Festive July 4th

One of the best things about July 4th in our neighborhood is how the parade queues up just one street down from us.There is a festive community atmosphere and you may end up following a vehicle like this. The walk to the parade is always interesting and we see friends and family everywhere. Here is a quick tour of some of our Independence Day fun.There are a lot of patriotic dogs in Mammoth Lakes.

The parade always starts with America's finest

Rough Riders

Olympian Stacy Cook

Beer transportation

Beer Bear...

Pups...

Our fabulous friends S and C with their fellow Girl Scouts...

another super fab friend "K the amazing juggling unicyclist"

climbing/biking fun for the kiddies...

Ruggie loves a parade.

Bikes of all kinds...

Our town trolley

Copter Tours

The Sharks, our swim team.

Cowgirls.

Oh...here comes the squirt guns!

Felici Trio Chamber Music...

Mobile Custom Ski Shop...sooo cool.

Pack Mules...

The Johnson family chose "Troy" as their inspiration this year.

I love the Trojan Horse...Amazing.

Brilliant. The face that launched a thousand ships?

Smokey Bear

Love the water trucks.

Wheee...

As always the parade was small town fantastic. As it finished up we meandered down to the art show and I bought a few new garden stakes after which we took Rugby over to Doggiepalooza at the pet store for some treats and water play. Then through the forest back home to some yummy BBQ. Then to top off the entire day perfectly we spent the evening with fabulous friends, food and bouncy house fun for a gaggle of kids. The view of the firework show from our friend's front deck is nothing short of spectacular and best of all we get to spend the night and save the drive home for the next morning. Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays and this year we even had some long time friends stay the weekend with us which made for even more adventure. I hope you all had a great holiday too!

Local Mining Adventure

Mmm... Lake Mary. She sure is pretty.

Rugby loves to soak her feet in the cold mountain water.

We decided to take a quick ride up to the Mammoth Consolidated Gold Mine. I found a great write up about it here if you would like to read about out local mining history.

We just like to wander around...
talking about how life must have been in these mountains in 1927.
I wonder how much longer this cabin will be standing?
Rugby is ready to go. She wants to get away before the scary house falls down!

Operation Play Kitchen

About 9 months ago I found this...

Source: giggleberrycreations.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

and many other fabulous examples of entertainment centers turned into play kitchens on Pinterest . I fell in love, I needed to make it...my creative need is very controlling sometimes ;0)
So I mentined it to my Sis-in-Law and she said that they had promised "B" a play kitchen but hadn't found one for her yet. So Operation Play Kitchen began.
We didn't find an affordable entertainment center until the beginning of April but when we did, it was just the right price...Free! Kevin had gone to the Thrift store and there was a bunch of free furniture going to the dump. He snagged it up and brought it home. So for the next 3 days this is what we did. Curt (B's dad) began taking it all apart .

He then cut a hole to accommodate my old Crock Pot bowl. Bingo! We have a sink. He also took off one door and turned the other small door into an oven door. So far still free.
Then it was Prime Time.We hauled it in the house and I primed all night.

Then paint...Oh Yeah!

The next day I started to plan the "window".

Curt installed a brand new faucet and it made the sink look perfect. We painted the inside of the fridge white and the inside of the oven black.

Our original plan was to paint the door panels with chalkboard paint or magnetic paint but the store was sold out. So we just went white with it.

Kevin cut a piece of glass from an old picture we had in the garage and added window trim to make the window just that much more real.

I am quite pleased with the way my painting turned out, in fact I would like to have this view from my kitchen window.

Here it is... the finished play kitchen while it was still at my house.

I made a couple curtains and a pot holder, Curt hung the hooks,a towel hoop, put a towel rod on the oven door and added new handles to the fride doors. Kevin built the little stove top and those metal stove knobs came off of his old BBQ. Curt used appliance paint on the white part of the stove top so it is shiny like a real stove top.

Here it is right at home in B's room. Eek!!! So cute.

When I was taking these photos she said "What kind of music do you want to listen to? Country?" and she pushed the button on her "stereo", which fits perfectly on her window sill. :0)

She then lathered up her soap and began washing her dishes.

Oh, if only washing dishes would always be this much fun.

B has made herself right at home in her kitchen with her own personal touches and it makes my heart sing to see how much she enjoys it.

I sure loved getting the chance to be apart of creating it.

Captain and Rugby

Lady Rugglesby had her first sleepover recently. Our good friend Captain came to stay with us for a few days. Captain is black with white and Rugby is white with black. Captain is big, huge in fact. Little Lady is small. I think they both resemble bears. Big bear, little bear, black bear, white bear...sounds like a children's book.

In the end I believe Rugby thinks sleepovers are over rated, she has spent all of her time outside covering all of Captain's markings with her own. She is so happy to be the only dog again. My porcine princess ;0)

Sometimes she looks just like a baby Harp Seal too!

Memorial Freeze

Our temperatures dropped below freezing again. Ugh! Annoying to be sure but still expected. We were getting off way too easy with all of the great Spring weather we have had. So to combat some of the frost I put jars, glasses and bowls over my tender plants and I am happy to say every plant has survived. My newest little garden house has a thatched roof and it looks even sweeter with a little frosting.

The Lilacs have gone from from a fresh new green...

to a show of white and a gorgeous fragrance.

Those trusty chives have grown quite a bit and are now blooming.They look a little sad here due to the freeze.

My tiny garden on May first...

My tiny garden 25 days later! Growin' right along. My fabulous hubby is making a new fence and gate so Rugby can play in the garden with me.

Speaking of my Hubby...he took a couple great photos while out fishing/freezing at one of our local lakes early Saturday morning.

Brr...

Well today is Memorial Day and it is already turning out to be a wonderful day. I hope you all have a good one.

Thank you service men and women, present and past, for devoting your lives to secure our freedoms. We honor you this day and everyday and we keep you in our prayers.

Spring Growth

After a long but relatively dry, mild winter it is time to finish up the cozy warm crocheted Afghans and get back to work...outside. We are back to sweeping chimneys today, Rugby and I will be working away from home for part of the day so the indoor crafts will be set aside for weekends mainly.Yep...up off the sofa Ruggie Bear. As I look back at past posts I can see clearly that I create in cycles or Seasons. All winter my creations tend to be indoor comfy type crafts like "Hugo" the fab blanket pictured below. Have you seen the movie "Hugo" yet? The whole thing is done in these colors. Yes, I never know from where inspiration will come and sometimes it is a movie. I am a movie freak. Freak I say!

Once the snow melts however, I am itching to be out in the garden. Oh...my poor garden.

My humble little oasis is once again coming to life and I am full of new ideas.

The Chives are popping up, trusty and tasty they are.

The Crocus is usually the first to bust through the snow but this year everything is coming up all at once!

Daffy's are on their way.

The Lilacs are budding and my Hot Pink Geranium is blooming in the window.

The growing season has begun and if I am lucky I will get 4 good warm months, maybe 5, before the weather changes again and the pine needles start to fall. I am ahead of the game though, you see I started seeds inside on the First Day of Spring and they are sprouting like mad. I have a feeling this is going to be a hot summer so I am going heavy on the flowers this year as well as the veggies. I have Stock, Columbine, Nasturtium,Cosmos, Sweet Peas as well as Yellow Pear Tomatoes, Peppers, and Cilantro coming up in little peat pots indoors and this weekend I am starting Cabbage and Lettuce on Earth Day perhaps. You know how I love to celebrate holidays ;0}
Oh... and I also took shears to my head and chopped off 4 inches.

Ahhh... I love Spring.