I’ve started a new blog. It is going to be focused on the journey to a more healthy lifestyle. At the moment I’m on a “treasure hunt” for really healthy foods that my family will eat. It may expand to more than that. Just about everything else will stay on this blog. If you are interested you can visit here.
Edited: Clicking on the word “here” should get you to the blog, but if you can’t find it that way the url is http://forhealthsake.wordpress.com
This is the sight we awoke to this morning.
View from Front Door.
View from Back door.
You will notice the snow didn’t stick to the roads or sidewalks, but I can tell you the cement was very cold on bare feet.
This was not the first snow this year, that was actually on September 21. However, this was the first snow that stuck. Now before you start feeling sorry for me, you should know it snows more here in the Fall and Spring than during the Winter. October and March can often be the snowiest months. During the winter while many of the rest of you get plastered with snow we have clear blue sky and sunshine.
It doesn’t feel like Summer ever fully made its appearance this year, but according to the calendar Fall begins next Tuesday. Contrary to the calendar Fall has been creeping in for the last few weeks. There is a definite chill in the air on my morning bike rides and geese have been flying over in formation for two or three weeks. Even with those early signs yesterday I noticed things that really said, “Fall is HERE!.”
Picture taken with Nolan's Nintendo DSi
Looking out the classroom window I noticed the leaves were starting to change on this tree. This tree is always gorgeous when the leaves turn. So many colors in one place.
It was rainy and overcast yesterday, but for a few minutes on the way home from school the clouds broke and there it was — SNOW on the Peak. By the time I got to the camera the clouds had closed in again. This morning I took the camera on my early morning bike ride and snapped a few pictures. The Peak always looks better with snow. It still needs more to look really good.
I thank God every morning on my bike ride that I get to live in such a beautiful place. The mountains were the things I really missed the 9 years we lived on the East Coast. For me, it isn’t a mountain if trees can survive all the way to the top.
Finally I couldn’t resist taking this picture. The rain from yesterday was hanging from the tips of the pine needles.
I think it must be almost time to get out those sweaters.
Mama Spark’s is offering a give way on her blog. It is a $50 gift certificate to Bunny Hill Designs. If you’ve been reading here for any length of time you know I’m doing Bunny Hill’s free BOM this year. There are a couple other patterns I’ve been eying so why not enter the drawing? The chances are way better than the lottery. Posting here gives me an additional chance to win — however, that may mean there are more entrants. Hop on over and enter for your chance to win!
It was a toss up whether I called this post “Spoiled” or “Caved.” I already talked about taking a bike ride with Guy on July 5. What I didn’t mention is that he did a good deal of complaining about my bike. It hasn’t been the same since I crashed it last summer. Guy’s complaint was you can hear me coming and going. We had spent a little money getting it tuned up before I crashed it, but didn’t take it back in after the crash. It just wasn’t worth spending more money on it — it is older than both boys. Even before the crash Guy was trying to talk me into a new bike. So after listening to Guy and the bike, plus not being able to shift into the lowest gears I agreed to look at bikes that afternoon.
I really liked this one.
However, it is a 2009 model and the factory was out of them and is moving on to the 2010 models. The bike shop that was checking for us went ahead and ordered one in a different color combination. So this afternoon I went to test it out. What a difference! I still wasn’t keen on spending the money, but Guy persisted. I caved and thus I am spoiled. Here is my new ride. I took it out as soon as we got home for a quick three miles and now the only sound is the tires whirring over the trail.
I’m “old” and I wanted a kick stand. They were going to add one, but came back and told me they don’t recommend it with the light weight frame. So another bike that needs to be propped in the garage.
The heat broke today and we are having a very pleasant day. Which means even though the boys are being typical teens (is there such a thing) and sleeping in we still managed to go on a bike ride. (OK, I admit it, I’ve been staying up too late and managed to sleep in until after 8 this morning.)
Jesse was lobbying for a 3-6 mile ride, but Nolan had a book come in at the library and wanted to ride there. Jesse does not have good memories of a similar ride last summer. I told them we would ride that direction and see how it went. We made it all the way to the library and Nolan picked up the second James Bond book.
A new little shop opened in the library shopping center called Squeak. We had spotted it the last time we were at the library, but didn’t know if it was open. It is a soda shop. I have to assume it is along the same lines as a drug store soda shop in the 50s — I’m not old enough to know for sure. We went in to check it out. I believe they said there were 57 flavors of soda, there were little vials to smell before you buy. The also offered candy by the pound, ice cream, shakes, malts, floats, grilled cheese and coffee. I’m sure there was more. It appears to be an independent store and I hope they do well. The next time I go to the library, I’ll try to get a picture to add to this post. For those of you that are local and are reading this — they are in the shopping center at the corner of Rockrimmon and Vindicator.
(edited to add picture)(another edit — I found this video that shows the inside of the shop)
We took an alternate route home. Good thing because the last mile getting to the library is a fairly steep downgrade and I don’t want to go back up it or hear Jesse whine. We figured out where the bike path connects to the road and came home that way. Let’s not tell Jesse, but the trip was about 12-1/2 miles. That is the longest ride he has done this summer and he did pretty well! Way better than he was doing last summer.
Our afternoon storm clouds are rolling in so we made it just in time. I’m off to see how much quilting I can get in before I shut down as a precaution against lightening strikes.
Guy was willing to ride with me today so we went sans boys before the temperatures got too hot. We have a great bike trail system here in town and can get on just outside our neighborhood.
I’ve been seeing a lot of wildlife on my rides and took the camera along this morning. We didn’t see much more than squirrels, rabbits and ducks today, but lots of flowers. It’s amazing they look as good as they did! We were hammered with a couple of thunderstorms yesterday afternoon. It sounded like someone had turned on a fire hydrant. There were several wash outs with silt covering parts of the trail. We rode around in some new construction and I rode through a wash out. I started to think I was in quick sand! The rims of my bike were covered and I finally had to get off and lift it out of the muck. Needless to say, my shoes were also filled. Fortunately they could just be hosed off when I got home.
Here are a few of the pictures I took along the way.
The flowers are lasting later into the summer than usual. In fact it is shockingly green for this time of year. We’ve been getting thunderstorms most afternoons. Yet, according to the meteorologists we are still a few inches behind normal. When does normal change? For the almost 10 years we have lived here, the area has been considered to be in drought conditions.
We rode about 15 miles and explored some parts of the trail we hadn’t seen before. The worst part is always coming home. The last mile and a half is all up hill. I’ve been hosed off and can now move on to quilting for the day.
There is only one place in the whole county this year having a public fireworks display due to budget cuts. Guy is there helping to provide security. However, there are several private communities still having their own fireworks display. I do not live in one of them, but just up the hill is a community that has fireworks every year. For the last 9 Independence Days we have been able to step out on our front porch and enjoy the show. Here are some pictures from tonight.
I hope everyone reading had a great 4th and that those in the U.S. gave thanks for the freedom we enjoy!
The most impressive shop hop I’ve ever participated in was the Western Washington Shop Hop. My sister and Londa were doing that one again, but since I didn’t head for the west coast I did the Heart of Colorado Shop Hop this week-end during the same time frame. It was much quicker and there was way less damage to my finances.
I started in Colorado Springs and my first stop on Friday was Ladybug Hill Quilts. They moved to their current location in 2007. This was the first time I made it into the “new” store. It is a cute shop, but typically is more expensive than where I usually shop.
Next stop Ruth’s Stitchery. If you have been reading my blog long, you probably have a fair idea this is my all time favorite shop. It is a very large store, the prices are reasonable, and I know most of the staff (also several quilts I’ve quilted are on display there.) This store was featured in the top ten quilt shop magazine a couple years ago. Since summer vacation arrived I’ve been in here at least twice each week, so didn’t need to spend a lot of time browsing. Ruth’s has a large hand stitchery section, sewing machines, machine embroidery supplies plus loads of quilt fabric.
The last stop in Colorado Springs was High Country Quilts. They are now the local Bernina dealer and this is where I taught for about a year after the dealership was sold to them. They have expanded since I quit working there and the shop is really adorable!
I took a break after those three and came back home to work on more cleaning. I’ve been on a cleaning binge since school got out. Things just got minimal attention during the school year.
Guy took off work a little early and the whole family went to the next shop. Admittedly, the men waited in the car. Stitcher’s Garden is in Pueblo, and they get points for the neatest building. They are in the historic section of down town. It is a nice shop on the inside as well. The men came along because we wanted to try a Mexican restraunt in Pueblo.
There was only one more shop to do and it was in the opposite direction. I didn’t go on Saturday, because that was Sabbath. This morning I took Nolan and Jesse with me (Guy was out on patrol). Since we were headed that far north we went on to the Lone Tree (just south of Denver) and went to Sweet Tomatoes, which is the boys’ favorite restaurant. I was going to go to Great American Quilt Factory while I was in the Denver area, but I tried coming up with my own directions. Jesse just wanted to go home (he is my home body) so after “touring” a little of the area south of Denver we headed for Castle Rock and the final quilt shop in the hop. I had never been to Sew-Ciety and it was a nice little shop — a little cramped with hoppers there. For the size of shop they have a fair amount of machine embroidery supplies. Here I got to turn in my completed passport ( now I can cross my fingers and wait for the prize drawing — actually I’m not holding my breath).
After all that driving around this is all I ended up buying.
The yellow batik is for flowers on the border of my Prairie Flowers quilt. I’d run out of what I had. The blue and white fabric will be the backing on a project I recently came up with. The rest was impulse buying.
So Sheila and Londa, how did you do? I think they only ended up visiting 17 shops this year in 2-1/2 days. I know they spent more money than I did.
This was today’s project. The shelves need to be accessorized, but I broke a weld trying to level the bottom shelf. So next week I’ll take it to a friend to get it spot welded.
I picked up the shelf from Hobby Lobby on Tuesday. It was from the garden section and was marked down 66%. The pictures are from last year’s calendar.
I had been saving the calendar, because I just loved the pictures. The problem — they were really too big for framing and hanging where I wanted them. My solution scan the pictures and print them in a smaller size. However, the calendar was even too big for my scan bed. So I scanned each picture at 300 dpi in two parts.(Now I can get rid of the calendar) There is a little program that came with one of my Canon cameras called PhotoStitch. I found that it can be downloaded from here . This program will merge pictures together. It works beautifully for panorama landscape pictures or anything you can’t get in one shot or one scan. Anyway, I merged the two parts together. Then I opened the picture in Photoshop and cropped it to 5×7. The original pictures weren’t the same ratio so I did loose part of the picture. I put two pictures on a 8-1/2 x11 page and then printed at the best print quality on photo paper. It worked perfectly.
Frames were 50% off at Hobby Lobby this week so I went to get four frames. Of course there were only three of the ones I liked. I bought them anyway and since we have three Hobby Lobbys in town found the last frame at another location.
A Betty Boop salt and pepper shaker has made it on the shelf. After I get it fixed, I’m going to have some fun putting other small items up there.
Recent Comments