a fusion of textiles & smiles
It’s been a year since Mike the miniature schnauzer who was a “guest blogger” on my blog (smile) suddenly passed away at 14.
I came across this video which I uploaded to YouTube, which showed Mike enjoying life: instead of actually hiking at Castlewood Canyon, he was being carried around by John!
Just sharing this in honor of Mike…
Hopefully, you can recover from my terrible singing. While we were on our hike, I was composing silly impromptu songs!
This post is for my dog-loving blogging buddies 🙂
It is getting close to the one year anniversary of when we lost our beloved Mike the Miniature Schnauzer. We don’t have any immediately plans to get another dog in the near future (we want to keep being able to travel on a whim right now) BUT we are enjoying other peoples’ dogs!
A couple days ago we went over our friends house for dinner and got to enjoy their 3 days and 2 visiting dogs. Especially Olso the sweetest little doodle (not sure what kind of doodle mix) who took to me and made me his own for the evening:
What a cutie pie! I kept kissing on him all evening, I was in love! He didn’t want to get down from my lap and would growl at the other dogs when they got near me!
Here are photos of the rest of the dogs:
In the photo above, Oslo is asking to be put back on my lap and not have to mingle with the other dogs. I wanted to sneak Oslo into my tote bag and take him home with me!
In addition to visiting with friends’ dogs, I appreciate all the nice people I meet on my daily walks who are walking their dogs and let me pet them! (The dogs I should clarify, I am not walking around trying to pet people – ha!)
Now that I’ve learned a new binding technique (shared in the post “Completed: Farm Girl Vintage Quilt (and trying a new quilt binding technique)“) I’m not afraid to take on UNNECESSARY (RE)BINDING PROJECTS – ha!
I decided to “re-bind” a wallhanging size quilt I made years ago from a panel that I have hanging in a little alcove in the stairwell from the main floor to the basement:
I put the quilt together fairly quickly and did simple quilting on it years ago. I put a quick binding on it using the same Stonehenge fabric I used for the border of the quilt.
This binding has irritated me for years. I felt like I should have used black fabric to binding it, which would “frame” the piece. I have lots of pictures in black frames next to the wallhanging and it just seemed like a black binding was what the quilt needed to pull the whole alcove together.
So one day on impulse I cut the old border off and put on a new border!
I like it MUCH better and now it frames the wallhanging!
(By the way, the photos underneath are travels/adventures that John and I have experienced together since we met 6 years ago.)
As I mentioned in the post Stitch a Quilt Store in Durango, CO we’ve been on a “Late Spring/Summer of Travel” which started in late May.
In late May we traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada to celebrate my 60th birthday Part I (I wanted to two part birthday trip and the second part was a Four Corners/Mesa Verde National Park/Durango/Ouray/Pagosa Springs trip which I share in other posts).
So yes I just said it – I turned 60. It’s very shocking. I’ve been blogging since I was in my late 40s (October 2025 is my 12 year blogging anniversary) and when I turned 50 I kept it pretty secret in the blogosphere as I didn’t want my readers to know I was “that old” (ha, that is no longer old). At first I was going to hid the turning 60 but why – who cares?
Actually I only feel like celebrating getting older these days as 1) I can’t age backward so I’m stuck with it; 2) my mother only got to live to her early 50s; 3) my late husband passed at 58; and 4) I am in good health (at least in my mind).
Originally I was going to spend my 60th birthday in Bend, Oregon where I lived for 14 years before moving to Colorado in 2019. It would be my first time returning in 6 years since my husband Terry died suddenly in December 2018 and I moved in April 2019.
I was planning a wonderful reunion with several groups of Central Oregon friends, staying at several houses; and the opportunity for several of them to meet John for the first time.
But I couldn’t do it. Not yet. I ended up disappointing several groups of friends and giving a lot of apologies. I just could not return to the place where I “lost it all”. Grief is weird and people react different ways to big life losses.
I guess I am still reacting to the loss of my wonderful life partner and life in Central Oregon by not being psychologically able to return…at least not yet.
So I had to rethink what I wanted to do for my 60th birthday and I came up with a strange combination: 1) go to Las Vegas and see some type of major show (Bruno Mars); and 2) go on a major Colorado roadtrip!
So on part one of my birthday celebration we went to Las Vegas, Nevada for a couple days and saw Bruno Mars in concert at the Park MGM Resort (where we also stayed) in Vegas.
It was one of the best concerts we’ve ever been to in in our lives. They locked up your phone when you entered the concert venue and no photography was allowed so I haev no photos from the experience to share.
Here is a video I found on YouTube from 2024 to give you a taste of his music and talent if you are not familiar with Bruno Mars:
It was a cool experience watching a concert without anyone having their phones recording the show, taking photos, or checking their messages, etc. The entire audience, including John and I, were laser focused on the show without any distractions.
We had really good seats and discovered later in the show when Bruno Mars pointed her out and gave recognition to her progeny that we were sitting a tiny section over from Katherine Jackson, the mother of the Jackson 5/Michael Jackson, and Janet Jackson! She was the special guest of Bruno Mars for that particular show so we kind of had a once in a lifetime experience to sit within 100 yards of the mother of Michael and Janet Jackson! The woman sitting in front of us broke down crying as she said she was a huge Michael Jackson fan and to be sitting close to his mother completely overwhelmed her!
(Security ushered her out of the show before it ended so no one got to bother her)
In addition to seeing Bruno Mars in concert, we enjoyed a fun couple of days wandering around Las Vegas and going to the exhibit I always stop and see when I am in Las Vegas – the Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens.
Their current exhibit is Glam Menagerie: A Surrealist Summer. Here is the 3D tour if you’d like to see: Glam Menagerie 3D Tour.
Here are some of my photos from the exhibit:
We always enjoy yummy dining experience when visiting Vegas and in addition to stopping at some of our favorite places (Eataly, Taco El Gordo, and Din Tai Fung) we had a scrumptious breakfast at Paris Las Vegas Hotel in their Parisian themed restaurant Mon Ami Gabi.
I had the lemon curd and raspberry crepes and they were a “spiritual” experience in breakfast dining!
It was a good part one celebration and in future posts I’ll share our adventures during the second week part of my 60th birthday celebration.
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Now that I’ve pretty much caught up on reading my blogging buddies’ blogs I feel like I can post again. We’ve been having a busy summer 🙂
As I shared in my early July post Little More on the “Agriculture Report” and Al Fresco Dining, we’ve been enjoying dining outside a lot during the warm weather.
Yesterday we had a super delicious meal on the upstairs deck that I want to share the recipe with you.
Baked Feta, Tomatoes and Pasta (Denver Post version):
Once plated the dish we topped it with a little fresh parmesan for an extra boost.
It is very easy to make and I was able to use fresh basil from my garden. If you have a better growing season where you like than we have in Colorado, you might be able to use tomatoes from your garden too.
John made fresh pasta (he has mastered pasta making…as much as an American can…he daydreams someday of going to Italy and attending one of those “learn pasta making with an Italian grandmother”workshops we’ve seen advertised) for the dish. According to this chart below, he made Tagliatelle:
image credit: https://whatsfordinner.com/kitchen-tips/pasta-types-with-pictures/
Warning: this dish requires you to turn on your oven and you might not want to do it in the summer heat. This dish is fun to enjoy in other seasons too 🙂
Buon Appetito!
This past weekend my brother and sister and my nephews met up in Baltimore, Maryland to hang out and go see the new Superman movie. I sure wish I lived close enough to join them (but I love Colorado so much!).
Thought I would share this sweet selfie they sent me with the four of them together. I love my family so much!!!
This was buried as a “Postscript” section in one of my posts from 2020 (Curating a Home Library) and I thought it deserved it’s own post.
I enjoy browsing charity thrift stores for treasures but I’ve come across some very strange items over the years. I wonder when I see these items: 1) Why did anyone originally own this item; 2) Why did someone donate this item; or 3) Who is going to buy this item?
During the height of the COVID pandemic in Colorado, when most retail stores were closed, Colorado considered thrift stores as “essential” stores and let them stay open. John and I, all masked up, would visit thrift stores as something to do and to work on putting together our home library.
Here are my top 5 favorite “curious” finds that gave us a chuckle (and I promise you I did not buy any of them):
Number 5: If you need a lamp and a place to store your leftover yarn, would this not be the perfect solution?
Yes it’s – YARN LAMP!
Number 4: Patriotic pants – they defy any further comment (but my apologies to you if you happen own these…)
My husband John is graciously modeling them
Number 3: Donated photo frames with family photos still in them.
I could not believe how many donated photo frames I came across with family pictures still in them at various thrift stores, like the example below. Wouldn’t you perhaps remove your family photos before donating?!?!?
It would be funny to buy the frame and keep the photo displayed and confuse people…
Number 2: An outfit for a very adventurous and crafty person.
Though it was on display way before Halloween, I think this was supposed to be a suggested Halloween outfit (hopefully as you would get a lot of stares should you select it for a cocktail party…)
Interesting use of pom-poms!
And Number 1 is…
Something that you absolutely cannot imagine living without…
A cattle leg (yes real cattle leg) with hoof attached Barometer!
Yes, now you can remember the favorite steer you raised on your farm and know the current barometric pressure!
It’s nearly 5 years later since the original post sharing this find and it still remains the number one most “curious” thing we’ve discovered at a thrift shop!
My regret is I did not buy the Cattle Leg Barometer and put it away as the ultimate future “White Elephant” Christmas gift! (Could you imagine the look on someone’s face when they opened their gift!)
Well it’s been quite the Summer of Travel (after a Spring of Travel) so far; and I thought I’d dive into sharing my adventures with a little tour of a quilt shop I visited for the first time in Durango, Colorado in June 2025 – Stitch.
We visited Durango, Colorado as part of a Colorado roadtrip. In May I turned a “milestone birthday” and we’ve been celebrating with travel and adventures that I’ll share more about in a future posts.
Stitch is located in charming downtown Durango and has a warm and inviting atmosphere and friendly staff.
Here is the antique sewing machine vignette inside the front window (first image above):
Here are scenes from inside the shop:
And here is where I got into trouble (ha!) and invited fat quarters that I did not need to come home with me:
I mean I got one free, how could I turn down the deal?
And here is the sign in front of the shop to lure you in…
(Because quilters need to be lured into quilt shops…)
A quick follow up to my post Agriculture Report: “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden”.
More flowers have been popping in the garden:
My dahlias that surprisingly come back every year:
Fuchsia colored lilies:
The reliable dayliles which return every year:
Blanket Flowers:
And some light pink roses:
We’ve been enjoying the flowers as we dine “al fresco” as much as we can in the lovely summer weather.
Breakfast on Sunday on the upstairs deck:
And then dinner (Shrimp fried rice made on the grill) on the front porch:
We are trying to enjoy outside dining as much as possible this summer.
If you are in the part of the world where it is summer right now, hope you are enjoying it!
A follow up to yesterdays’ post Experimenting with Making Golf Shoe Bags.
I couldn’t just give John’s favorite cousin M and fellow golfer a drawstring golf bag without giving M’s wife a drawstring bag too!
Here is the little bag I made her (she doesn’t golf so I didn’t make her the golf shoe bag):
So the bags are ready to go when we see them later this week!
tierneycreates 