DINNER IN FRANKENMUTH, MI

Hi Everyone,

What a great day yesterday was.  Why, you say?  Well first of all, MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY won against Purdue!!! (now 10-1)  Dick taped the game for us to watch when we got back home.(around 5:00 pm) We went to Frankenmuth to meet some of our camping friends for a birthday celebration.  It was a perfect day for driving and to see all the Christmas decorations up in town.  I wished we could have stayed until dark so I could have seen the town all lit up and also see Bonner's decorations. If you have never been to this area, you need to seriously make plans no matter what season it is.  My favorite time is just before Christmas.  There are so many people that come to this small town year around.  We had reservations for 2:00 at Zehnder's restaurant so after we checked in, we strolled downstairs to check out the gift store and bakery.  Can you believe it, we didn't buy ANY bakery goods.  That has to be a first!!!  I didn't take a picture of the bakery since I didn't want to drool every time I looked at it. LOL  My family doctor will be so proud of us!!

We didn't stay downstairs very long as it was wall to wall people.  Not for me, I went upstairs (everyone else soon followed) and sat in the lounge area by the TV (which had the Uof M game on) and visited with our friends.   The birthday girls (Phyllis-Nov 24th and Mom (Donna)-Nov 17th) are just as young as the last time I saw them. LOL  We had a great time and decided to form a Birthday Club.  Below are some of the photos I took of the event:



Kathy had the cake made and added the camping decorations.
(canoe, tent, & campfire) These are recycled decorations (LOL)



The BIRTHDAY GIRLS - Phyllis and Mary

  

Donna, (Kathy's mother) chatting in the lounge area
and watching all the people waiting to get in.  It is about 1:00 p.m.

 


Phyllis





Bill (Phyllis' Husband)


 

Mike - Bill & Phyllis' grandson.  Such a cutie!




Dick (my HUNK!)



Mom and her daughters, Mary and Kathy

 

Birthday Girl with Mr. Chicken (Phyllis had left the
dining area and didn't get back until after he left.)



As you can see we had a great time and it was good to see some of our camping friends again.  We hadn't seen them since Labor Day.  We are hoping to go to the campgrounds in January (rent a cabin for a week) so we can go to Frankenmuth again for the ice sculptures and another birthday lunch.

Thank you for taking a peek at my day yesterday.  I made a card for Phyllis but, as par for the course, I didn't take a picture of it to share with you.  I am going to try and make some tags today and then get ready for this coming week.  Oh, almost forgot another great thing that happened yesterday, my niece, Tricia got married to Ethan.  So happy for both of them and wish them only the best.  Love to both of you.

Well if I don't get back on here before Thursday, "HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS" See you next time.

For all of you who leave a comment below, "Thank YOU"

Christmas Card Stack for ONE!

Well, here it is November 1st and less than 2 months til Christmas!!!  I haven't been doing much craft stuff for the past 4 months so after attending Ronda Wade's Scrapbooking Retreat a week ago, I got my mojo back.  I love going to these retreats as Ronda & Melissa do such a great job of pampering us ladies (there were 60 in attendance).  This is only my second time at attending one for the whole weekend.  Last March I bunked with my sister, Kathleen and this time I bunked with another sister, Sandi (Dailey). I also signed up for all 5 classes this time.  Wow, was I busy!  We had a costume contest on our first night (friday) and I won 2nd place. WooHoo!! I got a real nice 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 album (new item in this year's catalog or maybe it was in the mini-not sure).  I also won some 12x12 cardstock in one of the raffles.  In the Silent Auction, I won the bid for 20 (12x12) pages that were completed.  The pages are real neat looking and I can still add embellishments if I want to. 

Okay enough about the retreat.  My BFF, Jacqie, wanted to do some Christmas cards like we did last year so she came over tonight.  I decided to do 16 cards (4 each of 4 different designs).  I cased 3 designs from the retreat and the 4th one I cased from LaDonna Johnson. Here are a few pictures I took:

Jacqie working hard. Completed all 16 in 2 hrs.

Jacqie with all her cards completed.

Cards she made. The bottom right one is not one of the cards I did at the retreat.

It was fun being with Jacqie again.  We have known each other about 35 yrs. through our jobs at MSU.  I haven't converted her to SU yet but she sure likes the products.  I told her tonight about My Digital Studio thinking she would like the program.  We didn't have enough time for me to show her the program but we have tentatively made plans to meet again so she can make some gifts.  I did something different this time while setting up the class.  I set my table up as 4 stations and had everything laid out that she would need.  I also cut all the paper ahead of time and stamped some of the ornaments that she had to punch. It worked out so much better than what I did last year.  It took only 2 hrs to complete all the cards and 1/2 hr to clean up after she left.  I didn't get flustered and had more time to work with her one on one.  I liked doing a class like this instead of 3-4 people attending. 

Okay, I will leave you with a picture of me in my winning costume.  Picture was taken by Ronda.

My lollipop was made with SU products (except the stick)

Click on any of the above pictures to enlargen the picture

Well, time to go for tonight.  Have a good day tomorrow and I am going to go raid the freeze!!!  Ice cream here I come. YUM YUM!!!