I Like/Love #22

Here is my list of likes/loves/gratitude for November.

1. I like Traverse City.

The big fat fluffy flakes of snow falling DID show up!

It's one of those eclectic smaller cities with a personality all its own. I took Dayna up there, as you know, for a mama/daughter weekend before her wedding. It is located in prime cherry-growing country so I treated myself to tasting some cherry wines, and bringing home some dark chocolate-covered cherries and cherry turtles - yum! MacGyver got some cherry BBQ sauce.

Ah Lake Michigan...but this is just a dot of its grandeur, Grand Traverse Bay looking northeast

2. I like murals on the sides of buildings. This one was in TC.

I see quilty possibilities!

3. I like my wedding dress.
Your wedding dress? Uh, shouldn't you be talking about Dayna's wedding dress? Well, yes I just LOVE hers, but when I had my DrEAMi! (which you will be able to read all about in two days, as the link-up is this Saturday) I pulled out my wedding dress, now a little over 38 years old, to cut it up...

and stalled.
Looked through some photos in an album that for some reason is up here by Bella's basket. Dug through some of my plastic storage boxes looking for the elusive pattern for the dress, extra fabric, and lace...which cost more than the dress, btw. I remember clearly that my dress cost $110: $40 for the satin, $60 for the lace and $10 for the Vogue pattern. Stalled some more. After about an hour of random stalling, I texted Brianne because I didn't want to let Dayna know what I was up to. I told her my hesitation, which had really surprised me. I was totally prepared to cut it up, excited even to make this special squirrel for Dayna. But I'd laid it on the cutting mat, and ----- nope. Choked. (warning: there is some colourful language ahead in our texts 😬)

Me:What, for a Halloween costume lol... You're okay with it though right...Have just realized my own mortality since Mum/Nana... I could make you a makeup bag too ...and myself...
Brianne: No (not a costume) to frame and display in my closet room.
Me: Really? You actually would display it?  Here's the back

So I didn't. I mean when threatened with 'the home' what could I do but capitulate.
If you want to see what I did instead, you'll just have to visit on Saturday!

3. I like Second Cup.

It's the Canadian version of Starbucks and every bit as good IMHO. See the maple leaf on the door? Underneath it says, 'Proudly Canadian.' We stopped in for a Caramel Coretto latte when out running errands a few days ago. I actually have out of the library right now the book written by the founder of Second Cup, Frank O'Dea, When All You Have is Hope. (affiliate link below)

That caption is sure attention-grabbing no?! As soon as I finish the intensely grippingHeresy by S. J. Parris, I'm reading it.


4. I like my new yoga pants with a gold lotus on the calf.

5. I love Hozier's new song, "Nina Cried Power."

"It's not the wall but what's behind it

The fear of fellow men, his mere assignment

And everything that we're denied

By keeping the divide

It's not the waking, it's the rising."

I just love watching her belting out such powerful lyrics with him. To paraphrase Hozier's own words from Instagram about the meaning of his song, "...a thank you note to ... the work of artists and musicians... whose work embodied a certain spirit of protest in fairly uncertain times."

6. I love how animals in my house, like Bella, gravitate towards sunny spots. I'm like that too!

A little squinty-eyed because of that sun!

7. I like this picture, bought at the Art Fair in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a few years ago, still waiting for its special place in my sewing room one day when it's all renovated.

8. I love my view when the leaves are off the trees and I can see the sparkle of the lake on a sunny day like today. Look for the hits of bright almost silver/white between the big tree, behind the power pole in the centre of the photo. That's my Lake Erie. Sorry for the annoying screen.

Yep, we got a dusting of snow...again! It goes by supper or earlier, but it's annoying to wake up to. Still, the grass is happy drinking up the melted snow; look how green it is.

9. I love getting personal email from readers. About a week ago I got this lovely email from Phyllis

who made my pattern, Ribbon Stars (affiliate link) twice, as comfort quilts for veterans.

Isn't it perfect?!

She wrote:

I greatly appreciate your pattern, Ribbon Stars. However, I changed it a bit to quilt up a couple lap quilts for a comfort program for veterans. The size was just about what the VA housing center requested. The only change I made was to make the borders a little narrower. Here are picture of one of the quilts before quilting. The other was similar.

Again, thank you for your pattern.

Phyllis

So nice of her to take the time to write and thank me, but also to include a photo.

10. I love the cards box that Dayna requested her father make, love what he did, and am happy with my part in it (that I had to do twice, but we won't talk about that!) the stencilling of their initials:

MacGyver is the best: he used wood from an old cold or canning storage room in our basement that he dismantled this summer so he could make a guest room down there. So this is 70-year-old pine which he 'hit' in a few spots with his blow torch to add a little character, and then oiled.

This month my biggest gratitude item is that I am grateful that I am a mother. A mother of two beautiful, intelligent, strong women, the youngest of whom is getting married on Saturday. I am so excited to host family coming from Alberta for the wedding, so grateful that these seven wonderful people are taking time and money to come for Dayna and Tyler's special day. I am grateful for my eyes to see my daughter in her stunning gown, see her walk down the aisle, so beautiful, so radiant, grateful for my teeth, tongue, mouth, tastebuds, and healthy stomach to enjoy the amazing food we are going to have, grateful for my legs to dance up a storm, ha, and work off a bit of that glorious food (think chocolate fountain! Brady and I cannot wait for that! He's also even more excited, he says, to eat chicken and waffles at the midnight lunch!)

I do hope my American readers are enjoying a day filled with family and food too. In Canada, our Thanksgiving is over. It is the second Monday in October, following European traditions of giving thanks for the harvest, and our blessings, of which I have many.

Have fun on Black Friday tomorrow, and I thank you in advance if you use my links in the sidebar to snag deals on Craftsy, (affiliate links here) I've found the best deals at this time of year), bluprint or Amazon. Remember this Saturday is celebrating all those quilty squirrels that visited your sewing room in November, aka DrEAMi! (Drop Everything And Make it!)

Linking up
Not Afraid of Color
Wandering Camera at Whims and Fancies