Merry Christmas

To all of my family and friends, I wish you blessings overflowing this holiday season.

May you experience the touch of God on this holy day and may the New Year bring you happiness and health.

Happy Birthday!

Our special little Christmas Eve bundle of joy turns 9 years old today!!!!

Happy Birthday, Samuel!

Grandma and Grandpa love you so very much!!! Have a great day with more to come tomorrow!

Santa Paws Christmas Gift Exchange

Hi there everyone! Maggie here. Mommy is letting me do a post today because I got something very special in the mail. Jazzi and her Mommy hosted a Santa Paws Christmas Pet Gift Exchange. Wasn't that the nicest thing? Everyone who said they wanted to participate (yes, I know big words!) were paired with a new friend. Guess who got my name? Mollie Jo from Kentucky! She is the sweetest little poodle and I hope we can be forever friends.

Here is my package! Wow, mail addressed to me!! Isn't that exciting?

What do I do now, Mommy? Open it? Oh, alright, but I may need help.



Something smells reeeeeaaaaallllyyyy good in here!!!!

A pink camouflage bag from Pet Smart! Someone thinks I'm smart!!!!!! Well, I am!

Poopy bags? Oh, how embarrasing! I need them, but embarrasing anyway. I promise not to "use" the neighbors lawns when we go on walks! We can "hide" the bags in that cute little pink holder!

This isn't Rudolph because it doesn't have a red nose and it's a girl. What is her name Mommy? Rhonda Reindeer? That has a nice ring to it.

A big rubber doughnut! Outa sight! I love doughnuts almost as much as mommy loves them. And a Christmas card with pictures! Awesome! Or should I say, Pawesome!!!

Plus a bag of the cutest peanut butter frosted cookies for dogs. Mommy said they smell good enough for her to even eat.

Thank you so much Mollie Jo. You knew just what I like! Thank you again Jazzi and Jazzi's Mommy for hosting such a fun event.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Tis the Season

I certainly didn't mean to be gone so long between posts. I guess it's that time of year when the days just fly by while you are trying to do so many things. I still don't have my house completely decorated yet. Although, Sweety helped me with the kitchen last night. Good grief, just how many Christmas cookie jars does one person need? I've been able to go to a wonderful ladies tea with a fabulous speaker, dinner at a friends house and tour some beautiful homes decorated for the season. Right now, though, I'll show you what I did today.

Yep, that's Maggie and Santa. We drove into town so Maggie could tell him just what she wanted for Christmas. She promised she had been a good little girl Scottie and deserved to get a big package of her favorite treats from Trader Joe's.


Of course, terrorizing the cats waiting to be adopted and going potty on the carpet didn't win her any points with the big guy at all! So we'll just have to wait and see what she gets. But if you ask me, who can resist that little face?

Lights, Camera, Action!

I have the same routine every morning:

a. Drag myself out of bed.

b. Let Maggie out.

c. Go get the newspaper.

d. Let Maggie in.

e. Give Maggie her "cookie".

f. Make myself a cup of tea.

g. Sit and read the newspaper.

h. Keep adjusting how I'm sitting to accommodate Maggie because she wants to sit with me.

i. Check the internet mail.

j. Check Facebook (so I can see how my son is).

k. Check my favorite blogs.

l. Start my day.

Same old same old...... except the other day! Maggie had finally settled down and gone to lay down in her favorite chair and I was sipping my tea and working on my Jumble puzzle in the paper. The lights flickered in the kitchen and when I looked up there was white wispy smoke coming out of one of the pot lights in the ceiling. I jumped up and turned out the lights, got a chair and took out the light bulb. Wow! Was I glad I happened to be sitting there!!!

The picture below is not very good. I guess I either need to get my camera's manual out and actually read it or get a new camera. The pictures have been bad as of late. Anyway, you can sorta see what happened. See the brown areas? It was starting to smolder. There is also a very bad acrid electrical smell. I've never had that happen to me before. Especially with these types of bulbs. I'm glad I got to it before it burst into flames.

All I can think of are the words to that Bette Midler song, "some body's watching us, from a distance!" Thank you, Lord, for being there for me that day.

Happy Thanksgiving

From our house to yours, may you have the most blessed and happiest of Thanksgivings.

A special prayer of Thanksgiving and safety for all of our military who sacrifice so very much for our freedoms. A special prayer for our son Aaron at this time. May he stay safe and come home to us soon. Miss Jean

Sweety

Maggie

Happy Birthday

Hey, everyone out there in blogger land. Today is the birthday of someone very, very special! Now I'm not giving away who it is but....... SHE has two Scotties who are related to my Maggie.....SHE is very talented....SHE has a great blog.......HER name might start with a B! I'm not giving away her age as I'm older than she is and then she would tell mine. Let's just say that she's the bestest friend anyone could ever have.

Happy Birthday Becky!!!!!!

(oops!)

RETREAT

First of all I'd like to thank all of the get well wishes I received. I've been taking it easy and my back is getting better.

Two weekends ago the quilt group I belong to went on our annual Lake Tahoe Quilting Retreat. The family of one of the gals in the group has a condo that they generously let us use every year. It's about a three and a half hour drive from where I live and worth every mile! We usually car pool and caravan up. This year most of us left on Thursday morning with the intention of staying until Monday. We stopped for lunch in Truckee, California here. You may have seen this restaurant on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. It was great!!!

This is the view from one of the balconies. See Lake Tahoe in the distance? Breath taking!

This is the same view a couple days later. We had quite a bit of snow. My car doors were frozen shut! By the time we were ready to come home the roads were plowed and safe for travel. Although I wouldn't have minded being snowed in for a week.

Our beautiful condo!

There were nine of us for this retreat and we had our sewing machines set up in the dining room and living room. When we get ready to go up there we make menus and go shopping in Tahoe City. We take turns cooking and cleaning the kitchen. Great food, great company, lots of laughs!!

I didn't get a chance to take pictures of every one's projects. This is a table-topper that Wanett made for Christmas. I can't wait to see it finished.

Beautiful colors!

Heather with one of her Christmas projects. She made two! (Yes, we hang around all day in our jammies!)

Another of Heather's wall hangings. Nanci made one just like it as well. See the kitchen in the background? Soup cooking in the crock pot. Yummmmm!

Marian's fall wall hanging. The backs of her projects always look just as pretty as the fronts.

Debbie made this for one of her grandsons.

Another of Debbie's projects. She is a speedy sewer!! Me, I"m sloooooooowwwwww.

I had this quilt finished and just needed to stitch down the binding. It was so relaxing to sit and do hand stitching with the snow falling and football on the television. Football!?! Yes, we have some football fans but they kept the sound low.

I worked on one of my Fat Quarter Shop block of the month projects and got the sashing strips sewn on. I just have to put on the outer border. I'm calling this project "The Pointless Wonder". Boy, am I out of practice!! Chopping off points and we won't even go into how messy the back looks. But once I get it finished and quilted, it'll be just fine. I worked on another quilt for my son but forgot to take a picture. It's a Chinese Coin pattern made with Civil War fabrics. I want to send it to him while he's deployed if he'll let me. I have to ask first 'cause guys are funny, he's an officer, and he may not want a "quilt from Mom" on his bed. If he doesn't want it sent to him, I'll save it for when he comes home! (Stay safe, Aaron!)

Now to show you the excitement we had. When you are up in the mountains, you always, always lock down your garbage. You always take any and all food and/or food scented items out of your car if you are there overnight. Why? Because of the BEARS! Someone in the complex had put their garbage in the dumpster but hadn't chained it shut. One morning Heather noticed that there was trash in the drive-way and we knew we had visitors in the night. As we watched from the safety of the condo, here they come again! Mama bear and her two cubs! We stayed inside and watched as they checked out the trash. Then they decided to leave and headed for the highway. When she got to the road, Mama looked both ways before crossing but the cubs just ran across. Typical!

See the car on the right? That's my van. Right next to that is the downstairs bedroom window where I was sleeping when the bears initially got into the garbage!!!!! Yikes!

After the bears had been gone for a while, Heather went down to clean up the garbage That's Cindy and Debbie standing guard. My question is, whose gonna guard the guards!!! That night as I was in bed I would hear a leaf rustle outside. "Bears!!!"

We all got lots done, had great food, laughed a lot and had a great time. Our next retreat is scheduled for February in the foothills near Sonora, California. Hopefully, this time, there won't be bears!!

We interrupt this message.....

I'm sorry that I haven't posted for a while. I've done some really fun things the past two weekends and I can't wait to tell you about them. However, I have "thrown" out my back. It's something that happens once in a while and the past weekends attributed to it. Hopefully, I'll be better in a few days and I can show you what I did.

In the meantime, I'm laying low, watching television, reading and occasionally surfing my favorite blogs.

Take care!!!

Veteran's Day

Today is Veteran's Day in the United States. It's the day that we honor those who have served in our military in times past. I want to also take this time to honor and thank those who continue to serve in our armed forces along with their families. They sacrifice a great deal so that we can remain a free nation.

A special thank you with immense pride to our son, Aaron, who has made a career in the military and is currently deployed.

God bless you all and keep you safe

Busy Week Ahead

I've got a busy week ahead! My quilting group and I are going on our annual fall quilting retreat at Lake Tahoe. The family of one of the ladies in the group has a condo up there and they generously let us use it every year. This year there will be nine of us going.

I still have packing to do, projects to get ready, shopping for groceries for Sweety, and getting the guest room ready form my Mom. She always stays here when I'm gone for any length of time. Plus get a haircut, pick up prescriptions, take Sweety to the doctor, get some shoes, on and on ad nauseum!

So...........I won't be posting again until I get back next week. Hopefully, I'll have some pictures to share and stories to tell

In the meantime......

GO GIANTS!!!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS ON WINNING THE WORLD SERIES!!!!

For Your Halloween Viewing Pleasure

Have a frightfully fun day!!!

Boo Boo!!!

No, this is not my Halloween post. It's the continuing sage of Little Miss Maggie, the very expensive Scottish Terrier!!!! I knew that she was having trouble with one of her nails, so when I took her to her bi-weekly spa day treatment (I kid you not!) I asked the girls if they would check it out. When I picked her up later in the afternoon, they said that her dew claw was split right in two. I took her right over next door to our vet's office. They own the grooming salon/kennel so it's really handy. Our vet took it right off, wrapped it up and gave her antibiotics. "Keep it clean and don't let it get wet!" Has he seen the weather reports? Anyway, I have to keep an eye on it but it should heal just fine. I read up on dew claws and I guess some breeders remove them and some don't. Since it's really easy to remove them when they are first born and can cause problems later I can't imagine anyone not removing them. If I'm wrong, let me know. It had been so long since we had owned a puppy that I didn't even think to ask about them.

I always used to give her "dental cleaning type green bones" (don't want to give product name here because I have no problems with them per se) but they started making her sick so I had to stop. So now at some point I'll have to take her in for teeth cleaning and they'll put her out for the procedure. When that happens I'll have them remove all her dew claws.


Is this the most pitiful looking little puppy you have ever seen? This certainly has not been her year. I should make her a little cardboard sign, "Will bark for medicine!"

Move over Six Million Dollar Man and Six Million Dollar Woman! Here comes the Six Million Dollar Scotty!!!! Oh, how I wish I could put her on my insurance plan!!!!!

I hope none of you think that Maggie is not well cared for since she has had so many problems this past year. On the contrary, I tend to take her in to be checked even if it's something minor. She eats the best food I can buy her. She is shown lots of love all the time and lives in the lap of luxury. My theory is that if you have a pet take care of it. It involves expenses. If you can't afford to properly care for them, don't have a one. That should be a no-brainer. I'm really black and white on the issue of pet ownership, no gray area! Pets depend on us to take care of them. My daughter just got a rescue dog, Bella. She's the sweetest little thing and sort of looks like Toto from the Wizard of Oz. Whoever owned her really did a number on her. This poor little dog is so very afraid of new people and still hasn't warmed up to me. When I go over there she hides under the bed. I can't let her be around Maggie as she is so timid and Maggie is so, shall we say, out there that she would be frightened. She cringes and hides when you pick up a broom. I get so angry even thinking about what someone must have done to her to make her like she is. But with lots of love and patience, I know she'll eventually come around.

So if you want unconditional love, get a dog. But, that means giving unconditional love in return!

I Love My Dog, However.....

I think all of you know that I love my dog, Maggie. She has turned out to be just a little sweetheart and I cannot imagine life without her.

I love her when she's all grown up and acting like a sophisticated world travelor.

I loved her when she was an adorable little bear of a puppy.

I love her when she's acting like a clown

And I love her when she's acting like a sophisticated little lady.

HOWEVER!!

Maggie has one little idiosyncrasy that I don't like. She does not like to go outside to go potty in the rain. Does not like it at all. As in, won't go outside. "Nope, Mommy! I'm not going out there. I'll get my hair wet!"

I love rainy days. I love them because I can stay inside and snuggle in bed and read or watch a good movie with a cup of tea. Nothing better. But, Maggie is raining on my parade, pardon the pun! So what do I have to do on a rainy day like today? Get out the leash, hook her up, grab the umbrella and take her out front for a walk in the rain so she can sniff the grass and get "inspired". Our first scotty, Marjorie, was the same way. I wonder if it's a Scottish Terrier "thing?"

So, if you are driving around Escalon and it's night time and it's raining and you see some crazy woman in her robe and slippers walking a Scottish Terrier wave when you go by. Yup! That would be me!! What I won't do for my dog!!

Have a wonderful week and if it's raining where you are, stay dry!!

My Front Porch

I thought I would show you what greets guests when they come to my house. This is an old worn desk that I bought here in town at The Green Pea. It has seen better days and won't get wet this winter so it's alright to keep it outside. I can change it up for the holidays.

The quilted piece is a table runner I made with my sewing group quite a few years ago. Like I've said, my home doesn't lend itself to oranges so it looks just fine outside, don't you think

This little pot is just waiting for the orange and black pansies to start blooming.

I wandered out back today and found a paperwhite narcissus blooming along with some pansies. They smell so incredibly sweet, I just love them.

My cold is still lingering so I think I'll go cuddle down in bed with a cup of tea. Have a wonderful day!

Fall Traditions

I'm sure most of you have fall traditions that are much better than mine. I always get sick in October. It's not that I plan it that way, it just happens. Death, taxes, getting sick in October.

Let me start with I love where I live. Escalon is a small town in central valley California. There is no traffic, it's quiet, and we are close to larger towns, like Modesto, if we want to go shopping or out to eat. I live in a track of homes with wide streets and nice neighbors. During the day there is usually no one around except for when the stay-at-home lady next door mows her lawn or the retired man across the street is working on something in his garage. We are in the city limits and just behind our fence is county property. We are surrounded on two sides by fields, horses, and orchards. This is an agricultural area with the main crops being almonds, walnuts with dairy farms thrown in as well.

The beauty of this area in the spring is beyond compare. Green, lush fields and beautiful almond blossoms are everywhere. That's not to say there isn't a down side. Everywhere you would want to live has a glitch. After the first of the year we can have days, months, when we don't see the sun because it's overcast. Then there is the fog. It will hang onto the ground and you cannot see the houses across the street or the cars driving towards you. It can be really scary if you are trying to commute to work. On those days now, I just stay home and wait for it to clear. The summer heat can be oppressing. My garden really starts to suffer by the end of summer so I always welcome the cool days of fall.

But with fall, comes the almond and walnut harvesting. I remember the first time I saw the huge piece of equipment that "knocks the nuts". It's like a tractor "thing" with huge claws on the front. The driver wraps the claws around the tree, flips a switch , and a "whole lot of shaking going on" happens. It was so funny looking the first time I saw it I almost ran my car off the road! Once the nuts are all shaken to the ground another piece of equipment comes along and scoops them up and they are off on their own little adventure.

This is where the story comes back to me being sick. Just imagine all those thousands of trees in those thousands of orchards that have not had any rain all summer (they get irrigated). Can you say dusty, dirty!?! Then imagine shaking all of that dust and dirt back into the air. The entire valley has a haze over it for weeks. Ergo, Jean gets a sinus infection. I don't care how much vitamin c or Airborne I take, I get sick. (We won't even talk about how dusty my house is - that's another post all of it's own!).

Do you remember watching I Love Lucy or The Dick Van Dyke Show when Lucy or Mary would be sick in bed and how glamorous they still looked? Well, that's not happening here. Pitiful, pitiful, pitiful! I get up in the morning and try not to look at myself in the mirror because, hey, I'm sick and vulnerable! I put on my bathrobe, make my tea and then I have to go get the paper in the driveway. I cautiously open the front door. If the neighbors are outside, I stay in. No need to frighten them and make them think Halloween is here early. Then when the coast is clear I make a mad dash out - drat, here comes a truck! Do not make eye contact and limp so the driver knows that I am sick and don't normally look like this.

So that's where I'm at right now. Drinking tea and looking at dust and waiting to feel better. But like the song goes, "I will survive!"

I hope you are all well and have a wonderful week ahead of you!!

Pacific International Quilt Festival

This past Thursday I went to the Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara. It's a "must go to" event every October. I ended up going alone this year, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I managed to miss most of the commuter traffic on the two hour trip from my house and got there just in time for the doors to open. When you are by yourself at something like this you can pace yourself like you want, miss the vendors who are selling items that are not your style and you get finished a lot sooner than if you are with a group. Not to say I don't enjoy going with other people. Most years my friend and I get a room at the hotel that is connected to the convention hall. We have lots of fun shopping, going back to our room for a quick nap, room service and doing it all over again the next day. There are many, many vendors to see and the show is extraordinary.

This young lady is Sherry Reynolds. She won a first place blue ribbon for her "Christmas All Around" quilt. I couldn't get a full picture of it as there were so many people oohing and aahing at it. Sherry is such a sweet and humble gal and was really taken aback by all the attention. Hopefully if you enlarge the picture you can see some of the extraordinary detail and workmanship she put into this work of art. I chatted with her for a few minutes and found out that she did the design, the piecing and the quilting all on her own. Plus she has been quilting for only five years!!!!! Amazing!!!!! It should have won best in show (no offense to the person who did).

As always, lots of vendors and lots of shoppers.

This was a shop copy of a pattern that I purchased. I hope to duplicate the colors.

Below are pictures of some of the many, many quilts that were displayed. I noticed that there was quite a bit of applique which seems to be a trend. I like the more traditional quilt designs rather than the "art quilts" but to each his own. Regardless of the style, the workmanship is amazing. Can you guess my favorite from the following pictures?

We're lucky here in California to have three great quilt shows. Road To California in January is in Southern California, The International Quilt Show in Long Beach is in July and Pacific International is in October! So many quilts, so little time!!!

Have a great weekend.