Something About Nothing

Last week at this time I was laying in a hotel bed feeling resting my tired legs and feet with no idea of how really tired, sore and blessed I would soon become. We spent three days touring Washington DC and crammed in as many things as we could. If I were in better shape and it hadn't been 90 degrees for two of those days, I'm sure we could have crammed in a lot more, but I'm very grateful for the things we did see. Here are just a few of the highlights: The first night we went to the National Mall via the Metro (below) and saw the Washington Monument, World War II Memorial and Lincoln Monument (above). On our last morning we went to Arlington Memorial and saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy's graves, as well as the grave of a friend of my Mothers, who died in the Vietnam war. I will blog about him tomorrow on Flashback Friday. We loved the National Museum of the American Indian. Throughout the trip the dear daughter pictur...

My girls and I found this figure at the National Museum of the American Indian, and she makes me laugh. I think perhaps some of you can relate. Children climbing all over her, hands protecting the ones on the ground. She is suppose to be a storyteller, but I beg to differ, I think she is a Mother. I thought she was either about to yell at the children to get off of her (something I do a lot), or yell at the world to get away from her children (something else I do a lot). What do you think?

In 1986, my dear husband was working as a travel agent, and we were able to do a little bit of traveling. One of those trips was to Washington DC, and since we are in Washington DC today I thought it would be appropriate to show just a couple of the pictures we took once upon a time. Thats me in the red coat. I loved that coat! These photos are bit dim as they were taken using my little Kodak instamatic camera. I need to learn how to restore photos with Photoshop to make these all look better! One of the most moving parts of DC for me was when we visited the Vietnam War Memorial. I was touched by the feeling of deep sadness in the air. My Mom's friend, Jim, died while serving in Vietnam and I did a rubbing of his name from the Memorial to give to her. Since Mom has now passed away, I have the rubbing as well as the flag from Jim's casket, a memorial card from his funeral at Arlington Memorial, and a few pictures of him in Vietnam. I'd like to look up his family one day soo...

When I first heard the word for this challenge, I thought of Delicate Arch in Moab, and I thought most of us would think the same thing. Also, knowing what beautiful Batiks Anne has done on the subject of sandstone I felt a bit intimidated. I tried to "mix it up" by thinking of crazy things I could do to make Sandstone really different: make layers of sandstone in blue, or make the layers using zippers, or something not natural like a building made out of sandstone but in the end one of the things that kept calling me was petroglyphs. I found this cool petroglyph of Ghanaskidi, the Hump-backed God and really fell in love with the image. The second link is of the actual petroglyph and the first link is of a replica someone made which I translated into this reverse applique: I really like how this turned out with the curls of the Batik behind the hand dyed fabric but I haven't quilted it yet because after talking with my son another idea kept bugging me. My son told me t...

I may have committed a crime against nature today. I should have pruned this tree, as well as my peach trees, back in January or February. But there was always something else to be done: sewing, quilting, reading, blogging, playing solitaire, cleaning (not sure if I really did any of that), anything but pruning. And so here it is a beautiful April day and the birds are singing, bees are buzzing, and I am . . . well, I really hope I didn't butchered the trees too badly. Time will be the judge of my crime. Time will show whether I killed the tree in it's prime or pruned it lovingly enough to give it the air, space and room it needs to grow & develop. While I await the verdict, the sun IS shining, flowers ARE blooming, the bees ARE buzzing, and all my windows are wide open letting the stench of winter out of my house. So, take a deep breath and enjoy the beauty of spring with me! Even the dandelions are pretty today. Get off the computer and go soak up some sun!

Some of my best teenage memories are from hanging with my friends, doing nothing in particular. I hope we all have great memories like these: Here is my Mom being goofy with her friends Bonnie and Hilberta in May 1959. Look at those great stripped leggings Mom is wearing! Mom wrote on the back of one of these photos that it was a Sunday afternoon. Bonnie, Mom and Gerry on Gerry's porch. Mom, Hilberta and Gerry. This is my favorite picture from the series. Bonnie, Hilberta and Mom leaning in the corn. Not sure what they are pointing at, but if my mother is anything like her granddaughters then they are not pointing at anything! The pointing and looking is all to make the photo look interesting. My how times do not change at all!

A few weeks ago I ran across a recipe at The Pioneer Woman. She had a special visitor, Bakerella , who has created a recipe for Cake Balls . They looked so easy and fun that I filed away the idea to do with the kids during spring break. Today I unloaded the file and we had a great time! First bake a cake (we used a Devils Food mix) and let it cool. Play a game of Monopoly Jr. while you wait for it to cool. Once the cake is cool, crumple the cake into a bowl. The kids LOVED this part. And yes, I made sure they had all washed their hands first! Next dump in a tub of store bought frosting (we used cream cheese frosting). I forgot to load the picture of them dumping in the frosting and it's too much of a pain to load a picture into the middle of a post so I'll just totally skip that photo! They also enjoyed this part, and used a spatula to dump it in, not their hands, as tempting as that was for them. Mix the frosting and cake together until you get a nice crumbly mixture ...

Wondermommy is having a giveaway of a ModKid apron pattern, Good Folks fabric by Anna Maria Horner, and a Fledge/Studio Tantrum Feliz Pattern. Good Luck to us all!

The ladies at The Farm Chicks web journal are giving away TWO YARDS of Pixie Dust decorator fabrics in a giveaway this weekend. Click on the links and have a look. Very cute fabric. I hope I win!

Every Easter we make a Lamb cake to enjoy and some years it tastes wonderful and looks beautiful and some years it does not. This year's doesn't look too bad from the front but it doesn't have a back. Poor Lamb. The pound cake recipe didn't have enough batter to make the cake raise up into the back of the mold. About a half hour after taking this picture, our Lamb tipped over backwards and lost his head. I really need a new recipe! Anyone have one I can try?