IHSW and TUSAL

Hello Lovelies...

What a busy weekend! Tons of shopping, stitch group, Maker's Faire, more shopping, Armory tour and a friend's birthday. I am pooped...and broke! I shouldn't have shopped so much but I finally found some new tanks, swimsuit and a cover up.

I hate shopping for a swimsuit but I needed a back up since my oldest one is a little too big in some parts. What is it with swimsuits though? You pay a fortune for something that contains very little fabric. Bikini bottoms are always too small which is frustrating when you're blessed with certain assets that you don't want pudging out all over the place. Two pieces are definitely made for skinny stick figures. But I finally managed to find something that was colorful, fun, fit properly and covered the stuff that needed covering.

But between this shopping trip, vacation and rent increase, I'm on a minimal spending ban til the Fall! Thank goodness I have enough stash to see me through.

So what have I been up to on the stitching front...

Fairy Moon is slowly growing. I've been enjoying the shading on her dress that I haven't moved upwards to stitch her face and hair yet.

I am fond of her and am sad that I have to leave her behind. Ten days away from her and not a stitch to be done?! How will I survive?

Maybe Jane Pattison will distract me enough. At stitching group on Saturday, I decided to start her. There are only a few stitches made but a start is a start no matter how small....right??

Jane Pattison isn't *that* small so in case I can't manage or the dogs are trying to sniff my stitching, I have some smalls I'll be taking along with me too. :)

And lastly, my TUSAL report! I found peonies at a local Trader Joe's. They are only of my favorite flowers!!

This is the last post before I leave on my trip. You all take care of yourselves and stitch lots. I'm sure I'll have lots to catch up on when I get back.

Until next time...

Catching Up...

Hello lovelies...

Hope you all had a lovely weekend whether you're a mom or not. Mine was nice, yet eventful. Life is feeling like a blur these days and most days, I barely have time to cook or stitch and it's just making me feel more worn out and crankified.

On Friday, a friend came into town and I had a nice early dinner with her and her daughter and another mutual friend. The weather was so nice, I actually wore a skirt! Dinner was nice and fab and I made it home early to stitch. And you know what?? I managed to finish Fairy Moon's wing! I thought it would take me much longer to get to that point but I did it. :) I have now progressed to some shading on the dress bodice and skirt.

Saturday was very busy with morning appointments, picking up special Mother's Day cake, lunch with a new friend, visiting with family and eating of the cake. I barely had a moment to myself.

As I was about to leave my folks...about 730pm...someone called the house. It was a friend of my little old lady friend...the one who lost everything in the fire. I was told that while shopping, my little old lady friend fell in a store and broke her femur and they had to go via ambulance to the hospital. I spent the rest of my evening in the emergency room checking in on her and helping with translation. Oh how terrible! Like losing your home wasn't enough...how she was facing surgery and rehabilitation. She had lots of visitors telling her it would all turn out ok and the surgery will go fine and trying to ease all her worries. I was back there Sunday morning to make sure there was someone with her when the doctor came around to explain the surgery. Everyone at the hospital was very friendly but who can help being nice to a sweet little old lady that keeps saying "thank you, dahling" and "you're so sweet, dahling" and "you are very nice to me, dahling". She's a riot. She says she doesn't care if she sounds like a crazy parrot as long as people know she is nice and thankful especially since her English is limited. If you can spare more good thoughts, that would be great. She will have to stay by herself in a rehabilitation center until she can get some physical therapy in and walk on her own. A local blog wrote a very nice article on her which you can read if you're so inclined.

After my stop at the hospital, I went outlet shopping to look for some warm weather clothes. I didn't find everything I was looking for but I managed to find some good deals. That took all day and boy were my feet barking after that. At least I got my exercise in!

***

More stitching stuff...a few weeks back, I asked Faye if she could make me a couple of large project bags and they finally winged their way to the left coast and they are fantastic!

I am in love with my blue paisley one and I am a big paisley fan so I am fond of the red one too. I can't wait to break one in and I think I will be stuffing one soon with this project...

What do you think??

I am not a big fan of samplers. Sure...I like looking at them but I can't picture very many in my place but there's something about Jane Pattison that keeps pulling me in. I do think it will look perfect in my living room and look how well the colors blend with my rug! My plan is to stitch it on 40count with the cottons. Here, the threads are lying on Lakeside Linens Porcelain. I am trying to match my color combo to the photo more where the colors seem to pop off the linen a bit. My cut of Navy Bean seems darker than the norm and created a more muted color scheme. Not really what I wanted. This is the lightest linen I have in my stash besides Magnolia which is too yellow. 

I haven't decided when I'll start Jane but I think she's ready...

Well, I have a quiet evening planned today so I need to maximize by cooking and stitching time. Hope you all have a nice week....oh, and don't forget this coming weekend is IHSW. Go sign up!

Until next time...

The Randomness Edition

~ Ever have one of those weeks where the days drag on endlessly and you're cranky at everyone? It's not even my PMS week but boy am I over it on a lot of things this week. Cleaning up the office for the move, clingy guys, rent hike, car maintenance. Over it! Perhaps I have vacation fever...

~ The vacation is less than 3 weeks away and I am not ready! At least I have my passport handy but I need to try on my shorts and bathing suits. Over here, you don't wear either very often. In fact, it's been 7 years since I've even taken a beach vacation!

~ Which makes me feel like I should do a spray-on tan before I leave so I don't blind people with my white legs.

~ I've barely had time to stitch or cook which is making me even more cranky. What I have stitched is just more wing fill-in on Fairy Moon. It's slow going but getting there. I still have to count to allow the appropriate spaces for the beads. My goal is to finish the wing before I leave.

~ I feel like skipping yoga today so I can stitch, relax and catch up on the Tivo...but I'm feeling particularly guilty since I ate a cupcake and a cookie this morning. Oops...I guess if you fall off the wagon, fall off hard. Both were tasty!

~ I'm trying to figure out what small project I take along with me to help pass the time. I am itching to stitch Jane Pattison but it's probably a little too big and like I need another big WIP to be carting around. I'm having enough issues juggling the ones I have!

~ If anyone can suggest some light but wonderful reads (books) to take with me on my trip, I'd love to hear suggestions. I'll go to the library and see what I can find.

~ Oh, on Sunday, there was a big apartment building fire in the Mission District. A very close friend of the family lived in this building and has basically lost everything and is now pretty much homeless. The building is a total loss. Luckily, her upstairs neighbor helped her escape with literally just a case of important papers and the robe and slippers she was wearing. If you can spare some good thoughts for this 81 year old widow, it would be nice. I love her like a second mom and am just so sad that this happened to her. Thankfully, she is a well loved little old lady and there are lots of people coming out of the woodwork to help her but as you can imagine, the sadness and shock is great as now, all she has are memories of her life to hold...most of which...she lived in in that apartment.

~ Posts will be sporadic over the next few weeks...

Until next time...