Signs from the Past..

Those of you that read my blog regularly (I thank you) know that I love vintage neon signs and every chance I get, I take the picture.

Soon, some of these wonderful signposts of our time will be gone, some to development and others just crumbling with old age.

Here are a few for you to enjoy!

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You don't take a photograph. You ask, quietly, to borrow it.

Author Unknown

Things to do around the house..

Getting back into the swing of things back here at our summer home in Westbank.

As I unpacked our suitcases, I looked around and realized that for the first time we are without  Pebbles or Cookie and it was hard to believe they we only with us in spirit.

Going to make some changes in the house, but for now, here are a few pretty things that might look good.

Spring is definately here. Today we had a warm sunny day and the flowers are starting to bloom.

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Made it back to BC...

Just a quick note to let you know that we made it safely back to BC.

The Ya Ya's left today and my good buddy Karen is living the life in the Arizona sunshine without us!!
Took this photo of the Oregon Trail Motel in Baker City, Oregon...they have some great old vintage signs and a wonderful historic downtown.

Over the next few days, I will post some more photos that I took of the trip..It was a great couple of days driving but as always the best part is coming back to our summer home in BC, safely!!!

Water everywhere...

We drove from Twin Falls to Moses Lake...it was a lovely drive with lots of water everywhere we went.

Here are some of the photos!

We will be back to our home in BC tomorrow.

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Leaving Vegas..arriving in Twin Falls, Idaho

Here are a few of the photos that I took on the road. The Great Basin Highway 93. Keeping the car journal updated as we travel, "Gertie" the Garmin GPS and Jim's sunglassses. McGill frontier town just outside Ely and approaching rain storm that never came our way.

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Keeping water handy, it is along way between places where you can stop.

Seeing Las Vegas

This is what the bridge looks like over the Hoover Dam. It is supposed to be open November 2010. It will be a wonderful thing to be able to drive over it and see the dam below.

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Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, one of our favourite places to visit.

Saying goodbye to Arizona..

Heading out tomorrow to Las Vegas for a couple of nights then back to BC.

We will really miss the warm weather, our friends that we have made here and our garden.

Jim will miss his golfing buddies.

And I will surely be missing my crafting buddy Karen, But for me, I won't be missing all the allergies that I have had for the last couple of weeks.

I am hopeful to be able to post along the way.

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The trip across Arizona is just one oasis after another. You can just throw anything out and it will grow there, I like Arizona.

Will Rogers

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Arizona Orange Bells

Journal Pages...

Some more bird themes that I am working on.
This is in my journal.

 I took a napkin, pulled it apart, glued it into the journal and started working on it.

I also photocopied several vintage postcards and added them to the book.

This one is for Karen who comes from Iowa

There are so many beautiful images that are out there for us to use to give color and texture to our lives
Make them your own by adding some ink and pencil crayons.

  Just go play and have fun!!!!

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A work in progress...

This is a close up on a piece that I am working on whenever I find my hands idle!!

I see that I need to give my bird some sort of an eye..it is interesting to me to see how it becomes what it finally is...as I usually don't haave a plan, it is the process that is fun for me.
How are you spending you day today?

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Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern; it will come out a rose by and by. Life is like that - one stitch at a time taken patiently and the pattern will come out all right like the embroidery.

 Oliver Wendell Holmes

more birds...

I really enjoy collecting these vintage postcards. 
They usually have great wrting on the back of them. Some of them  are original artworks and signed by the illustrator.
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Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Do you see a bird theme here?

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Here are a few of the finds. Cindy left me the sweet little bird flower pot in the top left of the first picture. I bought the linen tea towel becasue it was the year my son Jeremy was born.

Good karma finding that!!! The triangler ruler made it into my basket as well.

Buttons have been a long time favourite but to find them on their cards was a delight!
Who wouldn't want this wonderful graphic photo of women sewing and to get all of these neddles..

I rest my case!!!
I really lucked out with these 2 old bird books from 1911 with colored bird paintings inside. More on these later.

Cindy will be back home in Nelson, enjoying the photos and the great memories we made together down here in AZ.

Happy Easter

This is one of the vintage Easter postcards I bought when I was with Cindy.

Just love these little baby chicks...

What we saw and found...

Before Cindy left on Thursday, we went to our favourite junk stores and antique markets in both Apache Junction and Mesa..It was a very good day for some interesting finds.

We never bought any of these, but I really enjoyed taking these photos.

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Goodbye Cindy...

My Cindy leaves today to continue her holiday with a trip to Seattle to visit her cousins. I will be so sad to drive her to the airport this morning. We played dominos every day, and she whooped me soundly nearly every game. She is a very skilled and crafty player. The re-match will happen when I get to her home in Nelson in June.

We went antique shopping yesterday and spent another day just having fun and hanging out.

So my dear freind, it was a pleasure having you here with me.A big thanks to Jim who was so great about making sure that it was all about "US".

Cindy and the flowers

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Cindy and I took a ride in Jim's golf cart.

  We waited until the the sun was just setting and took some of these photos of the flowers blooming in our neighbourhood.

How cute does Cindy look in her new ride?

Our Tuscon Visit....

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We stopped  along the road on the Catcus Highway to take photos of the wild flowers...As you can see by my hairdo, the wind was blowing when Cindy took this photo of me. We totally lucked out when we got there as the Museum was holding an artisan craft fair...lucky us!

We had lunch at El Charro where Cindy and I enjoyed such a great meal.

Today is a pool day as it will be 88F today.

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You are only given a little spark of madness. You musn't lose it.

on a card of paula best

Cindy's Visit

Cindy arrived early on Friday night. The airlines knew she was in a hurry to get here and provided her with a good tail wind!!!

Here we are in my garden and these are some of the photos of things we saw at the Tempe Art Festival.

We caught up with the Ya Ya's and Karen and had lunch together. It was a wonderful day filled with some very good shopping!.(more of those photos to follow later)

Today we are off to Tuscon!

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A Happy Day!!

Cindy arrives today for a week of fun and shopping..or shopping which is fun.

We hope to visit to several of the Botanical gardens within our area and I am sure that what ever we do it will be a great visit. Tomorrow we are heading to the Tempe Art's Festival. I am sure we will have plenty of photos to share.

It takes a long time to grow an old friend.

John Leonard

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This is what is blooming in my garden today.

Botanical Gardens @ the Zoo

The San Diego Zoo is also a Botanical Garden that is world famous. They label all their speciman flowers, shrubs and trees. Here are just a few of the ones I found. 

The Zoo

What a wonderful place the San Diego Zoo is..

First of all, we took the bus around the Zoo. It is a good way to get your bearings. The ariel tram ride even gave you a better over view and then we walked the Zoo from end to end. I am sure we must of missed a few things as it covers 100 acres

The animals are as follow:

Hippos, White Nose Monkey, Harpy Eagel, Okapi, and Malayan Tiger

 

Here is where we are today...

Left home early this morning and we had a lovely drive to San Diego! It takes about 6 hours!

We drove around town and enjoyed walking on the beach at  Coronoda Island..Lots of flowers blooming along the beach in the sand. Tomorrow we are heading out for a day at the Zoo.

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Sweet treats...

These are some of the jewelery that I have made. I have added peices that I already owned from Sally Jean Alexander like the one is black and white and the Love bird.

I found different pharses  to put into the message in a bottle from a 1943 book called "Smart's Handbook of Effective Writing". I am having way too much fun making these.

One of  my sweet and favorite daughter in laws is Carmen. She lives in Calgary will be getting one of these. My other sweet and favorite daughter in law Julie, in Vancouver will also be getting one!

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I think men who have a pierced ear are better prepared for marriage. They've experienced pain and bought jewelry.

Rita Rudner

My Cindy...

Cindy and I met in  Cranbrook in 1977 and have been friends ever since.

We grew closer since 1999 when we moved to Nelson  which is where she and Tim live.

As you can see whenever we get together it is all about the food, wine and shopping for vintage things of all kinds.

Today I celebrate our freindship as Cindy will fly here a week today..

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Friends are those rare people who ask how you are and then wait for the answer.

Author Unknown

a

Delicious....

These wonderful treats are from Williams-Sonoma and the beautiful Pussy Willow basket is from Martha Stewart. Not a single calorie in any of them!!!

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Happy St. Patrick's Day to You...

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind always be at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

and rains fall soft upon your fields.

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand

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Caroline's Lynx

I am always thrilled when Caroline sends me an email to show what she is working on. I love this new piece!

- Posted using BlogPress from my itouch

900th post...

We had a lovely lunch with Sharon and Denis who are Julie's parents. They are travelling in their RV here in AZ and will head back to BC sometime mid April as well..

We stopped to pick up some tulips just to add some color to the lunch table.

It is a wonderful thing to get along so well with Julie's parents. She and Jeremy and much loved by all the families.

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Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.

Jane Howard

Making a College

I have been making these colleges to use in my jewelery.

I have them  printed and

resized. They are fun to make and look so different when I put them into the tray frames.

What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit.
 ~John Updike

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Canvas Bag..

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I bought this canvas bag at Walmart for the great price of $7.00 and decided it needed a bit of a face lift!

Spending a few minutes each day, often in the sunshine and this is the finished result.

Added a bit of dragonfly bling and here you have my newest bag.

Don't you think it will look great with a white tshirt and blue jeans.

Making some Bling!!!

I have been making some jewelery. I bought the necklace, made the tray pendant, wire wrapped beads, put a message in a bottle and strung them all together. I am loving making these allot!

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Jewelry takes people's minds off your wrinkles.

Sonja Henie

For Alexander

This little Easter Duck, masquerading as a Bunny is a little gift we sent off to Alexander along with a little pair of overalls.

I have been making key chains and necklaces, and made this one for him.

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A child needs a grandparent, anybody's grandparent, to grow a little more securely into an unfamiliar world.

Charles and Ann Morse

A Little Ceramic Bird...

Found this little ceramic bird a week or so ago while I was shopping with Karen...and as luck would have it, some great vintage Easter cards as well..a perfect holder, don't you think!

Paradise Bakery & Cafe....

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Paradise Bakery is our favorite place to have lunch or just stop in to have a coffee.

You can have 1/2 a sandwich, a great cup of soup and they give you a free cookie...how good is that?

Today we had quite a down pour but the weather is improving and it should be great all week!!

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Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.

Jim Davis

Springtime

From the pages of  Better Homes and Gardens.

Enjoy your day where ever you are.

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It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!

Mark Twain

Abandoned..

I found this Firetruck and old Jaguar in a field when we went out to see Ev and Richard the other day.

The desert sun is really harsh and you can see the damage done to both these

old relics...makes you smile though to see them together...at least it

suited my sense of humor!

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Love this song, here are the lyrics by Rex Allen Jr

Words and Music by Rex Allen, Jr.

                                                             I  love you, Arizona;

Your mountains, deserts and streams;

The rise of Dos Cabezas

And the outlaws I see in my dreams;

I love you Arizona,

Superstitions and all;

The warmth you give at sunrise;

Your sunsets put music in us all.

Oo, Arizona;

You're the magic in me;

Oo, Arizona,

You're the life-blood of me;

I love you Arizona;

Desert dust on the wind;

The sage and cactus are blooming,

And the smell of the rain on your skin.

Oo, Arizona;

You're the magic in me;

Oo, Arizona,

You're the life-blood of me.

Brothers and Sisters

How lucky we are to be part of a large family.
Here I am with my brother Heinz and sister Evelyne. As you know, Evelyne is married to Richard. This is Richard with his 2 sisters, Janice and Maxine who join up and travel with them for parts of winter as well.
We met up at their RV Park to enjoy lunch together. We have know each other's family for more
than 40 years.

Banners...

As you can see, I am trying to make my banners more interesting and to reflect the time of year.
Heading out this morning to see my sister Evelyne and Richard, and brother Heinz and Marlene. Some of them are heading back to BC and we are invited for lunch.
Taking the camera, so who knows what I photos will capture my eye!
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Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art.
Ambrose Bierce

Jewelery Course..

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Karen and I had allot of fun at this jewelery course and came home with a reasonably nice bracelet that I am happy to wear. We learned new techniques on how to wire wrap, adding jump rings correctly and how to crimp the ends. I plan to make a few more!

How about those Olympics? We are so proud to be Canadian and to share with the world what a great host country we were.Who will ever be able to forget that nail-biter of the overtime goal by Sidney Crosby!!!