Monday, July 23, 2018

I Sincerely Apologize!

Oh, my goodness.  I am so sorry that I had not responded to all of the wonderful comments over the past couple of weeks.  Several years ago I had to turn on the comment moderation because not nice people were posting links to some bad websites in the comments (and they still try frequently).  Generally, I receive an email notification when someone posts a comment, which lets me know to check comments for moderation.   For some reason, Blogger decided to stop sending the notifications and I did not know to check the website.

It suddenly occurred to me today, that I had not received any comment notifications in the past few weeks.  Generally, there are two very nice ladies who comment on most posts and I got worried that something had happened to them.  So tonight I thought I would check the comments awaiting moderation section of Blogger.  I was so embarrassed to see that so many nice people had taken the time to leave condolences for the loss of my mother and generally heart warming messages.  I am so sorry that I did not figure out to look sooner.  I feel really badly that it happened.  Your comments really mean a lot to me and I am hopeful you were not thinking that I was rude and thoughtless.

I know to be a bit more vigilant in the future...




Sunday, July 22, 2018

An Amazing Week

This past week was an amazing week.  I am a corporate Controller and I had been working at a pretty fast pace on the quarter end.  On Thursday, I was sitting in a big company wide meeting and our CEO had just finished making a great presentation that was really inspirational.  We have a really awesome CEO who has really instituted some great things in the company.  One of which is honoring an Employee of the Quarter, who meets some pretty specific standards of excellence. This quarter was going to be the third time that someone would be selected.  He started by announcing those nominated but not selected this time.  I was thinking about how amazing each of those people are and wondering who else in the room could be next.  I feel really grateful that I get to work with really wonderful, smart, amazing people company-wide.  So I was looking around the room trying to guess the identity of the honoree.  I was extremely shocked and surprised when my name was announced!  The CEO went on to say some wonderful things about me and I started to mist up.  I feel deeply humbled, and I was even more so as I received hugs, kind words, and emails throughout the next couple of days from people throughout the company.  I have a beautiful plaque on my desk and I am still pinching myself.  

I really, really love my job.  Each day when I am driving a little over half an hour to work, I say a prayer of thanks that I get to go to work and that I get to go do really interesting work.  I always say that I get to go to work, not that I have to go to work.  It gets really busy, but I prefer having lots of activity. The best part of the job are the great people I get to interact with daily.   

I did not really get to stitch this week, I had to pull out some work because I started stitching a pattern on the wrong piece of fabric.  I guess I was too eager to start and did not double check.  So next week I should have something more to show.  In the meantime, I thought I would share some recently acquired stash:

One of my favorite hobbies is genealogical research.  I recently found several ancestors who fought in the American Revolution.  I saw this pattern and would like to make a few smalls to honor their memory in some smalls for next Independence Day. 
It is time to start Fall stitching.  I saw this pattern and fell in love.  It is stitched on silk gauze, which is included with the pattern.   I am a little intimidated now that I see the pattern up close.  I need to gather my courage before I start this one.
Lastly, when I was on vacation, I found this awesome project bag at The Loft in Gualala, California.  It is made by Lyle Enterprises and comes in four sizes.  You can get the package with all four sizes from Amazon for about $45.  They come in several colors and are well constructed.

Both of my children have birthdays close together.  This year they decided that a shared birthday celebration would be okay.  We had a great family dinner out tonight and had a great time.  I am so proud of them and it was so great to see them.  A truly happy end of a great week and weekend.

I hope you have a wonderful week filled with blessings!


Sunday, July 15, 2018

Catching Up...

The journey of our lives take twists and turns through bright, happy places and gray, sad places.  Hopefully, both bring us to a place of peace, and help us to evolve throughout the years and help us to gain greater wisdom and insight.  Unfortunately, my own journey had to progress down a sadder path recently as my mother lost her 3 1/2 year battle with breast cancer late at night on June 20th.  The past few months she was in a tremendous amount of pain, and gratefully, she passed peacefully in her sleep.  I am grateful that she is not suffering anymore.  Her passing was quite a bit sooner than we had estimated (there was a six month window), but as my sister says, "None of us has an expiration date on us."  My mother was an intensely private person, which is why I had not shared it up to this point.  I still need to honor her privacy, even after her passing, so please forgive me for not sharing more about her or her battle with this horrible disease.  It is as she would have wanted it.

I work for a really amazing employer and have a terrific boss.  While I already had some vacation time scheduled for the week of the 4th of July, my supervisor supported my taking additional time for me to process everything and get some rest.  So I ended up taking about 10 days off and we headed up to the very peaceful Redwood Coast of California, up in the Sonoma-Mendocino area, one of my favorite places.  There are about 40 miles of bluff trail there above the crashing surf, so I was able to take lots of walks with Liesl, eat some healthy food (and some unhealthy food), sleep and be peaceful.  It was extremely helpful, and I am glad that I had the opportunity to step away from life to regroup.

The house that we rented, right near the ocean, had beautiful water vistas, observable from a gorgeous window seat.
As you can see, I had everything assembled for a quiet afternoon: Liesl, floss storage box, books, magazines, stitchy project, ipad, pillows for napping and additional projects in the bag.  As I get older, I pack fewer clothes and more art supplies.  The benefit of renting a house is that there is generally a washer and dryer, so I can do laundry as needed.  So I spent a few afternoons, on my perch here, stitching and looking at the ocean.  Usually, if we are travelling, I can read a book a day.  This time my head was not clear enough to read, so I stitched a bit more, so that my mind could wander through its thoughts.


I did end up starting and finishing Little House Needlework's "Home Sweet Home".  It is a smaller project and was actually an easy stitch. Please pardon the wrinklies. I splurged on the designer's called for colors.  I used Priscilla Barnes' method of outlining the flower centers and petals first and then going around in a circle to fill in.  I do like how it turned out and I am thinking of how I would like to finish it.

Over the past few months I have made a number of stash purchases.  I am feeling a little guilty about that.  However, I have to say that I am particularly happy with the fact that I finally have my "unicorn" chart.  Several years ago, when Mirabilia made the announcement that certain charts would no longer be available, I passed on the opportunity to buy Seaside Kingdom.  I live near the Pacific Ocean and have always loved this chart. I have regretted all of these years not buying it at that time. I said to myself that if another opportunity for me to purchase it arose, I would make sure to get it.  I had no intention of buying it at the prices on ebay.  While doing so is a matter of personal preference, it was not for me.  So, I was pretty happy when the re-release happened. 

There was a lot of excitement around the re-release.  I was travelling on business at the time of the release, so I figured if it is meant to happen, it would be.  I did not go searching all over and saw that a number of people were buying up multiple patterns, so I let it go.  However, the evening I returned from my business trip, I saw a post on 123 stitch that Cecelia's Sampler in Branson, Missouri, still had some non-LOTF patterns left.  I placed an order with them and I am happy to say that Seaside Kingdom is here and ready for me to stitch.  If only I could place an order for more time to stitch...

Lastly, little Miss Liesl is turning 11 in a few weeks.  (Of course there will be a celebration!)  She is her usual sparkly and sassy self, however, is starting to have a few health issues, like arthritis and her heart issue now requires medication.  In addition, she is having an ultrasound this week, so I have been praying and thinking positive thoughts.   If you wouldn't mind sending up a prayer or good thoughts and energy for her, I would really appreciate it.    She means the world to me.  :)

Hope you have a week full of wonder and magical things!