Karen's Muse and Musings

Every Inchie Monday — Peace

I thought long and hard on this topic until finally I settled on the place I am most relaxed and at peace — the beach on St. George Island. Be sure to check out the other entries at Every Inchie Monday.

I Love Michigan!

Last weekend I visited my friend, Joanne Thieme Huffman, in Portage, Michigan. She is such a gracious hostess and treated me royally. Another dear friend, Catherine Warner (sadly blogless), lives close by in Kalamazoo, so she joined us for most of the weekend's activities which consisted of the best life has to offer — friends, food and ART!

Here's Joanne standing in front of her beautiful artwork which features her daughter, Becky.

On my first night there, we ate at Martini's. That's Catherine and me.

On Friday Joanne and Catherine took me on a scenic tour of Lake Michigan. We visited several quaint and lovely towns. Here we are all happy after a terrific lunch at Clementine's in South Haven.

Isn't this a cool chair? The back is made of golf clubs, and it was surprisingly comfortable. They also had chairs made of old skis.

We walked out the pier to the lighthouse. This was my first visit to one of the great lakes. Lake Michigan was impressive as was the beauty of everything I saw around there. The weather treated us well. It was cloudy that day, but no rain, and the other days I was there were sunny and beautiful. Much better than here in Atlanta where we've had rain, rain and more rain.

The lighthouse up close and personal.

Saturday morning Catherine took me to the fabulous farmer's market in Kalamazoo. Then Joanne hosted an art play day with several of my online friends who live in the area. Jeanie Croope drove down from Lansing to join us. That's her on the right in the above photo. Doesn't the table look lovely? Joanne made a scrumptious curried rice salad, and that long tray of gorgeous veggies was prepared by Catherine.

Brittney Young was there making envelopes. She must have made 50 from different beautiful papers.

Garage sale and flea market guru, Beth Bricker, came in AFTER hitting 3 sales. (That's Beth with the blonde hair in the center of the photo.) Of course, we all had to go out to her car to see what treasures she found, and we weren't disppointed.

I was delighted to meet Nellie Wortman in person. She looks pretty happy here, don't you think? She said that was water in that cup, but I wonder?!

That brings us sadly to my last day there. Catherine graciously prepared a brunch for Joanne, Jeanie and me. Catherine asked me to make mint juleps. I guess she figured since I was from the South, I should know how, and fortunately I did. First, you have to muddle fresh mint leaves with sugar.

Then you add ice and, of course, bourbon, preferably a really good one.

Good friends and yummy mint juleps!

Catherine prepared her scrumptious Orgasmic Eggs — fresh spinach, poached eggs, and diced tomatoes. Really, really delectable!

And that's beautiful Catherine standing by her delicious brunch. Sadly, the time came when I had to leave. Joanne had to drive from Portage to Detroit on Thursday to pick me up, and it took her 3-1/2 hours due to road construction, so it was very nice of Jeanie to offer to drive me back to the airport on Sunday.

I snapped this photo of the always smiling Jeanie as we drove along. No delays that day, so I arrived at the airport in plenty of time to catch my plane back to Atlanta, where it was raining, of course.

Summer Respite

I'm back home after a week at the beach. Since I haven't blogged in over a week, I have a lot to share. I made an ATC for this week's Layers of Color Challenge — Summer Respite. Since I've been home, I've been playing catch up with mail, e-mail, bills, the garden, housework, the list goes on and on. I think I now need another respite!

The quote is paraphrased from Henry James. In a letter to Edith Wharton, he wrote, "Summer afternoon — summer afternoon, to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." I stumbled across these words in my latest copy of Victoria magazine today, and I thought they were perfect for the theme.

My stepdaughter, Dana, is having a baby boy in September. Her baby shower is this Saturday, so I had to get busy and finish up a little outfit I was making. (I'm always trying to get my kids to read my blog, but they never do, so I feel fairly safe that I'm not spoiling the surprise for Dana. I hope this won't be the one time she decides to check it out!)

Here's the little cap that goes with the romper. I need to shop for a little applique to place on the cap.

And here's the card to go with the gift. I used a Keepsake Embossing board to make it.

Last, I have a couple of photos from our vacation to share. The shot of the birds was taken while Warren and I were having lunch at Boss Oyster in Apalachicola.

Here's a really cool photo. I found this tree in Apalachicola that had all these old dead vines wrapped around the trunk. I love the colors and think it will make a great background for some art.

Lunching in Rome

I ate lunch in Rome yesterday. My sister, along with my niece just in from Athens, whisked us away for a lovely day in her private jet.

Gotcha! Actually it went more like this: I ate lunch in Rome, Georgia, yesterday. My sister, along with my niece just in from Athens, Georgia, home of the University of Georgia, whisked us away for a lovely day in her Honda Accord.

The trip was planned as a Mother's Day treat for my mom who grew up in Rome. She and my other sister met us, and we really did have a wonderful day exploring the old Southern river city, having a delightful lunch at the Harvest Moon Cafe, and wandering through Myrtle Hill Cemetery. I couldn't believe that I forgot my camera! Luckily, my mother let me use her camera to capture some stone angel photos which I hope to use in future art projects. Here are a couple.

Oh, and by the way, here in Georgia we also have a Cairo and a Vienna!