Sunday, June 29, 2014

Landing in Portland

Yesterday I flew into Portland for a visit with my friend since wee small childhood, Emilie. 
It was cool for a number of reasons. 
1.) I was on a brand new Delta plane. 
2.) My seat got upgraded to a more room,  more luxury seat.
3.) As we were landing I remembered the dense clouds of the Pacific Northwest! Now that I have more clouds to compare them to,I realize they're more dense than everyday Kansas clouds, but they're not as dense as Fresno fog. There's spaces between the white! Below the clouds is such a dense growth of greenery! Lovely!
3.) At the end of the flight, when I talked to a flight attendant about participating in my Careers and Science project (I'm collecting profiles of people with interesting jobs) she was all about it! Turns out she and her partner are flight attendant trainers! She even volunteered to give a profile to one of the pilots! 
4.) This amazing friend met me just outside of security!
Below is the photo fiasco that followed. 
So I cropped it and made a "collage."
Emilie doesn't technically live in Portland. We're actually going to be doing most of our hanging out in McMinnville. I got a fun Main Street tour last night. I'm looking forward to seeing it during the day!

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Vegas Baby

The traditional  non-traditional crafters approach.
We tried something new this year. We (Valerie and I) got together our Aunt, Mother in Laws, and two of our cousins for a FABULOUS crafting weekend in Las Vegas. We had originally planned for quilting but realized we might have less time that we thought, so it morphed into a time to visit shops and sit and relax and work on portable projects.
I love that so many facets of our family can get together and have such a great time! 
 My sister's in-laws Cindy and Charlie were our hosts! On our outings we all fit into their car!
We went to Sin City Knits,

and Quiltique!
We hit some of the outlets, and even had a bra fitting....because well...the girls needed it.
Doesn't this look like an uplifting weekend?
Valerie and Neola were our beginner knitters this weekend. They're doing great!
We did some patio sitting and knitting, and enjoyed some tasty team prepared food! Val made me this sandwich. She is the BEST sandwich maker.
We even enjoyed some yummy drinks!
To top it all off we were forced to enjoy this view of the strip all weekend. Rough life eh?

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Oh Snap

After recent conversations with parents of younguns and fellow knitters the general consensus seems to be that snaps are the way to go!
 My first adventure happened in Garden City, with an inexpensive kit and a very cheap tool. After two hammers the tool was less effective. As I am in Fresno at the moment, I sought out some options at Jo-Ann's. While I had a handy dandy 20% off birthday coupon and a 30% off one item, I wasn't looking to spend a LOT of money on this venture PLUS as I'm traveling, I'm not really looking to increase the amount I need to carry in my suitcase. At least not really for the sake of crafting tools. I'm not that hard core.  I went with the option below for about $7.99. There were some other more convenient large hole punch like options for about $30.
Wouldn't you know it, my helpful Aunt Maggie, who I happen to be staying with, happened to HAVE a handy dandy snap tool. It was MILES handier than the silly Wal-Mart kit..
 This following is more for my benefit than yours. The snap tool is roughly the same age as Aunt Maggie's children. It does not have a snap size written on the tool. I was able to successfully use size 16 snaps (7/16 of an inch.)


Thursday, June 12, 2014

Disneyland 2014

The finale to wedding weekend was a trip to Disneyland! I've gone more times than one could count on a hand, but let me tell you, the magic is real. 
It was Matt and Valerie's wedding anniversary and they got celebration pins! 
Dumbo. My FAV-orite "no height restriction" ride. 
We did not shut the parks down. We are old(er), we love our sleep. We hoofed it back to our hotel (three city blocks ish away from the entrance) got checked in and moments after entering the room saw the fireworks going off through the balcony door. Matt put on the Frozen iTunes Radio channel and we had ourselves a fireworks show. It was perfect. 
We figured out a system for playing Pinochle in line! It was a great way to pass the time! People would walk by and say "What a great idea!" Let it be known it helps to have a skilled dealer. One person holds out two hands to be dealt cards into on behalf of themself and the dealer. The person leading the card holds their palm out with the card. Then whoever takes the trick takes the cards and stores them in their pocket. Take more than one deck. We did lose one. 
The animation academy is so neat! It's so fun to learn the techniques behind the characters. 
We learned to draw Olaf from the movie Frozen!
Another favorite "no height restriction" ride for us that is a must do is the Whinnie the Pooh ride. 
We had an afternoon cool off on Splash Mountain. 
These three left looking like they had rather large accidents. 
We got ourselves some "big ol' pickles."
We ended with the Magical World of Color. Please, if you go to California Adventures, do not miss this. It is worth an hour of waiting to get good seats. It is a high caliber show. 
We just had a great time. You'd think that at some point the magic might wear off. It doesn't. Each time there's something new to see, something I missed in times before, or something that I'm so fond of it tickles my heart!

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Josh and Jen

We enjoyed a wonderful celebration of the marriage of our "bonus family" Josh and Jen! 
My sister and I have married into two fantastic families and we love that we can share our in-laws as well! 
It was fun bonus sister time for me as well! 
 This wedding was infused with Jen and Josh's wit and humor, as seen in "A Dummy's Guide to This Wedding," pictured below.
I studied it carefully....what does that make me? 
 We got to look at Jen and Josh in this inverted ceremony set up.
 The famous family cookie recipes were show cased at this decadent cookie buffet!
 They were delicious. 
 My BiL Matt dancing with his sister Jen! She had that smile on ALL night! It was fabulous!





Tuesday, June 3, 2014

My First Tornado...Warning

Today I was BUSY cleaning up my True Life Tuesday mess. My craft room looked like a tornado went through it. 
Around 8:30 I had just sat down to have a snack and watch a show when a Tornado Warning came on the T.V. It had been eerie gloomy and windy all day so I got out my Weather Channel App. Well when the app looks like this:
You grab some pillows, your knitting and head for the center bathroom tub. The the siren on the hospital goes off and really that's not so great for nerves either. 
Luke was at work. They really track weather at the golf course so I asked if this was a "go to the hospital basement down the street" sort of storm or a "hide in the tub in the bathroom in the middle of the house with no windows" sort of storm. He said the latter. Then he called later to make sure I decided to stay in the tub....because he was outside taking !pictures! and it didn't look good. 
Also, I think next time before I grab pillows and head for the tub I will turn off the TV. While I was listening to the wind blow, the rain smack, and the hail hit I kept hearing some kind of screaming. That was when I realized I left the TV on and the softball championship was on. Softball teams cheer for each other. 
I will also purposely keep one of the drawers in that bathroom stocked with emergency supplies: Water, granola bars, a flash light and a phone charger. My knitting was renedered useless as I was pretty much storm shocked and glued to my phone looking for updates. Within what felt like 30 minutes it was all over. It rained for a little longer and then we were done. I might still be a little storm shocked. I also probably appear to be a newbie to all the storm weathering veterans.