New Hampshire 2011

A few weeks ago, our family and my husband's cousin's family hit the road for New Hampshire for a nice little vacation getaway.  We had a super time.  The kids got along fairly well; as best as two only children can get along.  Some sharing of toys was an issue and being that we were at "Amelia's" red house, her house - her rules.  Overall, we had fun and we will do it again.

Did some relaxing, did some fun stuff.  First stop on our vacation was the Hobo Railroad.  We took an hour long train ride.  There was Choo Choo the Hobo clown on board and he told stories, did magic tricks and made balloon animals for the kids.

Our "big" adventure was going to Santa's Village.  That was really fun.  Chris and I enjoyed it so much that we're planning on going back over the Fall.  The park is open on weekends through Christmas so that will be a treat.

Chrissie and I rode the Ferris Wheel together while Tim took the kids.  Chris was on the ground, in charge of the backpacks.  Chrissie and I are afraid of heights.  Two dopes afraid of heights riding the Ferris Wheel together.  LOL.

overhead view of Ferris Wheel

NH view from top of the Ferris Wheel

Amelia and Connor on the Merry Go Round

 We fed "reindeer cookies" to Santa's reindeer.

Hi there, Mr. Reindeer!

And Amelia got to see the big man in the red suit!  Amelia was stressing out in line because she had no idea what she wanted for Christmas yet.  Santa asked her what she wanted and she told him that it was too soon to decide.  He told her that he would bring her something special then.

While waiting in line to see Santa, I tried to keep the kids amused.  So I had them do funny faces.

LOL.  It made the time go by faster. 

Gingerbread People

The weather we had was perfect.  Chilly even.  But by Friday, the heat and humidity came back so we spent some time chilling out in the CT River.  Kids had fun swimming and splashing.

And that's that.  Last big hurrah before school starts again.  Next event?  Amelia's 6th birthday.  I don't know where 6 years went already!

Enjoy your Sunday!
Jen

Vermont Quilt Festival

Last weekend, my husband and I took a weekend away and went to the Vermont Quilt Festival.  This was my first visit and I really enjoyed it.  I will go back again, just not every year.  Maybe every other year.  I also didn't take any classes.  I don't like going into those types of situations on my own and my husband doesn't sew.  :)  We just walked around and enjoyed the quilts and the shopping.

There were some beautiful quilts and I took some pictures but there were a lot of women getting in my way and I was getting irritated so I stopped taking pictures.  Hopefully my pictures will orient okay here on blogger.  They are fine on my camera but they downloaded to my computer all sideways.  There was also an antique quilt exhibit there but no photographing allowed.

Lots of vendor shopping too.  But I held back.  I don't know why.  Now that I'm home, there were some things that I wish I did get but I can order them online if I really want them.

On the way up, we stopped at Country Treasures in Chester, VT.  I picked up some yardage for backing and binding for a project I'm working on, some 1/2 yard ME fabrics and a handful of FQs.  I also got a scrap bag of "Happy" which made me happy!

Okay, onto the quilt festival...

First up - Best In Show.  It was very pretty and all hand quilted.  It's called Feathers Aglow by Judith Thompson.  I loved the colors she used.  Right up my alley.

Next - Budding Baskets by Linda West.  It won a 2nd place red ribbon and a button but I cut off the button in one picture and tried to zoom in on this picture to read it but I can't make it out so I'm not sure what the button was for.

This next one is cool - What to do with All Those Scraps! by Wendy Thomspon.  It's a scrap apple foundation pieced top.   The top has 4,070 pieces of scraps in it!  The pieces were so small.  AMAZING.

Here's another one with tiny little pieces - Jake by Susan Cane.  7,200 1" squares are in this bad boy.  Some people have a LOT of patience!

Now THIS one is my favorite and way too cool! - Come And Follow Me by Dominique Ehrmann.  It's 3D!  And took her 2 years to complete.  It won a 2nd place red ribbon and a Judge's Choice button.

Here are a few sideways views.

And a close-up of the quilt center. 

I wonder how she displays this quilt at home?

I didn't buy much at the show.  Some FQs and some wool.  I have NO IDEA why I bought the wool.  I don't work with wool.  Never have.  But something told me I needed to get it.  It had to have been the colors.  I've never seen the brighter colors in the wool.  Just what I like.  Happy and bright.  I'll find something to make out of them.

That was the Vermont Quilt Festival in a nutshell.  I had a good time and I will go back.

Enjoy your day!
Jen

AAA sure comes in handy!

We had a very nice time on our mini vacation to New Hampshire. We lost a couple of days there due to some unexpected happenings but it happens.

First off... my husband's pickup decided to quit in Vermont on our way to NH. We were about 1.5 hours from our destination. So we hung out on the side of the highway. Chris tried to fix what he thought was the problem. Turned out it was something electrical. BUT I got AAA in February this year! Never had it before in my life. My husband is very mechanically inclined but mentioned to me one day that I should get AAA just in case he's not around to help me. Never spoke about it again. It sure did come in handy to tow the truck! We figured we saved about $200.00 in a towing bill. By the time all was said and done and we got to the house, it was late and we were all tired.

Here we are... sitting on the side of 91 in Vermont.


He's NOT happy.


Amelia is enjoying herself though.



The tow truck is here!


The following day, we were getting a basic phone line installed. We were told the work order window was 8 a.m. to Noon when the appointment was set up. No problem. We just hung around and waited and waited and waited and waited. Had lunch. Waited some more. Put Amelia down for her nap and waited. Finally Chris called at 1:30 to find out what's going on. Oh. The work order window was NOT 8 to noon but 8 to 4:00 p.m.! The guy finally showed up at 2:30. Once that was done, we had to go pick up Chris's truck in Vermont and drop off the rental. Another day.... gone.

Playing frisbee to pass the time...

Taking walks down the driveway...



Watching a movie before breakfast is ready....


And just having a good time... (like father, like daughter)

Thursday and Friday were better. We took Amelia out to Clark's Trading Post and we rode the train. Took her out for ice cream. Took her to the nice park in town. We had fun. Weather was chilly in the mornings and evenings. We wore lots of long sleeves and sweatshirts.

But it's over. Amelia is actually headed back to New Hampshire tomorrow with my in-laws for a few days. I'm headed to TX until Monday. My husband is going to be all by himself. What is he going to do? No wife. No daughter. Just him, the cat, 3 goats and 6 pigs. He's going to be in HEAVEN!

Enjoy your day!

Jen

New Hampshire Part 2

If you are ever in Cabot, VT - stop at the True Value Hardware store, walk to the back of the store and have yourself a tasty bacon cheddar burger. That's right. You're reading correctly... in the HARDWARE store. Get yourself a burger. Only my husband would know this place even existed. LOL. Apparently, it's right on a snowmobiling trail and lots of people stop for a bite. It was MIGHTY good. I will go back. And there is no advertising of any sort so if you were just driving by STARVING, you would just keep on going. Too bad I left my camera in the car. I would have taken pictures as proof.

While in Cabot, VT - we went to the Cabot Creamery and took a tour and saw how they made their cheddar cheese. They produce cheese 7 days a week so we saw the separating of the curds from the whey process. Pretty cool. Got a picture of a milk silo and their visitor's center. Amelia was the youngest in the tour and after we watched a short movie, people were free to ask questions. Amelia was getting a bit upset and I didn't understand why. Apparently, she had her OWN question to ask ("How do cows make milk?") and the lady could not hear her over everybody else. But once everyone got quiet, Amelia asked her question and the girl doing the tour answered her very nicely. Amelia felt very proud of herself. I was too! :)


After Cabot, we headed back to NH and chilled for a while and then took Punkie to the park before heading out for dinner. She had a good time running around after being in the car most of the morning. She and Daddy played on the bouncy airplane. They had fun.



While at dinner, it POURED! But made for some great puddle jumping fun once we got home. As you can see in the pictures... Punkie was soaked. And we found a rainbow from the front porch.








All in all, the getaway was too short but we had a great time together. Now it's back to reality. And back to my sewing projects.


Jen

New Hampshire Weekend - Part One

The three of us went to New Hampshire for a nice Mother's Day weekend. Amelia played hooky from preschool so that we could get on the road first thing Friday morning. We had a nice time. We stayed at my in-laws vacation house so that helped with expenses. Since we had a kitchen we, I mean my husband, could do some cooking there instead of eating out all weekend. I said I was doing no cooking this weekend. And I lied. I ended up cooking dinner on Friday night.

Friday, on the way up, we stopped at Keepsake Quilting and I did a little shopping. If you've never been there, it's a great place to visit. Can be overwhelming unless you go there with a plan. I bought some pink, orange and yellow fabric for a quilt that I have in mind for myself. And now that I look at the fabric at home, I need more pinks and a little more white. Good thing my LQS is having their anniversary sale this coming weekend. I will be hitting that on Friday - if I can sneak away from my work computer for an hour or so.

Here's a few pictures of what I picked up there. I have no pictures of the inside (not allowed) and I would have taken a picture of the building but it was raining...

Speaking of rain, we had a decent amount of it while visiting. Only really nice weather we had was Friday late afternoon/evening and Saturday morning. Then the clouds rolled in. Amelia spent a fair amount of time just digging in the dirt and climbing on "her"rock. She also went exploring with some binoculars.

We worked on her Mother's Day gifts for the grandmas too. She made them each a garden stone with her hand print. We've already gave one away. It was well received. We'll give my mom hers next weekend when we see her. I need to have her make one for me.

Okay, I've have more pictures to show you but I think I'll continue tomorrow.

Jen