Back to Reality...

Ahh, Maui was magical, marvelous, mountainous, and any other descriptive word you can think of beginning with "M". After our initial shock at how different it was than Oahu, we quickly settled in to falling in love with the place. I never experienced that feeling on Oahu, tho I think the beaches and turquoise water at Oahu are much prettier. But Maui has captured me. We even bought a time share condo, fee simple, so we own it forever. Now we will always have an excuse to go back. As if I need an excuse!!! Pictures are posted on my picture page, see the link in the left column. I spent many hours on this beach in this picture. I hated to leave. I will go back!

I did not do any stitching at all. I never even felt the hankering to take it out of the bag. Pretty unusual for me. I found a small stitching shop in Lahaina, but they had mainly Hawaiian quilting and needlepoint supplies. I bought a small kit for a Hawaiian quilting design (potholder size) that will be pretty when done.

Hawaii here we come!

We are packing madly...and plan on leaving the house at 6:00 AM for our week on Maui. Boy, am I ever ready to have a vacation! It is really nice to have Chris and Alli staying here taking care of the cats and the house. We won't have to worry about anything. It didn't really hit me that we were leaving until this morning at work. I had a very hard time focusing on things I needed to do.
We had a baby shower for Amy last night. She received so many nice things. Here is a pic of my girls, my mom and my sister Nancy. With baby Alana, it is 4 generations pictured. My grandmothers both passed away before I had children, so these 4 generations are very special to me. We will have to have a very nice one done when the baby is born. Alana is the first daughter, of a first daughter (Amy), of a first daughter (Connie), of a first daughter (my mom, Marge). So this baby really is special. (Too bad my maternal grandmother was a second child!!)

I have been trying to decide for two weeks what stitching project to take with me to Hawaii. I didn't want anything big and bulky, so that ruled out my projects on stretcher bars. I had a hankering to some hardanger with variegated thread, probably my very favorite thing to stitch, so I pulled out an old pattern from Emie Bishop of one of her small Christmas hardanger angels. EXCEPT I am going to stitch her in Waterlilies "Parfait". Pink and lavendar and all sorts of lucious color. This will be a fun experiment to see how my parfait angel turns out! Last time we went to Hawaii I took along an angel pattern from Thea, so I am into angels when I travel I guess!!

Aloha, and talk to you in a week.

I wish I could think of a catchy title...

but my brain just won't come up with anything wonderful. It's been two weeks since my last post, but I feel like I really don't have much to talk about. Life has been very busy, but nothing very extraordinary has been going on. The ladies group at our church had a baby shower for Amy last Saturday, and she received some very sweet things. I am having a shower here for her at my house on Thursday...not very sure when I will have the time to get ready for it!!! Then Friday night I will be packing like mad as we are leaving very early Saturday morning for Maui. I can hardly wait to hit the beach with my sunscreen and book.

I haven't done any stitching in two weeks. I haven't felt like doing any stitching in two weeks!! I have been printing pictures off and on for the wedding scrapbook, and last Saturday I made a "Tag book" with an autumn theme. It turned out really cute, I'd like to make some more with other themes. I downloaded some pictures from the internet of fall leaves and trees and pumpkins, etc. and used those with lots of autumn stickers, sayings and papers. It was gratifying to get a whole project done in less than two hours! I need to decide on a project to take with me to Hawaii, but nothing seems to fit my fancy right now.

I have cross stitched Christmas stockings with names for my three girls in years past, and when Max joined the family I stitched one for him too. The last two years Christopher (Alli's new hubby) has had to make do with a blank stocking...I had told him I would stitch his name when they actually got married! So he is not letting me forget that this year he gets his name on his stocking!!! I guess I had better get busy if I am to be true to my word!!!! I wonder how many strange looks I would get if I did Christmas stitching on a hot day in Maui!! LOL!

Amy was back in the hospital today with contractions. She is at 33 1/2 weeks now, so they gave her 2 shots of terbutiline (Spelling?) to stop the contractions and ordered her to bed for the next two weeks. After that, they are going to let nature run it's course. The poor girl is getting quite uncomfortable now, so she is feeling ready to have the baby anytime. I hope that she waits until we get back from Hawaii!!

Sunday Evening

It is now Sunday evening, and I find myself feeling a bit better tonight. I have spent the last 3 hours going through wedding pictures, editing some of them, and started printing some for scrapbook pages. It still seems to be an overwhelming task with so many photos to go through. So I picked a few themes tonight to work on, i.e. their first dance, cutting the cake, formal pictures of the cake, working on wedding invitations, at the tux shop, etc. It's starting to come together.

I worked on Toccata for a few minutes Friday nite, but didn't get very far. One more square is all. I am also crocheting a sweater for the baby, so I have been concentrating on it. Our ladies group at church is having shower for Amy on the 15th, and then we are having one for her here at the house on the 19th. It won't be long now until I can kiss my granddaughter hello! I can hardly wait!

I have been enjoying going through the Just Cross Stitch ornament issue this week. There are a couple that I will do. I think, but I can't remember for sure, that I stitched the model for the Humour ornament by Victoria Sampler....it's been awhile. I know I stitched the large piece with three of the ornaments on it...maybe Thea can refresh my memory!!! LOL!

Well, it's back to the office tomorrow morning. The house is in fairly good order, lesson plans have been done, and the spiced cider on the stove is smelling very inviting! I think I'll go have some!!

Post-event let down

Weird sounding title for a post, but it seems to be what I am feeling this week. I have finally gotten the wedding done, all the organizing and busy work done (Except for the scrapbooking!!); and gotten Lizzie ready pretty much for homeschool this year, and now with nothing pressing on me to get done yesterday, I am starting to realize that I have the "blues". At least I have been through this often enough to know that if I give myself some time, I will eventually feel better and regain my enthusiasm for life. But today, I am just plain tired and irritable. Nothing that normally brings me joy even appeals to me. So I hunker down and ride it out, and my friends wonder why I have been so quiet. Be patient, for this too shall pass. In three weeks we leave for a week on Maui, and my usual mindset for vacation is seeing everybit of everything there is to see. This time, I just want to find a chair on the beach and stare at the ocean. Considering I do alot of emotional healing at the beach, maybe this is just what I need!

My biggest question this week, how does one whittle down 600 wedding pictures into just one album??

Geocaching

Here is a link to our friend Gary's blog...he took the girls geo-caching while they were here for the wedding...Lizzie had a great time, and was quite proud of the fact that she found one of the cache's.....check it out for a fun story: http://www.garypaulson.net/archives/olympia-geocaching-afternoon-geocaches/

Week of Vacation

Well, the kids came home from their honeymoon at 4 AM Sunday morning, after being unable to find a hotel in Wenatchee Saturday night. They will be staying here with us until they can find a place to rent. We had Chris' family over last night for opening presents and coffee, and we had a wonderful time. They were so pleased with all their gifts... some dear friends (you know who you are) gave them the sheets and comforter that they really wanted, so they immediately headed upstairs to make their bed. It looks so cute!

This week I am on vacation from work. I was so sick all last week, and having to deal with issues with Lizzie's schooling, (as well as recovering from the wedding) that I really need this to recover and try and get my house back in some semblance of order. Today I have some errands to run. The kids have promised to clear out Alli's old room so that I can have my computer room back. I let alot of organizing/dejunking slide this summer because of the wedding, so now all this clutter and mess is bugging me big time.

Saturday night I sat down to watch TV for the first time in ages, and watched three cute TV movies on ABC family. I pulled out a baby sweater pattern for my soon to be born granddaughter, and crocheted about two inches of it. The baby weight yarn looks so nice and delicate, but boy, does it ever take a long time to feel like I am making progress. I love baby sweaters...I always have for some reason. Even with my babies, the little sweaters were my favorite item of clothing. I have already bought two sweaters for this baby, but couldn't resist making one myself. I have some cross stitch items I want to do for her too...so I really need to get busy.

I hope that this evening I will get the balance of the wedding pictures from Chris' family, so that I can begin printing the best ones for Allison and Chris's wedding scrapbook. Alli looked at me kind of funny last night and said, "you ARE giving the book to us and not keeping it for yourself, aren't you!" I laughed and said "of course, but I reserve the right to photocopy the best pages!!"

I found a blog page Saturday that will redesign your blog page, actually make it very personalized, doing all the code writing, etc. I looked at some of their sample pages and was very impressed. The cost is very reasonable (about $40 for a complex page), so I am thinking about talking to them. Don't be surprized if you see some template changes one of these days!

directions to photos

I've been asked how to get to my photo page....look over on the left in the column and with the links there is a link called "my photos". That will take you directly there. I hope to get more photos posted when we received the pix from the photographers. Enjoy!!!

The day was perfect....

and the wedding could not have gone more beautifully! Our girls all were gorgeous, and the bride was absolutely radiant. You can go to my photo album page to see all the pictures, but here are a couple to whet your appetite!

Autumn surprize

It is absolutely gorgeous day here...no breeze, brilliant blue sky, perfect temperature. The days of September are my favorite for the weather here in the Pacific Northwest. I was taking a little tour of my yard this morning, and glanced at my apple tree. I could hardly believe it! It was blooming! In my seven years of growing this tree, I have never seen this happen before! what a nice surprise.....

The wedding is upon us. The rehearsal is this evening. I have taken the next days off work so that I can finish the last minute preparations!

Toccata, 9/1/05

Finishing Touches

Well, tonight we put the finishing touches on Alli's wedding dress...I stitched a little loop to pull up her train for the reception and snipped all the extra threads, tightened a few beads. I think that she is ready to go...even after the dress came back from the professional pressing, it still had a few wrinkles in it, and they hadn't tightened any of the beads. They had the dress for 4 weeks, and did not even begin the pressing until late afternoon of the day it was to be picked up. Alli was quite disgusted with the bridal shop and wanted to go wring some necks. I even had to wash a spot out of the front of the dress. Even with all that, she is going to be a gorgeous bride. I went to the store and bought a steamer so that we can do the last minute wrinkles. It's all happening so quickly now.

Saturday Afternoon Bridal Shower

We had a wonderful time this afternoon at Allison's Bridal Shower. It started out as a cool cloudy day, with rain in the forecast, but by noon the sun was shining and it became quite warm. There were about 20 people that attended, and Alli received so many nice things, including about 7 nighties...enough for a different one each day of the week!!! Only two more weeks until the wedding! Here is a picture of Alli, her new mother in law to be, Pattie, sitting next to her, Pattie's mom (Grandma Judy) next to Lizzie, (in the middle) and my Mom (Grandma Marge) and myself in the back. Amy had not arrived yet when we took the picture, so here is one of the three girls together. It was a very fun day!

adjusting

What I miss most about not working part time any longer is that I no longer have the space or time to be reflective, to pray, to study and learn, to process, and come to terms with what is going on in my life. I am finding Monday through Friday is a constant whirl of activity, with hardly a chance to breath. I hope that after the wedding that things will quiet down enough to connect with the inner me again. I am so much happier and at peace when I can take the time for "me". So it is off to work.

Sunday afternoon

I am feeling quite proud of myself today. I signed up for and was approved to be part of the Stitching Bloggers ring. That fact authorizes a person to put a little link on your blog page, linking to the ring. Well, that "little link" is about 7 full lines of code that needs to be inserted in to the template page with all the other code! After much trial and error, I figured out how to insert this code. Wow, it worked, except there were alot of extra characters on either side of the words, and it wasn't exactly where I wanted it on the page. Much more trial and error, with absolutely no instructions, and I figured out where in the template to put it to have it show up on my blog in the correct position, AND how to get rid of the extra characters!!! Major accomplishment as I have NEVER done this before. So I got really brave and decided to modify the code I had and insert a link to my pictures web page. It took a lot of fiddling, but I did it!!!! And then I found a book on the web on how to do a blog page on blogger.com. Of course I had to order it, this is getting to be lots of fun!!!

We went to the ocean yesterday, and I spent a glorious 3 hours on the beach...what a beautiful day. Lizzie swam with a friend....but I didn't even wade this time, the water was hurtfully cold...usually in August I can at least wade. Still, it was a great afternoon, I was sorry to see it end.

Life changes

I had the oddest experience last night, my mother gave me a book on what it is to be a grandparent. Reading parenting books is something I have done before, but never this. I remember thinking, this is sooooo strange. Amy is at 25 weeks today, and my granddaughter seems to be quite healthy and active. I got to feel her kicking for the first time this week. We are all so excited for her to be born!!!

The countdown has begun!!!

The wedding is only three weeks away! AND I started working full time this week. I am feeling overwhelmed by the demands on my time....thank goodness I can unwind with some stitching! I even had a 15 minute chair massage at the office today...wish it had been longer!

I had picked up the pattern for Toccata by The Drawn Thread while on vacation last month, and so last weekend decided to get started on it. I did not care for the colors in the pattern, so I went through my stash and chose colors that suited me. It is working up nicely and is a nice feeling of accomplishment when I can get a section done in just the tiny bit of time I have to sit down these days. This is my first pattern (other than my own designs) that I have worked on lately that hasn't been from The Victoria Sampler...Sorry Thea, but I almost feel like a traitor!!!!

Garden Stitching

Some of my favorite designs by Victoria Sampler are the garden bellpulls. Here are just three of them that I have stitched. Of these three, Butterfly Garden is my favorite! I have been working on designing a garden design of my own...but it is different than these, it has lots of hardanger and is square...this design is coming together very easily, or as in the words of Sally Field, I think it likes me!!!

This week has been very busy with wedding preparations for Allison and Chris's wedding. I can see that this is going to be the pace around here for the next couple of months. I am trying to talk Alli into having a picture taken of her and Chris to use on the wedding programs, but she is resistant as she hates having her picture taken. I asked her what she was planning on doing to avoid pictures on her wedding day. She said "well, that will be different, I'll be beautiful that day!" Isn't that the truth, that for at least one day in her life, every woman thinks she is beautiful?

Victoria Sampler

I have the greatest privilege to be a small part of The Victoria Sampler. I have been working for Thea (pictured) for about 5 years now, as a stitcher, and over the course of that time we have become dear friends. Thea is one of the loveliest people I know, kind, sweet, generous and always encouraging. Thank you Thea for allowing me to be a part of your life and The Victoria Sampler! She has a great webpage that is updated bi-monthly with all her new designs and news. Check it out: www.victoriasampler.com . Thea has continually challenged me to improve and grow in my stitching abilities, and is even encouraging and "mentoring" me in beginning to design a few pieces of my own. And the other ladies that work in her office are equally as lovely, Lisa and Cathy are delightful to work with and a joy to know. What a wonderful group of people to work with. I am so blessed!!!

My daughter Allison's wedding is in less than two months, September 10th to be exact. I am having to face the challenge of getting myself into wedding mode...which has been hard for me to do for some reason...only because of life, NOT because I object to the wedding!!! GRIN. I have designed and stitched a ring pillow (even tho Alli and Chris are not having a ring bearer), but she doesn't know yet it is for her wedding. I hope that she will be agreeable to just having the pillow sit on the altar with the rings attached. Or perhaps Lizzie will carry it in as part of her junior bridesmaid duties. I think part of the reason I am having a hard time getting into the mode is that I am also facing three other huge changes in my life in the next months. I am going to work full time days in August after working part time evenings for the last 9 years. Lizzie will be starting in a regular school after having been homeschooled for her whole life. And our oldest daughter is expecting a baby in November!!! Huge changes! And so many of them all at the same time!

A is for Angel by Victoria Sampler

A hot Monday afternoon

For rainy cool Western Washington, we are in the middle of heat wave. It is 86 in the shade on the north side of the house, and feels to be about 120 on the sunny side of the house! Its probably not THAT hot, but it sure feels it. Today is my first day back to normal after 10 days of vacation. I have to leave for the office in about 2o minutes...and I am having a hard time getting back into that frame of mind. My day has gotten away from me with catch up cleaning and errands, but I have taken a picture of one of my WIP (works in progress)...it is called A is for Angel by Victoria Sampler....more about Thea and VS tomorrow! Stay cool!

The Lacey Thread

The name of my page is The Lacey Thread, and it has a double meaning. I live in Lacey, Washington, right next door to the capitol city of Washington, Olympia. I also love stitching anything lacy...such as pulled thread, cut thread and hardanger...

The word "thread" is obviously something I use when doing needlework...and it also makes me think of following a train of thought or succession of posts to a web site.

I am still figuring out how to use this blog website. I finally figured out how to upload pictures. My daisies in my garden are in glorious bloom right now, so I will try and get a picture posted of those. I had to go to two of the Kit's camera stores this afternoon...my brand new digital camera was acting up...not turning on basically. So they traded me straight across for a new one...how wonderful to have a working camera again!

More tomorrow, maybe I will actually get some photos of my needlework uploaded.

Sunday Morning

It is 7:00 AM on a beautiful Sunday morning. We are having church outside today, with a big barbeque afterwards. It will be very casual and laid back, and I wrestle with the decision on whether to take some hand work for this afternoon. Some people I know think it a bit rude to be working on needlework as we visit...have you had that experience? They think that if you don't give them full attention every moment, you are rude....I tend to think it makes me a better listener, as I am the type of person that hours of casual chitchat makes me rather bored....having something to do with my hands helps immensely...as well as satisfies my craving to stitch.
So, I'm off to get ready for the day....I think I will take along that pattern for a crocheted baby sweater just in case.... Happy Sunday.

My Introduction to Blogging

I have just returned from a delightful 3 days of visiting friends in Kennewick, WA. It has been way too many years since we have spent time together like this. While visiting with them, I was introduced to blogs. Now, I have known that they existed and had even read a blog or two, but I had no idea that it was something that I could do myself, or that so many other people that share my interests (especially stitching and reading) had beautiful blog sites. I knew right away that this was something that I wanted to do, and so Gary and Von directed me to this website. I am intending to talk about my life, my stitching and my reading...enjoy!