Tuesday

Well, I must have been smack-talkin' yesterday when I said that I was going to put the Lady to the side. I had my stitching with me at lunch today, ready to start my other piece. When it came down to it, I could not start another project today. The Lady kept calling to me with her siren song, "There are large blocks of solid color. Sure, it is seven different shades of olive green, but you won't get bored..." There I was sitting there with medium dark olive green threaded on my needle... Actually, I got to stitch with three different shades of topaz also today, and tomorrow may have some blue in it. I am finishing the border on her skirt.

We had choir tonight, but got dismissed an hour early. This is a real treat for us. We came home and finished off the last of the Thin Mints in our jammies. If only they were available year round...sigh

So, when you get an extra hour that you do not expect, you are not quite sure how to celebrate it. All I kept thinking was that I wanted to be in my pajamas and surfing the stitching web sites a little. Bob settled in to reading his book on Mata Ortiz pottery. We found Mata Ortiz pottery when we were in Mexico a few years ago. It is absolutely gorgeous and appeals to one's sense of symmetry and geometry. A couple of years ago I bought Bob three different pieces. They are very, very small pieces. But they are so amazing to look at. If you ever get a chance, google Mata Ortiz. It is an amazing story and the artisans just do an incredible job. I would love to go to Chihuahua just to meet some of the artists and see them creating the pots.

Well, hope every one has a good April Fools Day. Try to steer clear of the pranksters!

Just Another Manic Monday...

Oy vey! What a busy day! Mondays are always busy, but this one was extraordinarily so. I had big plans of doing some paperwork, cleaning my craftroom and doing some stitching tonight. What is that they say about the best laid plans... Unfortunately, I had a bit of a headache from some of the stress of the day and have been feeling really tired.

I was able to cut my fabric for my Aaronic Blessing. I am going to work in it during my little break from the Lady. I like the scotch stitch border in it. I like doing the scotch stitch. Hopefully, my stitches will look uniform. I am using a natural brown piece of 28 count cashel. The colors of the silk floss absolutely pop against it. I hope to work on it a bit tomorrow. I am looking at it longingly tonight but know that I just do not have what it takes to start it. In fact, I have a feeling that I will be nodding off shortly.

I caught up on my recordings on my DVR of Martha this weekend. She really does have an informative show. While I do not have the time and ability to do things on the level that she does, I do get some cool tidbits that are really helpful. Last week she had "Pack Your Own Lunch Week" with some cool alternatives to homemade lunches. I am a bit inspired now to think a bit more out of the box and start fixing us some nicer lunches. I made her Soba Noodle Salad, although the grocery store did not have Soba noodles so I had to make it with plain ol' pasta. It was tasty, although I would have to agree that it would have tasted even better with the soba noodles. I shall have to try Trader Joe's. But I do like the overall idea of making interesting lunches. While I do really love tuna sandwiches, I like the idea of having something interesting so I do not end up just running out and grabbing something.

While I was looking for the recipe, I poked around on the Martha web page. There were so many great ideas. I like her web page because you can also save recipes to your "account." I saw some other great recipes I would like to try. There were some yummy things I would like to make. Bob is in a bread making phase lately, and is making these amazing breads. He kneads them himself (he says it is a great workout!) and does not even use the breadmaker or the breadhook. I am thinking that a nice deviled egg salad would go so nicely on his most recent creation.

Why do the home arts have to be so much fun? I love playing at my house. Decorating, cooking, baking, stitching, quilting, reading, gardening. There really is no place like home!

The End Of The Weekend

The weekend goes way too fast. I had a very nice weekend. I got my house cleaned, which made me feel much better. My laundry is done, too. I did not get to make cookies because Bob made cupcakes and we have no business having too much dessert in the house.

I did not get to stitch this weekend. I was busy with other stuff and by the time I got to sit down I just was not feeling it. I surfed a bit, played my computer game, which is like the I-SPY books for grownups, and read my book.

Liesie got her bath this weekend and was looking extra pretty. We decided to get a few pictures with her mustache and beard looking white instead of grayish, which basically tells the tales of everything she has done for the past few days. LOL She is such a good girl. We tried to take a few photos of the three of us together. Bob set the timer and would run back, at which time Liesie would get all excited that he was running over to her so she would start kissing him, he would try to get her to look at the camera, at the time of the flash she would basically look at the floor. So we got a few pictures of Liesie looking at floor and the two of us looking really goofy, like we were in the middle of saying, "Look!" LOL

I am thinking about starting another tiny project and taking a little break from the Lady. She is a lot of fun to work out but I think I am a little burned out on the project. So rather than not stitching at all, I think I will pick up something else and come back to her fresh. It bugs me a little to not finish it all at once, but the fact that I did not feel like stitching this weekend tells me that I should probably look at another pattern for a while. I am sure I will be posting more progress soon.

Wishing you a really great and fun workweek!

'Tis A Small World...

Today was a good day. When I came in today, my boss told me I could go home early at 3 today, since I have been working overtime, particularly yesterday. It was very nice. I got to go get my hair cut before I came home. I have been meaning to do so but could not find time. It was also great to beat traffic coming home.

We had our lunch today at Chili's. I don't mind telling you that Buffalo Chicken anything is one of my very favorite things. You could put Buffalo Sauce and Bleu Cheese on a shoe and it would taste awesome. So I got to eat my Buffalo Chicken Salad. It was so good. I do not get to eat Buffalo Chicked very often, so it really makes me happy when I get to have it.

As we were kind of chatting, somehow it came up that I was originally from Paterson, New Jersey. My boss mentioned that she has relatives there. So I went on to say that I was the fifth generation of my family to live there and that my ancestry had worked in the silk mills there. In fact, my great great grandfather had emigrated from Macclesfield, England to work in the mills. My boss said that her grandfather had also emigrated from England to work in the silk mills in Paterson around the same time as my great great grandfather. As we discussed it further, she mentioned the company that her grandfather worked in, and it was the same mill as the one where my dad worked! They were there at different times (about 50 years difference) but it was amazing! What are the chances?! What a really small world. Here we both are on the opposite coast, working in the same place and we both have a connection to a place 3000 miles away.

I had only found out most of this stuff about 6 years ago. My mom had a lot of information and shared it. I got pretty excited about it, and started doing a lot of genealogical research. It was really neat to see some of the census records and find out that there were several members of the family that were embroiderers in the silk mills. I have to wonder if there is some sort of institutional memory in families. Perhaps it would explain why I am so passionate about stitching and silk. LOL I am so glad that my mom had so much information and remembered so many details. It really helped in launching my search.

I am really looking forward to my weekend of domesticity. I started my laundry tonight so I am ahead of the game. Whoohoo! I will start with a walk down by the beach then buckle down and get my house cleaned. There is a certain kind of happiness that comes with a clean kitchen. LOL

Have a great weekend.

Needed Serious Chocolate Today...

My goodness, what a day. It started as a whirlwind at 8:01 this morning and just was wild all day until about 6 when I finally left my office. Wow. It was amazing how just as I was resolving one issue the next one would be started. Oy!

I was happy to sit quietly this evening and stitch. It was a beautiful thing. I basically have to put the border on her skirt and the skirt will be done. I love how the skirt has the same look as silk when the light hits it. I have many chores to do this weekend, but will get them done early so I can stitch and watch this weekend's NASCAR races at Martinsville (VA.)

I am thinking that I would like to bake some cookies this weekend. I must be feeling a withdrawal from the Samoas. LOL I think since it has been such a wild week at work, I start to feel a pull in the other direction, that is the need to engage in domestic activities. I am actually looking forward to the laundry. We have got to start our garden this weekend, too. It is so cool to create something beautiful. Even in my forties, there is something so magical and exciting about a seed sprouting in the dirt.

I am really looking forward to lunch tomorrow. We have some heavy duty renovations happening at work. They are shutting off the water to make some major repairs and will be making some big noise. My boss thought it would be great for our little group to go to lunch to get offsite for a while tomorrow. I have so much fun when I go out with these ladies. They are incredible people and really smart business women. They also have a great sense of humor, so I have a great deal of fun with them. It will really make a loud day at work a bit more enjoyable.

Hope you have a great Friday!

My Package Arrived!

I am really happy. My package arrived from Stitching Bits and Bobs. I was a bit upset when I got it out of my PO Box. They had bent the flat rate envelope in half and forced it into the post office box in such a way that I had to jiggle it out. My heart just sank. It is so hard to get the Permin of Copenhagen patterns, and I was so looking forward to it. All was well though, the nice folks at Stitching Bits and Bobs had basically double packaged it, which basically protected the contents. I had to smooth out the pattern a bit, but it is none the worse for wear.

So here are the pretty things that I purchased: My beautiful orchid pattern, which looks like it matches my bedding perfectly, so it will be lovely in our room. I also received my silks, which are absolutely breathtaking up close. The colors are so very lovely. In addition, I bought a small baby sampler on clearance. A nice lady at work is having her first baby in September, so I thought it would make a nice little gift for her. The last goody is a stitching fabric gauge. It looks like it is a nifty little tool for checking fabric count.

Please pay no attention to the rumpled looking comforter there. I had to be up in the Bay Area at 8 this morning, so I had one of my two hour commutes while it was still dark. I was dragging by the time I got home at 4, so I promptly took a nap. I was hoping that a cute little dog would join me, but she was too busy playing with her lion toy. I learned alot today, but will be glad to get back to my office.

The end of March is always sad, for it is the time when I run out of my stash of Girl Scout cookies. I bought 9 boxes this year from a co-worker to support her Girl Scouts. Last night, I had my last Samoa, my very favorite. I remember once reading the side of a Samoa cookie box, and it had suggestions for recipes to use up your "leftover" Samoas. I have to wonder if there is such a thing. LOL How is it possible? So now we are down to our last box of Thin Mints, stored in the freezer. It will be another year before I get to taste the coconut/carmel/chocolatey goodness of a Samoa. It was good while it lasted.

Monday, Monday...

Well, the wind died down and the skies were sunny today. It is a good way to start a week. I can not believe that this is the last week of March. Everyone keeps talking about how the year is flying by. Before you know it, it will be summer.

I had to come home and work on the taxes tonight. No fun for Patti. I got to do accounting all day, then come home and play accounting. I did a bit of stitching, but could not really get into the groove of it. By the time I was able to really spread my stuff out, I was overly tired and therefore afraid of making stitchy mistakes. That would be no bueno.

Instead, I am going to read my book. It is calling to me and is starting to get really interesting now. I am about 250 pages into the 700 pages total. I am hoping to finish it sometime this year. LOL

Hope everyone has a terrific Tuesday!

Semi Stormy Weekend

We were just poured on with rain all of last night. Today it rained in the morning, but the rest of the day it was just windy. The wind was so cold that it just cut right through you. We had some errands to run after church and were so glad when we got home out of the gale.

I made quite a bit of progress on the Lady this weekend. It was a pretty peaceful weekend, which is really nice. I got a lot of stitching in and am feeling pretty good about it. I just have a little more to do to finish the skirt then I will head up to the area where my mistake lives and try to fix it. It feels really good to have her really taking shape now. DH thinks I should enter her in the fair, but I am not sure about it. I will have to think about it. I am sure that the fair would appreciate entries. Last year they were so sparse on entries, a victim of the economy, among other things. We live in a huge county and last year during the fair, gas was at about $5 a gallon. I would love to be able to have an entry just so that cross stitch has representation, particularly next to all of the quilts. But I will have to think about it...

It looks like our friend, Carolyn could really use our good thoughts and prayers at this time. Please continue to send her good thoughts and offer prayers for her and her family.

Sending you all good thoughts for a happy week!

Stitching Couch Potato

I had the best of intentions today. I got up and tackled the laundry. I did the sheets first so I could make the bed up all pretty with the cute little pillows. Then I washed all of the darks, got the bathrooms cleaned, the dining room and living room dusted, then it was time for a Nascar race at 11. My intention was to vacuum, wash the whites and the towels, and polish the furniture in the bedroom and craftroom during and after the race. I pulled out my stitching, DH turned on the fireplace and I settled in to watch the race. Once I finally sat down, I just felt really tired. The busy week had caught up to me.

I ended up stitching most of the afternoon. I feel a bit guilty about it. But it was nice to sit quietly and work on the Lady. I almost have her skirt done. Whoohoo!

We had a super dinner tonight. DH made chicken pot pies with leftover chicken, and homemade bread. I am stuffed. Now we are watching Madagascar 2.

Well, I will post a picture tomorrow on my progress. I am hoping that I can start the fruit border next.

Girls Night In

Well, it is Thursday night, therefore, it was just Liesie and me tonight. DH left around 6:35 for band. By 6:50 momma was in jammies and Liesie was wrapped in her very favorite pink blankie. She went to sleep, while I stretched out for a stitchy night. I got a bunch done on the skirt. I am so excited. I think the skirt may be complete this weekend. Hopefully I will be able to locate and repair my error up there in the sleeve area. Perhaps I will even be able to start the fruit border. Dare I even dream!

I am looking forward to the weekend. It should be a nice one. It is supposed to rain here, but that would be perfect stitching weather. Plus my laundry has reformed a mountain, and there are the never ending chores. I am feeling an urge to watch Talledega Nights (Shake and bake!) before the races at Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend.

DH said that he was reading my blog and saw me waxing poetic about Shrimp and Grits. DH said that he is making a roast chicken for Friday night dinner. However, he would like to work Shrimp and Grits (and bacon!!!) into the weekend menu. Oh, be still my beating heart. DH makes really good cheese grits, so I am totally stoked just thinking about it.

I checked my order status over at Stitching Bits and Bobs. It appears that they are just awaiting a backorder of my Permin chart and then they will ship. I am looking forward to my little package coming with my silks. The colors are so pretty. I am thinking that I will have completed quite a bit of the Lady before they arrive. I feel like a kid at Christmas. There are only 4 silk threads but it feels like a big order for me.

I happened to see that Carolyn over at Just One More Stitch is at the hospital again with her mom. (Carolyn is such a sweet person and posts comments on this blog.) It appears that her mom was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. Please hold Carolyn and her family in your prayers.

Wonderful Wednesday

Oh, man, I was draggin' today. I stayed up too late last night reading my book. I had intended to fall asleep within about 15 minutes of starting my book for the evening. I am reading "Pillars of the Earth." It is such a page turner that I did not know that I was up way past my bedtime. Next thing I knew it was quarter to 11. My wake up time at 5:15 came way too fast.

So when we got home from Lenten services tonight about 8, I immediately changed into my jammies and got into bed. Liesie thought this was a splendid idea and curled up on the bed, too. I pulled out my stitching and got a lot done. Unfortunately for me, I was watching the Food Network. I love Food Network. Bobby Flay's Throwdown was on and the competition was about Shrimp and Grits. Oh, no he di-ent! All I can think of is shrimp and grits now. I have a feeling I will be making some this weekend. Bobby's were topped with bacon and bacon grease. You can pretty much put bacon on anything and make it awesome...

Well, it appears that it is my bedtime. I plan on reading for a couple of minutes. I really do not think I am capable of staying awake any longer than that. Wish me luck...

Happy St. Patti's Day!

The morning started off right! Some really nice person in the office brought in green cupcakes and made sure that we took one right away before the day wore on. Most of us had them for breakfast and they were delightful. I think cupcakes are such happy food. It is hard to be in a bad mood while you are eating a cupcake.

The rest of the day was way busy. I ended up working late and got home late for dinner. I had put the corned beef in the crockpot first thing this morning so I was ravenous by the time I got home. Tuesdays are our choir night, but I got home so late that the evening was not coming together right. We ended up not going to choir. As we thought about it, it is probably smart to stay in as it is a drinking night. We are usually coming home on the freeway which would probably be a bit dangerous tonight.

I am really tired from the long day, but glad for the extra evening. I am going to stitch in a few minutes, but thought I would play for a while on my blog. It is sort of fun to pick out new backgrounds and play around with all of the fonts and colors.

I got to stitch for an hour in my car today at lunch. It was so peaceful and I got a lot done. I had to change out my needle because the one that came with the kit was already sticky. It just feels so icky to me when they get like that. My very favorite needles are John James Platinum needles. They last a long time before they start to turn stickly and they just glide through the fabric. It is hard to stitch with anything else.

The corned beef was delicious. When DH got home he added carrots and potatoes to the crockpot. I do not like cooked cabbage, so we skipped that. But it was such a wonderful dinner. Everytime I use my crockpot, I always have the intention of using it more. It makes such wonderful dinners with limited work. I really do need to pull it out more.

St. Patrick's Day Eve

I am making sure I am all ready with my green sweater and cute green patent leather shoes. I have my corned beef brisket ready to go into the crockpot tomorrow and have been practicing my "Erin Go Bragh." Okay, it may not seem like I am "livin' la vida loca," but, hey, I am an accountant, how crazy can I get. LOL

I am posting my progress this far on the Lady. I have finished her embroidery fabric so I may now fill in the skirt. I think she looks lovely. For some reason I have not filled in her cheek color. If I am going to thread a needle, I want to stitch for a while before I have to rethread, I guess. Once a week, DH always asks, "How come she has a black eye?" It has become a running joke.

I am really excited about my threads coming from Stitching Bits and Bobs. They are not super speedy on their shipping so I am hoping to really have the Lady almost done so I can start on the Aaronic Blessing. It looks like a quick stitch, too.

It is just Liesie and me again tonight. I am hoping to get a few stitches in before DH gets in from his band rehearsal. Liesie is sound asleep and looking quite comfy. I am ready to get my stitching bag out and stitch until bedtime.

The Ides of March Are Upon Us...

Why, oh, why does Sunday time fly by? It seems like the time goes so fast on Sunday. There was no NASCAR race on today, so we busied ourselves with the chores that we did not do when we were goofing off yesterday. We went to church, then had a salad at a local restaurant which welcomes dogs. In fact, it even has a doggie menu. Liesie is allowed a special treat every once in a while of a little bit of chicken breast at her favorite restaurant. We sat outside because it was such a lovely day. The sun was shining and it was warm and delightful.

Back at the house, DH started on the garden while I finished all of that laundry. Yuck. I am happy though that I got some stuff organized and the floors all clean. The house looks pretty nice. We both quit our chores around 5pm. DH went to play his trumpet and I got a cup of tea and sat down to stitch. As usual, there was nothing on television Sunday night, so I caught up on some Martha Stewarts and Good Eats that I had recorded. (We L-O-V-E Alton Brown!)

It has been a nice, cozy evening. I got to stitch quite a bit. It has been such a relaxing weekend. I caught up on a bit of sleep, and feel pretty relaxed going into the work week. These kinds of weekends are a rare thing so I feel really pretty happy.

I am going to try to post a picture of my progress tomorrow. I need to load more batteries in the camera. I swear it just eats batteries like there is no tomorrow. My piece does show a lot of progress, so I am eager to show it off. Until then-

Have a great Monday!

A Perfect Day

Today was an awesome day. I slept in until about 7:45 am. It was lovely. I can not believe I slept so late. My usual wake up time is 5:15, so sleeping in 2 1/2 hours was a true luxury. After a cup of coffee, and scouring both bathrooms, DH and I dealt with the fact that we needed several items from Costco. Every third Sunday of the month, we are supposed to bring a donation of food to church for the local food pantry. We had neglected to do this earlier in the week so we had to brave Costco, which was not that bad. We found some really lovely flowering plants, too for the garden project, for a great price so we are pretty happy.

Our errands actually did not take much time. We got home somewhat quickly whereupon I mounted my attack upon the mountain of laundry. After puttering around a bit, I was able to sit down and stitch the afternoon away. Liesie had had a big morning at the beach with DH so she was exhausted and slept next to me while I stitched. I made tremendous progress so I am really happy. It was such a luxury to stitch all afternoon.

I am planning on stitching the Aaronic Blessing next so thought that I would look online for the Northern Lights silks that are required. I remembered that Stitching Bits and Bobs is a good source for less common items. It just so happened that not only did they have just what I needed, they were on sale! Whoohoo! Everything is 20-25% off on the site so I also purchased a Permin pattern that I have been coveting, Four Orchids. I have not bought stash in a long time, so it was a real treat.

When we were at Costco, we saw that they have the you bake pizza that we love, the Caprese one with the tomatoes and basil. Delish! We decided to pick one up for dinner so we all had to do was heat it up and dinner was done. I love this pizza! It has a comfy taste, if that even makes any sense. LOL. It was still a lovely evening after dinner so DH asked me if I wanted to go for a walk. It was a gorgeous evening with a breathtaking sunset over the Pacific Ocean. I am so glad that we were out and I did not miss it. It was a perfect time, with people starting their bonfires on the beach for the evening. DH and I agreed that we will have to try that this summer with friends and family.

When we got back home, I got right into my jammies. We had bought Madagascar several months ago and never got to watch it. DH and I love Pixar type movies. So it went into the DVD player, and we spent the whole movie laughing out loud. It was so funny and cute. I got to stitch while we watched it so it was a double treat.

It has been such a relaxing and fun day. I love being home and puttering around my house so it was a perfect day to me. It was especially special to be able to indulge myself with an afternoon of stitching. I love days like this where I there is nothing scheduled and I am not trying to make deadlines. It really does put me in touch with what is important and what makes me happy. My family, my home, my friends and my hobbies. It is a good life and I just feel so fortunate.

Friday, Whoohoo!

It has been a busy week and I have been oh, so ready for the weekend! I came home, had a snack with DH while he cooked dinner. It was wonderful to be able to change into my sweats, settle onto the sofa, then surf a little on my laptop. DH made the most fabulous dinner from a Mediterranean cookbook, which tasted totally amazing! Lastly, we got to relax on the sofa in front of a fire, with a sleeping puppy and watch bad television. It was the best evening that I have had in a very long time.

I got to stitch for a little while. But my eyelids are getting heavy so I know I will be nodding off pretty soon. I had hoped to be able to stay up late to stitch, but I am afraid that I just do not have it in me. I wish I could stay up as late I used to.

I am actually looking forward to household chores tomorrow. I have a bunch of house cleaning to do, and the Mount Everest of laundry. It will be nice to putter around the house. DH plans on starting the garden out front. After I get all of my chores done, it will be stitch-a-palooza. I am starting to work on a fun part of the piece. I am thinking that I will catalog my floss, too. I am thinking that if I do this organizing in small portions, it won't be such a huge task.

Well, it is time to turn in and get some rest. I hope everyone has a terrific weekend!

100 Posts!

As I was signing on tonight, I noticed that this is my hundredth post, which is kind of amazing really. It does not seem like that many. I think I started this blog last summer after months of just thinking about it. I had visited other blogs and I was so impressed by the creativity of bloggers. My biggest worry was how I was going to come up with anything to write about. It's funny how it just happens. The day is so full of exciting adventures. LOL

I really want to thank you for taking the time to visit with me everyday. It means so much to me. It also means so much to me when you go through the time and effort to post comments. It gives me a great deal of happiness. It is very cool to look at the blog and see there is a comment waiting.

It has been a rather busy day. It is momma and Liesie night again tonight, since DH is off at band rehearsal. We started with a walk on the beach this evening. It was a bit cold, but with the time change it was quite light and a pleasant walk. Liesie was a bit perkier than her momma.

I am getting ready to finally stitch for the evening. I started the green skirt last night during the Blue Whale show on National Geographic. As a side note, the whale show was quite spectacular. They are incredible creatures and the filmography was amazing. It was hard to stitch while watching it because I wanted to keep my eyes on the screen. I did start the green on the skirt and am worried about how much I will have to frog since I was so distracted. LOL It is refreshing to work in another section. Hopefully, this section will go a bit faster.

Have a happy Tuesday!

Rolling Right Along...

Well, there it is! The white part of the skirt is almost, for all intents and purposes, complete. Wahoo! I even started the border for the green part of the skirt. You would have thought that part would be easy, but nnnnoooooo. I had to frog it several times. It appears to be okay now but I am not promising anything.

It is nice to be starting on another part of the skirt, finally. I plan on stitching the rest of the evening. There is a special on Blue Whales on National Geographic, which hopefully will help me to relax enough to go to sleep. It always takes a little time to adjust to the time change. This, of course, is no bueno. LOL Sleepiness + accounting = big problems.

I actually got to sit and stitch in my craft room today. It is quite cozy. It was like giving birth to get this room together, but now that it is pretty much done, it is quite cool! I never got to catalog my stitchy stuff, but all in due time. I am afraid that if I start looking at the things in my stash, I may start rushing through this project to get it done so I can move on. As it is, I already think about some of the pieces in my stash. Whenever I am in church I think of the Apostle's Creed pattern that I have, or the Lord's Prayer, or the Aaronic Blessing. I really want to make these for my church. I will have to do some conversion though to fit the Lutheran versions of each. But I digress...

I figure that I have about another month to a month and a half of stitching the Lady and then the possibilities are endless as to what I can stitch. Maybe by then I will have all of my floss catalogued. Happy thoughts!

A Long Week

It was a long, tiring week, which ended with a lengthy business call at five minutes to five today. I had not been feeling well all day. I am fighting that cold, and I am afraid that I am developing a sinus infection. I have never had one so I am not totally certain, but my face sure hurts. I should have let that call go to voicemail, but try though I may, I can not ignore a ringing phone. Plus I figured that no one would call you are 4:55 on a Friday unless it was really important. sigh. By the time I got outside, there were 2 cars left in the employee parking lot. All in all, it was okay, but I really wanted to go home and go to bed.

I have been stitching for the past couple of hours and I am proud to say that the white on the skirt is pretty much done. I have a small bit to do, but it is only about an hour's work. Now on to the green. It is really pretty. As usual, the photograph does not do it justice. It is really striking in person.

I am thinking about going into the craft room to play tomorrow. I would like to work on my stitching, but I would also like to catalog my patterns and stitchy things. I have some GAST and WDW that I really need to have numbers and descriptions of so that I can keep track of what I have and not make the mistake of buying things more than once. I started a spreadsheet several years ago, but it needs serious updating of things that I have added and the things that I have taken out of my stash to work with.

I wish everyone a great weekend!

Girl's Night In

Whoowee! It has been a whirlwind week. Tuesday night is choir practice, plus Wednesday night services through Lent. It has been busy, busy.

Thursday night DH has band practice so it is my night in by myself. I am coming down with the cold that is going around the office, so I was quite eager to come home and get into my jammies. DH made a yummy dinner then off he went while I went through my pre-flight evening checklist: Comfy jammies, check. Cute little dog to lay wrapped in blankie next to me, check. Bag of coconut cream Hershey's kisses, check. Stitchy bag, checkaroo! As a side note, the Coconut Cream kisses are amazing. ($2.79 Target)

It has been a nice evening. It is nice and quiet in the house right now. I turned the TV off because nothing is on. We are both getting really good at that now. I have stitched for a while, but thought I would take a break to post. I should be finished up with the white part of the skirt by tomorrow evening. I am finding the rhythm of the piece now so I am finding it quite enjoyable.

Liesl put herself to bed a little early tonight. She was pretty tired from coming to work with me today. I think I have mentioned in earlier posts that I work in a dog friendly work environment where the employees can bring their dogs to work, as long as their health records are up to date and they have an office with a door. She had a full social calendar today, visiting with anyone who came by. She of course thinks that anyone who stops by my office is obviously here to see her. LOL So she is exhausted from her whirlwind social life where people feed her cookies all day. Nice work if you can get it. LOL

Wow! It is raining really hard right now. In fact, it rained hard pretty much all day. It is fun to stay home with a cup of tea and stitch while it rains. However, it is no fun to be out in it. Of course, anytime I had to walk to or from the car, the skies would open up and dump rain by the bucketful.

I was so glad to get home tonight. I had gone into work early today for what turned out to be a really long day. On the way home, some poor souls had gotten into a major accident on what is a major artery for the commute here. Traffic came to a virtual halt for over half an hour. I did not get upset or stressed about it because I figure those poor people in that accident were having a far worse time than I. So I put the car in park, turned off the engine and listened to a book on my Ipod. I finally walked in to my house at close to seven, cold, wet and hungry.

After such a hectic day, it was nice to come home and stitch. I got a lot of the white portion filled in on her skirt. So now a lot of the holes are filled in. It looks so pretty and I feel so much more peaceful.

I am trying to practice sensible TV watching now. I used to keep it on more for background noise. In fact, we were quite used to falling asleep to the 10 o'clock news. However, the news has gotten so violent and depressing, that the images we see are probably not the best things to see right before you go to sleep. So we are now turning off the TV after Steven Colbert at 9 pm and reading or I am stitching quietly. It really made a difference last night in how I slept. I really like quiet, in fact I rarely use my car radio, so it makes sense to end my day that way.

Happy March!

Can you believe we are about 20 days away from Spring?! Where did the time go? Today may have been the proof that March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb. We made it home from church just in time for the rain to fall and the wind to howl. It was stormy all day, but a great day for stitching and drinking a cup of tea. I wore my sweatpants again and watched the race with stitching in hand. It was a real treat.

I am proud that I made a bit of progress today. I still have not located my error yet, but admittedly I did not look too hard. It is over on the right side somewhere in between the roses and her green sleeve. So I am stitching where I know it is correct. (I checked.) It is nice to work on the skirt for a while. I am hoping to commit at least and hour a day to work on her. I am really excited about being able to stitch the fruit border. I think it will really pop against the black background fabric. MLI really has true talent with her selection of colors. Everything just comes together so nicely in her pieces.

A couple of months ago, DH and I found those Altoids that are peppermint covered with chocolate. They are quite tasty. I think we have bought one a month, so I now have two of the tins. I have always wanted to stitch the tins since I have seen some really beautiful ones on the web. Now that I finally have the tins after all of these years, I can not seem to find a design I like. Isn't that always the way? I am sure that in time I will find something outstanding. I still have to work on my Whitman's tins, but only recently found affordable 40 count fabric. The fabric that it calls for is cost prohibitive for me, so I will dye my own. I also plan on using DMC rather than the more expensive threads. I think they will be absolutely beautiful. I hope to start them right after I finish the Lady.

Wishing everyone a happy week!