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West Virginia
When I started my retirement travels in 2009, I wanted a way to share it with family and friends as it was happening. Hence, "My Travel Journal". However I realized I wouldn't always be on a trip and wondered what to do with the blog in between times. My daughter pointed out, wisely, that travels can also include trips to the kitchen to try a new recipe, trips to visit family, trips to my neighborhood Starbucks, or a fun day trip with a friend. You're welcome to join me on any of these journeys! I've set up individual pages for each of my major trips (see tabs above).

Also, I have an Etsy shop where my current needlework resides. The last pieces I posted here were in 2013! So if you'd like to see what I have accomplished recently, go to (and I apologize for having to copy and paste):

www.etsy.com/shop/thedollhouseneedle

I recently added an "Italian Word a Day" thingie which shows up at the bottom of every page. You see the word and can click to hear it pronounced. I've been enjoying it and I think my accent is improving as time goes by.

January 18, 2010

A Nice Sunday - Starbucks & Crossword, Minis at Gallipolis, OH, and Pot Roast Hash!

Well, a very rainy (pouring) Sunday morning and I actually didn't walk to Starbucks.  My excuse (aside from the pouring rain) being that when I left Starbucks I would be driving to Gallipolis, OH for our little miniature club meeting so I might as well drive to Starbucks too.  Had my yogurt and banana breakfast, two delicious cups of tea, and finished the crossword, the cryptoquip, and the jumble puzzles.  I don't always manage to get the jumble done but today, apparently, my mind was just razor sharp. :)

And I was good - I'm always famished for lunch early on Sundays - don't know why since all I do is sit at Starbucks, read the paper and work the puzzles - maybe brain work eats up calories?  Anyway, usually when I go to Gallipolis after my morning Starbucks, I get up there right around 1:00 and get a Krispy Kreme donut, and then after the meeting, being once again famished, I go to the Shake Shoppe, a neat, independent burger joint there in town and have a burger with waffle fries!  So today, I packed my sandwich and some pretzels, got up there around 12:30, ate my sandwich and while waiting for the meeting place to open took some pictures of my beautiful Ohio River in one of its misty moods from the Ohio side.  And, for good measure, one of a pretty red house on one side of the town square, the gazebo in the town square, and a tree for January (with, unfortunately, an unnoticed plinth with an iron "thing" on it).














Our project at today's meeting was to make a little tote type purse which involved tracing a pattern onto fabric and cutting it out along with a very narrow (1/8" about) strip that would be the strap of the purse.  This type of project is not my strong suit and I'm afraid I didn't get one completed.  It seems that I very seldom finish one of our little "make and takes"!  We also talked about plans for our annual exhibit in the fall and one of the members brought along a mini magazine with a neat project another club had done.  They made little vignettes for each letter of the alphabet - just shallow shadow-box type structures framed with inexpensive store-bought picture frames.  Each of their vignettes focused on a doll - A is for apple lady and it was a figure with a regular face but the entire body was covered with apples and baskets; B is for book and it was a figure made out of stacks of books; the jewelry lady was covered with beads; the shell lade with shells, etc.  Really neat.  The consensus is that we won't do exactly that because none of us are big on dolls, but we will try, using any and/or all of our past efforts plus probably some new ones to have some scene, house, shop, vignette, etc., for each letter of the alphabet.  So that will be pretty fun, I think.  And I loved the doll thingies so much, I may just have to try my hand at one or two.  I especially liked the jewelry lady...

I brought home the items I had exhibited at the November exhibit and had forgotten that I had slapped together very quickly a little shop to display my teapot collection.  The structure was really kind of embarassingly bad so I've not saved that, but I did take a picture of my teapots once I got them back in their "natural habitat", which is on the counter of my dining room hutch.

The two teapots in the front are not quite as large as they look, although the terra cotta one is probably slightly out of scale.  I ordered them years ago from an on-line place called Kowloon Traders and as a thank you, they sent me a third teapot - a really tiny silver one that sits on the stove in my half inch scale house.  Back then they had some really delightful, unusual miniatures.  The other teapots I've collected at various shows.  The little flowerpot with a bouquet of houses (which I love!) was a swap gift, and the little tea boxes I made from a kit I purchased from a woman whose name I can't remember right now, but she sells all kinds of paper kits for making things for all kinds of shops.  I think there's something in my chocolate castle that I made with one of her kits also...The furniture is all hand-crafted - the long table by Pete and/or Pam Boorum, the little drawer thing on top of that by Pat Mills, and the small table and wall hung cabinet by Marcia Gardner who made beautiful, satin smooth, furniture at extremely reasonable prices.  Another desk I purchased from her years ago (before I knew to keep track of who I bought stuff from) was the first "good" miniature I bought and years later, after trying numerous times to figure out who I had bought it from, I was at a NAME National Houseparty and there she was!  It was her last show ever, so I bought several pieces.

And then it was back home (again hungry!) and just kind of wasted time till I could call it dinner time.   I had made another pot roast for dinner last night (yum!) and so tonight I made my pot roast hash with some of the leftovers.  There's enough meat for at least one batch of chili and I'll either freeze the rest or have a couple of pot roast sandwiches which is another favorite.  I don't really have a recipe for my pot roast, but I've written up how I season it and how long I cook it, etc. and put it in http://marylynnestraveljournal.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-recipe-collection.html.



Maybe I shouldn't post these pictures - I don't know that they look too appetizing...but it sure all tasted good! :)


4 comments:

Christopher said...

I was looking at the pics while reading along, so I saw the pic with the "potted houses plant" first, and thought "that is pretty darn cute" and then saw you say you love it too... :) The alphabet project sounds interesting, and it will be nice to see your results. And once again, I wish the food pics were scratch-and-sniff! :)

Unknown said...

Love your teapots! And the furniture too, and the potted houses. The wood piece that the terra cotta pot sits on reminds me of that weird piece of wood that I bought when I went with you to the Stockbridge minature show. Never have figured out what to do with mine but I like noticing it from time to time. Your hash looks mighty tasty. Think I'll go look at your recipe collection which I hadn't yet got around to doing.

Mary Lynne said...

Thanks, guys - glad you enjoyed the minis. That house bouquet is a real favorite. I got another similar one years ago in another swap - it's a little flower pot filled with heart shaped flowers on stems with leaves, etc. The flowers were cut out of red "fun foam". Gosh, I guess over time, I will just have to take a picture of everything I own! :)

Unknown said...

I can't believe you had the strength to resist the siren call of the Shake Shoppe! Way to go :)
And very nice sycamore tree - thanks! I do like a good sycamore.
And, from your previous post, I'm intrigued by the Salsa Rosa...might have to give that a try...

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