Busy times and time for Thanksgiving

It's been a busy time. A week ago Friday I headed up to Bryan to help Pamela with yet another baby shower. I hope she doesn't drink the water. 

This young lady was Pamela's roommate in nursing school and friend. Pamela came up with a cute idea for a guest book. She made a page with a whale and hearts for the guests to sign in on and she framed the invite and wrote on the glass.

Pamela also made Spenser a wreath for the baby.  Spenser texted Pamela a picture of a wreath that a patient had on her hospital room door and told Pamela "This is the one I want" so Pamela wanted to please and she made Baby Ellis his special nautical wreath. She did a great job! 

The only hang up was that the skein of yarn was all tangled up. It took the two of us and almost 3 hours to get it wrapped in yarn but it turned out really cute.  

Spenser got a little baby practice with another fellow nurse's baby. She looks very natural holding a baby. 

These girls studied together and played together during nursing school.

Amanda Hostess, Spenser Mom to Be, Heather Hostess and Pamela Hostess @ Pamela's home.
The shower turned out great. They had plenty of food and everything was decorated just right.






Then back in Houston Pamela went to visit her Elementary school friend Marlaina and her new baby boy Thomas who was a week old.


Tuesday and Wednesday was full of doctors appointments, hair appointments and a little Christmas shopping. Busy busy.

Thanksgiving dinner was at Glenda's (David's sister) this year but David's brother Gary took his family to Garner State Park to camp with some of the old neighborhood friends. They were missed. I heard they came back early due to weather but I'm sure they had plenty of fun.

Here's Glenda with her boys. Hate to tell Glenda but she's short up against these guys even with her heels. LOL. I tell ya I have the best looking nephews in Texas and Missouri.

Cousins


Then here's me and Pamela. I sporting my new hair color and cut Thanks to Brittany.

and Pamela and her Dad. 
We should have taken a picture of all 3 of us but that didn't happen. 
Maybe this coming weekend we can get a family picture taken. 

Obviously we had fun taking pictures I just forgot to get one of Glenda's beautiful table setting and the yummy food.

I was off my game of taking pictures. I mean my Mom and Joe had been there and I didn't even get a picture with them.
Pamela headed back home on Friday. She had to work the next 2 days. I spent these couple of days getting my desk area set back up in Pamela's old room. Now to get my sewing room picked back up. My Thanksgiving was very nice. I give Thanks for my family and my friends. I give Thanks for my Dad's continued fight that he seems to be gaining on. I give Thanks for Mother who seems to be better. I give Thanks to my co-workers and Boss who are there for me and I them. I give Thanks to Life and happiness.
I got 2 quilt tops back from my fabulous quilter Donna at Donna's Lavender Nest that I need to get the binding this week. I'll get pictures after I'm done to share.
To end the blog and the month..here's my fur baby. While I type my blog she came in and rooted around on Dexter's old bed and

made herself at home for the first time. Normally the little princess is on the couch or in my recliner. LOL 
She had a big Thanksgiving playing hard with her baby girl Sophie (Pamela's dog)

Until next blog...A family is a unit composed not only of children but of men, women, an occasional animal, and the common cold. ~Ogden Nash

Catch up Blog

A week ago Saturday a couple of David's cousin's put on the 1st Annual Dewees Family Reunion. Rain or Shine they said and Rain is what we got. Thank goodness they had a good size garage.
Darla and Pam had a pretty good turn out for their first reunion and there was an abundance of food. I think we could have come back on Sunday to graze again. And everything was really yummy. This is David's Mom's side of the family. It seems that the only time we see anyone is at a wedding, showers or funeral's. 
So the girls thought they'd change that and they did a great job. Hopefully next year the turn out will be even bigger and more of the kids can come. My Pamela had to work so she didn't get come down for it. Pam C. wasn't present after all her hard work. She was home sick. I think it was because her husband had been doing all the cooking while she's recovering from foot surgery.  That's what he said. I wasn't passing judgment. Honest. 
Direct Dewees decedents present at the time of picture taking. Some had already left.

 Just the guys... in-laws/outlaws, offspring and decedents whatever. 

Just the girls... in-laws/outlaws, offspring and decedents. 

It was a nice afternoon. Rain or not.

 So my boss Kim and her husband have been fostering 3 boys for the last 2 1/2 years with the intention to adopt and it finally happened..  My co-workers and I decided to give her a surprise shower. We decided a money/gift card tree would be the most appropriate since the boys are 6 and 11. Not exactly baby's.
Had a nice layout of food.  More food showed after Samara took this picture.
Kim was totally caught off guard. She had her tablet in hand ready for a meeting. Good thing we had the director send out a request for a meeting because she was ready to go out to lunch and run some errands. When she mentioned leaving I asked if she'd be back in time for the meeting and she starts looking at her calendar saying I don't have any until the next day and then she sees the fake meeting the director set up. Whew. Thank goodness.

 As she walked in she was like what's all the food for. You could see she was confused.
We yelled 'surprise' and it still hadn't clicked in for her what  was happening.  


Jay took her tablet and told her he didn't think she'd need it for this meeting.
 She never suspected a thing. I figured she would have guessed since I kept getting up and down from my desk and girls were at my desk gathering some things but we did good. Thanks Samara, Ashley and Cassie for helping get this set up and arranged.

Last weekend David and I went to the Waller County Fairgrounds for the Vintage Days Market. First we stopped at our favorite hole in the wall place for breakfast in Waller. In and out for about $15. Plenty of tasty food. David loves their migas and I got pancakes.
At the Fair we only spent about $40 which is pretty good for us. They had a little of everything there like refurbished furniture and new furniture that looked vintage, clothes, Christmas deco, etc. You name it and it was probably there. It wasn't real big so we were done by 12:20pm and headed back home.

Once home I proceeded to start unloading shelves and my desk so we could move them to Pamela's old room so I can have my office/quilting room be solely for quilting/sewing. 

With my desk, printer shelf, and corner shelf unit out of here I will be able to put my design wall in there and move my cutting table out in front of my fabric shelving and books. Things look like a bomb exploded so this semi make over will help me sort thru and organize. I took this picture. EGADS!!  I have lots and lots of debris.  The other side of the room is full too but I get this side looking good before showing the other side. LOL. I'll have room to move around soon.

Okay I had to share this picture. While my Niece dances all the time in competitions and recitals her Dad not so much but he has a blast at the annual Father-Daughter dance. Kevin is a natural ham so it doesn't bother him at all to get on stage and show off his moves. This is not the kind father dance that David went to with Pamela in elementary school. I'm not sure if he would be prepared to do this or not. I guess we'll never know now.

Okay so Pamela is loving her new house and slowly finding things to help decorate and complete rooms through out the house.  

Her Christmas list in the past 3 years has changed slightly from wanting video games, movies and purses to house hold kind of things like a vacuum, a blender etc... this year she wanted a china hutch for the dining room. She found one she really wanted and we told her that we would buy it for her Christmas present and she was totally okay with that... So this now sits in her dining room with a bow. She has already started placing items in it. She opened her Christmas present... Bad little girl.  

Went to book club last night. Our Hostess made some yummy chili with all the fixin's. Our up for discussion was The Dog Who Saved Me: A Novel by Susan Wilson . And everyone loved the book but I had to admit again I had not read the book. I'm still trying to finish our book from last time The Orphan Train by Christina Baker Klein. I'm enjoying the book but I've been on a roll and making some progress on my unfinished sewing projects list so reading got put on the back burner.

Well here it is another Friday has finally made back around. Thank Goodness. I'm off to Pamela's to help help with a baby shower for her x-nursing school roomie and then I'll head up to the Rockin K Farm Mini Mansion. mmmm could get a little chilly in there tonight. I'll pulling out my space heater at the house to take with me. It's only suppose to be 35 degrees Sunday morning..  I'll let you know how this turns our.

Until then....“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today? Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present”  ~- B. Olatunji

Making headlines and the Rockin K

So while I was out having fun Friday my Tiny Dancer Niece was at the National FFA Creed Competition in Louisville, KY. Almost every state had an entry. My Dad told me this was the first time my hometown of Trenton, Missouri had ever had a representative. Emily had won state and moved on to Nationals. I thought it very impressive being that she's a freshman and a new member of FFA this year.
So she made the cut to semi finals of 16 then Friday she made the cut to last 4 finalist. Okay so maybe I'm biased but this little lady is smart, pretty, talented and humble. Don't get me wrong I believe she is all teenager and has her moments of silliness (quite often) and her mood swings like us all but when she gets down to business she's poised and confident.

While she didn't win she did get 3rd which I think is totally awesome.

In her own words "Sure, I didn't win first, but I got on that stage and most people can't say that about themselves in all of their years going to national convention. I got the privilege to be a competitor at my very first. I may have gotten third, but it definitely wasn't last, and nothing to hang my head about! Watch out National Convention, Emily Kasinger hasn't made her final mark yet!"

So Look out world.

Here's Emily and Grandpa (my dad). He's probably her biggest fan. He's lookin good and he says he's feeling pretty good for the most part.   Anyway Congratulations to my niece on a job well done.

 Speaking of FFA. Meet one of my neighbors to the west @ The Rockin K Farm. If the Mini Mansion had windows on the back side I could look out to see either cows or bulls. The past 3 weeks it's been bulls. This guy wasn't sure he liked me taking his picture. 

 I wish I could say that brownish color was fall color but it's dead color. We got so much rain in April-May- and a small time in June and then Nothing until the last couple of weeks. Many trees are struggling.  This was the first time that I've been at the Rockin K and not been worried about getting home to Lilley for a potty break and food.
I had dropped Lilley off at Pamela's so she could play with Sophie.

 I had fun watching the various stages of the sunset from different angles on the property

More of our westerly neighbors.

 Final stage of the sunset.

Prior to leaving David Sunday nite he and I put up a half wall to give a bit of privacy if you need to use the potty. We have no running water or electricity set up in the mini mansion yet but David built me rustic potty and while I was taking sunset pictures Pamela helped him build our wash basin. Pamela decided she would go behind the wall and see how it worked.  She wasn't so sure she'd be using it. LOL but it was fun photo opt. Goofy kid.

 David stayed Sunday night. This night was better than the night he stayed and the humidity was up and stayed 99 all night. He had to admit it was rather chilly Sunday night. He was ready to crawl into his sleeping bag at 9pm.  He texted me Monday morning to say the cabin is definitely not sound proof he could hear the highway noise and the cot was not made for someone who likes to sleep on their side. Oops

Well thank goodness for this cool weather because I went home to a house with no AC.

David also texted Pamela and I a picture of our finished rustic wash basin. And he set it up in the make shift bathroom.  It looks pretty cute.  Eventually it will be a really bathroom but it will do for now.

Last Friday while I was at Quilt Festival a power line across the street fell, split in half and burned up which left the neighborhood without power for a couple of hours. Best scenario is that sudden power lost helped burn up the compressor. Who knows. David called the AC company and they came out today. Never a dull moment in Homeowner Land. By 6pm tonight we had AC and the checking account was drained.  Geez.

Until next blog...The earth has music for those who listen.”  ~ George Santayana

Houston International Quilt Festival Fun

I have arrived!
Yesterday was one of those fun painful kinda days. LOL So much fun I ended up hurting by the end of the day. Went to the Houston International Quilt Festival at George R Brown. That place is huge. So many quilts and vendors. Oh my it's overwhelming to the senses. It's always fun to hear the first timers comments. They are in awe. I got there at 10am and left at 5pm. My feet, legs and back had had it. 

I met up with 3 of the girls that go on retreat with me. We met up at the photo opt tree then split up to do our own thing and then we met back up for lunch. We all went different directions. I stayed in the quilts and spent the whole morning there looking at all the beautiful and artsy quilts. Some I would love to aspire to and then others are like no way. They may be beautiful and intricate but I don't plan on even trying some the ones I've photoed.

In a corner of the festival you'll find the husbands corner. Normally the TV is on with football or racing but it was a little early in the morning for football or racing. 

Walking thru the quilts I ran into several folks I know. In fact one comment on my face book my friend Carla H. (yes her name is Carla also) anyway she commented that she'd see me there.  We both thought oh yeah right but sure enough we did see each other and she was able to direct me to this quilt that was amazing and the most amazing part was that it was this woman's first quilt. Would you look at this quilt. There was 2000 colors and 10,000 pieces.
FIRST QUILT!!? Are you freakin kiddin me?  
My first quilt was big square blocks. Sometimes I still revert back to basic squares.
I'm still not ready to attempt this quilt but I'm in awe of the woman who did.
Here's some pictures of the quilts I saw.












This one cracked me up!

Can you imaging coming home drunk and seeing this?  It almost made me dizzy looking at it but it was amazing,

And this quilter wasn't happy making just one big quilt... oh no she made 5 little quilts to hang on the clothes line on her big quilt. So cool.
Can't see the cloths line but its there if you close closely.
Well at the quilt festival you'll never know who or what you'll ever run into.



 Such as this gal with her hair up in curlers. LOL. 


She even posed for me. 


I didn't get her name as she moved on down the hall.

I ran into many other folks I knew and some that were just as  entertaining. 
Thanks to Donna Lynn we left the GRB to eat a yummy lunch. 

At the festival a sandwich could cost $15 or like a baked potato cost $12. Ridiculous!

 Our lunch cost was $15 with tip @Pappasitos and we had a full meal not just a sandwich.
Here's a few pictures from my adventures at the quilt show.  



And here's the girls as we head back to festival to walk some more. There was so much more for us to find and see. Maybe even touch. I'm off to see the vendors since I spent the entire morning in the quilts


Click HERE to see all the pictures I managed to snap.

So that's it for now.
Until next blog....Quilters hang out on the "seamy" side of town.