Brrrr!!

After living in Gulf Coast Texas for 13 years, I've officially become a winter wimp.  I know from living all those years in OH and MI that temperatures in the high 30's aren't really cold but.....it's very humid here so my story (and I'm sticking to it) is that it feels colder in this humidity.  So there!  ;-)

I braved the "frigid" temps today for my 3 mile walk and discovered that the winds last night that brought the current cold front here blew down a big tree near the jogging path.  It's no wonder it blew down--you might be able to see from the photo that it's almost hollow.

There are a lot of pecan trees around the path and also in the field in the middle.  I saw several people out picking up pecans that the wind had blown down.  One woman had 2 Walmart bags full!

It was a dreary, drizzly weekend here, perfect for hanging around the house watching football, stitching, and reading.  I worked a bit on a freebie of Barbara Ana's called Silent Night:

It has 2 color options for some of it and I haven't yet decided so I'm stitching the parts where there's just one color choice before deciding on the rest.  I'll get back to model stitching during the week days this week.  I'm almost on the home stretch of the model.  I'm enjoying stitching it.

I won a contest from Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe for some of her beautiful floss.  What a treat!  As you can see from my other recent blog entries, she's running a series of contests for the 25 Days of Christmas.  She has lots of beautiful designs, floss, fabric, and other hand dyed goodies.

Yesterday afternoon, I intended to read about an hour and then do other things but I got so into the book (Gone Girl) that I read all afternoon and most of the evening. I should be able to finish it soon. Wow!  I'd like to see the movie but wanted to read the book first.

Happy stitching!!

Friday ramblings

It's another hot, humid week in Gulf Coast Texas and life goes on.  In addition to the heat/humidity we've been "blessed" with a fresh "hatching" of mosquitoes....which makes my morning walks SO pleasant (not!).  I had a check-up this week and the doc is pleased about my walking and the yoga.  I feel a lot better for exercising so I can't complain.

I took another brief break from model stitching to stitch up a little piece for an exchange...LHN's Country Christmas.  It's on its way but, of course, I like it so much that I'll be stitching another to keep for myself.

The model is a big one but it's coming right along.  It's a great design.

I'm also in RR where we're stitching hearts from the CHS design "Friendship Sampler".  The second one arrived yesterday so I'll be working on that too.

I've been debating myself for a long time about whether I'd like a laptop or a tablet...and whether or not I even needed either.  Since my birthday's coming up, I finally decided that I want an iPad (some of my family has Apple products and this would be our only Apple device, so far, anyway).  It arrived late Wednesday afternoon and already I'm wondering how I lived before I had it.  lol!  I've already downloaded a couple of apps (synced to my Kindle and Netflix accounts) and have ideas for different ways to use it in the future.  I still can't say I actually NEEDED it but when you're as old as I am, having a "toy" isn't such a bad thing.  We plan to Skype with our DS in Denmark this weekend so, since he doesn't have an Apple product, probably download Skype to my iPad.

No culinary adventures to share this week but I plan on baking some raspberry lemon squares that I found on Pinterest.  We're going out to play Rook tonight so it's a good excuse to bake something.

The saga of the garage repairs continues.  It's been like torturous having this work done bc what should have taken 2-3 days max is now almost finishing up the second week.  They come and work a couple of hours and then leave....and either I have to be here to open the garage door or leave with it open and unattended while I'm out.  Ugh!!!  I will be SO glad when this is finished!

I finished reading "Defending Jacob" (what a heartbreaking story!) and then got back to reading "Flags of Our Fathers" and finished it last night.  Now I want to watch John Wayne's "Sands of Iwo Jima".

DH plans an upcoming business trip to Boston and invited me to come along.  Since I've never been there, I decided to go.  Luckily we just happened to talk about this when there was a good sale on air fare.  Unfortunately I've been told that there are no LNS' there but I have a feeling there's plenty other things to do so it's all good.

Happy stitching!

Friday already?

I'm not sure how but I seem to be keeping pretty busy this summer.

I finished and mailed the model and it's been received.  Sending a model out is almsot like dropping a child off at college...by then you've done all you can but your sort of hold your breath.  I'm always a little afraid the PO will lose the package but so far, so good.

My walking buddy is on vacation...so getting myself going (and walking the full distance) has been a struggle, especially because it's been so hot.  So far, so good on that too.  The ipod helps...a little.

I'm back to personal stitching.  I finished a little DMC freebie called Island Stamp.  It had numbers in the corner...like would be on a stamp but I left them out.  I'm thinking of someday finishing it into a little pillow to display in a basket (with other future beach themed little pillows.)

I also started a beach themed wedding piece for a neice who had a beach wedding.  I like the design but am not enjoying stitching it.  I think rather than stitching on it constantly, I'll put it in rotation.

I also put in some more stitches on LHN Family Sampler.  It's not a great pic because I was too lazy to take it off the scroll rods but you get the idea.

On the very day of our anniversary, I was looking at Jill Rensel's blog and found a sampler I just have to stitch....A Sweeter Love by Plum Street Samplers.  It's on its way to me as we speak.  Now to decide if I want to stitch it in silks or DMC conversion.  (I'm leaning towards silks.)

I really have to stop looking at stitching blogs.  I'm so week against the enabling.  lol!

On the reading front....I'm on the second book of The Hunger Games trilogy and really enjoying it.  I should make some time to find an online discussion groups about this series.

I hope everyone has a great week!