The Easter Bunny's been here

Praise Jesus for this day. I had such a great morning with family, church and easter egg hunt:>} Here is a recipe for cookies my DIL made last night - they are wonderful and could not be any easier!!!
1 (18.25 oz) box cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Choose your favorite flavor - I like chocolate, and the lemon mix makes tasty lemon cookies

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix only the above ingredients (although you can add 1/4 cup chopped nuts, raisens or choc chips) in a large bowl until blended. Drop the batter by spoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake on the middle rack for 8 - 10 minutes, watching them carefully. They'll brown quickly, so stand by the oven for the first batch.
Enjoy - it couldn't be any easier than this.




When we arrived home from church, we discovered that the EB had visited - what fun. The adults enjoyed a lovely Mimosa as the girls hunted for the infamous eggs - discovering in the end that one of the local squirrels had taken one away for his/her very own.

A Wonderful Day with Family

We all had a great time today. I wish I lived closer to my family members so that I could enjoy them more often. Our oldest grand daughter came home from crew camp last night and has spent today catching up on sleep. Here's our day in a nutshell

Happy Easter to everyone and takecare of yourselves.

Great Wine and Chocolate

I had such a wonderful day today. I got together with Carolyn (Autumn Leaves Jewelry) and had a blast. My daughter in law, grand daughter and I drove over to Reston and met C at her home for lunch and what a lunch it was. She really put out a wonderful spread of fruit, cheese, crackers, dips and vino. We visited and discovered so much about our backgrounds is similar - military history on both sides. It was really a great time. As we were leaving, she forced us to take some chocolate with us and I figured that it would have been rude to refuse:>} I wish we lived closer because I am sure we could stir up some trouble with little effort. I loved seeing your studio and all of your cats. They are adorable. You have an open invite to Tucson anytime but the gem show would be a great time to visit as it is unbelieveably huge - like all over town for 2 weeks. Lots of good golfing too so DH wouldn't get bored:>}

Finally made it!!

What a trip. My leg from Phoenix to Philly went smoothly then everything fell apart. For whatever reason, after four hours of waiting my flight to Newburgh was cancelled and I was handed a hotel voucher for the night - mind you it is now 10:30 p.m. Anyway, I had a good nights sleep and was scheduled to go out on a flight at 2:05 p.m. the next day. I found out quite by accident that there was a flight going out at 9:00 a.m. but it was oversold already. I took my chances and was at the airport at 7:00 a.m. and signed up for a standby seat. At this point I was #7 on the list so I felt there was no chance. Being the positive thinker that I am however, I sat right there and waited. It was boarding time and I was getting anxious but figured what would be would be and that was all there was to it. Name after name was called and FINALLY - Sally Hoffman was called out. I jumped to my feet and the girl at the gate just said, "get in there and take whatever seat is left - hurry". I did just that and took the single seat next to the exit row. The flight attendant came down the aisle and asked those of us in the exit rows if we agreed to follow the directions on the door if need be......I looked him straight in the eye and said, "you've got the right girl here if you need me - I can remove that door and exit in a heartbeat!" He chuckled and went on his merry way. The flight was short, only 30 minutes, and my son David was waiting at the gate...what a wonderful sight indeed. I am having such a wonderful time with my 6 month old grand daughter. What a beautiful baby she is. She just smiles all of the time and is almost maintenance free. Grandma has fed, clothed, played patty cake and changed the ultimate heavy load since arrival and I am loving every minute of it. Wish I lived closer so I could enjoy her more often. Of course don't get me wrong, I am also enjoying her parents just as much and I am very proud of them and all of their accomplishments - especially their baby girl and the newest sibling in the tummy at this time. The newest addition is scheduled to arrive in September - one year apart. Wow, are Mom and Dad going to be busy.

Bags are packed and I'm ready to roll

It's April Fool's Day and also my good friends anniversary - Happy Anniversary Geri and Art, hope your day is filled with love. I am waiting for 10 AM to roll around so I can go get some blood work out of the way for my physical then we are heading down I-19 to Phoenix. We will be spending the night at my nieces home in our Airstream trailer then I'm off to the airport early tomorrow morning. I am so excited. Can't wait to hug my baby grand daughter - her mom and dad too but I'll grab her first:>} She's just shy of 6 months and from the videos we've seen, she's getting very mobile. My DH just came into my studio and handed me a check for $500 towards my trip - WOW. A wonderful surprise and so sweet of him - thank you sweetie:>} I wish you were going along but I will keep you posted in Vlogs and phone calls. Sounds like Lisa (Lisa'sLovlies)is having a blast in Florida with her family- she needed a break. I think I've taken care of business at home so it's time to get going. The house is clean, frozen meals ready for hubby, laundry all finished and I'm exhausted! I'll rest up on the plane for my visit with a 6 month old because I think I will need all of the energy I can muster in a few days. Hugs to all and we'll talk soon. p.s. Carolyn, (AutumnLeavesJewelry) don't knock yourself out, just have your beautiful rings lined up for me to try on:>} Sally

Packing....Packing....Packing

Gads, it's been a while since I've blogged. I have been very busy packing for several trips. I'm leaving tomorrow for NYC/DC for 3 weeks to visit family and friends. Carolyn of Autumn Leaves and I are hoping to get together and do a Vlog for everyone. Should be fun. I return from that trip on 4/25 and pack for the next trip which will be to San Carlos, Mexico for a week. We have friends coming from Ohio, AZ and Ga to join us. This has become an annual ritual and we always have a great time - who wouldn't with margaritas flowing all day??? As soon as we return from Mexico, we head for the White Mountains of Arizona for the summer. Then I should be in place for the entire summer - no more trips. Oops, I forgot that we are taking our Airstream trailer on a trip in July to attend a cousins wedding in Idaho. It will be wonderful to reconnect with family that I haven't seen in several years. I yearn for the days when families lived near each other and could visit often. I'd better tend to the washer and dryer now or I won't have any clothes to pack. Until next time, have a great week and hopefully, soon the pollen will settle down and we can all breathe again. Cheers, Sally P.S. Some people are telling me that when they visit this blog and try to leave a comment, they getted knocked off. If this happens to you please email me and let me know so I can research the issue www.thebearaffair@cox.net

Spring is on the way

It's that time of the year again. You know, the time when all of the flowers start blooming, the birds are building nests, and the wind is blowing constantly. This all leads to one thing - allergy season. I should be dehydrated as much as I've blown my nose and wiped my tears away this past week. The good news is that it will all soon be over - I hope.

I had a wonderful trip to Santa Fe and the Interweave Beadfest. I even caught a few snowflakes on my tongue one day. We were walking from one hotel to the other and all of a sudden there was a huge snow storm.

It was so much fun to meet the instructors, authors and artists that I've interacted with for many years via the web and books. I took a wonderful workshop from Tracy Stanley - Cold Connections. It was really exciting to learn different techniques of texturing metals and combining them with several different kinds of riveting to create a fabulous bracelet. She is a delight to spend time with and a wonderful instructor. Check out her website to learn more about her

http://www.wiredarts.net/

The first picture is of Tracy, me and a new friend of mine. When we were getting settled at our tables before class started, we discovered that we were from the same town, Green Valley, Arizona. It is still small enough that we probably should have know each other before now. We are both active in the same metalsmithing and lapidary classes so go figure why we hadn't met before now. Anyway, we will be having some fun together now. The picture of the bracelet is of one of Tracy's examples because we didn't finish ours by the end of the class. It is a lot of work to put one of these together - guess that's why Tracy told us that they sell for $420.00!! If you're interested, I'll work you a killer deal though":>}

Another exciting moment for me was meeting and visiting with Susan Lenart Kazmer. For those of you who do not recognize her name, she is an explorer, inventor and maverick, according to her bio. She is the queen of cold connections and has developed techniques most would love to be able to master. Her recent book is titled Making Connections. A Handbook of Cold Joins for Jewelers and Mixed Media Artists. It is a great book to learn from and also makes a nice coffee table adornment. Susan has more energy than any ten people I know and she is a delight to watch in action. I plan to take a class from her next year but boy, the minute the classes are posted they fill up so if you are interested I have one word for you - hurry! You can check her out at the following address:

http://www.susanlenartkazmer.net/

This is a picture of Susan signing my book. What a fun time.

I was able to visit my brother and sister-in-law while attending the conference too. They live about 20 miles from Santa Fe so it was great to be able to B & B with them. Thanks so much Jerry and Sandy. I hope I can return the favor this summer up in the White Mountains of Pinetop. Of course the visit wouldn't have been complete without several shopping trips - something my sister-in-law and I have down to a science:>} She had several vintage pieces of jewelry that we (she) re-worked and a good time was had by all. My brother was happy because he was in complete control of the remote and could watch anything he wanted for an entire week........

I guess I've rambled long enough so I will sign off for now. Happy spring to everyone and have a great week. I'd love to hear from you so if you read my blog please let me know what you think of it.