Monday, November 28, 2011

Thankful

The 2011 Thanksgiving Oreo Turkey Parade

 These were a hit with the little guys!

And these little guys are a hit with Grammie and Papa!  (Yes, a couple of us look a little tired in this photo, but it was still a great week!)

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Just a Bit More October


I wanted to share a few more things from October before moving on to November.  

Here's my little quilting project.  I purchased a few Halloween fat quarters at Hollyhock Quilt Shop's open house last month and picked up a free pattern sheet.  The result was this cute little table topper for practicing my free motion quilting. I'm getting a little better at it but still need lots of practice.  I am better at baking though and it is so hard for me to not bake but goodness knows, I really need to avoid goodies like these.  Pinterest not only a good way to waste time, but to find so many recipes that look so good, like these Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I only made half the recipe to limit the temptation!  (This is not all that half of the recipe made - just  a few for the photo!)


 Back on the road weekend before last, we headed up toward Cincinnati.  I guess some folks find original ways to  make their political  feelings known!  Or maybe it's an art form?


We enjoy watching the Food Network show, Diner's Drive-ins and Dives and we've ventured out to find a few of the restaurants featured there.  This time we found Virgil's Cafe.  I wouldn't call this a drive-in or dive and more of a nice restaurant than a diner.  It was very good, and though I didn't embarrass ourselves by snapping food photos, we really enjoyed our late lunch.  We really need to find another weekend activity that doesn't involve so much food!

 It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is almost here!  All the kids and grandkids will be here at some point over the next few weeks. So there's some house cleaning, cooking and baking to be done. I'm not sure if any sewing projects will be completed but there are plenty of things to keep me busy for the month of November. 

Have a great weekend!  





Sunday, November 6, 2011

More October

October has come and gone and by the time I finally update this here little blog, November might be almost half over!  We had hoped to be able to use up more of DH's vacation time with another RV road trip before the snow flies.  I know we shouldn't complain, but he has just been too busy to get away for more than a long weekend.  So we've tried to take a day here and there to take advantage of some relatively nice fall weather for some short motorcycle trips. The farthest we've gotten so far is to Nashville, TN and surrounding area.  

We usually try to venture downtown and sample some of the live music on Broadway.  We're getting old so one short evening of that is all we can handle any more!  We got an early start on Saturday morning with intentions of stopping for breakfast at The Loveless Cafe but it has become such a popular stop for tourists and locals that the wait time was  over an hour and a half!  I had read about a small, quaint town not far down the Natchez Trace Parkway, Leipers Fork and we decided to see what they had to offer.  It turned out that they were just setting up for a Chili Cook Off  and the town was  bustling with activity too.  But we were lucky to find the Country Boy Restaurant and were there, fed, full and on our way in less than the hour and a half we would have had to wait  at the Loveless.  I had some of the best french toast!


 Leipers Fork is a fascinating little community with some wonderful shops and galleries.  On the recommendation of one of the store clerks, we found a wonderful book store.  Yeoman's at the Fork is not your average book store, but almost a museum full of rare books and documents.  An interesting stop to start our day of exploring!



We will definitely have to come back to this area again someday! From there we followed signs marking one of the Tennessee Historic Driving Tours and traveled through some pretty ranch and farm country.  There are Civil War sites along the way if one would take the time to stop and check them out.  Once we got to Franklin, we discovered we had just missed a Civil War Re-enactment.  But we did meet this handsome couple on their way to the Factory Shopping District


So even though it was a short trip, and it was a rather chilly ride at times, it was nice to get away for a couple of days.  Unfortunately, I spent most of the next week in bed with some sort of upper respiratory crud.  Luckily no one else came down with it!  I guess that was payback for the weekend earlier this fall that D spent in the hospital with kidney stones!   



One day I had help with a little pumpkin carving!  We have neighbors down the street who are already decorating for Christmas.  I know I run a little slow on somethings, but I'm just not quite ready for that because I've still got more of October to add to the blog!  See you soon!