Four Days in Shipshewana 2012 Version

Every October my wonderful husband ships me off to Shipshewana to be with my old Chicago stitching girlfriends. It's a wonderful retreat with old friends and new. There is much giggling, fantastic show and tell, great food, fun shopping, little sleep, and even a bit of stitching goes on. Cathy puts together a great time for us to spend together from Thursday to Sunday. These are pictures from last year and I know that this year will be just as fun. Reservations are made and I can't wait to see the buds.  

 We have this gigantic space to live in for 4 days.

The round tables were our dining tables and we stitched near the windows



 Our great view

 Cathy front and center who is our hostess with the mostess

 

 Cathy and her angels who help her out whenever she needs it

 Getting down to some serious stitching. Some more than others.

 Laura Jacobs-Duet and I

 Cathy probably does a lot of bookwork and NO stitching

 Debbie Maxwell working on a monster piece that is beautiful

So many fun things to see as Cathy brings trunk shows

and other treasures from her shop for us to see and buy.

 What a sweet piece

 An adorable little stitched box top.

An exchange took place

And these were the exchange pieces that people got

 I heard this belonged to Kathy Michael. It was a beauty.

Fibers, we have fibers

WW2 treasures

My mother continues to sift and sort things at her house and recently ran across this brown pouch that belonged to my father and gave it to me. It was given to him when he was in the war. That's the BIG war, WW2. He was in the South Pacific with the AAA Anti-Aircraft Searchlight Battalion and specifically New Guinea, The Philippines, and took his R&R in Australia, seeing the sights along the east coast. As you can see this little pouch is made from Genuine Kangaroo. The photo album no longer has photos in it, the "going back to civilian life" book cracks me up and the letters seen here from his mother are gems. There is also a letter from the Chaplain sent to dad's mother from the unit Chaplain as he was not writing home enough and the Chaplain wrote my granny and told her he would have a talk with her son about that. Also two letters from a girl in The Philippines who wrote to him after the war. She was clearly a friend of his and was hot for another guy and seemed disappointed when things didn't work out between them after the war was over.

This is definitely something I'll treasure the rest of my life.

 

Here is a little history written by David Smith of the unit my father was with. The names of the cities where he was are so familiar to me, I can still hear my father say them.

 

The 350th Coast Artillery Battalion was first organized on May 1, 1942 at Camp Stewart, GA. In June 1942, the Battalion was transferred to the Fighter Command School in Orlando, FL. The Battalion was assigned to the 10th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Group, and was moved to Eustis, FL in September. While still training the the Fighter Command School, the Battalion relocated to Winter Garden & Apopka, FL in December 1942. The Battalion was redesignated the 350th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Searchlight Battalion in May 1943. Four months later, the 350th AAA SL Bn was transferred to Camp Stoneman, California and in October 1943, sailed for the Pacific.

The Battalion arrived in Sydney, Australia in November 1943; then was stationed at Camp Cluden, where it took part in jungle training for the next three months. In February 1944, the 350th sailed for New Guinea, arriving at Lae in Northwestern New Guinea. The Battalion rejoined the 10th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Group and was assigned to Nadzab, where it remained until December 1944; then moved to Finschaven. In March 1945, the 350th sailed for the Philippines.

Upon it's arrival in Manila in April 1945, the Battalion was relieved of its anti-aircraft mission and assigned to General MacArthur's headquarters as part of the security and guard detail for the headquarters and the General's residence.

Many of the members of 350th witnessed the formal signing of the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri.

The 350th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Searchlight Battalion was inactivated in Manila on February 21, 1946.

 

Pauline in Africa 2013 Version

My friend at work Pauline returned to Kenya this spring to visit her family and friends. She spent 5 weeks there this time and I would say she probably had a very good visit because I missed her terribly.

While she was there she visited an orphanage and gave out some little dresses to the girls. They look adorable in them. I'm lucky enough to also know the person who makes these little dresses with her mum. Mary also works in the Cancer Center and she and her mother make these up and donate them by the bulk when they hear that someone is going on a mission trip or are in need of sweet little dresses for little girls. These dresses were carried to Kenya a little earlier in the year by the father of another co-worker, Crystal, whose parents live in Kenya. What a group effort.

These are just precious with so many little flourishes and added touches to make a girl feel special.
I got to see three of them recently and I can only imagine how special these girls felt just by looking at the smiles on their faces. Check out the smiles below, oh and they do LOVE those pockets.

Good job Mary and Mary's "MUM" for the making of the dresses.

Good job Pauline being there to bring smiles to these faces.

Good job Crystal's dad for getting the dresses to Kenya.