Road Trip Day Two

We woke up to a steady rain, the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry. But once we were headed west the clouds lifted and blue skies began to appear. By 11;30 we were in Oklahoma.

 The state welcome station is about 16 miles from the border. We stopped to eat our left overs from last night. It really is windy in Oklahoma.

This picture  in the Welcome Center depicting The Trail of Tears is a little more optimistic than the real journey in my opinion. Coming from the part of Georgia where the Trail of Tears started, I guess I have a different take on this sad note in our country's history. The Cherokee were very peaceful people, good friends to their white neighbors and the fact that they were rounded up and sent to Oklahoma still makes me angry.  As we took this trip that followed the trail, I could not help but think of how the Cherokee must have missed their beloved mountains. Oklahoma is not a bad place if you choose to live there but being forced is another story. Okay, I am jumping off my soapbox now.

I took this from the road leading to Pawhuska. I must say, Pawhuska is in the middle of NOWHERE!! Several times I was praying the GPS was getting it right as we were deep in the country side.

A neat old barn we saw....and aren't those clouds so pretty and puffy and the sky was the color of a September sky in Alabama.

We reached Pawhuska around 3, our check in time at the Frontier Hotel.

Hold on to your hats...this is such a lovely suite and very well priced too.

I love a pretty bed.

A lovely kitchenette.

Sitting area and eating area.

Even the bathroom was top notch.

And out the window...

We are just steps from the mercantile.

Oh and this big boy greeted us in the lobby.

We plan to be up early for breakfast at the Mercantile. And if we get tickets we will visit the lodge. Fingers crossed Ladies.

Road Trip Day One

We started out from Decatur around nine am. The sky was blue and the clouds were so pretty. We had heard that Hurricane Barry was bearing down on the Louisiana Coast but it was a beautiful all be it hot morning in NoAla.

Our first stop was McDonalds for coffee and we were on our way to Mississippi. First Stop was Corinth, MS. There is a newer Cracker Barrel on Highway 72 so we stopped there to use the restroom and I picked up a magnet for my magnet collection at Grimmwood.

Of course I had to stroll around the store and look while Marvin took the opportunity to stretch his legs outside.

 

It seems there is a Honey theme in this store.

Once I had purchased my magnet, we were headed to Memphis and my favorite bakery ever!

Muddy's!

I had to use every bit of restraint that I had in me Ladies.

I told Marvin we could each choose two goodies. He chose an oatmeal pie and a Grass Hopper. The Grass Hopper is a chocolate cupcake with mint icing. I chose PROZAC...of course....chocolate chocolate all the way. And I picked up a Pucker Up...lemon.  We had one as a dessert on Saturday and saved the other for our lunch on Sunday.

We hit Arkansas about one pm.

Welcome to Arkansas in the middle of the Mississppi River Bridge.

The big muddy from the bridge.

We rolled along with no problems at all reaching our first stop, Conway, AR.

We used Trip Advisor to find this great restaurant...Mike's Place.

Conway has a quaint down town area.

Our booth was very sweet and secluded.

Marvin chose Bacon Wrapped Scallions.

I had Pasta Toscana...I could not even eat half of this so our sweet waitress, Tiffany, boxed it up with two plastic forks so we can have the rest for lunch on Sunday. We are hoping to find a nice rest area to have a little picnic.

Traveling is so much fun....seeing new places and trying new things.

Saturday Stitching

Well I know many people say Christmas is still months away but we Jolly July Stitchers just sigh with our virtuous sniffs. We are going to be ready with Christmas ornaments for all our family members while others are furiously stitching away!

Just in case you think Christmas is far off, look what I saw when I was doing my mall walking this week.

Dancing Ghosts at the local Hallmark store. And they are unveiling their Christmas ornaments this Saturday!!

On the home front, my Colour and Cotton Flosses arrived.

Such beautiful colors this month. That Wild Berry will come in handy for Halloween Stitches.

I also ordered a project bag from a new Floss Tube Friend, Erica D House. You can find her on Etsy.

I love it when the seller includes a Thank You!

Here is the back...I loved this fabric so much. I had purchased some last year for finishing.

My Jolly July Stitching will be going in this bag.

And here is my latest ornament. This one is for Margaret.

Lizzie Kate...and I love Margaret so much I used some Kreinik and Petite Treasure Braid in this one.

Here is the latest on Joshua's sampler.

While doing some redecorating...I put out my Live within your Harvest Drum by Hands on Design.

Since Harvest time is here, this is a good reminder.

And finally something sweet to leave with you this week.

Happy Stitching Dear Friends.

Friday Five

!. Bee Pillowcases

Leta embrodiered these pillowcases for Marvin. I put them on our bed at Grimmwood right away.

2. August Dough Bowl.

I was ready to get rid of the Red White and Blue and move on to late summer sunflowers. I really need to do some more stitching in this genre. I did add my black bird and my red bird. 

3.Dinner with Friends

I picked up this bouquet of Sunflowers for only three dollars at Publix this week. I was entertaining some friends with a tomato pie dinner so I set the table in my Desert Rose dishes. I added the beautiful monogrammed napkins made by my friend, Sandy, who you know as a Home Ec Major.  

In front of Barry's plate you will see his jar of honey that we gifted him from our harvest this week.

His lovely wife and my good friend, Sharon, brought me this cute Pioneer Woman cup/bowl. It is perfect for heating up things in the microwave. She wanted to wish  us well on our trip to Pawhuska.

4.Vera Bradley Toiletries Bag

I was browsing in our local consignment shop, Better Than Before when I saw this brand new Vera Bradley hanging toiletries bag. This weill be perfect for travels to Grimmwood and other locales we plan to visit soon. I just love Vera Bradley products and this blue print is perfect for me in every way.

5.HONEY

We harvested 14 pints of honey from our ten frames. We lost some honey as several of the frames held brood cells. Marvin did not put the Queen Excluder in this hive so she must have gotten into the top frames  and laid some eggs where we wanted Honey. In hive number two, Marvin did add the excluder so we will see if we get better results. Some bee men do not like to use the excluder aa they say it damages the bees wings as they go up to work in the top frames. The queen bee is bigger than the worker bees so she cannot squeeze through the excluder hole, keeping her away from our honey frames. We had one frame that was just perfection. I wish had taken a picture of it. A thing of beauty.

As I said before we are learning as we go. I did save a lot of comb and I plan to render it down. I must purchase an old crock pot as I will not want to use it for anything else but rendering wax.I am hoping to be able to make some wax threaders for my stitchy friends I have also read that you can make candles and lots of beauty creams, glosses etc. Why you can even make furniture polish.

I am turning into a hippie in my old age!!

The Grimmlins

Thought I would share some pictures of the Grimmlins as the Roberts portion of the grands are not big on pictures lately!!

Let's start in Hoova.....

Katy posted that this was Margaret's choice of clothing for the day. I guess she is saying she wants to go swimming.

I love this picture of Baylor loving on Elliott. This is another step in the right direction for Baylor Man. Most of the time he just ignores his siblings. He has always had a fondness for Margaret but Elliott, not so much.

On to Canton...

Joshua is not happy to be wearing his Hulk outfit from Aunt Mimi.

I think taking off the  hat did the trick in making this boy happier. Charles says that Joshua is starting to smile a bit now. However not when Daddy wants to snap a picture to send to Nana.

Audrey and Daddy did some baking together.

I love this picture....you can just see how much they love each other. And I love Charles' curly hair. He keeps it cut short most of the time to avoid dealing with the hair but it is so pretty. When he was younger he wore it long and it was just gorgeous. Once a little one at our church asked him if he was Jesus.lol I will have to find an old picture to share. No matter how old Charles gets, he will always be my baby.

Sunset at Grimmwood

One of the pleasures of Grimmwood is sitting on the porch after dinner. Usually  my sisters, Bruce and Laura join us. We sit in rockers, share the swing and chat of nothing much as we enjoy the last hours of sun.

The other night we were amazed at how pretty the sunset was and how the colors changed as the sun went down.  We saw a few bats flying just at dusk.

Clouds moved away and the sky changed to a pretty peach color.( Perfect for Georgia)
Right about this time, our blue heron flew by....I guess he was choosing his favorite area pond for the night.

Another pretty shot. We were all taking pictures with our phones.

The sun was gone for the day....cicadas and bull frogs began their nighttime chorus.

When we are in Decatur we seldom see a sunset as we are more house people here in the city. But time in the country is refreshing for the soul.  Thank you God for the beauty that surrounds us. Give us eyes to enjoy it.

And I must add these two pictures...today is Mama G's birthday and I always remember her as she was my second mama.

Such a gracious giving lady....made to be the mama of six Grimmlins of her own.  We miss you so.