RV There Yet?

Ah, sweet romance!

steph — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:21:30 +0000

This has always been one of my favorite family pictures, taken at a wonderful surprise birthday party Gary threw for me in 2001.

The kids row –
Josiah’s college girlfriend, Abigail, Josiah (son), Tammy (new daughter-in-law), Toby (son), Lara (daughter).
The adults – Gary and I, and my sisters, Joie and Elna.
All people who are very precious to me.
But shortly after this party, Josiah broke up with his girlfriend. Now it wasn’t so much that he didn’t care for her any longer, but he just realized he was a too selfish to really be in a relationship. He told me he wasn’t going to date until after college – it was all just too distracting. And he stuck with that decision.
And I did what any good momma would do with a picture that she absolutely loved.
I got busy cropping.

Time passed.
Josiah graduated.
We left town.
Josiah began dating again.
As he said to me later, everytime he went out with a girl, he just kept comparing her to Abigail. And whoever she was, she (the new date) just wasn’t measuring up. He finally decided to to see if maybe Abigail would consider coming back into his life. Let me tell you, it was a pretty hard sell. Once burned…..you know how that goes.
I certainly don’t know all of the ins and outs of how it all worked out, I can tell you that it worked out well!
Three years ago today, they walked down the aisle and committed their lives to each other.

Today they are living in Lancaster, PA, and blooming beautifully where God has planted them.

And when we get together as a family, we make sure that Abigail isn’t on an end!

Oh, and that favorite photo from 2001?
It’s back to its beautiful original. Full of people all the more precious to me!

Happy Anniversary, Josiah and Abigail! You are a blessing to each other, and to our family!

Uh-Oh. Crafty things, Part IV – Lightening the load

steph — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:05:58 +0000

I promise, this is the LAST crafty post for a while. But you see, there was a by-product of all those pieces of fabric I bought for my memory quilt. Left-over fabric. Lots and lots of left-over fabric. Now Gary’s been making some noises about getting rid of stuff because he thinks we’re a little over-weight. And I want to do my part to help. I mean, when you’re talking about 32,000 pounds (that’s 16 tons), I don’t want my fabric drawer to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
My plan to help is two-fold.
1. I won’t buy any fabric that doesn’t have a specific purpose. That means I’m allowed to buy fabric for a baby quilt for the grandbaby due in September (Toby and Tammy are expecting #4! ), but I’m not going to buy fabric just because, oh, my goodness, isn’t this just the most luscious green ever!
2. I am going to try use up as much of my fabric as I can over the next several months.
So, to that end, I’ve begun to make potholders.

These squares are ready for the final quilting -

(and then there’s the drawer full of fabric waiting to be cut…..(not shown to protect the innocent))
And here is where YOU can help.
As a thank-you for putting up with the last three posts that pretty much were all about -LOOK AT ME – SEE WHAT I’VE DONE, I’d love to send you one of these homemade potholders!
If you feel comfortable sending me your address (if you’re reading this on Facebook, send me a message with your address and if you’re on my blog you can either use the “contact me” spot, or just leave a comment and I’ll email you for your address), I’ll get one out in the mail to you. I can’t promise that it will be this week or next, but sometime, when you least expect it, there it will be in your mailbox!
And then you will know that you have done your part to help keep our house at her ideal weight!
Every little bit helps, right?

Crafty Things – Part III The Memory Quilt

steph — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:28:53 +0000

So, what has over 3000 pieces and has taken well over 5 years to complete?
The Memory Quilt!

It’s been almost two years since I first mentioned this project, making memory stars from fabric I would pick up along the way to remind me of the different places we’ve seen, SOWER projects we’ve worked, family and friends we’ve seen, and other things that I, well, just wanted to remember! I’d collect fabric, work on the stars about a dozen at a time, recalculate how many I still needed, and then keep on collecting! I had the main part sewn together (all 179 stars, in no apparent order!) by the time we left for Alaska, picked up the border fabric while we were in Alaska, and after the Christmas sewing rush, got back on track with sewing that baby together. And last month I finally got it to a local machine quilter. We picked it up on our way here (Palmdale, CA), and I got busy on the binding.

(Meals? Who needs meals!)
Yesterday, March 5, 2010 it was finally completed!
Here are some of my memories, up close and personal!

Some of the stars are pre-trip – quilting friends that contributed squares, or the base fabric from the wedding quilt for our son Toby and his bride, Tammy.

This one reminds me of our February 2008 project where it rained and rained and rained.

Ah, the sweet memories of a weekend with my nephew, his lovely wife and beautiful new daughter!

New Hampshire, Georgia
Arizona, Nashville

Gary’s flannel “lounging” pants (that finally wore out!), Cabin Curtains

I did have to add a couple of stars to cover our Alaska Adventure, but they worked well as corner blocks.

I’m really happy with the machine quilting! I had it done at Georgia’s Quilting Obsession in Beaumont, CA, and I think she did a really nice job!
See where the binding changes from blue to green in the above photo? Here’s a close-up-

That’s to remind me to always cut an extra strip of binding before you use up all your extra fabric on other projects!

Although I had planned to use it on our bed, now that it’s finished, I realize it’s actually a little more than our little bedroom can handle!

But even though it may not have a (visible) place of honor in this little house of ours, it still is a treasure to me.
Ah, the sweet memories……

Crafty Things, Part II – Christmas 2009

steph — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:01:33 +0000

One of the really fun parts about being on the road is all the fun ideas for things that you gather along the way! There are some very clever people out there, and I’ve been fortunate enough to cross paths with many of them!
Last year, just before Christmas (that would be Christmas 2008), a SOWER friend shared with me what I can only call an “I Spy Beanbag”. The concept is to take teeny tiny things and put them (along with the “beans”) in a beanbag that has a window in it. Then the activity is to find the different items by moving around the beans to reveal the items. Got it?
No.
I’ve had a pretty hard time ’splaining it to folks, so I’ll just move to the picture.

Clockwise, from the bottom right -
The items that went into the beanbag. (Even though I watched for things throughout the year, at the end I did rely heavily on buttons. There are some amazing buttons out there!)
The three completed bags – made from pant legs of an old pair of Gary’s jeans.
A close-up of the window itself.
The pocket side of bags. I found cute kid’s jeans at thrift shops and used some of their “fanciness” to make the pockets. And the pocket holds the list of what is actually in the bag.
Pretty fun, eh? I think the grown-ups had as much fun finding the different items as the girls did (at least on Christmas morning!).
So those were my “everyone gets one of these” items (and thank-you Joanne for the great idea!).
But it was home-made-ville for the girls individually as well!
Back in 2005, I had made Ellie a quilted sweatshirt jacket.

Imagine my delight when last summer she asked me if I could make her another one since she had finally outgrown the one she had. Yessiree Bob – Grammas really like to hear things like that! When I asked what color she would like it to be(six year olds have some strong opinions about those things, you know), she replied, “purple”. (Silly me – I really should have known!). I started collecting purple fabrics, and eventually put together this -

I think she liked it!

I had been inspired to do some knitting for Hayley. Or actually I was inspired to ask Lara (my knitter-extraordinaire daughter) to knit a sweater for Hayley and then I would a knit a matching sweater for her doll. It was a good plan, but I discovered just before our Christmas Eve that Hayley didn’t actually HAVE a doll that my sweater would fit. So, as it turned out, Maddie’s doll got a sweater that matched Hayley’s beautiful sweater, and I quickly purchased a cute dress that went with Lara’s sweater. Ah, the best laid plans…..
But anyway – here’s the little sweater -

and here’s Hayley wearing her sweater and holding baby Sarah (with special thanks to Maddie for sharing!).

And special thanks to Toni who shared her cute sweater patterns with me! (Oh, and to Lara who did all the “big knitting” and found the great yarn!)
I wasn’t sure what to make for little Maddie, until I remembered a cute reversible dress pattern that someone had shared with me last fall. She makes these dresses in a variety of sizesand then sends them overseas to various missions when she hears of a need. The dress is totally reversible and only has about 3 inches of hand sewing involved. Sounded pretty sweet to me!

The dress was a little big, and I think it took me more time to find a plain brown shirt to go with it than it took me to make it, but all in all, I think it was a success. Here she is in her dress with baby Sarah.

Thanks, Evelyn for the inspiration for the dresses.
With the girls all wrapped up, I only had one more gift to worry about – my precious daughter-in-law, Abigail. Since I was still on the homemade kick, she got a quilted purse-

(and if she stands next to Maddie, they’ll match!). I’ve made a couple of these purses (I have one and so does Lara), but I want to thank my buddy Rosie for her inspiration in making these bags. And watch out, Tammy, you might be next!

My final “fun thing” isn’t really a crafty thing, but just a fun idea if you have grandkids. I wanted to give the girls something fun for Valentine’s Day and I remember someone telling me about sending a bottle through the mail. Here is what I started with -

We cut a door on one side of the bottle and glued the top on. We even splurged on fancy bottles, but I don’t think the water tasted any different. Just so you know.
Then we filled them as full as we could.

Final step – putting the label over the “door” and taking them to the post office!

The girl at the post office hardly blinked an eye – so give it a try! It’s sure to bring a smile to whoever gets a bottle of goodies in the mail!

Fair warning, there’s still a little craftiness to come…..

Crafty Things, Part I – Remembering Alaska

steph — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:55:47 +0000

Since we have a day or so until our March project really kicks in, I thought I’d share some recent crafty things I’ve completed lately. Ok, so actually they were from last year and were mostly Christmas gifts and yes, it is March, but somethings just don’t get organized so easily! (Like a “show and tell” post!). But, because some of my faithful readers are my quilting buddies from my previous lifetime, I thought I’d do a little sharing.
Today it’s all about Alaska. I know, I know, you heard about Alaska for 4 months. But this is about Alaska memories! Have you ever heard of a “Shop Hop”? A Shop Hop is where area shops (in this case quilt shops) join together in some group marketing plan to entice shoppers to visit all of the shops and purchase stuff! With quilt shops the plan is often to purchase a particular block kit at each shop that can be sewn together into one large quilt. In Alaska, the Shop Hop covered the entire state, and while we made it to lots of those shops, we didn’t make it to all. But that didn’t stop us – my quilting buddy Naomi and I still managed to pick up (or have shipped to us!) 12 kits! If I had followed their directions, I would have ended up with a quilt that looked (more or less) like this -

But I didn’t really want an Alaska quilt. So I decided to add borders and make individual wallhangings. A plan much more suitable for someone who lives in less than 400 square feet.
So, to help me remember the bears that we saw,

I made the bear wallhanging.

To help me remember the moose we saw (and oh, how l loved the moose!)

I put this together -

And my favorite fireweed…

The towering mountains -

The ancient glaciers -

the serene loons -

and while we never did see any Eskimos in kayaks, we did see some of those wonderful jackets -

Oh, and the outhouses…..

(This one is headed to our Vermont Cabin, where we do indeed have an outhouse!)
And then the last three -

Out of the eleven that I completed, five of them went to my unsuspecting family as gifts. The other six are in my wallhanging “stash”. And every time I pull one of them out, I’ll be reminded of the wonderful summer we spent in Alaska!

Tomorrow – the rest of the Crafty Story!

Nuts and Bolts

steph — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:33:02 +0000

On the road again…..Ah, those are lovely words to us. As much as we enjoy our projects, there is still the wanderlust in our veins. New roads, new places, new friends……
Here’s Gary pulling out the drive (we need a nice level spot to hook-up, so we were driving separately until after we got diesel.)

Our last drive down Dillon Road -

Our last time down the hill toward Palm Springs -

And then on to takin’ care of business -
Propane

Diesel

(Did you know that many fuel pumps will only let you pump $75.00 at a time. Trust me, that wasn’t nearly enough!)

And then comes the “hook-up”. While Gary is busy attaching the truck to the tow bar on the rig,

my job is to do the “inside work”. That means putting on the auxiliary brake (every time Gary hits the brakes on Lizzie, this brake also pushes on the brake in the truck. That way we don’t have a 5000lb. truck pushing us down the mountains.)

After I get the brake in place, then I have to do all the transmission “stuff”.

You can bet I stand outside while Gary pulls Lizzie forward, making sure that the wheels are turning and the steering wheel isn’t locked.

That would be bad. Really bad.
So, here’s the driver, all ready to hit the road.

Here we are, driving through the fields of windmills for the last time.

(And loving that we got to follow an In-N-Out truck for part of the way. We LOVE In-N-Out!)
We weren’t going all that far – only about 175 miles, but it did involve going up those mountains -

and then coming back down-

(when we really appreciated that auxiliary brake!)
We were headed to Palmdale, CA, which is located about 70 miles north of Los Angeles, in the “high desert”.

Those were pretty impressive high-tension wires – we think they probably came from the Hoover Dam.
We made it to our resting place, a Walmart parking lot in Palmdale.
And that is the nuts and bolts of our day!

Propane – $78.98
Diesel Fuel – $218.01 (but then again, we hadn’t filled up since November!)
Garlic Bread from Walmart (ah, small pleasures) – 1.74

Being on the road again (even if it wasn’t very far) – Priceless!

I spoke too soon!

steph — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:12:29 +0000

I hit the “publish” button for my last post – “The Promise of Spring“, took a quick nap and then joined the other Sower’s over at “their place” for one last game of cards. And wouldn’t you know it, over there, on their patch of desert, was this beautiful sight -

Now that is some beautiful Promise of Spring!

The Promise of Spring

steph — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:56:38 +0000

Now, I know that lots of you are still under a significant (and possibly annoying) blanket of snow, but here in the desert, things are beginning to feel like spring. I was hoping that we would still be here when the desert really blooms, but it looks like we’ll miss the Really Big Show. However, as I took a last little walk around the grounds today, and then checked back through some other shots I’ve taken this month, I definitel feel like the Big Bloom is just around the corner.
(Please don’t ask me to identify these flowers! Generally speaking, if they don’t come with an identifying spike, I’m clueless!)

Here are some of the pink ones -

And a selection of the yellow ones (I know, I’m getting pretty technical here….)

Some odds and ends (the one on the bottom right is from a tree, and the one with the truck in the background is a fairly good sized bush)

Ok, this one I know – the Ocotillo. This looks like a cactus, but is not. When it’s dry, it drops all of its leaves to conserve water. Once it rains, little green leaves pop out all along the stem. And then they produce those beautiful red “flag” flowers on the very tips. Not very many of the ones we saw at Joshua Tree were in bloom, but we did find a couple. Pretty cool, doncha think?

And then there are the cacti.
Can you see the buds hiding in the thorns on the top picture?

I bet they are going to be beautiful.
And these -

or this one -

Even the Cholla were getting ready to bud -

The flowers on the cholla will be magenta. Man, I hope we find some of those at our next stop!
Since the locals have all been commenting on just how green everything is becoming, I thought I’d compare a couple of pictures I took today with ones taken back in early February. The pictures on the left are from Feb 4, the ones on the right, Mar. 1.

Ok, I guess I can see a little bit more green. But I confess, it’s hard for this Pennsylvania/New England girl to really get caught up in how green everything is here. (But then again, PA nots so very green right now either!).
Ah, the Promise of Spring!

Tomorrow we will be leaving the Coachella Valley behind. We are heading to our March project, Crosswind Community Church , up in the “high desert” north of Los Angeles. I think there might be hope for Spring in the Desert yet!

PS – there are a couple more flower shots, along with the ones I used in the collages HERE, if you’d like to check them out.

Joshua Tree National Park, Part III

steph — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 02:24:44 +0000

We took advantage of our last Friday in this area to finish seeing Joshua Tree National Park. Of course, we still didn’t see it all. Aside of all of the trails to hike, there are all of those rocks to climb. We did take in a nature trail or two, but mostly we were just enjoying our drive through the deserts. (Joshua Tree NP is where the Colorado Desert joins the Mohave Desert. Just so you know.)

The east side of the park is much more desert, and much less rock, but it still was interesting.
Here’s the map -

(Not that you can see it very well, but the blue is our “getting there” route, and the orange is our “getting home” route.)
And here are pictures from along the way….

We did stop at the cholla garden –

And while we saw lots of interesting sights along the way -

I do believe that this is what Gary had been looking for all along!

Ah, yes. Tire tracks through the desert. A Gary kind of road!

And then there was the …road? Which way did it go?

We knew we had chosen well, when we finally spotted the Salton Sea in the distance -

The road began to improve (and I use the term loosely) and we could see I10 in the distance.

Another dirt road adventure completed successfully!
Oh, we did find another canyon road to finish up the day – and it was a very pretty drive.

But, hey – it’s PAVED!

Wrapping up the Mission

steph — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:55:05 +0000

Tomorrow is the last day of our February Sower project at Coachella Valley Rescue Mission. And I suppose I always say this, but where does the time go?! It’s been a good project – while there weren’t any “big” projects (like building a deck or finishing an addition), the guys worked hard on various repairs and painting projects, and really spruced the place up!

We ladies did a little painting too, but mostly we worked in the office and finished out the project sorting clothes for the thrift shop.

Oh, yeah – We LOVE the Thrift Shop Shuffle!
One of the high points of our time working at the mission was being able to attend one of their graduations. About 15 men and women graduated from their two different programs, and it was inspiring to hear some of their stories and learn of God’s Grace in their lives. We also heard from many of the clients during our morning devotions. Men and women, young (18) and old (55), who found themselves on the street, usually as a result of different addictions and poor life choices. Some arrived at the mission with a little “nudge from the judge”, and some found their way simply because they needed a meal or a hot shower or a safe place to spend the night. The CVRM webpage says – “Not housing the homeless, but ending the homelessness. One life at a time.” And after our three weeks there, we can see that philosophy in action. This is an amazing ministry.
But our time here has certainly not been all work. Aside from our weekend fun (Dates Festivals and such), we had a potluck with other SOWERs in the area (there were about thirty of us!),

we took a drive to check out a camp near Julian that might become a SOWER project

and of course, don’t forget those great Happy Hours -

And while the commute and our “split” parking sites have presented some challenges, it’s hard to even whisper a complaint when we begin the day with this -

and end it with this -

Amen.