A Heartbreaking Blessing

Today David lost his mother.

The truth is, he lost her to dementia quite some time ago.

We all know it is a blessing that she has let go of her suffering and moved on.

But it is heartbreaking watching my husband's heart break.

So here's to remembering a better day.

God speed and rest well, Irene.  Your work here is done.

On the Road Again

Last week I visited two great shops in the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia.  First stop was Ragtime Fabrics in Downtown Harrisonburg.  Belle has a little bit of everything from quilting goods to leather to all sorts of notions, trims and cool stuff.  The shop is one block off courthouse square and is surrounded by all sorts of other cool shops and restaurants...plus she has parking right beside her building.  Yay!

Usually, our schedules work out so that one of us is not traveling but we had a little overlap this week at the last minute.  And, our usual Shelby-sitters were either out of town or had the flu so Miss Shelby went roadtripping with me which I love.  I would take her all the time but some shops are not dog-friendly and I don't like leaving her in the car that long.  I took a chance with this trip and it worked out fine.  Both shops welcomed Shelby with open arms.  At Ragtime Fabrics, she had her own little fabric nest in one of my suitcases and slept most of the time.

When we left Harrisonburg, it began to snow and I don't do snow.  Don't get me wrong...I LOVE snow...when I'm home with nowhere to go and a pot of chili in the crockpot and lots of sewing to do.  But this southern girl avoids driving in the mess as much as possible.  I know my limitations.  So we hightailed it back to the hotel in Staunton and kept an eye on the situation.  I figured if it amounted to something, we could camp out in the hotel until it was clear.  We had all we needed...a Cracker Barrel across the street, cable in the room, coffee and cookies downstairs and two quilts to bind.  (I was kinda hoping to get snowed in actually...there would be napping  and staring out the window at snow...heaven on earth!)

So it snowed until about  midnight and we walked around in it...which I enjoyed much more than Shelby did.  The next morning, this was the view out my window.

Pretty but not enough to keep me off the road so off to Charlottesville I went.

Les Fabriques is located in Downtown Charlottesville, another very cool place to hang out.  Her shop is in the ground floor of the new parking deck so there's plenty of parking and she'll stamp your ticket so the first two hours of parking is free.  Yay!

This shop is so very chic and caters to all kinds of sewing projects from quilting to garment to home dec.  She also has vintage textiles on consignment and cool beads and jewelry that a local artist makes.  The wood behind her sign is recycled from the goat shed on her 200+ year-old farm.  She's very cool like that.

Shelby was again greeted with open arms and snoozed on the fabric samples as we looked through fabric.  Here she is helping Carla pick out stuff.  We had the best time!

We were supposed to stay one more night and go to another shop on Friday but the weather was iffy and the Friday shop is extremely isolated so we're postponing until the mountains are clear of snow.  So, we headed home sweet home.  One of the hardest parts of this job is leaving my girl behind.  Having her with me this week was the best.  I could get used to it.

From Sea to Mountains

Usually the week between Christmas and New Year's Day is fairly non-eventful.  Not this year.  I had places to go and people to see.

Friday after Christmas, my friend, Hattie, and I headed to the beach with the puppies.  This is the scene that greeted us...

There were lots of walks on the beach...

The sand was even warm enough for toes...for a while anyway.

On Saturday night, we ventured to North Myrtle Beach to hear Gregg Allman and House of Blues.  He was wonderful but Hattie and I both agreed we're too old to stand on the floor with the drunk younguns.  We'll be springing the extra money to sit upstairs next time.

We got back home in the wee hours and woke to cold, gusty and rainy weather the next morning.

So we opted for the couch potato life.  The puppies approved.

Before we left on Monday, we went to visit a curious place.  On the mainland not far away, there's a property on the highway that seems to "grow" little houses.  If you just glance as you go by, it looks junky but if you slow down and really look, there's a magic to it...an artfullness.  I've always been on my way somewhere with either someone waiting for me or someone with me who didn't care to stop, so I have never taken the time.  This time we did.  What we found was the wonderland of a visionary artist, Mary Paulsen.

She built all the little houses herself and used whatever was given or found.

There are over a dozen little buildings to explore, including her art gallery.  All of them are painted floor to ceiling.  I found myself smiling the whole time...which is her purpose...that and feeling children.  See.. she's a world renown visionary artist and a good ole girl from Brunswick County...whose used her earnings and donations to feed the children... about 50,000 per year locally and worldwide...for three decades.  It was an honor to meet her and walk in her world.

After our visit with Mary, we went back to the house, packed up the puppies and headed home.  We took the scenic route and made a few stops.  First was a little barn near Whiteville.  (Hattie collects oddities for her art and the place looked promising.)  We met Brandy the Goat who could hear Shelby having a duck fit in the car.  If you look in the window, you can see her eyeballing my new friend.  She was not a happy camper.

I had one evening at home then turned around New Year's Eve and headed for Asheville with my friend Mary Lea.  Our friend, Beth McKee was performing at the Grand Bohemian Hotel.

It's the first time in years that I've have plans on New Year's Eve except to go run around Tanglewood Park with a bunch of other crazy people at midnight.

We checked into the Baymont (because the Grand Bohemian is waaayy out of the pauper's budget) then set out to explore.  We started at Waechters Fabrics then headed to Kitsch Fabrics in West Asheville...where we found the wonderful Amy... and her cactus brassiere (an art bra and part of a breast cancer fundraiser).

After a stop at a bead shop downtown, we had dinner at The Lab...okay dinner and a really good beer.

We headed back to the hotel to freshen up before the party then walked the couple of blocks to the Grand Bohemian.  Here's us...selfies in the elevator...like we're sixteen.

When we walked up to the door at the hotel, we were met by this guy... in a kilt...who was really Scottish.  That was just the beginning of the excellent people watching that would be our New Year's Eve.

The party ended up hopping and we had a great time.

At the end of the night, Beth (and a handful of our new intoxicated "friends") sang Happy Birthday to me.  It was awesome in an Alice in Wonderland kind of way.

After the party, ML and I walked back up the hill to the Baymont, crashed and slept late.  The next morning we headed to Tupelo Honey Cafe for a birthday brunch and then headed back home...where I barely hit the driveway to pick up David and Shelby to head to my parent's house for the traditional New Year's Day black-eye peas, collards and ham...and birthday cake.

Sea to mountains and back home again.  Oh, the fun I had but it's always good to be back home again.