Kayaking Blue Ridge Reservoir

Its official....I now want to add kayaks to my collection of outdoors gear! Several weeks ago I went up to the Blue Ridge Reservoir up above Strawberry AZ and found this great place where so many people were kayaking. There are miles of winding canyons where people camp, fish, and just kayak around. Since it will cool off hopefully soon (at least up North of the city) I needed to get this adventure in a weekend soon.  Although I came in late the night before from work traveling I still got up with my brother to go rent these kayaks. It was up in the 60's u(considering it was almost 100 in town that is a big difference!), very worth it! 

Note to self.....remember sunscreen everywhere - my legs took a beating! Also going to place the kayaks on top of my car, I just had them out the back tied down. The inside of my car was covered in a nice layer of dust after going down the dirt road to get there.

Sewing Sunday - fold up bag

I was home for the weekend and wanting to recover from all my travel. I started to get a couple of my home items completed and done!


First off, I had never sewn with a pattern so last night when I was out at Joann's picking up some supplies for other projects I decided to grab one that looked simple enough. A yard of fabric, some double fold bias tape, and velco, how hard can it be? I did sign up for some sewing classes at Joann's as it was half off class day, but since they were a few weeks out thought why not try now!

I googled a you tube video how to transfer patterns, using pins and the floor seemed to work with the supplies I had.

But....then I came out with this - epic fail! I had the folded fabric the wrong way. Just keeping it real on this blog. Bummer I liked that fabric! 

I had some other fabric on hand from when I recovered the thrift store chair, so I went with that as a back up and tried again. Note the fabric is opposite in this one so it actually works!

Great success! I cut out all the pieces and went to work making the pocket. Just in case any of you try to make this one, it took awhile for me to figure out that pattern so here is how it looked from both sides.

After a couple hours of cutting, then recutting, trying to keep the cat off of the pattern (why does paper always attract cats??), becoming familiar with my sewing machine again, ta-da! It actually  worked!

Here is what the pocket and velcro is for, it folds up nicely to fit anywhere!

Portland

Now that I am catching up on my pics......and now blog...here are a few of what I have been up to. My sis lives in Portland, and as it is 100+ in AZ that sounded like a better idea for a few days to escape the heat and get some hikes in. My partner in crime was my brother Neil, who is always up for any adventure.

We went to the usual places that most would - but just maybe hiked a little more. I love that when you are young, your siblings drive you crazy and then you get older and you really want to spend time with them. 

I am no longer a PC....

Well technically I am a PC and a MAC as I still need to use PC's at work. I got a Macbook Pro laptop about a month ago to start using. I went through several stages. 1. excitement 2. getting really annoyed by the design....3. started to like the thing when my PC got a virus 4. ok, fun to surf the web 5. annoyed again that I did not know how to organize my files and use iPhoto 6. sold, but I need to figure out out to use this thing 


Love the mac feel but there were so many things I did not know how to do things like say.......post pictures to my blog. oops....hence the delay in anything from my recent adventures this past month. This morning due to a "staycation" day I spent a couple of hours at the mac store and tadah! Posting again! I will say they are fabulous at helping to figure things out, but they did not have late hours for classes so I waited to today to take the class. If you get one and transferring from PC to Mac - take the classes, do not delay! 


I am still figuring out this thing out but really sold on it! Now to understand all it can do....... off to take more classes.... ;)


Now that I have at least figured out how to post to my blog again I will be catching up photos and projects in the next couple of weeks!

Outdoor decor

I love my backyard....really love it. I love the view, I love how much room there is, and I love the trees.


I thought to share a few pics of what the backyard currently looks like. The pool cover just got fixed - It had been broken all year and just happened to get fixed the day after the haboob that happened in Phoenix. DOH. So after a week of cleaning the pool it now it swimmable again (love the trees, but it really does make a mess!). The cover has really helped stop the future dust storms from making a real mess of it! Though, when the cover is left on it makes the pool really warm so it has to be timed right to leave it on when storms come.


For those that did not see the haboob (really just a BIG dust storm) here is a peek.

Pillows from Target!

The pool is 40 feet by 16 feet - big enough to do laps in!