Our Memorial weekend started out on Saturday with a very fun house warming party at Amanda and Ryan's. Fun bar-b-que with volleyball, ping pong,and conversation! 

Then Sunday Amanda, Dick and I drove to Indianapolis to visit Mike, Karly and baby Bianca! It's only a 5 hour drive so not too bad, and we timed it so we would miss the Indy 500 traffic. This was the first time Dick and Amanda got to meet Bianca. 

  

Today has started out with beautiful weather and a long list of things to do. I talked with Amanda about wedding plans and that to-do list, with her adding more to my list. Then I walked to the Assistance League resale shop where I spent the morning volunteering, stopped by the bank to deposit the certificate money for the church and then walked to church to drop off the deposit slip. (My foot is hurting less so I hope I didn't hurt it more by so much walking!)

I do want to share the quilt I made for baby Bianca. Her mommy and daddy had been calling her their 'honey bee' while waiting for her to be born so I had to use this cute 'bee' fabric I found!

Here's the front and back. I quilted it with a honeycomb pattern and little bees.

And now for MY list--

First off,  I really want to set out time to go through the pictures from my trip to Japan and fix any that really need it. You know, cropping and straightening a bit, and some need shadows lightened. But I have surprised myself because I really like most of them as I took them! Yay! Here's one of the first fun meals we had where we cooked the veggies and meat in our individual bowls of simmering broth. Yummy!

And these next two were taken at a festival celebrating Budda's birthday. So many interesting things to see but so very, very crowded! There were booths selling trinkets and booths with food lining the long walk into the main festival area. Then there was a large pavilion with musicians playing that was wonderful. The cherry trees were not quite full-bloom, but close, and people had claimed their space under the trees with big blue plastic tarps so they could have picnics.

So what would be most fun would be to divide my pictures into a 'short program' of what I think are the best to give a nice travelog story - because there are way too many for anyone to really spend the time looking at them, other than me! That way if someone is really interested they could look at more pictures but I wouldn't be boring anyone, hopefully. It was a lot more fun taking the pictures I think. 

Then second on my list - also with photos - is to work on the scans of the slides from Grandpa. They desperately need to be color corrected and fixed because many have water damage. I'd like to arrange them with stories from Grandpa and have them made into a book. How much time is THAT going to take? If I work on a few pictures everyday I may get it done in time for either Grandpa's birthday or Christmas.

And third, because not all my projects should deal with photos, I must finish the T-shirt quilt I am making for a friend from church. I have only had the shirts for almost 6 months and it needs to get done. The main part of the top is finished and I am working on borders. So I am giving myself one week - I want to take it to quilt guild for show and tell. I really need deadlines!

Another reason that I'm behind in putting up these posts is that I am now a Grandma!! My little darling has arrived May 10 (early by almost 4 weeks) and is a bit small at 5 pounds 13 ounces, but is doing fine. Her name is Bianca Ray and she is beautiful!!!

She arrived in the middle of the night so I was not there, but drove over the first thing in the morning - she's only 5 hours away for now! Look at all that blond hair! I do miss holding her!

 I've been back from my wonderful trip to Japan for 3 weeks now and am just now commenting about it. Here are just a few of my photos...

"Springtime in Japan - Textiles & Cherry Blossoms" was the name of the trip and it did not disappoint! We were told that we were so lucky to be able to see so many of the trees blooming at the times we were visiting. They were very beautiful! We got to spend a lot of time in Kyoto which was so beautiful.

We saw a great mix of gardens, pottery studios, museums and temples. The tour was arranged to go to several of the Spring Festivals that were being celebrated and if I put all the photos I took on this page it would take an hour at least to skim through them all. We were lucky to be able to attend a smallish quilt show too that was held on a floor at a department store. What a treat! The vendor booths at the end were almost as much fun to browse through as the show. I picked out some great taupe fabrics (that I have not seen here at home) to go with the ones I have been collecting. Now I will have to get going on that project - except I came home with several projects to do! Which should be first?

Being Festival time there were many Japanese tourist out and enjoying themselves that it seemed even more fun, and crowded! At one temple the young girls dressed in kimonos and went to find out their fortune about who they would marry. It seemed that all the young people love posing for pictures. Most of the people we met were very polite and helpful. I think one of the best things about the tour was the beauty of all the gardens. They were all so carefully tended and peaceful with special care in the placement of rocks and statues to the planting of each flower or tree. So many of the gardens were very old and had the feeling of a warm hug to me. I never got tired of walking along a path waiting to see what was around the bend - and many times there was a group of 5 or 6 students with their teacher. I don't know if it was a special time for field trips or if the teachers always take the students out, but it was interesting to see the kids in their uniforms out taking pictures and enjoying the gardens too.