They have Returned!!!

They are screeching in my backyard.  And devouring the berries on my mountain ash tree.!!!
The cedar waxwings have come back! 

Right now they are mostly after the berries on the top of the tree, and I hope they will come to some of the lower branches.  It looks like a lot of juveniles. 

And they sure enjoyed it when I had the sprinkler going yesterday morning.  They were sitting in the spray, fluffing their feathers!!!

 There are actually 10 birds sitting on this branch enjoying the spray from the water

 They are well camouflaged in the mountain ash tree. 

Today was the first day back to school for the grandkids.  I told Nic if he had a good first day I would take him for ice cream after school.  So, I am waiting to hear how their day has gone. 

Our Weekend Away!

After working a 12 hour shift on Friday, Curtis picked me up from work and we headed down the road to Nevada City.  I had been all packed up and we picked up dinner along the way.  We had Harlee with us.  And it was around 10:30 pm when we pulled up.

We made sure we got Toots filled up with a Biscuit and Gravy breakfast.  And that was only a half portion!!  I'm sorry, but I eat my biscuits with jam or honey, never gravy!

Grampa and Toots outside our cabin.

The old time town of Nevada City really involves the kids.  She went to visit the post office and the post mistress gave her a package to deliver to this lady.

We watched a cat chase a mouse.

She learned about making a tin cup from the tin smith

And then she got to make an old time rag doll

A layout when we were arpt the Sydney opera house.

A layout for CSI

Color, Stories, Inspiration

Here is the case file!

And here is what I created. 

Always trying to fit the photos on hand into current challenges.  

I managed to include the 5 colours.

And for evidence 

I used stripes, metal, decorative border with scallops,Wood (wood tag with a scallop edge)

And I journalled in 3 spots, although one is a hidden tag

When we rode the Puffing Billy through the eucalyptas forest outside Melbourne, Australia.

I used Bazzill cardstock

The striped paper was a leftover scrap from Adorn It

The red is from Doodlebug

The title  and arrow was a cut from my Silhouette

Not sure where tge mini letters are from

The mini phrases are from Kaiser Craft

The wood tag is Oct Afternoon with. kaiser Craft circle on top

Remember this is Lily Bee designs

Need to get packed up today.  I am scheduled to work tomorrow and then we are headed to Virginia City with the photo club.  We are taking Harlee with.  It is a restored ghost town. Gold was discovered near here in the 1800's and so it was a boomtown back in the day.    Should be fun to get photos. They have an old time train to ride.  A lot of the buildings were built prior to 1900.  Calamity Jane lived there at one time!

Much cooler and more comfortable out.  A little hint of fall, maybe?  The winds have been crazy.  Blowing my tomato pots all over!

A Day for Canning

Some tomatoes. 

Woke up with a pounding headache and got up and took some meds as I had too much on my agenda today. Thankfully it has subsided.  Think it is because there is so much smoke in the air and a weather front moving through.

On Sat. I picked up 25lb of tomatoes and 10lb of peaches.  Today some of those tomatoes needed to be dealt with! Peaches- a little on the hard side yet.  

The house smells so good as they cook away!

The final product.  Will be happy come winter that I did these.  Still have a few more for tomorrow.

Started my day out by mowing.  Curtis left on the bike for a ride with a friend and headed east.

Smokey this morning from the numerous forest fires burning.  And the wind is blowing like crazy as a cold front moves down from my homeland.  Much more comfortable temperatures.  

Amd the munchkins have returned from MO and came to visit and tell me all about their adventures.  Harlee brought her camera for papa to download her photos.

Ran to the grocery store for a few needed items and came home and crashed. A tually had a nice cup of tea and made some macaroni salad for dinner.  Otherwise it is leftovers tonight.  

My layout is of Koalas from Melbourne's Healesville Sanctuary.  

Got some awesome photos after we went back when there were no visitors there.  

Getting into some old chipboard alphabets. The large K, I covered with the green paoer and sanded it down.

More Destructive Storms

During the night.  It woke me up sometime after 12:30am.  The pinging on the eavetrough!!!  And where was our car?? Not in the garage.  Curtis bike was parked in the middle of the garage as he has been driving it.  There was hail again with this storm, some of it as big as ping ping ballls.  Kirsten's little car really got hit.  Curtis first moved our car under the tree, which without a doubt saved it.  As the storm abated you could see another one coming from the west.  So, I got Curtis to get the rig in the garage.  Thankfully that storm past north of us.  This storm just blew up out of no where.  Usually they are later in the afternoon or evening.  That makes the 4th hail storm for us this summer which is a rarity.  We called our insurance to come and check our roof and siding since it is all pretty new.

The last couple of days Kirsten and I have been busy in the kitchen doing some meal prep.  We did about 10 freezer meals yesterday.  And then today I made some chicken noodle soup from some turkey broth I found in the freezer.  Also some chili mac, 2 lemon zucchini loaves and a batch of peanut butter cookies.  Should be set fir a bit.  Kirsten made some breakfast sandwiches and pancakes for the freezer for her household.  

Have been busy those grandkids as they have been visiting family in Kansas 

City, MO.  Should be on their way back home tomorrow.  

I worked extra on Tues.  The unit was still busy and no one volunteering to come in extra.  That's what happens when the summertime is here.  Our nurses are expected to float all over the hospital when we are not busy.  But it is like pulling teeth trying to get extra help when we are busy.  Ok gang, this is suppose to work both ways!  No more work until next Friday, I have done my share of extra and covered the last two weekends.

Getting some tomatoes and peaches from OR, which I will be canning down for later this winter.

Today is 23 degrees cooler than yesterday, so very comfortable to be cooking in the kitchen and have the oven on.

Working on my Australia photos.

This first layout I used the map of Sydney harbor and cut up a postcard.

Used a photo of Ugg boots I took.  Yes, I brought a pair home - for Harlee.  They were so cheap!

The second layout is a photo riding the hop on, hop off bus.  

I used parts of a brochure and my ticket behind the paper.

My Latest Project!

,As you know, never a dull moment!  I have been talking about doing this for a bit and the other day just faced it head on.  We have a little alcove at the front door that has had fake grass on it ever since we moved in, eons ago.  It has been looking rough for the past few years.  So, I decided to get rid of it.  A little difficult to get rid of as it was tucked under some siding pieces.  Ok, now it is gone what to do??? I didn't really want more fake grass!  Kirsten and I headed onpver to Home Depot and got some textured paint.  And she sprayed it on.  It really didn't give that great of coverage, but it did make the step non slick.  

After I got a haircut on Friday morning , I visited Ace hardware to see what they might have to offer.  I had the assistant manager helping me since it was pretty early in the morning. I ended up with a quart of concrete paint, and he added some anti slip grit to it!  It now looks great and is non slip too!  Another project off my to do list!

Friday morning a call for help went out for work.  The last couple of times this has happened  

I have not been able to help out as I was gone.  So I texted my buddy at work and told her I was available both Friday and Saturday afternoons.  She took me up on my offer and then a few hours later texted to see if I could be available all day Sat.  They were short, it is summer and she wasn't getting much positive response.  So you can guess where I spent all day yesterday.  Gosh, it was busy in the NICU.  My legs were so tired last night.  But I did my good deed for the week and my co- workers were very appreciative!

Thursday morning, I took Curtis up to the airport for an Avis drive.  The sun was just getting up.  My view from the airport hill.  Still kind of hazy out, probably from the smoke!

Have started working on my Australia photos!  At last!

Had to have a second album for all the photos from this adventure.

Here is my starting page to the album.

The back ground paper was a gift from a friend!

I starred all the places we visited with acrylic stars from Elle's studio.

The kangaroo and koala were stickers I bought down under

 

Big Storms!

Last night we had a couple of big destructive storms blow through.  One at suppertime and one around midnight! And they were doozies!!  Flooding downtown because we had such a heavy quick rainfall.  It got so dark out.  It was like sunset at the dinner hour. Close to an inch in less than 60min.  Kirsten had hail with the earlier storm, but we did not! She also got the flooding and was out there taking video.   But we did with the later storm.  The rain was coming down in sheets.  Late yesterday afternoon I had Curtis move his bike in the garage so we could also put the car in there.  I didn't want hail damage to it.

I took a video but can't seem to figure out how to get it loaded on the blog!

Harlee seeing her first ever hot air balloons up at Great grandpas last week.  We came back from dinner and they were just going up over the trees.

She found a pheasant feather out in the field while searching for grasshoppers. Try saying pheasant feather 3 times quickly!

A layout of the waterfall while cripuising the sounds of NZ.  

Time for more scrapping.  Don't think I have any more layouts to share.

Have been busy doing some quilting for Christmas.

Out of the Loop!

It's been over a week since I posted.  Life just gets in the way sometimes!

I had skills day at work last Wed. morning, came home and packed up to head to the Flathead Valley.

We took Harlee with us.  

It was to celebrate a very important birthday!  Dad B was turnung 91!!!!!  He is in remarkable shape and we're so glad he is still here with us!  

Took a few photos while I was there.  No wi-fi to update my blog, though.

We went by an area that had just been on fire the day before.  There was still a fire truck there monitoring the situation and still areas that were smoldering.  It came pretty close to some buildings.

And this was the sunset the first night we were there.  So red because of the fire burning.

Harlee and I took a walk down to the river.  It was pretty overgrown.  

She was having fun catching grasshoppers.  Curtis got some awesome shots of those.

More for later!

And a layout of some NZ scenery.