road trip part two.....

Virginia Beach.....

I brought mrs. browndirt along. The one day we were at the beach she came with us for a picture. Poor thing didn't get out much for pictures. 

My niece, Madison, loved her. She wanted to keep her!

I told her I had another orphan doll at home and would send her that one.

We were in charge of Madison during the mornings while her parents were at work.

We did a lot with Madison, which was really fun. 

She went with us fishing and geocaching. She didn't think it was very fun, until we found one.

Then she was all excited and wanted to do more!

I couldn't even find a picture of Jackie or Jesse. Oh well.

My stomach was sucked in from the chill of a wave rushing past us. I appear smaller than I actually am. I like that. We mostly played with the waves. Madison ended up soaking wet from head to toe. 

Here is Madison's first fish EVER. 

She didn't want to touch it, so one of "the mates" helped get it off the line. We were catching croakers. They are a bottom feeders and not very big. We caught 6 lbs worth, 

had them cleaned and ate them that night for supper. Except for all the small bones, they were delicious!

These fish "croak" when you are holding them. Kind of like a frog. It something you feel, rather than hear. I tried putting one up to my ear, but with the engine noise and wind, I couldn't hear anything. 

Madi never did get up the nerve to touch one and feel the joy of that croaking. She did attempt to put the bait on her hooks (squid) only to give up. She was to afraid of stabbing herself with the hook. Between us and "the mates" her line was never without bait on it.

Using the book,

Collage Couture

Techniques for creating Fashionable Art by Julie Nutting

and those tourist magazines with coupons for Virginia Beach...

We ripped, cut and painted.

If we were home, Madi and I were busy on these projects. I thought we would each get one done.

By the end of our visit we had 4. Jackie loved them and wants to do one with all her NYC papers.

Someday.

Madison can show her how.

This is pretty old. I made it years ago for Brianna. (Madison's older sister)

I made a quilt for Madison when she was little too.

It is one of the first quilts that I put words on.

It says....

Are you a princess I said

and she said

I'm much more than a princess

but you don't have a name for it yet here on earth.

I saw the words on a scrapbook page in a magazine so many years ago.

The quilt is a pattern from Judy Martin. I think it's real name is I Have a Dream.

I just call it Madi's quilt.

We could have spent way more time here. But I needed to get back for summer school. 

We just need to go again.

road trip part one.....

We are back from a road trip. We wanted to go to Memphis, TN for a wedding and then out to Virginia Beach, VA to visit my sister. We also wanted...maybe I should say.... "I" wanted to find geocaches in as many states as possible. 

Sometimes we were on the freeway, sometimes state highways.

First stop was a geocache at the house where the painting American Gothic was done.

The house still stands. We found out that you can also put on the costumes for a picture.

We did that. I am holding the GPS for logging this find.

We stopped in Hannibal, MO to see the birthplace of Mark Twain. 

I love Alton Brown. We used to watch his cooking show ALL the time. I had his Feasting on Asphalt book along. We stopped in Chester IL just like he did in the book. It would have been better if we had opened cans of spinach to eat like he did, but we weren't that organized.

Went looking for a cache instead.

The wedding in Memphis was outside, in the woods near a pond, at noon. Yes, it was hot, but not unbearable. Inside where the reception was held, was a quilt. There were a couple more hanging, but this one was my favorite one.

We headed for Beale Street for supper, this is where we ate. We were with tractor joe's brothers and sisters and all the spouses. 10 of us all together.

The food was VERY good. We got a sample platter that had all kinds of different things on it.

Some pork, some chicken, some side dishes. 

Before heading east early Sunday morning, we went by Graceland. We weren't that interested in seeing it....BUT...

They were opening the gate as we went by.

With no one around, it was easy to find parking.

 It didn't cost anything to get up by the house or visit the graves. 

We did a quick tour and then hit the road.

We stopped at the Corinth Civil War Battle Field Interpretive Center in Mississippi.

After going by the U.S. Space and Rocket Center and seeing what we could see from the road....

we wished we had made time for it. Don't know if we will ever make it back to Huntsville AL.

But if we do, we will definitely be stopping.

We drove into the corner of Georgia just to get a geocache there. 

Then back up into Tennessee where we stopped.

On Monday...

We drove through North Carolina.

Beautiful

 Then along the bottom of Virginia.

We arrived at my sister's in time for supper on Monday night.

Next time...Virginia Beach stuff.

recent happenings around here....

It has been awhile. There aren't any pictures of recent sewing...but there were some pictures in the phone that seemed blog worthy.

I said I wouldn't be painting my auction chairs. I was wrong.

I bought some paint! They are taking a little longer than I thought.

Washing, painting on the primer...then finally starting with the green.

I will be back at it this morning.

This is the neighbor boy, when he was over a couple weeks ago. He found this old truck and wanted to play with it, then chased down the cat to see if she wanted a ride.

He likes to come over and see what we are up to.

He is not bothered by tractor joe's grumpiness.

He is like a Dennis the Menace,

and tractor joe is now Mr. Wilson.

Painting the chairs also took longer because...

I remembered that I needed to put out recycle stuff,

While getting that ready, I found some old jars that could be stored out in a shed.

So, I took them out there and got sidetracked weeding.

That is when I decided to transplant some ferns.

I was watering them and there sat my tomato plants.

So those went in the garden.

As long as I was out there, I transplanted some marigolds.

But wait, where are the flower seeds I bought?

Found them and they went into the ground too.

I also stood around a lot watching the county guys dig deep holes. They needed to unplug some tile.

There are huge ponds north and south of us in the farm ground. They don't go away.

They thought they had it figured out yesterday and left saying that "by morning the ponds to the north would be shrinking." 

I looked this morning. The north ones look the same, but the south ones are gone.

On one of the last days of school we went bowling and then to the second highest point in Iowa.

There is a tower there and the view is awesome. We all climbed up to have a look.

I now have a frequent painter card! 

Paint 6 and get the 7th free!

creativespiritokoboji

was in Bancroft. We did the wine glass that night. 

I told my sister I wanted to add words to it.

Her idea.....

The good life is friends, wine and art--in Italian.

Karen had this in her car the night we painted. It is scrap vomit fresh from the quilter.

She pulled it out to show every one. When the top was finished, it made her gag. 

She didn't like it much at all.

The light must have been just right. It looked beautiful!

She fell in love with it.

(HERE) is where she blogged about it.

Okay, back to the green paint.

it was so cool....

A group painting event was held in town this week. Karen and I signed up. When I first looked at the painting, I wasn't thrilled with it. 

BUT!

It seemed like a fun thing to do. There were about 20 gals painting.

Everything was set up when we got there. They supplied the apron.

One blank canvas, three different brushes and a plate full of blobs of acrylic paint and a water cup.

First the background went on.

Our artist teacher explained every step,

How to load the brush so the stem was highlighted,

how to make the white lines of the dandelion

how to make the little white ends

and which brush to use.

It was pretty cool seeing all the paintings,

all the same and yet each one different.

These two are obviously in touch with their inner artist.

They chose different background colors and words!

I didn't change the word or color. Most of us wrote the word with chalk, then painted over that.

Some used a stencil.

I never got a shot of Karen's.

We are going to do another one at the end of the month.

These events are put on by,

creativespiritsokoboji

The link brings you to the calendar page. If you scroll down to May 29th, you will see the wine glass we want to do. 

Just a few things...

I worked on making more bird blocks and the current block lotto blocks.
Our friend Dave bought a new tractor. It's a cute little thing.

wet and heavy snow fall......

Lots of snow over night. It was heavy enough to break a large branch off of this tree out front. At least it fell into the yard and not on the driveway. Clean up can wait a little bit.

It is pretty, in spite of the date today. May 2nd. Thought we were done with snow days. But, no, here I am at home.  

We didn't have much wind, so it piled up on the windmill. Can't say for sure if it was lack of wind or so much snow that made it stop turning. 

As I walked around taking pictures, the snow was as high as my boot.

When I came in I measured it.

9 inches. Wow.

Amazing. I think it is time to sew some flying geese for Block Lotto.

I didn't win any birds this month. So I could also make more birds.

I am thankful we have power!

the last one in his closet....

This one was more of a family quilt. It was on the couch for years and years. 

It is called No Ordinary Cats by County Threads.

I finished this in 1996. I know this because I had written the date on the back.

I love this as much today as I did when I finished it.

All those little pieces, all that scrappiness.

This quilt is getting worn too. 

A small heart could be appliqued over that hole. 

Or, I could make it all again.

When I found the quilts, they were stuffed in a basket on the floor of the closet,

or wadded up in the hall cupboard. I folded them and stuck them up on the shelf.

I think they look better this way.

The weather forecast had me spooked. I took all the pictures earlier this week when it was still nice. I didn't want to be battling cold, wind and snow.

Sure enough, the snow started this afternoon. Last time I checked 

we could get 5 inches.

Nice spring we are having here in north Iowa.