Chris' Stitching and Strumming

Don't faint, yes, this is a new post...FINALLY

2010-10-24T19:54:00.015-04:00

I have so many wonderful stitching friends, friends that laugh with me, friends that listen to me when needed, friends that stitch with me. And most importantly, friends that remind me that I haven't updated my blog in over 6 months. Well, I have just returned from hanging out with several of those wonderful friends. I have been in Myrtle Beach, SC, attending the 13th Annual Cross Stitch Pals Fall Fling. There were many familiar faces there and there were several new faces there this year. It was wonderful to see everyone and, for those that were attending for the first time, it was great to meet you and I hope to see you there again next year.

This year, the Fall Fling was at a new location, the Springmaid Beach Resort.

Here is a photo from the balcony of my room:

This was the view from the front door balcony side of my room:

And here is a view from the beach I took this morning before I left:

Stitchers from all over the place attend the Pals Fling. This is MichelleKS. Michelle was my roomie this trip:

Here's a photo of MicheleWA (no, I didn't spell her name incorrectly, she spells Michele with one "L"):

Here is a photo of DawnNC and her daughter Emily. Dawn and I have been best friends since 1st grade and have attended all 13 of the Pals Myrtle Beach trips. Her daughter Emily has attended all 7 of her years and has many "Aunts" from the Pals stitchers:

Here are KarenAZ (right), SharonPA (middle) and DianeIN (left). This was Diane's first trip to the Pals Fling:

Saturday night was the last night and many group shots were being taken. Here is a group photo of the crowd I was hanging out with. You see that DianeIN (up front) fit right in with the rest of us crazy, silly stitchers:

One of the most popular activities from the PALS Fling is the grab bag exchange. Grab bag containers can be anything. This year's containers were great. Here are photos of some of the containers:

The "penguin" container from the middle photo is the one I ended up getting and it was packed with wonderful goodies. I have a few more things to share, but need to take photos first. I'll do that and share in my next post.

Last photo to share for this post was this beautiful view of the moon coming up over the ocean's horizon. I was walking back to my room Saturday night and happened to look up and saw the moon starting to appear. I grabbed my camera and this is one of the photos that wasn't blurry:

I wasn't up early enough any morning to capture a photo of a sunrise over the ocean, maybe next year.

That's it for now. I'll take photos of a few other things to share and will post again in a day or so. To all those that attended the Pals Fling, I hope to see you all there again next year. And to those that couldn't attend this year, I hope to see you there next year too.

Hugs and Happy Stitching,
Chris

So long since my last post

2010-03-27T09:05:00.003-04:00

Where does the time go? Oh wait, a bunch of that time is spent at work, and another bunch at various rehearsals, oh yea.

Today, I'm in Manning, SC, to spend a day of stitching with friends. I drove down late last night, checked into the Holiday Inn Express a little after 12:30am. Slept okay, but woke up a few times. The folks in the room next to mine had at least 2 small children and apparently were getting up very early, my guess to continue their adventures on the highway. Why do I say this? Because I woke up around 6am, and there was giggle-fest going on next door (at least 2 gigglers). It was probably 20 minutes before I fell back asleep and they were still giggling when I fell back asleep. I woke up again a little after 7am, heard the gigglers still giggling away before I rolled over and fell back asleep.

I've had my breakfast, the Holiday Inn Express had some yummy sausage gravy this morning, which I had over a split biscuit. I'm going to finish sipping the last of my cup of coffee and head over to the meeting place for the stitching today. I do have my camera with me, hopefully, I'll remember to take some pictures, and will share some photos tomorrow once I'm back home.

I hope everyone has a great day today.

Hugs and Happy Stitching,
Chris

Wear Red Day

2010-02-01T19:55:00.004-05:00

This post is for all my blogging friends out there. For all women. But, let's not leave out the men. To the men out there, is there a special woman in your life - your Mother, GrandMother, Sister, Wife, Daughter? Then Wear Red Day is a day for you. On Friday, February 5th, 2010, wear RED to show support against the fight against heart disease in women. Heart disease is the number 1 killer of women in the U.S. How many of you can wear RED on Friday? Come on, wear RED for the women in your life, including yourself.

Click on the Wear Red Day link for more information. And please help pass the word. Mention this post on your blog. Or post your own Wear Red Day post on your blog.

Happy Tuesday

2010-01-19T14:06:00.006-05:00

I hope 2010 is starting off great for everyone. The weather here has been great the last few days. Not that the eastern half of NC gets dreadful winter weather (compared to those that live to the north), but we were having a spell of temperatures in the upper teens to lower 20's at night and barely getting above freezing during the day. Last few days have been upper 50's to low 60's, which has been much better.

As for stitching, I am just about finished with an ornament for Ruth. It's the last ornament I had left to finish in the Ho, Ho, Ho Ornament exchange. I thought it would have been finished, mailed and received by now, but no, taking a little longer, mainly because life has been busy last few weeks and I haven't had much time to stitch during the week. The backstitching should be done tonight and it will be stuffed, finished, and mailed in the next few days. Sorry I can't share a picture yet, I'll post a picture once it has been received. The only other thing I've stitched a little on is Lizzie Kate's "Believe" (from the Double-Flip series), at Monday night stitch-night a couple of Mondays. I had threads for the Christmas ornament spread out on the sofa cushion and didn't want to gather it all into a bag. The Lizzie Kate Double-Flips were handy, so off they went with me to stitch-night.

I am stitching them all on one piece of fabric (as in photo to left). "Believe" is the 7th design out of 12, so I'm officially over 1/2 way finished (ok, ok ... barely 1/2 way finished). I'm sad to say they were last touched a year ago (end of December 2008, first of Jan 2009). They do stitch rather quickly, so they are staying in the WIP pile, as I want to get the rest of them done. I've been attaching the charms as I finish each design. I'm going to have to detach one of the charms and sew it on again. I apparently got a little tight with my stitches when attaching it and it's not laying flat / dangling on the fabric. Don't know why I attached it so tightly, oh well. Once the double-flips are finished, I'll start working another Lizzie Kate Flip-It series, also a UFO not touched since a year ago.

Sorry no pictures today. I'll post WIP pictures soon, plus have some quilting pictures I need to take and share. More on quilting, with pictures, later.

Final stitching projects from 2009

2010-01-03T22:01:00.008-05:00

First a photo from Christmas. I took my camera with me to Daddy's for Christmas, but never did take pictures of the snow. I did take a couple of pictures of Daddy. Here is Daddy, relaxing in "his" chair (the recliner), with his dog "Buttermilk" in his lap.

Now on to stitching. I look back over my list of completed stitching projects for 2009 and can only say one thing regarding the number of projects finished for 2009 .... "pitiful". I was doing okay the first part of the year, but the second part of the year, I had a long spell of not hardly stitching. Oh well, I plan to stitch much, much more in 2010. Here are the last four stitching projects for 2009. These are 4 ornaments stitched for members of the Ho Ho Ho Ornament exchange. I was the total slacker of the group, rushing to finish ornaments in December and get them mailed before Christmas. They have been received so I can post photos. These are the last 4 finished stitching projects for 2009:

Karen's ornament:

Shelleen's ornament:

Michele's ornament:

Nicole's ornament:

There is one more ornament to get finished and mailed, the one for Ruth. Ruth's ornament will be my first "finish" for 2010 and hopefully will be in the mail by the end of this coming week.

Hope everyone has a great week.

Posting my list of finished projects from 2009. Posting here to have it documented before clearing it to start the new list for 2010.
1. LK 2007 FEB FlipIt - Jan.1
2. LK 2007 MAR FlipIt - Jan.2
3. Reindeer ornament - Jan.12
4. With My Needle - Quaker Pattern Book, Chart A - Jan.23
5. With My Needle - Quaker Pattern Book, Chart I - Feb.8
6. SGD Small Christmas bell in snowman tin - Feb.21
7. SGD Embroidery-Topped basket - Feb.21
8. Stitched surprise for my buddies - Mar.24
9. Flamingo nametag for me - Mar.26
10. F&S round 12 squares - Apr.20
11. BBD Petites Lettres Rouges - Apr.30
12. LHN Schoolgirl Lessons - May 11
13. Karen's HoHoHo exchange ornie - May 28
14. SGD Needle Roll - Jun 2
15. Quaker Flag freebie - Aug.10
16. Sarah needlepoint diamond ornament - Sep.3
17. Victoria Sampler 'Trust" freebie ornie - Sep.24
18. Shelleen's HoHoHo exchange ornie - Dec.16
19. Michele's HoHoHo exchange ornie - Dec.17
20. Karen's HoHoHo exchange ornie - Dec.20
21. Nicole's HoHoHo exchange ornie - Dec.21

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T00:02:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the year 2010. Let's enjoy some fireworks....

I hope 2010 brings happiness and health to all.

10 Holiday Eating Tips

2009-12-31T14:47:00.003-05:00

I came across the following list on a few websites over the holiday. I realize it is too late for you to keep this list in mind for Christmas, but hey, you can keep it in mind for New Year Eve and New Year's Day, before we all get back to normal life and eating habits next week.

A word to the wise:
1. Avoid Carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrot sticks on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas Spirit. If you see carrots leave immediately. Go next door they are serving rum balls.
2. Drink as much EGGNOG as you can. It is rare and can only be found at this time of year. Who cares if it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It is not as if you are going to turn into an eggnog-aholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it!
3. If something comes with gravy. Use it!! Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the Volcano.
4. As for the mashed potatoes, always ask if they were made with skim milk or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.
5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. the whole point of going to a Christmas Party is to eat other people's food for free. Lots of it. Hello?
6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's. This is the time for long naps, which you will need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and a vat of eggnog.
7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and do not budge. Have as many of them as you can. They are like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going to see them again.
8. Same for pies. Apple, Pumpkin, Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?
9. Did someone mention Fruitcake? Granted, it is loaded with mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it all cost. I mean have SOME standards. (Basic Grey's next Christmas line is named Fruitcake- You can have as much of that one as you want. IN STORES JUNE2010)
10. Remember this motto to live by. " Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the attention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, totally worn out and screaming, "WOO HOO what a ride!"

Last Day of 2009

2009-12-31T01:45:00.002-05:00

As I start typing this post, it is 1:45am, December 31st, so, yes, it is the last day of 2009. It's raining at the moment, I think the rain is expected to stop by sometime this afternoon. We appear to be getting our share of rain lately, in short spurts lasting a day or two, which has been happening about once during each week for the last month or so. If this trend continues over the next couple of months, eventually the temperature is going to dip below freezing and it will be some form of frozen precipitation (snow, or more than likely around here, a mixture of sleet, freezing rain, and snow). The weekend before Christmas, the western part of NC got a good dose of snow. My Dad, who lives in the northern foothill area of NC, measured 10 inches in his yard. Daddy was very happy with the snow, and I heard that his dog, named Buttermilk, enjoyed romping in the snow tremendously. My area, Raleigh, was on the edge of the "frozen" line. For a brief 15-20 minutes that afternoon, it was snowing beautifully at my house, and a little later, early evening, there was some sleet mixed with more snow before turning to rain.

As I think back over 2009, I think about the good or nice things that happened this year, and I think of things that fall onto the "I could have done better" list. I guess most of us can put together similar lists each year. For my "good or nice" list, there's nothing on that list that would be earth shattering to others, but they were note-worthy to me. For example.... 1) I went on my first overseas trip in June, something a few years ago I would have thought would never have happened. 2) I got together earlier this year with a few cross-stitching friends in Arizona. That was the first trip I have ever taken that involved me flying somewhere that was purely a "get together with a few girl-friends for a short vacation" type of trip. On that trip, I got to visit the Grand Canyon, another first for me. 2009 brought continued enjoyment with various musical groups in which I play, especially with the dixieland band. For the "I could have done better" list, again, nothing earth shattering, but I did plan to spend more time at the gym (I started going in May, but not so much these last few months). And I could have spent more time practicing banjo, working to improve my "picking" skills. And I could have spent much more time cross-stitching the last 1/2 of 2009 and could have been much better at posting to this blog. Overall, 2009 has been a good year, but ending with the usual thoughts of "I could have done more".

For the end of 2009, I've been enjoying being off from work almost 2 weeks (2 week end-of-year shutdown). I am working Friday, January 1, but can work from home. For Christmas, I drove to my Dad's last Wednesday. There was still plenty of snow on the ground from the 10 inches of snow that fell the Friday before. I visited my GrandFather (my Mom's Dad) on Christmas Eve, got to see my cousins and their children while there). While at my Dad's, I mainly relaxed, spending time with Daddy and my StepMom, stitched a little. I stayed till Sunday, headed back home after church.

Since getting back home Sunday, I have consistently been staying up late every night. Tuesday night I went to bed around 2, which was the earliest I've gone to bed this week. I didn't plan to stay up late every night, just something that has been happening, most of the time getting into watching a movie that's on late, while stitching a little. Currently I'm watching "The Caine Mutiny", a classic. Before "The Caine Mutiny", I watched "Julie & Julia". I won't be staying up too late Thursday night since I'm working Jan.1. I'll probably stay up just long enough to watch the ball drop in Times Square on TV. Here in Raleigh, the New Year's Eve celebration includes the dropping (or lowering with a crane) of the "acorn". Raleigh is the "City of Oaks" and they lower a large acorn (made from copper I believe). If watching the local CBS station here, which is usually the station showing the lowering of the ball in Times Square in New York, they will have a small insert square in the lower corner showing the lowering of the acorn, so one can watch both the lowering of the ball in Times Square and the lowering of the acorn simultaneously.

Tuesday, I went to the movies for a matinee showing of "The Blind Side", which I have been wanting to see. It was a great movie. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.

Well, it's now a few minutes past 2:30 and I probably should go to bed. "The Caine Mutiny", which still has another hour and a 1/2 to go, will have to continue on without me (not like I haven't seen it before).

I do have a few pictures to share, which I will try to do in the next day or so. Hugs to all of my friends and family. May 2010 bring good health and happiness to you all.

Home from PALS Fling in Myrtle Beach

2009-10-25T14:44:00.024-04:00

Hi honey, I'm home. I have pictures to share from the 12th PALS Fling in Myrtle Beach, SC. The weather was great. It rained a bit Friday night, but mainly when we were in the conference center, so the rain didn't bother us. I did have to remote into work a few times during the day to keep an eye on "work", but other than that, had a great time.

Sharon and I missed the other members of the GCGC (Grand Canyon Girls Club), currently consisting of 5 members - Michele, Karen, Sharon, Ruth, and myself. To Michele, Karen, and Ruth, you were missed. We did pass along your "Hello's" and that you would be back next year.

To Ruth, who normally flies into Raleigh, spends a night or two with me, and rides to Myrtle Beach and back with me, I have pictures especially for her, so she will feel like she was with me. First we have a photo of South of the Border, at the NC/SC border off of I-95. Yes, I was driving at the time, but it was directly in front of me, so only had to hold the camera right above the steering wheel, and with the digital camera, you can take a photo using only one hand, and there was very little traffic at the time.

On Thursday night, a few of us go to a seafood buffet restaurant called Crabby Mike's, it's become our Thursday night tradition. Here's their sign and their crazy "crab" van:

Here's a picture of Dawn's daughter Emily, posing with the dolphin near the restaurant entrance. Dawn and I have been best friends since the 1st grade. Dawn and I have attended all 12 PALS Flings. Emily is 6 and has also been to the PALS Fling, and Crabby Mike's, every year since she was born (her first trip when she was about 1 month old).

A photo of Emily again, with Mother Dawn and Aunt Susan. Can you tell that Emily is NOT camera shy.

One of the reasons we go to Crabby Mike's is for, of course, crab legs. Here is plate of crab legs that were beginning to be attacked:

Excuse the fingers in the above photo. That was Emily's fingers. Did I mention that this child is NOT camera shy? I had another photo of the plate of crab legs, without Emily's fingers, but that photo came out a little blurry, so the above photo was the best shot of the crab legs.

And finally, we have Mama Ida (Dawn and Susan's Mother, Emily's GrandMother), about to eat a piece of crab meat (that Dawn shelled and gave to her). Ida never understands the effort and work required to crack crab legs to get such small pieces of edible food ... these comments sometimes include a shaking of her head. Can you read the look on her face. It's the, "ok, I'll eat it, but I don't really like it that much" look.

Now on to PALS Fling photos. On Friday night, everyone gathers in the conference center. Activities include a grab bag exchange and an ornament exchange. There are always certain grab bags that get stolen often, based on the creative look of the grab bag "container". This was one of the popular grab bags. Actually, I believe this is by far the most interesting, grab bag container I've seen in the 12 years I've attended the PALS Fling:

The above grab bag was brought by Amy. It tied for 2nd place for number of times stolen. First place was a canvas bag with pretty cat pictures on it (I think that was first place). If you click on the above photo to see a larger image, you'll see that the sign attached to the panties says "Put on your big girl panties and cross stitch." I don't remember who ended up with it at the end of the night.

Here is the grab bag I got, which was brought by ConnieNE and was packed full of goodies and had a reindeer ornament hanging from the corner. Thanks again Connie:

Here are photos of other grab bags. In the second photo below, the small rectangle tin was the grab bag I brought. It had contained chocolates I brought back from Brugge, Belgium earlier this year for my co-workers. It was packed with various overdyed flosses and silks.

And, here are the ornaments for the Ornament Exchange. All of the ornaments brought were beautiful.

I have a few more photos I'll share of ornaments stitched by Dawn, her sister Susan, and Mama Ida. For cross stitch "shopping", I mainly bought fabric. Plus I did get some things from the stash room. I'll share the rest of these photos in a few days.

I'm already quite comfy sitting on my sofa, watching a few TV shows I DVR'd while I was gone (bouncing between those and football). Time to put down the laptop and pick up some cross stitch. For those at the PALS Fling, it was great seeing you again. There were a few that had not been in a long time, ConnieNE for one. There were also some new faces at the PALS Fling, who will hopefully come back next year. For those that could not make it this year, you were dearly missed and I hope I'll see you there next year.

Hugs to all.

Ker-plunk....ker-plunk, ker-plunk....ker-plunk

2009-08-18T17:11:00.002-04:00

Ah, the quiet hummmm of a new, working, refrigerator/freezer and the repeating sound of "ker-plunk" of newly created ice cubes falling into the ice bin inside the ice maker.

The delivery men arrived in the window of time I was told this morning. I had forgotten about the door to the garage being not as wide as the front door, so they had to take-away the dead refrigerator and bring in the new one through the front door. AND, since the front door doesn't open far enough to allow room to maneuver a refrigerator past the front stairs, had to take the front door off of the hinges.

Gotta love free delivery/installation/take-away. Thank you Lowe's home improvement store.

Death of a refrigerator

2009-08-17T16:28:00.009-04:00

This is the first time I've posted in over a month... oh my, how horrible I have been. I owe you all the remainder of my European trip highlights, including photos of cross stitch stash bought while in the UK. I have been stitching a little, in between work and rehearsals, I owe you updates on that as well. I also need to finish up 2 ornaments that should have already been mailed. But for today, I'm sharing the story "death of a refrigerator".

A week ago this past Sunday, I came home from the grocery and put away the groceries. This included a new Ben and Jerry's item I saw in the ice cream section called "Ben & Jerry's Flipped Out". Later Sunday evening, I decided I was going to try one of these, but when I got the small container out of the freezer, noticed the contents inside were sloshing. "Hmmmmm," I said, and then noticed that a small piece of ham-hock I had in a zip lock freezer bag (yes, ham-hock, if you don't know what a ham-hock is, we can discuss that in a later post), no longer had ice crystals on it, and a poke from my fingers confirmed that it was partially thawed. Again, "hmmmm", I say, and "this is not good." The compressor was not currently running. I checked the settings on the frig, even threw the breaker off and on a couple of times. A few minutes later, the compressor came on and very cold air was blasting from the freezer section. Next morning, Monday, everything in freezer was frozen once again. I went off to work with plan to check things when I got home Monday night. Monday night, I get home and things in the freezer are thawing again, "crap", I say. Tuesday, a day I normally work from home, I had a repair man come to see if it could be fixed. The prognosis... compressor dying, cannot be fixed, it's working enough to "cool", but not to "freeze", your freezer is now an extension to the refrigerator section. Dumped everything in the freezer section the next morning (Wednesday being trash day), since most things had been thawing (or thawing/refreezing/thawing/etc) for who know how many days. Kept a few things in the frig (didn't toss milk right away since the frig was keeping the things cold in the frig section. I had rehearsal Tuesday night and Wednesday night, so I scouted out prices and choices Thursday night and Saturday afternoon. I had to go to the NC mountains Friday for a gig with the dixieland band. Last I had checked the frig was Thursday morning and it was still spitting out fairly cool air. Saturday afternoon, I came home and realized the compressor had completely stopped working and probably had stopped working between Thursday morning and Friday (no more cold air, nothing cold and the milk carton was starting to bulge....not good). So what little was left in the frig is now is in the garbage bin, and I unplugged the frig since there was no point in it sitting there, running, and wasting electricity ..... I hummed 'Taps' as I pulled the frig away from the wall enough to unplug it.

Yesterday, I returned to Lowe's home improvement, who, by far, had the best prices, and best deal on delivery and take-away of the old frig (don't get me started on the frustrating conversation I had with the salesperson at Sears when I was checking out refrigerators there on Saturday). They had no delivery spots for today, so my new refrigerator is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. Here's a picture of my new refrigerator:

Soon after my new refrigerator is humming away, I will be off to the grocery store to buy MILK.

Europe/UK Trip --- Part 1

2009-07-02T14:48:00.022-04:00

Sorry it took a few days longer than I thought to start posting trip details and pictures. Returning to a hectic routine of work and rehearsals has kept me busy. I did get all of the photos uploaded to my computer and have gone through the photos, eliminating the bad shots (shots taken from tour bus when I would "snap", capture a traffic light, duplicate shots, and very blurry shots). But fear not, a couple of days ago, I uploaded all the remaining photos to a webshots album, and there are over 500 photos for your viewing pleasure.

Since the trip covered 4 countries and over 2 weeks time, I decided to share my trip with you in multiple posts. So, let's begin with:

Part 1 - Brussels and Brugge, Belgium.

My 2 traveling buddies (Kim and Carolyn) and I arrived in London around 7am on Saturday, June 6. We took the Heathrow Express into London's Paddington station (very cool looking train station - some of London's older train stations are quite beautiful in architectural detail). From Paddington station, we took the London underground (the tube) to St. Pancras station, to catch our train to Brussels. Once in Brussels, we took a taxi to the center of town, Market Square, and started walking around. The architecture of the buildings was breathtaking.

Note: Feel free to click on the photos to see them full size.

Here's a photo of the Town Hall:

For me, my first glance, and usually my initial photo, is an overall view of a building, or group of buildings. But then I would start to notice the level of detail on various buildings. Using the Town Hall as an example, look at the detail of all these small dormers covering the high-pitched roof:

And here is a zoomed in shot of the details of the rows of statues on the left side of the front of the Town Hall:

Here's a picture of other buildings in Market Square:

After having lunch at one of the restaurants in Market Square, we continued walking. As we approached a corner, there was a crowd of people to the left. They were gathered to look at, and take pictures of, the famous "Little Boy Peeing" statue. Here's my photo of him:

I didn't realize the statue would be wearing clothes. After I was back home, I google'd the Little Boy Peeing statue and learned that over the years, he has accumulated over 600 outfits.

As you walk around the streets in Belgium, you pass by many shops selling lace, tapestries, and, yes, CHOCOLATE. I did buy chocolate, but waited until I was in Brugge, Belgium. Another popular treat in Belgium is waffles, usually covered in one of a variety of toppings. On one of the streets, we passed by a shop selling waffles, they had a window open to the street with all of the varieties on display. Here is the one I bought and ate (I had to take a picture before I ate it):

I'll admit, I didn't eat all of the waffle. I did eat all of the strawberries drizzled with chocolate (I love strawberries), and ate about 1/2 of the waffle. It was yummy, I just wasn't hungry enough to eat all of it so shortly after eating lunch.

Later that afternoon, we were back to the train station and took a train to Brugge, Belgium, where we spent our first 2 nights. Similar to Brussels, in the center of town in Brugge was Market Square, or Town Square. It's an open area, statue in the middle, surrounded on 4 sides by various buildings and side streets spreading out from the corners like spokes of a wheel. Here are a couple of pictures of buildings around Brugge's Market Square:

The second photo above is the Provincial Court building. The red building to its right is the Brugge Post Office. Many of the buildings here were built in the 1700's. The level of detail in the buildings was amazing. Here is another photo taken while walking along the streets of Brugge:

Brugge has miles and miles of canals. I've never been to Venice, but from pictures I've seen of Venice, I image Brugge to be very "Venice like" at least in regard to the canals. Here's a photo I took as we crossed a bridge over a canal:

Sorry the above photo is a little crooked. We took a bus ride that drove you around the city and I sometimes had only a second or two to try to aim, focus and take the photo. You can take a boat ride on the canals, which we were about to do here:

Here are a few photos from the canal boat ride:

The lace shops had the most beautiful lace, huge pieces that could be used for a tablecloth, narrow runners of various lengths. When walking along one street, we came across a woman sitting in a doorway, making lace (bobbin lace making). I asked if we could take her picture, she nodded yes. Here she is:

Also in Brugge, in Our Lady's Church, is Michelangelo's statue of Madonna and Child. It's the center statue in the following photo:

It's the only statue by Michelangelo to leave Italy while he was living, and the only one in what is referred to as the "Low Country" of western Europe. I don't know why I didn't zoom in on the statue to get better photo of the statue.

Ok, that's it for post #1. I'll give you cross stitch shopping update as I progress through the trip.

Cross Stitch purchases in Belgium: Zero.

There was a cross stitch shop near our hotel that we walked past each day, but it was closed when we arrived late Saturday and did not open on Sunday. There were some neat looking cross stitch designs hanging on display in the window, but based on the price seen on an Anchor kit also on display in the window, I don't think I would have bought anything there.

Tommorow, I'll post Part 2 - Paris.

If you would like to look through all of the photos I uploaded, here is link to my webshots album:

2009 Vacation - Belgium, Paris, England, Scotland

Hugs and Happy Stitching.

Hi honey..... I'm home

2009-06-23T12:42:00.002-04:00

Wow, what a trip. I will admit that a 2+ week trip is a long trip and by the last couple of days, I was getting to the point where I was looking forward to heading home. I was still having a great time, but starting to look forward to being home. My flight from London landed a little before 3pm yesterday, I was home around 5pm. Not too long into the evening, I felt like I was melting into my sofa, so around 8:30 I dragged all the luggage upstairs, open the bag which contained my 'toiletry' bag to get my toothbrush and was getting into bed at 8:52pm. I think I was asleep by 8:53pm. Was wide awake at 5am this morning, and back to work I went.

Scotland was the last few days of the trip, and was by far, the most favorite place I visited. Edinburgh is a beautiful city and looking up the hill at Edinburgh Castle is breathtaking. We also did a 12 hour bus tour this past Friday that took us into the Highlands and down past the lochs (including Loch Ness where we could 'look for Nessie'). Scotland is a beautiful country and I could easily see going on a return trip to Scotland to see more. Brugge Belgium, where I visited the first few days of the trip, was also a beautiful city to visit and was my second favorite place I visited on the trip.

Since I was up early this morning, I took the time to unpack the luggage. There are currently 3 'piles' on my bed:

1) The pile of stuff I bought. This includes much more stitching stash than I would have thought I would have been buying. We visited 2 designers (at their home) while in England, and another designer visited us on our "stitching day" at the hotel, where we also received our stitching project from Susan that she designed for the trip. We also visited the Royal School of Needlework in London, and yes, they also had a gift shop with stitching kits and books. More details on the designers we visited on my future posts which will include photos. The pile of stuff I bought also includes the other souvenirs I bought (frig magnets, post cards, etc).

2) The pile of dirty laundry.

3) Small pile of other things that didn't fall into the above 2 categories (few items of clothes/socks that didn't get worn, hair clips, ziplock bag of Splenda, charging adapters, etc).

No photos to share today. I'm working on the photos. First to move them from camera memory card to my Macbook, then I'll get ALL of them uploaded and categorized on my webshots page. I'll be working on that tonight. And the reason I have everything I bought in that one big pile on the bed was to have everything together, not scattered in different rooms, since I'll need to spread it out and take a photo of all the new stitching stash to share with you, and can take another photo of the non-stitching stuff I brought home.

So, give me 24 hours or so to get the photos uploaded, and I'll start a series of blog posts with more detail and photos of the trip.

I hope everyone is having a great day.

London part of trip wrapping up

2009-06-17T12:04:00.003-04:00

Ok, quick update I hope. I've tried to add a post twice and keep getting an error when I try to 'publish' the post. Trip is still going great. Tomorrow we head to Edinburgh for the last part of the trip, I fly home Monday.

Hugs to you all. I have hords of photos to share once I get home.

Hello from London!!!!!!!

2009-06-10T14:57:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone. The trip has been great so far, lots of walking, so my feet and ankles are usually getting very tired toward the end of each day, but after a good night's sleep, I'm okay for the next day. Trip over was fine, no problems. After landing in London, we were off to the train station and the chunnel to Belgium. Brugge, Belguim was great. Then to Paris for 2 nights, which was also great. Today we came to London and the rest of the tour group arrived. I have lots of pictures and many more to take.

Ta for now. I'll try to post again in a few days. Hugs to all.

A finish and upcoming vacation

2009-06-04T00:33:00.008-04:00

Hi everyone. Here are photos of my completed needle roll project. Here's the outside of the needle roll:

And here is the inside of the needle roll:

And, no, I did not crochet the items on the inside. The project kit did include the small zipper pouch that is mounted inside. Sally Criswell (feel free to visit her at Cross Stitch & More) crocheted these. Sally is also part of the England trip I've mentioned. She has all kind of adorable crocheted items that hold various things. For my crocheted items, the one on the far left holds a small 6-inch wooden ruler, the one to the right of it holds a small pencil. The one to the far right holds a wooden needle holder. And I have a small pair of scissors in the zipper pouch.

My overseas trip starts this Friday, leaving Friday evening for an overnight flight to London. I am not taking a computer with me (personal nor work computer). However, a friend traveling with me is taking her computer with her as she will have to work a little while there. She has said I can use her computer if needed, so I will try to post a few times with a vacation update. I will be taking lots and lots of pictures. I'm not going to upload photos while there, since I will want my use of my friends computer to be brief. Once home, I'll upload all photos to my webshots page and will post updates for you.

I also upgraded my personal cell phone to a blackberry a couple of weeks ago, the world edition that is supposed to work while I'm overseas. If it does work, it will give me access to my personal email, even lets me write messages on my (or my friend's) Facebook Walls.

I hope everyone is having a great week. Happy Stitching. Hugs, Chris

Thank you Veterans

2009-05-22T11:08:00.003-04:00

As we enter into Memorial Day Weekend, remember our soldiers, past and present. I stumbled upon the following on YouTube and thought I'd post it here. It's John Wayne talking about the history of Taps.

I'll be playing with the Raleigh Concert Band for a Memorial Day Ceremony at Raleigh's National Cemetery on Sunday afternoon. Other than that, I have very little scheduled for the weekend and hope to get plenty of stitching done. May you and your families have a very enjoyable Memorial Day weekend.

Have you seen the new Nora Corbett designs

2009-05-20T15:01:00.004-04:00

I don't have any stitching projects to share. I did finish the stitching on a Christmas ornament for Karen, but can't show you photos until it's finished, mailed and received. I'll finish it by this weekend and have it on its way to Arizona by first of next week. My needlewrap is further along than it was from my previous progress pic, hopefully I'll have the stitching finished on it by the end of the week.

Now, for those that like the Nora Corbett "flower" designs, have you seen the latest two new ones that will soon be finding their way to your LNS. They are:

Pansy

Sweet Pea

You can see details on them on Wichelt's New Products/Books page.

I think both of these are adorable, especially Pansy. Although when I get around to stitching Pansy, I'm going to call it "Bearded Iris", not Pansy, because I think it looks exactly like a Bearded Iris (I hope Nora doesn't mind). There are a few of these I adore and have in my stitching-to-do pile: Tiger Lily, Lily of the Valley, Lilac, Poppy, Holly, and now Pansy (aka - Bearded Iris) and Sweet Pea.

I hope everyone is having a great week so far and your stitching needles are flying.

A finish and a WIP.

2009-05-12T17:30:00.005-04:00

Howdy everyone. Hope everyone had a great weekend. For all my cross stitching buddies out there that are Mothers, I hope you had a very Happy Mother's Day. I had a very enjoyable Sunday afternoon.... stitching, stitching, and stitching. I did get up a few times getting laundry done and to heat up something for supper, but mostly I stitched while watching a season review/marathon of this season's ANTM (America's Next Top Model). I almost finished Little House Needleworks "Schoolgirl Lessons" Sunday night before realizing the time and going to bed. I did finish it last night while stitching at Monday night stitch night at my LNS. Here's a photo:

I also spent time last week and Monday night continuing to work on a needlewrap project for my upcoming trip to England. Here are a couple of photos.

Here's the entire needlewrap:

And a close up of the top half:

The verse is stitched over 1, I finished it last night. The needlewrap was designed by Susan Greening Davis (it's her London trip / stitching adventure I'm going on next month). From her design, above the bottom motif are the words "England Tour", "June 2009" and a line for your name, with a vertically flipped motif over the words. A couple of ladies and I are extending the trip a few days, and going on short side trips to Belgium, Paris, and Scotland, so I want to change that section to include England, Belgium, France, and Scotland. I need to sit with the graphing software and get that plotted out. The inside of the needlewrap gets a lining of black felt and a small zipper pouch Susan included, plus some crocheted holders. Hopefully, I'll have completed photos by end of next week.

I'm off to dixieland band rehearsal soon, need to put on some shoes. Ta for now.

Another contest you can enter.

2009-05-08T12:18:00.002-04:00

Head over to Steph's blog and check out her contest. To celebrate 10,000 hits on her blog, she is giving away $100 gift card to a lucky winner. Drawing will be May 9th, so hurry on over.

Want to enter a contest drawing?

2009-05-07T15:43:00.002-04:00

Edgar is celebrating his second blogaversary and is having a drawing for a surprise gift. If you haven't visited his blog before, you should. Congratulations on the blogaversary Edgar.

For me, it's been a busy week. I have gotten a little stitching done. I'm at work now, so cannot share any progress pictures at the moment, but promise to do so later tonight or tomorrow.

Couple of finishes to post...

2009-05-03T12:21:00.005-04:00

I finally added the charms to Lizzie Kate 2002 FlipIts. Here is finished project:

This was a round robin project from 2007/2008. I stitched the final 2 squares (April and May) this past Christmas. I attached all of the charms this past week.

I also finished Blackbird Designs Petites Lettres Rouges this past Thursday.

I really enjoyed stitching this one and it worked up quickly. I dropped both of these off for framing this past Thursday.

No stitching this weekend. I did start Little House Needleworks "Schoolgirl Lessons" this past Thursday night. Nicole sent this to me in February, goodies in my Ho Ho Ho Oranament Exchange package. I started it at a Tune Swinger's Orchestra dance this past Thursday night (I'm a member). I'm more of a helper. Basically, I run the sound board during the dances and I help out percussion in the Latin songs, playing either Maracas or Claves. And will sub for the piano player in rehearsals when needed. Since I'm only playing during the Latin songs, I'm sitting at the sound equipment and have plenty of time to kill, so I took stitching with me. The light isn't great, but I can see enough to stitch (carefully). No stitching Friday night, I worked late and ended up vegging in front of the TV for a bit while getting laundry done, then went to bed. Saturday, I helped out at my LNS (Lazy Daizy) till noon (Sarah was having a sidewalk sale), then had 2 concerts. First concert was the Raleigh Concert Band at 2pm. I'm in the percussion section and have been playing with the band since 1999. Second concert was the Blue Notes Dixieland Jazz Band, playing a wedding rehearsal party (an outdoor pig picking). I'm the banjo player and one of the singers. Yesterday was way too busy. Today is a little more relaxing. I will be going out a little later for a bit. Hopefully later this evening, I'll be home and can put my feet up and stitch.

I hope everyone has had a great weekend. Hugs and Happy Stitching.

Jumping on the BBD wagon...

2009-04-28T12:02:00.005-04:00

I have stitching photos to share. After not stitching hardly any the first 1/2 of April, I have been stitching the last couple of weeks. First, Fair & Square round 12 squares have been received by both my partner, Carolyn L, and myself, so I can post photos.

Here are the squares I stitched for Carolyn:

I know it wasn't a Halloween round, but from Carolyn's likes and dislikes, she loves Halloween. And when I saw this Lizzie Kate design for Bippity Boppity Boo, I had to stitch it for her.

Here are the squares Carolyn stitched for me:

I love these Calico Crossroads black cat designs. Thank you Carolyn, I love them.

I did stitch a few minutes on Peppermint Twist last week on Monday night, but didn't get a chance to pick it up again last week. What I did do last week, when grabbing moments to surf various cross stitcher blogs, was see several pictures of folks stitching the Blackbird Designs Vacation Sampler. This kept catching my eye over and over, and combine that with the fact that I've been thinking over and over lately, "I really want to start something new", I just had to start it. And, for whatever reason, was in the mood to stitch it with a fall color (rust or orange-red). I started stitching it Saturday afternoon, and continued stitching on it Sunday and last night and here's what it looks like now.

I obviously wasn't going to finish it in time for the BBD Vacation contest, but I still wanted to stitch it. I'm stitching it on 32ct Platinum lugana with Belle Soie Paprika. It really is stitching up quickly, I can't believe how much I've gotten done since starting it 3 days ago. I will continue working on it tonight after getting home from rehearsal. I did make some changes. I wanted the letters and words to line up on the same vertical stitch, so I shifted the letters on the second line to line the right side of the "U" up with the letter above. I'm stitching this for my Mom and needed a "W" for her last name and also added the "W" to the alphabet, and flipped "Y" and "X" so they were in alphabetical order, and moved the numbers down a row to line up with the end of the alphabet. I hope the ladies at BBD don't mind all the changes I made. The word on the 4th line will be "Mother" (I was stitching left to right and that was where the thread on the needle ran out last night). The last line will have "Nancy White", my Mom's name. I haven't decided what to put between "8 9 0" and "Mother", maybe a small blackbird, or a heart, or maybe the years for her birth and death worked over 1, I'll figure that out after everything else is stitched.

Once this is done, I can get back to working on projects that I should be working on.... a Christmas ornament that's theoretically supposed to be done, finished and mailed by April 30th (sorry Karen, I'll be a little late)...... two round robins I need to get stitched and mailed on their way this month (I want to get them done and mailed before leaving on a trip June 5).

Happy Stitching everyone.

The rest of my Arizona photos...

2009-04-14T11:04:00.002-04:00

Here is a link to all of my Arizona photos.

Webshots album - 2009 Arizona trip.

Enjoy.

Easter Traditions??

2009-04-12T15:13:00.003-04:00

Do any of you have Easter traditions other than attending Easter church service? Do you have an Easter tradition that some might think a little silly? My non-church and maybe silly Easter tradition is watching the movie "The Ten Commandments". It was shown last night on network TV, but with the commercial breaks, was on from 7pm till around 11:45pm (yuck). I bought a DVD copy years ago so I can watch without commercial interruptions. I pretty much watch it every year, sometime during Easter weekend. I started playing it about 30 minutes ago, and am about to move to my comfy sofa with a cold diet soda sitting nearby, and start stitching.

I hope everyone is having a happy and blessed Easter weekend.

Back from vacation....

2009-04-09T18:09:00.017-04:00

The first gathering of the GCGC (Grand Canyon Girl's Club) was a wonderful success. It was Ruth that came up with GCGC.

We visited Karen's LNS while there, The Attic. I am very lucky to have a LNS in my town, especially since it's a great LNS. But it's always fun to visit another LNS, and shop of course. Here is a picture of the GCGC at The Attic (left to right - Sharon, Ruth, me, Karen, Michele):

There were many interesting things to see while driving around Phoenix. They have really neat designs in reddish concrete near some bridge overpasses:

Lots of cacti:

Even a man-made cacti (not sure exactly what this is, I was taking picture from the car, so couldn't investigate):

On Friday, we left the Phoenix area and headed north to a beautiful, large cabin. This first shot is from near one of the front doors, looking across the living area (kitchen area to the back):

We took turns taking pictures of the others sitting on the fireplace hearth. Here is my shot of Ruth, Sharon, Michele, and Karen:

On Saturday, we headed to.....

On the way to the Grand Canyon, we passed more beautiful scenery. Here is a picture of a distant mountain I took from the car. Karen told us which mountain this was, I San Francisco something I think:

The Grand Canyon is absolutely beautiful. Words really cannot describe how beautiful it is. If you have never visited, you should plan a trip to see it. Here are a few of the 45-50 photos I took:

Here's a picture I took of my GCGC buddies at the Grand Canyon (notice how cold they appear):

Thanks to the extra jacket Ruth had, I did not freeze. I thought the temperatures were going to be in the 50's and I didn't pack a jacket. After our first few minutes at the Grand Canyon, my arms were getting very cold and I borrowed a jacket. There was still snow on the ground around the cabin and the Grand Canyon. It had snowed on the north side of the Grand Canyon the day before and the very cold wind was blowing from the north.

Feel free to check out pictures posted by the other GCGC members: Ruth, Michele, and Karen. Sharon doesn't have a blog, but we decided we were going to create one for her, so keep checking, Sharon will soon have a blog.

I'm leaving on a jet plane....

2009-04-01T02:27:00.002-04:00

Hey, how many remember that song.

Later today (yes, it's almost 2:30am and I'm still up), I'm heading to Peoria, AZ. It's a much needed vacation from work. Getting together with fellow cross-stitchers Karen, Ruth, Michele, and Sharon. We are also all bloggers except for Sharon. Maybe we can convince her to create her first blog while on this vacation. We will be stitching, laughing, enjoying some yummy food, and going to visit the Grand Canyon. Updates and pictures will be posted next week.

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week and a wonderful weekend.

Ornaments received and my Interview

2009-03-19T09:24:00.003-04:00

I am so behind in updating you with my recent stitching retreat details. My apologies. I have been so busy the last several weeks between work and rehearsals, I'm tired by the time I get home. I have barely been stitching either, Monday night stitching at my LNS has been about the only time I've stitched in the last few weeks. I actually have very little planned this coming weekend, other than lots and lots of stitching time, so I promise to post an update from the retreats this weekend. The delay is me getting additional pictures taken of projects and things I bought and getting the photos uploaded.

I would like to share a photo of ornaments and goodies I recently received from my buddy Karen.

Karen and I, and 4 other stitchers, are members of the Ho Ho Ho Ornament Exchange and these were my ornaments from Karen. There's a long story about the flamingo, which if you find our post on the Ho Ho Ho Ornament exchange about our likes and dislikes, you'll get. Karen did a great job and I love both ornaments and the goodies. I love the fabric and am going to be keeping an eye out for a project where I can use that fabric.

Now on to my interview. My friend Ruth has interviewed me. Possibly you've seen this making the stitching blog rounds? The idea is that you ask a blogger a series of questions (of the interviewer's choosing), the blogger posts the answers on their blog, and, offers to interview someone else. So, here are the questions from my interviewer and my answers:

1. If you couldn't stitch, what would you do instead?

I would be spending time quilting and maybe get back into knitting. I have been trying to find time lately to try quilting and have only done a few very simple things. For things other than crafting, I would spend more time reading, practicing music (improving my banjo and drum skills), and get back into photography. About 20 years ago, I took some photography classes and learned how to process the B&W file and print my own photos. I sold my enlarger years ago, but kept my non-digital camears and lenses, and now also have a digital camera. I love what's called Infrared B&W photography and would love to try to capture some Infrared B&W photos. With infrared B&W photos, the blue of the sky will be very dark, white clouds will still be white, green plants (grass, leaves on trees, etc) will be white. You can see some beautiful Infrared B&W photos here. I would like to capture Pilot Mountain, near where I grew up, on a spring or summer afternoon when all the trees are full of green and when the sky is dotted with afternoon clouds. There is also an old cemetery in Raleigh that has huge 80-100 year old oak trees scattered around which I would like to capture in Infrared B&W. I would also spend time with digital photography and learning how to alter/manipulate digital photos with Photo software.

2. What's the perfect accompaniment to stitching (ie. music, tv, gossip,....).... which leads to the question where's your happiest place to stitch.

The happiest place to stitch is when in the company of other stitching buddies (hopefully in a place that has comfy seating). However, for the everyday, normal, stitching, my favorite / happy stitching place is sitting on my sofa at my house. My sofa has recliner built into the right and left spots, so I'm sitting there, feet up, my Ott light shining over my left shoulder, magnet board with pattern sitting on table (or arm of the sofa) to my left, scissors and flosses on the seat cushion to my right, and the TV on (probably playing something I have recorded on the DVR or a movie). The extra special stitching time at home has been when my friend Ruth is visting and she is sitting on the other end of the sofa, stitching along with me.

3. What piece that you've finsihed makes you most proud and why? And did you keep it or was it a gift?

Two projects come to mind. First is a 23rd Psalm piece. It was a Dimensions kit that I started stitching on when I was in High School (maybe a little before HS). The kit had 25 count natural linen (was my 1st linen project), using 3 strands of floss, a few were tweeds of 2 colors. The finished project is the largest I've ever stitched. Back then, I was what I call and on-again / off-again stitcher. I would stitch for a few months and then put it away and not stitch for several months. It was going to be a gift to my parents, a Christmas present, then later, "ok, for their Anniversary", then later, "ok next Christmas". As mentioned, back then, probably for about 10 or 15 years, I stitched in short spells, not stitching more than I stitched. My Mom never got to see it, she passed away in 1997. Not too long after my Mom passed away, I found Cross Stitch Pals and got back into stitching for good. I can't remember how long after that, a year or 2 maybe (I'll have to look at the date on my signature next time I'm at my Dad's), the project was all done except for finishing the border and I decided I was not going to put a stitch into anything else until it was finished. By this time I had been stitching on linen often, on 28ct or 32ct, and returning to the 25ct project felt like I was stitching on a burlap sack. It did get finished and framed, and I gave it to my Dad for Christmas and it hangs in his dining room. I had never stitched anything for my parents and when my Dad saw it, he looked at me and said, "you did this?" I was so proud. The funny thing about the project... when I worked on it those first several years, I had not known (or paid attention) that you should cross all your stitches the same way, so it has stitches crossed both ways. The 2nd project I'm proud of is Ursula Michael design "Families Are Like Quilts" (I think is the design name):

I'm proud of this because it is the fastest I've ever completed a project of this size. I was stitching it along with Sandy from Georgia (who stitches very fast). I stitched practically every night, staying up late, trying to keep up with her. I finished it in less than 2 months, starting it on March 26, 2001 and finishing it on May 21. I love symmetrical quilt blocks, which is another reason why I love this design.

4. If you could take any trip, any where, all expenses paid -- where would you go, for how long, and why?

For an overseas trip, a two week trip to Ireland. I've always wanted to go to Ireland, spend a few days here and there, hopefully travelling over most of the island over the 2 weeks. For North American trip: a trip I found on a website a few years ago for an 8 or 10 day train trip across Canada. The scenery was absolutely beautiful. For later in life, when I've retired, or can take at least have a month long vacation, drive across the US and back, stopping as often as I can, taking my cameras, my laptop (for photo uploading and blog updates), seeing as much as I can.

5. If you had to only make one kind of cake (from your vast pantheon of baking options) from now on, what one would it be?

Would be a choice between my carrot cake with cream cheese frosting or German-chocolate cake with traditional pecan-coconut filling (both home made from scratch). If I could only make one of these from now on, hands down winner -- German-chocolate cake with traditional pecan-coconut filling. Has to be homemade, using Baker's German Chocolate -- nothing store bought or made from a mix comes close in flavor.

Wow, some of my answers were a little long winded, sorry about that.

Now, that I've posted my interview/answers, would anyone like to be next? If you would like to be interviewed by me, post a comment to this post. If there are several volunteers, I'll pick at least 3.

How are you spending your "dash"?

2009-02-23T11:37:00.002-05:00

My good friend Michele posted the following poem on her blog and I thought I would share it with you. It was a poem she heard at a recent memorial service.

The Dash
copyright 1996 Linda Ellis

I read of a man who stood to speak
at the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
from the beginning...to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth
and spoke of the following date with tears,
but he said what mattered most of all
was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time
that she spent alive on earth...
and now only those who loved her
know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own;
the cars....the house...the cash.
What matters is how we live and love
and how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard...
are there things you'd like to change?
For you never know how much time is left
that can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough
to consider what's true and real,
and always try to understand
the way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger,
and show appreciation more
and love the people in our lives
like we've never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect,
and more often wear a smile...
remembering that this special dash
might only last a little while.

So, when your eulogy is being read
with your life's actions to rehash...
would you be proud of the things they
say about how you spend your dash?

Hi everyone, I'm home from Florida

2009-02-22T23:04:00.004-05:00

The driving time from Raleigh to Trenton, Florida was between 9 and 9 1/2 hours (this included a few stops for food and filling the gas tank). The drive down on Friday took a little longer, about 10 1/2 hours total, because the GPS unit took us directly through Gainsville, Florida in 5pm traffic (something to avoid for future reference). We left for home today (Sunday) a little after noon. I was home a little after 10 tonight.

The retreat was really fun and wasn't so much a "cross-stitch" retreat. It was time to become one with your craft-ing side and to become one with free-form (non-grid) embroidery. There were plenty of shopping items, I bought a few things. And, there were raffle tickets to 3 "piles" of goodies/gifts, and guess what, I won one of the "piles".

I took lots of pictures while there, but I hope you don't mind, but it's late and I am heading to bed in a few minutes. I'll post pictures tomorrow night.

Shopping purchases and a WIP picture

2009-02-18T20:43:00.006-05:00

The shop owner of my LNS goes to the Nashville market each February and brings back quite a bit for us shoppers. The Saturday after market is her "after market Open House". The after market open house is quite a busy day, with several shoppers usually waiting for the doors to open. During the first few hours, there can be so many stitchers in the store that you may occasionally find yourself trapped in a sea of stitchers. This is never a bad thing, you just move along slowly with the crowd, usually resulting in picking up another pattern or 2 as you keep finding things you just must have.

I had thought about taking pictures that morning, and had my camera in my purse, but I ended up not taking any pictures. Since I didn't take pictures that day while shopping, the least I can do is share photos of what I bought this past Saturday.

This picture is most of what I bought. I love the pincushion design "Small Token" by Blackbird Designs. And I love "ABC Lessons" by Lizzie Kate. I went ahead and picked up a piece of platinum 32 count lugana to use for "ABC Lessons". I bought the new Weeks Dye Works colors and the new Crescent Colours. I also have Sweetheart Tree's Special Edition kit "Country French Heart", but it's being held at the LNS for me. It was the only kit she could get at Market and kept it behind the counter incase anyone wanted to see it. When I paid for my purchases at the end of the day, we forgot to put it in my bag, so I'll pick it up next time I'm there.

Here are 2 other items I bought Saturday. The Châtelaine "Egypt Garden" is not a new design, but one I had been wanting to buy. One of the shops at the Nashville Market has Châtelaine designs there so I had added this to my want list for my shop owner to get for me while she was there. The 4 My Boys design also isn't new, but I happened upon it Saturday while at the shop and had to add it to my purchase pile.

On the stitching front, I've been working on Peppermint Twist by Blue Ribbon Designs. Here is my progress as of this past Monday night (Feb 16th):

I'm stitching this with several other stitchers on the Peppermint Twist SAL blog. It really is cute and I love how it is looking so far.

This weekend, I'm off to Trenton, Florida to attend a stitching retreat by Susan Green Davis. I'm travelling by car with a stitching buddy of mine. Adding up the estimated driving time, we will be in the car travelling almost as long as we'll be in class, but, hey, life's too short and sometimes you have to do something silly like go on a long road trip over a 3-day weekend.

Monday was a company holiday. I had to work part of it, during the afternoon. I had a headache off and on Monday and did not go to stitch night at my LNS Monday night. Tuesday, being the first full-day of working this week, felt like it should have been Monday. A staff meeting that is normally held on Wednesday was postponed until later this week. I'm taking a day off this Friday for the Trenton trip, so tomorrow (Thursday) is my virtual Friday. All of this combined has gotten my mind totally mixed up on what day it is versus what day it feels like.

That's all for now. I hope everyone is having a great week so far.

A little blog-housekeeping has been completed

2009-02-11T14:01:00.004-05:00

I've finally gotten around to doing some 2009 blog housekeeping.

How much time has to pass before the classification of a stitching project goes from WIP to UFO? I think this is something that can be unique for each stitcher. I, like my friend Ruth, consider myself a mood stitcher. When I'm working on projects that are for me, I may work on one project until it's complete, but if it is a larger project, or a project that has many sections or patterns (like the Lizzie Kate FlipIts or DoubleFlips), I may jump from project to project. I may spend a few weeks on one project before switching to another. So for me, if I'm mood stitching between multiple projects and have worked on it with 2 to 3 months, I still consider it a WIP. Unfortunately, looking at my WIP list, a few there had not been touched in at least 4 or 5 months or more, so it was time to face the reality and create a UFO list. All except Nancy's Needle "Friendship Star" were started in 2008 (Friendship Star was started in 2007). I do want to get these done so hopefully, between now and the end of 2009, they all will once again become WIPs and then completed.

I also updated my WIP list, Commitments list, and converted my 2008 stitching goals to my 2009 stitching goals. The 2009 stitching goals look very similar to the 2008 goals, with only a few items removed and a few new items added.

Wow, it's February already

2009-02-10T23:46:00.006-05:00

Where did January go? Sorry I haven't updated in a few weeks. Work has been very busy, but that's okay, better to be busy. Here are two patterns from With My Needle's "Quaker Pattern Book" I finished recently, one finished a few weeks ago and the other finished this past Sunday:

I think this one was Chart A:

And I think this one was Chart I:

And last week, I finally got started on Peppermint Twist. First night stitching on it, I only completed a short distance of the light green border. After the last couple of evenings, here is what it looks like now:

I'm stitching Peppermint Twist with some other stitchers on the Peppermint Twist SAL blog. The start time was Jan.1, but me and a few others got a late start as we waited for either pattern or floss or fabric. I'm stitching mine on Silkweaver 32ct lugana, color is Creekstone. And like many others in the SAL, I'm using Belle Soie silks. I love the way it's looking on the fabric so far.

That's all for now, sorry for the short and sweet update. Hope everyone is having a good week so far.

* * * * SNOW * * * *

2009-01-20T08:40:00.008-05:00

We have snow in Raleigh. The snow started falling lightly by midnight. When I woke up this morning around 7:30, it was snowing steady. Currently, little before 9am, it is snowing heavily ("puttin' it down" as we would say around here).

When I got up this morning around 7:30, this was the view from upstairs window (sky was still pale blue from early morning light):

A little after 8, here's a photo taken from upstairs looking toward the wooded patch behind my house:

From my front porch:

And a couple of shots from the patio door:

Forecast is that we'll have 3 to 4 inches by the time it stops around mid-day or early afternoon. Temperatures are currently low 20's and not supposed to get above freezing until tomorrow. Needless to say, I'm working from home today, and probably will be working from home tomorrow.

Stitching pictures to share

2009-01-15T00:27:00.006-05:00

Here are stitching pictures I promised.

This is Lizzie Kate 2002 April FlipIt that I finished before Christmas:

And here is Lizzie Kate 2002 May FlipIt that I finished at my Dad's on Christmas Day:

Lizzie Kate 2008 DoubleFlips LISTEN and LEARN were started and finished the weekend after Christmas.

The next were my first finishes for 2009, Lizzie Kate 2007 February and March FlipIts. I almost had February finished as the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve. About 20 minutes past midnight, February was complete. I then started March and finished it on Jan 2.

Since then I've been working to complete a project that is long overdue to be finished and sent home to its owner. I'll hopefully have it done in the next few days. However this past Monday, I was in the mood to work on something small and easy as I was heading to my LNS for stitch night, so I stitched this little fellow (my first ornament for 2009):

I saw this little fellow on some other cross stitch blogs I follow. It's a freebie design and one of the blogs had a link to the pattern. I don't think I've ever stitched an ornament this early in the year. My plan is to stitch at least 2 ornaments each month.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. Hugs to all.

A Very Belated Happy New Year to all

2009-01-09T12:56:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted since Christmas Day ..... how horrible of me. My apologies to all. The minor cold I had Christmas week developed into a sinus infection by the week after Christmas. I spent lots of time that week sitting or napping on my sofa -- myself, the box of Kleenex, a blanket handy when needed, and the cable TV remote control. Thought I was getting better by mid-week, but then woke up with another wave last Friday. I'm glad I was off work last week, but a little disappointed that I couldn't enjoy the time off a little more. Feeling better this week (now that I had to go back to work), but the sinus aches still lingering around so I finally went to doctor and am taking antibiotics to get rid of it (yes I know, I should have gone to the doctor end of last week.... what can I say, I'm stubborn).

I did get a little stitching done between Christmas and the end of the year while camping on the sofa in between naps and sinus headaches. I decided it was a good time to work on some Lizzie Kate UFOs. I started with the LK Double-Flips from early 2008 and stitched "LISTEN" and "LEARN". Then switched to the LK FlipIts from 2007 and finished February, stitched March, and started April. I did end 2008 close to my goal of 50 projects. My total for 2008 was 47 and all but one of those were started and finished in 2008. I almost had 48 finishes .... was trying to finish the 2007 February FlipIt by midnight on New Years's Eve. I had a few dozen stitches left as I watched the ball drop in New York on TV (with split screen showing the "ACORN" dropping in downtown Raleigh). I did finish it after the TV hoop-la was over, so my first 2009 finish was completed at approximately 12:22am Jan.1.

I haven't been on the computer much the last few weeks, about the only thing I did was check emails every day or 2 and I did change my blog background to something much more colorful and cute. Between tonight and tomorrow, I'll take some pictures of the recent finishes to share with ya.

Hugs to all.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T14:06:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas to all. I hope 2008 has been a wonderful year for you and hope 2009 brings you good health and happiness.

I'm at my Dad's for the holiday. I did bring my camera and have taken a few pictures, but, silly me left the sync cord for my camera at home, so I can't upload photos until I get back home.

I'm having a relaxing time at my Dad's ..... stitching a little, napping a little, and getting talked into playing XBox with my step-nephews when they are over. I'm happy to say I have 2 weeks off from work, all of this week and next.

For those of you that have snow, enjoy the snow .... hopefully you'll share pictures on your blogs. For us here in NC, it's upper 60's, sunny and beautiful.

Hugs to all.

Stitching update

2008-12-09T17:10:00.008-05:00

Hello all. It's been a bit since I've posted. I thought I'd share some stitching photos with ya. While at my Dad's for Thanksgiving, I stitched this Pine Mountain pillow kit:

I had some WIPs I could have worked on while at my Dad's, but the light is not the greatest, and I usually have a Pine Mountain kit or 2 in my stitching bag, so that's what I stitched on Thanksgiving Day.

From the Society RR group, I stitched an extra 2 squares on Karen's piece.

Back in September, I stitched "J" and "R" on this piece, then sent it on its way to the next couple of stitchers. I had wanted to stitch a third, so after my buddy Ruth finished working on it, she sent it back to me and I stitched another 2 squares, "H" and "I". Now it's off again to the next stitcher. Isn't it looking great.

Now onto WIP's. After the PALS Fling in October, I started working on the pinkeep from the class I attended at the PALS Fling:

The class was taught by Jane Timmers of Fancy Work. As other blogger buddies that took this class have posted, Jane is a wonderful teacher. If you ever get a chance to take one of her classes, you should. The pinkeep is stitched over 1. I love the colors of this. There is also a biscornu, also over 1, that will get stitched after the pinkeep is finished. I was working on this the first part of November, when I could find time to stitch.

After Thanksgiving, I found myself in a mood to start something new, even though I have several WIPs and UFOs that could use my attention. So, I started JBWs "French Country A, B, C's":

The fabric is darker than it appears in this photo. The pattern and photo is blue floss stitched on a white fabric. I purchased the pattern and the blue fabric at the PALS Fling a year ago and decided to stitch it reversed, white floss on the blue fabric. Not too much of it completed yet, but I think it's going to look very cool when completed.

And last but not least, I started working on Lizzie Kate April FlipIt, from the very first FlipIt series from 2002.

Most of these were stitched last year in a round robin. There were 4 squares left to stitch when it returned to me. My buddy Ruth took it home with her after the PALS Fling in October and stitched a square. And her friend Judy surprised me by stitching another. So that leaves 2 more squares to stitch, April and May.

That's it for stitching updates. I hope to have these WIPs finished by end of the month.

Hugs to all....

Thank you Veterans

2008-11-11T09:07:00.005-05:00

Thank you Veterans for your loyal service to our country. The sacrifices you make to keep our country safe and free is greatly appreciated. For those that are currently deployed overseas, may you soon be home safe.

Why I love Autumn

2008-11-09T12:35:00.009-05:00

There are a many reasons why I love Autumn.... Watching football, crisp sunny days and nights starting to get a little chilly, apples, sweet potatoes, pumpkins. But one of the best things in Autumn, the colors of fall foliage. The colors of fall are georgeous now. It's a little past peak color, but still beautiful. I took my camera to work Friday and took a few photos from the windows of where I work. And after breakfast this morning, I drove around a bit, taking a few more photos.

I hope you enjoy these photos.

I had to take a picture of this one tree in the parking lot at work:

This is a field next to my building:

The rest were taken while I was driving around this morning:

I haven't forgotten that I still own you Myrtle Beach photos. I'll try to get those posted in the next few days.

Trip to Utah and the Shepherd's Bush retreat

2008-10-27T00:43:00.018-04:00

Yes, I'm finally posting pictures from my trip to the Shepherd's Bush stitching retreat in Utah. The trip to Utah was the end of September. Since then, last week, I also have attended the PALS stitching retreat in Myrtle Beach. I have lots of photos to share, but this post will be dedicated to the trip to Utah and the Shepherd's Bush retreat.

I traveled to the retreat with 2 of my stitching buddies from my LNS. After arriving in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, we drove to Ogden, home of Shepherd's Bush. One street over from Shepherd's Bush was a knitting store we visited. On that street, it was Main Street if I'm remembering correctly, they had several painted horse statues. Here are pictures of 4 of them:

Aren't they COOL.

Here is the photo taken from my hotel window in Odgen:

On Thursday, we drove from Odgen to Park City. Park City is where the stitching retreat was held. The directions we were given to travel from Odgen to Park City took us on a longer route, but it was a wonderful scenic route. Here is a view from the car as we traveled west from Odgen:

Park City is where some of the 2002 Winter Olympic events were held, one of which was the ski jump. As you enter Park City area from the interstate, you pass right by the ski jumps:

We drove up into the Olympic Park area where the ski jump is. The bobsled and luge runs were also there. Apparently you can ride down the bobsled and luge runs (on wheels I assume when there is no snow) on certain days of the week (we weren't there on those days). :-)

The stitching retreat is held at The Canyons resort. The entire area of Park City is big-time ski resort area. Historic downtown Park City is very cute, all kinds of shops and restaurants. We ate lunch at a restaurant in historic downtown Park City called Zoom. Zoom is owned by Robert Redford and we were told he is there during Sundance. Alas, he was not there while we were there. Here is a photo from the balcony of my room at The Canyons resort:

Now, on to pictures of what I bought at Shepherd's Bush and of the projects from the stitching retreat.

The first 2 photos are what I bought at Shepherd's Bush:

Note: The little red "Dash" project in lower right corner has been stitched, I stitched it while at the retreat. I just need to mount it into the included tin.

On Thursday night of the retreat, they have what they call "Shared Stitches". Everyone gathers together and receives a project. All of the designers/teachers at the retreat pitch in parts of this project. The project on the left in the next photo was the "Shared Stitches" project. The 2 pictures show the design for the front and the back of the project:

The scissor fob kit to the right of the above photo was the Shepherd's Bush scissor fob for the 2008 Stitching Retreat. I picked it up at the "store" at the retreat, forgot to include it in the earlier photos of things I bought.

My class on Friday was with Charland Designs. Here is photo of the class project. We received all supplies needed to stitch and finish the project:

Friday night we gathered for a presentation from Jacqueline Holdsworth from England. She shared stories and photos from the Ackworth Quaker Sampler Collection. We also received a small project from her, pictured here:

On Saturday, there were 2 classes. First was the Shepherd's Bush class. Here is photo of Shepherd Bush class project:

Notice the small felt scissor fob on the left. That was Teri's special project for us. From what I've heard, Teri of Shepherd's Bush loves to give people a quick and easy project, one that you can finish very fast, so you can at least walk away with one completed project. The flowers and hearts were already cut, we just had to cut out the leaves, thread a needed with thread and add the layers, run the needle through a few times and .... done, a finished project. It's really cute.

Saturday afternoon was Blackbird Designs class. Here is photo of the Blackbird Designs class project:

The class time was spent in painting, waxing, and fabric lining the box. I wasn't too keen on having the painted box in my luggage the next day, so I watched and helped others and will paint, wax and fabric line my box at home.

Last, but not least, a very cool part of the retreat was an ever growing charm bracelet. When we met for the "Shared Stitches" project on Thursday night, we were given a charm bracelet and a charm. Then every time we attended something, our classes, the presentation by Jacqueline Holdsworth, etc, we received another charm or two. We also received a necklace with a pendant on the banquet night. Here is a photo of my bracelet, all the charms I received, and my necklace:

That's it for the Shepherd's Bush Retreat. I took many photos of the mountains around Ogden and Park City. And I have a few photos from the classes, but I figured I've flooded you with enough photos for one post.

I'll give everyone a few days to enjoy my pictures from my adventure to Utah, while I'm working on photos from the PALS retreat last week in Myrtle Beach.

And the winner is.........

2008-10-23T13:05:00.002-04:00

Carol R

Congratulations Carol. I've sent you an email, please send your mailing address in your reply.

Thanks to all that visited my blog and left comments. I hope you will visit again.

I am putting together photos from the Shepherd's Bush retreat. I will probably post later tonight about the Shepherd's Bush retreat. Then I'll be posting about my PALS retreat last week at the beach.

A contest for my 1st Blogoversary

2008-10-10T23:36:00.006-04:00

Hi everyone. It has been weeks since I've posted. A few weeks ago, I flew to Utah to attend Shepherd's Bush Stitching retreat. I do have pictures on my camera that I need to post. My apologies for not posting pictures yet. In a few days, I will be going to the PALS Falls Fling. The time between retreats has been very busy with work and rehearsals and trying to get ready for the PALS retreat. I still have many things to get done between now and next week.

The main purpose of this post is to announce my upcoming 1st Blogoversary, which will be October 22. AND, to celebrate, I have decided to have a Blogoversary Contest!!!

To enter my contest, all you have to do is post a comment to this post, asking to be entered into my Blogoversary Drawing. Deadline for comments - end of my day October 22, midnight US Eastern Daylight Savings Time (EDT). On Thursday, October 23, I'll put all names into a hat (or bowl) and draw a winner.

The winner will receive a surprise package containing an assortment of cross stitch goodies (things like fabric, threads, beads, etc), totaling $20-$25 value.

Feel free to spread the word to your cross-stitching blog-buddies. For those that visit my blog, I hope you will visit again.

Good morning everyone

2008-09-09T08:24:00.005-04:00

This past weekend was a mixture of being busy and being lazy (lazy mixed in with occasional naps). I'm sad to say I did not pick up a needle the entire weekend.

Friday, I left work a little early to meet up with some friends to go see "Mama Mia". Yes, I had not seen it until now. Oh, it was so hilarious. I loved it. After the movie, we migrated to the Friday's parking lot and had dinner (while the first bands of Hannah had arrived .... the rains had started).

Saturday I worked at my LNS, and relaxed and fought off naps later that afternoon. As for tropical storm Hannah, she was pretty much gone by noon, by early afternoon, the sun was out and it was a beautiful afternoon. For Sunday, the only thing I accomplished was going to the grocery store and a banjo lesson. I took a nice long nap around noon on Sunday. The only stitching related thing I did was on Sunday evening when I pulled out several Christmas ornaments patterns, picked out several, and pulled some pieces of 28ct and 32ct fabrics on which to stitch ornaments. Monday night, I did go to my LNS after work for stitch night and did start stitching on an ornament. I should finish it tonight.

I will share one photo with you. Background -- a few years ago Raleigh tore down the old convention center (a hidious building) and started working on a new convention center. It is now complete and this past weekend was the grand opening. A few blocks of downtown were blocked off and a celebration dubbed "Raleigh Wide Open" began. I did not go (I sortof forgot about it). One photo I found which I had to share was of the banners that were hanging in downtown Raleigh.

Raleigh is named for Sir Walter Raleigh. I love the "Rock on with Thy Self" banner. Whomever came up with that one, A+.

Did y'all have a great Labor Day weekend?

2008-09-02T10:42:00.004-04:00

My Labor Day weekend was uneventful. The Raleigh Concert Band had a concert at a park Sunday afternoon. We played about 1/2 of the concert before the rain started from a passing thunderstorm. Of course, by the time we were getting the percussion instruments packed up, the rain stopped ... oh well. Yesterday (Monday) was a beautiful day here. Sunny, not too warm, nice breeze blowing. I did not spend as much time outside as I should have, was only out to run a couple of errands.

As for stitching, I worked on Teresa Wentzler's Needle Guardian. Here is a progress picture as of last night:

Oh, on Friday, I picked up my new banjo. It is absolutely beautiful. I'll post pictures in the next day or so.

Howdy Everyone! Happy Friday!

2008-08-29T01:25:00.019-04:00

I finally uploaded pictures from the digital camera. First, my recent trip to Asheville, NC. Each year, my LNS has 2 stitching retreats, a beach retreat to Myrtle Beach in March and a "Christmas in July" retreat to the NC mountain town of Asheville. The mountain retreat was August 8 and 9, yes, this summer our "Christmas in July" retreat was in August. Asheville is a small to medium size town I would say. To me it has become a town that is a mixture of generations of families that have lived there their entire lives and lots of new folks.... a mixture of arts and crafts and business. To me the one word that describes Asheville is quaint. There are some beautiful old churches in Asheville. One church you will pass as you head into downtown is the Basilica of St. Lawrence.

It is beautiful inside. It has the largest freestanding elliptical dome in North America. Here's a picture of the inside (you can see part of the dome ceiling).

Another church is the First Baptist Church of Asheville.

This church has a domed roof and every time I pass the church I love looking at the colors on the roof.

More about the retreat. Susan Greening Davis is the guest instructor. Susan is a wonderful person. If you have met her or attended one of her classes or retreats, you know what I'm talking about. Here is a picture of Susan (on the left) and Sarah, my LNS owner (on the right). Both Susan and Sarah are wonderful designers and both have class projects for us at the retreats. NOTE: The red purse in the chair was Susan's first project.

Here is my finished purse.

Other designs (or photos) can be inserted into the front pocket. I will eventually pick a patriotic design to stitch and insert into the bag for non-Christmas time.
Susan's second project was a Christmas ornament. Here is my completed ornament.

Susan's project include red and green ribbon that she added around the perimeter. I decided to just use the white ribbon. If I decide to stitch another, I'll use the other colors of ribbon on it.

Sarah's 2 projects were also ornaments. I don't have them finished yet, but here is a WIP photo of project #1.

Each square will have the gold "box" and within each gold box are various designs. Once stitched, it gets folded and finished into a cube. The designs Sarah designed for the sides are very cute. I'll keep you posted with WIP pictures as I continue working on it. Along with this project, during the last few weeks, I'm bouncing between a handful of other projects, including a couple of Patriotic projects not finished in July. Here are current WIP pictures of the others:

Susan's "large project bag" from the March stitching retreat (a picture of the "small project bag" can be seen in April 08 posts on my blog):

Shepherd's Bush "Scatter Freedom":

Shepherd's Bush "Land That I Love":

And, for the Stitch a Fantasy blog, Teresa Wentzler's Needle Guardian:

I love the colors used on this.

Sorry the post is so long, but I had lots of photos to share. I hope everyone has a wonderful upcoming weekend.

How old is your brain?

2008-08-19T14:08:00.003-04:00

Yes, yes, ok, first a quick update on recent trips. And, yes, I know, I owe you stitching updates and pictures.

I have been back to the NC mountains the last 2 weekends. Weekend before last, I was in Asheville, NC for my LNS' Mountain Retreat. This is the "Christmas in July" stitching retreat, even though the trip was in August. This past weekend, the Dixieland band had a gig in Valle Crucis, NC. Valle Crucis is a small NC mountain town, very pretty area of the mountains, not too far from Boone, NC.

I have 2 of the projects from the mountain retreat done, and have some other WIP's I keep bouncing between. Tonight I will upload pictures from the camera and will post some stitching pics.

Now. How old is your brain. I thought this was fun and figured I would share.

1) Click the link below:

http://flashfabrica.com/f_learning/brain/brain.html

2) Most of the website is in Japanese, ignore that. Click "START".

3) Wait for the 3, 2, 1 countdown. At the end of the countdown, various numbers will flash in the box.

4) Try to memorize the positions of the numbers and, when the circles appear, click on the circles in order of the numbers, going from lowest number to largest number.

At the end, the age of your brain will be displayed.

First time I played, my brain was 38.
Second time I played, my brain was 32.

A view from the NC mountains

2008-08-04T09:15:00.002-04:00

Saturday evening the Blue Notes Dixieland Band performed in Blowing Rock, NC. We were performing at a fundraiser / auction at the Westglow Resort and Spa (this was a paid performance). We performed on a small stage in the corner of a huge tent on the croquet lawn (very swanky). We definitely were the "hired help". The people attending (who paid $150 for their "ticket" to attend the event and auction) did appear to like our music, they even paid us a little extra for "tip". The auction was not for the faint-of-wallet. Most of the items auctioned sold for $800 to $2000. There was a "dinner for 8" package at a very expensive restaurant in the area (including very nice wine) that went for $4000.

The resort is on a 20-acre estate about 3 miles out of Blowing Rock, NC, was once the home of Elliott Daingerfield, artist and writer. The views from the lawn were beautiful. Drove through a nasty thunderstorm maybe 20 minutes before getting to Blowing Rock and it continued to rain off an on. The rain stopped about the time we arrived at the resort. At one point, there was a beautiful rainbow arc'ing into the valley.

The road trip to the NC mountains and back took most of Saturday. Sunday I relaxed more than I intended, only stitched a couple of hours Sunday night.

On this Day in History - August 1st

2008-08-01T14:58:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone. I do not have any stitching photos to share. I am trying to finish up a couple of Patriotic designs, but I don't have progress photos handy. I haven't had time to stitch since Monday, work and life have been super busy this week. I do plan to stitch some tonight, and hopefully more on Sunday. I got the idea to look on the internet for things that have happened today.

On This Day - August 1

1790 The first U.S. census was completed, showing a population of nearly 4 million people.

1876 Colorado was admitted to the union as the 38th state.

1914 Germany declared war on Russia at the onset of World War I.

1936 The Olympic games opened in Berlin with a ceremony presided over by Adolf Hitler.

1942 Rock musician Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead was born in San Francisco.

1946 President Harry S. Truman signed the Fulbright Program into law, establishing the scholarships named for Sen. J. William Fulbright.

1946 The Atomic Energy Commission was established.

1957 The United States and Canada reached agreement to create the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).

1966 Charles Joseph Whitman shot and killed 14 people at the University of Texas before he was gunned down by police.

There were more listed where I found these, I chose to only list the ones that happened prior to 1970.

I hope everyone has had a good week and will have a great weekend.

Happy Monday....

2008-07-21T12:34:00.006-04:00

My work week started with waking up with a headache this morning. Not a bad headache, but annoying enough to take some Ibuprofin. The headache finally left around 11am. I also started the work week by sleeping late (I hit the snooze button a few too many times).

For my continuing saga of Patriotic stitching, after finishing the stitching on Shepherd's Bush "Glory" scissor fob last night, I took a break for a few hours and goofed off on the computer and heated up something for supper. After supper, I looked through the small Patriotic designs and started Trail Creek Farm "USA" pillow:

The design is very small, and it's mostly done. I could have finished it last night, but it was getting late and a wave of sleepy-ness sent me to bed. I was going to finish it during my lunch break, but alas, I didn't toss the white-dmc into the ziplock bag (and that's all that's left for it to be finished). I'll finish it this evening. Next in line is Shepherd's Bush "Scatter Freedom":

I do have everything I need to start this in the ziplock bag I brought into the office with me this morning. I think I'll spend a few minutes of my lunch break getting this one started.

Tonight is stitch night at my LNS. I tossed my digital camera into my stitch bag this morning. Thought I would take and share photos of "stitch night" with everyone.

A relaxing weekend....

2008-07-20T16:24:00.005-04:00

How is everyone doing? I hope everyone has had a great weekend so far. We had some rain Saturday evening, rain that swirled inland as tropical storm Cristobal moved up the South Carolina / North Carolina coast. Today is sunny and a little muggy, a great afternoon for stitching.

My Patriotic stitching continues. I have 2 finishes from the weekend. Last Saturday I picked up Shepherd Bush "Sam" kit from my LNS. I had most of it stitched earlier in the week, finished it Friday night. I went to a coffee shop Friday after work to listen to some friends that play in a dixieland jazz group. I finished "Sam" at the coffee shop.

Then after getting home Friday night, I started Shepherd Bush "Glory" scissor fob. I finished the last stitches a few minutes ago:

I still need to join the sides together and stuff it. The red ric-rac is the "cording". It will go around the edge, being tacked in place with white beads. I'll show another picture when the sewing is complete and scissors attached (not in the mood to "sew" today, but will finish it up this week sometime).

I have a few other small Patriotic designs ready to start. Of course I could be working on Mirabilia "The Lady of the Flag", but I'm in the mood to work on some small projects. I will be working on "The Lady of the Flag" soon and will post a progress picture.

Hello everyone...

2008-07-12T00:26:00.005-04:00

Ok, Ok, I'm finally posting. Between work and rehearsals and everything else, time has flown by. June is gone and it's now almost mid-July. I hope everyone had a very Happy July 4th. I had my usual 3 concerts, one the evening of July 3rd and two on July 4th. The concerts went fine .... lots of Patriotic music and flags waving. I love playing Patriotic music. The concerts on July 3rd and July 4th are my favorites. Now for my stitching update:

Here is photo of Fair&Square 4th of July squares I stitched and mailed early June (yes, finally posting a picture).

Around the end of April, I had posted a picture of a needlepoint star I had stitched from a class at my LNS. I finished it into a biscornu several weeks ago. Here's a photo.

Since it was a needlepoint piece, using larger size fibers, the fabric used was a larger count. I also didn't stitch anything for the back side of the biscornu, so it's a little on the plain side, but I still like it. It's going to be a pin-cushion next to my sewing machine.

For the Society RR, I stitched "K", "L", and "M" from Elizabeth Designs "Nature's Alphabet". It's on 40 count fabric, stitching over 2 threads. I love how this is looking on the 40ct fabric. I finished these a few weeks ago, sorry for being so late in posting a picture.

I was late in finishing Fair&Square Round 7 square, but it is finally finished and in the mail. I'll post a picture once it has reached its new home in Austrailia.

And tonight, I finished a needlepoint piece from the May class at my LNS. The design is called "Log Cabin in the Woods". Everyone got to choose their own colors, one being a metallic. For my metallic, I chose a lavender shade in Rainbow Gallery FYRE WERKS. It's a metallic ribbon. I love how the metallic ribbon worked for this.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Happy Sunday everyone

2008-06-08T14:06:00.003-04:00

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. It's a little on the HOT side here. Highs the last few days in upper 90's with heat index over 100. Today's estimated high is 102 with heat index around 105. I was out a little earlier, but am now inside and plan to stay inside the rest of the day. Stitching update....

I have pictures of the Fair & Square 4th of July squares I sent to Sue W, but she hasn't posted that she has seen them yet, so I can't share those pictures.

I can share the pictures of what Sue W sent me. Here are the Fair & Square 4th of July squares Sue W stitched for me:

I love the design. I had never seen this design and think it is absolutely the cutest 4th of July design. And here are all the goodies she included:

Stitching the 4th of July squares for Sue kicked off my "patriotic" stitching a little earlier than usual, and I found myself in the mood to stitch something else Patriotic, something quick. I picked up Sekas and Co's "Patriotic Heart" last weekend, started it this past Tuesday. Finished the stitching yesterday and attached the button today.

It is stitched on 10ct Tilla. Instead of the button that was listed, I substituted a Flag Heart button. A couple of the sections were stitched over 1, but the rest were stitched over 2, so it was really quick to stitch.

I'm going to get comfy on my sofa and get back to stitching.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

2008-05-24T12:57:00.004-04:00

I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. This is a weekend that marks the beginning of summer for many people. For many, first weekend to go to the beach.... have a cookout in the back yard.... big weekend for car races (if you're into watching car races)....

For me, it is also a weekend to remember our Veterans. A Memorial Service is held on Sunday afternoon of every Memorial Day weekend at the National Cemetery in my town. I play in a community band, and our band always performs at this service. It is a small thing I do, but, for me, is one of the most important concerts we do each year. It's my way to thank, to respect and to honor our Veterans, past and present.

You may not agree with me, and, thanks to the freedoms we have in this country, you don't have to agree with me. But, if you do agree with me, remember to take a moment sometime this weekend to think about our Veterans, remember them, and thank them for protecting us.

I'll end with lyrics to "Taps". There are multiple opinions on the origin of "Taps". Eventually, lyrics were written, and there are multiple versions of those also. Here is a version I found...

Day is done,
gone the sun,
from the lakes
from the hills
from the sky,
all is well,
safely, rest,
God is near.

Fading light,
Dims the sight,
And a star gems the sky
Gleaming bright,
From afar,
Drawing, near,
Falls the night.

Thanks and praise,
For our days,
Neath the sun
Neath the stars
Neath the sky,
As we go,
This, we, know,
God is near.

Stitching and a Surprise

2008-05-19T22:01:00.008-04:00

Happy Monday everyone. I hope everyone's week is starting out great. My week is starting on a high note thanks to a surprise I received Saturday night. Saturday night is date night for my sweetie (boyfriend) and me. This past Saturday night, before we went out to dinner, he disappeared to the other room for a second and came back and handed me a box. And in the box were these:

I was speechless and so surprised. Note, my birthday was almost 4 months ago and Christmas is a long way off, so this was a total surprise. Aren't they beautiful?

Now, onto stitching related things. Last week I completed a biscornu and mailed it to Karen for an exchange. She has received it, so I can now share a photo.

I found this biscornu on the Freebie Gallery blog, and fell in love with it. I love the red-on-red. I have enough fabric to stitch another and plan to stitch a second one for me eventually.

Tonight, I worked on finishing another biscornu, the needlepoint star I posted a few weeks ago. I have all sides joined except the last one. Just need to add the stuffing, close the last side and add the buttons in the middle. I'm probably not staying up too much longer tonight, so I'll finish it tomorrow night.

And, finally, I received the fabric I ordered from Silkweaver and now have everything needed for Mirabilia "The Lady and the Flag". I thought I would share the "ready to start" photo.

The fabric I chose (everything is piled upon it) is a Silkweaver Expressions Hand Dyed Lugana, 32ct. The color is "Chasescape". Piled on top of it is the pattern/photo and all of the DMC flosses, Kreinik #4 Braid and Blending Filament, and Mill Hill beads that I'll be using. I plan to start it tomorrow night as soon as I get the biscornu done. I have other projects I'll be finishing up and starting the next few weeks (squares for Fair and Square and for the Society RR), but my plan is to stitch on "The Lady" at least 1 or 2 nights per week over the next few weeks.

That's all for now. Good night all.

Do you like PINK?

2008-05-09T12:13:00.004-04:00

If yes, take a look at these:

It includes hand-dyed, silks, satin, ribbon, & wool there, a total of 50 different fibers.

The Stitch Pink blogsite is hosting the contest. All you have to do is visit Stitch Pink and add a comment to the contest post. Deadline is May 15. There will be 5 winners, each winner getting 10 fibers.

If you have never visited Stitch Pink, please do. It's a nice site that tries to bring awareness of the importance of breast screening, and early detection of breast cancer.

Time flies, where has April gone?

2008-04-29T00:21:00.005-04:00

It's hard to believe April is almost over. Wasn't January just a few weeks ago?

Here are a couple of recent finishes. First is a star designed by my LNS owner Sarah. This was from a class at my LNS this past Saturday. It was stitcher's choice whether to just stitch the inner square or to include the star points. I included the star points and plan to finish it into a biscournu.

Next is snowman I finished tonight for The Society RR. I hope you like him Shelleen.

Update on Mirabilia "The Lady of the Flag". I ordered fabric today from Silkweavers. I'm guessing I'll have the fabric within a couple of weeks. I have other things to work on while I wait for the fabric. I'm working on another biscournu I'm working on for PALS Biscournu exchange. Then I'll get to work on my square for the Fair&Square 4th of July holiday round.

I hope everyone's week has gotten off to a great start. For me, I'm off to bed, as the alarm clock will be waking me up in 6 hours.

GIVE is finished

2008-04-21T01:39:00.005-04:00

I finished LK DoubleFlip GIVE tonight (well, really "morning" since its a little after 1:30am Monday morning).

Planning 1 per month, this catches me up through April. Now to get caught up on the LK 2007 FlipIts.

While at LNS yesterday, I did purchase the Kreiniks and all but 1 package of beads for "The Lady of the Flag" (see picture in post below this one). I want to stitch her on an overdyed fabric, still trying to decide on which fabric.

Happy Friday

2008-04-18T16:31:00.005-04:00

I have no new finishes. Since finishing Christmas Elf Fairy, I have stitched very little. I've stitched a little more on LK GIVE DoubleFlip, and have stitched a little more on the large project from my recent Myrtle Beach retreat.

Tonight I will stitch my signature on Christmas Elf Fairy and give her a good pressing, for tomorrow morning she gets dropped off at LNS for framing. I also will leave for framing Shepherd's Bush "Christmas Is Love" that I stitched back in December.

While eating a late lunch at my desk (at work) an hour of so ago, I was surfing around the web. Browsing through the various websites, I realized something, and with this realization, have concluded that I have LOST MY MIND. Since finishing Christmas Elf Fairy (my first Mirabilia), I find myself wanting to stitch other Mirabilia's. I have already purchased 3 additional limited addition "Fairy" kits and have the "Christmas Tree 2007" kit. These are relatively small in size (compared to most other Mirabilia designs - like the "mermaids"). And, what, do you ask, what do I want to stitch? All of a sudden, I want to tackle a LARGE Mirabilia project. And which Mirabilia project have I decided upon? One that I purchased several years ago .....

The Lady of the Flag
- Design Size: 340 x 170 stitches (21 1/4" x 10 3/4" on 32 ct)
- 8 packages of beads

I have other large projects that I'd like to work on. I have 1 large project that is currently a UFO (that I want to get back to working on sometime soon). Why oh why do I suddenly want to start a really large Mirabilia project? As I mentioned earlier, I think I've lost my mind. For those that know me, you'll proabably agree.

I'm actually going to pull the pattern out tonight, pull the DMC colors needed so I can decide what kind of fabric to use.

Hugs to all. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. I have a concert later tonight and a dixieland gig tomorrow afternoon. In between playing music, I'll hopefully get a little stitching done this weekend.

WOOHOO!!!!! She's finished.....

2008-04-07T02:20:00.007-04:00

Took longer than I thought, but I was determined to finish her before going to bed. I put the last bead in a couple minutes past 2am. Only thing left is to add my signature (I can do that after I've had some sleep).

This is officially more beads than I have ever added to a project. I did a rough count, there are approximately 480-490 beads. The photo is a little fuzzy and you can't see all the beads, but believe me, they are all there.

I hope everyone likes her. This was my first Mirabilia .... now I can say "I have stitched a Mirabilia". :-)

I have pictures to share...

2008-04-03T23:37:00.003-04:00

First, here is the small project from Susan Greening Davis from my Stitching Retreat in Myrtle Beach March 14-15:

The zipper bag is a small mesh bag, covered in fabric. The class project has all specialty stitches except for the backstitched words. The words didn't come out too clearly in the photo... the words are "A threads tail is never long enough". I added some buttons and attached it to the zipper bag. It turned out so cute.

Next is Bent Creek February Snapper:

I'm stitching them in 4 rows of 3. I stitched February first since it was center of the top row. I still need to attach the snaps.

Then I switched gears to Lizzie Kate. In the last week, I've stitched LOVE and REMEMBER from the 2008 Lizzie Kate DoubleFlips. Here they are:

I've started GIVE below those two. But then I decided to rotate back to Mirabilia Christmas Elf Fairy. I haven't shared a picture of her in a while. I have a discount coupon from my LNS that expires the end of April and want to use the discount on getting this and a couple of other pieces framed. Last night I finished the whisper thread stitching (yipee!!!). Only thing left is the beading and the backstitching. Here's what she looks like tonight:

My goal is to have her finished by this coming Sunday.

What's going on other than stitching? Work has been busy, busy, busy. The dixieland band has a gig coming up on April 19. I'll be making my "singing with a band" debut that day. I've sang with various chorus groups from grade school through college, but until now, have never sang with a band. I'm the banjo player with the dixieland group, but recently started singing a few vocals. I'm having so much fun performing with this group.

North Carolina weather has been all over the place lately. This week has been the roller coaster the weatherman predicted this past weekend, nice one day, chilly and rainy the next. It's been rainy today. Tomorrow (Friday) is supposed to be beautiful and around 78 degrees. The great news is that this area of NC has gotten several batches of rain during the last month or so. We're not out of the drought yet and water restrictions have not been relaxed, but the local water source (lake) has risen quite a bit over the last month or so. Yipee!!!

I hope everyone has had a great week this week. And hope everyone has a wonderful weekend planned.

Following in recent footsteps....

2008-03-24T02:43:00.003-04:00

My dear friend Ruth has posted recently how she has stayed up very late into the morning stitching, or reading, or watching TV. I have done this tonight. I was awake and making great stitching progress and kept stitching. I finished RR piece I was working on and then got out Bent Creek Monthly Snappers and continued working on February. I recently finished March Snapper for a Society RR rotation, but stitching on this for the RR made me decide to go ahead and get my Monthly Snappers patterns out and stitch them for me also. I started with February (I'm doing 4 rows of 3 and February is center of top row). I've finished everything except filling in the middle of the heart. Hopefully will finish it tomorrow night and will post a picture.

Ok, it's a little after 2:45am. I have to go to work in about 4 1/2 hours...guess I should get some sleep. Good night all.

Happy Easter to everyone

2008-03-23T15:59:00.003-04:00

I hope everyone has had a nice Easter weekend. I have had a quiet weekend. I had no musical obligations for Easter this year. I stayed up late Friday night stitching so I slept in Saturday morning. I did stitch a few hours Saturday, inbetween getting laundry done. Today, Sunday, I've been cleaning and straightening up in the kitchen and will soon start making a cheesecake (cream cheese is sitting out currently). I'm also watching The Ten Commandments on DVD. Yes, it was on TV last night on network television, but I do not have the patience to sit through it with commercial interruption. I picked up a copy on DVD several years ago and usually watch it every Easter weekend. Watching it is an Easter tradition for me.

For stitching, I'm almost finished with a RR piece. Should finish it tonight and get it mailed tomorrow. I need to go through my stash and pick out a snowman for another RR piece which I'll start soon. I also want to get back to the beach projects from my stitching retreat last weekend at Myrtle Beach. One project was finished at the beach (I owe you a picture). Another small project I should be able to finish in the next few days. That leaves the larger project that will take more time. I'll take some pictures and share in the next day or so.

Ah, The Ten Commandments got to the "intermission" (end of DVD disc 1). Time to put in disc 2 and wander back to the kitchen to start making the cheesecake. The cheesecake I'm making is "Guinness® Chocolate Cheesecake" (recipe from www.allrecipes.com). One of the guys in my department at work found the recipe and requested it for his birthday. His birthday was a few weeks ago, but I told him I would make the cheesecake eventually. So, off to start melting chocolate and beating cream cheese. (Anyone want to come over for a taste test?)

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted...

2008-03-18T23:51:00.009-04:00

It's been over a month since I've posted...shame on me. Life has been busy as usual. Work is always busy. And rehearsals continue and I've had a few concerts in the last few months.

I have been stitching some, not as much as I would have liked. Here are some photos of some recent finishes.

First, here's a Christmas Tree ornament (first ornament stitched for 2008). This was from a class at my LNS. The design is by my LNS owner. The tree is made up of various rows of specialty stitches.

Next are the squares I stitched for Fair and Square round 5. It's Valerie Pfeiffer's "Christmas Chick". The backstitched cardinals on my signature square are from a Jeanette Crews Designs book titled "Winged Things".

Next is Bent Creek "March Blows" Snapper. This is square I stitched for the "Society of Friends" Round Robin I'm in.

And, finally, a couple of pictures from my trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina this past weekend. The trip was for a stitching retreat my LNS owner does each March. There's a shot from the balcony of the room I was in, and another shot from outside the conference room area:

I need to take pictures of the stitching projects from the stitching retreat, 1 project is done and the other 2 are in progress.

I hope everyone is having a great week so far.

Happy Wednesday everyone....

2008-02-06T08:54:00.001-05:00

Is it the weekend yet? Sorry for my lag in posting. Work has been so busy the last couple of weeks. I don't have any finishes for February yet, but I have been stitching a little here and there (not as much as I would have liked). I have been working on a couple of RR pieces. And for a few days last week, I rotated back to Mirabilia Christmas Elf Fairy a little (she had been rotated out for a few weeks while I was working on other projects). For Christmas Elf Fairy, all that's left is to finish the Whisper thread stitches, attach the beads, and the backstitching. I started working on the whisper thread, which I saved for last for the x-stitching, end of last week, have about 1/2 of it done. I hope to work on her more this coming weekend, might even get her done ... woohoo!!! I also need to get started on my Fair&Square piece. I have the pattern selected, just need to lay the threads across some fabric colors to choose the fabric I'll use.

Pictures coming soon, I promise.

What I have been doing during the last couple of weeks is buying new stash. Like I need more stash????

From Down Sunshine Lane, I bought:
- Mirabilia: Thanksgiving Harvest Fairy kit
- Mirabilia: Easter Fairy kit
- Dragon Dreams: There's Magic In My Needle (so cute)
- Valerie Pfeiffer: Christmas Chick
- Valerie Pfeiffer: Chorus Line
I think something else I'm not remembering at the moment.

Then, got in the mood to look for some Breast Cancer Awareness patterns or kits, and found and bought the following exclusive kits from Elegant Stitch:
- Blue Ribbon Designs: With All Your Heart
- Little House Needlework: Where There is Life There is Hope

Incase you are interesting in purchasing these or other Elegant Stitch projects where all proceeds are donated to breast cancer organizations, please visit Elegant Stitch Pink Charity page.

And finally, I was browsing the other day at The Silver Needle, and ordered this Silver Needle exclusive Just Nan project:

I had never seen this until last week, and have to have it before they were all gone. I ordered some other Patriotic items from The Silver Needle's Patriotic section also.

I guess if you can't find time to stitch, we can always shop!!!

I'm off to a good start, another finish...

2008-01-22T23:32:00.001-05:00

I finished Sam Sarah January Bauble Monday night. Here is a picture:

I'm usually not one to change colors often, but I did with this one. A couple of the "snowmen" colors were more light tan or cream, so I changed those. And, 4 of the scarf colors were used twice and I decided to use 9 different colors for them. Last thing I've done for now is I chose to leave off the single "X"s that went around the outside border of the grid. I can decide later to go back and add them if something changes my mind.

Another finish for 2008

2008-01-16T00:17:00.001-05:00

I finished Lizzie Kate Double-Flip "Dream" tonight. Here's a picture:

I still need to attach the charm. And I'm stitching them together in a tall skinny column, so the bottom row of the border won't get stitched until after the last design.

I am starting a Pay It Forward

2008-01-15T14:31:00.000-05:00

Here is how it works.

The first 6 people that post a comment to this post, expressing interest in being part of my PIF challenge, will get something stitched and finished by me between now and Dec. 31, 2008.

In turn you must start a PIF, posting to your blog the same challenge and accept 6 people to send a PIF to. Then they do it to their blog and so on and so on.

First finishes for 2008

2008-01-10T00:58:00.001-05:00

Work has been crazy busy since returning to work on January 2. I was off from work between Christmas and New Years and stitched quite a bit during that time. And I've been able to squeeze in some stitching here and there since going back to work last week.

I have some crazy stitching goals this year. My main goal is to see if I can complete 50 projects this year. I have multiple "monthly" designs planned, along with Bride's Tree ornaments and Christmas ornaments each month.

Plus I started Teresa Wentzler "Noah's Ark" on January 1, joining several ladies in a Teresa Wentzler Stitch-A-Long. I worked on Noah's Ark on January 1, got most of the alphabet in the middle done. Haven't taken a picture yet. I will soon and will post an "in progress" picture.

This past Monday, January 7, I completed 2 projects, my first finishes for 2008:

First up - January FlipIt (from the 2007 Lizzie Kate FlipIts):

I had stitched about 1/2 of it last year and it got put aside and became a UFO. This series is on my list of 2008 stitching goals, so pulled it from the UFO pile this past weekend and finished "January". One down, eleven to go.

Next - Shepherd's Bush "Christmas Is Love". I started it on Dec.28. Also finished it this past Monday night (Jan.7).

I also need to finish up Mirabilia Christmas Elf Fairy. I put her aside end of December when I needed to finish my Fair and Square piece. I'll post an update on Christmas Elf Fairy soon also.

Happy New Year!!!!!

2008-01-01T01:56:00.000-05:00

I hope 2008 brings good health and happiness to all.

Happy Day After Christmas

2007-12-26T23:01:00.000-05:00

I haven't been online in several days except to check my email. I went to my Dad's for a few days and returned home today. I have a slightly updated picture of Christmas Elf Fairy from a couple of weeks ago (I'll post a picture soon), but have been working on my Fair and Square piece and can't post a picture of it (it would ruin the surprise).

This entry is going to be a long one, but hear goes. I was tagged on Dec 19th by Teresa, Sew Many Thoughts, to tell you 12 Christmas related things about myself. Sorry that I'm a little late Teresa, but here goes (let's see if I can come up with 12):

1) My favorite Christmas movie to watch is "Its A Wonderful Life".

2) For TV Christmas "cartoons", my favorite is "Santa Clause Is Coming to Town".

3) I play in the percussion section in a community band and we play at the Capital Building for my state for the lighting of the Christmas Tree every year. It's usually during the 1st week of December. The Governor and his wife (surrounded by children) turn on the lights on the tree on the capital grounds shortly before 6:30pm (being broadcast at end of 6pm evening news). I love playing this concert.

4) I don't have any children, but am "Aunt Christine" to my best friend's 3 children and have enjoyed buying something for them for Christmas for years (although her 2 boys are old enough now that they love getting cash).

5) When I was growing up, my parents would sometimes give a present in a sneaky way. By this I mean the present would not be wrapped and under the tree ... there might be a note to go look in the basement, or to go look in my Dad's work shop. One year when I was young (but old enough to remember), there was a something I wanted that was missing from under the tree on Christmas morning. My Dad said he heard a noise during the night and thought Santa had turned over the sleigh on the roof. We looked outside and found the present behind the azalea bush. I remember back and loved those little surprises.

6) I like to bake and usually will take baked goodies to work (cakes, cookies, whatever I have time to make).

7) A silly Christmas song I love hearing around Christmas time is the "12 Pains of Christmas". I like all kinds of Christmas music, but still laugh every time I hear the "12 Pains of Christmas".

8) The last couple of years, I get asked to help out with the "orchestra" for a Christmas contata at a church in a neighboring town. I will play various percussion parts. I always say yes when asked, as I like playing Christmas music and can't say no when asked to help out for church.

9) I love the pine smell of a live Christmas tree.

10) When my Grandparents and Great-grandparents were living, we used to have many huge family get togethers when I was growing up at Christmas time. On Christmas Eve, we had to go to both my Grandparents (my Dad's Mom's house and my Mom's parents house) where my Aunts and Uncles and cousins all gathered. Then sometime in the days after Christmas, a larger gathering of family would get together at 2 of my Great-Grandparents houses. These get togethers stopped after the Great-Grandparents and Grandparents passed. I miss those.

11) I always thought it would be cool to be part of a cookie exchange, but didn't know anyone that ever had one. My local cross stitch shop stays open late on Monday nights for stich night and last year (2006), I threw out the question about the Monday night stitchers having a cookie exchange. Everyone thought it sounded fun and most had also never been part of one. We had the cookie exchange on a Monday night about 2 weeks before Christmas and everyone loved it. We had our 2nd cookie exchange this year and hopefully we will continue to have them year after year.

12) My longest tradition for Christmas is that I always visit my parents for Christmas. I can't imagine a Christmas that doesn't include a trip to my home town.

Even though its after Christmas (again, sorry Teresa that I was late in responding), I'll tag 2 of my cross-stitching buddies: Ruth, The Musing Badger and Michele, Just Another Stitching Blog.

Happy Holidays to all.

I stitched and stitched this weekend.....

2007-12-10T00:53:00.000-05:00

And I made great progress on Christmas Elf Fairy. Here's how she looks now:

She finally has a face. I'll probably work on her 1 more night (at Monday stitch night at LNS), then will put her aside and get to work on my Fair and Square piece.

I'd love to say I got lots of other things done this weekend, but I didn't. I did get laundry done on Saturday and made a batch of oatmeal cookies today. I ran a few errands yesterday. Other than that, I stitched.

Happy Saturday everyone...

2007-12-08T10:28:00.000-05:00

I had a busy week at work this past week. Very glad that the weekend is here. It's a beautiful day today, a little chilly, but sunny and pretty. I'm stitching while getting laundry done. Here is progress picture on Christmas Elf Fairy.

I can't wait to get the fill-in on the wing done. :-)

I'll work on her another day or so, then will switch to working on my Fair and Square piece.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.

Progress picture of Christmas Elf Fairy

2007-12-02T23:33:00.000-05:00

Time to put the stitching down and think about going to bed. I worked on Mirabilia Christmas Elf Fairy tonight. Here's what she looks like tonight...

Some stitching finishes....

2007-12-02T12:38:00.000-05:00

This past week was very busy and I've stayed pretty busy this weekend. I drove down to South Carolina Friday evening and attended a stitch-in Saturday. Even though life has been extremly busy the last couple of weeks, I have managed to find time to stitch.

I've finished 2 RR squares in the last week. I started stitching the following little fella week before last and finished him last Sunday:

And yesterday, I finished the following square:

I finished the red square above at the stitch-in yesterday. I then continued stitching on Mirabilia's Christmas Elf Fairy, stitching about 1/2 hour on her before I had to leave to head home. I plan to stitch more on Christmas Elf Fairy tonight. I'll post a progress picture later tonight.

Back to work tomorrow. Between a few Christmas related concerts I have coming up and invitations to other holiday concerts, and baking to start working on soon, the next few weeks (and weekends) are going to be BUSY. Ho-Ho-Ho!!!!

It's been weeks since I've posted....

2007-11-26T00:20:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving weekend was busier than I thought. I had to work the 2 day for the holiday, but work was fairly quiet, as expected. But, hey, I get to take 2 free days off to make up for "working" the holiday. Will check with folks schedules tomorrow to plan my 2 days off.

I have stitched a little over the last few days. I quickly stitched a piece for a RR. It was a small design and only took a few days to complete. I'll take a picture and post tomorrow.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.

Thought I'd share a picture

2007-11-02T23:21:00.001-04:00

Busy week at work this week, and a busy weekend coming up. I haven't been able to pick up a needle to stitch since Monday night so Christmas Elf Fairy looks the same as the picture from earlier this week.
With the warmer than normal fall, the NC mountains are sill in peak Fall color. Thought I'd share a photo from the NC mountains, taken about a week ago:

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Here's what I'm working on.....

2007-10-29T23:11:00.000-04:00

I started working on Mirabilia Christmas Elf Fairy a little over a week ago. Here's a progress pic as of tonight:

Relaxing weekend almost over....

2007-10-28T19:43:00.000-04:00

Is it just me or does the "recovery period" from the PALS Fling at Myrtle Beach get a little longer each year. Or maybe we're just getting a little old for staying up till 3 in the morning. Why am I speculating this? It took me most of this past week to get over feeling tired.

This weekend has been a relaxing weekend. After getting home Friday after work, I goofed off on the computer for a while, then started stitching around 11pm. I stitched a while and didn't go to bed till after 2am, so....

I slept in Saturday morning. Read for a bit, then ran out to the LNS to pick up some threads that had come in. Attended a concert Saturday night and had a late night supper with my sweetie after the concert.

Sunday, went to get groceries and settled in for a relaxing afternoon. Got caught up on some emails and watched bits and pieces of football games (I'm in 2 Fantasy Football leagues currently). I started stitching Sunday afternoon and stitched until I stopped for supper, which I've just finished. I'm going to stitch another couple of hours before heading to bed.

What am I stitching? I'm working on Mirabilia Christmas Elf Fairy. I picked it up in Myrtle Beach and, even though I have several projects I should be stitching on, I started working on it last Sunday evening. I don't have my digital camera handy. I'll take a picture and post my progress tomorrow night.

Hello to the cross-stitching bloggers

2007-10-22T20:52:00.000-04:00

It's been pointed out to me that I've been missing out on lots of cross-stitch fun from the cross-stitching bloggers out there. So, I've created my blog site. Now to post to a few of my buddies so they know where to find me.