A trip to Vegas and the arrival of the 'Ladies" . . .

Hi Friends,
I know it has been awhile since I last posted but life has a way of altering your schedule!  Super busy with gardening, chickens, grandkids and a few days in Vegas.

Our chickens have gotten big - I will post pictures soon.  We have also added a new coop that came with 14 chickens....our baby chicks 'the Girls', 11 of them, have not been added to the coop as of this posting as they are too little to be put with the Ladies. . .

The arrival of the coop from a Bed & Breakfast in MA
 - thanks to my nephew Angelo - he let us borrow his flatbed . .  .

My DIL, son, husband, two nephews Jonathan & Robbie
and our friend Tony unloading the coop . . .

Ready to add the run . . .

The 14 Ladies" survived the road trip . . .  the grey chicken
has been named "Hazel" . . . she's kind of bossy . . .

This is "Birdie" making herself at home [she is my favorite - but
don't tell the others] . . .

The end of April my husband and some of my family visited Las Vegas for the first time.  I tell you it was exciting but also overwhelming!  It is like New York City on steroids!  You never know what time it is or what day it is for that matter.  Everyplace is busy ALL THE TIME!  Sadly to say I left all my $$$ in Vegas, but one of my nieces and her husband had a very profitable vacation.....good for them!  Although we were overwhelmed we probably would go back and try it again.  While we were there, Vegas was experiencing a early heat wave....a couple of days it reached 98!  It was too hot to sit by the pool - the water was warm and the heat intense [not like our heat here in the Northeast - but still very, very hot].  Only I, who truly hates the heat, would be there at that time.  Oh well, we still had fun and many memories were made.  Here are a few pics to share...

Here is our group minus one - that's me with the finger pointing . . .

Imagine - my husband wanted to take one of them home for a souvenir ?

Light show at the Bellagio . . .

Paris in Vegas . . .  just beautiful [my favorite place]!

Paris - inside - it really felt as though you were walking on an
outside street . . .

Fun, fun, fun on Freemont Street . . . 

These two pictures are of New York, New York -
all inside - I felt like I was in Brooklyn . . . 

The Venetian . . . absolutely mind altering!  Actual gondola's with
singing gondoliers and remember it is all inside the building . . .
I have been to Venice and this was pretty darn close . . .

Waiting for the shuttle to take us back home . . .

Well, vacation is over and life has resumed it's normal craziness.  I will be posting pictures of our baby chickens soon as well as some art I have managed to create in the middle of life. . .

Wishing everyone a happy Memorial Day . . . remember all the brave service men and women who have given their lives to keep us free!  Thank you for keeping us safe and may God be with them . . .

Altered Cabinet Reveal & Spring Gathering

Last Friday evening, April 5th, I co-hosted the Spring Gathering for local members of In My Vintage Room & Beyond with Miriam.  We gathered at an art studio in Latham called Art Smarts; 11 gals were in attendance sharing friendship, art and refreshments.  We also revealed the "naked" cabinets that we were given back in December to alter by our moderator Doris in December.  You cannot believe what these talented girls created so I will show you:

Fran 

I told you they were spectacular and honestly you really cannot see the details that were put into these little works of art!  [two of the gals forgot to bring their cabinets and will share when I receive their pictures.]  These pictures were graciously taken by Maura [you can find her at here].  Thanks for playing photographer, Maura!

Here are the talented artists:

standing is Barb who created a project for us to do...
from the left Helen, Janice, Sue and Michele . . .

from the left is Doris, Miriam, Donna and Mary 

from the left is Mary, Maura and Lori

We are now looking forward to our next gathering in the Summer, which will be hosted by Maura and Lori...hopefully Spring will come to this area very, very soon!!!

good wishes . . .

Building Easter Memories - 2013

Dyeing eggs, waiting for the Easter Bunny and the great egg hunt!  These are what memories are made from.  Every year my grandchildren along with their friends get together to color eggs. Equipped with 5 dozen eggs and 3 or 4 sets of egg dye they went to town getting more dye on them than on the eggs.  Happy to report only a couple of spills and dropped, cracked eggs.  But here's a secret - the girls were messier than the boys, but don't tell the boys!  Of course, there were many more pink eggs than any other color.  These girls rule!!!  With all this going on, my DIL was baking 3 batches of chocolate chip cookies!  The kitchen resembled the aftermath of a hurricane that blew through.

Check out all the pink eggs

Boys eggs - see, no pink!

Mahina & Sarah - check out their hands! 

Niko - how did that boy get dye on his face???

Michael

Jack

On to Easter and the Great Egg Hunt at my niece's house.  The older children hid the eggs and the younger ones hunted:

Hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed Easter!  I know one thing for sure, these kids had fun and will have wonderful memories!

Here Chick, Chick . . .

For her birthday my DIL wanted baby chicks and a chicken coop . . . well, she received 12 baby chicks and the coop is on its way.  The kids, along with their mom, gave some of the chicks names: McNugget, Hot Wings, Bossy Mahina, Bossy Sarah, Talulah, Golden Nugget, Henrietta,  Millie and my favorite Birdie.  We're hoping they are all girls cause we can't have any Rooster's in our hen house!  Here are some photos I took this morning of a few of them - they are two weeks old and as cute as can be . . .

This is Hot Wings and she is the cutest ! ! !

My niece Amanda, a photographer [click the link to go to her site], came over to our house today to take pictures of Niko & Mahina with the chicks for Easter.  What fun we all had with the chicks running, chirping and pooping all over the place!  She took some wonderful pictures - can't wait to see all of them.  While she was snapping away I took out my handy Canon power shot that is probably 5 or 6 yrs. old and took some random photos along with her, uploaded to my MacBook and did a little retouching and this is what resulted . . .

Right from the barnyard [the great room] to you!  Happy Spring . . .

Felt Inchies

As some of you know, I belong to several art groups - one being In My Vintage Room and my friend  Maura [check out her Feb. 21st blog post] is hosting a new swap this month.  We were to alter either a fabric or a felt inchie!  Well, if you know me you know I have an aversion to thread and needle!  I used to love to sew but over the years I got away from it and it is now a major project to just sew a button on anything.  But I thought why not?  If you're going to get frustrated with sewing you might as well get really frustrated and try sewing something on a square inch.  Here is what I came up with....remember I said I don't sew  . . .

But I have a secret - I had fun doing these - they might not be actual pieces of art, but if I don't say so myself, I think they're darn cute   ;-)

good wishes . . .