell phone (I hate the whole service agreement bullshit, but T-Mobile guy, Dusty saved the day).  I stayed away from my digital camera, thank goodness. 

I didn't have time to find out if the sun was having any kind of solar blasts or if the planets were in some kind of formation or if I was struck by lightning in my dreams as I was flying around.

Bathroom dreams do come true!

More to come.....

Look what I made...

When I was in San Diego at the jewelry store they used framed fabric displays for their jewelry.  I had a frame in my junk box  & ta da... a jewelry holder.  I really like it.

On my walk today...

Okay, this post is going to jump around between stories.
This morning Winston and I went out for our walk.  Around the corner comes this guy walking his monster attack dog.  I don't remember if I ever posted about Winston being attacked by a dog last summer.  Winston, who is well trained and stays in our yard, no problem ever.  This particular hot hot summer day is no different and Winston is in the driveway and this dog comes from down the street and attacks Winston.  By the time I got to Winston the dog's mouth was clamped on Winston's face and ear.  OMG!  The dog owner is hitting Winston on the shoulder area over and over with a walking stick.  Winston is crying out and I yelled at the guy to quit hitting my dog.  I grab Winston neck area to pull him back and notice this dog has Winston in his grip and if I pull the dog clamps down harder.  So I tell the guy to pull his dog off.  After a few seconds, which seem like minutes the dog releases his grip.  The guy is yelling obscenities at us about my dog being off a leash.  I noticed the guy's shoes were in the middle of the street and the pavement was super hot, so I figured out his dog got away from him and pulled him right out of his shoes! Winston suffered cuts but is fine.
Anyways, this guy continues to walk his attack dog by my house ALL the time, several times a day even.  Since then I never let my dogs out past the courtyard door.  I hate how he brings his dogs by and it's almost as he's taunting my dogs, they bark like crazy as he walks by.  He lives at the end of the street so he has so many options of where he can walk, but no, he's always walking in front of my house.
Well today, he was walking towards me but across the street.  His dog starts going wild!  OMG, here we go again.....Winston stays calm and we keep walking, I'm so disgusted with him and his dog and I just waved him off as he was talking to me.
The other thing happened right after this......
Two kids, young kids come across the street and ask to pet Winston.  Now it's early Sunday morning and here's two young kids by themselves?  I let them pet Winston and I asked what they're doing?  They said ah, taking a hike.  I ask if their parents know they're out hiking, alone.  They say "yes".  I ask them to be careful since there is traffic on the street.  Here's what I notice... dirty faces, dirty clothes, flip flops on, hair not combed and they had a backpack and it was early and no parents in sight anywhere.  I kept walking but the more I walked the more I got concerned about these two kids.  I found them at the neighborhood park. This time there was a third kid and a dog with them.  I talked to them for a bit and find out they live on my street, go to the local school, they're brother and sisters with names that begin with the letter J.  I told them I was worried about them being out by themselves and asked them if they needed snacks and/or drinks.  They said no they're fine. They even offered Winston some water.  The oldest one, age 10 (the others, age 8 and 6) said that she knows the neighborhood well and has been roaming the neighborhood since she was 6!  As I walked away I asked them to please be careful.  They smiled and headed to the playground.
Geez.... Did I overreact?

My week so far...

On Monday,  I attended a friend's wife's memorial service.  It was a celebration of her young life, she was 40 yr old.  He loved her truly and now him and their three sons move on as best they can.  Lots of family and friends attend the celebration of her life, she was loved.  Makes you take a moment.
The rest of the day I enjoyed with two close friends then came home and got a much needed hug from Tom.
The next morning went for a walk and then decided to drive to Flagstaff to hang out with Christine.  I'm so glad I went to see her.  She was so much fun and I just love her.  She has no idea how incredible she is!
Today I drove home and decided to take in the scenic drive..stopped at the scenic lookout...got my camera out, snap a shot and NO STORAGE CARD!!!  So much for that adventure.  I even thought I would  stop in Sedona and take some photos to show you.  But no... I got back in my car and finished my drive with only this pic...

 San Francisco Peaks in my mirror...bye Flagstaff
(photo courtesy of my cell phone)

I stopped at a friend's house when I got back into Phoenix and checked out his new house.  Very very nice.  Shared some snacks and gossip then headed home.

Just outside my friend's neighborhood
Hot air balloons, way cool!

 This is what I found at my house....

Pillow fight?
Bella "ruff ruff" (he started it)
Maximus totally quiet

Walking around and around and around

I challenged myself to walk...yeah that's it just to walk...didn't matter where, how long, how far, but just to walk.  

My journey begins...........

I take my fat dog Winston with me on almost all my walks.  Sometimes we'd walk for 20 minutes, 25 minutes, maybe 30 minutes.  Now it's 45 to 60 minutes.  We'd walk 1/2 mile, 3/4 mile, 1 mile now it's 2 to 2.5 miles.  We walked the neighborhood streets.  We start by heading north, heading south, heading west... we never head east???

We, well I decided Winston and I need a change of scenery.  We head to a city "desert" park which is north.  We hike a easy enough trail but ....

but...

I took a fall and hurt my knee a couple of weeks ago,  it's healing fine but still tender especially when I step down.  Going up the trail, no problem, coming down the trail, big problem!

It doesn't help when Winston is sure footed and ready to go.

He looked back at me as to say "get a move on lady".  I like this park a lot, it is the furthest park to drive to. though.

Hills and a  very nice place to hike

Winston, ready to keep going

Another park we tried has nice wide paved paths which I thought would be nice and also some gradual climbs nothing big....well what I didn't count on was all the bicyclist traveling or more like speeding past us apparently yelling "on your left"...meaning move to our right.   
Two problems for me..

#1. I don't easily, if ever know my lefts or rights

#2. I was wearing headphones LOUD

This place turned out to be somewhat deadly for both Winston and me. 

 Another park had paved wide paths easy to walk...but boring & too far to drive to walk.

Yet, another place we went really wasn't too bad, wide gravel path, no bikes, no joggers, no dogs.  Yeah, one park a guy had to big dogs and in this really wide park decided to walk right at us.  Winston was good, his dogs not so good, enough said. 

We may go back to this place since it was quiet and short drive.  Only thing was it was maybe a 2 miles walk total in the direction we headed.

Honestly, I don't think Winston cares where and when we walk,   just that he gets to go.  I'm still on the hunt for our perfect walking place and this is a huge city!  The walking adventure continues................

Headboard ... wood? fabric?

We don't have a headboard on our king size bed!  Haven't ever... 

I loved the idea of a wooden wall

kinda like this .....

image from internet

  or this.....

image from internet

Then I saw THIS....

image from internet

and this... 

image from internet

and this... 

image from internet

 I'm thinking a wingback style headboard

Too easy,

Now to decide the fabric!

Quilting Bug

A number of years ago I began this quilt.  I designed, cut it, sewed it and quilting was the only thing left to do.  It's a Irish chain - nine square pattern (2" squares)  I remember when I set the blocks and thought this is gonna be big project.  It was!  My father-in-law, Irvin made the quilting frame for me when I was working on a quilt for Grandpa John.  We've been cleaning the storage shed and garage and came across the quilting frame which then reminded me of my unfinished quilt.  I hand quilted about 1/3 of it so far.  It was stored in my craft studio behind the door, still on the frame poles!  Too easy I said to myself...
I set it all up yesterday and ready to get my supplies.... ruler "check",  pencil "check", thimble "check", quilting needles "check", and quilting thread...darn it no quilting thread!  Today I have thread...
I sat down for two hours today and noticed my stitches need practice.  But it did feel good to quilt.
 

Winston dog found his place under the frame

Stitches I did today....practice practice practice

Earrings

While in San Diego we came across the cutest shop. 

Noon Design Shop

They had such neat store displays and props. 

 They had some very nice earrings and after looking at them

I thought why not try and make a pair or two. 

Their earrings were made of high quality metals and stones.

But I used what I had and they turned out fine.

I ended up making 8 pairs! 

Love them...what do you think?

Holiday decorating

My friend, Michele, called and asked about stopping over to visit.  I said of course and let her know I was in the middle of holiday decorating.  Then the fun begins.  Her daughter, Miranda and son, Kurt also got involved in decorating. 

Michele, me, Miranda & Kurt

Miranda tossing snow on the snowman display

Nutcrackers on my dresser

Santa on the picture shelf

2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR!