HOME FOR MY BIRTHDAY

Back home and so happy to be here. It was great to go visiting, but this is where I belong. Yesterday was my birthday (I can't remember which one) but we'll have the requisite party this weekend so everyone can come. Of course, I'd rather skip it and I'm not just saying that. Let's face it, I'm beyond the point of being excited about birthdays. But it's important to the rest of the family and I know it's good for the kids to have that continuity. So I'll be gracious and eat my fair share of cake and ice cream. My favorite cake is white with white icing. Just in case any of you decide to overnite a cake this way.

Beautiful hydrangeas from my precious daughter Amy. My favorite flower. While at my aunt's house, she cleaned out some cabinets of old dishes and lucky me, got to bring some home. There's a piece of carnival glass, a hobnail bowl and even a vintage little glass refrigerator dish (before tupperware). The red banded platter is from my grandmother's everyday dishes I remember from my childhood. What great memories!

Here's pretty much what the countryside looked like for much of the trip up and back. Acres and acres of flat prairie land with fields of corn and sometimes, soy beans. Being from Tennessee where it is very hilly, these flat fields were just incredible. I could see where a lot of the corn for ethanol is coming from. They also have lots of oil wells just drilling away in the fields up there.

Here is the welcome sign to the little town my aunt lives in. This is a very, very small town.

But I've been coming up here all my life, so it seems familiar to me and I don't think much about the size. While here with my mother, daughter Amy and two girls, Madison and Mekenzie, we took my aunt shopping and visiting friends and relatives. Had fun catching up with everyone and helping the little girls connect with relatives they didn't know they had.

Here's a picture of my aunt Maxine and my mother Joy. Maxine is 90 yrs old and my mom is 86 yrs. old. They look pretty good, don't they? It was a good visit, but let's just say my aunt who lives alone was just not used to children no matter how well they behave. But to be 90 yrs old, she is fantastic. I can only hope I have inherited her genes.

That's it for now, folks, I'm still doing laundry and catching up on emails. Luv, Nerm

ROAD TRIP!!!

Does this look familiar? I will take a picture of the real thing tomorrow morning. We'll see how they compare. I'll (Nerm) will be on the road Friday through next Tuesday (my birthday!)

The exciting part is who's going with me. Hubby will stay behind to work (gotta finance my fabric purchases!) and take care of all the animals (see yesterday's post).

My middle daughter Amy (Retro Heart) is going with her girls, Madison & Mekenzie. I've written about them before. Also my 86 yr old mother. We're going up to Illinois to visit my aunt who is Mother's sister and is 90 yrs. old. Wow! Three women & two young ladies. In one car. On a five hour drive. For five days.

Amy's bringing her laptop, so maybe I can sneak in a post of the trip. We'll see. All I'm asking of you all is a quick prayer for our safe trip and speedy return. Asking for steady nerves wouldn't hurt either. I'll be in touch. Luv, Nerm

GLAD TO BE HOME

I feel like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz--'there's no place like home, there's no place like home'. I was only gone five (5) days, but it sure seemed longer. Taking my 86 yr. old mother to visit my 90 yr old aunt was certainly an adventure. It did make me feel VERY young so that's a good thing-ha.
I picked up these old (1950's) issues of Workbasket magazines. How fun is that? For those of you who don't know, they are needlecraft magazines with instructions on doilie making, crocheting, tatting, home economics, etc. The ads are hilarious. I got them for a bargain of $5.00.
My aunt lives in a tiny place called Oblong, Illinois. Population: 1600 http://www.theonlyoblong.com/. I used to love going there when I was a child to visit her & my uncle and my grandparents. They lived out in the country and owned a Porter Paint store in "town". Every summer my sister and I would go spend one or two weeks up there and it is full of memories. My aunt is the only one left and she moved into town many years ago, but we drove out to the old farm. It was sad to see my grandparents' house had been torn down and replaced with another one. It probably would have been better to remember it the way it had been.
The good news was that there's a great little quilt shop in Oblong, believe it or not.
http://www.villagestitchery.com . They have a great selection of fabrics, patterns, etc. The funny part is the store is now located in what used to be the five and dime I visited as a child. Oh, the memories of toys and candy I bought there! But fabric is much, much better-ha.




After we finished our visit in Oblong, we drove south to Paducah, Ky. This is where my mother lived before moving in with us. I grew up there and graduated high school there. We spent the night and visited some friends of Mother's.
Excitement: I got to go to the world famous http://www.hancocks-paducah.com. This is one ginormous quilt store. The American Quilt Society has its headquarters here and this store has something like 30,000 bolts of fabric! I'm sure it's not that much, but it's alot. I was in heaven. You can see what all I got between Oblong and Paducah, I'm set for quilting and sewing for quite a while


Can you tell I love bright colors? No antique, dull ones for me!

And finally, I had to get some of the Kitty Cucumber print for one of my little people. I have loved Kitty Cucumber for years and was so excited to see her in fabric. I even have a Christmas ornament of her. I am hopeless, I know!

Have I bored you all to death? Well, it was fun to kind of re-shop all my finds and bargains.

Now I can dream about what they're gonna be. Luv, Nerm

OFF ON A SHORT TRIP

Hope everyone is fine and still enjoying Spring. Here it's rain and more rain. We do have a good sunny day once in a while. I feel bad for the folks in Arkansas getting all the tornadoes.

Tomorrow morning my sister and I are going a little trip, taking our mother (86 yrs old) up to Illinois to visit her sister (90 yrs old). Their mother -my grandmother-lived to be 102, so I guess good genes run in the family. Anyway, we'll have a good visit and be back on Monday afternoon. Then I'll give you all the juicy details-ha, ha!

Hopefully Kitty will keep you entertained while I'm gone. Luv, Nerm

Remembering Paris, Again...

Well I have been doing a little spring cleaning and going through all my photos from our recent trip to Europe. I am determined to get my scrapbook done. I can't wait to go back. I look at each one and remember where we were at that moment. I love remembering through pictures because sometimes I think the memories are actually better than the real thing. You can have them forever and hold them dear to your heart. The pictures above are of my favorite pastries from Laduree, my favorite place in Paris to get pastries. It is very well known and as silly as it may sound, it is so beautiful to see all the pastries lined up ready to be bought. Believe me, they all get bought too! I have always been a sucker for pretty packaging and this place doesn't miss a beat. Wish I could get the pastries shipped here. Oh well, I will have to wait 'til next time.

Well, I was looking through some of my recent photographs from our trip to Europe and thought I would share a couple of them with you all. These two above are from the little town of Eze, France. I thought the colors the of handmade soaps were so brilliant, I told my husband they looked good enough to eat. The second picture was a booth set up next to the soap, where a young man was selling herbs all grown locally. Not only did it look amazing but the smell was even more glorious. My husband being Italian and quite the chef, of course loaded up on the herbs. We cook with them all the time and yes, they really are amazing. It's things like this that make me miss Europe soooo much. I wish I could go every year for a couple of months. -Kitty