THE QUILT FILES

I'm dreaming of quilts! Big, fat, fluffy beautiful new quilts. Thin, worn, raggedy vintage quilts full of memories. I love quilts! .........

There's the coolest shop in Waxahachie, TX: Common Threads Quilting, a quilt shop! http://www.commonthreadsquilting.com/index.htm . I don't quilt, but it's in my blood---my grandmother was a quilter, big-time! I love to look at quilts, read about quilts, admire quilts. You can go in this shop, which is quite large and full of great fabrics and ooh and ahh over all the gorgeous quilts hanging up on the walls all around the shop.

I found these cute, colorful emery boards there with quilt designs on them! (Double-click the photo to enlarge because you've got to see these beautiful designs up close!)........

If you love quilts, you have to check out their website shown above.

They specialize in reproduction fabrics from the 1860's. They also have some cool repro fruit fabrics from the 1930's and 40's, which would make great aprons. Some even have borders!........

They even have a blog now: http://commonthreadsquilting.typepad.com/

Anniversary

Photo taken this past Spring '08 in Tyler, TX.
Today is our 23rd Wedding Anniversary! We went out yesterday for a special dinner to celebrate! I just know you're asking "how can they be married for that long when they're both so young?". They must have gotten married when they were just kids! (ha!ha!) Seriously, I am very blessed to have such a wonderful hubby and if I had it to do all over again, would marry him again in a hearbeat!

SUMMER 2008 ARTFUL BLOGGING!

Have you seen this magazine? Artful Blogging - the Summer 2008 issue. I just got my copy recently at Barnes and Noble. It's filled with the most beautiful color photos from inspirational artists' blogs, articles about the artists and their blogs, a post from each artist's blog, and the blog address! Talk about eye candy! These artists are awesome! After reading the magazine, the fun continued as I looked up the featured blogs on the Internet (and it also gave me another excuse for delaying the housework!) I found out there were a couple of issues prior to this one, and you can preorder online for the Fall 2008 issue at this web address: http://www.stampington.com/html/artful_blogging.html

MORE CREPE MYRTLES.....

More crepe myrtles from Mom & Dad's yard. I understand the name came from the fact that the light crinkly petals look like crepe paper or crepe fabric. Visit http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/writers/msg03162434666.html for a discussion of whether the correct spelling is "crepe" or "crape". Either way, I just love them!

Pretty Pink Popcorn

Crepe Myrtles are my very favorite tree in the whole world. And of course I love the miniature ones as well! These pretty miniatures belong to my Mom & Dad and are in their back yard. They purchased them in 1992 at Calloways Nursery. These particular ones are named "Popcorn"--the blooms are fluffy like popcorn and these beauties are varigated white and Barbie-pink. Also, some people say the way the flowers just pop out reminds them of popcorn; one day you have a bud---the next day a flower's blooming! (reminder: you can double-click photo for close-up view)

GOLDILOCKS IN THE GARDEN

Lysimachia, commonly known as Goldilocks (in the container with the plates and the flag; close-up in the top photo). It's growing fast! It started out this summer in one of those little 4" containers! I've never had any before and am pleasantly surprised---it's doing really well both here at my back door and also at my front entry; I read that it's a heat loving plant and I guess being in this Texas heat works for it!

Your 6 Favorite Spices???

I love reading your comments! Thank you, my blog friends! Nola really got me thinking with her comment to my previous post "Spice Girl!" ( http://dreamsanddecor.blogspot.com/2008/07/spice-girl.html ) . In all the time I've had those vintage spice sets, I never noticed what most of us now would consider an odd choice of spices. Guess those were the spices they used a lot back in the day! What are your 6 favorites that you would include in a spice set today? Right now, mine would be 1) Ground White Pepper (I started using it a few months ago, mostly in vegetables or on baked potatoes, just for something different), 2) Cinnamon (My favorite spice of all time! I'm very addicted to Cinnamon---I eat it in my morning oatmeal, in cold cereal, put it in pastries, add a little in chocolate cake batter, in hot chocolate--in the winter, in cookies......), 3) Ground (Cayenne) Red Pepper (love it in chili, stews, ground beef dishes), 4) McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Chicken (I know, that's a combination of spices! Can't help it---I love it! I use it all the time on chicken breasts in my Foreman grill. I recommend the version with 25% less sodium), 5) Garlic Powder (if not using fresh garlic, then I at least add some to almost everything, except sweets, and 6) Lemon Pepper (I use it all the time in the summer on sliced tomatoes!). What are your favs?

Spice Girl!

I heart vintage spice jar sets! Above are my favorite set! Don bought me these years ago! (There's also a Cinnamon; I was trying to take a close-up & didn't realize he didn't make the photo.) These little spicy chefs hang in our kitchen.....and right below hang these vintage white and yellow ones: I've had these for so long, I don't remember where I got them, which is unusual for me! I also love pansies and these have yellow & burgundy pansies on them!

Scenic Tyler, Texas

Went to Tyler, Texas this past Spring '08 for a little weekend get-away. The scenery was amazing! We love old homes, so of course we had to drive around and look at all the historic houses, which were so beautiful.

We had the good fortune of being there during the Azalea trails----something we had not planned--we were just pleasantly surprised!!!

The azaleas were gorgeous, but so was the other landscaping! In spite of everything else we did while in Tyler, I think we had the most fun driving around looking at the beautiful homes and yards! And I wanted to share my photos with you......

TESTING FLICKR PHOTOS

vintage blue green pin, originally uploaded by pk studio.

Love vintage jewelry, especially pins!

I've been researching how to get larger photos on my blog and read that if you use Flickr, it will automatically bring it over to your blog in a larger size. So, I'm trying it here. It certainly is larger than my other photos. I noticed when you double-click on the photo, it now takes you to Flickr, which I haven't noticed on other people's blogs. (Is that good or bad?) It was very easy to do & even let me write the text in Flickr, then I went into my blog to adjust the text size/color. I noticed it put the photo name and my Flickr name under the photo. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Thanks for any help; as you can see, I'm new to blogging! Hope everyone's been having a great weekend!

FIREWORKS!

Fireworks at the spectacular Las Colinas 4th of July display! We had a great family get-together last night at my brother's apartment, including a cake & gifts for Jordan, who just turned 18. Gloria called from Colorado to tell us all hello! We then moved the party outside for the fireworks. Thanks, Keith, for the fun party! I took the "squiggly" picture shown first and Dad took the rest of the photos. Thanks, Dad!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

Edited 7/5/08 to add: By the way, I meant to mention that this cute patriotic display is at Mom & Dad's house.

Childhood Dreams

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." --Randy Pausch

I seem to always be in the process of reading several books---fortunately, most of them good. A good inspirational/motivational book I read earlier this year was the Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. In case you haven't heard of it yet, it is written by a professor who gave his students a "last lecture" as some professors do, only he is expecting this to really be his "last" lecture because he is terminally ill. (As of right now, he's still alive.) It was all about living, not dying and titled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". The lecture was video-taped and ended up on YouTube ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo ) and became extremely popular, so popular that Diane Sawyer interviewed him for an ABC news special. He wrote this book: not only about the lecture, about fulfilling childhood dreams and helping others with their dreams, but also about life lessons he's passing on to his children and others. The Wall Street Journal recently ran a long article on him and on what has grown to become a phenomenon. This was a really good book, one that you want to keep reading and not put down. I especially liked learning about Alice, http://www.alice.org/ , a novel idea: educational software which makes learning computer programming fun; I also liked the stories about the Disney salt and pepper shakers. My favorite story would have to be the one about his really creative use of Girl Scout Thin Mints, which I thought was such a great idea (I won't tell you what it is in case you haven't read the book yet!); he really is clever. Before I finished the book, I told a friend that I was surprised because I thought it was going to be one of those books that I'd be crying all the way through it but I hadn't teared up at all---but of course I spoke too soon.....at the very end I had to break out the tissues! This is definitely a book worth reading!