Very first picture of my grandbaby!

Well, here it is.........the very first picture of my new grandbaby!

Ain't she cute?

I am thrilled to announce that my daughter Jenny is expecting

and will bring forth my first grandbaby around July 3, 2010!

See that black area?

Well, the little scratchy white area inside the black area

is the baby.

Don't ya think she looks JUST LIKE JENNY?

Now I don't know if it is a boy or girl as of yet,

but I'm just calling it a girl til I really know,

which won't be for another month or so.

Actually I'm not really sure when they find out,

but I"ll probably be someone they will tell when they know!

Hello there........it's been awhile

I'm not really sure why I haven't posted lately, but it sure

has been awhile. I guess when I get on the computer I tend

to get distracted by soooooooooo many things.........I love

reading other people's blogs, and I enjoy facebook and I

like looking at quilting sites and maybe learning new things.

Before you know it I've spent ALOT of time on the computer!

AND not very much time WORKING!

Does anyone else have this problem?

I HAVE been busy lately. I"ve finished up QUITE a few projects.

Here are some of them:

This is Margaret's quilt.

I met Margaret about 8 years ago at Quilt Camp in the Pines.

She happened to be staying at the dorms at Northern Arizona University

(this is where the camp was being held) and my son was considering

attending NAU. So I asked Margaret if my son and his friend could

come in her room and have a look at what a real college dorm room

looked like. What a sweet lady. Then and now.

Margaret is 85 and when she came to pick up this quilt she brought

with her an 88 year old friend who was visiting from Colorado.

I can only hope to be in as good shape as these two ladies when I am

that age. Margaret's friend goes to the gym and has a trainer!

I'm pretty sure she is in better shape than I am NOW!

Guess it is something to aspire to!

This is a close-up of Margaret's quilt.

Finally a group shot of my Friday Night Quilters.

What a fine group of ladies!

I think that the last time we were all together was in January!

Everyone looks great in this picture..........except me.........

I have my eyes closed!

Guess I needed the rest.......?

Another finished quilt:

This quilt belongs to Liz and is called Lavender Fields.

The picture does not do this quilt justice.

It was a really sweet little quilt.....pastel and beautiful!

I included this picture of my quilting machine so I could

tell you my sad tale of woe.

Unfortunately during the last month I've started having

some problems with driving this machine! It would get hard

to push in some areas and then fly away in others. It

was REALLY hard to control and because I had to keep such

a tight reign on the handles my whole body would hurt after

only a short quilting session.

So I do what I do best when I have a problem............I avoid it!

Well, not really, but it is what I WANTED to do!

I tried getting out my manual and looking up the problem.

After identifying the problem I tried to make the adjustments

on my own, only making matters worse!

Fortunately APQS has a wonderful tech support and Christine

walked me thru all the adjustments I needed to make.

And after getting Mike's help with a few things that needed a stronger

arm than I have, my machine is working just like new!

PHEW!

What a relief!

Because my quilting machine was not working as well as I needed

it to I just couldn't bring myself to put a customer quilt on and work

on it. So I started pulling out some of MY projects that I could

have on the frames so I could work on the adjustments I needed.

This quilt is Jenny's shower quilt.

It was signed by many people who wished Jenny and Rafael

much happiness in thier marriage.

I gave it to them on their one year anniversary!

Close-up of the center square on which I embroidered their

names and wedding date:

Remember all those tablerunners that I made at camp?

Well.........it was quick to piece them, but then they have

to be finished! So while my quilting machine was being

squirrelly I quilted some of these runners.

Here a just a few.....I think I finished at least 2 or 3 more of these

during the last 2 weeks!

Guess that is it for now!

Jazzercise

I've recently joined a group of ladies who Jazzercise.

I must tell you that I went kicking and screaming

every inch of the way.

A few years back I tried to Jazzercise and found that I was zigging while everyone else was zagging!

I stopped just short of bumping into people,

but let me tell you..........It was pretty embarassing!

My long time friend Tana, shown here, LOVES Jazzercise.

Tana is lighting candles on some "special" brownies

to celebrate instructor Lynn's 50th birthday.

(the special brownies were made with a can of pumpkin

instead of oil and eggs! lol! Certainly you were not thinking

that they were THAT special!)

When my daughter Jenny was out of work

SHE started going to jazzercise and asked me

to join her. I resisted, but finally caved in.

Can you see me?

I'm actually in my usual spot..........as far to the

back as I can manage with NO ONE behind me!

I'm so glad that I've joined this group.

Yes, I still zig when others are zagging,

but at my age, WHO CARES?

I'm moving, and dancing and

feeling stronger

everyday!

Halloween 2009

One of my favorite events of the year is attending the Annual Halloween Party hosted by my friends Sharon and Ray Brooks at

The Boojum Tree

http://www.boojumtree.com/index.aspx

The party is always alot of fun and well attended.

Costumes are mandatory and interesting to see.

'

Ray and Sharon

My family dressed up as Mousekateers this year!

Easy, comfortable and effective!

This picture shows all of the Friday Night Quilters

that were in attendance.

We are a fun group!

This is the Friday Night Quilters

plus all of the husbands and family.

Some of us just screamed our heads off!

The Waldo's were another great group costume!

Clowning around!

Fred and Wilma were in attendance



This costume was made by Cheryl and

it will do double duty.

After it does it's job as a halloween costume

Cheryl will turn it into a great Christmas decoration

to put by her door to greet her guests!

She is so talented!

Linda busted outta jail for the occasion

along with hubby John.



Great biker chick, but her date could use a facial!

This was a really Baaa-aaaad costume!

This pink lady is lookin' for love in all the wrong places.

Four of my most favorite people in the whole world!

The Boojum Tree is an awesome place with so many

different nooks and crannies to discover.

I just love being there!

Other Vendors that helped to make this night such a success were:

Set-M-Up (the bartenders!)

Exceptional Events (DJ)

Put a Fork in It, A Savory Affair, and Macayo's

De Amor, AZ Photo Booth

Flossy Stylish Design

Tri-Rentals.

A big thank you to Ray and Sharon for hosting!

Halloween 2008

Happy Halloween everyone!

Here is our family rock band LAST halloween:

We had alot of fun a couple of weekends

before making our tie-dye shirts.

Here we are in all of our finery!

Aren't we cool?

I've been switching back and forth between a

new operating system and an old one that was having problems.

I don't want to delete the old one yet because I don't have

all of the stuff that I want transfered over to the new one.

Like my pictures!

I signed in today using the old system so I could have

access to last year's halloween pictures!

Tonight we'll attend the Boojum Tree Halloween party

and I'll post pictures of our costumes tomorrow.........

Have a great and SAFE halloween!

Halloween is coming!

Today I completed our halloween costumes!

Yeah!

For the past 5 years of so my family have attended a really fun

party at the Boojum Tree which is owned by a really good friend of mine.

Last year we had a group costume......

we were a rock band.

We got together several weeks before halloween and tie-dyed shirts,

then we wore black curly wigs, a headband, sunglasses, hoop earrings

Oh, and we tied rocks to our beltloops so we could be a "rock band".

Unfortunately I don't have access to the pictures at the moment but we

looked really funny! Whoops, I mean "cool"

We are going as a group again this year too.

Pictures to follow in a few days..........

Earlier this week I attended my monthly Bunko meeting.

What a great group of ladies!

I am truly blessed as I have been friends with all of these gals for over 20 years!

Last night Mike and I got some dance lessons.

Our dentist whom we have gone to for ages mentioned that he

was teaching "couples dancing" to some of the people at his church.

So we have been going and doing "okay".

Mike and I have taken dance lessons several times over our 30 year marriage.

The first was when we were newly married and we went to a local country bar

and learned the 2 step. We were pretty darn good if I do say so myself.

A few years later we signed up for a ballroom dance class at the community college.

A little history here........

my husband is from TEXAS............

he is NOT a smooth

ballroom dancer.........

so when the instructor said that she noticed an "oilrigger"

I knew just who she was talking about........

A couple of years ago we did another stint at the

country dance lessons in preparation for

dancing at our children's weddings.

We are doing okay at these ballroom lessons,

but have decided that it is impossible to

make a silk purse out of a sows ear..............

I don't think we will ever be smooth

ballroom dancers........

there is just too much country in our style!

Pumpkin Patch

It's been a LOOOONG time since I posted last and lots of things

have been happening.............

I'll start with our fun evening last weekend when I had 15

or so people over to carve pumpkins............

Here are some of the finished pumpkins in the pumpkin patch:

Our Pumpkin Patch after dark:

Alot of fun was had carving up the pumpkins.

We set up 2 large tables and provided tons of carving tools.

Last year after halloween I bought some battery operated

pumpkin carvers.....those little babies took pumpkin carving

to a whole new level!

While some were carving pumpkins others were in the kitchen

cooking up some pizza!

Grandpa and Grandma were seasoned pizza makers.

I learned a new trick or two from grandpa!

This little guy already looks like a pro and it was his first time making pizza!

Brian, of course, has been tossing pizza in this kitchen for YEARS!

When the kids were growing up one of the most favorite activities

was to have friends over to make pizza.

What fond memories I have of those days!

If you have never tried having a pizza making party I would highly

recommend it. You just can't help but have a good time!

At the Baldi house you just can't let a fall night pass without

having a bonfire! Here are the men of the family getting the

fire started.

What a WICKED evening!