A Bit of Everything

This is a blog with a couple of different topics. Most of it is about a trip we had to make yesterday. Our dear daughter-in-law and son own property south of Seattle and we went down to have a look at it between renters. This gives us a chance to go south of Seattle. They used to live down there. Our Grandson lived there till he was almost 4 so there are tons of happy memories!! To get to their condo, you pass throught one of my favorite Washington towns. It reminds me a bit of New England! I hope you enjoy seeing a bit more of the lovely NW.

This is a variegated thrush. It is new to the feeder this year. I think it has beautiful colors!

We are still in the Tacoma area. This is the Narrows Bridge and a view from the little sea-food shack where we enjoy having lunch.

Great fried sea food- not gourmet but tasty!

This is looking out of the window of the restaurant. All the pilings had sea birds sitting on them.

Here is one of my favorite houses.

I love the house and look at the view from the front porch!!!

Here is the backyard. Because it is near the water, the plants are almost a month ahead of the ones in my yard!

Main Street of Steilacoom.

Here's my second favorite house in the little town. This type of house is very unusual in the Seattle area or at least the part I have seen.

This is definitely not pretty but it has fun memories! This is where we took Caleb for ice cream.

We spent many happy hours at the beach. A train track runs through it and Caleb called it the Choo-choo train beach. His third birthday party was held here.
Thanks for taking a look and have a very happy St. Patrick's Day. A nearby brewery has wonderful corned beef and cabbage plus great beer! That's where we are headed for dinner!

Moss,Moss,Everywhere

Those of us in the Pacific NW who listen to National news have been hearing about the warm weather in many parts of the country. Now, I moved out here to escape heat so I'm not complaining. However, our winter seems never-ending . Yesterday we had snow. In fact a two lane highway on the west side of Hood Canal had to close for a few hours as it was not safe for driving. The mountains are full of snow-lots of severe avalanche warnings! For a rare treat, the sun has come out for a few hours. I decided to take the camera outside and take a few photos. Now I can't compete with some of the lovely spring flowers I have seen on blogs so I decided to celebrate our most infamous plant-MOSS.

Here is a view of the mossy forest from our deck.

This is my witch hazel now bare of flowers but still pretty thanks to the moss!

Two varieties on one plant!

I think this is really quite lovely!

Another variety

Three kinds in a small area!

This is the trunk of a maple tree.

Last but not least,even the street has a lovely green carpet.
Thanks for taking a look and have a great Fri.

Spring/Easter Woolpets

If you have followed my blog for any length of time ,you will have seen my Woolpets. These are all designed and made by my talented artistic daughter, Laurie. She and her husband Kevin have a great business called ,"Woolpets." As I have said before, Kevin is the business part and Laurie is the artist. Right now she is devoting her time to illustrating a children's alphabet book. (You can see it at the blog Hazel Basil Pudding Pie). In my attempt to get spring going here, I got out all my spring decorating things. Of course, that means my spring /Easter Woolpets. I hope you enjoy seeing them. I love decorating with them!!

The white wool for this sheep came from Laurie's real sheep named Hazel!

I used this adorable little bunny in a spring blog header last year.

He is my newest addition to my white bunny collection!
Thanks Laurie! I love you! Mom
Thanks for taking a look and hope your week is going well. Today we had rain, sleet,snow, and sun all in one day!!!

New Project

After much indecision I finally got my feeble mind to decide my next cross stitch project. I have spent a lot of time on The Scarlett Letter's Rebecca Robinson. It seems that every time I started to work on it, I found something else to do(all my little Easter squares!) I finally admitted to myself that I just didn't like the colors that she chose. I had sacrificed a huge piece of linen to this project , plus the SBA kept saying how much he liked it. One day I just admitted to myself that I was not enjoying this!!!!!! I think I learned a great lesson. Even when you do a reproduction, YOU have to like the colors. I'm not saying that applies to everyone. Some folks can do a reproduction and stick to it for the historic integrity-that's not me I guess! Well, I got an OOP Sheepish Designs on Ebay and I'm loving it. It's called " From Every Mountainside." I'm seriously thinking of doing a wall of patriotic projects because I'm drawn to them. I also have Sheepish Designs ,"Betsy" that I want to do. So I'm finally off that stuck place and happily stitching away. I remember Edgar's advice( at Blacksheep's Bit Of the Web") this is a hobby, you have to enjoy what you are doing!! Thanks Edgar for the reminder!

I'm being very careful with the colors and changing any that I don't like.

I used a dark Navy for the first border and a soft gold for the second. The linen is antique white.For some reason , there are lots of shadows.

This is a very interesting read. I guess you could say it's the Civil War from the perspective of the women. I like her quilting stories best when they have a historic component.
Well, thanks for taking a look and I wish you all a great week ahead. We are still very cold and wintery!!!! The SBA just said, " Hey, it's snowing!" My flowers are just sitting and waiting for some sun and warmth!