A few more vacation pictures

I’ll feel compelled to share just a few more of my favorite vacation pictures, then I’ll stop, I promise.    
One of the overlooks on the Cherohala Skyway – a must drive if you’re in the area.  It’s absolutely worth every mile.

I love the town of Tellico Plains, Tennessee.  It seems so untarnished yet compared to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.  I’m sure the tourism is on it’s way there eventually but for now, it’s still quaint and unspoiled. 

The Tellico Grains bakery is wonderful.  Everything is baked in a wood-fired oven.  The bread is just the right…crusty on the outside and tender on the inside.

  We were there mid-afternoon so there wasn’t much left.

This ceiling in an antique shop across from the bakery is made from old newspaper tin types.  What a fun idea!

Isn’t it fun to laugh with your spouse?  Total uncontrolled laughter that you can think about hours later and it still brings a smile to your face?

We were even able to find Popeye along the route in Chester, Illinois where he stands watch over the Mississippi River bridge.  He wasn’t near as much fun as I thought he’d be.  He was a little stiff and boring.  A man of no few words. :)

and to top it all off…great friends to hang with!

Spring is near

The fields may still be brown but Spring is most definitely on it’s way to Northwest Illinois.

The signs are everywhere…

 
The pussywillow bush is budding

 
The lilies are sprouting

 
and the creek has thawed and is flowing wildly.

Never mind that we’re supposed to have snow again this weekend.  :(  
I am choosing to believe that the weatherman is full of crap.  Yup, that’s my belief and I’m sticking to it!

 

Mountainfest Quilt Show

While we were in the Smokies, we spent Wednesday morning at the Mountainfest Quilt Show in Pigeon Forge.  This was the first actual quilt & vendor show I’ve ever attended.  I lead such a sheltered life.  ;) 


Dan and Gary were such good sports to wander around a woman filled convention center all morning plus they did it with very little complaining to boot!    The best part was when we walked in the door, they gave us a plastic glove (in case we wanted to touch the quilts).  The look on Dan’s face was priceless!  He was a tad confused by it. 


However, he was enthralled with a long arm quilting machine being demonstrated, so that kept him (& I) occupied for a good part of the time.  His wheels were definitely turning so who am I to stop that motion?  He’s thinking custom quilting could be a good supplementary income when we relocate some day.  I told him to keep thinking those good thoughts!


Most of the quilts we saw were way out of my league as far as patience skill goes but were fun to gaze at just the same. 




This one was Dan’s favorite.  It was in shades of brown and cream and had 3700 pieces to it.  I can’t even imagine piecing that much together.  I have trouble finishing a quilt with 8” squares.

Love the colors on this one.  The turquoise and royal blue against the black was wonderful.
There were a number of what I would call “scenery” quilts.   Just look at the colors of the sky they pieced behind the branches.
I’m most definitely not into tigers nor would I want this on my bed but I can certainly still appreciate the skill and work it took to piece this tiger quilt.  The entire thing was made up of 1” squares and looked to be about a queen size quilt.  That’s a lot of squares!
This quilt won best of show.  The picture doesn’t do it justice.  The oranges and purples were way more vibrant than the picture shows.
I liked the simplicity of this one, especially the leaf border.
I still really like red and black together.  Maybe it goes back to my high school days and our school colors.
This was my favorite.  I love the whimsy of it.  It’s just plain fun!  Notice the patchwork field behind the house and the tornado coming across it.
Hope you enjoyed coming along with me to the show.  :)

Waterfalls everywhere

We saw all kinds of waterfalls during our time in the mountains last week.  There were running waterfalls, frozen waterfalls and rushing creeks and rivers. 

I could have sat by any of them all day long and just gotten lost in thought.  I’m not sure if it’s the sound or sight but there is definitely something that draws me to them.

 

Last week’s home away from home

Most of you have already guessed it but yes, we spent last week in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee. 

We rented a cabin in Laurel Valley, near Townsend.

  The pictures aren’t the best or setup well.  I took most of them as an afterthought before we went to bed the first night so they didn’t have too much of that lived in look.

Tuesday morning was the only morning we were blessed with a beautiful sunrise.  The rest of our time it was overcast but thankfully not much rain.

The mountains have a beauty all their own in the winter months.  Without all the greenery, we could really see the lay of the land and appreciate all the rock formations so much more.

I’ll post a few more pictures in the next few days.

Have you figured it out yet?

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, I’m sure you’ve already guessed where we are but I think I’ll withhold the final answer until we get back this weekend.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the last couple of days.

Unofficial poll…

 Maybe this is just a flatlander thing to do but we don’t have any many tunnels in the Midwest, so as we drive through a tunnel, I always ask DH to honk the horn and if he won’t, as every good wife would, I lean over and honk it for him. 

It’s just one of those things I’ve always enjoyed.  I’m so predictable about it that he says before I even ask, as we approach one, “I am not honking the horn.”  What a killjoy! 

DH thinks it’s quite possibly one of the most redneck, hick things to do.   Our dear friends, Gary & Judy who are traveling with us, are with me on this one though and even rolled down their windows and hollered just to hear the echo.

Here’s my poll…

When you drive through a tunnel, do you honk your horn just to hear the echo?

You can tell me if it makes me a total redneck, I can take it.  After all, I is what I is!

Monday question of the day…

We’re off for a little R&R this week to what has come to feel like our second home.  In fact, by the time you’re reading this we should be almost to our destination.  Gotta love the publish scheduler tool! 

We’re supposed to have internet access where we’re staying.  If we do and if I get time in between all the R&R activities, I may post a bit.

Today’s question…

Do you take an annual vacation?  or weekend trips?  Is it always to the same place?  or do you prefer to just hang out at home?

Here’s a picture hint as to where we’re headed…

I doubt it looks quite this green yet though.

As promised

I promised a couple of weeks ago, after our ladies small group sleepover/craft weekend, to post my completed projects in a “few” days.  “Few” is relative, right?  I finished the last of them tonight.

Shelly was our instructor for the day.  Check out her blog, she is one creative lady!

Everyone could choose between doing the projects Shelly was leading or bring something of their own.  Most of the ladies made Shelly’s projects.

The middle board is an artist canvas that we mod-podged scrapbook paper onto and then painted on whatever saying we wanted.  Some used bible verse, others favorite quotes and I chose the word “Create”.  I wanted something for the blank wall in my sewing/craft room and thought that “Create” was fitting.  Then I got the idea to cover more canvas frames with fabric and embellish them.   I think I’ll add a few more over time but this is what I have so far.

  I used the same trim on all of the boards to tie them together but embellished them all differently.

This one I added knitting needles and a big fabric yo-yo flower.   I haven’t knit in a while but do enjoy it occasionally.

The one below I think I’ll still add an old photograph to but for now it has old sewing machine bobbins attached.  This was my favorite fabric by far of what I used. 

At first I thought this board needed something else but the more I look at it, I think I’ll leave it as is.  The fabric is busy enough without adding more to look at. 

We also made these fun metal stamped necklaces.  Again, we could stamp whatever we wanted to on them.  The best part of these was I learned how to use DH’s drill press.  How fun is that? 

It was an incredibly fun weekend and we’ve all decided to do it again in the not so distant future.

 

Computer Tech and Question of the Day

Our laptop has been acting funny.  I'm not talking funny ha-ha just stupid funny.  Our laptop is only a year old but I'd be typing along and it would only catch half the letters.  I knew I touched those letters while typing but they wouldn't show up.  Plus, I received constant errors.  Can you say frustrating!  I had all  but given up commenting on others blogs and Facebook was the worst!

I've anti-virused, ad-awared, defragged and re-defragged convinced it was a system issue.  Then I started blaming the cat.  Sorry Racer!  He insists on sitting next to the computer if you're working on it just in case you might print something.  He has a fascination with the printer.  I thought there might be cat hair down in the keys or something. 

I was just short of calling in my own personal computer technician, nephew Nathan, when it dawned on me that the only times I've had issues (with the computer not personally) has been when I was using the internet.  I'm a little slow on realizing those things sometimes.  I've used Internet Explorer since we've had a computer and never had issues like this plus I had just downloaded the updated version so I should be set, right?  Then, I remembered a friend saying she used Google Chrome instead of Explorer.  Time to think out of my box.

Yesterday, the proverbial straw finally broke this camels back.  I tried Google Chrome and oh my goodness, it's amazingly fast.  The pages load so much quicker.  It's unbelievable!  It's going to take a little bit to get on to it as it's set up different than I'm used to.  I still can't figure out who to find or add favorites, but I'll get there.

Now for Monday's question of the day...

What internet browser do you use?
Internet Explorer
FireFox
Google Chrome
or something else?