Surprise Vacation

Nothings more fun than a vacation......except maybe planning and pulling off a surprise one! :)

Which is what I did for my hubby's birthday this year. I managed to keep him in the dark about where we were going and what we'd be doing! Woo hoo!

Our destination was Portland.....for their International Beer Festival. My man loves his brews and I knew he'd enjoy a time of sampling. They gave you these little glasses and 15 tickets. Since I hate the stuff (though, I did try some...really I did....still icky!) he got my tickets. Then you go about sampling from over a hundred different beers. I stuck with water.....and eating.....and watching thousands of people. It was like being in a very huge bar.

After a couple of days in Portland we took off for the Oregon coast. Dennis hadn't been there since he was 10 and I never had. We stopped at Fort Clatsop for a little history. Then Seaside for time in the sun. I can't believe how few people were on the beach.


This was our B&B for our coast time. The Arch Cape Inn. Our room was at the top of that round tower. This is a beautiful place...with wonderful service....and incredible gourmet food. We weren't on the beach but we could see it from our room and it was just a 3 minute walk.

Cannon Beach icon. Another nice day for shopping and beach walking.
There were lots of birds nesting on the rocks...even Puffins (which we didn't see).



Hiking in Ecola State Park. Loved this place. I could have stayed here all day.

We headed to Tillamook for the day. Had to tour the factory, of course. Then spent time in Oceanside and went to the Cape Meares Lighthouse.

The Oregon Coast is on our list of places to revisit.....even Portland. We had a great time and were sorry to see it end. Hummmm......wonder where I want to plan a surprise for next?

ABC Wednesday

Z is for Zumba

Tink and I took a Zumba class last year at a Red Hat convention....which means it was beginner....and geared towards those over 50.....which we are not....over 50 I mean. Zumba is an aerobic exercise that uses Latin dance moves to keep it fun and energetic. And energetic is an understatement. I was sweating and tired by the end.....of the beginner class for over 50's! LOL! But it was a blast and I loved it. They do offer some Zumba classes in my area but it cost more than I wanted to pay to exercise. Another one of those "some day" things in my brain.

Round 4 of ABC Wednesday is over. I won't be doing another round but if you want to keep up with others who are or join yourself, keep a watch at the ABC Wednesday site.

Impulse Buying

This was today's impulse buy at Costco! I've actually wanted a Wii for a few months now. What I really want is the Wii Fitness....particularly so I can try the yoga part. But you can't use the Fitness without the regular console. And since it's a costly toy....its the console first and later the Fitness part. At Costco the console is bundled with Sports. Hubby and I had fun bowling (I kicked his you know what!) and playing tennis (which we both sucked at). Then I worked in the training mode at tennis and boxing....worked up a sweat. Then we tried the "fitness" part of Sports....they test you in three sports to see your Wii age. I was 68, hubby was 54! Ha, ha, ha. Guess what I'll be working on? Can't let him win! ;)

Feet Friday

My fellow Leavenworth quilt retreaters graciously let me take a picture of their feet for my blog. Thanks ladies! And thanks Mary for reminding me!

ABC Wednesday

Y is for Yoga


A couple years ago when Tink and I were working out at a local gym we decided to try the yoga class they offered. Figured it would be good to get some flexibility in this aging body. Man oh man was it hard! The first class totally kicked my a**! We were brave and kept going back, determined to get better. I bought a book to practice at home. Bought a couple of DVD’s for the same purpose. The gym ended up changing the time of the class to evenings and I hate going out at night……..and don’t need much of an excuse to not exercise…….so that was the end of yoga classes for me.

I tried to continue working out at home with my favorite yoga DVD called “Yoga Prayer” but I’m just not disciplined enough. I’d put the tape in and end up just listening to the pretty background music! Tried again when my doctor told me to take up yoga or Pilates for my back (I have scoliosis)…..but problem was I am still me…no discipline. So maybe one day I’ll find the perfect class, at the perfect time, for the perfect cost and be able to take up yoga once again.

Round 4 of ABC Wednesday is just about over, be sure to check out more Y entries.

Design Wall Monday - Faiths Quilt

Judy Laquidara over at Patchwork Times does a meme called "What's on your design wall" every Monday. I think its been going on for 6 weeks or so. It's not a good meme for me since my design wall doesn't change weekly....or monthly.....and some times not for a very long time! But I just put up these blocks...aren't they happy fabrics and oh so summery? I thought it would be a bit of
shamingaccountability for me to share it with you and then see how long I procrastinate at finishing. LOL!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I know its a bit self-serving to write a post about ones own birthday....but I thought my family would enjoy seeing some old pictures. :)

48 years ago...cute as a button with a great smile, if I say so myself:

This is me at 5. Wassup with the hair, Mom? Such grownup hair on a five year old. :) I remember very fondly getting to have my hair up in curlers. I would have had my Mom do it every night if I could have convinced her. Dunno what's with the fake smile....must not have liked the photographer.

This is my 7th birthday....with my precious presents. See that tiny cash register on the left? That's a bank and I still have it. I loved putting coins in that thing and pushing the lever down and seeing my new total. The bank would only open at $10 increments. So sometimes when I wanted the money badly my parents would have to put quarters in till it hit $10. It sits empty of money now...on our dresser...but full of memories.


This is me on my 9th birthday. And this really is how I remember birthdays......on vacation. The trouble with a July 2 birthday is vacation time! Seems like we were always on vacation when my birthday hit....which meant no big parties with all your school friends and all those presents they'd bring. I would be so jealous of my brother (October baby) who'd have his whole class over. Poor me! LOL!
Looks like I may have started my love of purses at this age.

Time to dig out some more pictures and reminisce.

ABC Wednesday

X is for Xylophone

I think this is one of only two "x" words I could think of.....x-ray being the other.....and this one actually is a hobby for some! While we all played with a xylophone as a toy as a toddler no one in our family continued or even dabbled with this instrument as a hobby....thus I really don't have much to say about it. Hee, hee.

Check other blogs to see what folks came up with for X.

Feet Friday

Putting my feet up after working at the quilt store all day.....and enjoying the new fabric I *had* to buy! :)

ABC Wednesday

W is for Wood Carving

Years ago we had one of the cedar trees taken down (too close to the house). I was leading a 4H group at the time and one little girl's parents were both principals at local schools. Her Dad asked us if we'd donate the tree to his school and we said yes. I don't remember now if it was for a class project or a school-wide project....I think it was school-wide. Anyhoo!

A woodcarver changed our tree into a Native American looking whale. It's really neat!

We are nearly done with the alphabet. Be sure to check out more blogs.

Happy 26th!

Happy Birthday, Dan. You bring pride, delight and laughter to this Mom's heart. Love ya!

Feet Friday

Stopped and smelled the roses!

ABC Wednesday

V is for Vampires

Yes, Vampires are a hobby for many. If you don't believe it, just google something like "vampire blogs" and see what you find. And it's not just young girls in love with Edward! :)

I remember being fascinated with vampires when I was young....but I don't remember why or what sparked the interest. I tend to watch vampire movies even if I have to turn them off halfway cuz their too gory. My favorite is actually a miniseries that the BBC showed called "Ultraviolet"....loved that one. Twilight (yes, I saw it!) wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. I still don't get the hype...and yes, I've read all the books.

When searching for a vampire image I found this one from Underworld (another vampire movie I liked):

It's not a classic vampire picture.....but doesn't she look great? I want an outfit like that! And she looks tough....an "I can kick your ass" kind of look! This image got me thinking about another female actress from another movie I loved. Trinity from The Matrix:

And one of my all time favorites.....Sarah from Terminator 2:

Hummmm.....I see a trend! It's my fantasy self showing. Shhhh....don't tell. :)

Check out other ABC Wednesday blogs here.

Learning Curves

I don't know what the learning curve would be to becoming good on a long arm machine but I do know I'm not there yet! :) It's kinda hard when you don't own the machine you are trying to learn to use and it cost you money to rent one to practice on. Learning takes time....mistakes take more time....and time is money. Yesterday I went to quilt this beautiful top that was made for me by a friend (also named Cindy) in a swap I did last year. I decided to try an pantograph design with curves since I'm the worst at doing that. You can see the design I was following below:

The first half of each row looks the worst (my curves are flat topped) but by the end of the pass I do pretty good. See....this looks good, right?

But yesterday was not a good day for me and machine quilting. I stitched an entire pass before I noticed my bobbin thread had run out....so had to go back and do it over.....learning I better look up once in a while! My learning curve on that was non-existent cuz 2 passes later I find that the top thread had broke and I had to do another pass all over again. Jeepers, Cindy! The kicker was at the end when I noticed my backing fabric was too short! What? I'm always so careful....what the heck?.....where was my brain? Look....only 3 inches!!!! Another mistake that costs time.

I was so mad at myself! Sigh. I will have to go back next week (after I sew a strip to the back to make it the correct length) and finish. More money. At this rate I could have paid someone to do it for cheaper than it's gonna cost me.

If only I had my own long arm............if........! :)

ABC Wednesday

U is for uh......?

I've been dreading the end of the alphabet. So far, I've been able to highlight hobbies that we do or dabble in or at the very least have a friend who does. But I've pretty much run out of ideas. ;)

I had to ask around to even come up with some possibilities for "U".

UFO's?

Unicycles?

Underwater caving?

How 'bout you? Any "U" hobbies you come up with?

For more ABC Wednesday posts, go here.

Small Things

I haven't gotten back in the swing of things, quilt-wise, since coming back from the cruise....but have done a couple of small things. First are these really fun blocks made for a monthly swap I'm in (I've blogged about this before. You can click on swaps in my categories section to the right to see other blocks I've made for gals in the group). The block is called "Magic Circle" and is from Sally Schneider's book, "Scrap Frenzy". I don't have this book and I think its out of print....probably can still find it via Amazon or eBay. I love the illusion of circles you get with all straight piecing.

And today I did some of my applique while visiting with my friend, Tink. I have a really long ways to go with this quilt! Baby steps, right? :)

Feet Friday

Napping together on the cruise!

ABC Wednesday

T is for Theatre

Hubby and I met in high school via the speech team. I followed him around like a love sick puppy! And since he was in the drama club I had to join that too! My only drama background...if you can even call it that....was playing Lucy in "A Charlie Brown Christmas" in the third grade. Nonetheless, love is fearless, so I followed him into drama. Our first play together was called "The Imaginary Invalid"...in which I just played a servant girl who had to walk on stage carrying a tray of drinks and stand there...absolutely NO lines....but I was terrified anyway. Hubby is the exact opposite. He loved acting and did it till we had kids. Drama club did mean one other fun thing --- a senior trip to New York City where my love of musicals was born. My favorite one we saw? A Chorus Line!

I actually got to see it again a few years ago and it was interesting how differently I saw the show as a woman in her 40's than I did at 17.

We have maintained our love of theatre and once our kids were grown we got season tickets to Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre. The last show we saw was Grease. Now we wait for a new season to open in the fall.

This is another hobby I expect we'll keep doing for quite a while.

Check out other ABC Wednesday fun.

Cruising

We are back from our first cruise. I -- we -- loved it! It's definitely something we would do again.

Here we are on board as we are leaving Seattle....already getting our first taste of free food and relaxation! It was a gorgeous day in the Northwest....but it would be the last of clear blue skies until we returned.

The porthole view from our room:

Glaciers were the theme to our sight seeing. We visited 3 of them. First (on the left) was Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau. It rained like crazy that day but it was still beautiful. Second (middle) was Davidson Glacier on our day in Skagway.....via a great excursion that I'll tell ya about in a minute. Last (right) was Margerie Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park. This glacier is humongous! The picture just doesn't do it justice. It makes the other two look itty-bitty. I think they said it is 250 feet high with another 100 feet under water. We got to see lots of pieces break off and fall...including that big "tower" on the top right (if you click to enlarge). Spectacular!


This is us in all our gear on the excursion to Davidson Glacier. We left Skagway via a catamaran....rode about 45 minutes to Glacier Point. Then it was a bus ride through the woods to camp where we suited up in rain gear. Then a hike through the woods to a river where we got in canoes. Then we canoed to the lake to see the Glacier. It never did rain but it was a good thing we were in gear cuz we were in the front of the boat and it was windy....waves, wind.....yeah....we got wet! The tour guides really made this a great day!

We had our best weather the day we were in Glacier Bay. This was the most blue sky we saw. The water was like glass, though, so I was able to get some gorgeous reflection shots.

And, what quilter doesn't look for and shop at quilt stores where ever she is!!! Skagway had a shop, but this one is Silver Thimbles in Ketchikan. I helped keep the quilt store economy in good shape! LOL!

And the best part about cruising?

Relaxation (lots of reading & napping), way too much food and nummy cocktails any time of day!

Love, love, loved it!