Looking forward to the big move into our new home in September

Friday, January 27, 2012

back home

Wednesday afternoon I arrived in Munich airport and had an easy ride back home (in my own car)
It felt so good to be back in my own bed, that I slept until 4.45 PM on Thursday !!!!!! even Nelli was exhausted to have me back and slept so long
Today I started to unpack my luggage. The big suitcase got damaged, but British Airways will pay for it. Just this nasty paperwork

Try to get back to earth (from quilters heaven)
This was a wonderful journey with many memories and we met some quiltfriends in reality, which was really great. More about that later, I promise.

We spent the last days in Ontario (LA area) at the Road 2 California Quiltshow and we hadn't WiFi, so no postings of the last part of the trip so far, sorry

During the next days / or weeks I'll show pictures of the trip


Wednesday, January 18, 2012

shopping at JoAnn's and Piecemakers

Today Julie and Deb have fun at Disneyworld and the three of us dropped them off before we shopped at JoAnn's. For the German readers who don't know JoAnn, they have really good prices and a lot of items on sale (30 or 40 %) AND you can get coupons Online, this time we had a coupon each good for a 50% discount of one item of your choice. I couldn't resist to buy an Ott-Light, running with batteries - very light weighted, easy to carry without access. I used the 50% coupon for a cute purple crafttote I LOVE !!!! Unfortunately the Martha Stewart punchers had been on sale (30% off) - tari tara tirallala
Searching for special needles we need for the Sue Spargo class we counded find there somebody pointed us to the "Piecemaker" quiltshop. That was one of the first international shops I ever realized. My friend Sabine L. from Hilden made a really amazing Piecemaker calender quilt (with the railroad, mill, chickens ....)
So we had a 15 minute drive to Piecemakers, which is a wonderful shop!!!! The people there have been so friendly and helpful, nice decoration and wonderful stuff to buy. The hit was their kitchen: the offer a potluck type all-you-can-eate for just 5$ !!! Funny was the soup, it was Polish cabbage soup, delicous. And the cakes have been wonderful
Always we are making short decisions and have special moments to keep in our memories. In fact we have been not to far away from Huntington Beach, so had a 20 Minute stop, took some pictures, found shells and enjoyed ourselfs.
Again, it was a wonderful day!!


Tuesday, January 17, 2012

M & L fabrics

yesterday our first trip went to "M & L fabrics"
I couldn't believe how big that store was when we stepped in. For the German reader: imagine a ALDI shop and multiply it by 2 or 3
Prices starting at 2.49 $, even the Kona solids have been sold for 3,59.
The expensivest stuff was 10,49
Bonnie shopped there too and showed us the "right" cheddar fabric, she talked about on her blog several times.
The 9of us had lunch at http://www.knotts.com/
more later


Monday, January 16, 2012

Los Angeles area

On our way south we stopped in Malibu for an icecream, unfortunately it wasn't possible to have it at the beach. Most of the beach is blocked by private homes or the ask for 25$ just for parking nearbye - crazy. Caroline is doing really great driving, even in Los Angeles, which is crazy.
We arrived at Florine's house on Friday and together we drove to Hollywood to see "The Wicked" in the Pantage theater. Even with not understanding every single word it was wonderful, fantastic costumes and the theater is from the 20s (?) -

On Saturday Caroline and Julie drove to Ontario airport to pick up Kim and Deb, while Florine and I made the trip to Los Angeles LAX airport to pick up Carolyn from Maine. Now we are 7 of the Caravanquilters group here!
In the morning we stopped for lets say 10 minutes at Michaels, that's a craftshop and I bought some scrapbooking stuff - just a little bit. But it was hard to decide what ;-)

Yesterday (Sunday) Bonnie Hunter gave us a workshop nearbye together with friends from Florine: "My Blue Heaven". I'm working with a Jelly Roll: Mocha Mint
This was really fun!
We went to "California Fish Grill" the 7 of us and Bonnie Hunter with Sherry. The food was delicious, I had fried Shrimps with fries.
The evening was spent relaxing in the livingroom, checking mails

Today we will see "M&L fabrics" - I'll report later about it - pictures ???



Sunday, January 15, 2012

in San Luis Obispo - meeting Elaine

On Wednesday we had a wonderful with Elaine, who took us to her favorite winery and offered a winetasting to us - delicious BTW
She drove us around to a lovely pier and her favorite quiltshop who has a lot of Jo Morton fabric in stock. Couldn't resist .....
We ended at Steamers, right beside the beach and a wonderful dinner with a colorful sunset. Margarita's where part of the fun
We are shure we made a new friend, Elaine is a darling!
Thank you so much dear

On Thursday we picked up great picknick boxes, called baskets and a real picknick later. We took the route # 1, later highway 101 and 135 to Carpenteria, that's south from Santa Barbara. We got some laundry done "fluff and fold"
The night was spent at the Holiday Inn, with 2 doubles and 1 sofabed. In the Delgados we had good mexican food and again Margarits .....

Friday was the first day we had sandals on the feet and weared 7/8 pants. It was about 25°C and we had icecream in Malibu, unfortunatly we haven't been able to get to the beach, because of private houses.
When you find a parkinglot you have to pay 25$ - that's crazy!!!
Around 12.3o PM we arrived at Florine's house in Brea (Los Angeles area). We did some groceryshopping to make Tiramisu and Mousse au chocolate and got ready to leave to Hollywood at 4 PM. It was a real long drive and we got to the Hollywood Blvd. "The Wicked" was the hightlight of this day. First we got Pizza nearbye. The car got parked from the guys at the parkingplace - for 15$
It was a wonderful evening

stay tuned - more to come



Wednesday, January 11, 2012

bis San Luis Obispo

Montag, 9.1.
Wir sind heute von Pacific Grove südlich nach Carmel gefahren - ein SEHR schöner Ort, in dem irre teure Häuser auf winzigen Grundstücken dicht an dicht stehen. Ein toller Strand, teils mit Felsen davor an die die Wellen klatschen. Vereinzelte Surfer
Wunderbare Geschäfte, SEHR teurer Juweliere mit SEHR schönem, teurem Schmuck!!
Nur zum Nase-platt-drücken
Wir trafen uns mit Barb, ihrer Mutter und Tochter. Die Mutter ist aus Nürnberg und bereits 1965 eingereist.
Durch Zufall gingen wir ein winziges Lokal, in dem eine ganz besondere Athmosphäre war: Griechisch, Italiniesch, Tunesisch, Libanesisch - von allem etwas. Ich hatte Ravioli gefüllt mit Shrimps und Crab in einer wunderbaren Pestocreme, mit Parmesan darauf. Dann kam der Koch in den Gastraum und sang eine italien. Arie. Ich hab versucht es als Video festzuhalten (zumindest zum Teil)
Vom Haus bekamen wir wunderbare Baklava als Dessert und ganz leckeren frischen Minztee.
Das war ein sehr gelungener Besuch!
Ich fand eine nette lockere Jacke in schwarz/lila die reduziert war - jippidi
Nachdem wir noch ein Eis geschleckt haben gings dann zu besagtem Quiltshop und in einen Supermarkt,um etwas für den Abend zu kaufen. Wein unter Anderem .....
heute habe ich was Hübsches für Moni gefunden -3D Lesezeichen, typisch Californisch eben
In dem Quiltladen, den wir besucht haben "Packporch quiltshop" wird am Mittwoch Kaffee Fassett seine Bücher signieren. Ich habe ein Fatquarterpaket (8) in pink/purple gekauft, das ich für mein Sue Spargo Projekt verwenden möchte. Hatte bereits ein Charmpack gekauft.
Ansonsten war nix extra erwähnenswert, aber ich hab heimlich 2 Fotos gemacht.
Im Stübchen haben wir die beiden runden Tischchen zusammengeschoben, emails gecheckt und beantwortet, Kassensturz gemacht und gequatscht. Heute wollen wir mal früher ins Bett gehen.

Also, für morgen ist geplant, am Morgen aufzubrechen und an der Küste nach Süden zu fahren
- die landschaftlich schönere Route - ca. 140 Miles
Am Abend sind wir mit Elaine zum Essen verabredet.


Dienstag 10.1.
Pünktlich um 9.oo brachen wir auf und starteten über den 17 Miles Drive ( 9,59 $ )
Es ging durch eine sehr gepflegte, luxuriöse Wohnanlage für die Schönen und Reichen nach Carmel. Dort hat sich Caroline prompt verfahren, weil Marylin (the GPS) landeten wir in einer Wohngegend und stolperten über ein Schild „open house“ und Caroline schlug vor, das Haus zu besichtigen (steht zum Verkauf). Sie sprach dann auch mit der Eigentümerin und erzählte die Wahrheit, dass wir nur mal schauen wollten. Das war wirklich lustig – hat mir sehr gut gefallen – aber 1.195 000 $ …..
Dann gings südlich über die „1“ – eine traumhafte Route entlang der Küste. Eine Aneinandereihung der Superlative. Spektakuläre Aussicht, beeindruckende Wellen, tolle Lichtstimmungen.
Bei jeder vielversprechenden Sicht haben wir gestoppt und Bilder gemacht. Ich hab auch Filme mit dem iPhone gemacht. Ein kurzes Stück fuhr dann Julie (die Linksverkehr gewöhnt ist) – Caroline sprach es dann aus, dass sie sich besser fühlen würde, wenn sie fahren würde.
An einem Aussichtspunkt haben wir gehalten und an einem anderen getankt und nen Kaffee getrunken. Auf einem Felsen sahen wir Seelöwen und lustige kleine Vögelschwärme, die am Strand rumwieselten und immer ganz dicht an der Brandung blieben. An Pebbles Beach hatten die Leute Steine zu kleinen Türmen aufeinander gestapelt.
Kurz hinter Hearst Castle stoppten wir an einem Parkplatz, bei dem eine große Seeelefanten ruhte.
Viele Weibchen, zum größten Teil mit Jungen – WOW !! 2 Mütter schienen um die Jungen zu Kämpfen.
Gegen 17.15 waren wir am Applefarm Inn in San Luis Obispo, genau in dem Moment rief Elaine Petrik an, mit der wir für 18.oo im Restaurant verabredet waren.
Wir hatten uns auf Anhieb viel zu sagen und es war eine sehr entspannte Atmosphäre und viel Gelächter. Gespräche über Quiltmagazine (Quiltmania Vintage) und Swaps, Jo Morton …..
Ich hatte Potato Pancake mit Apfelkompott und Creamcheese sowie hot Apple Cider (mit Zimtstange)
Danach sind wir noch im Shop herumgestöbert und haben und für morgen mit Elaine verabredet. Um 1o.oo haben wir Besichtigung im Heast Castle gebucht, also zw 11.30 und 12 denken wir, sind wir zurück.
Photokarten gespeichert, emails + Buchhaltung + Tagebuch geschrieben


Monday, January 09, 2012

Monday morning update






On Friday we took the car and drove to Berkeley, where we stopped right in front of a wonderful scrapbookingshop by fortune. Wasn't I lucky? actually I was in heaven ..... The girls walked to the quiltshop 4 blocks away, but said it wasn't worth the trip. We than took the route north and west to Sausalito because we hadn't seen the place enough. There we where happy to find what we looked for everywhere in SF: a Cable Car charm for the Pandora ! YEAH
The sun went down and we had a beautiful to San Francisco and the Golden Gate and the sunset.
On Sunday we left SF and drove down to the San Jose area, where we had an invitation from Connie (http://conniescrafts.blogspot.com/), she served a nice Brund with quieche and fruits. Her husband and she showed us the amazing amount of wonderful quilts she made so far, including a gorgeous Dear Jane, Silvias Bridals Sampler and her Barbara Brackman Sampler. In her sewing studio she showed us her projects she is actually working at.
We had such a great with her
- thank you Connie!!
Afterwords she escorted us to the Quilt- and Textilmuseum in San Jose. Some early quilts from Mrs. Patera catched my interest.
BTW: this was the first day we had sandals and short sleeves!
On our way south to Santa Cruz the landscape was hilly and on both sides of the highway we saw big pines and redwood trees.
When we left highway # 101 and came to the # 1, the view changed totally. The earth is covered with black plastic nearly everywhere, strawberry fields - looked strange to me.
In Capitola we left the road and touched the beach to get a first impression. Surfers and families enjoying the sun everywhere. Of course we had an icecream cone (peanutbutter and cookies/n' cream for me)
Around 16.oo we reached the next destination: Pacific Grove
We are staying at the Wide a Bee Inn - little cottages in a row
The whole village is located right to the beach under big trees
At the end of the street at the "Fishwife" we had a wonderful evening with a glas of chardonny.
Today we are going to Carmel and to meet Barb. She is a friend from our small, private Yahoogroup of Dear Jane friends - we know each other from the Retreats in Shipshewana.
On Tuesday we are happy to meet Elaine P. for dinner in San Luis Oispo, who is also a part of the Dear Jane community worldwide. We are staying at the Applefarm Inn. It seems we'll have a quiltshop hop on Wednesday after Hearst Castle with her.

Can you read that we enjoy the trip?
YES WE DO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

to be continued

Saturday, January 07, 2012

San Francisco

We arrived on Wednesday here in San Francisco, it is indeed a fabulous city!
Julie, Caroline and me are missing Becky who had to cancel the trip in the last minute.
We rented a car at the airport and drove to the King George Hotel, which is located in the Center (Union Square)
We do have to connected room, feels like a suite (but not really very luxury)

On Thursday we bought a day ticket for the Cable Car and drove the whole route up to Fisherman's Wharf.
There is a lovely view to the Golden Gate Bridge and a lot of tourist stores. We had a lot of fun to watch into the shops
We went up to Ghiradelli, where I couldn't resisted to have a icecream cone - it was delicious
We hopped on the Cable Car again to go the Chinatown. This is really another world, interesting to see the herbshops and all this lovely jewelry shops. I do love very light Jade and found a wonderful bangle and today I bought a coordinating little dragonthing I'll frame with tiny Japanese glass beads for a necklace. I do own another Jade bangle which is carved already.
From Chinatown we drove again by Cable Car to Market Square and entered the Westfield Shopping mall. We had a lot of fun in the Very Bradley shop, Julie bought some things there. We also got a Pandora charm for each of us to have a memory of this common journey.

Today we got picked up from Randy who drove us across the Golden Gate Bridge, where we stopped to take pictures, but it was really foggy. We had a short stop in Sausalito, which is a lovely village right on the border (pretty houses and lovely shops)
She took us to a fancy restaurant (Buckeye Roadhouse) and we had a nice dinner
We left her at the Chinatown to buy something we forgot yesterday and on the way to the hotel we got to Britex fabrics.
This is fantastic store on 4 stages with a wonderful range of all kind of fabrics, ribbons, buttons and other goodies.
We are making plans for tomorrow and Sunday, when we'll leave SF and driving south.
We got an invitation of another Dear Jane Quilter to see her quilts at her home. We booked the rooms for 2 nights in the Montery area. Next stop for 2 nights is in San Luis Obispo and one more night in southern St. Barbara is booked as well. Than we'll stay at a friends house and go to the theater in Hollywood on the 13th (the Wicked).
We enjoy each and every minute and have a lot of fun together!
Tomorrow I'll try to post pictures
That it for now.


Monday, January 02, 2012

3 week journey

While I'm packing with my personal chaos system ;-) I'ld like to say good bye from good old Germany.
Tomorrow my journey to California starts!
I'll travel with Caroline from Belgium, Julie from Australia and Becky from Illinois. Sightsseing, meeting friends, workshops (with the scrapqueen Bonnie Hunter and Sue Spargo), attending the Quiltshow "Rd2Ca"
** a once-in-a-lifetime-event **
** a dream comes true **
last but not least it worked out due to DH's generous sponsoring
Ich danke Dir!