Friday lunch and Show and Tell, puzzle: what is it!

There were nine of us in the Edmonton area who ordered from Liz at Grandpa's Dollhouse during her fantastic January sale and combined shipping by having all the orders shipped to me. Due to holidays and other personal situations, we weren't able to get together until Friday....and as it was, only five of us were able to come for lunch (although Gwen came later). Barb S. and Debbie M. weren't able to come (got their orders earlier) and I'll take Cheryl H.'s order to her when I go to Nova Scotia next month for a visit.

I made sure I had my camera sitting front and centre on the table where things were set out but I moved it to the counter when we started looking through the wonderful stack of wallpaper Liz had sent as an "extra" along with all the "party favours". More about a couple of the "favours" here. And a bag of Mary Engelbreit type buttons that Maureen had brought for us to look through.

Maureen M. and Gwen were the only ones who had not received their orders earlier but Carol, Joanne and I brought our purchases for Show and Tell.

We had a wonderful time looking at Maureen M.'s purchases then mine, Joanne's and Carol's. Carol also brought along a little project she is working on for her portion of the club's Campsite project. We were sworn to secrecy as to its nature but I can tell you that for beauty and humour, it is among the best things I have ever seen!!! As we looked through the wallpaper Liz had sent, Carol found a piece that matched some she was using and was afraid she was going to have to fudge to make fit!

Now here's a puzzle that I put to the ladies. (1) They didn't know what it is; and (2) how it could possibly used in miniature. (Nor do I...)

My Mom brought me about 20 of these things thinking that I might possibly find a miniature use for them. (I did a Google image search with absolutely no success in finding out what they actually are.)

It is a translucent white flexible  plastic rod 7 9/16" in length.The left hand end of the rod is the shape of a 3/16" Phillips screwdriver head . The first (smaller) knob is 1 5/16" from the end and the second (larger) is 2" 1/16" and the next 3 3/16. After that the shape tapers down until the last inch with is round but rough.

If you can identify its original use to me, I will send you something (we can discuss what that might be).

Just as we were sitting down to lunch, I spotted the camera and said a few choice words! So we decided that we should at least have a picture of us together at the table!

Maureen M., Carol K., Joanne R. and Barb R.

We had cream of broccoli soup, biscuits and one of Joanne's salads. (Joanne is a true artist of the salad world and this was one of her best!) We finished with frozen mangos and frozen cherries put through my new Yonanas machine. (I swore I would not buy any new appliances/toys but I made an exception for this after seeing it on the Katie Couric show - and I absolutely love it!) Despite the name and most of the recipes that come with it, you can use it with any commercial frozen fruit and skip the bananas.

It was just such a wonderful visit. Barb lives upstairs from me and Joanne and I are BFFs so we see a lot of each other outside of club get-togethers so it was wonderful to spend some time with Maureen and Carol outside of club activities.

We visited at the table until about 2 when Joanne, Carol and Maureen left. As they were leaving, Gwen arrived to pick up her purchases. Barb stayed and we watched as she opened all her purchases. What fun! Especially since Gwen had ordered several of Liz's grab bags...and here she is opening some of them.

(When you order grab bags from Liz, she often asks what you're working on/what your interests are so she can try to personalize them at least a bit for you. Not that it matters, her grab bags are always such incredible value!) And she totally got it for Gwen!

In addition to wonderful little dogs and cats, Gwen got these incredible teensy-weensy garden gnomes. They are so perfect as Gwen has been doing little garden vignettes in teacups. (I'll ask her to send me some pictures.)

And she was lucky enough to find some great sheets of wallpaper that will work for some of her projects from the pile that Liz sent.

The remaining wallpaper will go the club on Tuesday night - member's choice - and the rest will be used for the children's "make and take" table at the show in September.

Thank you, Liz, for inspiring this wonderful day out for all of us!!!