Oh ya, this happened....

We recently got back from our annual camping trip to the central coast of California, Pismo Beach to be exact. This is one of my favorite places on the entire earth and basically I didn't want to leave...ever. My family including my sister and her husband, my nephew, my parents and then the four of us all go beach camping together every year. We so look forward to it and count the days until we can go back.

My brother-in-law is our resident outdoor camping chef, and he cooked up something amazing for us every night. This particular night it was chicken legs with chilies, onion and cilantro grilled over an open fire. Yum!

This night he had smoked a pork shoulder all day long and we had BBQ pork sandwiches on a pretzel roll with coleslaw and baked beans. I mean it people we do not mess around when it comes to camp dining!

We drove up the coast to Avila Beach one of the days. This little beach town is so typical California beach town. It is full of surfers, surf shops, bicycles, and colorful beach houses. It was really overcast and I think we even got sprinkled on a little bit.

 These are my two beautiful daughters, Courtney and Lindsey. I love this photo!

One of my favorite parts of this annual trip is getting to stop into all the little local quilt shops up and down the coast. One of my favorites is right in Pismo Beach called 'Quiltin Cousins.' I always find something special there. Look at all the fabulous fabrics that I found. Some are older but new to me. I had my eye out for typography/text fabrics for a quilt that I want to make and I found quite a few. The best thing about buying fabric while traveling is that you can make something with it and always remember your trip by it.

A little stitching and a little reading.

Some crafty little things going on around here. I bought these cute little paper embroidery kits by Amy Tangerine for American Crafts, a few weeks ago and gave them a whirl.  I love the patterns and how easy they are to use. I've been a scrapbooker for many years and I love to sew on my pages and this just adds a little extra handsewn look to titles and embellishments. I highly recommend them!

A couple of days ago I got an urge to make a super simple, super fast quilt out of this book. I grabbed a stack of fresh, calming, bright summery colors and started cutting strips. I love how it's coming along, I have a few rows finished and plan to work on it some more today. Scrap quilts are my favorite and any excuse to use lots and lots of different prints is a win win for me.

 I've also been finding little gems of time to quietly read. On a recent trip to Las Vegas with some girl friends I finished reading Gone Girl. Let me preface what I am about to say with....this is my opinion only and I know that some people will totally disagree with me. I was very intrigued throughout the book and it is definitely a page turner. It kept my attention with plenty of suspense and twists and turns, but.....I didn't love it. I kind of knew that I wouldn't, it's not really my type of book, but I wanted to see what all the hype was about. I found it hard to connect with the characters and found them to be flat, hard and cold. I hated the ending, I found myself wanting revenge and it just never came. I felt like the book just dropped off and never gave me closure and I am a person that needs closure (mind you, books don't have to end happily for me to enjoy them, but I do want answers and resolve). This book left me feeling morally void.

On the other hand, other books that I have been reading are the Inspector Gamache Series. I've read books #1 and #2 and thoroughly enjoyed them. They felt light and endearing even though the subject matter is a murder mystery. They take place in a quaint little village called Three Pines in Canada and the characters are warm, lovable and inviting. Chief Gamache is a very likable guy that seems to read minds and have a keen intuition. The books even made me giggle a little. I will definitely be reading the rest of the series.

Yesterday while sewing I watched an hour long special on the making of Diagon Alley, the Harry Potter attraction at Universal Orlando that had it's Grand Opening yesterday. I want to go so bad I can't stand it! I am such a fan and this attraction looks out of this world amazing. The attention to detail is mind blowing and who wouldn't want to ride the Hogwarts Express?! Watching that sure made me want to go back and reread the series again....maybe when the weather starts to get a little cooler.