50.. Fit and Fabulous!

Well, 50, FIT and Fabulous was what I was shooting for, but I'll settle for 2 out of the 3! LOL! You'll have to guess which 2!

I celebrated the big Five - O on Monday by starting out my day hiking on the mountain with my neighbor and friend Jan. We hiked just over 2 miles and then I came home and did a little work in my garden. So far the day was pretty fabulous! My plans after that were to get cleaned up and then hit a couple of quilt/fabric stores and maybe a 2nd hand store or two. But the day was made even better when my friend Linda called and said that she was going to the very fabric store that I was planning on going to and would I like to go along. Now Linda is also the goddess of 2nd hand shopping! So not only did I get to go to the places I wanted to go to, but I got to share it with a good friend!

The day ended by spending a very wonderful evening at Caramba's with a whole tableful of special friends. Jo had arranged with my bunko group and some of the FNQer's to meet up at Caramba's to celebrate my half century mark. She brought a cake and everything! YUM!

Looks like everyone was having fun!

Jo's dear mother, who has since passed away, had this custom of smearing icing on the lips of the birthday girl/boy. Jo HATED this when she was growing up, but now continues the tradition............

I didn't mind one little bit since the frosting is my FAVORITE part of the cake!

One of the special gifts I received on my birthday was the news that my newlyweds have finally had an offer on a house accepted. They are in their 10 day inspection period. They had a foundation expert over yesterday to check things out since QUITE a few houses in this developement had had problems. I took some pictures while this was happening.

Here is the link to my webshots album:

http://community.webshots.com/user/crz4quilts

If all goes will they will take possesion of the house the first week in April!

Pretty Fabulous DAY!

I've been crazy busy the last couple of days! I was able to spend a very enjoyable weekend up north at Pines and Needles Retreat. It was great for me to be able to take a few days off (and away from the quilting machine) to give my elbows a chance to rest.

Here is a picture of the whole group:

I was able to accomplish quite a bit of sewing while I was there. I put together this quilt top from strips of fabric that were already cut. I had participated in a strip swap awhile back and these were the black and white strips that I had traded. It was great to be able just to start sewing the strips together!The pattern for this quilt is called "Dancing Stars" and it is made specially for 2 1/2" strips.

This quilt is another t-shirt quilt in progress:

These are some of the other projects that I worked on while at camp:

a Greenbay pillow made out of a t-shirt, another pillow made out of a t-shirt (red square) a pair of Micro-mitts, a pillow case and 2 paper-pieced heart squares made from scraps of quilts that I have made and given away.

Before I went to camp I embroidered this Apron for Kim, the hostess and owner of Pines and Needles Quilt Retreat:

I also embroidered this apron for our friend Nicole who used to play soccer on Mike's team. Nicole and her husband Craig just purchased their first home and unfortunately I missed their housewarming party since I was at camp. But Mike and all the kids were able to go, so I sent this apron along in my place!

I"ve also had a birthday since I last wrote, the big Five-O, but I'll save that to write about for another day.