Monday, February 15, 2016

On The Road Again

It's Gifted Gorgeousness check-in time.  Here is my progress…

Design: Black Horse Inn
Designer: Carriage House Samplings

I stitched a few horses, some of the fencing, and began filling in the grass…

A Sweet Smelling Day
My DH headed to Germany on Valentine's Day but he did have this colorful arrangement delivered on Saturday…
So as not to overfill the vase I put a few of the roses into a smaller vase and placed them on the coffee table…
And he also gave me this beautiful bouquet with gorgeous coral colored roses…

From which I captured this pretty picture. I do believe my photography class has paid off.


On The Road Again
In a previous post I began to document our December 2015 travels in California. Continue with me down the Pacific Coast Highway. What is that I see? 




Cows? Yes, cows.  Somehow these creatures seemed out of place; not something I expected to see during our travels along the PCH. Not as many people stopped to view them. Oh well, their loss.  I snapped a bunch of pictures and, like that woman at the Brown Butter Baking Company, this cow appears to be giving me the stink eye!  Obviously, she did not appreciate me bothering her while she ate! 

We stopped for the night in Pismo Beach.  I read about Splash Cafe and their award winning clam chowder bread bowls. We wanted to see what all the hype was about and we were hungry! The murals along the outside of the building…



were adorable and very amusing!

The clam chowder bowls looked inviting but fell short of award winning. They were good but we are New Englanders, we have tasted some excellent clam chowder. 


The following morning we hit the road, but before leaving the Pismo Beach area we stopped to see something very interesting.

Do you see what I see???

Look closer

A little closer…

That is a clusters of these beauties


found at the Monarch Butterfly Grove in Pismo Beach, CA. This place is tiny but well worth the stop, especially if you can make it in late Oct-Feb. when thousands of butterflies cluster in the Eucalyptus seeking shelter from the winter. When we were there the temperature was 60 degrees, just warm enough for some of the butterflies to be flying around (they will fly when the temperature reaches 55 degrees or above).


300 miles into our trip we stopped in Solvang, CA ~ The Danish Capital of America. This topped my list of favorite places, probably because I much prefer exploring small towns over the craziness of large cities.  


I loved the look of all of the shops. How cute is this needlework shop? Such a cute name too: Thumbelina .  

It is here that we found the perfect spot to take a Christmas Greetings picture to send to our kids…


I jokingly kept telling them that we should have purchased a selfie stick, everyone seemed to have one.

We spent most of the day in Solvang before getting back on the PCH to head to San Diego, which I will highlight in a future post.


Thanks for Stopping by…
Until next time…

16 comments:

Marilyn said...

Black Horse Inn is looking great.
What cute murals.
What an interesting site of the Monarchs and a very cute needlework shop.
Thanks for sharing the pics.
Marilyn

Vickie said...

You are really making progress on Black Horse.
I truly enjoyed your trip pictures.

Robin in Virginia said...

Black Horse Inn is looking super. I enjoyed the pictures from your trip. What a neat needlework shop you found!

Maggee said...

Great progress on Black Horse Inn! Love the Monarch pictures... very cool that you spotted them! Never heard of the Danish Capital of America in Solvang! wow! Such a cute place!! Hugs!

Blu said...

Black Horse Inn is looking great.
Sounds like a fantastic trip!

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

Thanks for taking part in GG this month. You are doing so well with your house building and horse breedng!
Your roses are gorgeous, all of them!
The holiday photos are great too, seems like a wonderful trip. Even if the locals weren't so impressed with posing for photos!

Tiffstitch said...

Nice progress and great photos!

Elfie said...

I enjoyed reading your blog. Black Horse Inn is growing nicely.

Anonymous said...

Black Horse in is fabulous!! Wow. And I'm laughing a bit at how difficult it is to garner a rave review on clam or fish chowder from a New Englander. ;)

Best of all - the Monarchs! Wow, that was incredible!! Thank you for sharing!

Mini said...

Good progress on your stitching. Lovely trip pics specially the butterflies.
Thank you for your sweet comment on my blog.

Julie said...

I've hopped over for a visit from your comment on my GG post, thank for visiting my blog.

Beautiful design you are stitching, that's a magnificent house.
I've enjoyed reading about your trip.

I'll be coming back ....

Carol said...

Fantastic progress, Marie! I just googled the name of the sampler to see how much you had left--oh, my! All that solid grass and more clouds, but that will be a real masterpiece when you're finished :)

Really enjoyed your photos from your PCH drive... The mass of butterflies must have been so special to see. And who knew there was a Danish population in CA?! Solvang looks so interesting and quaint. I am much more the small town/or nature vacationer--not into the big cities at all...

Lovely, lovely flowers from your husband--and your photography class has definitely paid off! That coral rose is stunning :)

Enjoy the rest of your month--can hardly believe February is half over!

Sheryl said...

Beautiful sampler and those flowers, gorgeous... I had to pick my own :-(

Stitching Noni said...

The Black Horse Inn looks brilliant :o)
I love those murals you found, and your photos of the butterflies are amazing!
Your roses are stunning - what a lovely Valentine's surprise
Hugs xx

Brigitte said...

Great progress on your GG project. No more house stitching but now it's the grass filling in, which can also be a little boring at times :)
Wonderful pictures from your trip along the coast. From what you write Solvang would be one of my goals as well during such a trip. I also love to get to know small towns, particularly the ones that are so nicely restored.

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