Happy Birthday Eve, Mom!

It is Mom's birthday tomorrow - one of those big ones with a zero! Little Brother is up in Canada fishing so Beautiful Sister-in-Law, Tammy, and I took the opportunity to scoop Mom up and take her to dinner this evening.

Of course, flowers were involved - a beautiful vase of flowers!


Awwww....come on out, Mom!


There she is! Wonderful picture of my Mother. Are those eyes amazingly blue or what?
The beautiful flowers that are from Dan, Tammy, and I, and all of her grand-critters. Mom - you don't look anywhere near to that birthday with a 0!



A full picture of the flowers since little brother wasn't there to see them in person.

Gosh - they are just perfect! And Steve's Flower's even matched the flowers to the card.


Then off to dinner at....


I don't know what this poster says but it was very big and very cool looking.


And the food was very good - the Sauerbrauten was simply perfect.




Unfortunately, wir zuviel gegessen haben. Dann sind wir wieder zu Hause gewatschelt.

(We ate too much. Then we waddled on home.)




Happy Birthday, Mom!!! We missed you Little Brother Ugly!

Off to the Puppy Dog Beauty Shop!

Time for Rocky & Mini to get all washed, blow-dried, and smelling much better. Off to Doggy Styles with Auntie Lori and Uncle Todd (aka Santa - see December blog!).



Rocky & Mini have been going to Doggy Styles for about 5 years, Uncle Todd and Aunt Lori have even been to their house to visit them. They are treated so well and so kindly there. And smell so much BETTER afterwards!

Of course, Rocky and Mini don't quite see it that way if they can't be out and running around the shop! Here they are in 'jail' according to them. Just how pitiful they are! Don't worry, though, some treats more than made up for it. Lori makes the sweetest little kerchiefs and ruffles for them after they are all nice and clean. Rocky looked quite handsome in his summer kerchief - after he quit looking so pitiful! Mini, of course, is quite lovely in her pink scarf.


For you CASPER fans!!! Remember his baby pictures up on my cube wall? Well - has he ever grown! And he has a baby brother..all courtesy of Todd and Lori's 'stable' (maybe kennel?) of Wilky boxers - they are really show dogs but I get to play with them sometimes on grooming days.


The only title for this picture is 'Brothers'. Jonathan is Casper's baby brother! All together now....awwwwwwww


Quite the handsome young lad, Jonathan is. Here he is strutting his champion stuff.


He wanted to say 'hi' and let everyone know he is a future Champion! A little dweeby right now, like most little boys, but you can see from the picture above that he will be quite the Boxer's Boxer. But Casper remains my buddy. No champion will ever replace Casper!

New Friend!

Found this fellow hanging out on one of my lillies today


Look at his legs - he has little orange sacs on them - I think it is pollen from the lilly stamen! I enhanced the picture to try to get a little more contrast but I didn't change the color at all. I think he was looking at me and giving me some attitude!

And I am happy to report that my coneflowers now seem to be turning more purple.

Why is my purple coneflower pink?

It has always been purple. I did move it last year but it was still purple. Well, actually I moved it twice. It didn't like the first spot I moved it to, so I moved it to a different spot. But still....I don't know why my purple coneflower is pink.

Beady-Eyed Bunch - Summer Solstice Celebration, continued

The 3rd and final installment of our Solstice Celebration.

The Beady-Eyed Bunch gets down to business. Vickie's sister, Lisa, joined us. You can tell they are sisters! But I won't say how - I will leave that to your imagination.


Lisa is also a quilter in her other, non-beading, life


Chris and Dalton decided to leave the beaders in the house and go fishing! Right outside of their back door.


Peggy started to bead a 'Bumps in the Road'. This is as far as she got the entire afternoon! We had lots of fun and compared a lot of beading and techniques - admired the heck out of each other's work. But very little beading got done!


Lorraine is a friend of Vickie's and won our hearts by making the brownies and the rice krispies treats and is a bead, too!! I didn't get pictures of her pieces but Vickie is working on that. We hope she will come to the next Beady-Eyed gathering. She did some very excellent brick stitch fringe earrings with patterns in the fringe - hard to explain but the pictures will be wonderful.


Bonani is cleaning up the tea from when I knocked the light into Peggy's tea glass and then that landed on Bonani's beading matt....quick prioritizer that she is, Bonani yelled 'get the Storm' so Peggy could rescue her new cell phone! I am still so very sorry, Peggy and Bonani!


We never did figure out why a replica of Chandler's head was suddenly growing out of the top of Phyllis' head. Maybe a side effect of her spiritual beading dance at the opening ceremonies


Peggy just went around hugging everyone!!! Can't you tell? She's just a 'touchy feely' kind of lady! As you can guess, there is a story behind this one!


Someone came up with the idea of taking pictures of all of our eyes. Even Chris and Dalton are in the Beady-Eyed Beader's Eyes!


THIS is the picture I get the 'worst picture' prize for!! OMG - I don't even have a neck! I must change my ways.


We didn't get Chandler's eye, though. He had left and all we had is his replica head growing out of Phyllis' head. It started to snarl when we tried to take a picture of it's eye so we quit. Didn't want Phyllis to get a headache.

Back to beading!
One of Phyllis' wonderful creations - can she ever put colors and design together! And I think I can almost do that turquoise braclet she has there - I may give it a try. The long piece is a flat spiral.


Now for the closing ceremonies!! Bonani decided she was leaving with a completed piece and this:

Became this:


This didn't go anywhere


And, finally, Chris yodeled the closing ceremonial song....

And another celebration of the changing of the seasons is completed.
See all of you at the Autumnal Equinox!!! Maybe Madeleine and Laura will be there next time and we will be able to add their eyes to the Beady-Eyed Beader's Eyes.
Thank you all - it was wonderful! Vickie has a wonderful home and family and...can you believe it....even asked us to come back in October!

Beady-Eyed Bunch - Summer Solstice Celebration, continued

Part II - there will be several parts as we took a lot of pictures and they take time to edit! I just want to say that I gave myself the prize for the worst picture. Some of the Beady-Eyed Bunch are shy about having their picture taken. They won't be anymore after they see my picture!

Vickie, the hostesss is ready....although looking just a little like a deer in your headlights:


Phyllis does the ceremonial dance that opens the celebration...in memory of the 5,000 years of beaders that have preceeded us!


Our Princess finally arrives:


Of course we can't bead on empty stomachs!! Led by Hostess Vickie we all made sure there was plenty of food to graze on during our meeting. Obviously, fasting is not required!!! Everything from tostitos, home made cheese ball, Pad Thai, KFC - a multi-cultural event.


A real live made from scratch Tiramisu!!! (We love you Peggy!)


There were darned good


I did not get a picture of Vickie's cheese dip (so wonderful) or the brownies and krispy treats contributed by her friend, a fellow beader.

Everything has been admired, Vickie's house is just beautiful, her sons and husband were around, lots of energy and enjoyment, and the Beady-Eyed Bunch started to settle in for the afternoon:


More tomorrow!

The Beady-Eyed Bunch!

It was wonderful to get together with everyone, bond with old Beady-Eyed Beaders, welcome new Beady-Eyed Beaders. Eat wonderful food - thank you everyone! Vicki is a terrific hostess and a beautiful home with lots of energy and family.
Here are the eyes that bead those beads- literally!

Aren't we funny? Yes we are! Can you imagine how many pictures we took of each other's eyes to get this? Madeleine and Laura - we need your eyes!
More tomorrow.....