Wedding Weekend

This past weekend was my nephew's wedding in Chicago.  My mother and I drove down on Saturday as the wedding was Sunday evening.  We had a rehearsal dinner on Saturday evening which was very nice and gave the families a chance to get acquainted.

The weather Saturday and Sunday was pretty cold and rainy.  We wondered if we could have a view Sunday evening as the wedding and reception, which was a fairly intimate affair, was on the 95th floor of the Hancock building.  But the weather cleared and it was a lovely affair.

We all stayed over Sunday night and came home Monday.  Following are a few photos.

Hurray

Back in April I joined the Playmaker's 50+ Get of the Couch womens walk/run group.  It's 10 weeks of training leading up to a 5K run/walk.  I will never be a runner but have been trying to add walking to my workout routine.  Tonight for the first time I walked 3 miles in one felled swoop without my cane in 55 minutes and 45 seconds.  Now I have a time to work toward reducing.

Nothing like a little "retail therapy"

Last week seemed like another one of those weeks from hell.  I'm a faculty secretary at a college and the first week of exams was crazy, but we got through it.  But it really, really seemed like a long week, but I wasn't the only one feeling that way.

I think the first auction I went to was with my dad, and I was hooked.  I used to spend whole days waiting for the one item I want to come up, only to be outbid by someone.  Slowly I made the conversion to estate sales, which means you only need to decide if you want to pay full price the first day, or gamble that it is still there the next day at a reduced price.

Ususally I'm a second day gal, but this week I had to change that.  I always check http://www.estatesales.net/ to see what estate sales there are in this area.  Last week I found a sale where the lady has a collection of antique child's/minature sewing machines.  I have always been fascinated with sewing related items.  Well this time I decided to go and to be willing to pay full price to get a couple of prize items.

I asked for and took 2 hours off Friday morning.  I was up at 6 am, at the address by 7 am to get my name on the number list, got my number at 8 am, yea #6, shopped the garage when it opened at 8:30 and then 6th person to get in the front door at 9 am.  Whoo hooo!!

I have bid on Casige child's sewing machine on ebay for years but have never won one.  These were made in Germany, British zone.  So that was one of the machines I purchased.

The second machine I bought was a machine that I think I saw and missed at an estate sale within the last 5 years.  It is a Willcox & Gibbs sewing machine  made in 1894.  I am intrigued by it's circular shape.

I also picked up these 2 cute sewing tins.  My mom had a similar one with pansies on it as a button box when I was a kid.



There were also a couple of nice smalls.  A couple of needle cases and a really expensive feeling paid of scissors.  They are Hofffritz scissors and I'll have to do a little research on them.

Then I got into work at 10 my coworker said she hadn't seem me in such a good mood in a while.  I guess not I know the benefits of retail therapy.



Cincinnati, Part 3?

Sorry for the repeat of some of the photos.  Didn't realize until I posted the post.  Here should be the last of the photos...



This quilt we saw in a vendors booth.  Mom fell in love with it and was especially taken with the colors.  The vendor was out of the patterns, but did have one kit left for the black/pink.  The alternate color was blue/yellow.  We left the show about 3, took a nap, and then came back over again about 4:30.  Mom was still drawn to this quilt so I convinced her to get the kit, which she did.  The shop mailed her the pattern which she got this week.  So I guess this will be our next project.  Hopefully she can wait until after Darryl's wedding on May 15th.

They added a spot this year where a volunteer would take your picture if you wanted, so Mom and I jumped in.

Well, that's all my photos from the Cincinnati Internation quilt show.  I have friends in Paducah at the show this week.  I hear they've closed the flood barriers and had to move a lot of the show.  Hope the girls still manage to have a good time.

Cincinnati quilt show

Here are more photos from the International Quilt Show in Cincinnati....



Here are the other half of the vendors. 



These were half of the vendors at the show.

Queen of Procrastination

That me!  And it never fails that when I get the job done I wonder why I put it off so long.  It didn't take as long as I thought and finally getting it done makes you feel good.  Yesterday I decided to do something about it.  My sewing machine has had a short for several months.  A little fussing usually got it going.  So yesterday after water aerobics I loaded it up and took it out to Around the Block in Portland to have it looked at.  I also took pictures along for my mom of our trips to Chicago to the flower show in March, Molly's birthday party in March and our Cincinnati trip in April.



"Do these new sunglasses make my nose look big?"





Happy 2nd Birthday Molly!!

To keep the ball rolling today I finally set up the printer I got with my laptop 2 YEARS ago.  Again just a few minutes and I had it up and running.  So then there was no excuse to put off preparing my taxes any more.  So I got them done and ready to mail. 

Now just a few more pictures from Cincinnati...

Well, photos are taking a long time to load, so I will do more later.  Off to mail my returns.

Cincinnati Quilt show

Mom and I went to the Cincinnati Quilt Show last weekend.  The weather in Cinci was beautiful, almost 80 degrees.  It was nice to see things in bloom and to be able to walk around without a coat.

There wasn't time to go over to the show Friday, so we went out to get something to eat and we hit Rock Bottom.  No, we actually hit Rock Bottom, see...

Saturday was all quilt show all day long.

Well, these were a few of our favorites.  More to come later.