Let's see...where did I leave off last...oh yes, saturday!  So anyways, I got all the interfacing ironed on the shirts for the other side of Danielle's quilt and then I got that side pieced too (except for the borders).

I finally got my interfacing in the mail yesterday from JoAnn's so I was anxious to do some work on Danielle's quilt.  I alternated between quilting and working on wedding invitations today.  I cut all the interfacing for the front, ironed it on and then did all the stitching for the front.

Even though we've lived in florida for numerous years, neither of us had ever been lobstering until Ryan went on a guys fishing trip last year.  He and some guys spent a weekend in the keys fishing and looking for lobster.  Ryan came back so proud of the one lobster they brought home and when we cooked it up - it was delicious!

Ok so I had this idea in my head of what I wanted the reception decor to look like...the restaurant has these pretty dark wood tables and chairs so I was going to leave off the tablecloths and go with a natural look.  I wanted to add mossy tablerunners and then have a birdcage with flowers and a hand-stitched bird on it.  I was thinking I would have little bud vases with hydrangeas in it and that would be pretty much it - natural, simple and cute.

There are a ton of great country songs out there right now and I just wanted to share a few that have really caught my attention lately.  I just can't get enough of these songs!  Sorry they don't all have an actual music video.

"Angel Eyes" by Love and Theft

I finished RJ's quilt yesterday and am anxious to get started on Danielle's tshirt quilt but I ran out of interfacing right after RJ's quilt.  So I reviewed the layout and then planned the exact cutting sizes for each of the shirts.  I got all of the shirts cut and am ready to cut and iron on the interfacing as soon as I get it.  I went by JoAnn's the other day after work but they didn't have the big bolt I need so I ordered it online and am waiting semi-patiently for it to arrive.

The other night, I loaded up RJ's quilt onto the quilting machine and did the quilting.

Reception:
On Friday, Ryan and I got to go do our menu tasting, yay!  First we got to taste six appetizers and had to select four of them for cocktail hour:

• Citrus marinated rock shrimp
• Fire roasted tomatoes and fresh mozzarella
  
• Ginger marinated beef skewers
  
• Spring rolls with sweet chili sauce
  
• Mini crab cakes with herbed remoulade
  
• Mini meatballs with yellow tomato saffron sauce

I almost forgot to mention - earlier this weekend, the animals got some new toys too!  They were both out of food so I stopped at Petsmart and ended up wandering around and buying more stuff, haha.  Willow got a new collar, a dog bed for the living room (usually she sleeps in the cat bed) and a nylabone.  I tried to get a pic of the collar but she was too excited about it to sit still.

Today I spent 8 hours in the car, LOL, yes I am a crazy person.  I had been wanting to get an embroidery machine for quite a while to add names, initials, etc to some of the things I make.  Ryan and I got some money for Christmas and we decided to split it and each spend our half on whatever new toys we wanted.  As usual, Ryan spent his right away but I was waiting for the right thing to come along.  I also saved up some money from each quilt sale to add to my Christmas money.  I was searching craigslist for a while but I couldn't find what I wanted - most of them were either very low end machines or commercial machines that cost thousands.  But finally I found a listing that looked great - but it was a 4hr drive away.  So today, I drove to Englewood, FL and met with a charming couple who was selling the machine.  Vera (the seller) had gotten quite a bit of use out of this machine over the last few years but she recently upgraded to a much more expensive model and no longer needed both.  She showed me how to operate it and we did a little sample and then...I BOUGHT IT! Yay!!!!  I'm sure it will take some time playing with it to get it all figured out but i can't wait to be able to offer embroidery to my customers and be able to embroider things for myself, my friends and my family!  Here's the machine set up on my desk: