Category: Uncategorized

Sunday morning, all is quiet and suddenly a crack and boom. I didn’t go look until about half an hour later and this is what I saw.

The huge redwood next door, decided that one of its’ branches was just too heavy. all I could think at this moment was God was watching over me, it landed in the driveway but didn’t damage our house at all.

View from the other side, I had to walk through the house of course.

An extremely close call.

Here is where the branch cracked and broke, a large portion ended up on the roof of the guest house. I immediately went next door. A young couple is renting there – we all were in shock, they hadn’t checked right away, when they did, they said a branch broke into their roof and they had to save their cat from the guest house. They also told me that the owner died recently and the house is in trust for his special needs son.

facing this in the driveway, I immediately called my gardener, he prunes our trees. Both cars were in the garage, I didn’t need to be anywhere until the afternoon, but this had to be taken care of asap.

God bless Octavio, he immediately arrived, on a Sunday, with a truck and started cutting. I warned him how huge it was! He had to call in reinforcement to chop off what was hanging over our driveway.

There is his guy, but in the tree, cutting down more of the branches.

After a few hours this is what it looked like.

He doesn’t have the wood chipper, so he drives this to the city compost center.

The neighbors gave me the contact for the Trustee, Octavio is bringing the receipt today- one thing he forgot in his rush to get over. This is what it looks like after his work – which wasn’t cheap at all.

The story continues….

Leah

I fell in love with this cross stitch pattern a few years ago. I think I found it free online. It’s called Solomons Temple, although to me, it looks like and Indian Temple. I ordered 46 count fabric and found out that is too small for me. so another order for 40 count, and yes, it is very large.

The 46 count is on top, I know, it’s a little fuzzy, but I simply couldn’t see even with the magnifiers and pushing the needle through was hard. The small icon in the middle looked too much like a swastika to me, so, it got changed, differently each time.

This time the. 46 is in focus.

Working on the roof

There is a lot of full coverage, a lot more than I thought, or maybe I just didn’t take that into consideration.

10% and I”m slogging through. at this point it says Have till December to finish.

This might have been the 10%, not sure

I love the birds.

Here is where I am now.

Here I am, 24%, almost a quarter and I’m burnt out. so I’m going to make some smaller projects, I’ll probably work on this from time to time.

Of course, I had to make a project bag for this to live in.

I do need to remember to pull it out from time to time.

Leah

I see less Hydrangeas around, they do need a lot of water. they are beautiful, but they don’t get deep blue or dark pink.

Here is a very bright pink

Or how about this one.

The Magnolia trees are in bloom

White and purple

yellow

Peach orange.

Leah

Friends have a timeshare in Newport Beach. She really knows how to work the system, they go 4-5 times a year. She rightfully calls it her vacation home. Except that she doesn’t have the headaches of second home ownership. So we went down for the day, look at the view!

Main pool area with an ocean view. There were plenty of out of state license plates. From hot dry places like Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Idaho.

The landscaping is beautiful, next weekend is the lotus festival in Echo Park, I should try and get there.

The koi, this guy has one orange spot above his mouth, otherwise, just plain old carp.

Then it was down to spend a couple of hours at Crystal Cove.

This is now a state beach. Years ago someone was able to save many of the old beach cottages, they are being refurbished with as much of the old as possible. They are quite sparse inside and yet, the waiting list to get one of these is wild. There is such an old timey feel to being right on the sand in this old colony.

The famous cottage that was used for filming, To have or have not. And of course Beaches, which is why this is known as the Beaches cottage. Inside in tiny and a lot of very old objects, probably reintroduced over time.

In the late afternoon, a walk along the park and coast in Laguna Beach.

We, up on the cliff, people and rocks below. Probably some pretty good stuff to see in low tide in the tide pools.

And then, dinner and a drive home. Much faster going home in the evening than battling the traffic in the morning. It certainly was worth while for such a lovely staycation.

Then, the next day, back to Hermosa Beach, this time further north from where my kids live – so a chance to see other fun houses on the strand. Like the Cape Cod and the Victorian.

The boys setting up a volleyball court. the parents were playing on the big court. My son is way out of shape – but he had fun.

A windsurfer.

I volunteered to sit on the sand and watch the kids in the water. We were right by they lifeguard station – since there is no way I’m going in that water. The difference between boys and girls. The boys are in the middle of the waves. one girl went in, the other, was collection sand crabs and naming them. I think they all got the name Juliette.

Oh boy, do I love summer!!!

Leah

boxing has been incredible with his boxing. He has stuck with it, he loves it. After Ixtapa, it was day camp and now he is off to a sleep away camp. Shira leaves next week, which means the parents get a break and are going away alone for a few days

Einav and Eyal went to Israel! Very long flights, and they managed very well.

They had a lot of fun with cousins, at the moment I can’t identify each one.

They saw old friends.

Einav won everyones heart!

Meanwhile back home….

If looking at this picture you think Cam and West are also in Jerusalem, no, this is Los Angeles, but playing with Orthodox kids is no different from others.

Its not just trees that Westley climbs, it is anything taller than him.

‘Cooling off’ in the jacuzzi.

We went to an escape room. First time for all of us! It was lots of fun. Yes, we needed hints, and I’m not sure we actually finished, though we were there, but I think they opened the door for us. As usual, Cam claimed he was scared and didn’t want to do it – ended up loving it.

After that busy day, fast asleep, Cam with his Chompy, the crocodile with eggs in the belly. He asked me to get this for his birthday, and he LOVES it.

The blessing of being a grandma.

Leah

An homage to Queen Elizabeth, Great job, great colors, she was loved her colors.

The mid-century quilt pattern has been around for a while, this was great. Seeing someone with their small version on the same theme. I love that this isn’t a small version, the elements are somewhat different, yet similar.

A section about sports. A lovely young Japanese woman made a quilt about Aikido. In Homage to her father who is an Aikido master.

Here she is, in her kimono. Others got pictures of her in front of the quilt. We spoke for a while and actually like the shot from the back.

a wonderful three dimensional fish.

An eagle from an antique quilt. Also I really like the border.

I also found a lot of interesting things from the vendors. Yes, I love owls. I like both the brightly colored ones as well as the muted colors. But no, I don’t feel like making any of them.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this before, love the color, the fading of the colors and of course the design.

A close up of an old quilt, if not exposed to too much light the colors don’t fade. And that is my visit to the show.

I met Victoria who now runs Okan Arts, here in Long Beach, we had a lovely conversation and I introduced myself as I often do – Leah, like the princess, so read through her blog post, I’m mentioned at the end, and I had to laugh.

Leah

I know, I’m posting less in the summer, I love summer, I have a lot of material, but I am loving life. so posting is slow,

I went to the Long Beach Quilt show, part of it was working as a white glove person – the one able to touch and turn the quilts. More on that later.

The quilt show is now owned by quilts Inc – the ones who put on the big show in Houston. So The quilts are just what they choose, and often I’ve seen the pictures from Houston. they share a lot, but it has a lot of old quilts, which is fine, but I’m also seeing quilts that I saw years ago in other shows. this quilt is not one of them, I love this, because it’s the friendship of women, I see the central woman as having grey hair. although I cover my grey, I feel like these are my people – women friends!

Here I am, doing my job, flipping over a quilt, that should have been hung so both sides are visible. I dragged everyone I saw over to this quilt, because most of the other quilts in my area were nice, but not worth flipping over.

Then there was the lost Star quilt, I love that the show does this. Finds one pattern and shows many different ways people put the pattern together. so someone bought the quilt on Etsy – no information about the maker, or where or when. a lot of research went into it – since the quilt was really frayed and destroyed. Someone recreated the quilt and made a pattern. This is a recreation of what the original might have looked like without the frayed fabric. So we start from the original and move on to modern makes.

This is one of the quilts that hews closely to the original, although some elements are missing. Which is what quilters do, make it their own.

A much brighter version, which may have been how the original may have looked. Also a lot of fussy cutting here.

A close up.

Much brighter fabrics, with snake. These are Australia fabrics, based on Aboriginal designs, which also explains the snake. Once again, I’ll share another snake soon

Even bigger, even brighter.

exact same pattern, but the use of colors changed this from a compass Rose into a sunflower. Big reason why I just love this kind of exhibit.

I didn’t always take a picture of a whole quilt, sometimes I chose to just zoom in. This was in a section about the West and Yellowstone. Yes, rattle snakes are huge out here. There was no detail about how much time the maker took to bead that snake, which is really what I wanted to know.

Beware! Also, the quilting is hand quilting with more beads, really does make a desert landscape.

More, tomorrow.

Leah

I’m building up my summer, 4th of July projects. So, another Tiny town drum.

This one starts with sunflowers!

houses and bees!

Birds and a bee-hive. I simply went into my thread stash and sort followed the colors.

I quickly turned this one into a drum as well, it comes with 4 little flower buttons, and you can see the bee!

A White House.

… and a field of sunflowers.

Side by side with my patriotic Tiny Town.

I already have another Tiny town pattern.

These decorations will be out for all of July maybe even into August

All of my Independence Day designs together, as time goes by, I’ll make more.

My friend Robin Pickens is now designing cross stitch. If this looks familiar it is because this is the same pattern I used for my latest quilt! Yes, I bought her thread pack, I”m sure I could have recreated, but I want to support her.

Leah

Lets start with the block party.

In the past there was a firetruck, this year, it’s a police car. Initially things look rather small.

Cute kids on bikes and scooter in holiday garb, red white and blue.

The crowds keep coming, how cool is this?

The scooters are decorated. It is so lovely to see a neighborhood come out en-mass to celebrate our freedoms and independence.

Some women got nostalgic for the 70s. I asked if these had been in the closet – nope, good old Amazon.

Food trucks, face painting, dancing, music – a true American tradition, get everyone out on the street and have a party. In my area alone I think there are at least 3-4 of these block parties. It is really lovely.

Dogs, of course there are dogs!

Before the party.

The food arrives, along with people.

A wonderful celebration with friends. After great food and conversation, a number of the guests took turns to read the Declaration of Independence. Since this is what it is all about. By the time everyone went home, the backyard fireworks had started, and went on and on. Even on my street some people from another house came out and shot them off in the streets. Another friend is in NY right now – same thing there. Nothing will be like the summer of 2020, when the government shut us all down, and the citizens spent all night shooting rockets in air. There is something to be said about not waiting for some official to tell you how to enjoy life, there is a little pyromaniac in all of us. God Bless America!

Take a moment to scan through this video, Every year this guy goes up in his private helicopter and films. This is the spirit of America – I’m tired of the naysayers, the nannies that want to limit everything in life. So no newscaster telling us how terrible this is, just a small part of massive Los Angeles, and believe me, it was all over, even areas he couldn’t fly over.

Leah

Karla, the amazing GO who took Shira, Becky and me on a visit to Zihuatanejo.

Always look up! At least these buildings don’t have rebar sticking out. That is a familiar sight here – as a way to no pay all taxes because the building isn’t finished. Btw, went into a few drugstores, trying to find some medicine – they didn’t have what I wanted. And no, not Ivermectin – that I order from abroad.

Before going into the Mercado, I had to change dollars into Pesos. Not an easy thing to do. Bank no. one needed an id card, even though I had cash. Bank two, which was Karlas’ bank didn’t have dollars. Zihua doesn’t have a lot of tourists, they all stay in Ixtapa. Finally, back to bank one, gave the money to Karla who used her ID. Yup, this is Mexico.

Being a grandma, I bought Shira this little backpack, yup, she loves Disneyland and this size is perfect for a day in the park. The items for sale here are also mostly for locals, not the kind of tourist souvenirs ones finds in the tourist Baazars.

Yup, a happy Shira.

This was one of the hottest most humid days! Karla directed us to a stall with Horchata – I got a little nervous, no way is this water filtered. So I bought it and drank it. Best Horchata ever, what I did buy at the pharmacy – I bought some Motrin- and yes, to be on the safe side I used it.

the bay at Zihua, very pretty and calm.

Many bronze sculptures, and yes, there are live crocodiles here, so the sculpture makes sense.

Some soldiers were on some exercise on this very hot day. Karla knew nothing about this, I’m thinking that having the army in a heavily tourist area is a good thing. No one trusts the police, and Cartels are a real thing. one doesn’t hear much about them in the tourist areas – probably because of the military. I’m not one of those who thinks that getting rid of the police means getting rid of crime. Actually having a deterrent force is what works.

yes, there are murals. And yes, we had lunch. It wasn’t very good, not all Mexican food is good. It was all part of the experience.

There are a number of these wonderful sculptures around town. There was also a chicken, but I was already in the cab going back and couldn’t get a picture. I love having the chance to get out of the tourist areas and see the real life. Tourism is a huge boon for the Pacific coast of Mexico. The people looked fine, no vagrants on the streets like here in LA.

These are hard working people, I don’t like illegal immigration, but I’d rather have people come here (legally would be nice if our government could ever get its act together) from Central America than from all those Muslim countries. Although in defense of American Muslim – they are fighting the mutilation of children by our evil overlords – so that is a good thing as well.

Leah