Georgetown Loop train ride

Abbie, my parents and I have made our way to Colorado to spend a week and a half here with my aunt and uncle and then a few days up in Steamboat Springs.  The flight here was a disaster since it was delayed for 3 hours (most of which we were sitting on the plane), didn’t get to my relatives until after 9:30pm.  Despite Abbie missing her nap, being stuck in a plane seat for almost 5 hours and being up until almost 11:30pm (IL time), she’s done REALLY well.  She’s back on her schedule and she’s just been a really good girl – happy, easy-going and fun to be around.  She’s definitely a good little traveler.

Today we took a little trip to Georgetown, CO and took Abbie on a steam engine train ride.  I think the train scared her at first because it was huge and loud, but once she was used to it, I think she had a really good time.

This train runs between Georgetown and Silver Plume, which are 2 miles apar,.  The railroad was started in 1879 and finished in 1884.  It was closed in the late 1930’s and then re-opened in 1975.

We had a beautiful day for our excursion.  It was in the mid-80’s and sunny with a nice breeze.  I would move to Colorado in a heartbeat if given the chance.  The Georgetown Loop was one of CO’s first visitors attractions.

This is Devil’s Gate High Bridge, that we first went under, and then over.  They have reconstructed the bridge since the original was built, but they said that when trains went over the original bridge, it would sway 4-5 feet.  Yikes!!

The tracks are 3.1 miles long and go up 640 feet in elevation.  It goes across 4 bridges and was grades as steep as 4%.

This railroad was built to haul goods from the Lebenon Silver mine, and the mine was one of the biggest silver mines in CO.

(Abbie befriended this gentleman on the ride back and had fun pointing things out to him.  I think he enjoyed her company too.)

(Abbie waving to her adoring fans.  ??  I have no clue what she was waving at, but she likes to wave.)

(Downtown Georgetown, CO)

My parents took me on a ride on this train when I was Abbie’s age, so my dad really wanted her to experience it too.  When we were driving away, Abbie said “Daddy will go ride trains with me when he gets home.”

Fingerpaint fun!

Abbie loves to draw pictures for her daddy with her finger paints.  I try to send him a picture every time I send him a package.  I’ve learned that a bib just doesn’t cut it when it comes to keeping her halfway clean while she paints, so now I just take her shirt off and she’s good to go.  This last time she used the paints, so had a grand old time and painted on herself more than the paper.  Here’s the picture proof!  Enjoy!

Fabric organization

I’ve been steadily building up my fabric stash since I’ve been back in the States.  I have a couple small boxes of it now, and I’m having issues trying to figure out how to keep it all organized and how to store it.  I usually buy my fabric according to a pattern, so I pick out a pattern and then get all the fabric needed for that pattern.  Except then half the time I forget which pattern I bought it for, or which book the pattern was in.

My work space.  Not the neatest, I know…

Recently acquired fabric.  I actually have gotten two more layer cakes (40 10x10 pieces of fabric.

So now I have all the fabric for each quilt in 2 gallon plastic bags, along with a piece of paper that has which quilt it is for and which book the patterns are in.

I’m so excited to dig in to this fabric and start creating things with it.  I want to make Abbie a quilt with the Girlie Girl layer cake (pink squares), so I need to pick a pattern for it and then get the rest of the fabric I’ll need for it.  I’m also really excited to use the jelly roll pictured below.  I love the blues and greens in this fabric line, but again, I need to pick a pattern and fabric to do this quilt.  We’re heading back to Branson next month so I’m going to try to go to that amazing quilt shop again and pick out fabric to finish these two quilts.  My dad is prepared this time, so he’s planning on dropping me off to let me browse for a while.  I’m looking forward to it!

How do you organize your fabric?  And how much space to do you have to store your fabric?