MINIs on the Dragon was this past weekend, and we headed out early on Wednesday to make the trip. It is only a couple of hours from our home, but we needed to get there in time to work our shift at registration. We try to do our part to volunteer for the event, but it isn’t a chore. We both enjoy greeting people as they come by to get their name badges and look over the swag. I’ve posted about aspects of this event for the past several years, overview of Fontana Village is on the 2019 post, then drives to Clingman’s Dome on the 2021 post. In 2022, we went driving mostly on our own and found so ..read more

As I mentioned on Friday, I have not been sewing in the past month. Instead, I’ve been spending all my free time (which has been precious little) doing crafting projects. I needed to finish making the cards I wanted to do for the guild show. I didn’t do as many as I had planned, but this will just have to do. The cards will be displayed in a basket for customers to look through. I made several with this sentiment, I think it is cute for a quilter. I was excited to receive a phone call recently from an acquaintance I have not seen in quite a while. We used to belong to a quilting club together ..read more

It is time to check in again with our fabric purchases and completed projects. Are you on track this year? If so, great job! If not, we have many months to go to get on the side of more fabric out than in. Remember, it is fine to buy fabric now and then. This challenge just to keep us mindful to get what we need, but not go overboard. I have not had much time to sew this past month. Between out of town trips, meetings, club events and appointments, I have not put thread into fabric for some weeks. What little time I have had to spend in the craft room has been used up in craft projects, and o ..read more

On the veranda, the parsley survived transplanting and I’m already using the leaves in dishes. In fact, I have been actively looking for dishes that will highlight the fresh flavor they give to meat entrees and vegetable sides. Turning the pages in the World in a Skillet cookbook from Milk Street (now on sale for $23.95), I came across this mouth watering photo. That is cilantro in the recipe, but fresh parsley works just as well. It is mixed with green onions, jalapenos, and rice vinegar. The fresh green mixture is a garnish and not cooked. I decided I didn’t like the bitter taste of the vin ..read more

Saturday was the perfect day for a car show. It is spring, and there are a lot of shows, drives and socials on all the club calendars. This is the first big event of the year for us, held in Brevard, NC yesterday. It is called Luft Wasser, which is German for Air Water, and refers to the two different methods of cooling engines. We had 200 Porsches register for the event, and over 180 showed up. It was a mile of Porsches! They were parked on both sides of Broad Street, plus another row down the middle of the street. Near the top of the street, vendor booths took the center row. In a side par ..read more

Warmer days mean having meals on the veranda. Last week we had friends over for a meal, so I had to set a nice table for them. After washing the pollen off the table, I set it with white placemats, spring green chargers, white dinner plates and pink floral salad plates. Spring green napkins are held with plastic crystal design rings, with everyday flatware. I didn’t put the drink glasses on the table, as I had several sizes for our guests to choose depending on what they wanted to drink. I put one set of salt and pepper shakers between two places to share. The centerpiece was simple, just my ..read more

Last week the Mancuso Quiltfest Show was held in Greenville, SC, and a few gal pals from our guild went with me to see it. I haven’t been to this show before, mostly because the ticket price is a bit steep – $15 plus parking fee. I have had precious little sewing time lately, and that isn’t going to change for the next couple of weeks, so I thought it would be nice to see some inspiring work by other quilters. The show was both inspiring and disappointing at the same time. A few pieces really caught my attention, but the overall show was really spread out and there were not many people viewing ..read more

Tomorrow is Earth Day and it is the perfect time to make our yearly pledge to help our planet by recycling, repurposing and reusing. I’ve talked about some of these ideas before in various posts, but it has been awhile since we looked at them. So, I’ve pulled a number of ideas from several past posts, and a couple of new things for our chat today. We live in a beautiful world, and I know if everyone can do just a little, it will make a big impact. Let’s start with a lovely shot of our local apple blossoms. At the recent Mancuso Quiltfest show in Greenville, SC, an extraordinary piece highligh ..read more

I do enjoy cooking, and finding new combinations of meats and vegetables to keep My Sweet Babboo well fed. I am lucky in that he will eat just about anything put in front of him at the table, and likes vegetables. So when I received the latest cookbook from Milk Street, I knew we were in for some adventures in new flavors. The 365 in the title refers to the days in a year, and the cookbook contains over 600 recipes for just about every type of dish or meal you want. Once again, I have loaded up the pages with sticky notes for recipes to make. There are some from previous cookbooks like World ..read more

We are having friends over for dinner tomorrow, and the weather will be perfect for an al fresco meal of grilled goodness. Everything is greening up, the azaleas are close to being in full bloom, and I needed to get the veranda ready to enjoy. This time of year it is covered in pollen, so the first thing was to give it a good wash, scrubbing down the boards and rails. Here is the culprit, the oak tree pollen is rampant. This picture came out so well, I might enter it in the fair this year. I have tried for days to get a photo of a goldfinch in the redbud tree, and I did manage to snap several ..read more