Supplies

I feel like I am back in school. We have been getting supplies and books for my daughter. It is such cool stuff. Drawing and photography supplies. Those are the best stores ever. I have had to make myself leave because I want to get all of this for me too. At least right now they are learning film and not doing digital. I still like film the best. Digital is great for some things but film still has its place. I am so excited for my daughter and she is very excited. She has learning disabilities and has always struggled with academics. I hope this is a place were she will flourish.
Here are some more pics of the Currency Exchange quilts.
Song of the day: "Lets Groove" by Earth, Wind & Fire

AQS Show

One more busy week out of the way. We got my daughter registered for her classes. How can you go wrong taking photography, drawing, and art history? I will have her teach me everything she is learning. I am looking forward to going and getting her art supplies. I might have to get a little more for myself!
My husband and I went and saw Bruce Springsteen thursday night. He was definitely a good performer but I am not a huge fan of his. It didn't help that our seats sucked. We were the first row off the floor. That was good but we were far back from the stage so the angle to see him was bad. Now that I have to get up at 5:45 in the morning I did not want to stay out late.
I spent 2 days at the AQS show here. The first day I shopped and looked at the quilts with a friend. The second day I white gloved for about 2 hours. That was a little stressful. I was put in a display that people wanted to touch even though there were signs everywhere, DO NOT TOUCH! We are all quilters and we know better. I caught one lady scratching a quilt. She was trying to see how it was put together. I would never touch someone elses quilt especially at a show! It was a great display. It was called Currency Exchange. Ladies from Japan, US, and New Zealand took a piece of currency and interpreted it in a quilt. They had a picture of the currency and how it inspired the quilt. There is some really pretty money in other countries. These were a few of my favorites. I think they were about 18in x 18in.
Song of the day: "Spirit in the Night" by Bruce Springsteen

New Fabric

This past week was nice and busy. School started for my son. He started middle school and really likes it so far. I have to spend some of this week getting my daughter registered for college. Then she starts on the 25th.
Also this week is the AQS show here in Nashville. I am looking forward to going. The show is moving to Knoxville for the next 3 years. I hope we get it back. I will be looking for batiks.
In the near future here I hope to have some of my hand dyed fabric for sale. I will be cutting it up into 2 1/2in strips. There will be lots of colors in a bag. I just have too much and will not be using it anytime soon. It will be great for strip piecing, applique, and paper piecing. As soon as I get the time to cut it all up it will be available on my blog.
I ordered a little fabric before I went to Florida. It is called Paintbox by Lonni Rossi. Her stuff is great because she works with value, light, medium, dark. I just never seem to get it all when I shop. I have a hard time buying light. It's great stuff and I can't wait to start working with it.
Have a great week and I will try to post some about the show.
Song of the day: "Bubbly" by Colbie Caillat

Last Day

Friday was our last full day at the beach. The only thing we had to do was walk down to the lighthouse. We had heard from a few people that there were some big star fish being found there. It was a good thing we did not walk down there first thing in the morning like I had planned. A pretty heavy rain storm came through. I would not have been happy being caught out in that with my camera. So me and my son walked down there about 11am. At first we did not see anything. Then my son found one and within 5 minutes we had found 6. They were the size of his hands. That is the biggest 5 point starfish I have found. We put them back after their photo shoot in a place were hopefully nobody found them. There is a law on Sanibel about not taking live shells so I think people think it is ok to take starfish and sand dollars.
When we got back to the cottage I noticed a lady had a different starfish (9 legs) than what we had found. It was huge. The size of a dinner plate. People were digging them up out in the water on the sand bars. So I sent my husband and son out to find some. They found plenty. They kept digging one up after the other. Then some friends we had met at the beginning of the week, Nan and Rich joined in the hunt for the starfish. It was a great way to finish out the day.
We drove home all day yesterday. I got car sick as usual so I have spent today recovering. School starts tomorrow so things are getting ready to get busy!

Beauty At Its Best

Tomorrow is our last full day here. The week has gone by so fast. It has been great. We were very lazy this week. Sitting on the beach, playing in the water, reading, throwing the ball with my son, and my favorite picking up shells. That is all I really look forward too.
We heard from a few people that there were some huge starfish down by the lighthouse so we will be walking down there in the morning. I hope we find some.
Here are some photos I took today, I hope you like them.

A Little Excitement Today

The weather was really nice this morning. The water was a little rough but you could see most everything. I went out to tell my husband and son I was going for a walk down the beach. I started to go out in the water, looked down and saw something moving. I thought it was a sting ray because it was scooting across the bottom. As I got closer I saw that it was a shark. It was about 3 feet long. It definitely did not like me coming closer to it. It swam away pretty quick. There were small schools of fish around so I am sure it was feeding on them.
Tonight the water was very calm. About 30 yards off shore we saw some dolphins swimming down the shore. We usually see them every year. This year they decided to put on a show. They started jumping totally out of the water. It is amazing to me how many people don't pay attention to their surroundings. Most everyone out on the beach did not even see this going on. I love it when my kids get to see things like this.

Tiny Treasures

What a great day we had. The weather was gorgeous. Not too hot with a nice breeze. We ate at one of our favorite restaurants for lunch, Cheeburger Cheeburger.
I am hoping we get a storm. The shelling is a little disappointing right now. I could walk up and down the beach all day. By the end of the week my neck usually hurts from looking down.
The top 2 pictures are shells that could fit on a nickel. I find really small shells. I like them better than the large broken shells. They are almost perfect. The 3rd shell is the banded tulip. It could fit on a half dollar. It still had its animal in it so you are not allowed to keep it. The 4th shell is a whelk. It was about 8 inches long and had an animal in it too. Goodnight.

1st Day In Sanibel

I have to say the drive here gets worse each year. We always stop in Gainesville the 1st day and then drive the rest of the way on the second day. I am just getting where I cannot stand to be in the car that long. Not much I can do if I want to keep coming down here. We bring to much to fly.
We only got to spend about an hour on the beach tonight but found some really cool sea life. I hope we have as much luck the rest of the week. Enjoy!