Spring in all her glory

Spring has come. The cherry is in bloom and the happy daffodils welcome everyone!

Spring!

Love love love the change in seasons.
This morning I looked out the window and what did I see? Popcorn popping on the pink cherry tree. And yellow daffodils that I planted last fall with Pat. They look so happy! And the grass is getting greener (I have zoisia....)
I heard peepers at the beach on March 12, 2010. Love the sounds, smells and looks of spring.
The cherry blossoms all over town are about to burst forth.
We are finalizing our NYC trip with Bethany, Andy, Kate and Garry. Tim and Mom are staying home to hold down the home front!
Work is work.
And all is well with HKK.

Moving right along, after a tumble

Thursday Mom had quite the tumble in the shower. She is OK, managed to go to the genealogy library for the morning and then took herself to Kaiser for a look see. They said she was fine and would be stiff. Well stiff seems to be the understatement of the week.
She is OK, but scared and delicate. Nothing broken and her back hurts like the dikens and a bruise that is quite impressive under her right arm. Kate spent the night Friday and stayed for book club and then they went to a few yard sales.
I stopped in today and she was moving slow. We went downstairs for a bit o glass cutting and did quite well. She hung in there and I got all my little squares cut for the first panel. See below.

This is how it looked before we started.



Here is panel 1 almost all done. Only 3 more to go! Then we get to foil, solder, patina, and assemble lamp bases! That is all!

Stay tuned!



I think I need a lighter border on the bottom. Only 7 little rectangles! :)

I was just thrilled not to get paged to go to work again today. Ten hours yesterday was quite enough.

Long ago Easters

Another favorite because Mike has his beloved Suriotha in his arms. Hands down the best cat of their lives. This is Easter 1957.




This says 1956 on the back. Blanche Sturgis made the 2 dresses for Kitti and Holly.
Love the bangs. Kitti hates this phase of her hair cuts by mom. But what a trio!


Found these looking for David's 40th. Thought they were too cool not to scan too.

Top o the evening

Happy St. Patrick's day one and all!

Greetings from Heidi Kestner O'Kuchta. Or McKuchta. Which ever you prefer!
Hope you were all wearing the green!

Stained glass project

sketch of how we want the lamp to look


just a beginning of the black eyed susans


So here you have our lamp in progress.




Mom has been wanting to use up some of her stained glass she has had from prior projects. Being the good depression girl she is. So, Mom wanted to make a Tiffany lamp, and did not want to drive to the classes in the dark from 7-9pm in Kensington. The classes started in December are every 4 weeks for 6 lessons. That takes us to June for our "showing". SO. Guess who said yes she would take her and "help" with the project. Above you see the coloring for our pattern. We are in the mode of black-eyed susans (me being the only Marylander in the group, other than Todd!) They are supposed to be poinsettia's but we did not want that much red in a lamp. So we are going with the yellow and blue theme, which is always a good thing.
So here are 2 photos, we are actually further along with the project than this. One panel down, only 3 more to make. I'll get another photo of this panel this weekend when I do my squares.......I am good at cutting straight lines! Mom is in charge of the flowers. And she is doing an amazing job!

I'd say there are about 12 of us in the class, Mom and I count as one. A bit unusual, but the owner of the shop is cool with Mom needing toting help and help driving in the dark. We are all at very different stages. But this 4 weeks will separate out those that will finish and those that will not. This is labor intensive, and fun, but a lot of work.

So stay tuned for more panels and to see how they start to look on the dome we solder on! Quite complicated, but fun and I am learning a lot.

Favorites from the first 4!

Also see my post from October 31, 2009 when I promised to find my Halloween costuems! Or look under costumes! There they are!
Gotta love an old box of photos!

The following are my brothers first 4, 2 more would follow. But they must be deeper in boxes!
I love the few below.
They are David, Todd, Mindy and Andy.
All of whom now have 4, 7, 4 and 4 children of their own!