Birthday Hit

My 2011 has to be a better year for me and blogging. I have not been here with my thoughts since October. Well December 4 I celebrated another year of lifes blessings. Since I love my quilting I threw myself a Quilting Birthday Party. The event was held at the Quilter's Cabin, a retreat center in Tomball, TX with almost 20 of my best quilting buddies. Two of my favorites had other engagement but they called me and texted me while the party was going on. My sister Diane came to help me host along with my dearest friend Kim. As the phone call came I was talking, running the Imani Bingo came I created and going to the main road to get those that were lost. The retreat center is down a private road with a gate code and you think you are deep in the woods when it is only about 1 mile from the main road. Continental Breakfast was provided and Lunch was served around 1 pm. For lunch my dear friend Nishie Thomas from Beaumont prepared a super sized pan of chicken spaghetti. We lunched on chicken spaghetti, salad, and yeast rolls. For dessert........I provided everyone with a bag of Laura's Favorite Things. Laura's Favorite Things are See's Pecan Bud Candy, large Honeycrisp Apple, Big Tex Cinnamon Roll. I figured since Oprah has her favorite things and share, why can't I. Oh I forgot to mention the snack foods. Several friends brought snacks from broccoli salad, pimento cheese spread, chips, Golden Oreos (another favorite of mine), summer sausage and cheese tray and I can't forget the Moscato D'Asti......a trip to HEB produced more for those of us enjoying the day with good company.

The Princess and The Frog

Whew, the things we do for the little ones in our lives. My niece Corey's baby girl turned 5 last week and my twin her grandmother decided to give her a out of this world birthday party. She designed the invites, games, made princess and frog mask for the kids, and tried to turn her front yard into an enchanted forest of some sort. We worked hard on making two 10 x 10 tents to be fit for a princess and then the rain came. We didn't even have a chance to take a picture of our work just moved the kids inside and kept the party rolling. The rain continued to pour down for the next 3 hours. The hit of the party was a Kiss the Frog game (Pin the Tail on the Donkey, you remember) and a Princess piñata. The frog had lips plastered all over its lil body as the kids ranged from age 3 to 10. The birthday girl Sidney was able to break the piñata at the end of the party and the kids filled their bags with the candy.

And the winner is ME!

Well its has been months since I have been able to write on my blog. Since then I have worked hard for the U.S. Census during the summer months in my home town and I was able to attend my sorority convention in New Orleans, LA this summer. Back in grad school this semester and this time going for 9 hours trying to graduate next spring or summer. In September I went to a retreat with my friend Queen and I was the "People's Choice" winner in a quilt contest being held at Rice University. I had know idea how much time I was going to devote to winning but I gave my entire week to it. I sent out over 400 emails, my twin sent out over 500 and I was listed on several Facebook pages with populations nearing over 3000. Now that didn't include the personal phone calls and the text messages sent out. One of my friends voted for someone else quilt but then he made it up to me and voted at school for mine. Much love to all my family and friends I had votes coming in from Spain, England, Kuwait and who knows where else in the world. I watched those polls for hours and on the last day coming to the close of the contest I rarely left my pc not to mention my family (the nation) who was constantly calling and watching also. The quilt will be on exhibit at Rice U and can be seen with the other quilts at http://here.rice.edu I entered just to see how many people I could reach and I don't know what the total votes were but I know I had 35% of them. Then on yesterday I went to the mailbox and my copy of Kyra Hicks books was there and guess who was listed as an African American Quilter in Cyberspace ~~~~you guess its ME! That was enough to say girl you need to go write something on that blog.

My Oh My

Lawdy you know you just keep putting off saying I will write something today and then today passes and then months pass and you find yourself saying time to stop running. I have just returned from a family reunion in Louisiana where I met many new cousins and look forward to sharing other events with them. As a proud member of the Marks family out of Jeanerette, Louisiana we are finally unraveling our branches and I am predicting the upcoming reunion of the Apollon Marks clan to be over 1000. Many are learning of the gatherings and many of us older ones (50 and Older) are interested in connecting with other cousins that share the same family names. It is such a wonderful feeling when someone approaches you and greets you with a hug....they look like you and you instantly know they are kin.

2010

Wow, now I said I would post monthly on my blog and I am already a month behind. I can't believe I have not posted since my birthday. Well my holiday was a little stressful with personal problem beyond my control but I am so happy to be hear in 2010...we have already had several love ones to leave us and the earthquake in Haiti has humbled us some more to realize our blessings. I remember as Hurricane Ike took the Gulf Goast and we went for weeks without electricity we thought that was something. Lawdy what if we had been in Haiti's situation. Day by day we are being reminded of our blessings and that everything is not peachy cream for everybody. My daughter returned home in January, 22 years old, no degree, no job and a broke heart from a "boy' she thought loved her. She is pressing forward with her education and trying to regroup her life at this point. School is back in session for me along with entering my first Quilt Show. I will be exhibiting 6 quilts on February 12 and 13 in Beaumont, Texas and I am so excited. For years I have attended quilt shows and wondered how my work would look hanging for many to see. My quilting is so much of me I have millions of thoughts of projects running through my brain.