Sunday updates...

Well, Saturday went from snow to this glorious sunset. It actually was still spitting snow as I took this picture last night. I checked the weather records this morning and the latest snow in this area was recorded April 22, 1955! We almost broke the record set 53 years ago! Seeing as how I was 10 months old when that happened, no wonder I don't remember ever having snow this late before!

I was able to get the bodice finished last night on the smocked dress. I still need to do the little sleeves, but those shouldn't take long. This is the first time I have attempted to add ribbon, and it took a couple of tries to get it right, but once I got the hang of it it worked up very quickly.

Tuesday after work Von and leave for Victoria...time to drag the suicase out of the garage and start packing!!

The Winter that will never end....

This is what it did at my house this morning.....

It's hard to believe that a week ago today it was nearly 80 degrees! We spent the day at the zoo and got sunburned!!! Thankfully this snow has all melted off already..but honestly, enough already!!! The pink flowering rhody in the third picture is the same one as the Picture of the Week in my sidebar.

Daughter Amy injured her foot Wednesday night so she has been laid up and walking with crutches since then. I took Thursday and Friday off work to stay home and take care of her and the kids...boy am I exhausted! Taking care of babies at my age all day long about does me in. The xrays said no fractures, but the way her foot is, I think she may have some hairline fractures or cracks they were unable to see. I hope that it starts healing quickly!!!

I have been smocking another dress for Alana, and I like the way it is turning out. I try and get some pictures posted tomorrow of the smocking...pink and blue on a white dress this time. I just need to thread some ribbon on the yoke and then smock the sleeves and it will be finished. I am hoping to finish before I leave for Victoria on Tuesday!

Gift exchange finish

I finished up the thread pocket I stitched for the Victoria Sampler Retreat this last week and thought I would share some photos of the finished pocket. I am especially pleased with how it turned out. Von will be here on Tuesday to pick me up and we head on up to Anacortes that evening to spend the night before catcing the 7 AM ferry to Sydney BC then on to Victoria after a brief visit with everyone at The Victoria Sampler. It promises to be a great weekend!

More Hawaii Pictures...just cause I felt like it!!!

I cannot get the captions to line up with the pictures very well. Hopefully you can make sense of this!!!

I love Palm Trees!

Beach on the South Shore of Kaua'i

Taro Fields in Hanalei Valley

Hawaiian Quilt on display at our hotel. There are three more of them.

Close up of a Hawaiian Quilt.

Good Grief.

I must have fixed it, without knowing what happened. The comments link showed up on my new post, but not my old, previously published posts. Hmm...maybe I need to republish them is all.

At my office building they have been stripping old wallpaper in the hallways and preparing the walls for new wallpaper. As the sign says that has been erected, "thank you for your patience during our construction!"

Blogger Problems

Hi there. I discovered this week that I am having problems with Blogger and the little widget that allows comments on my posts is not working. I have tried editing my html template and it still won't work. I need to do some more research to try and figure out why first, it turned itself off, and secondly, how to fix it.

If anyone has any ideas or directions, please email me at ConnieDunton at comcast dot net. I could sure use some help and I miss having comments!!! ARGGH!

A new learning experience right? Seems I am forced to learn something new when things go wrong. I'm looking at the bright side of it!

Please be patient. There has to be a solution!!! Thanks!

Winter's Last Gasp....

Old Man Winter was just not ready to give up today. We had snow. Probably almost half an inch here at our house. It was pretty, with big huge flakes, but it just didn't look quite right with all the flowers in bloom, getting buried in snow. Here are my flowers I showed you last weekend, covered now in snow....

We have a beautiful sunset going now, a bright salmon pink. Very Pretty!

Sunday was Easter, and it was a pretty quiet day for us. We went to church, and Gracie was dedicated. She looked so sweet in the christening gown. Amy has a few more pictures on her blog. I took the gown to my friend on Tuesday for the machine embroidery of the names, I am excited to see how it will turn out. We had a nice dinner at home and Alana did an Easter Egg hunt here in the house as it was absolutely nasty rainy and windy outside. She still had fun, it didn't take her long to find all the eggs! We then went to the new Carl's Jr restaurant for dinner. It has been open only a few days, and has been packed almost constantly. The burgers were so big, none of us could finish them!

Here is a little peek of the project I am working on for the gift exchange for the stitching retreat next month. I took the basic layout from a Janice Love pattern, and then substantially changed the hardanger filling stitches to suit my tastes, and added a lacy border edge. I still want to add some crystals or beads to make it sparkle. I'm putting a bit of hardanger on the other end too, but don't want to show too much yet. I am very happy with this project. I may have to make one for myself too!!!

It's Spring!!!

A delightful event happened while we were gone on vacation...spring arrived in the Pacific Northwest. Though a week shy calendar-wise, we came home to flowers and plum trees in full bloom!!! Here area few pictures from my garden this week. I've said it many times before, spring is my favorite season!


Easter is coming up this weekend. I am not quite ready for it yet this year. I really like having Easter in April when the weather is a little warmer and I have a little more time to think about getting ready for it. The kids are having Gracie dedicated at church Easter morning, so I need to get the christening gown cleaned up and pressed. This will be the 5th baby in my family to wear this dress. I am looking forward to seeing her in it. I have a friend, Lizzie's piano teacher, that has a professional embroidery machine, so I am going to take the dress to her and have her embroider in white script the names and birthdates of all our girls that have worn the dress. I haven't decided if it will be along the bottom hem or under the overskirt yet.


I have been fighting a cold for over a week now, and been miserable, trying to go to work and keep up with life at the same time. I finally called in sick to work yesterday (and today) and slept a good portion of the day. I am feeling a little better now, I hope by next week to be back to normal.

Von and I are attending the Victoria Samper Retreat in Victoria the last full week of April. I am really looking forward to going. One of the activities will be a gift exchange, and I was wanting to stitch something special for a gift, so yesterday I pulled out my hardanger books, and found a small pocket (designed for potpourri, but I have other ideas!!) with a hardanger flap that I really like and so I started stitching it last night. I think it's going to be really pretty. I hope I have enough time to make an accessory or two to go with it!!! Von! No peeking!!!!

A Wonderful Vacation!

We had such a nice time discovering Kauai!

We connected with family and friends,

My first cousin, Kathy. Lives on Oahu.

Connie Amundson (Cyberstitcher friend) and I at Princeville Resort

Viewed gorgeous scenery

Waimea Canyon

Kilauea Lighthouse

Watched 6 glorious sunrises

Stitched and relaxed on the beach,

Stitching on beach in front of our Hotel

Discovered the color pallette of Kauai

Enjoyed the beaches

Looked for and discovered settings used in motion pictures:

Hanalei Bay, setting for movie South Pacific

Basically had an all around fabulous time!!!

At Anini Beach

Enjoy the pictures!

Aloha from Kauai!

We are having lunch with a cyberstitcher friend (Connie A.) and her husband at their condo this afternoon and she has graciously offered to let me use her computer to check in. They are both fantastic people, and we have enjoyed getting to know them.

We are having a wonderful time on Kauai...it's much different here than the other islands we have visited. We drove up to the Waimea Canyon yesterday, and the views were gorgeous. It is like a small Grand Canyon. I have taken lots of pictures and already filled up one memory card. This morning we went to the beach at Hanalei Bay, and stood in the spot where they filmed the movie "South Pacific".

The weather has been good, not too hot, and we are enjoying being outside.

More later, and I will post lots of pictures when I get back. Aloha!!!

And here it is March already!!

Not that I am complaining...I am so thankful that winter is on it's way out the door. By the time we get back from Hawaii we will have a short 5 days left of Old Man Winter. I am so glad! I love springtime. It is my favorite season I think, with all the new growth on the plants, beautiful flowers and warmth again in the sunshine. The greens are so vibrant, and are never again quite as "spring green" the rest of the year!!!

It's been a busy week. I've been out after work almost every evening this week, and again today, shopping for things we need for our trip. I think I purchased the last of it this afternoon. I hope. I like to get a bunch of new tee-shirts before we go to Hawaii, then I wear them all summer, so now I am set for the year again. Only six more days until we leave!!! I visited a couple of different video rental stores looking for movies that were filmed on Kauai. I brought home South Pacific and Six Days, Seven Nights. Alot of the South Pacific beach scenes are right there on the north shore of Kauai. I keep saying to John, "look, that's where we will be next Saturday!"

I made contact with a lady that is in the same cyberstitchers group I am in, her name is also Connie and she lives on Kauai now, so we are going to meet up for lunch while we are there. We are also taking a long layover at the Honolulu airport and my first cousin, Kathy, is coming to the airport to spend a little time with us. We had such a great visit with them 4 years ago when we vacationed on Oahu. I am looking forward to seeing her again!

I haven't gotten much stitching done at all this week. By the time I get home from shopping I am too tired. I started Porecelain Nosegay by Just Nan, but as you can see from the scan, I haven't gotten very far. I do love the way the colors are working with the fabric!

Not much else exciting to share I guess. I am not sure I will have time for another blog entry before we leave for Kauai next Saturday, but I will be sure and do a full report when we get home.

Happy Birthday today Dad!!!! You missed some glorious sunshine and sweater weather up here today!!! We are all looking forward to you guys coming home!

I remember....

When I was reading back over some old posts from this summer a few minutes ago, I discovered that I mentioned getting some of my old slides digitized. Well, I actually did do that last month...and some of the pictures are a hoot!!! This was a very low tech method I used...essentially put the slides into the slide projector, shine them on the wall and snap a picture with my digital camera. Some of the pix I took in Paris during college 33 years ago discolored alot, but with the discoloration, they look REALLY old, like 100 years old. I kind of like the way the colors are so muted....So I thought you all might like to see some of my ancient history...a little trip back in time....

The Eiffel Tower, taken January 1975. Notice how the colors have muted out.

This is me, taken sometime in the mid-70's, with our new puppy, Nutmeg. She was so tiny she fit right into my pocket!!

This was taken at my parents 25th wedding anniversary party in 1973. I am on the left, then my mom, and my grandma (mom's mom) is standing in the background against the wall. I miss my Grandma still. My middle daughter, Alli, has alot of her facial features.

This was taken by my dad in 1973, at our cabin in Whatcom County, WA.

College graduation, 1977.

An old-world street scene, taken in a long forgotten town somewhere in Northern France. Again the muted colors make the picture look older than it is.

This is me sitting in front of Chenonceaux, my favorite castle in the Loire Valley, France. I wish the castle wasn't so faded out...it really was a nice picture. I used to be so skinny!!!

Maybe one of these days I will post some more of these old pictures. It takes Blogger a long time to post them all, so I won't do any more this evening. But, now you know some of my history that few people remember!!!

Noisy Saturday...

Today is Lizzie's 13th birthday, and we have a houseful of kids helping her celebrate this afternoon. They are having a wonderful time, a noisy wonderful time. Happy birthday dear daughter!!!

I also want to say Happy Birthday to my special friend Thea!!! You have enriched my life immeasurably with your friendship and loving support...I hope your day gives back to you a little of what you have poured out!!! Thanks so much for everything, and many blessings to you today on your birthday!!!

I didn't get a post done last week, we had a super busy weekend and I just never got the chance to sit down long enough at the computer by myself to write up a post. It was one of those weekends where I went back to work Monday morning and nearly cried because I was more tired and frazzled from the weekend than if I had gone to work. Ever had one of those weekends? This one has been busy too, with birthday celebrations, but so far I have also been able to get a lot of the little things done that I have to do on a weekend to feel sane the rest of the week. Its a hard lesson for me to practice sometimes...taking care of myself so I can have the ability to take care of others!!!

I was able to get two projects finished since my last post. Whirlygig is finished, and I am very happy with the project. It was very fun and relaxing to do. I also finished a smocked dress for Alana (dear granddaughter), that I am very pleased with. She loves to wear it, I think it makes her feel pretty. She dances around in it like a ballerina, holding up the skirt. It's so sweet and looks so cute on her.

I haven't started a new stitching project yet this week. Nothing is calling out to me, in my basket of twenty projects in various stages of completion. About half of them haven't even been started, but are kitted up and ready for me stitch. I may just wait until I feel the desire to start one. I do have a project set aside to take to Kauai with me, so I will save that one for our trip. It's a small Just Nan design (Beach Roses) that I took with me to Maui last year and didn't have time to stitch. It is such a fitting design to be stitched on the beach!!!

We leave for Hawaii (Kauai) three weeks from today. I am so excited I can hardly stand it. I can hardly wait to get to the hotel and drop the suitcases on the floor and head out the patio doors for the beach. We are staying in an older motel that our condo association has just purchased, (they will be remodeling and converting it to condos) so we were able to get a really fantastic room rate through the association. It is on the beach (note in picture you can see the ocean at the center of the photo), though the rooms are not as close to the actual beach as our condo on Maui...it is still very close.

Check it out!

Daughter Amy has started a new blog, due to the fact that with an internet provider change when they moved, she was unable to get into her old blog to make new posts. One day very soon we will try and transfer all her old posts to her new blog, but in the mean time, please check out her new one:



Diaper Days

I will update the link in my sidebar to the new blog, and make a post of my own sometime this weekend!!!!

I have the best intentions....

but life always seems to get in the way. As you can see, I haven't gotten much done on Swirlygig this week. It is sometimes agonizing when the little designs you know should only take a couple of evenings to complete turn into a couple of weeks instead. Ah well. I did have a VERY productive week in other areas of my life. I got our taxes completely done. And filed. And a generous size refund is on the way...the IRS website says in about 2 weeks it will be in our account. Horray!!! Cuz it is already spent...on plane tickets for Hawaii!!! Another major accomplishment this week, getting all the arrangements done for our trip to Kauai. We are leaving March 8th for a glorious sunshine filled week on the beach. I can hardly wait!!! It will be our first time on Kauai, tho our fourth trip to Hawaii in four years. I love Hawaii. I want to move to Hawaii. I want to move my whole family to Hawaii so I can stay there guilt free. (I can dream can't I?) We are hoping when we retire to spend at least the winter there every year. We will at least still be making an annual pilgrimage there I am sure, since we have the timeshare now. Isn't it amazing when a "PLACE" gets under your skin and won't let you go???


Daughter Amy was taking pictures of the grandbabies this afternoon, and I couldn't resist posting this one...the baby (Gracie) is laughing!!! in this picture. I bust up laughing every time I look at this picture. I love having grandkids. I am sure some people must get tired of my ramblings on about them, but how can you not talk about the things (people) you love??? Which is why we all have blogs anyway, right?

Von and I are headed to a special holiday retreat in Victoria BC, in April, sponsored by The Victoria Sampler. I am really looking forward to spending time with dear friends and stitching to my hearts content for a long weekend. The last time I was able to attend I came home so relaxed and refreshed. That's how I need to spend retirement...shuttling between Hawaii and these retreats in Victoria...and maybe a monthly side trip to visit the grandkids. Now, that would be almost heaven!!!

until next time...happy stitching!!!