Another Amazing Day

I took a drive up to Northstar this morning and enjoyed this amazingly beautiful day. The drive up the mountain in itself was a real treat. Clear blue skies and beautiful pine trees the entire way. I decided to do a little ice skating and see my sister and family one more time before they head back to San Diego. They spent most of the day skiing and came down the mountain for lunch and we all visited for awhile. I had my fix of Starbucks decaf cinnamon dolche with soy, yum! and did a little window shopping. I came back home to Reno and stopped at my favorite fabric store, Mill End and picked up a few zippers and a few remnant scrap fabrics to compliment my next round of artsy and fun bags!

Thankful

We spent a couple of days at my in laws on their beautiful property for Thanksgiving. It was nice to slow down and take time off from work to just relax. It is very hard for me to slow down most to the time, so it is good to force myself to do this every now and then. It is times like this that I get to reflect on my life and the ones I love around me. I am so thankful to have such amazing children. They are growing so so fast. Here are a few pictures; one of me and my children; a deer wandering onto the lawn for a bite to eat and a photograph of a card that was hanging on the wall in the office. The words are beautiful and thought I would share it.

You may not understand just how much your life means to those around you ~
how our days are brighter because you are here and the sound of your laughter touches the hearts of everyone around you. Your presence adds something special and invaluable to the world. You bring joy to those who love you and a smile to everyone you meet.

Amazing isn't it.

Ready for San Diego

Another amazing photograph taken in my front yard. I love these butterflies. This one is drinking from a blue Petunia.

I have been getting ready for San Diego all week. Lots of last minute things to do before leaving. I cant wait to take some time off and sit on the beach, not thinking about work for a few days. Hopefully I will come back all energized and ready to work. I have lots to do:) always!!

Indie Sacramento Craft Fair

I have been planning on participating in the Indie Sacramento craft fair for over a month now and it was finally here. I decided to make the whole trip a family event as well and and brought my husband and kids and stayed in Colfax at my in laws on their beautiful property which is on the way to Sacramento. The first photo was taken in their driveway on the way out to the show on Saturday morning. My camera is not so good with distance ; a little blurry, but here are the deer I saw as I drove out on Saturday morning in the rain. I thought that the rain was suppose to stop on Saturday for awhile but . . . . . . .

it rained the entire time. It never stopped, not even for a little break. I did not have a canopy but managed somehow to stay dry under a tree. I thought it was a good turn out and was a surprised that people were out shopping. I had a great time meeting new people and other Etsy crafters and all the people who stopped by my booth to look at my work. See Photos from the event at the link below.
Here is a flickr slideshow and gallery of the entire event.

After the show I returned to Colfax and visited with the family and did some relaxing. The kids had a chance to play ball once the rain let up on Sunday before heading back to Reno. The geese with their little babies were so cute to watch.

Blading on the River

I went blading this morning along the Truckee River. When I lived in San Diego there were lots of places to blade but when I moved here it took me a long time to find a good place to go. I like this part of the river because the trail is smooth and its quiet. People use the trail mainly for running, bike riding and walking. There is a lot of wild life out here. I have seen deer across the river and many people enjoy fishing here. The bridge in the first photo is full of bats that are amazing to watch fly when the sun goes down and they are looking for food. The rest of my afternoon will be busy with work. I have so much to catch up on!

A cold morning

It's a cold and crispy morning. The temperature gauge inside the truck read 2 degrees. yikes! Some tracks in the snow - maybe they belong to a rabbit? The sun coming up looked so beautiful with all the ice formations in the trees and the plants, I had to capture the moment.

Autumn Glow

I spent Saturday over the mountain visiting family. The trees are sooo beautiful right now with the leaves changing. I love the Sierras. When I moved here from San Diego I had hard time because I missed the beach and the warmth, but I have grown so fond of the trees and the snow that it doesn't really phase me anymore. I can always visit! Here is a picture I took while driving; the sun was going down and everything was glowing!

A Day at the Ranch

Saturday morning we were visiting relatives and my daughter hurried out the front door as one of the ranch cats had a hummingbird in its mouth. The bird just hit the freshly cleaned windows and fell to the ground. The cat was thinking, breakfast-or toy. The cat dropped the bird and ran away. We watched as the bird lay there breathing heavy and kept our distance admiring how beautiful he was and how sad that he might be injured, guarding him, keeping the cats away. After about 20 minutes he started to move and was fully alert. He sat there - all of us watching, my daughter snapping photos and about 5 more minutes he flew away. Its reminds me a little of people - if you have ever had the wind knocked out of you or passed out briefly; we all come back to eventually. That was a really neat experience. We all feel like we had a part in saving him. ( Click on the photo to enlarge- he is so colorful!)

Later that evening as we were washing dishes after dinner out the windows was this amazing sight. First we saw about 4 deer out the back window and then on the front lawn we saw about 10 female deer followed by about 6 bucks... Wow! Where else can you witness something so amazing! Not many people get to witness this scene from there own home. My in laws have a very unique place out in the middle of a small town on property that has not been developed on. I am amazed at how much wildlife is around them.The kids love it. In the early morning I heard coyotes yipping for about an hour and then it was followed by a bunch of geese. Last year I saw a mountain lion which jumped a fence that was about 12 feet high and ran away but he hasn't been spotted since.
I posted all the pictures of the deer on the lawn on my flickr album if you are interested in seeing the rest of them. My Album

Nice Weekend

The weekend went by quickly, but was it was so nice to take a day off and spend some time with family and visit some relatives I haven't seen in awhile. This praying Mantis was fun to take pictures of. They are so animated and not something I see very often. I would love to have these guys in my garden. I tried for a long time to get some pictures of the hummingbirds zipping around but they weren't very photogenic. We also had the chance to see some deer as we left on the driveway out. Time to get back to work. I am anxious to get this bag finished so I can get busy on other merchandise for my shop. I am planning on finishing up today so that when tomorrow hits, I am back into the normal flow of things. The weather seems to have cooled way down. It really feels like fall is here!! It's a nice change.

Above the City

It is a beautiful morning. I took a hike up on Peavine Mtn. I love it out here. Its so quiet and there is no development up here yet. You can see downtown Reno and also Mt. Rose from here. You find lots junk up here like the occasional beer bottles, broken tvs, shot gun shells etc. but it still is so beautiful! Every once in a while I see the mountain biker go by, but there is really no one around. There is so much development happening everywhere that is is nice to be able to get away only a mile away from your home. It is so desert up here.It is nice to get away even for an hour to clear the mind and get ready for the busy day.

Rafting on the Truckee River

Had a very exciting day on the river today. Started at about 10am. We didn't last 2 minutes in our boat before we got fully soaked. As you can see from the pictures, water was flying everywhere. We had water guns getting us from all directions and the water was cold. The kids had a blast! My favorite part was the scenery, so beautiful! And the couple with the dog in its own boat was too cute. They ended up with one boat at the end but I am sure they had fun while it lasted. At the end of the rapids where we got off to have lunch our boat filled to the top with water and I seriously thought we were going under. It was a close one.

Back at home just in time to get busy on the bag I was working on yesterday. Its been awhile since I have listed anything in my shop. Its time!

The weekend

Had a relaxing weekend. Its always nice when there is a holiday thrown into my busy schedule forcing me to stop and refresh. I spent time at the ranch in Colfax with my mother and father in laws and lots of other family. I love the property they own, its so nice to get away and visit, Its like camping in your own yard on 26 acres of paradise, with dear, coyotes, bear and mountain lion roaming the property. You never know what you will see. My daughter brought back 3 rattlesnake skins which were 3.5 feet long after roaming around taking pictures. Huge snakes around there! Not the nicest snakes either. I don't like rattlesnakes!
I am not to fond of anything except the deer. I did manage to take a picture of one this morning but didn't get the baby fawn which disappeared quickly into the trees. Still had its spots. A year ago I ran into the mountain lion when I was exiting the motor home and it leaped a 15 foot fence escaping before my husband was able to take its picture. It makes you a little more cautious about wandering around or letting your children out of your sight for too long.
I spent some time taking pictures of the dragonflies zipping around the pond.. wow they are quick! This one looks like he is playing the flute. I am happy to be back at home and start back to work tomorrow.

New Growth

Took a nice walk this morning through the park and the botanical gardens. I am amazed at how much everything has grown around here, even the trees look so much bigger than I remember them. This cooler weather and the extra moisture we had made a huge difference. I plan on getting the bag finished this morning so I will be posting updates real soon. Back to work.

Peavine walk

With everything else that is going on right now, I have a quilt group get together tomorrow night and I haven't started on my challenge. Bad girl! So today I am going to put something together. The challenge is warm and cool colors. We'll see where that takes me:)
I took a few pics on my walk yesterday of Peavine Mountain and all the wildflowers I saw along the way. You can see the snow on Mt Rose still. The walk is so nice. I love the desert flowers. I don't remember there ever being this many of them up there before.

Looks so dry doesn't it? I love living so close to so many places to hike.


This morning on my way back from the ranch in Verdi
I saw some peacocks on a roof. They are so pretty. Maybe I will get some better pictures of them in the weeks to come that I can share.

Beautiful Day At The Lake

I had a wonderful Mothers Day. I spent the day in beautiful Lake Tahoe.
I had brunch at Grey Eagle Lodge with my family on the beach and spent the rest of the day enjoying the sun and nice weather just hanging out at
Sand Harbor. As I sat in the sand I noticed some beautiful children playing at the waters edge. My interest was in this girl wearing a white dress. I think she would make a lovely watercolor so I am saving this one for future reference. Can you imagine this in a watercolor painting? I love it!

I had the opportunity to spend a couple days with my mom.
She drove up from San Diego to visit me for the weekend.
I am glad the weather was so nice while she was here.
We enjoyed the lake on Mother's Day. It was a perfect day.

Change In Weather

Here is another progress shot of the 2 crows together for the custom bag I am making. And a photo of a misc. project I thought I would work on later this afternoon.
Here is a piece of fabric that I decide to paint and use some handmade stamps and my logo from a paper stencil I made. I am now doing some stitching around the flower to outline a bit. I will be adding more decorative stitches and possibly a red zipper to the front in a vertical format. With all the custom orders I am working on I need to find time to play, so this is the project for this afternoon. Hope to have a completed bag by tomorrow?

Yesterday I spent 4 hrs working on a project with a friend. I volunteered to help her on a project getting it ready for production for the sign shop.(since I am an ex graphic designer)
I have been downloading fonts and searching for languages in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew,Russian, German and many others and formatting it in Illustrator for her. She will be getting stencils made in the words "Holy Spirit" and creating a banner illustrating Pentecost for her church in all the languages. She is an unbelievable art quilter and is a great inspiration to me. I believe it was going to cost her a high hourly production rate so I am glad I could help her out. So that was my day yesterday. It was nice to actually have an excuse to take some time off.

The change in the weather has made me want to work a little less. Yesterday I took a 1hr hike up on Peavine Mountain after working for 4 hours on my friends project and I am just about to go on another one. Its so nice out, its hard to work inside on projects. Some other news. I just added some more memory to my computer so its super fast now. It will make uploading pictures and working so much nicer.

Beautiful Snowy Day

I awoke this morning to find we had received around 12 inches of snow. Its so pretty but so cold. I think the mountain received about 10 feet or so. It is one of those days you want to stay inside. I would go for a walk but the winds aren't too nice today.
So after the wind dies down it will be so pretty to take a walk.
We lived up in Tahoe the year 91-92 when we got so much snow. We build a huge sled run from the driveway to the lake shore. What a blast that was! I love Tahoe. It is one of the most beautiful places. I enjoy the summers at the lake when I get the chance.



The last 2 days I have been working on more cases. I am starting a new project which is an oversized handbag. The fabric is wild! It is going to be lot of work and may take a few days so I will continue working on smaller projects and will post them on Etsy.







Here is are a couple of neat close up photos of the stitches and texture of some cases I finshed yesterday. I love this one with the blues and browns in it.

White Angel

I want to share this with you. I was walking a the the park and this beautiful duck came up to me. I sat by her for a very long time watching her fluff her feathers and splash in the lake. I was lucky enough to get this picture of her. I visit her often on the days I am walking. I think she is so beautiful!!!