From Our Home To Yours Happy Thanksgiving!

 

To all our family and friends, near and far, we wish you a Thanksgiving filled with love, joy and contentment.

With love,

Noreen,  John, Hunter and Emmy

Our New Addition Emmy

Hello Friends, Lest you think I've flown away never to return, I figured I'd better fill you in on what's been happening with us. In October hubby and I joined our dear friends Steve and Shelley Collins and went up to Custer City, South Dakota for three nights of camping. We have so fallen in love with this state and the Black Hills and love getting up there each year. We are already talking about next year's trip. It seems the rest of October flew by. Hubby and I have always had two dogs and clearly see the benefits of it. It had always been on my mind to get another dog to keep Hunter company, but it never seemed to develop. We happened to watch our friends Havanese for a little over a week and Hunter was so happy; I started looking into that breed, but clearly felt that was not the right direction for us. As many of you know, our daughter's family has a Standard Poodle that they bred and I love poodles, especially the larger ones. Both daughters have a Standard and I quickly came to realize that this size was just too much dog for us. I happened across the breeders website that one came from and they had a good selection of Moyen size puppies available. One thing led to another and within one week we were heading to Idaho to pick up our new puppy. Please meet Emmy. Moyen size poodles are between a miniature and a standard size. Emmy should get to 17" tall and 20 lbs., just a little bigger than Hunter. It was a long drive to get here-drove there on Monday, met her and the breeder and went back Tuesday morning to pick her up and head home. Emmy is 4 mos old and such a gem. As a puppy, Hunter was quiet and very shy and Emmy is the same. We've had her for two weeks and she is settling in well; she is still shy and gets scared at new noises, but sleeps all night in her crate and has even been going on walks with us. I'm starting to teach her some basics and she loves snuggling. 

Day Two at our daughter's house, meeting the other dogs in the family.

Don't Hunter and Emmy look cute together.

Exploring the yard and finding leaves to play with.

She loves sitting on the hearth.

One funny trait she has is laying down to eat her kibble. I'm about ready to upgrade her bowl.

 Of course we had to puppy proof the entire house and have crates in different areas.  She makes me laugh and keeps me going with taking her outside to go to the bathroom.

I hope you are all well and enjoying each day! Happy Thanksgiving to you!

Joyfully, 

Noreen, Hunter and Emmy

Homespun Devotions-A Treasure

 

Good morning friends, I hope you are all well and enjoying the changing of the seasons! One of the many blessings of the blogging world is that you get to know some incredible people. Over the years you feel like they are family and even though you haven't met, there is a kindship you share. I've followed Cheryl Smith for years, can't tell you how many exactly. I feel like I've known her for decades.  Cheryl is a remarkable woman of faith, wife, mother, friend.  Her outlook on life is one of quietness and strength.

When she first posted about her new book, I was immediately drawn to it, due to the quilt and the guitar.  Her writings draw you into a quieter time without the distractions of our world today. I have imagined sitting with Cheryl sipping tea or coffee and just sharing heart to heart. Her devotions are like that; they are stories of everyday life, blessings and trails and how Jesus met her in each place.  Let there be no mistake though, Cheryl is a fierce prayer warrior and tiger when necessary.  She has written another book called Biblical Minimalism: Following Jesus from a Life of Abundance to a More Abundant Life.

This dear friend has such an encouraging way about her and it shows on the pages of her devotional book. The chapters are short and cause you to stop and think about the lessons learned.  I can pick up this book whenever I feel the need to draw closer to the Lord; she inspires me to dig deeper in the Word and spend time alone with Him.  This is available on Amazon and you won't be disappointed!  

Blessings to you!

Noreen

Hello Fall

Hello friends, I'm not even going to try to make any excuses for why I haven't been around; just decided to show you. This last week we went camping up in northern Wyoming, to an area we hadn't been to before. It was quite the drive-7 hours and the elevation of the campground was 8,300+'. It was so beautiful! I thought you'd enjoy the photos. We hiked around the lake two days; the afternoon we got there was so cold and cloudy that we just had dinner with our friends and caught up on their camping adventure from the last two weeks.  You will notice the sky was absolutely clear, no smoke at all. This is the road in the campground....stunning.

This is the tail end of the lake we hiked around. Actually part of the trial went through marsh type grasses.

I always take old clothes to wear, but we will be adding more items-hats and gloves to our trailer for our next trip.  

Hubby and our friend with our two little white dogs. Hunter loves their Havenese-they get along so well.

Hunter after the walk-so tired.

We so enjoyed camping with our close friends, eating good meals and even watching a couple of movies-who does that camping? Well if it is freezing outside, we do.  Yesterday was a long drive home, due to Wyoming's notorious winds.  Had to stop for gas more than usual, due to the winds. Our vehicles were really working hard.  We decided we'd love to go back, but stay longer and hopefully have two kayaks with us to put in the lake.  Lots of fishing happening, but we don't fish.  

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the change of season.  Stay healthy friends.

Hugs,

Noreen
 

Goodbye Summer

Hello friends, lest you think I've vanished off the face of the earth I thought I'd share a couple of pictures from a recent trip hubby and I took. Two weeks ago we drove out to Lake Tahoe for five days; hubby spent most of his childhood summers there and our family always made it a vacation destination. In the past, there has always been a boat concourse and we've enjoyed going to it. Last year it was cancelled due to Covid, but it looked like it would be held this summer. We bought tickets and invited some close friends to join us at Tahoe and go to it. Unfortunately, the boat show was cancelled again. The other couple chose to pass and we decided to drive out anyway. I can tell you the drive was tiring! Along with the long days of driving, throw in the Dixie fire and dangerous air quality. We did get to walk around Hot August Nights car show and then spend three days there. South Shore Tahoe is not what it used to be and we both decided we don't need to go back. While we were there, we couldn't do any hikes we had planned and so drove to Fallen Leaf Lake~another hot spot for hubby's teen years. I couldn't pass up this shirt.

It took us two days to get home, only to find out the air quality was just as bad as there.  We decided to run up to one of our favorite Colorado get aways-Steamboat Springs. The air was clear and it was as delightful as ever to visit.  We only spent two nights there and hiked one morning.  

I sent these pics to my girls and was immediately informed that their dad who was styling a fanny pack for carrying water bottles, is really in style-as these are coming back again.  What???  

 WE had a lovely time and a couple of delicious dinners.  We're home now with our busy schedules keeping us running in different directions.  

I hope you are all well. 

Hugs,

Noreen

Memorial Day

Hello All,  Last weekend hubby and I flew to Northern California to attend a 70th birthday party for hubby's brother's birthday.  What's a gal to do, but call her brother and sister of her heart asking them to pick us up at the airport and then go to lunch before we headed to hubby's sister's house.  My brother and sister in law found The Waffle Experience that was in close proximity to where his sister lives and we enjoyed lunch there.  From left to right-hubby, sister of my heart, my brother(both who we hadn't seen for 1.5 yrs) and myself.  We had a such a great time catching up, but sadly it was over too soon.

Hubby's sister has several passions, one being gardening.  While she has quite a small home, she has about 1/3 acre in the back yard.  She has landscaped it beautifully and loves spending time weeding and redoing plants. She has at least 10 Japanese Maples, hubby is standing in front of one.  Their dad loved these trees and had a yard filled with them; hence each of the four siblings love them as well.  We had so many in Santa Rosa, but they aren't as hardy here.  We do have one Lacy Leaf Japanese Maple in the front yard and a miniature in the back yard.  We have to go to some lengths to help them survive our snowy winters.

We had a wonderful two days with hubby's family and surprised his brother who couldn't believe we flew out just to attend the party.  When we got home all my Iris plants were in bloom in the back yard.  I call this garden area the "Loretta" garden after my mom, who loved Iris plants and my dear friend Loretta who gave me all the bulbs that bloomed here.

 This weekend we will celebrate one granddaughter's birthday and then it will be relaxed.

Hope you have a great day!

Hugs,  Noreen

Gourmet Delight

The Broadmoor Hotel is incredible and needless to say we had never experienced anything this high end before.  The food was so delicious; the seafood croquette was so good.  Somehow the photo of hubby's dinner didn't turn out, but he loved the Rack of Lamb.  

For breakfast Friday morning we enjoyed another great meal-I had an Egg White Frittata  and hubby had a simple egg breakfast with all the trimmings.

One of the many delicacies was this Rose Water Raspberry Macaroon.  Let's just say I knew I'll be needing to cut back on calories when we returned home.

 We so enjoyed ourselves and it started our Memorial Day weekend off on a good note.

Joy to you. Noreen

Celebrations

Hello and Happy June to you! Last Thursday, hubby and I went on an adventure to Colorado Springs to celebrate both of our birthdays and our upcoming 44th anniversary.   We started by driving around Garden of the Gods, remembering a family trip taken years ago.  It was a beautiful day, but cold and windy.

Our destination was a hotel that we've heard about for years and wanted to experience-The Broadmoor. It did not disappoint.  This is a very expensive high end hotel that was worth every penny, even if just for a night.  

The next picture is of a beautiful room that used to be an ice rink and many famous skaters, including Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill and Scott Hamilton perfumed there. Everything about this hotel exudes elegance.

 I will share some of our food entrees tomorrow.  Initially we thought we'd wait until our 50th wedding anniversary to go back, but we are both talking about possibly next year to celebrate turning 70.  

Hugs, Noreen

Spring Is Here

Hello friends,  Just about the time I think I'm back on schedule with blogging, life shows me I'm not. Now that spring is here, camping has begun again.  Two weeks ago we went to our favorite local lake and camped for a night, making sure everything was running well with our trailer.  Then this week we headed up to the Rockies for two nights with our dear friends. This is the view we had, it was so beautiful.  It's been almost 11 years since we camped here. It is dry camping, which is a change for us- but fun all the same.  

It was a bit cold and the ground was wet from heavy rains on Monday, so Hunter wore his jacket the entire time.

Another great view; this area reminded us of the Sierra's.

Of course, Wednesday afternoon a thunder/hail storm rolled through for about 30 minutes. It looked like it had snowed.

Our friends had two dogs with them and Hunter enjoys them both, but loves Milo(on the right).

Our campsite had a spring running through it so we hung out in our friends campsite.  

I can't believe how fast May has flown by; this coming week is crazy for us with lots of commitments.

Take care and enjoy every day.

Noreen

He Is Risen

 For those of us who are Christians, today is a special celebration.  Death did not conquer the Son Of God, He conquered sin and death.  May you day be filled with Thankfullness of all He has done for you.

We will be celebrating with 19 family members at our home, enjoying warm sunshine and the blessings of family.

Joy to you.

Noreen

Good Friday

Many around the world hold today to be a Holy Day, in which our Lord and Savior gave His all for us. 

Remember the sacrifice that was made that you might live, eternally and abundantly.

Blessings,

Noreen

Hello!  Where have the days gone?  Here we are almost done with February and March is right at the door; I obviously have been so busy that I haven't spent any time here.   I guess it's been so long and rearranging photos here has changed-so forgive me that they are out of order.  The first photo of a purse I made starting at the end of January-it was a pattern called Bowl Me Over 2.0 by Annie's.  I got the pattern one year ago, at the Road to California quilt show that I attended with my best friend Barbara.  At the time, I looked at the example and thought it looked simple enough-but, oh my it has some challenging aspects.  The are three zippered compartments, two of the zippers were cut down to size.  It also has the front flap pocket and inside has a divided pocket. I loved the fabric and so does hubby; in fact he is still so disappointed we couldn't go to Maui last year that he's saying Maui or bust. This coming week some of our neighbors are going and he's whining, a lot.  Hopefully by the fall we will be feeling more comfortable with going.  

Now this is out of order, but while I was trying to finish my purse, I decided to make all 8 granddaughters and two daughters a mug rug(aka fabric coaster)for our annual Valentine's Day luncheon.  This was a quick and easy pattern and fun to do for them.  Of course, during the two weeks prior to the luncheon, we had granite installed in our daughter's home and also new carpet installed in several rooms in our home.  Talk about too many pots of the fire.  The girls loved their mug rugs and I was also able to help a good friend make two for her granddaughters.

This is the front of the purse; all in all I love it, just not sure I would use a pattern by Annie's again. I found that we have to make the body oversized, quilt it, install the three zippers and then cut it down to this size. It wasted a lot of fabric. The other thing I found out that attaching a binding onto four layers of quilted fabric was difficult at best; it may be my skill level is not as high as it needed to be.

Well now that my projects are done, I'm starting one last Patchabilities wall hanging that I will have done by March; you may remember that I made one for every month last year.  Our mini group decided to make a list of ten projects or unfinished projects to complete this year; our leader lets us know what number to work on each month.  It's a great way to get things completed. 

I hope you are all well and staying healthy!  

Hugs,

Noreen

 Hello friends,  Oh my where have the days gone?! I thought sure I had been here since the New Year entered in, but so much has been going on lately that time has slipped away.  I have been dealing once again with my blood pressure, so have limited my time on social media; in fact, I am now also on MeWe and try my best to stay off of FB. We are no longer listening to MSM's news, except for weather.  I have been sewing more, walking and focusing on the blessings of today.

Blessings to you!

Noreen