Four Things That Made Me Smile Today

1.   Paul packed himself up and took the bus to the airport to start his 10-day trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands with about thirty Boulder High Students and three teachers.  I was happy to see him being so mature, thinking through what he needed to take and how to be ready for his big adventure.   The kids were all issued backpacks from the tour company and I suggested that he personalize his in some way.  So he got out his spray paints and went to town.  The result is pretty cool, don't you think?  It certainly made me smile!

2.   I looked out the window this morning and saw a white work truck pull up by our house.  I thought it was a fellow from Ecoscape who was scheduled to do some final detail work on the new patio, but instead saw that it was a roofing company truck.  A man got out of his truck, plucked his phone out of his pocket, climbed up into our perennial bed and took a photograph of a lovely rose that is blooming.  I thought it was surprising, but had to admire his good eyesight to spot this amazing rose as he drove by and his good taste in admiring it.  l take no credit for this lovely flower since it was here when we bought the house.  All I did was find it in the overgrown bed, weed around it, and make sure it got water.  It's doing all the rest on its own. I do love it.  

3.  After doing some morning chores Ben and I set out for a new hike, a spur off the Walker Ranch Loop trail.  It was just two miles but had a lot of "up" and it was hot along the trail today so it was a "just right" challenge for me.  It was an out and back, with the mid point at some falls along the South Boulder Creek.  You just have to be happy on a great hike that leads to a beautiful and exciting set of falls! 

Here's Ben sitting along the water....

...and a selfie of me a little further up the falls. (No, I hadn't been drinking!; my nose just wants to be red lately for some reason.) 

It's wild flower time here and I had to stop and take some photos of the pretty little things.  Loved these; they reminded me of the Gilbert & Sullivan song, "Three Little Maids From School."  

4.  My biggest smile was for the completion of the patio project we started last August.  It officially ended today!  To say I'm happy is an understatement.  It took from August to March for the planning and design; our site was narrow and sloping and Ben wanted flagstone and not wood or Trex.  To say that was a challenge is an understatement.  Things were looking grim until a bright landscape designer thought outside of the box and came up with a really different idea.  Instead of sticking to the "high deck, low patio" design of the past he suggested simply re-excavating the entire site so there are three contiguous levels.  Bingo!  

 It took from March to May for the basic excavation and reconstruction to be done; to say that was dirty and messy is an understatement.  And then it's taken a month to get all the finishing up details done; to say I was eager for it all to be completed and life back to normal is also an understatement!  

But it's definitely true that it all turned pretty dang gone well. 

Here's the "before" showing the high deck and the low patio.  The blue rug covers an old hot tub pad.  (Apparently at some point a women's ski team used to enjoy leisure time in that hot tub, much to the delight of a young lad who lived nearby and liked to spy on them.)  

Here's the "after" view.  

The whole lower patio was an uneven mess of mismatched surfaces, including the concrete hot tub pad and red flagstone.  Some of the stone had disappeared and grass had taken its place, and the rest had heaved up in many places. 

Here's the very end where the patio met the back yard.  You can see that it needed attention!

Here's the "after" images showing off the lovely new flagstone lower patio...

 ...and the new steps up into the back door which provides a secondary way into the kitchen.

Ecoscape did some nice plantings along the patio edges. (The wall and bamboo fence is our neighbor's; aren't we lucky that he did such an interesting and good job on these features?)

We bought this garden sculpture recently and I think it looks good next to the old fence and wall.

The upper deck holds the grill, a buffet table and two small round tables that can be moved about as we like for dinners and such.  The old vertical fence was replaced with this more modern looking cedar one.  We specified that it have the gaps between the boards since we like to feel connected to all the street life going on outside.  And the height took careful consideration since we needed privacy but didn't want to block our view of the First Flatiron.

In this photo you can see the gate and the wonderful way the stone mason wrapped the old columns.  Ben is going to paint the wooden tops of these columns to match the siding and trim.

Today marks four years that we've been in this house.  In that time we've remodeled the kitchen and three baths, as well as the staircase.  We've also redone the house siding and trim and made extensive repairs to the balconies and replaced the wooden railings on the balconies with iron.  Later this summer the wooden railings by the front door will be redone to match the new balcony railings.  

We're loving all these changes, and so are our neighbors.  When we're working in the yard people often stop to offer compliments.  Just today two people told me how nice it was to see the house being so well tended, and that, of course, made me smile!   

Joining my friend LeeAnna's "I Like" Thursday, at Not Afraid of Color.

I Like: Patio Progress

Our new patio is now to the point where we can enjoy sitting on it.  It isn't quite done, but the flagstone work is, so we can walk around on it, have coffee out there, and generally just chill on the gorgeous stonework. We had the first dinner on the patio on Sunday, which was such a pleasure!  

While we wait for the carpenter to trim out the posts, repair the siding, and build the fence, for 25 new plants to be delivered and planted, and for a few other "finishing up" details,  Ben is gradually taking care of some necessary painting, under the watchful eye of Fetcher.   Fetcher loves the stone columns and steps!  It's fun to watch him rolling around on the rough stone, getting his back scratched by the rock while he soaks up the sun and rolls back and forth. 

There are three levels to the patio and three sets of steps, but the excavation work and stone work was done so the whole area just all flows together. 

See the section of fence?  That's just one side of one section of the fence.  Eventually it will be a two sided fence with several sections.  That is, once the carpenter has all his materials pulled together, which seems to be taking a while.  He mostly works on weekends, so maybe we'll see more progress over Mother's Day. 

Here's the section of fence from the street.  We aren't going to paint it.  It's cedar so it should weather to a nice gray that will go well with the house.   

And here's where the patio ends, leading into the backyard.  

All the dirt is being covered with sod, and that started today, though I have no photos of it yet.  It's been nasty having so much dirt and mud everywhere, so I was very glad to see the sod delivered yesterday. 

Meanwhile, life goes on with good hikes....

 ...beautiful spring flowers...

...and Paul's Ska band starting its round of summer gigs.

This weekend I'm heading down to Colorado Springs with Dawn to deliver Paul to a gig helping out with sound at a concert.  Dawn and I will enjoy a little "girl's weekend" while Paul works, and be back in time to have Mother's Day dinner with our families.   Monday is the Music Awards Banquet, my last event as Chair of the music parents group.  And then I'm planning to relax on my new patio for at least a week before I get busy doing things again! 

Joining my friend LeeAnna's "I Like" Thursday, at Not Afraid of Color.

Almost Done

Carlos and Victor finished up their stonework on Thursday leaving us with a nice spot to sit on the patio over the weekend.

The crew is here this morning starting on all the finishing up work.  There's still a lot to do, including cleanup, but they think they'll be done in the next few days. 

I'm very happy with how the three sets of steps turned out.

I'll get to see it when I get back home on Friday afternoon.  I'm off to Disneyland for a few days of fun with Dawn and my wonderful sister Jean! 

Five Things I'm Loving Right Now

1.  I'm loving the fact that I finished quilting and binding this pretty outreach quilt.  Aren't the colors fresh and modern?  Someone else made the top and then passed it on to me to finish it up.  I've had it since the fall and finally decided it was time to get it done and out of my house.  I kept the quilting simple so I could finish it this week.    

One reason I wanted to get it done was because my studio was getting crowded with quilts that I'm making for my various guild's "outreach programs."  These are pieces that you don't make for yourself but make for other people who you don't even know.  I think the pink and grey one will end up being a comfort quilt for someone with breast cancer.   Most outreach quilts I make completely by myself but occasionally I'll finish up something someone else started, like with this pink and grey quilt.

This cute little scrappy piece is all finished except for a label.  It will go from me to the guild and then to Blue Sky Bridge.

This fun quilt with woodsy animals is also slatted to go to Blue Sky Bridge.  I'm got all the stabilizing quilting done but think I'll take the time to quilt in all the blocks as well.

Here's the back with its cuddly flannel backing.

I love flannel backing for kid's quilts.  This one is for Quilts for Kids and features wonderful African animals wearing sunglasses and also a snazzy and cozy zebra striped flannel back.  I bought the animal fabric four years ago for someones birthday but she cancelled her party and I never ended up giving it to her.  Finally I got it out and made this quilt with it and a bunch of other fabrics I already had.  I quite like the ribbon quilting I did; seems to match the whimsical nature of the quilt.

I've also been sewing on two art pieces, but I can't show them to you yet.  😔 They are for challenges and I have to keep them under wraps until the challenge dates, which are April 19 and April 25.  But one is done except for the sleeve and label and the other just needs a binding and the sleeve and label.

Can you tell I've been quilting a lot lately?  I think it's a response to the upheaval of the patio work.  What a messy and loud process that is!  I often retreat to my studio and try to lose myself in sewing. 

2.  But of course I'm loving the transformation of the patio space and especially loving going up and down the new stone steps.  They are perfectly spaced and using them is so easy and pleasant.  You can see that the crew is still hard at work, but now that the steps are in we can actually walk around the new space.   (The black horizontal lines set into the steps will turn into lights at some point.)

3. And speaking of walking, check out my new Pikolino shoes.  I bought a pair of Pikolino boots last fall and have loved them.  So when I spotted these on sale recently I snatched them up.  Love them, too.

The reason why I wasn't in boots was because of our crazy weather.  It was 73 degrees today and should be equally warm tomorrow, leading me to get out my lighter shoes.  But I'll be back in boots again by Friday! 

4.  I'm really loving watching Paul handle the "Front of the House" work for the high school musical which opens next week.  The show is called Sideshow and it's about Siamese twins who are an act in a circus sideshow.  They each fall in love and complications ensue as they try to live their co-joined lives with their fellows.  As the audience enters the school they will pass through a circus sideshow --actually the school lobby transformed with decorations-- and can buy popcorn and cotton candy to help get them in the circus mood (and make some money for the theater).  Paul's job has been to pull this transformation off and it's been a great experience for him.  Lots of problem solving, planning, and just plain work.   Here's a Snapchat photo he shared with me showing the start of the costume the front of the house crew will wear along with the boxes they made to use in selling concessions.  He wants you to know that the straps are now painted black and look "cooler."  At some point I hope to show you a photo of the nifty circus tent that he managed to set up (and take down each day) in the school lobby.

5.  And I'm immersed in The Americans, a series made by the FX television network and available on Amazon.  Remember the old days when there was nothing on TV worth watching? Well, those days are over.  Now we have more good offerings then we have time to watch!  I'm starting the fifth season of this thriller and have to ration myself so I'm not up to all hours of the night in front of the screen.

Joining my friend LeeAnna's "I Like" Thursday, at Not Afraid of Color.