I Love to Travel

As I was making flight reservations this morning for our trip in September to see our Sweet Kid #1 and his sweetheart, it stirred up in me a love I have had for years(besides, of course, Sweet Kid #1). I LOVE to travel.

Now I don't mind at all just jumping in my van and hitting the roads (proof here, here, and here.) But lately I especially dream of trips to Italy and Alaska, of cruises both domestic and international, you name it and I want to go!! I am always scouring travel sites to see if I can find some outrageous deal to somewhere; just about anywhere. Not that we can afford to go no matter how outrageous the price. Anyway, I was so excited when I ran across this on my morning blog reading.



create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide
Edited: Sorry for the graphic being cut off. I was quite proud of myself just getting it to post much less being smart enough to size it to fit. A complete map can be found(and will remain) at the bottom of this page. It's such a burden to be computer challenged!!

What a great graphic! As you can see, I have much more of our great country to see. If I had a bucket list then this map completely filled in would be on it. BUT as it now stands, I could also post this.



create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide

My bucket list for the world would include more than just Italy with it's magnificant art and architecture, the canals of Venice, the hills of Tuscany. How about the history of England, the beauty of Austria and Switzerland, the mystery of the land down under, all the places where Jesus lived and taught, and my husband would add, the St. Andrews golf course in Scotland?
Ah, how I dream!

Where have you always wanted to visit?

Fellow Blogger Needs Assistance

Joan over at Keeping you in Stitches is in need of some suggestions. She contacted me a couple of weeks ago after I posted my progress on a Christmas Stitchery here. She has since ordered the stitchery panel from The Good Life and gotten it framed with half-square triangles. She uses exclusively Thimbleberries fabrics so you can just imagine how cute it is looking. Jump on over and read about her delimma.

While conversing back and forth with Joan I realized that I have never shown a finished photo of my project.

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Quilting!!

Joys of Motherhood?

One of the joys of motherhood is watching your babies grow up. One of the heartaches of motherhood is watching your babies grow up and leave the nest. These past couple of weeks have been filled with both joy and heartache for me. Our boys are both in college. One lives in Florida and we are hoping for a visit down south in September. It's hard having him so far away. The other is now a sophomore at this Big 10 school.

Since he lived in a dorm last year the move to school didn't seem as final as this year. Here is a picture of our sweet kid #2. See that piece of paper in his hand, it's a lease for an apartment.

He was so excited (until he saw mom with the camera in her hands). We had loaded up our van and his car and set out for the new digs. We spent the next two days getting his room all set up. It's really hard driving off wondering if he'll ever be back home again for anything other than a visit. Sweet Kid #1 in Florida doesn't get up this way too often and we haven't gotten down there yet. (Hopefully in September!!). Driving away I decided I needed to drown my sorrows so I stopped and got one of these.
YUM-O!! It helped but only slightly! I got home in time to make the County Fair Battle of the bands. Our sweet kid #3 is on the front line kneeling. This is her senior year. Bittersweet!



Hopefully, I'll dig my way out of this "semi-empty nest" funk and get some sewing done soon. At least the Olympics are keeping us distracted. Go USA!!
Thanks for stopping by.
Happy Quilting!!

It's Been a While!

I'm not sure where I've been but I'm back. I actually sat down at my sewing machine today. It's the first time in weeks. The days are just flying by too outrageously fast. We are packing up our sweet kid #2 to take him back to college next week. He'll be in an apartment this year instead of the dorm so you can just imagine the spending flurry that has been going on around here. Fortunately his roomie's have all the necessary furniture except, of course, his bedroom furniture so that helps.

Anyway, I thought I would take a second and let you see what I have been working on today. I told you already about the stitcheries I have been working one here. Since I finished the last one up last night I spent this afternoon framing them. Next will be sandwiching them to make blocks for the garland.



































































Don't ask me why I'm stuck on Christmas decorations right now. I can't even use the excuse that it's so hot here that I wanted to focus on colder weather. We have had the best temps lately. It think we hit a high of 78 degrees today. How about that for August? (Sorry to my native state of Texas but I just DO NOT miss that humid heat of the Gulf Coast.)

Gotta run. I've got a chicken simmering on the stove to make The Pioneer Woman's Chicken Spaghetti. If you have not been to her website.....well, I just don't know what to say except..GO, GO RIGHT NOW!! She has the best recipes and some of the best giveaways around. (But sadly, I have not won any of them. :-( I have tried several of her recipes and they have all been winners. YUM!!

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Quilting!!