Grandma Oma's World

As I was visiting my family in North Carolina I came across an ad for this shop hop. Although, my Daughter-in-Law is not a quilter, I mentioned this shop hop to her and we got really enthused about the adventure. What is a "shop-hop"?  It is visiting participating quilt shops and collecting a free fabric piece or pattern samples from each shop. Once all the patterns are collected a quilt can be made. In these shops in addition to the patterns they gave away regional recipes as well. There were only seven shops in this group, but it took us a whole day to visit each and every one of them. We had a wonderful time together and it was a beautiful day to travel.   Here are the  quilts made from the blocks given away by the stores. Each store choose their own fabrics and added their creativity while assembling the quilts.

Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some ”    Charles Dickens Today, I have one of those days when I am thinking of the many blessings in my life. As I was reflecting I found that most of my blessings are not really from the material things I worked for so hard for 35 years, but all my blessings come from family, friends and the simple things in life. I am blessed for - My children for becoming independent and self sufficient at an early age of 18. I have a happy smile when I see the family they have created on their own and what a wonderful job they are doing in raising their children.    My parents for giving me all the love, care and good values in spite of them suffering through the hardships of wars.   My brother and sister for sharing the childhood we had. Friends - What would one do without them? They are always there to share joys and sorrows. They are the ones who always ask: &qu

The guilty look Yesterday morning when Ellis, my daughter's family golden retriever, went out for his morning trip to the back yard, he had a confrontation with a skunk. He lost the battle. It was 6:30am, and I was still asleep in my apartment on the lower level of our home in Buffalo, NY. I woke up to a strange, rather unpleasant odor that was spreading in the room and coming from the vents of the heating system.  I thought it was maybe the odor from the furnace as it was just starting up. Suddenly, my daughter Michelle, comes running down from the second floor apartment with little Gabriella and  Brianna in tow: "Mom, please keep the kids, Ellis just got sprayed by a skunk and our place smells terrible!" By this time the cloud of smell was spreading through every crack, vent and opening of this 1902 old triplex. There was no escape other than going out to the freezing cold. At once, we all started googling for solutions - the sooner one starts de-skunking a d