Sing along with me -

Oh, Lord it’s hard to be humble……….when you’re perfect in ev-er-ey way.  I just hate to look in the mirror, I get better looking each day. 

To know me is to love me, I must be one hell of a man(‘s best friend).  Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble.  I’m doing the best that I can.”

----------  Barked by Baxter  & plagiarized  from a Mac Davis song

I’ve told you so many times that our Brittany, Baxter is almost perfect but that he still had a couple “issues”.  Were the issues big or were they small?  It all depends on how you look at them.  Regardless, the “issues” have apparently gone away.  We picked him up from the kennel

after we’d spent a few days out of town and we were on cloud 9 after reading Baxter’s “report card”. 

I am so excited, so filled with pride, so bursting with the news.  Our Baxter is on the Honor Roll!!  Truly.  Check it out------

As any proud parent would do, we began calling our “other children” – you know, the ones who have 2 legs and big mouths?  They sort of deflated our spirits when they pointed out that of course the kennel will give him a good report card.  They want him to come back, don’t they?  I’m a little bummed about it now but I know in my heart that he could be an honor dog.  Even if no one else thinks so.  It isn’t easy being a parent.

Whoa, Nellie, did I say we went out of town?  Goodness.  When my husband brought that subject up, I felt the earth wobble on it’s axis.  I didn’t ask when or where, I just packed my bags and hitched the horse to the wagon.  Off to the Amana Colonies in Iowa.  It’s probably an 8 or 9 hour drive and we had a great time chatting while driving along.  After about the first half an hour, we ran out of chit-chat and we drove the rest of the way in silence.  So then the radio gets turned up.  That’s fine if it’s tuned to “my” station but generally the driver gets to pick the music and when we’re together, my sweetie is usually driving.  Driving me nuts.  Hate his choice of music and when it gets so bad that even he can’t stand it, he tunes in to Fox News.  Have you ever noticed that when they run out of real news, they bring in a panel of experts to debate meaningless issues?  And every member on the panel tries to talk louder than everyone else so you have 6 people shouting at each other.  After a little of that, I turn it back to the yuk, ick music that I hate. 

I’m going to have to move this along because I have one of the world’s best kept secrets to share with you.  We went to the Amana Colonies in Iowa which were settled by German immigrants looking for religious freedom.  They arrived in Iowa in 1855.  There’s a lot of very interesting history about the Amana’s but I’m not wearing my teacher hat – you’ll have to Google it yourself.  (you’ll be glad you did).   

Anyhoo - while in the Amana Colonies we discovered the best place in the world to stay.  Even tho we NEVER go ANYWHERE, I do know enough to recognize an A #1, 4-star hotel when I see one.  The hotel is Zuber’s Hotel in Homestead, Iowa.  Don’t let the name “hotel” fool you.  This is a home away from home.  Only better because I don’t have to make the bed, clean bathrooms or make breakfast!  Aren’t ya lovin’ it?  Sorry I didn’t get an outside shot, but the building dates back to the 1850’s.  It’s been restored & remodeled by (my new best friend) Yana Cutler and her wonderful husband (altho I didn’t meet him), David.  I’m gonna just start tossing in some pictures I took of various rooms & suites.  And hallways, & gathering rooms and entries.  Pretty much everywhere.  Except the outside.  Sorry. 

We stayed in the:

 

The attention to details was amazing -

  

Here are a couple other rooms ---

    Bill Zuber, Major League Ball Player, former owner of Zuber’s Hotel. 

Then there was the golf themed room:

  

  

I have a ton more room pictures but frankly, if you’ve seen one lovely, outstanding room you’ve seen them all.  No, wait, that saying should be if you’ve seen one football game, you’ve seen them all.  Nothing lovely or outstanding about football.  And that’s the gospel truth according to Ms. Faye. 

So my idea is to show a few public areas such as entry, hallways and sitting areas:

This might be a good place to ask – do you think I loved, loved, loved this place?  When we left, I was crying and my Mr. was just a-tugging on my arm and my little heels were digging into the carpet.  It was ugly. 

Not so ugly was the Wood Shed which is a gathering room and breakfast area. 

You know how you might be at a Super 8 (not to pick on any particular hotel, I’m just sayin’, could be any chain) and they have a continental breakfast for you in the a.m.?  Like cereal in a box or even worse, one of those big plastic containers where you push the lever at the bottom and cereal comes flowing out into your bowl?  Not that I know this first-hand, I’ve just heard people talkin’.  You might also get some day-old sweet rolls too.  Yum!

So, my new best friend Yana also serves a continental breakfast just like that.  Only different - a LOT different.  Maybe the coffee is similar.  How about a nice, warm egg bake, hot oatmeal with cranberries, 3 kinds of fruit, rhubarb preserves (from Amana) and a yummy – & I’m talking serious yummy – loaf of cinnamon bread still warm from the oven.  Oh, mama.  I might have helped myself to TWO slices of that.  (You don’t need to mention that to Yana, ok? )

 

  This is Yana, our lovely hostess (owner).  Shown next to her is RC, a wonderful man to visit with and a great sense of humor.  RC’s great-great (I think it was 2 greats) Grandfather was an original settler of Amana. 

If you’ve read all of this un-paid commercial message, you deserve a star on your chart.  If you didn’t read it all, well, you just won’t know that you could have had a nice star for your chart on the fridge.

I missed Loose Threads last week due to our “big adventure” but I did sew a couple blocks ahead of time that we were all going to sew as a group.  It’s called Friendship Chain and measures 4 1/4” finished.  I think there were 31 pieces but if you want to count pieces I could get you another star.

Front of Block

Back of Block

Yes, it took more than 10 minutes to sew.  And no, I’m not making a queen size quilt of those blocks.

I could show you some garden pics but maybe next time.  This is getting SO LONG!  Hopefully I will have some interesting pics from a new group that’s interested in doing appliqué – we’ll be called the Bent Needles.  Lordy, Lordy.  Who came up with that one?  I think it should be Bent Needles and Twisted Sisters.  But what do I know?  I do know that a winter retreat in Iowa is looking VERY attractive.  Are you listening – Loose Threads – Woolies – The Sisterhood aka WooPees – and The Bent Needles??  I’ve heard that Iowa in March is lovely……………….

Ms. Faye