Brynwood Needleworks Creations...

I don't often buy myself gifts, however I just could not resist some lovely creations my friend Donna of Brynwood Needleworks offered.  I am certain most of you follow Donna and her blog.  On Tuesday's you can read Tag's post there also.  Tag is Donna's Cute Corgi and I am in love with him.
If you have never touched and felt cork fabric you are really missing out.  This blue clutch is cork fabric and I honestly cannot stop caressing it.  This fabric is divine. 

Blue is my color and a little silver sparkle never made me sad so this fabric is perfect.  Donna's workmanship is perfection.  She even included a shiny new lucky penny.  Thank you dear...I forgot to thank you in my card I mailed you.  If you or anyone you know has a need for such a lovely clutch you need to check out her other fabrics and styles also.  I am already thinking of gifts I can have Donna create for my list. Her commissioned works are priority and she is so wonderful to work with.

This is my other much needed gift for myself.  Donna has this limited edition Acorn Wool Pincushion she created and I just knew I must have one.  I shall always look at her work and smile.  Every detail is perfection right down to the tiny acorn charm.  I love how realistic the hand-dyed wool makes the oak leaf come to life.  I am very blessed to be able to enjoy these items now.  Thank you Donna Dear for your amazing Works of HeArt. 
We have had non-stop drenching rain for days and the amount is way over 16 inches.  Our creeks are flooded and our highways (49 and 80) have had major closures due to erosion and mudslides.  Thankfully our trees have remained in the ground and upright.  High winds for a few days made us nervous with all the saturated red clay soil.  Today we are breathing a sigh of relief as the sun shines brightly.  Last night I was all excited to view the Full Snow Moon but clouds covered it and gave us another deluge of rain.  Mr. C is busy making certain all is well with the house and property.  You can find me shining and cleaning just in case someone...maybe the ONE special buyer...would like to see the house and fall in love with it like we did. 
Maybe tomorrow Mr. C and I can get out and about for a few hours.  I know he is wanting to get "his" baby out for a drive.  Enjoy every day...  

Sleep Better Mr. C...

Last year when we stayed with our friend Sandy in Bakersfield to help her when she shattered her shoulder, we slept in her king bed and she slept in her spare twin bed.  Wow!  When you get a really good night's sleep you start to think you might need a new mattress at home.  Sandy's bed was heaven!   As Mr. C the Engineer Extraordinaire always does he began his research.  We visited the custom mattress shop that created her bed.  We learned a lot.  We visited that same store several more times, including a trip to let Sandy order a set up for her twin bed.

Well sadly that shop was not able to ship to us in Northern California.  Mr. C and I even stayed at a particular hotel to test out their bed which was said to be of the same technology as Sandy's.  Well...lots more research by Mr. C and the decision was made.  We began 2017 with a delivery.  Five very heavy boxes containing our new very expensive new technology mattress.

Here is Mr. C making certain everything is in perfect order...from the ground up.  And it was the perfect time to vacuum up very mature dust bunnies.

Lots of heavy lifting of each box up the stairs and voila here we have successfully layered our new mattress and are preparing the cover that holds them all together.  Please ignore the green cups as I was merely covering the large screw that could rip things.  Mr. C took off the long posts at the foot of the bed to ease our job.

Latex foam at its finest makes for an extremely comfortable bed that supports backs and a very good night's sleep.  Hopefully Mr. C can no longer be the "Princess and the Pea".
As I am typing this post we are having a deluge of rain. Thank goodness Mr. C already completed his new improved gutter project. Yes, another well engineered better than new system.  Now he just may have to build an Ark.  Maybe Mark Harmon could come over and they could build it together in my basement?!!  Oh Drat!  I don't have a basement.
Fabulous February is here and we better not blink or it will be gone all too quickly like January was.  What is your favorite thing about February?  Mine is that it brings me closer to Spring.
Happy Hearts and Creative Bliss My Friends.  I am so very grateful for each of you and your gifts of encouraging comments.  Thank You.

Theresa'a Handcrafted Albums...

My friend Theresa is an excellent crafter.  She works wonders with lots of mediums.  Here I want to showcase two card albums she has created for me.  Theresa does not have an active blog however you can find her on FaceBook.  I am very fortunate to receive at least one card per month and they needed a home for safekeeping and display. Theresa came to my rescue.

 The first album she gifted me was full and overflowing.  I didn't even take a photo because so much was falling out onto the table.  Here I am showing both albums once I had reorganized the contents.  Theresa's cards and ATCs and Tags fit so nicely into these hand crafted albums. 

Here you can see the fronts.  She even hand dyed and stamped the fabric for the newest album.  Cards are held into place with fancy yarns tied around the spine. In the newest album I am using all the same ribbon yarn for holding the cards.  These are so beautiful and truly attract attention whenever anyone is over and sees them in my glass cabinet.

Here they are sitting in my glass cabinet awaiting more cards and attention.  I enjoy looking through them from time-to-time.  I have shared Theresa's cards before on my blog and I am continuing to believe she needs to be on a T!m Holtz design team.  Theresa dear I love my gifts and I am truly grateful for our friendship.  Thank you lovely lady.
The sun is shining and the sky is blue.  Winter is very much here and we still have snow on the roof and ground.  Mr. C has had to shovel snow turned to ice off the front walkway and stairs and off the decks. We had a showing this week and we shall continue to wait for the one buyer who loves this home and property as much as we do.  I believe Mr. C and I have been excellent stewards of this special place.
JOYful January continues and we are one day closer to my favorite Summer.  What are you keeping busy with in this cold month of Winter? I am already seeing lots of Valentine happenings.  Maybe it is time for me to do a small display of hearts.  I don't think any potential buyers would mind seeing a few hearts in my home.
I continue to Discover...

Wayne on the Train...

2017 is the year Mr. C aka Wayne wants to have experiences and "Discover".  After having lived here almost 20 years he decided it was time to take the "Snow Train" to Reno.  Well he has selected the perfect time for snow. After 5 years of extreme drought the mountains are getting record snowfall.  Of course he insisted I must also go on this adventure.  No iPad and no hand work and no distractions for me were allowed!  Nothing, nada, zip...He wanted my full attention!

We drove the 12 or so miles to Colfax on Thursday morning to board the 12:21pm California Zephyr headed to Reno.  It was scheduled to arrive at 3:56 pm and we had reservations for one night at Silver Legacy with separate dinner reservations in Reno.

Here I am waiting in Colfax. I had a nice visit with the Colfax Chamber Volunteer Amy and there is a very interesting museum to view at the station.

Along our route we got to see lots of things we never see from the Highway (80) which goes over Donner Summit to Reno.  Here is a good image of the snow as it was softly falling.

This is pulling into the Truckee station. Lots of snow and lots of happy skiers in town.  We are now just about half way to Reno.  The train was full of passengers and we had seats with good views.  The observation car was very crowded so we stayed in our coach most of the time.  Ahhh...with only a few slight delays and very slow going we arrived in Reno just over two hours late.  A short walk in cold but dry and we are in for the night!

Friday we are up early at 6 am to gather ourselves and eat breakfast (we were quite hungry from missing lunch yesterday) before boarding our return train for 8:36 am departure.  Snowing in Reno and for our walk to the depot.  This is a lot of snow for Reno!  Let me just say our train did not depart on time.  We waited a long time and then it was announced that we would be leaving in about 10 minutes and anyone who wanted to get off and smoke or stretch could do so.  Ten minutes honestly turned into 6 hours!!!  Delays due to snow, downed trees on the tracks ahead and so on.  Once we finally got moving we were all relieved to say the least.  This is supposed to be just over a 3 hour return trip to Colfax.

The scenery is stunning.  The Truckee river is flowing with lots of water and the mountains are white with fresh falling snow.  Our trees just may save themselves with moisture they are so desperate for.

Our train traveled slowly and the countryside was beautiful and ethereal.  Wayne is enjoying his train ride.  The wait was long and he has zero patience but I must congratulate him for staying rather calm.  We did have a few people to entertain us and talk with.  Of course there are always a few not so pleasant folks to avoid...so that was a challenge.

Here is Truckee with a lot more snow than yesterday.  I forgot to look at the time but let me just say we are very late and more people are waiting to board.  This California Zephyr (I never got a photo) is the train that travels from Emeryville (San Francisco) to Chicago and back again.

More delays along the way while we waited for snow plows and such.  The snow is really thick!

This is the last photo we took of the trip over Donner Summit.  We were stopped again and it actually got dark.  The train trip is not as nice in the dark because you cannot see anything.  We had such a long stop in the middle of NO WHERE.  This train had no provisions for dinner as their end destination was to be around 5 pm. Oops!  An announcement asked if anyone on board had a can opener.  We all laughed.  Well a gal had one but it wouldn't work.  So another announcement asked if anyone had a real can opener with a dial?  Who travels with such an item?!!  By golly someone had one.  A bit later, around 7 pm, it was announced that the dining car would serve Dinty Moore Beef Stew over rice and would call us up car by car.  If you wished to eat you must hurry and not talk.  Wayne and I were so hungry (any snacks I had brought were long gone...actually I think I ate them on the train ride the day before) we almost ran when our car was called.  I only wish I had a photo!  Bless the staff for trying to feed 200 people overall.  It looked like a small snack plate of doggy delight.  We also got a small bottle of water.  YUM!!!  Thank you very much and I was truly grateful.  There were lots of people who were rude and or didn't want to eat so they stayed in the observation car (remember it is very dark now) and enjoyed lots of alcohol imbibing.  Quite the rowdy bunch but no one got out of line too much. 
 

This little Snow Mouse was created by an adorable little girl while we were still in Reno at the depot.  She was traveling with her younger sister and even younger brother, father and grandmother.  I must say that other than the two littlest ones (maybe 3 and 5) running through the cars they were rather well behaved for such a long short trip.  All in all Wayne and I arrived in Colfax just before midnight!  We were able to get our vehicle and drive home in pouring rain and some fog.  Thankfully our snow was minor and the driveway was clear.  Needless to say we both hibernated most of Saturday and today we are moving very slowly.  Our trip was fun and exhausting.  It truly was an adventure and Wayne got to ride the Snow Train!  I apologize for such a long post but honestly I did leave out a lot to shorten the story.
P.S.  I did tell Mr. C that I will NEVER travel again without some sort of hand work!!!
JOYful January...

Discover Travel Memories...

As I am continuing to sort through stuff and organize my things I have finally taken on the task of documenting previous trips Mr. C and I have taken.  I am not a fan of scrapbooking so I always dread this after the trip chore.  I also save waaaaay too much. Every receipt, napkin, coaster, brochure, ticket stub, hotel card, map and even candy wrappers. I even save wine bottle corks and gelato spoons.  Mr. C saw all of this and promptly said, "Throw that stuff away".  Well I compromised and threw away 17 of the 18 gelato spoons. Then I threw away all receipts and most of every thing I have listed.  In these days of digital photography I don't even have photos to "scrapbook".  We save our digital photos on a DVD that we can play on our TV so we don't even print them out.

I had our 2004 trip to New York City and then on to Russia actually put together in a book.  This was done only because we had friends who were traveling to Russia and wanted hints and tips from our trip. Got it done!

I managed to sort through our 2009 trip to Italy...after throwing away most of my gelato spoons. Yes, I did eat all that gelato and probably lots more.  When I tackle this type of project, I always have to reminisce and go down memory lane and therefore it takes me far longer to accomplish a finished memory book.  I still have a small 2008 trip to British Columbia to document.  And I have a very large 2005 trip to Spain that needs organizing and saved.  Then I have our latest big trip in 2014 to England's Goodwood Festival of Speed and Provence and the Luberon regions of France and my dream-come-true Paris stay.  With our home life in possible transition we are not planning any major trip until 2018.  I'll be ready.  Mr. C already has serious wanderlust.
Today we are having SUNSHINE!!!  Since January 1st we have gotten over 18 inches of rain and almost 9 inches of snow and lots of hail and wind and drizzle.  We feel very fortunate after five terrible years of extreme drought.  Snow pack in the higher elevations is amazing.  Rivers and dams are full and flowing.  Central and Southern California still need lots more rain to offset their drought.  We will be happy with more rain.  Thankfully our huge tall forest trees are still standing upright...so far.  We do have more storms coming next week.
Life is good and we feel blessed.  May each of you be enjoying your January.  Discover is working for me and I shall continue to be open to new ideas, experiences and Creative Bliss.