Our retreat 2012

Once again our retreat to Brainerd turned out to be fun and very productive for all.

We drank a little wine.

Evy taught us how to make these cute wool roses.

I made a whole bunch of wool brooches out of recycled wool from old coats.

I let them choose their favorite to take home with them.

I taught them how to make little purses out of paper bags and cards stock.

 And boy did they go to town! I tried to stop them but it was an impossible task.

As usual Evy went to town like a crazy person and made massive amount of cards.

Then it was time to say farewell until next year.

My poor neglected blog

It was recently pointed out by one of my readers that I last posted state fair food so it's might be time to post again. So I asked myself what have I been doing anyway? 
I finished a quilt that was a block of the month at the local quilt shop from about 5 years ago. I had it send out to be machine quilted and finally finished the binding.

I've also been working full time at a seasonal job that I took for the summer and into the fall.  It seems like a backward job for me since I would really like to have the summer off and work in the winter but then beggars can't be choosers can they? I've also been cleaning up my garden and yard and getting my fall decorating done.
And I've been making some cards.

Here are a few that I haven't sent to others yet.

Fair Food

Once again it is that time of the year to eat my way though the state fair. We started out with the best turkey sandwich I have ever had.

 This was Bruce's sandwich.

Michele and I split one and couldn't wait to bite into it.

 

Next on out list was the deep fried Nut Goodie. Once again we just couldn't wait to bite into it and it didn't disappoint us

Beer!  That's all I have to say, didn't drink it, just took a picture of it.

A picture says a thousand words.  This one just says my mom made me do this.

Norwegian onion rings.  Trust me the were amazing. They came with a wonderful lingonberry dip.  Yummy!
We also had a strawberry rhubarb malt that was so good I couldn't even stop to take a picture, I guess.

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Just a Few More

I volunteered to make some of those cute little paper bag purses for a bridal shower.  All these little guys will be going on the tables for decoration with hopefully something else.  I'm not sure what as I'm only doing the purses.  Rumor has it there will be a few little things inside, I would have gone with chocolate myself but someone else is in charge of stuffing them so I'll just have to wait and see.

Fun with Friends

I got together with my fun group and as always we had a great time. Evy is such a great cook and never disappoints us with a fun project. This time it was scarves.

 We sewed and sewed.

Actually it wasn't much sewing at all and before long we were modeling our lovely scarves.  We thought we really needed to have a group photo taken with all of us and since we couldn't conger up anyone to come over and take our picture I came up with the bright idea to use the timer on my camera.

Did I say accidentally say we were going to play musical chairs?  No, no, we are going to take a picture not play games.

 

 

There was a slight learning curve to using the timer on the camera but eventually we all managed to get in the frame with no heads cut off.

Here we are with our newly made scarves in all of our glory.