The Great Adventure

Last weekend, my husband and I embarked on an adventure with our grandkids. Our daughter had a field trip for school and our son-in-law works the weekends so I said sure, we would take care of them. We decided to make it an adventure so I looked into what was going on around there and found out about some hot air balloons that were going to be in Spokane Valley and we booked a room. Not just in any hotel, but a hotel with a pool! 

We drove across the state on Thursday and got to have dinner with our niece in her apartment and then spent the night at our son's  apartment. On Friday we headed to our daughter's house and I got to pick up Miss Clara from her bus after preschool and then after we got the car packed we picked up Sir Layden at his school and headed to Spokane. 

We got checked into the hotel and headed for dinner followed by some fun in the pool. The kids were so good and went to sleep so nicely. Only problem, I was awake at 11:30 because we forgot to make sure the air-conditioner was on! The kids were up with the birds so we got moving pretty early. The kids were pretty impressed by the breakfast buffet at the hotel and we went off on the next part of the adventure. We saw 2 hot air balloons as we drove along. The kids didn't know where we were going but when we stopped and my sister came out of the front door of her new house Layden nearly knocked her down!

We got a tour of the new house but the only thing the kids were interested in was the toy storage closet under the stairs! We pulled out the duplos and train tracks first and then the cars. They had a great time!

Then it was time for lunch. Karla gave the kids each a rag and they cleaned off the picnic table and put up the umbrella. 

As soon as lunch was over we needed to pull out marbleworks. That was a huge hit! We built and tore down and built and tore down, etc. 

We also took a walk to the playground and went out for ice cream cones.

Following pizza dinner we got in the car for the next part of the adventure. The plan was to go to the Balloon Glow. What is that line about the blest laid plans? We got to see one of the balloons lit up just briefly before they took it down because the wind had picked up. Plan B - buy a movie and some microwave popcorn and head back to the hotel. I think the kids were just as happy with Plan B!

After another breakfast at the awesome breakfast buffet we did some shopping. First some clothes

and the some toys. You would think it would have been a long ride home but they chatted away about the contents of the boxes on their laps!

As soon as the car was unpacked the construction of Hogwarts Castle began!

It was only about 1/3 complete before bed - Legos have gotten way more involved than they were when I was last involved with them.

It was an amazing weekend and what I've listed here is only part of what we did. We were so exhausted. There is a reason we had kids when we were young! Now that we have had a bit more restful weekend I think we are back to normal, whatever that may be.

Machine Overload!

We have been doing some re-evaluating around our house. Deciding what to keep and what to get rid of either by giving it away or selling it. My husband especially has been purging out in his shop. He has collected a lot of sewing machines over the last few years and needs to thin that collection out. I also have a few machines I am ready to get rid of. Here are pictures of some of them. Here is a Singer hand crank model

Here is another old Singer with very fancy decals

This is one I got at an antique store and my daughter used it when she was in college.

This is one of two treadle machines I have. This one has the prettiest cabinet but I like the look of the other machine so this one is going to go.

Here are some of the others that are going. All of our machines are at least 50 years old.

And finally, I am selling my Featherweight. 

I bought it because so many people rave about theirs and how much they love Featherweights but I just wasn't that taken with it. It is a nice machine but I have others that I like more and I just don't have space to store so many.

All of these machines are for sale, along with others and some cabinets that at least some of the machines will fit in. If you or anyone you know is interested in one or more of them, let me know.

Three Weeks!

I have been finding it hard to sit down and write something worthy of posting on this blog. I wasn't getting much done in the sewing room because of work and recuperation so no pictures or news! Things were happening though. I am enjoying working again as a church secretary and, as of Tuesday, I no longer have the bookkeeping portion of the job to do. I will still be doing some training but I don't have to do the work!

My sister was here for Labor Day weekend for a meeting but, as always, she was multi-tasking! We celebrated her oldest daughter's birthday (that is my niece, Katie), canned a picking of my green beans, picked blackberries, did the hand-sewing of the binding on a wedding quilt, helped me shop for some new clothes for work and went to the wedding of Katie's former roommate. I got to tag along to the wedding (isn't that what little sisters do?). They had a photo booth at the reception to get pictures of the guests for the guest book. We got to keep one strip and here is the best of the 4. That's me on the left and my sister on the right.

People say we look alike but I don't see it so much. The wedding and reception/dinner were at the Weyerhaeuser Mansion in Tacoma, WA. It was a beautiful old building. Here is a picture of the ceiling in the room where the dinner was held. Wouldn't that be a beautiful appliqued quilt?

Once I was finally done with my antibiotics I really started feeling good again. I am now getting used to going to work everyday and I think because I have less free time I am getting better at using it wisely. I still have almost a week before I can get back to my usual activities and I am sure it will take some time to be able to do the work outside that I used to!

I realized that the quilt exchange my friends and I do each year (here and here) was coming up very soon and I hadn't even come up with a plan for the one I am doing for Nadine. I started searching on the web for some ideas for my project and found some pictures of one on Flickr that I thought would be great. There was no information about the pattern but I was able to draw it out and got started cutting and sewing. I got most of it together but there were no pictures of the corners of the quilt so I am waiting for the person who originally posted the pictures to post a shot of the corners. She has said she would. Once I have that picture I should be able to get the last 16 blocks done and then get it quilted and finished. Hopefully in plenty of time for the reveal!

One of my best friends is moving to Japan for 3-5 years because her husband is being transferred there for his job. She is in the middle of sorting through the house they have lived in for 15 years with their 4 children! She found some fabric that was her mother's (she lost her mom 14 years ago) and she gave it to me. I have trimmed them all to 5.5" squares and sewn them together. I need to add some borders so it will be a nice sized lap quilt and get it quilted so I can present it to them as a going-away gift.

Another friend of mine has a granddaughter getting married in a couple of weeks and she made a quilt for her and asked me to quilt it. In the last couple of days after work I got it basted and quilted so I can deliver it to her today with plenty of time left for her to get the binding done.

Well, that gets us caught up for now. I keep thinking I will be better about blogging but part of my problem is that I need to have my computer updated as I just don't have room on it for all my photos. Hopefully I can get that done in the next couple of weeks and then I should be better about posting, especially as I get back into the sewing room and accomplish something!