California Dreaming

One nice thing about being a SAHM empty nester is that when DH is traveling for business, I can go along with him if I want.  He attended a conference in San Diego last week and since I've never been there, I tagged along.

We stayed in the Gaslamp Quater at a beautiful hotel (where I enjoyed spending some time reading on a nice 3rd floor patio complete with a shallow pool with 2 fountains) and I did a lot of walking around while DH was in meetings.  One day I took a bus up to Balboa Park where I enjoyed exploring.

Since we were eating out a log, I spent a lot of time walking.  I walked the length of 5th street to a set of (96) stairs 1-2 times per day and walked along the harbor area to Seaport Village.  I enjoyed just sitting in the park along that pathway and watching the boats go by.  I discovered that the steps appear to be a Mecca for fitness buffs.  It seemed no matter what time of the day it was, there would be several people running up and down (several laps) the steps.

We spent the evenings walking around and dining with a colleague of DH's who had to leave his wife home because she's very pregnant.  One night he had the great idea of riding the ferry over to Coronado Island where we had dinner at a nice seafood restaurant.  Luckily there were other menu options since I don't eat seafood.  I had a great steak there!

Sat. afternoon when DH finished his last meeting we hopped a flight to San Francisco to visit our daughter and her fiance.  Since it was Valentine's Day, we didn't think we'd be able to get in at a restaurant so her fiance cooked dinner for us.  Everyone else had crab but he was sweet to also roast a chicken for me.  We finished the evening by watching a movie.  Sunday we took them to brunch at a dim sum place and then walked around a good bit mostly in Chinatown.  (Of all the times I've been to San Fran, this was the first time I've visited Chinatown.)  We bought some tea at a nice tea shop there.  We also visited the venue for their upcoming wedding.  Too soon Sunday afternoon it was time to fly back home.

I didn't get much stitching done on the trip but was able to finish 2 books...A Serpent's Tooth by Craig Johnson (one of the Longmire books), and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.  Wow!  I'd read this book was similar to Gone Girl and I guess it is in a way but it has it's own flavor too.  I sure couldn't put this one down!

Here is the progress I've made on my stitching in the past couple of weeks:

Hetty Child (The Sampler Company)

Flowers in the Springtime (Bent Creek)

I charted out the names and date yesterday and hope to get that part stitched asap.

I also worked a bit on the border of Wicked Witch (La D Da)

Happy stitching!!!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!

Our 2013 ended with sorrow.  My mother in law passed away the Sunday before Christmas. We feel blessed that DH was able to be with her and 2 of his siblings when she passed.

Summer 2011

He flew back here so we could have Christmas together and then he and I flew back to Pittsburgh for the funeral activities.  It's all very sad, but it was comforting to be with extended family and many of his old friends (some whom he hadn't seen in ages).  We arrived home just last night.

We're in the Central time zone but were so tired that we celebrated the new year during the Eastern time zone's midnight.  We weren't sure if we could stay awake one more hour.

We're still awaiting word from our insurance company about whether DH's car is worth the expense of repairing or if we'll be looking for another car for DH.  I'm hoping we hear something tomorrow since his work commute is one hour each way....he goes back to work tomorrow.

Before our trip, I'd frogged the leaves on LHN's My Dwelling Place bc they were so light, it was hard to see them against the fabric.  I restitched them in a darker green and I'm so glad I restitched them.  The piece looks so much better now.  It's my official last finish for 2013.

I finished 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, then picked up and read Brain on Fire by Susannah Calahan (I couldn't put this one down!).  Yesterday at the airport before boarding our first flight, I bought the Kindle edition of Sycamore Row by John Grisham and read about half of it while traveling yesterday.  So instead of stitching this past week, I was able to get a lot of reading done.  (I love to read about as much as I love to stitch.)

I spent (more than I'd planned) time in the kitchen today.  Later we'll have some black eye peas, ham, and cabbage casserole for dinner and some pound cake (that I'd baked and frozen before we left) with a little blueberry pie filling on top for dessert.  One DS has plans with a group of friends to watch Baylor's bowl game tonight and our other DS who's home hasn't been feeling well today so I think he'll stay here with the "old folks" tonight.

I started a January 1 project (with one of my groups).  My choice is Bestitched Lone Star Sampler.  I saw it stitched on some overdyed fabric when I was at the San Antonio LNS earlier this month and bought the fabric for it.  (I already had the leaflet;  in fact stitched it once for a friend's Texas themed family room.)

I'm hoping to have a progress picture to post soon.

Happy stitching!!

Spring Break week

We've been enjoying a laid back spring break and having our college son here with us.  I've been doing a little more cooking and some baking since he's been home and since we have been doing less running around than usual.

Last night we celebrated St. Pat's Day for dinner last night since DS is leaving for Austin today.  I made corned beef with baby carrots and red onions and some colcannon (a concoction with mashed potatoes, cooked cabbage, green onions, and seasoned with butter, salt, and pepper).  I'd been wanting to try baking apple pies inside hollowed out apples so DS and I made them yesterday.  They're cute and tasted good but more work than I'd have thought just trying to scoop out all the apples.  We both thought making mini pies in muffin tins would be just as cute and probably a little easier to do.

The weather has been gorgeous this week and we've been taking some walks too.

On the stitching front, I finished a cute model for Diane at LHN and she received it yesterday.  (It always feels good to know a model has arrived safely.)  Since then I've been working on La D Da's "Right Spirit".  As you can see, I've changed the cabin originally charted to a saltbox house.  I admired how my friend, Sherre, did this and used her idea.  I'll have another model coming next week.  I sure enjoy model stitching for both Diane and Nikki.  I love their designs!

I finally finished reading Atlas Shrugged.  I really enjoyed reading it but it's a long book and I started it during marching band season.  I'm not sure what I'll read next.  I have the Steve Jobs bio but it's another long one...I'm thinking an "escape" fiction might be just the ticket.  Something less than 1000 pages.

Then I tried making another "books" page on my blog and ended up erasing the ones I already had posted.  Obviously I'm not a computer geek.  Rats!

It occurs to me that I've forgotten for a long time to do labels on my blog posts.

 I'm probably lucky to just remember how to do blog posts.  lol!

Happy stitching!

Summer Sampler progress, etc.

Hello, fellow bloggers!  Can you believe February is almost over already?!

When I put this sampler one down last summer, I was a little bored with it.  I recently got it out to work on again and now I can't put it down!  lol!  I'll keep chugging along on this one and maybe even finish it before too much longer.

I also started and finished a little Erica Michael's freebie for an autumn themed block exchange in one of my groups:

Two more blocks/themes and I'll be finished for the year...for this group, anyway.

We spent last weekend visitng DS (UT student) in Austin.  He took our younger son on a camus tour as we may have another Longhorn in the family in the future.  While the boys were touring the campus, DH and I went to visit Ginger's in Austin for my LNS "fix".  I bought a few things there (including a bluebonnet design that DH would like me to stitch for his office) but they didn't have some of the floss I wanted.  I vaguely remembered a needlepoint shop in Austin but couldn't remember either the name or the location but thanks to my smartphone, I found both.  The shop had moved since we'd been there but we found it.  It's called The Needleworks and has beautiful canvases and TONS of floss/fibers.  They carry full lines of lots of the overdyes and silks that we cross stitchers use.  I was in heaven looking at it all.  (The closest thing in our little town to a LNS is a Hobby Lobby.)

I finished Girl with the Dragon Tattoo last weekend (I'd like to read the other 2 in this series too.) and started Thunderstruck (Erik Larsen).  I also picked up the Steve Jobs bio using a  B and N GC from Christmas.  I'd read some of it from a library book but didn't get very far before I had to return it and decided since DH showed some interest that I'd just buy this one.  

No big plans for this weekend....I'm hoping to get a lot more done on my sampler.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and...happy stitching!

Catch up

Things have been pretty busy around here lately.  I volunteer a lot with DS's HS marching band.  We've finished our second week of band camp.  I work with some other wonderful women who support the band by trying to keep the kids hydrated, dispensing bandaids, etc., and generally helping out where needed.  We've been under a heat advisory since the beginning of camp and the kids so far are doing pretty well tolerating the heat.  We moms have been "working out" a lot by lugging cooler after cooler of ice water out to their practice field so they can refill their camelbacks.  This week they started putting some music to their drill, always exciting to see it begin.  Go, Buc Band!!

Yesterday we drove to Austin to move DS into his college apartment.  It's almost a 4 hour drive from here so, as you can imagine, it was a long day.  We discovered in Austin that we'd left part of his futon here at home so we'll be making another trip soon.  At least he can sleep on the mattress on the floor until we can make it back.

On the stitching front, a model I stitched for Nikki at http://www.countrycottageneedleworks.blogspot.com/ and http://www.countrycottageneedleworks.com/  has just been released on her blog so I can finally share it.  I loved this one!  My kitchen has an apple theme and I suspect I'll be stitching this one again for me.  Nikki seems to really be "on a roll" lately with lots of beautiful designs.

My birthday gift from DH this year was a StitchMate needlework stand and it just arrived Friday afternoon.  I think I'm going to love this...and wonder what took me so long to ask for it.  You can read about the stand here:  http://www.cozycottage.com/

I also finished and sent another model out to Nikki this week so I'm back to personal stitching (when I have any time or energy left from band.  I'm working on LHN's (Dianne Williams, Nikki's mother) designed this piece, Virtue Sampler:

I finished the Moonwalking with Einstein book (very interesting) and started another Erik Larson book,  IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS: LOVE, TERROR, AND AN AMERICAN FAMILY IN HITLER'S BERLIN and am finding it very interesting.

Until next time, happy stitching!

Checking in

I'm stitching a model for CCN so I can't talk about what I'm stitching...except to say that I know you'll like it.

My foot is a lot better.  I reached a milestone in the past few days.  I can now tolerate wearing shoes on that foot and even went out yesterday to run errands wearing shoes.  Yes!!!!!  I still have a bit to go to be back to normal (well, my foot, anyway) but I'm pleased with my current progress.

Since I can't talk about stitching, I'll talk a little about reading.  I LOVE reading a good book.  I just finished one, The Devil in the White City  by Erik Larson.  It's about the Chicago World's Fair, the people and the development/building of it, it's "run", some of the developments introduced at this fair (like the Ferris Wheel), and also some side stories about other things going on about that same time including a serial killer.  The author has a great talent for telling the historical story and making it seem like a good novel.  (I was told there's a name for that writing style but the person telling me didn't remember what that name was.  If you know, I'd love for you to tell me.) 

I also read another of his books, Isaac's Storm  about the 1900 Galveston hurricane.  Unfortunately I read it shortly before moving to the Texas Gulf coast.  It scared the bejeebers out of me.  Larson has at least a couple other books out and I plan to look for them.

Someone in my SS class was talking about a book he's reading, Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer which I'm currently reading.   I remembered the title and author without looking it up.  This is significant because the book is about human memory....about the capacity of humans to remember things, how many of us forget things, about how memories are formed and retrieved, and about "mental athletes".  It could be a rather dry subject but the author makes it interesting...at least most of the time.

I love hearig about what others are reading...and recommendations for good books.

Soon both my stitching and reading will be taking a "back seat".  DS's band will be starting band camp the first week of Aug. and since I volunteer with them nearly every day.......  It's very rewarding though and they're a great group of kids  I also enjoy working with the other adults.  I'm just never ready for band to start yet.  lol!