on the road....with quilters

Ah yes,  another quilt retreat has come and gone, but what a retreat it was. Of course all good retreats begin with the road trip to get there. WOO - HOO!
This year my friend Karen was the driver and I, the navigator. This usually works out quite well, I said usually. Last year there we took a small unintended detour. Oops.

This year things went very well. We started out in the morning and met up in Sarasota with our friend Fran (aka Frannie). We had decided to go to Yoder's Amish restaurant for lunch before hitting the quilt shop. Hard to shop on an empty tummy.
If you are going to be in Sarasota, love good homemade food, and are hungry, then Yoder's is a must. They were featured on an episode of Man vs Food. You can see the video clip on their website. Warning .....it will make you hungry.

Anyway, we all sat down and then started placing our orders. When it came to choosing our side dishes we decided to all get something different, and then share. Sounds like a plan..... well, when the waitress came to our table and set our "sides" down in front of us, we all burst into peals of laughter. OMG and OMG again! See for yourself..... we could have shared with the entire restaurant.

would you call these "side" dishes?

We knew there was NO way we could, or would want to, finish these tasty, but decadent plates of food. I do confess however, that the still warm, homemade chips were very good, as were the very tender onion rings. Needless to say, we left with the plates still mostly full and with very full tummies too.
Just one more thing.... Yoder's happens to have the BEST homemade pies and I LOVE apple pie. I have had their apple pie before, and just couldn't leave without some, and so we left, full and giggling with an apple pie in tow.
Luckily, we were headed to retreat where the salad bar rules with lots of healthy choices.

This is all that was left of a large apple pie on the last day of retreat... I did share it....

sharing the apple pie with "Olivia"

Our next stop was Alma Sue's Quilt shop where Fran wanted to see about having her gorgeous quilt hand quilted by the Amish women there. It's a very nice shop and sure enough there were two older Amish women sitting at the quilt frames, quilting away by hand. I found a couple of things while there....more on that next time. Until then......

a true labor of love....by Fran

lazy day updates

 It's the 4th of July today - Happy Independence Day! This year we're just playing it lazy. It's raining and it looks as though it's going to keep raining. It's a good day to do inside things like watch some tv, nap, quilt, and update my blog!

No this isn't our dog. This is Maggie my brother-in-laws dog. She obviously isn't a morning dog. I took this pic (when we were in Wisconsin for my nephews wedding) and it was about 7:00 am. She is usually quite peppy but this was as active as she was going to get at 7:00am.

This is a pic of me, my BIL and my nephews on my DH's side. You can see Maggie is awake now.

Here is my nephew that got married (my late brothers son) and his bride to be before the wedding...

 They are such an adorable couple and I'm sure they will have a lifetime of happiness together. My brother would be very happy with Logan's choice, she is a sweetie.
Here's a pic of the wedding. It was raining right before the ceremony and then it stopped, and then it started up again right after, and then pretty much rained the rest of the day and evening. However- it didn't put a damper on the day. The wedding was lovely and the reception was wonderful. It was held at a hall/restaurant that is well known for receptions and they have a huge old brass bell above the staircase that they ring for the bride and groom.

This is a pic of my niece dancing against her will LOL. She doesn't like to dance but she had to when the bridal party had their dance.  The bride and groom danced almost every single dance :)
Unfortunately the flash on my camera stopped working - oh-oh low battery.
Here are the newlyweds when they made a stop at our place on their way to Key West for their honeymoon.

Well, if I am going to get that nap in I better get going......
A new giveaway is in the works for everyone and I hope to get it up and going within the week.....If everything pans out it promises to be one you don't want to miss.
Enjoy the holiday!

layover adventure

Hi remember me??? Golly, where does the time go?
Recently me & my dh flew up to Wisconsin for my nephews wedding...more on that fabulous event later... but on the way we had a connecting flight through Washington DC with a 4 hour layover.

Not wanting to sit in the airport for 4 hours we decided to go exploring and we found out that Arlington National Cemetery was just over the hill from the airport, and here it was the day before Memorial Day.
How could we not go????
We had never been to DC before but everyone was so nice. When we got to the metro station we had no idea how to buy tickets and a very nice resident helped us out and pointed us in the right direction on the correct train. Mind you... we are from the burbs and have never been on a metro train or subway. I can read a map backwards and forwards but this was altogether a new experience for us....and fun!
Anyway, we found our way to Arlington with Jeff pulling our carry on baggage along with us. Gee, I bet we didn't look like tourists LOL

It was warm that day and by the time we got off the metro and up to Arlington we didn't have a whole bunch of time there but we are so glad that we went.

I was unashamedly moved to tears when we rounded the corner on the pathway and saw the endless rows of headstones marking the graves of our brave service men and women. All of the graves were adorned with flags for Memorial Day.

We also saw quite a few of the Rolling Thunder motorcycles but we missed seeing the huge motorcade of bikes that is there each year in support of our veterans.Wasn't quick enough with the camera though.
This is the memorial for service women...

and this is a memorial we saw for the 101st Airborne......

I wish we would have had more time to take the tour bus through, but we didn't want to miss the plane.
Next time I think I'll try for an eight hour layover!
We did make our way back and even met a nice couple that were there on a day trip and were coming to Florida this week. We made plans to meet them downtown for ice cream when we got back but alas I caught a bug of some sort on the way home and so have been sleeping on and off all day.
In fact I think I feel another nap coming  on, more on our Wisconsin vacation later.......

swamp thing

I finally downloaded the pictures from my week of goofing off while my parents were here visiting and thought I would share some with you. I won't bore you with them all but I thought you may enjoy seeing a few.
I must say that I was inspired anew after getting out and playing tourist in my own town. I guess we all tend to get too comfortable in our surroundings and it's a good thing to view things through the eyes of a visitor for a fresh look at the world around us.

Let's head into the swamp......

I never tire of seeing these majestic cypress trees. (below) That's a small strangler fig that is wrapping itself around this cypress tree. This is in Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. I love this place and we try to go a couple times a year at least. The scent of the swamp is so primordial and unique.

 

hmmm, is this where the swamp thing lives?????

 This snap was taken outside of Clyde Butcher's gallery in the Everglades.

Those are cypress knees that are sticking up out of the water like little castles.

 

The snap below is of a root from a large strangler fig. 

It reminded me of a concrete curb, don't you think?

Gator bait????
This was one of about 5 alligators that had come out into the sun to warm up from the cool morning. This guy was almost a bit too close for comfort but perhaps he had already had breakfast or was still too cold to be very active. Lucky for us.


On our way back to town we had to stop and take a snap of this post office. I've gone past it many times. This is the smallest (still operational)  post office in the United States. It is in Ochopee FL.
Isn't it adorable???

I hope you enjoyed this short excursion into the swamp.
Later this week I'll share a few vibrant scenes from the botanical garden visit along with the new giveaway announcement....finally.

take a blond to the museum day.....

If you want a good laugh at my expense, take me to a museum.
I can't believe I'm admitting to this but here goes.
My friend Karen & I wanted to go see the Illuminated St. .Johns Bible voumes exhibited at the Naples Art Museum and the corresponding calligraphy exhibit, we each had a break in our schedules and so hopped over there to see it.
The Bibles are so beautiful and we wished we could turn the pages to see more. What an incredible work of art. If you ever get a chance to see them - go.
The accompanying calligraphy exhibit was also fabulous and included some of the work of the same artists that worked on the bibles. There were also several pieces by renowned calligrapher Denis Brown and many other calligraphers and book artists. I really enjoyed it and may have to go back again.
We then headed over to the Chihuly exhibit. The Museum has several large Chihuly pieces on permanent display along with a Chihuly ceiling but today we found out there was also a special exhibit going on with what they were calling his current work.
Now mind you, I have been to this museum many, many times and I guess I'm just going to have to chalk this up to a blond moment, make that double blond because Karen didn't catch it either.
We were walking around the exhibits and admiring the "new" pieces when I said to Karen "these are all from 1941, why are they calling them new?"
She replied " no kidding" As luck would have it I finally came to the realization (after the second room) that on the title plaques, - we were looking at the year of his birth! OMG...thank goodness we didn't ask the docent why the works were all from 1941.
What can I say...if you need a laugh take a blond to the museum!
By the way.....Dale Chihuly's current works are fabulous and stunning and current!

The pictures here are from another outing to the new Catholic university town of Ava Maria that is only a short distance from us. The two pictures are of the church that is in the town center. It is a remarkable Church (obviously modeled after a bishops mitre).  The sanctuary inside is beautiful but the day my DH & I visited there a wedding was underway so no pics inside to share.

Have fun and read all plaques carefully  :)

Button-button Thursday - out of shape???

No not you, my buttons.
As I was enjoying a few meditative moments digging through my button boxes I found very few that weren't round. With modern buttons, especially novelty buttons,  the sky's the limit when it comes to odd and varied shapes. Now, I don't profess to having an extensive assortment of button styles, (most are probably form the 30's to present, although there are a few that may be older).
But these are the few that were, in my little button world - out of shape. They are all kind of interesting, I think that I like the green ones and the mother of pearl the best. Are odd shape buttons a more recent phenomenom or do I just have boring buttons?

Whilst browsing about online I found a couple of button sites that may interest you. The Button Emporium is an online shop that offers an oodle of new buttons in all sorts of colors, styles, and "out of shape" buttons too. This next site makes me want to hop a plane to New York city today! I have a feeling that a visit to this adorable shop Tender Buttons would dramatically add to my "collection".
If you are out traveling perhaps you'll want to stop and see Dalton Stevens the Button King in  Bishopville South Carolina. Here's a you tube clip to check out - Button King.
Well, after watching that clip, I feel better knowing that I have a long, long, long way to go to before anyone can stick me with the moniker - button queen.