My 100th Post...YIPPEE!!

So, for anyone that reads and follows this, this is my 100th post!  What better way to celebrate than with a few photos.  

I think I will have a little give away for a random person that leaves me a comment on this post.  I will put all the names in a hat and draw one out and send that person a little something.  I just need to say that I appreciate everyone that reads and comments and those who read and do not comment.  I hope you have enjoyed reading about my journey as I have taking the journey!

The other night before we left for Madison, I went out and got Chinese food.  I tossed the bag on top of the new antique fishing lure box I bought DH for  Christmas...well, apparently Jack thought this was a fine place for a nap!

We drove to Madison to bring DD1 her TV and armoire.  On the way to the town, down a steep and winding road is a place called Hanging Rock. Sometimes it is a falls.  This was one of those times.  I snapped a pic of DH with DD1 on the wall that was painted to look like stones!

Near DD's apt is a little quilt shop:

Where I met Margie herself!! 

It is a nice little quilt shop and I enjoy the patterns they make up in the shop.  I bought some fabric for a class I am going to take in Feb, One Block Wonder.  I will have to take a picture of it when I get a chance.  Thanks for all your help, Margie!

For anyone that wondered, things went as well as can be expected on Friday.  It's over!!  That's the good news.

Even more exciting news though.   Last year when I went to CA, I got off the plane and got a voucher for anywhere American Air flies.  Last week DH told me he was flying to Seattle, and I asked if I could meet him there.  so LSS, I fly out tomorrow and we have a wonderful 3 days together in Seattle!!  I can't wait.  I sure have a lot to do between now and tomorrow, including pick up my Bernina from the shop.  She is finally ready to come home!!  I am excited about that too.  DH will drive a bicycle up to DD2 at MSU as hers crapped out and we picked up mine from DD! when we were in Madison this weekend.  What a whirlwind.  I feel a little like Jet-Set Barbie!!

I will take lots of pictures in Seattle.  I have not been there since I was a little girl, it should be fun.

Getting Ready

I can't say I'm sorry to see this week end!! Work had been very hectic and I have stayed late every day. I have had something going every night too. Last night we had registration for lacrosse. I am so happy it is finished!! I just have to drop off the paperwork to the secretary to put it all together for the team (one advantage of being the President is delegation!) I have a quick trip to the post office and then the dreaded doctors appointment. I have to have a fluid retention procedure done. Gosh darn those babies for making my bladder drop. Things have never been the same! No longer able to cough, sneeze or run without some kind of protection (if you know what I mean) so last time I went to the gyno he told me there was surgery that could fix my little issue. Woot, Woot!! So off the the urologist I went only to discover that I had to have this done first as, of course, I had performance anxiety when in her office the first time and could not for the life of me make it happen.

Now if you have a queasy stomach you may want to skip ahead...They cath you and fill your bladder that way and see how much fluid you can take before you "leak". Kind of like a faucet! I am really dreading this as I HATE to be cathed!! I know I'm a big baby and I hope it won't be as awful as I have it in my head. Enough of that!

Jeanne at luv to stitch paid me a nice compliment when she mentioned my blog as one that inspires her. She certainly does that for me too! Thanks Jeanne.

We are packing up the stuff DD1 left here and bringing it to her in Madison today after I get home. I am excited to go there again. I really love Madison and of course DD1! DH and I will have time alone in the car (good or bad, I guess we'll see) People that know us wonder how we ever ended up together as I talk ...ALOT and he doesn't talk at all. What can I say? It works for us. LOL

Now, here is the exciting part of the post. I may be joining DH in Tacoma WA for a few days next week. I have a voucher for free airfare anywhere in the continental US that American flies but I have to use it by March (it was good for 1 year from issue) I love the pacific NW and have been to that area twice when I was a little girl. I am hoping I will be able to pull this off. I have to see if I can get off work, get a replacement for a lax meeting I am supposed to be at and make sure DS has someone to watch over his little 17year old self. Keep your fingers crossed!!

One last thing...my next post is 100!! I never thought I would make it to that number so quickly. I am trying to think up something to do that will be special. Thinking, thinking, thinking...OUCH!

The rest of Madison

Well, here I am back (or still) in Madison. I had many more pictures to share but I cut it down to these few. The first ones are of Miranda and then of Miranda and Shelby eating ribs at the Ribberfest, along the Ohio River.




Here is DD2 with her daddy at the festival.

On the walk back to DD1's apt we stopped at the fountain near her place. This is the fountain at night and me experimenting with my camera.

The next day we drove to Clifty State Park. This is Miranda, Chris and DD1 at the park.

At the park I found a walking stick. Here is DD2 holding while DD1 supervises.

The next stop was the Lanthier Winery. I wanted to see what the local wine was like but we didn't have a lot of time as we were going to tour the Lanier mansion. So I raced in and tasted a few wines and bought some as gifts that we picked up after the mansion tour.

This is one of the quilts inside the mansion. When we walked up to the mansion I thought it was the front of the building, but it was the back. The front faced the river with the gardens spread out in front of the house.

This is the stair case in the center of the house(up 3 stories). It was breathtaking!

I thought this sewing cabinet was neat. The cloth that hangs down was what held the scraps of fabrics. It was so hot and humid that they had to store the fabric where air could get to it so it didn't mold!

One of my favorite shots was of the spy glass they used to look out at the river to see who was coming via the river.

I took this to show you all what the mansion looked like "back in the day". Even in black and whit it is spectacular. They told us the gardens are much smaller now as they don't have the money Lanier did to maintian them.

Back of the mansion.

Facing the front of the mansion.

These are the gardens as they are now.

Sorry so short. DD2 is leaving for IN and wanted to go out to dinner. She has a long drive back and I wanted to post while I had a chance to be on the computer. Seems like I have to compete with WOW these days and I usually lose that battle!
Enjoy my little snipet of Madison!!

Madison

I finally have time to write more about our visit to Madison. This first picture is of my DH and DD2 sitting along the Ohio River looking over at Kentucky. That night there was a balloon light show and I got a fairly good night shot (out of like 30)



At the Ribberfest (yes, I said "Ribberfest", NOT Riverfest) there was a competition and people dressed up pigs (stone ones not live ones). There was an Easter pig, an angel pig, a skeleton "Ham bone" pig and my favorite, Elvis pig...


I managed to get a quick shot of DD1 with her friend from Australia, Miranda. Hopefully her mum will see this too!


I have to tell you that I was quite traumatized by something while we were visiting. DD1 told me not to kill the spiders because they eat the crickets that get into her apt. Sill me, I was thinking Michigan crickets, not Indiana CRICKETS!!! Holy, moley!! DS took me outside to show me the cricket "nest" and opened the dirt celler next to the apt. Well those crickets turned and LOOKED RIGHT AT ME, ahhhhhhhh!! I told him to close the door quickly. I ran to get my camera because I figured no one would believe me when I told them about the crickets. They were HUGE!! and looked like they had mated with spiders, their legs were really creepy!! So here you go, cave crickets, run away in terror!!!


On to nicer things...I decided to walk around the twon so the next photos are some that I took, I don't have time to post all of them. first I saw this neat old barn. Aren't the stones great?

then I went by this cute pond in some one's backyard, and aren't those plants on that legde great? I would forget to water them and they would die.


The downtown is so quaint and charming. Look at this cart of flowers. It made the shop very apealing.

Then, my favorite, Margies!! The quilt shop, tada!!

More from Madison

I finally finished this UFO, got it quilted and finished the binding in the car onthe way to Madison. It was one of the first tops I ever made. I learned how to do the Stack and Whack technique and this was the quilt. I actually made 2 of these and this one is the second one. I just got the first one back from the quilter last week, but it is not bound yet. I thought that DD1 would love the purples in this one so I took to to her. You can see the amazing quilting my friend Liz did for me on this. I asked her for dragonflies and she did those plus more. She did these really big flowers in the stars and some other flowers with outlining in the pinkish inbetween space with dragonflies and loops all around it. She used silver metalic thread on the front and purple on the back. I am just thrilled with how it turned out!





We went to the antique shops while we were in Madison too. I found a darning egg just like my mom used to use to mend our sox with. Back in the day, Madison used to have a button factory and they made shell buttons from the fresh water clams that lived in the Ohio river. I was so excited to find this clam shell with the buttons cut out of it. Isn't it amazing??



In addition, I have been looking for vintage hankies that are in teal/aqua. I hit the mother load in one of the shops!! Arent' these gorgeous?? Someday I would like to make a hanky butterfly quilt.




I have more photos from the festival that I will post later.

What a wonderful week!

What a whilrwind of a week! I apologize for not writing sooner but you will soon see why. On Thursday I had to go to my father's house and pick up some things to bring to DD#1 in Indiana on friday. So I decided that I may as well make the best of it and called my friend Yuki to go on our own personal "Shop Hop". We ended up traveling to 4 different shops on our way from Ann Arbor to Grand Rapids. The first stop was a quiant little shop, Jennifer's Quilt Shop. They have a good deal on their fat quarters 11 for $20.00 I love this shop. This is a photo of Yuki and Jennifer at the shop. I think we liked this shop the most of all the shops we visited. The next stop was The Stitchery in Howell. It is a nice shop with a lot of batiks. They were holding some fabric for me to work on finishing DD#1's dragon quilt. I didn't think it was quite the right purple, but I didn't have the original and the numbers were correct so I bought it anyway. Then off to Lansing and Country Stitches. I found the correct purple there! Oh well, I will find something to use the other purple in. I got the cute new Thimbleberries panel with the bear and the bunny on the swing so I was happy. Then we were off to GR. There is a smeall shop by my dad's called The Attic Window. It is a small shop but boy did they origami a LOT of stuff into that small space!! Yuki did a lot of damage here! I didn't have anything specific to buy but I managed to find a few things that needed to go home with me : )
We then went to my dad's and picked up the things I needed to move to IN. My dad and my sister took us out for dinner at Perkins. It was a good day. Kind of a long drive home and Yuki and I were tired, but happy!



Now that you know that I went to Indiana (the entire family, actually I have a lot of pictures to share so I will be doing that over several days. First I wanted to show you the finished table runner that I began at Quilt University. Shelby loved it!




I don't know if you remember that her friend from Australia is visiting her but she will be with her until sometime mid September. When Shelby went to Australia 2 summers ago I made a quilt for her to take with her for her friend as a thank-you for allowing her to stay with her and carting her everywhere. Maz wanted something to remind her of a Michigan winter. The first thing I thought of was snow. So I made a quilt that was all pinwheels on various blue backgrounds ranging from very dark blue to very pale blue to simulate that snow begins way up in the dark sky and ends up in a white snowy pile.



Turns out Maz's mum is a quilter! She made a quilt for Shelby and Maz brought it with her. It is also a night sky and she made the blues progress from dark to light with gold stars set in. The neat thing is that if you look closely, some of the stars are friendship stars depicting the constellation of the Southern Cross, which she drew out on her label!! Isn't she clever!!?? Her folks own a 3000 acre sheep farm so I thought it was really fun that she found some light blue fabric with sheep on it to incorporate into the quilt.





Shelby loved the quilt and Maz wraps up in it while she is here to stave off the home sickness. She is a really nice girl and it is nice to have international friends. They actually met in a writing group online several years ago. I corespond with her mum now and maybe someday I will be able to visit her. I just received an email this am from one of the exchange students we hosted when DD#2 was in the 5th grade (she is starting 2nd year uni this year). He will be coming to the US soon. apparently he is going to study for a semester in Montreal. I hope we can make plans to see him while he is here. I will write more later, I have to go and get some work for my job done now!