Well, here we are, almost to Thanksgiving and I never got around to the rest of our Summer Trip. Maybe later..... Been busy around here. Lots of Fall Color and projects, mainly baskets, to get done. This is apt to be a topsy turvy blog today. My Daughter is making me feel really guilty about not putting anything on my blog, so here goes.

Speaking of Fall Color, guess what......it happens everyplace!! Even at our fishing grounds!! The River was so pretty this year.

I guess we've never hit it "just right" before, but this year the colors were so vibrant and the air so crisp, (and water soooooooooooo COLD), it was definitely Fall! This is at our yearly trek to the Grande Ronde River in the southeastern corner of Washington. We didn't catch any BIG fish, but had lots of fun anyway. You can see the "monsters" I caught! By the way, all of our fish were returned to the water unharmed, so they could grow bigger so we can catch them again next year!
This fish was all of about 10 inches long.

And I didn't measure this one!



My husbands luck was just like mine (we're a matched pair!)

Here's what it looked like right outside our trailer door. This is where I paddled around. No fast water for me!


We saw lots of wildlife, mostly deer, but the sheep did put in an appearance,


and there was one really nice ram in the bunch.

We didn't see as many quail as usual, but I did manage to get a nice snapshot of one. They're so cute!

I love to see them in the spring when all the little babies are trailing Mom.

Before we left (in October) we got our grapes and potatoes harvested. There weren't as many grapes this year as usual, either,

but what was there was really nice. I gave three big lugs to a friend of mine who makes raisins out of them.
This year I decided not to have a garden.......so I planted my garden spot in fingerling potatoes. I've never tried to grow these before. I had maybe 10 short rows of them and got 140 pounds of fingerlings!!! We're set for the winter when it comes to potatoes!!



In September we went camping with my Sister and Brother-in-Law. Had a good long weekend just doing nothing!

We took the 4-wheeler so the guys could go hunting and get wood,


for our morning wake-up fires.

They brought their new puppy, Bandit, who has sooooooooooooo much ENERGY!!!

And we brought our two "mellow" family members, Charlie (the one under the blanket)

and Tippie (also under a blanket!)



He's such a sweet little thing. A very timid chihuahua. Charlie loves to oversee any card playing that might be going on!



Besides vegging out by the fire, I showed my Sister how to make a basket and hers came out so cool, but I didn't get a picture of it! It was her first basket, too!! She decided she needed to refresh her shooting skills, so she wounded several trees while killing targets!

Wouldn't want to get caught skulking around her place!
Speaking of baskets.....
here's the baskets I've been working on, Thanksgiving presents, Christmas presents, and just fun baskets to make. The bird houses are all hanging in our yard, waiting for some little bird to need shelter this winter.







This is my Farmer's Market basket that was so much fun to take with me when I shopped our local Farmer's Market. Somehow it was alot more fun to fill it up with yummy stuff, knowing I'd made the basket!


Here's my "Cake Taker" basket with a Pineapple-Mango Upside-Down cake in it.

This is a wee tiny basket I made for my Daughter. I filled it with Everlasting and it came out so cute. She makes beautiful dolls and this was supposed to come out small enough for one of them to carry, but I'll bet it's probably sitting by her work station being a "supply" basket!



My Daughter has around 20 (or so) chickens, so I made her this to gather her eggs in.



The first egg basket I made came out so weird that it won't stand up, so I put a solid bottom in this one so it definitely will sit without toppling over!



My Niece always has us to her home for Christmas dinner and I like to take her something special for all the work she goes to. This year she's getting a double wine basket. Now I just have to put some wine in it!

Her it is all decorated and ready for "wine".


We're headed to my Sisters for Thanksgiving. She decorates her house so pretty for the holidays, so I made her a cornucopia and filled it with Fall leaves and a cute little artificial quail. She can swap out what's inside so she can use it year round if she wants to.


So, there's what I've been up to. Maybe this winter I'll get around to blogging about the rest of our summer trip. I've got lots of pictures, just not much time to tell about it. January is always such a blah month......maybe then.
Hope you all have a very Happy and safe Holiday Season!

Crater Lake

The trip to our Daughter's was really fun, since we took our 10 year old Granddaughter, Lacey, with us. We've been to Glacier, Yellowstone and the Tetons, but Lacey hasn't so we decided to make this a "National Park" trip. Our first "Park" was Crater Lake. Oregon has some beautiful country and Crater Lake is a part of it.

Even though it was the middle of July, actually the 20th, there was still snow in the high country, yet the wild flowers were in full bloom. I guess their warm seasons are short lived so you see flowers that bloom in summer popped up right along side of early spring flowers. The shoulders of the road were ablaze with color in places, but it was always places that we couldn't stop to get a picture!

Coming into the Park you can see how high you're getting. Due to all the forest fires in California, we had a lot of smoke in the air, so our views were pretty "smoggy".

But once there, it was still inspiring! This usually doesn't happen....me in a photo! I'm always the one behind the camera, but since Lacey was happily snapping pictures, I guess she made my DH feel guilty, so he even snapped a few, this being one of them.

Lacey and I found out later that we were in a spot that we weren't supposed to be in (off the beaten path)! Oh well, really a pretty view from here.

Rather than try to tell you all about Crater Lake, the tourist info placard pretty much says it all. Much easier to take a picture than try to remember everything.

Looking straight down was awesome! I couldn't believe the color of the water...an electric blue and green in places. I'm sure the entire Lake probably looks like this on clear "smokeless" days.

So, here's the two of us, as seen by Lacey, looking like Old Fart Tourists, especially my DH! I wonder what else he could have hung around his neck! He still looks like a tourist, too, since he bought a T-shirt at every Park we went to (and wears one every day).

So now we leave the Park on or way to points beyond.

Coming down from on top, the forest and canyons are incredible. The trees are HUGE! We stayed that night just across the Oregon line in Nevada. The next morning we were treated to an AWESOME sunrise!

It was cloudy off and on all day, so it made for nice driving...not too hot. We didn't see any wild horses. I'd been watching for them since I'd heard about them getting so over-populated in Nevada that they were trying to give them away. I didn't realize that it was on their preserve that they were having a problem and that's in the southern part of the State. We did see lots of antelope....

And wild donkeys!

Even some babies!!

As the day wore on, we drove by a couple of rain storms, but they never reached us. They just sort of appeared out of nowhere, emptied their contents and disappeared back into nowhere.

This area isn't much for scenery. I need trees and mountains! I don't think I could live in a place like this....much too flat and too much nothing! So ended our second day of driving. Next up, Zion National Park.

Summer Happenings

A lot has happened since my last blog. My dearest friend passed away in May. Then we had to go to Ocean Shores to scatter the ashes of my Mother and her second husband. This is where my "Summer Journey" starts.

My Mom was tied to water in a way I don't think even she realized. She was deathly afraid of water and was well into her 30's before she learned how to swim, which consisted of getting her face wet and learning to float. This was all done in the shallow end of the city pool. She used to get so mad at me for swimming out beyond where I could touch bottom in the lakes around here. She even grounded me for a week because I swam across Deep Lake where my Dad owned a lumber mill. And I had an adult rowing a boat right along side of me the whole way! That didn't matter to Mom. It was "over my head" and I was flirting with DEATH!! Then, after my Dad passed away when she was 55, she met her second husband. Together they traveled all over the west coast and she found she love the ocean. They spent many summers, camping in their trailer, on the beaches of Washington and Oregon. They picked agats, sand dollars, shells and driftwood. They flew kites and took all the Grandkids on many adventures. And much to my surprise, this was where she wanted her final resting place to be. So, on July 19, her wishes were carried out at Ocean Shores, Washington. About 30 of us gathered to say goodbye.

We "beachcombed" and flew kites, one of which was anchored and left in the sand as a tribute. We shopped, ate at the restraunts, stayed at a Motel on the beach and did all the touristy things Mom loved to do. So, Mom, just like I'm sure the kite did, you're on your way to a new adventure. You can tell us all about it when we get there.

Hopefully the next installment, Crater Lake, will be coming sooner than this one.

Is it Spring yet???

Well, I see by my last post, that I THOUGHT Spring was here......now I'm not so sure! It's been snowing ever since! Two days ago you would have thought we were getting ready for Christmas instead of mushroom picking. The snow came down so hard you couldn't see through the flakes!! But VERY shortly after, you would have thought we just got a spring shower......no indication of snow left. That's one good thing about this time of year.....the snow can't hang!

As you can see, my tulips and daffodils are ready for Spring, too!

I've been knitting and beading and anything to keep my mind off the weather. I'm giving a class next week on what to do with Printed Treasures and ExtravOrganza printable fabric sheets. Here's a couple things I made for the class, a book cover and a portrait of my Granddaughter. This is really fun stuff to work with and you can use it for so many things. I'm planning to make a "Family Tree Quilt" with it one of these days. You can also really jazz up scrapbook pages with it, too. I may have to do a "Past and Present Pets" wall hanging quilt also.

I got a GORGEOUS beading book from Jestina Hong with directions for some of her pieces. Here's my version of one of her necklaces. She uses Swarovski Crystals and lots of chain. I learned something new....how to link crystals together. This one came out real pretty and sparkly. It's a high choker with really long dangles.

I love this type of purse. I've been carrying mine for the past two years, year round, so thought I deserved a "summer" one. I really like the way Noro yarn knits up. The colors are so cool and blend so nicely. This purse is made from their Iro yarn, a wool silk blend.

The socks (have one done and almost done with the mate) is made with their new sock yarn. It's washable wool and a one ply, like all their yarns. Really warm!

Our 10 year old Granddaughter was up a couple weeks ago so we had to go for a ride and let her walk down on the "beach". Our "beach" around here happens once a year when they bring the water level down in Roosevelt Lake, for the spring runoff. This is the backwater from Grand Coulee Dam. There used to be towns out where we're standing, when they made Coulee Dam, this whole area was covered. The lake goes almost to the Canadian border, so there's lots of "beach" to explore.

Well, that's about it for now. Hopefully I'll have some mushroom pictures to show you with my next entry. It might be a while, though. We still have about 3 feet of snow in the mountains around here.

Welcome "Spring"!

Everyone, I'd like you to meet "Spring". This little crocus has been the first flower to bloom in our yard for the past 30 years, (and I don't mean this "kind" of flower, I mean this exact, individual flower!) so I guess she deserves a name. So, Spring, here's to you. If the sun stays out, you'll have many friends in the next few days joining you in your dreary little bed and you won't look so forlorn and lonely over there all by yourself!

Easter's Coming

Well, Easter is on it's way and I'm not ready yet! I did get my Daughter's "girls" their stuff from Grandma, done but still have to come up with something for the only Grandson! Boy's are really hard to make things for!!! I'm working on socks for my Son's girls. Got to get cracking on those, not much time left, Easter is so early this year. At least his kids are close, so don't have to worry about getting things mailed and there before the "holiday".

The pink "roses" necklace is for our 12 year old,

the cream and yellow "waterlilies" necklace is for the 6 year old and the "bunny and carrots" necklace is for the two year old. I strung the bunny one on 10 lb. test fireline and put a magnetic clasp on it so hopefully a little girl trying to see the bunny won't break the necklace, it will just pop apart!

Hope you all have a nice Easter!

Store's Getting Stocked

Well, I finally have a few things in my Etsy store. I just put in two new purses. One's felted with beaded embellishments. I got a gorgeous peacock feather pattern from Glenda Payseno. The pattern is for earrings but I did a few extra rows and made it to go on the purse, then I did just the eye of the feather for the back. They cover where the magnetic snap closure attaches. If you'd like to get the pattern for the feather, here's the link to Glenda's site:

http://stores.lulu.com/glendasbooks

It's the 4th one down on the page and it's downloadable, which is GREAT because you don't have to wait for it to come in the mail!!

The other purse is knitted with Noro Iro yarn. It's a bulky yarn of wool/silk blend and knitted on smaller needles than you would usually use, so it's a fairly tight weave. VERY sturdy. I have one like it (different color) that I use year round.

I've also added some new dangly earrings that are so pretty and they're made with either sterling silver or gold filled earwires, chains and findings, so unless you're REALLY sensitive to metals, you should be able to wear them. The pink ones are with the gold filled and there's blue ones made with sterling silver.

I've got two more purses I'm trying to get finished and on there, so pop in a take a look.

Our Winter is on it's way OUT!! I know this for sure........my front flower beds told me this morning. Even though there's snow in the yard, my tulips, crocus and daffolils are all up where ever the snow has disappeared. I can't wait for SPRING!!! Morel mushrooms, here I come!