October 7th - Adventures with Reid

My friend, Reid Barnhart, and I headed to Stephenville to see a quilt show.  We had a great day!

The show was being held in the gymnasium of this church:

and even though the show was small, there were some wonderful quilts!

Crochet Comets by Suzanne Thompson
I thought this was so clever! Using vintage doilies was brillant.

Quilts for All Seasons by Mary Jones from a book by Paula Vaughn.

It took her more than 2 years to do the cross stitch! So sweet and so much work!

Afternoon by Suzann Thompson

Again - a wonderful combination of crochet and quilting.

My Quilting Pins.  Using a pattern of Square in a Square, Letha Sparks made this small display for her pins.

My Life in Freeze Frame by Peggy DeLaVergne, and machine quilted by Linadelle Lee.  She decided to celebrate the first 50 years of her life and used the pink background because her adopted dad called her Pinky.  I love how she used not only personal pictures but pictures of historical significance for the time period.

Reid and me

Reid took this picture of small African-themed quilts, as well as a few other quilts that inspired her:

After we finished at the show, we went across the highway to a dairy farm owned and run by the Veldhuzen Family that has a cheese shop for their homemade cheeses and where they will let you sample all of the different kinds they make!

photos by Reid

and I, of course, loved their sheep!

After we left Stephenville/Dublin, we headed over to Hico for the chocolates!

 It was a cute shop, and I loved these guys on the porch!

After some more wandering, we ended up in Cleburne, where we decided to have dinner and wait out the Dallas rush hour before heading home -

Strange name, but good food!

All in all, a great day.

Living Room makeover!

This is the way the living room has looked for many years:

Not bad and certainly liveable, but we have always wanted something else, so at the end of Sept/first week in October, we contacted Norm and, together with his trusty sidekick Robert, they built new shelves for the living room!

But first, Dave had to remove the built-ins and paneling that were there...

Norm explains to Dave exactly how the units will be built...

and while he is doing that, Mr. Raider decided that Robert was "okay"...

Norm built the "boxes" at his house and then brought them over for installation...

They installed the boxes and then painted them and the shelves the same color as the living room...

They also added a soffit with an LED spot to connect them.

Finished at last!

Aren't these shelves awesome??? They are exactly the way Dave and I had pictured in our heads, ever since we bought the house!

Now we just have to get new carpet, put up drapes, and cover the pillows and ottoman...

August 16 (7) Mount Stuart and dinner

Really - I'm glad I don't have to clean any of it!

The front garden was a nice view as we left to catch the ferry.

We drove back into Glasgow for a final dinner at the Tontine Hotel.

It was a wonderful trip and great to see the sights and all of our friends.