Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July! My weekend started on Thursday with a trip to Janome Convention with my friends at Iris. It was wonderful to be there meeting new friends and connecting with some old ones. I even got to sign a few issues of my cover story with CME! At the kick-off we heard from Marie Osmond and saw some of the nifty new sewing machines Janome was introducing. The ceremony concluded with an enlightening presentation from Marci Shimoff, author of the best-selling book Happy For No Reason. Marci gave a great peek into her book and offered suggestions to being a happy retailer in tough times. Obviously the things she was speaking on were much more broad then that and could be applied to your personal life but it was a great reminder that we choose to be happy. It is mind over matter.

Friday started the celebration! My good friend Athena, her husband Dan and little cutie pie Laila came in from Michigan to spend the weekend with us. We spent Saturday on Whiskey Island where I had my first jet-ski ride. Jeff and I had a blast jumping the waves. At one point we stopped to wait for Athena and Dan to catch up with us and we tipped over. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t lug my back end on to the back of the jet-ski! We had a ton of scrumptious food and the day concluded with some amazing fireworks displays. It was one of the best 4th of July celebrations I’ve ever been to!

Although we all felt we could have stayed in bed all day, Sunday we took a trip to the Cleveland Zoo. Laila was a real trooper and when she could find the animals (going to the zoo is a lot like playing “where’s waldo?”) she was mezmorized!  The weather was beautiful and that meant the animals were out.

Cute "skunky monkey" as my mom calls them.

How often do you get to see this?!

A few moments in the sun on Sunday and we wanted to join this guy!

No matter where I go, sewing follows! Aren't these quilts from the Wolf Lodge beautiful?

By the end of the day all of us were beat. This sloth had the right idea.