In Full Swing!

Well, the Columbine Rebel Marching Band is off and running- or should I say marching!?!?! lol

Last Saturday was the first event they participated in, the 81st Annual Western Welcome Week Parade here in Littleton, Colorado.

They are largely a new band this year- almost HALF of the band graduated last May! The largest number of them are sophomores like Heidi, and there are some newbies of course.

They had a full week of band camp, practicing all day for three days here at the high school, then the whole group went up to Mount Evans and stayed from Saturday to Tuesday afternoon, starting to learn the show they will perform in competition this year.

I am the uniform chair this year, and so it has been a busy time, but I think the biggest part of the job is over for now. Whew!

The band sounded great in the parade, they looked good, and it is always fun to see them perform.

Heidi is playing a new instrument in MB as you can see here- she will play mellophone for marching season then return to flute for the remainder of the year. We are at a turning point with the braces too; they are due to come off soon and that will impact her playing... Heidi is the short one in the middle of the photo.

Another good thing: my friend Joan, who is in charge of the Pit Crew, is happy to put Chloe to work as well! You can see Chloe kind of tucked behind everyone, pushing the water wagon. I couldn't get a better photo, they were all walking so close together and moving at a good clip.

Sprucing up the front

Everyone knows how much I LOVE my house. I love every single thing about it, and love to make it look inviting and pretty, both inside and out.

Many of our neighbors have been living here for many years; some have been here since the early sixties when they were just building the houses. So those neighbors have the most beautiful yards, full of big, gorgeous trees and lush perennial gardens, full of blooms and colour, and incredible landscaping. I see it, and that is what I want to see here in our yard too!

Last year, I planted perennials out front like a crazy person! I bought rose bushes in every colour (all beautifully scented of course- I can't have a rose that doesn't smell good!) and I filled the space with things I thought would give us lots of variety and colour.

It was a good plan. But I realized that plan depends a LOT on the weather. Our January and February were so mild, that the plants and trees thought it was spring and started too early. Having cold snow and ice in March and April messed the cycle up, and many of my flowers just didn't come up this year.

Being a new gardener, I have decided to wait it out another year before digging the failed plants up. I will keep my fingers crossed- I am hoping that this coming year brings more cooperative weather.

I have some vision for our front yard and am planning to do some landscaping before next spring- but I will need a little help and guidance with that... lol Rich gets a little nervous thinking about me digging up sprinkler heads and such!

So, in the interest of keeping things looking nice in the meantime, I thought I would add a few little details to the front to dress it up. I went to a little antique shop in Littleton, called Vandel Antiques. It has the most wonderful variety of things for sale, and is a terrific place to go when you need garden things! The owner, Sandy, is a friend of my next-door neighbor, and just a sweetheart. I found JUST what I was looking for!

I got a little bistro set for the front porch, a couple of small chair frames to hold flower pots, a sweet little birdbath, and a wind chime. I was so thrilled! We have a hummingbird theme going on now... lol While I was at O'Tooles, the best garden center in the city (and great supporter of the Columbine Music program), I found a daisy tree that just finished off the porch perfectly. I hung new flags (the old ones were faded after hanging outside for three years) and added some new mulch to finish things off.

Now I am content to wait; and I have a lovely place to do it!

Day in Manitou and Colorado Springs

I forgot all about our day trip last week! Rich and the girls and I went to Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs and had a fabulous day.

Our first stop was at the cliff dwellings (here is the link: http://www.cliffdwellingsmuseum.com/)
It was cool, but we didn't spend a lot of time here- it isn't too big and it was really crowded.

Next stop was the Cave of the Winds. We LOVE caves and fancy ourselves as spelunkers... we have been to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, and Wind Cave in South Dakota before this. Here is the link for the Cave of the Winds: (http://www.caveofthewinds.com/)

The tour was fun and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves seeing the underground world.

We hadn't eaten and it was mid-afternoon, so we stopped and had a bite to eat before heading over to the Garden of the Gods.

I had seen a brochure of The Garden of the Gods- but was astounded at the size of these monumental rocks! I guess I thought they were much smaller. Here is the link for that: (http://www.gardenofgods.com/home/index.cfm)

We got lots of wonderful photos despite the rain at the start of our visit- and we need to go back and spend a half a day doing the park properly. We didn't have a lot of time because the girls had a babysitting job that evening.

For the time being, enjoy the photos here and check out the websites for more information if you want. Now- doesn't any of this make anyone want to come and visit me here in Colorado???

My newest art quilt

I have finally finished my art quilt! I had it done in time for my Art Critique Group last week- they had seen it in progress and had made some suggestions. I took one of the suggestions and it did improve the overall look.

But this concept and its construction was something that I had come up with a few months back. I have been keeping an inspirations journal for my quilting; every time I have a thought or idea, I make notes and sketches.

Now the weird part is that even though this finished wall hanging is somewhat what I first imagined, it is quite different overall. I did step by step, leaving it hung up on my design wall in between. Sometimes an idea of what to do next just came to me, other times I took ideas from other quilts I saw at the guild or in a magazine- not exactly of course. Just that seeing others' work helps me to imagine more widely what I could do in my own work.

This piece is called "Reborn" and is full of symbolism, which I love. I played with textures and machine quilting, there is a little embroidery and beading, and most of all, I let myself out of the pattern box and into the unknown territory of my imagination.

There is already another work in progress on my design wall, and I have been making notes like mad this week! Of course, this has been a big week, with the Front Range Contemporary Quilters Guild meeting, our Art Critique Group, and then our ATC trading group just this morning. (More on that later). LOTS of creativity and exceptional talent being shared with some brilliant techniques I can't wait to try...

Storm in Littleton

Well, after an unusually rainy period here in Colorado, we have finally joined the ranks of those in this state and many other places as well, who have been hit by freak hailstorms this summer.

We have enjoyed the rain, it has been really good for the vegetable and flower gardens, and it has made everything so nice and green. A few of the rainstorms have been hard ones, forcing the plants to bend over in submission.

However, last night's hailstorm not only bent the plants, but beat some of them to shreds! I guess some things might recover from the barrage of wind and ice pellets, but there are some poor plants that will not. It's a little sad- all that time and work, now just pummeled into the ground. You can see in the photos here; the amount of ice that was coming down last night, the melon plant ripped apart, and the amount of ice still in the garden this morning.

That will teach me! I hadn't even taken any photos of my little backyard garden yet; every time I went out there to work proved a longer job than I first counted on and by the time I finished and got cleaned up, I didn't go back out. Now I have no proof or satisfaction of seeing what my labours first brought me.

Now we wait for things to warm up and dry out. Then I can see what- if any- damage control I can do on my end. We can't control the weather and so lamenting about it won't help. I am very thankful that the only damage we incurred was to the veggies- with the hail and 60 mph winds, some people around the area lost power, had trees come down, or had damage to their homes.