And More of the Same

A Short Walk Around the Neighborhood

We are still staying home, as is just about everyone these days. In a few days we will celebrate our first half year of marriage. (April 12). During this time I think we have spent more time together than most couples! Our first two months involved a lot of time in cars, and car dealerships, since ours decided not to behave on our honeymoon. We managed to have adventures anyway, although it was a bit of a stressful time. I spent a lot of moments determined to be cheerful, and I think I managed very well under the circumstances. John is very easy to get along with, but he is a man who loves routine. Sometimes I think my main routine is a lack of routine!

He Drives. I Stitch and Talk.

We are "a bit older" than most newlyweds, so we have more than seventy years of memories, recollections, and reminiscing to catch up on. We talk a lot. And as long as I stay away from the tv remote and politics, we get along very well. Just tonight we discovered that both of our fathers liked to eat fried corn meal mush. I don't think most people even remember that. I'm not sure if grocery stores even carry it anymore. Of course, it has been weeks since I have been in a grocery store. Or any store. We have been taking this stay at home thing very seriously.  We do take walks. John works outside when the weather is nice enough.  I have been putting things away, as so many of my possessions have been in storage for several years. Sometimes it feels like Christmas when I open boxes and rediscover items I had almost forgotten. And then I need to decide what to do with them in my new home. And to make things blend when so many different tastes are involved.

I also watch a lot English cozy murder mysteries. We just subscribed to one of the British channels, and I will happily confess to binge watching. I feel a little guilty not multi tasking, so I have been keeping busy with hand sewing. In January I purchased a block of the month kit, and for the first time ever I am caught up. I have been waiting for over a week for April's wool and it finally arrived today. They do look a little wonky here, so don't examine them closely. I think it will all go together well when it's done. I've never stitched a big project like this one before. And now I can watch charming  English mayhem without guilt.

                                                                             
                                                                             

February

January

March

 That is what we've been doing here. There is lots I didn't mention, such as the worry and the prayers. Our lives haven't changed much, but I know this is making major differences for many others. We miss seeing our children and grandchildren. It is difficult knowing that we can't be there to make this
staying at home easier for others. Stay safe everyone. And may this soon be over, and may we all remember and enjoy the things that make life precious.

HALF A HONEYMOON

We are home. I have to say it seemed like we were gone a really long time, but that is because so much of it was spent in cars. We ended up with three of them! A big thank you to the GM dealership in Laramie, who really went above and beyond to see that we had a car. They contacted General Motors and they rented us a car to get back home. They actually had to get special permission to get a Ford, since the rental place didn't have any Chevys. It will be a few weeks before our car is ready. The transmission went out, (2017, and only 30,000 miles) and because of a strike, car parts are difficult to get.  We have the rental until ours is fixed and then have to have it back in 2 days. It's about a 10 hour drive, so when they call, we have to be ready to go. It reminds me of packing a bag to have a baby!
We are pretty sure that the fact that we were in our 70's and on our honeymoon helped. We played that card as often as we could. Hoping to be able to take a couple of days and see some of the attractions we missed the first time.  I didn't get to the quilt store, but I went to my newest favorite bookstore ever. I can't wait to tell you about it. And I really want to get some good pictures of the scenery that aren't through the car windows.
We still want to go Oregon someday. But we are thinking of flying.

New Ford Fusion: Our Current Ride

The following is copied from my earlier Facebook Posts. I wasn't able to blog from my phone.
LARAMIE, WYOMING 

Our second car

Luckily for me I have my little sewing corner set up, so I have been stitching away while we decide our next step. We finally got in late last night, and the first motel we went to didn't have any available rooms! Then we found another one close to the car dealership, so this is where we will be for the next few days.They have given us a car for the weekend. They aren't sure when they can even look at it, because 4 cars were towed in ahead of us! Laramie is a pretty historic place so I've found an old mansion for us to visit. There was also a Brothel tour, but we missed it. In the old days, Laramie was called Hell-on-Wheels, a wild old railroad town. It was also the first place that women were allowed to vote. And I hear it has a pretty good quilt shop. We are still blissfully happy with everything except the car.

UTAH
I'm not able to blog on my phone, but here are the highlights of our marriage
so far.
1. We had a beautiful suite at the Marriott.
2. After dinner, I stood up and tipped the wobbly high top table over. Two full glasses of water absolutely drenched my dress. I grabbed the chair. The table hit the chair, and we all hit the floor. I ended up with a swollen lip and a bruise on my chin. No, I was not inebriated.
3. First day of honeymoon went very well, except Nebraska vies with Wyoming as most boring state to drive through.
4. Things finally started to get prettier as we got to Ogden, Utah. Unfortunately that's when the car started to misbehave. We checked in to a Hampton Inn. Sorry to say that the very small room in this one was $100.00 more than the nice large one in Sydney, Nebraska's Hampton Inn. They did give us a free bottle of water. ( I guess this must be common. Our second hotel went up $100. for our second night. It was Homecoming weekend. Luckily, we didn't have to stay another night)
5. This morning we took the car to a dealership. (2017 and still under warranty) They couldn't find anything wrong.
6. Found a great needlework shop. Yea!
7.Car still not feeling quite right so we decided to head back. Mostly fine all day
8. As I write this we are in a tow truck headed toward Laramie which is 70 miles from where our car completely stopped. We waited one and a half hours for it to get here. Two troopers stopped to see if we were ok, and a man who calls himself The Alien also stopped. It is so dark here that a person cannot see anything but other headlights no matter where one looks.Not sure of the next step yet, but I think this marriage will survive, and the wedding was lovely.
9. I know that I would not make a good pioneer. Ever.

Our Impala.  John, tell us how you really feel

Road Trip in the Cotswold Villages

I just spent two glorious weeks in my favorite place-England. Here we are a few days into  our trip. Sherry, Gerry, and I have traveled together often since my first trip to England in 2000. I went again in 2003, 2005, 2012, and now.  I never get tired of it, and in my ideal life, I would travel every year.
My other trips have been group tours, organized by Sherry. The first time I went there were over 20 women, but the average since then has been about ten. This time it was just the three of us. We rented a cottage in the Cotswolds for the first week. Our address was One the Square in Upper Slaughter.

                                                                           

 We rented a car and I was the driver except for the times we were leaving or going to Heathrow, and our drive to Norfolk for our second week. We hired Denis, our driver from our previous tours, and he was worth every tuppence, shilling, farthing, or pound that we paid him. This was my first time driving in England, and it was an adventure. I really think I did pretty well, but I'm not sure what my passengers would say. The Cotswolds is full of picturesque hills, and winding one lane roads where most of the speed limits are 60 miles per hour! And of course the steering wheel and lanes are opposite of what we are used to. I did finally begin to like the round-a-bouts. In some parts of  our trip they seemed to be about every mile. They were just like childbirth labor contractions. I would just get through one, catch my breath, and another one would begin. They are time-savers, though, eliminating a lot of traffic lights.
There were several cottages on the square. Here is a view out of my bedroom window, and the cottage across the way. Ours was very comfortable after we understood the heating system. The first two days we nearly froze, and made trips to the charity shops to buy warmer clothing. The weather wasn't the best, and we did wear our coats a lot.                                                    But there really wasn't too much rain. We had a fire in the large                                                              fireplace a couple of times.

Our little town was residential. We had a church right behind us and their was a very nice hotel that once was the vicarage. Very expensive. We visited one morning for coffee. We also walked over to the allotment gardens and met the neighbors. There were a lot of hikers and walkers in the area. And there were many towns nearby. We ate at the local pubs and hotels, and some nights we ate in. We visited the little grocery stores several times and dined on soups, and bread, and salmon, and victoria sponge for pudding. And during the day there was always shopping,  lunch, and tea.
One of our highlights was our "Secret Garden Tour" Not too many pictures, because she likes to keep it secret! Five of us went on a guided tour. We went to the owner's thatched cottage for a tour and coffee, then drove to several villages and out of the way places, back to the cottage for lunch, more beautiful towns, villages, walks, and gardens, and then tea at the cottage. We even went to a few places that Sherry had never been to before. That is really hard to find, because she has been to England more times than she can even count! The Cotswolds was a great mix of history, historic homes, shopping, and books. I didn't want to leave, but there was still another week of our trip to enjoy.                                                                                                

A Travel Guide. Part One

I just spent eight days in New York City and the Hamptons. What a trip that was! This was a reunion visit with three other friends that were my fellow travelers to England. We are all about the shopping, and the quaint little villages, and the resale shops, so visiting is always a good time with lots of laughter. It was just what I needed.
Gerry and I didn't get to "our" apartment until late (almost midnight) Friday night. Charming, charming building, complete with doorman. I guess when you are traveling on Friday the thirteenth, you have to expect a few difficulties. We thought we would arrive late in the Iafternoon, but the flight and the weather didn't co-operate. Luckily, it's very easy to find a late dinner in the neighborhood, and we also found a yarn shop practically next door.  It was our first stop on Saturday morning. I bought a skein of the most expensive yarn

I have ever seen, I will either make something small but beautiful, or I will wind it into a ball and be happy. Next came brunch, outside, complete with people watching. I bought an antique book from a street vendor. "Around and About Old England"  My favorite place, and a lighthouse on the cover, so I couldn't leave it, even though I promised myself not to buy too many books on this trip. They are so heavy, but I am so weak.

We only had one full day in the city, but with the hop on hop off bus tours we were able to see quite a bit. Most of it was from the bus, since we got a late start. But we took three tours. Actually, we took one of them twice. First, we did the uptown tour. That one was the best. Our guide and bus driver were very informative and entertaining. We saw Central Park, brownstownes, and mansions, churches, and China town, Harlem, and Sean Connery's home.  Jacqueline Kennedy's apartment building, and also Maya Angelou's. The Trump Tower, Grant's Tomb, the Museum Mile, Times Square, and much, much more. At the end, we gave them a big tip. Then we wanted to do the Downtown Tour. The guide said "Yes,yes, this is the downtown tour. Hurry and get on." So we did. Before you knew it, we were seeing Chinatown, and Harlem, Times Square, Grant's Tomb etc. Well, you get the idea. People in NYC are always in a hurry. They talk very fast, and will always say yes to any question you ask. This tour guide had a broken microphone, so we didn't hear a lot of what he had to say. But by this time, I was about ready to give the tour myself. (Remember, I had years and years of training at a Living History Museum, I know about tours.) At the end, we felt sorry for him, and gave him a medium sized tip. By then it was almost time for the Evening bus, so we got on that one too. It was starting to get cold, but we stayed upstairs for most of it, wearing our yellow plastic bag ponchos. Gerry wanted us to wear the Statue of Liberty crowns that she had purchased earlier in the day, but it was a little windy. Of course, the city, by night, is fantastic. We went over the bridge  and spent a lot of time freezing in Brooklyn. The Empire State Building was lit with red, white, and blue for Flag Day. We saw Chinatown again. This tour was supposed to include the Statue of Liberty and the site of the Twin Towers, but I don't think that happened. The guide was a comedian (not so much) and we heard too many stories of his fiances and girlfriends. By this time we were very very cold and hungry. This time, a small tip. We were finally catching on that we were about the only ones putting money in the bags they held out as we got off the bus. Hey, we're from Iowa, and we are always polite. After a trip to Starbucks, we hailed a taxi, and went back "home" feeling like New York natives.                                                                                

Back to the Real World

Well, I am back from my little road trip and every single moment was fantastic. Here we all are at Mary's lakefront home, standing on the deck with Lake Minnetonka in the background. Her house has 4 levels, all looking at the lake and dock in her backyard. It was beautiful! We stayed on the top floor, and it looked like a  lodge. There were four beds, all built in, and surrounded by bookshelves. Our whole trip was like a fairy tale. The cottage  that you see here was a little garden shop called Gray Gardens.We feasted on fresh fruits and croissants in the mornings, while we admired the view, and then shopped, shopped, shopped all day. And we all love the thrill of junking, so we hunted for bargains and admired each others treasures. Things like old books and rusted grandpa lunch boxes, vintage luggage, needlework, wooden boxes, jewelry, and anything made from paper makes my heart beat faster, but I like to look at it all. Our trip ended with  a visit to a few clothing stores, and, finally, Anthropologie and Ikea. By the time we stopped at Ikea, we were ready to start the drive back home. Saturday afternoon on Labor Day Weekend was just a little too busy! Our car couldn't hold any more packages, so it was just as well that we were ready to head south to Iowa.

Waterlogged at Walnut

Yesterday two of my non-blog friends and I took a little roadtrip to Walnut, Iowa for a day of antiquing, junking, eating and laughing. Well, we had a lot of fun with the eating and laughing, but the junking was a real disappointment. The day started out great, so we left our umbrellas in the car. Big mistake. It didn't take long before the weather changed and we were just about as wet as we could be. And just imagine all these wonderful treasures hiding under the tarps. The sale lasts three days, but I could only be there for the first day. So just think of all that money I saved!

Bella Bella Bella

Here are some more of my completed projects! This was Jenni Bowlin's class and she was terrific. The class was called Tiny Treasures and we made three of the cutest little projects. Her bingo card was lots of fun. I really like her little packages of crepe paper strips. It's all about the crepe paper now, I think. Crepe paper and glitter. The tiny book with the key in the binding is also so cute. She came over to every table to show us how to do the key, and chastized me just a bit for not speaking up about having a bad key. She changed my key to a better one and told me that I was paying a lot of money for classes and shouldn't be afraid to speak up if my materials weren't right! I actually liked my bent up, wonky key but it wouldn't have worked very well for the book edge, so I'm glad I changed. She was so sweet, and helpful, and very sharing. A very good class.

Isn't this little spool the cutest thing? I really liked all the projects because they were quick and cute and would make perfect little gifts when you need something small. I also bought her little Bingo card baby book, and bottle cap ornament kit, and some of her vintage findings. Love her site. Please check it out. I'm really not a scrapbooker. I have boxes and boxes of photos, but just getting them barely organized is all I can do. With five children and seven grands, I can't even think how may albums that would be with just a few pics on each page($$$$). I do love the little books and accessory items though.

Oh my! I think I have beaten my record for monthly posts. Dare I say------see you tomorrow????