Time to Relax a Bit

Just two days until Christmas and I'm virtually ready. We even have several inches of fresh snow on the ground which will give us the traditional "white Christmas." Now all we need is the arrival of family members to make it a perfect holiday.

I had to make a quick emergency trip with my laptop to the computer doctor first thing this morning. Ten minutes and twenty dollars later it was fixed and if it hadn't been so icy in the parking lot, I would have danced a little jig. I feel lost without my trusty laptop.

I'm resisting the temptation to start one more project before the 25th. I'll be satisfied just listening to Christmas music, reading my current book, and sipping a cup of tea.

Christmas Sewing

On a whim, I decided to make a set of Christmas napkins to replace the rather shabby ones I've been using for many years. When I saw this wonderful poinsettia fabric at Cottage Bliss (our local quilt shop) I knew this was the perfect fabric for holiday napkins. They look good with my vintage Christmas tablecloths.

To make the napkins, I use the mitered corner technique. The measuring and pressing need to be precise to get perfectly mitered corners, then the sewing is quick and easy.

I won't do any more sewing before Christmas and today I'll tidy and vacuum the loft so it's ready for company - a lot of company! One of my grandchildren will be sleeping on the pull-out sofa bed in the loft. We'll have ten extra people (four adults and six children) sleeping here for several days and more "day company" during the week after Christmas. Happy chaos will reign! I can hardly wait.

Sweet Bailey

Bailey is a member of my daughter's family and just like all members of her family, she has stolen my heart. Although we usually maintain a pet-free home, we've invited her to visit us (along with the rest of her family) for several days during the holidays. She does have a spark of mischief in her personality but I think she'll be a fun addition to our festivities.

Waiting for Christmas

In years gone by, Christmas was a stressful time for me. Several years ago I read a book which helped me change my perspective and now I look forward to the winter holidays with enthusiasm. For me, Christmas is not one day but a whole season to be savored and enjoyed. We've already begun our Christmas with a visit to the mid-west to see our son and daughter, their spouses, and our six lovable grandchildren as well as my mother-in-law, in an Iowa nursing home, and my husband's sister and her family. We had a lovely party at the nursing home, visited with old friends, and enjoyed activities with the kids. We stayed at our son's house and woke up Saturday morning to the gorgeous frosted trees in their yard that you see above.

Holiday House 2011

Setting up the TRQ booth at Holiday House

Trail Ridge Quilters did exceptionally well with sales at the annual Holiday House. We set a record for our best year ever with well over $8000 to spend on new equipment for the Estes Valley Medical Center. We had a great spot this year at the center of the big room. We'll take a break until after the holidays then start gearing up for our 2012 season. I was happy to sell the last three of the personalized Christmas stockings I had made. I have ideas for some new items for next year.

Moon and Clouds

Here is a magnificent and mysterious photo taken by my friend, Walt, from his San Diego deck. Linda, his wife, knows I love interesting cloud formations and sent this to me. I'll add it to my cloud journal.

Countdown to Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is less than a week away. I'm looking forward to being a guest at Thanksgiving dinner. I've done a lot of hosting but this year we'll enjoy dinner at Good Samaritan Village with Mom and several members of my brother's family who will be driving up from the Denver area.

The rest of the week-end I'll be busy with Holiday House - setting up on Friday and staffing the booth on Saturday. Our Trail Ridge Quilters group has already made over $8000 this year (to benefit the medical center) and this will be our last opportunity to sell our quilted items this year.

Estes Park Salvation Army has started its bell ringing campaign. Wayne is heavily involved, as usual. I hope they do well this year.

Autumn is my Favorite Season

The aspens are at their peak, beautifully gold against the blue sky and dark green pines. We camped one night in Rocky Mountain National Park last week and had a wonderful time. Our camp site overlooked Moraine Park with it's herds of elk. We heard bugling all night. My sleeping bag kept me cozy even when the temperature dipped to the low 40s. We had a visitor - a handsome buck nibbling on bushes around our site. He wasn't a bit shy and hung around for several hours into the evening. We cooked over an open fire and tried biscuits in the cast iron dutch oven with mixed success.

The town has been full of tourists for Elk Fest this weekend and Autumn Gold Fest last weekend so we've been avoiding the downtown area.

My hanging baskets of geraniums are still beautiful but all my other potted flowers have been nipped by frost and looking bedraggled. I haven't seen a hummingbird for over a week and brought the feeders in yesterday for the season.

I'm savoring each minute of Autumn, my favorite season in the Rockies.

Sunday Morning Hikes

Colorado Blue Columbine - our state flower

Wayne and I usually hike together on Sunday mornings. Because of an unusually high snow pack last winter, Old Fall River Road didn't open until yesterday. It usually opens by July 4. Today we drove partway up this narrow, gravel, one-way road, hiked to a wild-flower filled meadow, then continued driving on Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake for lunch. We got home just in time for a thunder storm with spectacular lightning and thunder.

Tomorrow I plan to tackle my sewing loft which needs a great deal of re-organization and cleaning. It's been easy for me to procrastinate doing this task but tomorrow is Day 1 of the Big Tidy.

Alpine Meadow

Indian Paintbrush

Little Elephant's Head

Quintessential Britain - Part 3

The Cotswolds, Wales, and Scotland were also on our travel agenda. Our favorite hotel of the entire trip was Three Ways House (home of The Pudding Club) in Mickleton, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire. The meals there, especially the desserts, were the best we had on the trip. We saw lovely landscapes and beautiful gardens. Hidcote Manor Garden, once privately owned, is now owned by the National Trust. We spent several inspiring hours wandering the paths.

I'll finish this post with a few more photos. We hope to visit the UK again some day.

Quintessential Britain - Part 2

Westminster Abbey

Some of the highlights of the first few days of our tour, while based in London, included: touring Westminster Abbey; visiting Bath and touring the ancient Roman bath house; touring the Tower of London; riding on the London Eye and visiting Stonehenge.

Interior of Roman Bath House

Inside the Tower of London

Lanthorn Tower dating back to the 13th century

View of the Thames from atop the London Eye

Stonehenge

Quintessential Britain

Quintessential British Phone Booth

My husband and I, along with thirty-three American travelers, have been in the UK for almost three weeks and I'm finally over my jet lag. Our tour, Quintessential Britain, was through Road Scholar and was absolutely wonderful. If you haven't gone on a Road Scholar tour, you should consider it. We toured England, Wales and Scotland with a great tour guide and several experts on architecture, history, culture, and literature. We began in London and ended our trip in Edinburgh. I'll post a few photos and descriptions over the next several days starting with London.

Natural History Museum - London

The main entrance of the Victoria & Albert Museum features this 30 foot chandelier designed by glass artist Dale Chihuly.

American Badger Sighting

We've had a lot of wildlife in our yard this spring. In addition to the usual deer, elk, chipmunks and ground squirrels I've been delighted to spot a bobcat last week and, yesterday, a badger coming up from the large drainage pipe that runs under the road on the corner of our property. When I approached, he would go back into the pipe and, moments later, pop his head out the other end. He continued this game of peek-a-boo for almost half an hour while I snapped photos. I've seen evidence of badger activity recently and noticed several freshly-dug burrowing holes much larger than those made by the ground squirrels.

The hummingbirds continue to arrive and frequent the sugar water feeders I put out for them. It's snowing rather heavily at the moment and one little hummer is perched on the feeder under the porch overhang where he can be out of the weather and close to an occasional snack.

Spring is slow in coming to the Colorado Rockies. I saw a piece on the news this morning about the clearing of Trail Ridge Road. The snow, in places, is over twenty feet high and the snow crews are having a tough time getting the road open for the Memorial day weekend.

Bluebird at my Window

This persistent western bluebird has been coming to my window for several days trying to get inside. He flutters against the glass then perches on the sill. He seems attracted to the kiwi on the inside windowsill. I've been trying to get a photo and finally got this shot this morning while watching the royal wedding. It's not a great shot, but he hasn't been very cooperative in posing while I retrieve my camera.

Countdown to Estes Park Duck Race 2011

Estes Park's annual Rotary Duck Race is just twelve days away on May 7 and the duck committee volunteers are busy with a multitude of preparations. My main task this year is entering adoption form information on each duck sold into a computer at Duck Central. This keeps me busy most week-day afternoons Monday - Friday.

I'm also helping Wayne (Mother Duck) write numbers on new ducks to replace the ones lost last year. He reads off the numbers and I print them on the bottoms of new ducks - a boring, but necessary, task. Several hundred ducks are lost every year.

We got several inches of wet snow overnight. We're hoping that race day will be sunny and free of precipitation, snow, hail or rain. But the race will be run in any weather.

Below are photos from Duck Central

Spring is in Full Retreat

Spring is in retreat today - a few inches of snow lay on the ground when I went to bed last night and a lot more this morning when I got up. Wet and heavy, this snow is wonderful for the water needs of Colorado. It's hard to concentrate on my computer when there is such a glorious view of the snowy landscape through my window. We're due for several more inches today and we may have to cancel the recognition dinner at High Peak Camp this evening. Even if we can get out, the camp roads won't be plowed. Delivery of our Denver Post was late, much to Wayne's dismay - no newspaper with his morning coffee makes him grumpy.

I'll be working in the loft today on a couple of sewing and quilting projects, one that I'm eager to complete and one that I'm eager to begin. The "Shadows" quilt is ready for the binding. I am pleased with how it has turned out. I may decide to add additional hand quilting. I ordered some fabric from equilter.com yesterday to begin a baby quilt I found in 101 Patchwork Projects and Quilts. It has lots of little tabs for baby to explore and I have plenty of scraps of fabric just perfect for those tabs. I'm about to brew a pot of tea and head upstairs ... it promises to be a cozy productive day.

Lovely New Home for Mom

Estes Park/Lake Estes - aerial view looking west

Rocky Mountain National Park in background

Good Sam, with its fantastic views, is out of photo range on the right

I must put away my knitting and quilting long enough to prepare for the arrival of my sister, niece, grand-nephew and grand-niece next week. The two kids will be here from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon, while my sister and niece will stay several days longer. I'm excited about their visit. They will all stay here at our house but spend a lot of time with Mom at Good Samaritan EP Village where her new apartment is located. It's a wonderful facility and we are happy that, at 89, she can be in the independent living wing. It's just ten minutes from our house. She has been busy unpacking boxes and organizing. The apartment looks lovely with all her things in place. I'm hoping she will get involved with a few of the many activities going on there. The kids are eager to swim in the pool and we'll all eat a meal or two there with Mom. She wants me to wait until she has everything "just right" before I take photos of the interior of her apartment so here are a few exterior shots.

Front Entrance

Dining Room

Pools

A Day of Fun and Cuteness

Carol, Quink and I had a wonderful "girls' day out" yesterday. Our first stop was The Little Wool Shoppe in Loveland, Colorado. I bought a pattern for a small table mat and a piece of woven wool to use as the base. I think it will look nice on the marble top table in our great room.

Our next stop was The Wool Basket in Windsor where we were treated to a world of cuteness. I bought a small bag of wool scraps to use in making the table mat. I also bought several cuts of a new Moda fabric I've fallen in love with called "La Petite Ecole." It's the same fabric used in the "Night Before Christmas" block of the month quilt I'm making.

Our third stop was Quilter's Stash, also in Windsor. They carry a large selection of batiks and, although I need batiks for a wall quilt I'm planning, I didn't buy any because they have a sale coming up in a couple of weeks. I have several projects in the works so I won't start on the batik quilt for awhile anyway.

We had lunch at the Okole Maluna Hawaiian Grill in Windsor, a new restaurant for the three of us. Our meals were delicious but the piece de resistance was the slice of chocolate haupia pie. I'm on the hunt for a recipe to try at home.

Today I'm busy washing and pressing the fabirc and working on some of my projects in progress. We had several inches of snow overnight and it's melting quickly today. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the gorgeous views.

A Room Full of Talented Quilt Makers

This post doesn't need much text because the images of these fabulous quilted projects speak for themselves. I took these photos at the Estes Valley Quilt Guild's annual retreat this past week-end. So much inspiration ... too little time.