We’re on a great adventure!

Tokyo by day and night!  View from our room 

The International Quilt show starts in two days - we’re gearing up for it!!

The Ocean is wild this week

High rolling tides - fun to watch - from a window with a hot chocolate!!

We had our first ModSquad meeting of 2020.  We've moved to a new meeting room at the Manley Art Center.  It's going to be great!!  Lots of work space, good lighting, even a bulletin board to pin the projects on!!  Our first challenge for the year was:  VisionBoard.  We got the assignment in November but the majority of the class started working on it after the New Years!  Of course, we were thinking it out during the holidays, but the actual sewing comes later.

I read a lot of 2020 chit-chat on the web.  Glasses came up often with the 2020 vision (perfect eyesight)  BUT I was the only one that had glasses on her challenge piece!!

Next challenge is "Love is in the air" and that was decided before we realized that we would be meeting on Valentine's Day!  Meant to be!!

What a great selection!!

I tried to make a "Candyland-type" game board.  A twisty path thru the year.  The fabric pieces were meaningful steps in 2020.  

Snowflakes - Portland at Christmas

Blue puddles - rainy season

Black is a Japanese fabric. (see below!)  

Hearts - Valentines Day and spending time with loved ones 

Sewing machines

Whales

Peas in a pod - healthier eating

Heart in hands - friendships

Scissors

Pennants - celebrations

The earth - Earth Day and/or will we still be holding together??

Sunny days of summer - Camp Nana/Papa

Patriotic fabric for QOV, Memorial Day, Veterans Day

2 spools of threads - it's always sew, sew, sew before Christmas! 

Sailboats, hoping for smooth sailing!!

And just a sliver of Christmas fabric at the far end of 2020! (Most of it got trimmed off.)

The background is a favorite Sweet Water fabric with event announcements.  And the glasses are combo of 2020 vision (cataract surgery could be this year!) and 'My future's so bright I have to wear shades!'  Raise your hand if you're old enough to remember that song title!!

I've been busy straightening up and packing!  I'm off on Tuesday for a Craft-Tour trip to Japan.  I've never crossed the dateline before.  We'll end up 18 hours ahead of home. So-o will my email that I'm boarding come before or after my email that we've landed???  Time continuum questions!!

We'll be doing some tours, some workshops, visiting temples, a kimono museum, a ride on the bullet train! and TWO days at the Tokyo International Quilt Show!!!  Woot! Woot!!

We'll be in a kaleidoscope class - the spy glass type, not the quilt pattern.  We'll even learn out to make fake food models(?) like the ones outside restaurants internationally!

I've been practicing eating with chopsticks!  It's been interesting, I may come back thinner!!  Will a fork be contraband going thru security????

So excited!!  I'm sure we'll bring back lots of pictures and loads of stories - stay tuned!!

Happy New Year!! It always starts with infinite possibilities ...

We have had a wild ocean this week.  Haven't even been brave enough to walk down to it!  Let alone walk along it.  The waves have been hitting our sea-stacks and roaring up double the stacks size!  Exciting to watch ... from the safety of our condo!  Thank goodness for free images online!!

I love Christmas and decorating.  Not so much the putting away of said decorations!  It just doesn't look right AFTER Christmas!  I used to blame it on presents under the tree.  When they are gone it looks empty.  Well, no room for a tree in this condo.  And it still looks empty after the 25th.  I started when we got back from Portland.  The sun was shining, the porch was dry!  I have to haul in tubs from the porch storage closet.  And every year I think I got everything!

Days later I'll be in a room and suddenly see some Christmas schmutz that I didn't see before!!  This year was no different!  How did I clear the bookcase except for the bottom shelf??  And forgetting one of my favorite wall quilts hanging in the bathroom.  The stack of Christmas CDs in the sewing room, the two wall quilts hanging on the design wall ... the Santa hat on a beach chair door mat ...

 

OK the door mat has to stay until I find our usual one!!  Santa always recoups on the beach after Christmas Eve ... Right???

After Christmas we celebrated our 47th Anniversary!!  Seems impossible!  We celebrated with an Italian dinner down in The Pearl.  R picked the restaurant because it was across the street from our hotel.  It gets cold after dark!!

One of the best meals we've had!!  Top 10 and there is a lot of competition!  47 years worth!  Trattoria Gallo Nero  I had the Beef Filetto on roasted potatoes, R had pasta with Prosciutto.  We shared both and each were a winner.

Now you know me and chocolate!  We had the flourless chocolate cake for dessert and it was so dry.  I drank 3 glasses of water after!!  

Oh well, we had awesome chocolate Lava Cake here in Brookings at O'halleran's here in Brookings the other night.  Yes, we celebrate twice!!

Now to get back to regular life!!  #toomanycookies