Happy Saturday...

Hard to believe that Easter will be here soon and that we will be leaving out winter home...will we be coming home to more winter in Kelowna????

These happy pictures are from Pottery Barn.

Off with the Ya Ya Supper Club for our Greek Lunch tryouts.

Happy Saturday from sunny Arizona...

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Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Little gifts to make....

Create scented sachets from oddments of fabric, to keep your drawers smelling sweet. Or tie a few bags together for a pretty gift.
For each sachet, cut two 14cm squares of fabric - use left over printed cotton lawn from Liberty. With right sides together, pin and stitch squares around outer edge, taking 1cm seam allowances and leaving a gap for turning through.
Turn right side out and press. Make a funnel by rolling up a piece of paper and use to fill bags with lavender or scented petals from . Sew gap in stitching.

Making this pretty cosmetic bag is simple and makes a great gift

Cut two 22cm x 19cm rectangles from oilcloth. Press under 1.5cm on one long edge of each piece and insert an 18cm zip as shown. Pin and stitch sides and lower edges together, taking 1.5cm seam allowances. Fold corners as shown and stitch across for 4cm. Trim away excess fabric. Turn right side out. Thread a short length of narrow ribbon through zip pull and tie in a knot. Oil clothcan be found at nearly any craft store.

These ideas came from Country Living (British Edition)

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Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons.

Ruth Ann Schabacker

Plants and more Chihuly Glass

The color of these blues was so intense, and the round orb had yellow streaks in it.

The blue vases.

The shape of the glass was incredible, look at the green horns on the right hand side of the photo.

Penstromen and Golden Barrel Cacti

Chihuly Glass Art @ the Desert Botanical Gardens

Red Hot Glass amongst the cacti.

Marbles in a large boat..want to play?

Took this one for Cindy.

This is @the entrance to the gardens, what a glorious sight to see.

Desert Botanical Garden Exhibit

Shannon and I met at the Desert Botanical Garden for the Dale Chihuly Exhibit. It was amazing! The glass was stunning amongst all that is blooming right now.

If you live around the Phoenix area, make the time to go see it...words can't describe all the beauty that is there.

I will post lots more tomorrow. Need to get outside and put in all those plants I bought so Jimmy can put water lines to all of them...I keep telling him that it will all be worth it when we come back in 6 months and see how lovely the garden looks!!!

Thank you Shannon for the wonderful visit...It is always such a joy to spend time with you.

Good Morning.....

As found in Napa Style. The colors were so vibrant that they just needed to be shared.

Off to stay overnight with Shannon. I am meeting up with her this morning at the

Desert Botanical Garden http://dbg.org/

There is a wonderful glass exhibit by artist,

Dale Chihuly.

Pictures to follow.

My Cindy...

I was trying to figure out the other day how long Cindy and I have been friends and I am thinking that it has been since around 1976 or so when we first meet & worked together in Cranbrook...

I was so lucky when Jim and I moved to Nelson in 1990 that Cindy and Tim already lived there and our friendship flourished.

Her she is with her black lab, Emmy Lou who thinks she is a lap dog!!!!

She wrote me this morning and said that it snowed again yesterday in Nelson, brrr. (so sorry, Cindy)

Glad we are still here in AZ for another month.

Primroses, Forsythia, and Contorted Willow as a sure sign of spring on a plate that I brought Cindy back a couple of years ago.

Bowl in the foreground is one Cindy just found to add to her collection and the one in the background is the one that she did...Nice, eh!!!
Thanks Cindy for sending the photos and for always reading what is happening in my world.

We are on the same time now again for 6 months as AZ never changes to daylight savings time.

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I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

G.K. Chesterton

True Artists...

Check out Sally Jean Alexander's wonderful work,

here

Beth Quinn's Art

She lives here in Queen Creek and on the 21st of March I am taking her soldering/jewellery making course in Mesa...Can't wait to see what else I can learn.

She is featured in the above magazine... Artful Blogger.

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The little tray pendants that I made last night.

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I've been on a constant diet for the last two decades. I've lost a total of 789 pounds. By all accounts, I should be hanging from a charm bracelet.

Erma Bombeck

Book making process....

Front Cover

Finished product...filled with lots of watercolor paper, scrapbook paper, etc.

Back cover


How the front and back covers looked before being cut apart.

Inside front and back cover.

My favorite glue for this kind of project.

Tissue layer to cover the box.

This wire bound book started it's life off as a cereal box, and pages ripped from mail order catalogs.

How cool is that!!!

Reuse, recycle and enjoy!!!
I bound the front, back and all the filler pages with a "Bind it All"
machine made by Zutter

Ya Ya Supper Club' Mexican Dinner..

Sue, Shannon, Mary and I at our house cooking our Mexican Dinner.

Having trouble today loading photos..hopefully I will be able to get more on the site later, but as you can tell, we did have FUN!!! and the food was great.

Mountain Goat....

Caroline's newest painting that she has donated to the GOABC

(Guide Outfitters Association of British Columbia) and it will be auctioned off in Victoria in March.

This piece of slate has a fossil of a horn in it.

Great work Caroline.

We hope you get your blog up and running soon so we can see all of the work that you do!!!

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Happy 95th birthday to Jim's Mom, Joyce.

We send you our love and best wishes, and thanks to Brad for delivering the flowers to Mom.

I am sad that I don't have a photo of her to share with you, but the photos that I have are at home in Westbank, BC.

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Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time.

Jean Paul Richter

It is all in the joy of making things...

The new Journal Cover. I sewed this cover, hand dyed some fabric and added a little bit of bling...I thought the saying was appropriate for the reason for journaling...

"She couldn't remember."

Some entries from the journal that I made and am still writing in.
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The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.
William James

Sending spring to you....

As seen in Williams-Sonoma

Window display at Pottery Barn

This is for my buddies up north in Canada who think spring will never come..I hope this makes you realize that it is just around the corner!!!

Take heart.

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No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.
Hal Borland

Spring Bling.....

Seen out and about today after our cooking demo @ Williams Sonoma with the Ya Ya's.

Very little was purchased today, more just a leisurely looking day...to find interesting things to take photos of for the blog..

To my good friend Suzi, here is some sun heading your way, please get rid of that snow in Kelowna as we will be home in 6 weeks!!!

Alanna's rescue pup in Kuwait....

Hi friends:

Here are some pictures of the sweet little pup I rescued off the street yesterday morning. I know she is a cross between Jack Russell and something else. She has the sweetest temperament.. is about 3 months old --- and appears to be house trained... no accidents yet!! She is very quiet, good natured and I've got her working on the collar and least pretty good in the 24 hours that I have had her. If it weren't for UBe and the sensitivity to having pets in our building, I would foster her... I've fallen in love with her. She isn't going to be a very big dog. If anyone knows of a prospective forever family --- I could bring her home at the end of March when I fly to Phoenix!!

She probably chewed something and made the owners mad - after which she was likely thrown out on the street ... that's how it is here ....

Thanks for reading!!

Alanna

Thank you, Rebecca....

This lovely little creation is by Rebecca Sower.

(http://www.rebeccasower.typepad.com/)

She is a published author and a wonderful artist. Her blog is delightful.

I wrote to her and asked if I could use her quote, her generosity shows below. Thank you Rebecca, we can all make a small difference to each other every day.
Of course you may borrow...thank you for asking first. It's a really good one, isn't it?
We all need a reminder that our talents are unique and beautiful and should be shared with the world!
hope it's a lovely day for you.

sending love...

rebecca

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We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

~Thornton Wilder

In the garden today...

Close up of the Pot from our trip to Tubac.

Salvia.

The hummingbirds just love these flowers.

Wildflowers that I got out of a ditch last year, planted and this year they are going to put on quite a show.

Pots with Prickly Pear Cactus and Lilac Vine on back wall.