Quilt Guild

Not knowing too many people up here, I decided to join a book club at the library. Little did I know that I would meet someone from St. Petersburg. The book club is a " stitching book club". You are suppose to bring your needlework to work on while we talk about the books. The lady who sat across from me the first night was working on a beautiful quilt square. When I told her that I quilted, she invited me to her "quilt guild" meeting the second Tues of the month. I was excited to go. Chuck dropped me off in town at the meeting and I walked into the sweetest, funniest group of women who all had the same interest as I have. Betty, who is in my book club, told me to call Chuck and tell him that she would bring me home. She only lives a few miles down our road. The more we talked, the more we found out the funniest thing. She lived in St. Pete for over 20 years. Her ex-husband was from there and he went to Dixie. Come to find out, he was in Elaine's graduating class and his brother went to JC with Chuck. Her daughter was born at Bayfront and went to Dixie. She now lives over by Bonnie Bay and her daughter's best friend lives on Dover Court, ( the street behind our house in the old neighborhood ) Sure is a small, small world up here. Betty invited me to come " spend the day" last Friday and she taught me a new quilt technique. I think I have found a really good friend that has a lot in common with me. I think there just might be some road trips shared, down to St. Pete in our future.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's day was like having Christmas all over again. A couple days before, I went to the barn and dug out my big heart cookie cutter and the rolling pin. I cleared the counters in the kitchen ( it sure isn't like baking cookies in the house) and set out to make my Valentine cookies. Next, I spent time in the tiny studio and made the bag tops. That was fun. I have missed my cropping activities. The next day, Chuck and I set out and delivered my cookies to our friends. Chuck surprised me Valentine morning with a set of " Frogtoggs". It's a waterproof hooded jacket and a set of matching pants that we can wear when we go kayaking. We had to take my set back and get a bigger size to go over my clothes and while we were there, we got Chuck a set too. Now we are ready to hit the rivers in our kayaks. The day before Valentine's day, we got two packages in the mail. One from the Blomberg's......with a heart shape chicken print pillow that Christina made, one of Marina's black horses that we played with when we were kids.... ( I miss you girl!) a pretty pair of Valentine underwear (for me) a package of heart shaped gingerbread cookies and it all came in a pretty decorated with chickens, box. What a fun surprise! Then, we also got a package from Shell with our favorite candies.....heart shaped Reece's Cups and Valentine Peeps for me. I think it was the best Valentine's Day we have ever had. ....plus it was our first one in Alabama.

Buying the Box for the Tractor

We finally found a "used box" for the tractor. It will come in handy for leveling the drive way, clearing and it has teeth on the one side of it for plowing. We have had good luck with finding what we need from " the tractor guy" that lives a few miles down the road. We bought our John Deere from him a couple of years ago. The good thing about it is....he delivers for free.

More fun in the forest

I think sock monkey's favorite part of the forest was " lunch"....lol. It usually is mine too because it is spent at one of the waterfalls or a beautiful canyon site. By the end of the day.....he had hiked over 7 miles. Not bad for his first hike. You just never know where Sock Monkey is going to show up in Alabama. ...until next time.

Sock Monkey goes to the forest

Sock Monkey went to explore the forest. After hiking ( riding in the back pack) 1 1/2 miles....he saw his first waterfall. While trying to stay on a huge rock in the middle of the creek, he fell in and got his head soaked...lol. He experienced many spots of the forest before heading back to hang in the TT. More pictures following.......

Alabama Sock Monkey....

When I was a little girl, I always wanted a sock monkey. It might have been because we had a "real monkey" for a couple of years. His name was " Sammy". Someone had given it to my Dad. It lived in a huge cage in the garage. I now have my "sock monkey" and he hangs on the door of my bedroom. He decided to go out and play in the snow.......to be continued. ..lol

Tacky Cemeteries!

I have to give credit due where credit is due. I think Alabama has some of the tackiest cemeteries around and I've been in several cemeteries in my travels. For some reason, they like to pile sand up on the grave to make it look like the person was just buried. Then, I guess they put that person's favorite things in the sand.....like wind chimes, tacky silk flowers, several statues and anything else they can think of. Chuck and I have gotten a kick out of some of the head stones with misspelled words or hyphenated names not divided in the right place. Some of the real old cemeteries are sad with just stones with no names. We have come across a lot of children's graves from the 1800's. Just about any cemetery that you come across up here, all the graves have colorful silk flowers . That's the business to be in up here....lol.