Traveling to China for the wedding

My husband and I left very early the morning of May 15 to begin our journey to Hangzhou, China to see our son and Linli Xu get married. After more than 24 hours of travel and a slight delay we met Clint and Linli at the airport in Shanghai. Due to the 13 hour time difference it was really late at night. They had arranged for us to all spend the night in Shanghai because it is about a 3 hour trip to Hangzhou. We managed to have absolutely NO jet lag.    I. Was. Amazed.

The next morning we took a taxi to the train station and caught the "fast train" to Hangzhou. Did I mention that the train was fast? ;-) About a 3 hour car trip in only 40 minutes! Wonderful. We loved the train. It was shiny and clean and FAST. Did I say fast? ;-)

 Lots of folks waiting on the train.

This is actually just a small area of the train station -- it was enormous!

Clint and his Dad waiting on the train

We checked in our hotel and then went to meet Linli's parents. We had talked with them on Skype but had never met in person. They were awesome and wanted so much to make us feel at home. Lvyi prepared the most wonderful lunch for us. She is an awesome cook! I hope I get to experience her cooking again sometime. They were very gracious hosts.

See what I'm talking about? The dish in the foreground was my absolute favorite!

Yummo! I can still taste it. The drink was wheat grass tea.

And we learned to use chop sticks. Well, sort of.

Why didn't we practice before we got there?

One of Linli's bridesmaids came over to eat lunch and help with some wedding "stuff".

 Visiting the secret place at West Lake. Beautiful!

Clint, Linli and her parents.

 Another view of the secret place. We loved it there.

It drizzled rain and was such a peaceful place!

More on the trip later. It was awesome.
Please come back and see more photos as I have time to share with you.

Random

Thanks to Tammy for ordering these shirts for her grandchildren!

Terry caught a few brim ...

He cleaned them.

Then I "cooked 'em up"!

Notice the cute fish shaped hushpuppy ;-)

Thanks to Beverly for ordering Tucker a burp cloth!

Our bathing beauty!

Making a few drip castles.

The Hyders (minus Chris who had to work, bummer)...

Our "beach bum"...

He's such a cute dude!

Julie and Chris...

Digging a hole to China...

Kirsten's first knitted dish cloth...

A few gifts for upcoming occasions.

Putting the Cricut to good use!

And that's what I've been up to lately.

Plus a couple of smocked baby dresses.

More on that later!

Oh, working on a quilt also ;-)

April Showers...

Ready for spring

I needed some bright, spring colors outside our home...

At last...

I finally completed my first pair of knitted socks!

I took a "sock knitting" class at Et Cetera

It was so much fun!

Linda Bradford was a fun instructor.

My first pair was somewhat less than perfect

but I don't mind.

I'm ready to start my second pair

I figure repetition will help me perfect my sock knitting abilities.

Been waiting since Dec 2010 for this bulb to bloom!

I must say, it was worth the wait!

Thank you Mimi for sending me this wonderful gift.

March quilt block...

Confession of a slacking quilter

Last year I signed up to do the block of the month

"Seasonal Splendor"

at Quilting At the Cherry Pit

in Sevierville, TN.

I confess ~ I have not stayed on top of this project ;-)

(Surely none of you have ever NOT completed a project!)

But I must tell you 2011 was a record year of "busy" for our family.

Not that I need to make excuses for myself, we really had alot going on.

I'm back on track now and working on my quilt.

Here's the block for January

minus the button eye for Mr. Snowman --

I didn't want the button to be in the way when I get to the actual quilting part!

Did that sound like another excuse?

And here's the February block ...

No button or other details left out this time.

I actually have the block for March and April complete but,

I'll save them to show you during the appropriate month.

I'm going to make a conscious effort

to stay ahead and get this baby complete this year!

What do you think?

Can I do it?

I think I better finish it.

Or Mr. Stitches may say I shouldn't do

another "block of the month" quilt anytime soon!

Happy Friday!

Love and Stitches!

Patty

Happy Valentine's Day!

New creations...

A few of my latest creations are below.

I failed to make photos of some. :-(

The hand-smocked bishop below was ordered by Shirley Hyder

for her soon-to-arrive great niece.

Shirley requested for the baby's initials to be monogrammed

on the front of the dress.

It added a nice touch, don't you think?

Sweet Vickie Mitchell ordered a blanket for

her granddaughter that is on the way!

She chose a flannel blanket with hand-crocheted trim

and we monogrammed "Maddie" in the corner.

Jamie Jaco had me monogram this tiny apron for Livia.

The apron is MUCH smaller than it appears in this photo!

Happy Valentine's Day Livia from your Mom!

If I had some really pretty, girlie rubber gloves...

And put on one of my girlie aprons... 

(the sweet little person wearing this apron is NOT me...

I only dream of being that size!

However, I did make the apron. If that counts for anything)...

and if I had one of these girlie mop buckets...

It would probably makes using products like this a little more fun...

I am seriously started doing my spring cleaning.

That way, I'll be ready to play outside when spring is here without feeling guilty!

What better time to clean than when you can't play outside?

Blessings!

Hope you had a holly, jolly Christmas...