Rainy Day an St Patricks's Day!

Too wet to plant anything new in my gardens. We need this rain and more, but I have the gardening bug. Maybe tomorrow I can get out to plant some vegetable seeds and some zinnias, moss roses, phlox, and some poppies, sacbiosas, nasturtium's, and some sunflowers along the back of my vegetable garden.

I tend to collect seed packets wherever I travel. I have a pink wicker basket that I organize my seeds in. One weekend not to long ago my daughter-n-law, Claire and my granddaughter, Georgia were house sitting for me. Georgia is soon to be six. She knows that our friends Larry and Juanita will have their wedding in our garden this June. Well she took my seed basket to the back garden area and planted many of my flower seeds in the lawn area to create a pathway for the bride walk to be married. I do not think these plantings will have a chance to grow to maturity, as the lawn will be mowed on a weekly basis very soon. Georgia is becoming quiet the gardener, following my lead I'm sure.

This next week I will travel to Cambria with five other quilting friends for a quilting retreat. My friend Barbara Sindlinger will be doing a trunk show for the Nipomo Qult Guild on Thursday morning. We are all very excited for her. Barbara is a prolific quilter and admired by all of us. This five day retreat will be a much needed escape from my daily routine. I plan to sew, eat, and take walks, and visit with my friends, and relax, and do some reading too.

Today at 5 pm my hubby and I are going to a St. Patrick's party at Judy and Nat's annual get to gether. Lots of people to visit with, drinks, and a variety of green foods.

Well I am off to create some breakfast and the start the washing of clothes and then to the sewing room. Need to start getting ready for the retreat next week.

Sunday morning . . .

Lots of big plans for today. First thing I made coffee and now off to sit in the spa while Steve goes shopping for plumbing parts. He has trenched along the back of our property line and the side of my vegetable garden to lay some more water lines and a gopher fence. The 10 acres behind our acre and quarter was planted with citrus trees this last fall and we have had an invasion of gophers. So after years of discussion to put the gopher fence in, we have finally decided to spend the money and get it done.

We also purchased four tree roses from Edmonds and a couple more climbers. We will plant them today, but much later today. I've got some house duties to take of, washing, vacuuming, etc. And we have not done our taxes yet,so I will devote time to that as well.

I am traveling to Houston this fall to attend th international quilt show with 9 other ladies from our quilt guild. We have our hotel reservations done and Janice found a great deal for the plane ride. I think everyone is squared away with that too. Those of us who live in the Fresno area will travel together and we even got our seats in the same row. Very excited to go on this trip with my friends.

I also hope I can finally finish my heart wall hanging today, so I will be ready for Valentines Day next year. I started this little project in early February and am still working on it.

Sorry my pictures have not appeared yet. I cannot post pictures to my blog via my iPad, so I try to find time at the business, but every time I get into posting, the phone rings, or a customer comes in for service, or someone needs some direction to complete a project. I just need to go in early or stay late.

Bye - Spa time!

Weekend At Home

So much to do all of the time. My husband and I have friends who have decided to marry and want to have their wedding in our home garden. So we have been very busy with spring yard work. We have removed two older walnut trees and are preparing the soil for grass plugs. We also ordered from Edmonds 4 tree roses and two climbing roses to fill out a couple of flower beds. Today I purchased 3 white azaleas for the east side of our house and a flat of purple violas, also another Tropicana Canas for the front border.

When we started the sun room renovation last spring the spa was disconnected and has sat void of water until today. So maybe tomorrow it will be warm enough to get in. We have missed using the spa, so we are really looking forward to some spa time. I like to sit in the spa with a cup of coffee on Sunday mornings. Very relaxing!

Tomorrow I will watch the Academy Awards and spend some time in my sewing room.

Oh I wanted to mention the flock of white cranes that have been hanging out in the walnut orchard that has been flood irrigated by our property. They have been perching on the top limbs of a very large pine tree in our neighbors yard and walking through the water. I have been trying to catch a picture but when I get close they fly off and circle back when I retreat. They are so beautiful.

Where does the time go.

Well here I am on a Saturday A.M. Wishing I was staying home in my pajamas and sewing for the day, but not until tomorrow, which is Super Bowl Sunday. I will be on my own most of the day. No husband to keep up with and no meals to prepare, and no Georgia (she is visiting her other grandmother). It's been so long ago since I posted, i'm not sure were to start. We had a great retail Christmas at Morrison's Silkscreen and Embroidery. We sold twice the lettermans jackets as the year before. I hosted the Material Girls Christmas party at the beginning of December, and also hosted my family's Christmas dinner. In January I attended Road to California with 3 of my dear quilting friends, and even took a whole cloth design class, which was very successful for me (another project to work on). At the end of that same week I attened the ISS Show in Long Beach. This is a very large show that features equipment, supplies, garments and classes for the screen printing and embroidery industry. I took three classes and walked the show all in two days and I was very tired after that week. MSE (Morrison's Silkscreen and Embroidery)is traditionally slower paced in January, but we have been chasing ourselves to keep up with the business coming into our shop, which is just outstanding. Maybe there is a turnaround happening. Today Steve will be open from 10 to 3 pm, and I will have a shirt table at China Alley for the Chinese New Years celebration. I will be selling previous year's Moon Festival Shirts at a reduced price of $5.00 ea.

Time to get a shower and dressed for the day's activities. I do have some pictures to post, maybe later today.

I AM SO EXCITED!

As you can see from the picture posted on the previous post, we have been extremely busy with our house renovation.  No time for quilting, cooking, laundry or even making a bed in the morning.  We have been busy taking things apart and now we are putting things together.  This means that we are on the down side of the hill and should be done in time for the big event being held at our house on October 8th.

We are hosting the California-Hawaii Elks Association State President's V.I.P. cocktail party.  I've been told we will have close to two hundred people coming for the party.  This event is the pre-party to the dinner at the Hanford Elks Lodge that evening.  The State President is Wayne Howard and he hails from Honolulu, Hawaii.  Our local District State Vice President Earl Conro is making all of the arrangements for Waynes visit to our East Central District.  Earl has described our home as the "Morrison Estate".  So I hope all of the invitees will enjoy our little piece of paradise.  Can you tell I'm starting to get a little excited about all of this.

The worst for me is that my two gardeners have not been able to work my property for over a month and will not be able to come back until the last week in September.  They are an older spanish couple that come to my house every Friday to keep us tidy.  The Mrs. had cateract surgery that did not go as planned, so she has been restricted from working.  But they are planning to be back as needed the last week of September.

This Thursday Morrison's Silkscreen will have a booth space at the Thursday Night Market in downtown Hanford.  We will be featuring our Letterman Jacket Line and giving a discount coupon.  Then on Friday morning as early as I can possibly get myself going, I will be going to Pismo to join the Material Girls for a Quilting Retreat.  I will come home on Sunday.  Then the big push to be ready for the cocktail party.

Oh yes, tonight we will attend the Blues and Brews Festival in downtown Hanford.  Then I want to slow down to a crawl.

French Doors!

It's Been A Long Time!

I've been so very busy. Steve and I decided to change all of the windows and doors on the south side of our house. We also did some rewiring to accommodate 8 new can lights and two new ceiling fans. This side of our house has been a sunroom from the beginning. When we built our house in 1990 we ended up installing a set of sliding glass doors with three 3' x 7' single pane windows on each side of the sliding glass doors. Also the roof has 4 skylights. This room is 12' x 35' and was designed as a passive solar application. So now we are installing French doors, all new skylights, and 4 double pane windows, two for each side of the French doors. We decided to eliminate one window panel at the end of each corner to create more wall space in each corner. The French doors were set in place today and they are gorgeous. They have a special locking mechanism. I am so pleased to have these doors. The skylights were delivered too and we hope to set on the roof by Sunday. And can hardly wait for the new window panels to arrive. Currently, we are painting and Steve just finished the crown molding. We might be finished with the scaffolding this weekend. The next thing to do is reframe the four window openings, drywall the wall spaces between the windows, texture, paint, and trim. When we are done we will have a weather tight room that will be cool in the summer and warm in the winter. I will get a picture on my blog by tomorrow of the French doors.