Home again, home again!

Wow, that went fast, it always seems to and here I am home once again.
The weather in Dallas was in the high 70's and after leaving a chilly 32 degree KC I couldn't believe I could wear Capri's and sandals, what a treat!
Our 1st full day we packed up the boys and a picnic lunch and went to the Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Garland. What an beautiful way to spend a pretty day. The flower displays are breathtaking.
Besides all the gorgeous flowers there are waterfalls, sculptures, a serenity pool, lake and many miniature buildings for children to enjoy such as this cute gingerbread cottage.

Or this fanciful butterfly hut, vines covered with hundreds of hand made butterflies, a sparkly visual treat!

We kept a busy pace, each day revolves around lunch and nap times so our journeys had to happen before or after. No trip is complete without a trip to a fabric store with Grandma. The boys were fascinated with these spools of thread LOL!

Being a Mommy to twins is hard work. Keeping that thought in mind, Melissa and I escaped one afternoon for some much needed girls time out. We went to the little town of Grapevine and browsed through all the antique and artsy shops. Here I am taking a break with my new friend, he's kind of ignoring me don't you think!

We rounded off our shopping with dinner at a Mexican restaurant-Esparazas, I just love Mexican food and Texas serves up some of the best. They also had the most awesome frozen margaritas I have ever tasted!
My final morning we went to Dennys for breakfast. As we walked in 2 college age boys waiting for their table jumped up to open the doors for us. How refreshingly nice that was. A lovely start to a long day ahead.
My journey home was truthfully pretty excruciating. My flight out of Dallas was delayed 8 hours due to the flooding and severe storms around Houston. All it takes is a little Mother Nature acting up to back up an airport. So I settled in for the long haul with hundreds of other travellers and attempted to amuse myself as best as I could. I'll tell you I dropped lots of money at that airport while trying to do so! Lets see, for starters I had lunch at MacDonald's and later dinner at Pizza Hut. I bought 3 magazines and snacks in-between. I listened to every tune on my Ipod, all 6,000 LOL! I did have a book with me, I just didn't feel I could tune out enough to concentrate on that. The terminal seemed to buzz like a hive, everyone on cell phones, crying babies, children running around, thank goodness I had only myself to entertain. I really wished I had a laptop with me. By 9pm we finally had a plane, pilot and crew and were able to depart to a round of cheers.
Home again, home again lickety split!

All set to go!

Happy day after Easter! To those I did not get the chance to talk to yesterday, I hope yours was wonderful. Ours was quiet but sometimes quiet is nice. I made a lovely brunch for the 4 of us and after that Jerry and I were on our own as Jon and Carly headed back down to school.
I sat and bound my quilt. Then it was on to making my big list of errands to do for today before
leaving for Dallas tomorrow.
I am pretty near packed other than those last minute items that have to wait. And as you can see Cleo is camped out as usual on my suitcase! She looks a bit cranky, you mean I'm not going she said, humffff!

The ugly dolls are in my carry-on along with a "People" and stack of quilt magazines. I am off to visit my 3 year old twin Grandsons, Aiden & Brandon. I am soooo excited! I hear they are going to be keeping me busy LOL!
Have a wonderful week!

Snowmen In April!

Yipee, my quilt top is back lickety split! These snowmen are absolutely happy and adorable I must say. Well I know snow is something many of us are pretty tired of by now. However Christmas and Fall projects are exploding in my sewing room. This is the time of year to design and stitch up new projects for the up and coming Christmas season. By the time Fall rolls around I will be working on Spring and Summer!
I send all of my quilt tops to my friend Brenda in Oklahoma to be quilted. I met Brenda when she owned My Sisters Quilt Shop in Edmond. As you know quilting is the icing on the cake and
I am always excited to see how she quilted my top. Brenda is one very talented lady and a new author as well.

This is her new book "Fabulous Fractures". Her quilts are truly amazing, so look for her book in your local quilt shop and check them out.

Anyway, back to the snowmen, here's a little grouping of three. I just love this color palette. I used up my stash of Deb Strains "It's Snowing" fabric by Moda. Her colors are always so bright and fun, I look forward to her next line of Christmas fabric.

One cute little snowman! I have yet to bind my quilt. The strips are all cut and ready to sew in place. I've spent most of the week working on the pattern instructions, so were moving right along.

On to knitting! In my spare time (?) I am working on Christmas stockings for the twins. Isn't this pattern adorable? I have to tell you though, this is one humongous stocking, a good 30"s long! I started making these for my family many years ago, now I make them for each new family member so they all will have matching stockings to hang on their mantle. I usually do this on road trips, a nice little way to make the hours fly by. Also much easier for me to knit in the car than at home with Cleo who so loves to "help". LOL and that is not a pretty picture!
Speaking of the twins, only 4 more days until I head to Dallas for a visit. I just can't wait to see my munchkins!
I guess many of you are getting ready for Easter. We have no plans this year, just Jerry and I, possibly Jon, our plans are up in the air.
Wiahing you all a great weekend and a Happy Easter if I don't get to another post before!