Travel – Page 9 – Thimbleanna

The Busy Weekend

31 Comments / April 14, 2008 February 12, 2012 / Chat, Peep Days, Travel

Whew! What a fun, happy weekend I’ve had! The whole thing was a big giant whirlwind — it all happened so fast. I had a great time with the quilty peeps. It’s so wonderful to have a girlfriend getaway — we really should do it more often.

We left early Friday morning for the Chicago Quilt Show. As soon as we got there, we made a bee-line for the vendors. I pretty much go to the quilt shows for the vendors these days — the quilts just haven’t seemed to be classic quilt show fare in a long time. I used to love to go to Paducah and I wonder if it’s still the same high quality show that it used to be. Maybe I was just spoiled by attending that show for several years? But, I digress (which isn’t hard to do…I think I’m still tired from my weekend!)

I looked for Sharon and Carol on and off all day but didn’t see them. Once it was time to check in to our hotel room, we left the show for awhile, and when we were re-entering the show, we ran into S & C as they were leaving. What a fun surprise! (We spared Sharon the “mask” greeting this time — but I still have them LOL) We split up again, but then met for dinner in the hotel. After dinner, we got together for some fun in our hotel room.

What a crack-up those two are. Can you spot the bloggers in the crowd???

This is some very serious business! As is our tradition, they’re taking pics of all the booty. It was totally by accident, but can you tell which bed contains the blogger booty and which bed contains the non-blogger booty???

And look again — that picture is too funny. Look how hap-hazzard the bed on the left is and how neat and tidy the bed on the right is — I didn’t even notice that before! What’s up with that??? You’ve probably guessed, the slovenly stuff belongs to the bloggy peeps! What the heck does that say about us bloggers LOL! Sharon claims the territory on the upper left of the blogger bed, Carol has the upper right and my stuff is toward the bottom. What was I thinking? I don’t need all that stuff! I couldn’t help it though — our closest quilt shop is 45 minutes away, so when I see all that fantastic quilty goodness in one place, I go weak in the knees. And, I blame a fair amount of it on Nanette too — seeing all those cute tumbling block quilts that she makes made me buy a tumbling block kit and I RARELY buy kits! Junie gets the prize for the non-blogger bed — look at all those neat rows of fat quarters. Don’t you just want to reach into that picture and rustle that stuff around a little? C’mon Junie — admit it, even YOU want to LOL!!! Jewels bought all the goodies on the left and Gurney claims that little pile up top. Gurney — I admire your strength. I’m blaming it on the fact that you have a brand-spanking new granddaughter and you had your mind elsewhere!

After we got done making a mess of our room, we cleaned things up a bit, broke out the diet pepsi, cupcakes and lemon bars (’cause we party hard LOL) and got down to some crochet business.

We worked on a little circular birthday tag (sorry, I forgot to take a picture — I think Sharon did though) and everyone did a great job. I was very proud of lil’ early bird Jewels — we were up WAY past her bedtime — it was well after midnight when everyone finished. Here they are in a serious moment of concentration — which was rare, most of the time Sharon or Jewels were cracking us up!

We met again in the morning for a leisurely breakfast. (For some reason we were plagued with sad-sack waiters for both meals — S & C are very unfairly blaming it on us quilty peeps LOL.) Then we went back to the quilt show for a few hours. Here’s Jewels and Junie with PamKittyMorning‘s Celebrity.

They’re having a very serious conversation about how much they miss Simply Quilts. The message was “Get Over It and Move On!” OkeyDoke! The two days were WAY too short and we had a fabulous time. Thanks for our cool new tote bags Sharon — we love them! And Jewels was a sweetheart and brought us some goodies too — Thanks Jewels!!!

So, that was Friday and Saturday. On Sunday morning, SweetiePie, TheFirstChild, MeMum and I got up bright and early to drive to Dayton for SweetiePie’s last bridal shower. SweetiePie had her final dress fitting just before the shower (when you live so far away, you have to squeeze in all these activities where you can.) There’s no dress peeking (wouldn’t want TheFirstChild to catch a glimpse, now would we?) but here’s a shot of her pretty shoes.

We had a fun, fun time all the way there and all the way back. We laughed a ton. Let’s just say that there was a lot of “She Said That”* going on. And “Grandma” was the worst offender!
So, I’m a very lucky girl and I’ve had a wonderful weekend to carry me through this next month of fun work until the big day. Thank you, thank you Quilty Peeps, Sharon, Carol, and my little fambly for all the fun memories that will keep a smile on my face for a long, long time!

I hope you all had a great weekend as well — I have lots of blogs to catch up on and I’ve had lots of e-mail — if I’ve missed replying to you, please excuse me — rest assured that I have read everything though!

XOXO,
Anna

*The Quilty Peeps taught me a new game that we called “She Said That.” I’m pretty dense, so it took me a long time to catch on and it would take me even longer to explain it. But, if you watch The Office, you’ll know the dumb game!

Airplanes and Aebleskivers

39 Comments / February 2, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Recipes, Travel

It’s been another exciting day on the travel front, and well, I’m going to bore you with my little story because 1) it’s my blog, and 2) your reward will be the second part of this post. I started my day with pretty low expectations of getting home tonight because of all the storms in the midwest and on the east coast. Things went pretty well and we were only 1 1/2 hours behind schedule when they boarded the plane (not bad considering all the cancellations and delays on the schedule.) AFTER the FULL plane got all settled in, the stewardess flight attendant announced that oh, gee, one of the crew was over the maximum hour limit for working that day. Oh. Come. On. Could they have told us about that BEFORE we went through that big loading hassle? We sat on the plane another 20 minutes while they talked to “operations” to get another crew and then they finally just canceled the flight. Personally, I think it was planned all along and they just didn’t want so many passengers milling about in the terminal. Hey. Here’s a plane over here. Let’s just put all those people in there for an hour and clean up the terminal congestion a little! Ah well, I’m safe, warm, and dry and I’ll be going home tomorrow, so it could be a whole lot worse.

So, now for the aebleskivers part of this post. When I was a little girl, we went to my aunt’s house one year and she served us aebleskivers, or danish pancakes. (Or could they be swedish? Maybe norwegian? Our ancestors were danish, so I’ve always assumed they’re danish.) We loved them and we’ve been making them ever since. A few years ago we made an interesting discovery though. My side of the family remembers having them with butter and syrup. My aunt and my cousins all insist that they’ve never had them with butter and syrup, but ALWAYS with butter and jam. Our side has never had them with jam. But we ate them all together at least once, and maybe twice. So, which side of the family has alzheimer’s, hmmmm???? (Since this is my blog and my story, I’m sure you know the correct answer to that question.) All I know is butter and syrup are THE only way to go! You’ll need an aebleskiver pan for this recipe.

Aunt Annie’s Aebleskivers

3 eggs
3 Tbsp. butter, melted
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. milk
2 c. flour
3 tsp. baking powder

Separate eggs and beat egg whites until stiff. In separate bowl, mix all other ingredients. Fold egg whites in very lightly.

Put just a bit of crisco or vegetable oil in each pocket of the aebleskiver pan. Then fill each pocket about 2/3 full of batter. Keep heat on low as they burn easily. When dough bubbles, gently turn each aebleskiver over with a fork, or, to keep this post crafty related, a knitting needle has always worked well.

The uncooked dough will pour out as you turn the aebleskiver and it will make a ball of dough. Cook until the bottom is browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Serve your aebleskivers with butter and SYRUP if you want to have them the way we had them at my aunt’s house when I was a little girl!

So. What’s on YOUR aebleskiver???

XOXO,
Anna

Christmas Stuff

21 Comments / December 21, 2007 February 18, 2011 / Holidays, Travel

Since I can’t think of a good way to relate the items that I’m going to show you, I’ll just list them:

In our Christmas house, we have a running argument about the lights. The boys all love the little Christmas lights and I want the big, old-fashioned kind that I grew up with. You’d think, since I’m the one who has to spend hours putting the lights on the tree, that I’d get to choose. But, I can’t stand all the whining, so I give in. This year, I found an old string of 15 of the big lights, so I decided to put up a little tree in the kitchen just for me. I picked up a few of those Martha Stewart kitchen utensils on sale at K-Mart, some little candy canes, and called it a tree.
See those goodies under the tree? I returned home from my trip tonight to find a little surprise package from Sharon! She’s such a sweetie — it was totally unexpected. There’s a tin of tea, a yummy Mary Englebreit soap, a cute Christmas notepad, some Christmas kleenex, and an adorable little wool stocking with a gingerbread man on it (who’s very hard to see with the lighting!) Thank you SO much Sharon — I love it all! And, well, I really hate to tell you this, but Sharon’s having a little HUGE give-away. Run over there and leave a comment. And in your comment, tell her to pick me LOL!
Before I went on my trip, I managed to make and give a gift to a co-worker. I made her the Amy Butler lounge pants out of the chocolate fabric that I love and I added a little of the fabric to a ready-made t-shirt. Amy must be tall, because the pants are too long for my average-height friend. They’ll be adjusted after Christmas.

While in NJ, I dragged a co-worker in to NYC on Wednesday evening for a few hours ’cause after my previous attempt, I still wanted to see the big tree. I also convinced my friend to go with me to check out the Macy’s Santa. My VERY favorite Christmas movie is Miracle on 34th Street, so I HAD to see the Macy’s Santa. I must not be the only person who wants to peek at Santa ’cause they have a separate line and viewing window just for peeking people. Is this not the coolest looking Santa ever? I wanted to climb right up in his lap and tell him my wishes for Christmas! I think my friend thought I was nuts.

Depending on where you are, only 3 days left. Are you ready???

XOXO,
Anna

Blame It On Rebecca

26 Comments / November 29, 2007 February 18, 2011 / Holidays, Travel

A few weeks ago, Rebecca posted a pretty picture of the Empire State Building all decked out in red and green for the holidays. I knew then, that if I got a trip to New Jersey, I’d have to try to go into NYC in the evening to see such a beautiful sight. (And btw, long post warning!)
As soon as my meetings were over yesterday, I jumped in the car, drove to the NJ Path Train, and hopped on for a ride into the city. I managed to get to Tinsel Trading just 10 minutes before closing time. I saw those cute little clown snowmen last year on the cover of a Mary Englebreit magazine and knew I’d like to try to visit Tinsel Trading during the holiday season. The other picture below is for Sarah and Pam — bottle brush trees ala Tinsel Trading.

In an e-mail, Rebecca mentioned that I should try to visit the shops in Bryant Park. When I read that, I was confused — the last time I was in Bryant Park, there were no shops. Apparently, they put them up just for Christmas shopping. It’s much like a European Christmas market full of lots of artist and handcrafted booths. There’s also an ice skating rink in the middle of the park. Thanks SO much, Rebecca for the outstanding suggestion. Without your help, I would have never known to visit Bryant Park.

After I walked around the park, I remembered that Rebecca had mentioned that the big Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Center was up, so I thought I’d wander up there and see it. Now, as she’s reading this, Rebecca is probably thinking….”No, please tell me you didn’t go up there last night.” Oh. Yes. I. Did. How was I supposed to know that they were officially turning on the lights LAST NIGHT???? (In her defense, Rebecca sent me an e-mail yesterday morning to let me know that little tidbit of information, but I was without access to my e-mail all day.) I was merrily walking north along 6th avenue thinking to myself, “Wow, there sure are a lot of NYPD out tonight.” And a little later, “Boy, there sure are a lot of people out shopping.” Pretty soon, I found myself in the middle of a mob. A very well-controlled mob, I might add, but still. It was incredibly crowded. Here’s the view looking north and south along 6th Avenue.

This is still a very long block away from Rockefeller Square. They had jumbo tv screens in the street and the NYPD guys said those TV screens were as close as we would be able to get. I decided I didn’t need to stand out in the cold for two hours, so I bailed out. I retreated across 6th Avenue, and took a picture of some really cool giant ornaments. I love this sort of stuff about big cities.

So. No big beautiful tree. Strike One. I headed back south and found myself in front of Macy’s, looking at all the fun window displays. I especially liked the windows depicting the story of The Miracle on 34th Street. I love that movie! Here are just a few of my favorites:

I was a little sorry I hadn’t gone into Macy’s to find the real Santa Claus. There must be one in there, right? That’s part of the story — the Macy’s Santas! I also didn’t check for any Martha ornaments — btw, Rebecca, we want to see your ornaments!Â Anyway, I wandered down the street for the whole reason I came into the city in the first place: to see the Empire State Building in red and green. And here to the right, she is. Do we see red and green anywhere???? No. We. Do. Not. Strike Two. Apparently they have a lighting schedule and we are not in a red/green/white cycle. In fact, it won’t be back to red/green/white until somewhere around the 21st. Just in case you’re traveling to NYC, it will be white/white/white for roughly another week, then it will be blue/white/white (blue/blue/white? white/blue/white? whatever, it’s not red/green/white!) for Hanukkah for another week or 10 days or so. Then it will go back to white/white/white until the 21st, when it will go to red/green/white until after the New Year. How Rude! I should have called ahead LOL!

By now, it was getting late and I still had a 1 1/2 hour commute. On the way back to the Path train, I passed the Border’s at Madison Square Garden and decided I’d attempt Strike 3. My search for the elusive McCall’s magazine with Holly‘s blogging article in it. Bingo! No strike 3 — they had the magazine! Holly’s contest to be the first to find the magazine is over, so I was spared the indignity of taking a picture of me holding it. I took a picture of it as it waited next to my Sheraton pillow for me to read it last night.

Thanks Holly for including my blog header with the pictures — there’s lots of fun info there! Holly also has an adorable quilt in the magazine made from her Lakehouse fabrics — be sure and check it out!
If you’re still here…thanks for sticking it out. In spite of two strikes, I had a great time. There’s nothing like the big city during the holidays! Until next time….
XOXO,
Anna

P.S. Quilty Peeps — I missed you — NYC isn’t the same without you!!!

Jason Meets Sharon!

23 Comments / November 11, 2007 February 12, 2012 / Peep Days, Travel

Oh My Gosh! The quilty peeps, MeMum and I had a great shopping trip today and the absolute highlight of the day was meeting Sharon. We met at 10 a.m. at The Back Door and we had a plan. We decided to go in one at a time — if we went in all together, it would be too obvious who we were! Jewels and MeMum went in first. Then I came in. The shop was fairly crowded, but I spotted Sharon right away — she was standing near the door and next to Jewels. I dashed behind a barrier and waited for Junie to enter. When she did, I waved her over by me. I couldn’t get Jewel’s attention, so Junie and I donned our Sharon masks and headed her way. POOR Sharon!!! I was worried that perhaps she thought this might be some sort of Jason re-enactment!*

L to R: Jewels, Me, Sharon, and Junie, or
Sharon, Sharon, Sharon, and Sharon LOL!

Really, I think I was laughing too hard to figure out what she was doing (not to mention the fact that those masks were pretty hard to see out of.) We had to take a picture — isn’t Sharon just the CUTEST??? She’s every bit as adorable as you think she is from reading her blog. (And what the heck — look how tall she is — I totally didn’t notice that when we were there!) We stood there by the door and visited for an hour. An HOUR!!! It seemed like 5 minutes. I’ve read about other blog meets and sometimes they say there are awkward silent moments. Ha! There was NO chance of that happening here. Poor Sharon — I hope she didn’t think we were putting her through the Spanish Inquisition. We kept asking her questions — and Sharon, I didn’t even get them all out! I really want to know about you and flying with your sewing machine!

After awhile, I started to feel guilty that poor little Boo was outside waiting in the car. I’d given Sharon her PIF** and she was going to run it out to the car so she could shop without having to carry that package around. (She probably just wanted to let Boo know that she was still alive.) I convinced her to let me run out there. I put my Sharon Mask on and ran out to the car. I couldn’t really see his reaction, but I do remember him saying “That’s hysterical.” I mean, after all, his giant-faced mother is running toward him! Anyway, he’s a cutie — and a real sweetheart to sit and wait on his mom!

When I came back in the store, we decided we better get some shopping done. So, we all split up. Yeah, like that lasted very long. Pretty soon, I was standing next to Sharon, yacking again. (Sorry it took so long Boo — I just couldn’t help myself. You get to know people through blogs and it’s like getting together with an old friend!) We found a bolt of Holly‘s fabric and posed for a picture.

Look, Holly Look! It’s your daisies. (Sorry for the Wilson pose — I have work issues. Hoping not to be found out, if you know what I mean! And what the hey — someone has waited a little too long for the dye bottle!) After that, I seriously began to feel guilty about poor little Boo, so we really did split up. (And there’s another question — Sharon, did you outshop me? I didn’t get much, so you must have!) I think it was close to noon when we got out of there — it went so fast. Sharon is such a cutie — she gave everyone a hug and then left. She probably ran to the car and pleaded with Boo to get her out of there — Fast! LOL.

We spent all of our time allocated to the south side of town at The Back Door, so when we left, we headed to the north side of town. We went to our old favorites, Quilts Plus and The Knit Stop. And we ended up at a fun little restaurant for Linner — by then it was three o’clock — a little late for lunch and a little early for dinner. Then we barely made it to a new shop, Always in Stitches, just before they closed.

We had a great afternoon, but somehow, it just didn’t compare to our exciting morning. Thanks so much you quilty peeps and MeMum for going along — it just wouldn’t have been the same without you! Sharon and Boo — you two are the best! I hope you’re having a fabulous time together and Thank You Thank You Thank You for sharing some of that precious time with us!!! I’m telling you — I’ll be on cloud 9 all week — I still have a smile on my face just thinking about our fun morning. And to all the rest of you — I sure wish we could all have a big ‘ol fun Meet ‘n Greet!

XOXO,
Anna

P.S. HEL-LO! Sha-ron!!! You forgot to take your souvenir mask along! Not to worry — I have your address!!! ROFLMAO!!!!

* Do you recognize the mask? That’s Sharon when she made her pie. You really should go check it out — her original picture is much more flattering — enlarging the picture sort of dorked it up a bit!
**In case you’re new here, PIF = Pay It Forward. Read about my PIF here.