How I Spent My Week

Shark Boy

William visits the ocean with brother, mom, dad and me(manning the camera)

What a joy to watch your son become a dad.

Fearless!

Wouldn't it be lovely if we all could snuggle in our carseat and sleep all the way home.

No doubt someone loves the camera.

The week flew by too fast.   Hope we make this a summer tradition.

Making Progress

I am making great progress on Corsica River....not yet where I should be and haven't even started the current assignment but still I am satisfied with how far I have come.

Status as of last week

The scroll frame IS as wide as my dining room table.  On the right you can see the black thread in the needle waiting to be used.   This is just past the far right hand side.   Yeah!   And yes, I have made a little promise to myself to go back and finish up the first row of blackwork before I move on to the next section.  

Not to much to show - due to a bit of back stitch frogging.  

No Assisi work done this week.   My (current, and I laugh at myself) goal is to get all the back stitching in and then the Assisi will fly.  I am still holding out hope that by October I will be current with the assignments.

Not much else to show for my week.   Mr. W. is home and back into to his routine of not being on the road and living out of a suitcase.  For me, today  I've got a big ole grocery list made for shopping for the houseful of family this coming week.  Rice pudding and blueberry pies to make today.  Casseroles to prep.  Veggies to clean and be at the ready.  Bedrooms to prep.   And of course I just sort of did nothing this morning but stitch for a good two or three cups of coffee worth of time.

And I have my cereal box to make my eclipse viewer.   I tried for 10 to 14 days and across three states with phone calls looking for eclipse glasses.   I see now that I should have started my search sooner.   I admit it I am caught up a little in the frenzy.   Heck, this won't happen in my lifetime again.   Where I live, I will see 80% of the eclipse.   I tried to get workmates to get excited, to bring in solar eclipse themed food and treats.   I even told one that I would get a hard hat and cover it will foil if she would and we could sit in lawn chairs on the hill out back our office building.  Quite a site I am sure for the drivers on the nearby interstate.  No one seems excited, at least at work.   And actually Mr. W. is kind of looking at me strangely.   For me, I will allow myself to be a little goofy on Monday.   What are they going to do.....fire me......not likely.....I have 23 months until my retirement date and they are already stressing by throwing alternatives at me.....same pay, four day week.....or three day week when I didn't bat an eye (no mention of same pay for 3 days).......come back for one week a month......do consultant work on bigger projects........crazy talk for sure.   My list of things I want to do in T-minus 23 months and counting is getting longer every week.    For now, I am off to buy Orbit gum and Milky Way bars for work and a ton of blueberries for pies and MY Solar Eclipse inspired fruit tray I will take to work.  Hopefully, I will have time to make these cute little tags I saw on Pinterest that say "I've been mooned".   Wouldn't that be a hoot to pass out afterwards?    I digress.......

Vacations Over

Mr. W. Returns home today after eight weeks on the road.  I saw that he had made it from Indianapolis to Somerset PA area by 6 a.m. this morning.   I am sure the next few days I will be regaled with his adventures and misadventures ad nauseam.  It is not that I am not interested a wee bit but he will repeat the same tales all week while he decompresses from his version of running away and joining the circus.  Also during this time will be the vowing to never again go on tour.....that will change by the time next year's tour starts to take shape on the drawing board.  Buddy Cat will also be thrilled for sure to have his pal back.

Yesterday D#1 and I spent the day together.  We planned to go to Lititz, PA for the largest craft show (700 vendors) on the east coast but alas, we ran amok.  We started the day early with a great breakfast out, visited Fireside stitchery in Fraser, PA and then hit a bunch of consignment shops before managing a visit to The Container Store.  We ended with a fun stop at the Trolley Car Cafe and their ice cream stand.  Yum.  Back at her house I managed an hour of stitching while she sorted fat quarters by color to store in her new containers....poor baby thinks she can tame her stash......I was not going to squash her spirit.  Craft show or not, we always have lots of laughs and fun together.

I drug along Corsica River, protected for the road trip in a king sized pillow case.  For stitching, I have made great progress on Corsica River this week.   I am not yet up to the current assignment but I am still really happy with the progress. Another two weeks like this and I think I can finish this row.  That thought is nice but the execution is doubtful.  ((remember my wallpaper removal project to work an hour a week that has gone the wayside and the quilt a seam-a-day project?))

Last week 

This week.....really can see the Assisi work *pop*

Remaining liriope all nasty in the background.

As for consignment shopping, I had success.  All summer I have been wearing my thinking cap for a vignette I wanted to create in the side garden.  I planted liriope several years backs but I must be growing the red-headed-step-child version of the plant.  Mine does not, never has, never will resemble that lovely compact variegated variety with pretty purple spikes of flowers that you see lining mall entries or the perfectly manicured landscaping around a professional building.  No, mine is more like the unruly hair of.....dare I say,  Cousin It.   And it is a son of a biscuit to remove.  Worse, yes much worse, than ivy.  Anyway, I have been slowly removing it over the course of the summer.   I thought I wanted to put up a fence section, hang a window box or maybe prop an old bike with a basket up.  Everyone wants a fortune, or at least more than I am willing to pay, for a rusty old non-operating old Schwinn.  So I bought this flower stand yesterday.  I went out first thing this morning, cleared the area, and just dry set the flag stone pieces I had on hand.  And although I paid the price as marked I think I got a steal.   The coco lining and flowers alone are worth the purchase price.  I may still add a fence section for effect.  Maybe once Mr. W. recoveries I can enlist his help...and maybe not

I also finished the stitching for the waxer bag of My Stitchers Heart.  These smalls are easy take along pieces.  Love these colors.  I started the pin cushion.  I hope to at least have the smalls and the box painted and papered by November when I have a class with Cathy Haberman of Hands On Designs.

I am also close to the final stitches in my Longaberger apple basket.  The back stitch is actually harder than I was anticipating as I have a mass of threads on the back side due to the 'confetti' stitches throughout the basket.   I am not sure how I want to finish this one.  Frame it, make a flat fold, make it a pillow and use it on a project bag......hmmmm...tbd

This week I will be getting ready for a visit from my son and his family.  Thank goodness for FaceTime that we use in between visits!  I need to get the beds made up, stow my crafts, get the dog crate out and do major  grocery shop.   So that's what up in my little corner of the USA.

Have a great week, thanks for stopping by and happy stitching all!

It's Friday!

What a glorious day.... now that I am home and have conquered the one hour drive to go 12 miles.    No worries.   I have arrived home with left-overs for dinner, a clean house (major afterglow from hosting needlework group this week) and not one thing on my agenda for the weekend except logging into my banking on Sunday morning.

Remember this seam of beauty?

To catch up or rather round out my serger endeavors......I spend a good portion of two days serging all my linen.   This was good and bad.  




Holy Moly!
You know how we have patterns to last forever and a day; well I have the linen to go with those patterns.

Once I serged the edges, I ironed each piece.   I dug an empty storage tub out of the attic and proceeded to fill it.    I was not about to spend forever and a day to try to identify the count on all the different pieces so I separated by color.  Yikes, my epiphany was that does not include linen that is already kitted up with pattern and floss and stowed elsewhere.   Oh well.

This gal is heading to the deck with this little old stitching piece that has been calling me all day.   Here is where I was last weekend;

and now.   The blackwork in the Assisi section is completed halfway across the  pattern.    Now to fill it in with the NPI Chinese Lantern Red.

Not earth shattering progress, but progress none the less.  Really not too bad for less than a week if I do say so my humble-self. 

Hmmmm, off to the deck for me but I might take a detour to the internet to find a recipe for making a Mojito.    Wouldn't that be tasty on a warm summer evening. And I wonder what shenanigans I can get myself into......

Thanks for stopping by.   Have a great weekend everyone! Happy stitching.