The Silver Lining (a giveaway)

Lily Pads is closing so Deborah Nolan is having a giveaway on her blog Society of Stampaholics.

The prize package: Stamps and other crafty items with a retail value of over $200.

The deadline. 11:59 p.m., EST, Saturday, June 30th.

Head on over to SOS to enter, and good luck.

Family News

Me and Becky 2011

I was away for a few days. I went to Las Vegas to see my sister. She has stage 4 cancer was has only a week or so to live. She was suppose to be married in Dec. of this year but decided to marry this weekend with the recent news. She was married on Sat. and on Sun she was taken to the hospital. She is in ICU and will remain there until the end. She has kidney failure. Prayers for her and her family are greatly appreciated. Her name is Becky. She has four sons, three granddaughters, one grandson, and a great-granddaughter due in Sept. Thank you so much.

The Flair Exchange Giveaway

The Flair Exchange is hosting a giveaway. Click on logo.

Prizes are:

Grand Prize – $50.00 Gift Certificate to Pier One

* Grand prize goes to best all around board, voted on by our team of judges.

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Most Followed Board – Poolside Sunshine party pack - $50.00 value

* The board with the most followers at the end of contest.

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Most repinned item from The Flair Exchange Shop – $30.00 shop gift certificate

* The item that has been repinned the most at the end of contest.

This contest end June 8th

Quilting Lodge Blog Giveaway

Good Life by Riley Blake Fabrics

Go to Quilting Lodge Blog to enter for your chance to win a Jelly Roll of Riley Blake Fabric. If you are the lucky winner, you get to choose either the "Good Life" or "Shades".
Giveaway ends May 25th 11:59pm EST

Shades by Riley Blake Fabrics

A Step in the Journey Giveaway

Pre-cut flowers

A Step in the Journey is having a giveaway and the prize is $20.00 credit to Not Your Everyday Cards on etsy. You really should go to their site and see all the creative items for sale. The two photos are just a sample of their many products. Go to A Step in the Journey to find out how to enter. This contest will close May 24th, 12:00 pm EST.

Ladybug Tags

Discovery Walks

I haven't posted any discovery walks because I haven't been on any. It is the end of the school year and I will be working everyday instead of only 3 days. Once the school year ends, I hope to get back to my discovery walks.

Card From my Daughter

My beautiful daughter.

This is the card my daughter made for me for Mother's Day. I think it is so cute. She wrote inside that I can either go out to lunch with her or get a Starbucks card. I chose lunch with my sweet daughter.

Happy Quilting Giveaway

      Go to Happy Quilting blog to enter for a chance to win one of these fat quarters from the Fat Quarter Shop. This contest ends Saturday, May 19.   

Twinery and Bella Blvd Giveaway

Stop by The Twinery & Bella Blvd Studio

to enter for your chance to win a sampler pack

of The Twinery's baker's twine

There will be 3 winners.

Be sure to read all the rules.

This contest ends May 20th.

Twinery Sampler Pack

It's Giveaway Time at EverythingEtsy.com

Be sure to enter this contest. There will be 3 lucky winners who will receive $100 to spend at the Fat Quarter Shop.

My Mother's Day

I don't know what this plant is but
nothing kills it. I mean nothing!

I have two children, Rick & Kimberly. Rick is 34 years old, and Kimberly is 32 years old. They both are living at home for the time being. They asked me what I wanted to do today, and I think I surprised them when I said, "I want to play in the dirt, in my garden." I thoroughly enjoy gardening in my backyard, all of it; planting, trimming, weeding, etc. It is very relaxing for me, and I get great satisfaction from the results. Besides, I don't like to eat out on Mother's Day because of the crowds. So my son is taking me to breakfast tomorrow, and my daughter is taking me to lunch on another day when we are both off work.

I have a lot of lizards in my yard
but this one is the most colorful one
I have seen. I call him Mr. Blue. He
lives in the back corner of the yard.

 

Here I am enjoying my backyard.
I had to move to the shade to save
my laptop from the heat. Talk about
puny white legs, YIKES!

I have had this bird feeder
for ever. I need a new one
but this one still meets its
purpose.

One of the Pigeon Doves that
visits my backyard.

I actually spent all day Friday working in the backyard. On Saturday I said I was going to just rest and relax but while sitting in the yard, I just couldn't help myself. The next thing you know I am sitting on the ground pulling some weeds. Today I planted Red, White & Blue; Morning Glory Flowers. I gave my Hydrangeas some miracle grow and later on I will plant my two Petunia plants into the ground. The pigeon dove picture isn't very good but they just don't stand still for very long, and they don't let me get very close to them. They are definitely not NYC pigeons. (haha) I hope you enjoyed these random photos from my backyard.

To all the Moms

I got this cute Mother's Day greeting from Kristy at Hopeful Threads.

Bunco

I had Bunco at my house this month and I choose a theme of color. We each bring a small gift of $1-$2 for our "Smilie" basket that one lucky lady wins at the end of the evening. The hostess gets to pick the theme of the Smilie and I picked something colorful. There were a lot of pretty goodies in the basket. I wish I would have thought to get a picture of them. But I did get pictures of the food and tables. The first picture on the left is the drinks I provided. Raspberry Tea, Peach Tea, Ice Water, & Mist Soda. I used blue, orange, pink, & green cups & plates. I made Watergate Salad (which is green), bought a tortilla roll platter, made Bloomin Onion Bread, had Chips & Guacamole Dip & I made Fruit Kabobs that are Rose Buds in decorated pots. (This was my own idea! I actually didn't copy it!) And to top of the evening; a Costco cake with Rainbow Sherbet Ice Cream. I used different color scrap booking paper for the score sheets and center of the tables. I got goody bags from the Dollar Tree store with flowers on them and got some little note cards from Michael's for $.25 ea. I purchased some tubes from Kool Scrapbook Stuff for $.75 ea. and filled them with mini M&Ms. Then I closed them with the twister that came with the bags and covered the twister with Bakers Twine.

Food & Drinks

Tables & Goodies

Brayton Olney

Here is a quick page I made using Imagination Station by Snickerdoodles Designs at mymemories.com. The cutie in the photo is my cousin's grandson.

Surviors

This is a quick page I made of my hubby and me. We are both cancer survivors. He - Melanoma, me - Pancreatic. I made it using Tell Your Story-Quick Page by Laitha's Design which can be found at mymemories.com

Donna Salazar Designs Giveaway

Would you like to win all of this? Go to Moments of Tranquility blog and enter for a chance to win this great scrap booking package. Winner will be picked May 15th.

Visit with my Mother

Yesterday I spent the day visiting with my mother. I brought her this gift set I made. It is a card, a notepad, and a pin/hair clip. We had a very nice visit as we always do. And of course she surprised me with a gift. She made me this beautiful tote bag. it is reversible. She also gave me the pattern so I can make some.

Gift set I made for my mother for Mother's Day

Tote my mom made for me.

The reverse side of the tote.

Sites Around My City

Yesterdays "Discovery Walk" took me to the start of the P. E. Trail at the West side of Rancho Cucamonga. Well a little to the east of it anyways. I started at the trailhead at Foothill Blvd. and Baker St. where the Pacific Electric Railroad crossed over Foothill Blvd (Route 66), and once you crossed under the bridge you are only 0.4 miles away from the next city, Upland. This trailhead is still being worked on and yet it already has some graffiti. I was so disappointed because the city council is doing a wonderful job trying to make our city beautiful and friendly. I was going to take a picture of it but decided not to because that would just acknowledge them and give them affirmation. Anyways, enjoy the photos.

Thomas Winery. They left the
original building and built
a shopping center around it.

Wall at the Trail Head.
I think the names on the
wall are Surnames and
Ranch names from
the area. They are used
throughout the city via
street, town, school
names etc.

  

This is a portion of the old
bridge that went across Route 66.
They saved a piece of the steel
and some of the railroad ties
to display in the park area
of the trailhead.

 

This was on the piece of steel
I'm guessing it is the year the

railroad was put in.

Stairs to the trail.

Handicap entrance to trail.

Horse/bike entrance to trail

If you keep going in the
direction of these bikers
you will reach Upland in
just a few yards.

 

Rancho's city color
is purple and they take it
seriously...all the city
sprinklers and utility
covers are purple.
Why purple?
Most of Rancho use to be
vineyards, and our City
symbol is grapes.

Purple city utility covers.

Looking down at the parking

lot of the Trail Head. You get

a better look at the bridge

they preserved. The tan

truck is my hubby's. There
are bathrooms at this trailhead
but not at others.

This Bar-b-que business

has been here forever.

The P. E. Trail has a path

to it so you can stop &

eat there. As you can see

from their sign, they were

smart & decided to

get into the bicycle

renting business also.

This is the backside of

Sycamore Inn. It isn't an Inn
it is a resturaunt and

has been here for ever.

I thought this was interesting
because it is perfectly round
but it is made of rough
mixture of cement and
rock and there is no pipe in
the middle.

I thought the gold in these trees

brought some nice color to the area.

 

          

A hawk resting
ontop of a telephone
pole.

 There is an entrance for everyone. So there is no excuse for not being able to get to the trail. As I was walking up the stairs a lady with a cane was walking down the dirt entrance with her dog.

  

Looking down onto Vineyard
Ave while standing on the

overpass.

This is a playhouse in the

backyard of someone's

home. The homes in the

Red Hill area had a lot

of privacy until the RR

Tracks were turned into

a trail for all to use. But I

couldn't resist taking a pic of this.

Here is a closer view of
the overpass. It says
"America's Mainstreet Route 66"

Looking East on Route 66.

This is what you see as
you leave our city. There
are different types of cars
 on the overpass.

All Aboard the MyMemories Blog Train

If you are a scrap booker, this blog hop is for YOU!

MyMemories Digital Scrap booking Suite is giving away
$100.00 to the lucky winner.

They have 35 designers on the hop that will dazzle
you with their talents, AND offer you a freebie from their
collections of scrap booking pages, templates, kits, etc.

But hurry because this train ride started Wednesday 5/2
and only lasts for one week.

So hop on board for your FREEBIES,
and a chance to win $100.00 from MMS.

Re-Tweet my flower to help it grow.

If you have been following my blog you know how much I love to garden. Lowes is having a fun contest. You can plant a flower and "water" it to make it grow. The more it grows the more your Lowes gift card amount grows. So of course I had to enter. Please stop by and click on my name then re-tweet about it to "water" my flower and help it grow. Thanks, and you can also plant your own flower if you want. If you don't have a Twitter account and you don't want to sign up for one that is okay, I understand.