Labor Day ....

Labor Day to me conjures up memories of giving birth to my two wonderful children.  In my entire life I don't remember laboring so hard to get something, keeping something safe, caring for for it's well-being and so on. Motherhood is a labor of love, complete, un-conditional love.

So, to all of you mother's out there who "labored" to get your loved ones here enjoy today, we've earned it!

NO! I'm not Dead ....

Contrary to some beliefs I am not dead. I'm just sick and tired of this summer heat. I have absolutely no energy to do anything. The sweat runs down my face and into my eyes until I just want to scream! In all honesty all I have done is what is absolutely necessary to sustain life for myself, my hubby and the two dogs.

Oh! did I say two dogs ... yep, I finally got my adorable King Louie the III about 6 weeks ago. 

10 week old Louie on his way to Grandma's house ...

 He is 100% French Bulldog with an emphasis on "bull"dog. My poor little Boston Terrier Betsy is getting a run for her money. She just celebrated her 10th birthday and keeping up with a 4 month old puppy has been a challenge for both her and myself!  My days are filled with poop scooping, wee cleaning, picking up shredded everything (his favorite thing to do is shred paper!) and playing. Once a day I get on the floor and roll around with both the dogs, this can be dangerous!!

Due to the extreme heat Mr. Louie had decided it was a perfect time to create a snow storm in the back of the SUV. My husband keeps paper towels back there for cleaning emergencies.  He managed to create this chaos in about 10 minutes. It's good to be King ..

Making snow can be quite exhausting. As soon as I pulled the clean sheets out of the dryer Louie was making a nest for his much needed nap.  He's the same color as our sheets!

We have had a few tolerable days allowing outings to baseball games.  Most recently Cal State Fullerton was represented at the Angels game. As a graduate from the University my daughter wanted to go ....

Here we are in our matching Angels/Fullerton hats and sunglasses. It was a great time watching our team lose ...

Our "F" side of the hat!

As I wrap up this post I am enjoying the fact that the sun has set and I'm under the illusion that the air out side is cooler ... False illusion, it's a cool 87% at 8:00 p.m. I fear it is going to be another warm, miserable night ....

Charlie Brown to Snoopy, it's another beautiful sun set ... to bad it's so dang hot!

PS ... When is Fall???

Happy Birthday America and ME!

  Welcome to our Home!!

I love the 4th of July for many reasons but I do have to admit my biggest reason for loving this day is it's my BIRTHDAY! Yep, 62 years ago Anita Pritts made her entrance into the world. I was blessed with wonderful parents who raised me in a typical 1960's suburban neighborhood in Long Beach, California.

Life was good.

At 62 I find myself reflecting on many things and most importantly counting my blessings. God has blessed my life in so many ways from amazing parents giving me two wonderful children, 3 grandchildren, my patient husband Joe and many, many friends. As an only child I found myself selecting my own siblings as I grew up. My friendships have become an integral part of my life.

So I say to all of these important people in my life  "Thank You" for loving and caring for me for so many years!

A yummy creme' Brûlée on the wharf in San Clemente ...

Shopping and lunch at the French General Fabric store and lunch at Julienne's with Penny and Debbie ...

I even look at my home as a friend. I love my home, where it is located, the people who come to visit and all the things that I have collected, made and have been given as gifts are all part of who I am.

My kitchen island is decorated for the 4th as well!

Come in, have a tutu wearing glass of wine and share in the freedom we all enjoy!

FREEDOM, that's what the Revolutionary War was all about. It's what AMERICA is all about ....

Happy Fourth of July America!

Land that I Absolutely LOVE

A Quilting I will Go!

I woke up this morning to find the stars were in their proper alignment and I was able to go quilting at one of my favorite quilt shops, The Orange Quilt Bee in ... where else, the city of Orange! I love this little shop and the shops girls are just the sweetest gals ever.

This beauty truly exemplifies the shop. Beautiful Bee blocks all over the place. This will be offered as a block of the month. Go to theorangequiltbee.com if you're interested in this adorable quilt. Tell Lisa or Candy,

Anita sent you!!

Because they are such a popular shop the sew at the shop space has become very limited so when I was told they would have some space I packed up my Longaberger basket and shuttled myself down there. I took hand work this time and I got every single piece done, woo hoo.

The first piece is from Primitive Quilters Magazine and I LOVE it. It looks so perfect in my Americana bathroom.

The newest one is on the left, this one little quilt shares three of my favorite things. Quilts, baskets and of course American flags.

These two are table topper size. On the right is my wool appliqué' table topper for summer and on the left is an Americana table topper made for a dear friend. With these now completed I can focus on my Christmas gifts for this year. 

Like they say ..."so many quilts, so little time."

Prepping for the Grandkids!!

I spoke to my son yesterday to wish him a Happy Father's Day. As a father of 3 children, 4 adorable French Bull dog puppies, two beautiful aged dogs and a slew of fishes I thought he deserved a greeting from his mama. I was so excited to get the news that he and the family (including 3 puppies) will be coming down July 5!! My grandson, Austin will be attending his first week long baseball camp at Cal State Fullerton!! He is so excited, and so am I! While he's at camp the girls and I will do a craft each day in-between swimming.

Here's the plan ... one day we'll paint the little bird houses and they can go home and sit them in mommy's atrium window in the kitchen. Another day we can paint the boxes all sorts of pretty colors then glue one of the big pretty flowers on the top. These will be perfect for the girls to store all their little treasures in their bedrooms. The markers are for the masks on a stick, once these are done I think I'll have a little masquerade party! Oh what fun. On the final day we will make cupcakes and the girls can decorate them.  We will do this on Austin's final day of camp to celebrate his accomplishments on the field!! We'll even do some that look like baseballs for him! With hours and hours in the swimming pool, a few trips to Toys R Us and Arts and Crafts the week will fly by and I'll be so sad to see them go home. 

This grandma hopes all you grandmas have a fun, craft filled summer with your loved ones as well!

What a Gooey Mess!

Last Saturday my buddy Amy and I got up bright & early and headed out to do some garage sale shopping. Her primary focus was to find canning jars ... CHEAP! She makes Pepper Butter from a family recipe and this is her peak season to can. I drive through neighborhoods while Amy hangs out the window looking for signs to guide us along our way. Usually I sit in the car while she scans the driveways for jars. I am trying to get rid of stuff for heavens sake not bring more into my house!! BUT, we stopped at an estate sale. An elderly man had passed and his son was cleaning house so to speak. He was a school teacher and had a treasure trove of goodies. I could see this from my view from the curb so I went to check it out. I'm always searching for pewter and I was so excited when I found a tankard in perfect condition. It will have a new home in Amy's hutch.

My GREAT find of the day were two solid oak child's classroom chairs. The bottoms were stamped LA Unified Schools. I love the beauty of oak and I love to refinish furniture.I must have inherited this from my dad, he loved making furniture as a hobby.

I was itching to get them refinished so I made a trip to the hardware store and got busy.

Here is one of the two chairs. Solid as a rock, even I can sit on them.

Just about finished with the stripping process. I had forgotten what an ooey, gooey mess this process is. 

Good ole Homer Formby's. This has been my choice of stripping solution for over 40 years. It gets the job done without eating my skin off! Check out those gloves, OMG, they were gross.

This is just about all a person needs to refinish a project. Green scrubby stuff, a towel you can throw away when you're done, gloves, Homer's stripper and his Tung Oil. Oh, and don't forget to cover your table!

And done! Finished the other one today. I was going to sell them, but I just can't ... they are so cute and so pretty. They just don't make things like they used to. If you have a solid piece of wood furniture, don't toss it, re-finish it.

Finishing Old Friends ... Starting new Ones!

My friend Amy headed home to Wyoming bright and early Sunday morning. Joe and I both miss her terribly so this morning I decided to jump into my old routine to help ease my missing her so much!

I settled into my sewing room and sorted through some exchange blocks that needed to be finished ....

These are the final 10 blocks for the group quilt Antique Circles. For 10 months we have each made 10 blocks. We exchange our blocks so we end up with   10 different blocks. Now to sew them all together ... ugh. I'll post the completion once it's done.

In an effort to get Christmas projects done I began sewing in January. To date I have two gifts completed, one ready for the quilter and I've begun this one.

My friend Rita had this cute little quilt on her table a while ago. I just loved it and she graciously shared her pattern. Mine is a red and green version and I love it! I don't want to give it away ....

Since the time I took this picture I've been fighting with my computer to get the pictures to go into my blog. This is now finished and it came out so cute. It will go to the quilter along with the other one.

Now I have started Christmas gift number 4. It is coming together and I hate to say this but I love it too! What is a girl to do? I think I should sew with patterns and fabrics I just don't like.

These were all purchased at the new Primitive Gatherings Quilt Shop in Murietta, CA. I love Lisa's new shop and could spend hours in there drooling at all the goods!

We Honor our Flag ...

In America our red, white and blue, the American Flag flies stately over Federal & State buildings, schools, local court houses and yes, many American homes. Our flag symbolizes who we are as a people, free. Free to speak our minds, live where and with whom we choose, practice a faith of our choice and we "know" the life we want is only ours to truly choose.

So, today, I will fly my many flags in front of my home and give thanks to God for the freedoms it represents.

Longaberger Ladies Tea

It was such a lovely day. Fifteen Longaberger customers/friends gathered at the Tea and Tea Cups Tearoom to share an afternoon together. 

My dear friend Amy made the 18 hour drive from Wyoming to California to share in the fun.

Her adorable floral dress was made by Barbara Miller for the special day. She looked so festive and spring like!

The ladies slowly trickled in and began taking their seats.

Before long everyone was in their seats and our "proper" tea was served!

We were each served a freshly made scone with jam and creme' fresh. A plate filled with finger sandwiches, a cup of wild rice soup and fresh fruit. To complete our tea we each selected a favorite dessert.  Each course we were served a tea of our choice.

As a gift to our customers Amy and I presented a beautiful Longaberger crock planted with spring flowers.

Thank you to all of you who attended! I always enjoy spending time with my Longaberger family!

Are You Ready for Some Baseball!!!

It's baseball season! This is a sure sign for me that summer is on its way. As a little girl I would lay in my bed on a hot summer night being lulled to sleep by the hum of our electric fan. We didn't have a air conditioning so my dad would faithfully bring in the big box fan and set it at the end of the hall. For the next 3 months the loud hum of the fan would drown out the sound of the television and telephone conversations. In those days we had one phone that hung on the wall in the kitchen smack dab next to the fan!

Along with the lull of the fan at night I was also soothed by the sound of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball games being called on the radio by the iconic Vin Skully. Although I am a devoted Angels fan I have been known to tune into Dodgers baseball at night just to hear Vin Skully call the game. His voice drums up nostalgic memories of my summertime childhood when life was so simple.

So, a few weeks ago when the Origami Owl jewelry company launched their new MLB charm collection I was thrilled! I just couldn't wait to get my very own collection. Well, yesterday they arrived and I am a happy camper. 

Check out these cute tiny charms ....

Tiny baseball bats, heart shaped baseballs, angel wings and of course the BIG "A."

Inside my large living locket ....

Added my tiny Sawrovski red crystal dust, put it on my chain and I'm ready for the game!

Hay batter, batter, batter ... swing!

Preparing for an American Summer!

Just ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you "Anita, yes, she loves the red white and blue!"

As the days grow longer and the air feels warmer I get the itch to decorate my house with red, white and blue. Both the inside as well as the out. 

We BBQ'd on Memorial Day so I got myself busy scrubbing patio furniture and the concrete.  Chased away spiders and bugs who had made my patio their home for the winter. I popped in flags where ever they would fit!

Placed high on the chimney is a spray of 5 flags. I love how the blow in the breeze every afternoon.

Dining table. The quilt was made by Penny many, many years ago.  Even then the Red, White and Blue was prominent in my home.

A few of my favorite things .... Antiques, Flags and Quilts ....

Even my quilts have flags!

My friend Amy is in town this week and of course we had to shop at a few of our favorite places. This beautiful picture was taken at our local Walmart store. Walmart has an amazing collection of Americana goods!

To finish today's post is Miss Betsy Ross of Boston. As the Americana holidays approach she gets very patriotic as well!

Summer Picnics are on the Horizon ....

A stack of 5 amazingly beautiful Longaberger Picnic basket options!

It's June .... Summer is officially a few short weeks away ... are you ready for family

picnics??

Did I hear you say NO!! Well, then it's time to purchase a new Longaberger Picnic Basket, fill it with your favorite bottle of wine, fresh strawberries, a nice loaf of artisan bread and a wheel of brie cheese. Oh, and a bar of dark chocolate infused with chili and you are ready for an awesome day under a beautiful shade tree!

And yes, bring a favorite quilt to lie on and enjoy your summer read.

On my list of quilts to make this winter....

Good Friday

Easter week is upon us and I find myself in a teary place. I watched the "Dove Keeper" a made for television special about two Jewish women and their lives in ancient Masada, Israel.  Their story came to a close with the mass suicide of their entire community in order to prevent them from being tortured and raped by the Roman soldiers. These two brave women and a few children hid in Masada's sisturn system. They felt it was their duty to the tribe to tell the story of the complete annihilation of Masada's Jew's. And so they did, once captured by the Romans, they made an agreement with the Roman leaders to tell the Roman scribe of the Armies bravery if there lives were sparred. I cried as I watched these women endure the harsh lives they were living and wept for the women today who are living a similar torture all in the name of religion. 

Today, Christians are being slaughtered for their beliefs in Christ, much like they were thousands of years ago. As a human race I have come to realize we really haven't evolved as much as we may think.  

As we celebrate Good Friday, that horrific day a man was nailed to a cross for being kind and loving I am again humbled by his ability to love in spite of the torture he endured.  Regardless if we are Christians, Buddhist, Muslim or Jewish, Jesus deserves a day to be remembered for simply loving humanity and teaching others to love and to forgive.

May your Easter be filled with more then chocolate bunnies.