Easter Greetings

May you have a bright and joyful Easter and after all the festivities ~ a little time for sewing!

Happy Thanksgiving

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
~ Melody Beattie

A friend sent me this quote which I think epitomizes the essence of the holiday so I thought I'd share it with you. I hope you, your family and friends have a happy, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving.

The Art of Procrastination

As you've no doubt guessed by now, I am a terrible procrastinator, or should I say terrific one as I am quite successful at it. First it took me two weeks to even get my pictures on my computer. I had been in Russia about three days when I noticed a black speck through my viewfinder and panicked. What to do! I have a really nice camera (God knows why as I certainly am not smart enough to know how to use it) but was clueless about what could be done about this speck. I eneded up taking the lens off and finding a white piece of something on the mirror thingy inside. Took a Q-tip and got rid of that. Anyway, I was intimidated by the whole idea that all 1050 pictures I took were going to have a black speck. Turned out offending speck did not show up in the pictures.

We flew to Charlotte, then arrived Munich about 8 a.m., and a few hours later to St. Petersburg, Russia. This is our ship as we cruised down the Svir River to the Volga River onto Moscow.

We spent about five days in St. Petersburg. This is the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood.

This man had a bear cub on a leash and was inviting people to take pictures.

Street scene surrounding the church.

St. Petersburg was built on marshy land and has many canals. It's known as "the Venice of the north". The sun doesn't set until very late in the summer due to the geography of the city. It was very odd coming out of the ballet at 10:30 and being just as bright as 3:00 in the afternoon!

These are the massive columns supporting St. Issac's Cathedral made of a single piece of red granite.

I was just blown away by the beauty in these cathedrals. This is looking up at the interior of the dome.

A closeup of a mosaic. Such workmanship. We saw so many cathedrals most so old and beautifully ornate but rarely used by parishioners as church attendance is very low, around five per cent, a holdover from Soviet times.

Lastly, apartments with a man who looked to be nude while he was cleaning his windows! Maybe a bit too much of vodka or vivid imaginations on our part! He's in the center of the picture.

New Book

Wish I could say I've been sewing but this is as close as I've got. This is the new book by the mother/daughter team of Pam and Nicky Lintott. Their first book was just great so I bought this one from Amazon sight unseen, so far I do not think it is going to disappoint.

This one from the book is called Damask Rose, so pretty and feminine. Just one jelly roll, four fat quarters and fabric for binding.

This is another winner, Hidden Stars. I made this one year using Christmas fabrics and a starry-beige for the stars. All in all, there are eighteen projects in the books using jelly rolls, layer cakes and/or charm squares.

This is what has been occupying my free time, getting ready for a vacation. I keep second guessing what to bring for weather so different from here (Florida). And to compound the problem, we are flying a local airline (once we get to where we are going) that puts strict weight restrictions on all luggage. Don't you just hate that when you get somewhere and you ended up leaving something out you should have brought?
Well, decisions must be made as we leave tomorrow. Be sure to come back the end of July as I plan on having a giveaway, maybe with something from our vacation to Russia.

Chincoteague Island

Last stop before driving back to Richmond was Chincoteague Island. This area was made famous years ago by the children's book, Misty of Chincoteague and of course by the Chincoteague Pony Swim.

There's a statue of Misty in Chincoteague.

We stayed near the Bed and Breakfast where Margarite Henry wrote her novel.



The stores seem to have unusual hours!

The seashore was just beautiful. It has been left in its natural state and was very uncrowded.

Here's the Assateague Island Lighthouse. The mosquitoes were unbelievable even with insect repellent on.

There are herds of wild ponies living in the marshes surrounding the seashore. We stumbled upon this mare with her baby.

And more while at the marshes. We were hoping to see them on the beaches but no luck there.

This guy blocked the road for a while and someone was actually petting his head although you are admonished not to as they can bite and kick.

We were stopped for a while to allow these geese to cross. The large white one on the right stood in the middle of the road and honked for a good five minutes encouraging her babies refused to follow!

We saw a number of landscape painters.

Favorite daughter again!

I think the lighting was just right to catch this guy. Talk about blending in with your surroundings!

One last picture before we left.

Quilter's Block

My apologies for lack of posts, but I've been busy! And it hasn't been with quilting. My sewing room is beginning to gather dust. It has been weeks and weeks since I stepped foot in it. I have been busy catching up with laundry, gardening, doctor's appointments, eye exams, haircuts, etc.
We returned home last Sunday after a most enjoyable trip to Virginia. The weather was just lovely and a nice break from the intense humidity and heat here in Florida.

After visiting with a friend in Charlottesville, it was on to Monticello. I had been once before back in second grade. The grounds were beautiful, all abloom. The house was smaller than I remembered. No pictures were allowed inside the house.

Here's a picture of The Best Daughter in the World next to a life size statue of TJ!

Then it was onto James Madison's home, Montpelier. This was a big disappointment. They are in the midst of a decades long restoration and the house is unfurnished. We couldn't figure out why they didn't just furnish it with reproduction furniture. Apparently they are trying to track down the actual furniture and buy it back. It was neat though, walking the same floors that many of the Founding Fathers also walked on.

We visited Madison's grave though the cemetery was poorly maintained.

James Monroe's home was next. No interior pictures allowed here either. We saw the back door that Jefferson used and the bed Madison slept in when he visited. It was the smallest,and coziest, of the three homes we visited.




Then it was down to Colonial Williamsburg. I had never been but have wanted to go for years. What a disappointment! I had a problem with the stores interspersed among the historical buildings, just too darn many of them.

The craft demonstrations were nice. And my daughter got to fulfill a long desire and play an actual harpsichord in the cabinetmaker's shop one rainy afternoon.
Next post I'll finish up with our last stop and hopefully get back to quilting. I'll leave you with recent pictures of the Sandhill Crane chick.


Thanks for stopping by!

Garden Walk

More pictures of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Here's a view approaching the Climatron.

And the reflecting pool filled with more vividly colored Chihuly glass sculptures, walla walla onions. They are loosely tethered and gracefully laze about the water.

The colors are so intense it's hard to choose a favorite.


Here's one of the two waterfalls inside.

The conditions mimic a tropical rainforest with 1200 species of plants.


A Barbary Dove which allowed us to get ridiculously close for a picture.
The garden was such a pleasant surprise, I highly recommend visiting if you are ever in St. Louis.
I'll leave you with a quote from Dale Chihuly that I like, "I can't understand it when people say they don't like a particular color. How on earth can you not like a color?"
Next time, pictures from a quilt exhibition. Thanks for visiting.

Return Trip

We arrived home several days ago and have been busy unpacking and settling in. It was certainly easier moving in than moving out. The college had provided lots of volunteers back in August, which came in handy as my daughter was on the fourth floor of a dorm with no elevator. Move out was another story, 42 steps up and 42 steps down, not to mention the walk to the car. But it's done and here's the empty closet room.

This is a 12 foot bronze statue on Washington University in St Louis' campus, Thinker on Rock. I always visit it when I'm on the campus.

After 2 days of packing, sorting, and meeting professors, it was off to the Missouri Botanical Garden. We had beautiful weather and the gardens did not disappoint.

When I lived in Memphis in the mid to late 90s a friend introduced me to the work of Dale Chihuly. He is a art glass sculptor extraordinaire. As you enter the Gardens, there is a huge glass sculpture hanging in the lobby. It's just spectacular.

Little did we know we'd encounter more of his art later.

Here's the greenhouse.

A fountain in the Asian gardens.

And just flowers everywhere.

The iris garden was just breathtaking. There were over 1,000 different types and almost all were in bloom.

This is one of my favorites.



The Japanese Maples were witness to that gardening adage, If you have room for only one tree, make it a Japanese Maple. The foliage was something to see.

More Chihuly glass showed up in the Climatron. The Climatron is a geodesic dome with a tropical rainforest recreated within complete with birds and waterfalls.
More pictures and Chihuly glass next time~ thanks for stopping by!