It's that time again!!

The row of sunshine lining the retaining walls. 

A pot of miniature daffodils and a pot of pink tulips

One of three of my pansy hanging pots outside the sun room window. 

It's that time again.  It seems like it comes in the middle of winter when you are ready to see something pretty and cheery when you look out your windows.  It's Daffodil time!!!  Every where you look they are there.  In people's yards, in open fields, along the side of the roads.  Pretty yellow every where.  I am so glad that I took the time to plant all those bulbs, lining both retaining walls in our yard.  When I look out my studio and living room windows, I see a line of sunshine yellow.  When I back the Explorer out of the basement, I look up and see these little yellow heads looking at me.  They just make me smile.  Another thing that amazes me is the fact that there are pretty pansies planted everywhere during the winter.  Come Spring, they will even be bigger and prettier than ever.  Even though we are suppose to have snow showers for a couple of days, starting tomorrow, letting us know that winter is still here, we have a touch of Spring outside our windows.

Quilt Square Update

The update on my Alabama quilt square is...it was chosen to be in the Alabama quilt!!!!!!  I'm so excited!!!!!  I had emailed the lady in charge of the quilt and asked her if my block didn't get picked for the quilt, if there was some way that I could get it back.  She wrote right back to me saying, that I had won and they were going to use my block in the quilt!!  She went on how beautiful my block was and congratulated me.  Yesterday, I received a letter in the mail explaining that my block was chosen and that I was invited, along with one guest to attend a luncheon in Montgomery, in April.  The First Lady will be there so that they can present the quilt to her on behalf of the Family Justice Center.  After a year-long tour of the cooperatives, the quilt will be displayed in the Family Justice Center.  At the bottom of my letter was a hand written note from Linda ( the lady in charge of the quilt) saying ..." One our our judges said that if your square wasn't chosen, she was going to be highly upset".   What a nice thing to read about my square.  I will be getting a plaque with a picture of the completed quilt on it.  That should come around the end of May or the first of June.  I keep thinking in my mind, how proud my Mom would be of me for this.  She loved to quilt and her grandmother before her.  I guess it's running in the family.  This experience sure has been fun and it's not over with yet. .....to be continued.  

Brown Block Exchange Qilts

Here are some of the beautiful brown block exchange quilts . Just remember, we all had the same blocks and look how different they all turned out.    I feel so lucky to be a part of this wonderful Quilt Guild.  It is just amazing on what kind of art work you can make with just putting pieces of fabric together.  These ladies are the best!!!!!

Been Quilting!

Brown quilt block exchange

My square I made 22 of.....

I SPY quilt

Matching pillow case 

Believe it or not, I've been working on my quilts.  I figured since I'm the Vice President of the Quilt Guild this year, I had better be making some quilts to take for "show n tell".  I had made the " I SPY" quilt top before we moved from Florida.  It got kinda stuck away in the closet with about five more quilt tops in there.  I decided I'd better pull it out and quilt it.  In the middle of it all, my machine broke so it took another two weeks before I could finish it.
  Last year the quilt guild decided that we would each pick one block pattern and make 22 of them to share with each other.  We picked the color brown and all bought that same brown fabric.  You could put any other color in your square that you wanted.  It just had to have that brown fabric in it also.  In July we traded quilt blocks and started putting our quilts together.  Well, everyone else did.  I wanted to wait and see how everyone else was doing theirs.  It gave me the idea of putting the blocks on point.  That meant I had to have 12 extra blocks to fill in with.  I had bought this beautiful bird fabric while we were in Huntsville and that gave me the subject to my quilt since I used it for the border.  I hand appliqued birds in the middle of the 12 extra blocks.  All in all, it turned out really nice.  I'm very pleased with it.  Now, all I have to do is buy the batting, backing, binding and take it to be quilted on a long arm machine.  Maybe some day I will be showing the whole quilt....done! You would be surprised on how different every one's quilts turned out.  Even with using all the same blocks.  It was so much fun last year, we're going to do it again.  Only we're going to use red/white/blue for our colors.  Only the white has to be the same fabric.  I can't wait to work on this one.  

The 2nd Big Move!!

Lee and Chuck loading the trailer 

....and it's FULL!

Lee's truck FULL!

Our truck FULL!!

Well, the 2nd big move happened on Saturday!!  Shell now officially lives in Nashville.  ( and her kitties....I have my laundry room and my pretty bathroom back...sigh)  Shell's friend, Lee and her drove down to Brambly Pines early Saturday morning with a borrowed trailer.  After a quick breakfast, we all walked down to the barn and started loading the trailer and the two trucks.  All of the furniture but one rocking chair, fit into the trailer along with a lot of boxes.  Once all of it was loaded, we came to the house for some lunch before starting out for Nashville.  The ride north wasn't bad.  Not much traffic.  We passed a huge field of daffodils that was awesome.  We drove through two short snow showers which was fun.  We were pulling up in front of Shell's little rented house before we knew it.  Then, the unloading began.  It never takes as long to unload as it does to load.  The house is cute and has some funny characteristics, like really sloping floors and two non working fireplaces. One in each bedroom.  The rooms are HUGE!!! and Shell is going to have so much fun decorating the whole place.  I could see her mind, whirling with ideas.  She has a nice back yard on which she plans on planting a Spring garden.  What fun she's going to have living up north!!!!!

Valentine's Day!

My Hug Pillow 

Huge felted flower

My fun Valentine cards and pretty chicken fabric 

Some times Valentine's Day comes and goes and you hardly even know it was here but this year I was surprised and some of my dearest friends sent me cards and presents.  Leland (our mailman) pulled up to the back door with a box addressed to me.  He said the rest of the mail was in the mail box because he wasn't sure if we were going to be home when he got to the house.  Of course, I had to hurry inside and open the box.  It was from  Christina ( my German Mom).  Inside was the funniest, cutest Valentine hug pillow I have ever seen.  She sent me a hug.  When Chuck brought up the mail from the box, there was another package from Florida Debbie.  Last year when I was down in Florida, I went to a yarn shop with Debbie to ahhhh over all the yarns and patterns.  Well, Debbie bought a pattern and some yarn to make this HUGE flower.  You knit it and then felt it before it's done.  I bought a skein of yarn and Debbie said she would make me a flower.  I had totally forgotten about it until I opened the big envelope and there it was.  It is so neat!!!  It even has a stem on the back of it.  She sewed two pins at the top on the back so you can pin it to whatever. The day before, another envelope came from Vickie with a cute card and a piece of beautiful chicken fabric. Only sewers can relate on how happy a piece of fabric can make you.  ha. This last week, I got a Christmas/Valentine box from Gene.  Two pretty winter kitchen towels, a funny Alabama book and the sweetest little cream pitcher from England.   So this year, Valentine's Day came and it was really fun.  Here's a thank you to all my dearest friends.

Cane Creek Canyon

A steep climb

We made it!!!

See no, speak no, hear no! in Fern Canyon 

A beautiful way to spend a Sunday

The second day of exploring brought us to the Cane Creek Canyon Preserve.  It is owned privately and the people are super nice people to share it with the public. There were canyons, water falls, cliffs and beautiful views.  It made hiking four miles a pleasure.  We had another great two days with Fred and Elaine as usual when they come up to visit.  We're looking forward to their next visit in a couple of months.  

Rattlesnake Saloon

We finally found it!!

Seating area in the canyon

Which is happier?  Fred or the snake?

Petting the two bucks

Down stairs of the silo

Silo sleeps 6 to 8 people

Inside the lodge

The last time Fred and Elaine came up to Brambly Pines for a visit, we set out to find the Rattlesnake Saloon that I had read about in the Alabama magazine.  We came close but never found it.  So, this visit it was our goal.  Fred looked it up on the internet and had it all pin pointed with his GPS.  It was about an hour away and down this winding road, out in the country.  We found it!!!  As we pulled up and parked the car, a pick up truck came driving up with this really friendly man in it.  He asked if we wanted a ride down to the saloon, so of course we said " yes"!  There were benches on each side of the back of the truck and he helped us up the steps to the bed.  It's a good thing that I was sitting next to Chuck because the ride of my life time ( meaning I would only want to do it once) started.  It was like riding a roller coaster down and around on this steep hill.  I closed my eyes most of the way and held onto Chuck tight but what a neat place once we got down there.  It was this huge canyon deep enough to have a stage and a big dining area.  There also was a little building that housed a restaurant which we went in and had a pick me up snack before exploring the rest of the area.  The saloon opens at 5:00 pm and you must have your ID to be able to stay for all the fun.  There is a lodge, two large silos and one cabin where people can stay.  The two silos sleeps six to eight people each and there are lots of hook ups for camping.  There was a fenced in area down by the canyon that had two deer and two Watusi cattle.  The deer were so tame, that they came up to the fence to lick us and let us pet them.  The people who owned the whole place were super nice people and we became their " new best friends".
  Shell had driven up on snowy/icy roads from Nashville to spend the fun weekend with her Aunt and Uncle. She wasn't sorry that it took her twice as long to get to Brambly Pines as usual.  The adventures we had in the two days...was well worth it.

New Kitchen

Turned the rug the same angle as the windows

Corner cabinet by itself

When we were building the house, I asked Chuck several times to measure the one kitchen wall between the kitchen and the breakfast room to make sure that the corner cabinet was going to fit.  He kept measuring and telling me that it was going to fit.  Well, when it came time to move into the house, we had acquired the large bakers rack and I didn't think the furniture would fit the way I had intended.  So, I ended up putting the two tall pieces next to each other and I never liked the corner cabinet in the far corner.  For the past few months, as I sat at the kitchen table, I would picture in my mind what the furniture would look like, moved around. This last Tuesday morning, I decided the only way I was going to find out was to just do it.  I took all the cook books off of the bakers rack and all of the dishes out of the corner cabinet. Yep! it was a job!   I got Chuck to help me move the furniture and with each piece moved, I knew I was going to love the kitchen the new way and that I should have done it from the very beginning.  It makes the corner cabinet stand out and the whole breakfast area looks a lot bigger.We can see the TV better with it being lower on the top of the desk.  I am in love with my "new kitchen"!