Crafty Mama!

Wow! you have got to check out a new blog....Crafty Mama is written by a young gal with panache and style (actually I think panache means Style, so I guess that's redundant!). You can check out Crafty Mama here.


NOTE: I just looked up the word "panache" and Webster's defines it as "flamboyance of style." Yup, that's Larissa!

Tonight Liz and I had dinner with a couple of friends (one of them Crafty Mama aka Larissa) and she brought her new creation...this lovely clutch purse! The pleated bag with a curved yolk and sweet birdie applique. I also liked the handle, it's a nice touch.


In my business I see a lot of talent and lately I'm seeing so many talented younger women. Stay-at-home moms, working moms, single women in their twenties and thirties and I am so blown away with their creativity, resourcefulness, imagination and the fact that they are also fun! Perhaps it's a sign that I have truly hit middle age (I can't believe I actually said that!), but I am tickled that so many of them gather at the store and I am privileged to see their work.

Congrats Larissa on a blog well done!

Post Up-date

A quick update on our three bicyclist friends....I got a phone call from Doug on Tuesday. They had made it to San Diego! I was so glad to get his call (and very pleasantly surprised!). He said they had made it safe and sound and he was riding back to Redlands with his sister and brother-in-law to their mom's house. He thanked me again for the hospitality and I invited them back anytime. I miss them.

Another Parade for Miss Liberty!

Last Wednesday Mr. Scottie Dog received a message on the answer machine. "Could you play in the Fortuna Rodeo Parade on Saturday? Oh, and we'd love to see little Miss Liberty waving her flag too."

I heard the message first....I noticed right off that they didn't ask for ME to ride on the float!!! Perhaps they thought this would be understood, I don't know.

In any event, I was occupied on Saturday in our vending booth at the REQG Quilt show. Mr. Scottie Dog said he'd be glad to play his accordion AND take Sydney along. Sydney wore her "Miss Liberty" dress again, waved her flag and her hand. Several people have told me they saw her. She was patient while they set up the float and waved for the entire hour on the parade route.

Afterwards Grandpa treated Sydney to McDonald's. I heard she played at the playground and ate 2 french fries....She showed up at the quilt show around 3 pm, tired, but full of pride....."Gwandma, do you think they'll ask me for another parade soon?"

A Cruising We Will Go!

Last night we had a special gathering at Scottie Dog Quilts. Liz and I each baked a pretty incredible cake....hers was a 10" two layer cake with a creme filling, chocolate fudge frosting and toasted nuts on top, mine was a triple lemon bundt cake. We filled out our dessert table with some cookies, frosted brownies and a platter of fresh pineapple & strawberries. (I have to paint the picture with words because we forgot to take pictures!)

Our guests began to arrive just before 7 pm. Right on time. Who were our special guests? Those invited last night were our soon-to-be shipmates on the First Scottie Dog Quilting Cruise. We filled the classroom to standing room only....those who live out of state, of course, couldn't make it, but it warmed our hearts to see the room full of eager faces (by the end of the evening I think the husbands who are going were pretty eager too).

Oh, we talked about excursions...many seem to be adventurous and will be taking the Zip Line above the rain forest in Juneau (not I!) or the train ride in Skagway or whale watching or having High Tea at the Empress Hotel in Victoria, BC. We chatted about formal wear (what is and isn't acceptable---no shorts in the dining room!) and breakfast in bed and quilting projects aboard the ship. Liz and I gave them a taste of the specials the quilt shops will be providing for our visits (one shop is having books signing and trunk shows of Alaskan designers just for us!).

We are already working with our awesome travel agent, MJ Bryant, on our next quilting cruise in 2011. We haven't nailed it all down just yet, but it will be to someplace warm. If you would like to be contacted about this cruise when we have it all put together let us know. You can email us at: scottiedogquilts@aol.com


And now Liz and I change courses and tomorrow morning we set up for The Heart of The Redwoods Quilt Show in Eureka, CA. If you are anywhere nearby come see us July 18 & 19.
I've got to go now....I'm still binding two quilts for our booth!

A Tale of 3 Young Men

It's been a long time since my last post. I didn't realize how long until the first thing I wanted to blog about was our visit from three fine young men who came to visit us a week ago! about three weeks ago an old friend (Maralee hates it when I say that....well, she IS an old friend as I've known her since I was 3 and she was 2 1/2. She always points out that I am the OLDER one!). Maralee called to ask if I'd house her son and two of his friends when they made their way to our house on a long distance bicycling trip from Spokane, WA to San Diego, CA. Of course we could give these guys a bed and feed them well....it was the least we could do.

Little did I know how much fun it would be! We got the call from Doug Meyer on Sunday, July 5, that they were in Crescent City and would be spending the night at Prairie Creek State Park and make it to our house on Monday. Monday I got the call from Mr. Scottie Dog that they were at the bike shop just blocks from our store and I should stop by and see them before I drove home.

I drove to Henderson Center Bikes and here's what I saw:

That's Doug, in yellow eating the cracker, Wade in the safety vest and Josh fixing his tire. What an adventure they were having. The started out in Spokane, WA June 25 and cycled to Portland, OR and to the coast. Then down the coast of Oregon and CA to Eureka. They had met a lot of nice people along the way, rode up some gnarly mountains and dodged traffic on windy roads.

Here's a shot of their rigs...pretty snazzy bikes with little trailers holding food, camping gear, 1 change of clothes and anything else they may need.

They finished fixing their tubes, picked up a new wheel for one of the bikes and made it out to our house. I don't know what made them happiest......the thought of a nice bed, a hot shower or a washing machine!

These guys are all students at California Poly San Luis Obispo. Josh just graduated with a degree in Landscape Engineering, Wade has one more year working on his degree in Construction Management and Doug will be a Junior with an emphasis on graphic design. With more kids like them, we'll do fine in the future.

They took their showers and we hit the Buffet, the only place we thought could feed them...and eat they did! Plates upon plates of food. These are not huge guys; I think the largest weighed in at 150 lbs. But they ate more than football players on game night! Off to bed early and up for the morning...they had 60 miles to ride the next day. I sent them off after a breakfast for 12 normal people and lunch for more. They took as much food as they had room for. I prayed for their safety and hoped they enjoyed their visit with us as much as we did.

What did YOU do for the 4th of July?

What did you do for the 4th of July? I had a full day, beginning with the day before. About 11 am Mr. Scottie Dog told me that Sydney and I were going to ride on a float with him in the Ferndale 4th of July Parade. That's kind of exciting. Mr. Dog would be playing with the Humboldt Accordionairs on a 3 float entry of the Humboldt County Tea Party group. At 3 o'clock Liz asked me to make Sydney a dress for the occasion. Whew! At 5:30 Mr. Scottie Dog picked me up for dinner and I passed the dress onto Liz for hemming. We made a great team.....a 3 hour dress. What do you think of this cutie?

The Ferndale Parade was typical small town. Pony carts decorated with red, white and blue streamers, fire engines, horses, clowns and more. The weather was low overcast as usual here on the North Coast of CA until just before the parade began....then the clouds parted and the sun shown brightly. I even got some pink on my face.

We saw this guy waiting to join the parade. He was in his front yard while the floats were lining up. I think he just decided to go. Sydney loved his little dog in the front basket.

Here we are on our float...there were 10 or so accordions belting out "God Bless America," "It's a Grand Old Flag" and "This Land is Your Land." By the end Syd knew most of the words. I must admit I don't like the "rolls" that show on me....I should have sat up straighter (or lost 50 lbs!) but can you tell Mr. Scottie Dog, Sydney and I are having a good time? We are sitting on covered hay bales and leave it to MacGyver, oops, Mr. Dog, Sydney had a seat belt and everything...after all, safety first!


Just about the end of the parade, Sydney leans over to me and says, "Grandma, I LOVE riding in parades." She waved her flag and waved for about an hour straight.

When the parade had ended and our float driven back to the Fair Grounds Grandma brought out the picnic lunch. Liz and Steve found us, Grandpa bar-b-qued the chicken and we ate while Sydney ran round and round on the grass. Back home for naps. The fog rolled back in.

At 9 pm we went to Liz's and set off a box of fireworks Mr. Dog had bought. We also found some 15 year old sparklers...the kind they don't sell in CA any more and set them off with a propane torch. Sydney was frightened. She finally went inside and watched (blubbering the whole time) the show. 9:45 and we drove down to the waterfront to see the big Eureka City show. As per most years we saw some pretty red fog, green fog and occasionally the bottoms of some of the fireworks. There were so many illegal "big" fireworks going off though, below the clouds of fog so we got to see some pretty neat stuff too. Here Sydney declared she LOVED fireworks. I guess when you are 4 it's OK to be fickle.

That was our 4th of July...what did YOU do?