Next Quilt Show at YAC

The curator at the Yadkin Cultural Arts center called in a  panic...I need  a photo for the next quilt show.  Well I don't have any quilts collected yet, but thought I would hang Chocolate Chickens beside my Mom's Drunkards path (The theme is "Stitching Generations Together").  I was due in WS to meet my bee, and the qult stand was not cooperating with the slope of the ground...so Go Postal just drove a couple nails into the old pack house.  We tried to get Banjo to "pose" maybe peeking out the holde in the foundation, but once he drew blood I gave up on that idea.

The show will open Friday October 22nd, and I can't wait to see the quilts and write the stories behind them!

Weekend in the Mountains

Randy and Barbara gave us a night in a B&B up in Blowing Rock as a wedding gift and we were able to "redeem" that gift with them this weekend.  We dodged the rain and were able to hike from the Cone estate on the Blue Ridge Parkway down to Bass lake (you can see in the distance) and back.  It was a great time.

We then headed over to The River House just outside of Jefferson to spend Sunday night.  I had bought a Groupon to stay there and we were so impressed.  We didn't stay near the main house (which has a great restaurant and a wonderful front porch full of rocking chairs).  We stayed in the farm's original Chicken House.  It was unbelievable insde.  Long and skinny it has room for a King size bed, gas fireplace (with hen nesting boxes as a mantle), a jacuzzi tub right in the middle of the floor, and matching bathrooms with pocket doors complete with bidets (which I am sure I have spelled wrong and do not know how to operate).  We didn't get their in time for dinner, but did have dessert on the porch...a fresh apple tart with coconut ice cream....Yummy.  We strolled by the river, met Lady Bear (a cow dog that belongs to a groundskeeper) and just had a great evening.  The owner of this Inn also owns the Salem Tavern.  Breakfast was very good and we were told to look for another Groupon coming soon.  We will, because staying up here is a real treat.

A New Family for my House

Yeah, we signed a two year lease last night with a family moving up from Asheboro.  There is a four year old girl who is delighted with her new room upstairs, and I am glad there will be a family living in my house.  It was just too sad to see it standing empty.  And now I have a lot of help towards that mortgage each month. 

Now I am excited to get our new budgeting software set up...upon big recco's from Lila and Summer we are going to try YNAB (you need a budget).  Give every dollar a job....  Its time to start that travel fund for China.

Los Lonely Boys in Winston Salem

 Thanks to Salem Stitcher for the photos....I didn't even ask first but stole them from her Facebook page. 

We met up at the new Ziggy's last night for the Los Lonely Boys concert.  The new facility is great, my only complaint was it was too loud.  I know it sounds like I am getting old, but when the sound is too loud all the clear guitar riffs become distorted I think.  We sat stood upstairs along the rail (they took our chairs for the gold circle seating that cost another $20) but had a great view.

Henry(Lead Guitar), Ringo (Drums) and JoJo(Bass)  Three bothers from San Angelo Texas

I had teased all night that I was going to do whatever it took to get a pick....but Go Postal wasn't too worried, he knew I wouldn't really get down there with the other groupies dancing in front of the boys.  But as they played their biggest hit Heaven...Henry started tossing picks.  On the very last one he looked up at the balcony and we started yelling and waving our arms...and he flung it.  Surely it bouned back downstairs...but NO, there is was laying at Lisa's feet and I dove down for it.  Good thing she was a friend!!  Look how he had sawed off the tip playing so hard. Guess I won't be able to use it on my Mandolin but what a COOL momento of a great evening. 

Camping Near Tsali

Here are photos taken by Ken last weekend on our combo family/ski club trip to Tsali.  This is a wonderful place to mountain bike and we camped nearby at Turkey Creek campground (they have coffee for sale in the morning...no waiting on getting it from a camp stove!)

Pat and I just rode one lap on Saturday - 9 miles on Mouse

The guys didn't wait for us...they played on this drop a few times

 Not sure what happened to Go Potal here, he never crashes....but he went over the handlebars but luckily not into the lake....

 See how pretty these trails are, this is from left loop on Sunday overlooking Fontana Lake

 All that rode on Saturday.......

 Dinner after a day of riding is very important!!



Veggie Pakcets and Pork Chops for Dinner



Homeade Ice Cream





McKinley learning the Jelly Fish from Ken




After two nights in the woods!

 

And a stop on the way home at Jimmy Macks for the burgers raved about in Our State!  They didn't dissapoint.

The only bad part of the trip....I forgot our sleeping bags and pillow.  We realized it about Asheville so we stopped and bought four cheap Fleece throws...4 for $12.  You get what you pay for we about froze.  Luckily Kim and Jared broght us sleeping bags for Saturday night or I would have been looking for a motel.

5 days and 9 States!

We had a great roadtrip.  We left at lunch Wednesday and got to Nashville in time to catch the last show at the Bluebird Cafe.  It is a small venue, but what a treat....we heard four songwriters (one was only 17 and could very well be the next Taylor Swift)  One had written "I love the way you love me" for her wedding, one guy had written Fishin in the Dark, and on and on.  Mike would be at a place like this every weekend if we lived closer to Nashville!  The next morning it was off to Paducah.  I was on a hunt for more Mustard fabric...and it was so funny to me that Hancocks sits right behind a liquor store....is this for the husbands that can't take any more fabric shopping?  We toured the AQS museum (no pictures allowed) and hit two more quilt shops.  I made a pretty good haul, picking up lots of kids fabrics too for nap blankets and baby quilts.  I have to say it was a great shop but Mary Jo's prices are better.  They were cutting orders like crazy and one of the clerks said that probably 60-75% of their business is now online/catalouge orders.

I got nine yards of this mustard fabric with ketchup colored fish bones.  It will be the backing for this new quilt which I am making BIG to fit our bed.  After a mexican dinner and night near the river in Paducah we headed over to St Louis.  I had 11am tickets reserved to take the tram to the top.  You got into these little capsules that only held 5 people at a time and started up the arch.  It was a little like riding a ferris wheel, quite an engineering feat for the mid 1960's,

The purpose of our trip was to visit GP's cousin Johnny.  They were very close growing up and he now lives in Kansas City with his family.  Their son is a freshman at Kansas so we went to the game, he was awarded a scholarship for Petroleum Engineering and was part of a group honored at halftime. 

And we saw a Trader Joes near their house so as we took off Sunday afternoon we stopped in to stock up....we love their cereal, nuts, olive oil, marina, low sugar jelly....and much more.  Hopefully we will get one in the triad area soon.  Its great quality and value!

Then as we mapped our route home we decided to go through Lexington Ky and I realized being a holiday weekend my Aunt and Uncle would probably be at their vacation spot in Augusta.  So sure enough we  contacted them and decided to have lunch.  They live in Colombus, Oh and we haven't seen them since the wedding.  This is my Mom's little sister and it was fun to see them even for a short time.

Then back to NC through the rain bands of tropical storm Lee.  Banjo was very happy to see us.  So if I counted right.....NC, TN, KY, MO, KS, IN, IL, WV, VA.  We would have been in Ohio if we had had time to take this free ferry across the Ohio river here in the background!  Now we are cleaning up the Civic and selling it, able to tell prospective buyers it just had no issues on our trip and got about 35-37 mpg!