Proud to be an American

Bikes all lined up and ready to go!

(This is my hubbies bike)

I am so proud to be an American and have the privilege to ride in our local July 4th parade along with 175 other Harleys. In the first group the front riders are a group that Honors our Veterans carry many of the old Military Flags, in the next group are 50 bikes each one carrying a flag of each of our 50 States, I got to carry Kansas, then a round of of the rest of the bikes all with many American Flags. This was really fun to see all the people along the road side clapping and saluting as we slowly rode by. Of course there was the fun side too as you will notice my cute Red, White & Blue pigtails that I made for my helmet! Hooray for the Red, White and Blue.....

(Me on my bike)

Perfect find

I am attending Kim Caldwell's Artistic Affaire "Les Sirenes" on July 15th - 18th..the theme is Mermaids and the Sea. Sweet Sherry from Georgia is hosting a Embellished Mermaid Jeans Contest..OMG of course I had to join..I can't show you pics just yet of what I have made..BUT I can show you the perfect pair of sandals I found to wear with my FAB Mermaid Jeans! Aren't these just amazing??? You will never guess wear I found these either....still wondering? Well I found them at Target!!! Yes that's right Target.....these will be just perfect to top of my special Mermaid jeans can't wait to show you PICs....check back after the 18th....

New Member of the Family

About 5 years back we had a yellow lab named Lady, she was then about 13 or 14 years old , we were not sure about her age as she was adopted from the pound. She was the most sweet, loving, gentle dog....of course we all love our dogs...as she got older it was hard to take her with us in our motorhome to travel as she could not get up and down the steps and she was too big to carry! So we decided to get a little dog as our future plans were to travel more and more over the years to come....that is when our precious little Duchess came into our lives, she is a mini dachshund, and she loves..loves..to travel. Well my husband just loves her and so do the boys, but lets get REAL here....the boys would really love to have a "mans dog" so they say..but thinking about bringing a puppy into our home is just not something we would consider right now.

But when one of the girls that works in my shop had to move and could not take her 6 year old yellow lab with her, she asked if anyone knew someone who might make a good home for him, well SUCKER that I am when she showed me the picture of him I just about fainted....it looked just like our lady dog. So I talked with my husband and he said we can give it a try and see how it works out....and since we have a BIG yard there would be no problem with having a BIG dog......well now we are the proud owners of "Chase" he fits right in! I have never had a male dog, so that is really different for me, but he is just so sweet, well trained and just fit right in with our whole family..dogs and all....

Of course all the BOYS just love him so he is getting alot of attention right now..the only downside is I just can't keep him out of the POOL!!!!! He is swimming at 8 o'clock in the morning ..YIKES! But we love him..it will be interesting to see how he does on a motorhome trip..that will be different for sure since he is just a little bigger than my Duchess........

Ruffles..Ruffles..Ruffles..Everywhere

I am sure that you have noticed that Ruffles are the latest trend in the Fashion World....you see ruffles on dresses, skirts, tee shirts, tank tops and even bathing suits (not that you would see me a ruffled bathing suit..HA!).

I am not really what I would call a "Fu Fu" type of girl, I mean I am not into Lacey, frilly things..BUT I do love the RUFFLES....I have seen some really cute bags with ruffles too..SOOooooo if you know me , you know I have to make one! Yikes...so here is my take on the ruffled bag. I made a smaller size bag out of white denim and then stitched rows of linen ruffles around it, made a long handle so I could wear it cross shoulder and sewed some vintage lace over the handle, stitched on a shell vintage button and of course a flower and some vintage lace...LOVE IT! I really wanted something smaller and cross shoulder to take with me went we went to the wine country so I could have my hands free for better things....like wine tasting!

Terri Brush

I have been just dying to take one of Terri Brush's soldering classes...SOoooo much that I signed up for her amazing Fall Art Camp in Oregon (on the coast no less) Check out her site terribrushdesigns.com for some awesome pictures of this upcoming event....

Of course I am not going this alone, I convinced my friend Karen to come along with me, and you just know that means trouble....and then our friend little miss Tiffany of shabbyscraps has so graciously offer for us to come up a few days early and stay at her cute farm house..YIKES! I am SO siked...so we are going up two days early and Tiffany is going to take us to all the best shopping places, then we will all take a little road trip down to the coast and through Portland (where Tiffany says we won't want to miss this place) for a weekend of classes and relaxing, I mean after all, all of our meals are going to be cooked for us, talk about getting pampered! I think I will bring a bottle of good wine for relaxing by the shore..OK...OK... so I will be bringing more than one!

Now if that is not enough, Terri will be in San Diego in June for some classes and I just couldn't help but sign up to learn how to make those awesome solder boxes she makes........of course I checked with her first to be sure she would not be teaching these in the fall...SOooooo I'm in, and I can't wait to learn how to make these cuties!!!!!

Spring Break

Our first stop is the Delta, OK so our motorhome won't fit on this barge....now what? We had to drive all the way around on these little tiny levee roads. If you have ever been to the delta you know what I mean, and we just there at dusk so we were trying to rush to get to our camp site before it got dark! Yikes....we didn't make it and it was really hard to see out there where you are going....DARK is not the word for it, talk about and "E" ticket ride..........Well after that adventure we were ready to relax with our friends Jimmy and Vickie, who took us to this awesome restaurant for lunch up in the Napa Valley..YUMMO..the off to do some wine tasting (my favorite thing to do)we only had time to go to a few since we got a late start, but that was enough to do some damage....One day the guys played golf and I went up to Lodi to met with my friend Natalie Hansen..we had lunch and did a little shopping in down town Lodi..dummy me I left my camera at home..sorry!

Then on the San Francisco and Ghirardelli Square..had to make a stop to visit Amy at her shop....................................................

Crown & Crumpet, I met Amy at one of Kim's Artistic Affaire Events and she was so sweet and told us about her shop, so I stopped in and payed her a visit..she was busy but took the time to talk with me and show me the shop....OMG just look at these pics of her tea room....

When you enter you see this display of goodies all wrapped up so cute.


Then there is shopping and gifts galore.............

There is a fireplace and couch to sit and relax, my daughter Amanda is sitting in the corner taking it all in.

This is the tea room, the floor is pink and white checked..so cute! Can't wait to go visit again.


Then down to the wharf , the cable car was out of order so the kids just got to sit on it and get this pic.

Then we took them down the crookest street in the world..they had not heard of it. I tried to take the pictures so you would get the idea of just how crooked this street is!

What a view from here.

We also went to China town for dim sum and tea tasting.

I don't know why my son thinks he can't smile...I guess it is age!


This is like wine tasting but with tea, they make several kinds for you to try and explain the benefits of each tea.

We walked along the boardwalk at the wharf and then had dinner on the wharf, they have the best seafood.

This is my husbands favorite place.......................


A few pics at night , then back to our camp site.

We always take our little baby Duchess with us when we travel in our motorhome, she is the best but I think she was ready to go home now....ya think?

Good Friends Good Times

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Arizona to take a class "Nuances de Printemps" hosted by Carol Wingert. My FAB friend Maija invited Kim and I to stay at her lovely home. She really is the Hostess with the Mostess....I also met Miss Earlene and Miss Annette. We started off our day with a little shopping (well..maybe alot of shopping)

and a coffee stop at Dutch Brothers..we hit this spot twice a day to keep our mojo going..
The a stop at Melrose, last time I was in town they were closed so I so SOOooooo happy to get a chance to visit this hot spot, and it was totally worth the wait..AWESOME store.

here is a pic of Miss Annette, Maija and Kim shopping. Then on to Sirens and Saints, cute boutique clothing store. Weird thing about this is that we heard the next day after we were there that a drunk driver wiped out this shop the very next night..so very sad!

I told you we did alot of shopping...this is the back of Maija's car..good thing she has an SUV!Then back to Maija's house where she hosted alittle get together with a few local gals. We had a wonderful meal and then Earlene and Annette brought these lovely deserts and let us all take home our little plate display.Annette, Kim Hesson, Kim Caldwell and Sherry..sorry I did not pics of all the gals but then after TWO of Maija's Pomegranate Martinis..well you know how it is...no more PICS got taken...he..he

The next day we went to Carol's home and it was the most beautiful setting outdoors and the weather was just perfect. Our kit came in this cute tin lunch bucket and was just packed full of supplies.

Carol is such a wonderful teacher, so patient and full of ideas to share.Here is picture of my cover, I added a little blue bird to my book...I had been waiting for the perfect project to use this on!

Inside more pages, but still need to add a few finishing touches, the button pack I won in a drawing and just had to use it my book, Thanks Carol!
More pages inside.........

This was such a wonderful and relaxing event, I hope I can come again soon to Arizona to visit.....