Weekend Recap and More!

Hello my lovlies....Happy Wednesday! Two posts in under a week...that's a record breaker for me nowadays. I thought I would come back to let you know about my weekend and a little bit of stitching.

I gave myself a 4-day weekend by using a couple of furlough days. I need to take 13 (!!) in the year so I have 11 more to go. Having days off during the week is wonderful but despite having a 4-day weekend, it flew by as if it was a normal 2-day weekend.

On the first day, I went to the Picasso Exhibit with a friend. Let me just start off by saying that Picasso was a strange, strange man with very strange taste in art. I had gone to a lecture at the library last month for a quick lesson on his style of art which was very helpful for me and my friend. For whatever reason, the DeYoung received the exhibit from the Musee National Picasso Paris under the agreement that there would be no chat boards. I really think that chat boards make an exhibit so not having any was strange. This also means that you walk the exhibit in under an hour since there is nothing to read! My friend was lost so I explained to him the things I learned in the lecture while we walked. The realm of "periods" Picasso painted...such as impressionist, blue, pink, cubism, surrealism, modern, etc. and how the wives and mistresses played as his muse. My friend got to the museum before I did thanks to a crapload of traffic and he picked up docent tour tickets so we walked the exhibit on our own first and then did the docent tour. It was helpful to hear a little bit of history...at least for those people who didn't know much about Picasso other than he's famous and you have to go check out his exhibit! The downside to the docent is that they skip over a lot of the paintings. So if you want to go and see the Picasso exhibit here in SF, get the audio tour! I cannot stress that enough. I was fine with the self walking and the docent tour because I already had some Picasso background but for newbies, the audio tour is the way to go.

After the exhibit, we rested in the cafe for a little bit and then walked over to the California Academy of Sciences. This is a great place to visit if you have kids. Me...I have no kids but I have guy friends and they are like grown up kids so I sometimes get the chance to go see the fishies and Claude the albino alligator. They have a snake exhibit going on now so we went to see that. Frankly, the huge hairy spider on display scared me more than the snakes. I could barely look at that thing. It was huge and hairy and all you saw is web...I scurried past squeaking in apprehension. Ugh...can't stand spiders!!

After that, I met with Claire and we had dinner at Burma Superstar. This place is awesome but you seriously have to get there right when the restaurant opens at 5pm to avoid a long wait, it is that popular. We indulged in too much food but had a great dinner. After, we browsed the shelves at Green Apple Books. I need to go back with a list next time. Each time I go, I get overwhelmed with all the book choices that I can't even decide on a book to buy! Does anyone else have that problem?

So that was Day 1! It was a very long but fun day. Day 2 consisted of me going downtown for an appointment and then I met up with another friend and we went to North Beach for a cheap lunch. We went to Golden Boy for some Sicilian Pizza slices. I've talked up Golden Boy already so I'm not providing a link. It's a little hole in the wall place whose draw is square pizza sold my the slice. After that, I needed to go to Stella Pastry for my cannoli. My friend says that Stella is high-end and he refused to order anything. I have no idea what he's talking about but I'm dealing with someone who will go to hole in the wall places and refuses to go to any "yuppie or foodie" places. After that, I went to spend a little bit of time with the 80-year old set and see how they were doing.

Day 3 was quieter. It was farmers' market and errand day for me. I picked up some peaches, strawberries, fresh corn, plouts and grapes. No hazelnut croissant today...that's at Sunday farmers' market. I will have to get one this coming weekend and take a photo for everyone...so many people commented on it on my last post. I've been trying to tidy up and organize my apartment so that was on the agenda too with a little bit of stitching.

Day 4 I treated myself to a movie and went to see The Help. Has anyone else seen it yet? I thought it was very well done. Lots of laughs and tears...bring tissue! I feel that considering the time constraints, they did the book justice. Be prepared...the movie is 2.5hours long. I tend to get fidgety in movies but the movie didn't *feel* that long to me. I really enjoyed it. After I got home from the movie, I stopped by the street festival near my house. It is held every year but this year, it seemed to have crept up on me unnoticed. I walked out and saw so much traffic and didn't know why until I saw the huge tents a block away! The booths could have been better but I enjoyed a yummy gyro and margarita while listening to some great music from the bandstand. I love street festivals!

I had it in my head I wanted to make a fresh peach pie entirely from scratch and so I did. It was my first time making pie crust. What a pain it is to roll that out...I need a larger cutting board to do that. I don't think the crust came out that great but I think that was because I didn't roll it off thin enough (small cutting board) and the dough got warm and overworked. But I still took the pie to work and everyone raved. I guess maybe I'm my own worst critic. It was tasty...I just wanted a crumblier pie crust. Here's my pie...no beauty queen but certainly tasty!

So I'm going to pose a question to those of you who have gotten this far and haven't fallen asleep already. *poke, poke...hey, wake up* Sunday night, my apartment manager (I should say former because he got fired due to some shady new hiring of property management that I am not happy about), knocked on my door and told me to look at a chair and footstool he had in the hall. So I did. And I saw this.


He told me to take them otherwise he would have to throw them away. He's moving and couldn't take everything since his new space is smaller. He said he'd had them for 30 years and they were given to them. I couldn't let them be thrown in the trash! But I don't know what to do with them. Needlepointed chair and stool. It looks like they were done at different times since the wood on the two pieces don't match exactly and one fabric is darker than the other. Or maybe that's dirt in which case...ewww, and how do I clean it?!

So if you found these, what would you do to restore them and make them shine? I know they need some cleaning and new stuffing/padding especially on the chair. I do have an old friend whose husband does upholstering so maybe I can ask her what to do and if he would give me a good price on the work. That's not in the budget right now so it will have to wait another day. In the meantime I will hold onto them to save them from the trash bin. But I would love ideas!

So I obviously had a busy weekend. I think I've forgotten how to relax! But I got a bit of stitching in and finished the 4th "rule" in Christmas Rules which is Honor Traditions. I am almost finished with the 5th one but not quite.
This Saturday is stitching group and since I plan on going and stitching my little heart out, I signed up for IHSW on Joyzse's blog. International Hermit Stitching Weekend is the 3rd weekend of every month but this is the first time I'm joining in. I might actually get a lot of stitching done. Time will tell.

Well, I hope I haven't bored you all but thanks for sticking with me. Enjoy the rest of the week!

Until next time...

p.s. For those interested in my tombie hardware. It is manufactured by Images Stitchery Design and I ordered mine from Inspired Needle. I know that Attic Needlework also carries it too.

Busy, Busy

"In times of great stress and adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive."

- Lee Iacocca

I opened up my inbox this morning and was greeted by this quote. I think I've embraced Lee's wise words wholeheartedly. I've been keeping busy, busy. So much so that I haven't got the energy to blog that much. I'm sure the lack of posts puts my dear sister in some distress that I'm lying dead somewhere or sulking. No worries...I'm so busy keeping my brain and body occupied.

It's been a month now since I've gone from a 2-person household down to one. To be honest, it kind of feels like longer. I spend my days less sad but still quite angry. I suppose it's all normal. To deflect those emotions, I pack my calendar. This past holiday weekend was a blur of activity. I spent a ton of time with Claire and little baby Andre. We had a family style dinner complete with SF drama of someone blocking a friend's neighbor's driveway which resulted in lots of standing around waiting for DPT and the tow truck to arrive to take the car away. Life in SF...people get frustrated looking for street parking and just park wherever they want. That ends up being a painful $300+ mistake! Sometimes...I just don't get people.

The next day was a lovely breakfast out with some shopping in my neighborhood before we went recliner shopping. I'm happy to say my head didn't explode from all the fabric choices! A lot of them were old-lady/old-man-ish and very unstylish. It made deciding pretty easy. I am hoping that when I see the recliner in real life, I am happy otherwise my head may explode for real! I hate deciding on little things that in the end cost a lot of money (i.e. fabric vs. entire chair). Then in the evening, I met up with a different friend and grabbed dinner and watched Gentlemen Prefer Blondes for the first time at the classic movie theater. What a fun movie! I am so glad I made it out there to see it on the big screen complete with wurlitzer performance before the show. Things like that make me very happy! I think I need to make a more conscious effort to go to the classic movie theater this summer. I mean, where else can you be entertained for 3-4 hours for $7. For the cost of the ticket, you can see either one movie or two (double feature) plus get a wurlitzer performance depending on the time you get there. Plus, a huge tub of popcorn and a huge soda will only run you $5 instead of your first-born like at the mainstream theater! It was a great day!

Sunday, Claire, Andre and I trekked to the Fillmore Festival. It's my favorite one out of all the ones put on throughout the summer. There's great jazz and this year, there was even a swing dance section with music, performances and lessons. It was fun to watch. I found a margarita booth and seeing as it was the 4th of July, I indulged greatly and was in need of a nap by the time I got home at 2pm. LOL I reconnected with an old friend on the phone and it was a nice and unexpected surprise! In the evening, I stopped by a friend's house for bbq with her and her family. I made sangria for the bbq and it was just a boozy day in celebration of our independence. My friend introduced me to True Blood and frankly...what a weird show! I know there's this whole vampire following but I don't think I can jump on that bandwagon.

The last day of my weekend was spent doing lots of laundry and stitching up a frenzy. I am *still* not done with Letter C! Ugh, I am so close though. I finished the cross stitching.

Now, it's onto the backstitching and the beading. I am so close, I can taste it! Since the picture above, I've completed about 2/3 of the backstitching. I think I will be finished by tomorrow...Friday at the latest. One can hope!

So I am keeping busy and trying to find the positive. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's hard and sometimes, it's unexpected.

One fun thing is that Deb is having a scissor frog giveaway. I want to win it!! I shouldn't be even telling you guys but I guess I'll do whatever I need to to increase my chance to win! lol

Until next time...

Woo!! It's Friday!

It's about fricking time!

What a week...very busy and non-stop. But it was a good week. I worked out twice and didn't die which is always a good thing and my muscles are still talking to me two days later. Yay...working out does mean less stitching though. That's the sad part.

But I am so happy it's Friday since I have a totally relaxing and self-pampering weekend planned. Lots of tv and videos, lots of stitching, an appointment for a nice facial treatment and possibly a new hairdo; a quick jaunt over to my local street festival; as well as a trip the the LNS and a mellow dinner with a good friend planned. All the makings for a nice weekend. Woo!

Yesterday, I was surprised by these being delivered at work!
A lovely bouquet of 3 dozen mini roses sent to me by *the boy*. How sweet! No special occasion...just because. I gather he misses me...I miss him too. They came in lovely colors of red, apricot, burnt orange and yellow.
See! Pretty! I've put them in a prime spot right next to the tv so I can enjoy them while being a lazy futon potato and watching tv.

So tonight, I plan on catching up on my tv programs...

And reading a little bit of this...
And stitching a little bit more on this...
I hope you all have a wonderful Friday and weekend planned! Enjoy and have fun!

Until next time...

Edited: Oh my...almost forgot. Go check out Patti's blog. She just became a grandma and is having a lovely giveaway to celebrate! Go over and wish her congratulations! You have until 9/4 to put your name in for the draw.

Great Weekend!

Yay! I had a great weekend! It was busy and I had to drag myself out of bed with a crane to get to work this morning but it was a fun and productive weekend. A lot of the events revolved around food.

Friday night, *the boy* took me out for pizza nearby and then I spent the rest of the evening in this ADD circle of stitching, watching tv, looking on the computer for god knows what and trying not to succumb to a food coma since I ate one breadstick too many at dinner. Don't you hate when you do that?!

Saturday, I did a ton of errands and then dragged *the boy* to the farmers' market one town over from me. Let me tell you, it's amazing the number of people who have complete lack of consideration for a person on crutches. They don't move out of the way, people push, they are too busy yapping on their cell phones and don't pay attention where they are going and then there are the kids going in all different directions including crashing straight into his leg. We saw that one coming through and the kid was like a little runaway toddler. Luckily his mom caught him/her right at impact so it softened the blow. At the market, we bought a truckload of stuff...apples, apricots, peaches, cherries, tomatoes, shallots and green onions. We were crushed to see the *sold out* sign at the blueberries stand! We absolutely love farmers' market!! After that, I took a nap from all the running around and being in the sun and *the boy* went on a neighborhood adventure. After my *you need to exercise and get out!* and *no, I'm not driving you the two blocks to Safeway* rants of the past couple of weeks, the boy is much more adventurous. It's good...he has to get his heart pumping to improve circulation so that hopefully that bone of his heals. After our respective jaunts to dreamland and the hardware store, we got ready to head out for dinner. I had told *the boy* on Friday, I wanted to have a nice dinner out and then I remembered this Cuban restaurant that I have been wanting to try for at least the last three years! So we headed to La Bodeguita del Medio. Let me tell you, it was fantastic! We decided to hit the appetizers and just share everything. We had croquettas, empanadas, mussells, greycliff conch/shrimp chowder and the cuban sandwich. How we finished everything is beyond me. We were stuffed to the gills. I probably should have run a few laps just to work all that food off! Everything was amazing! My only complaint was that the drinks were done with a light pour instead of an average or heavy pour. I'll probably just get wine next time. And there will definitely be a next time. YUM! OMG, drooling just thinking about it...

Sunday, I treated myself to a lovely massage and then dragged *the boy* to the farmer's market on my street. Yes, we are crazy farmers' market people! We got fresh prawns for dinner and a blueberry muffin for *the boy* and I got a much needed coffee. Again, they were out of blueberries! *The boy* and I had made a barter. He would make me lobster ravioli with prawns if I made blueberry muffins. Since the farmers' markets' were out of blueberries, I had to head to the much dreaded Costco. So more errands, blueberry shopping and quick housesitting stop before dashing back home so I could get *the boy* and we could go see UP. It was a great movie and we saw it in 3-D. I like 3-D but I didn't notice very many 3-D scenes in the movie. Maybe it's just me. I'd recommend it. It had some really funny parts, and sad parts and scary parts and parts that were heartwarming. Go see it! But if you have kids that are scared of dogs, they might get scared in the movie. After that, he made me dinner and I made him muffins...both which turned out great! And that was the end of the weekend!

Wow, I've rambled...hope I didn't bore you to tears! As for stitching, this is all I can show for it. I finished the ABC row!

Five rows down...four more to go!I finished that first row on my Lizzie*Kate ABC Lessons and that's about it! I always have such grand stitching goals! But I only have about 20 stitches left in my sheepie and the button to sew on! I'll have abother HD before you know it. Now to decide what to do with it. After that, the week and weekend will be devoted to RR and exchange stitching.

Time to bring my rambling post to an end. Hope you all had a grand weekend too. :D

Until next time...

Weekend Events

So what's on your agenda for the weekend? Mine? Stitching, stitching and more stitching. It has not been a very good week so I definitely need some stitch therapy and hopefully all the frogs will stay in the pond.

Yesterday, I called out sick (of working) and slept almost the entire day. I woke up about 4pm (yup) and watched some tv, read a bit and indulged myself in some ABC Lessons stitching. No picture though since I barely made it through the saying for *A*. In the mail, I received Carol's QFRR awaiting me to stitch a section. This is the last one I will stitch on and the rotation is over! I think I will claim that bottom left corner.
Also, I received the necessary silk from Drema to finish my Wishful Sheep. Wow, talk about fast. I just put in the order on Tuesday night and received the silk plus Mirabilia Lilac with embellishments that I treated myself to last night! From order to in hand in two days! Awesome. I have no idea whan I will get to Lilac but I could not resist her...she is too beautiful to not stitch in my lifetime!

So I think there will be ABC stitching and QFRR stitching and Sheepie stitching and there should be some exchange stitching. My tushie is so being planted on the futon most of the weekend. There is responsibility stuff I should do too like housesitting stuff and errands and looking at new cars. I am very, very nervous about car shopping. I just want to look around and not be pressured and car salesmen have this reputation of being sharks. I don't want to be bullied into something I don't want. We'll see how things go. Plus, I think I need to squeeze in some fun outside stuff too. It will be one busy weekend but after such a crappy week, I am determined to have a great weekend.

I hope you all have a great weekend too!

Until next time...

Weekend Mishaps

If there was such a thing as a re-do button to start over the weekend, I would so push that button now. The weekend sucked. There were some nice points to the weekend but not many.

Mishaps:

I got up early to go to an exercise class but drove to the wrong recreation center. By the time I figured it out, it was pointless to drive to the rigght center since I'd miss a good part of the class.

I went to get an oil change on the car and the mechanic wasn't there. I waited and decided to just leave my key and car there and have them call me when it's done. Three hours later, the mechanic is telling me that I may have an oil AND coolant leak. Great! Just what I needed. Some potentially expensive repair on my old dilapitated car. Can't really afford an expensive repair...or a new car right now. So I am worried.

I drove around to a kabillion stores looking for a storage solution for all my crafty supplies and good but cheap high thread count sheets...and found nothing. Frustrated!!

Finally got home and was dying to check emails and blogs and couldn't. Something happened with my wireless. I could connect in my "office" which is a converted closet I made into an office so is very small and claustrophobic. I don't like working in there really. I couldn't figure out what was wrong and techy computer problems make me anxious and stressed out. I asked my apartment manager to help me and he saved the day. Yay! But he lectured me about not writing important information in a place where I can find it later. Ummm, yea. The "office" is where I throw all the junk that needs sorting. There is more junk than I have time to sort through so it's a little scary in there. The whole router had to be reconfigured. Thank goodness he's techy because I may have blown a vein figuring it out on my own.

I wanted to check out art at Fabric 8 and I thought I knew where it was but apparently the store I thought was Fabric 8 was something else entirely and I was lost and confused in the Mission. It helps to look things up online before heading out of the house. Sheesh!

I had to entertain a nice, but amazingly shy guy. I wonder how I become a magnet for this type. They are nice...don't get me wrong...but I can't help wanting exciting too. The meetup wasn't bad but it wasn't great either.

Since the weekend was so crazy and I was running around looking for stuff I couldn't find, the sitching agenda got blown and I've barely worked on my January BC Snapper. It isn't even worth a snap since all I have done is the light blue border and maybe a third of the snowman. It is so boring and tedious stitching in white!!

The Cool Stuff

I met up with my friend Claire and we went to Rose's Cafe for brunch. We got there early enough that there was no wait and the potato hash and strong coffee was the perfect way to start my day. Eggs and potato make this girl very happy and I was able to sneak a couple of bites of Claire's french toast for a little bready sweetness. Everything was so good! We waked to Fort Mason and that was when I remembered I should have brought my camera to take and share pictures but I have been so scattered lately that I forgot. We were heading to the Renegade Craft Fair. It was cool to see what people create. A lot of things were cool, some were weird and some were quite original. I love looking at crafty stuff but I am choosy about what I buy since clothes are hard to pick out if you can't try them on and I am allergic to most metals in jewelry and I can make most textile related stuff so it's gotta be cool and something I can't make in order for me to pull out my wallet. I walked away with some very cute flat cards for writing notes and Claire bought a very cool cloth tote bag.

I did laundry. It's boring but having clean undies is very important!

So the mishaps far outnumbered the "cool stuff" this weekend. Where is that damn re-do button?!

Off to Dallas...

Well, the weekend proved to be a busy one with not much time to stitch. And what time I do have has been devoted to putting a few stitches here and there on exchange projects. This past weekend was mixed. I had to deal with the tail-end of our heatwave and I was at my wit's end. Being a "foghead" for most of my life, I have no idea what to do when the temperature is above 75 degrees...unless I'm on a vacation and in a swimsuit. In that case, I could care less what the temperaturer was as long as there was water, a margarita and a sliver of shade somewhere near me.

Saturday, I decided to try that Bar Method class. Talk about a drill sargeant experience! I was corrected at least 50 times, had a love/hate relationship with the instructor, saw more Lululemon women clad in one room than ever before and had a very tough time climbing up my building's 50 stairs to get home. The soreness in my thighs lasted a good two days. How the heck am I going to be hard-core about this for one month?! It may kill me...but then, what doesn't kill you does make you stronger...right? I'll think about that a little more.

I did finally go see My Blueberry Nights and what was even better was that it got moved to a theater near me. Yay! There were four of us total in the theater which wasn't a big surprise since Wong Kar Wai definitely isn't mainstream and that's what the majority of the populations heads for. It was a good movie...not great...but enjoyable. Crazy lovelorn waitress is all cuckoo over this boy, involves a cute waiter in her heart's lament and they become close. She decides that the only way she can move on is to move away and she leaves but sends letter to cute waiter. He tries to track her down to no avail and he is left to wonder what may have been until a year later when she returns to him in his diner and he makes her feelings known and they share a blueberry kiss. Plus, there was good use of music but the director is good like that.

Next, was a work function. By that point, it was 4pm and all I had had all day was popcorn and yogurt. Yep, the brunch of champions! I heard there was cold pizza in the fridge and snagged a slice. While I was chowing down, the guys were sneaking lovely pizza-eating pictures which subsequently made it to the departmental hard drive. Sometimes, it's really hard working with a bunch of guys who treat you like a little sister.

The rest of the weekend was reserved for what seems to be a failing "relationship" and a fun Sunday watching the Bay to Breakers spectacle. That was so much fun! And talk about a circus. I love Bay to Breakers and usually participate but since the last couple of months were so busy, especially this month, I decided to settle on just taking it all in this year versus being a part of it.

We are quickly moving into the middle of the week and I soon head off to visit family in Dallas. I looked at the weather forecast and it's supposed to be mid-90's and humid with thunderstorms on the horizon. OMG!! Gonna die...I'm not made for those types of weather conditions. I can only hope that there will be some fog here when I get back...