I have been doing a little re-arranging around the house.  I made this sitting area in the hallway.  Annabelle loves to sun her self in the mornings...and I can sit out here and enjoy it also.

Bandit likes to sit in my chair too.

I am almost finished with the little poncho I am making Meighan.  I love these colors.

 I am having trouble getting my entries by the correct picture, therefore,  Our friends came over to watch the Super Bowl -  Jean brought delicious barbecue and all the fixings.  I made dip and veggies, stuffed sweet peppers for the appetizers and I made lemon bars for dessert.  I also made Chocolate Martini's and they were yummy.  We also did a little crocheting.  Jean wants to learn how to crochet.  I made the little baby hat the day before and that is Jean's goal  -  to make baby hats.  She did very well and took home yarn and needles to practice.

Did you notice my new ice tea pitcher?  I got it at Walmart for $5.00.   I love it - Dave even noticed how cool is was.  We had a very nice evening with great friends.

This is Castlewood, currently office of the Chesterfield Historical Society of Virginia.  Originally it was a home built in 1816.  In 1860 the house was acquired by Trinity Methodist Church and served as a parsonage for traveling ministers until it was purchased in 1957 and restored to it's original 1820 condition.  It became Heritage Savings and Loan in 1976.  The county purchased the property in1987. 

Exterior is in pretty bad shape.  They recently received a grant for $160,000 and the building will be repaired this spring.

My sister in law, Barbara and I visited the site and participated in their Heirloom Seed Exchange. 

This is a awful picture, my camera is not doing very well.  But when I saw this it brought back a lot of good memories.  This is Moore's Lake, which was located on Jefferson Davis Hwy.  I went swimming here many times as a child and teenager.  I am not sure when it was closed - it was very much like Overhill Lake in Henrico County.

The interior is lovely.

Lots of documented history.

Model of the building.

There were many books of seeds:  veggies, herbs, flowers.  You could only pick 10 seed packets.  No cost, you just have to bring back seeds after harvesting your crop.

It was hard to choose.  I tried to pick different types of plants that I have never planted.

Lemon Queen Sunflower

Sweet Annie

Cilantro

Sensitive Plant Mimosa Pudica

Italian Dark Green Flat Parsley

Tomato -Black Krim

Red Cherry Tomatoes

Okra - Red Burgandy

Cardinal Climber. It was a fun day, learning a little about the county's history and picking out some great plant seeds.  Then we went to lunch at a new cafe - Huckleberry's - it is in a sports parks very near our house.  The food was great.  I had dumpling soup - the best soup ever.

I stopped to get the doggies some treats on the way home and bought these huge bones for them....they loved them, especially Annabelle.

Every Wednesday morning I have chime practice at our church.  I really enjoy this - I am not musical at all and learning this with a wonderful group of women is so rewarding.  We have a very patient and lovely choir director - Sue who is just wonderful and funny.

We practice and play in the balcony.

View of our sanctuary from the balcony.

Organ in the loft.

I had a real treat when I when to practice yesterday.  Sue recently lost her parents, and is going through all their things.  Her mother was a very talented knitter and Sue brought some things she found and asked me if I wanted them.  WOW!  I was very excited and honored to accept them.  And she says there are a lot of knitting items and she would bring them also if I was interested.

This cute baby pattern book has a lot of cute sweater patterns.

This is amazing.  This beautiful sweater hand knit, complete except for attaching the yoke which is a intricate intarsia pattern.  Just gorgeous.  It looks to be about a size 10/12 adult.  I thought she was going to ask me if I could complete it for her which I would have gladly done - but she said I could have it.

Love the aqua color, a lot of work was put into this.

I need to sit down and look at the pattern and figure out how to complete it.  This really means a lot to me.  I just love it and I love that Sue thought of me about giving these items a home.  Thank you Sue so much.

I continue to work on the crochet squares.  I blocked this bunch and want to sew them together.  Doing this as I go along will be easier than waiting to complete all of them when I have enough - not sure how many I am going to make, I'll decide as I go along.

This is the pattern "water lily".

I am knitting this poncho for Meighan.  I made one for her 2 years ago.  I am not putting the hood on this one.

I love this yarn from Hobby Lobby.  The poncho color is "surprize stripe".  And now that I have a Hobby Lobby 12 miles from our house I can just run over there whenever I want!!!

I made Dave one of his favorite meals last night.  I made a huge meatloaf since we love leftovers for sandwiches.

But it's this sauce that makes the meatloaf yummy.

I opened this bottle of wine Kari gave us.  It is pretty good cabernet.

Love for Valentine's Day...be back soon.