Happiness Is......Part Two

Happiness is NOT Blogger! I wrote most of this post ( including photos) the other day, and Blogger was having trouble autosaving, so I waited until Blogger could save, and hit the "Save Now" button, and my post DISAPPEARED!!! It was GONE, and I have no idea where it went! I was not very happy, needless to say, and gave up on the post. I am back to try again - we shall see what happens this time. Everything looks good (so far), so here goes nuttin'! I find it's still giving me trouble about posting photos where I want them, but it might be user error and not Blogger. I'm not the smartest when it comes to computers.

This is Part Two of our wonderful trip to West Virginia. Before we left Tamarack, I saw these daffodils. Aren't they pretty? They never need watering and never wilt, either. Perfect!
Emily cracked me up by taking a picture of me as I was taking a picture of her! You can see Gwen was about to get ready for Mama to take her picture.
We went to see the New River Gorge Bridge, which is the longest steel arch span in the Western Hemisphere. This is just a small part of the elaborate staircase that goes down to the viewing platforms. Hello down there, Miss Gwen!
When you reach the main viewing platform, this plaque shows how the bridge was created.

The bridge and surrounding countryside.
Here's my happy family!

On the way back up the stairs, we met Hector, that cute little ball of fluff that Gwen and Truman are petting. He was the sweetest little guy, and the grandkids and their grandma fell in love with him. We always have to stop and talk to the doggies!
We went to the Visitor Center, and what do you think? They had a special show on quilting! I love the look of this building.
These are the beautiful quilts they were showcasing.

After all that excitement, it was time to leave. Grandpa is carrying a sack o' Truman to the car. Truman doesn't look very comfortable, does he? He was a happy boy!
Next, we stopped at a gorgeous waterfall. It was so lovely and we spent a bit of time there, listening to the water and just enjoying Mother Nature.


Then silliness erupted, as it always does when we're together. Nate decided to stand on the bridge, and Truman had to investigate.
Ta Dah! Truman made it under the mean ol' Daddy troll on the bridge!!
We stopped for lunch at a pizza place, and Grandpa thought Gwen and Truman should try on his glasses. I think Gwen looks lovely in them, don't you? Truman opened his eyes once with them on, decided he didn't like it, and wouldn't open them again!

I will save the rest of our trip for Part Three, which will be coming along in short order, I promise! I'm still having some difficulties with Blogger, but I will try and figure them out, no matter which one of us is creating the problem!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Thank you for visiting!

Happiness is.....Part One

Happiness is a trip to West Virginia! Simply put, my son and his family are there. Any place they are living is a happy place for me. We went in May to visit them and to see DIL Emily graduate from college. We had such a great time!

The first day of our visit, we went to Tamarack, which is a wonderful building that houses West Virginia artisans. I have been there before and loved it, but The Man hadn't been there, so off we went!

Truman is ready to go!When we got there, I (of course) had to take a picture of the grandbabies - you can see Emily in the background with her camera getting ready to shoot something.

As we walked up to the building, Miss Gwen said "Grandma, why is that guy scratching himself?". I HAD to investigate what she was lookin' at, didn't I? Here is what she saw:
I told her he looked like he was scratching himself and smelling his armpit. She thought that was very funny - I think I'm a bad Grandmama. Whoever sculpted this did an excellent job, and we shouldn't be making fun of his/her art. Still, Gwen started it! LOL

The plaque that greets you as you walk into the building:I love the hands around it - cool huh?

Inside, I was allowed to take photos of anything and everything, so of course, I chose to take photos of QUILTS!!!!! They are all so beautiful, and I don't think my photography does them justice, but here ya go:



Isn't every quilt beautifully displayed throughout the store? Everything you see is for sale, too.

I was chatting with this very nice lady who makes jewelry. Her name is Linda Maher and she creates the most beautiful fused jewelry. She very happily posed for this photo. You can reach her at lindas_glass@yahoo.com if you are interested in her creations.I had to show Truman in this handcrafted choo-choo. He is saying "Cheese!".
When we were leaving, we had this cute doorman who let us pass through the exit doors easily. His tip was a hug from Grandma! I have been trying to write this post for several days, and couldn't get the pictures to move where I wanted them. I realized I was using MSN instead of Firefox. Why it should make a difference, I have no clue, but it certainly did! I'm glad I figured it out! More posts are coming....it's about time, isn't it?

Happy Sunday to everybodee, especially the dads out there! Thanks for visiting!

All right, what happened to April.......AND May?

My life has not been spent on the computer lately, so it would seem. I have been busy doing things away from the computer. I shall give a quick view of what's been happening lately.

In April, I re-did the sewing room, which took about a week. Here is the new, improved room:I'll show it close up and personal in another post. The exercise equipment went to another room, so more room for me and my stuff! Woo Hoo!

I wanted to show the adorable fabric sent to me by the lovely and talented Thimbleanna. It's wienie dogs!!! Isn't it cute? Thank you, Anna!The Man had a week's vacation in April, so we spent the time working outside. Lucky for us, it was very nice weather. I started painting our sadly neglected white picket fence, which should have been painted a couple of years ago. The scraping of the curled-up paint takes longer than the actual painting (two coats).The red "X" on the post next to the one being painted means it's getting a replacement. There were quite a few of those! This is still an on-going project. It'll be done by the end of summer, at the rate I'm working on it - of course, it's tough to paint when it's raining, which happens a lot here.
Miss Lucy is being extremely helpful, scouting out the area for "intruding" critters. It's her yard, after all! A frog taking a rest in a pond plant - isn't it cute? I love to hear them croaking at night. Spring definitely has sprung when the frogs show up.

I have been sewing, too, believe it or not! I sewed a doll quilt for a friend - she picked the fabric and cut the pieces and I sewed it. I think it's very cute, and the little girl who received it evidently loved it! This is before it was tied.
For some reason, I have lost photos taken of other projects I've sewn lately, dang it! We had to get a new computer, so maybe they're on the old, almost dead one. I had a lot of things to show, too!

It is now June 4th, and I got sidelined once again by really nice weather - I must be outside - AND computer problems! The hard drive died on our brand new computer! Wow! Who knew that could happen? The computer is running better than it was, so we must have been suffering with a dying hard drive for quite awhile. Oh well.....

During the month of May, we went to watch our daughter-in-law Emily graduate from Marshall University. She has worked on her degree for many years, and she's gone to many colleges, finally finishing at Marshall. I am very proud of her for completing one of her dreams. Here's our proud graduate and her beautiful family. You can see Mr. Truman is not wanting to smile for the camera! I have much more to share about our very fun trip to West Virginia in another post. Yes, I said 'another post'. I am getting back to blogging, and that's a PROMISE!

I don't really know where May went, but I did get a year older, and my present was a Mariners game! Below is the Birthday Girl (Woman?) and The Man at Safeco Field. Kora went with us (it was her birthday too), and she's taking the picture. Kora said The Man wasn't smiling, so............ he is NOW - with a little help from his 'friend'!! Doesn't he look happy to be there?Anyway, I had a wonderful birthday, and I will talk more about it soonly. I also want to thank my dear friend Cheryl for wishing me a happy birthday on her blog! It was muchly appreciated, even if a wee bit embarrassing! Bloggy friends are the best!

I will end this post with a look at what's on my design wall - a completed wall hanging and the start to a table runner. I have been sewing a bit! The wall hanging is the Starflower Quilt by Jan Patek using Hemming House fabric. The table runner is a Look and Learn charm pack. I need to add more colors to it, I'm thinkin', don't you?
Have a great day, everybodee! Thank you for visiting!

The King of the Backyard

Hello! Yes, I am still alive and kickin', but haven't been home much. When I am, there's lots of other stuff to keep me occupied, and not a lot of time to spend on the computer. In short, I've not been keeping up with my blog reading or posting. Don't give up on me, please - I'll come visit your blog soon! I love to see what everyone's been doing - it's truly inspirational and puts a smile on my face.

Now, regarding the title of this post. See that tiny reddish-brown spot in the photo? The one perched on top of the still-naked hibiscus?

THAT is the King! He is the self-appointed owner, and therefore, patroller of the hummingbird feeders surrounding the back porch. The above photo is the left side of the porch, and below is his station at the right side of the porch. He's even showing off his bright red chest. Ferocious-looking, ain't he? HE thinks so, and that's all that matters! Since we have 3 feeders, he is extremely busy! He goes back and forth from corner to corner of the porch, making sure no other hummer is at HIS feeders, except for his lady.....or maybe ladies, I'm not sure. Here's a young lady now......

I stood on the porch the other evening for at least 10 minutes, trying to get a picture of this flying fury, but to no avail. He would chase a "trespasser" away, and then zip around each feeder 3 times, making sure no harm had come to one of HIS feeders. He would then take a quick sip from each, and back to his perch on whichever side of the porch he decided was best for viewing and attacking. This goes on each and every day, several times a day, although his really busy time is in the early evening. That's when the exhausted females come for their evening refreshment after a long, hard day of nest-building. I don't know why I love hummingbirds so much - they're actually very cantankerous creatures, especially the males!

Now I present the "Adventures of Miss Lucy" for your viewing pleasure. When The Man takes his shoes off, she sometimes has it in her head that a shoe would be a wonderful thing to stick her head into. She then rolls around on her back with her head still shoved in the shoe. Don't ask me why - it's a Lucy thing. She's going in for the attack...

She's got it! The rolling on the back begins.....Still rolling around near the shoe - it's part of the "ritual".Funny girl, isn't she?

The other day, The Man decided to clean around the back of the dryer and check to see if everything was still hooked up correctly, and Lucyfur had to "help" him, of course! Here she is inspecting the dryer vent to make sure nothing evil (furry) was lurking there.

Life is NEVER dull with Lucy, that's for true!

Happy Thursday, everybodee! Thanks for visiting!

Staying Blissful

I promised myself I would keep up with blog posting, but as you can tell, I have failed miserably. The days have been racing past, and I've been busy, but nothing even remotely interesting to blog about. I've spent time cleaning neglected spaces in my home, and that's certainly NOT interesting at all, is it? It does feel good to clean, though. It snowed here last Sunday, so I feel like I'm starting Spring Cleaning early! I don't think Spring is anywhere near here, although I am extremely hopeful it's just around the corner.

I have also started exercising! My DIL told me about Leslie Sansone. She does the "walk at home" exercise videos. I am exercising nearly every day, and enjoying the heck out of it! I found one of Leslie's videos at Costco the other day, and have ordered another one from Barnes and Noble. Here is the 5 mile video:

Leslie is a sweet and happy butt-kicking person to exercise with, and I feel more energy and strength every day I spend walking with her. It's my kind of exercise! If you are interested in trying out one of her workouts, go to RealAge.com and enjoy! I am very thankful Emily introduced me to Leslie - her workouts have made my life a lot more fun.

I have not spent a lot of time in the sewing room lately. I am hanging my head in shame. I have been to other quilty blogs lately, such as Freda's Hive and Living Life at LeeHaven, and have found such inspiration and beauty there, but somehow, life calls me away from quilting time almost every day. I do spend a half hour here and there in my sanctuary, but not enough to have anything to show for it. I am formulating a plan to spend quality time each and every day sewing. It's like breathing to me, so I think it should be made a priority, right?

Speaking of LeeHaven, Karen and I were emailing the other day about her blog post on bartering. She is working on a scalloped border on a friend's quilt, and I commented about her bravery on doing such a border. She told me it is a "Wave" border, not a scalloped one. I didn't know the difference, so I'm glad she set me straight. She wrote back and said "ignorance is bliss", and I said I spend a LOT of time these days being "blissful". The older I get, the more "blissful" I become! I don't always think it's a bad thing to be that way - it makes life a lot happier to remain "blissful" these days. Not to say I am ignoring the world, I am just trying to make my little corner of it a happy place. So far, so good!

My wiener dogs make life at Doxie Manor happy, too. Here is Lucy at her happiest - cleaning out crumbs from an empty bag of dog food. She is the self-appointed clean-up crew of empty bags, and the other two girls know this, so they don't get in her way. She is working at it from corner to corner - mustn't miss one crumb, you know!

I will have something much more interesting to write about my next post - I PROMISE!!! Until then, thank you for stopping by.

Happy Thursday, everybodee!

After 37 Year of Marriage.........

I still get flowers! Aren't they beautiful? I'm a lucky girl to be married to such a caring man. And they said it wouldn't last........Nothing much going on around here, since I haven't been in the sewing room at all (so far) this week, but I did want to share a few pictures.

Emily sent me these pics of Truman, and they made me laugh. He's just so stinkin' cute! Here is the thoughtful Truman:

Now the starting-to-get-silly Truman. He's a very happy boy.I forgot to show you what my wonderful DIL gave to me while I was visiting - this adorable weenie dog purse! I love it!Speaking of weenie dogs, I have a story about the next photos. It was 30 degrees and icy when we got up this morning. The dogs go outside before and after breakfast, and when little Maddy came in after breakfast, she was frozen. I was sitting at the computer (as I still am!), and she wanted in my lap. I wrapped her in the fleece shirt I am wearing, and she curled up in my lap. The Man walked by, and Maddy had her head sticking out from under my shirt, sound asleep. Of course, he had to take some pictures. Unfortunately, Miss Mad woke up. I am in my jammies, in case you're wondering what's up with the purple pants. Another view of the awakened Maddy. Looks like she's wondering why she's being bothered, doesn't she? Last, but certainly not least, is Miss Lucy. She was looking at me like the Queen that she is, and when I took her picture, she decided to look where that bird song was coming from. When I opted to take another, she decided it was time to leave. Harrumph! You can see her queen-like posture. Our dogs have a rough life, don't they?Have a wonderful weekend, everybodee!! For those of you who "celebrate" Daylight Savings Time, don't forget to turn your clocks ahead one hour before you go to bed Saturday night.

Thanks for visiting!

The 3-Hour Time Change......

from East to West Coast is something my body does not seem to be handling well. I don't know what it is, but I keep waking up at 3:00 or 3:30 every morning. I've been home since Friday afternoon, and have basically been in a fog since. I actually slept 'til 4:30 this morning - Woo Hoo! - and it felt really good. I'm not so foggy today, either. There's hope for me yet. I am NOT complaining, just explaining why I've been remiss in posting on my blog. I really haven't had the brain for it. Of course, that's never stopped me from posting before!

I had a WONDERFUL time with the kids! My days were spent playing with Truman, and Gwen when she got home from school. The kids are into playing computer games, so we did quite a bit of that. Truman's only 3, but he's a whiz on that computer! Boggles my mind.

Since Nathan was working most every day, Emily and I took a few trips around town and out of town, once to the Fiesta Ware outlet store - oh my, oh my! I treated myself to this gorgeous teapot. It is paired with an ME cup and saucer.

We also traveled to the quaint little town of Sutton. We went to a quilt shop named the Needle Basket - it was in a building that used to be the neighborhood soda fountain and general store, I think. The soda fountain was still intact, complete with bar and stools. I was going to ask the proprietess if I could take pictures, but poor Truman was bored, and it was time to skeedaddle. I did take time to purchase some fabric, though. There's always time for that, isn't there? Then we went to a restaurant/dinner theater down the street by the name of La Dolce Vita. Yummy food, sweet tea, and great prices. Another day, Nathan stayed home with Truman, and Emily and I went to 3 antique stores and had lunch at a tea shop. Once again, delightful surroundings, delicious food and good company.

I am ashamed to say that I didn't take my camera out very often - I was too busy enjoying every day to the fullest. Having said that, I did take a few pictures!

We went to Target one day, and Gwen made some purchases with money her grandma in Boise sent her. Here's our little consumer with the moolah.

Paying for her treasures with little brother watching.
A successful transaction! My granddaughter is growing up, and it brings a tear to my eye.
Truman with the best seat in the store.
Most of the time, we just hung out at home, which is what I love to do with the fam. I took a few pictures, too! Nate and the kids - Truman is saying "cheese".

Truman with his "imp" on. He's a bundle of energy and fun, and he kept me hopping!
Miss Gwen and one of her Lego towers. She made several of them, and of course, little bro came along and knocked them down.

The day before I left, the kids took me to lunch at a place called Bluegrass Kitchen. These photos are from their website, sent to me courtesy of Emily. Most of the buildings in Charleston are very old, and this is no exception.A view of the Capitol building from that area.The restaurant has a tin ceiling and the chandelier (top left corner of photo) is an antique from Italy. The artwork along the wall is done by local artists, and is for sale. The restaurant has a quirky ambience and deelicious food!Another shot of the interior. I love restaurants that are out of the ordinary.

After what seemed a very short stay, I was on my way home. The flight from Cincinnati to Seattle was absolutely incredible. I tried to take a picture of the 4 mountains I could see at one point, but the sun was shining in the window and ruined my pics. I did manage to take this photo of Mount Rainier - isn't it beautiful? If you look to the left of Mt. Rainier, you will see Mt. Adams. When I got home, there was a box waiting for me from Connie W of Cootie Bug 2 fame. She had a giveaway awhile ago, and I was a lucky, lucky winner! This is what she sent - a lovely Longaberger basket, a beautiful piece of fabric, and a very cute notepad. I am absolutely thrilled, and I thank you so very much, Connie! It is a blessing to know you.

I am working on catching up with what is new and exciting in your lives, my bloggy friends. I wish you all a wonderful day. Thank you for stopping by!