Viva Las Vegas, New Mexico

Between my parents visiting for 11 days and working a lot, I haven't had time to catch up on blog posts.  We all had a wonderful time with my parents and their dog Shiloh visiting.  They enjoyed their time in Santa Fe and we miss them already.

During their visit, my parents got to experience all of Santa Fe's Spring weather:  warm sunny, cool sunny, windy, breezy, really windy, light rain, hard rain, graupel, thunderstorms, and some dramatic cloudy skies.











We took them all over downtown Santa Fe and to our favorite local restaurants, including Whoo's Donuts, which is definitely in my top 15 favorite things about Santa Fe. Maybe in the top 10 because their Boston Cream donuts (top row) are to die for as is their Dulce de Leche (third row).

Now that we are all hungry, let's move on to some sightseeing reports------














One of the nearby towns I have wanted to visit is Las Vegas, NM, located about an hour from Santa Fe on the east side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.  So my parents and I took a day trip to do some sightseeing.  Las Vegas is a great historic downtown with shops, restaurants, museums, and a town plaza.

Las Vegas, NM train depot 

Historic fire station

Historic Kiva Theater

Las Vegas has an amazingly intact historic Fred Harvey hotel right next to the train depot.  It's called the Hotel Casteñada and is being rehabilitated for use as a hotel again.  I can't wait to see the completed project in a year or two.  This photo only shows half of the building, the building is U-shaped with another wing.

Many films and movies were filmed in Las Vegas
including one of my favorites--the Coen brothers movie "No Country for Old Men" at the Plaza Hotel.  











Currently, the TV series "Longmire" is being filmed again in Las Vegas and Santa Fe.  You may recognize this building as the county courthouse in the show, which takes place in Durant, WY (left half of building).  On the right half of the building is ThreadBear Quilt Shop.

Such a bonus to have a wonderful quilt shop in a wonderful historic downtown.  I love the large quilt block in the display windows and their beautiful intact storefront.  

I just loved this shop and hope to return again soon.  They have a good varied selection of fabrics, patterns, & notions; friendly staff; good prices; and a good selection of knitting supplies and yarn too.

Mom and I were lucky to find some older French General lines for projects we are working on.  Mom picked out some French General fabrics for a new project she is working on (a Bunny Hill snowman quilt). And I snagged some sought-after Rouenneries to make a new purse.

More sightseeing on the next post but I'll end this one with a photo of Shiloh.

Michigan Report: Part 1

Finally got the photos downloaded and organized from my Michigan trip. So here's a little recap of my visit the first week of July. Most of the trip was spent entertaining Ms. Mackenzie who turned 4 months old and is as cute as she can be!
She loves going places and gets bored rather easily so I called her "miss high maintenance!". She likes to go go go and didn't want to take her naps or go to bed because she might miss something. We kept her so busy and entertained that she slept 11 hours straight after we left. Whew! I was exhausted too!

I also spent lots of quality time with nephew dog Jack who is doing a great job getting used to having Mackenzie as a baby sister. I always bring Jack extra-special dog treats when I visit. He likes pumpkin-flavored organic treats and will "talk" to me with little howls and barks until I get up and get him treats (not that his aunt Gretchen spoils him or anything....).
And we cannot forget the Princess Shiloh, my parents' dog (AKA my adopted half-sister) Shiloh is one of the calmest, most laid back dogs ever. She even likes to sleep late in the AM! (Wish the cats liked to sleep in some days...) Shiloh gets treats too don't worry about that!)

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know my mom, SIL, and me always go on mini-shop hops around the area (not that we need more fabric but we like to help out the Michigan economy). I didn't do anything to help the MI economy this time though! We went to Mabelena's and I didn't buy a thing. How terrible! (I'm very happy they have a website, twitter, & facebook pages now so y'all can visit them too!)

We also took a day trip to Bay City and went to some of the best antique stores I've been to in a long long time. Everyone else bought stuff; I didn't buy anything. We even found this super fantastic historic building with a quilt store
I LOVE this building! It even has its original display windows. Gorgeous! You can visit Fabric Fair online too. I didn't buy anything here either... I feel like such a bad quilter...

I did find a great linen tablecloth at a yard sale for $3 though. Does that count?

Busy Life Syndrome, Jack's sister, I do remember how to quilt, and cat photos

I hope I still have readers out there. Here's a long post in case you missed me. And some cat photos because I know Karin and her furry guys have missed seeing my furry guys. I have been suffering from busy life syndrome for the past two months. I hope to get back on a regular blogging schedule right this minute. Now where did I leave off? Oh I was in Washington DC (note to self--don't wish for plane delays because you will get them!). I was supposed to leave Tuesday March 2 at 1:00 but it was snowing in Atlanta so I was delayed and then the flight was canceled and then it was rebooked and I ended up in...

Minneapolis/St. Paul.

OK look at the map. Do you see where Washington is? Now see where Atlanta is to the southwest of DC; now see where Minneapolis is?

No, I don't get it either....

Although there was snow on the ground in Minneapolis, but Northerners can handle that. Atlanta cannot handle more than 2 flakes. Really.

I had a lovely 4 hour stay at the Minneapolis airport. There are lots of great quilt designers in Minnesota. None of them were are the airport that day. Glad I brought two books to read because I finished one.

Remind me again why travel is fun?

Anyway I ended up back to Atlanta at 11PM. At least it was the same day. And there was not a bit of snow to be found. Delta apparently is not reimbursing me for the 7 hours I lost but I do thank them for getting me home.....

the long way......

Between that trip on the 2nd and today the 14th is mostly a blur of work work work. All work and no play makes me a boring blogger...
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One big bit of news arrived on March 5th via voice mail.

This is my nephew-dog Jack.

Jack is five.

Jack likes me because I bring him fancy organic dog biscuits when I travel to Michigan. I like Jack because he's a sweetie and has icy blue eyes just like Daniel Craig. Jack also has freckles on his nose (I don't know about Daniel Craig but I'll let you know if I ever meet him).

Jack now has a (human) sister as of March 5th.

And I have a niece!

My brother and SIL now are the proud parents of a little girl (who looks nothing like Jack but a lot like my brother). They have had a bit of a rough time these past nine days but everyone is doing well and hopefully will be coming home Monday or Tuesday. I'll check and see if I can post a photo but believe me, I think my niece is the most beautiful baby ever. My first job as an aunt to a human baby has been to be on the phone a lot checking up on everyone. I can do that.
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Along with slacking on blogging, I have been slacking on quilting. Yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to find out I still remembered how to sew and caught up on my FQS designer mystery BOM blocks.
Three months worth! Only two more months left in the series. I better get working on the finishing kit.
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Gratuitous cat photos taken yesterday at nap time.
Morpheus and Stella.

Edgar Poe and Gomez.

Thanks for coming back!

We Now Return to Our Regularly Scheduled Stella Bella Blog...

Hello! Do I still have any readers left out there in blogland? I have been absent for too long and I apologize for being incommunicado lately.
I wish I could say I was out being wicked....

Or on vacation to some exotic place...

Or dogsledding with Jack and Shiloh...

Or that my laptop was hijacked by Morph...

Or that I was hibernating with Edgar and Stella...

Or solving the world's problems with Gomez...

But really, I have just been busy with life and taking care of people who needed my attention. So I am back in blogland

Of Dogs and Sheep

Are you watching the Westminster Dog Show? Tonight is the second night and I am enjoying watching the Sporting Group while dinner is cooking.

These are two of my favorites from yesterday

Irish Wolfhound and Scottish Deerhound
(Can you tell I like BIG dogs!)

Although I believe people should adopt dogs from shelters because there are just too many without homes and I also believe that there should be stricter laws against puppy mills and irresponsible breeders, I still enjoy watching these champion fancy dogs strut their stuff in the Garden. It just makes me happy (and who couldn't use some happiness no matter how brief these days ...)

Another thing that makes me smile is sheep! I love photos of sheep, especially lambs--too cute. If you need a smile, check out Kristin's blog.

On a serious note: I am gravely worried about all the folks in Australia dealing with the wildfires. I hope that none of the wonderful quilt bloggers Down Under are affected by the fires. Please know my thoughts are with you.

Westminister!

I love, love, love watching the Westminister Dog Show. I'm so glad I'm home tonight to watch the final night (note to self: catch part one on reruns). My favorites are the big dogs like Irish Wolfhounds.

and German Shepard Dogs
So I'm off to eat a real dinner (which will make my friend KJ happy) of (gasp) salad and leftover gumbo and watch the dogs. Hooray for dogs!