Adventures in Florence

Do you ever find yourself being a bit too stingy with your time and realize that you are on the verge of missing out on a great opportunity if you continue being stingy. I had one of those moments today. I was determined to stick to my schedule no matter what. I had lots of things to do today and, by george, I was going to get them done!

I got up early this morning so I could be out the door and on the way to the nearest fabric store (over an hour away) in Florence where my son lives. I also had a huge "wal-mart list", home depot items, banking, bill paying, etc...

He had class until 10:30 so we planned to meet at IHOP for brunch at 11:00. I had done some baking for him the previous day and I also found a coffeepot for him at an estate sale so I was excited to see him and give him his goodies. Brunch was great and we had a wonderful time catching up, since we hadn't seen each other since Christmas, and that was a brief visit then because he had to work on Christmas day.

I really wanted a picture of us together, but I managed to sneak one in of him - he hates it when I do that! :)
So we chatted about the latest events in his life.  He asked me if I ever heard of "geocaching".  Geo-What??
Here is a description offered by the official geocache website http://www.geocaching.com/

"Geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing) is a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure. A geocacher can place a geocache in the world, pinpoint its location using GPS technology and then share the geocache's existence and location online. Anyone with a GPS device can then try to locate the geocache."


In other words, people all over the world hide little boxes and containers and then post the clues to finding them on the internet.  Inside the box is usually a trinket of some sort and a little log for the finder to sign their name and the date they found it.  The geocacher then goes online and logs in their find there, too.  Jeff says there's over 200 just in the Florence area!  You can visit http://www.geocaching.com/ for more information.

"So, Mom, do you want me to show you?"
"Well, I guess so, but I really need to be back here by 12:00 (that's in about 20 minutes)"
He turns and looks at me with a look that says "'cmon, Mom!"
"Yeah, but I still have shopping to do, and I have to go to the bank and I have to get home to make daddy a pie for his birthday and blah, blah, blah......"

(insert record player scratch sound here)

Then I realized, this is my moment - am I going to stick with my stingy schedule and live by the clock or do I take this opportunity to just "hang out" with my son.  I took the latter - What the heck!  He has class at 2:30 so let's just have fun until then.  Besides, this geocaching thing has got me intrigued.

He took me to Freedom Park in Florence where he says there are 5 geocaches listed on the internet.  He and his roommate have found 4 of the 5.

This cache was called "Freedom Fruit"

He parked my truck in the middle of the parking lot and gave me the clue (this came straight off the internet, only he had to decode it first):

Four cool looking trees. Check the largest one.


Hmmm...there's four over there....

I searched and found nothing - Jeff said to remember that it is always within reach and to think about the title of it...freedom fruit

Hmmmm....what about those trees over there?

Aha!!!

I was absolutely giggling with excitement at my find!  It was hanging from the branches, just like fruit!!  Superbly camouflaged!!!

I opened the tube, pulled out the paper and logged in my name and date!
Ok....let's do another one!

This one is called  "Austin's Little Box" and here are the clues:

Behind the Baseball fields near the pond

At the base of the tree between the rocks

There were several trees nearby with rocks at their base, but I eventually found the right tree.

 

This "cache" was loaded with goodies.  The general rule in geocaching is if you take something you have to leave something.  Most people don't ever take anything and usually end up adding to the goodies in the container.
 

I again signed and dated my find.

 

Two down, two to go.
 
This next one was called "Freedom from..."  and it had a lot of clues and descriptions.  Most geocachers use a GPS but we didn't have one and I think it's more fun without the machines anyway.
 
There are two elevation changes. The first, from the parking lot to the pond, is the more significant one. The second, from the packed dirt trail around the pond to the softer, leaf covered floor of the hide area is smaller and shorter.
Uphill from the most obvious place.
 
Jeff pretty much told me where to go for this one as I would've taken forever since I'm not familiar with the pond and it's surroundings, but I did find the actual cache myself.  It was a much larger container with even more goodies.  The hider of this cache asks the finder to log on the internet what finding this cache gives them "freedom from..." they said that geocaching gave them freedom from work and the stresses related to their job.  I'll have to mention when I log my find that I found freedom from a stingy schedule!
 

This funny looking fellow found us on the other side of the pond.  I wish I would've had something to feed him.
 

OK, my feet are really hurting now, so I asked Jeff to show me the last cache.  Glad he did because it was the hardest to find.  It was a magnetic container stuck behind the scoreboard at the baseball park!
 

It took me a while to see it even though he was pointing me directly at it!  Can you see it?
 

So, I know now that geocaching is a lot of fun and I've already looked up a few caches in my local area and perhaps I'll make time to search those out soon.
 

After our treasure hunt, we had about an hour until Jeff had to be in class, so we decided to head to his house and visit the dogs (all three of them!)
 

Here's me with the newest puppy, Leia.  She is so sweet and so very soft!  She also likes to jump up and bonk me in the nose!!
 

I also got a quick lesson in Guitar Hero - I played electric guitar to Michael Jackson's "Beat it" - it was a riot!!
 
Anyway, I didn't get home until after 4:30, but I was SO GLAD I took the time to "play" with my son!  I realized that I may not have many chances to do that in the future and I would be a fool to let it pass me by!
Let me just take this opportunity to urge you to do as I have done today - slow down and take the time to do something fun with someone you love!  You may never get the chance again!
 

Come back tomorrow and I'll tell you all about the pie I still haven't made for my husband's birthday (today), although I did manage to pick him up a present while I was shopping  - have I mentioned previously we don't buy gifts for each other....?  Got you curious now, don't I?
 

Warming Back Up

It finally stopped raining, but the temperature dropped significantly overnight and we woke up to an icy wonderland.

We lost power for a couple of hours thru the night and I was prepared to spend the day in the cold without electricity (I had plenty of hand quilting ready), but everything fired back up by 7:00 this morning.  I was mostly worried about losing all the food in the frig and freezer, so that was a relief.

But, the sun is out now and everything is melting quickly, so I rushed to get my photo op while it lasted.

My husband took advantage of being cooped up in the house for the past day or so.  Yesterday I mentioned that he wanted some candied sweet potatoes and using Gramma Baker's recipe, they turned out pretty good!  I was impressed!  Later that day, he decided to make us all an afternoon snack - quesadillas!  Why does food always taste better when someone cooks for you?  Is it because it's so nice to have someone make you a tasty little snack and you didn't have to lift a finger to do it!

My husband always cooks breakfast on Sunday mornings, but this morning he decided to get creative.   Wednesday night I had dinner with a friend at a local Greek restaurant.  As I was paying my bill at the counter, I noticed they had cannollis in the dessert case.  My husband loves them so I decided to bring him home a treat.  While he was enjoying his treat, he got to thinking...that can be dangerous when he does that sometimes!  :)
So, to the point, he decided he would make some breakfast cannollis.  He used pieces of steel pipe and wrapped them in foil.

Then he wrapped crescent roll dough around each pipe, baked it according to the package, and stuffed the cooked rolls with sausage and eggs and topped it with cheese.

Quite a creation and they were definitely tasty!  He was going to make some "dessert" ones by mixing up some cream cheese with sugar and perhaps some jam and stuff the rolls that way, but we forgot to get cream cheese at the grocery store this week.

They have cancelled church today in our area, so we will be staying inside and watching it thaw outside.

Stay warm, wherever you are!

Baby, It's Cold Outside...

Yes, it is definitely cold down in the South today.  We are currently experiencing an ice storm and it's supposed to keep raining all day today in addition to the temperature dropping.  Right now it's about 34°F and dropping.

The ice is very pretty and it's amazing how it can weigh things down and cause even large trees to droop.

Icicles are a rarity here in South Carolina, and just seeing these reminds me so much of growing up in Montana where icicles were abundant during the winter.  It was always a contest between my brothers and I to see who could find the most massive icicle hanging from eaves of the neighborhood houses.  Of course, we always had to break them loose and suck on them!!!  Grosses us out as adults, now, doesn't it?!  :)

Although this ice is so pretty, I hope it doesn't hurt these little trees.   We transplanted them about 7 years ago to line our driveway and they are getting so big.  They normally stand straight up, at least 10 feet tall.

This one is bent all the way over, laying it's top on the ground

Happily, I'm snug as a bug in my warm house today, browsing blogs with a cup of hot cider.  My husband got a craving for candied yams and since I have never made them, he asked Gramma Baker at the pizza party last night and she told him how she makes them.  So, he's in the kitchen now, working on that....should be interesting...  :)

These little sweet treats came in the mail yesterday and I'm contemplating all the things I want to make with them.  They were on sale at Christa Quilts for $6.80 each - what a bargain!

I also ordered an entire bolt of Osnaburg from Joann's and got it for half price - that comes out to about $2.50 per yard - another bargain!

Here are the pictures of the little dresses I was working on this past week.

I also hope to get some more done on my string project this weekend.  I'm planning on making a quillow out of my blocks.  I have about 16 blocks done and need a total of 36 to do the quillow.  As I've been going through my scrap pile, I haven't been too selective about what I use, except I'm excluding solids, and I was concerned that my quilt would be too scrappy, but I'm content with how the blocks are turning out.  There's not a lot of trendy fabrics in there, but I think it looks OK.

I've got a good 80s flick to watch tomorrow afternoon while I sort through some more scraps.  I'm going to have a "Back to the Future" blowout.

But, for today, I'm not sure what I'll do ~ possible some baking and definitely some sewing...  I do know that I've got laundry to do, so I'll leave you now and head back to my frigid little laundry room.

Have a cozy weekend!

Mexican Pizza Party

Let me just start off by saying "welcome" to my new readers!  It's ALWAYS wonderful to see new faces and know that someone out there is actually reading the things I write!  Thanks, also, to those who helped make my decision on the pansy pinwheel quilt - I won't share my decision until I finish it, and then I'll surprise you with a picture!

I also want to publicly thank Karen of Sew Many Ways for her generous giveaway prizes!  It came in the mail this week and I'm still in awe of her generosity and I feel so awkward and undeserving receiving it - is this normal for a first-time giveaway winner?  Thank you, Karen, and happy blogiversary!

I'm really making an effort to keep my internet time to 1/2 hour, because I need to make the most of my "freedom" while it lasts.

This is the construction site - the pond will be the view out their back porch

We broke ground on our construction project this Monday, and I've got to report to duty next week - just found out that I won't have to work until Wednesday, so that means two more days of sewing for me!  I'm trying to cram in as much sewing as possible because I know I'll be missing my dear Singer next week!  Most of all, I'm just dreading working outdoors in this cold weather.  I'm not looking forward to slinging a hammer during the two coldest months of the year, but I know my husband needs my help, even though my two little hands can't do very much...

My husband has assembled quite an interesting construction crew out of various family members, me included.  He likes to refer to us as his "mexicans" - believe me, this is not any kind of racial slur and I take this as a compliment, because since I've been working in the construction world for at least the past 15 years, I know that Mexican construction crews are some of the hardest working people in that field!  My husband, Bill, has hired Uncle Harold, Uncle Smiley and myself to work on this project (of course, I'm not really "hired", I'm just expected to help!)  Our daughter has decided we need mexican names to go with our status - Harold is "Jorge", Smiley is "Jesus" (pronounced "hay-soos") and I am "Juanita".  We joked that my husband needs to be called "Juan", but decided the boss will just be "boss".

Gramma Baker's house in the background

The footing is dug, the batter boards up, and today the concrete truck is coming to pour the footing.  The foundation block will be delivered today, too, and the masons will begin work on Monday.  While they are laying block, us mexicans will be doing some pre-framing on the ground - making walls to stand up once the floor is laid on the foundation.

The electrical company installed the temporary power pole yesterday

So, until I must brave the hard, cold, outside, I plug away in my sewing room.  Here are a few things I've been working on:

COKE quillow - special order for a customer

Kaleidoscope quilt blocks from some of Paula Nadelstern's Luminosity fabrics - another patchwork quillow in the works for my goal of 26 this year.

  

Custom Toddler Nap Mat

I've also been making more little dresses and coloring notebooks for toddlers to sell at craft shows, but my husband has had the camera all week and my picture-taking is limited.

Take a trip over to amy lou who's place for more Sew-n-Tell Friday entries!  Lots of neat things to see there!

We've made Friday night our Pizza Night, and my husband has turned tonight into a pizza party at Gramma Baker's house.  Guess who gets to make the homemade pizza for 9 people?????  I'm not sure my little bread oven can churn out enough dough for that many people, but we'll give it a shot!  Honestly, it's a luxury to be able to have dinner with Gramma Baker.  She's 94 (going on 95 in April) and LOVES pizza!  I know it will be a wonderful family time!

So, without further ado, it's time to head to my sewing room for the day - I've got my ballet slippers on for Red Shoe Friday - do you have your red shoes on?

P.S....Oh, the cupcakes were delicious!  Gone too soon!