Friday check-in

I finished a cute model for Country Cottage Needleworks.  Of course I can't show it but you CCN fans will love it.  Next I'll start a model for Little House Needleworks and it looks to be another "winner".   I really enjoy stitching for both these ladies;  I'm a big fan of their designs.

I finished a little freebie from, I believe tantes zolder.  I saw it stitched up and made into a little pillow finish on someone's blog.  I really wish I'd written down the blog addy to link you to it.  If anyone knows, feel free to send me the url.

I acquired the last of the needed Belle Soie for LHN's Elizabeth Hancock.  I'm hoping to start it soon.  What a beautiful design and beautiful silks!

There are some other wips that deserve some attention;  hopefully I'll get to them soon.

I took in one of my samplers to the framer this morning.  (LHN Virtue Sampler)  I even have a place picked out where it will hang.

This was my first week without my walking buddy...although she was in town Wednesday so we "did" lunch.  As much as I enjoy walking and how it makes me feel, I have an inner battle with myself just getting started every morning.  I managed to walk 4 days (3 -4 1/2 milers and 1- 3 miler).  I have to get accustomed to my "new normal".  Finding another walking buddy would be nice too;  I have my feelers out.  In addition to the motivation, my buddy and I joke that we manage to talk out and solve the world's problems while walking together.  If ONLY someone would take our advice! ;-)

Happy stitching!

Ahhhh! Spring Break

I love our life with all our kids' activities and doing a little traveling but once in a while it's nice to just hang out at home with nothing special to do.  Our 2 younger kids are both on spring break this week and it's been a "hang out" week.  I've gotten into a little reorganizing, cleaning but also enjoyed a having a little more time to stitch.

Our college DS mentioned that they may be doing an Italian food cook-off for his Italian class so he and DH experimented in the kitchen making struffoli.  (I'm sure I butchered the spelling.  Ha!)  I teased them about how nice it was for father to be passing along his cooking skills to his son.

Here's the tasty result:

I've made a lot of progress on a new CCN model but can't show it here.  However, I can show you a few wips.

First off:

Ride a Bike by LK.  DD is "into" bicycling lately sometimes going on group long distance rides on the weekends and sometimes biking to work so when I saw this one, I just had to stitch it up for her.  I'm waiting on a couple more overdyes and a button to arrive to get back to this one.

I'm working on this  Redbird Designs Santa for a Santa themed block exchange in one of my groups  I'm waiting on another overdyed floss to arrive before stitching his cowboy hat:

Finally, I saw this freebie (tantes zolder???) stitched up and made into one of those little pillows with Christmas fabric and lace, if I remember correctly.  As soon as I saw it finished up, I knew I had to stitch him:

I've been cooking more this week to "fatten up" our college DS.  We're doing our St. Pat's meal tonight since he's going back to his school apartment tomorrow.  I made sure to buy some "fixin's" for Reubens for Saturday.  I don't know what I like best, the St. Pat's meal or the Reubens the next day.  I just know I'll have to get back to our normal menus after all this food this past week!  (Or start running marathons.....every day!)