So at the last minute, we scheduled to hang out with our friends James & Stephanie on Saturday who live up in Lakeway (about 40+ miles away from us (miss the days when we lived about 10 miles from one another when we first met in ‘03*sniff*sniff*!) First, there was a Geocaching event John wanted to go to (the 2010 awards ceremony and although he one of his caches was nominated, he didn’t win but that’s o.k.) it sure was HOT too! I got a darker flip flop tan on my feet than I already had!
Our first stop was Opie’s BBQ in Spicewood. I had tried this BBQ many times at work (leftovers in the café) and fell in love with the Spicy Corn & Tater tot Casserole! In ‘08 it was rated one of the Top 50 Best BBQ’s in Texas. Well, John was not much of a fan of it so I suppose I will only be having it at work when it’s leftover (like it was yesterday). But James and Stephanie liked it!!
Next on our stop (which is right up the road from their house) was The Cotton Cupboard. Stephanie suggested we 
go there since I love to sew and I’m SEW glad we did! That place is a sewer’s dream!! Much to my surprise, I know the owner, Jessica (pictured at the right)! She was always so friendly and cheerful; we met a few times at my in-law’s house about 10 YEARS ago because she was friends with John’s step-sister. It was so funny when we saw one another on Saturday, we both said the predictable, “you look so familiar” and I won because I remembered her and her name! John was impressed; as we chatted later about how he was surprised I remembered HER and HER NAME, I told him why. There are few people in this world that make lasting impressions, and well, Jessica is definitely one of those people. We saw her 19 yo daughter who also works there, I think she was about 9 when we saw her last. Time flies and kids grow up so fast! Looks like Jessica did a great job raising her and her little brother, who we found out SEWS at age 13 (I think that’s how old she said he was).
Ok now onto more goodness since I am just rattling on! 
They had the coolest tub of scraps called ‘Quilters Candy’ they are ‘6” squares, sugar free, fat free and you can’t have just one’! It’s true, because I think I bought like 13 of them!
I thought they would make great mug rugs or coasters so I told James & John to pick some out so I can make them some! Here is a picture of them all having a ton of fun in there! At one point, I 
said, ‘I changed my mind about getting these’ and John said, “oh shoot are you serious” with the most disappointed look on his face and I said, “no, just the ones I was thinking of getting'” because I know he was thinking he just wasted 20 mins of his time looking through the tub! We all had a good laugh about that one! o.k. now the EXCITING thing I talked about going on July 16-17 – is that Stephanie and I are going on a South Texas Quilt Bus Trip with The Cotton Cupboard! Woo hoo! I am SO EXCITED about it! Here are all the details, in case you’re in the Central Texas area and want to go – there’s about 8 spots left! We will visit 6 different quilt stores, be on a luxury bus (that has a toilet!), get lunch & activities at the quilt shops, stay overnight in a hotel, and I will get to spend quality time with Stephanie, and we won’t even have to miss work since it’s Sat & Sun. I will be sure to take lots of pictures so I can share when I get back!
Next, we went to Scrapology which was a real neat store! I found some cool Deadbeat Designs and Texana Designs.
We went to a cool kitchen store after (can’t remember the name though) and that is where we saw the Soda Stream in action, in which you take cold water and add it to the machine and carbonate it, then slowly add your flavor soda syrup! It is only $110! We tried the VERY carbonated Root Beer – delish!! What I was most excited about, was getting my long coveted Whirley Pop! 
I am a popcorn fiend! It is my all-time favorite snack! I usually make it in a big pot and pour salted, melted butter over it and season it with either Tabasco or a combination of garlic salt & chili powder or garlic powder and Greek seasoning! yum. We tried this the other night and I have to give it a big ‘ol THUMBS up! All the popcorn popped and it seemed to be real fluffy! Can’t wait to try some of the recipes others have posted on the website.
Next was a super fun place called Lake Travis Wine because we got to sample LOTS of wine! Back in February, all 4 of us had a wine class with food pairings and talked about the idea of making/bottling our own wine. 
Well, they do it at Lake Travis Wine and we finally decided to do it – there are rules against us mixing the wine so we are not going to be involved in that process, but when it’s ready to be bottled, we plan on having a wine bottling party and even get to make our own custom labels. We figured these would make nice Christmas gifts too. Oh my – I can’t even remember how many wines we tried but I will tell you that we had some fun laughing about a lot of stuff and were feeling good! ***Raspbeery, Vaginizer and Michael Jackson (all inside jokes of course!)*** To the left is the man who kept bringing us all the wine to try – his name is Chris and is a great guy!
These people were hanging out at the bar area enjoying their wine, the lady in the middle made a killer cracker for us to have in between wines to cleanse our palate and we almost ate the whole bowl! You take oyster crackers and 1 cup of oil, 2-3 TBL of red pepper flakes and 1 pkg of Fiesta Ranch dressing. Mix it all up and every 30 mins mix it again and again until the crackers turn an orangey color. YUM! 
And this funny fella showed me around the back where all the wines are fermenting, I thought he worked there, but we are not sure about that. All I know is he wanted to take a picture with me & kept calling me ‘sweetheart’. I have a feeling he had been drinking ALL afternoon there! We only drank for about 45 mins or longer and we were feeling good, I can only imagine how good HE was feeling!
After we left the wine shop, we hung out at James & Stephanie’s 
house and while the guys chatted, we sewed! I finished hand sewing the last of my mug rug binding while Stephanie made her first headband and did a real good job! Here is a picture of her wearing it - nice huh? Then we had some pizza and chatted and stayed out way too late but it’s all good – we had another memorable day with our great friends!
Here is another one of those, Whimsical Wishes by Theresa Momber, which is a companion set to her Vogue Vases! I made a super clean & simple card that packs a punch with colorful bright inks of one of the solid circle stamps in the set. Just look at the awesome versatility in the set! My favorite is the very large sentiment I used on my card!
