Pin It Weekly #320

Happy Weekly! I hope you are enjoying your week. We are set to vacay in Galveston soon. It's a family (the whole family) vacation. So I thought I'd look at some art that would help me get into the mood of beach, sun and water. These are from my board abstract art paint oil pastel prints

These are pins from a quick search on Galveston Island.  

Have you been to Galveston? It's a lovely island that packs lots of fun in a little space. Many of those places are within walking distance from our hotel. Of course, because it's sitting on the Gulf, I'm looking forward to seafood--shrimp, crab, oysters. YUM! What is your favorite thing to do at the beach?

Look at Walt Disney World

I told you in this week's PIW post that we spent Thanksgiving week at Disney, right? Right. I thought you might enjoy just a few of the pictures I took while we were there. Most of these are from those moments when I was watching a grandie. The littlest one is there in the first picture. He smiled through every moment.

That's us. The whole crew. Wearing the "Happiest Marcotte Ever" tee-shirts that I printed for the whole crew. Even the little tyke has one.

These pictures are from the ones that I took. I've always loved Main Street but it's especially pretty all dressed up in lights and Christmas decorations.

I think this is the bus terminal and I took the picture from the boat that ferried us from our cabin to Magic Kingdom. 

 Cinderella's castle is beautiful day or night, but the Christmas lights certainly add a different kind of beauty. 

 Gardens and fountains are tucked away in every little corner. One has to really look. Forget the rides and the retail. Just stroll and look. Then look some more.

 Don't forget to look from the Skyliner. These gondolas have shaded glass all around them so that you can do exactly that: look.

 One of the new attractions is Avatar land. Here you can look at strange, over-sized plants and flowers. Everything here is meant to set the scene for the ride, which is awesome, but the plants and scenery are pretty awesome, as well. Don't forget to look for a spot to take your own Disney photos. In this land there are places tucked everywhere you turn.

All you have to do is look. What is your favorite Disney place to look? 

Pin It Weekly #299

Had you thought I'd fallen off the face of the earth? I didn't. I simply got caught acting like a kid  

We suffered through vacationed in Disney. With adult children. And their children. 

So, yeah, children and grandchildren and Disney.

What were we thinking? That insanity fun is a good thing at 59 years of age? Or was it that short, squatty legs (I'm 5'3")could trot behind keep up with long legs? (Rory is 6'1".)

So the truth is that we went to Disney with one of the Marcotte families for the purpose of babysitting, should the need arise. That was back in 2013, when we were young grandparents.

We did it for those kids, so now we did it for these kids. At least these kids hit us at the same time. Adam's family and Rory's family tag-teamed us pooled their resources. 



Let's just say we kicked it into #marcottesurvivalmode and survived. I think. Honestly, the jury's still out. I'll get back to you. In the meantime, enjoy these Disney pictures.

Most are from my "Disney World" board, which I just started two ten minutes ago.

Have you been to WDW with the younger set? If so, how did you fair? I hope it was better than we were able to pull off. Understand, we had a blast (I rode Flight of Passage twice!) but we also wore ourselves out. 

Big Sky ~~ a slow quilting finish!

I've been working on a small art quilt for a couple of months. 

A stunning sunset here at home reminded me of a picture that I took in Montana on our last vacation. Thank goodness Google photos has a search feature, because even then it takes a while. 

That sunset--the day fading into blue, the streaks of whitish cloud, the navy blue of the impending darkness--held me spellbound until finally the last rays of light melted away. The clouds were floating in front of the blues of the sky and I tried to pick that up with my stitches of bluish white thread. Hopefully the lines help to move the eye from one side to the other. 

The dark bottom is navy in person. No matter how many photos I take, I haven't any idea how to adjust the color. In most of my photos, the fabric looks washed out or faded.

This little quilt took quite a while to complete because, while I carried it around with me to work on when away from home, it seemed that every time I opened it, something or someone pulled me away. However I know that even five minutes here and there eventually add up. Of course, it was encouraging to have an occasional 20-30 minutes to quilt a large chunk of space.


I didn't plan any of the quilting. I had an idea of what I wanted and made every decision when I opened the work. So what I thought I'd do one day could change completely the following day. I like working like this, without a plan. It allows me to move from one section of the quilt to another, quilting lines meeting in the center somewhere. 

Dragging the quilt around means it raveled somewhat along the cut edges, but I like that as it adds another dimension to my little 5 X 7 piece.

Home from the West

Four Corners Monument (Google Maps screen capture)

Our whirlwind tour of the Great Northwest ended on Saturday as we pulled into the driveway.  The real end came on Thursday afternoon, however. We were driving through the Navajo Nation Reservation and made a quick stop at Four Corners, which is the only place in the U.S. where four states meet: Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. We took a quick picture, did a little shopping at the craft booths and were off again.

Richard and I standing on the marker

As we continued the drive, we decided that we'd had enough. Of course, we both had known it for a few days. There comes a point when we just get enough of the traveling. Richard does not know how to unwind. He is a mover. Always doing something. 

It's the reason that I don't have to drive. He can't sit in the passenger seat because he has nothing to do. I entertain myself but his interests are not as easily adapted to sitting. Woodworking, mechanical interests, and fence-building do not travel well. I tried to drive a couple of hours on Friday, but he was miserable and so was I. Lesson learned, again. 

Today was almost as busy as vacation: I had a doctor's appointment, a guild meeting, and new prescriptions to fill. 

All is well and I enjoyed the meeting very much. Brenda, one of our members, demonstrated how to decoupage fabric on almost anything. How about her adorable frog planter? Isn't this fun?

Only two of us had something to share but look at these pretty quilt tops. They are ready to go to the long-arm quilter. I really like the pattern on this pink one. It may have to go on the to-do list. Ha! I was the other person to share, but you'll have to wait for that because I haven't taken pictures. 


I did, however, take a picture of cute Miss Milly. Goodness she grew in one little short month. 

So how are things with you? Are you keeping up or have you fallen behind as badly as I have? We'll catch up again, right? 

Is southwest still west?

Side view of the church

It seems like it's been a week since my last post but it's actually only been four days. I guess Richard's crazy traveling routine has me confused. It seems that we drive until we're exhausted and then stop and die for a few hours. Of course, there's been a little sightseeing in all that traveling, but always in a rush to get back on the road.

One of the more fascinating places we visited was the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. I was amazed by the size of the campus and the abundance of flower beds. Not allowed to take any pictures inside the buildings, I had to satisfy myself with a few pictures of flowers and facades. I still had a great time, even with the ticking of the parking meter.

Brigham Young and the Pioneers completed by Cyrus Dallin in 1893.
source information: http://historytogo.utah.gov

History museum of the Mormon religion (I think)
but it's the waterfall on the building that I love.

A little man-made stream almost a block long but only about 4-5 feet wide.
Too bad there are no benches. I really wanted to plop down and rest in the shade.

No idea what these are but there were clusters of them lining the street.

Huge clusters of wonderfully scented roses 

And very pretty!

Blueberries! Ripe for eating. Clustered around the roses.

I could not resist taking a picture of this building--so
quaint in comparison to the other huge structures

 Have you been to Salt Lake City or the Mormon Tabernacle? If so, what was your favorite feature? If not, what in today's post interests you about the area?