Welcome To DC

We definitely had a touristy weekend! We had two sets of visitors with us, and it was great.

Saturday Brendon and I took my mom and sister to Georgetown for some shopping. Tiffany had some Easter money burning a hole in her pocket, and my mom had never seen my favorite store, Anthropologie. After we had shopped to exhaustion, we took Tiffany, Mom, Fernando, and Sharon (Seminario) on the West Wing tour. They were all thoroughly impressed and got lots of great pictures.

Brendon had to stay behind and work for a while, so we walked over to the Washington Monument to check out the kite festival, and then over to the Jefferson Monument to see all the cherry blossoms. This week is the Cherry Blossom Festival and they look beautiful. Unfortunately, that also means that tourists have taken over our town even more than usual and it is just unbelievably crowded! But still fun.

We thought Mount Vernon was a good Sunday appropriate activity, and we learned about George Washington's heroism and beautiful estate. We were even privileged enough to see his 200 year old dentures, although I'm not so sure that's a privilege! But I guess amazing that they have lasted that long.

After that we packed up my mom and sister and drove them to the airport. We said goodbye to the Seminarios this morning, and Merkley Hotel is closed one day for cleaning until our next guests come tomorrow evening. We really do enjoy having so many visitors!

Mother / Daughter Weekend

My mom and sister flew to Pennsylvania for a dance related trip, so I took Thursday and Friday off of work to spend with them. I drove to York, PA late Wednesday night. Thursday while my mom was at meetings Tiffany and I went to the Harley Davidson factory to check out the bikes and see how they are made. It was actually a lot more interesting than we thought it would be. I would recommend that Hog fans make the journey. We had a lot of fun trying on all of the bikes for size. After the tour we were starving, so I introduced Tiffers to the wonderful culinary experience that is Five Guys burgers and boardwalk fries. Of course after that we were uncomfortably full, so we decided to stop eating and do some shopping.

When Mom finally got out of meetings we drove to Hershey, PA. We thought the street lamps were adorable, we ate ice cream Sundaes bigger than our heads (we really should have shared...we could not even come close to finishing them!), and we took the riding tour of the chocolate making process presented by singing cows. And of course no mother/daughter trip would be complete without lots of shopping, so we had to score some great finds at the Hershey outlet stores!

Thursday night we stayed at the cutest B&B in Mt. Joy, PA. Friday morning we were up early for a huge breakfast, and then a hay ride around the farm. Farmer Jim gave Mom, Tiff and I some coveralls to keep us warm - we looked stylish! After the hay ride we fed (and milked) the sheep and chickens, played with the baby Pygmy goats, and collected the eggs. It was a riot. You would think we were city folk the way we got a kick out of the animals and the farm experience...but no, we've actually got our own farm and owned quite a few of those animals at one time or another. Ha ha.

We left the farm and drove to Bird-in-Hand, PA and Intercourse, PA to get the Amish experience. I was impressed with the HUGE fabric stores! We had fun just browsing shops with Amish made goods, eating treats from Amish bakeries (most notable of those being Immergut hand rolled pretzels dipped in cinnamon and sugar...they were so good we went back and bought three more), and driving around the back roads through the farms. Being the farm girls that we are, and accustomed to using enormous tractors to plow our land, we were so impressed with the humble and hard working men out pulling their plows with horses.

Sorry For The Lack Of Posts!

We had a wonderful week and weekend complete with visits from my mom and sister, as well as from the Seminario's. Hopefully there will be pictures to follow as soon as I nag my mom and sister enough to email me theirs. Our computer decided to completely kick the bucket last night so I cannot upload my photos onto it. Bummer!

Whew

With Melanie going into pre-term labor on Thursday, we weren't quite sure if we were going to be having a baby shower after all. But thankfully with a little help from the doctors and modern medicine, baby girl Williams put off her arrival and we had Melanie's baby shower today. Note to self: apparently six weeks ahead of time is not as safe a distance as I thought.

The adorable girls that helped me plan the shower, Kayla and Nicole...

"It's a chick" cupcakes thanks to the cupcake queen, Kayla...

The scene of the crime...

Loads of beautiful guests...

The quilt I made for Mel out of vintage chenille fabrics.

Happy Easter

My adorable Mother-In-Law never forgets a holiday. She always sends us holiday gifts and a card. This year she sent us this adorable Martha Stewart Egg Dress-Up Kit. I'm so excited to play with it!

Nice To See You Again, Mr. Cheney

Brendon's sister, Rissa, and her husband, Jared, came to stay with us this weekend for a real quick trip. Saturday we took them on a West Wing tour.

And lucky for them, we caught a glimpse of Vice President Cheney as he was getting into his motorcade on his way out of the office. It's always kind of fun to catch sight of the big guys.

I Still Can't Believe I Did That

Last night I let my husband talk me into auditioning for Nashville Star. Crazy, I know. Don't get your hopes up while reading this...I didn't make callbacks. I debated whether to blog about it...do you blog about failures?? Sure, why not!? It was quite a day.

Auditions started at 10:00 at the Westin hotel in DC, so Bren dropped me off at 6:00 am. Oh man...it was dark and COLD!! And I had to stand in heels! Basically I shivered in line for five hours until my area of the line was finally let in to the hotel around 11:00. I made friends with the five or six people around me in line, though, and it made the wait more bearable. Although, of course the weather didn't decide to warm up until about 10:45.

(my fun group I made friends with)

The producers made us do all the silly line shots outside where you scream "DC loves country music" and "Nashville Star here we come" and dozens of other equally corny TV lines. So look closely when the show comes out...you may see me. Ha ha.

I wasn't actually as nervous as I thought I would be, because it kind of felt like a big party. Who knew there were so many hicks on the East Coast. Granted, there are only 4 of these open call auditions in the States, so people came from all over and there really were hundreds and hundreds of people in lines wrapping around the blocks. But in the lines it was fun to see so many cowboy hats and boots...I almost felt like I was back home. And people had their guitars out and groups would sing for everyone. Some people you are were blown away by their talent, some people were just so-so, and some people you kind of wonder what posseses them to come to auditions (geez...I sure hope people don't think I fall into that last category...ha ha). Once inside groups gathered together and guitarists played so we could all sing good old country songs like "Sweet Home Alabama", "Country Roads", and "Boondocks". I thought as I was sitting there, how fun it was just to be surrounded by that many people that share the same passion as me for country music.

This adorable girl I met in line made me go to the bathroom and practice with her. So there we were in this tiny one stall bathroom and she sang her chorus and it sounded really great. And then she told me, "Ok, you're turn" and I warned her it would be loud but she said, "Just do it". So then at the very last line of my song a lady peaks her head in the door and says, "Who's singing in here? You are so good. Have you ever heard of American Idol? You should try out!" It was hilarious. She had no idea I was there to try out for the country version of American Idol.

Green Acres

I usually find reality tv shows absolutely repulsive...but this one I might get a kick out of. We'll see.

Visitors From The West

This weekend we were lucky to have lots of visitors. My brother Cody was visiting Friday night. Colleen and her husband Mike were also visiting Friday night. We went to my favorite Thai food place, Top Thai. Yum! Pictures to follow later.

Brooke and CB were also visiting this weekend from San Francisco. We spent Saturday night at CB's mom's beautiful wedding, and played a rousing round of Settlers of Cataan on Sunday.

The ladies (Kayla, me, Brooke)...The gentlemen (Christian, Blake, Brendon)...And all of us. We're so glad you came to visit Brooke and CB!

We Have A Winner

The logo experienced a little tweaking over the weekend...and this is the finished product. Thanks to my talented friend Lindi. She does freelance work...so if you need any graphic design help I would recommend her.

I'm Coming, Etsy!

I haven't posted anything I've sewn this week...but that's not because I haven't been sewing. On the contrary...I've spent every extra minute I have doing just that (which really doesn't amount to many minutes with the week I've had). I'm stocking up my inventory for an Etsy shop, and I want to surprise you all (readers, family, & friends) with the things I've made. I've always been good and patient at waiting for surprises.

I've still got some hems to hem, and some buttons to attach (the little details that aren't nearly as fun as the planning and creating stages)...and more importantly pictures to take of the goods...but hopefully (cross your fingers!) I'll have things ready by the middle of this month.

And...just to give you a sneak peak...here is one of the logos my super-talented-and-kind friend Lindi made for me. She's working on a few more so I can choose between them. I'm so excited!

Coming Along

I was blog surfing today and saw that a few girls are making progress on the Quilt Exchange we are doing. Here are a few:


(Erica's)(Mine)(Jenn's)

(Julie's)

I think they are going to look so great together!