Best of 2013 ...Travel

I tried to take pictures of trips we have taken this year.  I'm not always successful but this post will have some of the highlights.

February started with a trip to Florida.  All I can say is been there and done that!

BOSTON

May was graduation month in our family.  It started with our youngest graduating from Boston University on Friday, May17th.  We are  proud of her earning her Masters of Social Work.  Here are a few pictures of that day.  We were really sad not to be with her after her ceremony because we were on a plane heading to Denver!!  I love the picture of Jim helping LM getting ready for the ceremony.

DENVER

We flew to Denver and arrived at midnight got up and attended Melinda's graduation.  We are now on the graduation marathon.  Melinda graduated from University of Colorado Denver with a Masters of Science in Accountancy and a MBA.  We are very proud of her accomplishments. 

CHICAGO

May was really busy for us with travel.  We had a business meeting following the graduations so our oldest daughter joined us for fun!  I love the Art Museum in Chicago and we started there with a great picture of the lion.  We took some great selfies and ate at our favorites restaurants Mercat a la Planxa and Le Colonial.  

Door County Wisconsin

In June I joined my oldest daughter for a trip to Door County.  I had heard of it for years so we decided to go.  It was beautiful and we had a great time.  I love the water of Lake Michigan or as the locals say the Green Bay (part of Lake Michigan), it is perfectly clear with smooth stones.  We enjoyed some farm to table restaurants.  I saw some beautiful quilts on the tour of the Light House. 

We returned back to Madison and I just love the capitol building of Wisconsin.

BOSTON IN THE FALL

Really getting into selfies

SAN ANTONIO

 El Mercardo

  The Alamo

  

We ate at some restaurants while in San Antonio, Luke, Arcade and my all time favorite Paesanos.

Washington DC

 Still Working on Selfies

I rode a ferry from National Harbor to Mount Vernon for a tour.  I loved arriving by ferry because the view was beautiful.  

The best part of the Smithsonian for me was Julia Childs kitchen. Bon Appétit ya'll!!

Fayetteville Arkansas

We went to Fayetteville for a wedding in November.  It was my first time to Arkansas and I will say that this part of Arkansas was very unexpected.  The fall leaves were spectacular.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Since 1989 we have traveled to Estes Park Colorado.  We go several times each year so I have a ton of pictures from there, so I will only post pictures from Thanksgiving in Estes Park.  We had a wonderful time with our family while there and yes I cooked a lot!!  Those pictures will be a food post.

The girls are standing in front of a road that was damaged by the flood.

Catch the Glow Parade burr!

The Best of 2013...Part 1 Projects

I know it has been a long time!  Today I'm posting my best of through pictures.  This seems to be a blogging trend that is fun so I hope I don't bore you to death.

KNITTING

I knitted 2 cowls in January.  I loved learning to knit with circular needles.  This is a simple seed stitch pattern.  

I learned how to knit a shawl or kerchief this is a Ravelry pattern Age of Brass.  I am currently finishing a much larger version of this and will finish it soon.

QUILTING

I started quilting in May of 2012, I love it.  I have finished several and have several on going projects.  

I started the year with this block of the month quilt that has English paper piecing.  It is a slow project!!

I went to my first quilt show and loved it!  We went to QuiltCon in Austin.  I was so inspired and saw the creative way that quilting has evolved.  I can hardly wait to the next one in 2015.  I hope it is in Austin again, if so I will go for 2 days so I can see it all.

These are quilts that I finished this year.  If you notice Lucy is in the big middle of it all.  I call my quilts Lucy Approved!  These were all so much fun to make.  I'm looking forward to making many more in 2014. 

Fall Trip in Boston

I had an amazing trip seeing LM in Boston.  We had so much fun!  Here are some pictures of what we got to see and do.
But first of all here is the quilt that I sent LM on her bed in Boston.  It is the pattern called Yellow Brick Road.  It is made with a fat quarter selection of Pearl Bracelet fabric by Andover Fabrics and an Amy Butler fat quarter selection, the border is also an Amy Butler fabric.  I love the way it turned out.

Yellow Brick Road Quilt

On Friday night LM and I went to a great restaurant in Cambridge called Henrietta's Table.  I recommend it.  The decorations in the Charles Hotel where the restaurant is located is decorated with beautiful blue and white quilts.

We got to go to an apple orchard and pick apples.  We had a blast!!!  Here are some pictures of our great adventure.

Hot Apple Cider Doughnut

We had a blast selfie!

We had a wonderful week, I will add some more pictures soon. I can not believe that I forgot my camera so I'm posting these pictures taken with  my iphone.  That night we made apple dumplings that were so good.

Boston in the fall

I plan on finishing this shawl while flying to Boston.  Looking forward to a fun weekend of great visiting, being a tourist,apple picking, and lots of pictures.

I get to see this finished quilt on her bed!

All While Wearing Pearls

   

Oatmeal Cookies and Miscellaneous Tidbits

This has been a great summer with a lot going on in our family.  But I will start with last Thursday night and the  Oatmeal Cookies from the Pioneer Woman that I made just for fun.  You can not eat just one which meant they all got sent to the Mr's office on Friday morning.  They are simply delicious fresh out of the oven.  This is one of the many reasons that I have been cooking a lot of recipes from Cooking Light this summer.

I am going to do a better job of posting on my blog this fall.  I have made 3 quilts, cut out 5 quilts, knitted two beautiful scarves and cooked a lot.  Plus we had a great two weeks in the mountains.  

All While Wearing Pearls

Some iPhone updates

These past weeks have been captured on my iPhone. 

Projects

I put together this simple quilt for LM with her learning how to use a rotary cutter.  We did not use the circles.  

Full view

Knitting

I'm trying to learn how to make this scarf.

I finally have figured out how to get to the different stitch.  A work in progress.  I am saving the project until I go to Estes Park this summer.  The yarn shop there is helping to teach me more techniques.

This quilt is at the quilters and I can't wait to finish it. 

These are some of the projects I'm working on or will complete soon. 

All While Wearing Pearls

I'm Here!

We have had some really busy weeks since April 15th.  I will catch up soon.  I have been cooking, taking a ton of pictures, seen our girls, knitted and quilted. 

This is what I'm working on now. I'm finishing this block of the month quilt that almost got me stumped!