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!

Contest on another blog

Great contest can be found on this blog:

To Stitch or Not to Stitch

Happy stitching!

Rita

March already!

Wow!  Feb sure flew by quickly!

Not quite so busy around here for me anyway.  DH is on a business trip, T is busy with his activities, and we have some good leftovers so I haven't even had to cook much this week.  We've had a few days of cooler weather so that big pot of soup I made is sure tasting good.  I've enjoyed my am walks during the cooler weather too.

On the stitching front this week, I finished LHN's Liberty and Justice for a block exchange:

I started La D Da's Right Spirit and am making a couple of changes inspired by my friend, Sherre.  I changed the cabin to a saltbox house (same colors and same stitch count of the original design).  I just didn't care for the "cabin" on the original as much as the house.  I'll also stitch Psalm 51:10 as charted out by Sherre's DD.  I look forward to making more progress on this one.

I haven't worked on the snowmen this week but here's the progress so far:

Finally, I started another model this week so it will have to take priority and, of course, I can't show it until it's released.

As I said above not much cooking going on around here this week but DH and I went out last weekend to Johnny Carino's.  I love their Angel Hair and Artichokes and thought maybe I could figure out how to make it at home.  Thanks to a google search, I found a couple of recipes online so I'll be trying it out soon.

Happy stitching!

Rita

Another giveaway at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

Click here:



Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

Stitching this week

Still coming down from our TMEA week last week...what great memories!

It feels like the week after Christmas or other big events that you've anticipated for a long time...takes a while to get back to "normal".  :-)

Here's some stitching I did this week:

I'd finished (all but the bird legs) of the BOAF Feed the Birds for the block exchange and liked it so much that I stitched another for me to keep while I had the floss "pulled" for it.

An older wip that became a UFO caught my eye so I picked it up and worked a bit on it too this week.  It's a summer mystery sal from By the Bay (and still available on her blog).  This one will fit in a standard 5x7 frame.  I'm thinking a "whitewash" frame would be nice for this one.

The next theme for the block exchange is patriotic so I chose and started LHN's With Liberty and Justice for All

I'm still itching to start a sampler but haven't put one on the scroll rods yet.  Still deciding which one to start.  The leading contenders are Three Things and La D Da's Right Spirit.

Speaking of La D Da, I saw her Mary Cottam (sp?) model when I was at Stitches from the Heart in San Antonio last week.  I didn't find the charts but asked on a stitching mb when I got back if anyone had used charts for it they'd sell to me.  Found someone so it will be on the way sometime next week.  :-)

I had a fun day yesterday.  Started out with the morning walk with a band mom friend of mine.  I picked her up later for a band mom (past and present) lunch and while there another band mom asked if we'd been to the quilt show yet.  (I didn't even know there WAS a quilt show!)  So after lunch we visited the quilt show.  Lots of eye candy!!  Later we did a couple of errands together and even had fun doing errands.  (Is it sad that it doesn't take much to entertain me?  lol!)

Proud mom alert!  Yesterday we received an email from our DD, the chemist.  The company where she works just got FDA approval for a new cancer drug they've developed.  She's now working with the group there that's working with this drug.  How exciting!

Everyone have a great week!

Happy stitching!

Rita

Still Walking on Air

We're back from San Antonio where DS's band (TMEA 2013 5A Honor Band) performed their concert for music teachers from all over the state.  They performed in a beautiful (huge) auditorium to a packed house.  It was magical!!  They did a great job and were rewarded with the loudest applause I've ever heard.

There was a small reception afterwards with lots of hugs, high fives, etc.  I think even a sense of relief after all the hard work they'd all put in for so many months to prepare.

We're so proud of all of them and so blessed to have such a wonderful band program in our little community.

They got to stay at the Emily Morgan Hotel right next to the Alamo:

Our hotel was just across the street;  in fact I took this picture from the window in our room.

This was definitely a big step up on lodging for band trips.  The kids and directors definitely deserved it for this trip!

Some of the parents helped design the  beautiful programs for this event.  We thought we'd have some leftover to bring back home but they were ALL gone.  lol!  I snagged a few to keep for the memory book.

The band onstage just before the concert began:

At the reception:

WOW!

We had some free time so we snuck up to Stitches from the Heart.  I bought a few things, mostly threads.

Last night I finished the last bird on BOAF's Feed the Birds.  This is for a block exchange but I like it enough to want to stitch it again to keep one for myself:

We were gone for Valentine's Day so decided to celebrate tonight.  We're eating here and having grilled steak, baked potatoes, a salad, and DH's wonderful chocolate cake (flavored with orange and raspberries). This is so rich and yummy!!

So, this coming week life goes back to normal...or as normal as it can during T's senior year of HS.  Hopefully I can get some quality stitching time this week.

Happy stitching!

Rita

Another busy week...but fun

As you can see, I'm a little late in my weekly post...but this one might have to suffice for both last week and this week.

Some activities since I last posted:

Band's solo ensemble contest, chili supper, and silent auction (WHEW!)
Band booster board meeting
DS's college class
Rehearsal for DS
Pick up tux for DS's activity
Another rehearsal for DS
Party for DS's band rehearsal
Another rehearsal for DS
Choir practice--me
DS's practice concert at the other District's HS followed by
DS's Mr. Buc pageant at his HS
Stitchers' gtg Sat

The band's solo ensemble contest/chili supper/silent auction was a LONG day but it went well.  I came home a very happy camper.  Each year, someone makes a Tshirt quilt highlighting the show shirts from each of the 4 years of that current senior class and their regular band shirt and percussion shirt.  Usually it goes for $400-500 which I wasn't prepared to spend.  (I keep thinking I'll make some of my kids' years during empty nest days.)  I was bidding on something else that got pretty high when I thought I'd just see how the quilt was going.  At that time it was only $100 with not much activity....so I put down a bid.  There was a slight little bidding war at the end but I "won" the quilt for just over $200.  Still more than I was prepared to spend that night but it goes to a good cause AND I don't think I could make one for much less than that.  When I was getting ready to pay for it, someone said something sweet...that they should GIVE it to me for all my (8 yrs) of volunteering.  A nice thought, but I'm the band is getting some money for it...I really got it at a good price anyway.

Here's the cake/cupcakes we served to the kids for a break in their final Tuesday night TMEA concert rehearsal:

They've been working so hard, we thought they could use a little boost to get them through the last week.

The Mr. Buc pageant is a fundraiser for their senior class's Project Graduation lock-in.  Each boy has a female "sponser" who participates too.  The pageant includes a song/dance number at the beginning (explains all the rehearsals), a casual dress competition, a talent competition (DS played Claire de Lune (sp?) on piano), a formal wear competition (tux), and finally the 5 finalists had to answer some extemporaneous questions.  There's some seriousness but mostly it was fun and a little goofy.  DS didn't win but he had a great time.  (I hope his beautiful sponser's parents have some better pics but here's one I have.)

Saturday was a total fun day for me!  I got to drive about an hour to a friend's house where we had our semi-regular stitchers' gtg.  We stitch a little but mostly we eat, talk, and do a lot of laughing together.  We have a theme for each of these that usually just "dictates" the food everyone brings.  This time, the theme was pajama party/breakfast foods.    I love getting to spend time with my stitching buddies!

Finally--stitching progress:

BOAF Feed the Birds (an older freebie).  There's another bird in that lower right hand corner that calls for a discontinued WDW.  I took a chance and asked on a stitching board if I could buy some from someone, and some nice stitcher says, she'll just send it to me (she wants nothing.)  I'm so grateful to her!

LK A Good Marriage

I worked a bit on the Snowmen but don't have a pic.

OK...this is THE WEEK.  We go to San Antonio Thursday and the band performs their TMEA concert Friday night.  There are so many band directors going that we're not needed as chaperones (although the band directors know they can call upon us if something comes up).  So, my band mom buddy and I might just sneak out to a LNS while we're there.

We'll miss Valentine's Day so we'll celebrate as a family on Sunday.  Just wait until you see what DH will bake for us!

Everyone have a great week.

Happy stitching!

Rita