Anniversary week - day 3 and the weekend

 Day #3

So let's take up where we left off, we got up on day three and knew we wanted to visit two places.  Our first stop was the Lane Motor Museum.  Lane Motor Museum features 150 unique cars and motorcycles and is home to the largest European collection in the U.S. The current exhibit focused on French cars!

As you can tell from the picture, it was another rainy day.  Perfect for a museum visit!  We couldn't decide if this building had once been a car dealership or just what it had been.  We later learned it had originally been home of the Sunbeam Bakery.

This is the view from inside.  I thought of my international readers and wondered if any of you had ever seen some of these wonderful cars on your local streets?  They were magnificent!

This was one of my favorite "tiny" cars.  Isn't it just so cute?!  It looks like a toy but it wasn't.  It's street legal and still runs.

This one was the tiniest cars in the whole place.  Yes, it ran too.  So cute!

Check out these Fiats!  So stinkin' cute.

This is also a Fiat!  I would totally drive this to work but I'd paint it a different color.  Love the shape of this one.

After we left the car museum we braved the traffic and went to The Hermitage, home of President Andrew Jackson.  This is the grand view of the front of the house.  They gave us little devices where we could listen to sound bites along the walking tour that talked about the grounds, the family and significant happenings.

I just had to take this picture.  There is a story that has gone around for years that President Jackson didn't want to spend the money to make the whole house grand so he just made the front look good for the arriving visitors.  Yep, that would be true!  Here's the proof.  If you look at the above picture and then look at this one, you'd be fooled too arriving in your buggy between those two grand pines.

DH and I have visited Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson and when you compare the two, this is a really modest home.  Not what you'd expect of a president's home. The tour guides said Jackson preferred to be called General Jackson instead of President Jackson.  I found that interesting too.

After our tour we ended up in the gift shop as one usually does.  I was quite surprised to find there were some cross stitch kits there.  I loved the ornament and the sampler is really sweet.  I most likely won't use the Aida in the kit and will find some linen from my stash.  Both were really pretty in person.


If I had to say which plantation I liked better, I'd have to go with Belle Meade.  It just seemed more interesting.  I think it had a lot to do with how knowledgeable the tour guides were.  The ones at the Hermitage just seemed to take for granted that the visitors already knew the story.  Personally, I really didn't know anything about the president other than his picture is on the $20 bill.  I know, that sounds really lame but sadly it's true.  I'm a history buff but presidential/political history really isn't my thing.

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Since we finished our tour in the early afternoon and we really didn't have anything else we wanted to see, we started the drive back home.  However, DH wasn't exactly ready for the trip to end.  He suggested we stop at the Belterra Casino on the river in southern Indiana and spend the night.  Now mind you, the one and only time I ever set foot in a casino was on our honeymoon.  That's because it was connected to the resort we stayed at and you had to go through there to get to the food venue.  To say we are not gamblers is an understatement.  LOL!

I will say it was an interesting experience but I felt a bit sad in there.  So many people, most of them my grandparents' age, just throwing their money away.  I just didn't get it.  I guess I just have a different respect for money than some.

However, if you are looking for a really nice place to stay for not a lot of money, I would recommend you stay in the hotel part of the casino.  It was probably one of the grandest rooms I've ever stayed in!  You could have parked my car in the bathroom it was so huge.  Seriously!  We even had a river view which was super nice.

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The end of our week off found us at the Classic British Motorcycle Club of Cincinnati's show that was held in northern Kentucky.  DH put our 1967 Honda Dream in the show and won first place in his class!  Yep, I was proud as can be and so happy for him.  It was a nice high point to finish our week together.

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So there you have it, the trip recap.  I hope you enjoyed the adventure as much as I did retelling it here.  Thank you for taking the time to comment and visit.  I appreciate your being here even though I haven't been able to post as much as I'd like.

Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

Anniversary Week - day 1 & 2

I've had a couple requests and a gentle nudge to share our anniversary week here on the blog.  I'll preface it by saying there's not much stitch related in this post so if a travelogue isn't your thing I understand.  Here we go!

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Day #1

Up until the Sunday before we left, we had no idea where we were going...we left on Tuesday.  We settled on Nashville, TN.  Mind you, neither one of us is into country music but we found plenty to see and do there and along the way.

On the way down, we decided to go to the National Corvette Museum.  DH wanted to see the cars that fell into the sinkhole.  I've been by this many times on my way to Russellville but had never visited.  Since we weren't on a time schedule this trip, we stopped!

This is one of the most damaged cars they pulled from the hole.  The other two behind it also came out of the hole.  Sadly or maybe not, they've patched the hole.  Now there is an outline on the floor showing where the hole had been.  It's crazy to think the floor could just open up like that!  I bet all the surrounding business are a little edgy now.  I would be if I lived or worked in the area!

Speaking of Russellville, every year I pass by a sign that says "South Union Shaker Village" and have thought of stopping but never have.  I mentioned this to DH and he said let's go check it out.  So off we went.  We didn't actually get out and explore much since it was a self-guided walking tour and it was 93 degrees!  Maybe next time.

I had forgotten how close this was to Russellville so instead of doubling back to the highway we drove on into Russsellville.  I gave DH the grand tour of all the "hot spots" we visit when the peeps and I come down for our annual trip.  One of them joked that the tour probably took all of two minutes.  She's pretty much right on that!  Still, it was fun to share this place with him.

We took a scenic back road and made our way to Nashville where we settled in for the night.  I have to say though, the traffic was intense getting there!  Almost as bad as Atlanta!  If you've ever driven through there, you know what I'm talking about.

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Day #2

This was the first Nashville stop, Stitchin' Post.  The owners were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary and 40th year in business the same week we were there!  Both are pretty special milestones in this day and age.  I'd visited here before in 2013 on our way to Alabama.  I didn't take any inside pics this time since I've already got them in the previous post if you care to check it out. 

Here's what I couldn't live without!  I always collect the JCS Ornaments issue and had to pick one up when I saw it.  I've heard some folks say they didn't like it this year but I found lots in there I want to stitch.  Granted, I'll most likely change the fabric choices and maybe some of the flosses but I liked several of them.

I also picked up fabric, floss and a chart I saw Stasi had stitched a while back called Tools of the Trade Part 1 by Blackberry Lane Designs.  Being a lover of all things strawberry, I couldn't resist.  I also picked up a beaded strawberry fob!

The book is one I'd had my eye on when I was at the Schwenkfelder in the spring.  I didn't get it then but couldn't pass it up this time.  It was only $3.95!  The shop owner was doing some personal de-stashing and I got lucky.  It's a nice book.

Before I left the shop, I asked for directions to get us downtown that would avoid the traffic on the highway.  The route we were given took us directly to downtown Nashville.  Our fist stop was the Harley store for DH  to get a t-shirt.  We walked the whole street and on our way back up it started to rain on us.  Ironically, right at lunch time and right in front of BB King's place!

Seeking refuge from the rain, we went inside and had lunch.  This is the stage and some of the seating.  They have live music in the evenings!  There were folk art paintings of all the blues legends hanging all over the walls and all the table tops were hand painted too. For lunch, I had a pulled pork sandwich and DH had a catfish po' boy.  By the time we went outside, it has stopped raining.  The picture above was taken when we left.

One of the things we both wanted to do was visit Antique Archaeology the Nashville location of the American Pickers!  It's housed inside the old Marathon Motorworks car factory building which is a stone's throw from downtown Nashville.  There are several boutiques inside the building that are fun to check out while you are there.

This was my favorite thing inside the Pickers' shop!  Now that's a frog!!!  Everything inside was for sale and we even remembered different episodes when they picked some of the items there.  Most of the things were way out of our price range.  I do have to say it wasn't as big inside as I had envisioned but it was still a fun place to look around. 

After we checked out the Pickers' shop, we went inside to nose around.  There was all kinds of memorabilia from the building's days as a car factory hanging on the walls.  I particularly liked this old sign!

I popped into one of the little boutique shops and ran across a display of unique sterling silver earrings.  I asked DH what he thought of them and he picked these out for me as an anniversary gift!  Usually he doesn't have an opinion one these types of things but this time he surprised me and that makes these earrings all the more special to me!

We left downtown and headed out to visit Belle Meade Plantation.  It is located just south and a little west of Nashville.  The family who build the plantation made their money studding racehorses back in the 1800's. 

We went on the house tour.  Our tour guide was a lovely young lady that I suspect might have been a student at Vanderbilt University just up the road.  She really made us feel like we were back in time.  I thoroughly enjoyed her taking us through the house.  Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside but I did spy several needle pointed and embroidered pieces on our tour!  There was even an awesome sewing table in the ladies' parlor.  Oh how I'd love to have one of those!

After the house tour, we were led to their winery for samples which was included in the price of admission.  I had to laugh, they said they were on one of the few places around that could sell wine on Sunday in case you were having a "wine emergency" while visiting.  So funny!

We made our way back to the hotel after our visit.  A big thunderstorm was rolling in and we didn't want to get caught out in it.  We decided to take the scenic way back. Wow, did  we find some fancy-schmancy neighborhoods.  I wondered as we drove by if any famous people lived in them.

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Well folks, this has gotten lengthy and I need to stop now.  I'll be back to share more soon.  Thank you to all who stuck with me to the end and I hope you enjoyed this bit of our Nashville visit.  Have a great weekend.


More soon,

The Inspired Stitcher

Speak to the Earth progress

I can't believe how quickly time flies past!  I meant to pop back in sooner with my progress update but as we can all see it didn't quite happen.  So I'm here today to share it with you now.  Let's have a look at where I was when we last visited.

Progress as of 7-31-15

Progress as of 9-6-15

Here it is as of last week.  I worked really hard to get this month's assignment done early as I knew I would be going out of town for our anniversary.

I'm really happy we've finally gotten to the section with the animals!  That cow is just so cute.  The snake was a bit tedious with all the color changes but it turned out really neat in the end.  The day I worked on the words was a nice bright sunny one.  I have to be in a special mood and in the right light to be able to do the over one on this high of count.

I decided to do the grass under the cow as far as I could get before I needed to change colors again.  You can just see the outline of the cat's tail between the tree trunk and the cow's back hoof.  Stay tuned, there will be lots more cute critters to come!

I'm contemplating posting about the trip.  There wasn't much stitchy-wise on this one since it was hubby and I.  I did manage to find a shop but I'd visited it before and that's why I wanted to go back.  It's a good one.  They were celebrating their 40th anniversary of business and marriage the same week we were there for ours.  How fun!

Well, I know it's a quickie today.  I hope all is well where you are.  Thank you so much for sticking with me as my posts have unintentionally gotten fewer.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

Tiara Stitch-in

I thought I'd pop in today and share the wonderful show and tell we saw at the Tiara Club's stitch-in last Saturday.  I know I always enjoy seeing goodies when others post.  Let's have a peek!

One of the peeps just got back a huge bunch of finishing from the super talented Faye over at Carolina Stitcher!  You may even recognize some of these pieces from Faye's posts.  She does wonderful work if you aren't familiar. 

So much goodness to drool over!  I love how Faye perfectly matched the calico to the stitching in the BBD piece in the upper left corner.   Everything is so pretty.  It's hard to pick a favorite.  Which one do you like best?

This one is so pretty in person.  My picture definitely doesn't do it justice.  Love that border and kuddos for stitching that house.  Wow!  I get bored with houses.  It's just a me thing.

This is one of the guild's anniversary pieces that is not only finished but framed!  You go girl!  This stitcher really customized and personalized the design.  It's been interesting to see how everyone is making this design their own.  It is going to be so much fun to see them all together as a group! 

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I ended up working on "Heaven Above" at the stitch-in.  I really didn't make enough progress to be all that noticeable.  I kinda did more laughing and socializing than stitching.  Ahem!  I am getting closer to finishing the first page of the chart so there's that.

I worked on it again this past Monday when my "quilting" group and I got together.  This group has been getting together once a month since 1986!  We don't always quilt but we do always get together.  LOL!

I hope you all enjoyed the pictures today.  Thanks for stopping in for a visit and welcome to anyone who is new to my corner of the blog-o-sphere!  Have a great rest of the week.

Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

TUSAL - August

It's TUSAL Day!

(For those not familiar, click on the word TUSAL above or the link to the right.)

It's hard to believe we are right smack dab in the middle of August already.  Back to school in these parts is only a little more than a week away.  Seriously, just where did the summer go?!

This past month has been odd for me stitching-wise.  I feel like I haven't put needle to linen much.  It's almost as though a slump is coming on or something.  Not sure what is up with that.  Here's a look at what I have been working on, although you'll find it isn't much.  LOL!

This month's contributors were:

"Speak to the Earth" by Donna Kooler Designs (In Progress)
"Heaven Above" by Midsummer Night Designs (In Progress)
"Butterfly Needle Case & Fob" by JBW Designs (Needle case Done! Fob in Progress)

I know this won't come as any surprise to some of you but I just discovered Stoney Creek's online store. What led me there was a Google search to find the companion pre-finished needlework book that goes with the needle case I got in the Russellville Exchange last month.

My peep, Patti, had made the "Butterfly Needle Case & Fob" set for the exchange and I fell in love with it too.  Stoney Creek had both of them!  You know what happened next.  Yep, stash enhancement!  I had actually wanted the JBW "Antique Vases" set when it first came out but hesitated and then it was gone from the LNS.  I imagined it was sold out everywhere until that Google search.

I need some advice on the fob portion of the "Butterfly"set.  I've gone through some of my sampler charts and looked in my file of online freebies I've saved looking for inspiration.  I'd like to put either a pretty "L" or my initials or something on the back.  It just doesn't feel right to me to leave the reverse side of the fob naked.  What do you all think would look nice?  Can you point me in the direction of something pretty?  I'll do a post when I get it all sorted and finish finished!

Thanks for stopping in for a quick visit today.  I hope all is well with you.  Tomorrow is an all day stitch with the Tiara Club.  I'm hoping to be inspired by all the goodness the peeps will be working on when we see each other.  It will be fun to get together and catch up too.

Happy World Cross Stitch Day everyone!

The Inspired Stitcher

Speak to the Earth progress

Hello friends!  As promised, I'm back to share my Speak to the Earth progress for July.  I worked on this quite a bit one night when I was at the Getaway in Russellville.  Then I worked on it some more in the following weeks.  Here's a peek at where it stands now and where it was when we visited last!

Progress as of 6/7/15

Progress as of 7/31/15

I'm really loving that strawberry band!  You know how I love my strawberries.  I got that put in while I was away.  Then I did the left side at home.  I'm thinking I've gotten myself ahead of our assignments.  It's easy to do with this one!  We should be starting some animals soon and I know there's some more over one words right below those strawberries.  Stay tuned!

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Speaking of strawberries, I just have to show you the sweet thing Peg over at Kentucky Sampler sent me!  She's doing some downsizing.  She said she found this at a the Peddler's Mall a while back. 

Here's the pretty paper and the card inside the box she sent!  Oh the suspense!

Just look at this sweet strawberry make-do!  It's sitting atop an old wooden spool with wire tendrils hanging down.  It's made of the softest velvet with cotton gingham leaves.  It's also pretty good size.  I'd say around six inches tall!  It's sitting on my mantle where I can see it from my stitching nest.  Thank you so much, Peg!  I'm happy to give it a new home and will think of you always.  What a treasure!

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Well folks, there you have it!  I hope your July has been good to you.  I can't believe summer is winding down already.  Soon it will be back-to-school time again.  I'm going to enjoy every last scrap of summer I can get between now and then.  LOL!  Have a great weekend!  Thanks for stopping by to visit.

Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

TUSAL - July

It's TUSAL Day!

(For those not familiar, click on the word TUSAL above or the link to the right.)

It's TUSAL time again.  I'm several days late this month.  I wanted to get my Russellville recap posts in first.  I know nobody minds.  This is really just a check in for myself anyway.  I know it's not the most exciting post I write.  LOL!

Here's a look at the ORT pile for this month.  Lots of red in there from the Getaway project and lots of tan from the spool fobs.  The wooden strawberry in the picture is from my peep, Linda.  She ran across it and thought of me.  I just love it!

Here's a look at this month's contributors to the pile.

"Speak to the Earth" by Donna Kooler Designs (In Progress)
"Heaven Above" by Midsummer Night Designs (In Progress)
"Count Your Blessings" by La D Da (Done!)
"Shaded Spool Fobs" Inspired by Faye x4 (Done!)
"Basket of Memories" by Blackbird Designs (In Progress)

It's been a good month for stitching even though I've been traveling a lot this month.  I'm making good progress on both my long term projects.  I plan to do an update post on "Speak to the Earth" toward the end of next week and I may even add "Heaven Above."  I've been working on both lately.

I love making gifts and I'm so glad I was able to finally share them.  It was also fun to finally be able to share the project bag Queen Bee made out of our stitched pieces.   I didn't mention it in any of my previous TUSAL recaps so I wanted to mention it here so I would remember it at the end of the year.  We are on the downward slide now.  I don't even want to think about Christmas yet!  Yikes!

Well folks, it's a short and sweet one today.  I hope everyone had a good weekend and has a good week as well.  Keep smiling and stitching!

Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher