A Mini Vacation!

We went to SC last weekend to visit our friends Debbie & Bob from Fox Trot Farms. They raise Dorper/Katahdin Sheep. They have also chickens, honey bees & goats as well as many dogs & cats. I have been to their place many times but this was a first for Greg.

We got there Friday afternoon & toured the farm then had a nice relaxing evening with a simple meal of delicious bean & pasta soup & crackers. Sat outside & talked for a while but made it an early evening.

Saturday, after the menfolk fed & watered the animals we had a late brunch of homemade biscuits & sausage gravy, delicious! We went to a consignment shop & then Debbie started preparing things for dinner.

There were about 15 people coming for chili (with all the fixins) & cornbread before heading over to the Homeplace Bed & Breakfast for an open house & to attend the Bethlehem Marketplace. It is a play that the family puts on every Christmas season. Their are 33 rooms in the mansion, 33 Christmas trees are put up & this year they have 33 grandchildren! They act out the play 3 times on Saturday night. You start by following Joseph & Mary trying to find a room & then finally wind up at the stable which is actually the family's very large beautiful barn complete with blacksmiths, vendors selling cloth & herbs, horses, cows, etc. All the family gets in on the act, playing the parts of Mary, Joseph, Jesus, Angels, etc. An orator tells the story of the birth of Jesus Christ, to his execution, his resurrection & then of him coming back one day. The singing was beautiful & overall it was very well done. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

They then served refreshments in the banquet hall, which is where we hold our quilting retreats that I posted about back in March - 2015 Quilt Retreat.

Several people went back to Debbie & Bob's for some after dinner wine & drinks.With a very diverse group of people, the stories were all over the place but I can honestly tell you that we haven't laughed that hard in a while. We stayed up telling stores until after 11:00p, late for us!

Not one single picture was taken, just wasn't in the mood. Debbie & Bob are gracious hosts, food was delicious & we had a great time! Greg loved seeing how they have things set up & got some great ideas for when we finally/eventually/can't come quick enough, move to the Country!

Of course Debbie sent us home with biscuits, cornbread, chicken chili, red chili & various other gifts. Greg ate biscuits for lunch & the chili will be heated up Wednesday night as I am preparing for Thanksgiving in the Country.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday this week ... Happy Thanksgiving!

Note: Historically, I can't make biscuits for anything but after watching Debbie make them, I think I am going to try my hand at them this weekend. Mine usually turn out a lot like hockey pucks .... we'll see.

I Visited a Cemetery & Saw an Elephant

While at the Expo last month I had some business "in town" to attend to. On the way back I stopped at a cemetery.

It was loaded with many Civil War graves.Some elaborate & well maintained ...

Others, not so much ...

But what made me go there in the first place was this ...

It is a memorial for a man named William F. Duggan who was born in the town. He ran away from home as a boy & joined the circus where he fed & watered elephants. It was his life long dream to be a circus owner. He finally got the chance a few years later. He bought an animal exhibit & was in the processs of turning it into a 3 ring circus when he died of a heart attack while wintering in Florida.

His son had this monument made to go on his grave. It is a replica of his favorite baby elephant - Nancy. Legend has it (according to a granddaughter) that the elephant followed him to the hospital the day he died. The detail is exquisite.

You can see it from the road. The cemetery is behind a church that sits almost directly across from a funeral home where I have attended many viewings but never looked across the street. Who knew?

I can't tell you how eerie it was to be in that cemetery all alone, especially standing right in front of that elephant. I kept expecting it to made that elephant sound. I didn't stay long ....

I Got My Dining Room Back!

Even though I didn't take a pic just imagine ... on my dining room table .... sewing machine, thread box, extra parts for machine, scissors, seam ripper, bits & pieces of material, quilt patterns & a whole host of other things, plus unfinished projects draped across each of the chair backs.

I have a workout room in my house in the city. It held a treadmill & yoga stuff. The treadmill hadn't been used in quite some time. It was a very nice one but when I looked on Craig's List there were 15 or so listed so I gave it away to a former co-worker instead of listing it & then waiting for it to sell. I had a project in mind ... a sewing table!

I now have a sewing room!

The opposite side of the room.

Got filing cabinets & chair from work. Greg bought & cut a 3/4" piece of plywood 34" x 8'. I had an old picnic tablecloth that fit it perfectly. We attached it w/spray adhesive & stapled to the bottom.

I still have plenty of room for stretching & doing my little exercise routine. The top bin is empty & the other two contain my less than desirable fabrics & my work shirts waiting to be turned into more of these:

One end looking onto courtyard. Door to right is to back porch.

Grow light stand/storage shelving. The other end is just a closet wall.

I found that I had enough room to the left of the sewing machine to hold a mini ironing board.This was made with leftover plywood, some batting & an old pillowcase. I don't have to set up the big ironing board for pressing those small quilt pieces. It's 9" x 26". Here's how I made it.

Board, batting cut just a bit bigger than board so it wraps the edges & pillowcase.

Place batting on top, flip over, then start stapling pillowcase to back.

Simple letter fold & staples.

Viola. a mini ironing board!

That empty bin in the above photo used to contain what is now in 2 of the drawers!

Some of my reproduction fabrics.

Solids, misc, Fall & Christmas.

One other drawer contains patterns, books & my unfinished projects & the last one contains extra supplies like batting & large background material.

Now I can invite friends over for supper & we have a place to sit & eat. I am a happy girl!