Category Archives: Daily Life

Daily Life

What a Glorious Day!

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You tend to get my garden shots on Saturdays, because even though I work from home, I don't get out into my yard until the weekends either!  In fact, because I've been sick the past two weeks, please don't look too closely at the shots (Thank God for 72 dpi!!!!) because most of the green might be coming from the weeds rather than my plants Embarassed! backyard panorama

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've been trying to capture the essence of our mountainside property, but as you know it's so hard to accomplish through a tiny camera lens.  So courtesy of Photoshop I've pieced together a couple of panoramas.  I'm going to be scrapbooking our property for my girls.  We realized after we moved the last time, that we were always taking pictures of the people at our house, but we never really took good pictures of the house and grounds itself.  After you've already moved is NOT a good time to think about that one!  So, I'm working at documenting the last home all four of us lived in before the two youngest fly the coop for good. front yard

 

 

 

 

 

 

This front of the house shot, captures the rise towards what is the back of the property, but essentially the "front" yard.  We have five acres on top of a long flattish peak that reaches perhaps as high as 3900 ft. elevation.  The last panorama will show the entry gate, parking area and our "meadow."  It's so beautiful this time of year with the wildflowers and grasses.  We've researched a low water, shade tolerant grass that is specifically for higher elevations, from www.highcountrygardens.com, one of my favorite specialty catalogs.  One of these years we're going to sow this whole meadow area with this grass so we can play games out here during the summer and keep the dust down at least a little! entry gte

 

 

 

 

 

Oh well… enough playing around, I have a custom-ordered piece that I am SUPPOSED to be doing and I don't want to let anyone down… so back to work for me!

Happy Easter!  And for those of you with snow and sleet, I'm sorry!!!!!  Spring's here for good soon, promise! 

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

Daily Life, Holidays, One Minute Wisdoms

The Joys of Random Acts of Kindness

This week I have been the recipient of two lovely "Random Acts of Kindness."  The first was a delightfully unexpected postcard from a long-time friend in San Diego, Connie Grimes, that sent me a subscription to Woman's Day Magazine (she knows my magazine addiction quite well I fear Embarassed!) along with a wonderful prayer of blessing.

Easter card

The second was a gorgeous, hand made, three dimensional Easter card sent from my friend, Tammy Swallow, who lives in England.

There's something so moving about receiving unexpected thoughtful gifts from somone who is under no "obligation" to do so! 

I will confess that it is much easier to be the one sending out the RAK than receiving it.  As Jesus so clearly stated "It is more blessed to give than to receive!"

I wanted to encourage you to think of some small measure of kindness that you might do for someone in your life that will not be expecting it.  You might choose to do it openly, or perhaps you'll do it in secret.

Several times when my children were young, we had the special joy of sneaking up to the house of friends that were struggling financially and dropping an envelope with a little cash in it under their door.  We would include a note that said something like this.  "The Lord loves you, and He cares about your needs enough to put you on our hearts to do a little something towards meeting them.  We love you too!"

In retrospect, I think that my own children were the most touched by getting to be an active part of God answering someone else's prayers.  It was a life lesson for them to listen to that still small voice and obey God's leading.  It also taught them that if someone has a need and they have any resources, it's likely that the Lord wants them to be part of praying for the need AND actively finding a way to meet it!

If you have young children at home, I encourage you to think of some ways that all of you can be part of some special random acts of kindness this Easter… it will add the most amazing experience of joy to your celebration!

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

 

 

 

Crafting, Daily Life

A New, Great Bargain Resource for Crafters

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Most of my readers are familiar with The D.A.I.S.I.E. Company and their message boards, but as readership is growing exponentially, I realized this morning that many of you aren't.

The D.A.I.S.I.E. Company is a digital clip art company that licenses art for both personal and small crafting businesses to use in creating all sorts of crafting, card making, recipe card making and scrapbooking creation.  They have a store that contains almost 900 different art kits and digital products.  The kits you see me preview here are available for sale at their store.  The link is always in the top right corner of my blog under "Portfolio."

The D.A.I.S.I.E. Company also has a very active message board where many of its members share their creations, their friendship and their lives.  It's a wonderful place for connecting.  This message board has just added another very interesting feature today, The D.A.I.S.I.E. Second Hand Shop.  This is a place where many crafters that find they have too much of a particular crafting product, software or tool will offer it for sale (most often at a bargain price!) 

I got really excited today when I heard about this board, because my studio is cluttered up with original, one-of-a-kind samples that I have made over the years for manufacturers while we were designing product lines.  Also, I have some products that I have samples from the first production runs.  So, I will be listing items for sale there from time to time as I work my way through cleaning my studio — which is the never ending task for me Embarassed!

Here are the links to the second hand message board itself: http://www.daisiecompany.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=35

To a Mother's Day 3D frameable Scrapbook Page: http://www.daisiecompany.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15246

To a Graduation triple page scrapbook layout: http://www.daisiecompany.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15244

You might want to book mark the forum if you'd like to keep an eye out for some great deals on crafting supplies!

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

 

Crafting, Daily Life, Freebies, Holidays

Especially For Moms “Making Easter Week Special”

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When we take time ahead of a special holiday to prepare for it, talk about it, and stretch it out so it lasts a little longer, it’s sooooo much more fun for our kids!  Even if you’re busy, (okay, the reality is WE’RE ALL TOO BUSY!) taking a few extra minutes each day can make all the difference in how our families experience the holiday.Easter greeting

You know, it really isn’t the big things, the big events, the big trips that our children remember when they’re grown and gone — it’s little things that were done consistently that make the most lasting impression.  Every time I ask the question, "What was special about your Mom?" I get responses that indicate it was the little, caring things she did on a regular basis that added up to feeling loved and special to her.

Okay, today is Monday, so you still have an entire week before Easter!  What if you did one special little thing each day this week, do you think it could be possible to make this one of the most memorable Easters your kids will have ever had? 

It can be as simple as making a note each day for their lunch box.  You don’t have to be an artist, your child will love it if you use his or her crayons and draw some simple Easter eggs!  If you write all your notes at once and put one each day in their lunch, it doesn’t even have to take too much time.  You could even cut out some Easter decorative images from a magazine and glue them to cardstock… your child won’t be judging your art skills, they’ll be basking in the love you’re expressing for them.

If you’re digitally inclined, use some of the D.A.I.S.I.E. Company digital clip art and you can make some beautiful treats with very little effort.  There are some wonderful Easter-oriented kits available there and here are even some FREE resources for you to make use of:

  1. Make "Nugget Buddies" to put in their lunch for a special Easter treat.  This Friday Freebie is absolutely the cutest thing!!!  ((UPDATE: the link has expired.  Please check back for other specials about once or twice a month).
  2. Make them a special book mark using this Friday Freebie and add your own Easter message: (UPDATE: the link has expired.  Please check back for other specials about once or twice a month
  3. Use my Free Craft Kit from last week (UPDATE: the link has expired.  Please check back for other specials about once or twice a month).and make a little basket of blessings.  Add a text message to the template before you print it out and craft it or simply add the message to one of the tags and you can personalize it for your child.  You’ll find that post, seven posts down from this one or here:http://www.daisiecompany.com/blogs/audreyjeanne/?p=74
  4. My dearest friend, Karla Dornacher has two special freebies that you can make use of.  A set of Easter eggs on her blog and a basket with egg stands (you can also use them as napkin rings in your child’s lunch).  Karla’s blog is always linked in my blog roll, but you can also find it here: http://www.karladornacher.typepad.com/ and you can find her website link on her blog or here: http://www.karladornacher.com/  A side note here, you can sign up for Karla’s newsletter on her website and there’s always an encouraging word and a craft freebie in each month’s edition.

For those of you for whom Easter has a deep and significant spiritual importance, don’t forget to make use of this week to help your child focus on the real reason we celebrate Easter.  Depending on the age of your child, perhaps you might read a story book that tells the story in childlike terms.  For older children, at breakfast or dinner, read a little more from the bible story each day leading up to Resurrection Sunday.  Help them to enter into the story themselves by asking questions like "How would you have felt as you saw Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey with the crowd cheering?  What would you have done?  Would you have laid a palm branch on the street in front of him too?"   

Some of my most treasured memories of Easter were the crafting days my Mom and I had together.  Perhaps you might take the time to utilize some of the above resources with your kids to have them make special gifts for their teachers, grandparents, an elderly neighbor or a close friend.

I pray that this will be one of the most treasured of all Easters for you and your family.  If any of you know some more free resources to utilize, feel free to share them in the comments section!

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

Daily Life, Gardening tips

My Hummingbirds Are Arriving

I stood still for half an hour today with my camera, just waiting to try to capture some photos of the newly arrived hummingbirds, but they were just not cooperating!  Finally, as I turned to give up, one came to feed.  My digital camera is just not high enough quality to give you really great shots (when Jacqui returns from college at the end of the month I'll give her that assignment).  But I did capture a few shots of him feeding.  Later in the summer we'll feed 50+ a day!  We fill three of these containers, twice a day.  And if I don't keep them filled, my birds come after me… seriously!  They'll come tap on the window to let me know that the feeders are dry.

I want to design a hummingbird feeder one day that has the text "Can't we just all get along?!" wrapped around it!  They are the craziest little bullies.  If they spent half the energy they spend on fighting for position on just simply feeding and getting along they'd all be fat, dumb and happy.

hummingbird at feeder

As for the rest of the garden shots, I'm finally starting to see blooms everywhere.  My roses are putting out buds and I might even have some as early as later this week.

My miniature climbing rose on the porch swing arbor will be spectacular in about a month.

The yellow flowers in the window box are a new variety of snapdragon that I planted this year, I think they were called "Fairy Snapdragons" but I'm not sure.  They are absolutely marvelous.  They are covered in blooms and have grown very quickly.  They are a miniature variety, perhaps 10-12" tall at their peak.  Perfect for pots and window boxes.

I don't know what the purple ground cover is called, but I planted it last summer and these blossoms are 6-8" tall and the deepest, blue purple color.  They just vibrate with color in the shade of my California Redwood trees.

April 1st garden shotsThere is something so marvelously cheerful about pansies.  I love their little "faces" smiling at me in my windows.  These are the ones I planted before the last big snowstorm… they're no worse for the wear.

I hope that some of you northerners are getting to go outside in your gardens and soak up some sun.  If not, I trust you will be soon.

I'd love nothing more than to be out playing in my garden today, but I'm going to be a good girl and keep resting up so I don't relapse and end up back in bed.

Have a marvelous day!

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

Daily Life, Health & Lifestyle

Oh My! What am I Going to Wear This Summer?!

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… is almost every woman's dilemma going into the summertime.  You may wonder why I'm thinking about this when we had 4-6" of snow yesterday, but I bought a new magazine "Quilter's Home" over the weekend and there was the funniest little poll in it.  Their "Posse Poll" page asked the question, "What are you wearing this summer?"

2% answered a bikini (yeah right!) 7% said a two piece, 60% said a one piece and 31% said a BURKA!  I couldn't help laughing!  Hmmmm…. maybe if we created a cute enough fabric it might work?!

Basically most of us women aren't happy with our bodies for one reason or another.  Over the winter our "burka" is our sweats, but they have to come off sometime and when they do we often discover there's a few more pounds hiding there to deal with.

All kidding aside, it feels really yucky when our weight and/or eating is out of control and we just can't seem to turn things around.  We know that another crash diet isn't going to work — every time we do it we throw our bodies a little more out of whack and end up putting on more weight rather than keeping it off.  So what can we do differently THIS YEAR than any other year that we've tried?

I have a couple of suggestions from things I've learned on my 60 lb. weight loss journey over the past 18 months.  The good news is you CAN gain control over this area of your life.  One day at a time, one meal at a time, one choice at a time…

  1. Those cravings you wrestle with are often your body telling you that you aren't feeding it good, whole, nutritious foods.  Even if you never count calories, but substitute whole foods for everything that you are eating, your body will become more nourished and quit screaming at you "Feed me!!!"  If you eat rice, make it brown rice.  If you have bread, make sure it is 100% whole wheat, if you want something sweet, have a piece of fruit rather than a candy bar.  Whole foods fill you up more, for less calories and they don't send your blood sugar skyrocketing then plunging causing you to crave.  Whole foods trigger your body's satisfaction mechanism rather than craving and keep you satisfied for a longer time.
  2. NEVER, EVER, EVER DROP BELOW 1,000 CALORIES A DAY!  If you do, you will work against yourself as your body will go into "starvation protection" mode.  Your metabolism will slow down and your body will eat its own muscle rather than the fat you're trying to get rid of.  1200-1500 calories a day over time will do more to drop your weight off and keep it off.
  3. Drink more water, clear soups or herbal tea.  Believe it or not, drinking 8 glasses a day will go a long way to filling you up, especially warm clear soups or flavored herbal teas.  The water also helps your body metabolize the fat and get rid of it more easily.
  4. Add a little bit of exercise to your day.  Don't try some great big binge of working out, just add 15-20 minutes walking or working out in your garden but do it consistently.  It will produce more results than a couple of intense sessions that end with Bengay and enough pain to keep you from going back!
  5. Read the calorie/nutrition menus at fast food places before you order.  You won't believe the calories and bad fats that are in almost anything you usually eat there.  Make wise choices when you eat out, especially if you eat on the run alot.  You can drop a lot of weight effortlessly if you change this one area of your life!
  6. Sugars are in everything we eat.  Read the labels of your canned or packaged foods you'll be amazed (and probably disgusted too).  Sugar is a huge culprit in your uncontrollable urges to eat.  It raises your blood sugar level, then causes it to plummet which makes you feel shakey and crave another sugary snack that repeats and intensifies the process.  Replace white refined sugars with whole food sweetners like honey, molasses, and maple syrup and you won't have the same reaction.  These are real foods that nourish your body, while refined sugar is an anti-food that steals vitamins and minerals from you body in order to process it.
  7. Make changes gradually BUT FOREVER.  Diets don't work.  Even if you lose the weight on a diet, you won't keep it off if you don't change the behaviors that got you there in the first place.  Change your life a little at a time, but again, CHANGE IT FOREVER and you'll feel so much better for doing it.  (Information learned through The Prism Weight Loss Program www.pwlp.com )

Summer's coming!  And this year I'm going swimming… in public… and I'm not going to wear my burka!

Audrey Jeanne Roberts 

Daily Life

Sunny Days in My Garden!

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I just finished planting 19, six packs of annuals in my garden.  When I used to live in the city, that was just about all it would take to assure a massive display of color for the rest of the spring, but on my five acres… it pretty much disappears!  All these pictures are from my front yard, the mountains and the view are off the back of the house.

Spring's here!The tree in bloom on the left is a Redbud.  They grow wild in our area and there are a few here in the yard.  They really should be called "Magenta Buds!" as there's nothing red about them.

The tree to the right is a Ginko and there's a clematis trained to grow up its trunk.  The clematis is about 4' high already.

It rained so hard the past couple of days that my bells fell over.  The antique English roses around the fountain are about 3 or 4 weeks from blooming.

Here are the first of the tulips which popped up yesterday.  Yippee!  After growing up in San Diego all my life (where you can't grow tulips) they have become my favorite part of Spring here.

The garden with the little dutch girl fountain is at the top of our hill and is pretty much solid granite with a few pockets of dirt.  In about 3 or 4 weeks this garden will be filled with yellow and white daisies and the lilac bush will be in bloom as well.  This time of year really is the prettiest for this particular garden.  The sun cooks anything planted here in the heat of the summer, so I don't spend much effort on it.

I remember my first Spring here three years ago.  In San Diego, very few plants go dormant over the winter and there are flowers every month except December and January.  In February when "spring" starts, it slowly unfolds a little at a time.  When we first moved to the mountains, it was the beginning of March.  We went from the dead of winter to full bloom in about the first 4 weeks… spring didn't just arrive, it exploded all around me!  I hope your spring is getting ready to explode as well.  Have a great weekend in the garden.

(UPDATE: About 15 minutes after I posted this, our weatherman said we're supposed to have snow on Monday or Tuesday!!!  Ahhhh, spring in the mountains…80 degrees for 2 weeks and then snow!  Fortunately we don't usually hard freeze so all the new baby flowers should be just fine Laughing)

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

Daily Life, One Minute Wisdoms

One Child at a Time…

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Our family had a momentous day yesterday… My husband and I became grandparents… sort of… of a fifteen year old grandson!  To simplify the story, our daughter Ariane and her husband Michael are 32.  They've been married 6 1/2 years and have been fighting virtually all that time to be allowed to be a part of her young cousin, Michael-Brett's life.  His mother has been, well… let's politely say a little less than an attentive mother and he has grown up alone, neglected and abused. 

They fought for years within the family, then with CPS to try to get him brought to their attention all to no avail.  Then he had a social worker/counselor in school that took notice of what an amazing young man he was and knew the system well enough to do something.  The counselor reported the mother to adult protective services as unable to care for herself, let alone her son.  She has medical issues as well as psychological issues.  Then APS forced CPS to act and the sytem finally began to work.  Michael and Ariane received temporary guardianship last year about this time and yesterday the courts awarded him to them permanently!

To say we're proud of our daughter and son-in-law would be a major understatement.  They have fought a long, hard, exhausting and often intensely emotional battle for this young man.  Sometimes with the courts, sometimes with the family and even sometimes with the young man himself.  He has a lot of learning to do with what normal is and how to function in a "normal" family and world.

The family services agency that interviewed them for the process said that they were, "The best parents they've ever seen come into the system and are the perfect parents for this young man."  We agree.  And we're so glad they're our kids and he's our "new" grandson!

The world is a big place and there are thousands of children like our grandson… abused, neglected and lost.  If there's one in your life, one that you can encourage and love in any small way… please take the time to invest in them.  Pray for them.  We prayed for Michael Brett for years and God protected him in more ways than I can even begin to tell you. You can't believe how much impact a little love can have on a lost and lonely child. 

There's an old story of a man who was walking along the seashore where there were thousands of starfish washed up and dieing.  He bent over and picked up one at a time and threw them back into the sea.  A man came along shaking his head and self-righteously proclaimed, "Why are you wasting your time?  There are thousands and thousands of starfish on this shore what can you do to make a difference?"  The man quietly bent over, picked up another starfish threw him back into the sea and then turned to answer him, "I may not be able to solve the entire problem, but I made all the difference in the world to that one starfish!"

You can make a world of difference in a child's life… one child at a time.

The second reason I wrote about this today is to ask you to pray for Michael, Ariane and Michael-Brett.  Every day is a struggle.  Every day is intense.  Some are beyond wonderful… some beyond frustrating, all a gift from God.  Pray for wisdom, discernment and strength for Michael and Ariane and pray for healing, wholeness and the ability to put into practice everything that Michael Brett is learning about life, being parented and about the God that loves him so dearly.

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

Daily Life

I So Wish You Were Here!

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Then I would have a good reason to stay outside instead of only taking a 10 minute break to go take some pictures!  It's almost 80 degrees out… we're experiencing "weather whiplash!"  We had a foot of snow two weeks ago and now we're melting.  Yikes!  And the funny thing is that it's conceivable that we could still have snow again until late April.

I wanted to try to give you a sense of the land here.  We're at the top of a 3800 ft high foothill to the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.  The peaks you see out to the right are the Great Western Divide.

The snow on the High Sierra usually lasts until around Late May early June, but the warmer the air temperatures get, the more moisture the air holds and the shorter our view becomes.  All summer long we rarely see the distant peaks, so this is our favorite time of year for the view.

We're an oak forest area, and the oaks will bud out in the next month or so.  Our hillsides will be filled with wildflowers by April.  We have California Golden Poppies and about 2 dozen other wildflowers.  They're beautiful to look at until it's time to mow the hillside!

Our property climbs about 75 feet in elevation from the street up to the house over the course of our 1/4 mile driveway.  Our property was named "Quail Ridge" by the former owner and builder of the home for the hundreds of California Quail that live in our underbrush and scamper across the driveway everytime we pass by.

Okay, break's over!  Back to my music boxes (yes, Angela I'm working, I'm working!!!!!)

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

Daily Life, Gardening tips

Daffodils, Hyacinth & crocus’ in my Garden

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These are the areas I worked in today in my garden.  You can see in several of the shots if you look closely that I still have to pull out the dead material from the winter, but spring is managing to break through nonetheless.  I dusted off my large sized bottle of Aleve and made use of it as I of course over did it my first day out!

In less than two months the garden fountain will be almost buried by the perrenials that will come up around it.  There will be day lilies, antique English roses, lavendar, various daisies and several flowering ground covers including native mountain strawberries with cute little hot pink flowers.

We were going to attack putting away Jacqui's things from the hallway (we still will work on them tonight) but it was just sooooo beautiful out today that we went down a few "rabbit trails" along the way to putting furniture into the container.  Here's a complilation of garden shots.  The annuals in the window boxes are hanging from our deck railing and were planted just prior to our last snow storm 2 weeks ago.  They obviously were no worse for the weather. 

early spring in my garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh yeah… I discovered a cute grey plastic mushroom that is designed to be a toad house.  It obvious works since it was filled with our little frogs.  I found it buried under the vinca and never knew it was there.  The previous owner had all kinds of cute little adornments in her garden most of which she left for me… I'm expecting to find a gnome buried around here one of these days 

My garden discovery of the day… it is possible to leave a garden wagon (with solid plastic bottom) full of piled up dead materials out all winter long, and have 3" of incredible compost when you find it in the spring.  Yeah!  I did that this winter.  It's probably not super good for the equipment though… my poor wonderful husband spends all his time maintaining the garden equipment I destroy Blush or leave out.

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

Daily Life, Freebies

Welcome Nancy’s Kitchen readers!

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I have recently reconnected with my wonderful Aunt Nancy and discovered that she has the most amazing recipe site!  I must confess… I paint better food than I cook, but I am always trying to improve on the meager skills that I do have and all of your wonderful hints and recipes will help me to do that!  In exchange, I've promised Aunt Nancy that I'll provide her with art to prettify her wonderfully practical website — I think that's only fair!

I'm starting to write articles for Nancy's website and I also write daily in my blog here.  My range of topics is varied, starting (of course) with my art!  I share sneak peeks of new art that will be coming to The D.A.I.S.I.E. Company, and new products that I have created for either the giftware or home decor industries.  My current project is a brand new quilting fabric line with Loralie Designs that will debut at the shows soon and be available in Quilt shops across America around August 2007. 

I also have digital freebies on my blog and will be creating craft projects that you will be able to download free blank templates and instructions for.  Any craft kits that I design templates for, will also have the completed craft project (including all art required) available for a very reasonable price at Daisie.  The first kit is a blank template for creating a digitally printable quilt block (with your own digital graphics or photographs).  These are for printing on your ink jet printer on printable fabrics.  You'll find them filed under "Crafting." There are two kits that have already been created for you, and will be available for purchase on Daisie I believe this Friday.

I also dabble in gardening, though I am by no means a master gardener!  My hints lean towards making gardening as simple and the least time-consuming as possible.  In both crafting and gardening, I'll leave the complex projects for Martha Stewart! 

I am a Christian and Inspirational book author with 13 books published, so a big part of what I share each day is in  segments I call "One Minute Wisdoms."  My current theme is "The Art of Simplifying Your Life."  You'll find the current series posts categorized under "Simplifying Life."  My goal in these segments is to provide devotional level writing that will cause you to think about how you can actually apply the principles to your own life.

I hope you'll peak around and look in my closets and cupboards while you're here, my home is your home Bye

LINK to FREE recipe cardsHere's one of my very, very basic "recipes" for a dessert I enjoy almost every night (I did warn you that I paint better than I cook!)  (NOTE: THE LINK HAS NOW EXPIRED 3/14/07 BUT IF YOU SIGN UP AT DAISIE COMPANY YOU'LL GET THE NEXT SERIES FREE)

There are I believe 10 more recipes and 12 blank recipe cards to match included in this free download.  Enjoy and feel free to pass this link on to others to come and sample.

If you want to receive this mailing 5 times a year, go to D.A.I.S.I.E. Company's website www.daisiecompany.com and sign up to be a member choosing to receive the newletters and all Daisie Extras and you'll receive these cards 5 times a year for FREE!

This link will only be operable through the end of the day, March 13th, 2007.  So hurry!

Audrey Jeanne Roberts 

Contests, Crafting, Daily Life, One Minute Wisdoms

And the Winner is….. drumroll!

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Deb "Itsmee" from the Daisie Boards won the prize in the drawing this morning.  Thanks so very much to her and all of you that participated.  It will be a monthly feature, so keep that in mind and when you read something that you think would benefit someone special your lives, please pass the link on (and then tell me you did, so I can enter you).

I'm working on a craft project that I will post here, maybe as early as tomorrow, so check back in!  I'll have a template and instructions on making a wall hanging with Pabric (or other printable fabrics).  I'll be making it out of kits that are already available from Daisie Company, but will make a mini kit of the design elements available separately in case you don't already own the graphics to create it.

On another note.  I wanted to mention the incredible sense of community that has developed in the past year at The D.A.I.S.I.E. Company and especially in the Message Board Forum.  In a world where we can live next door to people for 5 years and barely know their names, it is amazing to discover the loving, caring, fun relationships that have developed between the women there.  My husband and I have talked about it quite a bit and have come to the conclusion that in many ways, it's similar to centuries ago when the women would have gathered together at the river's edge to do their laundry together.  Or perhaps more like an 18th century weekly quilting bee.  Often times there would be nothing more than a little bantering and playful conversation, but when one woman was hurting all would gather around and help bear the load emotionally and prayerfully.

We have women literally from around the world, that are gathering at the river's edge throughout the day, to share the events of their daily lives and to support one another.  I think that there's little difference in the quality of those relationships because they're "cyber" relationships… except that we don't get the joys of holding a hand, wiping a tear and giving a hug except with the thoughtfulness of our words. 

One of our members, Sue (OzSue) from Australia, recently had been missing from our midst.  It was noticed, shared, wondered about and then last night discovered that she and her husband had suffered the loss of his mother unexpectedly.  Our community worked.  We noticed.  We cared.  We reached out to make a difference.  Take a moment today to think about those who share your lives in both your day-to-day world and elsewhere.  Is anyone missing?  Is anyone suffering through a challenging time?  Does someone need a hug?  If so think about what you can do to draw close and lighten their load.  That's community in action.

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

Daily Life

The High Sierra Peaks

Left Side Panoramic View

I had hoped to get a snow picture of the view today, but the weather refused to cooperate! 

This is the left side of our panoramic view.  I pieced it together out of about 4 or 5 photos to try to capture the entire effect.  For some reason (probably too large) it had to be cut in half to upload it to my blog.

This is Big Baldy.  The large white spots are a huge granite field on the side of the mountain, so even in summer it almost looks like it has snow on it.  This is where the giant Sequoia forest is.  In fact if I could zoom in far enough, they are so large that I could point them out to you!

Great Western DivideBehind Big Baldy and blocked from view is Mt. Whitney, which is the highest peak in the contiguous United States.  It's visible from up on the mountain at a great lookout point.

The picture to the right is exactly continuing the view and you see the Great Western Divide.  Don't tell my neighbors but I have to restrain my daughters from cutting down his pine tree Annoyed because they hate how it intrudes on the view!  I've talked to them about their "Christian Witness!"

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

Daily Life

The Death of a Canopy (UPDATE:I was Wrong!)

Well, Steve thinks he might be able to resurrect her, but I don't know… He's going to try and jack up the canopy, turn it inside out and then hold it up with a pole.  Hmmmm…. he is my "engineer" and is pretty good at this stuff, but we'll see!

Here's a distance shot to show the total devastation.

So who thinks he can save it?  MMMMMM, I'm just not sure, though he's worked some miracles before.  Boy do I wish I didn't have a child in college sucking up all the bank account, because Sam's club has this truly awesome teak wood (or similar) gazebo with a really sharply pitched top that's sooo adorable for just under $1,000.  Ah well….. (UPDATE: HE DID IT, IT'S EVEN STANDING UP ON ITS OWN WITHOUT A POST, BUT HE WILL INSTALL A POST IN THE CENTER WHERE WE PLACE OUR DINING TABLE AND THEN "SISTER" SOME ALUMINUM BRACES WE HAVE IN THE GREAT PILE OF THINGS WE'LL USE SOME DAY.  SO SHE'LL MAKE IT THROUGH ONE MORE SUMMER BEFORE WE HAVE TO REPLACE HER.  THE $179 WE PAID FOR HER AT TARGET HAS DEFINITELY BEEN A BARGAIN!)

I"m hoping it will clear up enough to post a picture of our view of the High Sierra peaks today.  That's what makes everything that's a little extra effort to live up here worthwhile.  Even a great picture just doesn't show it off well enough.  I think it's Lucy Hampton who has the quote "God is the greatest artist" on her signature line at Daisie… He sure is!

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

Daily Life

Spring is Buried in a Snowfall!

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You know us California girls, we love to rub it in when you midwesterners and eastern seaboarders are freezing cold and we're basking in the sunshine.  Hmmmm … what was it, a week ago I posted my crocus blooming?  Well… it's buried under a foot or a little more of snow!

The view out my studio windoThat window is my art studio window (technically the formal dining room) and at the base of the fountain was where my crocus blossoms were blooming and my daylillies were about 4-6" high!

We had a little catastrophe after I took all our pictures this morning, an aging gazebo/canopy on our deck collapsed under the snow load before we could get out there to clear it off.  We couldn't take the canvas off of it because it was so rotten it would never have gone back on! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below is my deck off of our master bedroom and those are my hummingbird feeders… I don't think they'll be here for a little bit yet!  During the summer we've fed as many as 50 or more hummingbirds at a time.  We have video footage that I'm gong to try to figure out how to upload so you can see it, it's like La Guardia at rush hour!No hummingbirds now!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Here's the bench I have for Kath to use!

Kath's bench!

Okay, I've delayed as long as is permissible, now I have to go help clean up the mess!

Have a warm day!  Audrey Jeanne Roberts