Bring Out the Big Guns

I'm going to ask that you bring out the big guns and your prayer, good thoughts, positive mojo... or anything you got in your arsenal for my niece who has now been moved to intensive care. She's a transplant patient and is very, very ill with bacterial pneumonia.

Her name is Becky - just so you have a name to channel all that energy towards.

More for my sister and brother-in-law too.

Thanks my friends.

Thanksgiving - The Wild Ride

There will be no staff meeting this morning. I have a few things to pass along but they will have to wait until later in the week.

Honestly, I hesitated writing this post but the truth is that blogging is a cheap version of therapy. HA! I can still hear my therapist's voice after all these years, asking "And how did you feel about that?"

How do I feel about our lives lately? Frustrated and stressed because the responsibilities we shoulder are not getting any easier and putting one foot in front of the other becomes an effort. I have a pretty good sense of humor and positive outlook, but there are days!!

Very, very rarely do I slide into the "glass half full" mode but Thanksgiving pushed me into the zone. My sister and brother-in-law hosted us this year and dinner was wonderful and we had a great time at their house. The only problem with having Thanksgiving at someone else's home is that there are no leftovers to feast on for days.

The Mother was going to ride with us so she spent the night at our home. We went shopping for a few things and stopped at our favorite spot where she ordered a burger and a beer. The beer part was very uncharacteristic for her.

Later that evening she became violently ill and on Thanksgiving day she had to take a nap before dinner was served. I thought perhaps the beer had made her ill but that was not the case. Things went downhill from there. On Friday she awoke covered in hives, head to toe. My sister took her to the ER where they determined she was having a very bad allergic reaction to the medication that was recently prescribed for her memory problems. Saturday was better but it was it back to the hospital yesterday. My sister called from the ER with the news that her daughter was in one room with pneumonia and our mother was in the other room with another flare of the allergic reaction......scary stuff including hallucinations. Those meds are bad mojo.

Unfortunately the medication we believed would help the onset of dementia has created a firestorm of problems and my siblings and I just have to accept the fact that memory loss is preferable over the side effects and allergic reactions.

I'm laughing here because I feel like one of those people who drones on, ad nauseum, about every little ache and pain or problem. I'm not like that, really I'm not, but sometimes....... well, you know.

My therapist would ask, "And how do you feel about that?"

And I would answer, "Old, drained and stressed."

Thanks for listening.

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Oh yeah, it's Cyber Monday and there's no need to gas up the car. I've created a 10% off coupon that my readers can use for Cyber Monday purchases in my Etsy shop. The code is:

cyber

How clever is that?

Happy Thanksgiving

May you have a wonderful day filled with food, family and friends!

The Farmer, the Son, the Mother and I are traveling over the river and through the woods to my sister's house for a wonderful Thanksgiving meal.

The Other Mother is spending Thanksgiving with her other son. I am thankful they invited her because she has not been to their home in over a year and a half. No comment. HA.

I'm off to make Brandied Carrots and stuffing. Also jalapeno poppers as an appetizer.

Have a wonderful day.

Beverage Review

Yes, it's come to this. I have so little inspiration in my brain that I'm now posting reviews about beverages I have recently tasted.

How does it come to this? What is the basis of this lack of subject matter? Hmmmmm, let's see. This is post number 892 on this blog. You read that right. My photoblog has 757 posts and there have been some minor sub-blogs that I never really had the energy for. Let's say that was another 25 posts or so.

Let's do the math. Gosh, you know how I love to do the math.

892 + 757 + 25 = 1,674 posts!!!

That's why I can think of what else to say. I could start repeating myself, that comes naturally lately.

Anyway, I thought I'd share some thoughts about some beverages I've had in the last month or so. And no, no one is paying me to review anything. YET. I'm waiting patiently though.

#1 - STRAWBERRY SHAKE FROM MC DONALD'S



It looks pretty, doesn't it? I was out running errands one day and suddenly had the urge for a strawberry shake. It hit me like a lightning bolt from the blue. A McDonald's was nearby and I pulled in the drive through lane. I cannot remember whether this is a small, medium or large. I can just tell you that it was TOO MUCH, whatever size it was.

I did see bits of strawberry suspended in the mix but it was very sweet and my thought was that they used some kind of strawberry syrup, or frozen strawberries heavily laden with sugar syrup that had been blended. I have no idea what that white stuff is swirled in the mix. Perhaps it's regular vanilla shake that's been blended with the strawberry stuff. It was sweet and a bit odd tasting.

It was very apparent to me about 1/4 of the way through this shake that I would not be able to finish it. In fact, I started to turn a little green at the thought.

This is NOT the strawberry shake of my dreams.

#2 - GINGERBREAD COOKIE MARTINI

I've rarely met a martini that I didn't love, except for a dirty martini that was so salty I almost gagged. My favorite was a martini that included Hypnotiq. It was a diaphanous blue drink that was wonderful.

Oh, back to the Gingerbread Cookie Martini. The Farmer took me to our favorite hangout, the Outback restaurant in South Elgin. I ordered my normal Tanqueray and tonic but was fascinated by the photo of the Gingerbread Cookie Martini. It had crumbled cookies on the rim of the glass and was topped with a gingerbread cookie. The drink includes vodka, Baileys, Kahlua, Monin gingerbread syrup and cream. I am not a huge gingerbread fan so I definitely didn't want to order one to find that I couldn't finish it. Luckily, my friend ordered one and I got to taste hers.

It was good. It had a slight aftertaste, probably the gingerbread syrup. It made me think that the syrup was chemically flavored, but maybe I'm wrong. It would make a good shooter or shot but an entire martini glass of this stuff would be TOO MUCH.

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#3 - PUMPKIN LATTE FROM STARBUCK'S

I'm probably the only person on the planet that does not like Starbucks, maybe not. Their coffee tastes burnt, bitter and besides I don't like to learn a new language just to order a cup of coffee.

My sister is a Chai lover and one day I was along for the ride when she stopped in a Starbucks for her daily tea run. She insisted that I order the Pumpkin Latte.

Oh. Good. Gosh.

It was fantastic and I would walk over broken glass for a Starbuck's Pumpkin Latte.

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#4 - CHOCOLATE CAKE SHAKE FROM PORTILLO'S

Anybody who has spent any time in the Chicagoland area will know the name Portillo's. It's a fast food restaurant that serves Italian beef, sausage, salads and such.

Their signature drink is called the Chocolate Cake Shake. If I was having a rough day at the newspaper I'd go order a chocolate cake shake and bury my sorrows in it's goodness. It's crazy rich but wonderful.

They take a chocolate shake and throw a whole slice of their famous chocolate cake into the mixer, whirl it all up and BAM... you've got a sweet dream. It's rich, so you might want to share it with someone. YUM.

This is another walk-across-broken-glass beverage.

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#5 - PEPPERMINT HOT CHOCOLATE - FROM MC DONALD'S

It sounded like a delicious treat for the holiday season. On my way out to run errands I ordered a peppermint hot chocolate from McDonald's and being very cautious after the strawberry shake incident, I ordered the smallest size.

It's a good thing because I wasn't wild about it. That's unusual because I absolutely love hot chocolate. As with some of the other drinks this had an odd aftertaste. The peppermint flavot just tasted strange. Perhaps it would have been better if it was just mint and not peppermint, a hot chocolate version of a Ande's mint. Yeah, that would be good.

Regardless, I slogged through the steaming cup and decided one was enough. It's not something that I'd order again and I certainly wouldn't walk across even rose petals for this drink.

That's my beverage review!

How about you? Do you have any favorite beverages? Have you tried any of the ones I've mentioned?

Monday Morning Staff Meeting on Tuesday

Welcome to the Monday Morning Staff Meeting on Tuesday. I know, I know, I didnt' alert you to the change. Here's something to make up for the slight -


Source - Norske Nook

It's a slice of raspberry pie from the Norske Nook in northern Wisconsin. If you would like something else feel free to order anything from the menu. They also have Lefse and other Scandanavian items. I'd skip the the Lutefish if I was you.

NORSKE NOOK

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I'd like to thank Sharon from Farm and Fru Fru for putting me on to the work of an artist who creates amazing things using toilet paper rolls. Who could believe that art would lurk inside a cardboard roll. Look at this and be prepared to be amazed.


Source - Anastasia-Elias

It's wonderful how the piece looks in different light.

If you'd like to see more, go to the artist's website.

ANASTASIA-ELIAS

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OK, I know I'm getting old but a recent e-mail made me feel even older. I got something from Walgreen's, promoting their "Pre-Black Friday" specials. One of the featured items, touted as a Christmas gift idea, was a rolling walker. You know the kind that senior citizens use when they're out shopping. It seems it's their answer to a sports car because it's painted a metallic Candy Apple red and has a seat where you can sit and rest.

I think I'll take a pass on this one. It's hardly what I consider a thoughtful Christmas gift idea.

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You'll remember that on my recent trip to Hot Springs I attended a concert performed by the American Tenors. It was really terrific. The best part about it is that I was exposed to opera. never in a thousand years would have believed that I'd like opera, but I guess when you hear a beautiful song sung live, it just grabs you.

This is the concept behind something called Random Acts of Culture. It's basically a flash mob. What that means is that it's a group of people who get together, plan and rehearse a performance (dance or music, pop or classical). They then set a time and place and on cue, without the knowledge of the general public, perform their piece.

The idea behind Random Acts of Culture is to expose people to cultural events that they would normally not participate in. For example, here's the Halleuiah chorus being sung in a department store in Philadelphia. The shoppers are not aware of what's going to take place.



If you follow the link to Random Acts of Culture you can view the video of two dancers doing the tango in the Charlotte, North Carolina airport.

RANDOM ACTS OF CULTURE

TANGO IN THE AIRPORT


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That's all for me today. I've got to run and get some things done. Have a great day and thanks for visiting with me.

Closet Reaches Critical Mass

My bedroom closet has reached critical mass. Again.

I hate when this happens because it means a large chunk of my time will be spent de-fusing a situation that threatens to get ugly. Yes, my closet has exploded many times before, leaving bits of handbags and old sweatshirts strewn around my bedroom and into the hall.



This stuff is breeding at night. I've found evidence, a tiny baby handbag that looks suspiciously like two of my favorite purses. I haven't caught them in the act yet but someone has promised to lend me a nanny-cam with night vision.

The last house we lived in when I was growing up was my mom's dream come true. It was actually a closet nightmare. The house was a victorian style farmhouse that stood surrounded by some land. It was eventually swallowed up by the advancing Chicagoland sprawl.

The house had lots of detail and charm. There were lovely leaded glass windows, heavy woodwork, pocket doors and a fireplace in the main parlor that was edged in porcelain tiles imported from England. Not so charming was the fact that there were no closets. Well, there were closets but looking back I realize that all the closet space in that place housing seven people would equal the space in my master bedroom closet alone.

I don't think my parent's had a closet at all. They converted a side parlor into their bedroom. There was a tiny space under the staircase that might have been a storage closet, but it had been converted to a bathroom years before. I'm using the term bathroom loosely because it was actually just a toilet squeezed into the miniscule space. If I remember correctly you had to back into the "room". I have no clue where my parents stored their clothing. Maybe they wore the same thing every day. You don't pay attention to those things when you're a teenager.

When you've grown up a situation like that, a house with plenty of closets and storage space seems like a dream come true. But remember the saying, "Be careful what you wish for". We are currently living in a house that's a closet lover's dream. There are closets everywhere. Two coat closets, two pantries, large closets in each bedroom and four, count 'em, FOUR linen closets, one for each bedroom.

Those of you living in 100-year-old farmhouses are now drooling on the keyboard. Hold up. There's a huge problem with having ample storage space. I've thought about this for awhile and I've come up with a universal rule.

THE UNIVERSAL RULE OF CLOSET SPACE

The amount of stuff occupying a space will expand at a known rate. This expansion is directly related to the volume of space available. The rate will increase exponentially until it reaches critical mass, at which time more space must be added or the stuff will create sufficient energy to escape it's confinement.

TRANSLATION:

The more closets you have, the more stuff you will acquire, knowingly or unknowingly.
Having more closets means you are less likely to pitch the stuff that needs pitching.
Stuff breeds at night when you're not looking.
The stuff builds up imperceptibly and before you know it, you're drowning in stuff.
If you build a closet on to the back of the house, it will fill up quickly, requiring you to build another closet.

OK, enough of this. I need to go de-fuse that closet!

Suzanne, a.k.a. Grace

Everyone in my family got nicknames, whether you wanted them or not. It seems to have been a southern thing because none of my other classmates had nicknames, at least none that I heard. Although we were born and raised in the Chicago area both of our parents were from the south, like from forever.

Our southern grandmother imprinted us with clever little sayings such as, "It's so good it will make you smack your grandmammy!"

Yeah, that good.

My mother's nickname was Pinky and her brother was Giemo. My dad somehow escaped the nickname phenom. Perhaps because he was orphaned at a young age and raised by an uncle who saw the boys as built-in field hands.

My grandmother's names for my sisters were actually their real names, usually reserved by my mom for times when you were REALLY in trouble, Cynthia and Pamela. My brother was Bob-O-Link. Well, you can guess what his name was.

Me? Well, I was the odd man out because my grandmother called me Grace. Yep, Grace. Can you guess why? She told me she'd never met another person who could tie a throw rug in knots in one pass. She was right. There's not a rug that I pass over that doesn't look like a tornado has hit it when I get to the other side. Certainly I have a problem picking my feet up.

But rugs are not my only problem. Basically I am not a telephone person. I do not make phone calls to chat, my calls are mostly getting down to business calls. It is for this reason that my family is fearful when they see a phone call coming in from me because usually it means a trip to the emergency room. Yes, I'm a small accident waiting to happen.

My minor accidents are the thing of legends. A half inch of wooden and lead pencil imbedded in the bottom of my foot. Don't ask. If you've been around here for awhile you'll remember my encounter with a gasoline explosion. Here's my answer to the ER doctor:

"I plead the Fifth Amendment on whether an accelerant was involved."

He knew.

I should have registered at the ER desk as Grace.

How about you? Does your family members have nicknames?

Monday Morning Staff Meeting

Good morning everyone. Thanks for joining me here for the Monday Morning Staff Meeting.

For those of you who haven't attended before, this is a time when we share little interesting tidbits that we've come across during the week and have something wonderful to eat.

Sorry, but this week I'm going to be serving something that gross. Totally gross looking. I don't know, it might taste OK in very small bits but that remains to be seen.

Have you ever heard of a Turducken? It's a turkey stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a chicken. It's simply too much. A turkey tastes fine, a duck tastes fine and a chicken tastes fine but put them all together...... too much.

This morning I'm presenting the bakery version of a Turducken. I'm providing lots of spoons and we can all take a virtual taste and decide for ourselves. The Pummple is fron the Flying Monkey bakery in Philadelphia and runs $75 for a whole cake. One slice is 1,800 calories. Just think, you won't have to eat anything else today!


Flying Monkey

What is that, you ask? Well, on the bottom is a layer of chocolate cake with an entire pumpkin pie baked inside! The top layer is yellow cake with an entire apple pie baked inside. The glue that holds this creation together is about 3 lbs. of buttercream frosting.

OH ..... MY...... GOODNESS!!!

You think that's bad. Someone's done another version called a Cherpummple.



From the bottom up:
Cherry pie inside a chocolate cake layer.
Pumpkin pie inside a gingerbread layer.
Apple pie inside a yellow cake layer.

The buttercream seems to be having a problem keeping the cake together.

What do you think about these creations. Would you try it? Would you serve it to guests?

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In case you missed it, my niece Heaether-the-librarian left a comment to let me know that access to Ancestry.dot.com is free at most public libraries.

I did not know that so now we'll be able to search without that monthly fee. Thanks Heaether!

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What do you think about these compact fluorescent light bulbs?

They're weird. I hate 'em. I guess we're going to save the planet (doubtful since these bulbs contain mercury!!) but we're gonna save the planet whilst bathed in a wierd yellowish/green glow.

Did I mention I hate fluorescent lighting?

The bulb on our front porch gives off about 2 watts of light until it warms up. Know what I'm talking about? In cold weather we'll be waiting 30 minutes until we get the full 65 watts of light.

The kitchen bulbs in the recessed fixtures are equally weak but when they heat up it feels like you're on a beach on Venus or something. The Farmer spent a little time in the kitchen the other day and came out with a strange greenish tan.

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We received the Sam's Club Holiday catalog the other day. You must understand that the Farmer is not in the least interested in catalogs or sales flyers. I tucked the catalog in a safe place but later the Farmer asked, "Where's that Sam's catalog? There's something I'm interested in."

This was a very strange turn of events. I wondered if Sam's was offering some type of golf paraphenalia because normally that's the only thing that would catch his eye.

Nope, he was interested in the same thing that prompted me to save the catalog. This:


Sam's Club

What is it? It's a Red Velvet Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory.

OH.... MY..... GOODNESS (again)

This looks terrific and I think we'll serve this when my sister and I host a little gift and treasure sale here in my home.

What do you think now? Are you going to have a slice of Pummple, Cherpummple or Red Velvet Cheesecake?

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NOTE: The marketing department at the Cheesecake Factory can feel free to send me a free Red Velvet Cheesecake for the mention in this blog post. Seriously, I have no ethical conflictions about accepting that gift. Really, it's no problem.

Creativity and other cool stuff - 2nd attempt

Let's see if I'm luckier this morning in publishing this post.

I wanted to share with you the efforts of a couple of talented, creative people. The beauty of the internet is that it allows us to connect with people that we would otherwise never meet in the real world. Our paths would simply never cross. The internet also allows many talented people whose work would otherwise go unnoticed, to shine. You know, cream always rises to the top.

This ability to connect is especially important to rural artists and craftsmen, who in the past were isolated.

I first met Jen Rizzo at the Chicago area bloggy get together last February. She's a petite powerhouse, having organized the gathering and created lovely tote bags for every guest. I thought she was a recent college grad. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered that she was married with a house full of young children. Yikes! How does she manage to get so much done? I was never good in that department.

I've been following her blog with great interest as she and her husband renovate their kitchen. This is something I'm trying to get up the nerve to do myself. There are several unfinished projects around here that need attending first but it's always good to have the next project in the back of your mind. This Friday she's promised the final reveal. This should be exciting. Well, it's exciting for someone whose kitchen is looking shabby, and NOT the good shabby either.

You can follow her blog here:

JENNIFER RIZZO

She's also recently opened an Etsy shop filled with her creations; jewelry, hats and repurposed clothing. She finds things and remakes them to live a new life and thus her shop is called Found and Made.

FOUND AND MADE

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Thank heaven for talented people who generously share their gift. Portobello Pixie is home base for fabric designer Sandy Henderson. Personally, I can't think of a better job than designing fabric except for being a fabric buyer!

Sandy's website is a beauty and if you scroll down the right hand sidebar you'll find several tutorials and also six free projects.

PORTOBELLO PIXIE

My favorite project for the holiday season is called Ribbon Candy Ornament. She's figured out a way to create something that looks like those shiny folded ribbon candies using grosgrain ribbon. This would be a fun project for the family to do on Thanksgiving, after the dinner table has been cleaned up.

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Thanks for visiting with me today. I hope you find some inspiration from these talented people.

Creativity and other cool stuff

Blah, blah, blah.... blabbedy, blah, blah!!!!

What's that gobbeldy gook you ask? It's me, blabbering away. This is the way my November is going for sure. I think that I'll just hibernate until the first of December and crawl back out from under the covers.

What's happened, you ask? Right now I'm not feeling the Blogger love.

I spent the good part of an hour this morning putting together a post jam packed with interesting and funny stuff. I did and I titled it, "Creativity and Other Cool Stuff". And then I hit the publish button.

ERROR 400 - BAD REQUEST

Really? Really?? Blogger sneezed and somehow everything went poof? I was too tired and disgusted to figure it out so instead I went shopping. Five for $5 day at Salvation Army and a church rummage sale on the way. I felt better.

Got home and consulted my crib sheet on what to do when this type of error message disaster strikes. I repaired the Disk Utility. Now, understand I don't know what that means or why I would do it, but a notecard I created the last time tells me to do this.

No luck. ERROR 400 - BAD REQUEST. Drat.

Back to the drawing board and another hastily scribbled index card that says, DELETE COOKIES. I struggle in my woefully ingorant way to find preference.... OH, NOT the computer preferences, the Safari preferences. This is painfully slow when you don't know what you're doing.

Find the Security tab...... show the cookies. Decide which cookies you're going to delete. Who the hell knows? I make a bold move and delete all the cookies. The cookies are all tossed into the food grinder and away they go to la-la land. Hopefully I don't need any of them. Oh well, too late.

Restart the computer. Just because I feel you should always restart after messing around with a very pricey piece of equipment.

Fingers crossed I try to connect to Blogger again..... SUCCESS!!! And here I am blabbering away about ridiculously boring stuff.

Come back tomorrow and I'll be back in the game. (Fingers crossed)

Life Intervenes

Sorry that I've been somewhat missing in action here "...At Home" but life sometimes has a way of intervening. We've got the 82-yr. old Mother, the 89-yr. old Other Mother and other general family chaos that has been swirling up a November mess. Everything is OK but just requires alot of personal attention. Add to that the fact that my neighbor and friend lost her brother after a very short medical emergency.

When it rains, it pours, eh?

I'll be back tomorrow with some interesting things I've been collecting over the last week. But for now I want to put you onto some free access.

I've been wanting to do some family research on *Ancestry.dot.com* but to be honest I was put off by the fact that they charge a monthly rate to access the information. There's no option for a one-time search. I'm just not so deep into ancestry search that I'd be willing to pay a monthly fee.

There's an ad in this month's History Channel magazine that says that in honor of Veteran's Day, *Ancestry.dot.com* will have a free access weekend (November 11-14) to search the world's largest collection of military records. Have a veteran you'd like to find out more about? Go to Ancestry.com to find out more. Sorry, for some reason it won't allow me to link directly.

See you tomorrow.

Another One Down

I've been staying busy in my sewing room and not leaving the house very often but on Sunday I ran out to do some errands. The kids always made fun of me because I always take the back roads to travel around the county. I avoid the high traffic area until I turn my car into the shopping area.

One of my favorite back road routes takes me past open corn and soybean fields, a local wholesale landscaper, a farm that boards horses and many barns. On Sunday I took this route for the first time since our windstorms, which were actually clocked at category 3 hurricane levels.

This is what I saw when I turned the corner onto Dittman Road.



This barn was blown over. I have many pictures of this barn somewhere on this computer or on the separate hard drive but I can't find them yet!! The roof had been somewhat of a patchwork affair but the barn itself looked stable. Believe me, I've been around and photographed enough barns to be keenly aware of which ones look dangerous.



You can see that the wind came from west-southwest and caught the corner of the barn flattening it on it's side. You can't see the farmhouse which is a short distance away an in the direction that the barn collapsed. Luckily it was far enough away to escape damage.

It's not clear whether there was anything stored in this barn. There were no livestock but perhaps there was equipment or vehicles.

It's very sad to see yet another barn go down. When I got home I grabbed a piece of paper and pen and just off the top of my head I can tally 10 barns down since I started my photoblog 5 1/2 years ago. We are witnessing the final death throes of a way of life that is quickly becoming history in this area.

This is not something that is only happening in the American midwest. I get e-mails from Spain, Portugal and other places in Europe, assuring me that the farmhouses, barns and old dwellings are being left to disintegrate. It would be wonderful if someone had the time and money to transform these structures into a new and useful life.

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P.S. Don't forget to vote today. Freedom and the right to vote is a privilege. Remember, that somewhere in the world today someone is risking their life in the hopes of gaining freedom.

Monday Morning Staff Meeting

Good morning everyone, and welcome to the Monday Morning Staff Meeting. As always, we're going to begin with the food. This morning I am serving an old time favorite, pineapple upside down cake.



The Other Mother made this cake yesterday. We try to discourage her love of sweets because she does have elevated blood sugar, a.k.a. mild diabetes. But she will not be deterred. Our son, the nursing in training, tells us that the elderly slowly lose all their taste buds and the last to go is the taste buds for sweet things. Since this happens so slowly the person is hardly aware of the changes. This explains her hankering for sweets.

Pineapple upside down cake was very popular back in the day. I'm thinking it was one of those creations devised in Betty Crocker's kitchen, or perhaps one of those recipe contest winners. It's good, but not exactly a favorite around here. Our tastes run more along the lines of praline bread pudding with Cream Anglaise sauce or lemon-basil sorbet.

How about you? When's the last time you had pineapple upside down cake?

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The image of the Coffee Shop Farmer caused quite a stir around here. It is a mystery, but I promise that it will be solved in the future. Just across the road is Josie's Antiques and I promise to stop in at her place on my next trip out to DeKalb. She'll certainly know what's going on over there.

My best guess is that the farmer is being paid to store the units by the franchise or the owner of the coffee shops. You would not believe the stuff that's stored in some of these barns. Mostly vintage cars that restorers and collectors would battle over.

BV stated that she wants one of those coffee shops to go with the ghost town that she's wanting to buy.

The most unbelievable thing I've seen was featured on the TV show, American Pickers. Those guys found a man who had all kinds of buildings on his property, including an old general store that was filled with merchandise from the era that he had collected. But that wasn't as amazing as what was in his front yard - an entire White Castle restaurant! The entire building!! He said the White Castle was scheduled to be demolished and so he bought it and had it tranported to his house. Unbelievable.

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About the project. I know that I promised to show you a cool fall project. I'm still trying to pull it together but when the camera suffered a setback the fall leaves dried up into crispy critters. Let's just give you a hint and say that I need to go collect some still pliable and colorful leaves. I'll be back with photos and directions some time this week.

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I appreciate everyone who commented with their geographical location as a reason why they couldn't attend the Fall Festival. It's fun to see where everyone is from. I also have readers (and penpals) in Germany and Australia.

I've got some free stuff for the winner and the package will include one of my little wallets, a coffee cozy and a luggage tag.

Here's the line up:

Jackson, N.J.
Alberta, Canada
Maine
Macon, Georgia
Texas
Forreston, Illinois
Moses Lake, Washington
Elsie, Michigan
Scranton, Arkansas
San Antonio, Texas
Two in undisclosed locations in California
Lake Tahoe
Charleston, West Virginia
Sutter, Illinois
Florida
Alabama
Pennsylvania
Long Beach, California
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Conroe, Texas
Raleigh, North Carolina

It was fun to see where everyone was from. And without further ado, the winner is:

TESS in San Antonio, Texas.

Congratulations Tess. Please e-mail me with your address and I'll get the package off to you.

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If you're a quilter, or simply a person who loves fabric you might want to check out the blog of fabric designer Joanna Figueroa. I just love the soft colors that she plays with. Her blog is called Fresh Figs. If you look on her sidebar you'll find some free patterns to download, including an apron!

FRESH FIGS

Today's entry includes photos of her booth at the Houston Quilt Market.

Quilt Market

I'd be in big trouble at the quilt market. Luckily for me it's only open to shop owners and people in the trade.

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Today is the first day that my button, advertising my shop, is running on someone else's blog. This is a test for me, my first foray into advertising. We'll see how it goes.

And for now.... I'm back into the sewing room sweatshop, creating new stuff.

Talk to you tomorrow. Thanks for visiting with me today. I'm now turning the meeting over to you. Feel free to discuss whatever is on your mind.