I'm back.......

I'm back from my trip to NJ (where we lived for most of our lives). We had a really nice time. I'll be mentioning bits and pieces of my trip in various posts over the next week, I'm sure.

The first photo below is me with my good friend, Rhea, (who we visited when we were there). She is on the left and I'm the one wearing glasses. I've known her for about 25 years now and even though we no longer see each other very often (due to distance), we have a very relaxed, nice time whenever we are together. An added treat this time was the fact that her granddaughter (on summer break from college) was there, too, and we had a nice time seeing her, also. The second photo shows a large tin of buttons Rhea gave me. Her kids were telling her to throw them out....and she didn't really want to do that. SO....she is happy they are going to me...who will truly appreciate them. They belonged to her mother and.....as close as she can figure.....the oldest of the buttons might be from the 1920's - 1930's. I'll be adding these to the buttons I got at a yard sale (and showed here the other day). I'll now be on the hunt for nice jars in which to display them. Thank you, Rhea, for a really nice time the past few days AND for the buttons!!!

Look for me at the quilt show.....

On Thursday, our quilt guild's bus trip will be to the MidAtlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Awhile back, I got a cute shirt (found through quilter, Bonnie Hunter). She is part of a small group that had these shirts made for themselves and they had a few leftovers, so I bought one. I intend to wear it to the quilt show as I feel it is just the "right" shirt to wear. What do you think? I will also carry the bag I made (from directions on Mary Grace's Hooked on Needles' blog). I'm picturing both here so that you can flag me down and say hello if you are at the show that day and see me. It's fun to meet bloggy friends at quilt shows. Even though we are all there on a mission and we have tasks to complete and can't spend a lot of time together, it's nice to put a face with a name and maybe even snap a quick picture. So....if you see me there that day, please say hello. Just look for this bag and this shirt.....I hope I won't be hard to miss! :)

Part 2 of holiday tour in New York City....

Standing outside the TODAY show studios (after they were off the air for the day).

Tree in Rockefeller Center...ice skating rink in forefront of photo.

Granddaughter looking in amazement at huge dinosaur in Toys R Us in Times Square area.

One of the windows at Saks Fifth Avenue....all the windows are animated and WONDERFUL.

Granddaughter enjoying corn on the cob at lunch after doing a lot of sightseeing that day!

A little Christmas tour of New York City.....PART 1

Since this is so picture-intensive, I'll break our NY trip up into a couple of posts. The above photo shows the MTV building in the area of Times Square. You can see there are many restaurants beneath the space used by MTV for its studio. (You should be able to click on each photo to enlarge it and see it better.)

The photo above is the section of buildings in Times Square that you will see on TV on New Year's Eve. If you look closely, you will see the tower at the top from which the Waterford ball is "dropped" at midnight. (We were there on January 3 and things in Manhattan were all cleaned up by then.)

There are all kinds of things to be seen in NY....and nothing is surprising. This couple was just slowly waltzing across the street and photos were being taken. It could have been for a magazine or some kind of ad, but it looked like it was just a regular couple on their wedding day, truthfully.

Above is St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue. This photo shows the relative size of the cathedral in relationship to the height of other buildings and to people. The last photo today shows one of the many altars inside the cathedral. I think this may be the main altar, but I can't recall for sure. Tomorrow I'll post photos of the area around Rockefeller Center (and the big tree there).