Citrus Conundrum

We have six miniature citrus trees in our yard. A kumquat, a pink variegated lemon, a meyer lemon, a eureka lemon, a satsuma mandarin and a rangpur lime. The pink lemon is still too young to be producing much fruit. I believe there is only one on the tree right now. The mandarins are all gone but we have lots of lemons an limes. See the little orange guys there? Those are actually limes. Crazy, I know, but limes they are.

What is crazy is that here in Northern California our citrus ripen in the winter. So in the heat of the summer when a tall cold glass of lemonade is in order what do we do? Go to the store and buy them. I told you it was crazy!

ATTENTION COLORADO BLOGGERS...

.....I need your help. My sister and I are traveling to the Denver area next month. My son is coming home from deployment and we are going to meet him at the Denver airport, flags waving! Woo Hoo!!!!!!! This is going to be really exciting, to say the least.

Janice is going to be there for only a few days and we want to visit some local antique shops in the immediate Denver area if at all possible. When I was there last year I was only able to find one antique store. I know there has got to be more. If you could let me know where they are I'd really appreciate it.

After Janice leaves I'll visit with my son for a week and then take the train home like I did last year. I just love traveling by train and am really looking forward to it.

Thanks in advance for your help!!

Retreat

Finally, a few pictures from my quilting group's recent weekend retreat at the wonderful Silver Spur Christian Camp facility in the foothills near Tuolumne, California. I say few as I really thought I took more pictures than I did. On the last day everyone packed up so quickly that I was unable to take pictures of every one's finished, or mostly finished, projects.

As I mentioned last post I hurt my back from hauling all the luggage and sewing supplies.

This is my van filled with mine and my friend, Nikki's stuff. Just two people. I have no idea how to pack light, let alone get on an airplane and go to a quilt retreat across country. I'm sure the kitchen sink was in their. Mine and Nikki's kitchen sink!!

Nikki and I always arrive before everyone else to get things set up and then check in with the office staff. We were welcomed by some very special greeters when we pulled into the driveway.

In fact, I just sat for a while as they didn't seem the least bit anxious to move on or frightened of us in the least bit.

Nikki even got out of the car and took pictures. There were five deer all together since they were on private property with no hunting allowed, they were very trusting.

They hung around the perimeter of the house for most of the day. Later that day 260 high school students arrived at the main camp down the road and the deer made themselves scarce. I don't blame them!

It's always a tradition that the Narcissus are blooming at retreat time.

This is Silver Ridge, our home away from home. You can go to the previous post, click on the link and see more pictures inside. The top floor is bedrooms. The main floor is a living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom and bath. The lower floor is bedrooms and bathrooms. If you look closely you can see a door on the left. That's the door to the workroom that was converted from the garage. The entire facility is just the best, most comfortable place you'd want to be. The food is brought up from the main facility and is the most delicious gourmet food you would ever want to eat. No boring camp food here! They even come at 6:30 a.m. and put the coffee on for us.

Everyone busy in the work room. There is room for eleven of us to sew, three cutting tables and two ironing boards. We also put cutting boards on the dining room table and set up another ironing board. At night if we don't want to sew, we can watch movies or read. If any of you are interested in holding retreats at Silver Spur using the Silver Ridge house, I'd be more than happy to help you with any advise you might need. I could even go with you!!!!!

One of the finished tops. Forgive me girls, but I can't remember who this belongs to.

There is always one over achiever in any group and this year it was Heather. Not only did she finish piecing a quilt top, but she machine quilted it AND bound it. To her credit, she wanted to get it finished as it is a gift for a sick friend.

Good going, Heather! I'm sure your friend will love it!

We usually bring little treats to share with everyone and Nikki brought every one the cutest little beeswax candle with a bee on it.

I made two little stuffed Scottie dogs using this pattern and made out of the cutest pink cowgirl fabric for Nikki's granddaughter. Pictures? Forgot! Then I worked on a block of the month for a charity project the group is doing. Pictures? Forgot! I did finish my Fat Quarter Shop Block of the Month quilt that I showed you after our November retreat at Lake Tahoe. I needed to add the last pieced border so all I need to do now is get it quilted. Pictures? What do you think?

Some retreats I get tons done. My personal best is finishing four tops that I had started. I didn't get as much done this time, but that's alright. I was able to relax, sew when I wanted to, eat as much as I wanted to, sit and watch movies and generally take it easy. I highly recommend it!

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Whew!

I'm back from retreat! I'll do a post of some of my pictures in a day or two. On Thursday night last week I loaded my van. Friday morning I helped load more of my friend's stuff. Then we drove to the retreat. Unloaded all the stuff. Hauled our suitcases upstairs. Set up our sewing machines. Monday we hauled our stuff downstairs from our room and put it in the van. Then we hauled our sewing machines and other "stuff" into the van and drove home. I helped my friend take her stuff into her house, drove home and unloaded my stuff. Whew!

Tuesday morning I attempted to get a few things done around the house. Since it was Tuesday I drove Sweety to Target. Target Tuesday is a tradition in our household as that's the day new movies are released. I was standing in the back of the store and all of a sudden my back said something like, "you silly girl, just what were you thinking?" It seized up and I really didn't think I could walk to the front, let alone get to my car and drive home. I managed to do that and took two muscle relaxants and went to bed. I'm getting better and am slowly coming out of the muscle relaxant and pain killer induced fog.

The things we do just to have fun!!! Like I said, I'll post some pictures of our retreat soon.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Laurie over at Buttons and Lace organized a Valentine's Day swap. I was so busy getting my gifts ready to mail and also getting ready for retreat, that I forgot that I had something coming for me!

Laurie from Fun With This and That sent me this wonderful package. The first thing I saw when I opened it was the beautiful card. She must know how I love quilts!

She made this darling decoration to attach to the package. Such a clever lady!

I can't believe all the goodies that were wrapped up! Candy, felt heart pin cushions that I'll add to my collection, a stained glass necklace that I have hanging in my sewing room window to catch the sun rays, a sparkly battery operated tea candle.

See the little charm on the right? The right side is a little picture of valentine heart candies. When I turned it over I just gasped! It is a little piece of vintage paper with a train schedule on it. Did she know I LOVE TRAINS!!!!?!!!!

The beautiful heart in the middle now has a special home in a basket of vintage plates I have in my bedroom. I'll take a picture of it next week when I get home.

Thank you Laura for all the care you took in putting together such a lovely gift. Thank you Laurie for organizing such a fun swap!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone out there.

Go hug someone you love!!!

Inspiration

I'm getting ready to go on my annual quilting retreat this weekend. This will be the tenth year that my quilt group and I have traveled to the foothills to the most peaceful retreat center you could ever want to go to. If you click on the link and go to "rent our facilities" and then "Silver Ridge" you'll see where we stay. We quilt in the room with the chairs. The center provides tables and chairs for us. We arrive at noon on Friday and leave after breakfast Monday. We quilt, eat, laugh, eat, read, eat, take walks, eat, watch movies, eat and have lots of fun. Did I mention the fabulous food? I'll have pictures to share when I return.

Because I'm a quilter I thought I would share this video. I never get as much quilting done as I want to or should. Something always gets in the way, excuses are made, time is wasted. Diane is an amazing lady and is such an inspiration. I'll think twice before making any excuses as to why I "can't" do something. She shows us that you can do what is in your heart, no matter what the circumstances. I have a feeling you'll see this video popping up all over blog land!

Peace

My nephew passed away nine years ago and is buried up in the foothills at a cemetery with my father. His Mom, my sister Janice, and I try to go up and visit every year on his birthday so we went last week. It was a beautiful, sunny day, just a little chill in the air, blue skies, a few clouds, birds chirping.

For being a cemetery, it's really a lovely, peaceful place to visit. Although we know that Paul and Dad are not really there, we like to go say hi and remember all the good times we had with them. Then we wander around the grounds and look at the headstones, wonder about the ones that are buried there, straighten up pots of flowers that have fallen over, say a little prayer for the families.

Some of the headstones are magnificent, beautiful works of art.

Angels to watch over the children.

A beautiful Celtic cross.

Saints and their precious animals.

Eagles to remind us of God's strength.