African Update and Birthday Present

Spoke with my eldest daughter and she has been able to talk to her husband.   He has ascended and descended Mt. Kilomanjiro.   He is apparently a legend in Arusha for some unknown reason.   Maybe they consider him that crazy american?  He is back in Arusha and prepping to leave tomorrow for Amsterdam for his connecting flight back to the US.   Asked what the next mountain he will climb is his reply was....he doesn't think he will climb again for a while.   We both think it is the exhaustion talking.   He will be planning his next (his second) climb probably before he lands back in the USA.   It may not be year or two but I bet he does it again.  I can't wait to see him, hear the stories and see the photos.

Since my other daughter was home for a family funeral, I gave her her birthday present rather than having to making it at the end of the week.    Well before she opened all the way, she said......"You didn't get me a Big Shot, did you?"  Yes, of course I did.   I introduced her to Stampin Up and card stamping last year on a visit home.   She now meets regularly with a group near her and is even in a club,  She told me all about SplitCoasters.com and puts me to shame with all the new and different stamping techniques she has learned and made.   So guess what, she already has one.   Well, there is no dilemma.  I wanted one but wouldn't spend the money on myself for one.  Sure, I'd spend it on my kids....you know how that goes.   I am excited.   We went to Joanne's yesterday afternoon and got a couple fo Sizzix dyes and played last night.   I need to stitch for next couple of nights to make up for lost time but will have to make up some Christmas Cards this weekend.    As for my daughter's birthday, looks like I am buying her a new jacket.   All's well.  I was secretly happy that I had picked out something that she liked....afterall she had already bought one which proves it.

For those who asked.....here is my Big Shot ......  It is a tool for card cutting and more.   You can cut fabric, paper, tin, felt.   It consists of a platform and a roller you crank your dies through.   

It is hard to see here, but this is the general deal.   You have two lucite plates.  Between the plates you sandwich your paper and the die.   Of course, don't be silly, yes they are sold separately.     

You then feed this 'sandwich' through the machine and it does the rest.

You get a perfect cut, everytime.

Stampin Up has some really cool dies.   I of course coudn't wait to mail order one and we ran to Joanne's to buy a couple.   Staying with the season, I got the christmas tree and the snowflake.     I especially like the little gift tags and the little favor boxes that Stampin Up offers.   It is perfect for those times you want to mass produce. 

Blogoversary! Give-away

Okay, Official Giveaway Stuff to celebrate my Blogoversary.

I have had a blog for 3 years but it has not been until the last year that I really got into it.  Not only into my blog but a more regular follower of others blogs.   To celebrate the joy of sharing with others, I created a very eclectic giveaway.

1) I'm giving an assortment to one lucky reader of my blog.  More pix and contents listed below.

2) Enter the giveaway by leaving me a Happy Blogoversary comment on this post only.

3) Get a second entry by being a Follower of my blog. Let me know in your comment that you are a Follower.

4) Get another entry by posting about my giveaway on your blog. Leave a comment to let me know, please. 
5)  You can leave all your info in one comment - a blog comment, follower info and posting on your blog comment.   I will still count each individually.

6) No blog, no problem...but leave your email!

7) The winner will be chosen by random drawing on Thanksgiving Day.

8) I will post the winner's name and we will work out delivery instructions at that time.

a) Stitchers Journal

b) JBW French Country Amore'

c) DMC Linen Floss collection

d) Little House Needleworks - Two Red Houses

This giveaway is hosted to thank all of your for reading my blog, for leaving me lovely comments, and for broadening my horizons with your clever blogs as well.  I know I have fun 'window shopping' and looking at the eye candy on others sites.   I have seen and learned so much by following others.  Thank you all for visiting my blog today.

All the items are unused.   Some are from my stash and some are from my LNS. 

e) Thread cutter and magnifying glass with 3 x 5 graph tablet

f) Magnifying glass** This is everso 'gently' used. I used it like twice and decided I didn't like it

 

g) Milleneum ABC Sampler

h) Bent Creek Christmas Row

i) Rosewood Manor Charming Tulips

Blogoversary!

Sorry for the delay in the Blogoversary posting.   We have had a death in the family.   Although it was following a long illness one is never really prepared.   My time since last week has been spent making arrangements with family and going over details.     We have had some warm thoughts and good laughs remembering a wife, a mother, a mother-in-law, a grandmother.

I hope to be able to photograph my give-a-way and post by tomorrow (Sunday).   Right now I have kids sleeping in the room with my stash!  I hope to get some stitching in this morning as things wind down after yesterday's services.   Stitching is always what calms me, releaves my tension and keeps my blood pressure down.   All of you who stitch know the therapeutic  value of needle and thread.

Becky's got us all beat!

I follow Becky's Bee Stitching Hive  http://beckysc.blogspot.com/.   Her site and work are beautiful and equal to her decorating for holidays.  She goes right from Halloween to Christmas.

I was checking her site out this morning and see she has a Christmas tree in her kitchen.   A few years ago when I started doing the same, no one got it.  It was just more evidence to my family that I was goofy.   But I figured  why not?   So, for Becky, here's the photo I dug out of my album.   Not the best photo.  I don't remember the tree looking so skimpy on the decorations.  I used cookie cutters, little whisks, strung popcorn and cranberries, other kitcheny stuff and somewhere on there are gingerbread men.  Actually if you click on the photo you will see the cookie cutters that are not showing up.

Not much stitching going on so far today

First, my little Gavers in his Halloween costume last night giving me his Batman pose, then his mom, or rather my wonderful d-in-l!.

Yesterday after work - yes another Saturday spent at the office - I went to the Goodwill Store.   I am usually at the back door dropping off but went inside to shop today.   I got a sparkling holiday shell, a gray wool blazer, a BRAND new Jones New York white blouse and you know you can never have too many of white tops.   I also got two new sweathers and neither of these looks like they have ever been worn.  Five items for $19.  What an inexpensive way to broaden my wardrobe.   The is the ultimate recycling.   

I did manage a bit of stitching during the week.   You know how sometime you stitch and stitch and don't see or feel any progress?   Well at least it happens to me......sometimes I feel like I am stitching in slow motion.   That was not the case this week.  I seemed to be able to show progress even if I didn't stitch for hours on end.  It's too bad the pink peony intersecting hearts in the center don't show up to well.

Picked up a new book last week and I can be almost as obsessed with reading as stitching.   I can't put this book down.   It is called "Turning Angel" by Greg Iles.   A very easy read and a real page turner.    It is set in small town south.   A prominent doctor has an affair with an underage girl and she gets murdered.   Oh course he is a suspect and the powers to be seem to be trying to railroad him.  All kinds of twists and turns, drugs and back room politics and that is all I can say without giving too much away.   This is the first book by Iles that I have read and I know it won't be the last.   I can just picture the antebellum mansions and the spanish moss on the trees and Smokey and the Bandit cops. 

I hope to post my Blogoversary giveaway this week.   I have a pile of things and need to do a little stash cleanout to see what else I can come up with as well as hit the LNS for some fibers.

Off to the treadmill and then need to bake a birthday cake for Gavin.  He is 8 years old and wants a Devil's Food cake and the homemade ice cream that I will wait and make with him after dinner tonight will be a surprise.   Lord knows we have enough Reese's peanut butter cups to smash up and add.

Note:   My daughter has spoken to her husband who is in his hotel in Tanzania getting ready for bed.  He is there to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro!  Why?   Because he can.   He has to be 'in country' for 24 hours before the expedition.   His climb starts on Monday.  This is his first big climb and we are happy, anxious and excited for him all at the same time.  Go Mikey!

Fitness Plan Challenge

I've got to do something here. The menopause pounds, the quitting smoking pounds and the need to help justify the hours spend on the internet which has comtributed to the lack of physical activity.....need I say more.   Face it, cross stitching does not exactly keep one in shape.  I log in everyday to check email, update my website, check blog posts, look at ebay sales, window shop at cross stitch sites and why not obligate myself to log in a record my treadmill progress?  I need to get my incentive somewhere so if it is because others are watching is what it takes, here goes.   Watch carefully for if I faulter........I just might delete this section. For now, I will list the date, the distance and the time I walk. I do not plan to walk everyday but plan to walk more days than not. If anyone wants to join in, please just add a comment to this post.   I will add your name, date, time and distance on the sidebar with mine.  As Bugs Bunny would do, let hope I don't end up in Pismo Beach.   Remembering that each journey starts with a single step here goes.

10/30 30 minutes 1.55 miles

Great Weekend

The view on the interstate - foilage was much prettier than it looks

The sky was so pretty. So BLUE it almost hurt the eyes!

The upside of the Walt Whitman Bridge

The city in the distance from the Walt Whitman.   Click on the pic and you can

see IKEA through the hand rails.   A favorite store!

The city from the Schukyll Expressway

On my way home, Kelly Drive near Hunting Park

There is a statue of a man on a horse in the center of the shot.

Not sure how I managed to get this centered to perfectly.   It is a statue of what appears to be Athen's wrestler.  The Schullkyll is in the background.   As always they were sculling and you can see them to the right.

Cool stone trusses for the train bridge.   I almost want to hold my breath

for fear four cars wide won't fit at the same time.

Nice view as I get on the Vine Street Expressway

The Vine Street Expressway

I meant to get around to posting about my great weekend.    I went to spend the day with my daughter in Philly.   We always have a good time and we laugh a lot and get a little crafting in too.   As I prepared to pack the car with my WIP's and my sewing machine and a few fat quarters to boot, I thought about how a few short years ago - well maybe 10 - I would have froze in terror at the thought of riding to the city, I would have had the white knuckle grip on the steering wheel, let alone driving it and by myself!  Cells phones and GPS have taken away much of the fear of driving alone.   I can't believe how far I have come from the little country bumpkin where there are literally no cars down the main street after 10 pm and for me who is accustomed to the unmonitored table of fresh produce that sits at the side of the road with the old coffee can for your money in it each summer to THE CITY!  I am grateful for what I have learned from my children! So I took my camera with me and randomly shot photos along the way.  There was no aiming; I was just pointing and clicking.  I of course got the shots of my forehead and the headliner of the car as well at the shots of my lap and the shots of my floormats but I got some good ones too.    First the leaves along my ride up the interstate.   The photo does not do the brilliant colors justice.   Now, over the river and into the city.  The shots I took of Citizen's Bank Park (where the Phillies play) were not so good so I deleted them.   But I got the skyline from the Schulkyll.  I also got bumper to bumper traffic from South Street on.     I had to stop taking pictures because the batteries in the camera  were so low I had to let it sit on the passenger seat to kind of get its energy up.   And I thought for  fleeting moment someone might spy me taking photos and turn me into Homeland Security because no one but a terrorist would be randomly taking photos while driving on the expressway.   I got some photos on the way home along Kelly Drive.   How did I manage to get these two?    And then there is the Vine Street Express Way...not a bad ride this time.   The Ben Franklin Bridge....this is one of the coolest bridges.    Again, pangs of fear that I may be construed as a terrorist.  This bridge is a beautiful specimen.   The train runs along the sides.  It is really pretty at night with the lighting they have.  

The Ben Franklin Bridge - the trains run right next to the car lanes.  

Cool view for both the car passenger and the train passenger.

The Ben Franklin Bridge

A few years ago they discovered subway stations that were built in the uprights but apparently closed or never used.    WOW! 

Triple A Ball Park, Camden NJ

It was a different drive taking a camera.   Here is a  ball park where the Triple A team the Riversharks play.  This is a cool view when there is a night game!  You can see uprights for the Walt in the background.    All photos should be clickable to enlarge.   Hope all enjoy my photo journal as much as I did during the experience. 

Oh yeah, and we crafted in between my commute to and from.

PS 11 p.m. @#$^^$@$!!!! Why is uploading photos sometimes impossible!!!  And of course I deleted them off my camera.   I will try again tomorrow by emailing them to myself and uploading from my laptop!

PS Duh! Why not just download them on to my Cruzer stick and then upload. Works like a charm!  I need to do a little rearranging but at least I got them uploaded and labeled!