Reality

We interrupt this fabulous vacation for an important quilting announcement and a dose of reality.

I'm unfortunately back from my vacation, which means I'm back to real life. I have to say, vacation is so much better than real life. I will get back to the vacation photos and travel log soon,but for the moment I have to scramble to get my Nancy Drew quilt done in time for the blog hop! I'm scheduled for March 12th, and have many flying geese to go before I sleep.

While the things that made me want to run away from home are still there, I have a different attitude about them now. As an added bonus, I'm also no longer intimidated/self conscious about going into that male bastion, the free weight room, in the health club. It's funny how spending so much time on your own, dealing with everything yourself and meeting new people teaches you about yourself and your fortitude. I found these two quotes that kind of sum it all up for me:

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

I had a fun reminder of my trip this week. One of my bosses happened to be in London for meetings while I was staying with Anne and Matt and he kindly consented to hauling my London purchases home for me in the suitcase I bought at an OxFam charity shop for 5 GBP. (Little did he know how much the fabric and books weighed when he agreed to this!) This is also the boss that keeps me in Belgium chocolates from his travels there, and also hauled my loot home from the New Orleans estate sale in March, so he's a really fabulous guy in my book regardless of all the whining about how heavy my suitcase was (consider please that I had three 75lb checked bags and two 40-50lb carry-ons that I hauled all over Scotland for 3 weeks and through 2 airports all by myself). I brought him a lovely bottle of Scottish whiskey for his pains.

Cath Kidston happiness!

It was like Christmas again this week as I unpacked my English goodies, which consisted mostly of Cath Kidston and Liberty of London products. I was really glad to be there during sale time, because I could get some things at Liberty that I wouldn't have been able to afford if not on sale.


Ah Liberty of London, how do I love thee, let me count the ways....

We got a proper snow this week. I love snow, and I love the snow in my new house. It's so pretty with all of the trees and deer that I will now bore you with photos of trees in the snow.

View from the Reading Room

Birdbath in the snow.

View from the deck.

Garden fence

House from the street.

The contrast of the branches in the snow at dawn was really striking.



My glorious pine tree.



I love how the needles look furry on this pine when it snows.