Saturday, August 8, 2015

Red Hatters Celebrate Queen Ladybird's Birthday

Saturday, August 8, 2015

Members of the Red Hat Society, New Mexico Roadrunner Chapter in Alamogordo, New Mexico celebrated their Queen's birthday at a luncheon in Memories Restaurant. Carla (Queen Ladybird) received several cute cards, a hanging purple hat with ribbons attached with small red hats attached to the ribbons with each member's name on them. They also gave her a beautiful purple orchid (now, to keep it alive will be the trick) and treated her to lunch. She had decreed "no gifts" but the girls just couldn't quite follow this order. Last but not least, knowing her love of birds, they gave her a lovely ceramic red hat birdhouse and a bouquet of helium filled balloons. Her birthday is actually August 10, so she plans on tying the balloons on her mailbox on Monday to keep the celebration going.

There were a total of 14 ladies in attendance and they really made a lot of noise when they played the birthday song on their kazoos. Other patrons in the restaurant got a big kick out of this. It was really great to see members who hadn't been in a while due to work and travel. The food was, as always, delicious and the desserts to die for.

Queen Ladybird in her reversed colors for her birthday month
Q Ladybird holding the chapter flag she created for the contest at convention in Indianapolis
Lu and Berene getting reacquainted
L to R: Karen, Gail and Trudy
L to R: Dorothy E., Terry and Berene
Berene and Darla
Group shot
Vice Queen Donna presenting Carla with the purple hat roster created by several of the girls
Carla with her red hat birdhouse
Carla with her beautiful purple orchid
So good to see Nadia again
Carla and Nadia catching up on happenings
One last group shot with the helium balloons bouncing around
Thanks so much to Berene for taking over the camera duties. Thanks to everyone for this lovely celebration. Can't wait to get together again to see what mischief we can dream up.

This is all I have to say for now.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Red Hatters Enjoy Arts and Crafts Day

July 25, 2015

Red Hat Society members of the New Mexico Roadrunner Chapter gathered at the home of Carmen Veenpere to engage in some serious arts and crafts projects. Decorating hats was primary, but there were other projects that garnered a lot of attention as well.

The girls created every type of hat imaginable and they were each completely different. Dorothy Edwards kindly brought her cutting mat and roll cutter for Queen Carla to make a fringed eternity scarf from a Tshirt. After she made one, Alice was so intrigued that she began cutting them for whoever wanted one. Also available were wooden counter top towel holders painted red and Queen Carla had one all finished as a hat rack lovely enough to set on your dresser with your loveliest Red Hat on it.

Members brought salads and desserts to go with pizza ordered for lunch where much lively conversation abounded.

It was noted that one of our former members, Esperanza Duken, had passed as related by another member. Esperanza had dropped out due to illness. When her death was reported to Hatquarters, they commented that she would be added to the Red Hat Chapter of Angels.

Alice cutting a fringed infinity scarf from a tee shirt while our hostess, Carmen, looks on
New member, Flo discussing some ideas in this book with Margie
Members hard at work creating their hats
Margie manning the hot glue gun
Lu in a side shot of her creation
The lovely Lu in a portrait pose
Dorothy E. found some flowers she liked for her hat
This is Margie's magical creation. She loves changing up her hat look.
A shot of the top of Margie's hat
And, here we have the back of Magie's fanciful hat
In the meantime, Alice is still making infinity scarves and is now wearing one

Time to introduce "Hattie" the hatrack
Queen Carla with her newly created friend, Hattie
Margaret with her delightful creation
And Margaret's hat from the back
Gail modeling her hat creation
Gail's very girly hat from the back
L to R: Dorothy E. receiving instruction on her hat from Margie and Darla
Heeeer's Alice with her latest infinity scarf created for Dorothy E.
Flo helping Donna with the hot glue gun
Dorothy E. modeling her newly created hat and her infinity scarf
Dorothy E.'s lovely creation from the side
VQ Donna with her first creation-just adorable
Darla looking radiant in her new hat
VQ Donna with yet another hat that is not quite finished
Table set for our lunch in Carmen's beautiful dining room
One could call this "The Line-up"
As one can see, there was an abundance of salads and desserts to be enjoyed
This is Trudy's darling creation. However, must apologize for the shot. Camera went haywire.
As you can surmise from the pictures, everyone had a grand time creating, gluing and cutting along with  eating the wonderful food we always have at these events. This chapter has a plethora of excellent cooks.

Thanks to Carmen for hosting the group in her beautiful home. There was ample room to spread out and plugs at every turn for hot glue guns, etc. etc. I can proudly say this event was a creative success.

This is all I have to say for now.

Theatre on the Hill Behind the Scenes

July 23, 2015

Rohovec Theatre on the Hill is part of New Mexico State University-Alamogordo, New Mexico,  reigned over by Drama Professor Connie Breding. We have a very active group of thespians involved from the surrounding community as well as students at the University. One might think theatre is all glitz and glamour, but much goes on behind the scenes that is not.

The photos below depict some of the hard work that has gone into just getting ready for the Theatre on the Hill Guild's Fall Fundraiser production "This and That" consisting of six short plays written by local playwrights to be showcased August 28-30, 2015.

Robert Trowbridge building the elevators for the set of the play "One-Hundred and Two Stories" and Wendy Trowbridge helping Carolyn Dittmer rework outdoor  advertising signs in the background
Rod Barnes (the sandman) sanding off the old paint so we can reuse the signs
Carolyn changing a phone number on these signs
Carla Kerr and Carolyn at work. Carla has on plastic gloves and a paint apron ready to do some painting
Wendy is carpenter's helper here sorting some screws for hinges for Robert
Robert working diligently on these elevators-you must come see the play to realize how huge these are.
Carolyn giving the "sandman" a break
Robert looking for hinges of just the right size and type
This was really an enjoyable three hours of creativity behind the scenes and you will be surprised at the results when you come to see the plays. The advertising signs are up all over town. Come and be entertained the last weekend of August, 2015.

This is all I have to say for now.