Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Summer Concert Series! Music

This summer we were able to go to several concerts (boy are we varied) and had a great time enjoying the music, the entertainment, and the wonderful friends who shared these evenings with us. Here is a banner from the last concert, it seemed appropriate!

We attended the LA County Fair on opening day to see Al Green and the Spinners in concert. The LA Fair in always an experience. We did a lot of the usual things, the Art building, looking in the buildings for all of the winners in their varied entries, the flowers, looking for Piggy Wigglies (never found them), a tradition we couldn't continue, how sad (it's true Utah daughters, no Piggy Wigglies). But we did find Chocolate covered Bacon, but alas it didn't have the appeal for me. Here we are waiting sooo patiently in our seats. Notice the corn dog.

Here is a pic of "The Spinners" they were very good at motivating the crowd. We did get to see and enjoy all that they had to offer.
Who could not enjoy yellow suits? But with our seating situation during Al Green we heard him but couldn't see him, lots of Gospel, lots of his great deep voice. It was a fun night. Here is the true pic of the night, the fair in all of it's glory, complete with fair food.

In between these concerts we went to see Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire, at the Ontario Convention Center. No pics of the event but we really did go. We went with the Ellsworth's and the Kirtley's. If you know me you know I really like Chicago, but I was disappointed, they sounded like a cover band, not the band of my youth. I had tickets to Chicago when I was 16 but wasn't able to go (you know teen age drama, boys) and I have been waiting a long time to finally see them in concert but something happened, they turned old! and many members were missing. Yikes. I thoroughly enjoyed Earth, Wind & Fire, particularly the percussion guy. Great entertainment, great stage presence. Speaking of entertainment there was a women close to the stage dancing, and her moves were indescribable and entertaining, laughs are always good.OK, so I alluded to our trip to the Hollywood bowl to see Aretha, and we went to the Hollywood Bowl again last night to see Diana Krall so I'm going to combine pictures from the two because I didn't take a camera either time and Lisa did the first time , so I stole some pics off her web site and Tada! here they are. It was a great night with great friends. The Gamboa's, The Kirtley's and us, what fun, what great music. We all contributed to our meal in the park (part of the Hollywood Bowl tradition) and the food was great which added to the evening.


Looks almost like a Barbie Dress, I said almost! If was a very warm evening, and she wore the fur coat through her performance. Show a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T, the woman can still sing and belt it out. I was impressed she never sat down during her performance except to play the piano briefly. She was impressive, and a great performer.


Diana Krall was spectacular! She was my favorite concert. I only had 5 songs of hers on my ipod, but there are more now. What a great performer, moving music, multi talented, all around enjoyable evening.

Check our her sultry voice, and music.

A summer of music, friends, and fun. I guess it really started before summer when we went to the Belly Up Bar to see James Morrison who put us in the concert mood. I hope there aremany more concerts in my future.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Caleb's Quilt


Caleb is already one year old, and it has taken me awhile (long) to finish his quilt that I started before he was born.









Just look at his face saying "Am'ma, what's taking so long, tears and all. I love the colors of this pic.











Here's my favorite man holding up the quilt for the pic. He also packaged it up and sent it off for me. I choose a vintage fire-truck material for the focus. Drawing from the colors of the fabric I added my accent fabrics. When I was trying to decide what to do in the corner pieces, the thought came to me Dalmatians, so that was the inspiration for the paw print and the dalmatian dots. I added a yellow fleece/soft fabric for the backing. I love the playfulness, but got a little speedy in machine sewing the whole thing together, and so my stitching isn't always "in the ditch" as I would like it to be. Slow down next time.










LOVE YOU!! Caleb

I hope it comforts you and snuggles you because I can't be there as often as I would like to comfort and snuggle you.










Here is close up of the quilt, Heidi showed me how to do paper piecing, and the results were fabulous, the points are all perfect. But I wouldn't to it again unless it is a very special project. It was so time consuming, glueing all the pieces to the paper, folding all the lines, sewing the lines, and then carefully removing all of the scrapes of paper. Perfect points, perfect matching of seams=lots of time.

Caleb--Enjoy!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Texas Visit - Part II - The Renovation

Steve and Darla, and their family, have been restoring a 114 year old 'farm house' from the 'historical' section of town. I say 'historical' because although it is a historic house (it was built by one of the three founding families of the community) the city does not value it's historical properties and does nothing to save structures such as this one. The home is around 3500 square feet with an additional 1500 square foot porch that wraps around 3 sides of the house. The first floor has 13 foot high ceilings and the second floor has 9 foot high ceilings. The home had just been saved from squatters by the county and was about to be put on the market when Darla spotted signs posted (she ran home to get her binoculars to see what the they said) that declared the premises uninhabitable (to get out the vagrants). She did some detective work and found the bank that owned the property. She negotiated a favorable deal - realizing that they were in for a great deal of work, but recognizing the properties potential. They have done a remarkable job - ask them to see the before pictures sometime! - and will have a fantastic homestead for Hendrickson texans! I had so many photos that I decided to follow the great example of my friend Ken and put them into a slide show for ease and speed - - - enjoy! sorry I can't explain each one . . . oh - also the pictures at the end are of the where they live now. The music is "Strike Two" by Joe Sample from his Ashes to Ashes CD.