Trying out camera on walks with Bill

Trying out my camera, works great! Some more of our home Christmas decorations. Still have not drug out any of the boxes in the shed. I'm pretty sure there are two Christmas quilts there somewhere. 

I made the placemats last year as it was the first time we actually were home at Christmas time and I'd never made any. Well - there might be some in the shed that I made while we lived in Indiana.  I really should look. 

I just finished this window hanging using the new embroidery machine. Gave me something to do and used up more material. 

A closer look at one of the embroidered designs. About 4000 stitches to make it. All computerized, so I just have to change the thread colors. 

My Storyteller Santa - took me forever to find him. If I remember correctly we got him in Taos, NM and my Hippie Santa notice his sandals and velvet bellbottom trousers. These reside in the house in a curio cabinet.

Got this a few years ago when we were in San Blas, Mexico. All beaded figures.  The tallest wise man is less than two inches tall. 

So - more checking out the camera and bonus of getting Bill out and walking.  One walk was one and one half miles, yesterday's walk two miles. That was unintentionally longer than planned. The way the Wetlands is torn up due to sewer construction, we made a mistake and couldn't get home easily, had to walk on the road all around the park. 

Desert Mistletoe in the mesquite bushes. Even though it is unseasonably warm the plants are winterizing.

Lots of big fish in the Boardwalk pond. 

I forget what he is called, but in same pond as fish. 

Zooming in on the fish. Can clearly see his scales. 

One of the small turtles. (I love this camera, so much better than phone.)

Bill playing in the snow. 

Snow on the mountain. 

Snow on the ground. Nope that is salt covering the dirt. Once was an ocean here. 

Fall colors all around the Wetlands. 

Christmas Sphere.

I'm having a problem with one eye so going to ophthalmologist tomorrow.  According to AI 😁it was that I just had too much screen time for a couple of days. Especially reading the nook and fooling with the computer. Bill goes to the myasthenia gravis doctor next week. Hope he can figure out some pill that does not make Bill sick. Then I see cardiologist on New Year's Eve in the afternoon - fingers crossed that all the people celebrating are still at their office parties. Exciting life right?

Got my new (used) camera yesterday. The exact same SonyCybershot model I've been using for years, so no learning curve. So far it is working fine. Hope to take a walk later today and really use it, especially the zoom part. What I like about that model it has a viewfinder and a 30x zoom. And I already have extra batteries and a charger. The price was a whole lot less then the new ones with the same features. When we bought the original one it was $349, this one used was twice that. It will be a great day for walking, in the low 70's no wind, perfect. Just have to get Bill moving. We did walk around the neighborhood a little yesterday. Want to use the camera and make sure everything works on it. 

Some of our Christmas decorations. Stained glass in the sewing room window. I have trunks full of decorations in the shed, but no desire to drag them out and put them up. 

Three of the pillows covers I made last year.

And another one for a smaller pillow.

More stained glass in the kitchen window. Makes me want to go out in the garage and make a couple of nice pieces I have the patterns for. 

More Sphere.  Different one, I imagine it is amazing when in motion. 

Christmas.

This is different. 

The five great grands have their new quilts. They loooove them according to their mom. Glad. After I sent them I made a window hanging with Christmas embroidery panels to hang on our sliding patio doors. Now I can't think of anything else to sew. That room looks strange with sewing machine in its cabinet, no threads on the floor and no material on the cutting table. 

Spent part of yesterday cleaning off my laptop that I use when we travel. Had hundreds of pictures on it and a bunch of old files - some from 2008 that I didn't even remember why they were there. Does anyone out there use "The Cloud?" If so how does that work? I started looking it up but just got more confused. I back up my PC to an external hard drive, but if anything goes horribly wrong I'd lose everything. 

Oh boy, I have one minute to finish my coffee. Can't have any more caffeine until after my Stress Test tomorrow at 9:00. Tomorrow morning no caffeine or food. UGH hate that. at least the test starts at 9 - not in the afternoon. 

Walked yesterday - mile and a half. More pictures another day. I'm home from stress test, it was a different kind, no tread mill. 

Nice walking weather

My walking friend and I got out for another three mile walk in the Wetlands. We were surprised to see this heron in this pond.  We now have 100 miles in for the year, so should get our reward, a coffee cup I think, in January. 

This pond has been cleaned out of the reeds, nice blue sky that day. 

Just a few mallards in the river. By this time last year there were all kinds of waterfowl there. Only a few ducks and coots this year. 

Looking towards The Strip and the snow on the mountains. Been warm lately and snow is melting, the ski places are open. Guess they'll have to make snow. 

The river has a lot of water in it now. No birds. 

Also lots of trash from the heavy rains we had a couple of weeks ago. The one over the rock is a mattress. All kinds of crap for town and tunnels ends up here. 

I mentioned the beaver keep trying to build a dam in this spot. This day we saw the guy taking down one beavers were trying to build. First they put mud there then the reeds and tree branches. We told him he should leave it alone. No answer. 

More of the Sphere 

Different.

And now they are starting on Christmas and Winter scenes. The bottom one stays here with us. 

All five quilts are done, In a box ready to be shipped. Now I'm starting on some embroidered Christmas for me. 

Son just called and said he is sending his ladies to clean our house. Goody, goody!!! There are bits and pieces of sewing thread all over the place. 

Just Stuff

When I said just stuff that is what I meant. Will try to catch up a little, but seems like the days are just running together and are on a race track. Bill went in for his follow up on the laser surgery and all was fine. But I think he is cursed. The very next day he came down with a "man"  cold, meaning he felt horrid for about a week.  I was supposed to have a stress test at heart doctors. So I followed rules, no caffeine for 24 hours and no food for 8. About two hours before the test (scheduled for 2:30) they called and said the machine was broken so had to reschedule. GRRRR. So rescheduled for the 11th at nine in the morning. Better timing anyway. Then follow up with the cardiologist on New Years Eve. I'm so sick of going to doctors offices.  After Bill's eye shot middle of January we are done for a few months. 

I'm still working on the five quilts for granddaughters family. The oldest boy is a great fan of the Eagles. So printed some clip art of Eagles stuff on the printer and then needed to figure out how to put the quilt together. So I asked AI this is what he/it came up with. It gave me a couple of ideas. 

This is what I kind of started with, I have never designed a whole quilt before usually I find something I like and copy it or have a pattern for it. 

This is the way it turned out. I still have to put the binding on it. It is Eagle green, gray, black and white. I did the quilting after I took this picture. 

Daily dose of the Sphere. 

Remember making turkeys with hand prints. This is really cute. 

The weather has finally cooled off and it is sunny for the most part. So my walking friend and I have been getting out. Got in a couple of three mile walks. Sure improves my mood. The Wetlands are still tore up from the sewer project. So we've ended up having to back track a few times cause the trail was closed for the construction. It is strange this year. There are no migrating birds here yet. 

Found this old OLD picture when looking through my external drive when backing up my computer. 

Like I said just stuff.