The big holiday weekend is over......

It was a nice holiday weekend for us...a mixture of fun times and relaxation. I already blogged about our time at the art show. That night, we went with some friends to sit on a pontoon boat one of them owns so we could watch the fireworks over the bay. We stayed tied to the dock...too many "drinkers" out on the water to take the boat out safely. We had snacks and drinks before it got dark and the fireworks started. Here are some photos of us. One of the guys is partially hidden in the photo.....guess he didn't pay attention when we said, "Look at the camera, Everybody!" You should be able to click on all the photos to enlarge them, if you wish.This next one shows the guy who owns the boat as he was taking a picture of the rest of us with his cell phone camera.
This shows some of the geese that were floating by us while we were on the boat. We counted and there were 53 of them....quite a large group. Guess they were partying for the 4th, too.Then...last night, we went to a nearby park for their Sunday night concert which was featuring a small Army Band from a reserve unit in northern Delaware. It looked like the concert would be rained out, but it wasn't. It was very fitting to end the holiday weekend with all that patriotic music. I did manage to get a little bit of sewing done a couple of days back. Remember the "beachy divas" fabric I got at the local quilt shop's recent anniversary sale? I decided the idea of a quilted bag was perfect for that....so I took two of the "gals" from the fabric and used one on each side of the bag. I think it will even be fun to take this bag to the grocery store....might put a smile on the cashier's face as she looks at the beachy gals instead of the usual boring, store-logo bags seen all day long there! I used it on the boat on Saturday night and also last night at the concert and got a couple of cute comments about it. Here are two photos of that bag.....one of each side....it holds a nice amount of "stuff"!

My poor tomato plants......and photos of art show

We only have a small area for a veggie garden and this year fit 4 plants there.....2 cherry tomato plants and 2 regular plants. We have now lost our regular plants. There is a blight around in tomato plants on the east coast and ours got it. Now I hope we don't lose the 2 cherry tomato plants or I'll be really sad. *sigh* Click HERE for a link about this blight if you live in any state on the east coast and have tomato plants. Then you might be able to catch it early and salvage your plants if they get affected by it.

Okay...on a brighter note, (and with 2 fun links for you to click on and enjoy), yesterday was the 43rd annual art show sponsored by our church. It is held in downtown Lewes, DE, on the first Saturday of July. With it also being 4th of July, the whole town was in celebration gear.....the main street blocked off for old-fashioned games for the kids....a boat parade (didn't get to see that....some year I will)....all kinds of happy faces. And the weather was perfect....blue skies, sunshine AND a nice breeze. Hubby and I arrived at 5:30 so I could help register the 140 vendors who attended and he could help direct traffic. The items exhibited and sold by these 140 vendors were totally amazing and one could spend hours looking at the artwork. There is also a very nice turkey salad luncheon put on by the church women, a silent auction, etc. Below are a few photos....not many since I was quite busy.....but just to give you a flavor of the day. (Click on them to enlarge.)

Before the shuttle buses arrived and the show was opened to customers, I snapped a quick photo of one of the streets around the church with vendor booths. There were 4 streets filled with booths like this.
This is my friend, Linda (blogless), looking at the artwork done by a talented PA artist, Bruce Garrabrandt. He draws very good pictures of animals and has very whimsical titles. Click HERE to see some of his work. He and his wife have a very nice bed & breakfast in Terre Hill, PA...and the website will tell a bit about that, also...but it does show several of his whimsical animal drawings with their very clever titles. I'd love to visit this inn as it's in a really relaxing area of PA. Take a look at the inn while you are visiting the webpage.One of the old, historic homes surrounding the church and art show...decorated for the 4th of July. Linda wanted me to go and fix the blue flag that was caught on something, but I figured that would be a bit rude of me to march up there and do it....so you'll have to imagine what it looked like before the flag got stuck on the porch trim.This was my purchase......an 11 x 14 print of a mommy Candian goose and her babies taken by an up and coming young local photographer, Jay Fleming. His dad (Kevin) is an established and well-known photographer (having done a lot of special work for National Geographic over the years). If you want to have a very nice webpage saved on your computer to look at a couple of times each week, click HERE to see photos from a book that is now in the planning stages (and will be published in the fall of 2010). There are many photos by Jay and his dad that will take your breath away......wildlife and scenery shots that are superb! I know you will love their work....so go and have a look.And on a closing note.....my internet time has been limited the past few days and I didn't get to visit many blogs yesterday but things should be more "normal" tomorrow....at least for awhile!!!

Happy 4th of July to my fellow American bloggers....

May we always cherish our freedom and remember that liberty comes with a price. Never forget those who worked so hard to declare our independence and to frame our constitution....and, of course, always remember those who have paid the price that we may be free.

Link to a giveaway....and "down on the farm"

Click HERE to go to a nice giveaway by "sewmeow" on her blog. She is going to add another item each day for 18 days because it's her birthday. Pretty nice of her, huh?I know I said I'd show some completed sewing but...instead...I'm going to show a couple of photos of blueberry picking. I went yesterday to a pick-your-own blueberry farm (Blueberry Lane) nearby with my good friend, Linda. (We now quilt together but we were friends long before we became quilters and now we are neighbors, too...which is terrific.) We have gone blueberry picking now for a few summers and enjoy it. However, this year with the lack of sunshine for several weeks, the pickings were pretty slim. If the weather stays sunny, it should improve a good bit as there are a lot of berries...just not that many ripe yet. This is the hardest we have had to work to get berries in all the times we've gone there! You can see in this photo that it was a beautiful morning but if you click on the photo and look closely, you can see many more UNRIPE blueberries than ripe ones!Next you can see that I peeked through the bushes to get a picture of Linda hard at work trying to fill her bucket with blueberries.And.....here is a photo of my berries back at home. I freeze some for use during the year and we also eat some right away......YUMMY!!! I always say I'll use the ones I don't freeze in some recipe, but we usually eat them too quickly. Click on the picture to see how nice they look!

EARLY morning activity.....and sewing later

I thought you might be interested in one of my summer activities. Yesterday morning was one of several days during the summer in which I help prepare and serve a buffet breakfast to out-of-town students who work in the nearby beach town of Rehoboth Beach. This is an effort sponsored by several of the area churches, including the one we attend. It is open to all students (both from the U.S. and many other countries) who are in the area just for the summer to work at area businesses. The tourism industry here counts very heavily on them! (Actually, it seems only the foreign students get up early and come to the breakfasts and not the U.S. students...not sure what THAT says, but I could make a few guesses!!! LOL) This is a picture of a couple of the girls at the station that serves eggs and a breakfast casserole and sausage. It should enlarge if you click on it.

We also have cold cereal....fresh fruit...baked goods....toast......lunchmeat and cheeses (for sandwiches)...yogurt....bagels.......juice...coffee...and tea. I have to leave my house at 5:45 a.m. as the breakfast begins at 7 and we start working with the food about 6:15.....so it is a very tiring effort, but it is a rewarding activity. It is nice to get to know these students over the summer and to be able to help them adjust to being in a new place. This next photo shows a few of the other students helping themselves to some of the other breakfast items.
I'd be remiss now if I didn't show at least one photo of some of the workers. This was near the end of the breakfast hour, so things had slowed down, but I assure you we hustle and bustle and are on our feet and moving around constantly from 6:15 a.m. until we get all cleaned up and leave there about 9:30 a.m.
On the way out of Rehoboth today, I saw this building and had to stop to take a couple of photos. I think it's really a nice-looking place, don't you? Be sure to click on them to enlarge so you can appreciate how nice the house looks! This is the front...didn't get the entire garden (which was beautiful) because of too much traffic and I'd have to stand in the middle of the road to do it. The second picture shows one side of it.....decorated simply but tastefully for the Fourth of July. This house is about 3 blocks away from the ocean and only one block off the main street of town. After this, I went home for a quick nap and then worked on a couple of quilting projects. (I may have one of them finished enough to show on tomorrow's blog post.)

A Lori Holt giveaway.....

For all you lovers of things vintage....check out a great giveaway for a wonderful batch of goodies. Click HERE for the information! Dishtowels...threads....AND your choice of 4 wonderful days-of-the-week patterns to make your very own set of dishtowels!


AND...thanks to my blogging friend, Tonya, I got my West Virginia visitor to the blog, so I will soon remove the individual state counter from the sidebar. What fun to get all 50 states accounted for in a little under 2 weeks! Thanks to all of you.

Today my mother would have been 84 years old. She died nearly 20 years ago, though....at the too-young age of 64. Her grandkids were still young and she never saw any of them grow up and graduate and get married and start their own families. I hope she has looked down and been happy and proud at least a few times in the 20 years since she's been gone. Sometimes it seems like less than 20 years since she died.....and other times, it seems so long ago that she is a very distant memory in my mind.

Two on Tuesday.....

I have SO many photos on this computer and on disks and I love many of them. I often find myself wishing I could share them with someone. SO...I have decided that, occasionally, I will feature a couple of them here. I may call this Two on Tuesday (or Four on Friday....or Six on Saturday...you get the picture.....bad "pun", huh?) Anyway...these photos may or may not have to do with quilting and crafting...might be nature photos or family photos. Who knows what they will be? I just want to share them and since it's my blog, I decided I will DO it and hope you will indulge me in this. LOL If you aren't bored by them, they should enlarge nicely if you click on them.

Here is one I took in Rehoboth Beach at sunrise one day...
And here is one of a sunrise in Nags Head, NC (on the Outer Banks)Okay....now I just need someone from West Virginia to read my blog...and then I'll have all 50 states! (Then I will remove the state counter and just leave the country one in place on my sidebar...since the country one will still count U.S. totals for me...and that will be fine.) So...if you know any quilters in West Virginia, please send them here.....okay???? LOL