A few months ago, Ms Bitty Bit posted that she used to write tole painting books back in the day.  The opening line in her post was “This is soooo funny…”.  Only she didn’t know just how funny it was, ’cause I actually have several of her books in my old collection and I NEVER would have made the connection between THAT Ms Bitty Bit and the blogging Ms Bitty Bit that we know and love today if she hadn’t posted about it.

So, given that bit of shared history, along with our blogging friendship, I knew I’d HAVE to meet Ms Bitty Bit on my recent trip to Utah.  OhMyGosh!  It was fabulous!!!  We had a wonderful time.  (I’ll back up for a minute here to tell you that my Aunt Annie and I were on a little two-day shop hop — we visited the shops in Bountiful/Brigham City/Logan on the first day and on the second day, we visited a few in the SLC/Provo area.)

Ms. Bitty Bit met us just as we were finishing up at Thimbles and Threads on the second day.  It was lunchtime and since Aunt Annie and I had never been to Pine Needles, Kim suggested we go over there and eat at the restaurant.  What a great suggestion — we loved Pine Needles and Gardner Village.  And our lunch was yummy.  I can’t wait until we can go back!  After lunch, it was on to Broadbent’s in Lehi where we got this shot for my Wilson collection!

We had a great time.  Kim is just as charming, kind and FUN as I knew she’d be.  And, can I just say, the woman is a celebrity?  The ladies at the quilt shops all knew her and her blog — too fun!  There was fabric purchased and I’d show you, but where fabric purchases are concerned, I’ve had to go into the witness protection program, if you know what I mean.  (Oh, come on, if you’d OD’d on all those fantastic quilt shops in one place, you’d sneak it into the house too!)

Anyhoo, after the purchasing of fabrics, I had our star autograph my tole painting books while I played the paparazzi photographer.  I was so sorry after this that we had to rush off — our day was WAY too short.  (We didn’t even have time to go to Material Girls — I’ve heard so much about it and I wanted to go.  And my favorite shop, Whimsy Cottage wasn’t open when we were there early that morning, so we missed that too.)

I was so touched that Kim would take a whole afternoon out of her busy schedule to spend with us.  AND, just look what she gave me!  My meager picture just doesn’t do her fabulous gift bag justice — that bag was chock full of goodies — CHOCOLATE and a delicious ear of carmel corn (which were both consumed on the long drive home (btw, Kim if you have any info on that carmel corn — I forgot to write the company name down before I threw the wrapper away in the middle of Kansas ;-) — I LOVED that stuff!)), this adorable bag made for her Moda Bakeshop Tutorial (how lucky is that?), the cute little teddy bear with the friendship embroidery, a stack of very pretty Moda snippets (they fell down into that bag), AND she thoughtfully made some very pretty handmade earrings for me, Aunt Annie AND SweetiePie!  (I love that little bag — it reminds me of a retro sundress.)

THANK YOU SO MUCH Ms. Bitty Bit!  I loved my gift bag, but even more, I so enjoyed finally meeting you.  Aunt Annie kept telling me what a nice friend I have — I feel so lucky!  Next time — and Yes there will be a next time — we’ll meet for longer — maybe with some sewing involved?  I can’t wait!

XOXO,
Anna

P.S.  Remember that darling little quilt Toni sent me?  Well, Ms. Red Boot is giving a quilt pattern away — run over there and sign up.  I was reading this post, and thought — Ooooh, that’s an adorable pattern I need to sign up.  Well, hahaha, then I remembered that she sent me that pattern when she sent my little quilt.  It’s a super pattern — I hope you win!

…and even though it was a long vacation, it wasn’t long enough.

Las Vegas was HOT.  (How DO you kids in the southwest survive it?)

The North Rim of the Grand Canyon was GORGEOUS.

Zion National Park was SUPER delicious.

Bryce National Park was HAZY.  (A forest fire had half of the park closed.)

The family was FUN.  (I don’t think that frozen t-shirt game will ever get old.)

Arches National Park was SWELTERING for our hike.  (But it was fun anyway.)

And now July has slipped away.  I’ve missed you guys — I would ask what you’ve been doing, but it’s clear you’ve been blogging.  My google reader doesn’t count past 1,000 posts and it took me a few days of clearing to get below 1,000.  I’m trying to catch up with everyone, but I’ve had to do some skipping.  (Guaranteed skippage happened if you’re a blog that makes me click through to read your post.  Sorry. )

Thanks for all of your wonderful comments while I was gone.  I’ve had to call a truce on comment answering and will try to start up again this weekend.  Next time, I’ll be back with a tale of a fantastic blog meet-up that some of you already know about. Have a good weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

Hmmm. Vegemite — apparently, you either love it or you hate it. Thanks for all the advice — I’m very anxious to test it out. I’ll give you a full report when it happens. ;-)

In the meantime, remember these pillowcases?

It’s time, once again to bring them out.  The kids and I are leaving in the morning to head “out west”.  WooHoo!  Ah Loves Me A Roadtrip!  SweetiePie has never been west of Colorado Springs and I’m really excited to be able to go out there with her.  We’ll be visiting family, hiking The Narrows in Zion National Park, and visiting the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  (Not to mention the quilt shops and a few other things.)

So, I’m leaving you with pictures of our coneflowers this year.  We had a gorgeous bumper crop (which prompted a banner change, in case you hadn’t noticed).

I want to remember them and I’m hoping they’ll still be here when we get back.

Behave yourselves while I’m gone and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do! ;-)

XOXO,
Anna