When the Going Gets Hot

When the weather gets hot, the hot get to a beach.

Lake Michigan has some of the best beaches. Beautiful, clean and serene. You can always find a few without crowds. But Shhh, don't tell anyone.   

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park. Voted  "Most Beautiful Place in America" by Good Morning America. 

Living and growing up in Illinois, on the other side of the lake, this was the first I heard of the legend of the Sleeping Bear Dunes. I thought all of my bear-loving quilting friends would appreciate this story. You know who you are . . . 

I didn't try it myself but I talked to a guy who said it took him 5 minutes to get down the steep sand dune and almost an hour to climb back up. 

Princess Lia prefers Lake Michigan beaches to salt water beaches. No sharks.

Of course, I made sure we took the quilt barn tour. 

Traverse City, Cherry Capital of the World, has the Best Cherry Pie ever. I had to try it several times to make sure  . . . 

Gotta love dog-friendly towns and restaurants.

It felt great to be "unplugged" for awhile . . . . 

I'll get to all those unread e-mails in a bit. Doll Quilt Club patterns for August will be mailed out sometime next week.

Kathy's Doll Quilt Club

Here's Cherry Baskets - the first pattern in my new doll quilt club, Papa's shirts & Mama's Dresses. Quilts made from scraps. Isn't it sweet? A perfect little summer quilt. I really had a lot of fun designing this one for those of you who purchased the monthly club.

I wanted it to be a surprise to subscribers so I deliberately didn't reveal the quilt until I was sure almost everyone who signed up had gotten their pattern.

More surprises await! There will be four more patterns for cute little quilts made from reproduction fabric scraps and shirtings arriving in mailboxes in August, September, October and November. 

Sign up for the club here. 

Dinner in a Box

Have you tried one or seen ads for those meal-in-a-box subscriptions containing food delivered right to your door?  My sister-in-law ordered one from Martha Stewart called Marley Spoon and they gave her a free coupon to give to a friend. The coupon was good for 3 meals. She gave it to me! 

Martha and Marley Spoon

The boxes come with a choice of meals and include recipes for 2, 3, or 4 meals per week. For my free box I was allowed three meals and ordered ingredients for Summer Chicken & Vegetables, Spinach-Strawberry Salad and Almond-Tomato Pasta. Good choices I thought. If Martha likes it, it's usually okay with me.

Here's what came in the box:

Everything was incredibly fresh and looks very tasty. There's orzo, balsamic vinegar, capers, Kalamata olives, chicken breasts (packed nice and cold with ice packs), rotini pasta, tomatoes, spices, garlic, zucchini, strawberries, more tomatoes, almonds, fresh Romano cheese, Pecorino - everything you need to prepare three easy meals. All you need to add from your pantry is oil, salt and pepper. Or a loaf of French bread to go with the salad. It all came refrigerated and packed nicely. (But HEAVY - I had to drag it inside, couldn't pick up the box. Need to do some serious strength training I guess.)

They sent waaaay too many strawberries for tomorrow's salad so I thought I'd just sneak a few now for a snack . . . .

Cooking is sure going to be fun the rest of this week! No thinking or shopping necessary . . . . I'm going to prepare the chicken and vegetables tonight.