Hot Day #6

Enough already! I'm ready for this hot weather to go back down south! Actually, as soon as it's gone, I'll be complaining that summer is over - I'm NEVER satisfied 100%! I like 78-80 degrees and no humidity - then I'm really happy!

Today was a fun day. Five of my PEO ladies met five of Chapter OO's ladies in Fairfield at Yummy's for lunch. Just like the name says, the lunch was yummy!! The company was great also. All of us truly enjoyed ourselves visiting with other PEO sisters! I only knew two of the ladies very well; I knew a couple others by name only. I wouldn't have known who they were unless Sally introduced them to me. One of the ladies I didn't know at all! Here is a picture of all of us - good picture!! This will go into my next newsletter to Chapter HC! Hopefully we started a tradition that will continue for many years to come. Next year, we'll host them here in O-town!
I also wanted to share another card with you. This is one I made yesterday or the day before. I used 3 yellow inks and brayered the background - the inks were Yoho Yellow, Daffodil Delight, and something Curry (I'm having a senior moment - can't remember its name and I don't want to go upstairs and look right now!). Then I took a sponge with Chocolate Chip ink and just dabbed around the background to give it some dimension. After that I added some lace that I had, a sentiment from Stampin' Up and a Primo flower that started out all white. I simply sponged some of the yellows on it. I really like the effect. This is a card that is a little out of my comfort zone...I'm not really a yellow kind of person! I do, however, like this card. I think I'll try it in various shades of pink!


I forgot to tell you that I got up this morning, pulled open the blind and checked the bluebird feeder - all of the food was gone! I think our deer must like bluebird food!! I mean the tray was wiped clean!! Funny!

Tomorrow's a very busy day starting with a haircut at 8:15 AM - what was I thinking???

More later...

Tote Bags

I have been busy sewing lately - I've made 6 tote bags like this one. They are different colors though. I have so many "irons in the fire" that I'm going to keep PEO stuff in one, Beta Sigma Phi stuff in one, stamping club stuff in one, etc. This one is probably the prettiest because it is new colors. The others are made from pre-quilted fabric that I've had for years. I tend to procrastinate a bit!

Today was a fun day, although Dave worked all day. I went with 6 other ladies over to Eddyville where a PEO Chapter there had a "Christmas in the Spring" tasting bee. They had about 35-40 different dishes set out and you could go along and get small helpings of each dish! Then, you also got the recipes for each of the dishes presented. Prior to the tasting, Michael Philipsen and the Indian Hills camerata singers performed - beautiful voices - and it's always a pleasure to listen to Michael play the piano! I'm sure we'll go again next year, even though none of us won any door prizes!

My Friday!

Yesterday was sure a fun day! I met 11 other ladies at 8:15 AM and went to Mt Pleasant to tour the P.E.O. memorial rooms at Iowa Wesleyan. They have lots of artifacts and period furniture from the 1860's when 7 women from Iowa Wesleyan started P.E.O. It was a very informative tour. After touring the P.E.O. rooms, we went to the Harlan-Lincoln home which is basically on the IW campus. It was the home of Senator Harlan whose daughter married Abraham Lincoln's son Robert Todd Lincoln. Again they had a lot of artifacts from both families - the Harlans and the Lincolns, including a piece of the coat that President Lincoln was wearing when he was assassinated and one of Mary Todd Lincoln's mourning veils. After these two interesting tours, we went to a fellow P.E.O. sister's home where she and a couple other P.E.O. sisters served us a wonderful meal. Following lunch we were treated to a tour of her home which is absolutely beautiful. When we finally left there we were running a little behind! We went to the Old Threshers grounds for our next two tours. The first was of their doll room. They were given over 400 dolls by a gentleman whose wife had collected dolls. She wanted her babies to stay together in one place! When they got the dolls, they were in something like 54 boxes with each doll wrapped in bubble wrap and plastic bread wrappers. Now most of the dolls have been cleaned up and catalogued. It is a beautiful collection - from china head dolls to Barbies! They have one French doll there worth over $8,000! After the dolls, we went to our last tour, which again was on the Old Threshers Grounds - The Theater Museum. Here they have a wonderful display of curtains from the opera houses around the country, as well as musical instruments, scripts, costumes, handbills, tickets - everything from the old tent shows and traveling acting troups. They have a lot of information about the old Toby and Susie actors and skits. It was a fascinating day! After I got home, I talked Dave into going downtown to the river to take a few water shots for my class. Here is just one of them. I'm still awaiting my instructor's comments. I went down this morning to get some morning shots, but actually they look just about the same. Anyway, I think I was able to capture the power of the water pretty well. If I had a DSLR camera with lots of settings (more money!!) I would have been able to get the water to look like strands of silk. My camera has some settings on it for changing the shutter speed, but I don't think it's ever going to get the water to look like silk! I'll keep trying though!

Cool Tree!

Isn't this pretty? This is a tree near Hillsboro Beach that I photographed the first day we got to the Fort Lauderdale area. I love taking pictures of objects that are truly different - most of the trees here in Iowa have one main trunk, not a bunch of small ones like this!

I don't have much time to blog - I've got a Beta Sigma Phi meeting tonight. We have election of officers - what do you suppose the chances are that someone else would like to be President? Since I'm also President of my P.E.O. Chapter, I'd like to turn this Presidency over to someone else! Stay tuned.....