Quality Time

Going out with our friends we always have a good time. It was B's birthday a week before so we went out to dinner to celebrate. We always try to find somewhere new. This time it was up on a hill over looking the city. The food and company was really nice.

Cheesecake was their choice of b'day desert, which was great because that's B's favorite! 

Look how special they made the plate look!

After a wonderful dinner we were able to take coffee on the patio around one of their fire pits.

Not that we needed the fire really as it was a nice warm evening. But it added to the atmosphere.

 Usually after dinner we are looking for somewhere to go sit and have coffee, as none of us want to go home too early, but this evening before we knew it 4 hours had passed by so quickly we were surprised when we looked at the time. 

We will definitely be going back to visit this restaurant again.

Look at the lights below, funny how this picture turned out, but I kinda like it.

 It has an artistic feel about it, which is exactly how I meant it to look right?!?! I wishhhhh! :-)

The next day we went to Huntington Library and gardens, to spend some quality time with Miss R before she leaves for the UK to live, and so she could see some of the art they have there. 

It's a really nice and relaxing place to go. 

I just love wandering around the gardens looking at all the plants. I must say I prefer that to all the art hanging in the libraries!

Beautiful Cosmos, they were quite tall and seem to be thriving in their little patch, much better than those I planted this year in the pots outside my kitchen window.

 The Chinese garden is relatively new, especially to us as we haven't been there in quite some time.

It was a very pretty place with a lovely eating place serving delicious authentic chinese food. 

I was expecting to see more color among the plants, but maybe all the spring flowers 

had already bloomed.

Our sitting area where we ate lunch! We couldn't have picked a more perfect spot.

I was inspired by their creativity with their paths, as I've been looking to do something with small stones and patterns on the street in front of our house. Right now we have ornamental strawberry plants and lots of weeds. It needs lots of work, but maybe thats a job for the cooler weather.

There were very large koi fish swimming to their hearts content among the lillie pads.

 On to the Japanese garden. Its always soooo relaxing there.

Miss R and Miss A posing for a photo!

 I love the bridge, but it's not open to the public!

Rose's, Rose's and more Rose's!

I love Rose's! 

When we first moved into our home, we had a beautiful rose bush but had to cut it down to make room for the new gate on the driveway. I tried to save it but it didn't survive. I recently came across a photo of it, so with that in mind I spent some time wandering around the rose garden looking at all the roses, trying to find my long lost rose bush.... Who knew there could be sooo many peachy, pinky roses!

While I was wandering, B and the girls took a nap in the shade of a beautiful tree.

 So many beautiful roses! How will I ever find one like mine?

I'm hoping that our local nursery will be able to identify it, 

that is as soon as I remember to print a picture to take with me.

On our way out we had to stop and take a photo of all the statues. It wouldn't be Huntington Library without stopping to say hello!

What a beautiful afternoon we had, which was finished off nicely at our Daughter and Son in Law's home with a BBQ! 

Creative Moments

 I thought it was time to show you some of my creative moments that I had at the beginning of the year. I was inspired by Lucy from Attic 24 with her Zig Zag Blanket!

 (I'm so excited that I'm getting the hang of linking things.) If you haven't checked out Attic 24 I highly recommend it. Lucy has a lovely colorful and fun blog that I just love visiting from time to time.

It was so fun to make all these wonderful little squares. Although Lucy didn't give a tutorial on them they were quite easy to figure out. I was churning away night after night making all the tiny colorful squares and it was exciting to see them all pilling up beside me so fast.

Miss A had fun playing around with them and finally came up with this pattern for me to sew them into. But I put them away as B and I were going on a trip and I wanted to make something to take 

away with us, so I put them all away for another day!

 But be on the look out for more zig zag blanket adventures as my fingers have been itching as I've been eyeing the baggies of fun squares.

 B and I went on our trip in March to Wales to see Wales win the Rugby Grand Slam. Hubby just couldn't go another year of seeing Wales get into the finals without being there to appreciate the atmosphere. What an atmosphere it is too. It was very exciting to see them win.

So I got to work on making little hats for all the new babies in our family.  I made a few before we left and finished them up when we arrived at my parents home.

I raided my Mum's button tin to finish off the little girl hats! I was quite pleased with them.

Although I have been knitting and crocheting for quite a number of years, I had never made hats before.

I think they turned out really nicely for my first attempt! Don't you?

Thanks for joining me today!
Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear from you!

Relaxing Weekend

Friday Morning I was up bright and early 7:30 am to be precise. It doesn't sound very relaxing so far does it!  I have decided that I need to take advantage of the early mornings, while it's till cool outside! 

My poor little flower bed needed some TLC! So did the pots. They have been very neglected lately.

       

Coffee, tools and gloves all ready for action.

I was very busy and so was our usually very quite cul-de-sac as our neighbor was having a yard sale.

Last years bedding plants are still looking very nice. White Vinca's, and little yellow Viola's.

 So pretty! I didn't think bedding plants would last through the winter, but these have flourished.

 Beautiful Gerber Daisy's! I love the color.

9:45 am and the sun is rising and getting a little hotter.  Time to get something cooler than coffee to drink. I would probably have continued to work on those pots, but I had a precious phone call from my oldest daughter, who just started working this week at the same company as her dad and they invited me and Miss A to go meet them for lunch. So I gladly packed in the gardening for the day and woke Miss A up and off we went to meet them at Marie Callender's for lunch.

Saturday Morning was my Hubby's Birthday! His request for the weekend was to do nothing, nothing at all. We were so busy last month that it was nice not to do much of anything. 

For breakfast he wanted soft boiled eggs and toasted soldiers. It's been a while since I've made soft boiled eggs and although I checked online first, they were still a little over cooked. But they still tasted good.

I just love the egg cups that my Mum bought us last year. So cute and funny! Brings a smile to my face every time I look at them.

And two delicious cups of coffee to follow while we watched an old Carry On movie. We were talking the other day about Carry On Movies and decided we would look on You tube to show the girls a clip so they would know what we were talking about. Lo and behold we found that youtube has entire Carry On movies. So we have been watching them. This morning we watched Carry On Constable. Some of these we haven't seen since we were kids and some of them we've never seen. So corny, they are funny.

We also had a buyer for the last of our 3 kayaks. We had a lot of fun with them, 

but as the girls got older our kayak trips were few and far between. 

 Saturday evening we went to dinner at a restaurant called the Elephant Bar, with our family all except Miss H. We missed not having her with us. But she lives in Santa Monica and couldn't visit this weekend.

 B and I both had the lamb shank, doesn't it look Yummy?

 Miss A's dinner plate was bigger than her face and I was surprised to see she ate it all. 

No Doggy bag for her this time.

My dink looked yummy too. A Jungle Pina Coloda!

Time for Pressies and Cake! Chocolate cake that looks very much like the cake 

B's mum used to make! Chocolate, chocolate. Alas it was store bought but still delicious.

 Sunday morning after skyping with B's sister, we got ready to visit Miss H in Santa Monica for lunch. We met her and her boyfriend at Bru's Wiffle, Waffle Joint.  The food was really good. I took my camera with me, but must get more into the habit of taking it out of my bag and shooting some photo's. We tried to go to the pier after lunch, but the parking was so crazy and Miss H's apartment unfortunately isn't close enough to the beach to walk, that we gave up and will go next time we visit. Seems crazy to me to drive all that way and not go to the beach, but that's exactly what B wanted to do and who am I to argue, after all it was his birthday weekend. 

A few weeks ago Miss R, who has a art degree and who works at an art store called Arron Brothers came home with a bunch of Tim Holtz stuff that was on sale!

 I was so excited as this was all new to me. 

See what little creations I came up with that night!

 I need to go purchase more stamps now to have fun with.

Look what my artistic daughter came home with last night! I guess Sunday was a slow day in the shop and she was experimenting with mats and Tim Holtz embossing powders. Doesn't it look beautiful! I can't wait to put a photo in it and frame it.

Well thanks for joining me looking at my relaxing weekend. 

Now it's time for me to get moving this sunny monday morning.