Visitors and Travel

Well I thought I had a post started.... about a week or so ago.... but alas... must have been snatched by that pesky computer gremlin, (which I hope has been excised by taking a very old copy of Photoshop off).

I have been busy!!! Very, very busy. And I will be busy for the next week or so... and then I hope things start to settle down and I can begin a routine that has me focusing on "I Have a Notion" as my primary goal. So what has kept me from it?

On September 2 I collected 2

friends from South Africa at O'Hare International Terminal and then the fun began. We spent the next 3 days playing in the Chicagoland area. A ''quilt store" (only one of my friends was a quilter), and the rest of the stops were landmarks and traditional touristy things. We did not make it to Willis Tower, aka Sears Tower (birds eye view was not high on the list), but we did the North Shore south bound driving in, visited Navy Pier, took a 

Lake Cruise, the Chicago Cultural Center, Cloudgate, Buckingham Fountain, considered the Field Museum, walked along the waterfront, some of Michigan Avenue, and a bit of the downtown area streets as we walked everywhere after parking the car (about 6 miles). The following day we took it very easy and went to the Chicago Botanic Garden for a day of tranquility, (although many others thought to do the same thing as well).

On our way back to N Kentucky we stayed on the
smaller highways and avoided the Interstate. There is a small well established Amish town called Arthur, which we also stopped in. Once home we spent a few days.... visiting around town. Since I live on the Bourbon Trail of Kentucky, we made a trek over to the Makers Mark distillery for the the tour and to see the Chihuly Art Glass exhibit. We explored quilty things and some golf things... One of the quilty things was a visit to New Albany IN to see the "Form not Function" exhibit at the Carnegie Museum. One word Spectacular!!!

On September 12 we headed over to Paducah for the first annual Fall Show! We arrived after a meandering drive through the Land

Between the Lakes with enough time to beat the crowd at Hancocks of Paducah Fabrics!!! We spent a few hours looking and choosing just the right fabrics. I brought
some home too!!! We spent the next 3 days looking the quilts, visiting vendors and exploring Paducah. It was my first time with more than one day so I was able to see all the venues and antique stores, along with the Museum and the waterfront.

After Paducah we parted company, me for home and they were heading to O'Hare via the Great Smoky and Blue Ridge Mountains. From the pictures they have posted, Mother Nature has given them a glimpse of fall color too.

I had a blast hosting and returning the favor to visitors that showed and shared so much of their South Africa with us. Can't wait to do it again...Travel home safely my friends I will miss you.

Next.... a few pictures of the Fall Paducah show. As Always, more later!  Beth

Struggles....

Time!!! Do you have enough? Do you have times when you seem to have all the time in the world and other times where no matter how you.... rearrange the demands you don't have enough? Sometimes it is a big thing and other times it is many many small things. Sometimes at the end of the week do you wonder how you got it all done?

One of the fellows my husband used to work with called the small
things 'Time Thieves'. Little things that eat up lots of your time and attention in small almost unnoticeable chunks, that add up to hours at the end of the week.

We all experience the little ones... emptying the dishwasher, picking up a room, feeding the dog, answering a phone call that extends by 15 minutes.... giving some attention to a family member that just needs a little comfort or a sounding board. I bet you can name a few too and at the end of the week wonder where all you time went?

And there are the regular big ones... work for a paycheck and then there is housework, and family duties oh and let's not forget sleep. All suck up an enormous chunk of our available time, not to mention energy.

At my house we seem to be grappling with a few of the bigger ones. Bandit, the 10 month old puppy has needed a little adjustment. He is a dog bred to be aggressive, (not necessarily mean, but not a fraidy cat either). He was not understanding his place in the house and certainly forgetting what the word NO meant in regard to him. So off to the breeder, for some
more stringent training than the regular obedience that we already completed. This is taking about 17-20 hours a week, but in the end Bandit will be a better dog and we of course will people and all be on the same page.

Added to the dog woes... my computer has been acting up... regularly for months but I just couldn't figure out where the problem was. The computer was shutting down, or the program I was in (usually Google Chrome) would freeze and I would have to restart, or after restarting the computer the program would not start so restart the computer again. I think I have it worked out now. It appears to have been caused by an Anti-Virus/Internet Security update/upgrade that was loading a .dll or other startup directive... where it cause interference with another program, possibly even Windows 10. But my computer has behaved itself for 24 hours now, without a restart, which lately is a record.

So where was all this going you ask... well my time has either been used up or not allocated well enough, and I seem to be behind in all areas.... and for me it won't get too much better until the end of September. The for most of the month I get to play hostess...  a little time back in Chicagoland, some time showing off Kentucky and a trip to Paducah for the new Fall Show. I am so excited about this opportunity, and of course, I will post about that a bit later.

In the meantime, check out www.ihaveanotion.com... I have started to update the stock and some of the prices. So far Books, DVDs, Fabric/Kits and Stabilizers have been sorted. Check them out, some are pretty good bargains if it is something you need.

As always, there will be More Later-
Beth and Bandit