I don't generally allow shop talk here (that's what my newsletter is for), but I'll just mention that I've done two shows in the past two months, had meetings for the upcoming Studio Tour, and also for the committee hosting the Quin-Mo-Lac Women's retreat in September (which I'm on), and I've been in the church office every week (or double-time the week before I'll be away), keeping the bulletins done up... so I'm a wee bit knackered!

AND just before the show last week, we had a Gatenby Family Reunion, HERE, at our house! Fortunately one of Bill's cousins organized it, but we still had to give the house a tidy, set up the portable sun-room, clean up the yard, weed and fill the horse shoe pits etc., and I was motivated enough to put in some new flowers at the front, where some of last years didn't come back this year.

While we were doing all THAT, LOL, Bill was building us new display racks for the show (more about that in our newsletter), and Adriane painted them all nice black for me, so they looked very elegant!

I think I've made a decision on the library color - but we just haven't had time to get in there and get some work done (sigh). Adriane (our oldest DD) did get the overflow of books filed away before the reunion, and we cleaned out a lot of things that were just being stored in the library, so it looked quite lovely when people went through the house. One of Bill's little nephew's just stood there looking up and up and up at all the books, "I want to live in a house with a room like this", he finally said, in an awed whisper.

We were quite concerned that we were going to get rained on, and have to make room for all these people in the house, LOL. The event was scheduled to start at 1pm, and just as everyone began arriving the sun came out and the day turned beautiful! Suddenly the air above us with filled with dozens of dragonflies, zipping around enjoying the sun and catching bugs, so we weren't even bothered by mosquitoes - it was wonderful!

Oh I have to tell you about my Sangria! When we were in Spain a few years ago, my Aunt (who married a Spanish doctor and moved to Spain many years ago) and her DH took us all to this little outdoor restaurant on the Mediterranean. They had taken Bill and I there the previous time we visited, but this time we had my parents (her brother and his wife) with us - I probably told you about this. Anyway, we ordered a jug of Sangria there, and it was delicious, but A Beth kept saying hers was better.

SOOOOO, knowing this family event was coming up, I e-mailed her for her recipe, which she kindly sent, and we whipped up a double batch. Well! It was the hit of the party. Almost everyone tried it - including Bill's mom, who had several glasses before she realized just how much alchohal is in that fruit punch, LOL. We also had to make sure everyone knew the punch bowl was NOT for the kids!

Anyway, a nice time was had by all... it was great to meet some of my husband's relatives I'd never met, and his A Bea (one of my favorites) came, so we had a really good visit with everyone. They also left a LOT of food (some of which we are still eating, or it's in the freezer to be eaten), and I seem to have inherited a lot of dishes, so the next time Bill goes to visit his mom he will drop the stack off and everyone can pick up what's theirs there, LOL.

No business talk... so I can't mention that I'm up to my ears in back orders from Quilt Canada last week, LOL, but slowly getting caught up. We are starting to look forward to visiting our youngest in England in August - I heard from the bank today that my English pounds are in, so have to go pick them up this week. It's been a few years since Katie was home, so will be lovely to see her, and meet her young man in person (we Skype, but it's not really the same)...

So I'm going to close for June... not sure what I'll have to tell you in July, but in August you'll hear all about our trip! Happy stitching until we meet again...