Halloween with the Busics

Every year, Don and I go over to Scott and Vicki's house to pass out candy so they can take their tribe trick-or-treating. This year was, as always, lots of fun. Kendall was Tinkerbell.



Cameron, Connor, and Cole we MegaEvil, the Grim Reeper, and Venom, in that order. Funny how in years past, these guys are usually dressed up in some Star Wars or Power Ranger characters. At a certain point, boys go bad!!




Briana was Pebbles, the teenage years!



Fun for ALL!!

It has been a long time, Friend

Wow! I did not realized how many calendar pages had fallen from the peg. I sit here this morning alone and too early even for the cats. Don is out of town, Briana got home super late from an Ashland Shakespeare Festival, and no one is awake even to call two time zones away. That's okay.
I am working one two quilts that are very involved. One is a Queen Size Bargello style with at least 42 different fabrics in it. With just a little more top stitching and an edging, I should have a finished project. I'll post as soon as it is done!! The other is called a spider web. It is a little larger than a lap quilt, but has just as many different colors. The entire thing is made of scraps. I used paper piecing for the first time with this one. That was a trip. Regular printer paper is pretty thick, so cutting the little bits away took an EON!! I am undecided as to what to do with this quilt. Part of me wants to hang it on the wall; it is that showy. Part of me wants to give it as a Christmas present to my friend Monica, and part of me wants to give it to a friend as a baby quilt. I'm stumped. I know three people who are pregnant right now, well, actually, I know six. Only three or four are going to get baby quilts. I suppose that is my next big push. (no pun intended)
School has started. This year I have 181 students currently enrolled in my 6 classes. I think this is a record for me!! Overall, however, the kiddos have been really good. Actually, I'm having lots of fun!
Don has found another property in Central Oregon for us to look at. This time, it is in the town of Culver which is right above Lake Billy Chinook. Can you guess why he likes it? The property is a little over three and half acres with a weird house and a new four car garage/rv/boat enclosure that looks better than anything we have. Bank owned and foreclosed means it comes as is. If you'd like to look it up RMLS#10048509. It has water, septic, electricity which is more than I can say for the last two vacation properties on our wish list. One place only had an outhouse. Ummm, that would creep Don out. He already has issues about the toilet. Anywho, this one is about 40K less than the place in an earlier post. Of course, that one had 20 more acres and amazing views. We'll see.
Last weekend, Don and I went to the Pendleton Woolen Mills Portland store. That was either a mistake or an amazing find. I LOVE this stuff! We bought several signature pieces. Then we went to the largest fabric store in Oregon which is across the street. There we found some luxurious taupe/mushroom herringbone micro fiber upholstery material that just matched the beautiful wool. In the course of dreaming we met an ace upholsterer who just happened to work there on Saturdays. Can you guess where this is going? I went home and took pictures of the couch and love seat in my living room, sent them off to this guy, and set up an appointment to have these two redone. We are going to use the Pendleton Wool as the pillows. Now I'm thinking about painting the living room and the hall and the entry way. I have already decided to paint the Kitchen and Dining Room this great Lobster red! Just what the Doc ordered!!
It looks like a busy fall ahead!! Yippee!!

Summer Vacation 2010

We just spent 15 days in Louisiana and Texas where the order of the day is to eat, sleep, fish, and eat again!! We stopped at Sam's first to pick up Granny

and had a wonderful breakfast with Sam, Karen, Sarah, and Dennis. In the afternoon we travelled to Boerne to visit J5. They have a fantastic setting in the hill country. We went to the Alamo - -

it was hot! Then it rained, and you know what happens when you mix the two - a hot and humid Texas Day!! Love it!!
The next day we went fishing and hanging out at the lake.

Don and I could live there, like, right now!!

Then we drove to Galveston to visit with Steve and Rosie. There we saw Julie and Karen and Joey and Mark and Leah! Steve has a new boat - - it's AHH-MAZing. So the guys and girls went tubing!! Don was have a fantastic time even though he doesn't look too happy!


Briana and Karen soaked up some sun and some waves!!


Our next big adventure in Galveston was an off shore fishing trip on the Good News!! Steve is modeling a spade fish.


We caught lots of red snapper; unfortunately, they were out of season, so we tossed them back. We did get to keep the Mangrove Snapper!


Don also caught a ling, a king, and a trigger fish!

Alas, our time in Galveston had to come to an end, and we journeyed on to Welsh. There we spent time at Granny's house along with EATING!! On Friday we had a Celebrate Sarah Day!!

And for our Celebrate Sarah Day, we went on a swamp tour at Lake Martin. We saw lots of wildlife like this Great Blue Heron


And the American Alligator!



We visited with lots of family like Claire and Shawn and the kiddos, and Susan and Rick and Abby. For my birthday, Granny took us all to DI's for dinner. I had some most excellent boiled crabs!



The tail end of out trip was a Sammy's house where we were able to visit with Joey and Sam and spend some much needed down time before out flight home and the ever present busy schedule.

All in all, Don, Briana, and I had a wonderful vacation. We'd like to thank all of you who housed us and fed us and let us relax and enjoy being with family!!
We miss you all so much already,
Dottie

QUILT

I found these vintage bowtie squares at the antique show about 8 days ago, so I decided to put them together for a sweet little quilt. Happy Belated Birthday, Mom!!

Lobelia

I have these planted in all the pots on my patio. Very pretty!

Hydrangeas

My hydrangeas are loving the really cool weather. This is the summer that wasn't. Can you believe that the high today is only 67 degrees?

Flowers in my Yard

My daylilies are out of control! Here's a close up. Imagine two very long solid rows of these on either side of my driveway all the way to the street!!


I also have Black Hollyhocks. The jury is still out on whether or not I like these.