HAPPY EASTER!

The Easter Bunny made his appearance a day early at Trilogy and our granddaughters were lucky enough to catch him and sit on his lap for a picture. Afterward they got to play in the jump house, have their faces painted and play numerous carnival like games for prizes. They had a ball and thought it was a perfect way to celebrate their mommies birthday!

We took these pictures this morning at church. Both girls looked so cute in their fancy matching dresses.
Here they are with my mom.
Hanna loved her pretty dress and how puffy the skirt was.
All the excitement finally took its toll on Sofia and she just konked out!
It was a beautiful warm day to celebrate Easter. We had the family over this afternoon for a BBQ. Hanna entertained all of us with her new baton that we gave her as part of her Easter present. We missed not being able to have Brean, Kyle and the boys with us. But we were happy that they got invited to some friends home for Easter dinner. Only a few more weeks before they will get to fly down and stay with us for 3 weeks! We can hardly wait for their arrival.
We are thankful for all God's blessings in our lives and hope all of you had a joyful holiday.

HERE COMES PETER COTTONTAIL.......

It's that time again.....egg coloring. This has become an annual event for my granddaughter and I. Since she was coming over after her school Easter party today, I spent part of my morning getting everything set up and ready to go. Gosh, now a days you even get plastic cups to use when coloring!!! Such a deal.
The new thing (or at least for me) according the the PAAS box, is if you add 3 Tablespoons of vinegar instead of just one, you will get darker, brighter colors. So I say, go for the gusto and bring on the color!!!
As you can see some things you never tire of......Jami couldn't stand it and just had to jump in a color some too! Hanna was so disappointed when the last egg was colored. She would have colored 3 dozen eggs if I had them there. (Memo to self, boil lots more eggs next year)

The other day when I was at Blissful Living Studio to take a class I did a little shopping. I just could not resist bringing home these darling little birdies. Of course, anything with bling I am a sucker for! These two little peeps will eventually end up in one of my projects.
This a what I will be sewing into an A-Line skirt with the help of Minnie at Blissful Living. I will be taking a class from her. I can hardly wait. Isn't this fun material. It was hard to make up my mind since their selection is outstanding. But hey, I can always sew more up.
I got to babysit little Sofia again today while Jami attended Hanna's school party. She slept most of the time but when she was awake she kept me entertained with all her coo's and smiles. Frank and I get her again tomorrow for a few hours while Jami and Hanna go to Disney On Ice.
So all is good at the Hunter house. I made it through my first Zumba class without having a heart attack! Both Rosie and I thought we were on the verge of one about half way through class. My face was beet red when I got home and stayed that way for a good 45 minutes!!! I'm telling you that class kicked my butt!!! But we are gluttens for punishment and will head back again for class next Tuesday.
Time to wind down for the evening.....by the way, it's about 80 degrees out right now....and put in my Netflix, "The Changeling" for our evening entertainment. Love to all!

Spring Is In The Air

I just love this time of year....IN ARIZONA!!!! It was 86 degrees today and my flowers are all blossoming...even these silk ones! LOL! Actually, since I haven't created anything in the past several days, I decided to get my butt in gear and get moving. Jami and I are hosting a table at our church's Ladies Ministry Spring Tea the beginning of May. We are responsible for decorating our table so I decided to do all the bright pastels.
I lit my scented candle and pretended that all my silk flowers were really the reason the room smelled so good.
I really can't tell you exactly what I am making since it is suppose to be a surprise...

....but I think you can guess a little of what it might look like. I promise to post the pictures when the table is all set.

Last month when my girlfriend, Vicki and I went vintage shopping, I picked up this little silver cream pitcher. I think it is so cute. At first I was going to put one of my little glittery chicks in it for Easter, but now I am not sure what I will do with it. I know it will be "just the right" item in a creation that pops into my head down the road.
This past weekend was spent with our granddaughters, Hanna and Sofia. On Saturday, Papa played with Hanna for several hours while Jami, Sofia and I went shopping for some new clothes for Jami. Hanna worked on her golf stroke and got to drive the golf cart and even the car! Here she is watching Shrek with Papa.
Meanwhile, Sofia went for a stroller ride around the outside mall and got some fresh air and sunshine.

I'm off to Art Group in the morning to watch a watercolor demonstration by my friend, Teri. Then I will drive over to Mesa for a Digital Scrapbooking class at Blissful Living Studio.
Rosi and I signed up to take a Zumba exercise class on Tuesday evenings, so we will find out tomorrow night what Zumba really is......Yikes! Something tells me that there will be a lot of giggeling going on as we try to keep up. Wednesday morning we will be moaning and groaning from soreness!
I'm still plugging along on NutriSystem. It's been a week and I haven't lost any weight yet. That's a little discouraging, but I am remaining optimistic and will continue on. Now I need to run and drink my 8th and last glass of water for the day.

Baby Arms

Sorry, no pictures to post tonight. I spent the whole day and evening with my daughter, Jami and granddaughter, Sofia. We ran to Mesa to pick up the girls matching Easter dresses (so cute) then pick up latte cups and lids for me, to a big sale at Designer Blvd.'s outlet store, shopped at Home Goods, went to Chandler Mall to look for an Easter dress for Jami (no luck) and then home to play with Hanna and eat dinner with Jami's family, Frank, Mom and my niece, Stacy. Whew!! The best part was getting to carry Sofia in my arms all day. I really treasure these early days of her life. They grow so fast and before we know it she will be crawling, walking and then running.
Frank taught his first Flexibility, Strength and Balance class for men tonight here at Trilogy. He has enough men signed up to run another class on Mondays. All went well.
The diet is going fine. Still liking the Nutri System food. I would even like it better if I knew I would end up looking like Valerie Bertanelli!!! Which reminds me, I have to get up at 5:30am for exercise so guess I better get to bed.
Good night all~

And the challenge begins!

On Monday afternoon my huge box of Nutri System food arrived....31 days worth! The first challenge I had was where to put all of it.
They package it by color for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Yesterday's breakfast. Not bad, huh? Actually, it is a ton of food.
So I made it through my first day and was full all day long. So far I like everything I have eaten. Now the big test will be how long it takes me to loose some weight.
My sister's youngest daughter, Stacy, is here this week. She is staying with my mom. Yesterday we laid out by our pool and took in some sun.
This morning Frank and I were treated to a phone call from our grandsons. They had to tell us about going to see a movie in 3-D and all about the camp Cole is attending this week during spring break. Love those calls from the boys.
Today it's off for a haircut for me. Then I really need to get some work done in my studio. Hope everyone has a great day. Later.............

Another class and another creation!!

Ribbons, flowers, glitter, eggs, crepe paper, pipe cleaners, butterflies, leaves, berries, tulle.....and the list goes one of all the wonderful items used to create this wonderful Easter egg cart! Of all the great classes of I have taken this past year and a half, I am pretty sure this may be the best one yet. Not only was I able to use tons of my favorite crafting supplies, but the end product is just so fun and pretty.....every time I look at it I just feel happy! Before I give you all the information on the how I came across this class, please take a look at some of the other views of my Easter cart.


Check out the cute little wheels which consist of a painted pink round chipboard piece, a sewn and gathered piece of pink crepe paper and a sewn and gather piece of ribbon with a jewel tipped straight pin on the end.
In the classroom.....


OK, last Wednesday we had two close friends from our old home town on Oak Harbor, WA visiting us for the week. Vicki, who was my boss and past business partner, avid craft partner, and overall dear friend, went with me to check out the Melrose district of downtown Phoenix. I had not been there and while reading other artist blogs I discovered that this is their favorite area to find treasures. Knowing that Vicki would love checking it out as much as I would, we headed out Wed. morning for a day of discovery and shopping. Our first stop was RUST AND ROSES, a great store full of vintage outdoor furniture and tons of great vintage items inside. We both made a purchase there. The next stop was this wonderful store, MELROSE VINTAGE. Oh My Goodness.....both of us just went nuts!! Not only do they have great vintage furniture and accessories a darling decorated store and a HUGE back section that is a scrapbookers shopping paradise, but owners, Wendy and her mom, Diane are the sweetest girls. Diana is incredibly talented in the paper arts and by a "flook" I was able to get the last spot in this Easter cart class for last night!! Poor Vicki, she and her husband, John, had to fly home Saturday morning and she was not able to attend with me. We were so sad about that. I promised her that I will set up another time when she can visit and attend one of Diane's classes with me.
Meanwhile, here we are creating at last night's class:


Here is Wendy, putting the glue and glitter on her egg.
Diana was so organized. Each of us was given a bag with all the goodies for creating our cart.
Me and Diana showing off our egg carts. Check out part of the scrapbooking section behind us. Diana has it decorated so cute. I can hardly wait for her next class.......even if it takes me an hour to drive there from home!!!
Here we are bidding good bye to Vicki and John as they get ready to fly back to Washington state. They flew back to snow!!!!

The latest from a babysitting session with our little granddaughter. I do believe she gets prettier each day........ok, so I am bias!

It was a really great week with company here. I will miss Vicky as she is my "soul sister" when it comes to crafting and creating. This next week will bring a big change for me. I decided to sign up for nutri-systems and will begin my new diet sometime this coming week. It has just come down to having to bite the bullet and go for it. I have terrible discipline when it comes to dieting, so I am hoping that having to eat pre=prepared meals will help.
But.....one last hurrah as we head out to dinner at a friends house tonight!!

Good bye weekend

Where did this weekend go? It's hard to believe it's Sunday night and tomorrow morning I will be up and on my way to Curves with Rosie at 5:30am...YIKES!!!
Last night my sweet husband surprised me with 18 long stemmed yellow roses along with BBQing filet mignon steaks, baked potatoes and caesar sald to celebrate our 34th wedding anniversary. I'm not really sure if he remembered that out colors for our wedding were yellow and navy blue, but the yellow roses were very appropriate. Our dinner was scrumptious and we enjoyed it outside on our patio by candlelight. Later we had our neighbors the Brasch's and their company and old friends of our, Sandee and Jim Waller over for strawberry shortcake. Darlene baked her special "Dinette Cake" and Frank covered it with strawberries and whipped cream. YUMMY! I lit all our outside candles, turned on the pool light and we all sat outside and visited and enjoyed the delicious desert. We decided that our dinner and our company was much better then any restaurant would have been.
This afternoon we opted out of couples golf due to the high winds and blowing dust and went with three other couples for Mexican dinner. The food was good, but the company was better. We feel so fortunate to live where we have so many wonderful, fun friends. On our walk home this evening we commented on what a great life we are living. God has truly blessed us and we are greatful. Even during these stressful economic times Frank and I are happy with the simple things in life....our family, our home, our friends and the opportunity to play at well! So for now, good bye weekend and good night!

Still in the studio.....

Woke up yesterday morning and headed back to the studio for some more creating. These are two more canvas that I made.
Yesterday was such a beautiful, sunny day and I feel kind of guilty because I really didn't get out and enjoy it like I should have. I spent half the day in the studio and the other half watching a movie, playing on the computer and just hanging out. We joined Jami and Mike after golf for Happy Hour up at the club and sat outside for a couple hours.
Late last night our phone rang and woke us up. Those late night phone calls usually mean bad news and it did. Bre was calling tears to tell us that they had been out for the evening and left the kids with a babysitter. The kids were in bed and the babysitter had fallen asleep on the couch when the downstairs toilet overflowed......for 2 hours!!! When they walked through the front door and got to the dining room the water was over the top of Bre's bare feet. So they worked feverishly to vacuum as much of the water up as possible and called their insurance company. The cleanup company arrived at 1am and worked until 6:30am pulling up all the flooring and setting up fans around the house. They were returning later this morning to continue working. The sad thing as the kids have been working so hard to get their place looking nice and now this happens. But they will get all new flooring so that will be nice. Meanwhile, the grandsons are pinging off the walls cause they are stuck playing in a small area in the living room while all their toys are in the garage drying out. A big mess! Thank goodness for home insurance. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much last night. Today we get to babysit Sofia while Hanna and Jami go see Snow White at the Hale Theatre and then out to lunch. Of course we will be glued to the TV to watch the Huskie's play at 2pm today in the NCAA tournament. Hope all you have a wonderful weekend.

She's at it again!

As you can see by the pictures I am back in the studio again. Geez, I can't believe what a mess I make when I am working. I try to be neater but it just isn't in me. I really need to get all these piles under control.
But through all the mess I created these cute Easter goodies. I am still trying to figure out why I am not able to get better pictures. Thought it might help to set them outside, but that didn't seem to help. I'll keep trying.




I bought these darling little chicks in Washington last week and decided they needed some glitter.
While I was working in my studio my baby granddaughter was taking a nap beside me. Isn't she cute with her new little pierced ears.

Last night we were treated to Pasta Night at Seville by my mom. She also had Jami, Mike, Hanna and Sofia come. They had set tables up around their pools and also set up the Pasta Bar there. It was a beautiful evening. Of course, since we were seated right next to the pools Hanna just HAD to wade in the water. It didn't take long for the bottom of her dress to be wet and finally off it came! She couldn't stand it and ended up swimming in her panties. Too cute! We had to dry her off with our cloth dinner napkins!! She had so much fun and so did we. These occasions are such blessings for us. Life is good!

BACK IN THE SUNSHINE AGAIN

While out shopping with my daughter in Sumner, WA last Saturday (in the rain), we happened upon a small flower bed and lo-and-behold......daffodils were blossoming!!! This, after two days of snow!!! They brought smiles to our faces and I just had to snap a picture to prove that Spring is trying to sprout up there in the north.

The next morning this is what kind of weather we left Seattle in. They even had to de-ice our plane! SCARY!!!!
We said our good-byes to our gandsons......
and our daughter and son-in-law.

Bre took me to a sweet little town, Sumner, and we went through several darling shops. They were all decorated for spring and I couldn't resist taking some pictures to drool over. Oh, if only money wasn't an object............what fun I could have had!




Today's Country Store is my favorite shop in Sumner. She is full of antiques, vintage items and lots of new glittered goodies.


I wanted to share with you the purchases I made with my birthday gift certificate at the scrapbook store in WA. I had a blast filling my shopping basket. As you can see below, I got tons of great stuff. This should keep me busy for a while.


So after a good night's sleep back in our own bed, we rose this morning to warm sunny skies, chirping birds and a stack of mail! I quickly settled into my studio and starting digging through all my new treasures. Decided to start with some Easter canvas art and got 3 painted and ready to embellish. By then it was time to meet my dear friend, Rosie, for lunch at Paradise Bakery. So I gulped down (rather, gagged down) my little container of "Slim Shot" and hit the road. I am trying to cut back on the calories and get rid of some of these rolls that have been keeping me company all winter. There is nothing like meeting up with a sweet friend over yogurt and granola. I could eat dirt and still have a wonderful time if I were with Rosie. She just makes me laugh and feel good all the time. Everyone should have a "Rosie" in their life. I never made it back to the studio today but will head back in the morning. Frank and I couldn't resist a long walk in the beautiful weather this evening. So as I close out this post, with my husband playing his guitar in the back room, I wish you all a happy week and don't forget the green tomorrow.
Hugs!