Cure for Cabin Fever?

We needed a little dose of anti-cabin fever travel this weekend so a little road trip was planned.  But not on the Harley of course ! 

Though we've lived here in Southern Indiana for almost 10 years, we aren't very familiar with the city of Indianpolis.  Other than buzzing through on our way to the Chicago area, a couple of trips to the southern part of the city and a short visit a few years ago when we used to trap shoot east of town, we've not really explored much of the area.   This city has a lot to offer so I'm sure we'll have to come back again.  We drove through downtown and Monument Circle (the Soldiers and Sailors Monument pictured above) and the Historic District of N. Meridian St. until we found the interesting Broad Ripple area stopping at a few interesting shops along the way.  I kind of forgot to take photos of those areas.

We spent the night at the charming northern suburb of Carmel and had breakfast this morning at Bub's Cafe.  Of course we had to try their famous donut holes.  All I can say,  if these were the holes - the donuts must be huge!  We enjoyed these and remembered D's mom and the donuts she used to make.  My new favorite breakfast item to order is an egg sandwich, though I was tempted by the stack of 24  pancakes here!  (Just kidding!)

Downtown Carmel is now called the Carmel Arts and Design Center and on any other day rather than a rainy Sunday morning would be a great place to spend some time.  An antiques mall was open and this pretty booth full of antique dolls and china was nice.  See the woman with her shopping bags?  She's standing in front of the butcher shop and you can make out the legs of a gentleman sitting on a bench outside a little book store.  They're statues!  And many of their life like friends were stationed around town too. 

After a stop at a Woodcraft store for D and also Trader Joe's (if you are reading this Mr. Trader Joe - please consider opening a store near us!), we headed home.  I found an interesting quilt shop, but it was closed today.  All the more reason to venture out to this part of the state again! 

Daffodils from Trader Joe's were  $1.49 a bunch.  Maybe by the end of the week, I'll have some spring flowers!  When we got home, we found out it had been over 60 here today!  It wasn't near that warm "up north" but we had a nice little overnight trip anyway. 

Cabin Fever February

Raise your hand if you are suffering from cabin fever.  We haven't had near the bad weather that some parts of the country have but nevertheless, I'm ready for spring!  I've not really been in the blogging mood but I'm trying to get back in the swing of things.  Both D and I are ready for a nice motorcyle trip.  That might be the cure for both the cabin fever and the blogging block!  Maybe next month.....(I say hopefully!)

This was the view out our back door earlier this week.  We ended up with about eight inches of snow.  It was so nice to see the sun the last couple of days but only a little melting occurred.  Now more snow is forcasted for Valentine's day!

I took advantage of the snow days to finish up the last few blocks of last years Block of the Month from the local quilt shop.  Now I'm adding the sashings and borders and hope to have it ready to take to a quilter next week.  I did finish up the new grandbaby sock monkey quilt and it is at the quilters now.  But I can't believe that I let that out of the house  without taking a photo!  It ended up quite a bit bigger then I thought it would and I even have quite a bit of leftover fabrics for another little project.

Of course we had a little Super Bowl party to cheer on the Colts.  We had more food than was necessary of course.  A new recipe that I tried this year was Baked Sweet Onion Dip.  From the Tasty Kitchen website and definitely a keeper! 

 One thing we accomplished was re-organizing our storage room in the basement.  Many treasures were uncovered, some were boxed up and sent to Goodwill but this little quilt was brought out of hiding and put to good use.  It was made by Dennis' Grandma C. for one of our babies but I'm not sure which one.  It's made entirely from "double knit" scraps.  Remember that indestructible fabric of the eighties?   These were the soft knits and it makes a wonderful  comfy little play quilt for Peanut.  I wonder how many generations of grandbabies this quilt will cuddle!

 

After we re-organized the storage room, I then tackled my sewing room closet.  Though it's still not exactly how I want it, and I still have stuff in a couple of other corners of the basement, I spent several hours getting this far. I feel like I've made a big leap toward actually having all my fabrics and patterns sort of organized. You can't see them here, but it is no nice to see (most of) my fat quarters all lined up in the little plastic bins.  This photo only shows one side of the closet.  The other side is actually organized too! 

The Peanut comes to visit Grammie an Grampa a day or two every week.  Even though we see him often, it seems like he changes every day.  He's become quite a charmer and has a smile for everyone he meets.  His cousin J will be a big brother soon.  Then he'll no longer seem like a baby, but a little boy.  They are both growing up so fast.   Notice the Baby Ticker on the side bar to see how close we are to the arrival  of grandbaby #3.   

Hope you all have a Happy Valentine's Day. 

Valentine's Day Miracle

We've been blessed with two healthy grandsons and are looking forward to the birth of the third.  But unfortunately some families  have had to face the heart ache of a child with a terrible illness.  Lately there have been some stories on the local news of a family who have had to deal with not one but two children struggling with rare Batten Disease.  Sadly, their little girl passed away recently, but little Carter still has a chance if he can become part of a trial treatment.  I'm passing along this information to help them reach their miracle goal.  You can reach more of their story at Hailey & Carters Dream.  If you can give nothing but your prayers, those are welcome too.