Ta-Da!!!

Little Miss Procrastination actually finished and framed something well ahead of time.  I'm pleased with how it turned out.  I love my framer...not only did he frame it the same day I dropped it off (I went with his idea for the moulding) but he had a great idea of grouping it with hiking/camping or one of their wedding (in the woods) photo.

I also have a couple of wips to share:

Hetty Child by The Sampler Company (Brenda Keyes).  I'm really enjoying stitching this one;  it reminds me of how much I love to stitch samplers.

Next is a CEC freebie called Nutkins Mitten.  One of my stitching groups is having a year-long mitten sal.

Next up is a LHN design for a wool needlebook.  I changed up the color of the house and will stitch the lettering that color too.  This one is for a block exchange but I'll stitch it again for me to keep.  I love the sheep!

I stated a new model so I'll have less to show for a while.

Happy Stitching!

Contest at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

What a breath of fresh (spring) air!  Nancy's having a contest for a trim bag of her yummy Spring, Easter, Prim hand-dyed goodies.  You can read all about it here:

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

Good luck!

Happy stitching!

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!!!

Giveaway at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

Nancy's at it again and offering a drawing for her Halloween trim bag.  You can read all about it here:

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe drawing

Good luck and....

Happy stitching!

Model finished and other stitching

Can I hear a WOO HOO!!!!!?  I finished and mailed out the model and it has been received by the designer.  I'll let you know when it's been released.  That's always exciting fo me.

I also stitched my heart on a RR and will be sending it to the next stitcher today when I go out.

I stitched my skeleton (a PS design) for the Halloween Ornament themed sal.

I even worked a bit on my Hetty Child (The Sampler Company) sampler but not enough to take a picture yet.

Annnnndddd.......I officially started Bent Creek's "Flowers in the Springtime" for our daughter's upcoming wedding.  I gave her a selection of wedding pieces from which to choose and this is her choice.  It fits them...they love hiking and camping and are pretty low key (liking simple things).  I love what it says.  I'm enjoying stitching it and it's moving along pretty quickly.

It's sad to watch some trees being taken out of "my" walking track at the community college.  They've extended the construction fence line so there's a lot of the track that's closed now.  I suspect that eventually that whole field will be "developed".  I took some pics this am but haven't uploaded to my computer yet.

We enjoy trying new recipes and most of the time they're pretty good ones.  This week, however, we tried some Kale, Potato, Leek soup with bacon.  It was just ok and not very filling.  DH and I decided that it would be best used as an appetizer rather than a main course. Although it wasn't hard, it sure dirtied a lot of dishes.  For the result, I decided it wasn't worth it.  The new recipes can't all be winners, I guess. 

Happy stitching!