Remember my post about wanting to do what makes me happy, “life before his eyes-my ponderings…” ?
Well I finally acted on doing what makes me happy; I took a last minute trip to the beautiful San Diego!! Due to me being the main factor in this household running smoothly, I couldn’t be gone too long; I managed to run through the San Diego zoo and attend the San Diego Quilt Show.

I went with an old high-school friend, an up-and-coming photographer, just to ensure that this 200 mile round trip went smoothly, and some company, of course!
It was a two hour drive to San Diego, arriving at the zoo right when they opened. We went into the birds room, and it was quite the sight to see! 🙂

We took the “Skyfari” , a canopy tour like thing that carried us over the park. The view was beautiful! 🙂 We got to see the San Diego zoo from the sky and caught a glimpse of the rest of San Diego, including this beautiful TALL church building! 🙂

Working our way around the zoo, there was this little girl “chatting” with a momma-lioness!! It was the cutest thing! 🙂

It was a hot day, but we walked a lot and burned a million calories, I’m sure of it!! 😛
We went through the park, stopping by the elephant odyssey, my favorite!! Now, if you’re a tourist or even a California native, if you ever go to the San Diego Zoo, definitely check out the elephants!! 🙂 their exhibit is incredible!! They have a hand full of elephants and always one being fed or washed up. You can get up close and really appreciate what a gorgeous animal the elephant is!

After having a great time at the zoo, we ran off to the Quilt show! 🙂

The San Diego show was not as big as the Long Beach Quilt festival, but it still had plenty to offer! They had so many adorable and great quilts on display! I only took a few pictures, but here are some of my favorites!

As we walked around, I played around with an enormous long arm machine, I didn’t know what it was, but it was FUN! Lol
I also had fun browsing the Quilt in a Day booth! I’m a big Eleanor fan! 🙂 I can’t wait to meet her!
I ran into Sonya, she sold me my Cheryl Anne’s Design Wall at the long beach festival, I blogged about that here. When I met Sonya and her husband, in long beach, I told her I would blog about my new design wall and gave her one of my fabric keychains, to my surprise, SHE STILL HAS IT ON HER MONEY BOX KEYS!! Oh, I was so touched by her keeping my keychain, and she says she read my posts and that means so much to me!! I’m more inspired and motivated to continue blogging and sharing my crafting journey for other people to read and enjoy!

I also had the pleasure to meet and greet Alex Anderson! Author of 30 of her own books and co-founder of The Quilt Show.com and co-partner, with Ricky Tims, of The Quilt Life Magazine! I bought a few books, which she autographed for me! 🙂
Funny story, she asked me who to address it to, and I told her about my blog, and Raymond. So I asked her to write it to “Diana & Ray” and she giggled a little and told me about how her mom absolutely loves cats! So much so, that when they visited a neighbor, her mom saw her neighbors cat and said “I want that cat” , and Alex replied “mom, you can’t just go around wanting to take other people’s cats”. I thought that was the cutest thing ever! 🙂
Alex is such a wonderful woman, I am hooked on her books! Click on the highlighted parts in this last paragraph to go to the links of the websites I mentioned! 🙂

After a LONG drive back home, I was excited to show Raymond the goodies I bought at the quilt show! 🙂 He was very happy to see that he finally got some recognition from a well-known author and quilting legend! (Check out her store online for patterns, books and more here!)
I bought some Alex Anderson’s books : Finish it, Machine Quilting, Hand and Machine Appliqué and received Piecing Tips and Tricks Tool book as a gift from Alex! 🙂
All autographed and signed! I’m all excited about it! Thanks again, Alex, for a great memory from the San Diego Quilt Show!! Ray is very happy to see your books and your kind words written just for him!

I also found some adorable cat fabric at Second Chance Fabric! They have so many cute patterns and kits! Check out their website here!

I bought these JUMBO (5000 yd) spools of thread from Yli Corp. I enjoy collecting thread and fabric now.. Lol it’s become quite an obsession!

I’m sort of stuck on my recliner here until my babies wake up, but I hope you have enjoyed this post!! Feel free to comment below on quilt shows you’ve attended, your meet and greet with Alex Anderson and well, anything really! 🙂

Toodles for now,
Diana, Timmy, Jeanie and Ray<3

Don’t forget, you still have time to enter my Labor Day giveaway! 🙂