Happy, happy, happy

Three things to be happy about:
(1) a new toothbrush
(2) shopping at the dollar store
(3) caller ID

In June I spent a week at "the happiest place on Earth" with my sister, her son and three grandkids.

The weather was hot, hot, hot, except when it rained - then it was hot, hot and steamy!

I have no earthly idea who this blue character is, but the kids knew him and were over the moon at getting his autograph (such as it was).  

At ages 10 and 5 (twins), they had a ball!  They had absolutely no idea they were going to Disney World until that morning when they were about to leave for the airport.  My sister flew down to Atlanta to get them, and they thought they were going to have a "hotel vacation" with her for a few days.

I swanee, they were marching all over those parks without breaking a sweat - I was dragging after the third day!

We stayed at a villa in the Sheraton Vistana Villages in Orlando.

It was a very nice place with full accommodations, a golf cart for transportation if you wanted it (I did, lazy girl!), a little grocery store and a daily shuttle to the theme park.

A happy trip that the kids will remember!

One of my favorite things from Costco popped back up on the shelves recently - happy dance!

I love Penguin cornbread mix, and the box I bought last December ran out long before I was ready for it to.  I couldn't find it at Costco or any other store, so I went to the Penguin website and they had it listed in their store - but it was sold out!  When I emailed them I found out they make it exclusively for Costco, and only when Costco places the order in September; if there's any left over they offer it for sale on their website.

So, since late September I've been haunting the ready-mix aisle in Costco and finally it paid off - I got two boxes this time!  The use-by date is 2018 so I know it won't go bad.  Happy, happy!

Another little happy - my entire body was smiling at the movies yesterday.  See those happy feet reclining on that soft leather footrest?  A couple friends and I went to see Girl on the Train yesterday at the AMC theater in Wheaton Plaza.  The theater was renovated and has only been open about 3 weeks, and the reclining roomy seats were a pleasant surprise!  We even had to "reserve" our seats when we bought the tickets - go figure!

That's almost enough to keep me grinning all day - well, maybe not.  Today there will be a little sorting of fabric and a bit of sewing.  Whatever you do, enjoy your day; sew forth and sew on til later...

Belize and Cozumel

Three things to be happy about:
(1) a piggy bank
(2) t-shirts with a message
(3) reading upside down

Thursday was our day in Belize!  The ship docked a few miles offshore and we reached land by tender, about 15 minutes away.

Here's an eye opener:  I somehow thought Belize was an island, a part of Mexico, but it isn't - it's actually a peninsular and a country in it's own rights!  In Belize, English is considered to be the official language; it was a British colony until 1981.  Many people also speak Creole among family members.

What's a trip to Belize without chocolate!!

We visited the Moho chocolate factory in the tourism village, where chocolate from organic cacao beans is made and packaged right on the premises.

They offered samples of chocolate flavored with chili (hot!), ginger (hot!), almonds (yummy!), Belizean coffee, salt and lime (I wasn't that curious!), peanut butter, and coconut.

Friday morning we docked in Cozumel alongside the Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas...

They were looking at us with binoculars - and so were we!



Our tour that day was to the Mayan ruins, arranged through the ship...  

Our guide explained that these particular structures had been devastated by an explorer who was looking for treasures, using dynamite, which virtually leveled every structure to the ground before he was stopped.

I was fascinated by this tree, this very old tree!

Hundreds of years old, its roots have grown around, under, over and through the stones of the structure.

It's almost sad when you visit an artifact and all that's left are piles of stones in a national park.  You have to rely on tourist info and your imagination to know what it was like before.  Great tour though - we had a 20 minute stop at a beach before heading back to the ship.

My sister Michelle, Renea, and her daughter Megan

bye Cozumel!

Sunday morning, right back where we started!  

One last cuppa in the Windjammer before departing the ship for the airport!

I had a great time on the cruise!  The tribute to the Temptations, Ice Dancin', the ice cream machines, people watching, music on the Promenade (one night I was humming along to "Allllll my exes live in Texas...." - sheesh!), big coconut (and lemon, and oatmeal and chocolate chip!) cookies in the cafe, window shopping in those expensive shops, the casino, movies on the big screen... sew forth and sew on!

Quilter's cruise!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) pure vanilla
(2) sales receipts
(3) dinner and a movie

Lovely, lovely time on the quilter's cruise last week!

We sailed from Galveston, Texas on Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas - you always knew the day of the week because they changed this piece of carpet in the elevator daily.

I loved exploring the ship; this is a view looking down part of the Grand Promenade on deck 5.  It was just like being inside a large mall!

Look up... and up... and up!  Elevator lobbies on decks 7 through 11 - impressive!



On Monday and Tuesday we had our classes while the ship sailed through partly stormy seas.  Fortunately the foul weather they were predicting before we left, didn't affect us too too much!

Rough sea on Tuesday though - ask my tummy how I know!
Monday and Tuesday we had four half-day classes - Pam Holland showed us how she gets dimension in appliqued pieces to make them more interesting...

Pam Holland

 Kim Diehl taught a wool project...

Kim Diehl

It was a lovely piece and she does beautiful work, but I don't think wool is my thing right now.  The other classes were an embroidery class by Catherine Redford and a quilt by Bonnie Hunter (no pics!), with quick projects and lectures in the evenings.

First day in port - Roatan, Honduras!  The ship was welcomed by this group of dancers...

musicians at the port 

The locals are always glad to see cruise ships come in because they depend so much on our money. 

We opted for a tour of the island by one of the tour guides on the pier; he took us around the city, up in the mountains to the highest point of the island...

I thought I'd try a fresh coconut milk...

It was good!  I just now noticed the dribble from the shell, LOL.  He ran out of straws.

Our guide told us there is no welfare in Honduras; basically if you don't work, you don't eat unless someone brings you food.  If you get sick and can't afford the hospital, you can literally die from an illness that in the US can easily be treated with our readily available medicines.

What's in a word?

In Roatan we were looking for a "drug store" (can you say "CVS"?) and were directed to a farmacia.  Well, surprise - they only had pharmaceuticals!  No shower caps or mouth wash.

I got some great quilt seeds, though...

After our two hour tour, we scuttled back onboard the Navigator for lunch at our favorite lunch spot, the buffet at the Windjammer!

Then we lounged around the pool til dinner...

ahhhh, a cruise.....

That's all for now, I'll try to compress the remainder of the cruise into one more post!  Sew forth and sew on til later!

International quilt festival

Three things to be happy about:
(1) going on vacation
(2) being waited on 24/7
(3) coming home to your own bed

Hello everybody, I'm baaaack!  Thanks for visiting and being patient!  This posting is later than I meant it to be, both clock-wise and the day of the week - I intended to post something on Monday about the Houston quilt show.

Anniversary t-shirt and tote bag!

The show was just grand!

What were you doing in 1974??  Founder Karey Bresenhan was having a light-bulb moment which became the Houston International Quilt Festival - 40 years strong!

Since this was the ruby jubilee version, a lot of focus was on red and white quilts, and that's what I'll share with you this afternoon...

If anyone saw the exhibit of Mrs. Rose's red and white quilts in New York a couple years ago, you'll remember how impressive the circular display was.  They followed the same format for most of the quilts in this display:

The placement of lights interfered a bit, so there were a lot of the red and white quilts I couldn't photograph, but I wanted to share these two:

Two members of my guild submitted quilts for this very impressive red and white display!

Looking good!  This shot was taken through a window on the second level...

There were lots and LOTS of quilts displayed that we were asked not to photograph, either because of copyright issues or they were antiques.  But I got a few of the others that I want to share with you - tomorrow!

Stay tuned, more good stuff to come - sew forth and sew on til then!

Home again!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) Joshua trees in the desert
(2) an enormous lunch
(3) getting over jet lag

Well, I'm back from my trip to Las Vegas, and I have to say the most impressive part of my vacation was our trip to the West Rim (as opposed to the South Rim) of the Grand Canyon!

I was waaaaay back from the edge when I took this shot, but you can still see how majestic the Canyon is - words just can't describe it!  What looks like trees in the distance?  It's all rock!

We visited the Hualapai Ranch where they offered horse rides, covered wagon rides, etc., but our best view of the Canyon was from Eagle Point, which is 4000 feet above the Colorado River.

We saw Native performers at the Eagle Point Amphitheater who performed a prayer dance.  I found it interesting that the men danced in the middle, while the ladies walked sedately in a counter-clockwise circle around them.

As we posed for a picture I asked one of the ladies what was the significance of their position but I don't think she understood what I was trying to ask.  Either that, or she was tired of tourists asking the same stupid questions every day, every single time they did the same dance in those hot costumes in all that heat.

Whatever...

On the way to the Canyon we stopped at the Hoover Dam for a few minutes since we were passing close to it.  I took this shot from the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge that was built in 2010, spanning the Colorado River and connecting Arizona and Nevada - now I can add Arizona as a state visited!

During our bus ride there was a really good taped presentation about Las Vegas, the Canyon and the Dam, the history surrounding its construction.  You are allowed free access to the bridge, but tours inside the Dam go through a security check (thanks LizA!).

On Monday we went to Television City at the MGM Grand, where we got a chance to preview and rate a new tv sitcom that will premier this fall, "The McCafferty's" (I hope I spelled it right).

A group of us were taken to a small studio where we saw very brief trailers of 5 different shows; I hadn't heard of any of them, but The McCafferty's is the pilot they showed us.  It's about a manipulative mother, basketball coach father; three sons (one gay) and a daughter all adult but living close to each other in the same Boston neighborhood.

In my opinion, it's just another sitcom that the world could probably do without, but hey - stay tuned for it this fall!  You might like it - a lady in the row behind me was cracking up the whole time.

Another thing I absolutely loved was the nightly volcano show at The Mirage!

They had shows every half hour between 8 pm and midnight - the picture on the right was taken at 8 pm.  Our room on the 27th floor at Harrah's had the perfect view, I think it was probably better than at street level.

There would be a groaning whump-whump-whump-whump-whump sound, then the coals would light up atop the volcano, then you'd hear music and a rhythmic drum beat!

The picture at the left was taken at a later eruption, to show how impressive the fire and lights were after dark.

Water and fire erupted from the sides and top of the volcano - what a sight!

The finale included a large gush of fire from the side, and little jets of fire representing hot coals rushing down towards the plaza.

Of course we visited Fremont Street after dark; what can I say about Fremont Street... nuff said!

I think this year there were even more animated statues and super heroes/villians on the strip than I've seen before.  On Fremont Street there was a "snake man" who did all kinds of contortions, and stuffed himself into an 18" box as a finale.  I started not to post this picture because the full length of Fremont Street is covered by a canopy of lights showing animated music videos, and it's impossible to get a good shot, but here it is...

trust me, he got all the way down into that box - and closed the lid!

We were there for a week and had a wonderful time!  OMG, the food at the Rio!  Michelle had a platinum card and it felt great bypassing the long line for the buffet - and, they served us free champagne! But... it's always good getting back home, isn't it?  

My sister Michelle, friend Sandy and me at Flamingo Hotel.

Sew forth and sew on til later!