Ch, Ch, Changes ...

Hi Friends!  For all of you who are still "on board" with our blog, we appreciate your patience.  This has been a summer we did not expect at all!  You know the saying, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans?"  Well, let's just say God has been doing a lot of laughing, because nothing has gone according to our plan.  The good news is things are working out better than we could have imagined and I guess that's the whole point, right?

So, here goes the story ...

We listed our house in March and were told there should be absolutely no problem selling our house.  We had been wanting to move since last fall ... yes, one year ago! ... and had waited, because the realtor said the housing market drops off in the winter.  Ok, we're patient, we can wait we thought.  We've had very, very few people look at our house and kept traveling back and forth from our current home in Newark, Ohio to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania - a six hour trip - where we've been looking for a new house.  We have had the most amazing realtor EVER.  If you're looking to buy or sell a home in the Gettysburg area, I couldn't recommend Mary Hankey enough out of the Re/Max of Gettysburg office (I just had to give that shout out!).  Anywho, Mary took us to one house and after that it would sell within days, literally.  By July, we had just given up and felt like nothing was going to work.

However, there was a house outside of town on two and a half acres that we were really in love with and Mary kept us updated that it hadn't sold/didn't have a lot of interest.  About three weeks ago, though, a house came up for sale in town (where we had originally wanted to live) on the same block my dad grew up on!!! :) Four houses down nonetheless!!!!  Three days after that the house in the country sold!  Someone walked into the realtor's office who was a family member of the current owners and said, "We're buying it!"  Seriously!  Now, we're really nervous, because there's only one house that truly interests us and meets our needs and it's coming into fall when the housing market slows down. So, we call Mary who tells us to contact the bank she works with and let them know our situation. Ughhh ... we really don't want to do that and this is so not going according to plan!

But!!!!! ... it worked out and our offer has officially been accepted!!!! We're moving in December which is still three months away :( but at least we have a house and can start having more of a schedule than we've been able to have just biding our time and waiting for when we could move!  We still would love to sell our house, but it's not the necessity it was a week ago ;)

We are all just bursting at the seams - us, our family back in Gettysburg and our friends back there!  We can't wait to move and get started with this exciting new chapter in our lives.  The house we're buying is quite large, but needs some TLC and we're so looking forward to turning this house (see below) into our home!!!

So, with this huge anxiety out of the way we're moving forward with other items on our agenda, like, quilting more, writing patterns more and a bunch of other things!

We hope you are all having a wonderful week and we'll be back later this week with a beautiful quilt we quilted for a dear friend of ours!

Summer Reading

Happy First Day of Summer!

How's summer starting out for all of you?  I don't think there's one season I love over another, but summer comes pretty darn close to being at the top for me!  I just love the laziness of summer, the casualness of cool nights spent on the deck, get togethers with family and friends, and afterall who doesn't love a season bookended (is that a word?!) with holidays?  Another thing I love is the image in my head of spending time at the beach with nothing better to do than get caught up on my reading ... definitely an image, because I haven't done this in forever!  So for all of you summer lovers out there who are looking for a good book to read my mom, Penny, has put together a list of some of her recent favorite titles.  I lean towards the romantic side (yes, I am a hopeless romantic, emphasis on the hopeless part!), but my mom loves mysteries ... always has and probably always will!  Anyway, I'm handing the blog over to her ... Here you go!

With those crazy, lazy days of summer finally here, what better time to not only quilt but also read.  Reading is another one of our favorite pastimes!  Megan enjoys historical romances by Deborah Holland.  She also enjoys reading Debbie Macomber and Brenda Novak books as well.

While I enjoy reading Debbie Macomber’s books, I really enjoy books by David Baldacci (did you know that the characters, King and Maxwell on TNT at 10:00 on Mondays this summer are from a number of his books?), Lisa Scottoline (so far, my favorite has been The Vendetta Defense... the story line is interesting and the characters actually make you laugh out loud at times with their shenanigans. But, my all-time favorite author is … Dorothea Benton Frank! She writes a novel once a year, usually it is published each June and they are all packed with human interest, laugh out loud humor along with interesting tidbits. Last year’s novel, Porch Lights, was focused on interesting information about Edgar Allen Poe.   This year’s novel is entitled The Last Original Wife: A Novel.

Another genre of books that Megan and I enjoy are cookbooks. We enjoy reading/looking through all of the cookbooks we have. Our latest find is The Smitten Kitchen cookbook by Deb Perelman. The writing is phenomenal, pictures scrumptious and recipes make you want to jump up and cook immediately! Best of all the book lays flat which is great when trying to follow a recipe!

What books or authors do you enjoy reading?  It would be great to have you share! ... Penny

A New Appreciation

Last week I had the good fortune of visiting my aunt and uncle in Gettysburg, PA for a few days and while I was there I went "antiquing" for the first. time. EVER!  I know, can you believe it?  And as if I don't have enough hobbies already, I think I just found another one to add to my growing list :)  It was so much fun to spend the afternoon strolling through the picturesque little town of New Oxford, only a short 10 minute drive east of Gettysburg.  For those of you who ever think about visiting the area, this town is a must.  They have the cutest square complete with an amazing coffee shop and it's the "Antique Capital of the World."  There you go, what a better reason to visit!

Through total admission, I have to tell you there were ulterior motives for my maiden voyage into antiquing.  I was shopping for display items for our first show!!  Exciting, exciting!  I found out last Monday that Cherry Valley Designs had been accepted as a vendor at this NQA's national conference this June in Columbus.  We will for sure have more information as the time gets closer.

As for last week's antiquing, it was a success (even though success was found at the last stop).  But there was so much inspiration along the way and the most astounding discovery for me were the antique quilts I saw!  Amazing!  In the past I've read about people who collect antique quilts and I thought, "Never!"  Well, as the saying goes, "never say never" because I am just yearning to get my hands on some of the beautiful quilts I saw last week - they do have a wee bit of a pricy price tag ;)

It is just so hard to believe the time and effort people put into the quilts and I was just in awe of the hand stitching ... I'm pretty pumped because I can just run a machine to quilt my pieces, hand quilting ... eeks ... not me!

So ... what we picked up ... these three apple crates (south central Pennsylvania is big time orchard country) for $4.50 each - crazy, right?; the window frame for a steal at $8; and my sweet aunt gave me this cradle which my dad, aunt and uncle all used as infants complete with the antique wheels - I can't wait to refinish this and load it with quilts.

My aunt also has the most amazing green thumb and even though they live in town she turns her little quarter acre lot into a gorgeous garden.  These were just a few of the blooms blooming while I was in town.  Enjoy!