Teresa Kasner

More Gorge-ous-ness

2012-02-23T19:43:00.002-08:00

I volunteered at Multnomah Falls day. Dayle subbed for my sister Denise who needed to stay home as she has broken her ankle, poor thing. When we arrived, the Falls were roaring, a lot of water was coming over due to heavy rains of late. Approximately 7500 gallons of water per SECOND at times like this.

After we'd been there for an hour, I went to fetch some hot mochas from the espresso cart - the girls know that I will hike up for my obligatory photo while they prepare our hot drinks. :-)

You can see the video I made of the falls here.

See the people on the Benson Bridge?

The lower falls.. mosses and ferns.. lush and damp and roaring.

The extra falls.

Walking back to the lodge I thought I'd show you the mossy branches.. it's definitely lush here.

Here is my dear husband, waiting for my return.. or is he waiting for the coffee? :-)

I thought I'd show you a few more of the displays. This one below is about the Salmon in the river and their migration.

This below shows the different changes from the Salmon eggs from when they are laid and then turn into small fish.

This is a display of the Wildflowers of the Columbia River Gorge.

An interesting story today is a woman came in before we got there and reported that she'd lost her Lumix camera at Portland Women's Forum Scenic Viewpoint - and gave her name and information in case someone turned it in. She was very distraught as her grandson's Christening and her son's wedding photos were on there and she had not downloaded them as yet, plus all her trip photos. The morning volunteers told us the story and asked us to keep an eye out for it. Halfway through our shift the lady came in to tell us.. that she'd gone to Bonneville Dam to see "Herman the Sturgeon"... and what did she see? A man standing there taking a photo of Herman.. with HER camera! She recognized him from the viewpoint! It had fallen out of her pocket there and the man had picked it up, and stood there when she came back and was frantically searching high and low for it.. and never told her he had it!! Isn't that awful? She told him that she recognized him from the viewpoint and he sheepishly handed over the camera. Sheesh. Some people.

As were were heading home I skidded to a stop on the ramp to the freeway and hubby quickly snapped this shot of the sun setting over the Columbia River Gorge looking West. In the distance is Portland, Oregon -- Oregon State is on the left, Washington State is on the right.

When we entered the farmhouse I saw the setting sun shining through the beveled glass window in the kitchen and thought you'd enjoy seeing it.

We both visited our doctor for a checkup yesterday and the news is we are both doing excellent with our cholesterol in check, blood pressure good, and both our Diabetes Type 2 in great control with our A1C at 6 which is almost normal! Thank heavens for modern meds. :-) I was thrilled to find that I'd lost 8 lbs. since we began eating more healthy last month. The only bummer is that I have 2 cysts on my left hand at my little and ring finger joints and will be seeing a hand surgeon soon to get them removed.

Is that TMI? (Too Much Info) LOL! I'm an open book, I guess. Well, thanks for visiting! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Peace Lily & Jadeite

2012-02-21T18:12:00.001-08:00

Hi there! How is your week going? We had no appointments or meetings or anything today which was a relief to me. It's been very hectic and busy in my life. Yesterday I presided over a Friends of Multnomah Falls board meeting and so spent the whole day writing my presidents report, the agenda, etc, etc, etc - and printing them all up! The new Area Manager of the USFS National Scenic Area attended the meeting, which was nice to have her meet the board. So, today was a day to de-stress and relax.

The image below is my Peace Lily, also known as a Spathiphyllum. This plant is special to me as my aunt sent this plant to my Father's funeral and I brought it home. I've had it many years and it's a beautiful plant! It hasn't bloomed a lot in the last several years, so this was a special event for me -- I think of it as my Dad saying hello to me. :-)

I haven't said much here, but we've had a rough few months as far as losing the elders in our family. My aunt passed away last month and on the way home from her funeral, my fathers eldest brother and last son alive in the family had an auto accident - and 3 days later his wife passed away, then just a few weeks later, he passed away. Out of 6 kids, only my aunt is left. We then lost my uncle on my Mom's side a while back and then just last week his wife, my aunt, lost a long battle with cancer. Out of 11 children, only 1 aunt is left. I'm sorry to lay all this on you, but I will always be honest here on my blog.

I sent a big Peace Lily to my aunts service which my cousin took home. I was happy that she will have it to remember her mother by.

This plant of mine has been doing very well and I didn't know what it was, but since I'm showing it to you I googled it and found it's a "Calathea Ornata". I'm not sure what the common name is.

Below is my "Teddy Bear Kit". My older son's youngest boy wanted a "Mint Green" bear. So, I'm working on that one. The older one wants a blue one so I'll be using the denim blue on his. The 2 "baby" boys were with us on Sunday at my son's house and I asked the littlest one what color he wants for his Teddy Bear and without hesitation he said "Ow-eeng". So, I guess I need to go yarn shopping! Then I asked the 3 year old what color he wanted and bless him, he liked the lichen green I had. It was *SO* cute how the 2 littlies then started telling me which yarn was for who. Adorable!

Then.. I will blame my daughter for this.. she just joined Pinterest, and one of her first pins was of some neat cups and saucers in Jadeite. So, I looked on Etsy and found some for her. Then I found some for me. I just put in the order today but in a week or so I will recieve 4 of these lovely vintage beauties. They are the oldest Fire King jadeite style, called "Alice". It came out in the early 1940s and only cups, saucers and dinner plates were made. The cups and saucers were "prizes" inside Quaker Oats and the dinner plates were given to those who attended movies!

Also... we have *LOVED* watching "Downton Abbey"! We watched Season 1 on a rented DVD, and then were able to watch Season 2 as they happened. The only bummer was that the season was over way too quick! So, I went on PBS.org and ordered the box set of Season 1 & 2. I want to watch them both all over again.. and again!

I hope you're having a great week! Oh.. and I just hit 200 "Followers" but I call you "Friends". ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Snowdrops & Daffodils

2012-02-18T16:58:00.000-08:00

Hi there, thanks for stopping by to visit! I hope you're having a nice weekend! Gosh it's been busy around here! Thursday hubby and I went out for Chinese lunch and then grocery shopping. Yesterday I went swimming. Today I went to Rooster Rock for a Vista House art review. While I was gone my dear husband put a pot roast in the oven, so when I arrived home the farmhouse smelled divine. We just now had our dinner and it was delish. When I arrived home I took my iPhone and snapped some photos of the Snowdrops - this huge patch is in our front walkway - after these are done then this whole area is covered with Lily-of-the-Valley! This is the first flower to bloom here and so to me they mean that the worst of Winter is over and Spring will be arriving, along with my Lilacs, then roses!

These bashful little flowers stay closed up unless it warms up.. aren't they sweet?

This little patch is in front of the big Pin Oak tree, I thought the white in the bark was kind of neat.

And the Daffodils are coming up! The little tree is our Japanese Lace Leaf Maple. We need to do some garden cleanup, it is apparent.

More daffs.

The weather is not lovely.. drizzly rain.. dark clouds.. cold. We watched Downton Abbey this morning before I headed out. I sure do love that series - on Masterpiece Theater. If you haven't seen it.. you really need to watch it. I think I'm going to start on my 3rd Teddy Bear today. We're going to our son's house tomorrow for a 2nd experimental chili... and we're going to take corn casserole. Both sons will be there and all 4 grandsons.

I'm glad you enjoyed seeing my spinning exploits! My next class will be to make a cedar bark basket in about 10 days. I'm excited about it!! Enjoy your weekend! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Spinning Workshop, Part Deux

2012-02-15T19:21:00.000-08:00

Today I was out the door early and driving through the Oregon countryside to Damascus to the Fiber Arts School. When I Google mapped directions it took me the "back way" through the country and I'm so glad I found that way to go as it's so lovely and rural. We have LOTS of nursery farms that grow trees and shrubs. My route takes me through a little country town called "Boring". I've gotten a kick out of the newspaper stories over the years such as "Boring Girl Wins Contest", or "Boring Business Opens", etc. Today our instructor planned to introduce us to an array of different fibers to spin. The first one was wild, to say the least. It was all kinds of different fibers, including snippets of other yarns and even tree tinsel!! I joked to the teacher that it looks like someone swept up at the yarn factory.

It was kind of like clown yarn with all kinds of bright colors.

It wasn't super easy to spin as there were so many different kinds of fibers and yarn snippets in it. But it was an experience, for sure!

Can you say bright?

Here is the teacher, Joanne. She's holding the hank of fiber she gave us to spin.

This is after I'd plied the yarn and wound it on my niddy noddy. Wow!

Here is my unique and wild and crazy skein of yarn hung on my spinning wheel for a photo op. :-)

Here is our instructor showing my friend Gracie a spinning technique.

NEXT.... was a delight.. silk. A wonderful unbleached silk - spinning it was a wonderful experience, it felt so soft and smooth as it ran through my hands and twirled into spun yarn.

She also gave us some blue green Angora goat - Mohair. First we spun the silk then the mohair and then she had us ply the two together. I learned that I'd have preferred to just ply the silk together as I loved it so much more than the mohair. Below is a shot of the activity... my high school friend, Kevynne, brought her Lendrum wheel made in Canada.

Then the best was last.. Joanne gifted me with a large batt of Angora rabbit! Angora is possibly the very softest fiber to spin. I had a very enjoyable hour spinning this on my wheel.

And here is my pretty bunny fur all spun up. Isn't it pretty!? What is funny is since we brought the wheel back into the house the dog has smelled the bunny on the wheel and hasn't left it's side since. I haven't plied this but will soon.

Another shot of my wild yarn.

Closer. Fuzzzzzzzzzzzy!!

What would you make with this? LOL! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

They Like Them!

2012-02-14T20:27:00.000-08:00

I hope you had a great Valentines Day! We sure did! Our package to our 2 granddaughters arrived before noon in Ohio and they liked their Teddy Bears and called us to thank us. Paige said she named hers Winnie The Pooh since it's yellow. Jenna hasn't named hers yet. I hope they sleep with them and remember how much we love them.

Hubby gave me a romantic and pretty card and a box of Godiva truffles. Oh yeah! We will only have one a day or so since we're trying to eat healthier. We've been having such things as celery and carrots or apples with cheese for dinner and having our bigger meal in the early afternoon. And I'm swimming 3 times a week. We're both feeling the difference. :-)

I had to attend an important meeting today at Multnomah Falls with the new "head honcho" for the US Forest Service. She wanted to get to know us and talk about some issues. The staff at the lodge was setting up for a special Valentines dinner - isn't it pretty? They had candles down the stairs to the entrance and rose petals strewn by them. :-)

Here is the Falls Room.. do you see the waterfall?

This evening Dayle took me out to dinner and when we arrived at Tad's Chick'n 'n Dumplins the parking lot was full.. seems that they opened an hour earlier which we didn't know. SO.. we drove on to (my choice) - Bumpers Grill & Bar in Wood Village. We both ordered filet mignon with red wine Bordelaise sauce, twice baked potatoes and salad. The steak was PERFECTION!

Below are the new hobnail candle holders that my sister picked up for me. I love them!

And so, another Valentines Day is over and we had a very nice one. I hope you did too! Tomorrow is my 2nd spinning workshop.. I'll take some more photos and share them. Thanks for visiting!! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Teddy Bear #2 & Stuff

2012-02-13T18:17:00.000-08:00

I got the 2nd Teddy Bear finished in time for them to be overnight shipped to Ohio for our 2 granddaughters for Valentines Day tomorrow. We included 2 Valentine cards, some fun stickers and 2 little heart shaped boxes of chocolates for the girls. I hope they enjoy them. Hubby said it cost an arm and a leg to send them overnight. :-)

It was hard to get the true color of the bears - the yellow is richer yellow and the purple is Magenta/Fuchsia colored.

This is Paige's bear.

I thought I'd show you a planter pot that I made years ago - I just came across it in the basement a few days ago. I made lots of pottery while taking classes at Mt. Hood Community College. These are my Sumi ink goldfish and jellyfish. I am going to plant something neat in this.

I also wanted to show you the white wool I spun after I plied it, washed it and then it dried and I wound it up. I'm not sure what I'll do with this yet.

Our Snowdrops are in bloom! I'm so happy to see flowers blooming in our yard. Spring is coming! Although.. the weather man on tv is just telling us Winter 2.0 is coming. No!

I attended the Portland Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution meeting today and the speaker was very interesting. Her name is Rose High Bear and is an Alaskan Athabascan Indian and she's the Executive Director of "Wisdom of the Elders". Their mission is to record and share the rapidly vanishing and irreplaceable stories from the keepers of oral history. The values the elders extol represent an ancient legacy of knowledge which is becoming as endangered as disappearing species in today's fragile ecosystem.

SO... are you ready for Valentines Day? I am! Hubby and I bought each other cards when we were shopping for the grandkids cards and we got each other a bit of chocolate. Now I'm trying to convince him to take me out for dinner at a extra special place, although he's trying to convince me that we should go to Tad's which is only down the road. I love Tad's but we'll see... :-)

((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Fancy Cam Shots of the Falls & More

2012-02-11T12:27:00.000-08:00

We have a few hummingbirds that have stayed here through the winter, isn't she sweet? You can tell it's a female as she is all brown, the males are the ones with the brilliant colored throats.

Thursday was our volunteer day at Multnomah Falls. My sister, Denise, and I have lunch before our afternoon shift in the "Wahkeena Room". Today we had the lunch special, a grilled tuna melt on sourdough and a nice crispy green salad with Ranch dressing and bleu cheese crumbles. My blue Explorer is parked out in behind of the lamp post. Oh.. and the glass man is there repairing a broken window. :-)

I'm using my new Nikon in these photos.. this is Washington State on the other side of the Columbia River Gorge.

And this is my first shot of the falls with the new camera. I'm sure I need to fiddle with some settings or something.. time will tell.

I used the smaller lens but this zoom up on the Benson Bridge turned out nice.

The bridge and the lower falls. The ferns and mosses are brilliant green right now.

I zoomed up on the very top of the falls. There is a viewing platform at the top. It's a bit over a mile hike up, the loop takes about an hour. See the orange lichen?

The nice baristas in the coffee pavilion made our latte and mocha for us while I hiked up to get my obligatory waterfall photos. :-) It's pretty neat to have an espresso place right outside the door of the information center.

Then back into the warmth of the Visitor Center.. here is my sister on duty.

Below is the stuffed Osprey in the center.. people love seeing him/her! We have lots of them in the gorge.. it's funny as the adult call sounds like a baby.... it goes "PEEEEEP PEEEEEP".

We had new displays put in a few years ago and it's really nice.

Here are some historic photos. Simon Benson on the left loved the falls and paid for the bridge to be built when the old log bridge was rotting and unsafe. The photo on the bottom right shows Lewis & Clark as they canoe down the river. The photo above shows how the pioneers came through, putting their covered wagons on log rafts. It was risky business and many people drowned on their trip down the river and through the rapids.

While at lunch I got a call from my older sister who found this pair of hobnail candlesticks in an antique store in the state Capital, Salem. I told her how to send an email through her new iPhone and attach a photo.. these are going to look great with my collection!

And here is a photo my son sent to my phone of Hayden and Caleb in Costco.. with these huge stuffed Moose! Aren't they adorable?

I just got a text message, our DIL Kristi has invited us to dinner for meatloaf, scalloped potatoes and salad.. and is inviting our older son and his family too. Cool!

I'm almost done with my 2nd Teddy Bear and will shoot some photos and show you soon. I hope you are having a fun weekend. Sending love from Oregon!! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Spinning Workshop

2012-02-08T16:45:00.000-08:00

This morning I headed out to the historic Damascus Fiber Arts School. It was known for years as the Damascus Pioneer Crafts School, but when it closed some years ago, one of the dedicated teachers took up the torch and kept the school going, with a name change. Today I took my first class there after wanting to do so for literally decades! It was a Spinning Workshop. I have spun for 30 some years but was hoping to enjoy the fellowship of other women and also to have the instructor help me to figure out how to "tune" my wheel as it's a fairly new one for me and has a LOT of adjustment places. Here is the teacher showing me how to use the Scottish tension on the wheel.

I was thrilled to see my new blog friend, Gracie, join in and we got to meet in person for the first time! She's adorable and so sweet!! Her blog is "Gray Sea Sailor".

And here is my friend from high school, Kevynne (who also has a blog). She and I reconnected on Facebook and while reading her posts I realized how much we have in common - she's a talented weaver all around artist!! It's Kevynne who told me about the spinning and basket classes here and encouraged me to join in. Thank you, Kevynne! I hadn't seen her since our 20 year reunion, so it was great to see her again!

I snapped some photos around the school.. here is a Navajo weaving in progress.

Here are the ladies at work...

Here is the other weaving room. There are wonderful weavings hung all around the walls in the school, donated by grateful students.

Here are some very brightly colored weavings.

A shot into the kitchen from the weaving room.

Here is the little shop area in the entry hall. Yarn for sale!

The other side with more yarn for sale.

In my rush to get out of here this morning I forgot my spool rack! Argh! So, I had to make a ball of the one ply of white wool I'd spun and then ply it into 2 play using the ball - both ends of the same ball. It was a good thing to learn to do, but it took up half my class time just getting the spool empty so I could spin. :-)

Once I'd plied it then I took it off the spool using my old niddy noddy.

I had several hanks of unspun alpaca to choose from, gray, dark brown and some tan. But I finally decided on the colorfully dyed hank I got at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival we went to in the Fall.. remember? This is Alpaca and Tussah Silk blend!

Another view of the yarn. I'm spinning it fairly fine as I will then ply it when I have 2 spools full.

My basket of fiber. Yum.

I just shot this photo of the amount of alpaca silk that I got done in the last half of the day.

I had to soak the white wool I plied today to make it not so curly. Isn't it fun and home-spun looking? :-)

Here is my wet white yarn. LOL! It's not perfect but I actually like the imperfection of it.

I look forward to next week, another workshop. Then in a few more weeks my basket class here! I couldn't bear hauling my "big girl camera" today with all the other stuff I had to cart into the school.. so all these photos were taken using my trusty iPhone 4S.

If you live in the Portland area, I highly recommend taking classes here! Next I might try some weaving!! Tomorrow I volunteer at the falls...

So.. how are you doing? What's new? Thanks for coming to visit. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

I Heart You!!

2012-02-05T12:20:00.000-08:00

You are all the most wonderful friends!! I really appreciate all the encouragement and great suggestions regarding my experimentation with my new camera! Hubby found a class for Nikon users at our local Community College that I hope to get into. We also will be watching the video on how to use the camera as soon as we can. For now, it's good old experimenting. I do hope you don't mind traveling down the curving road of learning with me. I grabbed my Valentine tablecloth and laid out 3 of my handmade hearts to experiment with a bit ago. This is the first thing I don't understand... the crocheted heart in the middle is in focus.. but the 2 felt and embellished hearts on each side are fuzzy! Why isn't the whole tableau clear?

And then.. this one.. why in the world would the heart on the far right be focused and the one in the middle be fuzzy? LOL!

Center clear, sides fuzzy.. hmmm...

This one really confuzzles me.. center of the heart fuzzy, beads on the outside focused, heart on the left clear. OMGosh.. mysterious!

Success? Target heart is focused.. heart on the right is fuzzy.

More side fuzz.. do I need to shave?

Target item fuzzy.. ::sigh::

Do you like my hearts? You should make one!! Just cut out a felt heart, hand sew it together, stuff it, sew on some beads and sequins and sew on a pin on the back.. and if you do one that says "Hug Me".. anyone you show it to will hug you. :-D

We're off soon to spend time with our sons and grandsons and one DIL. Our son has informed us that he emptied his pantry of assorted cans into the crockpot and is making "experimental" chili for dinner. This should be interesting!!

Happy Sunday to you and thanks for visiting me and keep those wonderful comments a'coming!! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Steep Learning Curve

2012-02-04T13:43:00.000-08:00

I'm getting familiar with my new camera. I have a *LOT* to learn! Just even how to turn it on, how to get the images on the viewing screen instead of all the text with all the info, how to turn off the flash.. ad infinitum! Excuse my odd photos.. I have just been going around the house shooting photos to learn how it works. :-) Below is a shot of a bouquet of flowers we got at Costco.. the "star" of the bouquet is a Protea, but it has yet to open fully.

The image below is our leaded and beveled glass window.. but I think I lowered the quality of the photo too much.. eek. The photos from the camera come out at a high file size like 5 megapixels and that is having the camera set at "Normal" file size. The camera I got is a Nikon D5100 with a 16.2 megapixel quality. So much to learn!

This is my first finished Teddy Bear sitting in front of Dayle's childhood teddy. I never even had a teddy bear as a child.. poor me. :-) I have the head, body and nose of the purple teddy bear done..

I am super pleased with the color from this camera! The colors of this blanket and pillow are exactly as they are in real life!

The doll house. The exterior photos came out fine.. but all the interior shots came out *AWFUL*! The focus was at the front of each room and the back of the room was all out of focus. I wonder how I'll figure that out! ::fretting:: (I need to take ALL the stuff off our living room shelves and put them back up nicer. Sheesh!)

After swimming yesterday I swung by the house and got my new camera and took it up to Portland Women's Forum State Scenic Viewpoint to test drive the camera on my favorite subject.. the Columbia River Gorge! Here is the entrance to the viewpoint.. the "rock" and the "sign" and a wind beaten tree. Do you see the Viewpoint Inn on the far right? There was a fire in the upper story and that poor building has not been repaired and the inside is filling with water. No one is doing a THING about it and I'm heartsick. It was used in the prom scene of the first Twilight movie. ::sigh::

A closer shot of our "rock" that is covered with different bronze plaques. And the sign. :-)

Here is a late in the day shot of the Vista House and the gorge with the sun slanting low.. now I'm fairly pleased with this... but it looks *SO* washed out. What's with that?

This is a fun shot down the throat of an opening leaf on the Bird of Paradise plant my daughter left to me when she moved away.. far far away... to Ohio.. 2000 miles away.. from her mother. ::sigh:: But she's very happy there.. so I am happy for her. I miss my granddaughters. :-(

The camera came with a video on how to operate it.. guess what we'll be watching tonight? Please tell me that the cost of this thing was worth it and that I don't get better photos with my iPhone.. please tell me that. Argh.

Love you!! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

My First Big Girl Camera!!

2012-02-02T17:56:00.000-08:00

Another busy day here.. I presided over the Portland Women's Forum meeting and I was able to tell them something really neat... the founder of the group was Gertrude Jensen and I got an email from her youngest grandson who found our group via the website that I designed for PWF. He was so happy to find that his grandmother's organization was still alive and well! He wants to attend the meeting next month, and I asked him if he'd provide a photo of her and a biography for the website and he is working on that. The ladies were thrilled with this information!! After the meeting, hubby and I went to Costco and we finally decided to get a Nikon SLR camera so I can take even better photos for you! :-)

As you can see I just opened the package and I have the battery charging. I have the camera laying on the instruction sheet.. the first thing they say to do? "Unpack the camera." Isn't that hilarious??

We're having a lovely sunny week with warm temperatures. Tomorrow I'll take some photos of our little Snowdrops that are up.. with the new camera. ::excited:: On our way home we drove down the Sandy River and hubby stuck my iPhone out the window to get this shot of the river with the sun sparkling off it. Hurry up Spring!

As you can tell, the river is clear again, not brown with muddy run-off. I so much more prefer the river when it's clean looking! This is the Stark Street Bridge which is what we use to go to "town" (Gresham).

Also.. I have meant to say thank you to a few of my blogging friends who have mentioned me in their blogs when giving some blog awards. I have gotten some blog awards in the past and have followed through on them, by posting "my 10 most interesting facts" and passing the award along to 10 more bloggers. But you never know who's interested in the awards and those who don't do them, so I have decided not to pass them on.

That being said, I want to thank some of my friends who've given me awards lately. First is a blogger named Lucy who writes the blog "Lucy In The Sky". She lives in England and I just *LOVE* her blog and think of her as a good friend. She has chickens, gardens, cooks, spins, crochets, knits and is a wonderful mother of 2 boys and daughter to her parents. Please visit her and tell her I said hi.

Second is my blog friends Matt and Dennis who I met in Ravelry, "We Love Lucy". They crochet and knit absolutely *AMAZING* things! Their blog is called "According to Matt". Dennis is a performer on a cruise ship and uses his free time to make wonderful things, many of which he gives as gifts to his fellow ship mates. If you visit and leave a comment, tell the guys hello from me.

I also want to thank a new blog friend of mine, Gracie who does a blog called "One Saylor's Log". She and I have become great buddies as we live not far from each other and have so much in common. She is a spinner and I think we'll be in the same spinning workshop next week, if her sore elbow gets better! She has been making my red crocheted hearts and has given me a shout out in her blog several times... thanks, Gracie!

And my other friend, Kate, from "A Garden Bell".. she got inspired by my Teddy Bear and made *THE MOST COLORFUL* bear ever, go check out her blog and see it!

The best part of blogging has been making friends from all over the world.. I wouldn't trade my last year and a half for anything! Love you guys!! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Collections, New Teddy Yarn & 1st Quilt

2012-01-31T13:20:00.000-08:00

Do you collect anything? I do. Much to my husband's chagrin. It's funny how one thing isn't a collection, but two.. is a start. :-) The item below has a story. Of course it does. My mother kept a similar item on the back of our toilet as decoration all while we were growing up. I'm not sure where Mom's bottle is, but I bought this off eBay so I could have one again in my life to remind me of my mother. When searching on eBay for this one I found that they were used in barber shops to hold "toilet water" and such. My mom worked in a beauty shop for some friends - he had a barber shop and she had a beauty shop, side by side, in Watonga, Oklahoma. I wonder if that is where she got hers? We'll never know now, as we lost our mother 2 years ago in March.

The last time my best friend from 7th grade, Shirley, was here we went antiquing in nearby Troutdale and I found the fan vase and hubby bought it for me. See the sugar and creamer? They were a gift to me from Shirley at her visit a few days ago. Voila! A collection!! Thank you, Shirley! These are hobnail milk glass.

I started my 2nd Teddy Bear for Jenna. She wanted purple. I found this wonderful Magenta colored yarn. I hope it's the color she will like.

I also got some other yarn for the other teddies. Gabe wanted mint green but I hope he likes this moss green. Mike wanted dark blue, and I hope he likes this denim blue. The grey is for one of the baby boys.

Now.. I had some crafty needs so I went to the great crafty wonderland called "Fabric Depot". They have literally *EVERYTHING* you'd ever need. Buttons, ribbons, yarn, fabric of every kind, and everything else too. I've seen tiny spools of "bakers" string in pretty colors, but grabbed this skein and wanted to show you.. it's recycled cotton in a candy cane stripe! Cool, huh?

And lastly.. the one thing in my dollhouse I do *not* like is the bed cover that came on the 4 poster bed. I mean geez.. it's wrinkled and too small.. what were they thinking? So, I've been laying in bed thinking.. why couldn't I make a teeny tiny quilt for the bed? ? ?

SO.. at Fabric Depot I asked the ladies.. do you have any tiny print fabric? Of course they did!! They had some fabric called "1930s". So, I found these three fabrics. I also thought I could make some gingham valances for the kitchen. Problem is.. I don't have a sewing machine.. or at least the one I have is very old and kind of buried in our attic. So, I figure since this will be tiny I can hand sew it all. Right? But I have *NO* idea how to start. You will help me along the way, right?

I'm in love with this tiny print.

And I just had to show you the hand carving on the headboard of my tiny bed. Amazing, isn't it?

So.. what are YOU up to? ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Old Friends, Flower Shawl & Family Times

2012-01-30T10:45:00.000-08:00

Did you have a good weekend? I sure did! Shirley, my best friend from 7th grade, was in town and so we set up a lunch on Saturday. When I told my younger sister, she said she'd like to join us. So, on Saturday we met at Claim Jumper restaurant and we got to meet Barb - Shirley's best friend from high school and her niece, too. Thanks to Facebook, Shirley re-connected with Barb after losing contact with her since high school! Now they are fast friends again and spend a lot of time together. We talked and had a good time for 3 hours! Then I went to the biggest fabric store in Oregon to find the perfect ribbon for Paige's yellow Teddy Bear. (More on that below)

Yesterday Shirley brought Barb and came out to see us.. and the dollhouse! Shirley has collected miniatures for years and I knew she'd love the dollhouse. She did! So did Barb.. and Barb's husband who has actually built 3 dollhouses himself. Then I showed them my Japanese Flower Shawl I'm working on.. and here is Shirley modeling it for me.

The back and the front. I have a ton more flowers to do to get this puppy finished. It's made using Drops Alpaca and is very soft and very organic and very pretty colors!

Then we went to our son Shawn's house for a visit and a pizza dinner. Here are our 4 grandsons being silly and having fun. Michael and Gabe are Shawn's boys and Hayden and Caleb are our younger son's boys. I got the head of Jenna's teddy bear done while watching the boys playing and racing about, up and down the stairs. Shawn invited us to come each Sunday so it seems we'll be having family time every week, which I'm really happy about. :-)

And lastly.. the great ribbon debate.. I found a really pretty yellow and green ribbon at Fabric Depot and I think it looks great on the bear. When my daughter showed a photo of the finished bear to Paige she said.. I don't want a "tie" and I want a red jacket. But the bear will stay as it is until all 6 bears are done.. then I will get to making some clothes for them. LOL!

Did you have a good weekend? I hope it was great and that you have a fun week ahead of you. Thanks for all the great comments on my last post! You are the BEST!!

((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Crochet Teddy Bear is Done!

2012-01-28T11:07:00.000-08:00

I sewed up the Teddy Bear I'm making for my granddaughter Paige who lives in Ohio. I decided to embroider on the eyes, nose and mouth so it would be more home-made than sewing on fake eyes or buttons. I need to buy some new ribbon for his neck as this is just a scrap of brown. What color of ribbon do you think I should get? I almost bought some yellow grosgrain yesterday at Michaels but had forgotten my wallet! But I also considered a nice lime green for contrast. My next bear will be "purple" for her older sister, Jenna. The pattern can be found HERE.

Yesterday was a big bust. I drove into the gym to go swimming and noticed that the door to the utility area of the pool was open and there were two big hot water heaters sitting there with workmen and plumbing trucks. Uh oh. So, right there from the car I called the front desk and asked if the pool was open. Yes, the pool is open. Well, what are they working on? Oh.. all the showers are closed as they're installing new water heaters. So... I can swim, but not shower after? Yep! Right. Ummm.. no. So, I went to Michaels to get some black embroidery thread for my bear... and some purple yarn. After shopping around in there for quite some time I go up to pay.. and D'OH.. I'd gone to town without my wallet! ::sigh:: So, I drive ALLLLLLLLLL the way back home having accomplished NOTHING. After recovering from that wasted effort I finished off the bear. :-)

We had a very sunny day yesterday which was nice. Today it's a bit hazy but I think it's burning off and it's becoming sunny - but it's supposed to rain tomorrow. I wanted to show you my xmas cactus is in bloom again! I love those plants! I'm heading off soon to meet my friend Shirley from 7th grade AND my younger sister for lunch at Claim Jumper. Shirley lives in Seattle but has a lot of family and friends here in Portland so she comes down on a regular basis. I hope you're having a wonderful weekend! Tomorrow we're invited to our son's house and our other son and his family will be there. Busy, busy!

((hugs)), Teresa :-)

A LOT of WATER!

2012-01-26T19:10:00.000-08:00

It was my volunteer day at Multnomah Falls today. After my sister and I had lunch in the lodge and before we began our volunteer shift we walked up to the viewing plaza to see how much water was coming over the falls and it was a *LOT*.. it was *ROARING*!

At the plaza if you look to the right you can see a waterfall that is only active during heavy water days.. it's pretty.

It was pretty misty there on the plaza and the roar of the water was loud!

7500 gallons of water PER SECOND goes over the falls when the water is running high - that is a lot of water, folks!

The moss loves this place.. nice and moist.

Greeeeeeeeen.

3 trees and a rock.. and some ferns.

A look back on our way back to the lodge.

Our beloved lodge with the smoke rising from the fireplace.

This is a shot from behind the information desk.. I worked on my bear during our shift in between visitors.

I crocheted the 2 ears today after I sewed on the 2 legs. Almost done.. I've decided to embroider the eyes, nose and mouth on as it will be more "home made" than if I bought some eyes. Don't you think?

In other news.. I'm rather excited about something. I have re-acquainted with a high school friend via Facebook, her name is Kevynne. She is a talented weaver. I'd put a photo of one of my baskets on Facebook and she commented that she'd just taken a basket weaving class at the Damascus Fiber Arts School and suggested I take a class. So, I emailed the school and asked to be notified when they would be having another class and a few days ago they let me know they were planning a cedar bark basket class using the Skokomish & Tsimshian Indian techniques. So, I signed up! I also signed up for 2 spinning workshops. I will be taking my own spinning wheel there and an extra benefit of that will be that the instructor can look at my wheel and tell me if I have it set up with the proper tensions, etc. Woo hoo! Needless to say I will take photos and share it with you. The first workshop is in just 2 weeks!

Also.. on Tuesday my 2 sisters and I met for lunch at Macaroni Grill and then went to see the movie "The Descendent" with George Clooney. It was a very serious movie and had a lot of sad parts, but it was set in Hawaii and I just loved seeing all the island scenery and the sound track was wonderful Hawaiian music. It was worth seeing for those two things.. oh.. and George Clooney's adorable mug. After the movie we were chatting in the mall food court area and talked my older sister into buying an iPhone 4S! :-D Now all of us 4 siblings have one! Fun!

I hope you're having a good week and have fun plans for the weekend. Thanks for visiting!! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

I Need Some Eyes, Ears & a Nose!

2012-01-23T13:35:00.000-08:00

Did you have a good weekend? We did. I swam on Friday while hubby ran some errands and did some grocery shopping. Oh yes. He's a dear. We watched the rain fall on Saturday and I got some work done on Teddy Bear #1. Yellow. For the 3 year old granddaughter in Ohio. I need to crochet some ears and sew on the legs and ears. And the eyes. I need me some real good Teddy Bear eyes. I hope Michaels can help me. I wonder if they sell noses?

This was Saturday when Buddy was helping me crochet. We went to visit at our older son's house yesterday afternoon and our younger son joined us with his two boys. I asked our older grandsons if they wanted me to make them a bear and both said yes. I have orders for a "mint green" and "dark blue" bear. Then both of the little boys climbed on my lap to see what I was doing and I showed them the bear and that I was crocheting some legs and how they'd fit on the body. I asked them if they'd like a bear and they said yes. I'll have to show them colors when I get to that point and let them choose. :-) I guess I'm in the bear business now. :-D It was fun to see the boys playing and having a good time with each other. Lots of wrestling and roaring and running up and down stairs. Fun stuff.

We took these photos of the Sandy River on the way home on Friday. We have been having terrible flooding in our state this past week. Whole neighborhoods have flooded. Terrible stories such as a young man accidentally driving into a creek and a young woman and her baby were drowned.. just yesterday a woman took her daughter up to see the flooded waters and her daughter fell into the water and was swept away. Awful stuff.

During the other seasons there are beaches along this river.

What's amazing is this is the boat landing at Dabney State Park and it wasn't even as flooded as the last time I showed it to you. Also - during the other seasons the water is pretty clear.

It's been so dark and rainy and gloomy for quite a while now and today when we opened our eyes and looked up through our skylights.. the sky was blue and we could see sunshine on the trees in our woods out the French doors of our bedroom. I had to shoot a photo of the sun gleaming through the crystal candelabra, although the photo does not come close to the bright sparkle I saw.

Sunny sparkly bright loveliness. And as quick as a blink of an eye, the fog closes in around us and there is now a weak sun glowing through the clouds.

We've got some trips planned for the upcoming year! In April we have 5 days at our favorite seaside RV park for my birthday. In June we have an 8 day trip to Washington DC! In late Summer our family camp-out at the lake. Early Autumn a week at another beach with our youngest son's family and in October a week at our seaside place in our RV for Dayle's birthday. Do you have some travel plans set up for the year?
((hugs)), Teresa :-)

A Little Bit of This... and That

2012-01-19T17:32:00.000-08:00

Goodness sakes.. we're having a big "weather week" here in Oregon. First it was snow, a lot fell on Monday and Tuesday, but it didn't last even long enough for a good photo op. I was hoping for a nice bit of white scenery on yesterday morning as a LOT of snow fell in the afternoon and evening -- but then at around 5 am I heard the dreaded rain on the skylight and knew the beautiful snow was to be turned to less than lovely slush soon. Hubby surveyed the damage on the farm as he walked the dog to get the newspaper in the yesterday morning - and we lost an entire mature lilac - fallen over, roots pulled out of the ground, a victim of the heavy wet snow. Several large branches were blown out of our Douglas Fir trees. Now we're watching the news coverage of the flooding here. Below is the pillow cover I'm crocheting, done is one side, now to do the other.

Here is the pillow in front of the ripple.. you may be getting tired of seeing these. :-)

In today's mail was a tiny little Cairn Terrier figurine for my dollhouse's front porch. :-)

Hubby made pumpkin muffins for us yesterday and I got out my Johnson Brothers "Margaret Rose" antique china set to take a photo of the muffins on the plate but they were too big and it didn't look right.. but I thought I'd show you my collection of these dishes that I found at an antique store at Depoe Bay many years ago. I put my batik tablecloth on a few days ago.

The set is pretty complete with plates, soup bowls, bread and dessert plates, tea cups and saucers and serving pieces such as sugar, cream, bowls and platters. I love the rope border.

I also collected a set of Mother of Pearl handled silverware... interestingly they only made the knives and forks with the MOP handles.. not very many spoons! I must apologize as the silver needs shined.. but I love these old silverware pieces. Isn't the floral pattern on the dishes pretty, too?

When I was photographing these, hubby said.. we have a box of those in the safe, remember? And I go huh? I said.. show me.. so he goes to the big safe and comes back with this box of a set of 12 - dessert set. LOL! I'd forgotten we'd gotten these a few years ago.

What I love about these Mother of Pearl handles is their organic iridescent beauty.

The dessert forks.

What vintage treasures have you collected? We're staying home and by the fire. My next project is crocheting 2 teddy bears for my granddaughters in Ohio. The 7 year old wants a brown one and the 3 year old wants a YELLOW bear. Ooooo kay. :-)

((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Sumi Ink Painting While it Snows

2012-01-18T11:07:00.000-08:00

I have made some great friends on Ravelry in the "We Love Lucy" group - and from the readers of my blog. You know who you are! :-) Not long ago I showed you that I had an order for 4 of my hand painted watercolor cards using the Sumi Ink Chinese style of painting. And then last week I got an order from my good friend in Australia, DeeDownUnder, for 6 cards. She hand picked them from my card online store. Yesterday was the perfect day to paint - it was snowing and the fire was warm. So, I gathered all my supplies together and began painting.

Bamboo.

Goldfish.

A group of 3.

Fuchsia.

Grapes.

Iris with Hummingbird.

Iris with Ant.

And I did two extra to send to my granddaughters. :-) I had to show you the Christmas Cactus that is blooming.. again!

And my Hibiscus bloomed again!

And I had to show you my latest acquisition for my dollhouse -- this is tiny, only 2 inches tall - it's called "Guardian Angel" and I've hung it on the wall in the nursery. I have one here somewhere that I got from my mother. So many people love this print and have memories of it hanging in their house or their grandmother's house. Sweet.

Our snowstorm has been disappointing.. pretty big flakes yesterday, and it was piling up nicely when we went to bed. Then, in the early morning I heard rain drops on the skylights. Wah. It's still pretty outside, but it's gloppy and wet. Oh well. We're cozy in our house and all is well. I hope you're enjoying your week! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

I Must Be Part Bear - Hibernating :-)

2012-01-15T12:39:00.000-08:00

It snowed early this morning. I was awake for a bit early and there was no snow, then I woke up at 7:47 (don't you love how digital clocks changed how we view time?) and the skylights were covered with a blanket of snow. I love having skylights over the bed - you can tell the minute your eyes open what the weather is like. :-) I finished (due to losing my turquoise skein of Stylecraft yarn) my guest chair blanket (it's in my view from my chair so I'm bringing color into our life.. :-) -- and so I finally began my long planned round granny pillow cover. It will live in front of the colorful ripple.

I have about 4 or 5 more rows to go on THIS side. I think I'll make a totally different color pattern on the other side.

Can you say.. COLORFUL?

Brightening up our world. Below is the dining room -- I love when it snows and the light reflects off the snow and it's so nice and bright in the house.

The place looks so different with the big maple down -- there's not much snow, but it's pretty. There are downed limbs from the wind we've had recently.

We had a new housekeeper come for a few hours yesterday - just to clean the bathrooms and do a bit of dusting. She's a young lady I've known since she was born. She did a great job and the best part of having someone come in to help is it gets us going on some projects we've wanted to do. There were some plants in my garden window that needed pruned, re-potted and cleaned up. Hubby handed them all out to me to work on and he cleaned the garden window up and cleaned the leaded glass window above the sink. The bromeliad is from my daughter's wedding 12 years ago. Each year it sends up a new plantlet and the old ones die and I have to cut off the dead plants. I love how a plant becomes a part of the family, like the Christmas Cactus I rescued from my mother's room right before we lost her a year and a half ago. It's my connection to her that is alive - the one on the far right.

Dayle took this photo of the snow falling on his way to get The Oregonian newspaper and walk the dog.

My daughter is going to Skype with us in 20 minutes on my iPad - it will be our first time. I sure do miss the girls. I hope you're having a wonderful weekend!! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Frozen Falls

2012-01-12T18:22:00.000-08:00

I volunteered at Multnomah Falls today with my sister Denise. It's *COLD* and the wind is blowing fiercely! We have the famous "East Wind" here and it blows like crazy down through the Columbia River Gorge. It gusted to 85 mph at Vista House this week. The falls freeze every winter and it gets really pretty. This is the beginning - it will get a lot icier! They're also predicting some snow here. Winter has arrived.

The photo below is walking up towards the falls.

The Benson Bridge and the lower falls and the pool at the bottom.. the ice is closing in.

Another shot of the Bridge.

And another.

Roarrrrrrr....

When it gets icier it builds up..

Heading back to the Visitor Center.

I've been picking up a few new doll house things to add my own personal touch to my house - below is a cake plate and candlesticks.. aren't they cute?

I also got a trunk to decorate the attic which is empty and bare. Isn't this adorable? See the little gold key in the top tray? It's papered inside with vintage look paper - now I have to find some "attic" stuff to put in it. I also want to get a vintage looking dress form. What else would you think should be in the attic?

How cute is this?

I need some brighter light to get a photo of the new things in the dollhouse.

I've also purchased a baby grand piano, a spinning wheel, a sewing box and a few sewing baskets, some pewter things - bowl, charger, candlesticks, chamberstick, pitcher and 2 mugs. Coming soon will be a little Cairn Terrier for the porch. :-)

My pretty kitty was on my lap yesterday and I got a photo of her. Awww.. have you heard this song on the Big Bang Theory?

Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty, Little Ball of Fur.

Happy Kitty, Sleepy Kitty, Purr purr purr.

Is it stuck in your head now? ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Winter Flowers

2012-01-10T12:14:00.000-08:00

I have a poor spindly Hibiscus plant that looks pretty darn pathetic most of the time - and just when I'm about ready to toss it outside to fend for itself with the Winter weather.. it does *this*. I just love the flowers on this plant. They only last one day but boy howdy.. what a day of beauty this flower gives. :-)

And my sweet husband has brought home flowers for me a few times this week. This bouquet is gorgeous, with Snapdragons and magenta daisies (is this color really real? Wow!), and some pretty carnations. It had 3 Gerbera daisies, but those pretty flowers always droop terribly in one day.. does this happen with you?

The first bouquet had these wonderful lime colored Chrysanthemums and the lavender ones too. Don't you love green flowers?

I would say that this fuchsia color is my favorite.

Hubby and I are going out to lunch and run some errands this afternoon. We're going shopping for new sheets for our king size bed. It's funny (not really when you're making the bed when you're tired late at night...) - but we can never figure out which is the TOP of the fitted sheet. SO.. we're going to buy some nice high thread count STRIPED sheets. The problem should be fixed.

Say.. thanks for all the nice comments about my mountain photo. But I gotta admit, the credit goes to the mountain and the setting sun. :-)

((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Cotton Candy Mountain Sweet Spot

2012-01-08T19:36:00.000-08:00

Remember a while back when I was chasing down a place to take a good photo of Mount Hood and never quite found it? One of my new blog friend/readers , Gracie from One Saylor's Log, told me that there was a viewpoint near Sandy, Oregon where you could get a good shot. So, today hubby and I went to town for a late lunch and on the way home I saw the mountain in all it's majesty and hubby told me he knew where that viewpoint was. So, off we went in search of it.. and we arrived right when the mountain was turning lovely colors!

These were all taken with my iPhone 4S - I can only imagine how good the photos would have been with a fancy schmancy camera.. (I've been researching a good camera in which I could change lenses - I've never had one that you could do that!) The image below shows the Sandy River, too.

I love the mountain when it's got fresh white snow on it.

These plants were in all the planters around the viewpoint - called SnowBerry. Neat little white berries that are good food for birds in the winter.

I want to thank you all who left such caring comments after my post about losing our 3 chickens. We will be moving the hen house and setting up a secure run for them. Hubby has been looking on craigslist for some new hens, once we get things set up and secure. We enjoyed having the chickens and the fresh eggs, and have invested too much in the chicken house and accoutrements to give up now. I'll be sure and keep you in the loop when we get things fixed back up and get some new hens.

How is your 2012 going for you so far? Ours has started out kind of dicey.. hope it goes uphill from here! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Murder and Mayhem on the Farm

2012-01-07T12:08:00.000-08:00

I regret to inform you... that we lost our 3 beloved chickens night before last. I heard coyotes when we had just gone to bed. I asked hubby to check on the chickens and so he did. He didn't see anything. But in the morning when he walked the dog he came in and said.. the chickens are gone. ::sigh:: I will spare you the details. But I am really upset and sad about losing them. Before we get new hens, our chicken house and run will have to be beefed up security-wise - and made predator proof. I will miss Betsy Ross - the Ameracauna who laid mint green eggs, Bella the Rhode Island Red and Rose, the Buff Orpington. And now.. a moment of silence. RIP my feathered girls.

I'd taken these photos on Wednesday morning.. before the tragedy -- it was foggy but there was a ghostly glow of the sun at the top of the hill behind our house and so I grabbed my camera to try to capture the surreal image. Below is the light fog in our woods, up through the top of the trees.

And looking down at the barn and the pasture.. the trees beyond are hidden in the fog.

Yesterday morning was the "event". But I had to buck up as we headed out at noon for a lunch at my older sister Roberta's house, our brother, (her twin) Robert and his wife would be there and also my younger sister Denise and her husband Steve. I kept the story from them as if I'd talked about it I would have gotten too upset.

Roberta made a wonderful meal of pot roast, potatoes and carrots. We brought salad with cherry tomatoes, sliced olives, bleu cheese crumbles, dried cranberries and we made Uncle Dan's dressing which is sour cream, mayonaise with herbs and garlic in the mix. You should try it. My brother brought artisan bread and sparkling cider. Denise made some amazing brownies made with peanut butter and Nutella. They were some of the best brownies I've ever had, so she sent me the recipe this morning.
---------------

Peanut Butter - Hazelnut Brownies

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder (non-alkalized)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Dash salt
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup hazelnut-chocolate spread

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 by 13-inch glass baking dish.

Melt the butter over low heat; when melted remove from heat and stir in the sugar and vanilla. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Add flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt, and mix well.

Mix the peanut butter and chocolate spread in a small microwave-proof bowl, and heat in the microwave until it reaches a runny consistency. Stir the mixture into the batter; then pour it into the baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting and serving.
--------------------------------
We also got invited to dinner at our son Travis' house and he'd also invited our other son Shawn's family. So, we went straight from a great time with my siblings to our son's house for a great evening with our sons, daughters-in-law, and 4 grandsons. I asked him what he was making for dinner.. and he said.. "Pot roast"! LOL! So, we brought our leftover salad and shared that with them and had a bit more dinner. The kids were having a ball... the energy and noise level was amazing. :-)

I hope you're enjoying the new year.

((hugs)), Teresa

In the Presence of Greatness

2012-01-05T16:25:00.000-08:00

Today was the Portland Women's Forum meeting and our guest speaker was Lillian Pitt. She is a Pacific Northwest Native American Artist whose ancestors lived in and near the Columbia River Gorge for over 10,000 years. I am proud to call her a friend. We've known each other for 30 years. She is a wonderful person who told us a story of her life, how she was born on the Warm Springs Reservation near Mt. Hood, Oregon - and how she went to the first years of school on the reservation, then went to school in Madras - how it was not easy to be a Native American child in school in those days, or any child of color. I'll tell you more, but the image below is one of her latest endeavors, this is "She-Who-Watches" - an important petroglyph in the Columbia River Gorge. She sculpted the image in clay and then the glass artist cast the sculpture in New Zealand Lead Crystal. Isn't it amazing?

Lillian also designed this image for a Pendleton Blanket. It's a graphic interpretation of a legend her aunt handed down to her about Coyote and the Huckleberry Sisters. My sister Denise owns this blanket and brought it to show the group. Lillian signed the blanket for my sister.

The beauty of this blanket is it's reversible - I love this side of it!

Lillian brought a wonderful selection of her artwork and provided it for sale to us after the meeting. These tiles are a new project for Lillian.

Lillian began her art career making these raku clay mask pins with feathers on top - and she is still making these wonderful pins! I bought one today. The one in the top middle. He's a "Stick" figure

She also brought some of her sterling silver earrings and necklaces.

She also brought several larger raku clay masks.

More and even larger raku clay masks.

I love the bright colors on this mask, and the striped feathers.

Two old friends.

To continue her story... when she graduated high school, she headed to Portland to live and make her way in the world. She began classes in a beauty school and there blossomed from a shy girl that had low self esteem to someone who learned to talk with people and loved the creativity of working with hair. She then decided to try to get into the medical profession by taking classes at Mt. Hood Community College. She took a pottery class as an elective and learned to work with clay - and her artistic passion bloomed. She has since had a long life of creating her art in many different media - clay, silver, gold, glass and now bronze sculptures. Please do click on her name above and visit her website to learn more. She was recently awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Portland!

I told Lillian about my blogging and she expressed an interest, so I told her I could come and visit sometime and show her how to start a blog of her own. :-)

The membership all totally enjoyed hearing Lillian tell her story. I hope you did too.
((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Swap Package - From Me

2012-01-04T12:37:00.000-08:00

I participated in a swap in a Ravelry group which I'm a member, "We Love Lucy". I meant to show you what I sent, but the busy-ness of the holidays took over - but I wanted to show you what I sent. The group was started and is inhabited by people who enjoy the blog by Lucy in England - her blog is called Attic24. If you haven't visited, you really should. It's a delight. And the reason that I've discovered COLOR in my crochet that I love. Here is the whole package.. what fun it was to put together! My swap partner was Lucy aka "Bearium" in England and I posted what she sent to me mid-December.

Contents were: A bar of handcrafted soap with a minty aroma, an American Lighthouse ornament, a washcloth of cotton that I knitted.

Some sparkly red yarn, a pair of red knit gloves, a red heart that I crocheted, a pair of patriotic earrings that I made with sterling silver and Murano Italy milleflori glass beads - and most special, a large hank of pure ivory colored alpaca for her to spin and/or dye as she spins.

2 skeins of holiday colored sock yarn as she knits socks. The yarn is sitting on a neat blue nylon bag made specially for carrying yarn.

Some adorable muffin cups and a little clipboard with a holiday printed pad of paper.

Some holiday nail files, a candy cane and a candy cane pen - the ink smells like peppermint!!

She said she like mint chocolate, so I sent a nice bag of yummy chocolates, and a package of colorful buttons.

3 large soft skeins of KnitPicks cotton yarn.

An art card featuring "Portlandia" - a wonderful sculpture made like the statue of liberty of copper - on the Portland Building in downtown. And a spool of red, white and blue ribbon.

I wrapped each thing in colorful tissue and tied with a bow. I put several things in a lovely red fabric bag, too.

Here is the box, already to send. We posted it on Dec 5th and it was received on Dec 14th.

I just wanted to share with you what I sent. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Simple Quiet Celebration

2012-01-01T20:43:00.000-08:00

We had a lovely New Years weekend, I hope you did too. Our son Shawn, his wife Beth and our grandsons stopped by with her brother's new wife's sister and husband to show them the farm and meet us. Then I went on with them to do a bit of sight-seeing in the gorge while Dayle spent the afternoon cleaning up the fallen tree debris. The image below I just had to use as my first photo as it's so graphic.. it's the ceiling in the dome of Vista House. It's octagonal but my iPhone would only capture this much of it standing directly under it.

But our first stop was Portland Women's Forum State Viewpoint. How's this for a cold view of the gorge? See Vista House?

Then on to Vista House -- here is one of the volunteers at the information desk. Yes, it was that cold in there.

Another shot of the ceiling of the dome.. the carved panels each have a different name of an Oregon Pioneer family to which the building was dedicated in 1918. I virtually lived in this historic building for 15 years while I served as the Executive Director for the Friends of Vista House in the 80s and 90s.

The building went through a 4 million dollar restoration several years ago. I love this place. It was a cold and windy day here today.

On down the Historic Columbia River Highway to Latourell Falls - here are my grandsons, Gabriel and Michael.

This is a favorite waterfall of mine.. Wahkeena.. local Native American for "Most Beautiful".

We then went on to Multnomah Falls where Shawn treated us all to lunch in the warm and cozy Great Hall - I'd called ahead and reserved a table right in front of the crackling fire for the 7 of us. After lunch I visited with the volunteers in the Visitor Center and ambled up to get a few shots of the falls.. with all the rain we'd had lately the falls were **roaring** and full.

Misty, cold, roaring, wet... winter at the falls.

I arranged the new yarn from KnitPicks in one of my African baskets.. I'm mulling over what I want to do with it.

I've been picking up a few things off eBay for my dollhouse. Below are a few of them.. two tiny baskets.. the one of the left is sewing.. the one on the right is a knitting basket. I'll show you the other things soon - we're going to put the dollhouse where the xmas tree was. I got the cutest tiny spinning wheel and some authentic Williamsburg Stieff pewter things, a pair of candleholders, a chamberstick, a bowl, platter, mugs.. can't wait to show you.

We kept the boys last night so our son and his wife could go out for New Years. The boys didn't make it until midnight, but hubby and I did and watched the ball drop in New York City. This morning hubby made blueberry pancakes for all of us and we watched Looney Tunes cartoons for... way.. toooooooo.. long. Then we met our son and his wife for dinner at The Country Kitchen and we all had some kind of steak. Man that place is great. Yum. Now we're stuffed and content, sitting by the fire watching Pawn Stars on History Channel. Ain't life grand!!??

Thanks for all the fun comments on my 250th post.. you all are **AWESOME**!! I'm just thrilled to have met you all and wish for you a FABOOOOO 2012!

((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Blown Down Trees, Floods and NEW Yarn! :-)

2011-12-30T18:39:00.000-08:00

First off.. before we begin our regular "program" - I just noticed that this is my 250th post for my blog! I guess that is worth a mention and a celebration! *WOO HOO*!! :-)

Remember the story of our walnut tree being blown across the road during a storm the other night? This is the photo I took of it with my iPhone. I was standing in the middle of the road, in the downpour, directing traffic and watching the policeman and hubby work on clearing the road. Hubby used his chain saw to cut the tree into several parts. The cop was wrapping the chain around the tree sections and hubby was dragging them into the pasture with his Kubota tractor.

On the left, is hubby on the tractor and the lights on the right are the police car headlights.

What a mess!! I have asked hubby to save me a section of this wonderful 100 year old walnut tree so we can carve a wooden spoon out of it.. and maybe get a bowl turned out of part of it. Wouldn't that be neat??

Today I called the gym to see if the pool was OPEN.. and it was.. so I headed off in the downpour to go swimming. On my way back, I stopped in the middle of the Stark Street bridge and took a photo of the river approaching flood stage. Brown and icky!!

So.. I drove down into Dabney State Park to get a closer look at the river and this is at the boat launch.. definitely flooded. I'm glad we live on high ground! :-)

When I got home.. much to my delight.. there was a over-stuffed box from KnitPicks yarn company!! Ohh.. it's soooOOOoo soft.. and SOoooo bright and colorful! I can't wait to start something with it. Hubby said.. "Just what you needed, MORE yarn." :-) Here is the warm colors.. coral, orange, gold and bright yellow.

Fuchsia, red, peach and pink. (not the real color names, but my own)

The cool colors - green, med green, lime and a lovely aqua.

Light blue, turquoise, darker aqua and true blue.

And a partridge in a pear tree... oh..oops.. this color is called "Fairytale". LOL!

So, what should I make with this bunch of beautiful-ness? All I know is that it's made me *happy* and gives me something to look forward to.

What are your plans for New Years Eve? We will be continuing a long held tradition of doing absolutely nothing special. :-)

*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*

*H*A*P*P*Y* *N*E*W* *Y*E*A*R*!*

*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*

((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Sumi Ink Painting & Crochet Scarf

2011-12-28T18:26:00.000-08:00

The week between Christmas and New Years has always been a special time for me. The big hoop-de-do of Christmas is but a fond memory and I make it a practice not to schedule any meetings or appointments during this week. It's a time to relax, enjoy our home and each other's company and just recoup. I had one thing I needed to do - I got an order for 3 Sumi ink painted cards from a new blog friend, Gracie, from "One Saylor's Log". She lives not far from me and someday we might meet for coffee.

She found the designs she liked on my card website. She wanted green bamboo, fuchsia and iris with a grasshopper. I was able to test out my new watercolor paints from M. Graham. They are made using honey so they don't dry out so much as regular watercolor paints. I was pretty pleased with it!

I finished the red and white scarf I started.. well.. I thought I'd do red all around but haven't done that.. I kind of like it like it is. The pattern is here. It's a very thick and textured pattern and easy to do. Basically you chain how long you want it and then do a single, double then triple crochet.. keep going and turn and go back doing the single on the last triple, double over the double and triple over the single.

I went swimming today and it was a big bust. The pool water looked icky.. and sure enough the pool guy arrived 20 minutes into my hour swim and closed the pool and sent us all out so he could work on it. Grrrr. The light was out in the shower room so I had to shower in the dark, too. I wish I would have stayed home. Oh well!

The weather here is full out winter-y. Raining like crazy, windy and cold. I heard a big thumpety-thump on the roof and hubby went out to see and found nothing. I just heard another big noise.. I'm sure glad we had the huge dead maple removed before winter!

Edited to add: This last noise was one of our big huge walnut trees - it blew down across Bell Road.. I've called 911 and the police are heading out. Hubby is going to try to move it with his tractor. Yikes! (The policeman helped by wrapping the tow chain around the tree parts and Dayle pulled them out of the middle of the road - I did some traffic directing and got sopping wet. I called our son to help but by the time they got here it was mostly cleaned up. Sheesh!)

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a fun New Years Eve.. and especially I hope you have a spectacular 2012!! I will enjoy getting to know you all better and look forward to making new friends from around this lovely globe we inhabit together.

*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*

*H*A*P*P*Y* *N*E*W* *Y*E*A*R*!*

*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*

((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Christmas Day 2011

2011-12-26T13:16:00.000-08:00

We had a nice Christmas, I hope you did too. After we had a breakfast of coffee and an apple fritter, I gave Dayle his gifts.. I got him a tool kit on wheels and inside were 3 new Carhartt shirts, a big file for sharpening his mower blades, a new tape measure (he can never find one when we need it :-), a few bags of licorice, and 2 boxes of Whoppers, his favorite. He was pleased! Below is the stack of gifts he found for me and wrapped his very own self!!

Next we gave Buddy his gift. It's a stuffed Hedgehog - he had one as a baby and he kept chewing it up - I would repair it and he'd chew another hole in it and pull out the stuffing until finally there was nothing left to sew up. It was so funny as when Dayle held it up for him, it's like he instantly knew his old friend from 8 years ago! I took it and was showing it to him and he smelled it and then picked it up like it was a baby pup and he hauled it off to play (chew) on it. He pulled out the squeaker and the stuffing already and chewed off it's back feet. I just sewed it back up. Silly dog.

And then it was my turn. I pulled off the red ribbon of the blue box.

And inside was a Tiffany lock.. a new clasp for my bracelet. The bracelet is a vintage piece I found on eBay years ago and I wear it 24/7.

I love it!

Then I opened the things he found at The Real Mother Goose - Fine American Crafts. I was thrilled with this new ornament, a hand carved Santa face out of a vintage wooden sewing thread spool!

Isn't this wonderful?

On the bottom was a vintage gold button.

Next was a new hand inlaid wooden barrette for my hair.. in the shape of a feather, all natural wood and varnished. I love it!

And then in the long box was a hand-blown glass ornament.. just beautiful, like a glass candy cane. My honey did good picking out surprises for me. :-)

I wanted to show you one of my favorite Christmas decorations - the beaded tree below - it was made by my youngest son's wife, Kristi, and all around the base of the tree are special miniatures that she knew I'd love - especially the Scrabble game. I'm kind of hooked on playing Scrabble on Facebook - if you'd like to play me, let me know! The lights on the tree work, but we didn't have them on in this photo.

We had a pleasant day puttering around getting things ready for our youngest son and his family to arrive. Dayle put a roast beef in the oven then added carrots and potatoes and made another corn casserole. I tidied up the table, hung up the last of our cards around the archway to the living room and took some photos with the fire going. Here is Buddy watching me take photos.. isn't he cute? He looks like he's waiting for something.

Below is the top of the piano with my 2 trees under glass, the Dept 56 "North Pole Village" and our skating pond that really works.

This is the last photo of the living room for this year. It was picture perfect - gifts still under the tree -- before the mayhem. :-)

The kids arrived at around 4:30 pm and it got active around the old farmhouse. :-) I showed the boys the dollhouse, then we put it away in the front entry. Kristi loved it. Kristi ordered blanket sleepers for the whole family. Our son was like Ralphie in "A Christmas Story" when his aunt sent him the pink bunny sleeper and couldn't wait to get his off and his jeans and tshirt on. :-) He was a good sport and posed for a family photo before changing. teehee

Here are the boys being fascinated by the skating pond.

Our daughter in Ohio called and wished us a Merry Christmas and she sent me this photo of my granddaughters with their hand knitted bunnies that I found on Etsy for them. I think they like them!

And so it is Christmas, Another Year Over, A New One Just Begun.

We send our love to you all, the world over - thank you for visiting me and my family here on my little corner of the internet. I am thankful to have met so many new friends here and I look forward to getting to know you all better in the new year.

*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*

*H*A*P*P*Y* *N*E*W* *Y*E*A*R*!*

*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*

((hugs)), Teresa :-)

A Childhood Dream.. Come True!

2011-12-24T17:42:00.000-08:00

We didn't have a lot as I was growing up, but we always had a warm home, food to eat and clothes to wear. I did see other kids had bigger homes, more clothes, more attention and nice gifts. No big thing, but as I went through my adulthood, I would occasionally get to fulfill a childhood dream. When our kids were young, we got a pony for them, and I got my very own horse. Check that off the bucket list. Another thing I coveted all my life was a doll house. So, here I am.. in my 6th decade, and I am the proud new owner of a vintage Victorian Doll House! A few days ago I thought.. hmm.. I'll check on craigslist for one and lo and behold, there was a fully furnished, fancy hand built dollhouse! I emailed the owners and they didn't respond for a few days, but on Thursday he sent a few more photos. On Friday I called and asked if we could come and take a look... and.... look what hubby got for me!

The photo below is the living room as it was decorated when we bought it. Don't you love the tree? There are a bunch of gifts under it and 3 tiny wooden soldiers - and a tiny basket full of tiny balls of yarn. See the stockings on the mantel?

Today we spent hours dusting and gluing on the odd bits and broken furniture - and I was amazed at the hand inlaid wooden floors!! So, I took some pictures of the empty rooms to show you the floors. There are 3 "crystal" chandeliers - we have to get a battery pack for the light system - it was missing.

Here is the living room with lace curtains, inlaid floor, the fireplace - and each room has a different wallpaper. See the fretwork over the fireplace and doors to the kitchen?

The wondrous floor.. I am in love with it!!

The fireplace.

There are also 2 hand done needlepoint "Persian" rugs!

The upstairs master bedroom has a chevron wood floor.

A better view of the floor.

Here is the foyer with even more fancy inlaid wood flooring!

Sorry for the grainy photo.. but I decided to leave the carpet off the livingroom floor when I set up the furniture. Isn't it cute!?

The master bedroom set up.. although for some reason the wash stand is in the wrong place. :-) I must say that the furniture is amazing, all wood, all the drawers pull out.

Here is the tiny kitchen with a pot belly stove, a sink with a water pump, a broom, bag of flour and a water bucket.

Guess who had to check out the new "thing".

In the 3rd floor of the turret is a sweet little sun room with an adorable wicker table and chairs... and a wicker hanging basket of what looks like a Christmas cactus! There is a violet in bloom on the table and a few books to read. The door opens to a little balcony.

The bathroom -- it's the same kind of toilet that we have here in our old farmhouse! We also have a similar sink and the same claw-foot bath tub. It also has a medicine cabinet like ours.

Here is the nursery. It has stained glass windows and toys on the floor.

Sorry for the fuzzy photo below.. here is the back.

Here is how I set up the living room -- or the parlour.

I already have a shopping list. Better rugs for the bathroom, a Victorian family to inhabit the home, and other bits and bobs. I also plan to crochet a few pillows and especially a granny square blanket for the four poster bed, using tiny yarn and hook. What else do you think I should add? I already envision finding some tiny Christmas lights to hang on it next year. :-)
We're having a lovely calm Christmas Eve - and tomorrow our son and his family will arrive for a roast beef dinner and PREZZIES!! Can't wait.
I hope you and your family have a wonderful day tomorrow and be happy and enjoy what you have. And take some time to think of others that could use some help and maybe we can all do that in this coming year.

❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉
*M*E*R*R*Y* *C*H*R*I*S*T*M*A*S*!*
❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉
((hugs)), Teresa :-)

A little of this.. and a little of that..

2011-12-22T20:00:00.000-08:00

We've had some nice days this week. Low stress, this and that. I'll begin with today - my sister Denise and I volunteered at Multnomah Falls. Although all our visitors are nice, we usually have a special encounter that is lovely and memorable. Today there was more than one. A Hispanic family came in and their son saw my ripple blanket I was working on and he began telling me about his grandmother who could make anything, knit, crochet and tatting. All four of them obviously adored their grandma/mother/mil -- I could tell she had passed on -- it touched me deeply how much the two young men loved the things she made for them. I can only hope that my grandchildren will remember me so fondly. :-)

Below is a photo of Multnomah Falls Lodge all lit up for the holidays - it was very chilly and wintery.

Many people bring their dogs to the falls.. when I was out doing my "photo-journalism" thing, I saw these lovely dogs.. they are "Golden Doodles".. a cross between a golden retriever and a standard poodle. Handsome boys, they were!

The falls.. you know I had to do it. :-)

On my walk up to the get photo of the falls, I noticed that there was frost on the leaves by the side of the path... at this time of year the sun is so low in the sky that it never shines on the walk up to the falls. Brrrr.

My second highlight of the day was a kind young man said to me.. are you Teresa Kasner? I said, yes.... and he said.. I'm Marcus, I went to school with your sons. Of course I remembered him, he was such a nice boy!! He introduced me to his wife and 4 adorable children. He is an accountant for the Crocs company and lives in Denver CO. They had driven by our farm on the way there and told me how nice it looked. How sweet that was!

On Tuesday I met my dear friend Marita for lunch - we met years ago when she was the graphic designer for the Portland Yacht Club yearly roster and I was working on the roster committee. We hit it off and have met for lunch a few times a year ever since. We exchanged gifts.. do you recognize the little iridescent plate that I got at the Wild Arts Festival? She loved it!

The little bag she gave me was sooo heavy.. I opened the tissue and there was a carved stone soap dish..

And a huge fragrant bar of soap.. it smells divine! Thank you, Marita!

When I arrived home there was a padded envelope.. and I received my 4th ornament in the We Love Lucy II group ornament swap.. this was from Miriam in LA. There was also a magnet strip for using when working on a pattern. Neat! Thanks!

I have a friend named Eric who is a talented organist and was asked to play in the Mormon Tabernacle a few months ago and was asked to play again in the college there on this amazing organ.. with 300 singers. Do you see him there at the organ? I just wished I could have been there to hear it.

Here is a shot of our living room and the tree. We are all set and awaiting Christmas day when our youngest child, Travis, will bring his family here for dinner and presents by the fire. We have 2 roasts to cook with carrots and onions and will make Pioneer Woman's mashed potato bake and another corn casserole.

We've had a few anxious days as our youngest grandchild, Caleb, Travis' baby has pneumonia and his temperature reached 104.6 yesterday so Travis rushed him to the Emergency Room - he was listless and had shallow breathing. Kristi had taken him to the doctor that day and unfortunately the antibiotic they prescribed reacted badly. They have him on new meds and he rebounded, but is having a bad day today. We'd appreciate it if you'd keep them in your thoughts and/or prayers.

I hope you are all having a lovely and calm week and have a....

❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉
*M*E*R*R*Y* *C*H*R*I*S*T*M*A*S*!*
❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉
((hugs)), Teresa :-)

New Crochet, Good Hubby & Blog Award

2011-12-20T11:50:00.000-08:00

Season's Greetings, Dear Readers! I hope you are all set for the big day and are able to take some time for yourself this week. Feet up, coffee or tea at hand, and something you enjoy to do, like a movie, favorite tv, crochet, knit or other handwork you like to do. I started a group in Facebook called "We Love Lucy II" and one of the ladies showed us this stitch I'd never seen, so I thought I'd try it out. Below is a scarf I'm working on.. doesn't the pattern look like little red Christmas trees on the right.. and white ones on the left? :-) It's a very textural pattern and lays nice and flat. Here is the pattern.

Yesterday, my dear husband did something he did not want to do.. for me. He got dressed and drove into the "mouth of the dragon".. he jumped off a cliff.. he swam an ocean and crawled across a desert. Well, what he really did was drive by himself, into downtown Portland, find a parking place and walked into a shop and shopped for some "surprises" for me for Christmas. He does NOT like to go downtown, he does NOT like to shop, he's not fond of spending money either.. but he did all this.. for me. How sweet is that?

The evidence.

Then he stopped at Costco and got some roasted chicken, some nice tomatoes and a bag of salad greens... then came home and made this salad for me. I went swimming today while all this was occurring. We're having a very nice pre-Christmas week.. enjoying the lights and decorations.

While I was reading my favorite blogs I saw that my friend Lucy in the Sky had given me a "Liebster Blog Award". This is an award to encourage those bloggers with under 200 "Followers". I want to thank Lucy, and to also tell you that she is a fun lady that lives in England with her partner and 2 adorable sons. She has 3 cute chickens and a nice garden. She spins on a spinning wheel and demonstrates her skill for others. She and I have a lot in common and I count her as one of my favorite blog friends.

As a winner of this award, it's my duty to pick some of my blog friends to share with you, so here are 5 that I highly recommend. Enjoy visiting their blogs and tell them I sent you! :-)

❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉
❉ Meredith from "Mereknits" - a real doll and always leaves a sweet comment for me.
❉ Robin from "My Nest of Yarn and Buttons" from Vermont, also a sweetheart.
❉ Melissa from "Random Thoughts of a Crazy Woman" - who isn't crazy at all. :-)
❉ Lisa from "Three of Hearts", from England and a mom and very nice person.
❉ Jane from "Jane's Journal", from the UK, a jeweler and card-maker extraordinaire.

❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉
*M*E*R*R*Y* *C*H*R*I*S*T*M*A*S*!*
❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉ ❉

((hugs)), Teresa :-)

How to Build a Snowman *<[]:{D

2011-12-17T18:18:00.000-08:00

Many years ago I bought a fabric snowman somewhere.. and of course.. as you who are craftspeople would understand.. I thought.. I could make that! So, I got some white cotton material, buttons, small amounts of red and green plaid, orange pipe cleaners and some red and green cotton knit. I cut out cardboard circles in 3 sizes, and cut out the white fabric circles, basted around the edge, pulled it up, stuffed it with batting (after placing a small cardboard circle in the bottom so the snowman would stand up) and tightened up the thread to make 3 "snow balls".

Then I used my hot glue gun to glue them into a 3 part snowman.

I found some twigs outside and poked a hole in the side and glued the "arms" in, glued the buttons on, cut a little pipecleaner "nose" and poked a hole and glued it in, ripped a little plaid scarf and frayed the edges, made a hat out of the knit, and used a waterproof marker to make the coal eyes and nose.. and a little bit of pink to make the cheeks.. and "VOILA!".. my own snowmen. I made some for gifts too. I still love my snowmen.

A few years ago I went to the Pittock Mansion in the West Hills of Portland, Oregon.. and they had a lovely gift shop - the house was decorated for Christmas and it was gorgeous. In the shop I found this wonderful pair of Fenton, frosted glass, Mr. & Mrs. Snow people.

On the table now is my gift from Dayle. I do know what it is, as I found it and ordered it -- but he paid for it.. :-) But he thinks I should wait until Christmas day to open it. What do you think?

Here is a close up of the face of one of my snowmen.

And the other.

I want to tell you about my last two days.. yesterday I joined my 2 sisters for lunch at a small independent restaurant called "The Country Cat" - they specialize in food using local produce and meats. After lunch we exchanged gifts! I gave both sisters a Cath Kidston chamber candlestick and a polka dotted candle! My older sister gave me a garden banner with a K on it. My younger sister gave me a wonderful scented candle and 3 different Christmas fabrics and a yo-yo maker!! I'll show you what they are after I make some. Then we went on to a nice theater and watched the new "Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows". Do click on that link to see the trailer.. it was a GREAT movie!!

Today I met my "best friend from 7th grade", Shirley, for lunch. We exchanged gifts and had a nice time catching up. She was a half hour late as her GPS gave her some bad directions.. and wow, it was not a good day to be out and about - the Saturday before Christmas weekend? I was glad to make it home and settle in. On my drive home in the sunshine, I stopped to snap this photo of my beloved Sandy River. This is the Stark Street Bridge. I love where I live!

I hope you're enjoying your holidays. Take time to relax and appreciate all the little details.

****************************************
*H*A*P*P*Y* * *H*O*L*I*D*A*Y*S*!*!*!*
****************************************
((hugs)), Teresa :-)

An Early Christmas

2011-12-15T11:55:00.000-08:00

Do you wrap gifts as you get them, or like me.. wait until the shopping and making is all done, then do a marathon wrapping session? Tuesday hubby headed out for a doctor appt and to shop for the holiday dinner we were hosting on Wed for our older son and his family. I began to wrap and wrap.. one done, lots more to go!

And here is the tree after all the gifts were put beneath and around.

The reason we're having Christmas 10 days early for our son and his family is that they are heading to his inlaws home in Agoura Hills, Los Angeles, CA to spend Christmas with his wife's family - and attend her younger brother's wedding just days before the big day. I thought it would be good to give the boys their gifts so they'd have something to play with on the trip south in the car. The boys are fascinated with our tiny skating rink.

The boys were even more fascinated with who's name was on what gift under the tree. :-)

My little North Pole village from Dept. 56.

Dayle made a feast for us for dinner! Baked ham, corn casserole (which turned out FANtastic! Recipe below.), scalloped potatoes, sourdough baguette, sparkling apple cider - and for dessert, fresh brownies with peppermint ice cream on top!

We really enjoyed spending the evening with our son and his family. Lots of old memories shared, new things to celebrate, the boys loved their gifts.. and said the meal was great, and it was. :-)

I hung some large snowflakes on the old light fixture above the dining table and was pleased with how they glowed in the candle-light.

I was so happy when the boys arrived as they had made me these adorable ornaments to hang on the tree! I will always treasure them.

Gabe made the gingerbread man and Mikey made the reindeer with a wreath around his neck. :-)

I forgot to show you this Jim Shore patriotic ornament I found last year.

And this Italian cherub I found on Etsy this year! :-)

And the other Italian cherub I found on eBay. Is he playing a tambourine?

Here is a tiny glass train ornament set from last year I meant to hang on a little tree...

My Jim Shore manger scene on the top of our china cabinet from Dayle's parents.

Corn Casserole

1 can creamed corn

1 can kernel/niblet corn (un-drained)

1 small can Ortega diced chilies (if desired)

1 small (8 ounce) sour cream

1 stick of butter (softened)

1 egg

1 package Jiffy corn bread mix

Mix all ingredients together and bake at 350 for 40 minutes until golden brown.
==========
If you like cornbread and if you like corn.. you will *LOVE* this recipe. In fact, we're having it and some of that yummy ham for lunch today. Mmmm.

I am going to work on my Christmas cards today. I am very late with them, but.. better late than never, eh?

:¦:-·-:¦:-·-:¦:-·-:¦:-·-:¦:-·-:¦:-·-:¦:-·-:¦:
*M*E*R*R*Y* *C*H*R*I*S*T*M*A*S*!*
:¦:-·-:¦:-·-:¦:-·-:¦:-·-:¦:-·-:¦:-·-:¦:-·-:¦:
((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Merry Christmas.. to me! :-)

2011-12-12T17:44:00.000-08:00

I attended the Portland Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution meeting today at the Red Lion Hotel near the Convention Center. It was fun as everyone was wearing Christmassy things and we had a silent auction and we all brought an ornament to share and sang a carol or two. It was another brilliantly sunny day and I pulled over alongside the Sandy River on the way home to snap this photo. The sun sparkling on water is one of my favorite things. What is yours?

When I arrived home, there were 3 packages and a card awaiting me! This box below is from Lucy R. in Essex UK - they had a Swap in the "We Love Lucy" group on Ravelry and I sent a box to Lucy and she sent me this.. ohhhh.. fun!

Talk about fun, to open a box from someone from a different country who has tried to learn about you by visiting your blog and reading about your likes and dislikes.. and to see what they put together for you! She wrapped everything in this wonderful printed linen - I'll show you more of it soon...

I opened the card and this absolutely DELIGHTFUL card that you open up and it makes a 3D snow globe.. it's so neat and I've never seen anything like it! :-)

Lucy had wrapped everything is pretty tissue.. and packed it in pretty red shredded tissue.

Here is the printed linen.. with scenes from Lucy's home area. Oh how I'd love to visit there!

3 adorable Christmas themed stitch markers!

4 lovely squishy organic cotton skeins.. ohhh.. yum!

Look at this FAB handpainted glass ornament with a British flag on it.. it will take pride of place on my Christmas tree and I'll think of Lucy each time I see it. AND it's from Sainsbury's which I've heard of but never seen.

Then.. another fun thing.. a puzzle ball.. can't wait to put this together as I love puzzles!

She included this fun publication so we can learn about Essex.. and of course I adore anything coastal and light-house-y! :-)

Also in the box was this fun post card with a map so I can see where things are.

And I was thrilled with this GREAT little cookbook.. it has recipes from each County in her area - I handed it to hubby and suggested he might try some of these.. LOL! He read all the titles and we both enjoyed the names of things immensely.

Such as "Essex Meat Layer Pudding".

Here is a group shot of everything.. plus the "Wishes" chocolate.. except for 2 things that I didn't get in this photo...

2 precious and wonderful hand-crocheted stocking ornaments! What is fun, is these are so very similar to ones I've made, but special to me as Lucy made them!

Lucy.. *T*H*A*N*K* * *Y*O*U*!*!*!* so very much! I love everything so much!! I can't wait to hear that you've received the box I sent to you. *<[]:{D
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I also received a vintage cherub ornament from Italy - this one is tiny - that I found on Etsy.com.

I also got my 3rd ornament in a swap in the "We Love Lucy II" group on Facebook. This one is from the swap organizer, Dionne L. - she also included a neat crochet hook with a pretty swirl design down the center! Thanks, Dionne!

At the DAR meeting today I got this crystal candle holder in the silent auction - it's an Oleg Cassini design.

And.... a huge bag of baby colored yarn was given to me by the sweet Sandy D. There must be 20-25 skeins in there. She bought it to make a baby thing for her granddaughter, who is now a teen and so she needs different colors. She knows I make a lot of baby gifts. Wasn't that nice???

And lastly, I just had to show you -- my younger sister Denise's son, Shane, is on a 6 week trip touring SE Asia and sent us this photo. Roar! Scary! The next day he sent a photo of him riding an elephant! What a kid!

And so my friends.. time for me to relax. This social whirl has made me tired. :-) Time for me to "blob" and take it easy. Love and hugs all around..

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*M*E*R*R*Y* *C*H*R*I*S*T*M*A*S*!*

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((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Children's Party at PYC

2011-12-11T17:24:00.001-08:00

What a busy holiday weekend for us! Yesterday afternoon we headed to Lake Oswego for the Friends of Multnomah Falls Board Christmas Party. Billie was the hostess and was born and raised in Texas, she makes a huge banquet of home made Mexican food. We had a great time. Then early this afternoon we drove along Marine Drive to the Portland Yacht Club for the annual Children's Christmas Party. There was a clown and then Santa arrived.. and a banquet of child friendly things such as macaroni and cheese, fruit and veggies, cookies and juice. Below is the beautiful big natural tree and my DIL Beth and grandson Michael.

Here is our son Travis, Dayle and Hayden. His wife had to stay home with Caleb as both had a cold. See all the burgees on the wall? They are from other yacht clubs that we have reciprocal agreements with, so we can use their marinas and services.

Here is Michael and Gabriel. The navy blue "roll" is a lovely blanket with PYC embroidered on it - a gift to me from the Commodore as I was one of his committee chairs - I've done the website for 5 years. This is my last year doing it as they've decided to go with a whole new system where members can pay online and all. Not the technology that I am familiar with or even want to learn.

This is the view across the ballroom towards the Columbia River.

This is from the lounge.. our sailboat Stargazer is moored near the end of the middle row.

Our 3 grandsons had a BALL watching the clown, so did all the other kids!

The clown must have said something particularly funny here, our 3 boys are roaring..

Here is BJ the clown.

I walked out on the patio to get a shot up the river.. several sailboats were out today as the weather was pretty mild.

Our boat is the 2nd from the end on "B Row" on the right.

Then Santa arrived.. here is Mike and Gabe on his lap.

Hayden was 3rd in line for Santa but ran off to play and had to get in the VERY last of the line.. he was doing fine, but the baby right in front of him cried on Santa's lap, so Hayden decided to refuse to sit on his lap. But he got a toy and one for his missing brother, too.

What a fun day for the kids and the adults too! Now, my DAR meeting tomorrow and then a few down days.. well, at least time to fill out a few Christmas cards!

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*M*E*R*R*Y* *C*H*R*I*S*T*M*A*S*!*

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((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Family Holiday Dinner

2011-12-10T11:16:00.001-08:00

We hosted a holiday dinner party for my 2 sisters, 1 brother and their spouses last evening. There were 4 of us children in the family, and I must tell you that I'm so happy that we are still all together. I see other families where there is strife and hurt and misunderstandings and where the siblings aren't speaking because of disharmony dealt to their families by parents - and it's just so sad. I guess what I'm saying is, if you are close with your siblings, celebrate it -- and if you aren't.. it's not too late to let the old hurts go away and reach out and touch your family while you still have them.

Dayle prepared 2 chuck roasts according to the cookbook of Pioneer Woman (one of my fave blogs) and I finished the decorating and set the table for our dinner. In the shot below the sun was streaming in and had lit up the crystal candelabra. I used a new Hipstamatic film and lens made especially for photographing food.. (called "Foodie Pak") I noticed that it focused in the center and fuzzed up all the surrounding areas.. kind of fun.

Almost ready....

What would happen if I hold the iPhone this way... hmmm...

Then everyone arrived and we got pretty busy around here.. Dayle had laid a fire in the fireplace several weeks ago -- he was in the kitchen checking the roast so I asked my BIL Teddy to light the fire.. I handed him a lighter.. and so he opened the glass doors and lit the fire. Pretty soon he starts yelling.. is the damper open??? OH my.. I guess not.. smoke was billowing out of the fireplace.. I run and interrupt Dayle and ask him to hurry to open the damper.. by the time he did we had quite the black smoke coming out!! We opened the front and back doors to let the wind blow it out.. and then we settled down on the sofas to chat.. and **BOOOOOOM** the glass blew out of the firescreen door!!! It was like an episode of some sitcom on TV! After that was cleaned up the rest of the evening went on without any other disasters. :-)

This is my younger sister, Denise (from left), my older sister "Bird", and my sister-in-law, D'Ann. The roast and carrots came out tender and extremely flavorful.. Denise brought Pioneer Woman's mashed potato bake, Rob my brother brought sparkling cider and Bird brought 2 pumpkin pies. The meal was delish and we had so much fun chatting and enjoying each others company.

The guys.. from left.. Dayle, brother Rob, BILs Teddy and Steve. :-)

After dinner we retired to the living room and enjoyed the tree and more visiting. After everyone headed home, and the table cleared, time to blow out the candles.

Here is my Santa's North Pole Village on the piano - the skaters really skate around on the pond, the grandkids love this one.

I wanted to show you the vintage box of Christmas ornaments that we found in Dayle's parents garage when they moved into an assisted living facility. I love this old box and especially so since it was his family's from the day they bought the box.

I wanted to share with you a part of my Santa collection.. these two I made out of a few pieces of firewood. :-) They are VERY crude and funny, but I love them. The one on the right I didn't carve much.. just shaped the point on the top, the one on the left I actually tried carving.. but I decided I'm not much good at it... LOL!

The one below was carved by a GOOD carver.. I had the owl specially added to remind me of an old friend I met in eWorld a long time ago, "NiteOwl".. we still exchange Christmas cards and he lives on Long Island, NY. The carving was done by another online friend's wife, his nickname was "CabinBoy" and I met him when I was the host of the Sailing Forum in AOL. I traded her some jewelry I made.

In a few hours we'll head to Lake Oswego to the board party for the Friends of Multnomah Falls. It's hosted by Billie, who makes a big feast of Mexican food for us all. Fun!

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend full of love and the spirit of Christmas.

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*M*E*R*R*Y* *C*H*R*I*S*T*M*A*S*!*

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((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Crochet Stockings & Around the Lodge

2011-12-08T20:43:00.001-08:00

As we continue decorating our home for the holidays, the last red metal footlocker/trunk was brought down by dear hubby and it was full of treasures! I strung the wooden "cranberry" beads across the mantel and hung up our stockings. I've been wanting to show you my own design crochet stockings that I came up with years ago. I used the "long" stitch to create the designs.. the white is a zigzag and the red are hearts. I may try to write up a pattern for them as I've never seen any like these that I designed. After the holidays are over, though. :-)

Here is my red one..

I headed out right after noon to Multnomah Falls to volunteer in the Visitor Center with my sister, Denise. We always meet an hour before we go on duty for lunch in the Lodge. I thought I'd show you around a bit.. you've seen photos of the falls and outside, but I wanted to share with you this wonderful historic lodge. Below is the fireplace in the small dining room where we eat our lunch. The manager of the company who runs the restaurant gives the staff and volunteers super good prices - which is so nice.

This is the window where we dine.. see the sliver of the Columbia River beyond the trees? See the big bluff across the river there.. that is Washington State!!

This is the lounge area between the bar and the lobby of the restaurant.. people are able to wait comfortably for a table by the fire there. There are old photos and paintings around the interior.. that one is of Crater Lake.

This is the soaring ceiling of the "Great Room"... there is a roaring, crackling fire with real wood in this room.. I wish you could smell the smoky aroma of it. How about that rock wall?

The fireplace is big!

The big tall scrawny tree in the dining room. :-)

This is the newest room in the restaurant.. called the "Falls Room".. can you see the waterfall through the windows in the peak?

Another vantage point of the Falls Room, there is a rock patio beyond for summer dining.

Mid-afternoon, I went out to the coffee cart to buy my sister and I a coffee drink - she has a latte and I have a mocha. It's excellent coffee, they use beans from the Hood River Coffee Company and it's yummy! While they were making our coffees I strolled up the path towards the falls and got this photo.. I know you enjoy seeing it! :-)

Coming back down I got this shot of the wonderful fluorescent green lichen on the rocks across the creek.

We had another nice afternoon visiting with folks from all over, helping them plan their excursions and which way to go to see what. When we left and locked up everything securely, I got this shot of the lighted lodge.. dark, huh?

When I arrived home hubby gave me my mail.. a DARLING card from my *WONDERFUL* friend Kate at The Garden Bell blog! Isn't this the cutest card ever?

And also I got my 2nd ornament from the swap we did in the "We Love Lucy II" group on Facebook. This is from Ingrid Pretorius from East Sussex UK. We're up to 326 members of the group! If you're on FB, come on over and join us! :-)

And for my blog friend Jane at Jane's Journal, my Lucy waves her paw at your Billy!

I sure hope you've enjoyed the tour of the lodge and have a fun weekend ahead. Here's my line up -- Friday, we're hosting my 3 siblings and their spouses for a holiday dinner here. Hubby is making 2 pot roasts and I'm making green beans and bacon. Saturday is the Board of Directors party for the Friends of Multnomah Falls. Sunday is the Children's Christmas Party at the Portland Yacht Club -- and Monday is my chapter meeting of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Oh my!

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*M*E*R*R*Y* *C*H*R*I*S*T*M*A*S*!*
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((hugs)), Teresa :-)

A Closer Look *<[]:{D

2011-12-07T11:32:00.001-08:00

I hope you're enjoying the holidays - I am. Finding some fun toys for our grandchildren, trimming the tree, planning a holiday dinner for my two sisters, one brother and their spouses. I showed you our tree but I realized that the fun part is standing close to it and looking over all the ornaments that are lovingly collected, made or given to you over the years.

So, why don't you join me in looking closer at some of my favorite ornaments? Of course I love this one, it's fragile glass, a barn, with a tractor parked on the side. Doesn't it look like our barn?

Here is a snowflake that I crocheted last year using cotton thread and a small steel hook. I did several of these which I added to my collection that started with buying some from a 100 year old friend of mine, Weltha Wilson a few years before she passed away.

The one below is a crocheted wreath, which I starched and hung with a bead in the middle and added a green ribbon, red satin rose and added some dried baby's breath to.

I also have a small collection of "Snow Baby" ornaments by Dept. 56. This one is sledding on a snow disk.

I found this wonderful cherub ornament in an antique store several years ago, I think it's made in Italy and is hand signed.

This smaller one was there also - sorry for the fuzzy photo.

I crocheted this stocking for Dayle - I can't find mine! But I've made one for each of the family members, including the 6 grandchildren. These are only 3 inches tall.

This is a favorite - a small brass railroad lantern with crystals for the globe. This will always be special as I got these last year when we treated all of our kids and grandkids to a train trip on the steam engine "Holiday Express". I got one for us and all the kids - the proceeds went to help pay for the restoration of the train and to build a new home for the historic engines.

I found this carousel a few years ago, you push a button underneath and a Christmas song plays.

This ornament is a favorite, given to me by my granddaughters last year.

This is a Lucy style ornament that I made last year. My granddaughters are in the ornament next to it.. :-)

I like this one, a glass cover over a penguin and 2 snow covered trees.

This is just one of my collection of Margaret Furlong porcelain ornaments.. each year the artist would put a different item in the angels arms.

I purchased this small Nantucket basket ornament while on a visit to that magical island about 5 years ago with my sister, Roberta. See the sailing ship on the top?

This is one of 6 Thomas Kinkade sailboat ornaments I found, I don't even remember where. eBay? each one has a porcelain sail with a lovely lighthouse painted on it, the boat floats upon a lovely blue sea.

You probably noticed bits of my Scandinavian Heart ornaments in these photos.. here is one straight on. You can get the free pattern here on my blog, click on the link above right. You can also buy one if you want on my Etsy page. :-)

Here is a favorite.. my dog's own ornament.

This below is the cutest little thing.. it's a candle holder that has 3 little animals roasting a marshmallow over the "fire" - which is a tea light candle - with a Christmas tree behind lit with candles, and two red birds beside their nest with 3 eggs in it.

Last but not least is this sleeping Santa.. made of painted plaster. Funny story.. the plaster lady was visiting my home in Louisiana and saw an Aztec calendar on our wall and asked if she could borrow it to cast to make more.. so we said okay.. a week later she called to apologize as the one we lent her burst into a million pieces during the molding of it. She asked if she could make us a Santa to replace it, which I readily agreed to. This is what she gave us and it's our oldest and most prized decoration. :-)

I hope you've enjoyed this closer look of our Christmas decorations. I hope to see some of yours on those of you who blog! :-) I plan to finish off my decorating today so it will be done for our siblings and spouses dinner day after tomorrow!!

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*M*E*R*R*Y* * *C*H*R*I*S*T*M*A*S*!*
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((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Chasing the Cotton Candy Mountain

2011-12-05T20:07:00.001-08:00

I went swimming today and the sun slanted across the pool and sparkled on the water - there wasn't a cloud in the sky today. We're having the sunniest December in my memory. When I walked out to my car afterwards I saw the sun shining on the fresh white coat of snow on Mt. Hood. It was getting late and I knew it would be turning pink - called "alpen-glow". I snapped this shot from the parking lot but was unhappy with the poles and buildings. So, I headed home via the countryside way to see if I could get a better shot.

I actually went on quite the wild goose chase trying to find a good photo of the mountain. And the funny thing is I drove this huge loop over hill and dale and ended up going back to my first vantage point near Strebin Road.

Once home at sunset I drove out into our pasture and up onto the hill behind our house as I knew we had a peek at the mountain up there and wanted to see it.. that's it here. See?

And then I realized that I had a pretty view of the sunset colors from up there. That is looking back towards Portland, Oregon.

I also noticed a Hawthorn tree up there literally covered with beautiful red berries.

The farmhouse and garage barn lie below.. and our trailer and our 2 son's trailers.

Then I bump-ity bumped down and shot this of the barn and house and the red Pin oak tree.

When I came in the warm house with a cold nose hubby told me that I received a package from England. I participated in an Ornament Swap with fellow crocheters on a Facebook group that I started many months ago called "We Love Lucy II". There are now 323 members!! This was sent to me by Karen Beattie - I sent out my "signature" Scandinavian Heart Ornaments! It is now happily hanging on our Christmas tree! If you want to make an ornament like this below, here is Lucy's pattern from Attic24.

Yesterday our son Shawn and his family came to visit, then we went to dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant - "Lee's Garden" - and I called our younger son Travis and invited his family to join us. 10 of us for dinner - and Hayden our little grandson decided he wanted to wear my hat and gloves. How cute is he?

Just to prove that we're having unusually sunny weather - here is proof. This is going to just ruin the reputation of Oregon being wet and dreary. Shhhhhh.. don't tell anyone.

Tomorrow will be more decorating and Christmas card writing.. busy time of year, eh?

How is your season coming along?

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*M*E*R*R*Y* * *C*H*R*I*S*T*M*A*S*!*

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((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Waving the Magic Wand

2011-12-04T12:00:00.001-08:00

Christmas is in full tilt around here! I hope you're enjoying the season too. I participated in a "Swap" on Ravelry in the "We Love Lucy" group (who enjoy the Attic24 blog) -- and I was paired with Lucy in Essex, UK. Here are the gifts I put together for her all wrapped and ready to post tomorrow. I will show you what I sent after she receives them. I will also show you what she sends to me! *Excited!*

Yesterday while I was wrapping these things and also decorating the tree, Dayle was outside in the cold sunny day hanging new outdoor lights. I must say that the colors in the lights don't show up in this photo, but it sure looks pretty at night! He even pruned down a Rhododendron on the left of the porch so the lights would show. :-)

I just glanced in the dining room and the sun was shining across the table and it looked so pretty I grabbed my iPhone..

I usually have a lighted small tree on the table along with several Santas and a sleigh, but we're having a holiday dinner party for my 3 siblings and their spouses this coming Friday and I'd just have to take it all off, so I will put those up after that dinner.

The tree is decorated! Now I need to find the tree skirt! Today I want to put my North Pole village up on the baby grand piano with the skating pond, where the skaters really skate! I'll show you that later.

I had to share this photo of our grandson Gabe.. and his newest stuffed animal. He loves his stuffed animals sooOOooo much! Our son Shawn is coming to visit today, with his wife Beth and the two boys, Mike and Gabe.

I was working on my neat ripple crochet blanket and Buddy came and snuggled up next to me so I took this shot with my Hipstamatic App on my iPhone.. it made it all look golden and cozy.. we took both the dog and cat to the groomer on Friday and they are all set for the holidays!

I've been meaning to photograph my little houses that I painted many many years ago. So here they are. I made a bunch of these for a craft fair and these are the ones I have ended up with. I found it great fun to re-create a vision of what I had in my mind on these.

You can buy some flowers in the florist shop, and then dine in the cafe with red checked tablecloths and candles on the table.

My favorite is the little house all decorated for Christmas - and then my patriotic painted log house.

The house has double doors, a well lit tree, a fire blazing and 2 stockings hung with candles in antique brass candle holders on the mantel.. hung with a wreath. I had a friend of mine who does wood work to cut these little blocks of wood out of a pine 2x4! :-)

I hope my efforts here in Oregon of bringing the Magic of Christmas to our home has inspired you a bit.. I am looking forward to seeing the decor of my blogging friends, too! Here's to a great holiday season for us.. one and all.. ho ho ho!! *<[]:{D

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*M*E*R*R*Y* * *C*H*R*I*S*T*M*A*S*!*

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((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Women's Forum & Other Things

2011-12-02T19:13:00.001-08:00

Sometimes you have to start at the end.. :-) --- the first photo you use in a post becomes the "thumbnail" on the little promo when you put up a new post.. so I'm putting a photo at the top that was taken on our way into town today. I saw this image and said to hubby.. quick, take a photo with my iPhone! This is the Sandy River which we cross to get to "town".

Now, to back up.. yesterday we had the Portland Women's Forum December meeting which is a party after the business is taken care of. We decided this year to have a "Christmas Bazaar" and ask everyone to bring something for it - old, new, "re-gifts", whatever.. and it was fun to see what people brought. My older sister brought 12 pieces of homemade fudge in a tin, a bottle of wine in a pretty fabric bag and bath set. My younger sister brought a fun candle holder. I brought some of my silver earrings and a candle. Here is a photo of all the fun things.

One of the ladies brought cross stitched decorations.

We were raising funds for our Spring Bus Tour of the Columbia River Gorge. We made $82!!

Some of the ladies!

The other side of the table. I'm not in the pix as I'm taking them.. :-)

I caught a ride to the meeting with my friend Sally. Hubby picked me up and we went on to Costco to buy some new Christmas lights for the outside of the house as our old ones were half burned out! Heading back home up Marine Drive we snapped this of the Columbia River with Mt. Hood off to the far right. Don't we live in a pretty place?

Starting December 1st, I wear my red hat that I knitted in bright red chenille and then I crocheted the ivory white chenille brim. It was impossible to photograph, it's folded in half in the picture. I had a pom pom on it but it came apart. I do get some double takes with this hat on this time of year. *<[]:{D

I thought I'd show you the things I got at our bazaar, my sister's candleholder, a glass angel and the frosted glass deer candleholder.

The candleholder that sis brought is so pretty, with a horsedrawn sleigh and trees and stars.

The glass angel playing a harp.

The little frosted glass deer candleholder.

My daughter posted a couple photos of the girls on Facebook, so I snatched them to post here and show you how they're growing. This is Jenna, age 7, eating a carrot. In their new home. In Ohio. 2,000 miles away. Far far away.

And 3 year old Paige dining on her carrot.

I've been busy putting together a "Swap" package for a member of the "We Love Lucy" Ravelry page. Her name is Lucy and she lives in Essex, UK. I will be wrapping everything up and get it ready to mail on Monday. When she has received her package, I will show you what I sent. I am excited to see what she sends to me, as she works in a yarn store there in Essex! :-)

And also this weekend, I will hopefully finish waving my *magic* wand over this home and be turning it into a Christmas wonderland! Thanks for visiting my blog and you *know* I love your fabulous comments! It's how I get to know you better. My worldly friends.

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*M*E*R*R*Y* * *C*H*R*I*S*T*M*A*S*!*

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((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Teresa Kasner

More Gorge-ous-ness

Peace Lily & Jadeite

Snowdrops & Daffodils

Spinning Workshop, Part Deux

They Like Them!

Teddy Bear #2 & Stuff

Fancy Cam Shots of the Falls & More

Spinning Workshop

I Heart You!!

Steep Learning Curve

My First Big Girl Camera!!

Collections, New Teddy Yarn & 1st Quilt

Old Friends, Flower Shawl & Family Times

Crochet Teddy Bear is Done!

A *LOT* of WATER!

I Need Some Eyes, Ears & a Nose!

A Little Bit of This... and That

Sumi Ink Painting While it Snows

I Must Be Part Bear - Hibernating :-)

Frozen Falls

Winter Flowers

Cotton Candy Mountain Sweet Spot

Murder and Mayhem on the Farm

In the Presence of Greatness

Swap Package - From Me

Simple Quiet Celebration

Blown Down Trees, Floods and *NEW* Yarn! :-)

Sumi Ink Painting & Crochet Scarf

Christmas Day 2011

A Childhood Dream.. Come True!

A little of this.. and a little of that..

New Crochet, Good Hubby & Blog Award

How to Build a Snowman *<[]:{D

An Early Christmas

Merry Christmas.. to me! :-)

Children's Party at PYC

Family Holiday Dinner

Crochet Stockings & Around the Lodge

A Closer Look *<[]:{D

Chasing the Cotton Candy Mountain

Waving the Magic Wand

Women's Forum & Other Things

A LOT of WATER!

Blown Down Trees, Floods and NEW Yarn! :-)