Really Random Thursday!-Lots of Visiting!

We've had lots of visits in Garden City and now I'm visiting in Grand Junction, Colorado! Its been TONS of fun getting to see so many people I don't normally get to see! I've been really bad at remembering to take pictures but here are some I DID take and some I snagged from other people! Enjoy the randomness!

 The garden has been a recurring theme in my year. I decided to try using shredded paper to mulch some of my plants to keep out the weeds and keep moisture in! Right after I did it, I felt really goofy. Like, "what have I done?!" Now, I'm actually pretty pleased with it. It's more or less staying put and doing its' job! I think in the future I'd prefer to use shredded paper that hasn't been bleached white but what's done is done this season!

 Matt and Val came to visit us. I had to take the typical guy shot of the two of them watching a game. I think this one was a basketball game that Luke had recorded and saved so they could both see it sfter the long drive for Matt and Val and long day of work for Luke.

 Valerie brought her wedding quilt, which deserves a big long post that I want to give lots of attention to, BUT she wanted to practice binding so she worked on this smaller quilt...

 and I started working on the binding for her big ol' wedding quilt!

 It was a three day weekend and Luke had events at the course, so we joined him there! Val practiced driving the cart in the parking lot!

 Val, Matt and I got some practice in at the driving range. We may make a golf foursome yet! Just pleaaase please please please let it be a best ball tournament.

 Look! Val puts the ball on the tee like me!

We had all been wearing sandals for the pool side BBQ so we opted to golf barefoot. Val called it hillbilly golf. I called it normal.

 We also went and explored the Garden City Zoo! Everyone had told me how nice it was, but I was still very pleasantly surprised!

The next weekend, Dad, Cheri, and Cindy were in the area visiting!

The following 6 photos are courtesy of Cindy over at Live a Colorful Life.

We had dinner at Trudy's beautiful house with some of her fabulous family!

 Here I am with Mindi and Kaitley! Mindi's kids are a hoot and I can't wait to hang out with them again!

 The next day, Sunday, we hung out in Garden City! I got to introduce my dad to his "Grandchildren" at the Community Garden and he and Cheri gave them lots of water, TLC and even some "tough love as we staked them up. I'm trying out the Florida Weave method for staking up the tomatoes. Then we went over to Luke's work and had a great lunch on the patio! The weather couldn't have been more perfect!

 It was so fun to have them there! I felt like quite the diva showing everyone around! Trudy was taking the picture!

 That night we taught Cheri how to play Pinochle! It's a pretty important game for the Harper AND Nickodemus clans.

 When Dad and Cheri were headed back to the Denver Airport, I caravaned with them. Dad drove my car and Cheri drove their rental. It was super nice because I was continuing on four and a half more hours to Grand Junction to help my In-Laws pack for their big move! It would seem the Kansas weather followed me to Colorado because we had a major windy day that left a trampoline hanging from this tree...

Here's a close up the next day.

 I'm not sure when I'll be in Grand Junction again so we're hitting up important places like Enstrom's for yummy chocolate...

and Tangle's yarn shop which is one of my favorites!!

Neola and I each wore one of our skirts that I had made (we each have a blue and green one) and as we were lusting after yarn we realized that we had switched color palates for the day! She was wearing my normal blues and greens (see my purse) and I was wearing her reds and oranges (see her purse!)

Another afternoon two fun friends of Neola's from bible study brought over a great picnic lunch and we had a delicious salad, bread, cookies and lemonade! 

Julie and her handy basket! She even brought ice!

 Julie, Neola and Sarah

It's been so great to see so many people! I'm even looking forward to next weekend in Texas! The fun never stops!

I'm linking up with Cindy over at Live a Colorful Life for Really Random Thursday!

WiP Wednesday-Skirts Season

The weather is heating up which means its skirt season! Though with all this Kansas wind, I've discovered a need for less full skirts so that I don't "get lipstick on my hem!" as my friend Pat says.
Speaking of hems...


I got creative on my hems! I learned a new skill of shirring.


It wasn't as elastic as I had hoped it would be so I stuck a ribbon in for a casing for wider elastic.


Unfortunately that made it too tight. Off it came. I worked out another way to add some 1/4 inch elastic.


Here's the last skirt in progress!


Non material WiP's include recovering from this poor sunscreen application,


and project garden.


I'm linking up with Lee from Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Drive to a Fly-In, Plant Parenting, Etched in Glass

*Disclaimer, This ought to be three separate posts, but with the weekend rapidly coming to an end, and allergies getting the best of me, it is one post with three titles.

Saturday I had a fun field trip to a Fly In with my friend Mary! 

Ironically, we drove. We had an all girl caravan of drivers with unique cars. (I drove my Daisy bug, while she's not old, she is manual and does turn some heads.)

 I love this picture of Mary because it's so her! Her tires needed air so she just grabbed that air compressor hose and hauled it out there. (The part that makes her a kindred spirit is that it didn't quite reach so she had to move her car closer anyway. I totally do stuff like that all the time!)

 I loved that this airplane matched Mary's car buttercup!

The plane below was built by it's owner! His wife even helped with the riveting!

 These top wings reminded me of the kind of planes my Grandpa Jim and Grandma Dixie flew! (And the one Uncle Doug and Aunt Grace took us to Pismo in!)

 On my way home, I called my dad and said, "Have you ever been to a fly in?! It was soooo cool!" He said they went all the time when he was a kid....I guess things don't seem like such a big deal when your parents make you go. Here's Mary taking lots of pictures for the newsletter "Fly Paper."

 We've been meaning to get a picture of Daisy and Buttercup together, so after knitting Saturday afternoon I pulled my car behind hers and took a picture. Daisy looks so much bigger than Buttercup!

 I tried to get a picture of us with the cars, but it was having trouble focusing. Wouldn't you know it the picture takes as soon as I start laughing because its not working and Mary rolls her eyes?!

It was quite the fun Saturday and another new Kansas experience!

I spent part of today, Mother's Day, with "the children."

I had planted some Snow Peas at the community garden a while back, but had long since given up on them due to the snows we had this spring. Turns out, all they needed was for their mother to leave them alone.

 I took 12 plants to live with their siblings in the community garden. One of each variety of pepper/tomato I started from seed. All the shoveling, hoeing, planting and watering gave me quite a bit of time to reflect on my mom, how much I miss her, how much I learned from her and wish I could still learn, as well as how blessed I am with SO MANY, AMAZING role model women in my life to get advice from, be creative with, and enjoy their company. All of these interactions connect me with her in many ways as well.

 My friend Pat gave me some day lilies to plant on the West end of our house. I'm looking forward to them adding some dimension along that wall...and maybe helping that big sprinkler hub blend in. The oregano she divided and shared with me is doing splendidly as well! I never knew so much sharing could happen in gardening! I'm so lucky to be learning from her and hope that I might get the chance to pay some plants forward as well!

 Also... our grass is GROWING!

and the leaves are finally making an appearance! 

(Not for lack of trying but the weather just hasn't been cooperating.)

 Also making an appearance are my allergies. After all that time outside, I've been congested the rest of the day. Time for an inside project. I've been wanting try etching our name into our Pyrex pans for a while now. I got the cream on an adventure into a town with a craft store and used the vinyl decal paper that came with the Cricut we got for a wedding present. Thanks M&C!

 Lo and behold the recommended settings worked perfectly, and I had the letters and place the letters came out of to stick on to the pans and apply the etching cream. I used painters tape to make my straight line borders and protect areas I didn't want etched because it's waaaaay cheaper than Cricut decal paper.

 The directions say leave it on for 60 seconds. I found that this did not do the trick.

 So I reapplied the tape and left it on for 30 minutes. Ahhhh much better. I did a couple rounds for good measure and even crisp etching.

 Here you can see the outer rectangle more clearly.

 This is the second one I did, with the part of the page the letters were cut out of. 

I'm pretty happy with the final product. The other pinners and bloggers were right. 

Now I want to etch everything!!!