Elvis Presley was alive

Recently I had the opportunity to see Elvis in person.
My friend Kathy asked if I would be interested in going to the
Fireside Dinner Theatre in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin.
What a fun experience.
We started early in the morning for our adventure.
Kathy has been going there for shows for several years.
She knew all the fun places to stop on our way up
to Wisconsin.

We were there by noon to enjoy a wonderful lunch.  Everyone that comes
pretty much gets the same meal. (They will take care of special diets.)
People were being seated, and the service started almost immediately.
The servers are efficient and friendly.  They can move.
They have to have served everyone by a certain time, so the guests
could enter the theatre for the performance and start on time.

The show is done in the round.  The stage goes up and down, and the performers
enter from below or from the sides of the theatre.
I would have loved to get pictures of the performers, but could not. Against the
rules.  The performance was Elvis through three phases of his life. There were
three different men that performed as Elvis.  Each had won awards for
 their impersonations of Elvis through contests.
They were so good. It felt like the real Elvis was there with you.
They had the mannerism, and voice down. The costumes were
so fun, just like we used to see.  

One of the theatre goers was nice enough to take a picture of us with the billboard.
What a super time we had. I loved every minute.  It had been a long time
since I attended a performance at a theatre in the round.  I hope to
attend a couple of the shows in 2018.
Mary

Last quilts for the year

Winter will be coming soon.

At the end of the card retreat I wanted to take

photos of the last quilts that I had finished.

Some times it takes a while to get those bindings on.

That morning was a bit cold.  It was fun to see the ice among
the fallen leaves.

I started this quilt last year. I had seen several on the internet
and had the thought, I can do that.  It is just a scrappy nine patch.
Each block consists of 4 corner of either a black on white or vice
versa.  The center 5 blocks were of a color and different shades of it.
What a wonderful way to use up more of the stash.
It is colorful and warm. (Already tried it out.)

This a table topper that I finally finished up.
I had appliqued all the "Halloween" hexies to the black
background, and it sat unquilted for a couple of years.
One day I got brave and decided to machine quilt it
myself.  These is nothing special about the quilting.
I just tried to use straight lines.
It turned out not too bad. 

The tulip quilt is a combination of left over blocks from
two different sets of applique quilts.
You know that some times you get making a block and you like
it and just don't stop.  Well that happened a couple of times. The only
thing different is the tulip heads are two different shapes. The
background fabric was the same and so were the leaf shapes.
Then what to do with them?  I just laid them
out and did not mind where they landed.  

After I laid them out, found out I had 4 left over, and did not feel
like making any more.  Back art!  Great way to not add to the
orphan block box.

For the back of the color scrap quilt I used yardage I had on hand
to make it. With each of these quilts I was able to use fabric I
had on hand.

The burning bushes that day were gorgeous.  The red was so vibrant.

The end of Fall.

There are a couple quilts in the works, but none that will be
completed before year end.  Hopefully, there will be several more
completed projects in 2018.

Happy Quilting
Mary

Cantigny Park, and Monarch Tagging

Love to go to Cantigny Park in Winfield.

There are always new exhibits set up around the gardens.

At the time these were taken there was a yellow chair

exhibit.  It was interesting to say the least.

They are doing a lot of remodeling currently.

I love walking through the gardens and seeing the beautiful
display of flowers and trees.  

In one area they have flowers that bloom in different seasons, it is
referred to as as  Sensory Garden.
There is a small pond that water lilies and lotus blossoms bloom.

The frogs were quite active.

Love to work on my photography skills.

Flowers and birds have been passions for a long time.

Zinnias are one of my favorite flowers in the summer.

Have never seen petunias like these.  Maybe next spring I well try to find some.

I found out there are several types of milkweed.
As long as I was going to find out how they "tag" Monarch
Butterflies, this was a good thing to learn.

Got to see a few Hummingbirds that were still in the area.

These tiny birds are fascinating to watch and "try" to photograph.

There was a going to be a lecture about how to tag the butterflies.

They brought about 20 of them for the demonstration.
They were in a special cage for transporting.

There were quite a few people that had been signed to attend the lecture,
adults and children.  Good to start them young.

A lot of information was given as well as milkweed seeds
to be planted for next year.  The Monarch loves milkweed.
Our teacher told how they have been able to see how far
a Monarch travels in the early fall.  

She had maps and displays that showed the life cycle, and how
they traveled.  The children that were there had the
opportunity to use a butterfly net, to see if they could catch
their own to tag.  The area around there was prime for
the Monarch.

She showed how to delicately hold a butterfly, and how to tell the
difference between a male and a female.
(The male has a black dot on their wing)

There is a place on the wing where a small dot can be placed.  It will
stay on the wing for the whole flight.

After one of the butterflies was released it do not go very far, and I could get a
picture of where it was placed. What an interesting lecture.
I had wondered how they could track them.
There are always things to be learned.

One more picture of a flower.  This is a close
up of a dahlia.

Mary

Motorcycle

Earlier this summer, Andrew purchased a new

motorcycle. I know it is a "Victory".  I think he said you cannot

go to a dealer to purchase a new one, as they are no longer in business.

Andrew asked if I would be interested in a ride. Who am I to

not try something once.

He brought it over one day and set me up with a helmet.

We had to get Ron to take the pictures.  Andrew knew we weren't
going far, so did not wear his helmet!

It was fun, but a little scary for me. That is one big bike! 

We all got to laughing so much at the whole experience.
Andrew and I just went around the block. It was hard to hold on.

Getting off was no easy doing.  What a challenge.  I had to be guided
the whole way, and still almost fell off.
Ron could not stop laughing.  I don't think this is the way I would
care to travel, at least not at my age.  Andrew loves it.  This bike is a lot
bigger then the one he sold to buy this one.  He has a group of friends that
he goes with.  They all enjoy it.  Maybe if I were a lot younger I would see
it as a lot fun.  I am too concerned with breaking my bones!

I can safely say this is now off my bucket list!

Mary

Update on kitties

Remember, back in December 2016, Ron and I drove

to Paducah, Kentucky to meet up with our friends

Sandy and Steve to pick up 3 kittens. 

They are fitting into our lives very well.

Talk about changes and personalities.
These are the two sisters, Pepper and Cinnamon.
A lot of times they can be found curled up together somewhere.
This day happened to be on our bed.
They groom each other, and are great chasers of each other
at 2:00 in the morning.
Each has developed habits that are funny to us.
Pepper seems to like being by me.  She is not a cuddlier, but will
curl up in the crook of my legs while I am sleeping.
I can usually find her curled up within  three to four feet of me
when I am doing handwork in the evening.  She did jump into my lap one
day when I had a quilt on it and sleep when I was taking a cat nap.
At night it is an adventure to wake up to be box in by kitties. Cinnamon
loves to get under the covers and sleep curled up next to me.

Here is Princess.  She is the resident matriarch of our family.
She is Ron's kitty.  Princess adores Ron and gets jealous if he  pays
attention to any of the other kitties.  She is also my resident
quilt inspector.

Here is Dude!  He is the brother to the two girls.
Dude is very laid back and easy going.  He lets you pick him up
and cuddle.  He resides in our son Andrew's house with his buddy, Charlie.
Andrew tells us he can be a handful with his exploring and wanting attention
at 3:00 in the morning. He and Charlies like to curl up with Andrew
at night.

Here is Charlie, Andrew's first resident kitty.
Charlie is a cuddlier once he warms up to you. He enjoys sleeping
up by Andrew's head.  It has been seen that these two will curl up with
each other and do play together.

Here is Cinnamon.
She still has a screechy voice. You pick her up she screeches. If you
disturb her beauty sleep, she will screech.  Even when she purrs it is a different
sound.  She does not appreciate being picked up and thinks everything is hers.
For whatever reason, she brings us straight pins and needles from my pin cushions.
I now have to hide or put a pincushion in a plastic box. I can't keep any of them out, she
will find them.  The fact that she leaves them on our bed or the floor does not
matter to her at all.
 

Last but not least is Pepper.  She seems to have become my kitty.
Like I said before, she likes to sleep near me.  She follows me around. Pepper
will let me pick her up, but does not like to stay in my arms very long.
She will clean a dinner plate off if you put it before her. She is curious about
everything. She has to check every new smell, or object that comes into the house.

All the kitties are giving us much joy.
Andrew's, Charlie and Dude do come to visit now and then.  If Andrew
is away for a short time, we take care his kitties at their home. If he were going
for a longer, like a week or more, it is easier to have them with us.
So far, Andrew comes to our house to take care of Princess, Cinnamon
and Pepper. The kittens are now young adults and more set in their ways.
I am glad we have them all in our lives.
They do keep you smiling.

Have a great day.
Mary

Card making retreat

Back to New Buffalo and Union Pier for a few days.
What a round of weather we had. During the 5 days I was gone, there were
sunny and calm days, to a light dusting of snow, to extreme winds.
The lake was calm and showing beach, to high winds and no beach. 
Lake Michigan is always full of surprises.

Squirrels were still out collecting acorns.

Here you can see the clouds and water moving along.

At night you could hear the wind roaring through the trees.
Lake Michigan was at least half a mile away from us.

We did have that dusting of snow.

There were only three of us in this one big room.  We could each take up as much
room as we wanted.  That was a great surprise and oh so nice.
What is nice that each of use spends as much time working on our projects,
and don't have the distractions like we do at home.

The other two ladies, Myra and Sheila were working on
scrapbooks for their families. The work they put into them is amazing.
They have been friends for many years and are part of
each others families. These young ladies come all the way from
Ohio to spend a week, twice a year.

Myra and Sheila

Here is part of what I got done.
I finished some cards that were in progress, and made others
from start to finish.

I was able to get all my Christmas cards made for this year.
In all I got over 50 cards done. It felt good to be able
to accomplish this much.

Here we are just before we all left.
Sheila, Myra and myself.

What a great week of creativity.

Mary