Sunday and Home Sweet Home!

As this Sunday is closing and the clouds are rolling in once again for a bit of rain, I find myself feeling very blessed and content to be HOME! It's that time of the year when we start spending more time in our homes and feel the nesting urge to settle in and enjoy just being home.The leaves are turning now and I watch as one by one, they drift down from the vintage maple trees that line the backyard. These same trees that gave us cooling shade on hot summer days, are now bringing delight with their autumn colors.
The warm fire is glowing in the woodstove and so that ritual begins. I have missed a nice cozy fire during the summer months. Once again it's time to try a new tea blend in the evening as the days turn chilly as the sun sets.
I thought it would be fun to find a few poems or quotes about HOME.  Here's a few I enjoyed tonight.

Home is a starting place of love and dreams.

Ah, there is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort. (Jane Austen)

Home is the place where we grumble the most and are loved the best.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)

And last of all, this little gem~

Home is the heart of life
Home is where we feel at ease, where we belong,
where we can create surroundings that reflect our taste and pleasures...
Making a home is a form of creativity open to everyone.  (Terence Conan)

Enjoy your home tonight and this coming week.

Quilt Show in Aurora!

Friday was the first day of the Quilt Show our at one of our favorite places...the Aurora Colony Museum. This is an event that I wait for each year, but I was especially excited about this year's theme-
"Seeing Red". I like this show because they feature a lot of vintage quilts, most of which are hand quilted. As a quilter, I think it's wonderful that quilts can be quilted by long arms. If we had to hand quilt our quilts, most of us would probably give it up or be able to complete one quilt in our life. In my humble opinion, nothing can compare to a hand quilted quilt. I love the look and respect the hours of workmanship. Each year, the colony puts out a request for quilt blocks to go into a quilt with a particular theme. Someday....Anyway, the 12 best blocks are chosen, hand quilted by the volunteers and then raffled off. Here is this year's quilt.

Most of the quilts on display this year were red and white. I took lots of pictures so I hope you will enjoy looking at them.

My favorite author Jane Kirkpatrick, has written three novels about the Aurora Colony and Emma Wagner Giesy who was a member of the colony. Jane writes wonderful historical fiction and it helped me to really understand the life that the colony members lived in Aurora.  Jane also wrote a non fiction book after the series called Aurora.

When I read the book, I found some photos of a delightful red work quilt. I found out that It was made by one of the volunteers at Aurora, Janus Childs. Her embroidery work is fabulous and I have been bugging them for years to put out some patterns. She does her work with a single strand of floss, so it's very fine and detailed. Her quilt was on display with the red and white quilts.

You can see how detailed her work is in these photos. She also had one on display in the children's room of Raggedy Ann and Andy.

About a year ago, I talked with some of the volunteers and sent them some examples of how embroidery patterns were sold. They got together a packet of 4 patterns to start off and give it a try.
They were having some trouble with the packaging, but I got to go upstairs to see the patterns and  was able to buy one! I was soooo excited. Here's the patterns...ready for work now.

After viewing the quilts, Jim and I went over to the little log cabin where they have a little shoppe and refreshment. The rain was falling and the fire was going, so it felt good to be inside the cozy little building.

Of course, I had to buy a few fat quarters to support the colony, right? We also had a nice visit with some ladies from an herb  group that tend an herb garden at the colony. They had published a little book on herbs, so we bought one to enjoy and to learn a bit more.

This summer, Jim bought a chair in Oregon City as a garage sale for $5. He thought it looked like an Aurora chair, so he asked the curator Patrick about it. He went and got a chair for Jim to look at and it is like his $5 special! Pretty exciting. Jim also spotted a small table and Patrick explained the design of it and what defined an Aurora piece. We were thinking about buying a table at one of the shoppe to keep be the home for our laptop. After seeing the little table we decided to purchase the one we had seen, especially since the shoppe owner had offered us a discount.
We stopped at an estate sale on the way home and then had dinner at Tad's on the Sandy River. A had a wonderful day!

Teacup Thursday #76 and Gifts from MT!

Years ago when I was teaching, I helped a fellow teacher and her husband during the summer at a Girl Scout Camp called Homestead. We all had name tags and mine was Nibbles and Jack's was Pooh Bear. He told me that he took the name because he called himself a Pooh Bear when he was crabby. I have always loved the expression and say I'm a Pooh Bear when I feel grumpy or crabby. So, recently, I was just feeling a bit down and my dear friend LaVonne sent me a care package from Montana. She usually comes for a visit in the fall, but it was not meant to be this year. She gathers fall treats for me all year and usually hands them over to me in person. The box was filled with all kinds of goodies!

She included a quilt top for a table topper that I really want to finish up. It's been hand painted with a leaf and acorn design. I love acorns.

There was also an embroidery pattern from Crabapple Hill which is one of my favorite companies.

I wanted to share the most darling little fall teapot that was tucked inside. It's been handpainted too with acorns. I think the shape of the pot looks like a little pumpkin.

I decided to share some pumpkin mugs instead of a teacup today as they it seems to just want to join the little teapot. I have had these mugs since my girls were little. I got them at the Oregon State Fair. They were made by a lady named Sharon.

You can see another Tasha Tudor book in the background....Around the Year.

LaVonne is the world's best garage sale shopper! She finds all kinds of goodies at the best prices.
I went to my mailbox today and there was yet another package from Montana! I love Mary Engelbreit
and am planning to decorate my studio with all the bright colors and fun items. I have been collecting things for years. So, this is what I got today....and a good message that I can't be a Pooh Bear and must SNAP OUT OF IT! Thanks LaVonne~you are a most wonderful friend. I miss you lots.

Sunday Drive to the Country!

Last Sunday Jim and I took off for a country drive and some sales. We went to a farm sale, which  was in a beautiful spot in the Willamette Valley. The old farm house was interesting, but the sale was a bit disappointing....not really a "farm" sale, but still fun.

This was out in the yard and I really wish I could have gotten it...but $125 was out of my budget!

It was quite large and would have been fun to decorate it all up inside. Dreams are fun.........

Here's Jimmy finding a few goodies on such a beautiful fall day in Oregon. He is always on the hunt.

We were close to Mt Angel, so had to stop and see Pat and Bernie Hitz at our favorite little road side farm stand. They are just a kick. Got some new apples, cauliflower, peppers, pears and beets. YUMMY. They work so hard and do a great job. Had to tease Pat a bit...waiting for her delicious apple cider that is never ready soon enough for us. We will wait until November, sigh.
We stopped and had dinner on the way home. Such a fun fall day.

A Trip to the Miniature Show!

A few months ago, I ran into a gal I used to know when I had my shoppe, in the lobby of my dad's retirement home. We were so surprised to see each other and exchanged phone numbers. I recently received a phone call from her asking if I would like to go to the miniature show. I was excited and said yes! She met me there last Saturday morning with her friend...I had a great time with Miriam and Jeannie. The good thing about shopping at the show, your bag of goodies that you bring home is really small! Here's mine and here's the contents, minus some items that will be gifts for others!

Annabelle always sends me off for a list of goodies for her and I do have to do some shopping for her friends too. I brought back a few goodies for her fall decorating. She really loved the new tea set I found for her. Here's a few pix of her house ready for fall.

I'm not sure if you can tell, but the new lamp on the table lights up. Her house is pretty dark, so she needs some more lighting. I will have to work on that. You know that Ms Annabelle likes to sew and do handwork. She was delighted with the sewing kit and the embroidery kit!

Ava, who is only 5, came to visit yesterday. She approved of all the new treasures that Annabelle had gotten. She liked the handmade little quilted pillow. Annabelle is a quilter you know!

Part of the fun when you go to the miniature show, is seeing the displays that members of the clubs make and exhibit. They are all well done, but some are really special. You get to vote for your favorite which we all found very hard to do. Here's a few of the ones I liked.

This was 1/4" scale, so it was very tiny! I am amazed at the detail when the scale is so small. An entire house!

I loved the four seasons, each in it's little turn around display. Notice the base of each one. I voted for this as my favorite.

I love Mary Englebreit, so you know I loved this one. Sadly, I didn't get a photo of the outside of the house. It was really cute.

This is for you LaVonne!

A sitting room and a sewing room. I had to laugh, as the sewing room seems to have spilled into the sitting room, as in real life!

There's always a tea shoppe. The pictures are a bit dark on this, but it was charming. I would love to do a tea shoppe.

The next display was in a vendor's booth and it was her special creation. I just loved it....filled with tiny toys of all kinds. She was very sharing and the building rotated, so she would turn if for us and allowed us to take photos.

She made the tiny doll in this little suitcase. It's very small but it was my favorite item in the toy shoppe.

I was waiting to buy something, and this young gal says, "Linda?" It was Angela who LaVonne and I met last year at the show. Her blog is on my side bar, My Mini Mania if you want to take a peak. She was there her mom and it was so fun chatting with them and catching up. She's so sweet and so is her mom. Isn't it fun to meet those who share something that you just love? Visiting with them just made my day. I did miss LaVonne being there with me...maybe next year.