My Staycation

This week is the first real vacation I've had in two years. I've had time off here and there, but it always seemed to end up where I was committed to do one thing or another that made it not very vacation-y.

This year I was committed to making my vacation a real vacation. We had plans to go to the beach for part of the week and I made plans to spend at least one day with my sister. Then we checked the forcast. Rainy and cold at the beach. Why would we pay to stay at the beach in the rain? Well, we decided not to. We decided to have a stay-cation and stay at home and relax and do some things around here.

Jeff and I went out to dinner for the first time in forever on Monday. I forgot how much I love to go to dinner with my honey. We had a great time and great food and even ordered dessert, which we never do. The food coma afterwards was totally worth it!

On Tuesday, I convinced Jean to take the day off of work and we spent the day in Lancaster, PA. Can I just say WOW! Jean has been trying to get me to go to Lancaster for months now. It's only an hour and a half away...and we took the back roads so it was a gorgeous drive through farmlands.

We had two goals for Lancaster: Fabric and Doughnuts. If you think those two things don't go together, you don't know me at all...

Honestly, I think I spent every bit of money I would have spent on our vacation at the beach on fabric. Seriously. I bought almost 50 pieces of fabric. 50. I outdid myself. But the prices and selection were phenomenal. Did I mention we only went to 5 stores? There were at least 5 more we wanted to go to, but they close down the stores at 5pm there and we ran out of time.

Here are some pics of fabric I got:

These are my favorites:

I also bought lots of notions...and doughnuts. Did I mention the doughnuts? There is a grocery store there called Shady Maple Farm Market that is awesome. If I lived close to there and that was my grocery store, I'd spend $300 a week on groceries. (Right now, we go to the grocery store once a month and spend a max of $200).

Anyway, this place is HUGE. Think Sam's Club with only food. I got tired (and lost) just going from one end to the other. They have these doughnuts that are so good (and so cheap!) that I had to buy a dozen. I was going to freeze the extras as a weekend treat in the coming weeks. Jeff is not a sweets person...my total opposite in every way, this boy. I brought the doughnuts home and told him of my plan to freeze them. He wanted to try one after I raved about them. He ate 3. THAT in itself tells you how good these doughnuts are.

Okay, okay, I'll move on from the doughnuts now, I promise.

Since I haven't posted in awhile, I wanted to share some little things I've been working on. Nothing spectacular, but bits and pieces of stuff:

First is a cute, girly applique bib. Love this Robert Kaufman fabric.


Next is a new piece I started for a Christmas wallhanging using freezer paper applique.

Then some of my baby pin cushions displayed in a thrifted cabinet. Love this cabinet I got for $2.

This is a sample bookmark I made for our upcoming craft show. I thought these would be a quick sew...not so much. I'm using chipboard inside to keep them stiff and it's a pain to sew around once it's inserted.
And lastly, this is a prototype for some Christmas ornaments I'm making for the show. Jean says I need to make the yo-yo smaller or the heart bigger. I didn't think so until I saw this picture. You're right, Jean!

So that's it for now. I'm heading to Jean's house on Friday to play with some of my new material so hopefully I will have more to share on Saturday or Sunday.

always,
K