Hi Ho into the Mountains We Go!

What a great weekend we had--a trip into the mountains is a pure pleasure any day of the week but this trip was to partake in the BBQ cook-off being held in Dillon, CO. Load up the car with drinks and off we go. No food required as we are going to stuff ourselves with BBQ! It's early so our first stop is for that substance known as black gold--coffee!
A little piece down the road we pull off when we see that flashing neon sign that boasts HOT!
Nothing like a fresh hot doughnut handed to you as you think over how many to buy!
All it takes is one bite to know this is heavenly!

With our appetites whetted for awhile we continue onto our destination. After an hour and half, we have arrived at our goal--the BBQ cook-off! Cooking teams line both sides of the town center streets--where to begin? Do we have a plan of attack? Purchase a fist full of tickets--oh, no, one of our party has ventured off to the first booth as we enter! Okay, no harm done and the taste of the rib bone was awesome--wonder if all booths will feature the same fall off the bone goodness!
The teams are varied and some have large festive booths while others are small and understated, but the food from each one we purchase is outstanding.
Some of the sauces are sweet, others are vinegary and sour, while others are just right for our taste buds. There are just a few non selling cooking teams but overall we have a choice from many selling teams. There are a few non traditional food items as well. Shrimp and sausage on a skewer
and mountain oysters followed with an amber bock beer.
If you are a first timer to indulge in this delicacy then you can proudly wear your badge of courage!

Summer Friday Nights

The weather cooperates this Friday night, even though it's a little on the warm side and a few clouds drift through the sky. We pack our cooler with our evening meal, load the car with fold up canvas chairs and head to Stapleton Northfield to hear one of our favorite local jazz bands-- Dotsero . Stapleton was the old airport for Denver, located in the center of I-70. Under pressure, the airport was moved to the boondocks, on the outskirts of Denver. Investors knew a good deal when they saw it and goobled up the area of the old airport and built several commercial ventures. The band stage faces to the east so the audience is facing into the sun. Until the sun is hidden by one of the widely spaced clouds or sets behind the stage canopy, you are either wearing a bill hat or shading your eyes with your sunshades and hands. It doesn't matter though as the music floats through the air to your ears and before you know it, your feet are tapping to the beat.

Quilters: What's in the Box?

Remember those Hostess cupcakes? Or maybe they are still around--don't know as haven't really looked for them since 1970. Faithful Quilter, Elaine, has a real stimulus package that we can actually use-- It is a "Vintage" 2009 Lunch Box featuring the "Hostess" cupcake logo. Head over to her blog Faithfulquilter.blogspot.com and leave a comment and you might be the lucky winner of this vintage lunch box! And who knows, except Elaine, what goodies are stuffed inside.

Well, this got me to wondering about those little chocolate cupcakes stuffed with fluff--from Hostess website:
CupCakes - The Captain of Them All
"Call it a cupcake caper: mystery surrounds who "invented" the original Hostess Cup Cake in 1919, although it was baking executive D.R. "Doc" Rice, who, in 1950 added the signature seven squiggles and vanilla-crème filling - a move that created the best selling snack cake in history."

And there are even recipes using these wonders. Here's one from Hostess website Hostess.com that sounds practically sinful!
BLACK FOREST DESSERT
16 chocolate sandwich cookies
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 package (3.9 ounces) instant chocolate pudding
2 cups milk
1 package (14 ounces) Hostess Cupcakes (8 Cupcakes)
1 can (21 ounces) cherry pie filling
1 carton (8 ounces) frozen nondairy whipped topping, thawed

Place cookies in work bowl of food processor; process until fine crumbs. Add melted butter and pulse to combine. Press across bottom of 9 x 13-inch dish to make a crust.

Whisk together pudding and milk for 2 minutes. Spoon pudding over crust.

Cut each Hostess Cupcake into fourths and arrange, cream-side up, on top of pudding. Spoon cherry pie filling over Cupcakes. Spoon whipped topping over cherries. Refrigerate several hours or until set.
Makes 9 to 12 servings.

Childhood never sounded so good!

Work Around the Homestead

During the month of June, to be precise June 7, we were at our granddaughter's high school graduation in Texas, a tornado touched down near our summer residence. There was no tornado damage to the house. But, once we arrived at the house and saw several roofing signs posted in neighbors lawns, we thought maybe there is something going on here--why so many signs? That was the first clue-- and then the knocks at the door by roofing companies wanting to inspect the roof--that was another clue. We called our insurance and they gave us the names of their preferred list of roofers. Soon we have roof guy crawling around on our roof and the report was "yes, you have a large amount of hail damage to the roofing". It seems when tornadoes are near, it drops hail and sometimes it can be huge. The shingles were dented in the numbers. The estimate was to replace the roof but first insurance company sent out an adjuster--well, not just one but three. They also crawled around on the roof and inspected the house with a fine tooth comb. The estimate came back--yes, bad hail damage to roof, but also two sides of the house, deck was scarred, outdoor chairs were damaged, grill was dented as well and the list grew. Okay, it is time to call in the repair people--first the roofers:Bringing in the shingles and unloading to the roof for safe overnight keeping.
Deck work; turning over the floor boards so it can be sanded. To sand off the paint of original flooring would have been cost prohibitive; alternative, to turn over the boards instead of replacing.


Working on the stairs!

Roofers came mid morning and worked through till dark to finish the job. Thank goodness! We were gone part of the day luckily. The pounding didn't bother me as much as the compressor running constantly!
Painters come next week and soon we'll have a new house!

Temptation!

Wikipedia says "A temptation is an act that looks appealing to an individual. It is usually used to describe acts with negative connotations and as such, tends to lead a person to regret such actions, for various reasons: legal, social, psychological (including feeling guilt), health, economic, etc. Temptation also describes the coaxing or inducing a person into committing such an act, by manipulation or otherwise of curiosity, desire or fear of loss."
Yes, it's there! That temptation to begin a new project when 40 UFO's are lurking in the background. There is that coaxing, that beckoning from a distance, and one would say 'manipulation' to just begin one more project. Oh, that new project would be so interesting; so fun and exciting, it's so NEW! and all those other UFO's are just plain boring now. The scarf just needs a few more rows; the charity hat needs to be bound off; the year long quilt top can wait another day or two since it's waited this long. And then there are the chores--the kitchen needs a sweep of the floor, the countertop needs to be cleared of dirty dishes, laundry should be washed and put away and why oh why does one keep typing away on the keys?
Aren't these lovely fabrics?

Doesn't this look like an intriguing pattern?

This pattern pack was found at a small Florida quilt shop The Cotton Loft during one of travels.

And there it is--that temptation--maybe, just maybe temptation would have been behind me if I had not stepped through the doorway of that quilt shop. But, what is done is done and now there is that temptation--lurking!

August First

Here is our greeter--James--welcoming you to our summer home. He is our constant guardian of the door but he is absolutely worthless! He does no jobs around the house; he delivers no coffee or breakfast to the bedroom; he doesn't do laundry or housework. What good is he? He can hold things on his tray in hopes that WE remember to pick them up on our way out the door. And he is there so we do not come into an empty house.
Now, that August banner is on display we can turn our attention to September--and our kitchen counter top is the perfect place to lay out the backing, batting and top to pin for quilting.

Ready, pinned and to the sewing machine we go for that final touch. Only three more months to conquer--all are pieced and appliqued, just need to do the quilting. Kick me please, if my thoughts even stray into beginning another one of these year long monthly projects!

focus, focus, FOCUS

It seems that once a road trip has been completed there is a necessary obligation to tell oneself to focus--get back on task! Unload the car, unpack the luggage, store away all purchases, and

take away the obstacles blocking your mind.
FOCUS:
Step over those obstacles to open your mind and see the beauty that hands can create.