Quilting....planning a quilt for the "Mom's suite"

We have a "Mom's suite" in our house. When we moved to the Houston area from Chicago, we had the builder include a "Mom's suite", a bedroom with attached full bath on the main floor with glass paneled french doors for our Moms when they come to visit. We put in a queen sized murphy bed that looks like an armoire, in white. We wanted the room to be a relaxing reading room for when we don't have visitors. The rest of the room is done in whites/wicker for the furniture with teal and peach on cushions, lamps, and walls. Very tropical. Reminds us of Hawaii. The murphy bed has a nice peach bedspread, but nothing special. Now that I am starting to quilt, I plan to make a pretty quilt for the bed. There is a nice fabric store not far from where we stay in Maui, so when Saturday became too windy to sit on the beach, my DH agreed to go shopping. Woo Hoo! We first stopped at the scrapbook store (need to get the pretty Hawaiian paper from here to scrap our memories!). Then off to the fabric store. I explained to my DH that I was going to need 4 prints and 2 solids to make the quilt top and some fabric for the back......He is a photographer so he is very good at colors and a great help at remembering the correct tones of the colors back home.  He did an awesome job helping me pick out the fabric. He chose 4 prints and 3 solids. Can't wait to get started once we get back home.
 (photo to follow, once I'm able to upload)

After shopping at my 2 places, he wanted to look at cars.....how could I say no? It's much more fun to "shop" for cars when you know that there is No Way you will be talked into buying one! Then off to buy him a book to read on the beach at the little resale shop in town.

Black Friday

We were soooo excited about Black Friday. Could hardly wait for it to come. We were making BIG plans. We had everything ready.......to go letterboxing!  We were planting our first letterboxes. DH had beautifully carved 2 Hawaiian stamps to put in the letterboxes. The logbooks were ready. The clear plastic boxes were carefully covered with camoflage duck tape. Lunches and cameras were packed. It was finally time to go!

(photo to be added later: for some reason uploading photos worked a few days ago, but I've been unable to upload since then. I've had this post in drafts since Black Friday waiting to be successful in uploading)

We were going to Hosmer Grove which is the first stop just inside Haleakala National Park. Most visitors to Maui go to Haleakala to see the volcano's crater and many to bike down the mountain (we've know....we have done both), however not as many stop at Hosmer Grove.  It is a pretty place, lots of birds and a hiking trail with lots of trees and a lookout area. We enjoy stopping each time we go to Haleakala, either on the way up or on the way down depending on time of day. There is a small camping area, a picnic area, the hiking trail, restrooms and there is a ranger on duty to talk about the area. The rangers we have spoken to have been very knowledgeable and passionate about the nature and history of the area.

Once we arrived at Hosmer Grove,  we headed for the trail. It's important to hide your letterbox well so that casual passerbys don't see it, but not so well that letterboxers can't find it. It's also important to not go off the trails if it violates park rules.  We found our first hiding spot and after carefully hiding, DH wrote the clues so others can find it. Woo Hoo! We successfully planted our first letterbox! Now on to the second hiding place. We wanted to hide at least 2 boxes on this trail, so letterboxers would get a chance to enjoy the trail while scoring 2 letterboxes. We also wanted them to be fairly easy to access with good clues to make them easy to find as there are many other things to be doing on Maui other than letterboxing. (like enjoying the beach, snorkeling, surfing, whale watching, shopping......)

Happy Thanksgiving from Maui

Hope everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is very relaxing in Maui. There, of course, is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV and turkey dinner. I'm kind of bummed that I forgot to take a photo of the turkey before my DH carved it, but I did take some other "Thanksgiving in Maui" photos.

Looking up to our lanai (balcony).

Relaxing on the beach. Flowers growing everywhere. Looking out from the condo staircase toward the Kama'ole II beach, the ocean, the lifeguard shack. Like I said, Thanksgiving is very relaxing in Maui.

Maui is lovely and slower paced. We plan to go letterboxing tomorrow or over the weekend. We plan to plant 2 new letterboxes in Hosmer Grove near Haleakela. I will try to upload photos from the stamps DH carved and more flowers and photos from Hosmer Grove. Time to go back to the beach.



Operation Christmas Cards

I've been involved in collecting Christmas cards for Operation Christmas Cards. They collect cards to be sent to the military. For more than 50% of the military, this will be the only mail they get this holiday season. I am happy to have collected 77 handmade cards. I thought I would share a few with you.

This is 4 of the 14 cute snowman cards made by the Life Skills class at the local elementary. These special needs kids are between 6 and 9 years old. They did an amazing job.

These 2 cute cards are simple in design. The penguins are hard plastic 3D stickers by Jolees

and the ornaments are stamped, then heat embossed. They are attached to pattern card stock

 by 3D dots for dimension. The white ribbon gives it a cohesive feel.

The top card has a simple stamped Christmas tree, a border punched bottom edge and a ribbon. The gingerbread man and candy cane are stamped, colored and fussy cut. The card is stamped with seasonal words prior to attaching the gingerbread man with 3D dots for dimension.