2011 Southern California Quilt Run Day Two

We visited 11 quilt shops and traveled over 200 miles today.

Fabric for a bunting or banner:

Quilt in a Day, San Marcos.  The last time I visited this shop, Nicholas wasn't
even two years old.

One of our favorites:

This is such a friendly store with a variety of all things fabric
and handicraft.

What a perfectly lovely day.

First Weekend of Quilt Run

Last weekend we started the quilt run.  Before the quilt run we visited one of our favorite destinations.

Summers Past Farms Lavender Day.  This nursery has grown over the past few years.  We have spent many pleasure filled hours visiting this very special place.

Fennel or funcho in Portuguese.  My mom would make a lovely
soup from the greens.

Quilt Run 2011

My favorite shop so far....

Oh yeah we will be returning to Ramona to visit this very special
shop chuck full of sewing, decorating and crafting inspiration.

Happy Father's Day

Some where in Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture he says something like it matters more if you know your parents loved you than if they are alive.  For me this is true.  My father passed when I was 24 but we had lost him years before to Alzheimer's.   In the years since his passing I have never once wondered if he loved me or if I mattered.  I was and am confident in my knowledge that I was deeply loved.  My father never raised his hand or voice to me and this led me to the crazy idea that I should never allow any other man to do either and so it has been.  His loving influence was powerful and guaranteed a life of not settling in relationships or anything else.  

My father's dad died when he was only seven and as the oldest of three boys it must have been very difficult.  My grandmother, Ursula, was only 27 at the time.  She never remarried and worked as a teacher to support her three little boys.  It was 1927, just let that sink in for a bit.  Think about what it must have been like.  During the school year, grandmother was only home during the weekends because she had to work on a different island during the week. My great-grandmother and great-grandfather raised the three boys.  My father only ever spoke of his great-grandmother. I regret not asking him about his recollections.   From my mother, I learned that he adored his grandmother and was brokenhearted when she passed.

He did reminiscence about her johnny cakes.  A recipe she may have learned while living in New Bedford, Massachusetts where my Greats lived and my grandmother was born in December of 1900.  My father wasn't openly demonstrative and I am sure he wasn't coddled growing up but I always knew he loved me. My father loved chocolate and would eat all the things I would bake for him especially chocolate chip cookies and German chocolate cake.  He communicated with animals in a very rare and mystic way.  The love of animals was inherited by all his children.  We were allowed keep a variety of creatures.

Here he is looking quite dapper in his official Portuguese Army photo in his 20s  long before he married my mother in 1946.  My father and mother in their passport photos in 1976.  He is 56 and mother is 47.  In his green card photo he is 49.  Father had a gorgeous head of hair until his passing at the age of 68.

My father's influence finally led me to a man who is not only a wonderful husband and best friend but the most amazing Daddy.  Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful men that have positively influenced their children.

Southern California Quilt Run

Southern California Quilt Run starts this weekend.  There is the Lavender Day this Saturday, June 18.

This is our girl last year at Huck Finn Jubilee which happens this weekend, too.

Fourteen Years

I have been rather quiet working away on my Masters in Public Administration.  I have another week and I will have a total of six classes remaining.  Lee is so proud to remind me that I have more behind me then in front of me.  (Of school that is.)

Public employees have taking a beating lately and this blog is more about my home passion than my professional passion but I wonder on this date where Lee and I celebrate 14 years of dating if you would indulge me just a bit.

I, like countless other public employees, work my bottom off because we believe in what we do.  Public employees, at least the ones you never hear about, are honest, dedicated and passionate about delivering services for the greater good.  I didn't fall into this career, I hand picked it because I love my adopted county because there are so many people, people that were born here, served their county, raised their families, and if they are lucky, grow old here, but they don't have a voice.

God, blessed me with passion, a deep and empathetic nature, just enough disability and the love of learning and writing.  God, more than anything,  blessed me with a voice.  My high school English teacher would say bellow, Eugenia.  Bellow.

If you would like things to change, if you want a national energy policy, healthcare that works, your politicians to leave Social Security and Medicare alone,  a policy to manage the housing fiasco and foreclosure nightmare write  or call your representative. Don't say your are going to do it.  Do it.   Tell your representatives to get back to work, to work together or they will be fired just like you would be fired if you didn't do your job.  It is time America got back to work.  Thank you for indulging my passion.

My other passion is my beloved family.

I have been staring at the background photo below from Fleamarket Style magazine for months. Turquoise is our birthstone but until now I didn't have an affinity for it.  This image, however, stuck with me.  I literally would sit studying every detail.  So in planning our trip to Las Vegas,  I sought out a turquoise dealer.  A-Traders Turquoise Chief  is where we scored the vintage bracelet below.  I am wearing it proudly with the bracelet I have worn everyday since we got married nearly 10 years ago.

This style is called needlepoint.  Isn't that lovely?

PAD

I have.....
















How did I miss....
















Little mama gift for me...

Looking forward to a Get-Along weekend.

Glow in the Dark Chalk

fim de semana

Happy weekend everyone.  We absolutely positively LIVE for the weekend.

Here at Pumpkin Cottage, almost any creative endeavor goes.
The cheesy vinyl flooring finally went.

In its place.   Temporary glow in the dark chalk.





Time in the garden.

A bit of window shopping.

Cactus and Succulents

Jacob is a big fan of cactus and succulents.
This was a road trip u-turn.

We hope that our excursions lead to a love of discovery and life
long learning.

Joshua Tree

The World Famous Crochet Museum in Joshua Tree:

VoVo heaven.  She would have loved this experience.  A tiny space
jam packed with inspiration and pure grandma love.  There are hours
and hours of devotion in each piece.

Lamp Debute

Way back in September I shared this lamp.


Midway.

Here it is finally finished.  Rewired and dressed to impress.