The Haw River and Graffiti Bridge

 Recently we went for a walk along the Haw river in NC.  

I thought the scenery was so beautiful!

There were several large rock structures in the river and this one reminded me of a gator.

This on reminded me of a frog

I love that you can see the falls in the background of this photo.

We found this amazing graffiti bridge in Bynum. 

 I thought I was pretty clever making Chris stand near this one.

I didn't get a photo but the entire bridge was COVERED in graffiti. 

 One over the top of the other. 

 Except this one was left untouched. 

 I thought that was really cool.  

It felt like the artists respected it enough to leave it alone. 

 At least that's how I chose to see it.

The rest of the pics were just art that I liked.

It was an interesting place to visit. 

 The beauty of the river and the area contrasting with the graffiti, art on the bridge.  

~XOP~

I Think I Left Off With Vacation

When you stop blogging regularly it seems like it takes time to get back in the swing. 

I was out on vacation then got a nasty cold so that's why I have been MIA. 

 I have been posting in Instagram though as it is much faster and I don't need my computer to do it.

We stopped at 2 quilt shops on the way to NC.  The first one was in Nelsonville, OH.  

The Nelsonville Quilt Company

What a cool little town!  Very nice quilt shop too.

I thought this train was so colorful!

The second shop, The Fabric Shop, was in Pomeroy, OH.  

This shop used to be a general store and had crazy ladders they used to access the high shelves. 

 I made my husband model one of them, LOL.

We went to NC to visit our daughter and to be part of the celebration of my daughter's soon to be nana-in-law's 80 birthday. 

 It was nice to get to spend some time with her and with her future in-laws.

Me and my daughter.

Me with her future MIL.

On our way to Florida we had an unexpected stop to meet a long time Instagram friend of mine. 

 We met up for lunch and it was so nice to *finally* be able to meet her in person! 

 Please excuse my appearance.  I throw my hair into a ponytail when we travel.

  Makes me look bald, HAHA. Jenny sure looks cute though!

Then it was on to Florida!  We stay with my in-laws in Sarasota.  

They have a pool right across from their house too.

One of the days we went to Mote Marine Aquarium.  

It is not only an aquarium, but a research facility and rescue center.  

I think one of my favorite parts is petting the ray tank.

I was impressed by the Megaladon too.  Made hubby stand by it for size.

Then we stood by just it's teeth!  

YIKES!!!

I'm going to leave this here as this post is pretty photo heavy already.

I will post more tomorrow.

Including some more quilt shops!

~XOP~

More Raleigh Fun

I think I am coming to an end with my Raleigh trip

.  On Wednesday I got to meet with my friend 

(although we had never met IRL), Debbie, or Mrs Goodneedle if you will from the Strawberry Patch.  

She was among one of the first blogs I ever read and we have been fast friends for a long time now. 

I was super excited to be able to meet her in person.  

She drove for 2 hours to see me and to pick me up for our lunch. 

 I made her a little paper doll wall hanging/pillow also. 

 Hers had plaid dresses.

It's interesting that she has decided that I am in the blue/green dress and she is in the blue/purple one. 

 That was how I planned it too!

I can't believe that 3 hours felt like 5 minutes! 

 It was awesome! 

 It felt like we were long lost friends and just picked up where we had left off. 

 She sees life in a similar way to me.

  We have a creative endevor planned for the future too but I will let you wonder about that.

Thanks for a great visit Debbie. 

 I look forward to visiting you at your home next time and meeting Holly too!

Debbie kindly gifted me some Marcia Derse fabrics too.

  I'm not sure what rock I have been living under but these have the look of hand dyed and are just beautiful!  I will have to find just the right project for them. 

 Thank you my friend!

One of the things we talked about was Debbie's favorite quilt shop over my way,

 Thimble Pleasures in Chapel Hill. 

 So on Thursday when Kelsey and I went shopping I made her take me there. 

OMG this place was just amazing!

I had a list of fabric I was looking for and found much of the Tula Pink Nightshade I was after right here!

As well as a little Birds and Bees

In the morning Kelsey and I went to the Raleigh farm market.  

What an amazing place! 

 It is open every day and they have a restaurant!  

Where I was educated about the difference between city ham (on the left) and country ham (on the right)

It was fun to walk around here before meeting Debbie for lunch!

While on my shopping trip with Kelsey I managed to score this adorable Hello Kitty lunch box.

What's that?  

What will I do with this? 

 Why store projects in it of course!

I hope you have enjoyed my trip as much as I have. 

 Now it is back to reality. 

 The reality being my hubby had to have eye surgery yesterday. 

 A vitrectomy and removal of a gigantic floater. 

 The vitrectomy was where they peeled a membrane of of his retina. 

 Kinda gross really, and they had to put an air bubble in his eye to smooth out the wrinkles in the retina so he has had to lay face down  all day yesterday to keep it pressing on the retina. 

 Today he just has to keep looking down. 

 He can't really see out of the eye only see the air bubble. 

 Apparently the eye will replace the fluid over the next 7-10 days. 

 Surgery was successful though and he is resting. 

 Had his post op appointment today and he is progressing as well as he should. 

 He will be off work for over a month though. 

 Not really sure how long but long enough for him to pass his flight medical. 

 I hope I can handle his being here all the time for a month, LOL!

~XOP~

She's Off To See The Wizard...

We made it home on Tuesday night from North Carolina.  It was a whirlwind trip.We had a family reunion to go to on Saturday so I was running around making food, and trying to pack and clean and go to the bank and pick up dog meds at the vets.  Finally got to the reunion.  Had a GREAT time.  I think there were about 120 people there in total with some folks absent.  Left there around 7:30pm heading for Raleigh NC.  We drove almost straight through the night.  We had our DD2's little Saturn and it was packed full!  We stopped a couple of times to take a 45 minute nap then continued on our way.

We did stop for a wonderful dinner at Wendy's on our way.  What a way to spend your 28th wedding anniversary.  Almost like when we were first married and took road trips!  Life has been quite an adventure with this man of mine!

We finally arrived at DD's door around 9:30 am on Sunday morning.  We hit the ground running and did not stop until we got to our hotel around 10:30pm!  It was a LONG day.  I don't even remember falling asleep!!  We got her a new mattress and did a lot of running around.  Got her desk put together and got the bed set up.  Her is her new place:

Living room and kitchen

Hallway and bedroom

DH DD and DD's BF are all working. She has a bathroom off her bedroom. She has a cat, Mitch, and he HATES us. He was in here:

Safely out of the chaos!

We took her bike in the van with us to the hotel and then in the morning her BF drove her over to our hotel and they had breakfast with us. I managed to get some pictures of her on her "first day of school". Seems like it was not that long ago I had these from her first day of kindergarden! *sniff* *sniff*

She is very excited and a little nervous.  This helped...

I managed to get one of us with her too

After she and BF said their goodbyes we drove her to campus. She showed us the building she is going to work in. We drove around a little bit but she was anxious to get to her orientation so we took out her bike and gave her a hug and a kiss, waved and out little birdie rode off on her bike, quick look back with a wave and a smile. Bittersweet! Spread your wings and fly my little birdie. The world is not going to know what hit them!! XOXO Baby girl!!

PS: I have LOADS more to share from the trip home. Lots of beautiful scenery and some quilt shops and treasures too. So stay tuned! ~XOP~