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. 

May

My very first Mosaic! Thank you Sue from The Quince Tree for all your help!

Lesson Learned

I learned a few valuable lessons yesterday and I've been mulling them over ever since. I wasted quite a long time writing my post only to press the wrong button and have everything disappear into thin air never to be seen again. I was so upset and no matter what I did I couldn't make it come back. I had spent two hours of my time with nothing to show for it. So I had to start all over again..... and I didn't put quite as much detail into it as I wanted because I was very frustrated to say the least and had lots of other things that I needed to get accomplished beside sitting at my computer all day.

 

       1.      Don't wait so long in between each post (even if I'm super busy).
       2.      Do not try to cram a whole months worth of posts into one. (it takes way too long!).
       3.      Don't forget to add things that you wanted to post, like important photo's that might lead 

                into another post.

       4.      Press the SAVE button thingy at the top now and again. (Yes, important must do NOW.)
       5.      Don't try to delete the photo's in your download file because...................................      

                 YOU LOOSE THE ENTIRE POST!!!!!!!!

Yes, that's what happened yesterday morning!  :(

I have well and truly learned my lesson. Thanks for joining me this morning. 

P.S. I didn't have to start all over again. I'm one very happy camper.

May Madness

I know, as the saying goes, it should be March Madness or as 'Mad as a March Hare'!

But, May has been a very mad and crazy month! I've had very few days to relax and when I did 

I was so exhausted I just veged!

May 9th was Miss A's Senior High School Cabaret Concert with Choir. 

Yes Miss A can sing! Quite well I might add! 

One day if she gives me her permission I might post one of her songs on here.

She sang a solo that she wrote and composed.  It was beautiful.

A Medley of Bye Bye Birdie! They did a great job as they have done every year!

Our seniors singing their last farewell. 

It is quite sad to think that this was the last time that we will see Miss A perform on her 

High School Stage. Their Choir teacher is a wonderful lady 

and will be missed by both students and parents.

May 13th was Mother's Day!

 I will never understand how the U.K. celebrate's mothers day in March and the U.S. celebrate's in May, while father's day is in June in both countries and on the same day! Oh well, I had a wonderful day with my family. We actually celebrated on saturday 12th as that's when everyone was available. We also got to Skype with my Lovely Mum in Wales. My Mum looks forward to her USA Mother's Day each year, she says she gets to celebrate it twice. :D

Look at my beautiful flower arrangement?

 I just adore the red gerber daisies against the while calla lilies.

The girls made panini's for lunch and we ate outside in the sunshine.

I was quite spoiled that day!

May 14th was Choir Banquet. 

It was a Hawaiian Luau theme with lots of lovely decorations,

 shells and leis. 

Did I mention that over the course of the month I had 7 teenage girls come to make a video of the pictures of the school year events. Stress, Stress, Stress, as some of the kids were 30 minutes late finishing up the video. But it was well worth it and all the choir kids enjoyed it.

Some of the treasures Miss A came away with from the Banquet.

 May 23rd Graduation Day finally arrives. 

Dress and Gown and all her awards are ready and waiting.

Lots of ropes and tassels we are so incredibly proud of our baby girl.

The ceremony was at our local baseball stadium.

Miss A and some of the choir kids sang the National Anthem. 

My photo didn't come out very well, but you get the idea.

 The procession starts.

Turning of the tassels.

YAY! FINALLY GRADUATES!

May 26th a visit to LACMA (Los Angeles County Mesuem of Art).

Miss R is a graduate of Art and loves this place. She will be going to live with her grandparents in Wales come August so was her last chance to visit.

After our visit to LACMA we had family and friends over to celebrate Miss A's Graduation. 

We are SO PROUD OF OUR GRADUATE!

The very next day, yes I know I'm glutton for punishment we had a baby shower for my friends daughter.

She had a very sweet baby boy.

 Look at those tiny feet.

There was lots of other things that happened in-between all the craziness of May. But I will save that for another post as this is the 2nd time I've tried to post this and accidentally lost it all once. I will be sure not to do that again. 

Thanks for joining me and taking a look at My Mad May!