The Rose Capitol of America!

Across the street from the Japanese Gardens is the International Rose Test Garden.  Portland is known as the Rose capitol of America, the area has ideal conditions for growing roses!  The Test Garden is composed of  over 10,000 plants and 4.5 acres of lovely smelling goodness!  I wish you could just smell what we smelled when we walked in the garden.  Absolutely every plant was blooming to perfection!

The colors of the roses were just stunning!

Is this rose really real?!

These looked like the paper ones you buy....but they smell much better!

This rose bush was growing in the middle of other surrounding roses....just love it!

There were also some beautiful fuschia's.....

 I really loved the rose gardens and they were free....no charge to look and smell!  It was wonderful....

More adventures to come....I'll keep you posted....

Talk to you later,

A Visit to Portland

Allie and I had been busy sewing for a couple of days and we decided to take a break and go to Portland!

First up, we went to the Japanese Garden.  It was a stunning display of 5 Japanese Gardens that are done to perfection.

 Japanese sculpture...

Crane scuplture...

An amazing waterfall!

The gardens were just so lush and green.  Everything in Kansas is so brown and burned from the heat, so it was refreshing to see all the greenery.  I had never really seen moss like they have there...it's just everywhere!

An amazing curved pathway...

 

The irrigation system...

The garden was full of all kinds of inspiration as well as interesting textures!  It was really an amazing garden to experience.  Attention is paid to every detail in the gardens!  We saw a woman on her hands and knees carefully pulling moss from rocks.  In the next couple of days, I'll tell you about our visit to the Rose Garden...my favorite!

Talk to you later,

Allie's House

Well I am finally back from Allie's house!  I had a wonderful time and she is the best hostess!  The picture above is a pink bouquet of flowers that she put in the bedroom I stayed  in.  Pink is my favorite color, so of course I was thrilled!

Allie set up a work station for me in her studio and as you can see, I am working hard and have already made a mess!  The creative juices were flowing in that room and we really had a great time creating together.

Here is the view from her studio, isn't is great?  This Kansas girl  had just come from 110 degree temperatures which she happens to love but it was in the 70's at Allie's.  I was so cold but it is just beautiful there because all the plants aren't getting burned up by the heat like they are at home.

Allie went out to water her flower's one day and I took the opportunity to practice using my camera.  Aren't these hydrangea's beautiful?

Not sure what these are called, but I love them!

Same with this one....

Hot pink snapdragons.....just lovely....

Poppies...one of my favorites too!

Of course, I had to stalk Allie and take a picture of her watering her beautiful flowers.

More to come of my adventures with Allie....keep checking back!

Talk to you later,

Hello!

I just thought I would check in with you!  I haven't been able to post pictures from my iPad but for those of you who guessed where I am visiting, you were right!  I am having a wonderful time visiting Allie Aller. ;-)

Talk to you later,

Leaving on a Jet Plane!

So sorry I haven't blogged in a while!  The special project I am working on is keeping me very busy.  Tomorrow I am leaving to go on a very exciting trip.  Yes, I am leaving on a jet plane, but I do know when I'll be back again!

Here is a view of where I am going...

Some of you may recognize this view!  How about if we make this a game and you guess where I am going...just leave me a comment and we'll see if you guess right.  No fair if you already know where I'm going!  So excited and be sure to check in because I may blog while I'm there and for sure will tell you my adventures when I get back!

Talk to you later,

My Daisy Loom

Today it is stormy so there are no swimming or biking distractions for me!  I decided to play with a little toy I bought over a year ago!  For several years, one of the members of our MCC crazy quilt group has been putting cute little flowers like the one pictured above on our crazy quilts.  She told us what she used but I had never been able to find one.  About a year ago I went to an estate sale on the last day when everything was 75% off and voila........

I found one for a quarter!  The flower pictured above is my first attempt with some new 1/8" Mokuba ribbon that I got.  I am rather pleased with my first attempt!!

Talk to you later,

Another UFO Finished!

I finished another UFO!  It feels so good to see my UFO pile get smaller and smaller.  This is a Snowflake block that I taught as a class about a year ago.  I just love to do blocks on point with a fan at the bottom...if you can't tell...Ha!  I keep working on UFO's so I'll keep you posted.

Summer is my favorite time of year, there are ALOT of outdoor activities that keep me from crazy quilting.

Here are two of the things that distract me:  my children are out of school and we all love to swim!  We put in a pool 5 years ago and it is the best thing we ever did!  By the end of summer my kid's are so fit from swimming all the time.

Here is my latest distraction!  I wanted to buy a bicycle last summer, but I ended up buying an iPad instead.  I don't regret that as I just love my iPad!  But this summer I was finally able to buy my PINK bicycle.  No surprise on the color at all I'm sure.  I just love riding this thing.  The grocery store is riding distance from my house as well as Hancock's Fabrics and Hobby Lobby.  We also have a park with riding paths across the street from my house.  If you place an order with me on my website...I could very well be riding my bike to mail your order!  I still need to get a basket on the front so Daisy(my sweet poodle) can ride with me!


Hope all of you are having a wonderful summer also and I'll talk to you later!