25th Wedding Anniversarys

My brother, Mike, and his wife, Anita,  got married in 1985 five months after David and I got married.  My parents took us all out to dinner to celebrate at the Harbor House.  This restaurant is located on the lake front in downtown Milwaukee and offers spectacular views of the city.

This is our view of the Milwaukee Art Museum from the patio of the restaurant.  The museum is comprised of three buildings. 1) The War memorial designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen  2) The Quadracci Pavilion designed by the world-renowned Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava.  This is what you are seeing in the picture above.  The highlights of this building are Windhover Hall which has a vaulted 90ft high glass ceiling and the Burke Brise Soleil which is a movable sunscreen with a wingspan of a Boeing 747 which opens twice daily.  The Reiman Bridge, which is a foot bridge that connects the museum to the city, is also part of this building  3) The Cudahy Gardens which featured gardens, plazas & fountains created by landscape architect Dan Kiley.

Thanks Mom & Dad for a really GREAT day!!! (They, by the way, have been married 51 years!)

Working away!

Poor Christie!  (She'd be very unhappy with me if she knew I posted this picture of her)  She still has a lot of pain and does best when she's sleeping.  Needless to say, I have been homebound because of all my nursing duties and have gotten quite a bit done around here.  Laundry, weeding.....but more importantly I finished another baby afghan and started a wall hanging for Ashley.  I hope to have the wall hanging finished by the time she moves into her apartment (Nov/Dec).

                                                                   Baby Afghan

Future Wall Hanging for Ashley (turn your head sideways!)

Ashley spent a semester abroad in Rome so I plan on using her photos from the many different countries she's visited, along with pictures from her internship in New York and other travels.  Ahhhhh... the life!  I've often said that I want to come back as one of my children or dogs in a future life :-)

A Milestone & Round 2

Another milestone in life.  Yesterday, my son, David, turned 21!  Where does the time go?  He is pictured here with Natalie (they've been dating a year now).  We celebrated by going out to dinner at Ryan Braun's
located in the 3rd Ward in Milwaukee.
Today, Christie had surgery to remove a "Central Cell Granuloma" located in the jaw area under the span of
four teeth.  It was quite a major surgery in and of itself & she had her wisdom teeth removed to boot.  The poor girl looks rather "Chipmonkish" to say the least.  This was the second time she's had this surgery and
hopefully this should do it.  The ONLY positive part of spending so much time in the hospital was that I got
to finish knitting the scarf pictured on Queen Maggie below.

She so graciously agreed to model it for me.  (Especially since Christie was in no condition to do so)
I also managed to work on a baby afghan so stay tuned for final results!

Summer Bliss

It is a gorgeous day today!  No humidity.  No rain.  Plenty of sunshine & cool breezes.  This is what we wait for in Wisconsin.  I finally planted the Edelweiss plant I purchased at German Fest.  I'm hoping it makes it in my soil. It needs a cool spot with good drainage and morning sun.  Will it make it through the winter?  We'll see.

This is Lilly.  She is 3 years old and never without her soccer ball.  She spends hours a day batting that ball around all by herself.  If there were a canine team I'd sign her up.  Seriously!  I have a 5 year old cockapoo as well (Maggie) but she is a bit more "Queen-like".  She has no time for such foolishness.  She spends most
of her time laying around looking rather regal.  Although, she does lower her standards when she goes rummaging through the laundry baskets looking for underwear to snack on (ewwwwww)

Lastly, this is Oceana.  She is 16 years old and not as vocal as she used to be.  I tease and say her tweeter is broken because she sounds very hoarse when she gibber gabbers.  Once she is gone there will be no more indoor birds.  I get such joy watching the birds at my outdoor feeders and splashing in the birdbath.  That is the life they should lead.  One of freedom.
Ok, enough procrastinating.  Time to Quilt!

Here Goes........

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have been very hesitant to enter the world of blogging.  It all seemed very intimidating to me.  After all, who would want to read about my comings and goings?  I came across the book,  Blogging for Bliss, and it showed all these extremely talented people and it got my creative juices flowing. What better way to connect with like-minded people.  I was going to research how to really "punch up" a blog to make it colorful and enticing, but I just couldn't wait to get started.  So, please bear with me as I slowly make additions.  It's one of those learn as you go transitions.  Suggestions for improvements????  I'm open!