100th Hodgepodge

It's late in the afternoon on Wednesday, but still Wednesday so I can still answer these Wednesday Hodgepodge questions, right? Joyce over at From This Side of the Pond has been writing up these questions for a long time. This is the 100th list. I've been praying for Joyce and her husband since they live in north-west New Jersey and hurricane Sandy smacked right into the area.

1. What creeps you out?
Caves. I hate going into caves. Dark, damp, under ground. No. Thank. You.

2. What's your least favorite candy?
I am not a fan of super sour candy or candy whose only flavor is super sweet sugar. It needs to be chocolate, of course.

3. Are you a fan of scary movies?  What's the scariest movie you've ever seen?
Am I a fan of scary movies? No, no, no, no, no. I hate scary movies. I think the scariest movie I have seen was Halloween when I was in high school. I remember going back home and turning on EVERY SINGLE LIGHT IN THE WHOLE HOUSE. My poor parents. I refuse to see anything remotely scary.

4. What part of life confuses you the most?
Why there is so much pain in life.

5. Pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, poppy...what's your favorite seed?
Let's go with which one is my least favorite... I don't like pumpkin seeds very much. The other three are very yummy! My daughter-in-law made a cookie with sunflower seeds in it that were so yummy. And I just love sesame seeds or poppy seeds on a bagel. And lets not forget a yummy Lemon Poppy-seed Cake!

6. Imagine your life ten years from today...what's changed?
In ten years Hubby will likely be retired. I really, really look forward to him not working every day. I can't see me wanting him out of the house. I look forward to not having to count vacation days. In ten years I also see us finally living somewhere we choose. I cannot wait!

7.  What do you a) love the most and b) like the least about the Hodgepodge?
a) I like the variety of the questions. It's fun to come up with creative answers.
b) I don't like that some weeks I just don't feel creative and then I choose to not participate.

8.  Insert your own random thought here. 
I am a huge fan of  buying shoes on Zappos.com. I have stupidly wide feet and have a hard time finding shoes in a real store. I have found a lot of shoes on Zappos.com. The best part is there is no shipping charge. When I get a box of shoes (yes, I order several pairs at a time), I try them on, decide which ones I like and then I can just print out a label and drop the box off at the post office. Simple! Zappos.com sells a lot more than shoes. Last year I bought a roaster through the site for Thanksgiving. The shipping is ridiculously fast. I usually get a shipment in 1 or 2 days. (Totally random thought, huh?)

Fall Centerpiece

I though I would post a picture if what I ended up doing with all the corn I picked up in the field after it was harvested.

I had the small bowls that I purchased at IKEA. I also had the candles. I bought the small pumpkin and squashes at the grocery store. The glass apothecary is from Target. I'm so glad I bought that, I have a feeling it will show up in lots of centerpieces for different seasons.


Thanks to my friends, Carol and Joyce, for the inspiration!

Another Quilt

I finally finished another quilt. I got it back from the quilter the end of August, but it took me a while to get around to hand sew the binding down.

 The pattern is called Take Five. There are five pieces that make up a block. I used five fabrics to make up the blocks. I really enjoyed the pattern and it was easy to put together.

 I sent the quilt to The Missouri Star Quilt Company for the quilting. I chose a pattern that was meandering and had dragonflies throughout. Can you see the dragonfly? One of the fabrics has a dragonfly in the pattern.

 Hubby has already used this quilt to keep warm while watching TV.

Family Made Antique

On our way back home from our vacation, we stopped briefly to say hello to my in-laws.  As we were telling them about our trip, my father-in-law remembered he had a quilt that his grandmother had made. He asked me if I would like it. I tried very hard to not jump up and shout too loudly. Hubby said he could tell how excited I was about it.

The quilt is just beautiful. Probably made in the 1940s. There are several fabrics that have deteriorated over the years, but I just love all the handwork.

I have read in magazines about how some people like to recreate antique quilts. I just don't know if I could do all that applique. Whew! What a lot of work! The quilting is in a diagonal pattern about an inch apart. The stitches are so tiny and even. Very impressive!

Dreamt

Not too long ago, Hubby and I were out of town for the weekend and spent the nights in a hotel. I had an interesting dream that I thought I'd share here on my blog. I was dreaming that we were somewhere overseas. I think somewhere like Southeast Asia (sensible since we lived there for three years). It was hot. We were going into a large building to watch some kids (maybe Titus in a preschool show?) perform something and could feel the cool air of the air conditioning pouring out as we were walking up the steps towards the door. Inside it was so cold, we were told we could pick out a quilt to wrap up in. The quilts were all very brightly colored and very fun. I got to thinking how fun it would be to make a brightly colored quilt or two to donate to whatever the place was. As I was looking over the quilts, I kept thinking about how cold it was and how much the air conditioning was turned down.

Eventually I woke up enough and remembered my dream and realized the source of the dream:
 
Earlier that night after Hubby had fallen asleep (in 5.78 seconds) I was feeling like the room was stuffy. Maybe the temperature in the room had changed. Maybe the temperature of my personal built-in furnace had changed. No matter. I was hot. I got up to turn on the air conditioner. Ahhh.... I felt better quickly and fell asleep. When the air kicked on, the vent in the wall was pouring all that cold air directly on me.

So I started dreaming about how cold it was inside a building. And evidently I am obsessed enough with quilts that they make it into my dreams. (I'm wondering if I should be worried.)

(Dreamt vs. Dreamed::: Dreamt is more of a British English term and Dreamed is more of an American English term. Since we lived in Singapore and it used to be a British colony and some of the buildings there were freezing because of the cold air conditioning, I'll use Dreamt in my title. Keep in mind that Singapore is always hot and humid. Currently at 11a.m. it is 84 degrees and 74% humidity. The coldest places were the movie theaters. We would actually put on jeans and bring a sweatshirt to wear during the movie.)

So just another strange little peek into my mind. Even my mind as I am sleeping. (I hope this was entertaining for you Rachie!!)  ;)

The Stash

We thoroughly enjoyed our vacation to St. Louis, Paducah and Memphis. I decided I love to hear a southern accent. There is something just musical and soft about it. Although I usually prefer a vacation where we just stay in one place and don't have a ton of travel and sightseeing on the agenda, this trip was just perfect. Before we left home, I told my husband that I wasn't sure I even wanted to go. I believe that God knew just what we needed just when we needed it. We had such a sweet time together.

I am so grateful for how my husband gives to me over and over again. A perfect example of that is the fact that over the course of our week long trip, we stopped at seven different quilt shops. Yes. SEVEN. Hubby is so patient and kind and giving. He gladly waited in the car while I drooled over bolts and bolts of fabric. He never flinched when I came out with yet another bag of fabric. How did I get so blessed?

I think I will stop gushing and just post a picture or two of some of the great fabric I added to my stash.

Some of the fabric I have projects in mind for, others are just awaiting ideas!

The pile of fabric below is a real prize. These are all old feed sack fabric from my grandmother.
My sister shared these with me.

Memphis. The Last Day.

We started out our last full day in Memphis with the ducks. In downtown Memphis there is a famous old hotel called The Peabody. Since 1940 they have had this whole fancy ceremony where the ducks ride down an elevator at 11am, march to the fountain in the lobby and swim around there all day. Then at 5pm they go back up the elevator to their penthouse. Seriously. Go check out this link for more details.

There is a "Duckmaster" who tells about the tradition and the history of the hotel and rolls out a red carpet for the ducks to walk on from the elevator to the fountain. We got to the hotel about 40 minutes before the ceremony and it was already filling up. 

At 11 o'clock, the music started and then came the ducks. We were not able to see them get off the elevator because of all the people, but Hubby managed to capture some pretty good pictures of the grand fountain entrance.

The whole thing lasted about two minutes. Kind of silly, but kind of fun at the same time.

One other thing about The Peabody Hotel. My aunt and uncle honeymooned there in 1945. I had fun trying to imagine them as young newlyweds.


After lunch we switched gears and went a lot more serious. We had recommended to us to visit The National Civil Rights Museum. This museum is located at The Lorraine Hotel where Martin Luther King, Jr was staying when he was assassinated in 1968.

We spent close to three hours in this museum. I told Hubby that I felt like I shouldn't be there because I have not had to deal with the prejudices that the African-American people in this country have had to deal with. But I was thankful for the opportunity to learn so much.

I found the experience to be incredibly interesting and incredibly disturbing.

This is a replica of the bus that Rosa Parks got on and refused to give up her seat.

We watched a 30 minute movie about Martin Luther King, Jr mostly narrated by a friend of his who was on the balcony when Martin was shot. So moving.

If you ever get to Memphis make time to go through this museum. So worth it.

We sat in the car a while after this and talked about what we had seen.

The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping. We looked at pretty jewelry, bought a box of chocolates (that we shared very nicely), and found a Williams-Sonoma outlet store. (Yikes!) I texted my daughter-in-law that I might be in serious trouble. Grin. I loved wandering through there and found the prices much more reasonable. And let's just say that I'm glad we drove on this trip and didn't fly. It would have been impossible to get all that stuffed into a suitcase. :)

That evening we ate at a BBQ place that the driver of the carriage the night before had recommended. It was a very popular place with swarms of people. Hubby dropped me at the restaurant and parked the car at our hotel and walked the four blocks back. We enjoyed some scrumptious ribs, complete with coleslaw with a mustard based sauce. That was a little odd. I had never tasted that before. As we were leaving the restaurant we realized it was pouring outside.  What did we do? We walked through the rain! The downside (besides getting soaked) was that when the rain came, the temperature had dropped dramatically. My teeth were chattering less than a block from the restaurant.

We thought we should document our drowned-rat look. 
This is our attempt at the self-portrait. Hubby was holding the camera on these two.

 

I held the camera for this one. I can't seem to hold the camera and think about having a pleasant look on my face at the same time.

You're welcome.