My Heart Broke Open

Being a grandma is great.

Being Mimi is the best!

Friends and Flowers - 6

I spent an excellent morning listening to podcasts and finishing the backstitching on this Suzy's Zoo project. She's adorable.

Now to pick out some fabric to finish this stitchery as a pillow cover. I'll have to dive into my stash and see what I have on hand.

Isn't It Grand!

Dale and I had the distinct privilege of spending the holiday weekend with these two beauties. Their parents, Julie (daughter) and Jeff (son-in-law) celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary. (Already!)

We also celebrated Miss Melody's 8th birthday

while little sister Annalee did her best to be a good sport.

Dale and I got to have the kids all to ourselves at the park where I consented to climb the playground equipment with them - and went head first on my back down the slide. Going down was easy. But I was a bit like a turtle resting on its shell as I tried to get myself upright again. The kids thought that was pretty funny.

Ruff Park Magnolias - 11

 Before the bloom

The Nursery

Ruff Park Magnolias - 10

Centerpiece

Ruff Park Magnolias - 9

Time to share more of that ideal morning in the magnolia garden.

Under the Canopy

Variegated Weiglea

Otherwise known as:

Ooooo! Look! How pretty! 

Blowin' in the breeze. 

My neighbors have beautiful gardens.

Good Fortune

Oh, I hope so!

My intent is in the very best of ways.

Friends and Flowers - 5

 Details, details.

I've completed most of the backstitching on the bottom half of this design. I love watching how the backstitching brings the entire piece alive.

Depending on how much time I can put into stitching today, the outlining has a chance of being completed by tonight.

Follow Our Geotrail! - Part 3

Here are the final photos from our birthday/Mother's Day geocache outing. Geocaching is the ideal sport / game for us!

A surprise along the way ... this gnome lives in a hollow tree.

Cache of the Day - a pirate themed cache! It earned a Favorite Point from me.

Cap'n Pete's Hidden Treasure

This guy hung around in the trees, guarding the treasure chest.

Jodie found a travel bug

And so did I! 

And finally, a heart charm came home with me after I exchanged some swag.

It was a lovely, lovely, lively day outside in nature with two of my favorite people in the world.

Follow Our Geotrail! - Part 2

Here are more photos of our birthday/Mother's Day geocache outing. Oregon is beautiful in the Springtime!

Flowers, flowers everywhere

Beauty blooms around the rust.

Texture on texture. Looks prickly to me.

Watch out for thorns if you want to smell a blackberry bloom.

These tall bright torch lilies (red hot pokers) were blowin' in the breeze.

To photograph the itty bity blooms, I got down on my knees.

CITO (Cache In, Trash Out)

Jodie does her bit to keep cache areas clean. 😇

Follow Our Geotrail! - Part 1

To celebrate Dale's birthday and Mother's Day for Jodie and me, we had an excellent day of geocaching. We drove out to the countryside north and west of where we live. We found 10 caches and saw lots of beautiful scenery. 

Take a look!

The scenery

Christmas tree farm. The trees look itty bitty next to the neighboring forest.

A seven layer cake of exquisite Oregon.

I'm pretty sure this is Mt. Washington ... in central Oregon. We had clear skies!

I don't often see old silos made of brick or wood.

Orchards

The Parks

We stumbled across this wildlife refuge. We'll definitely need to return to take in all it has to offer.

This is where we stopped for our picnic lunch.

Part 2 tomorrow!

Friends and Flowers - 4

Latest update on my Suzy's Zoo project. I had a good two days to stitch this week.

I'm not quite done with all the colors. It will all come to life when the backstitching goes in. 

Getting close!

Friends and Flowers - 3

For Mother's Day, my gift was hours and hours of stitching time, so I worked on Flowers and Friends some more.

This is a wonderfully calming activity for me that soothes my nervous system. 

Plus ... progress!

Friends and Flowers - 2

I made some time to work on this cross-stitch project that I started at the end of March. It's a kit called Friends and Flowers and part of Janlynn's Suzy's Zoo line.

Our little gal now has arms, a neck and a flower stem. I hope to make more time to stitch tomorrow while Dale and Jodie are out conquering the trivia world.

I sat and stitched while listening to a couple chapters of my current audiobook.

Corner of My Home

Or more accurately, a corner of our patio

It so pretty in the morning sun

Our neighbor's "snowball" tree is in full bloom

cascading over the fence

and creating a space as pretty as a picture.

#cornerof our home

Returning to Outer Space

After a couple nights of bad sleep, I decided to give myself an activity to reset my nervous system. So I pulled out a jigsaw puzzle. I like the way puzzles quiet me down, give me focus, and free my mind. Combine puzzling with listening to podcasts and I'm in my happy place.

Instead of doing a new puzzle, I built one that Dale and I first put together in January 2024: Outer Space Crowded Place.

It's a good puzzle. Challenging, but never frustrating. Detailed. A great illustration with plenty of machinery, starsbursts, and space creatures.

Now that I'm rested, maybe some creativity will bubble up in me again.

Purple Pleasure

Ah, Wisteria!

I love how it tumbles over the fences in our neighborhood

Close

Closer

Closest

Mmmmmmmmmmm