Trying Something New

Is everyone being challenged with the way Blogger has once again switched things up on us?  Thanks to Polly, I am going to try to do this post in a different manner.  She downloaded a free Windows Live Writer and said that doing her post was an absolute dream.  So….here goes.

I can’t believe that Halloween is this weekend.  Of course we all know that with the coming of Halloween Christmas will be here before we know it.  Are we stressing yet?  Are we thinking that we should have been getting ready all year long?  Are we longing to be those people who have everything finished by the first of October?
The projects on the sewing table have been a little different than my normal creations with the making of Halloween costumes.  One of my requests was for a banana costume.  Okay….that sounds like a fun challenge.  Here is the result….
 
I even managed to scan a sticker from a real banana, blow it up and print it off onto fabric to apply to the front.  I can’t wait to see the hole filled with a sweet face.
As well, I have been working on some blocks for the Quilt Along.  I think these blocks will work well with the great pattern that is being done in the quilt along.  It’s not too late to join if anyone is interested.

Have you seen the microwave potato bags?  I have a few people who exchange small gifts at Christmas and I thought they would be the perfect solution.  These have also been on the sewing table this week.  The embroidery was a free download and I thought it worked out well.

I was the lucky winner of Betsy’s Fall into Fall Giveaway and I received some beautiful fall machine embroidery pieces.  I am excited about working these into projects.  As well as receiving these, I have found a new site for downloading patterns from her sight.  Thank you Betsy.

Another great win was from Vickie.  I have followed Vickie for some time now and her work is always just fabulous.  Thanks so much, Vickie.

We’ve celebrated lots of birthdays in our family this month which means lots of happy faces and lots of yummy cake.


Isn’t this neat?  The lettering was done in chocolate when my mom and sister took me to lunch.
We have finally seen the sunshine after several weeks of gloom, cool temperatures, lightening, thunder, hail and rain.  It surely is pretty when the sun shines again and everything is sparkling clean.  At one point the rain was coming down so hard that our weather station was recording it as “raining cats and dogs”.  Gotta love the idea, but I was glad they didn’t land at my house.  I really don’t like the smell of wet animals!!!!

Atlanta Continued

My all time favorite book and movie has to be Gone With the Wind.  I am one of those "Windies" apparently.  What better place than Atlanta to revisit the wonderful memories of the book. 

Our walk started off when we asked the doorman at the hotel how far away the Botanical Gardens were.  He told us it was "just over a mile".  I had looked at the map and it looked further than that, but off we went.  After we had walked the first mile we stopped for lunch at the Georgian Terrace Hotel where the cast of GWTW stayed when they held the premiere of the movie.  It was delightful.  We asked there how much further the Margaret Mitchell museum house was.  ( I had figured we could stop there as it looked about halfway to the gardens.)  We were told it was "about a mile."  Hmm...interesting.

We walked the ten blocks and took a break while we toured the museum and Margaret Mitchell's apartment.  I really refrained myself from buying a mug.  How many mugs can I really use?

As we were leaving, we again asked how far it was to the gardens.  Again...."about a mile"!!!!!  I am now beginning to think that it must be the standard line in Atlanta.  So we walked, and walked, and walked.  According to the GPS on our phone we arrived at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens 4.2 miles from the hotel.  Mind you, if we had good walking shoes on it would have been no problem, but we did not.  We then WALKED for another hour through the gardens.  They were absolutely breathtaking and worth every moment.

Gorgeous hand blown glass light fixture in the entry.

I wanted to bring this guy home for my own garden.  LOVED him.

Lily pad pond.

What was interesting about this pot was......

this little guy sitting quietly on the leaf.

This was the vegetable garden. Notice the glass tomatoes hanging around the top.

What a wonderful pumpkin patch!

Beautiful glass pumpkins spilling out of a huge cornucopia.

I mean REALLY big!!!!  It was the size of my kitchen.

A wall of herb garden.

I love seeing the apple tree trellised like this.

An orchid inside the greenhouse.

Tree roots hanging down in the rain forest.

Hand blown glass in the fountain.  Isn't it pretty?

I thought this glass apple tree would look good in my yard too.

There was a Scarecrow in the Garden event going on which included over 100 scarecrows handcrafted by different businesses, individuals, schools and organizations in the Atlanta area.  Some of them were so clever, but I have included just a few of them.

On the way out there was a gift shop where they had the glass fruits and vegetables for sale.  I was thinking about how cute it would be to have a few in the garden.  When I saw the price of one pumpkin I thought better.  It was $1200!!!!  That cornucopia was suddenly much more impressive.  Since my glass gazing ball was just used as a throwing ball by one very cute grandson, I could picture what could happen to a very expensive pumpkin or apple.  No thanks.

Needless to say....we did not walk back.  We called a cab and it was worth every penny.

Rainy Monday

Wow....what happened to our hot, windy fire season?  It happens to be cold and raining here today and it is suppose to continue for the next four days.  What an interesting year it has been weather wise.

We were in Atlanta for a week with DH's business and I really missed reading blogs and hearing what everyone was doing.  The weather was just fabulous and allowed us lots of time for walking around and seeing the sights.

The hotel was located in downtown Atlanta so it was easy to access the many fun places to see including Centennial Park, the Aquarium and the Coca Cola Bottling Company.

A gorgeous, clear day to be out walking.

Beautiful sculptures around every bend.

Shopping center near the hotel.

Centennial Park with the Olympic Torches.

Look at these huge bottles.  They were beautiful.

We had a rental car so we were able to head out to Stone mountain for a visit.  It is the largest bas relief carving in the world, even bigger than Mt. Rushmore.  The Confederate Memorial Carving depicts three Confederate leaders of the Civil War, President Jefferson Davis and Generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee.  As well it includes their favorite horse, Blackjack, Traveller and Little Sorrel.  The entire carving covers about three acres.  It was quite impressive. 

This was the inside of the hotel.  Isn't it impressive?

We also went to visit Margaret Mitchell's apartment and to the Botanical Gardens.  The gardens were stunning so I will share pictures of them in another post.

Needless to say, a lot of sewing did not happen.  I did finish off the hand stitching on my Raggedy block for this month.  I am not ready for block #4.

We returned on Thursday evening and had out of town company for the weekend so there was not much time to catch up on blogging. 

Our niece was married on Saturday and we all enjoyed celebrating with them as they start their new life together.  They are such a cute couple.

Yesterday we had  a big family brunch here for all the kids, grandkids and friends and I was too busy to take pictures.  You will just have to imagine what it looked like to have 35+ people here - inside - on a rainy day. Needless to say....today is cleaning, changing beds and trying to catch up on the laundry after being away for a week.

An Interesting Proposal

If I didn't already have other plans I might consider a job offer that I just got called about.  It was for a sixteen week period of time working as a R.N. in the local NICU.  I wonder where they got my name.  Hmmm.  It might be fun to go back and work with the wee ones again.  I wonder how much has changed in the years since I retired.

I took my mom out shopping yesterday and we went to a few interesting little shops.  They always have such quirky items and usually only one of a kind, but sometimes you find just the right thing.  Since our youngest grandson is two years old today, I found this perfect little box and filled it with a new pair of pajamas that I made for him.  I wonder what he will store in his lunchbox after the p.j.s are removed.

The calm after the storm that just passed us always leaves the most breathtaking views.  I snapped this as I was driving down the road.  I loved how the rays came through the clouds.

We have a very busy week ahead of us so there will not be a lot of sewing going on around here.  I hope you all have a great autumn weekend.