Beautiful Reno

Mary & I arrived at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nv. for the Quilting, Stitches & Crafts Expo...

You CANNOT IMAGINE my surprise when I opened the door to my "room"....

There was a living room area, a dining room area, the bed, and a BAR???

Two GIGANTIC picture windows -- with a to-die-for view of the snow covered mountains off in the distance. The blue water is the man made lake that doubles as a golf driving range...I LOVE AMERICA...


The room is so big it needed it's own zipcode. I could barely watch the television from the bed. But that was okay -- they didn't have TLC anyway. Television in resort hotels is always terrible because they want you to go DOWNSTAIRS TO THE CASINO...

Here's Mary, sitting at my BAR...

It was, without a doubt, the BIGGEST hotel room I have every personally stayed in. Somebody must have goofed up the reservations...and wrote down that Rita Farro was a "big gambler".

When, clearly, what they meant was Rita Farro is a "fat rambler"...

For whatever reason -- great room, Reno!!

One day, I'd love to come back and see something other than the airport, the shuttle and the hotel...

P.S. It was a thrill to have a blogger-fan come to my class!! THANKS AGAIN, KAREN...I'll be putting up lots of the pictures you took in future posts.

Landon's Swim Cover-Up

Ronda comes to my house every day and we each do 2 miles on the treadmill. One of us walks as the other one talks. Except for some days, the other one sews...

On this day, Landon was designing his own terry cover-up. First he picked out a towel....then, he decided he wanted some zebra stripes. MY KIND OF KID. We were experimenting with a "ruana style". Instead of just a poncho, I opened up the front and simply serged around the raw edges...

Landon LOVED the zebra trim...

You can see he is pretty darned delighted with himself...

Really. SMASHING, BUDDY!!

Then, my mission was to see if I could make enough swim cover-ups for all of John's great nieces and nephews in Pennsylvania. Elliott & Emily are going out for a visit -- and there are seven of them...all under the age of 5...

I have one day to get them done, and I had to pack for my trip to Reno....YIKES...

THIS IS GONNA BE FUN!!

My latest recycling obsession...

Here's a confession. I LOVE TO BUY new bathroom towels. Consequently, I find myself with a large supply of "B" towels. And what can I do with 20 faded forlorn towels?

THEN -- I found this Dora the Explorer swim cover-up at the Goodwill store. WHAT A GREAT IDEA!! I'll use my towels to make swim cover-ups for all my little people...

To get a better idea about the "sizes" -- I tried Dora on my 18-month old grand-nephew Clayton. It was a little long on him...so now I'm getting a good idea of how big my cover-ups need to be...

When Clayton suddenly realized, 'THIS THING IS PINK!!"....I couldn't believe how fast he took it off!!

I start laughing all over again, just looking at the picture...

Anyway -- with my newly discovered stash of terry towels -- and my old faithful stash of t-shirts -- I'm thinking it might be fun to simply cut around a neck...hummm...maybe some t-shirt fringe?? JUST WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE WHAT I MADE...

Oh, yeah -- this is gonna be fun....cuz I know A LOT OF LITTLE PEOPLE...

Wilton 8 acre house

I tried to take pictures that were different from what you saw on the FSBO site...this is behind the house -- walking down to the property line...
thru the trees -- this is your closest neighbor
there are five houses on the road -- you drive by the houose on the left...this picture was taken as I was standing in front of the log home -- looking out to the shop...
where the property gets to the creek...there's an old bridge
which Jim is in the middle of repairing...the 8 acres crosses this creek
looking at the shop -- from the house driveway
the front porch
the attached two car garage (only room for one Silverado, tho)...

the construction is of REAL logs... the inside is one large open space...kitchen, living room, fireplace, dining area...



there are some wallpaper borders...this is the main bathroom
3rd upstairs bedroom is an office right now...
Master bedroom -- with a second bathroom
the pool table isn't staying...
the only unfinished room -- the laundry room. new water heater...pump

Rapids City house...

Here are the pictures -- in no particular order. This is a picture of the small basement...the opening is into a crawl space -- under the new addition, I'm guessing...
The front of the house...the roof looks new -- you can see where the old house meets the addition.

This is the best thing about the house. The view from your front yard -- THAT IS THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER...

This is the small bath off the master bedroom in the original part of the house

this is the full bath -- in the original house.

this is one of the two new bedrooms...

the other new bedroom --

this is the HUGE bathroom that is attached to the new master, in the addition

John, standing in the original master -- with double closets

the workbench in the basement

I am standing at the front door -- in the living room -- your Dad is standing what was the original dining area -- that door goes into a small paneled room (where they had a laundry closet) and the kitchen is to the left...

This is the little paneled room -- the doorway on the right is where your Dad was standing

the back door comes into the kitchen...which is a gut job

'nuf said...

The door going outside, from the basement...

another picture from your front yard...

I think I've sent this several times -- but you can see the HUGE LOADS they are taking out...

The two car garage is detached --

Looking down from the driveway...

I'm still trying to get the video to upload. Call me if you have any questions....