Pacific Northwest

WARNING: Heavy Photo content!






So once upon a time there was a handsome guy and an o.k. girl. LoL...., they met fell in love and decided to marry! Yep, almost 38 years ago. For part of their honey moon the parents of the bride (see picture below) got them two nights (and two days; hey... they aren't cheap!) stay at The Adobe in Yahats, Oregon. http://www.adoberesort.com/

The lovely parents.

The Adobe








Anyway, the bride and groom had a wonderful time enjoying the beauty that surrounded them. I know your all saying Ahhhhhhh.
 Last month we took a trip to Oregon (since dear hubby didn't get to go in June with DD the grands and I) to visit our son and his family and my parents. My folks booked a stay at the coast. It rained day one while we were driving down, but it cleared off for a beautiful sunset... aaa yeah, no pictures of that; I was too busy stuffing my face with wonderful fresh seafood! Hey, a girls gotta eat right? The next day was so pretty. We enjoyed more seafood and the great drive full of pretty colored leaves and of course the beauty of the great pine and fir trees.

While in Oregon we rode  the Portland Street cars  http://www.portlandstreetcar.org/node/41   which are always fun. Lots of interesting people if you enjoy people watching. We visited the Farmers Market; http://www.portlandfarmersmarket.org/markets/psu/ you can check out some great photo's on their site...  Our granddaughter breaks down her days like this;  school day; Market day; or Church day. My DDIL says that between mid December and some time in March they have to go to the regular grocery store and it's just not the same as the Farmers Market! About every time we visit we love to go with them to the market... so many things to see... and well the food! Yum!!! We had breakfast there; DH had a biscuit, sausage and egg sandwich; sooo much better than McDon's!!! I just had a plain ole biscuit with fresh either Boysenberry or Loganberry jam.

 Oh, also, we rode  the Amtrak train down to Eugene where we met up with my  parents.  (see picture above.) The trip down from Portland would have been faster, except apparently some kids were playing on the tracks and because of that we had to stop while the police were called! Go figure! Now a days they don't take chances with anything. The tracks had to be checked and after a good 50 minutes we were back on our way. Time flies when your having fun.

For some reason I kept forgetting to take pictures from the train... but this is one I did take of a rainbow out the train window. the sun was soo bright coming in the window behind me it reflects in the one I was looking out of.  You can barely make out the hills in the background of the photo. This was taken not long before we arrived in Eugene, I believe they are the Coburg Hills.

 While in Portland, we went up to The Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood. It was interesting because we were there during the Government shut down. There were a few people in the U.S. Forestry Service uniform. One gentlemen I saw was talking to someone and was not at all happy with the shut down.
  Picture of the outside of the Lodge entrance, and our son taking a picture of me taking a picture... lol... see the white stuff.... snow! It really was a beautiful day for a drive though.

Spending time with family as they say;

"Priceless"!

We had a great time with all of our family; 

 What can I say, silly little girl... this was about the only pic I could get of the two of them where she had her eyes open! As I said, she was being silly! That's o.k., that's what kids do! Grampa is being a bit silly too! Ha!

Taken from DS's condo. Which has 4 buildings. The ones here in the pictures are just 2 of the 4.  The tree's were really pretty while we were there. 

Time went too fast, as we were waiting for the plane to jet us back to Utah; the pilot came on the intercom and announced that they couldn't get #2 engine to start (aaaaa, not good! at least it happened on the ground). So, we went back to the gate and waited for the mechanics to get permission to touch the airplane; they found out what was wrong and fixed it right away... then we waited for them to get permission to get back in line on the run way! LoL.. all said an done we took off without incident and  we were home again, home again

jiggity jig! 

The Past Few Months; Busy!

I've told you a few of things that I've been busy with... the basement flooding, repainting the sewing room, helping out with a fund raiser for a friend of our's etc... so now... a post of pretty much nothing but pictures! Yep, you got it... all the pictures I've been promising. Oh, and I did go on a vacation/attend a wedding in Oregon. So without further delay; What I've been up too!

New carpet color

 new paint/baseboards

Some of the things people donated for the yard sale!

We had 8 (eight, yes that's right!) trailers full.... plus some trucks!

Our Motel room that all 3 grands and my DD and I shared.... it was small.... pretty much wall to wall people when we were asleep!

 Our kitchen. 

Guess you know what this is...

Can't go to Oregon without a visit to the coast!

Lots of car fun!!!

A visit to see the "other grand" in Portland. And to celebrate a 1/2 birthday. 2 1/2 now! 

The day of the celebration. Sidewalk fun. 

And last but not least... well o.k.; somewhat least, what

I've done this week! Or at least part of it! 

O.K. so now I've caught you up. Besides

working in the garden and helping out with various family things and celebrating the 4th etc... we have been having fun! Guess that's it!

 Oh, forgot something; the fund raiser netted about $10-12 thousand. We were sooo blessed! We met up at 5:00 a.m. and set stuff up, there was supposed to be a huge canopy for us to use, but the guy bringing it got pulled over for not having trailer lights and was told to stay put until it was light outside! Pouring down rain... I mean pouring.... all of a sudden people were pulling out small canopies everywhere!!! People were so kind and understanding. I helped one lady look at stuff with an umbrella..... lifting up tarps etc. It was amazing the response we got! It really was overwhelming!  At the very end, we just told people to take whatever they wanted! Clothing etc., we didn't want to have to try to figure out what to do with everything. Some of us took home left over clothes to dry and then donate them to the Deseret Industries.  The family of our friend were really touched! 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ykvzknkxnd3khl/Brians%20Reaction.m4v   This is a video of how Brians kids let him see what we did. They took lots of pictures etc. Enjoy if you would like to see it!

The Buzzard, the Bat & the Bumblebee

I thought that I would post something; a little something I found/received a while ago.
We as a world of people who inhabit the earth could learn a lot from this simple lesson.

The Buzzard; If you put a buzzard in a pen that is 6 feet by 8 feet and is entirely
 open at the top,
The bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner.
 The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the  ground
 with a run of 10 to 12 feet.
Without space to run, as is its habit, it will not even attempt to fly.
But will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top.

The Bat;  The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkable nimble
creature in the air,
Cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and,
No doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into
the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.

The Bumblebee;  if dropped into an open tumbler, will be there until it dies, unless it is taken
back out.
It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out
through the sides near the bottom.
It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself.

People;  In many ways, we are like the buzzard, the bat, and the bumblebee.
We struggle about with all our problems and frustrations, never realizing that all we have
 to do is look up!
That's the answer, the escape route and the solution to any problem....
Just look up!
Sorrow looks back, Worry looks around, But faith looks up!
                                                         
                                                              Live simply,
                                                          Love generously,
                                                             Care deeply,
                                                           Speak kindly and
                                                         Trust in our Creator;
                                                             Who Loves Us.

Obtaining Knowledge

May has come... pretty, bright, and cool! We have already had some coldness; and it's May! Some parts of the area further North from us; have even had snow! Ahem, May.... anyone seeing the theme I'm going for?
So last month one of my DD's and I went to the Salt Lake City Library book sale. It really is a cool event. Of course as you probably can tell; they sell some of their used books; and also books that have been donated for the sale. I did pretty good, didn't go crazy buying tons of books; this time! I did manage to get my hands on a copy of Sandra Betzina's book "Power Sewing, Step by Step". All for the low, low price of $1.00, or 100 pennies, 10 dimes, 20 nickles; you get the drift! Oh, I did forget 2-fifty cent pieces, or 4-quarters!  All hard back books are $1 and the paper backs are 50 cents.  I've started reading it and I must say; she sure has lots to share. Great information is just that; great! So, I'm reading along and one of the last things she says in the pretesting a pattern section is; "A pattern that doesn't progress past a pretest doesn't count as a failure." (quote taken from Sandra Betzina's book Power Sewing; step by step. Giving credit where credit is due!!!) Can I tell you that this made me feel great! Sooo; all of you seamstress's out there, basically she is giving you permission to toss that pretest UFO.  If you are using old stash fabric to pretest a new (or new to you) pattern and your not crazy about part of it, length, shape, fit, style on you.... toss it! She also says; (and I'm paraphrasing here) that when you pretest a pattern; to not worry about being a perfectionist. Unless your planning on wearing the pretest; (and of course you can if your happy with the outcome) don't bother putting in both sleeve's, or cutting out facings, collars, pockets and you know trims etc. Your the expert here. You know what does and doesn't look good on you. It makes no sense at all to continue if what you finish is not what you wanted or like.  Also; if you try on said test item and you find it's not at all to your liking, you can of course continue adjustments to see if there is something that can be done to make it to your liking. If of course that doesn't work; you can move on... sewing time to me; should be enjoyable time.
Back to the work at hand! I've moved back into my sewing room.... carpet was installed on Tuesday, by that night I had most of the furniture (i.e.; odds and ends of such) moved back into the room... it's the fabric and various other items I need to get moving on! I still haven't put my machine back into the table. I will take a finish picture later! I have been sorting out a few things so that I'm not keeping superfluous items! This way, there is less to mess up and less to clean~
Have a great week.... My sewing room looks like a whole new world! Thanks to my DD (you know who you are! ;) ) and my DH for telling me to go get carpet!!! Back to the finishing points!

Making Lemons Into Lemonaid

Spring has finally come I suspect! If by looking at all the lovely flowers is a way to tell; I think we made it! Our tree's are leafing out and the birds are going nuts with the "chirping" (always the chirping"!!!). Don't get me wrong I love birds, just sometimes it feels like they are thinking the louder I chirp the better mate I will get! I'm thinking that a girl bird is thinking; Not Him, He is Way Too Loud! LoL

O.K. since last I posted I've been working on a quilt for one of the niece's that is going to be married soon; and cleaning up after the basement got flooded. We were very Blessed, a few things (very few) got ruined; but mostly it was cleaning and drying things out. Every Spring/Summer/early Fall we have the use of secondary water; this is for non-drinking, to be used to water gardens, grass, etc. Anyway long story short one of these taps was left on so when the  outside water was turned on this tap was open full blast. The ground got soaked and overflowed the sidewalk; taking it right down our basement steps and into the basement. The drain couldn't keep up with the water that was coming in; thus a flooded basement! 

So, I decided that since we had to take out all my odds/ends of stuff from the sewing room anyway why not paint! Oh, and while we are at it; let's update the baseboards (which we have been working on thru out the house). DD came last Monday and using me as her helper; (I'm a terrible painter!) we cut in and then painted the walls, then trim (the stuff that was already there, not the baseboards, yeah, we didn't do that until after the painting was done!), then after she picked up the two little grands from school.... we did a second coat! She is sooo totally fast! She needs to go into business! Soooo;

Pictures!!!So these are just the outer area's of the room... I still have furniture etc; in the center waiting to be moved back out of the room.... sooo tomorrow the carpet comes! Yes!!! 

                                                                               

I will take pictures of the completed room after carpet/furniture has been moved 

back into the room. I have decided to rearrange the furniture, hopefully it will be

more comfortable and more conducive to sewing. When I told my DD that I was 

going to rearrange things; she laughed and told me that she is soooo my daughter!

Oh, I've also been helping with a cause that is near and dear to my heart. One of our

fellow Stake members (someone who goes to our Church) was diagnosed with Angioimmunoblastic T-cell Lymphoma. Which is a very rare, but aggressive cancer, accounting for 1 % of all Lymphoma cancers. Anyway, he has gone thru 7 rounds of chemo treatments (since last Fall). And will be needing a Stem Cell Transplant soon. Brother Brian Stettler is a wonderful man, husband, father and church member!  A bunch of neighbors, church members and friends are putting together a huge garage sale fundraiser on May 18, 2013. It will be held at the Layton, Utah K-Mart parking lot (2010 North Main Street Layton, Utah). 7:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. 

Anyone from this area who would like to come we welcome one and all. There are all sorts of things

available. Come support a wonderful cause. All money will be donated to the family. Any other monetary contributions; can be made at American First Credit Union; in Brian K or Nancy Stettler's name. Also if you want you can go to this facebook account (I don't do facebook; so I don't know what it's called! LoL)   www.facebook.com/brianstettler2013 

I will try to remember to take some pictures to show you on that day.

Thanks... 

Happy sewing! 

Remember to take a break from sewing every 25-30 minutes or so; get up and move around, better for your back, legs, shoulders etc. Try doing some stretches... it couldn't hurt.

Family Flies; When Their Having Fun

Hey I know your thinking where oh where has Jean been. Good question! Mostly I have had the Winter blog writing blues; But I'm back now and have a really important subject!
Those of you who don't know Google Reader will be closing down in July if you don't know about it; go here to check it out!
 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/9934604/Google-Reader-petition-hits-100000-signatures.html

The last I saw (when I signed the petition)  they still need lots more signatures! Like a little over 5,000
which in the world of blogs isn't so much! It would make it sooo much easier if we could all work together and let them know we would like them to stick around! :)

Tell you friends; Facebook it (if you Facebook, tweet; etc....) get the word out!

O.K. now back to our semi-regularly scheduled blog post!

Things seem to be changing everywhere. Always something new. I sure would hate it to loose all the blog friends that I've come to read/love because Google Reader isn't around anymore!

I've been working on clearing out some of the odds and ends projects that have been cluttering my sewing room lately (let's face it, for months!!!). My last post    (  Ready and Willing; Just Not Able  )
I was working on a dress that had sat in the UFO pile for quite some time. In this post I mentioned that I was going to change the sleeve from a cute little extended shoulder to a cap sleeve. Ahem, what was I thinking?  When you have things in the UFO pile for soooo long, sometimes we forget what we were about to do! No understatement here! Too funny, so I cut the sleeve out (the cap sleeve) and sewed it to the dress!  BBBBBBBBBBBAP! WRONG!!!  I need one of those really noisy buzzers they have on game shows! Again what was I thinking!!! Apparently I wasn't thinking at all about the end result! It was a laugh that's for sure! Since the dress it's self had a bit of an extended shoulder already.... and then I put a cap sleeve on it! Well, you get the picture! Sad to say I didn't until I looked at it b/4 trying it on. Let's just say that was a terrific waste of sewing time! Back to square one I believe! I think I will remake the extended shoulder so it's a bit longer and call it good! So I can move on!!!

So I had this cute pattern from this book;

 And since I had a cute print in the fabric stash plus so many people I know from Church are having babies... like a dozen babies in the past year or more. I thought I should make something cute to share. Of course it's always more fun to sew for girls then boys.... (sorry mom's of boys!) well, at least some of the time's, at least there are tons of cute patterns out there for girls... many more for girls than boys. And I have a lot of girl patterns. Heavy sigh!
So, I made 4! Yep you read right! 4 of those cute little hats. I figured that since I was at it, I may as well put some in the gift stash! I also have a dozen receiving blankets cut out. They are a self binding receiving blanket from  this tutorial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqwdNqMZ8Ro
All it takes is 30 inches square of one fabric and 40 inches square of another. Cute, cute, cute!
We are managing to get healthy again, DH is spent some time skiing this winter, and enjoying every minute of it. We had a wonderful visit from our son and family a couple weeks ago. So, I will leave you with this cute picture of DH and one of the grands playing airplane!

They had a great time... you can see how matted down the grass is from all the snow we had; which melted just before they got here! It figures; they came to go skiing with our DIL's family.

Watch for the notions sales, nothing like getting thread, needles etc... on sale. Oh, and patterns too!

Ready and Willing; Just Not Able

So much for me getting right to blogging and sewing this year! DH and I have been sick since well, my last post pretty much! I finally gave in a few weeks back and went to the dr.'s. Bronchial Asma? Who Knew? Any way, after much medicine and much coughing (still coughing and mom, I feel your pain!) we are on the mend. Now if the terrible air quality would get better, things would move along a bit quicker.  DH and I went on a drive on Saturday to get outta all the bad air. We went onto the other side of the mountain where it's much more clear.... matter of fact the air there was wonderful!
So, although I've been feeling poorly I did get a few things worked on... no major projects, just some UFO's that I've been meaning to finish. I put a new zipper in a fleece vest, I took in the sides of a dress that I bought at the local thrift shop for $6. I still need to do a fine tuning... yeah, I tried it on and there were a couple little bumps at the hips...  My two oldest daughters gave me a cute corduroy skirt for my birthday in November... which was a bit shorter then I like to wear, so I brought down the hem and added a light weight black lace to the hem. I wore that yesterday to Church and felt much more comfortable in it. Going thru the UFO basket I found a dress that had been cut out without sleeves... the extra fabric was still with it so I managed to get some sleeves cut out for that dress. I go in bursts... I get a few things done and then get tired. So, that's probably why I haven't done much else. Oh, I did managed to get my pattern pieces cut out for the Burda 7128 dress. Maybe if I can get the UFO dress done and outta the way, I can get to the Burda dress b/4 Summer! LoL....
I've been doing a lot of blog hopping.... mostly enjoying other people's hard work.... and chomping at the bit to get back to some actual sewing! More to come.... hopefully soon! :)
Here is a picture of the UFO I'm working on.... I stopped working on it because I decided that it needed sleeves...  I like a bit more of a sleeve than what they have here....



This is the dress that was in the UFO pile.
So I took the sleeve from the pattern below;



Blue dress view... and it's all cut out. Now to get to some actual sewing! I have a cute short sleeve jacket my parents brought back from Thailand to wear with it. It should be great for Spring/Summer/and even maybe into Fall.... since the colors are sorta Fallish. So, I suppose I did get some sewing done... or at least sewing related things done. I may make this dress again (well... when it does get done) and try just making the sleeve they have a bit longer... we shall see! That was my plan all along, right now, with it being sooo cold... I hate to think of sewing dresses with shorter sleeves... it just makes me shiver! If you know what I mean.... it's been in the teen's as far as degree's around here for week's. If not colder! It's 10 degree's outside right now! Yeah for good working heaters/furnaces!
Don't forget to clean out your sewing machine.... dust, lint, threads... they all seem to collect under the needle plate and jam things up. It's a new year... time to clean things up!