Tag: #photofun

Weekend Coffee Share; Trail Riding Fun in August!

On By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share17 Comments
  • Welcome to my weekend coffee share! Cookies anyone?

Howdy! I got inspired by my daughter when she told me she has a friend who had trouble making a good chocolate chip cookie and her friend decided to make Mrs. Field’s Cookie recipe. I looked in my cupboard for my Mrs. Field’s cookbook and I have 2 copies of her cookie cookbook from the 90’s. One is new and one is well used, not sure why I have 2 and will give one to my daughter if she doesn’t have one. I just looked it up and it was published in 1992! My daughter told her friend those are cookies from her childhood, yup! I cooked many, many cookies from that cookbook. I haven’t cooked from her cookbook in quite a few years, sticking it in the cupboard I just stopped using it. I know one reason is she bakes her cookies low and slow, it takes double the time to bake one sheet of cookies! BUT IT IS SO WORTH THE WAIT!! These Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip cookies are the bomb!! YUMMY! ❤ ❤ ❤

Forgive me, can I get you a cup of coffee or tea with some cookies? I sure wish I could share them with you all! I just could not resist sharing a photo with you today. I may use this photo from time to time as cookies go with coffee very well! Now onto my weekend, and I had a ton of fun with my stable friends and both my horses. I am getting to know my new horse Murphy better every single day. He is so much FUN!! 😀

My girlfriend at the stables saw me ride in from my trail ride with my friend on Roscoe and took these photos!
This was on Saturday and I was able to trail ride both Saturday and Sunday!

I will tell you that I am a bit out of shape. Riding the trails on my other horse Chloe does not take all that much effort on my part so my riding legs are out of shape. Too be honest, after riding each horse the last two or three days I am a bit sore. My legs (or thighs) are sore this evening but it is a good sore meaning it is worth the riding as I want to get in shape. I need to get stronger, but Murphy is out of shape too because he is young and hasn’t done much which is perfect. We will both get into shape together! We are a team! Haha, a wonderful team and we are working really well together! YAY!

I am sharing my video’s a bit out of order but I figured it doesn’t really matter what day is what ~ it all happened this weekend. This video I took on Sunday as I didn’t think to take a video on my Saturday ride. I have another video I am going to share which I took on Saturday on Miss Chloe. It was so fun to be out with my horses this weekend. Here is Miss Chloe!

She is such a sweet horse and we have so much fun just checking out the neighborhood. I don’t know why, but I was noticing the trees and I have walked and driven by all of these houses countless of times when this one house just caught my eye with all the palm trees. I wish I kept the video going as I rounded the corner as the line of palms continues down the other side of the property!! They have quite the palm tree collection that is for sure!! I hope you enjoyed my video’s for this weekend. I have so much FUN making them, and I so enjoy sharing them!

I am going to end this coffee share with a couple of photos of my sweet horses and I hope you have had a wonderful weekend in this month of August. I can’t believe it’s the 15th, half the month is gone already.

My horse LOVES!! I am completely obsessed with these beautiful animals. They melt my heart and fill my soul! ❤

I want to thank Natalie for hosting this weekends #weekendcoffeeshare as she is doing a wonderful job. Thank you Natalie!!

Happy Trail Riding Cowgirl!

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; Summer Flowers!

On By DianaIn weekly smile20 Comments

Welcome to my weekly smile post. I’m smiling at all the fun I have had in the last few months. A new horse, spending time with family and my grand daughter’s birthday celebrations to name a few. I have a best friend who has moved to Kentucky and she knows I LOVE flowers and from time to time she sends me the most beautiful flower photos! I asked her if I could share on my blog. These are recent blooms from Kentucky and they just make me smile! 😀

How can you not smile 😀 such beauties!! Here are a few more she shared with me!! Thank you sweet friend!!!

I know I usually fill my posts with lots of narration. I do love to chat, but there is also something about just taking in the beauty. I really wanted to share these super pretty flowers, what makes you smile?

My last photo from Kentucky! Such pretty blooms!
These pretty red flowers are blooming in Arizona. I just had to take a photo! They make me smile! 😀

Thank you for visiting my smile post for this week. I have to say it’s been a rather hot summer here and I am looking forward to the fall even though we have at least another month to go with hot weather. It can stay hot through September here! YIKES! I am also smiling as I have more travel plans in the works and that is to visit my sister in Colorado. I need to secure airline tickets soon. I hope you all have a wonderful week that is full of SMILES! Thanks for visiting! 😀

Smiling, Flower Loving Grandma,

~Diana ❤

Tree Square Challenge; The Sky and Trees!

On By DianaIn square challenges, TreeSquare19 Comments

Trees! How can you not Love trees? I suppose many take trees for granted. I just love trees and everything trees bring to our lives. They sure can help a sunset right? Look how much prettier this sunset is by having the trees in the foreground. I like the line of mountains too but I need to keep the focus on the trees as this is a tree challenge after all. I am sharing all things trees for BeckyB’s #Treesquare challenge and I am sharing photos I have in my archives. It’s been fun going back through and am hoping what I share today shows a theme. 😀

I have little stories to tell as we go through the photos. I hope you don’t mind a little reflection of my week last week. Sunday was a wonderful day until the afternoon when my new horse Murphy got sick. I am so grateful and thankful for a stable friend who saw him rolling and pawing and realizing this is not normal and he had a bad belly ache, it is called colic. He had a bad case of gas colic. He is doing fine now, but we had to call the vet out for an emergency vet call (it seems to happen on Sundays, this costs even more than a weekday call) but worth every penny spent. She treated him for the belly ache and I can report he is doing great. I now will keep some meds on hand to manage the pain that can come with gas colic. Murphy is so loved by all at the barn, and I love him too! ❤

Haha, as I chose the photos and placed them I realize I have the first 2 photos out of order. But instead of changing it let’s say I went to bed and saw the sunset and then the next morning I got up early for the sunrise! Here is a beautiful sunrise as I walk around the block and the sun is rising to a beautiful morning.

Day 2 of last week brought a power outage at our house. I tended to the horses which included a mash for Murphy with electrolytes in it for his tummy and then headed to work. I got the call at work all the power went out in our house except for our enclosed garden room. At first my hubby called an electrician which he promptly canceled after going outside and talking to neighbors who all had some power outage at their houses as well. It turns out a neighbor across the street was having solar paneling installed on their roof, and the guys working on it blew a transformer on a telephone pole along the street which affected a bunch of houses. We were lucky SC-Edison restored power by 7pm. My hubby ran extension cords from back room to fridge and fans. On to day 3 of last week.

Looking up at the tops of the trees you can see all the birds. I don’t have a long lens so this is as close as I can get. I like that you can at least make out the birds with the beautiful blue sky as background! This is a late morning walk and the eucalyptus trees are so very tall!

Day 3 I woke up to make my breakfast when my hubby called me. He had gotten up early to go eat breakfast with a friend. He was at the gas station and after pumping gas his car would not start. Yup, dead battery. That makes number 3 and we have been fine after this event. I believe things happen in 3’s, which I know is silly and I know it is probably just all ironic, or coincidental. I had to drive there with jumper cables and after that I could get back to my day. He had to buy a new battery and it was just over 3 years old and in an older car we do not drive everyday. Glad last week is behind us to be honest! It was just one of those weeks. It started out very gloomy…….

This is a wonderful photo as what stands out in the fog? The trees of course with the lights confused and on this morning, I love how crisp the foreground is with the brown fencing seemlingly outlining the photo.

And the gloom and doom of the foggy morning makes me happy that things are not doom and gloom at all. And I wanted to share my week as I still wanted to smile and remember the bright side of life. I want you all to know that this blog brings me much pleasure to write and share all the things that happen. It’s all called life, and we have to take all the curve balls that are thrown our way and figure out a way to keep seeing through the fog! ❤

Weather is wonderful for trees as they get fed with precious water. Where are you rain? It was absent this year, a very dry year here where I live. This was one very wet year we had just about 2 years ago. You can see all the water as the ground is very saturated. I suppose I should have put this in my palm tree post that I already shared, but this fits my theme which is the sky. I suppose it could be weather too, but I have so many photos of the sunrise that I wanted to dedicate a whole post to sky, sun and trees! That is my theme today, with a few stories thrown in for good measure!

As much as we need rain, the sun just makes me smile. We make a big deal about weather here where we live because we have far more sunny days then we do cloudy rainy days. We can get some foggy mornings but the fog doesn’t last long.

The sun so bright its rays bringing warmth and growth to trees and plants alike. I just LOVE the glow of the sun in this photo with the eucalyptus standing so very tall next to the row of palm trees! I think it’s gorgeous.

As I passed my 3 day event mark and feeling like things had settled down I was able to share my previous post which I did a double tree square post with my weekly smile post. I said to myself, I just can’t smile about all the events that happened to us this last week. But I can certainly smile about trees, and so that’s how that post came to life. And as I close this post out I have to say I so loved this challenge and this will be my last #treesquare challenge share as this month is coming to an end soon. (I may do one more post if time permits, but am not sure) I hope you enjoyed my tree photos as much as I do by putting this altogether to share!

Looking between Chloe’s ears as I ride back in from trail looking at the big beautiful tree that is so tall I could not fit it all in the photo. It is a California Pepper Tree and it provides a ton of shade as you can see on the barn there which is our tack room and row of cross-ties where we groom and bathe our horses!

Sharing my trees all around my neighborhood has brought me great joy. I wanted you all to see what I see through the lens of my camera. Thank you for letting me share the happenings intertwined within this challenge. Living life, it’s what we do! Thank you BeckyB for a wonderful challenge for #Treesquares!

Loving Life with Sky and Trees!

~Diana ❤

TreeSquare Challenge; I Love Trees, Part 2

On By DianaIn square challenges, TreeSquare16 Comments
Trees provide us with so many things, most days it provides shade for Zack and my girl Chloe!

This photo is from my archive just over a year ago. Trees see so much and can be around for many, many years. Providing some shade and now memories as my boy Zack is now running free and it brings warm fuzzy feelings seeing him from time to time in my archives. This tree challenge is so much fun and I hope you enjoy my theme for this day, and I am sure you will have no trouble guessing what that is?

Miss Chloe and I out on the trail on a beautiful tree lined street!

Another from my archive and to be honest I may not be riding alone as my bestie girlfriend may be with me but I can’t remember. I go on so many rides! Which is my therapy, my Love, my horses. I will look for a photo with the two of us together. That would be fun to share too!

Here we are together with a huge giant California pepper tree in front of us on the trail! Chloe has an ear cocked back listening to me talk as we chat all the while when we ride. Love our trail rides together!

This is from last year and my girlfriend has since retired her chestnut mare, Gracie. She has bought a new horse to ride on the trails with Chloe and I, and Gracie is doing fine in retirement. 😀 Now on to my recent photos that I want to share as I got ready for this challenge there was some beautiful flowering jacaranda trees on the trails. I’ve shared some of these photo’s already, but saved a few that will be new!

Absolutely beautiful! Purple flowers and the best view ever between my horses ears!
She see’s someone across the street and with the jacaranda tree near her I had to take a photo! So pretty!

As we walked under the tree I looked up and took this photo! I thought it was cool! It may not be completely in focus as I didn’t stop, just clicked away. Can you tell my theme yet? The photo above is the only photo without one of my horses in it and so that is my tree theme today! Trees and my beautiful horses. Here are a few more photos, after all I do not want to leave anyone out!

My new horse Murphy with another shade tree at the barn!

I didn’t plan on using a photo of Murph and I like this photo except I cut off his nose. Haha, it’s eclectic and different is how I have to look at it and at least it has a decent tree shot included! Murphy is doing really well and I will share more of him in my coffee share this weekend. So if you follow me, you will see him in action as I have some video to share! (A good tease, don’t you think?) I would include a link but I haven’t written it yet. Maybe I will title it with “Murphy in Action” so it will be easy to find! 😉

One of my favorite tree photos! I saw her standing there and thought PERFECT for sharing! This just makes me SMILE!! ❤

And we have come full circle! I was sitting in a chair waiting for my farrier as Miss Chloe was standing under this shade tree. It is the same tree in the first photo with Zack and Chloe, just from a different angle. We have gone back a year, gone on some trail rides and finished up with some beautiful shade from a tree that isn’t all that big, but sure can provide some shade. There is some meaning in all of this somewhere, maybe it’s look back in your past with loving fond memories but also look forward as you never know what the future will hold. Here I am with a new horse Murphy, to be here as I Love and take care of my aging mare, Chloe. They all have my heart! I hope you all enjoyed my trees for today photos and thank you BeckyB for this wonderful challenge.

Tree Loving Cowgirl!

~Diana ❤

TreeSquare Challenge; I Love Trees!

On By DianaIn square challenges, TreeSquare14 Comments
A beautiful tree with a cool treehouse on our walk to breakfast! I LOVE IT!

Welcome to my #treesquare challenge post for BeckyB’s Challenge for the month of July. I absolutely LOVE trees almost as much as I love flowers and thankfully many trees have flowers so I’m in love with this challenge. I hope to share more than just a couple of posts of my tree photo collection. I may go through my photos to see what I have taken over the last few years as well. I was visiting my daughter this last weekend when we came upon this tree house on our way to breakfast. She lives in a small town in Orcutt, and breakfast was around the corner. We had a wonderful time there and the weather was PERFECT! Always cool as she lives near the ocean along the California coast!

My daughter with some beautiful trees in downtown Riverside!

This was the weekend before last when my daughter was home visiting us and her best friend. We had a girls day where we shopped and ate in downtown Riverside. Lots of cool old buildings with lots of mature old trees! We had a fun day together and I couldn’t resist a photo or two of our outing!

Beautiful tree lined street, an outdoor market and my daughter’s bestie standing to the left. Oh, my daughter is way off to the right reading something and I don’t know the people on the bench. 😀

I often like to have a theme as that is how my brain works. I think with this treesquare challenge my theme is visiting with family and a few different locations with beautiful trees. I may not always have a theme, but when I can make it work it helps with the flow of my thoughts and I hope makes my posts more enjoyable! I have one more tree photo I will end with as I was with my son and his wife and my grandkids this last weekend. I was visiting my daughter when my son called and said they wanted to drive to California for an impromptu visit! So we left my daughter’s early to meet up with my son and family.

Happy 4th of July! waiting for fireworks with a beautiful sunset with a tree lined view!

As we waited for the fireworks to start we watched the setting sun and I asked my son to take a couple of photos for me as I left my phone inside. We were at my daughter-in-law’s Aunt’s house, so sweet they invited us all to join them for a BBQ. It was a great time and I was able to spend some time with my grandkids too. It has been such a busy last couple of weeks, but it’s all a GOOD busy! With lots of fun, love and family time. I hope you enjoyed my tree photos and I thank you for visiting and thank you Becky for this wonderful challenge!

Tree Crazy Gal!

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; Good News! June 17, 2021

On By DianaIn Barn stories, weekly smile16 Comments

Welcome to my weekly smile and I wanted to share my huge smile again as I have gotten the green light to start doing more with Murphy! I had my Vet out this week and he took x-rays of his hind leg which had a splint bone fracture. It is healing nicely and he is ready to get to work. I am in no hurry and will start riding him soon. We are currently in a bit of a heat wave right now and so I will go to the barn earlier in the morning to try and beat the heat. This week I have been doing this and getting Chloe out on the trails. We just go for short rides and its just enough to get some nice walking in before it gets too hot. We only walk on our trails and I have been able to ride with my bestie girlfriend on her new horse Roscoe. I have some recent photos to share and a video! I’m just feeling so grateful and am smiling from ear to ear! 😀

Miss Chloe this morning and I liked this photo of Roscoe getting new shoes about a week ago!

It’s a short video but still fun to share! We still have some blooming jacaranda’s on the trails and I am enjoying all the purple blooms on our rides. This video is actually from the weekend but our rides are just like this as we ride around the blocks talking away and catching up on our lives. My girlfriend and I have known each other since we were 10 years old and so we have 50 years of history together and so we are always keeping each other up on all our families happenings as well. We never run out of topics, and we cherish all our time together. I feel so blessed to have such a good friend who is like another sister. Thanks for being here and for all your love and support Sally! ❤ She makes me smile too! 😀

I edited this photo to be up close and personal, he’s such a handsome guy with a very dirty nose! Haha, just so sweet!

I am so thankful Murph is healing up and the Vet gave me some anti-inflammatory cream called Surpass (for those horsey people out there) and he said this will help with any residual inflammation and so I am to apply daily. He said I can also apply it to his front leg where he has an old injury above his knee. He has some soft tissue that may reduce in size if I apply there also.

This is one of my shorter posts, I’ll say short and sweet! I really wanted to share my good news as I am so EXCITED! I know I keep saying I am going to take my time, and that’s because rushing gets you no where and everything has been going so smoothly with the purchase of Murphy to now the good news with the x-rays, I want to take the next step in stride with no rushing. I know I will be in a good place and he will come along nicely as we get to know each other with me riding him and us getting on together in the arena and eventually on the trails! I hope you enjoyed, and I hope you all have lots to smile about this week and always!

Happy Smiling Cowgirl!

~Diana ❤

BrightSquare Challenge; End Of April!

On By DianaIn BrightSquare, square challenges35 Comments
The bright shine of my horses coat is brilliant and beautiful! My horse Chloe enjoying time grazing after a bath!

I have so enjoyed BrightSquare Challenge hosted by Becky ~ The Life of B, she does such an amazing job putting together galleries of everyone that joins in the fun. This will be my last post as the month is almost over and I wanted to put together one last entry. As I was thinking about it and as I’ve mentioned before and I know others think this way too, of sharing a theme. I thought it only fitting to share my love of my horses! ❤

I think it is good to use fond memories. The white horse (Zack) is running free over the rainbow bridge now! My pretty boy!

This is from last year with Chloe’s dark grey roan coat glistening in the sun. My grey horse Zack is bright white and his coloring is actually called a flea bitten grey. He has a bunch of dark flecks which are the “flea bitten” parts. Kind of funny because horses do not have fleas. I’ve never looked up the history of how this name came about, but he was the sweetest horse and Chloe’s best friend. More the other way around, as Zack was very attached to Chloe! Silly boy!

My bright smile as my pony sister at the barn caught me walking my beautiful horses last year! ❤ ❤ ❤

What beautiful FUN memories and Chloe and I are doing great. It brings me great joy to share and I hope you can feel the joy and happiness these beautiful creatures bring to my life. Thank you Becky for a wonderful challenge and I am so happy I have been able to participate. 😀

Happy Bright Cowgirl,

~Diana ❤

BrightSquare Challange; April Shines!

On By DianaIn BrightSquare, square challenges12 Comments
The sun shining on my family as we sit on a bench at the beach to enjoy some delicious cinnamon rolls!

Even though my title is April shines, I am going to share some photos that I never did use before. I had uploaded them and for what ever reason did not use these particular photos a few months ago. I am so excited to share them here as my quirky brain wants to almost always have a theme. I know some of my blog posts I jump from subject to subject in my crazy life. But with these super fun challenges, I just can’t help myself to themes!

My life is so much brighter because of my family. They bring me so much joy and happiness and so when I can do a little traveling to visit them it is just so much fun.

This is Pismo Beach which is about 30 minutes from where my daughter lives in Orcutt, Ca. I think the sand is so bright against the dark blue water! So pretty!
What bright shine from the water as the sun hits the curling wave in the sea. The smells are so wonderful as we walk the pier!
The bright shiny food truck and beautiful yellow umbrella on the pier as we take in this beautiful day! Our smiles say it all as it’s a glorious day to be together and enjoy each others company at the beach.

We head to Pismo Beach because they have this AMAZING Cinnamon roll store that bake them fresh every day. I have shared about these cinnamon rolls before but on this day I took a lot of photos of the ocean and the pier. Thanks for visiting my BrightSquare challenge post hosted by BeckyB~ Life of B. She does such an amazing job with her challenges. It is so fun to join in when I can and share my brightsquare photos!

Have a wonderful, bright, fun-filled day!

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; April 8, 2021

On By DianaIn weekly smile28 Comments
I lost my seat! Haha, what’s the saying? Move your feet, lose your seat! ❤

Welcome to my weekly smile! 😀 I was sitting here thinking what makes me smile this week? I love to share but when you share weekly it seems like I just share the same thing over and over again. I know I change it up a bit when I can but a couple of thoughts have popped into my head for this week. I am hoping to write a separate blog post about the work that I do. How I got involved in Veterinary laboratory work is 100% because of the animals I own, I am such an animal LOVER! So my smile this week goes to all my animals! And Duchess in the photo I am sharing just took my seat!

I got up to start cooking my artichoke. I just love artichokes and cook it for about an hour and then enjoy it’s goodness and am having that for lunch today. I walked back from the kitchen and my seat has been taken, haha! I know all animal lovers can relate if you own a cat. I think cats own you, and own the house! I know I can easily move her but it isn’t the only seat in my family room, so I relocated. I have all my crafty stuff near her chair as I work on crochet projects. You can see my laptop as I am getting ready to write this post! She is super happy all curled up sleeping away!

My other kitty is on my bed all curled up as I disturbed her for a photo! She loves our bed, silly kitty!

I have written and shared a lot about my cats. They are sister’s even though they look nothing alike. Maybe they had different dads, but they came from the same litter. I adopted them from my son’s family as they had them as very tiny kittens. My daughter-in-law LOVES cats, especially kittens and would have a house full if she could. They added more kittens to the mix and they didn’t all get along as they grew into adults. They tried everything, and it was in their best interest if they came and lived with us and I am so Happy! They sure make me SMILE! 😀

The girls as kittens, so adorable!
My dogs BZ the shepherd mix and Drew the border collie! They are the sweetest pups, we LOVE them so much!

I could have so many more pets. I actually live in an area where I could have chickens. They would be hen’s and we would have lots of eggs. I suppose they wouldn’t be exactly pets, but they would be more animals to take care of and to be honest I feel like the extra care would fall on my shoulders. I know I have heard they need very little care, but you can’t just ignore them, any extra care right now in my busy life is just not what I want right now! Haha, the thought of chickens just doesn’t interest me at all. Anyways, can’t think of a better segue as you all should know by now my last animal I own is my horse!

Miss Chloe loves to graze! This is from a few weeks ago and you can see the grass is not as lush as it is now!

Thank you for visiting my smile post for this week. I’m smiling at the 5 animals we have that enrich our lives. They are funny, goofy, lovable and they bring so much to the world we live in. They help keep me sane and give me many, many smiles and fun days. I hope you all are having a great week! I have one more funny photo to share, because cats are just so silly! ❤

Have a happy week and weekend! If you would like to visit more smile posts click here! Thank you Trent for hosting!

~Diana ❤

Bright Square Challenge ~ Fun in the Sun

On By DianaIn BrightSquare, square challenges14 Comments
  • Bright morning sun through the trees on a morning walk!

Welcome to my post to my interpretation of Bright, for The Life of B ~ Becky’s challenge for the month of April. The theme is in my title and what fun to share what brings some light and smiles in this wonderful month. The word “Bright” brings so much to mind and for me I am sharing what I found the last few weeks that inspired me to share. This photo I thought was perfect to start as on my walk the sun was shining so brightly coming up over our local hills on this sunny morning. So amazing how brightly it can shine up and around the tree tops!

There really is silver linings around the clouds as they shine so brightly in the sky! This just makes me smile!

To continue on the sky theme as I rode on this fun cloudy day I just could not believe the silvery clouds with the sun shining so perfectly around them in the sky. This just brings sparkling cheerful thoughts of enjoying nature and all the beautiful field flowers that will soak up the suns rays that push through the clouds. I just felt this was a glorious sight, look at that colorful yellow hue, it’s brilliant!

I could not help myself and took this photo driving home from Arizona (please don’t judge) I snapped it quickly!

I know, I know don’t use cell phone while driving. But I promise there wasn’t any cars anywhere near me only that one in front of me and I couldn’t help it, look at that beautiful sun setting! I even had a buggy windshield, it was worth the shot. I love how it glows above the mountain so magnificently! This just makes me smile brightly! 😀

When I arrived home it was a full moon! You can even see Venus, Wow! What a bright shining Moon! ❤

When I pulled into the driveway from my long drive home and after watching the setting sun I couldn’t believe it was a full moon. I had to try and take a photo! I thought this isn’t too bad considering I only have a cell phone for my photo taking. I feel as full as the moon after spending a weekend with my grandchildren. I hope you enjoyed my Bright, joyous, fun post full of what I interpret as Bright for this week. I plan on sharing weekly for the month of April. Becky’s wonderful challenge is so FUN and you can join daily, weekly or when ever you get the chance. You can find her here!

Smiling Brightly,

~Diana ❤

SquareUp; Hawaii Fun Photos!

On By DianaIn square challenges, SquareUp16 Comments
Up, Up and away my trip to Hawaii last year!

This is the last day of the photo challenge #SquareUps photos share with it featuring the word “Up” ~ I went through my photos and had a few in mind and so here is what I decided to share. We were able to travel to Hawaii last year in February. We made it there and back again before the shutdown and some day I would love to go back. Here are a couple more photos I wanted to share. 😀

This was at a luau as you can see he is Up in the tree getting some coconuts!

The rules of the challenge for my friends who will read this post wondering what am I doing? I have to format my photos to be square. Thankful this is easy to do before I post them. I edit them into a square shape for this photo challenge hosted by Becky B ~ The Life of B blog. She has these wonderful photo challenges throughout the year every quarter. This challenge for Square “Up” was for the month of January. You could post a photo every day, or every week, or whenever you can. I decided to join right on the last day. The next Square photo challenge will be in April. Here is the last photo I will share for Upright and Upbeat!

This was in Honolulu and we ate at this wonderful restaurant right on the water! Upright masts and ahhh, so beautiful!

I hope I met the challenge correctly. I made all my photos “square” and I love the theme “Up”. I had fun looking through my photos when these popped up and I thought what a fun way to finish out this month!

I know I could have shared 31 photos for all the days of January, but I am afraid that would take me too long. So I guess I am joining with 3 photos for the last 3 days. Lol 😀

Thank you for hosting Becky and including us all on this fun #SquareUps photo challenge. I hope ya’ll enjoy!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; End of January!

On By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share34 Comments
  • Welcome to my coffee share! Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? Let me tell you about my morning…..

As I left my house this morning for a walk I was looking down and was positioning my walking stick in one hand and opened my front gate with the other with the cool air on my face. It was a nice 44F degrees and the sun was up above our hills shining on my back. I haven’t been walking as much as I would like, something I need to fit into my schedule. I was feeling happy to be out and as I walked I thought to myself what always makes me smile is mother nature and her wonders. Isn’t it so wonderful to enjoy all she has to give to us? I stopped in my tracks, I looked up at the sun, and then I decided to turn around and as I turned this is what I saw. Wow, majestic! this view took my breath away!

I couldn’t believe my view as I turned around from my walk, WOW!

I wasn’t paying attention as I headed out the door and I turned right to walk down this road which is away from this mountain view. I was so happy I slowed down to stop as this was a great place for a photo. The blocks I walk I saw more wonderful views, but this one set me in a good mood as I took in a deep breath and went back to my walk. My walk was a bit slow as bones creaked a bit and as the sun was rising I decided to take another photo heading more along the path I was walking.

The sun rising above the hills. I felt like I was getting a sunrise hug!

As I finished up my walk I got to thinking about how fast this month flew by. I can’t believe in about a week it will be 3 months since I started my new job. I can tell you I have never felt better sleeping every single night. (For new followers, I use to work grave yard shift full-time and had been on that shift for over 30 years!) I think I feel 30 years younger! Except for my creaking bones, a bit of arthritis in my feet and with this cold weather my right arm that I broke some years ago which has a plate and screws will ache a bit. I found some wonderful cream that helps with pain in muscles and joints that I use. So I get some relief and go about my day not thinking about it again. But when I get up in the mornings, I am a little creaky! Haha! 😀

Can I get you a refill? As I am enjoying the rest of my coffee, I just can’t stop thinking about how I am so enamored by the great outdoors. As I sit here and write on my laptop I can look out my front window and this is what I see. I can honestly say that this house we have here has some pretty cool views. I thought I should try and take a photo. So here it is!

Haha. the view is through a screen on my front window. Not the best photo but I love the view.

With it being a sunny day the snow melts fast and within a few days these snow capped mountains will be no more. However, there is another storm coming this next Wednesday so the snow will return once again. I don’t think one will ever tire of the snowy mountain views! I use to live in the local mountains many moons ago. It was an experience, but am happy down in the valley with my horses.

I have been in a bit of a funk. That’s a strange word “funk” but its a good description. I am in between crochet projects and have been doing nothing but coloring. Yup, you heard me correctly ~ coloring in my adult coloring book! It is rather therapeutic to color, but it is not motivating me to start a new craft project. I’ve been wanting to make this shawl which I bought yarn to crochet but the pattern is a little complicated. I started it but got a little discouraged and stopped. I also could get back to making my crochet animals? I usually am not so distracted. I usually move from one project to another, I am hoping to find my focus soon.

This is the shawlette I am going to crochet. Power of positive thinking as I work out the instructions! Haha!
Maybe I should just make some ponies! Okay, they look so cute!

Maybe I should just make these really cute crochet ponies and they will help me with my funk. Aren’t they adorable? I think I will work on these and get back to the shawl at a later date. I will share what I make once I get some of them completed. There are a whole herd of horses to create in this book, 10 to be exact. I have to thank my daughter for buying me this crochet project book. I am getting excited writing and thinking about these crochet ponies. I find working on my crochet crafts brings me much comfort and I LOVE creating things with my hands. It is so rewarding and always makes me smile. I also find the more I crochet the better I get, and so I enjoy my projects even more! What do you do that stirs your creative juices? I am sure many of you bloggers enjoy writing! I also have friends and family that love to sew. My sister’s sew quilts, so talented!!

I am going to wrap up with some kitty photos just because they make me smile. 😀

These are my kitties who are sister’s. Duchess closest with Dinah behind her. They were fast asleep until I bothered them with a photo!
These are my sons cats, the brothers. I love this photo as they are shaped like a heart! One is Wolfie, the other Dublin but I don’t know who is who! Haha, they make me smile!

Thank you for joining me for coffee today. Sorry about being in a funk, haha, I had to use it again because it’s such a funny word. Makes me smile to think I’m in a funk! I also want to do some gardening but I want to educate myself about gardening. I have been bad about my teeny gardens which the last one was in containers. I am just winging it, buying some fertilizer and then some starters and all I do is water. I know I live in an area where I could grow some serious food if I put some effort into it, which means taking the time to read and learn how to really garden. I need to know how to take care of said garden, and be a more mindful educated gardener. Sounds great! Now just need to learn! I’ve enjoyed sharing the beautiful mountains and kitties. I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead!

Enjoying Mother Nature and furry friends!

~Diana ❤