Happy Thanksgiving !!!

Today...preparation.

How could I have forgotten Trader Joe's in my posting about my favorites?

I was so happy to move to a town where we have 3 of them. I stopped by this one yesterday as well because they sell Maya's favorite dog food and we were almost out. Can you believe I got in there and out again without buying anything but dog food? That's a first for me.

Okay, so this is what I'm up to today...


Two are in the oven and two are out and cooling.
Sweet Potato pie is my favorite and I've been making these for over 30 years. I love them and while 1 is for my home, the other three will go to other families for their holiday dinners. In Columbus, Ohio, my cousin Randy will be making my recipe for this pie along with 4-5 other pies for the table with all my cousins and their families. He inherited my grandmother's pie-making gene and really puts the rest of us to shame.

I'm also making green bean casserole. Even though I'm joining my two best sister-friends for dinner tomorrow at a local restaurant (none of us want to do the cooking, have the mess, or clean up after...lol), I want something here because I'm going to bake a chicken and make stove top stuffing for "leftovers" on Friday.

I think I love "leftovers" better than the actual dinner.


Yesterday, I finished all my mending. I got some fabric to cover my great task chairs that I got from IKEA....they are okay, but the fabric seems to be a dog hair magnet ~ it's the texture of the fabric or something, so I'm going to make cotton covers that I can take off, shake off, and launder when I need to. The bedding in my bedroom is orange/rusts, or all white, or watery blues. I like to switch it up. So I found a wonderful graphic print at IKEA that has the blues and oranges on a white background and will make the cover for the chair at my desk in those colors. The sewing table in the living room will have a red cover for that chair.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Yesterday's Favorite Things

I had a gazillion errands and left my camera in the car so I was able to show you some of my favorite things about living in Sacramento.

IKEA is only just across the river ~ less than 5 miles from my home. I got the IKEA catalog every year while I was living in Mexico and drooled over it. When I moved to North Carolina, the closest IKEA was in Atlanta....5-6 hours away and I made that drive twice in 2 years just to get my IKEA fix. Now I go at least once a month and when I first moved here it was 2-3 times a week!!! I love me some IKEA.

We are so lucky to live in what is called the Market Basket of the world ~ the central valley of California is largely agricultural. We have some wonderful markets here and a new one to me, is Nugget Market. Not only is the outside of their market wonderously beautiful, the inside is amazing to behold. Even if you aren't in the mood to cook....you will once you travel these aisles.

Isn't this butterfly bench something? The corporate offices have opted for beauty and function when it would have been less expensive to just go for function.






Sculptures on the walls of gossamer-clad beauties holding up platters of fruit. My, my, my.

Oh, and the awnings over the windows look as if they are made of seeds...the texture is remarkable.



The produce is displayed like fine art, and even though you came to shop for vegetables, it seems a shame to change a thing...it is so perfect.






That was yesterday....

She's Baaaaaaaaaack!

It may seem that I've been gone, like forever, but really it's only been 6 months....in which I moved cross country, unpacked, wandered hours and hours through IKEA, furnished my digs, settled in, and got the lay of the land. Whew! Now during that time you guys went on with your lives and a couple of my favorite bloggers, Anna Maria and Meg, got pregnant. How do I know? Well, even though I was busy doing all that stuff up there, I was also getting online and reading blogs. I needed an anchor for the upheaval in my life, and my blog-sisters were that and then some.

Can I show you my dining room and my stash? Here ya go!
Ha! Just kidding about the stash, 'cause this isn't all of it. (There's a bunch in rubbermaid tubs in the storage closet and some more in my bedroom closet.)

The stash in my dining room is arranged delightfully. I love looking at it, and so do my guests. Those purple boxes on top hold my quilting books.

The cabinet is IKEA.
I'm glad to be back here. Let me know if you found me.

On the road to California

I'm packing up the last of the stuff I'm taking and on Monday, bright and early, Maya and I will be on the road. We are hauling a U-Haul trailer with the stuff we can't live without (fabric, fabric, stash, sewing machine.....you get my drift) and hope to be there on Friday.

I've found an apartment that will take Maya, most wouldn't, and so we are both happy. See you when I get settled in.

Happy trails to youuuuuuuuuuuu!

That reminds me of a little story......
When my brother and I were little, I wanted to play cowboys, so I told him that when he rode off into the sunset he had to sing. He couldn't sing "Happy Trails" ~ so speech impediment and all, he galloped off singing, "wing awound da wosy". I was mortified!

Taking a Break.....

You might have noticed that I've been away for a while. I was sick, then on the couch depressed.

I made a decision a last month that I was going to need to move back to California. My employer, who I worked 30 years for made a decision to stop all but catastrophic health coverage for retirees who lived "out of area". I'm one of them, and the coverage provides for no routine health care and costs me out of pocket nearly $400 a month for the privilege (*note sarcasm here*) on no routine medical coverage. If I move back to California, I can rejoin the HMO I belonged to and everything other than minimal copays is covered. So, I must move.















What I'm leaving........the beautiful in every season Blue Ridge Mountains. A quiet country road where the only traffic that passes my house is the family who live at the end of the road, the local farmer whose access to the pasture below my place is just down the road a bit, the mailman, and in the winter the snowplow.

Wild turkeys parade down the broken yellow line sometimes, cows moo, and there is a coyote who has moved into the woods on the other side of the pasture. People here wave even if they have never seen you before and most folks don't bother to lock their cars when they go to town or their house until bedtime.

I can't afford to stay here without health insurance and the move will be expensive. I will most likely become an apartment dweller, housing is expensive. I've been grieving and I've been angry, and now I'm just on the front edge of acceptance.

There's a lot to do to get ready to make this move......so I am going to take a break from blogging, from quilting, and get to work. Look for me sometime in June. I'll be checking in on my blogging buddies from time to time and will look forward to see what you all are working on.

Abrazos y Hasta Luego Amigas.

Wednesday with the Quilty Girls...

NOT!!!!

I looked out the window at 3:00am and there was a faint dusting of snow just along the road...and none on the car or the mailbox. It was windy, and there was so little snow I figured what was there had probably blown there from Ashe County. LOL

I got up at 8:30 and saw this.

No Wednesday at the Quilt Shop for me. The snowplow hasn't passed...the wind is still blowing to beat the band and it looks like a fine day to stay inside.

I haven't been sewing. I'm in a mid-winter slump despite my full-spectrum lightbulbs and I know that this too shall pass.

Thank God for Netflix!