Back to the Real World

I've been on vacation all week...it was lovely, but of course, not long enough. Tomorrow is back to work and the real world....

I took Lizzie and one of her friends camping (trailer) for 3 days, during the intense heat we were having! Miserable! Thank goodness for swimming pools! Of course I forgot my camera, so I can't even share a picture, but here is one from last year of the same place. The swimming pools are up the hill behind the big trees in the center of the picture. After a day at home, Lizzie and I took off for Everett to spend time with my sister...and I left Lizzie there while I went on up to Victoria to see Thea for the day. I had a lovely day visiting with Thea...and even was able to say hello to Lisa and Cathy and Richard. We had a great visit and lunch over looking the Sydney marina. Thea took me into downtown Victoria to visit The Button & Needlework Boutique, and I found several things I couldn't resist... four small patterns by The Drawn Thread, the Rejoice Tree ornament by M Designs, and A Rose for Every Season by Patricia Ann Designs, plus some buttons and charms. Lots of new things to encourage stitching!

The ferry ride back to the mainland was absolutely gorgeous...the sun was setting, the mountain (Mt. Baker, Washington) was out in all it's glory, and it was so beautiful! I love being in the San Juans Islands, I just wish it were closer so that I could do it more often! I even was able to do some stitching on the ferry, making the day absolutely perfect!! They even serve good coffee on the ferry (Tulley's)...which for us in the Pacific Northwest is a requirement!!! LOL!

Blog Anniversary

I realized this week that my blog is now officially one year old! I began it the third week of July, 2005. It is amazing how quickly this year has flown by. I celebrated my beginning last July with a picture of the daisies in my garden...so here is a picture of the daisies this year!!
It is blistering hot today. 98 degrees in the shade with high humidity. Not that we are alone with the hot temperatures, just that we are so unused to it. I broke down today and took the car in to get the AC recharged...couldn't stand the heat any longer. I am taking Lizzie and friend camping tomorrow for three days. We have a camping resort about 60 miles from here that we really like to go to...I hope it cools off a bit, but at least there is a large pool to keep cool in. Then on Wednesday, Lizzie and I will drive up to Everett to stay overnight with my sister Karen...Lizzie will spend Thursday there with Alisha (almost cousin), while I go on up to Victoria to visit with Thea. I planning on spending one day there and then coming back to Karen's before we come home Friday. I guess I forgot to say I have a week of vacation this week! I am really looking foward to some time to "play" during the good weather.

John started working on the shed again this week, and we have three walls now...it is 8' by 10', but with the walls it sure looks smaller! I am really looking forward to getting that much stuff out of my garage!!! It's getting hard to get in and out of the car!

In the world of stitching, I am working on another original design of mine...I like this one, it is flowing out very easily onto the fabric, and is called "Beyond the Garden Gate". It is fun when the design comes so easy.

Forgotten Treasure

I spied this treasure in the back of the top of my closet the other day, and realized it needed to come out and see the light of day again. I started this piece on July 4, 1976, while our country was celebrating it's Bicentennial...I remember watching the fireworks on TV as I was house sitting for friends in Spokane, and stitching away on the outlines of the states. I thought it was an appropriate way to celebrate the United States at the time. It took me nearly 4 years of off and on work to finish and hung on the wall for many years until after one of our moves it was relegated to the closet. It had gotten quite dirty in all its years (nearly 30!!) and so it spent about 2 full days soaking in Oxyclean. It looks pretty good again now as it hangs by pins unframed in my office. I designed it. All of it. Every last stitch. I don't think I will ever be that ambitious again!! LOL! I have to admit that about 30 of the blackwork patterns were from books I had at the time, but coming up with the other 20 was my invention. It was pretty hard to get something to fit in the tiny little states like Rhode Island and Connecticut!!! But now, after all this time, I am proud of it again. It will soon have a frame worthy of all the hard work!I traced the map onto the fabric with a fabric transfer sheet, using a map from the road atlas!! It is stitched on hardanger 22, creme colored, black DMC and some kind of gold thread outlining the states...not sure I could tell you what kind of gold thread, probably doesn't exist anymore anyway!!!

Western Washington was cooking like an oven today, it got over 100 degrees, which is torture for us here with the humidity and all...my thermometer still says 90 degrees, and it is after 9 PM. So unusual here...it usually cools off drastically in the evenings...it is supposed to be worse tomorrow. It's a little hard to see in this picture but we had a brilliant orange sunset tonight...absolutely gorgeous!!!

Ornament finished

I finished up the 2005 Shepherd's Bush Christmas ornament this week...I think it turned out cute, but it took me a long time to stitch. There are a lot of color changes, many for just a few stitches, so it worked up slowly. Warning to those who have not yet stitched this...some Weeks colors are called out in the pattern...which if you don't have and need to buy...are for only 3 or 4 stitches!!! Don't buy the whole skein, substitute some DMC. I should have taken more time to study this pattern before I bought all the threads!!! Glad it's finished, now I can wait until the 2006 JCS ornaments magazine comes out to do the next one!

I'm wishing!

Last April at the Northwest Stitcher's gathering (see post of April 2, 2006) that we had in Bellevue, Von and I stayed a little later and did some shopping in Bellevue. We found a wonderful place called The Container Store, and we spent quite a bit of time in there shopping and wishing. Von agreed to come help me set up my stitching room when such a room becomes available in my house!!! Last week I received a flyer in the mail from the Container Store, and this is one of the pictures of "what you too can do in your own home" type of pictures. I love this. I had envisioned these exact same shelves in an alcove of one of the upstairs bedrooms...course, it would be mainly needlework supplies, and not scrapping. But since I am accumulating a ton of scrapping supplies too, I can guess that one of these days I will need a second space like this one for those supplies too!

What a difference a few months makes....

I saw this old photo taken in early March of my front yard and I was amazed at how different it looks now that everything has leafed out, bloomed and grown....here is a comparison if Blogger will let me upload two pix tonight. Hey! It worked!

Today is my dear friend Von's birthday! Wishing you the happiest ever Von! (oh, by the way to answer your question, the new shed's dimensions are 8 foot by 10 foot. Not very big, but large enough for all the tools!)

Here's yesterday's picture!

Here is the picture of the concrete we poured yesterday for our new shed. For some reason Blogger would not allow me to upload it in yesterday's post! Maybe it has decided that one picture a day is all we get right now!!!

I'll try and post more pix as this shed takes shape!

Another Finish!

I have finished the next Shepherd's Bush ornament, this one from 2004 called In A Stable. I changed the colors slightly to match the previous ornaments a little better....the pattern calls for a different color for the words, and since I want to sew these all into a wall hanging when they are all done, I wanted them to match. I was pleased with the result, and it was very quick to stitch up.

We had a very nice Father's Day. We did some yard work and house work on Saturday, then Saturday night at midnight I went into the office to help out with a software upgrade for the credit union software...Not sure I was alot of help, but I learned alot. My co-worker said it's the quickest upgrade they have done, and called me the good luck charm. I don't know about that, but I was back in my bed by 4:45 AM...so it wasn't too bad. We have to do the upgrades in the middle of the night, when the members are probably sleeping and not wanting to use the ATM's etc. So I slept in till 11 AM while John was at church, and then at 1 we went over to my folk's house for dinner and presents...we also celebrated John and my birthday's as well as Father's Day. Had wonderful time visiting and playing with all the grandkids...my sister Nan has two grandkids, Austin and Chloe, and they are alot of fun. So it was good. I had fun. I came home and stitched for awhile and we watched a couple DVD's. I got them for John for Father's Day, The Man from Snowy River (one of our favorites) and an old black and white movie called Pride of the Yankees, about Lou Gehrig. It was a pretty good movie, but then we like baseball movies.

This morning we had a slab poured out back for a shed...we've been needing to get our garden tools out of our overcrowded garage, so this will be a great addition...it is going to be surrounded by raspberries and my grape vine, I'll try a picture tomorrow. (Blogger won't let me upload any pix right now, so I will try later.) I picked a small bowl of raspberries tonight, I can hardly believe how early they are this year! We are going to have more than we can handle if anyone wants to come over and pick some!! LOL!!

More pictures...

I saw a note on Blogger when I signed in that there is supposed to be a scheduled outage at 8:23 a.m. pacific time...not sure if that is tomorrow or if it was today..

So here is the remaining picture of the Shepherd's Bush ornament I couldn't get uploaded yesterday...looks like it is going to work today. I started the next ornament (In a Manger) this morning, but didn't get a whole lot done. It's a bit different than the rest of the series in that the vine is not on the outside of the design, but sort of entwined in the stable roof. It will be fun to have something a little different.

Here is a picture of my new "drawers" as Von requested...I am really pleased with them and can hardly wait to find some cute ceramic pulls. I have envisioned pink roses...hope I can find some like that! Behind on the chair is a quilted table runner (same pattern at other end) that I found at a garage sale last week for $2. It's had some use, but still in excellent condition.

Well, my ebay thread bidding has been interesting. I made myself a promise that I would not bid over 80% of the price I could buy new threads in the store...and I am amazed that people will keep bidding higher than that. I am looking for Weeks Dye Threads if you didn't read yesterday's post. I won one set of 20 skeins this morning, at a very reasonable price. I had another set of 20 with 2 minutes left to go and someone outbid me in the last minute. Arggh. Oh well, they went over my limit anyway. I could have bought from the store for the same price. I immediately found two brand new sets of 15 I think, so I will start over again. It is just toooo addicting!!!

Tomorrow is John's birthday, so Lizzie and I went shopping tonight...shhh! It's a secret, I won't tell what we bought...but he would probably be embarrassed if I told anyway!

It was a Happy B-day!

I had a very nice birthday today! I slept in a bit this morning, then stitched for awhile. I finished up the Shepherd's Bush ornament, Wisemen Came...and played with my granddaughter for a while...it was fun to spend a longer time with her as I haven't been able to do more than see her for a few minutes each morning before I leave for work. She is really changing, growing up!

This afternoon I went to an antique mall that I hadn't been to in ages and found a great little five drawer cabinet for my stitching room. It has just finger holes for the drawers, so I am going to go see if I can find some pretty ceramic drawer pulls for it. Then this evening the whole family joined us at Olive Garden for dinner...all 10 of us including my parents. We had a great time...the wait staff even brought me out a little birthday cake with a candle and sang Happy Birthday to me. Such fun...here is a picture of Alana and Allison and Christopher.

And as I promised a picture of Wisemen Came...I also attached the charms to the first three SB ornaments, so I took new pictures of those too. Blogger won't let me upload all three pictures of those first three ornaments, so I will try and get the last one done tomorrow! Lots of pictures today. It was a very good day...but back to work tomorrow!!!

I can't think of a catchy title....

It's been a busy weekend, but fun! Yesterday John took me shopping for my birthday present..I had really been wanting some new patio furniture to go under our gazebo, so that's what we got! The chairs are so comfortable, and makes our outdoor "room" very inviting! I am planning on spending lots of time out there this summer. I went to a wedding shower this afternoon, and then mowed the lawn. John started the footings for a cement pad for a new shed to be built soon, and I pulled weeds and spruced up the flower beds a little. I am so pleased with the yard this year...after seven years of very hard work, it is finally paying off and looks fantastic now. Most of my flowers are one time bloomers, and have bloomed out now, so I need to get some annuals one of these days to fill in the bare spot...I like petunias as they bloom all summer and into autumn with the first frost. Perhaps next weekend I can get busy on that. We have a wedding to go to tomorrow night (on a Monday, so odd, I think this is the first weekday wedding I've ever been to), then Tuesday is my birthday. I am taking the day off of work and planning on pampering myself with a pedicure and stitching to my hearts content. I think the family has something planned but I am not sure what. Thursday is John's (DH) birthday, and then Father's Day on Sunday. Lots of fun this week!!!

I have finished Life's a Stitch, I actually finished the first part of last week, but didn't get around to posting a picture yet. I ended up using Waterlillies instead of the DMC overdyed. I just couldn't seem to choose one of the DMC colors to use, and so went with my all time favorite, Pistachio Nut for the outer border and Peach Cobbler for the inner border. The rest of the colors are regular DMC. I am pleased with how it turned out. I am back stitching on Wisemen Came (Shepherd's Bush ornament) now, and just have the words and the vine around the outside to do. Maybe I'll get a picture up this week.

I've gotten bit the Ebay bug again this week. On a whim I decided to see if anyone had the 2002 Just Cross Stitch Ornament issue up for bid, and found one at a good price, and I won the bid! I am so excited as it was the only year I didn't have in my collection, so I am hoping it will arrive in the next day or two. Now I am bidding on several collections of Weeks Dye Works threads, but the prices are so close to what I could pay in the LNS, that I am not working to hard on trying to win those bids. I've decided my next collection is going to be WDW threads...all of them! So many of the patterns I like now are using them extensively, so I think it will be worthwhile. If I do it a little at a time, it won't hurt so bad. I will probably sign up for the Monthly Bits club for these too.

A Sunday post...

Happy Sunday everyone!! Amy has a new post on Alana's EEG results..please see her blog for the whole story, but here is an excerpt:

Alana's EEG is normal, but they said it can't rule out seizures. She hasn't had any in a week, so I'm hoping she was just having episodes, and that was it. She has another appointment on the 9th, so we'll go from there. I guess the next test would be a 24 hour EEG, so I'm really hoping we don't have to do that. The hour we kept her still last time was one of the longest hours of my life! I wish we could just move onto something else

On the home front, Amy and I hit about 15 garage sales yesterday looking for some items in particular, for instance a high chair. We didn't find one, but found some treasures anyway. I picked up a couple of tea table cloths, one is hand made Battenburg lace...absolutely beautiful. I also found some lace curtains (from Belgium says the lady...perhaps...she had a European accent, so maybe they really are), and several lace doilies for 50 cents each. Lots of other treasures too. It's fun when you have things in particular that you are looking for!

I have made some progress on Life's a Stitch, I didn't use as many of the overdyes as I thought I might. I picked out some colors that appealed to me and then chose a couple DMC overdyes to go with them. The one is so subtle that there is little variation in it at all...I am not really happy with it, but I am too lazy to take out all those stitches that I already have in. I've tried twice now to load a picture, but Blogger is not cooperating... perhaps tomorrow! I am off to sit in my chair stitch the day away....

Some yummy threads and another finish!

I had seen on the Nordic Needle newsletter that DMC had some new overdyes available...well, I LOVE overdyes, so I needed to check them out. I went to all the craft stores in town that carry DMC, and none of them had stocked them yet, so I decided to see what I could find on the internet. I googled the overdyes, and ended up at Stitching Bits and Bobs, and decided to go ahead and order them. This was on a Friday afternoon. By dinner time I had an email in my box that the order had been shipped!! Talk about quick service!!! and they were in my mailbox by Monday afternoon! I was so pleased, I plan on using Stitching Bits and Bobs ALOT! I even signed up for their monthly Bits club, receiving 3 skeins of Caron Waterlillies every month.

Anyway, back to the overdyes...I would liken them to Weeks, with perhaps a bit of a softer feel. The colors are definitely in the line of Weeks, not the variation drama of Caron. I plan on trying them out on Lizzie Kate's Life's a Stitch this weekend. Here are some pictures of the threads. I'll post a picture of Life's a Stitch when I get it finished.

I also finished up a tiny project that I started on the plane coming home from Disneyland last month..I am very pleased with it, sorry for the blurry picture.

So far, we have not heard anything from the neurologist regarding Alana's EEG. I am hoping we will soon. Thanks for continuing to remember her in prayer.

quite a productive weekend....

I am so proud of myself! I finished a project, Alana's Birth sampler. AND....ta da! I pulled out every single one of the pieces that I had ever stitched and never done anything with, except to sit in a drawer, and finished EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!!!! They have all been framed, stuffed, boxed or made into a bell pull. Here is a picture of all them except for one bell pull I forgot to pull off the wall. So lets see, 26 pieces in all. Now I just have to figure out where to put them all!!! Lots of them will hang in my stitching room, a couple in the living room, and a couple are for Christmas, so will go back in the drawer for a few months. Believe it or not, this is part of many years worth of work...the pillow in the background was stitched in 1988!!! The whole weekend I kept asking myself, why didn't I do this sooner. Because I hate to finish items, that's why. But except for a couple of pieces I have designed and am not sure what to do with yet, I am all caught up in the finishing department.
Here are some closeups:

Here is a bit of an update on Alana from Amy's blog...

Thank you all so much for your prayers, both now and when she was not yet born! The EEG showed no urgent spikes in electrical activity, so far so good. We have to wait to find out if she has too many brain waves for her size though. We'll see... if her EEG comes back normal it probably means more tests. Also, I have another request, my husband's cousin, who he grew up with, just had a brain aneurism, it looks like he will pull through though! The hits just keep coming..

Thank you everyone for your concern and prayers!

This is Memorial Day in the USA today...John worked a side job, but we were both off of our normal jobs. The weather all weekend was lousy, rainy and cool, so I'm glad we stayed home. I have a chicken on the rotisserie and a macaroni salad in the frig, so dinner will be little like a picnic, even if we eat it inside!!!

Prayer Request, please!

My dearest grandaughter has been having seizures this week! Here is the post from Amy's blog, for all the details. I would also ask for your prayers, this has been very hard on all of us....

Alana started having seizures on Monday. I came home from work and took her to the doctors, and he said it's going to have to be an elimination process to figure out why she is having them. She was supposed to have her EEG today, but their machine broke, so we have to Seattle tomorrow. I am so thankful my company lets me use sick leave for things like this! This is really hard on us. Unfortunately my husband's brother has a brain tumor, and he had to go through all the testing when he was little. We also have a family history of epilepsy. Please pray that we will have the strength to get through this, and that everything will turn out okay for Alana. Thank you.

Gemini Gift Received!!!

I received my birthday gift in the mail this weekend from Barbara in the Netherlands!!! What fun to receive a package from so far away!!! She sent me a Just Nan pattern with charm called My Fair Ladybug, a large piece of Silk Weaver hand dyed 28ct Jobelan (light blue), a lucious piece of burnt rust colored silk that has a watermark type design in it...I think it will be lovely on the outside cover of a small book...and some overdyed silks such as I have never seen before...two skeins of Vickie Clayton's silks, one in pink, one in light blue, and two cards of silk from The Natural Dye Studio, one called Green Rainbow and one called Indigo...so Barb, how did you know I was partial to blue!! LOL! Thank you so much for everything! I can hardly wait to try these silks!!!

A lovely Mother's Day

It was really a lovely day today...the weather was absolutely perfect, 75 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, the family together, lots of love and laughter. After church we all met up at my parent's house for turkey dinner and celebrated Mother's Day AND Alli's (DD#2) birthday. We had a great time...

We took a four generation picture, which I have posted here....My mother is a first born daughter, I am a first born daughter, Amy (DD#1) is my first born daughter, and Alana is Amy's first born...4 generations of first born daughters....quite incredible if you ask me!

My family showered me with gifts this year...John got me a beautiful heart necklace with three diamonds inset (for my 3 daughters); Alli and Chris got me a little book and a wonderful teapot, Lizzie and Amy and Max all brought me flowers...I feel quite spoiled! This evening after we came home, John mowed the lawn and I sat and stitched on Alana's birth sampler while watching a movie on TV, Must Love Dogs. Very cute movie! It was a wonderful day!

Saturday Musings..

Amy brought Alana over last night dressed up in the bishops dress I had smocked for her. It looks so sweet on her, I am glad I didn't wait any longer to get it finished, or it would not have fit!!! Here is a picture of my grandbaby in her dress.

I'm glad it is Saturday. I am planning on working on my birth sampler design and getting my nails done, zapping some weeds in the yard with Roundup, and little else. My office co-workers have recommended a movie called Office Space that they say is a must see, so I think I will run by the video store while I am out...which brings up the question...as "videos" are being phased out, do you suppose we will keep calling it the video store, or start calling it the DVD store??? LOL!!

Happy Saturday all...

A Sweet Finish

I finished smocking a dress for my granddaughter last night!! I can hardly wait to see her in it!

We're Home!

Home from Disneyland...with very sore feet and a much leaner wallet, we did have a good time. We spent 4 days at Disneyland/California Adventure, a day at Universal Studios, a day in San Diego and Sea World and a day looking around Hollywood and Beverly Hills. I took hardly any
still pictures but did about 5 hours worth of movies. The weather was not great, overcast and cool and some rain the whole week. We wore long pants and sweaters everyday. And of course, we heard the weather here in Western Washington was beautiful and sunny and warm. Figures!!! It's a gorgeous day here today in Lacey. I can hardly believe how much the plants and grass have grown in the week we were gone...the apple trees are fully in bloom, the irises are starting to bloom (a week ago there were not even any buds) and the wisteria is ready to pop open!!

I had a delightful two hours spent in Needlepoints in Garden Grove. I found several patterns that I had never seen before, and I was able to get 4 of the charms for the Shepherd's Bush Christmas ornaments Von and I are working on. (Von, they were $9.00 each! But so pretty!) I picked up a couple of Just Nan patterns and embellishments, Jingle Bell Tree Farm by Victoria Sampler, a Hardanger angel, and a pattern called Secret Garden...it's a needlebook by Forget-Me-Nots in Stitches...I think that there was a stitch along for this somewhere at one time, I need to do some research and try to find the notes.

It's back to work tomorrow, I am in the middle of unpacking, doing laundry and getting the house back in order. Amy and Alana should be over soon...I missed the baby so much!!!

Stash Report, Part 3

Well, I am a little slow in getting the rest of my stash report posted. It's almost old business now, after three weeks! LOL! These are my last two pictures to share. I picked up an Emie Bishop leaflet that is a reprint of four of her Christmas Hearts patterns, two pieces of 18 ct. Mono canvas (light blue and white); and three books, A-Z of Embroidery stitches, Gifts of Love (Cross stitch patterns by Kooler Design Studio) and a book on Ruskin Lace, a technique I have been wanting to learn for quite a while.



We are leaving tomorrow (Friday) morning for Disneyland!!! We are so excited! We have 4 day passes for Disneyland, one day at Universal Studios, one day at Sea World, and then a day to do some other little fun things we have been wanting to do!! I'll post a report when we return on the 30th! Hope you all have a great week!

Joys of being a Grandma

My Dad took this picture of me with my grandaughter, Alana last week. I will post a longer stash update this afternoon, but thought I would share this with you all....

Stash Report, Part 2

I realized this afternoon it was time for another installment of my stash report from the Northwest Stitcher's gathering a couple weeks ago...so here we go!!!



In the first picture I have a nifty little thing called a Tacky Bob (Box fOr Beads). It is an acrylic box with a tacky surface on the inside that you can pour beads onto, and it holds them in place until you pick them up with your needle...very cool. It shuts tight so it can travel, and even has a magnetic needle holder inside. Then I got a couple of snow flake glass treasures by Mill Hill, and two Caron Waterlilies, one called Fir, and one called Slate. I also found some metal snowflakes at the paper store that are intended for scrapbooking, but I plan on using them in stitching!!! In the second picture are my Victoria Sampler goodies, Summer Garden Sampler, Spring Garden Sampler, with Acc Pac, and the Washington Heart of America...

I stil have several more pictures to share, so I will upload those in a day or two...We are leaving Friday morning for Disneyland (Horray!), and will be in California for 8 days, so I won't be able to post anything for over a week...I'll try and have the stash report done before we leave!

We have nasty yucky weather today in Western Washington, rainy, windy and cold..I am sure that it has put the real kabosh on all the planned community Easter Egg hunts today. But I remember it did the same thing last year the day before Easter. My whole extended family will be meeting at my mom and dad's house for dinner and birthday celebrations for all the winter and spring birthdays in the family. 9 of them I think. Then the next two weeks I am on vacation from work...I am taking a 2 day college course in using Microsoft Access on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday is the annual doctor visits (body and eyes) and then Thursday we pack to leave early Friday! Even tho it's vacation, it will still be a busy week!

Happy Resurrection Day everyone!

Stash Report, part 1

Well, it's time to give a stash report on everything that I found while on my Northwest Stitcher's Get Away last week. I have lots of pictures, so thought I would just do a couple each post. I can draw out the suspense that way!! HA!

So my first picture is my Lizzie Kate findings. I am not normally a huge Lizzie Kate fan, but I found these Snippet designs to be very cute and small, in other words, quick to stitch!!! They include Bless the Baby, Cross Stitcher in Residence, Follow Your Heart, First Christmas, Life's a Stitch, and a pattern pack called Tiny Tidings VI (Christmas designs). I thought these were sweet, and I am looking forward especially stitching Life's a Stitch, and Cross Stitcher in Residence for my stitching corner!!!

Then I found some small Just Nan pieces...Heartfelt (for Whimsey Frames), Garden Maze, Porcelain Nosegay, and Snow Faces, Ice Garden and Small Delights. I also picked up a Whimsey Frame to go with the Snow Faces pattern. I plan to do that one for my niece for Christmas, as she collects snowmen.


















So that is all this time...I have much more to share! I have also finally gotten some of my unframed projects framed, so I will get pictures of those posted soon too!

My corner of the world...

After many hours of work and organizing, I have a finished corner of the world that is all mine for stitching. I am pleased with the way this temporary solution to needing my space has turned out, and I think it will be very condusive to many happy hours of designing and stitching.....

In all my organizing I even framed 5 pieces that have been sitting in my closet for years....Ill post pix soon. We are babysitting Alana overnight tonight, Amy's birthday is tomorrow, so we are keeping the baby so she can have a good night's sleep!

Friday...

No pictures today, and no fancy title, but I wanted to get a post up anyway. I still intend on taking pictures of my stash enhancement from last weekend, but have been so busy that it has been the last thing on my list to do. Hopefully this weekend.

After a long talk with my friend and mentor, Thea, last weekend, we came to the conclusion that I really needed a corner, place, chair, that was mine and mine alone in this house of ours. It seems that I always share my stitching place, and it has hindered my getting any designing and stitching done, because it was too much emotional work to chase away the person occupying the space I wanted to use, or there was too much "stuff" from other people that would need to be cleaned up before I could even sit down. When I am tired, that "work" was more than I was able to handle, so I would just drift off to find something where I could be alone, usually the bathtub!!! I spent some time talking to John and Lizzie about it, and then last night began cleaning up a corner of the computer room, clearing the clutter, moving furniture a bit and trying to make it a comfortable and inviting place for ME! I'm not finished yet, things in the rest of the room are still in disarray, and since I am such a visual person, I know I will never be able to work if the space I am in is messy. This may take a few more hours, LOL! I will keep you posted with my progress and some pix when I am done!!!

Happy weekend everyone!!

We had waaaay too much fun!

I have been home for only about an hour, but wanted to post and let everyone know what a wonderful time we had at our Northwest Stitcher's get together in Bellevue, Washington, this weekend. I joined Von, Thea, Nancy, Jo-Celle and Kathryn for a weekend of stash shopping, eating, talking, shopping, visiting, eating, shopping, oh, and did I mention talking???? I have come home with three new friends, (having already known Von and Thea for many years), and an empty wallet, but boy did we have fun!!! Here is a picture of us having dinner at the Red Robin in downtown Bellevue.... left to right is Nancy, Von, me, Thea, Jo-Celle, and Kathryn. We are all cyberstitchers from Thea's cyberclasses, which is where most of us (except for Von and I and Thea) met. What a special time we had sharing each other's lives and truly becoming friends. We have already decided we need to do it again, soon!!!

I drove up to Bellevue on Friday evening after work. Von had arrived earlier in the day from Kennewick, so was able to pick up Thea at the Victoria Clipper pier in downtown Seattle. We met up at the motel, and since Thea needed some food, we headed out for a grocery store..and found the biggest organic food store I have ever seen. It was huge! We spent a long time wandering the aisles looking at all the new brands and prepared foods!!! It was incredible!!! We then headed back to the motel, and Von and I stayed up very late visiting and catching up with our lives!!! Saturday morning Thea and I got up very early and at 7 AM headed out for breakfast at the Marriot Courtyard, a yummy breakfast buffet, and visited for over two hours. When we got back to the motel, Von was up and dressed and waiting for us, and we headed over to Cross Stitch Corner, the LNS, where we met up with Jo-Celle, Nancy and Kathryn, who had all arrived in town that morning. After a round of hellos and hugs, we got down to some serious stash shopping, having a wonderful time. I think we spent over an hour shopping there. We then all loaded into Von's Expedition and headed out to Issaquah for more shopping at Thread Needle Street. Another hour of serious stash shopping!!! By then we were all famished, so we had a wonderful lunch at a local seafood restaurant. We visited a fabric store and a chocolate factory before heading back to Bellevue and the motel. We all landed in Von's and my room for more visiting. After several hours, we realized we were hungry again, so once again we loaded into Von's car and headed for the mall to eat. We ended up at Red Robin, picture above. After dinner, we all headed for our own rooms and bed. I don't know about the others, but Von and I stayed up until nearly midnight again talking! Then this morning I was up early again, and had the pleasure of driving Thea back down to catch the 7:30 AM clipper back to Victoria! And then I came back to the room, and the 5 remaining of us went to breakfast at the Marriott again. Then Jo-Celle, Kathryn and Nancy headed for home, and Von and I went back to near the mall for more shopping!!! We found a couple of incredible stores and spent a very pleasurable 3 hours shopping and visiting. Then it was time for me to head for the airport to pick up my parents, who were flying home from Arizona. Whew, busy weekend, but what a great time we had!!! Tomorrow I will try and get a couple pictures together of some of the treasures I found...like all the yards of silk ribbon I found at the paper store!!!!

Spring!

Oh I love spring! This incredible flowering cherry tree is a block away from my office, and my co-workers and I have been commenting on how gorgeous the tree is. So today, I took my camera at lunch and shot some photos....isn't this gorgeous?