March 26, 2007 The Queen Mum and her Lady in waiting the Duchess of Hearts headed south to Albany for their makeover and photo shoot at Keepsake Photography.  Beverly Hutchman is the owner and cheif photographer for Keepsake Photography and did a complete photo shoot at the Pink Ribbon Tea on March 10th.  We had a wonderful time playing in the make up done by Mary Kay Cosmetics and we all looked wonderful by the time that we finished and would be taking some wonderful pictures!  Beverly's daughter helped with the shoot by dropping flower petals down on us for some of the pictures!  What a fun time that we had and we are looking forward to seeing the finished pictures soon!  You too can have your own photo shoot by contacting Beverly at 541-967-1275.  She does come to your location for a small fee and does some very beautiful Wedding Photography as well as school pictures, Business and Commercial and Architectural Jobs.

March 10, 2007  Five of us from the Metro Matriarchs headed south to Albany and the Senior Center for the Fourth Annual Pink Ribbon Tea.  What a wonderful time that we all had.  We had 3 ladies from a Red Hat Group in Jefferson OR that joined us at our table.  Linda and Marie did an outstanding job with making our Centerpiece and table favors.  Our Centerpiece was auctioned off and brought in the largest amount of all of the Centerpieces!!  Great Job done by wonderful Women!  Our table was BEAUTIFUL and many came and took pictures of it.  Sharon and Marie were our Table Hostess and did a wonderful job of it.  Ginny was a great help in getting our table set and helping it to look so pretty.  Four of us entered the Hat contest and we all Won!!  Queen Mum won 2nd in Society Hat, Marie Sullivan won 3rd in Society Hat, Linda Herrle won 2nd in Wild Womens Hat and Sharon Walker won 3rd in Wild Womens Hat.  Several of us went home with some wonderful things from the Silent Auction and best of all, Marie Sullivan won the Raffle for the White Tea Set!!  The Royal Coach came back up I-5 with much more than it went down with!  The Tea was filled with wonderful food, way more than any of us could eat!  We are looking forward to attending again next year for this event that will help women have Cancer testing at little or no cost to them!

May 2006  Queen Mum and her Lady in Waiting. the Duchess of Hearts head North to Alaska for the Summer.  What a wonderful time that we had on the banks of the Kenai River.  We had the oppertunity to meet with Red Hat Ladies in Anchorage for Lunch at the Sourdough Mining Company and again in Kenai at Accopolco Resturant.  What a wonderful group they all were.  We attended the Parade in Kenai on the fourth of July and met some wonderful Red Hatters that were in that also.  The summer flew by and soon we were on our way home here to Oregon filled with wonderful memories of good times and good friends.

March 11, 2006  Four of us from the Metro Matriarchs attended the Pink Ribbon Tea in Corvalis at the Senior Center.  This is the third year of this special event to help fight against Breast and Cervical Cancer.  We had the oppertunity to set up a table for 8 with dishes and decorations and we did a beautiful job according to many that attended the event.  There was a special Hat contest with four catigories, Red Hats, Pink Hats, Wild Hats and Society Hats.  Lady Wood Fairy was in the Red Hat competion.  They had three Gentlemen and one lady that were the judges.  Queen Mum won First Place in the Society Hat division and her Lady in Waiting the Duchess of Hearts, Linda Herrle won third place in the Society Hat division.  We each received a very nice gift bag of gifts!  There was a silent aution goin on througout the Tea and there were many wonderful items in it for all of us to bid on.  We did come home with a couple of new things in the car!  We were joined at our table by four wonderful ladies from the Corvalis area who I am sure will become Red Hatters very soon!  They were a delight to get to know.  We are looking forward to attending again next year and they are talking about making the table set ups a competion event!!  Won't that be fun!

March 5, 2006  The Queen Mum and Her Lady in Waiting, Duchess of Hearts, Linda Herrle traveled south to Salem along with Queen Marilyn Caudill of the Red Hat Lady Bugs of St Helens and Queen Carol Hockenberger of the NW Free Spirits of Hillsboro, in the Royal Coach to a Special Queens Tea at the Mission Mill.  It was a beautiful tea with many wonderful vendors to help us find some of those special things that we need to make our day and life more sparkling!  There was a wonderful vendor with some beautiful China Tea Pots and Cups and Saucers that were all hand painted.  You can check one of them out next time that you visit the Queen Mum for a cuppa!

March 4, 2006  We went to the Portland Art Museum for the Hess Exhibit that was here from Germany.  We had a delightful time with many other Red Hatters from the Ruby Begoinia Chapter who joined in with us for this experience.  Our special Thanks to Sylvia Dodge, our Lady Wood Fairy for setting up this event and making it possible for us to see these wonderful Art treasures.

February 22, 2006  We had a wonderful tour of Longbottom Coffee Company and Roasting Plant in Hillsboro.  We learned about the process that the coffee goes through from the time it arrives in the plant until it is ready for you to grind and enjoy.  We also learned about the different types of beans and which taste better and which have more caffine in than others.   Each of us were presented with a gift bag of coffee's and tea.  The owner was there working on his "clipper ship".  We enjoyed a great lunch and time together, a great way to help celebrate the Queen Mum's Birthday week!

February 11, 2006, Our First Annual Valentine Tea! This was a wonderful, beautiful, festive, delicious Tea!  We have heard so many great comments about how nice everything was from the first entering of the room to the Decorations to the Table settings to the delicious food that was served and the Table Favors and the Door Prizes!  For those of you who missed this event, you will want to mark your calender now for the 10th of February of 2007, so that you will not miss it then.  Linda and Donna did a fantastic job of setting up the room and making it look so special and the Queen Mum could not have done any of this without their help.  A special thanks to Marie, Marilyn, Ginny, Sylvia, Donna and Linda for all their help in getting the food ready for this event.  A super Thanks to Betty and Marie and Donna and Linda for finding the special things that were needed to make the tables and the serving pieces so special.  The "Tea Pot" programs, complete with tea bag for each to take home will be a wonderful remembarance for all who attended to enjoy.  We had Ladies from 4 chapters represented there.  I would like to include a comment by one of our wonderful Ladies and her feelings of our event "I was blown away at the beauty of the gorgeous table arrangements and favors when I walked in to the clubhouse. The gals, Suzy, Marilyn, Linda, Sylvia, and Donna put on a very upscale 'High Tea' experience for us, that rivaled any upscale restaurant that puts them on. The food was elegant, much of it homemade. There were lots of door prizes, and one large gift basket at the close of the occassion. I won a beautiful purple tulip plant with six blossoms on it. Those who didn't come missed a terrific event... Lady Bunny, Duchess Of Rabbits"

January 30, 2006, A Day Of Pamper  A few of us met in Canby at Nails 2000 to begin our day of Pamper by getting our toes pedicured!  What a wonderful relaxing thing that is to do!!  WE sat in reclining chairs that massaged our backs and necks with a warm herbal wrap around our necks while the gals worked on our toes and feet, They clipped our nails, scrubbed the dry skin off our feet, creamed and massaged our feet and legs and then wrapped them in warm towels while they polished our toe nails!  One does not even want to get up out of the chair when they are finished as we feel like a bowl of melted jello!  These gals know what they are doing and do it good!  There are 12 girls in the family and they now have 5 salons here in the Portland Area, one in Canby, one in McMinnville and one in Sherwood and two in Northwest Portland.  I would say that they are the place to go to make you feel Fit to be a Queen!

December 14, 2005  The Nortwest Senior Troupe preformed their Christmas show at the Alpenrose Dairy Oprea House.  What a wonderful musical to help celebrate the Holiday Season.  There were people there from many areas in Portland to enjoy this event and we have heard that they will be putting on a special Red Hat Event for us this coming year!

November 2 2005  Our First REDUATION for Jazzy Princess #1 was held at the Olive Garden on Bany Road in Lake Oswego.  JC Rupe who has moved to Fairfax Virginia because of her job, flew back to be honored at this event with us.  Her sister flew in from Kansas to help honor her at this event of Growing Up to wear the Honored Red Hat!  We had a wonderful time with all who were able to join in the fun and festivities.  The staff at the Olive Garden were wonderful in all that they did for us to make this a much remembered event!

 October 29, 2005

A group of us traveled to Warren,Oregon to celebrate the Birthday Bash with the Red Hat Lady Bugs of St Helen's OR.  This was thefirst event for this new chapter of Red Hat Ladies and was led by their gracious Queen Mum, Marilyn Caudill.  We know that they will continue to have some wonderful fun in the future also.  This event was shared with the Ladies from the McMinnville MacHatters also and a great time was had by all!

October 20, 2005 Musical Production

The Northwest Senior Troupe preformed a wonderful concert of show tunes for over 300 of us beautiful Red Hatters at the Oprea House at Alpenrose Dairy.  What a wonderful show and how many wonderful memories were shared about some of these show tunes.  We all went to the Ice Cream Parlor and enjoyed some wonderful Alpenrose Dairy Ice Cream!  It was great to be able to share with new and old friends while we were there and to run into some that we had not seen in years!

September 8-10,2005    MCRD San Diego California

The Queen Mum and her wonderful Hubby flew off to California to see their grandson Cameron graduate from Marine Boot Camp.  What a wonderful experience it was to see all of these young men and women who finished their 13 weeks of training and looked so fit and firm in their uniforms.  This was a wonderful moving time for all that were there.  Cameron had 12 members of his family there to see him graduate.  We all spent Saturday at Marine Land to see the whales and have a great time.  The Queen Mum and Cameron's Grandma Betty even went on the Roller Coaster Ride!  We both would have loved to have our grandson on the ride with us!  Just goes to show that no matter what the age we can still let the little girl out to play!

September 6, 2005  Brunch at St Honore's in Northwest Portland

Queen Mum took her Sister in law Madeliene Emery who was visiting here from Minnesota to have a bit of Red Hat Hospitality and fun at the "Royal Eattery" better known as St Honore's in Northwest Portland.  We were joined by several other of our wonderful Red Hat friends and made quite an impression.  Madeliene is orginally from France and for her it was a bit of a taste of home.  We had pictures taken that one of the workers was taking with her back to France to share with her family there.  The fare at St Horore's is fit for a Queen and all of her Ladies.  One will always leave there wanting to return to taste one more of their wonderful items or just to have another cup of their great coffee!

August 22, 2005  A Fun Day in the Columbia Gorge!

The Queen's Lady in Waiting, the Duchess of Hearts, Princess Pink Flamingo and Queen Mum took a lovely lady, Milly Henn, from Vaccaville California out for Breakfast at St Honore' in Northwest Portland and then took her for a trip up the Gorge.  We stopped at several places for her to view our beautiful state and had lots of pictures taken of us.  At one point at Multnomah Falls there were at least five people taking our pictures.  We shared Hospitality with everyone we met and shared information about the RHS.  One couple was here from Holland and we had Mom, Grandma and 9 week old baby girl in pink hat in the picture with all of us.  We had a lovely late lunch at the Columbia Gorge Hotel out on the Patio and then it was back to Portland and the Airport to get Milly on her Plane back to California.  What a wonderful day that we had!

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August 18-21, 2005~~PDX FunVention at the Double Tree, Lloyd Center!

Those of us who attended the FunVention had a great time.  There were some changes on the Saturday before the event that gave all of us in our chapter more time to enjoy the event.  And enjoy we did!!  It was so great to meet Suzzane Wilson and her sister Louise of "The Big Purple Undies"  What a delight these ladies are and what a wonderful show that they put on!  I am sorry for those of you who missed it, However we will be showing the video that was a gift from them to us in September!  Check the information on upcoming events for the date and time!  We had a lot of visitors to our room that The Duchess of Hearts and I shared.  We were happy to make it available to those that were unable to stay at the Hotel for changing their clothes or just having a rest and a visit.  Our basket that our chapter donated was won by a wonderful lady from Yakamia and I am sure that she is enjoying the "Tea for all Seasons"  I want to thank each of you who so graciously donated items to be used in it, for it was all of us putting things in it that made it so great.  The Tea pot that Rita Tolonen painted was beautiful, along with the other three Tea pots that were donated.  We will once again be planing an evening with the "Hot Flashes" Musical in Portland.  More information on this later.  One thing that always amazes me is how God opens a window when a door is shut!  We had a great time!  Wish you all could have been there with us.

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April 02, 2005--The Metro Matriarchs Second Anniversary Gathering!

As always we have a wonderful time sharing with members and friends!  We missed those of you who did not make it and hope to find out that nothing serious stopped you from attending!  Read more about it under our Anniversary Page!

March 31 2005--PIVOT and Sprindale JCC Partnership Celebration

The Queen Mum and the Mother of Vice, Duchess of Hearts, attended the PIVOT and Sprindale JCC Employer Partneship Recognition Luncheon at Montgomery Park in Northwest Portland on Thursday.  We enjoyed a wonderful buffet luncheon that was prepared by the Culinary Arts Department of Springdale JCC.  Not only was it beautifuly presented, artfully displayed but it was very tasty!!  The Chicken Salad Sandwich was to die for, not only was it beautiful to look at, but it was oh so tasty to eat!  The "Palm Tree" that held the marinated chicken skewers was beautiful and very good, the smoked salmon filet with capers, eggs and cheese was wonderful, and the lemon chiffon dessert with chocolate truffle was out of this world!  I would love to have the reciepe for the raspberry vinegarette dressing for the spring greens and feta cheese salad that they served!

"Job Corps is the nations's oldest and largest residential education and job training program for at-risk youth.  during its four decades of service, some 2 million men and women have graduated from the program, and we look forward to continuing Job Corps' tradition of success.  By helping youn people earn their high school diplomas and acquire work skills, this program is making a real difference for our coutry, one person at a time."  U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao

PIVOT stands for Partners in Vocational Opportunity Training, and it provides comprehensive educational, business and computer technology training to empower culturally diverse young women residing in the Portland metro area to enter the professional business world.  Both Linda and I have supported PIVOT with donations of clothes, shoes, bussiness attire, household items and personal care items and other things for many years.  We believe in reaching out and helping those around us to make a better place in life for themselves, knowing that one day they too will reach out and help others.  After all, the youth of today will be the adults of tomorrow and we all need to do what we can to give direction and support for those that will follow us.

We had the opportunity of meeting some wonderful ladies at our table as well as around the room.  Many of which we hope to see again soon, maybe out "playing" with us for tea or lunch!  We had a wonderful tour of the new facilities for PIVOT at Montgomery Park, and it was great to see the growth and the new postive enviorment that the girls have to go to classs in, as well as the professional attire that they were wearing.  They were dressed for success, a decision that their student board made, and a good decision I might add!

My hats off to the wonderful job that the Culinary Department from Springdale did.  Being the mother of two Chefs, and two great cooks, (4 Sons in all), I have tasted some wonderful food over the years, and I believe that all of the students going through this program, if they do as well as this group did, will have a great career ahead of them in the food industry.  Just two of the places that they are in Business Partnership with are McMenamines at Kennedy School and Edgefield and the Portland Hilton.  My hats off to the Business's that help with the on the job training for these youth in all the different fields of their training. 

If you would like to tour these facilities or would like to give of your support please feel free to contact either Linda or I or you can go to their websites www.springdalejobcorps.org

March 19 2005-- Craft and Fun Day

We had a fun time at the Queen Mum's Clubhouse making some cards and sorting through places that we may like to go and check out.  We will be putting those together in a book for all the Matriarchs to check out and maybe host an event at a place that they would like to see.  We had some wonderful snacks to munch on and enjoyed the time together.  We missed those of you who could not be with us, and of course you who were not there missed out on making some pretty cards with lots of embleshments and feathers!  We will be doing things like this again, so hopefully you will be able to join us next time!

March 16 2005 --Receipes?

I have had several contacts requesting some of my tasty receipes, so we will now have a new page listing on our website called "Queen Mum's Receipes".  Of course we all know that once the Queen Mum has a new receipe it becomes one of her collections!  Good eating to all who try them!

March 10, 2005--Lunch @ Albertina Kerr's, Happy Birthday Lady Bug
Today five Metro Matriarchs enjoyed lunch at Albertina Kerr's in Portland.  We had a great time shopping in the Gift Shop, the Antique Shop and the Thrift store.  We were able to find several things that we could not live with out!

We helped Lady Bug, Donna Janson, celebrate her upcoming Birthday a few days early.  We had a wonderful lunch of Vegetable consomme', Tarragon chicken in Phyllo and French Almond Cake.  Lady Bug's cake came out complete with a lighted candle in it!

If you have never gone there for lunch, please do give it a try.  Their lunch menu changes each week and reservations are a must.  They are located on 22nd off of Sandy, close to KATU.

You can check out Albertina Kerr's at http://www.albertinakerr.org/.

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March 6, 2005--Brunch at St Honore' Boulangerie--Happy Birthday Queen Mum!

Countess MooCow, Princess Pink Flamingo, Mother of Vice, Duchess of Hearts and Lady Bug took the Queen Mum out for Brunch in NW Portland at St Honore' Boulangerie.  This is a French Bakery in NW Portland. What a busy place!  All the outside tables were full of Sunday sun enjoyers, and most of the inside tables also were full.  We already knew that the food here was fantastic, and now it looks like a lot of others have heard the word!  Their meals come with fresh greens with a vinegarette dressing, so much like my French Sister-in-law Madeleine has served for so many years to us.  Made me feel like she was here enjoying it also!  They have some wonderful sandwiches, both hot and cold, but the three cheese Quiche is the Queen Mum's favorite!  Want a great cup of coffee?  They have it in great sized cups! Rich, dark, and strong, but so full of flavor and never bitter, just like I would expect if I was at a sidewalk cafe in France!

When you want something special, even if it is just a cup of great coffee and one of their wonderful sweets, give them a try, you will not be dissapointed.  They are located in NW Portland on Thurman, between 23rd and 24th.

You can check out their website at http://www.sainthonorebakery.com/

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March 5, 2005-- Annual Queens Tea at Historic Broetje House in Milwaukie.

Every year for the past three the Queens of Oregon and Southwest Washington have joined together for a special Tea.  This year it was held at the beautiful Broetje House (pronounced "Broach-ee") in Milwaukie, Oregon.  What a beautiful setting that Queen Jill of the Crimson Crones and Queen Karlene Ernst of the Classy Red Hatters chose for us to have our Tea at.  There were 74 attendees at the 3rd Annual Queens Tea and we all had a wonderful time!

Queen Jill opened the events and shared with us that Queen Karlene could not be present as she was in Arizona!  We called her on Jill's cell phone to send our greetings to her!  Queen Jill welcomed us all and we each introduced ourselves and shared where we were located, if our chapter was still open, and some of the fun events that we do.  It was a wonderful "Idea Sharing" time for each of us.  At the same time we were going table by table to the buffet line to fill our plates with a delicious quiche, Ceasar salad, Pinwheels of meat and cheese, fresh fruit and ended the Tea with chocolate and lemon mousse.

Many doorprizes were given out every 10 minutes or so and it was a wonderful time had by all.  It gave many of us a time to get new ideas and share the fun things we are doing, as well as share about the upcoming Red Hats and Roses FunVention here in Portland, August 18-21.  You can learn more about this event at the FunVention website, http://www.pdxfunvention.com/ Early bird registration ends on March 31, 2005.

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February 12, 2005--Tea @ Butteville General Store

Nine of the Beautiful Metro Matriarchs decended upon the Butteville General Store in Butteville for a wonderful tea put on by Sara and John Miller.  Sara has English ancestry and it shows up in her beautiful way of putting on a tea!  The heart shaped scones and the wonderful Devonshire Cream that was served with them were some of the best we have ever tasted!  Her Savories, sandwiches, sweets and of course the special Red Hat Dessert that she served us were wonderful!

Both John and Sara made us feel so welcomed and went above and beyond to give us a wonderful tea.  They rate at the top of our list of places to return to for another wonderful time.  There is some beautiful Art work in the Gallery at the Butteville General store for all to enjoy and purchase.

You can check them out at http://www.buttevillegeneralstore.com/.  They are Oregon's oldest operating general store--Since 1863.