Ft Lauderdale

The Convention center in Ft Lauderdale is part of Port Everglades, where many cruise ships dock. There are also lots of private yachts, and smaller boats traveling the Intercoastal waterway. The Convention center is at the far right in the picture.

I turned around from taking the above picture, and took this one. At this condo, you not only get a garage for your car, you get one for your boat as well!

TPIE 2010

This is our company's booth at TPIE, one of the shows we attend every year. This one has been at the convention center in Ft. Lauderdale, for several years.

The containers with the white labels hold samples of the various potting mixes for customers to see and handle. The TV plays a continuous show of the mining and mixing operation

There are tropical plants everywhere, and of course the growers bring only their best for display.

Something new that I noticed this year, is that several booths were promoting edible plants. I guess gardening really is the next big thing! This booth is sponsored by Burpee, the huge seed company, and all those veggies are real. I was sure they were fake, because they looked so perfect.

Ever see a neon red palm tree before? It get the grower lots of attention,but just for the record, it is fake! All the OTHER plants in his booth are real,and beautiful.

Not frozen!

Considering our weather lately, being "not frozen" is quite an accomplishment. These Christmas cacti have been under a frost blanket for the past few days, and they still looked good when I pulled it off yesterday. Another hard freeze is predicted for Saturday night, so the blanket goes back on soon.

Friday foto--The old and the new

The old--doily tatted by my great grandmother, and the quilt made by Steve's grandmother in the 1930's.
The new--Citrus marmalade made by me. I have made many types of jams and jellies over the years, but never tried marmalade. It is a LOT of work, but the results are worth it--like eating sunshine!

Sewing day

My wonderful nieces (is there any other kind?) came over one day during Christmas break to sew. They wanted to make purses, so we looked thru my patterns and fabric and they ended up choosing the same pattern. Rachel had black/cream fabric, and April chose the aqua fabric from my stash. Goes well with her shirt, don't you think? They both worked hard, and finished their bags by the end of the day.

A chocolate dipped strawberry and a glass of Cabernet. What more do you want?

Christmas at the Cooks

We ended up with 17 people for Christmas dinner. Here are some of us, just before opening presents. From left, April, Randy, Jacki, Mike, Robert and Nancy

Robert throughly enjoyed the day!

Rachel with the hand knitted shawl made by her sister April.
Jacki and Mike with the afghan I crocheted. Goes well with Mike's Gator shirt, don't you think?

Robert got a new fishing game which all the big kids played with too.

Jacki with the new fleece jacket I sewed for her.

April made Steve a toy train, out of chocolate candy. Anything made of chocolate is good!