It's strange coming home after being gone for a week. It's like I forget I was gone and have to keep reminding myself that I've missed a whole week! I still don't even know what happened news-wise last week. Mom has it tuned to USA (Law&Order 24/7) whenever the TV is on, and when I rode in my truck the ipod played as opposed to the radio. Oh well. Guess I'd have heard about it by now if I missed anything too important.

Our trip was great. Caleb and I travel well together. I cherish these times 'cause God knows it won't be long before he won't want to hang out with his ol' grandma anymore! We stopped to see my friend Karen on our way out of town. I had to snap this shot of her holiday tree. Here's the funny story; her friend Don was heading out to cut a tree at Christmas and she said "get me one, too...but not too big!" He brought back a huge one, she had him lop off the top, she stuck the top in water and threw out the rest. Proceeded to decorate for Christmas. Well, she's busy, and the tree top just kept lookin so green and fresh as long as she kept water in it so she wasn't in any hurry to throw it out! I joked a couple weeks ago when I saw it that she oughta decorate it for Easter, which; as you can see, she did. I finally had to take a picture of it--seeing is believing. I'm starting to wonder if it'll ever die and in the meantime, we're planning the upcoming holidays to decorate it for.

By the way, some of you may like to see a close-up of that window. I put it together when I painted/decorated most of her house two years ago--we both got those same windows (mine is over the guest bed now) and I used mostly her own pics from her trip to France. They're printed on silver vellum--a nice effect.

Here's what makes the nine hours in the car worthwhile for Caleb:

Gosh he just loves my mom's dogs. Plays out back with them for hours. Most people say "You really oughta get him a dog!" but I'd just as soon drive down there to visit if you know what I mean! Only reason I have cats is because they don't need to walk to potty and they just about scoop the food into their bowls by themselves. LOW maintenance is about all I can handle. So the above pic serves as a decent 'before' pic for the paint job I did in there.

Three coats on the shelves plus painted the whole room. My clever younger brother built that room on the footprint of what used to be the outdoor patio. He has six children and they visit mom routinely so it's a really great room to have. Here's the corner that doesn't show in the above pic

 

I stitched those Holly Hobbie pictures for my lil sister in 1975. What an unusual stay-at-home 17-year-old bride I was, huh? My favorite part of giving stuff to people is seeing it in their homes many years later. Which reminds me, here's how mom finished off her window that I'd built a roman blind for last visit:

Was the perfect fix, huh? I loved seeing that monogrammed roll pillow...I made it for her in the early 80's when candlewicking was big. Woosh. Time flies.

My oldest girl Erica and her BF Brian came to spend Easter with us. No trip to the San Joaquin valley is complete for children without a little hands-on learning about where produce and such comes from. I remember years ago when we were visiting  from Palo Alto my mom took us to a cotton field where she'd worked at the age of 5 and made us pick a whole bag of it. I doubt we appreciated the connection to our mother's roots. At the time, anyway. So here's C and Brian in mom's backyard picking oranges off the neighbor's tree. Can't do that just any o' where, now can ya!?

Another big job completed while there was stripping old wallpaper from the main bathroom walls

and then painting it a nice soft pink.

We had fun collaborating on those curtains together. Here's a close-up of the fabrics by Robyn Pandolph.

So far she's let me paint her room yellow and her bathroom pink. Wonder where she'll let me take her next!

We also snuck in some antique shopping the day before we left. Here's a darling little vase I just had to have with my lovely millinery flowers that were waiting here when I got home.

Sweet!

I participated in a local antique sale today and have to go back tomorrow so I'll post more then. Wait til you see the space I shared with two very talented shop owners. WOW! I tell Larissa "I make stuff and you make the stuff look GOOD!" :-)  til then....

Comments

[Sue McG]

Welcome Home Jen!! Sounds like a great trip and you got a LOT done at your Mom's house.