INCOURAGE-MY FAVORITE SHOP IN SAN ANTONIO AND TEXAS TOO!

Above is a photo of Me,Brenda and Mel after shopping at Incourage. It is a wonderful shop that has only happy and beautiful gifts with a positive spin. I spent a good chunk of cash as did the other girls. This shop has hidden treasures everywhere and great music, color and happy clerks to serve you. Everyone smiles in this great atmosphere.

I will be doing a book signing there next Novemeber for my new book. This is the kind of place I would love to meet "Mary Lou" people. It has all of the things I love in a shop.

The pink tree in the background catches your eye from outside the shop and every ornament looks fabulous on this color! What fun to get out photos taken here.

Above is the shop owner (positive, friendly, remembers customers, helps and is wonderful) and next to her is her girl Friday who is also a great person to ask for help or just to talk to!

I thought this beaded bird was wonderful in every way and so creative!

Here is the nice UPS man who looks like Santa with all kinds of new things for shelves in the store. I heard that every holiday is done to perfection and creativity in this wonderful shop! This guy was cute and positive too!

Whoever heard of a red tree? It is stunning in person and they said if you use it for Christmas you can leave it up and cover it with hearts for Valentines day! COOL!

I fell in love with this wonderful angel. I thought about getting it for my birthday in Feb. (a big one) but how to get it home?????

While you are shopping they give you a beautiful bottle of cool water...what a treat.

Aren't these trees cool? We bought all kinds of goodies to put into the cornacopias we made for our family trees. This place had great prices and all kinds of stuff!

Anything red looks fabulous on lime green and thought many ornaments were sold, there were still plenty for me to buy and I plucked alot off of here to put on my own great tree at home.

The shop from the outside....this shop is next door to Starbucks...can you imagine my excitement? I hope you will come visit there when I come next Novmeber. This shop is worth the drive...I am not kidding! It was the first place I asked Brenda to drive us to see.

The owner made this great brancg to hang all of the things off of. I loved the look of cherries on branches....I hope to do this when I win the lotto all over my house..........

More ideas of things to buy....this place is a great size with all kinds of things everywhere....

I bought a similar pillow (mauve velvet) that said "To the Moon and Back" which I used to say to my children about how much I loved them....I may keep it or give it to one of the girls....

I sincerely hope you go to visit this shop sometime in the future...you won't be sorry. It is truly wonderful in so many ways.

Mary Lou's Happiness Is line is UP on Benartex...please check it out!

Please please ask for these fabrics at your local quilt shop-they are beautiful and wonderful to work with!
http://db.benartex.com/storelocator/FMPro?-DB=invimage.fp3&-lay=internet&-max=15&delay=no&-op=eq&directory=hapis&-Format=collection.htm&-sortfield=primarysort&-sortorder=ascend&-sortfield=recordid&-sortorder=ascend&-find

Come on and get happy!

This is fabric from one of my older lines called Be Happy. I just saw it on equilter and it made me smile. I think this is such a pretty color way and hey, isn't this fabric happy? Equilter.com

CHRISTMAS RECIPES YOU MAY WANT TO TRY

CarmelCornhttp://www.northpole.com/Kitchen/Cookbook/rec0609.html Carol'sAlmondBarshttp://www.northpole.com/Kitchen/Cookbook/rec2782.html EnglishToffeehttp://www.northpole.com/Kitchen/Cookbook/rec0063.html EnglishToffeehttp://www.northpole.com/Kitchen/Cookbook/rec0078.html EnglishToffeeBarshttp://www.northpole.com/Kitchen/Cookbook/rec0224.html ChocolateTruffleshttp://www.northpole.com/Kitchen/rec0707.Melting>>>Moments>>> MicrowavePralineshttp://www.northpole.com/Kitchen/Cookbook/rec0696.html

How to Roast Chestnuts if you don't know

I had my first chestnuts in Germany while I was there and since I have had them at Brenda's house in Texas and at my house. Yum.
Buy chestnuts at your local store. Smell each of them and if they smell moldy, don't buy them. I buy the heavy ones that are kind of big in the batch. Then take a sharp (really) knife and on the top of the chestnut cut an X. If you don't they will explode. How do I know this? Never mind.
Anyway, once you cut the X in each chestnut, then put them on a baking sheet in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes. If your oven runs hot then do 375.
Then take them out and take an OLD towel and put them in the towel and kind of tap the bunch with a rolling pin. Then open up the towel and take one and peel off the outside and put a little salt on the chestnut (or not) and start eating. Once you begin eating them, they grow on you.
They are best warm with a nice glass of wine or anything you prefer to drink while noshing.
I hope you learn to enjoy this once a year treat.

Three things to make you happy this time of year

Put up a Christmas Tree!

Buy new wonderful Christmas ornaments!


Roast some chestnuts and share them with someone you love and have a little salt close by and something really cold to drink. Delicious!

With all of the color on my blog it may have been easy to have missed the blurb I did about the handbags below. Please check it out. This was the nice comment left by the founder of this handbag company. I thought it was really great. We all need to help where we can.
Bagman said...
thank you for sharing the Laga story with your readers. We started the handbag factory and training center August 2006 with 12 women, today we are supporting 150, our vision is to help 1,200. We appreciate you coming alongside with us. Best wishes, Roy van BroekhuizenCo-Founder & CEO

Samples from My fabricline and fun photos from Market of Happy Things

I know you may have seen this but if you haven't it is my new black and creams that go along with the Happiness Is line. Mari Linfesty made this quilt hoochy mama style and I just love it. Mari also made the two samples below...one did not get put together....by me. I ran out of time....stay tuned.

The quilt above got many stacked colorful buttons sewn onto the middle of each of these little crosses. Hillcreek buttons had the perfect match to all of the "Happiness Is" fabrics.

I had big plans of making a topiary out of this and it is still going to happen. It would have been nice for it to happen for Market but I may do more work on it since I don't have to hurry. There is talk about me doing a piecing book of things....like this. :0) I have loads of patterns already designed.

Brenda from Texas and Mel from LA share a hug at Market. Both of these girls are good friends and are fun....can you tell? They did the quilt that Benartex is giving free patterns out for that goes along with the "Happiness Is" line. See below, it is quilted and bound now and it really a very pretty quilt. I wish you could see it in person. If you click the photo you can see a bigger photo and some of the details.

The booth above and below was Linzee's and mel's favorite booth. I forget the girls name but she oozes talent and I wish she would come and redo my house....I saw frames like this in many magazines but with the fabric in them it is so cool!

I have all of the quilts here as of this afternoon and all quilted so I plan to take photos and then pass them back to the owners. It'll be fun to show you the huge variety of things out of the "Happiness Is" line.

Here is Mel, Me and Linzee after we finished setting up the booth-actually, we ordered two darling girls from Minnesota around and they put up the booth while we told them where we "thought they should put things." I loaned samples that Mary Linfesty did out to the buttons companies and didn't get photos to show. Mary is very talented in quilting, teaching school and being a great Mother to her darling boys. She did the quilt above that has the little bit of color and all of the black and creams on the table. It is an awesome quilt! All Hoochy Mama and inspirational too!

Here is Pat Sloan and I before we went out and got lunch and chatted about all of the exciting things that quilting has to offer to us and you. She is alot of fun and knows how to get creative and have fun! http://patsloan.typepad.com/

One of the nice things about working for Benartex is that they have awesome people who work for them.As we set up the part of the booth that had "Happiness Is" fabrics of mine, Rafael helped out every time we asked. he has a lovely strong accent and he is pretty hunky too. It is nice to see someone like him be so thoughtful to us older gals. :0) I told him you all would love his photo on my blog. :0)

This is a photo of my dear friends from Tennessee Quilts. It is absolutely one of my MOST favorite shops and I order online from them all of the time. Tall Linda, me, Brenda and short Linda are chatting about the new things they ordered. I already have my list of fabrics I have to have! These girls made many samples out of my line to have at their shop and if you can't find "Happiness Is", they will have the whole line. http://tennesseequilts.com/

Talk about being at the right place at the right time! Cary Breshnahan (the Grand Grand Poobah of Market-she owns Quilts Inc.) came by Lizzie B's while I was chatting with them and she gave them a first place ribbon on their booth. It was so exciting for me to see how thrilled they were along with one of their Mom's and a husband. We all were grinning ear to ear.

Check them out and all that they have to offer! http://www.lizziebcre8ive.com/

The two girls (Lizzie B) girls are Sister in law's and the ladies on each end are Mother and daughter. I think this is very sweet....do you think since they don't live in the same state, that they fought over the ribbon??? Nope, look at their faces...you can tell they get along great.
This is one of the best parts of Market,meeting new and old friends.

Some highlights of Market

This fun photo is of Mel McFarland, Amy Butler and me. Mel and I just bought Amy's latest book on sewing for babies. Amy and I became friends when we attended the AQS creativity workshop. She is so much fun and so talented. I am an avid fan.

http://www.amybutlerdesign.com/products/patterns_top.php

This is me and none other than the real Pam (kitty morning). I know this is a stupid photo of me but it is the best I have. Pam made purses for me out of my fabrics and she made me the purse I am holding. She is helping her friend Elizabeth Scott and all of the quilts behind us are Elizabeth's designs. Very very pretty. If you would like to visit Pam's blog please go to Pamkittydesigns.blogspot.com and if you would like to visit Elizabeth's site, http://www.latebloomerquilts.com/about/index.php She designs for Moda and has very pretty things.

Tortilla Soup at the Four Seasons in our room. Both Mel and I were exhausted from our flights and getting everything in place for Market. I just noticed this photo is upside down but that's pretty creative. Anyway, it was a nice quiet dinner as we waited for Linzee, an writer for AQS to come and share our room for the week.

There was alot of evidence of hurricanes in Houston downtown. These buildings were next to ours so I took photos. There were thousands of windows blown out for miles. As we flew over we could see rooftops on homes missing and they all had blue tarps covering them. It was a good reminder that if your home is in tact and you are enjoying the day, you are blessed. My good friend Peggy lost her wonderful job she had in Galveston because of the hurricane. Her building is gone and her job (it went to another city in Texas). Aren't we blessed if we have our homes and jobs and family in tact?

Regina Muli sent me this good recipe-it's a perfect time of year to try these and I would frost them with white icing

MISS AUNT REGGIES RED VELVET COOKIES
1 BOX RED VELVET CAKE MIX
1/2 CUP SUGAR
2 CUPS QUICK COOKING OATS
3 EGGS
1 1/2 TSP VANILLA
3/4 CUPS OIL
1 CUP WALNUTS
MIX ALL TOGETHER
USE COOKIE SCOOP
BAKE ON UNGREASED COOKIE SHEET,
BAKE 350 DEGREES 16-18 MINUTES IF YOU USED SCOOP
I ALWAYS DOUBLE THIS, SINCE USING THE SCOOP ONE RECIPE
MAKES ABOUT 25 COOKIES
Mary Lou's Frosting of:
Icing sugar (2 cups), real butter-2/3 cup, add cream until right consistancy of frosting ,then add vanilla (about 1 teaspoon) If this needs more sugar then add until it is right-this is how Mary Lou's cooks and bakes :0)
NOTE- this recipe did not call for frosting but I have found that when it comes to chocolate, I like to soften the taste with white icing, maybe this came from my childhood, I am not sure

Too cute not to share...thank you Nancy

Can you believe how cute this is???

"Happiness Is" fabric by Benartex and Mary Lou-please ask your shop for this happy fabric!

here are a few small things we are working on for Market out of my new Happiness Is fabric. I have purses to show you, more wallhangings and fun things-this line is pure joy to work with and in these times, the colors and theme are upbeat, positive and joyful. All the things one needs for great quilts, purses and other fun projects. I love working with these colors...stay tuned for more. The above quilt was made by my friends Brenda, Marilyn and Mel while we were at the ocean and being happy.


The blocks above are mostly out of my Flower Power book and the dogs are a new pattern I am offering in workshops I teach that features dogs and cats. Mari Lindesty my friend put the blocks together and I am going to finish them off in a fun way for samples. I wanted you to see the fun prints though and how happy and colorful they are. Mari is good at hoochy'ing.

The above quilt was put together by Brenda Asmus and now it is being quilted and getting black and cream binding from the line. Very fun for a little baby quilt.

Hope you like what you see so far....stay tuned for more....."Happiness Is"

This is so silly it makes one wonder who has time to do this kind of thing

On the other hand it just occured to me that someone had to drink all of the beers etc., next to the pumpkins so I guess that explains it. A group of drunk people did this photo........Haha

Images to Amuse and Inspire

Some Hoochy blocks and Flower Power flowers to inspire you

Aren't the colors above awesome for a quilt palette?

Above is another Flower Power Flower for a border or a quilt itself

Another Flower Power Posie above...pretty and fun and creative!

Wanna be a wise woman? Read this and take it to heart....

HOW TO STAY YOUNG 1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them.' 2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches and critics pull you down.3. Keep learning. ! Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening,whatever, even acupuncture. Never let the brain idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' And the devil's family name is Alzheimer's. 4. Enjoy the simple things. 5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath, it is proven to give more years to a happy life 6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive. 7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, quilts,keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge. 8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable,improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help. 9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county;to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

I think this wisdom is for any wise person who will actually read this and remember it....this is true wisdom and as I tell my girls, to be a wise person is to hear wisdom and memorize it.

Hope you take this to heart dear friend....this is meant to bless you today...............

A Beautiful Day in My Neighborhood

The hydrangias in my yard are glorious and three different distinct colors-blue, purple and pink!

I brought a few inside to enjoy while I do dishes -the cow butterdish is a gift from my friend Tanya and the cherries in the bowl are from Donna- I only keep things on my window sill that remind me of friends The cherries always make me happy and that cow has always made me smile!

OK, my feet will never win a prize but hey, a pedicure sure helps and so do all of those beads on my shoes...little kids love them

OK, take some cool background fabric, a few bright pieces that make you feel jazzy and joila! Instant HOOCHY blocks to take to Lowell,MA to show friends.....

The start of a new border for a story quilt that will go in my book......

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LITTLE THINGS IN MY GARDEN MAKE ME HAPPY TODAY