41 today

Lucas, our soldier.


Matthew, who never grows older.

My First Blog Award!

When I came in tonight & sat down at my laptop I was so surprised to find that I had been given a blog award, my first, & since I am unfamiliar with this tradition I have included an explanation below. The Award originated with Cesandherdishes & came to me by way of Farmlady & Susabella.
Ces said:

"I designed this award to celebrate art in the blogs and to honor the value of friendship, sisterhood, sharing and caring. It is to be awarded to the gifted, accomplished, eloquent and talented blogger whose friendship and influence inspire us to do our best. That I named it after Bella Sinclair is because she epitomizes all of these things. She is an inspiration to many of us."
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"I have chosen to symbolize this award with the Quercus lobata or Valley Oak. It is a simple and unadorned award but heavy on meaning. The Valley Oak is a large handsome tree with a stout and sturdy trunk and widely spreading branches that form a broad open crown. It can reach up to a height of 100 feet and a diameter of 4 feet, sometimes much greater. It is the largest of the western deciduous oaks and is a handsome and graceful shade tree."

So now you know everything that I do about this award-thank you friend Farmlady, it was so unexpected & I am honored.
Oh, & speaking of "giving", Nancy at "Dark Horse Designs" is giving away one of her quilts on her blog "Go Make Your Bed", it is so pretty. You can never have too many quilts!

Vintage Thingies Thursday

I am very late posting this week so if you haven't already been to see all the other VTT bloggers you can check in with Coloradolady to follow other vintage treasure-hunters.
I was on the road yesterday 11.5 hours driving from CO. to Phx. AZ & there were way too many delays from road repair work.

My Great Granny, who died in 1944 in her late 90's[98 I think] was a talented hand worker in all the typical lady-like pursuits such as embroidery & sewing. However by age 90 she had lost most of her sight & was virtually blind so she could no longer sew & do fine embroidery. Because she was not content to do nothing with her hands she resorted to plain knitting which did not require good vision. I was a toddler when Susannah Brooker died so I have no memory of this industrious lady but I do have a four generation photo taken with her.
Below are two of the blankets she knitted that I rescued from my Grandma's house in 1968 when no one else wanted them-the story of my life's accumulation of memorabilia I think, LOL- I could not bear to see them thrown in the garbage or given to charity so great is my sentimental attachment to all this "old stuff".
It is almost impossible to match these colors with 100% wool in a similar ply these days & these blankets have taken a few hits from moths -the damage has been mended mostly not very expertly & probably by yours truly. My Mum would call it "cobbling" rather than mending, I'm a quilter remember?!

I was told that Grandma actually sewed all Grt. Granny's squares together for her, not sure who did the crocheted edging but most likely Grandma I suspect.
Now they reside in my cedar chest so no more moth damage but I would really like to have a glass cabinet or chest to store them in to be able to enjoy their sweet & colorful vintage memories.

I learned to knit by the time I went to school but never learned to crochet until my first son was born in 1966.
The "lovely" granny blanket above is my first & only significant effort to crochet! I made it for oldest DS & it was always folded on the end of his bed until he grew too old for it to be "cool".

This adorable crocheted granny squares sweater was made by my own Mother-she made it for our youngest DS, isn't it an adorable hippie throwback?
I have photos of JW wearing it age 3-5 yrs. & there is a matching knitted beanie. We called it his "Joseph Coat" as in the Biblical Joseph's "Coat of Many Colors".
Now that JW has a little boy of his own I wonder if baby Matthew will ever be allowed to wear it?

Fourth of July, a little late!

With the extra family in the house my plans to do a post on the Fourth never saw the light of day!
I have lots of pictures from the annual Ouray parade & fireworks so I'll post " a few"!
Oldest DS had his Aussie friend visiting so Clynt was able to experience a genuine old fashioned, small town, July Fourth celebration first hand!


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Many of the vehicles come loaded with candy & the eager kids along the route go scrambling for their favorite sugar-laden threats. As if everyone isn't already a bit "high" from the altitude-7790ft. above sea level here in Ouray.CO!

It's a hometown parade with all sorts of entries...............

and the now traditional water battles between parade watchers & parade participants

Everyone seems to enjoy the water battles & there is lots of "running for cover" when the "big guns" come by!

There is also a wide variety & effectiveness of the "weaponry" from buckets to fire hoses.


All in good "clean" fun, no one gets upset about a little dowsing, there's much hilarity in fact & it's usually warm enough for it to feel rather refreshing.

Our family had a cooler of water balloons & used them very effectively. Not me, I "throw like a girl"!

They have already fine-tuned plans for extending their ammunition supply for next year's parade.


After all of that we stopped in at Billy Goats Gruff for lunch, see Button dog on the left at the table!

And here's the cutest picture of the day!

I am still downloading the fireworks videos, so I may post those later.

VTT, Quilts

I'm a quilter so you know what you will frequently see on my blog, the title leaves no room for doubt!
For Vintage Thingies Thursday no surprise I have more vintage quilt stuff to show.
Last Saturday we went by a yard sale in the village, I didn't expect much [& wasn't too disappointed] mostly junk except for this quilt - for one dollar, can you believe? It's hand quilted, not terribly well & I have no idea of it's vintage - or even if it is vintage though it looks it to me. It's very heavy & I'm wondering if it has an old wool blanket inside? It was obviously a "planned quilt' because the fabrics all match from block to block & the border & binding too. Anyway, I think it's quite charming in a shabby chic sort of way, it's a nice cuddly quilt, a little worn but in fairly decent condition & with that lovely wrinkly look that quilts get when the batting inside shrinks up more than the fabric. I just couldn't leave it there for $1, could you? I washed it up & all the stains came out. Oxyclean rocks!

I have been buying more vintage blocks & tops on eBay - it is very addictive & here are a couple of my latest purchases.
These are all hand pieced vintage items, such tiny stitches, they are very special to me & I will take great pleasure in finishing them into usable quilts. I would never devote so much time myself to hand-sewing. When they saw them each of my two GS's said "someone has waaay too much time on their hands"! I explained that these were made many decades ago, 60,70 or even 80 yrs. earlier before there was a TV [or two or three - or more] in every home, & many women sat & sewed in the evenings after all their other household chores were done.
We also talked about the cost of sewing machines & the fact that not every household had one.
They like to hear about "the old days" & this was a "teaching moment" I could not resist!

The border on this scrappy quilt top is hand sewn too & a little "wavy", but I think I can "quilt out" the fullness of the extra fabric. For non-quilters, this is what can happen when the piecer doesn't measure the top carefully & cut the borders to fit.

I purchased these charming Grandmother's Fan blocks unfinished but with most of the hard work done, again hand sewn. There are plenty of them to make a nice size quilt especially if I sash the blocks. Typically these blocks were made from scraps of clothing, feed- sacks & other available bits & pieces of fabric. Included in this collection were several "fans" not yet attached to the center piece & a few odd blocks of other types quite unrelated to the fan block design.




One block was completed but we'll never know why the maker failed to finish her quilt. The same applies to all these incomplete items & I like to think about how it would delight the original owner to have them used. If you click here you will see one setting for a Grandmother's fan quilt but that's not how I plan to set mine after make these fans into full blocks. You can be sure I will be using a sewing machine - perhaps my trusty old treadle that sews such a perfect stitch & if I do I will post about it!
These may not seem like such treasures to others but to a quilter they are!
I'm going to stop looking on eBay at these vintage quilt pieces so I will not be tempted - well, at least I will try!
Now if you are hooked on vintage you can visit coloradolady's blog to see the list of all the other participants in VTT.

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday in the mountains

It's amazing how fast the day goes by up here in our rather remote mountain place. With GS#2 here there is a little more going on, though he spends most of his time with his buddies. Tonight they are camping over at a friend's place, no home there yet just the big camper the family brings in every summer. I dived headfirst[ literally] into the big closet under the stairs to find DH's sleeping bag for the camp-out & off L went on the back of friend's quad bike.

I remembered to take the camera along on the evening walk with Button to capture a few pics of the wildflowers. On the way I stopped & picked up Tiki, our neighbor's Aussie terrier, same breed as Button, different blood lines. Button came from a breeder in Boulder,CO. & Tiki from Phx. AZ. Button is blue/tan, Tiki a red, & she out weighs Button by about 8 lbs, I think it's 14 to 22! However they are great pals, it's almost as if they recognize their commonality of breed because they play together, wrestling & play fighting over toys it's a hoot to watch. Tiki has the weight advantage, Button the speed. This breed was developed from Yorkshire, Cairn, Norfolk & one or two other terrier breeds so they have a background as ratters. These two are no exception, they would like to rid the planet of rodents & here you see them trying to get to a couple of "chippies" under the rock.
The lupins are past their best, already going to seed. They make a beautiful show during their short life span, colors from pale blue to blue/ purple & pink.





I don't know the names of these last two white flowers, though the second one reminds me of Queen Anne's lace. I haven't bothered to look them up in my Wild Flowers Of The World book.


They make a lovely show so I had to take photos.


The poppies are glorious, huge red/orange & pink blooms so showy. I guess it's as well the deer do not care for them or we would have some wacked out wildlife!

The weather has been delightful, just enough rain, warm days & cool nights in the 50's.
Yesterday we went down to the River festival of course I didn't have the camera, but the kids all enjoyed the face painting & the river races. The first race was the homemade boats, one had a pirate flag but the kid's favorite was made from styrofoam with a porcelain toilet seat on it. This raft did not make it through the rapids, lol, but pilot & all ended up in the Uncompaghre River!


I think the mountain air is taking it's toll of the Button dog, she is sleeping soundly beside me- earlier I caught her checking email but you won't get a reply, she hasn't learned to type!

Vintage Thingies Thursday

Here I am back in the mountains, I drove up Sunday [500plus miles] with DGS #2, L, & the Button dog, now recovered from her second round of chocolate poisoning. She looks sort of weird with one leg shaved as if someone tried a poodle cut & then she escaped-or they thought better of it. I know that it was necessary to get the hair out of the way for the IV but did they have to make such a hash of it? It doesn't seem to bother her now, though the first few days she kept licking at it in typical dog fashion. She is sleeping peacefully beside me & seems fit enough to run her one hour mountain trek every day.
As vain as I am, I am bothered by my dog's weird appearance,lol!


But I digress, it is VTT again & you can find lots of interesting memorabilia by visiting coloradolady.
I have collected quite a few old prints, some came from flea markets during our sojourn in Europe & those I will show another day.


This one is printed on silk & we purchased it in the charming old town of Rothenburg, Germany, the oldest walled Roman city in that country. With it's cobbled streets & ancient buildings there is much to intrigue any history afficiando.

The second picture is of the actual scene, & the female figure sitting on the post in the center foreground is yours truly. Upon my knee is this silk lithograph that we had just purchased.
This was 1978 I think that counts as vintage?
The blur in the top left corner is probably DH's finger over the lens, lol!

Dogs And Chocolate!

A very bad combination, dogs & chocolate! You probably knew but in case you did not, click here on info. to get some helpful facts.
How do I know? Two veterinary bills in 18 months for a total of $1400, yes that's one thousand four hundred!
Theobromine is the villain in this case found in products from the cocoa tree, & while milk choc. contains small amounts [44mgs./oz] it ramps up as you get to the darker, purer products. Semi sweet/dark choc. has three times as much as milk choc. & baker's choc. has about eight times as much. Theobromine affects the heart & other organs, Button's heart rate was around 2oo the first time & nearly that this second time. It really is a killer & immediate medical response is urgent.
It takes about 150mgms/kilo of weight [2.2lbs] to cause toxicity in your pet[cats & horses too] which equates to an ounce of dark/semi sweet choc. Our Aussie Terrier Button weighs close to 14lbs so her toxic level for the dark choc. is about 4-5 ozs. The first time she ingested three bars of Godiva dark choc. around 9 ozs, she was a very sick puppy that Christmas night. $660 later, EKG, blood work, IV fluids etc. she was through the danger & I said "all chocolate goes in the fridge", if she learns to open that we are in big trouble. Maybe you saw the ad that featured the dog fetching his master a beer from the fridge? In the advert. it was a big dog but inside our 14lb. dog's body is a 300lb.mastiff trying to get out!

You'd think after the first scare we would never see that again? Someone left an unopened 9.5ozs. bag of dark choc. on their desk shelf, no challenge really for a dog that can scale cliffs!
Last night we were late returning home & she was hungry so you can guess the rest. Seven ozs. of dark chocolate & lots of evidence around the house & yard that it did not agree with her.
Another ER veterinary hosp. event & this evening DH picked her up & $700 plus later she is through this second choc. poisoning a bit subdued but thankfully ok. [That chocolate ended up costing nearly $100/oz.]We have to watch her for a day or two because there is a slight chance of further complications but she is a tough little girl, all the "Aussies" are, they breed 'em that way! Any dog that can survive in the Australian outback has to be tough, & even though Button may be generations removed from that kind of life she shows us how strong & durable she is when we hike mountains & run her daily for several miles.

I found some additional info this time around about other toxic foods; six grapes can put your dog into a life threatening situation & of course it follows that raisins are bad [& no doubt wine!] avocados for heaven's sake, nutmeg, coffee, onions & garlic & for dogs, raw salmon plus a few other surprises. Then there are a host of plants...........
FYI it is worth checking out the facts about products toxic for your pets, no one needs to spend their hard earned money unnecessarily on emergency pet care that could be avoided with some extra knowledge & care. And certainly none of us want to risk pain, suffering & damage to our beloved pets.