Vacation Winding Down

I can't believe it's Friday. We head back to KC on Sunday morning.

Yesterday we took in the Shed Aquarium. It was so much fun. Grace loves all the animals, so it was fun to see her run from tank to tank and then yell MOM COME LOOK AT THIS. We got to see penguins, beluga whales, snakes, frogs, tons and tons of very cool fish. Grace makes sure to tell everyone about the fish that had a VERY LARGE eye. I think the highlight of the trip was the gift shop at the end. I admit, the child is over indulged. She got flippers that make her look like a mermaid. Very fun.

Today we are off to visit with some friends, stop at A Touch of Amish Quilt shop, and then a class reunion party tonight. Tomorrow is the "official" reunion. My best friend has decided she absolutely will NOT attend. I guess I'm going stag. I'm sad she won't go, but I understand. Hounding her only makes it worse. It's OK though, it will limit my time, so maybe we can get started home earlier than we would otherwise.

Have a great weekend. Stay cool! I will post some quilt pictures when I get home on Sunday.

Greetings from Ohio

We made it to Springfield Ohio in record time on Thursday. I really thought it would take about 12 hours. Grace and I made it in 10 hours and some odd minutes. We stopped in Richmond Indiana for about an hour for dinner. Had to get out of the car.

Yesterday we drove to Columbus and went to the NQA Quilt Show. Very cool. It was fun looking at all the pretty quilts and then doing some shopping. Grace found some very pretty fabric in Tammy Tad's booth. It even slept with us last night.

Sorry I can't post pictures because the connection is far too slow.

Today we went to visit relatives. That was a lot of fun since I only get to see some of my relatives once a year. Grace got to spend some time with Alex the Donkey. He lives at my sister's house. They had great fun. Alex is very friendly and Grace loved feeding him dog treats.

Oh well. Enough for tonight. Have a great father's day!

OH Crud!

Thankfully we made it through the wedding. The shoe only lasted 2 days. I love the dog, but I wanted to beat him over the head with the shoe. Then I thought, well maybe the child should be reminded of the fact that shoes really belong in the closet. The dog got a bad dog and the child got a life lesson...again.

My latest project. I'm making Christmas bags. 4 down, 41 to go.

Grace and I are leaving for Ohio on Thursday. We are off to see my dad, which should be fun. He lives at the Ohio Masonic Home in Springfield. Grace loves all the hallways in the basement (tunnels) to get from building to building. I'm hoping we can hit the NQA show in Columbus while we are there. After Ohio, we are heading to Illinois again for my 25 year high school reunion. Should be a fun 10 days.

Have a great week.

Wedding

The beautiful bride getting ready. The veil was the right length. The camera died or I would have gotten a pic with the blusher pulled over.

The ring bearer pillow that I embroidered. The bride's mom put it all together.

Grace and her great grandma. They both look beautiful.

My beautiful little flower girl. Grace did great. Dropped petals like she was supposed to and helped her cousin carry his pillow.

Have a great week!

Smidge Less Challenged

So last night I was DETERMINED to figure out how to get things centered in the Quick Snap hoops. After asking more questions on the Yahoo Group I belong to, it finally clicked.
As I get older, I wish things would click just a smidge faster. I tend to get frustrated much quicker with myself than I used to. Hmmm, sounds like personal challenge to work on.

Anyhow, here is the bag that I embroidered last night. It's a very cool Peacock design. I found the bag while out roaming one day. Because I thought it was cool, I picked up several. Needless to say, now that I have the frame figured out, I'm going to work on putting designs on the rest of the bags.

Looks like the sun might come out today. We had more rain and storms last night. I was beginning to wonder if I would see animals starting to line up 2 by 2.

Have a great day.

Challenged

It is so dreary here! We had heavy rain and storms yesterday. For some reason I thought I would get it up and it would be sunny and beautiful. Yeah, no such luck.

I finished the veil. I'm so excited at how nice it turned out. What a racket wedding stuff is!!! I stopped at David's Bridals to look at veils last week to try to see how they did the jewels and beads. $129 - $199 for veils. There was all of about $6 worth of material in the one that I made. Not trying to be a snob, but I really think that the one I made was a lot nicer than the ones I saw. Keep teasing the hubby that I'm going into the veil making business now. There will be a picture posted on Sunday of my veil on the brides head. :-) There will be pictures of Grace too in her flower girl dress as well.

Just have to share a shot of Buddy. He got his summer haircut. I think he will be much cooler once the HOT and humidity finally kick in. Everyone asks if the poodle that he came from was champagne colored. We have no idea, Santa didn't leave that information for us. My guess is yes, since he looks so much like a poodle with the short hair and it is very much carmel colored.


I've been feeling challenged by the embroidery. I'm finally picking up some jobs and realizing that self learning isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Once I get this all figured out, I've decided that I'm going to start holding classes to pass on the mistakes I've learned. It's crazy, I can go take classes on quilting, but there really aren't any machine embroidery classes. Don't get me wrong, there are classes, but they are geared for the smaller machines. There aren't any for my mack daddy machine. The challenge for last night was trying to figure out how to get bags centered on the new Quick Snap hoops that I got. Everything is off to the right. I'm on a group on Yahoo, so I spent some time sifting through their information. I get the concepts of what I need to do, just can't seem to pull it off. I guess I will spend some more time at lunch today perusing the documents and Internet for any kind of help I can find. One of these days the light bulb will go on and I will get it all figured out. Until then, I'm feeling challenged, and not in such a good way.

Well, I guess I best get headed to work. I would so much rather head to the Girl Cave and sew. Darn those bills. :-)

Have a great day!

Yikes!

Just realized that it's been quite a few days, or almost 2 weeks since I last posted. Boy are things starting to get crazy.

#1 Facebook - How can something manage to suck so much of my time? I love reading all the updates. I have Mark Lipinski (Quilter's Home) as a friend. That man cracks me up.

#2 Projects - I have managed to start and finish a couple things. I have been making bags for Brandi and turned some over Memorial Day weekend. I'm working on a wedding veil for the wedding next Saturday. The veil is almost done. I hope I can take a picture of it tomorrow. Bibs were on the agenda the week before Memorial Day. A friend of mine wanted an adult bib for her mom and a small bib for her nephew. I'm slightly intrigued by the adult bib since my dad has Parkinson's and sometimes ends up shaking his food right off his fork onto the front of his shirt or pants.

From Sunflower Creations

#3 Barn - Today was barn day. Our friend has horses and we go out on occasion, which I think I've mentioned before. Today we took Buddy, which was fun. He didn't chase any horses, didn't pester the chickens too much, didn't get stepped on by a horse. Although there was a quick moment where I thought the big German Shepard, Oakley, had him confused for her lovie toy. There was some growling and snarling, but then she was fine. Grace got to ride Tara. She seems very natural on top of that BIG horse.

From Sunday

From Sunday

From Sunday

From Sunday

From Sunday

#4 Quilt - I quilted a quilt for a girl at work. I do the binding for her so it's ready for hand sewing. I think it turned out really nice. Grace and I both decided we really like all the colors. I used Paisley Playtime for the quilting.

From Sunday

From Sunday

From Sunday

I feel like there is a ton of stuff that I'm missing, but I'm so tired right now I can't think. Off to get one munchkin in bed and one big person to follow shortly there after.

Have a great week!