Almost the big day!

Here it is the night before Christmas Eve. Hope you are ready for the big day! Today I spent the afternoon wrapping up everything that still needed to be wrapped. I have to work until Noon tomorrow and still need to pick up some gift cards, so as much as I hate to, I guess I am going to have to go do it.

The kids are visiting my DIL's parents in Leesburg,VA for Christmas and DD won't be home for Christmas this year either. On Christmas Eve we will be going to my MIL's and to my parents for Christmas Day with my brothers and their families. The kids should get back to our house sometime Wed. night and then we will have Christmas with them on Thursday. Hope we can hold the kids back that long.

I just want to wish all my friends a Merry Christmas and hope that all of you have a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.

Friday update

Here it is: Quaker Christmas. This is what I have been focusing on stitching wise. I finished up page one last night and have used 4 1/2 skeins of CC Balsam Fir floss.
I am really enjoying this piece.
This week has really been going fast. On Wednesday I went shopping all afternoon. I still haven't finished my Christmas shopping yet, but at least the grandkids are done and this morning I spent some time wrapping also. I really don't like to wrap. All that time spent wrapping it and in a few seconds it is all just trash! LOL
I finally found the laptop that I have been looking for and at the right price. So, I guess that is my Christmas present to me. I even picked up a wireless mouse for it this week while shopping. DH will take over the other one. DS really wanted me to sell it to him. He really needs a new one for work. He is saving up money and getting gift cards from Best Buy for Christmas and for his birthday in Jan. in hopes of purchasing a new one.
Have a great weekend!

Yeah, Vacation time again!

Yes, this week I am on vacation. The last one of the year. I hopefully will get some more of my Christmas shopping done, gifts wrapped, etc. That is if the weather cooperates. We are supposed to get freezing rain almost every day this week.

Oh well, I can always stay indoors and stitch or read a book! I can still get the gifts wrapped and I could always shop online if I have to.

Still need to get the tree up and the decorations out. Maybe that can get done this week also. I always have good intentions to get lots done, but it doesn't always get done.

Until next time, have a great day!

New stitching project

Here is a scan of my newest project. It is Quaker Christmas by ByGone Stitches. It is done with Crescent Colours floss. It takes 20 skeins of Balsam Fir. I started it on Monday, 11-05-07 and have used 2 skeins of floss so far. I am really enjoying this project, but need to put it away and catch up on a Blackbird SAL piece that I am doing and a couple of ornaments I need to make for a swap and for my stitching group.

Baby News

Saturday I attended a baby shower for my niece. She is having a girl and is due on 12/02/07. There were a lot of people there and she received a lot of nice things. She said, now I am ready for her to be born. I just wanted to attend my baby shower before she was born. She was taking meds to help with the contractions she was having since she had fell. They were going to stop giving them to her at 37 wks. So on Sunday evening my Mom calls and says that her water broke and she was on the way to the hospital. My Mom was hoping that it would be born after midnight so that she would be born on her birthday. Well,she was! Olivia was born by C-section at 7:45am this morning. She weighted 5lbs and 3 ozs and is 19 inches long with light brown hair. My Mom is thrilled to have her 8th great grandchild born on her birthday. Now all my brothers are grandpas'.

I'm Back

I have really neglected my blog lately. I don't really know why. I think about posting, but then don't get around to it. Since I last posted I attended a stitching weekend with some of my stitching friends here in the area. We all meet at the retreat location (Jeanne's house) at 1pm on Friday. Everyone brings grab bags to share, food, drinks & snacks to share, our stitching, stuff you want to sell (patterns, fabric,etc.) and show & tell if you like. We spend the whole weekend stitching, eating, chatting, shopping and just plain old having fun with our friends sharing a hobby that we all love.
I started a project while I was at the stitch-in and finished it a few days later. It is LHN Cherries. I will post a pictures here for all to see.
Will catch up on posting some more stitching pictures later.
Have a great weekend!

Another Weekend is here

It's the weekend again and been over a week since I have last posted. Seems like I just haven't had anything to post about. LOL
I am stitching a stitchalong with a group of stitchers from all around the world and I finished the first part. It is a Blackbird design called Under the Sunlit Sky and here is my first part finished. It's not a very good picture of it, but it's dark fabric and light shades of floss.
I am also trying to finish up LHN Autumn Sampler this weekend. I would like to get it done so that I can at least have a finish for this month.
I have already finished the Spring and Summer one.
My son and his family are going to be spending the night tonight after attending a barbeque at a friends house. Since they live an hour and a half away and DS only has one day off a week right now, it's not often that they get to come here. We usually go to their house to visit. I bought lots of goodies at the grocery store after work today to feed the grandkids! Maybe I better wait until they are ready to go home, so I don't get them high on sugar before bedtime.

Busy Weekend

We usually work on weekends and never really have much scheduled to do, but that was not the case this past weekend.
On Friday evening we attended a retirement party at Trailhead which is a restaurant/microbrewery. Had a great dinner and there was a great turn out for the party. It was for DH's store manager that retired about 3 weeks ago.
Sunday we had tickets for the Rams football game. They turned out to be great seats on the 50 yd line and on the club level where all the companies have their private boxes. At least they weren't in the nose bleed section like our tickets were last December when we attended a game. Afterwards we went out to eat and had a steak dinner at O'Charleys.
Today I only had to work and do Time and Attendance, so that means I got off at 9am. I am spending the day catching up on laundry and other chores around the house that didn't get done this weekend. This evening I have stitch club and tomorrow I am off. Should give me plenty of time to catch up and get some rest so that I am ready to go for the rest of the week!

Saturday Afternoon

Here is an updated photo of the progress I have made on Ocean Daughter. I have really been making great progress on it this week.

I am off today (Saturday) which is really unusual. I was going to do some laundry but found I only had enough detergent to do one load, so guess I need to make a run to the store to get more-Darn! LOL That leaves more time to do some stitching on this rainy and overcast day. It is really starting to look like fall outside.

I picked up a new piece of linen at LNS on Tuesday to stitch Sea Stars on. Every time I stitched on it, I thought about how I didn't like the fabric and didn't want to put any more time into it since I wasn't happy with it. I picked up a very nice piece of 32ct Sand Belfast linen. Now I have to start it all over. I think I will start in the top left hand corner, so I won't be stitching the same motifs over again that I had already stitched. I thought that would be a better approach to it so that I wouldn't get bored doing the same parts over.

Found out that DS just got a promotion at work, so I am excited for him. It should really help them out since he will have better hours, more money and other nice perks.

Labor Day Weekend

Well, it's the last summer holiday of the season. Now we can start looking forward to cooler Fall days and nights. (I hope) LOL

I do have to work on Monday, but will be off on Tues., Sat. and Sun. of next week. On Tues. we will go see the grandkids. Haven't seen them in two weeks, so really need my Nana fix!
Tuesday will be my parents 57th wedding anniversary. Wow, that's a long time!

I have had a finish since I last posted, but haven't had a chance to upload a picture of it yet. It is LHN Summer Sampler. I am now caught up on this series until the Autumn one is released. Looking forward to receiving that one.

I have been reading a lot more lately and finished up 3 books in the last 2 weeks and have started on a 4th. I also have 2 more on reserve that I need to pick up at the library either today or Tuesday.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day weekend and the cooler days also.

Friday

Yesterday was DH's birthday. We went to see the kids and daughter in law made cupcakes for DH's birthday. We picked up Nicholas at the bus stop. He didn't know we were coming, so that was a surprise for him. He seems to like school so far. He says that he got separated from the other kids at nap time, so I guess that means that he talks to them or bothers them in some way instead of being quiet and resting. LOL

The kids got their pictures made so I got some when were there yesterday. They couldn't get a picture without Emily laughing, so that's what they did. Ashley looks like she could have cared less what was going on.

I went to the library yesterday and picked up 4 books. I don't know what made me think that I would be able to get them all read in 2 weeks time. I should have gotten them before vacation when I the time to read.

Another vacation finish

We went to the lake on Sunday and returned on Wed. afternoon. I was not impressed by the place that we stayed, but now we know.

Today I finished up LHN Ladybug, Ladybug. It's nice to have another finish.

I did manage to finish reading two books while on vacation this week also. One I was already in the process of reading and the other one I started on Sunday and finished last night.

Today is Nicholas's first day of school. I am anxious to talk to him and find out how his day went. He did miss the bus this morning because his Daddy didn't want to get out of bed this morning, so he had to take him to school. He will get to ride the bus home, which I know he was excited about.

We have really had some hot weather lately so I think it a great idea to just stay indoors and stitch or read.

Only a few days left of vacation, so hopefully I will get to do some more stitching and reading before Monday.

Stash

Yesterday I went to Daytime Stitchers group that meets the first Tuesday of the month and picked up some new charts at the LNS while there. I wanted a couple more of the Little House ones, but they are on order and they will hold them for me once they arrive.

I also picked up a piece of fabric out of their prepackaged scraps that will work for a LHN design that I wanted to start so that I could take a smaller piece to stitch on with me on vacation next week. It is Ladybug, Ladybug.

Today I received two pieces of fabric in the mail that I had ordered from Picture This Plus in July when they had a two day sale with 25% off. I received a piece of 32ct Legacy Lugana that I had planned for a Blackbird design, but now I'm not so sure because the color isn't what I expected and a piece of 32ct Relic Belfast linen. Not sure what I will stitch on this one, but it could be used for quite a few different things.

Chatter

Here it is the weekend and it seems like it's been a long week for some reason. On Tuesday we went to see the grandkids and my DH's nephew and wife were here on vacation and they went with us. Mother in law also went with us. I was worn out after that! LOL

I had another starter of Amish Friendship bread and should have baked it yesterday, but I worked a night shift and didn't want to get up early to do it. I used chocolate pudding this time instead of the vanilla. Have to see how it turns out in a little bit.

One more week to work and I am on vacation again. We have a reservation at a resort at Lake of the Ozarks called Robin's Resort. We haven't ever stayed there so hopefully it will be nice. We are going to leave on Sunday and return home on Wednesday. They have wireless internet, so I can take my laptop and keep in touch. We have a 1 bedroom lakefront apartment so we will have a screened in porch with a view of the lake. Can't wait to go and just kick back and relax! It is also very close to the outlet mall that is at the lake, so I might do some shopping also.

Now it's time to relax until bedtime.

Another Finish

I must be on a UFO kick. I pulled out one after my last finish and I have now finished it and now I am working on another one! Yesterday I finished PS 2005 Limited Edition Here Come Santa Claus kit. Now I am working on Hinzeit's Never Enough Time.

My oldest grandchild was registered for school this week. Where did the time go? I can still remember when he was born. Nicholas will be starting kindergarten on August 16. Hey, I will be on vacation that week, I could even be there for his first day if I wanted to. We usually see the kids on a Tues. which is our day off and now we will see Nicholas even less since he will be in school when we visit. Might have to change our day to visit to Sunday instead.

Some of my friends from an online group are getting together this weekend for a retreat. I was unable to go and just found out that another of the ladies had to cancel at the last minute because of the health of her parents. Connie really needed this get away and I fell so bad for her. She has really had to deal with a lot lately. I wish all my friends would pray for her and her parents. I wish all the other retreaters safe travels and a great weekend.

Vacation Finish

I have a vacation finish! It is LHN/CC Spring Sampler. It's really not a very good picture, but I posted it anyway. LOL

Today is the last day of my vacation and work starts bright and early tomorrow morning at 5am. Yuck! I have enjoyed my week off of just doing whatever and it went way too fast.

Great Day

Yesterday I spent a great day with friends. One of my stitching friends is off work after having some surgery and lives a couple of hours away, so a group of us went on a road trip and visited her. I got up very early because DH told me it was going to take me an hour to get to the meeting place. Well, I got there a half hour early and then my friends were late. I could have pulled out my stitching and stitched! LOL We made a stop at Walmart to pick up some snacks and food for lunch and then proceeded to Linda's house. We had a great day of sharing, WIP, finishes, new stuff, food, laughs, stitching etc. Then they started talking about some bad storms moving in , so we decided we had better head home. We did run into some rain, but nothing major. All in all it was a great day spent with friends.

Day 3 of Vacation

Today we went to see our grandkids and boy was it hot! Turns out their air-conditioner had frozen up and wasn't working properly. All I wanted to do was go home. We had a ceiling fan, a box fan and a fan on a stand all going in the living room and I was still uncomfortable. Her Dad bought some insurance plan that covers all their appliances, so they just have to pay $55. to get any of them fixed and if they can't be fixed, they are to be replaced. Glad he invested in that!

Yesterday I started a new project. It's LHN Spring Sampler-the one with the silk Crescent Colours. Oh boy, or they lovely floss or what? I had stitching club that night and ended up ripping out after I got home, but restitched that and some more when I got home this evening. I figured it's my vacation and I'm not going anywhere, so if I want to start a new project, I can! LOL

Here is the latest picture I have of my three darling grandchildren. Nicholas is 5, Emily is 2 and Ashley is 3 1/2 months old.

I took this at the end of June when my DD was in town.

This & That

Finally, vacation has arrived! I haven't had one since March when I went to the Silver Needle retreat. It was a long time in between. LOL

A lady that works with my DH gave him a starter of Amish Friendship bread and so yesterday I baked 2 loaves of bread. I haven't had this in a really long time and had forgotten how wonderful it was. It tastes so yummy!

Haven't had much stitching time this week. A couple of nights when I picked it up, I was just too tired to stitch, so didn't do much. Ended up watching TV with it in my lap. Hopefully that will change this week while I am on vacation.

Countdown to Vacation

Only 2 more days to work and I am on vacation for a week! Don't really have any plans to go anywhere or to do anything, but it will be nice to just have time off from work.

I will probably just catch up on some things at home, go out to eat, see the grandkids, take some things back to stores that I need to return and hopefully spend some time reading and stitching.

It will be nice to just have some time to relax and enjoy all the things that I like.

Blog Changes

I've been playing with my blog. Adding list, putting them in different orders. LOL I think it still needs something, but I just haven't figured out what yet. I guess that's part of the fun, rearranging it as you go along.

Saturday's Ramblings

Here is a picture that I took of Ocean Daughter on June 29, 2007. I had started this project on Monday, June 25th. I have now finished one page of the design and have made great progress on another page. I will have to take another progress picture soon.

It was our co-manager's last day at work today. He is being transferred to another store. We will be getting a new one on Monday and it turns out he is a friend of mine. DH and I used to bowl with him & his wife in a bowling league. We even attended their wedding, so we have known them for a number of years.

Tomorrow I am going to Mom & Me in IL which is closing after 14yrs in business. It is a really great cross stitch shop and I really hate to see it close. The owner is retiring. A couple of my stitching friends are going to go with me and then we will go out for lunch!

Welcome

Welcome to my first attemp at blogging. I'm not sure I will have anything to say that anyone will be interested in, but thought I would join in and see what blogging is all about. LOL
Hopefully I will meet new friends and communicate with others that are already friends.
Stop by whenever you have a minute and see if I have added anything new.

Kathy