Category Archives: Mosaic Monday

Are We There Yet?

Yep…I’m ready to arrive in Spring already. How many miles do we need to go to get to Spring, Washington?  Some of you will think of me as a whiner because you put up with way harsher winters than me. I did enjoy the change of landscape and the photo opportunities. I do not drive in the snow in Seattle because of all our very steep hills. Since I end up staying home till the roads clear I can get a little stir crazy.

After our gazebo collapsed we shoveled all the snow off the deck and it’s still clear. The snow is melting off the roofs and slowly melting off the yards and streets.

We got out and about Saturday and Sunday. We went to our Mexican restaurant down the hill for dinner last night and this morning we went to church. It was great to get out. After church we did a little shopping and now it feels good to be sitting at home again. So far we have been fortunate to have not lost power. Katie and Andrew continue their journey across the U.S. from Salt Lake City to North Carolina tomorrow. Dear goes back to work tomorrow and I have errands to run all over town. Hope you had a nice weekend.

I’m linking up with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday!

Transitions in Mosaics…

We are in transition mode around this old house. One project seems to lead to another.

Although that tower CD holder held all our CD’s it was very hard to find the right CD looking sideways and very difficult for my failing close up reading abilities to read the titles of the CD’s on the bottom of the tower. Since we have room under the hearth we decided to go with these baskets to hold the CD’s. I can pull the baskets out and easily read the titles. Before Katie moved to North Carolina she alphabetized the CD’s in the tower by artist. I kept them that way when I switched them to the baskets.

I first put them in the center together but found out that this area gets warm from the fireplace so I put them on opposite sides. I also re-arranged the floral containers. I’m happy with these changes for now.

Soon I’ll be able to show you the redecorated Guest Room #2. Dear and our son Josh picked up new mattresses on Saturday and Laura and I put the bed linens on the bed. This was the first bed set Dear and I bought ourselves way back in the 70’s. We pulled out Katie’s old metal bunk bed and replaced it with our Queen Anne 4 poster bed. Stay tuned for the whole transition in the near future.

I’m also in process of creating a tablescape. These goblets are an odd shade of green/blue and I haven’t found the right fit for them on a table until yesterday. I’ll come up with the rest of the setting for later in the week.

We had a good productive weekend. Our pastor started a new series of messages today called “Desperate Days”. Judging from today’s message we are going to learn a lot.  Hope you are all doing well.

Linking up with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

The Atlantic

On our last full day in North Carolina we headed on an adventure to the seashore. We traveled east to Emerald Isle/Crystal Coast of N.C.

We traveled the length of Emerald Isle across to the mainland to Beaufort.

We walked along the sand and collected a couple handfuls of shells.

It was good to walk along the beach again. It’s been a long time since our weekly walks along the Pacific Ocean.

Seems like mushrooms can grow in many environments…

Here are the shells we collected.

I’ll share our stops at the aquarium, Beaufort, and Fort Macon in the next few days.

On Saturday after our day out Dear and I left for the airport home. It was hard to say goodbye to Katie and leave her alone. We know she’ll do well and that soon she’ll be reunited with Andrew. I also know I will have those tearful moments as I adjust to our empty nest. The triggers that lead to tears vary. The first trigger was walking past Katie’s room. Oops! I might just have to redecorate sooner than later. But first I need to start getting our home ready for our Christmas celebrations!

I’m linking up for Mosaic Monday with Mary at Little Red House.

Matryoshka Bridal Shower

On Saturday we had a Northwest Bridal Shower for Katie with a Matryoshka Theme.

The Bride Katie

Katie and Laura, sisters by marriage.

The color theme was purple, deep red, and gold.

I was so busy I forgot to take photos of all the other food. We had Savory Blintzes, a Quinoa taboulleh salad, orange-mango chicken salad, pumpkin praline trifle, and pumpkin spice cookies.

It was a fun reunion of friends who have touched Katie’s life over the years. Katie’s maid of honor, Jamie, led us in prayers for Andrew and Katie and she ended with a prayer of blessing on her friend. Such a wonderful dear time we had. Katie was showered with blessings and nice gifts. At the end of our evening the power went out so we rushed around lighting more candles. My sister Lana escorted all our guests to their cars with a flashlight!

I have to admit that I am wiped out today. We couldn’t clean up last night because we had no power so I went over to Lana’s this morning to gather my stuff and to help clean up. By the time I got there Lana had everything washed and ready to go so all I had to do was load up my car. Everything is put away in it’s place here at my house now and I’m just gonna sit around the rest of the day!

I’m linking up with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

Happy Hours While We May…

Dear and I are enjoying many happy hours of different types while Katie is still under our roof.

 

On Friday we went to a restaurant Happy Hour at a new place for us in Kirkland, Washington at Carillon Point. Le Grand Bistro Americain served up some good eats for us.

 

 

The views were lovely filled with boats, water and dramatic sky.

 

I’m linking up with Mary at Little Red House since she has her power back now for Mosaic Monday. Glad you are out of the dark Mary!

Another busy week ahead for me. Tomorrow I have to go to the dentist for my first crown experience…ugh! I will not be pleased if it interferes with my joy of eating experience! We are in count down mode here…22 days till Katie moves to North Carolina. This Saturday there’s a Northwest bridal shower for her at my sister Lana’s house. Looking forward to having a time of celebration with friends who have touched Katie’s life. We’re choosing joy each day and being thankful for all we have.

As if…

…I needed it confirmed yet again, my name is Ellen and I’m horrible at crafting! I am real good at recognizing wonderful craft projects and appreciating wonderful craft projects. Not so fond of the mess and time it takes to create a craft especially when this is how my efforts turn out…

Please, go ahead and laugh because the 4 of us around the crafting table were rolling in laughter at my angry Matryoshka!

My sister Lana, Katie, Laura, and I had a great time laughing through our creating endeavors. We really had high hopes of making many of these little dolls but those hopes were dashed after 3 hours with only these to show for our efforts.

Even though we knew it would be easier and faster to create more after we worked through the process once,  we looked at each other and decided it just wasn’t worth it.

Just so you know that I can learn from my mistakes here is how my 2nd one turned out…she’s not as angry as my first one!

You might also find it cool that I did not pass on my crafting genes to our daughter Katie as you’ll see in the next photo of her Matryoshka.

Our time together was fabulous. We all needed that good kind of laughter that brings tears to your eyes. Yummy savory blintzes, pumpkin cookies, Monk’s brewed tea, and background music added a lot to our good time.

Earlier in the morning I took off for a 5.5 mile walk with a couple good friends of mine. When I returned home I was greeted with a new faucet in my sink that Dear installed.

His handy man skills are never in question! I’m looking forward to enjoying my new faucet especially since it doesn’t show spots like my old one did.

Hope you had a nice weekend. I’m thinking about my bloggy friends that might have lost power in that surprise snow storm back East. Hope you are all sitting in front of a cozy fire and drinking something hot!

I’m linking up with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday . I think Mary might be one of the many people who have lost power. Hope you get power back soon Mary! Stay warm…

West Coast Women’s Show

On Friday I traveled North to British Columbia to meet up with some of the Mennonite Girls for the West Coast Women’s Show. Anneliese offered me a room for the night so I headed to her house after I crossed the border. She showed me to my comfortable quarters for the night where I changed into my show clothes and we headed to Tradex next to the Abbotsford Airport.

The Mennonite Girls Can Cook authors were invited to be a part of the Winks’ booth at the West Coast Women’s Show in Abbotsford, B.C. Wendy the owner of Winks has a very generous approach to her business and her customers. Besides all her fabulous wares she decided to feature our book. We divided up the time to be at the booth between the girls that were available this weekend. Anneliese and I were on duty from 5 till 10 P.M. on Friday night.

Saturday we were on again from 10:00 A.M. till Noon. We met a lot of great ladies throughout the show and we signed a lot of books.

Part of our time there was spent on the cooking stage. We had 2 presentations. One on Saturday and one on Sunday. At noon on Saturday we headed to the kitchen stage to prep before our presentation.

We were happy to see a lot of friendly faces in the crowd.

Judy, Lovella, Anneliese, Julie, Marg and I were part of the kitchen crew on Saturday. We made Anneliese’s Waffles with Vanilla Custard Sauce and Mixed Berry topping. We also made Judy’s Ham and Egg cups. Chef Dez introduced us and joined us on stage.

After we were done I headed back home to the U.S.A. I drove for two hours in pouring rain. It was wonderful to finally pull into my garage and even better to walk into my family room to see our son Dan. He lives 6 hours away and I hadn’t seen him for several months. We all went out for dinner and came home again for some Rock Band and then we watched the Sounders Soccer Team play their last season game against Chivas on T.V.

Dear, Me, Dan, Katie, Laura, and Josh. (The only family member not in this photo is Andrew who is serving in Afghanistan right now)

It made me smile to see that Dan has really acclimated to his new surroundings out in the country. He’s really enjoying riding horses out into the wilderness and now he’s wearing these…

So another weekend filled to the brim with friends and family. Life is rich. How’s life treating you?

Seaplanes

 

“Kenmore Air was founded in 1946 by three high school friends, reunited after
World War II. With one airplane, and a single hangar near a swamp at the North
end of Lake Washington, Bob Munro, Reg Collins, and Jack Mines gave birth to
what was to become one of the largest and most respected seaplane operations in
the world.

Today, Kenmore Air is among the best-known and most respected float
plane operations in the world, flying an eclectic mix of piston Beavers and
turbine Otters and Caravans, landing passengers on glaciers, lakes and harbors
among the mist-shrouded fjords and islands of the U.S. and Canadian northwest. “

 

One of the options for my daughter and son-in-law’s get-away from their wedding site is to leave on a seaplane. Wouldn’t that be dramatic and fun?! Might be a little hard to tuck the wedding dress in while she boarded, though. Tomorrow we get the fun task of tasting several menu choices for the wedding. They told us to come hungry. We are really looking forward to seeing and tasting the choices we have.

I’m linking up with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

Mini Book Tour Mosaics ~

The Mennonite Girls had a very busy Saturday with 6 Canadians traveling across the border from Canada to the U.S.A. Saturday morning.  6 Canadians plus 1 American traveling across the line to Canada Saturday afternoon and 1 American traveling back to the U.S.A. Saturday evening.  Did you follow that?

First stop was at the Bellingham, Washington Barnes and Noble store. I drove north from the Seattle area to join my Canadian friends who traveled south across the border. It was a nice relaxed time of signing books and talking to old friends and new friends. One of our bloggy friends who we had never met face to face, Debora from(Whatsovever Things Are Lovely), stopped by and we had a great time chatting about blogs and adventures we’d like to have in the future.  A dear friend of mine from our former church who lives in the Bellingham area stopped by to have her book signed. Such a fun surprise to see her. Kathy had 2 elderly relatives stop by. They were so sweet and it was so much fun listening to them.

Debora is standing with me behind the girls. In the lower photos in the mosaic are Kathy’s relatives and my friend Cindy.

After our time at Barnes and Noble we decided to stop at the Olive Garden in Bellingham and have some lunch before we all headed across the border to Canada. We had the all you can eat soup and salad. What a great deal for a good meal. Next stop Ten Thousand Villages in Vancouver, Canada.

This and the next mosaic are a combination of both of our book signing stops. The employees at both venues were wonderful. The new friends we met that have enjoyed cooking the recipes in our book were very encouraging. We were blessed to hear stories of courage and success in coming to a new country and thriving. We also heard of goals in the future that were an inspiration.

In this mosaic the top photo is from Ten Thousand Villages on Commercial in Vancouver and the bottom two are from Barnes and Noble in Bellingham.

While we were busy out here in the West our two Prairie Girls were signing books at the Henderson Ten Thousand Villages.

It was a full wonderful day of fun and fellowship.

The girls dropped me off at my car in Canada at a little after 7 P.M. I headed for the border and had one of my best border crossings ever. I stopped at the booth and handed the U.S. Border Agent my passport. He asked me the typical questions. When he asked me why I was in Canada I said I was at a book signing at Ten Thousand Villages. He asked me if I was an author. I told him I was one of 10. He asked me what the name of the book was. I told him Mennonite Girls Can Cook. He smiled real big and said, my wife follows you girls and has made a lot of good stuff. He then patted his Kevlar vest and said he’s put on some weight. I smiled and said, me, too.  Ha! He said wait until I tell my wife…

I’m joining with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

I am continuing to have a problem posting comments on some blogger blogs. I’ve been working down the line on Mosaic Monday links and there are several that will not accept my comments. If you don’t see a comment from ellen b. that is probably why…so sorry.

9-11-11

Yesterday at the Seattle Sounders Soccer game there were these little flags placed in every cupholder in the stadium. From the 9th minute of the game until the 11th minute of the game everyone in the stadium raised their flag in tribute to all the lives lost 10 years ago today. A chant started around the stadium U-S-A, U-S-A. It was a moving tribute. When the game was over I was surprised at how many of the little flags were just left behind. Our son Josh and I picked up about 100 of them. This morning I placed them on our fence along with pleated fans. Our flag is also flying at half staff. It’s true that all of us who were alive that day will never forget the images we saw.

A Psalm of David. Psalm 23 (ESV)

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
 He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
 He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
   for hisname’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
   I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
   your rod and your staff,
   they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
   in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
   my cup overflows.
 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
   all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
   forever.

I’m linking up today with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

FYI: There are some of your blogger blogs where I am unable to comment. When I try it sends me to a page that says that I’m denied access to your blog. If in the near past you had comments from me on your blog but all of a sudden I’m absent…this is why.