Gobble, Gobble

Wishing and hoping that everyone in blogland has a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving Holiday!!

Christmas Ornament Exchange

On Friday, I received a wonderful package from Mylene! Absolutely love seeing packages in my mailbox instead of bills! This is the second time Mylene has stitched for me for the HoE Exchange Group and she outdid herself again. She stitched up a wonderful little pillow ornament with beading around the edge. Here is a snap of the front of the ornament:
I absolutely love the beading around the edge. I must learn and practice how to do this! And here is a snap of the back where she stitched out *Merry Christmas*
I love this design but I'm not sure who it is by. I think the two shades of green in the tree add real dimension. Here is a photo of the whole exchange with goodies!Sorry for the overflashed photos...hard to get good pictures at night with my little camera. Mylene included a little stitched holiday card with a teddy bear on it, some chocolate, a piece of nice blue "Noel" fabric, a JBW Designs Christmas Tree chart and a package of embellishments. Yay! Thanks Mylene. The ornament will grace my tree this year and all the goodies will be put to good use or eaten! :)

Here Kitty, Kitty!

Recently, *the boy* has been subjected to a lot of "omg, I need time to stitch, I am so behind!* comments. Sometimes, he will sit with me and watch me pull needle through thread and other times, he'll head off to the other room to watch boring news shows. When I was making the floss tag for Claire, he said that he would really like it if I would make something for his mom and he really liked the Brittercup Kitty I stitched up on the tag so I had him pick out a pattern for me to stitch and he chose Brittercup Designs Kitty with Bird. It was a fast stitch and shown below. Not the best photo and the little blue bird is a very pale blue. I am debating whether I should stitch it up in a darker light blue. *The boy* wants to frame it so we'll head off to Aaron Brothers to see if we can find a nice frame for it.

Brittercup Designs Kitty with Bird
28 count Zwiegart Lugana Bisque

suggested WDW threads

That's all for now. The weekend will be filled with ornament finishing and a couple of new starts. All for gifts. I hope everyone has a nice relaxing weekend before the insanity of what is always Thanksgiving!

Tag! I'm It!

Yay! I've been tagged by Natasha to share some information about myself. Hopefully I don't bore you guys to death! Here are the rules ...

Rule #1 ~ Link to the person that tagged you.
Rule #2 ~ Post the rules on your Blog.
Rule #3 ~ Write 6 random things about yourself.
Rule #4 ~ Tag 6 people at the end of your post.
Rule #5 ~ Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their Blog.
Rule #6 ~ Let the tagger know your entry is up.

Factoid #1 ~ I'm 100% Nicaraguan. If there were ever the occasion that I pass you on the street and tell you that, your mouth would drop open in shock. I am pretty tall (for a girl) and incredibly fair and often mistaken for Italian, Greek and Irish most of the time. It works to my advantage. I can eavesdrop with the best of them and surprise people with my spoken Spanish...it's all very funny.

Factoid #2 ~ Even though I am 100% latina...I have no spice tolerance whatsoever. Really! It's gotten better over the years so now I have a little (un poquito) spice tolerance.

Factoid #3 ~ Even though I've taken years of dancing and fitness classes, I'm amazingly clumsy and execute a nasty fall on my bum at least once a year. I should just walk around with a pillow strapped around it to avoid further trauma to bum.

Factoid #4 ~I cannot fully function without caffeine. I love coffee like you wouldn't believe and have been drinking coffee (cafe con leche) since I was six years old! A nonfat hazelnut latte from Peet's is my ultimate favorite!

Factoid #5 ~ I am the youngest child out of three and my two siblings are old enough to be my parents. Yes, we all have the same parents but I was an extreme afterthought...apparently.

Factoid #6 ~ I am one of those rare SF natives. Really...it's a big deal! Everyone who lives around here now are transplants.

And I know it only asked for six random facts but I will do seven because I like odd numbers...

Factoid #7 ~ Besides the fact I like odd numbers, I love cake and think it should be one of those essential food groups that they talk about in grammer school. Things definitely seem more manageable and cheery after a piece of cake and a cup of coffee or tea.

I will not tag anyone to complete this fun little exercise unless they feel up to it. If you would like to, please go ahead and post to your blog and link back to me.

Jetsetter? I Wish!

A couple of weekends ago, I finished the June Square of my Bent Creek Snappers. This square seemed to take me a while to do and was tedious. I think it's because the stitching area is more dense. I do get a kick out of the stamps on the suitcase. They are all for places I've never been too but are on my destination list. New York, London and Rome...here I come...one day!! Here is a close up on the square.
And here is a snap of how the project looks so far. I am half way done! Seems weird to be stuck on July though since we're already in November but I didn't start this project until mid-July so not bad. I think the Snappers will have to be put away in the drawer for the time being. I have too many other stitchy obligations right now and I don't think *July Sings* will be debuted until January.
In other stitchy news, stitching has been slow. I am working on the ornament for the HoE Christmas exchange and after that, I have a couple of gifts lined up. If only I could clone myself. I'd stay home and stitch all day and the clone could go to work! Haha...wouldn't that be wonderful?!

Rest and Relaxation

The week before last, Claire and I spent a wonderful four days away in Mendocino. I had never been to Mendocino before and everyone kept telling me that it was very scenic and beautiful but that the drive was awful. I have no idea what they are talking about! Mind you, I was the passenger on the way up and on the way down and we took the less scenic route to get there. The scenic route is Highway 1 which hugs the coastline. The less scenic route is Highway 128 which goes through the woods, along a winery path and then through a forest of redwoods. Who says that's not scenic?! Plus, there were so many wineries that we had to do a few stops for tasting and acquisition. I came away from this trip with 7 bottles of wine and a new favorite for pinot noir. If anyone finds Toulouse Vineyard Pinot Noir...grab it! It's so yummy and what a strange coincidence that it's owned by a retired Fire Captain from the Bay Area. It truly is a small world! It's still a new winery and their tasting room is non-existent but the staff is very friendly and knowledgeable about wine.

Following are some pictures from the trip. I think the picture below was taken at Navarro Vineyards. Sorry...the wine made my brain fuzzy and I can't totally remember! But Navarro did have lovely grounds and if you look closely, you will notice sheep dozing under the grapevines. Baaaa!!!

Anther snap at Navarro. I love how the line of skinny trees looked in the background.

And here is a snap of the grounds at Goldeneye Winery. Good pinot noir but very pricey and out of my budget...that's for sure! But the grounds were lovely. The autumnal colors of the grapevines look terrific against the deep green on all the pines and other trees. This winery serves their tasting out on their deck with little nibbles of crackers, dried cherries, almonds and bits of cheese. Very nice and classy. I would recommend if only to stop and take in the view.

Ocean, waves and rocks

Ahhh, ocean is much calmer near the bluff. Claire and I actually walked and explored all around the bluff. It was nice. She was adventurous and climbed down these sand stairs to the ocean cove below. I was all scared I'd fall and create more havoc to the bum that I bruised falling down stairs a few weeks ago. I may look graceful...nut I'm not really.

Here's is the view of the downtown area of Mendocino from the bluff we explored.Point Cabrillo Lighthouse. I thought it would be huge! It's very tiny and I have no idea who those folks are that are walking in the foreground.

And the most amazing thing from the trip...this was the view from the deck of our hotel room at sunset. Isn't it amazing?! How in the world did I leave and how soon can I get back?!
This photo completely reminds me of a Hawaii photo except instead of palm trees, it's these. I don't even know what kind of trees they are! Mendocino was fabulously relaxing and the people were *so* friendly. It was so completely different from the hustle and bustle of the city and I relished every moment. I think this will easily be my *go to* destination for a relaxing getaway that is still kind of local and won't bust the bank account...and I must return sooner rather than later.

Goodbye Angelina

August 5, 1981 - October 29, 2008
You will be missed...