Family Reunion

What a blast we had joining with our dear family and enjoying the afternoon with great food, great company, and lots of wonderful pictures and memories to take home with us.

My kids have never met most of my husband's extended family on his mother's side of the family so, it was especially wonderful for them to visit and get to know their aunts, uncles, and cousins. We were also lucky to have my mother-in-law Carole, my brother-in-law Mike, and my husband's cousin Kim and her husband Gary at the reunion. They all drove up from Northern California.

Warning: We are going to be picture heavy in this post and I will keep the reading to a minimum.

The Family Group Picture...

Silly Version...

Another Silly One...

The Cousins...

Uncle Mike
(husband's brother)

Uncle Dan
(husband's mother's brother)

Arriving at Uncle Dan and Pat's house...

Cousins

Uncle Bill
(husband's mother's youngest brother)

Grandma Carole
(husband's mother on the right)

Visiting and enjoying the view of the river.

Reunion Location... Front of House...

Back of House...

Aunt Pat's beautiful Gardens.

The men visiting and cooking.

Chatting by the River...How cool is that?

The following are some of my favorite pictures that I took...

:-) Kenna took this one of me...

My very most favorite picture of Kenna and her Dad.

Don't you just love Chandler's expression?
I had to convince him to let me take his picture.

Building a little Dam in the River to create a small pool.

It wouldn't be a Successful Reunion
without a Marshmallow Roast, now would it?

Oh... before I end. Here's a silly video that I couldn't resist taking. No one knew that my fancy camera also took video. It was fun to see everyone in action and no one was the wiser. lol. Therefore it was painless and totally off the cuff.

If you got to this point in my post I want to thank you for hanging in there.

I hope you enjoyed it...

I know we did!! :-)

Faux Cami Winners

I'm here to announce the 3 winners of the Faux Cami Giveaway that ended at midnight last night. . .

Each winner will receive (1) Faux Cami and (1) Tool Bracelet.




The winners are...

1. Marcia (no blog)


2. Shari from Mumsyblossom World in Australia


3. yts mom (no blog)


Congratulations to the winners of this giveaway!

Winner's if you would please contact me by email at kimberlywalus (at) gmail (dot) com and let me know what color cami you'd like and what color crystals and shrink plastic you'd like on your tool bracelet that would be great. I will also need your T-Zone measurements. Thanks.

Thank you to everyone for your comments and for entering my giveaway. It was fun reading your comments here and on Moda's Bake Shop. I really appreciate your time. Hugs. Kim.

The Primitive Thimble

After the Fabric World debacle in Portland (I will post about the experience soon) we headed toward Vancouver, Washington to spend the night with a promise that in the morning we could visit another quilt shop before we drove to Seattle to visit the University at Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington.

Since we had a few computers with us I made sure to investigate a few quilt shops online before we got in the car. Lesson learned...

We stopped at a lovely quilt shop called The Primitive Thimble in Vancouver, Washington.

Notice the front door. . .


Come to find out that their shop was broken into on the weekend. The thieves stole the cash register and a few other random things but the QUILTS were not touched. They must not have known the REAL VALUE of the quilts in the store. Just the hand appliqued quilts behind the counter are worth over a $1000 dollars not to mention several antiques that they had around the shop. Luckily they were clueless!!

Moving on. . . Let me introduce you to Lynn.


What a wonderful lady. I felt like a dear friend that she hadn't seen in a while. She made us feel right at home. Lynn is one of the staff there at The Primitive Thimble. We had such a fun time visiting and learning and talking quilts.

I looked over while we were talking and noticed this curved looking box sitting on the counter and it was covered with a white cloth. I asked her what it was and she revealed this really wonderful lace making pillow. Can you see it? Click on the pictures to have a good look. It's marvelous.

Click on the pictures to look at the detail on the heart lace and the 3 other pieces of lace on the right side of the pillow bed. The lace pattern is on the blue paper and it's attached to the drum in the middle of the lace pillow.

I've done a bit of research on lacemaking and here is a great website to visit. It's a beginner's guide to Bobbin Lacemaking.

Here's a look at the quilt shop. . .

Look at the yummy over dyed wool on the table next to the doll. I wish I could have bought some of it and I'm probably going to regret it but I do have the phone number so, I'm good.








I really fell in love with one of the quilts in the store but, I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of it, I guess I was really excited about it. You can see the store's version of the quilt here on their website. This is the book and the fabric I bought to add to the collection of Civil War Prints that I have in my stash.

Here's a picture of the quilt in the book.

Now this was my kind of Quilt Shop. I Loved it!!!

The Quilted Forest

Saturday morning while the girl's were still sleeping in the hotel and before the Family Reunion in the afternoon my husband and I snuck off to visit The Quilted Forest located in downtown Salem, Oregon.

The Quilted Forest was chosen in 2007 as one of the
Top 20 Quilt Shops in the United States & Canada.

They're also celebrating their 110th year anniversary.

Don't you love the Singer Featherweight in the store window?

We only had a small window of time so I rushed in and started looking around. This antique cash register was the first thing I saw.

I saw great quilts hanging all around me. . .

Here you get a feel for the shop as
you look down the aisle to the cutting area.

Here's the great book & pattern section. . .

Have a look at all of the great Kaffe Fabrics,
I thought of Nedra when I saw them.

Here's what I purchased. . .

These are two Kaffe's that I liked.


These are for Kenna.


I saw these cute scissors as we were leaving the store.

More to come. . .