Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Three little birdies

I have been filling in my evenings stitching these 3 little birdies from HSE. They will be finished out with some chenille ribbon I picked up at LNS last weekend. The ribbon reminded me of my Great Aunts home when I was growing up. When I would spend the night there she would have a chenille bedspread on the bed I slept in. It also had the pom-poms all the way around the edge. Even at 5 or 6 I must have loved textures because I recall petting it and playing with the knap until I would fall asleep.It was an old cinder block house and was always cold so I'm sure the fur off the bedspread was keeping me warm in my mind. Who knew something as simple as a ribbon could recover so many good childhood memories?


Not sure why these pictures vary so much in size. All three bird are small. 2X3 or so but the computer saved them all different. 


I still have a couple of days off for the holidays but my mom is here and there will be no rest for the weary. Shopping, cooking and errands to run with her and then back to work on Thursday. I believe the tree is coming down today as well. Getting things back to normal around here. Hope everyone had a nice Christmas and made some fun memories.


Thanks for visiting,
Pam

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Goodies Galore



First up is the Winter Wonderland Exchange , above is what I sent to Vicky L and below is what I received from Cheryl.Peppermint Twist is the ornament, silks, over dyes, great chart and more.
As always it was a great exchange, if you are wondering about them I would highly recommend this group. Lainey and Colleen host a wonderful exchange and you feel safe sending and receiving.

The other day was a rough one for me. I got sick and had to stay home a few days, my step-daughter who was doing so well decided it was too much to live with boundaries and went back to a place that can be dangerous for her. (keep her in your prayers-Tiffany) and then I had a family member come for a few days in the middle of all of that.I could not go shopping still because I was sick and have literally no gifts under the tree. I had just about had it when I opened the front door to find a wonderful surprise. Teresa sent me a wonderful Christmas gift with some very thoughtful gifts. A devotional book, soup mix(YUM!), Sees chocolates ( more YUM), a personalized tin of tea with strainer, and a frogger, bead counter and fob that you cannot see well in the picture(sorry) but they are breathtaking.  
Then yesterday was my first day back at work after 4 days off unplanned. It was a bit rough on an old girl to say the least. I found a lovely card from Belinda which also contained a wonderful snowflake ornament. Blogger is not letting me turn it. So delicate and pretty.
So just when you think life is not being too kind, in comes the stitching world so save the day and make life much more enjoyable. It has been a most blessed 2011 because of blogland and all the friends I have made here. You keep me motivated to stitch and encourage me in so many ways.Thanks to Nataly for getting me blogging. (take a picture of the menorah with candles glowing please) That is a beautiful menorah.

Happy Holidays,
Pam

Saturday, December 17, 2011

MAP Complete!

I came up with yet another stitching acronym. MAP, this will stand for Medium A$$ Project in my little world. I completed Dandelion Sampler today, a MAP. It isn't quite large enough for a BAP but still a bit larger than most of the projects that catch my eye. As usual it looks much better in person and I doubt the picture shows the detail. I had it all compete Thursday except for about 3 inches of beads I decided to put on the outside border. Of course this required a trip to the LNS to recover the beads. Glad Mill Hill doesn't drop beads the way some of the over-dye thread makers drop colors or I would have had to re-bead the entire border. This leads to another saga, I need a framer. I have not been happy with a framer in town in many moons for needlework. Suggestions welcome if you know of someone in Birmingham, AL area.


I'll post stash enhancement later. DH is hope sick today and well, some things should be done in private. Let's just say I heard the call of some Belle Soie silks for another DT chart, Linen and Lace from 1998. (still stuck in the 90's but they are really great charts and fun to stitch) Amazing R&R green fabric to stitch it on too. A few other must haves but I'll just tease you for another post. 


Hope you are all ready for Christmas. (we are not) I feel behind but the kids are gone this week and hopefully we can get this end of shopping completed after work this week. My mom is coming up to sign on a little lake place and in full panic that she hasn't done any shopping. It will be an interesting week. Be careful traveling and enjoy your family time. You can stitch after the visits to de-stress. (at least that is what I'm telling myself.


Thanks for stopping by,
Pam

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

All lite again



My husband was able to find white lights on the side of town where he works so we were able to redress the tree and get all festive again. I was glad that saga came to an end. The tree really could have used another 100 lights but they only had 6 boxes at the store where he was and so I felt lucky to have just enough for a decent showing. 

I am on the final band of the Dandelion sampler. I stitched one tiny section of the band last night and called it quits. Starting to get a cold and my nose would not stop running.Hoping to show it all stitched no later than Thursday this week so I can feel like I got a little something done.The weekend slipped away from me with no real stitching. It doesn't count when you have to take out what you put in. :(

Thanks for stopping by,
Pam

Thursday, December 8, 2011

not at all happy

I am sitting by the fireplace in my stitching chair working on a sampler, feeling all happy because I am actually finding time to stitch. When I sit down I am looking at the above photo. Then after an hour or so I look up and it is all dark. I ask the kids who turned off the tree. They all look at me like I am nuts and deny even being in the same room with said tree. Then I get up to investigate and the sugre protector is still working. I start trying to figure out which strand of lights is bad. ALL of them are not working. So now I am going to have to pickup lights on the way home from work the next day. My husband was off yesterday so I sent him looking for lights-white as I have blue, silver and white ornaments.He went to Lowe's and Wally-world and said they are sold out of lights. I went to 7, that is SEVEN different stores looking for lights in the very damp and cold night on my way home looking for lights. Miles and miles of colored lights and not a single white light in the place unless you count the 50 boxes of 20 lights they had at Dollar General.So I went from a lovely completely decorated tree with draping silver ribbon topper to this.....
Still lovely because I love the color pallet but no decorated tree.Last year we past on a tree because of the death of my Father just before the holidays and the year before we passed because we were traveling to the mountains to see family.This was my first year to have a tree in my new house with all the pretty lights and glitz and glamour of Christmas. UGH!


So tonight on the way home I will either stalk down a lighted tree hopefully on sale(I hate to pay full price of anything) or go to another area of town looking for lights. I am nothing if not persistent. Probably the most common word used to describe me. 


On a Quest,
Pam 

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Hallmark Channel Movies

Is any one else finding themselves addicted to these silly Hallmark Channel Christmas movies? It is almost like a strange event. You know you are getting drawn into them, they are beyond predictable and yet you watch and stitch to the warm fuzzy feeling they leave you with every time. Save me from myself. I actually recorded one I was in the middle of the other day when I had to leave to pick up the kids. Can anyone explain this strange phenomena? 


Enough of that, It is wrestling season which means 14 hour Saturdays and sometimes Friday nights late are filled with sweaty boys in a gym and bug eyed, exhausted parents who would rather be at home. One of his teachers described watching the boy wrestle as watching a box of puppies one time and it is still the best description I have heard.What I like best about it is that I can stitch without worrying about the chores at home.True silver lining don't you all agree? I was able to do 5 bands of the above sampler this past weekend, leaving just 4 and the completion of the border. 


Hope everyone slows down and enjoys the holiday season,
Pam 

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

JOY

It was a busy week last week. I did manage to stitch this cute little LK ornament from 2007 JCS. I have three more ornaments stitched and hope to find some time to finish them this weekend. Then they can add a little life to my Charlie Brown Ornament Tree. This leaves me only 70 more waiting in my old JCS issues. As you can see I'm just blazing through them. :) 


Saturday we were able to get the Christmas Tree up! The tree is in blues and silvers but you cannot really see it from this picture. I still need a topper but that will have to wait until this weekend. Tomorrow we are looking at a school for DD to see what her options are for the next step to moving on with adult life. (and out of our house) We are glad she is here but this is not a forever type of arrangement. :)


Well I know you were all wondering how long I could make it without another stitching escape. I have signed up for the Silver Needle stitching camp. 120 days. Let the countdown begin! Once a year is not enough for me. As a way of justifying my actions, I accrue almost 7 weeks off a year and my husband gets a whopping 2 weeks off. By my calculations that leaves me a good 4 weeks to plan stitching events and I have only 2 planned at this point. I am already dreaming of no one asking me what's for dinner. The most dreaded question around in my book.  


Dare we say that Christmas is only 24 days from tomorrow and I am so not ready. Same condition I was in this time last year. I remember my single days. I had all my shopping done and gifts made by Thanksgiving. I am sure everyone hated me for it.:) Now I suffer the time crunch with the rest of the world. 


Thanks for stopping by,
Pam

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all have had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Made a pecan pie(pea-caan peye) for desert and way too much of other real foods. We had a small gathering of my mom, step-daughter, son and myself.(also 4 dogs if they count in your world) DS and DH left at 3:30 to go deer hunting and came home empty handed and hungry.Menu of turnip greens, sweet potato casserole with nuts, brown sugar coconut and corn flakes on top(I know it sounds weird but it is the only way to top the sweet potato) dressing, turkey, pork loin with mustard sauce, fresh cranberry relish, and giblet gravy. I wanted to get a picture of the table but they started eating before I could snap a shot. So here are my left overs instead! lol

Close your eyes and imagine a table with an antique blue and white china and pipping hot food. Don't blink or it looks like above photo before you can tell them to wait.


 I managed to get some beading done on a exchange piece and hope to complete the finishing work tonight.I just love this one and hope to post a pic soon and they will allow. 


I do hope that amid the stress that family can sometimes bring and hopes for perfect meals we put on ourselves, you were able to find time to celebrate all the goodness in this life God has given you. If it is not a holiday in your country be a trend setter and start making it one. A day to be thankful without the stress of gift giving or other expectations is a nice day. 


Thanks for stopping by,
Pam

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Pie & Dandelion

My mom came up to stay through the holiday. She loves lemon meringue pie so I made her one today. The center is like lemon curd and if you have only had a lemon ice box pie this is a much more intense lemon experience in my opinion.The recipe has been in our family for 5 generations that we can count. It came from my great aunt's grandmother. I cannot even count how old that would make it, my great aunt is 83(and still a handful) I got the baking gene in my family so this pie always falls on me to make. It is make with a double boiler and a good deal of whisking to temper the egg yolks but well worth the resulting taste explosion.
 I was able to get 4 bands and part of a fifth completed on Dandelion Sampler this weekend. I was looking at the signature section this morning as I was working and realized this piece is from 1992. At least it is timeless in my eyes. I hope to have it completed before the end of the year just short of its 20 year anniversary. How sad is that? I am stitching it on Days gone By linen which is pretty appropriate don't you think?I have actually on the had chart about 10 years so I am really only about 10 years behind in my stitching. :) It is in an old Just Cross Stitch if your interested in it when I'm finished drop me a comment. 


Hope you all can find something to be thankful for this week. I think I have too many things to count as God has been very good to our family this year. If you have had a rough year and it seems He isn't blessing you it is still Him teaching you and being good to you.(have had plenty of those years in this life as well)


Thanks for stopping by,
Pam

Friday, November 18, 2011

Spun Silver

This my my lament of Spun Silver Belfast linen. You are looking at my last piece of it. It is about 7 inches by 3.5 inches. I have been hoarding a larger piece for years but recently stitched a little something on it and now this is all I have remaining. It was discontinued many moons ago but being a skilled stasher I was able to use it wisely on pieces which it really enhanced. Blues, purples and greens really sing to me on this fabric. And the way it feels in hand is something just short of heavenly. I hope always for its return but with all the tans and coffee colors being so popular I fear we will not see a recovery of this gentle beauty. The grays linens are too heavenly and deep in color and the blue linens are just too blue and overtake the other colors. Spun silver allows the design to be highlighted and enhances the threads rather than overpower them. Platinum is the sister fabric to this if you are trying to picture it in your mind the subtle tans versus the subtle silver grays and a loose silky weave of fabric. I am sure by now you have figured out I could go on about this for a while. I'll stop so as not torture any remaining readers but I just felt my favorite linen deserved a fond fairwell.

Thanks for stopping by,
Pam

Monday, November 14, 2011

baking, shopping and more

The weekend began with a day of baking. I made a family favorite, Italian Cream Cake. It was my step daughters 21st birthday last week and she requested the cake. I then woke up at 4:30 Saturday morning (UGH!) and since I could not go back to sleep I decided to make some pumpkin bread and banana nut bread. Then, you guessed it, off to the LNS for a fun day of stitching and stashing.
Isn't this the cutest tree. I got it in black so it could be used year round for ornaments. I am shamefully lacking in Christmas ones. I pulled my stitched ornaments out and only about have of the branches are filled. I do have several needing to be finished to help fill in the gaps but I will have to get busy to have a proper showing for the holidays. I thought it would look nice with the hanging pincushions or other small pieces in the off season.

Not a great picture but I picked up Fredrick and Fredericka by CHS. I got a lovely piece of Weeks linen called linen. Thy will look great on it. Opted for DMC rather than NPS. LNS doesn't stock them and I am too lazy to stalk them down on the Internet right now.

I also picked up the LK 6 fat men series. I think they will look so cute done up. Who knows when but they are hanging with the rest of the stash now. I worked on my retreat pieces while at the shop but didn't take any pictures of that. I am almost finished with the Blue Ribbon Designs piece and just need to add the ribbon leaves to the VS piece so hopefully by next week they will be finished. I also got my exchange piece ready to be finished. So all in all a productive weekend. And best of all no cleaning! My DSD is working just a few hours a day (3) and will be helping with that until she finds a full time job.

This was my first veteran's day with out my veteran Dad. It was hard and sad. We are just a few days away from the anniversary of his death and it has been a hard year. You will just be fine and then all the sudden something happens and makes you remember him and I have to fight back tears. Guess it goes on like this for a while.

Pam

Friday, November 4, 2011

Exchange piece

This is the exchange piece from he PS exchange I sent to Melanie. It was from G is for Garden of the PS alphabet. The back of the needle book has the garden that sits under the house on the main graph. Melanie sent me a wonderful piece in a different exchange so I felt a bit of pressure while stitching.

The weekend holds a break between my sons sporting life. I hope to spend it hold up stitching. Cleaned really well last weekend so I think this may be the take a day off and stitch weekend. Yesterday I stood in the pouring rain for 3 hours at a cross country meet selling concessions for sections held at his school.We were there for about 5 hours so not all of it was wet. I was amazed that people were buying stuff in the pouring rain. I was so cold when it was over I had to take 2 showers to get the chill from my bones. I really think I earned a stitching weekend. What cha think?

Thanks for stopping by,
Pam

Monday, October 31, 2011

Not until the New Year


This is the exchange piece I sent to Tina.(no blog) This was on the Stitches with Love Exchange. The inside of the piece has all the usual goodies for the lover of smalls.I had a hard time letting parting with the little acorn salt and pepper shakers.I know that is sad but true none the less.
I was the lucky recipient of a amazing finished box from Angela.Hooked on Stitches Got a cute LK fall chart and DMC , great fall pumpkin bow and orange ribbon, a fun fat quarter and orange tape measure. 
My last realization is that it only 2 months away from the new year. I have several projects started that I would really like to complete. Why this weekend I managed to work on one of them .... I stitched and entire word(silver) over one. I was so disappointed in myself for not stitching more. I have this shinny new ott lamp and fantastic magnifier that changed my world, or at least set it back 10 years to before the bad eyes over took it, and all I could do was stitch one tiny word. SILVER. SO......... my not until the new year resolution is that I will not start another piece until I have completed some of these pieces in waiting or we hit the 2012. I still need to put the binding on my quilt. I seam to stall each time I get to something new on the quilt but I'll have to get that done soon. It has turned chilly here and I need a new lap throw. The 3 fairly large pieces hanging out in my world will hopefully show progress soon. I did join the Christmas Exchange on the above blog so I guess that will be my exception to the rule. (gotta have one) So if anyone would like to join in please let me know and we can encourage one another along in the not until the new year resolution.


Happy Stitching,
Pam

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Fast Finish and Exchange piece

This is my travel piece from my trip home. The chart was in Gail's blue tote of charts from the retreat and she kept the gift going and gave it to me! I did make the flowers a bit brighter for me. I think it is going to finish into a little pocket for my closet. (yes I even decorate in my closet and laundry room) My DH gets a little tired of the stitching in every room so I put it in places he cannot see. We all know the laundry room is male free- if you have on of the rare specimens that will do laundry consider yourself a lucky lady. 
Next up is my lovely exchange piece from the PS exchange. Melanie did an amazing job. I am lucky enough to now have two wonderful pieces she stitched. She got tagged with me in 2 exchanges. Finishing job is fantastic.


The house is quite and DH had a work dinner after work so I get to spend some quality time with stitching stuff. Can it be true? Stitching time and its not even the weekend. Better run and play with the needle and thread.


thanks for stopping by,
Pam

Thursday, October 20, 2011

one last retreat post

Hopefully you can all stand one more post about the retreat. Pictured above are Gail and Jackie. They both did the most AMAZING silk gauze work. Gail had stitched one of the Hawks Run pieces on silk gauze. I have never seen anything like it before. Jackie had this cute Halloween piece that was equally amazing. It was so good they inspired me to purchase some and give it a whirl. I would show you all my progress but I have all the stitching stuff from the retreat hidden in the corner of my bedroom. There are some events which should take place alone and I believe fondling fresh stash is one of them. My husband did tell me my little corner of sanity is beginning to look like an episode of hoarders. Saturday while he is at work I will be able to sort and and take some pictures.
These four lovely ladies are from Australia. They were so sweet they way they tended to each other and they could shop like nothing I have ever seen. They said our prices were so much better than theirs they could not help themselves. They each had the sweetest spirit about them. Teresa and I spent our break day between retreats touring them to King Arthur Flour,  quilting shops and Hobby Lobby. Who knew it would be such an adventure packed day. It made me feel like I had gone to Australia to go around with them and learn the variances in our English. Hopefully they will be safe at home by Friday and we can email soon.
Teresa and I toured the hi-ways and by-ways on the way to taking me to the airport. We  saw the some very picturesque towns and road stands on the first day. It was fun to travel with someone who can pull into a thrift store or antique shop as fast as I can. I got some great blue glass for next to nothing.We ended the day in Portsmouth and took off the next morning for the coast. What a great time that was as well. All of this was needed to prepare me for the bumpy airplane ride home. We were delayed a bit due to flying around storms. I have a cast iron system and never get motion sick but the airplane ride home tested my limits. I'll leave you with a picture of the church at Portsmouth at dusk. 
  
Thanks for stopping by,
Pam

Monday, October 17, 2011

For Patricia

Above is a picture of Leslie(blond) and Patricia(brunette). The delightful ladies from Maine that stayed across the hall from us at the retreat. They came back from both retreats and I meet them both at last years event. It was so good to spend more time with them this year and enjoy their company. Hope to do a better job of staying in touch this next year.

On the first piece my progress was slow. I got the chair bottom stitched but not assembled. The fob, pin cushion back and needle book rug are all still waiting for completion. Lucky for me they are all small projects. No pictures to show yet. Sorry. Great progress on the VS project. I was able to get the pincushion top complete and strawberry fob stitched. Like most of Thea's pieces they stitch so fast and have a nice rhythm to them. They are all packed up today as Teresa and I are leaving to roam the countryside today and tomorrow until my flight leaves at 6. The retreat is complete except for breakfast this morning and the goodbyes.

I'll have to sort thru the photos and projects when I get home for more pictures. It was all too much fun and Nataly and Marie provided a sinful amount of goodies and door prises each night of the events. I am coming home with a treasure chest full of fibers and buttons and a most embarrassing 5 pair of fob less scissors. Naked scissors are always such and embarrassment don't you think? 

Friday, October 14, 2011

Update from New England

Yesterday was tea at the ABC Stitch shop. We endded leg one of the retreat with a wonderful shopping trip with desserts and afternoon tea.

 There are a couple ladies at the shop doing wonderful work on silk gaze and I was inspired to purchase an Erical Michaels kit to try my hand at it. I still need to get a magnifier to be able to see it but we are havng an outing today (more shopping) and I should be able to find one while we ar out.
First round of stash from ABC yesterday. We will have a second trip at the end of the second retreat. Belinda leaves us today and Thea arrives, We have had some wonderful goodie baags in our rooms each night and fun give a ways. I wond a selection of overdyes while playing Left-Right-Center dice game. Tons of fun. I also won a pair of mermaid scissors last nigt with a necklace chain.

The food has been great as well. Last night was fried chicken, corn on the cob, salad an potatoes with a heavenlly chocloate cake with fresh whipping cream and strawberry sauce.

Getting ready for Retreat number 2!
Pam

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Treat Time


After a long day of flying I finally got to Boston. Teresa had to wait at the airport for an hour because the second leg of my flight loaded onto the plane ontime but we just sat their for what seemed like days (reality 45 minutes) before we could take off for Boston. I was so excited  to load into the car and heading off to the Cracker Barrel for a lunch and catching up. With full and content bellies we went off to Yankee Crossstitch for a bit of pre-retreat shoppiing. The store was full of stitcchers eye candy. There was a huge selection of the By the Bay pieces and charts. I wanted them all of course but managed some restraint. (we wll stop on the way bacck to the airport so I can pick which ones I want to stitch after mulling it over) Then down the road to Enfield for the Retreat. We both screamed when we got off the exit we were very silly by that point in the trip. Above is the goodie back hanging on our door after dinner. We have a light dinner and a wonderful deserrt. 

Almond layer, choclate mouse layer, and vinalla layer. Chocolate sauce and raspberry sauce. A yummie finish to a full fun day. Teresa is a early riser and am I, we have already been down for coffee and see the suprise packages left by the good stitching fairy (Nataly) and class projects to start after breakfast. Oh the joy of not having to cook or clean the kitchen for so many days!

More updates to follow,
Pam

Monday, October 10, 2011

necklace finish

Last night while tending to still sick DH(poor thing) I turned this little piece into a necklace/scissor holder. Just thought it was the perfect finish for the small. I am just a few hours away from my flight to New England(actually Boston) where my driver and roomate for the week Teresa will carry me to New England. Last night I packed and tonight I will sort what stitching to take away with me. Doubtful I sleep much with my early flight time of 6AM. DH has actually been so good this time. He must actually feel terrible. (you all know how the men are when they are sick unless they are really sick-count yourself luck if you have the rare male who doesn't behave badly when sick). I cannot believe the retreat is finally here and I will be there in less than a day. We will have lots of photos to share soon.

Pam

Friday, October 7, 2011

sympathy vote

This is my fun for the next few days. My husband had his tonsils out and sinus reconstruction yesterday. We were at the hospital 12 good hours. He had a few issues from his saturation's being low from pain medications so we got a little bonus time. They wanted to keep him but Iof course he was too stubborn to stay. I would like to say the MD was wonderful as well as the nursing team who took care of him. I hope he can go back to work by Tuesday when I leave for my retreat. Just in case someone was thinking I had not earned my week of me time. I was able to work on The Breath of Autumn by chessie and me. I was able to work on the border a fair amount. I had started it couple of days ago and didn't like the linen color- too cream- so I did a coffee dye with my morning leftovers and got a really golden color I love, Happy to be stitching it again. I am also converting to over dye cottons. The silks were too rich for my blood on this one. 12 at 7.50 each. Ouch. I am having to be a bit more budget minded right now. The lighting was not really good in the waiting area so my piece looks like I have a touch of ADD. I had a hard time counting the long stretches so I would skip to a spot I could count. Sad but true. I leave in 4 days. ready or not here I come:)

Pam

Monday, October 3, 2011

Homecoming

So how handsome is my son? Here he is all ready to go to the Homecoming dance this past weekend. It was his first real dance. After 2 weeks of planning and arranging he told me if he had know it was going to be this much work he would have just skipped it. I'm not sure if the colors show true but little hot pink roses to match her hot pink sash on her dress. His other complaint was that he cannot smile on demand. I told him to think of something funny about me or his dad right when we were taking the picture. Clearly he did not follow the advice. He has one of those plastic smiles going. He is still handsome (at least to mom).

This is a freebie from uhmmm 1999 I believe. (I make such a fine pattern hoarder) It is Home Spun Elegance and they did a sesonal set of freebies way back when. It was designed for 10 count something or other which I promptly switched to 32 ct something else. Lucky the pumpkin star button still looks cute no matter what thread count you stitch it on. I put a little green bead in the cats eye. I hope you can see it. It shows well in person.

Well this time next week I'll be packed up and ready to fly to the retreat. I may try to get another piece done before then if I can put on my superstitcher clothes on an get busy.

Thanks for stopping by,
Pam

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Super Heros

I am sure you will all think this is as funny as I did last night. My step-daughter is living with us again and it is much nicer this time around. She is really working on being a mature young lady with goals and a good purpose in life. A WIP but definately progress. Last night when she got in from church she said "What are you working on now?" I had just started the Chessies and Me on the left. Autumn Blessing. The she said "you must be a cross stich superhero because you finish so fast and are always working on something else" My husband and I just died laughing. I thouhgt it was so cute. I am so glad all the fun side of her are showing instead of the dark side.

The stash above is what I picked up at LNS saturday. 2 yards of linen, sevral fall charts and one winter and fall overdyes. There were a couple little things for exchanges I can't show yet but they will appear soon.(How is that for a cliffhanger?)

Thanks for all the birthday wished. DH took me to TwentySix. A local spot 2 brothers both born on the 26th(like me ) run. I had the Shrimp and Grits. Let the waitor talk me into them. They were good but I always like my own better. (This is not the case in all meals) They were a bit shy of sauce for me.
Thanks for the Birthday wishes.Ya'll all know I got myself that little retreat too. 7 glorious day of no one asking me whats for dinner. (I actually like to cook but not on demand) Departure is T-11 AND COUNTING!!! :)

Thanks for stopping by,
Pam

Saturday, September 24, 2011

acorns abound

Yesterday when I got home from a long work week I was more than wonderfully surprised by an early arrival of a Birthday package, It started with lovely wrapping that were too much fun to open. Everyone gathered to watch the unveiling and were amazed to see all the goodies stitched with love. Teresa has been busy stitching acorns in secret. Look at the wonderful package filled with acorns and squirrels. A tote bag and a zippered project bag. A fall chart, acorn buttons and charms, a acorn box, a box filled with some polished acorns. I might just be the most fall fabulous person at the stitching retreat! :) Can y'all stand if I post another countdown? Okay I will. In just 17 days I will be in New England for the retreat. I took myself on a little birthday shopping spree today at LNS.(If I didn't who would?) Stitched for several hours and had the best time chatting it up there. It is really a great group on Saturdays. There is a great sandwich shop just around the corner. The best chicken salad sandwich in the state, it has cashews and dried cranberries and just a hint of mayo on whole wheat. Plus they have great coffees. All in all a fantastic start to Monday's one year older event. How can I be this old? I just don't feel this old.

thanks for stopping by,
Pam
 

Sunday, September 18, 2011

to bead or not to bead

This is my set to take to the stitching retreat in just 23 days for me! So my question is to bead or not to bead? I went to LNS and she talked me into treasures and beads. I have the treasures on but not the beads. I cannot decide about the beads. They are not really true to HIH to me but they would look nice in the cording. vote please

I also worked on a exchange piece this weekend. I will not torture you all with the saga of running over dyed threads. Thanks to several ice baths the bleeding ended and I was able to finish the piece. I never have had much of a problem with this in the past but all the sudden it seems to have reared its ugly head. Maybe it is all over now and I have to deal with it no more.

Josh didn't have a meet this weekend so Saturday was a lazy day. No more of those until Nov. 12 or something crazy  like that.At least I know my real purpose.... Stitching Retreat in 23 days. Focus, focus, focus. 

Thanks for stopping by,
Pam

Monday, September 12, 2011

Summer Exchange

I have been about to pop to post the summer exchange piece I received from Melanie in the UK. That is the only bad thing I can find in the exchanges is waiting on permission to post your prize. It is such a treat to receive a lovely stitched piece from another stitcher from someplace in the small cross-stitch world. My family always gets as excited as me to see where they package is coming from and what is inside. This exchange was summer holiday themed and my piece made me want to set up to stitch by the shore and watch the sail boats come in. Truly a lovely piece.Melanie included chocolates shaped like ice cream cones, some antique styled ribbons, a fat quarter for finishing, NPS in gold and DT check book cover August. It makes me want to get the rest.(big shock there)
Above is the tropical theme package I sent to Loretta in Canada. I was longing for the beach (St George Island, FL) while I stitched. We go there for a week every couple of years. This year was a mountain trip so no ocean sound and seafood extravaganza for me.

I am putting the finishing touches on the small fall set as soon as I get off this computer. Just 29 days away! Nataly posted they still have a few spots open. Dig out that plastic and come join us! The fall colors will be going and most importantly you get to stitch the days away You deserve a vacation .http://stitchingretreats.blogspot.com/     

Thanks for viewing,
Pam