Of Fins and Feathers

Last weekend, my DH and I went to Bass Pro Shop. Not to shop for a new boat or sporting accessories, but for dinner! I had heard nice comments about the restaurant so we decided to give it a try. The atmosphere inside was serene and lodge-like. Fish were mounted on the walls and there were various framed artwork of fisherman-in-pose with the catch of the day, but the scene-stealer was the enormous aquarium filled with all varieties of fish. The food was excellent and the prices reasonable. We both had a cup of clam chowder soup and I've never had this soup before with so much clam in it! DH had the Sportsman's Platter with Fried Shrimp, Catfish and Alligator. Yummy! I had the catch of the day, Snapper, and it was served on a bed of rice pilaf with fresh vegetables. Outstanding! We chose not to have dessert but they all looked great. If you're ever in the area (or check for other locations), I would highly recommend this restaurant.




On my way to work yesterday, I was driving down the frontage road and what do I came across? Just waddling free and easy, right down the middle of the road.



There was no yellow bus and no flashing lights, but I stopped anyway. :) Too cute. As I sat and waited in my van, momma or poppa, not sure which one, came up close to the driver's side and started honking at me, probably to warn me away from the babies.



This morning I noticed the family sleeping next to the pond of the subdivision next to mine. Maybe yesterday they were enroute to their new home.

Happy Memorial Day! I'm going to my cousin's graduation party in Kentucky. I'm looking forward to the drive where I can stitch and a couple days of R&R. Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Cathy

More on Celebration

If you have the opportunity, check out Celebration of Needlework. This was an event I attended at the end of April for the fourth time. However, this year was to be much different as I was not just attending as a consumer, but as a vendor. I snagged two friends, Debbie and Pam, to come along with me to help in the booth. I don't think any of us realized just how much work it would be to set up and tear down the booth. I have definitely learned a lot this first time out. It was fun meeting new stitchers and reuniting with others that we had met in previous years.

One of the big highlights of the festival was the Saturday Evening Event. Owner and designer of Olde Colonial Designs, Pam Reed, puts on the Celebration Festival every year. She said she loves to play games with her family, especially her grandsons, and she incorporates games into the Saturday Evening Event. Each table of guests had to assign a captain. The captain then assigned participants for the upcoming game. There was a "Wheel of Fortune" at the front of the room that the captain of each table spun. This is based on an existing game show, but having never watched it, the name escapes me. Maybe those of you out there might be able to help? Here's Master (Mistress) of Ceremony, Susan Greening-Davis, at the Wheel, calling up the next team member.


There were many different "tasks" that were on the wheel and when our table's captain spun the wheel, we were assigned, "Separation Anxiety". Our four team members had to go to the front of the room and stand in front of a table with six jars. They were each given a bag of M&M candies and required to separate them by color and drop each color into the appropriately labeled jar. Sounds easy, right? Well, in order for our team to "win" this task, two of the four team members had to do it in under one minute! It was fun and a great kick-off to the other hysterical "tasks" that were yet in store for us.

In this photo, the task was "Ping Pong Shake". Each team member had to tie a kleenex box filled with ping pong balls, covered with a pair of pantyhose, around their waists. When the clock was started, they had to shake, shake, shake their booties to shake all the ping pong balls out of the kleenex boxes! Do I even need to add that we were all doubled over with laughter and crying?!


You might have read in my newsletter that the Silent Auction for Breast Cancer takes place at this Saturday event. The prizes were all wonderful. One was a chart of Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow by Carriage House, the fabric, the threads and a Larsen-Juhl frame. I know that prize brought in a nice sum for the auction. Another prize was a hand-stitched sampler by Susan Greening-Davis on some linen imported from Germany. That prize brought in over $2000. You can see pictures of the urn that was donated by Inspired Needle in the newsletter.

Here are some additional pictures of our booth. We did have a lot of fun. If we go again next year, we'll definitely have to attend the Saturday Evening event and plan in a few more hours of down-time!

Thanks for reading!