Flamingos and Oysters!

Look what followed me home!

Another fun addition to the back yard! We were on our way home from an outing to get fresh shrimp and stopped at a nursery along the way and found this! He was just so bright and cute we just had to have him. 

 As you can see from the background he isn't the first metal "object d' art" to grace our back yard. We have quite a menagerie that also includes a big fat cat and two flying pigs that spin around when the wind blows. I'll do a tour of the yard art sometime soon. 

Getting fresh shrimp wasn't the only purpose we had in mind. We had a hankering for  the tasty oysters served at Gilhooley's in San Leon.

They make these fabulous wood fired oysters with butter, Parmesan and a shrimp on top. Served with crackers...everything comes with crackers...they are very generous with their crackers...

It's a fair drive, but there is a quilt shop and fresh shrimp along the way. We prefer to go when the weather is nice so we can sit outside. Inside is really smoky! And you don't want to dress up, or ask for the wine list. It's a funky little place, but that adds to its charm and we are always glad we went.

The other day when I went out to feed the goldfish, this was in the "pond". It only lasted a day, but was very pretty.

That's about it for now, I should have some sewing to show soon, and I'm going to try a cookie recipe made with chocolate peanut butter (I'd never heard of it before) that I'll report on. 

Stay cool!

Quilty Outing

A friend of mine arranges bus outings to area quilt stores several times a year. Anything that includes fabric buying opportunities and lunch out is always fun, so recently 13 ladies climbed aboard and off we went.  I think I'm gonna dub these "Judi's Magical Fabric Tours"! She always manages to find a shop that few are familiar with as well as someplace tasty for lunch and this time was no exception.

I need to add  that I continue to forget to take pictures to include here, so while I do have a couple of shop pictures, it is not complete, and I neglected to photograph any of the ladies who had shopping carts full of fabric bolts or our yummy lunch. I promise to get better with the pictures!

 These are shots from Painted Pony n Quilts, probably my favorite shop in the area. They just have it all, and for me, unless I have an idea what I'm looking for, it can be overwhelming, but in a good way!

I managed to come home with only 4 small pieces of fabric, and I know what I'm doing with 3 of the 4. Yay me! But then I'm trying to finish some pattens and kits from last year's  Quilt Festival, since I can see this year's Festival looming on the horizon. And who wants to pass up something at Festival just because said person hasn't put a dent in the previous years purchases :) That's not gonna be me!

I have finished some fall pillows. It seems I'm attracted to everything pumpkin, add an acorn and it's perfect.

 The pillow at the top is the one where the floss colors ran. It doesn't look bad, and it will work at the bottom of the bowl to hold up some of the others. It may be time to just suck it up and buy the Valdani floss I have been coveting for so long.

 I should probably check the pillow bin to see how many fall pillows I have before making more, but the recently acquired stools provide more pillow display area.

And...for display...look who I made yesterday!

One naked sheep just waiting for his first blanket. I've started the blanket and should have it finished in the next day or so. He's going to look so cute on the blue stool--love him!

We finally got a fire screen at auction.  My initial intention was to take it apart and make something  else for the center, but it so happened that we got the prettiest one there, so now I'm  unsure about taking it apart. You can't tell from the picture, but it is needlepoint and nicely done. I'll live with it for awhile.

Looks like that's it for today. Time to work on my sheep's blanket some more, and I'm thinking  some banana bread would be good with my coffee tomorrow morning.

See ya!