A visit to the vineyard

Last Sunday, Andy's family (including Charger, their almost 2 year old golden), Nick and Megan (Sophie was sick so John and she stayed home) and I all hopped into cars and headed east on the freeway and then over the bridge from Hood River into Washington. My sister Marlene and her husband Thomas own a vineyard up in the hills outside of the small town of Husum, Washington. Here is a view of part of the vineyard from the house....It is a beautiful setting. I almost always feel like I am Heidi looking over the hills....:)

The minute the car doors opened the kids and Charger took off running....It is the perfect place for that and it was a beautiful day. Below are Glenda and Alana walking through the vines...


......and with such a great hill who could resist rolling down it.....All of Andy's kids joined in....

.......as did Nick. He was in heaven following Pierce and Collin around....there is nothing like older cousins to take you under their wings....

.......and of course there had to be a battle! Charger was right in the middle of it........


......It was one of those perfect days. Thomas took all the kids into his workshop before we left and let them build with his scrap lumber...great reminders of a day in the country.

Andy, Glenda, Pierce, Collin, Alana and Charger left on Tuesday....they were headed for a few nights camping in the Redwoods and then on home. Their visit was wonderful....but way too short.

Megan had a pet scan yesterday and meets with her doctor tomorrow....For the last 6 weeks she has felt good and looks great. Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers....Let's hope that "Ippy" is still doing it's job!!!!!!!

I wish you all a Happy Easter with family and friends.....Jo Ann

Butterfly Pillows for Alana

My granddaughter, Alana is turning eight this month. When I was home last I asked what she wanted for her birthday and she told me she would like some butterfly pillows. I usually work in dark fabrics, so I went on over to The Country Loft and bought some pinks and blues to use....and some wonderful wools. Above is a close up of one of the butterflies. It was such fun to stitch the detail on them...

Below are the two finished pillows.....Lots of butterflies floating around. She has butterflies all over her room....even hanging from the ceiling. She is coming with her family for a visit this weekend and I can't wait to give them to her. It will be their first visit to Portland in eight years. We have lots of fun things planned for their stay!


I hope that the sun is shining in your neighborhood...It is in Portland today!

Bye for now....Jo Ann

How to make a carrot

In my last post I showed you a bunch of carrots and promised I would be back to tell you how to make them. I have never tried to do a project online like this before, so I hope that it works...:) I am definitely not a computer whiz and just downloading the photos so they come up in the right order almost did me in!

Below you will see all the ingredients you need to make them.....I got my handmade paper at the Paper Zone and the Paper Source. You should buy 20"x30" sheets (or larger) of both orange and green. I bought 3 types of orange and 3 of green ...each sheet of orange will give you enough for 8 carrots and you will be able to get about 12 tops out of the green sheets. You will also need newspaper, rubber bands, Stiffy and I used a make-up sponge to apply the Stiffy.


Cut your sheet of newsprint in half. Fold in two opposite edges so that the tips are together. Then fold in the third as shown.....Now start rolling into a cone shape....Tape the edge closed....Now take a second sheet of newsprint and folding it the same add it to the outside of the first. Make them different lengths and widths so that you can get a variety of sizes of carrots.


Now place your carrot onto a piece of your orange paper. (I folded the large sheet into eighths and then cut on the lines to get the working size).... With the sponge rub the stiffy onto the orange paper....Now fold up the bottom and then start rolling it aroung the newspaper cone.


Here I tried to show you step by step how to roll the paper....Continue adding stiffy as you roll and then when you are finished be sure to rub it all around the carrot so that you have no edges of paper sticking up.


Cut a strip of green. Mine was about 3"-4" in height and about 10" long....Cut a fringe leaving about 1" across the bottom....Put stiffy all along the bottom edge and lay your carrot as shown...start rolling and squeeze in the top of the carrot as you do. Add stiffy as necessary. Double a thin rubber band and put on the base of the greens. Take a small strip of the green and with stiffy on it wrap around the rubber band....and there you have your carrot.


Hope you have fun making them and as you can see it will be easy to make tons of them...:) See I promised you wouldn't need a green thumb, but I must warn you that your hands will be covered with glue and bits of paper before you are done!

Happy Gardening.....Jo Ann

Gardening....My Way

The carrots you see above are the one of the only kind I can make....I can also make different kinds from fabric....but I have a totally black thumb and can't grow them. These are easy ones and I thought you might like to make some too. They can add a little springtime to your home. I love carrots to decorate with at this time a year and at home in San Diego I have as many types of carrots as I do bunnies tucked around in my boxes and carriers. In my apartment I put some in an old crock....

.....and then filled an old tin box with some......
Here you can see them laid out on the table...just to show you the different colors I made them from....because of course you wouldn't want them all in one color! In the next few days I am going to show you how to make some carrots of your own. No green thumbs required!

Spring in Portland

Spring is trying to peek it's head out in Portland. Everywhere you look daffodils are popping up. I especially love them, because we really don't see them in San Diego. It just doesn't get cold enough for the bulbs. I was telling Nick (my 6 year old grandson) this last week and he couldn't believe it.
......and the trees are blooming! There is a street near my apartment that is just lined with these beautiful pink blossoms.

Megan and John are on a weekend away. Megan if feeling really well right now and John's family gave them a few nights at the Oregon coast for Christmas, so they took off on Friday evening. What a beautiful time of year to be traveling.

Happy Spring everyone! It's time to take that stitching outdoors and astound your friends!