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.