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Bats Bats Bats!

And more bats....

Something to do that is totally free, except for your time and traveling expense, unless you are already in or near the area of Austin/Round Rock Texas. Watch the bats come out at night to feed. I took my daughter and granddaughter to see them night before last and here is my poor quality video of it, but its still interesting to watch. More information can be found here and also here.

The photos posted along with my own personal video are not my own. Just wanted to be sure you knew. They can be found on the above referenced websites and by "googling" Austin Round Rock Bats.

In my World...

Just a few photos of things going on in my world lately. Busy making baby gifts for friends in our church having a little boy...making hats and bags for one of our granddaughters...sitting around watching deer and baby fawn...going to new places...and riding the Harley. I love Summer even if you can fry eggs on the sidewalk!

Basic granny type afghan pattern for a baby, measuring 36" x 36". I used 3 colors: berry blue, heather gray and off white.

And with the leftovers from the baby afghan, I made this wee little earflap hat too.

Together so you can see the stitches better.

Decided to make a ruffly little hat for Panda and a matching bag as well. She liked wearing her Daddy's ID badge from a job around her neck, so I made this so she could do the same with it.

Out back where we discovered the baby fawn. She's wearing her hat with a lantana flower sprig poked into it that she pulled off of the plant.

What a smile! This was the other hat I crocheted. It has a tiny little brim and a layered flower attached to it. Notice she has hijacked my phone (again). HAHA

Sitting on Yeh Yeh's (Grandpa's) Harley with me making sure she doesn't fall off. It was a beautiful day and she'd just gottten out of bed. That's Daddy in the background sitting on the front porch.

Here's Dad (our second oldest son) and Panda walking along Lake Travis at the Hula Hut where we waited to be seated for a Father's Day lunch. Was a steamy but great day and the food and scenery were both very nice!

Amigurumi (編みぐるみ)

Amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals or other anthropomorphic creatures. It seems to me that the smallest ones have the most cuteness. They are created for no specific use, but hopefully leave smiles on faces and fill empty spaces on shelves, nooks and crannies or where dust would normally collect. I am a "hooker" and prefer to crochet mine. If you make them for actual play things for kids, you wouldn't want to use anything that might be a hazard, like buttons or choke-able items. I've been using safety eyes on most of mine. Here's the latest and the greatest of what I've hooked up so far. The tallest is almost 17 inches and the shortest is a mere 3 inches...

ROT RALLY 2010 Movie Trailer

Can't wait for this!!!!! I'm ready for the sights, sounds and craziness of

it all. Photos to follow.............if we survive it all.

Austin Renegade Craft Fair

http://www.renegadecraft.com/austin

Flowers and Stuff

Here's some things I've been working on lately. It's hard to sit still when the weather is so nice and sunny, but in-between those times, I keep my hands busy with these: (click on each photo to open up into a larger size)





My antique bathtub always rewards me each Spring with gorgeous purple irises! They smell good too!!

Implosion of Texas Stadium this A.M.

Goodbye Texas Stadium, Hello shopping, apartments and more traffic....woohoo!

Did anyone attend the final tailgate party? I chose not to and now I am confident that that best decision was made. My daughter begged me to go, but I held my stand. This huge place had been here for 37 years and the cost of maintaining it and security necessities outweighted the reason for keeping it erected. Adios!

Happy Easter Yall

Well I just wanted to say that I hope everyone had a nice Easter weekend! Weather here was nice and time spent with family was a bonus. Here's myself, granddaughter and oldest daughter today. Yellow seemed to be the color of the day and we didn't even plan it this way.

Wedding Photos

Just a few, mostly pre-wedding of the same day. More to come! Waiting on my daughter to post her own so as not to out-do her special day. These are mostly myself, kids and grandkids for now...

A Wedding in March!

March 6th, our oldest daughter will be getting married. Things are busy and fun getting ready for it and I'll post photos as they become available. Here is one now of the happy couple and their daughter who is 3 years old and very excited about it all too.

Happy New Year and weird photo to share

Elaine Davidson and myself in Edinburgh Scotland this past summer. I always meant to post this photo and never did. I have others that I meant to share of my visit and will most likely have them up soon too. This was one of the most bizarre, so I'm kicking it off with this one first. Wonder what 2010 will bring for everyone? I hope it is kind to you!

December will go by too fast too...

OK, so November came and went (meaning I turned a year older) and December is well under way. So much for posting again sooner next time, hah! Just heard that my son, DIL and granddaughter could possibly be relocating from Scotland back to Texas. Anxiously anticipating that news! We've had really cold weather the past few days and nights. Our weekend should warm up hopefully. I sound like I'm writing a boring letter to someone here, but it's all I could think of to post about for now. Oh, and its like 3:30am and I have no idea why I woke up, but it seemed like a decent time to blog for a change. Hope everyone has a wonderful CHRISTMAS and NEW YEAR!

Later...

Scarf Contest Anyone?

LOOKY!

Lately, I've taken up crochet and found it relaxing and nice to have something to do with my hands while the football games are on or while waiting on one of the kids when picking them up from school or whatever event the non-driving ones might be attending. There are some really good ideas in my head and I'm fairly certain the winning ones won't be crocheted or knitted (who knows though) but wanted to post this for those that might be interested. So far I've made fingerless gloves ala wrist warmers for my daughter, a scarf and hat for my granddaughter, a ridiculously long scarf for myself or whoever dares to wear it and am starting a curly textured scarf to try out a new pattern I found. There's tons of freebies, no need to really buy anything and Youtube has tons of tutorials on how to do any type of stitch you'd ever want to learn. Ok, that's all for now.....maybe I'll post again sooner than last time!

Make's Urban Bazaar!

Are you going?

Are you going?

Flu and October

Got 2 of my kids flu shots yesterday. I had mine about 2 weeks ago. Jacob is recovering nicely from emergency surgery and is back in school. October is here and I'm really ready for Fall weather more than ever. Need to get back into making things.....have been on a break far too long and intend to change that soon! Oh, really enjoying my new hardwood floors, what a difference putting this in makes. So I've been busy repainting trim and a few walls and hanging up some digital scrapping of more family. My wall is almost covered over the piano now, love it!

August, September...

Oops, where did August go? And here it is over a week into September already! I have no excuses for not blogging except that my time was required elsewhere. Hmmm, that's true to a certain extent but then again, I've had time to check Facebook on numerous occasions. I've tried to whittle down places online that I visit but some are more addictive than others as most of you know. We've been doing some upgrades to our home and spending more time outdoors. Mostly because of the new Harley that we bought. I realized how nice it really is to get out on the open road and feel the wind in your face and the sun on your skin. We aren't the type to ride with a group (yet) or attend ralleys.....but I think that might happen soon. We'll see.

My youngest grandchild is turning 1 year old tomorrow and I wish she were here so I could give her a big hug. Her and my son and DIL are in Glasgow Scotland which is too far away for a birthday visit this time. I hope she has a special day with Mommy and Daddy!

Texas is Hot!

We're back from bonnie Scotland. One of the most bittersweet departures, leaving part of my family, yet going home to more family. A beautiful, memorable and amazing journey was had by all. I believe that this time it was made more exciting by being able to see the looks on my daughter's and parents' faces as we explored Glasgow, Edinburgh, the Port of Glasgow/Greenock, the Highlands, including Glencoe, Pichlochry, the 3 Sisters (SPECTACULAR), Loch Ness, Loch Lomond, and more. And did we find Nessie? Why yes we did! We were able to take a short cruise on the black Loch and see the whole water mass with the aid of sonar and GPS, along with funny and interesting tales from our tour guide who had the look of a pirate to me. Aside from awesome countryside and architecture, Victorian cemeteries and churches, we visited my son, daughter in law and granddaughter. Being able to stay in their nice flat made it totally wonderful. They were the bests hosts available in the world. Photos to be posted soon!

Wow

Its so nice in Glasgow, even when it rains. Edinburgh is in the plans for tomorrow. We will do the Royal Mile and see the castle and Emily was promised to go to the Edinburgh Dungeon. More later...

Summertime Travel Plans

It is official. I am returning to Scotland on July 2nd! My youngest daughter will be flying over with me and also my Mom and Dad. It will be their first time to visit. We plan on all the sites of Glasgow and most of Edinburgh too. Hopefully we will also tour the Highlands this time, which I'd never been able to do yet. And......London might be a possibility too, who knows! Ask me if we are excited?

Texas Scottish Festival is Coming!

Texas Scottish Festival

Sounds like a day of fun to me!

Goodbye Old Friend

 Rick Brainard

February 18, 1956 - May 18, 2009

You will be missed

Tonight I attended a Celebration of Life for a long time friend from my school days. It seemed so unreal and so untimely. Watching others grieve and laugh and tell stories was a mixture of feelings, but mostly joyful ones. Seeing the slideshow of old photos, his band, children and family was heartwarming. When someone close to you dies or worse yet, a family member passes,  things take on new meaning. Makes me think of how much time I may or may not have and how best to use it. I am grateful for my family and my life and don't ever want to take them for granted. God didn't promise us tomorrow! With this in mind, I hope that you consider this and make the most of your days and thank God for what He has given you thus far. Life is short. Cherish it and your family!

The End

Did you win the lottery too?

So do you get those annoying emails as often as I do too? Every day my inbox is loaded with another lottery that I've mysteriously won, an inheritance from some unknown poor soul with abosolutely no living relatives, or some other too good to be true scam from someone ready to give you bucket loads of cash. All I'd have to do is forward all of my sensitive information to this "trustworthy" person from Nigeria, the UK, or wherever they say they're located.  Then for a small sum of money they need to process all this newfound wealth, they'll take care of it. Yeah right, take it and disappear!! I am so infuriated to think that folks do fall for these games and wonder how many have actually lost their life savings to thieves that do this every day hoping for just one taker.  It's actually scary to think! Anyhow, that's my rant of the day...the little image did make me laugh, but in reality something like it is really just sad.

Help me fight Swine Flu now!

Click Here

Pandemic Paranoia!

What do you think? Check out this ebay auction that I found....people can capitalize on anything these days is what I think!

I think I can I think I can

Easter Sunday 2009

Good Friday

Today is Good Friday and to Christians everywhere it is the anniversay of Christ's death on the cross.  This leads to Easter Sunday in a couple of days, when we celebrate His resurrection. I don't know about you, but to me this is even more important than Christmas when we celebrate His birth. I won't preach on this subject but wanted to recognize it here on my blog and also post some photos of crosses that I collected from Scotland this past year. It seems like an appropriate time to present them. Most of them are Celtic varieties and they are all photographed within the Glasgow Necropolis Cemetery. The Necropolis is an ancient, eerily beautiful Victorian burial ground. This place became a popular tourist attraction since it opened in 1833. I found myself walking to it at least 3 times when I was there last year. Mostly because it is so big and also to get the best photos at various times of the day. They say at least 50,000 Glaswegians are buried there in 3,500 tombs and mausoleums. If you go to see the magnificent Glasgow Cathedral, you can get to it from The Bridge of Sighs, also very beautiful sights to see. The cemetery is actually a hill starting with the wealthiest people at the top down to the common people down at the bottom. Seems snobby? That's how it was done. I recommend not missing this if you are ever in Glasgow!

I don't normally pose in cemeteries, but did here to show how large these monuments actually are. There are many more that are even taller. I was awe struck to see this in its entirety. Some might find a place like this strange, spooky or weird, but it was serene and beautiful for me.