Shelly Carns Reduation At Casa de Suenos in Tularosa, New Mexico

 Hello All,

We had a large group of Red Hatters plus two gentlemen (Carla's husband, Douglas, photographer, and Nancy's husband, Chuck). Five ladies came from El Paso, Texas, members of the Red Hot Flashers Chapter, for this grand event. Shelly actually became 50 the next day, but, hey, whose counting??

Queen Ladybird appears to be somewhat confused!

Early arrivals

This cute Pink Hatter is Kim, a member

of the Red Hat Flashers Chapter

Our Pink Hatter, Shelly Carns, walking the Red Carpet

during her Reduation as the Queen reads "Warning" by Jennie Joseph

Queen Ladybird reading the Red Hat Mission Statement

Vice Queen Alice Evans reads the Reduation Poem

 

Queen Ladybird asks Shelly, "Are you ready to spread your
wings and take on the magic of the Red Hat?" 

 Queen Ladybird presents Shelly with her first Red Hat

Trudy Reese enjoying the Reduation

Red Hatters congratulating Shelly and offering advice

And now for lunch!

Dom, our fabulous server

Is the queen amused?

Jan Praught and Kimberly Resel

 

 

 

The queen is amused!

Queen Ladybird visiting with Shari and Queen Laura

The Queen telling tall tales

Members of the Red Hot Flashers Red Hat Chapter
with Queen Laura and Queen Ladybird

Kim, Queen Laura and Queen Ladybird

Our guest of honor, Red Hatter Shelly Carns with the
ladies of the Red Hot Flashers and Queen Ladybird

I do believe a grand time was had by everyone and it was so wonderful to share this great occasion with the ladies  of the Red Hot Flashers Chapter of the Red Hat Society from El Paso, Texas. Shelly Carns is now officially a Red Hatter, but she now has the task of finding a new Pink Hatter for our chapter. She received many lovely gifts and advice cards from each Red Hatter in attendance.

Our server, Dominic, took such good care of us and even jumped in and helped Doug take pictures of the event. The food was delicious, as always, at Casa de Suenos. We are never disappointed there.

This is all I have to say for now.

Red Hatters Annual Christmas Luncheon At Casa de Suenos in Tularosa, New Mexico

December 15, 2018

Twelve members of the New Mexico Roadrunner Chapter of the Red Hat Society gathered in Tularosa, New Mexico at the Casa de Suenos Mexican Restaurant for their annual Christmas Luncheon.

Unfortunately, their Queen Carla Kerr was home ill due to a sinus infection and she missed seeing everyone and being there for the festivities.

Each member brought a wrapped gift and as they turned in their gift, they drew a number out of a container which suggested when they would get to choose a gift during the event. There were several gifts that were "stolen" during this event due to their popularity with the attendees. However, everyone went home happy and the food was delicious as always at Casa de Suenos.

Left are Lori Thomas, Florence Dean and Alice J. Evans. Right are Nadia Sikes, Rosanna Heath and Dorothy Edwards

Lori and Florence

Trudy Reese and Jean Courtier

Dorothy and Rosanna

L to R: Florence, Alice and Margie Purcella

L to R: Lori, Flo, Alice, Margie, Trudy, Jean, Karen Townsend, Nancy Brooks, Gail Swineford, Dorothy, Rosanna and Nadia

Thanks to Lori, Rosanna and Gail for taking pictures of the event. Everyone looked so lovely and in a holiday mood. Several birthdays were also celebrated so Happy Birthday to Trudy, Lori and Rosanna.

Also, thanks to hubster Doug for helping me with converting the pictures into something workable for this article. Merry Christmas!

This is all I have to say for now.

Carla's Children Visit From Springtown, Texas

Friday, March 13 through Sunday, March 15, 2015

Carla's son, Russ and his wife, Kelley, came to Alamogordo, New Mexico to visit from Springtown, Texas.  The weather was perfect except for a bit of wind and we had a great time sight seeing and catching up on all the grandkids and great grandkids.

When they arrived at the house Friday morning, I had a breakfast awaiting them consisting of blueberry-sour cream pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs, juice and coffee. We then drove to Cloudcroft in the Sacramento Mountains and explored and shopped in the many cute little stores. For lunch, we went to Big Daddy's Diner and Russ and I had their "all the catfish you can eat" special while Kelley opted for barbecued pork. We traveled back to the house with leftovers and a to-go container of posole soup for Doug. After visiting for a while, the kids went to their motel as we had all risen early and were more than ready for sleep.

Doug and I met Russ and Kelley at the IHOP for breakfast Saturday morning and Doug stayed home while we went to White Sands National Monument. It was a gloriously beautiful day and we took off our shoes and socks and climbed a huge sand dune and enjoyed the feel of the cool sand on our feet. Kelley took many pictures of the area, of which, I'm sure you will be seeing on face book. Afterward, we picked up Doug and drove to Tularosa to our favorite Mexican Restaurant, Casa de Suenos, for lunch. The food, as always, was absolutely delicious. Kelley and I each found a couple of bracelets we couldn't live without in their gift shop which we promptly purchased.

We took a short break in the afternoon (as Russ says, "nap time") and then went to the Flickinger Center for the Performing Arts where we enjoyed seeing the Sons of the Pioneers, a group that has been pickin' and grinin' since 1934 (they do some fine fiddlin' too). What a nostalgic trip this was. They played and sang Tumblin Tumbleweed, Cool Water, Ghost Riders in the Sky and Happy Trails, just to name a few. They are consummate entertainers and we enjoyed every moment of their concert. The Flickinger was packed and the crowd loved them. If you ever get a chance to see this group, don't hesitate--they are worth every penny of the ticket!

Sunday morning, I made scrambled eggs, bacon, and hash browns. We also had fruit and coffee and it was too soon time for them to leave for El Paso for their return flight to Ft. Worth, Texas.  They promise to return to see even more of this beautiful state of New Mexico. I miss them already!

Kelley and Russ at IHOP

L to R: Doug, Carla, Kelley and Russ at IHOP. Thanks to waiter for the shot!

Russ and Kelley at White Sands

Kelley and Carla

Kelley and Russ

A view of the sands lit by the sun from top of a sand dune

Kelley, Russ and Carla taken by a passerby from El Paso

L to R: Kelley, Carla, Doug and Russ dining at Casa de Suenos in Tularosa, New Mexico. Thanks to the waitress for the shot.

L to R: Carla, Russ and Kelley Sunday morning as they are getting ready to head for El Paso to fly home.

L to R: Carla looking at a New Mexico Magazine, Kelley catching up on email and Russ reading AARP Magazine while Doug is trying to get a DVD copy of a play to start on the television

I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of our shopping in Cloudcroft, but I just get too much into shopping to think about my camera! It was such a wonderful treat to see them both and spend that precious time with them. Thanks to Douglas A. Kerr, Photography for the photos he took.

This is all I have to say for now.

Visit with Artist Amado Peña in Ruidoso, NM

Sunday, December 16, 2012 Doug and I drove to Ruidoso, New Mexico to visit an exhibition of Amado Peña's art at Mountain Annie's Art Gallery. We had been trying to get there for three days, but due to cold weather, snow and ice, we decided to go on Sunday even though the weather was still iffy.

We ran into some falling snow pellets a couple of times in the mountains, but the road was warm enough to melt them as they hit. We actually made good time on the road and arrived in Ruidoso in about an hour. As we entered the venue, we encountered a beautiful lady who immediately introduced herself as J.B. Peña. We originally met Amado in Dallas some years ago at the Annette Strauss Artists Square downtown where an Indian Market was being held. J.B. escorted us into the show area where we reacquainted ourselves with Amado. As we talked, he continued working on a new piece using India Ink. He did stop long enough for pictures to be taken.

J.B. is an artist in fabulous fabric weaving and has a studio in Santa Fe called "Handwoven Originals". She is also a creator of lovely jewelry. If you are ever in Santa Fe, you should make a point of visiting her studio in the Inn and Spa at Loretto, 211 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501, phone 505-982-4118 and web site is handwovenoriginals.com  J.B. and Amado live at Nambé Pueblo, New Mexico.

Between the two of them, the exhibition was absolutely a feast for the eyes evoking many emotions. They are each delightful people and as individual from one another as any couple could possibly be. The pride they have in each others talent is very evident and they are a joy to visit with. They also take pride in other artists work and directed us to another room housing many works of Madeleine Sabo, a wood artist.

Madeleine Sabo is legally blind having been struck by a devastating disease some years ago. She creates by touch and demonstrated this on a small lathe she had set up in the room. We bought two of her pieces, one of which was created from an Australian pine cone. Madeleine lives in Nogal, New Mexico.

Here is yours truly entering Mountain Annie's

Carla and J.B. Peña just meeting

Amado Peña, as he said, "Playing at working"

Carla inspecting a scarf titled "White Sands" woven by J.B. Peña

Just one area of Amado's selected works and some clay jewelry by J.B. on the table

Doug got Amado to stop long enough for a great shot

Doug, the photographer and Amado, the artist. What a happy pair!

 Thanks to J.B. for the photo of the three of us

Madeleine Sabo explaining to me how she made this exquisite wooden vase

Doug bought the vase for me. It is adorned with embedded pink coral.

Doug  (the engineer) naturally had to photograph Madeleine's lathe

Needless to say, we left the exhibition with a number of lovely purchases for Christmas gifts and the joy of reconnecting with Amado as well as meeting J.B. and Madeleine. When we went to our car, it was snowing and our plans to dine at Michelena's Pizza and Italian Restaurant were shelved. We wanted to get out of the mountains before snow started to freeze on the highway. On our way home we stopped at another favorite place for dinner, Casa de Sueños in Tularosa and had delicious Mexican food. A lovely way to end our Sunday adventure.

Thanks to Doug for the great photos.

This is all I have to say for now.

Visiting Friends, Good Food, Sightseeing

When we moved from Weatherford, Texas to Alamogordo, New Mexico, we told just about anybody who would listen to come see us. Finally, someone took us up on our request. Jeannine Colley and Barbara Farley are good friends and sister Red Hatters who drove over 500 miles to visit us and to celebrate my 74th birthday. We all belonged to Wild West Women of Weatherford Red Hat chapter until I moved away.

On Friday morning, August 10, 2012, my birthday, Barbara and Jeannine came to our home to visit and see our new living quarters here. After visiting for an hour or so, we drove to White Sands National Monument. I don't believe anyone comes to Alamogordo who doesn't visit this beautiful site. It is like no other place in the country. 

Barbara, Jeannine & Carla; The Three Misketeers

A body could go snow blind out here

Here we three are again with a different sand dune behind us

This raised walkway allows one to explore further into the dunes safely

Carla checking out some of the desert plants

This is actually a bacterial area that holds water and nutrients for desert plants

A shot of some of the native grasses that thrive in the sand

This small hill is actually a holder for a tree that grows underground

Another tree, but this one is thriving

As they say in Kansas City, "We've gone about as fer as we can go"

Where is our partner in crime hiding?  (teehee, in the shade)

Yucca, State Flower of New Mexico and there are millions of them

There are signs posted all along the raised walkway describing plants and different areas of the sands. We returned to Alamogordo and went to the New Mexico Museum of Space History. It is built in what looks like a space ship and one takes the elevator to the top floor and makes their way down to the bottom while looking at all the artifacts and reports of our space history. There are photos and names of everyone involved in space exploration from the very beginning. It is a fascinating exhibit of what man has accomplished thus far in space.

This is the first sign we noticed as we entered the space museum!

High in the museum looking out over the grounds with Alamogordo in the distance

Barbara and Carla enjoying the info on Ham, the first space chimp

This cotton tail jackrabbit just happened to run across the parking lot

I'm asking Jeannine what happened to Barbara. It seems she was distracted by a dog in a doggie carriage.

We drove to White Sands Shopping Mall because Barbara was interested in getting her hair cut like mine. Unfortunately, my hair stylist was off so Barbara made an appointment for 4:30 the next afternoon. We then went to Tropical Sno, a store that makes unusual snow cones in that the ice is shaved very finely. I had a piña colada flavored one and it was delicious. Doug talked us into getting these and we were glad he did because they really hit the spot.

It was time to go to our respective abodes, take a nap and dress for dinner. We were all definitely ready for a rest of some kind. We had reservations at the lovely Stella Vita Restaurant in downtown Alamogordo and I was really looking forward to dining there. As we are pulling out of the garage, Doug hits the button on the car mirror to close the garage door. It comes about a third of the way down and quits and all lights go off in the garage. He went inside and manually closed the garage door and we went to pick up the girls. On arriving , it is obvious the hotel has no electricity either. Doug receives a call from the girl at Stella Vita's and they have no power either. We made an instant decision to drive to Tularosa to dine at Casa de Sueños and it's surely a good thing we did. By the time we ate and started to leave, the place was wall to wall people and the parking lot was jammed. It seems the power outage continued and most of Alamogordo who wanted to eat came to Casa de Sueños which is about 13 miles away.

By this time, we are eating sopaipillas with honey drizzled on them

The girls surprised me with a delicious birthday cake.

It was a wonderful birthday made even more so by the presence of my friends Jeannine and Barbara and, of course, my darling husband, Doug whom I must thank for taking all these pictures for my blog.

This is all I have to say for now.