Post Labor Day Update

As you can see, I'm challenged by titling this post, so there you have it.  lol!

I hope you all enjoyed your long Labor Day weekend.  DH and I expected a quiet one.  We got a few things done around the house and watched a couple of movies.  On Sunday afternoon, we drove to Houston and "hung out" in Rice Village where we had lunch and browsed in a bookstore then went to Central Market and bought some "foodie" goodies.  When we arrived back home, we received an invitation to join some friends for a Labor Day pot luck (it's still way too hot to want to have a picnic!) so yesterday I made a big batch of potato salad and some Texas sheet cake for my contribution.  It was fun getting together with everyone.

We got up early yesterday to take a walk and saw a coral snake on the track.  It's only the second coral snake I've seen in the wild and both of them were on that walking track...even close to the same place on the track.  He didn't seem to be too bothered by our presence;  we didn't hang around very long to give him a chance to change his mind.

I finished and mailed off the model and finished and mailed off the donation quilt square so now I can get back to stitching my own stuff.  Here's the quilt square (HIH Wee Vegetables):

I picked up an old wip/ufo of Hinzeit's Sweet Land of Liberty to work on.  I'll also work on LHN's My Dwelling Place.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Last Friday we just moved our "baby" into his dorm room at University of Texas.  After having children under our roof for 32 years, we're officially empty nesters now.  I know-that's longer than many parents have children under their roof-- but how did this happen so fast?!

We're in "getting used to this" mode now.  I keep thinking Tony will walk in the door at any time.  lol!  I'll have to adjust from cooking large quantities to cooking for 2.  Etc., etc., etc.  (I won't mind doing less laundry.)

Our son (who just defended his PhD thesis last week) just landed in Denmark this morning.  He's checking out some post-doc fellowship opportunities.  (I guess I should renew my passport.)

Big changes all at once!

On the stitching front, I'm on the home stretch of a model and hope to finish it this week.  It's a cute one!

I also stitched a bit on a (donation) quilt square, HIH Wee Vegetables and here's my progress on that:

While in Austin I had a mini LNS fix.  Ginger's has closed but there's a nice needlework shop not too far from campus that carries a lot of the same threads we cross stitchers use.  Unfortunately I had lots of Crescent Color cottons on my list and they don't carry that line...so I came home with only a few WDWs.

We finally have some rain today.  A sign that I just might be addicted to my morning walk...even though it was raining lightly, I decided to give it a go today. Shortly after I started, it started pouring.  I had my umbrella, so I walked the first loop before giving it up.  It's been raining off and on all day so far.  We really need it!

Happy stitching!

My Dwelling Place and a "Wee" start

I've been working on a (top secret and VERY cute!) model that's taking my stitching priority this week but I also made a little progress on LHN's My Dwelling Place:

...and made a wee start on HIH's Wee Vegetables:

 This one is for a quilt square donation and it's requested that I don't use overdyes.  I'm using several shades of DMC in random lengths  instead of stitching the veggies in all one color (boring!).  Hopefully I'll get the "look" I'm going for.

I'm finding myself in the mood to stitch something with a Halloween theme so maybe once the model is finished, I might add something like that to the "rotation".

It continues to be really hot and humid here.  I walked 4 mornings this week...about 3 miles.  I missed this morning's walk bc  the AC guy was supposed to be here "first thing this morning".  He called with some "emergency"  (I've heard this story before.  It's one of the reasons we've been waiting since mid April to have this job completed.  Ugh!)  You know how it's said that you should use local businesses because, since they're local, they care more about getting the job done promptly and correctly.  Not always the case as this demonstrates.  A few years ago we spent a ton of money with them completely redoing our heating, cooling and venting system.  You'd have thought they'd show their gratitude by providing good service but....Well you get the idea.  The only reason we've stuck with them this far is because there's a slight chance that there's a small crack in the equipment that's still under warranty.  Once we get this figured out, we'll probably go with another company in the future.

Oh well....while waiting for the guy this am, I cleaned 4 ceiling fans and did some vacuuming.  I can do some more vacuuming while waiting for him to get here....if he ever does.  Grrrrrrr!

We're still making progress on the dorm shopping.  This week we added a new bike and wireless printer/scanner to the pile.  (Hey!  I want one of those wireless printers/scanners.)

Between work and seeing friends, DS is gone a lot.  As he was leaving for lunch with some friends the other day, I suggested he and I make a lunch date before he leaves.  It's amazing how quickly this time is passing for DH and me.  It's still too slow for DS.  He's SO excited!  (...as he should be.)

I have an outing tomorrow.  I'm driving to a friend's house near Houston for a stitchers' get together.  There are several "regulars" and a few once-in-a-whiles who come to these.  We always have fun!  We always have a theme for the food. Apparently this one falls near or on Jimmy Dean's birthday so the theme is Sausage.  (I wonder when Oscar Meyer's birthday is but, wait!  We already had a bacon them.)  I'm making sausage balls to take.

Until next time......Happy Stitching!