Measi's Musings

Archive for the ‘Family & Friends’ Category

For some reason, life has been absolutely non-stop since about mid-November.  I’m thankful I haven’t had any five-day work weeks since Christmas week because honestly, I desperately need the longer weekends right now purely for recovery.

This week was no different in the insanity, although it took a different twist.  Erich’s job was transferred to a new hospital as of this past Monday, so both of our commute schedules have changed again.  In his case, it’s much, MUCH better.  He’s gone from a 1 hour and 20 minute drive to Dorchester, MA to approximately 20 minutes over to Fall River, MA – much, much more tolerable.

In my case, it’s a mixed bag.  Technically it’s a bit of a shorter commute for me, but unlike with driving, I now have a very firm schedule as to when I need to leave the house because I’m back on the commuter train.  For me it’s about 90 minutes each way to and from Boston.  The train is much easier than driving, and once I get used to the train schedule, I’ll be back stitching on my commutes.  This week, though, was a bit painful with the adjustment.  Hopefully my brain will make the switch soon.

Wednesday was my birthday.  Erich and I went out to dinner after work and had a relaxing night.  I took Thursday off – I had a scheduled dentist appointment, and decided I’d just take the entire day so I could have some “me” time – I got my nails done and went milling about Thistle Needleworks over in Glastonbury, Connecticut for a couple hours.  I didn’t buy much, but did pick up a couple of the colors I still needed for Deep Blue Sea.  That evening,  Erich and I gathered with friends for a laid-back dinner at one of the centralized hangouts we like to go to.

Yesterday morning I went to my monthly stitchy gathering at the Warwick Public Library – the Rhode Island stitchers gather there every month on the second Saturday morning.  It was a quiet month – only four of us this time.

And then last night was the Patriots game – I was relieved they won.  Hopefully that will quiet down the Tebow mania for a while!

+++++++++++++

I’ve been doing well on stitching this weekend – I’ve become a bit burnt out on new starts, so I’m putting my Crazy January on pause.  My current projects are just screaming a bit too loudly for attention!  I’ve been focusing on Deep Blue Sea so far this weekend, correcting my miscounts from my January 1st progress and pushing forward on the next two colors.  Once that’s done (hopefully this afternoon), I’ll be picking up Floral Bellpull, since it’s the Wentzler I want to complete this year above all others.

Remember that WIPocalypse signups end tonight at midnight my time – so if you’re reading and waffling, jump in and join us!

Thanks to a long delay on Amtrak last week, I made a good amount of progress on my oldest UFO – Cats on a Staircase.  Everything in blue and the beginning of that cat tail with the hanging thread was completed this month.  It’s probably my largest block of solid progress on the piece in, well, years.  Next month I’ll finish the cat that’s attached to said tail and hopefully fill in the gaps between the blue and the browns, most of which will be white on white stitching.

It was good to do some stitching on this again – it really hadn’t seen my needle for about a year and a half.  It’s one of the pieces I really hope to finish in 2012.

*****

That said – bring 2012 on.  2011 was quite possibly the hardest year of my life emotionally, and I will not be sorry to see this year end.  Both personally and professionally, this year has been challenging and exhausting.  The personal issues are ones a bit *too* personal to discuss online, but they were serious ones – ones I knew I had to deal with head on and essentially alone.  A few friends do know about everything, but after a couple of missteps in confiding to friends who I thought would be supportive as the situation unfolded, I decided instead to shut down and just work through everything on my own.

The good thing on the personal front is that I know things are healing and getting better, even though from time to time, I’ll get a wash of overwhelming emotion and just need to acknowledge it, release it, and continue on.  The professional issues sorted themselves out, for the most part, as the year progressed and I’m hoping that they’ll continue toease with some recent news at work.  The problem is that I got smacked with both major problems within a two week span at the beginning of the year, and I truly spent the entire year in survival mode for the most part as I just tried to keep myself righted (and sane).

But yeah – I don’t want to ever relive a year like 2011.  And I don’t wish anything similar on anyone.

I’ve also learned to put on a VERY convincing “things are fine” face, when no… they haven’t been.  But they’re getting better.

And ultimately, I think that’s all that matters.

Happy New Year everyone – may the next one bring all of us better times.

I hope that everyone in the U.S. had a lovely Thanksgiving, and that everyone else has had a good week. TGIF!

I’m doing a very quick entry because I’m running late this evening, but I didn’t want to forget my Totally Useless Stitch-a-Long post for the month. (Daffycat has opened next year’s signups, by the way. Jump over here and check it out!)

My jar is officially filled to the lip now, albeit with a lot of loft. This month I focused mainly on ornaments. I’ve also done a little stitching on the final round of the Mirabilia round robin (which I should wrap up this weekend).

I’ve finished my ornament for my personal exchange for Rahenna just a short time ago. I’ll post a photo of it once she receives it. I’ve been good and have avoided opening up my package from her… my willpower is about to give in!

I’m off to finish packing. This weekend is an annual trip to Cape Cod with my group of friends. We do Thanksgiving dinner, play lots of board games, drink too much, and just enjoy a couple days in a timeshare condo away from the craziness back home. I’m just waiting for our roommate Matt to get home so he can help me lift the turkey (25 pounds!!) and the brine pot into the car, and then off I go.

See you on Sunday – hopefully with a round robin finish!

Before I go onto my news – I finally managed to get some stitching time in on my Floral Bellpull this year!  I’ve joined the Love4Stitching group on Yuku, where a number of different designers have SALs scheduled on a set of standardized days every month.  The 21st through 25th was Teresa Wentzler projects.

It was good to sit down with it for a few days.  I’m happy with what I got done.  I’ve nearly completed the actual crosses on this square.  I’ll finish the backstitching before I move onto the next one.  Morning Glory is the fourth of six – so I’m making good progress, and I think there will be a finish in the first quarter of next year on this one.  (If I didn’t have ornaments to stitch, I might say this year!)

I’ll feel quite proud when this one is done.

Through the rest of the month there is a SAL for HAED projects.  I was going to pull out my Muse of the Midnight Sun, but then something very funny happened today…

With no plans whatsoever, I was invited to go to Stitcher’s Hideaway in mid-October!  I’ll be joining Lisa and her mom, Kathy, for a two-day class with Jeannette Douglas in Mystic, CT.   Lisa’s sister was unfortunately unable to get the time off from work, and since all of her fees are already paid, Kathy invited me to take the spot.

I guess it was fate – I wasn’t able to afford it and had decided to hold off and save my money for the alumni retreat in March.  As it stands, I probably will be commuting to the classes rather than stay at the hotel to save some money.  Providence to Mystic is just under an hour, and that’s shorter than my normal commute to work (by quite a bit), so it’ll be an easy drive.

So that’s changed my stitching plans for the next few weeks by quite a bit.  Rather than my HAED, I’ll be focusing in on the Mirabilia RR so I can get her mailed off before the retreat weekend.  There’s also going to be a fall-themed ornament exchange at Hideaway, so I’m going to attempt to get one done.

I also did something a bit crazy on Friday afternoon and jumped into what will be my first Chatelaine stitch.  I decided to join Rachel (and I imagine others who I know from stitching & blogging) in the Mystery Mandala XV starting in January called Deep Blue Sea.  As I said – first Chatelaine design.  It will also be the first time I’ve ever done any sort of mystery stitch, so I’m quite excited.  Since it’s one of the mandalas, I know it’s going to be gorgeous.  Since it’s themed to the sea, I know it will have some gorgeous blues in it, with likely greens and flashes of brights.  I will not be kitting it exactly as suggested.  DMC will be heavily used with perhaps a few more expensive threads as I can afford them.

It’s midnight, so I need to get to bed.  TUSAL tomorrow!

I hope everyone in the USA had a lovely Labor Day weekend with fun activities (or productive ones, if you did some catch up work).  Mine was good – some relaxing, some actual project work.  I managed to do a nice amount of stitching thanks to episodes of Torchwood, Doctor Who, and Battlestar Galactica.  Ye Olde Coffee House by Little House Needleworks got a much added boost, as you can see in the photo.  I also put a few hours into a piece I’m stitching as a gift, but can’t post photos of it until it’s finished and sent off.

I’m only working two days this week – I have Thursday, Friday, and next Monday as vacation days, so while I didn’t get the usual house chores for the weekend done, I’ll do them later this week.

I did, however, get a lot of progress done on a massive project – organizing my stash.  I last did this back in late 2010 – if you’re reading my blog on its actual page, you might notice that “stash” tab at the top of the page.  Yeah… that’s about when I last looked at the list.  Unfortunately, that was done shortly after I returned from my first Stitchers Hideaway retreat last October.  Since then, I went to another Stitchers Hideaway retreat, the Celebrations of Needlework show in Nashua, and a new LNS (Bush Mountain Stitchery) opened up a mere 2 hours from my house.

My stash intake has been a bit out of control this year – and I jokingly blame Lisa – who has been my partner in crime for all of these adventures.  Not really, of course.  What’s actually happened is that over the past year, I’ve had one of those lucky times in my life where my knowledge of my own hobby expanded greatly.  I’ve been stitching for many, many years (25-ish), but my knowledge of different designers and fabrics and fibers really only started to expand about six years ago, and common in-person connection with other stitchers honestly didn’t start much before last September, when the Rhode Island Stitchers group first started getting together.  Once those pieces started falling into place, I began learning from other people rather than just the self-taught things that I’d picked up along the way.  I’m no longer just admiring things over the internet but completely intimidated by them – I’m finally feeling some confidence that I could actually delve into those crazy projects by Heaven and Earth Designs or Chatelaine.

It’s glorious, really… but also a bit dangerous on the wallet!

With Lisa’s help, I sorted through 99% of my charts, and she was kind enogh to organize them in piles by designer before putting them back in the magazine holders from IKEA that I keep them in.  I’d already made a good dent in my magazines several months ago, and I also did an inventory of my spare specialty flosses.  I’m not going to bother with DMC or Sullivans floss – Lisa had a good point when she reminded me how often that inventory’s going to change, and it’s too much of a headache.

Among my stash I did find duplicates of a couple patterns (apparently I really, really like them) – so two items are already reserved for the WIPocalypse stash box!

Erich and I got together with the guys on Monday and played a session of his long-standing (and long on hold) Dungeons & Dragons campaign. I have to admit, I just don’t have the mental stamina for it anymore.  Maybe it’s because I’m out of practice with the mental focus required for gaming for many hours on end, but after three hours or so, my brain just starts to wander.  I seem to always leave the games these days feeling guilty because I’m just not able to “stay on task” such as it is, despite the fact that for quite a bit of the time, there’s simply not much for me to do.  And yesterday was one of those days where I really should have paid attention better – the module Erich incorporated into his campaign was a bit overpowered for our group.  We struggled through it with a lot of trouble.

Ah well… it’s only a game, right?

But still – a good weekend, with decent weather that defied the rainy forecast.  The rain arrived this morning rather assertively, and it’s been cool and damp all day and will likely stay that way until sometime Thursday.  It’s actually cool enough that we almost – almost – have all of the windows closed.

Tonight I’m already in bed before 11 pm, which is highly unusual for me.  I had a cup of Sleepytime tea about an hour ago, hoping I can catch a bit more sleep than last night because I was dragging all day.  Hopefully tomorrow won’t be too insane and I can enjoy my second long weekend.  :)

So far, it’s been a busy but fun weekend. Erich is working all weekend thanks to a huge personnel move to new quarters (hooray, OT!), so our schedules are a little weird.

Yesterday morning I had a great time stitching with the other members of the Rhode Island Stitchers group, including a couple of new women who I hope will return. The library is much quieter in the summer, but it’s been a boon to our group – we were sitting at only 4-6 members for quite a while, and the last three months have been great with upwards of 12-15 every time.  It’s wonderful to see all of the different projects everyone’s working – we all have different interests and tastes, even though there’s also quite a bit of overlap.

Afterwards, I drove Matt to work at Battleground in Plainville.  Since Erich and I had evening tickets for the final Harry Potter movie at Patriot’s Place in Foxboro, I decided to stay at the store and relax rather than drive back home.  I’m about a week late in sending off Linda’s piece for the 2010 RR, and so I’m frantically trying to get the final stitches in before I mail off on Monday.  Catherine, who I send to for this robin, has been out of state on vacation, and if I mail it to her on Monday, it should arrive shortly after she returns home.  So really, it’s not a huge deal that I’m late, but it’s still annoying me.

Anyway, I got some good stitching in on the piece yesterday.  I have perhaps another 100 stitches to go, and then I can package Linda’s up for the mail.  Photos will come later today.  :)  I’m also going to get some work done on the 2011 round robin piece for Tali – which is Mirabilia’s Sleeping Beauty.  That’s due to be mailed on Friday, and I think I’ll be in good shape to plunk my hours in before then.

Erich and I decided to treat ourselves to the fancy seats at the theater for Harry Potter.  The Showcase cinema at Patriot Place has a Lux Level, which is a 21+ seating area with very comfy leather seats, in-seat dining and a full bar.  The tickets themselves are a bit outrageous, but the food is priced reasonably – especially for a movie theater, and the drinks are good.  The seats in particular are great – they’re wide (great for my plus-sized butt), with a small swing-arm table for your drinks and food, and there is a center elbow rest between each set of two seats that goes up, so Erich and I were able to cuddle on our own little loveseat in the theater.  The only thing missing is an elevated foot rest.

The movie was… okay.  I don’t know.  My feelings on it are really mixed.  I think if I’d never read the books, I’d be very pleased, but I admit to being disappointed.  I don’t like all of the scene rewrites made for the movie (especially after part 1, where the movie did stick quite well to the book), and I felt the pace was really, really rushed for absolutely no reason.  It’s the shortest Harry Potter movie, and frankly it shows – it felt flat and rushed and almost like a checklist of scenes with no depth in the vast majority of them.  I haven’t liked Yates’ style since he took over the franchise – it’s really just a shame that he’s on record as stating he doesn’t like long movies – it’s pretty clear he’s more interested in time than quality.  Huge plot holes everywhere, including items that WERE brought up in book one that just get erased in book 2.  I expected to be emotional, as it’s a very emotional story.  I was crying when I read the book.  I just sat there in stunned silence during the latter half of the movie, and was honestly rather angry when I left, especially by the last ten minutes or so.   Maybe that will change when I see parts 1 and 2 together – but yeah, I thought the final movie was such a huge letdown.  It didn’t need to be – if it had actually stuck to the book, it would have been fantastic.

So today while Erich’s at work I’m doing some projects around the house.  I’m about to get the first loads of laundry in.  I have some cleaning to do, and then I’ll get to work on some stitching.

Hope you’re having a good weekend.  Stay tuned for another entry this evening, including a new stitchy giveaway!  :)

Warning – really, really long rambly entry ahead…

I seriously can’t believe the year is half over already. Granted – 2011 has been a very bad one for me so far, and part of me is wishing it would move its butt out of the way so I can get to (hopefully) a brighter 2012, but at the same time, I feel like time is flying past me in a crazy, out-of-control sort of way that leaves me feeling like I need to get my own butt in gear and catch up.

I hope my fellow Americans had a relaxing, fun 4th of July – and that Canadian readers had a fun Canada Day. Ours was filled with activities over the weekend, but the 4th was intentionally quiet for us. Erich’s going to be working the majority of July on big projects for his company, and so his fun and relaxation was really the important thing, since he’s not going to have full weekends for many weeks.

We went to an impromptu BBQ on Saturday afternoon hosted by our friends Marc and Erin (and their adorable baby boy, Jack). It was a small affair with only six of us – honestly a perfect size. I brought my mom’s BBQ Beanpot recipe that is stupid easy and so, so good. I should post that tonight, actually…

On Sunday Erich and Matt went off to play a Star Wars d20 game with the guys (translation for the non-geek readers: think Dungeons & Dragons, but with the Star Wars universe as the setting), which means I had the house to myself for many, many hours. I spent virtually the entire day in my stitching chair working on round robin stitching and watching episodes of the X-Files that I hadn’t seen in years.

By Monday I’d developed a weird cough that had me feeling a bit off. We spent most of the day relaxing in the house due to the heat, nibbling on burgers and dogs all day, playing games and watching episodes of Dexter. The cats, as you can see in the photo at the top of this entry, had wonderfully lazy afternoons cuddling up together in our sunroom. At night our neighborhood exploded with fireworks, as they’re now legal here in Rhode Island, and we watched our next door neighbor’s rather impressive display. The bugs finally drove us inside. The night ended with a slight scramble when I heard a HUGE buzzing near our family room light. I thought it might be one of those big bumblebees that I refer to as “drunken bumbles” because they seem to crash into everything. Anyway… the bug was bouncing furiously around the light, then careened under the dining room table, where I managed to get to it before Noby and Gus did anything to it. It turned out to be a Junebug. It was promptly scooped up and dumped outside.

My cough then decided it really wanted to make me miserable by preventing me from getting any form of sleep that night, so yesterday’s return to work was impressively zombified. I couldn’t tell you what I actually did yesterday, but apparently I did do quite a bit because I have several “finished” checkmarks in my planner list. All I know is that I crawled into bed promptly upon arriving home last night in the 7 pm hour, napped fitfully until after midnight, when Erich found some nighttime cold meds, was up from about 12:30-2 am, took the nighttime meds once my previous round had “expired,” and those finally conked me out for the rest of the night.

I’m feeling a bit better today, although I’m a bit out of it from the weird sleep schedule last night. The cough is still here, although not as bad as yesterday. I have no other symptoms, which is very, very weird. Allergies, perhaps? Or maybe a cold that’s so light that I don’t notice it over my normal allergies? Who knows. Whatever it is, it’s annoying.

In other news, I keep watching what’s happening at home and groaning. Montana is not having a good year. In early June, they had massive storms that flooded virtually every river in the state. The larger problem was that it had been so cold this spring that most of the snowpack was still there – and now it’s melting off, keeping the floodwaters active. And then on Friday, an oil pipeline near the refinery in Laurel (about 16 miles up river from my hometown of Billings) ruptured, sending oil down the Yellowstone River for upwards of – at last check – 125 miles. They’re now testing soil in North Dakota, fearing that the oil could reach where the Yellowstone meets the Missouri. Seriously, it’s like they can’t win recently. Last year, a tornado took out METRA (aka Rimrock Auto Park Arena, as I think it’s lamely named now), which is the state’s largest indoor arena. And now all of this. It’s just a horrid turn of events in a state that was already poorer than most of the country. *sigh*

Anyway. God, this is becoming a depressing entry, isn’t it? It’s not intentional – blame it on my weird cough. Onward to happier things!

It’s July, which means that there are some lovely stitchers doing midsummer giveaways.

Parsley has a fabulous Christmas in July giveaway full of ornament stitching goodness.

Debbie is giving away an amazing die-cutter machine that’s great for quilters and crafty finishers alike. I haven’t joined this one because I know I don’t have the time for another hobby, but still – this machine looks awesome.

I’m itching to do a new giveaway soon. Maybe I’ll put something together on my next wandering up to the stitchy store.

If you haven’t yet, please pop back two entries and give me opinions on what I should stitch for the next square in the Mirabilia round robin!

I hope everyone who celebrates Easter had a lovely holiday.  Erich and I had a quiet Sunday, mostly spent at home.  The weather was gorgeous for most of the day.  More on what we did late in the afternoon in a bit though…

I updated my status on Rachel’s round robin earlier this week.  Kris’ piece for the 2011 edition of the UFO round robin is now ready to travel again.  :)  This piece is quite busy, but it has adorable colors in it – and was a perfect springtime stitch.  It’s the Spring Sampler from Kooler Design studios.  When Kris sent it, she’d just started it:

And here’s how it’s being sent to Blu tomorrow:

I got to cross stitch a peep!  The little spots are jelly beans.  Once there’s some backstitching in here, it’s really going pop.  :)

My next project is the Mirabilia RR, which I have a comfortable start on.  Hopefully I’ll have it done by the weekend, although this is my busiest week of the year at work, so I may not get it done until next week.  Regardless – it’s my go-everywhere piece until it’s done!

So early this afternoon, I got our laundry done and finished my hours on Kris’ piece.  Erich was playing Dead Space 2 on the Xbox.  I swear half of my stitching is done to the sounds of violence in some form.  It’s really odd.  But anyway… it was absolutely gorgeous outside, and I told Erich that as soon as the laundry was done, I really wanted to go somewhere so we could enjoy the day a bit (mostly so we didn’t spend the entire weekend in front of the TV).  Saturday had been a wash-out, and I definitely had a case of cabin fever.

We headed out around 3 to head up to Battleground.  Matt was working today, and he had told us he was pretty sure it would be dead due to the holiday.  We figured we’d take advantage of the quiet time to geek with him.  I’ve been itching to do some Warhammer painting, but it’s not really something I can do easily here at home – so it’s really a Battleground-specific project.

We headed north, and pop! goes Erich’s left front tire about 4 miles from home in Pawtucket.  Now… this was not unexpected.  When Erich had the massive car repair last month, we were told that there was a bubble on his tire and that the rim looked cracked.  Thankfully it happened in such a way that Erich was able to maintain control easily and pull over – and into a relatively good location to swap out the tire.  Donut was switched out on the axle, and we continued on our way.  I’m very happy that this didn’t happen during a commute or during bad weather, though!

We got up to Battleground, and found only my car in the parking lot (Matt’s been driving it lately).  For the next hour or so, the three of us were the only ones at the store.  All of the doors were open, giving the place a nice, fresh breeze.  It was great. I got to work painting.  Erich decided he wasn’t in the mood and curled up with a good game of Civilization 4.

About three hours later, I’d put some serious work into my figurines, and managed to finish my first two:

Erich put these two together and primed them, but I did all of the painting, very slowly by hand.  For perspective, the taller one is probably about 3 inches tall.  The smaller one is, obviously, half that.  So the details on these things are insanely tiny.  My painting skill is not great, but I’d say they’re pretty good for my first model finishes ever! (now I just have about 50 more to do…)

I know they’re not exactly the girliest thing out there.  I do have a batch of completely over the top girly ones in store – intentionally so to annoy all of the guys.

For those who aren’t familiar with these figurines, they’re Orks (yes… spelled that way) from a tabletop game called Warhammer 40K.  It’s a futuristic war strategy game where players battle each other with squads of different races of figures. Different types of figures are worth different point totals and have different abilities.  It’s quite complex.  I haven’t played yet beyond an intro game, but I wanted to try my hand at creating the figures.  :)

So overall, a very productive crafty weekend here!

I’m finding myself, as many other bloggers did after 9-11, having difficulty trying to write about normal everyday things when the news coming out of Japan is so horrible.  The situation is so incredibly unreal and gigantic that I cannot comprehend it enough to form any practical thoughts beyond horror and sadness.   Anything I could say would sound so shallow and trite.  It makes my life seem shallow and trite.

But that is what I have to write about.  I have no first-hand knowledge of Japan, nor would I claim to.  I just hope that the determination I’ve learned and read about the Japanese people shines through and gets them through this tragedy.

So forgive this entry, which probably sounds completely flippant in light of things…

The past week or so has been pretty wild in Measi land.  I swear that St. Patrick’s Day/Evacuation Day is the only reason I know what day it is.  To sum up my week:

• Friday afternoon through Sunday:  Attended PAX East in Boston with Erich (I’ll be putting my recap entry together this weekend.  It definitely deserves its own entry)
  Also during the weekend… 
  • Friday night – severely bruised my right pinky to the point that rubbing nail polish remover hurts like hell… over fake nails.  I’m still worried I may lose my nail completely, but I have hope it’s going to heal.
  • Saturday morning – got the other 9 nails done anyway.  In a pretty green for the holiday.
  • Also Saturday morning – monthly stitch-in with the Rhode Island Stitchers (in which I got virtually nothing done other than drool over the hooked rugs that the Little Rhody Thrummers group had set up in one of the other rooms)
• Sunday night – start the post-con laundry catchup, and suddenly I hear Erich yelling “we got a problem!” from the basement.  Our water heater and storage tank had ruptured, sending water everywhere across the floor.  Thankfully we caught it early, and aside from possibly a couple things at the bottom of a single paper box that was in the water flow, I don’t think we’ve lost anything of value.  Hopefully.
• Monday – Erich stayed home, called the oil company, and they came out to replace the heater.  So much for our tax refund.  *groan*
• Later in the day, he got slammed with a nasty stomach bug that we’re thinking was a case of food poisoning with how it came on.  He couldn’t pick me up from the train, so I ended up on an adventure to get home from downtown Providence (finally ending in a taxi home because there was weird stuff happening at the bus depot)
• Yesterday – Erich’s PT Cruiser starts really making a loud, grinding noise.  Like… really loud.  And today it’s worse.  Bad enough that it’s  now officially at rest until it goes to the shop.  I’m thinking it’s something to do with the wheel bearings.  Hopefully it’s not an expensive fix.
• That, of course, means that we have three people who need to go to work in different places tomorrow – and we have one car.  So it’ll be another fun trek through Massachusetts tomorrow morning – first to drop Matt off in Plainville, then Erich in Dorchester, and finally landing in downtown Boston.

So yeah – it’s been an expensive week and a crazy one.  I seriously can’t wait for the weekend.  I dream of sleeping with no alarm clock.  It will be done on Sunday.  Oh yes – it will.

On the plus side, today was absolutely gorgeous – the first real day of spring (yeah, yeah… Ostara’s a couple days away still, I know…).  Everything just smelled good – nice and clean and earthy.  I love it.  My daffodils, hyacinths, and day lilies are all coming up through the ground.  My mums are already making an effort, too, even though they won’t bloom until August.  I’ve seen a few forsythia bushes in the city heat islands starting to bloom.  During our drive through Milton, MA this morning, I noticed that the yards are starting to green up, too.  I cannot wait for the first night we can keep the windows open.

Needless to say, it’s been quite the unusual week.  I’ve managed to get several hours of stitching in, too – all on Annette’s Mira RR.  My progress is coming along well.  I’m hoping to have all of the cross stitches done so I can add kreinik and the beads starting late this weekend and have it ready to go within the week.  I really don’t want to be stitching up to the last minute on it.  I’ll post a pic once my square is done.  I will say – I’m quite happy with my stitching so far.

I’ll end on a few randoms…

There’s still time to enter my Blogoversary giveaway, too!  Just look at my sidebar for the link.  :)

Also – Rhode Island Stitchers (my local stitch ‘n bitch group) is hosting a Spring Giveaway with some fun stash, if you want to try your chances!

Sue, the organizer of Stitcher’s Hideaway, posted her blog report on the Alumni Retreat (what happens in Mystic stays in Mystic…).  I think the photo of me worshipping my Saturday morning coffee may be about as truthful a photo as you’ll ever see of me.

I’ll write more this weekend, hopefully over a calm cuppa on Sunday morning.  :)

My mom’s off doing an errand, so I have a few minutes to do a quick blog post while I’m waiting for her to arrive at my house this afternoon.  :)

My first finish of 2011 is in the books – just in time for my mom’s belated visit for Christmas!  It’s Windows of Faith, Hope and Peace from Primrose Needleworks, and was featured in the 2010 ornament issue of Just Cross Stitch.  It’s stitched on Silkweaver 28ct opal. Porcelain, and I decided to stitch the entire thing in DMC 334.   I did not make the cord on this one – I had a piece of off-white cord lying around, and wanted to use it up.  Mom loved it, and she’s VERY impressed with the finishing.  Hooray!

The ornament took up all of this week’s stitching time.  I had a lot more left to do than I thought.  So this next week I’ll be working furiously on the UFO RR piece due to be mailed on January 24th.

The Feb 2010 UFO RR is wrapping up.  About half of the pieces have now returned home.  My final round was spent stitching on Catherine’s adorable little baby quilt.  I completed one of the hearts and a sheep on it (top and bottom right corners on the photo) before sending it home on Monday (she received it on Friday).  Her piece isn’t quite done, but it had fantastic progress over the course of this robin.  This is a very large piece, so I struggled a bit to get a good photo – sorry about the angle.

For anyone reading who is interested, a new Unfinished Object RR is starting, and it’s now in the signup stage.  So if you’d like to check it out (and the previous versions), please go HERE.  The link will take you directly to the new robin starting up, but if you go up the forum hierarchy, you’ll find other robins.  It is a lot of fun, and if you have a piece that’s been stalled for a while, it’s a great way to get it moving again.  It just requires a long commitment.  Usually these robins will take just under a year to complete.

I’m going to get a few other things ready around the house before Mom gets here.  I’ll be catching up on blog posts this week now that the holiday/birthday/massive work deadline/Mom visit stretch is over.

Thanks for stopping by!

Erich and I bought new smartphones for Christmas, and I was thrilled to see a WordPress app.  I doubt I’ll post constantly this way, but I wanted to try it out during my lunch break.

We received a wallop of heavy snow yesterday.  The final totals were somewhere in the 15-20 inch range by the time it ended yesterday evening.  I’ve heard a few places in Western Massachusetts received over two feet, but that’s not in the area where we generally travel.  Usually we have a lot of drifting, especially in our backyard, but the snow this time around was far too heavy.  The roads were plowed well for the most part.   Our commute from Providence to Boston took its normal amount of time.  I was amazed!  Everything looked gorgeous too: the trees were flocked with tons of snow.  Only the very top of the trees were bare – where the morning sun could reach.  I took several photos along my commute this morning. The photo with this post was taken Rt. 28 north, heading into the Blue Hills between Randolph and Milton, Massachusetts.  Erich was driving – can you tell I took this through a windshield? (I sure as heck can’t!)  The rest of the photos will get uploaded later.

So much of this week’s attention was on the impending storm that my 36th birthday was just a little speedbump.  I went to work (knowing that I would most likely be home Wed.) and afterward Erich picked me up at the office for dinner.  We went to Addis Red Sea, a small Ethiopian restaurant in the South End.  It’s not far from the little studio apartment (aka “The Beast”) I lived in when we started dating.  It felt good to be back in the old neighborhood.   Despite the rent costs and how tiny my place was, I loved living there.  It’s such a cozy neighborhood with a very active social scene and all of the best of what I love about Boston (the cozy brownstones, brick lined streets, teeny tiny backstreets, etc.)

Mom is coming up this weekend for the postponed holiday celebration, and she said she’s making a cake for me.  (Mmmm… mom cooking)

Back to work with me… stitching news will probably come sometime this weekend!

Per my last post, I’m honestly quite happy the holidays are coming to an end… and honestly, glad 2010 is ending, too.  It’s been a rough, tiring year.  Thankfully, both Yule and Christmas were nice and quiet.  I wound up being quite ill on Yule, so didn’t sit for the Sabbat.  I don’t think I got out of my pj’s all day on Saturday.  Mom had planned to come up for the weekend, but with the nasty storm that came up the east coast on Sunday, I suggested that she not make the drive (it’s over five hours in pristine driving conditions – for which the holidays and snow would most definitely not qualify) and that we put off Mom & Daughter Christmas until later.  So… the visit is pending for sometime in January.  It’ll be a mash of my birthday and Christmas, which is fine.  It’ll be less chaotic anyway.    I have a slight feeling that Mom was a bit ticked at me for suggesting the rain check, but really – it was horrible on Sunday, and she would have been in it the entire way up.   With the dog because the timing wasn’t good for the kennel.  Just – way too many variables here for my comfort.  I’d much rather do it on a relaxed weekend later.

The storm wound up dumping somewhere between nine and thirteen inches of snow… I think.  It’s a bit hard to tell due to all of the blowing snow, but the piles on the side of the road are significant.  Sunday night was an honest-to-god blizzard.  The snow was just howling by the windows.  Sunday wasn’t much better in the wind department, although it stopped snowing sometime mid-afternoon.  The winds died down this afternoon, and it was pleasant to be outside at lunch – cold, of course, but not painful with the calm air.  I’ve heard rumors that we may hit the upper 40s for New Year’s Eve, so I’ll enjoy the snow-covered ground while I can.

I admit – as much of a pain it is to navigate at time, it’s awfully pretty outside right now.

Erich and I bought new cell phones last week as a mutual Christmas present.  We both got Droid 2′s, and I’m still trying to learn my way around it.  I loved my old phone, but with Twitter and Facebook becoming more common for me, it was time to upgrade.  We have my old phone as a standby in case something happens.  On Friday (my day off), I’ll get some photos uploaded of two gorgeous ornaments I received from Rachel, as well as my received ornaments for the Teresa Wentzler and Life’s a Stitch exchanges via Yuku.

So now this week I’m starting to get my thoughts together for stitching in 2011.  As of right now, my stitching for the year looks as follows:

• Wrapping up the UFO RR that started in Feb 2010 – pieces get mailed home in January
• Continuing with the UFO RR that started in October.
• Starting the Mirabilia RR for 2011.  My RR will be themed around the Queens.  I’ve bought the patterns I was missing.  Now I just need to prep my fabric with the layout.
• Starting the new UFO RR that begins in February.  I’ll either send Walk in the Woods or Apache Wedding Blessing for this one
• Guilt Free January – I’m keeping this pretty low-key this year.  I’ll be starting an HAED piece in January with the other RI Stitchers girls.  I also plan on starting Pocketful of Peppermints by Blue Ribbon Designs, Leaping Cat by La-D-Da, and I Love New England by the Sampler Needlework.
• Other than that, I’m planning on spending the entire year WIP-killing, STRiP-ing… however you want to term it.  I’m not going to do an organized rotation, due to the RR’s.  Instead, I’m just going to scream-stitch and see where it goes.

I’ll be tidying up my WIP list on Friday, and sometime over the weekend I’ll update my stash list.  Off the top of my head, the WIPS I really, really want to tackle this year and finish are:

• Witchy Washy
• Apache Wedding Blessing
• Cats on a Staircase
• Floral Bellpull
• Walk in the Woods

Anything other than that will be a bonus, but I’m certain that I can get these five done.

Other random aside – the Totally Useless SAL still lives for 2011!  Pop over here to join!

Has it seriously been almost a month since I updated?!?  The time is flying!  I suppose this will be another huge catch-up post, then.

Announcements first:

One of my friends and fellow local stitchers (HeraChronicles) is having a Christmas Giveaway on her blog.  Go over HERE to check it out!

The Rhode Island Stitchers group now has a BLOG.  :)  We decided that while being on Facebook is great, we also want something a bit more flexible to share info about the group, what we’ve been doing, what we’re planning, and what we’ve discovered.  Stop on by, say hi – and if you’re in the area, please stop in at one of our events.  :)

Signups for a new round of the Unfinished Object (UFO) Round Robin is starting over on the yuku boards HERE.  Right now the planned start date is in late February.  So if you have a stalled project that you’d like to have help with (and in return, help others with theirs), pop on by.  :)

Random life news:

Thanksgiving weekend was fun, albeit all over the place.  We went to Erich’s dad’s house up in New Hampshire for Thanksgiving Day and had a nice, quiet day with them.  Erich had to work Friday, so it was only a single-day visit.  Friday evening we headed out to Brewster, Mass. on Cape Cod for our annual weekend with friends.  This used to be a LAN party, but along the way a lot of us got married.  We bought houses.  Kids are starting to come into the picture.  All of those events means that there isn’t the money to blow on upgrading computers anymore.  So for the last three years, it’s been a bit more free-form.  We do a full Thanksgiving dinner (I cook, because I do make the best turkey around), which is a welcome change from the weekend full of Bagel Bites, taquitos, and oreos of younger years.   This year Erich ran a weekend-long session of his Saga-edition Star Wars d20 campaign.  I take advantage of the weekend to catch up on some stitching amid the cooking.  It was a good time, although next year I’ve asked that I’m not the sole cook.  I’d like to enjoy a bit more of the weekend.

Work’s been pretty good.  I had a great yearly review, and I’m finally settled into somewhat of a routine with my workload, even if it is still a ton of work.  I’m crossing my fingers that the week between Christmas and New Years is quiet so I can do some serious file clean-out for storage and start the new year feeling like files are under control.

Erich’s also enjoying his new job so far, which is great.  I think after being stuck on a phone all day at his last job, being able to get up and go around the building on tech requests is a welcome change.  He definitely seems much happier these days (which also helps me feel better).

Colley’s slowly getting better after the bout of fatty liver disease/hepititis this autumn.  He’s now finally off the meds, and his weight has stabilized at about 10 pounds – which is a full six pounds lighter than he was in July this year.  He has to go back for a blood test to make sure his liver chemicals are back to normal, but overall he just has more energy and is more responsive than he was around Labor Day.  I’m relieved because it was so serious.  The only downside is now he’s having a heavy shed due to the stress and illness – he’s blown almost his entire undercoat, which makes him look even thinner and a bit scraggly.  A new undercoat is growing in thankfully – so I’m not concerned.   He’s going to be really cold this winter, though.  Perhaps this will be the year he finally snuggles under the covers!

Stitching:

I’m in over my head.  What else is new?  :)

I’ve been doing an insane amount of stitching in the last month.  Three ornament finishes (Yes!  Three!), one UFO RR round done, and the other is almost ready to mail home.  I still have a couple more ornaments to do for the holidays, but they’re not quite as stressful now.

So here are the ornaments: (click for a larger photo)

Left to Right, they are:

Teresa Wentzler Beginner Whitework Ornament.  I made this for the annual Teresa Wentzler Christmas Ornament Exchange (TWCOE).  It’s currently en-route to its recipient.
Square from Pocketful of Peppermints by Blue Ribbon Designs.  This was for an exchange with the Rhode Island Stitchers group.
Frosty Blue by Blackberry Lane Designs (from the 2010 Just Cross Stitch Ornie issue).  I made this for the Life’s a Stitch exchange.  It’s also currently en-route to its recipient.

Frosty Blue was a case of not reading directions well – it was supposed to be stitched over one, and by instinct I started stitching over two.  So what was originally to be a 3-inch ornie is now a 6-inch “oh, we have a big gap in the tree here, honey” ornament (blush).  I’m happy with the results, even if it came out HUGE.

I’ll talk about UFO RR stitching in my next post.  Quite a bit going on there!

Hope everyone’s having a good weekend!

- Mel.

First off – Belinda of Blue Ribbon Designs, who taught my class at Stitcher’s Hideaway a few weeks back, has a gorgeous stitchy giveaway happening on her blog.  Absolutely beautiful little sewing companions.  So hurry over there and enter to win one!

It’s been a wild couple of weeks – lots of get-togethers for birthdays, stitching, and such.  Probably the most epic part of the last couple weeks was my amazing win on a penny slot machine at Mohegan Sun the first weekend of November.  I put $40 into the machine, and less than 10 minutes later, I walked away with this nifty ticket in my hand.  All of which, I might add, was won on ONE spin, which put me into an epic number of bonus spins, which payed out 13 times my betting amount (which happened to be the max bet on the machine… essentially $3 per spin).

I might add that I was not the big winner of our group.  One person walked away with over $1,000 on a penny slot that night!

So yes – Star Wars penny slot at Mohegan in the Casino of the Sky.  Go play.  You may get lucky.  :)  As you can see – yes, you can actually win something on those machines.

I have been a crafty queen lately.  Lots of different projects.  I’m in rapid rotation mode these days trying to get stuff done.  Right now I have the following on my plate:

• Rachel’s UFO Round Robin Piece (Mirabilia’s Queen of Freedom) – due to mail home on Monday
• Rahenna’s UFO Round Robin Piece (Dimension’s Oriental Butterfly) – due to mail off Dec. 6th
• Life’s A Stitch ornament/Christmas Exchange – which I just discovered I missed the mailing date for (for some reason, I thought it was by Thanksgiving)
• TWCOE (Teresa Wentzler Christmas Ornie Exchange) – due by Nov. 24th
• Rhode Island Stitchers Ornie Exchange – Dec. 4th
• aaand… gifts.

My holiday gift shopping plans for this year can be summed up thusly:  I never know what to buy anyone, and I’m sick of the gift card route because it feels like a cop-out.  So I’m making ornaments for family.  And that’s what they’re getting.  :)  I have ideas for most of the ornaments I’m making.  Right now it’s just a matter of budgeting time to finish them.

So yes.  I’m all sorts of ornie crazy right now.

I know what I’m finishing for the Life’s a Stitch exchange.  I know what I’m doing for the TWCOE (why yes… it is a Wentzler ornie!).  I have an ornie picked out for my mom.  Otherwise, I’m undecided.

Thankfully, there’s a big long weekend coming up for Thanksgiving in which I can do a metric asston of stitching.  I still have three vacation days for the year, so should I need to take time off to finish up, I will.

I am making progress, though!  I’m quite happy (and why is my Q key sticking?!?)  First off is “By the Full Moon” by Ink Circles.  This was published in this year’s Just Cross Stitch Halloween issue.  It’s also been developed into a larger piece, called Masquerade (which yes, I bought this past weekend with part of my casino earnings).  I also personalized the back.  Samhain, for the non-Pagan folks reading, is the religious holiday on Halloween that I celebrate.

I also have an ornament completed, but not yet put together.  It’s one of the squares from Belinda’s “Pocketful of Peppermints” sampler that was the teaching sampler at Stitcher’s Hideaway.  I’m figuring that this ornament will go to someone in my family.  I just haven’t figured out who yet.

Tonight (and on the train tomorrow) I’m going to crank progress on the Life’s a Stitch project, since that’s now overdue.  I expect to get it done very shortly and hope to get that mailed off on Saturday.

Friday night I won’t be able to stitch – we’re going to a performance of “The Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged)” over at Fontebonne Academy, where our good friend Tone has served as director for several years.

And at some point this weekend, Erich and I are going on a good ol’ fashioned date to see the new Harry Potter movie.

Gah, busy busy busy!

Michelle spinning cord with Belinda

I’ll warn in advance… this is going be a long entry with lots of pictures.  :)

The quick-quick version? I had an absolute blast.  Good company, great class, fun shopping, lots of stitching.  It was exactly what I wanted (and needed)!

I went to Mystic as part of group two.  The demand had been large enough to add a second getaway, and to my surprise – our little group of Rhode Island stitchers were not the only people there.  Our class had 14 people in it, which was just the right size.  It allowed for one on one time with both the teacher and each other, but large enough that there was some variety and a good mix of different stitching styles and interests.  My understanding is that there were double that in the first session – I can’t imagine fitting 28 people in the room we were in, but apparently they fit!  Honestly, I think our class size was perfect, though.  A larger group may have intimidated me.

Belinda Karls-Nace of Blue Ribbon Designs was our instructor.  She has a unique, crisp style of stitching design that appeals to me that blends the tradition of samplers with a more updated, casual style that I love.  If you ever have an opportunity to take a class with her, please do.  She was wonderful – completely approachable and laid-back, encouraging creativity and experimentation and had no hesitation to help one-on-one where needed.  The detail and thought she put into her classes was fantastic – she gave each of us a wonderfully organized binder with step by step instructions (including photos) of everything we covered in class for later reference.  And outside the class, she stayed right with us, chatting with everyone and getting to know us.  I tend to be a bit reserved with people I don’t know (particularly in group settings), but felt completely at-ease with her from the get-go.  At the end of the retreat, my group of friends were having a slightly rowdy dinner conversation with Belinda – she now has groupies. We’ve nicknamed ourselves the BG’s (Belinda Groupies).  All Bee-Gee and disco snarky silliness is implied and encouraged.  Tweets have been exchanged over the silliness.  I imagine they may continue.

Jill, Michelle, and me - just a bit hungover on Day One

Belinda’s class focused on finishing techniques, particularly for ornaments and creating twisted cord.  She used her upcoming design “Pocketful of Peppermints” as the teaching piece, with an adapted ornament that we worked on in class, to teach the techniques.  It’s exactly what I was looking for – I’m not afraid to learn new specialty stitches (which half of the stitches on the ornament were for me), but I’ve been intimidated and frustrated with finishing.  Since I don’t own and don’t know how to use a sewing machine, I’m going to be finishing everything by hand.  I’ve seen other people’s work, and it just flat out intimidated me.

Guaranteed – I’m not anymore.  I’m ready to tackle ornaments.  I’m ready to tackle biscornu.  Bring it all on.  :)

My friends and I arrived at the hotel Sunday afternoon.  I was running late, so Lisa, her mom Kathy, and our friend Jill were already over at Mystic Pizza (and nearly done with dinner) by the time I got there.  Thankfully I’d already eaten specifically because I’d been running late.  We headed back to the hotel.  Kathy went to her room to relax for the evening.  Lisa and Jill came over to mine for some proper retreat-starting partying (because I had the couch in my room).  Michelle joined us later – she opted to take a little side class on beading on Sunday night (which I thought was pretty, but not really my thing).  The four of us were incredibly rowdy – I’m shocked no one came to complain.  I can only imagine that no one was next to my room because really… we were that bad.  At three a.m., I finally kicked everyone out so I could attempt to sleep.

Teaching Ornament Sample

So Monday morning came and oh god, the hangover!  But I got up – I got coffee and breakfast, and I was ready to tackle the day (with three Aleve in me for the headache).  Monday, the first day of class, was essentially the stitching day.  We started on our ornaments and worked throughout the day on the specialty stitches and to get a piece ready for the meat of the teaching on Tuesday.  The ornament we worked was a cute little band ornament – a top and bottom row of fan stitch, surrounding individual rows of rice, standard cross-stitch, four-sided stitch, long armed crosses, smyrna and diamond cross stitches, plaits, satins, and montenegrin stitch.  Due to my hangover, I decided to stick to something really, really basic at first – backstitching the outline for the piece.  It took me far longer than it should have.  Honestly.  The entire outline was only forty-odd backstitches on each side, and it took me at least three hours to do.

So needless to say, I was very slow on Monday.  But I kept plugging away.  And mixed in with our stitching, Sue (who organizes the retreats) had door prizes flying fast and furious to the stitchers in the room.  Seriously – I’m in awe of what I came home with.  The donations from individual stitching companies were incredibly generous and varied.  And Sue was kind enough to include a thank you note already addressed to the individual companies so we could just write and send away – no address trackdowns needed!

Best. Santa. Ever.

Class broke at 5 for a quick break before dinner.  (and let me digress on the food for a bit – my selections from the caterer were fantastic.  The prosciutto & mozz sandwich on day two was particularly wonderful).  After dinner, we returned to the classroom for a little bit of stitching, some gifties and goofy instruction from Sue and a visit from Santa.  It was no surprise to us, but Santa put our little crew on the naughty list.  :)

After festivities ended, we all decided to be good that night (hah – not really… we just all needed to recover!) and headed back to our own rooms.  Now… here’s where the silliness comes in for me.  I’d come to the retreat a bit under-prepared, both financially and supply-related.  Stupid me had only bothered to pack the 11-inch Q-snap that I normally use for stitching, never thinking that I might be stitching something smaller in class.  So about halfway through the first day, I’m starting to debate whether I’d make a quick drive home to grab supplies for day two (since it’s only 45 minutes from home).  I also was trying to figure out how I’d afford the stuff I really, really wanted to buy from Chris, who had set up a great little shop in one of the hotel rooms that we popped down to during breaks.  The pounding headache, however, said no.  No driving to Providence and back that night for me.  So then my attentions turned to asking my husband whether he’d grab stuff from the house (particularly my smaller hoop, since I’d been using Lisa’s Q-snap all day), should he still be thinking of coming down for the evening (a discussion we’d had jokingly for a couple weeks).

mmm... husband in kilt...

So around 8:30 or 9, I get a knock on my hotel room door.  I open it to find Erich – decked in his (and my) cold weather standard New England Patriots jacket, the shirt he’d presumably worn to work, and… his wedding kilt!  Totally mis-matched, but still my husband.  And he’d brought chocolate.  FIVE BAGS of chocolate.  I quickly sent photo messages to Lisa and Michelle to announce how awesome my husband is.  Michelle came over to goof off for a bit and chat.  After she left, we chilled out, ate way too much chocolate, watched Castle (during which I continued to stitch), and cuddled on the bed.  :)

He left a little after 11, and I went to bed shortly after midnight, fighting off that urge to do just one more stitch (over and over and over…)

Tuesday was our big instruction day – we headed into the classroom at about 9:30 and quickly got to work.  Belinda started by teaching us how to twist our own decorative cord, either using a little hand corder or by using a pencil.  I was surprised, honestly.  It’s so easy!  As with anything stitchy, it just takes some patience and practice to identify the tension you need to get the cord to, and ta-dah!  Cord created – and in the color you actually need it, as opposed to the  ”sorta-but-not-really matching so I guess I’ll default to gold or silver” cord that I always wind up with at JoAnn’s Fabric.

My finished ornament for the class!

After the cord instruction, Belinda moved onto cutting and finishing our ornaments using a whipstitch through the backstitches method.  And seriously – Belinda commented about loving her students having that “a-ha!” moment?  Yeah, there was mine.  This method was so much easier than what I’d been doing, and honestly much less labor intensive (for far better results) than what I’d done in the past.  It took me a little while to get into a groove with the technique, but once I did, I was moving steadily.  Beads on, stitches going.  I knew I wasn’t going to get all of the rows on the front done, so at one point I quickly stopped the beading/whip stitch process and threw a rough “2010″ date on the front of my ornament so I’d fill the empty space at the bottom.  Yep, a little off-centered – but hey, I threw the thing on there with no template in about four minutes.

By the end of the afternoon – I had an ornament!  And it’s all hand done by me – right down to the beading and the twisted cord.  Seriously, you have no idea… I can’t believe I made this thing.  (but I can’t wait to make more of them!)

Dinner on Tuesday, as I’d mentioned before, was where my friends and I really clicked with Belinda.  :)  I have a feeling some of the other stitchers may have been a bit annoyed with the rowdy, younger stitcher set my friends and I brought to the retreat, but Belinda welcomed us in and we had a great dinner laughing and flashing phones and pictures of our pets and such.

'Tis (not) Green, all finished

After dinner, we returned to the classroom for a couple hours for some final gifties and the traditional ornament exchange.  It’s done in a Yankee Swap style at Stitcher’s Hideaway, so everyone brings the ornament in a gift back and then draws a number to pick a gift bag from the table.  I brought my finished ‘Tis (not) Green for the exchange, paranoid that my previously sub-par finishing skills would be a bit of a detriment.  Lisa was even planning on doing the “I’ll grab it if it’s still up for choosing if you feel that bad, Mel” save for me.  I hope that Martha, who picked my ornament, does enjoy it, despite how simple and basic the finishing was.  I do love the design – and I’m planning making a couple more of them now that I can be a bit more creative with them!

Belinda's ornaments - now residing with me!

I lucked out and managed to get Belinda’s ornament in the exchange!  She also generously gave each of us a gorgeous snowflake ornament that she’s able to do on her sewing machine – each ornament was just a bit different, just like real snowflakes.  Both will happily be added to my tree this year.  :)

Lisa and Kathy had to leave a bit early as Kathy wasn’t feeling well.  Michelle and I were the next to leave, shortly after the festivities ended (since we both were driving home).  I drove home very happy, relaxed, and so happy I’d gone.  Honestly – it was just what I needed this year, both from a relaxation angle and a stitching one.  It’s been a rocky year.  I didn’t even know if I’d manage to get to the retreat due to Erich’s job loss earlier this year, but all things happen for a reason, and this definitely was on that list.  :)

So all told, it was a fantastic retreat.  Sue puts a lot of organizing effort into them and it shows – everything’s well organized with plenty of instruction time and free-form time to socialize.  I’d definitely go back again, and in fact Michelle and I are thinking of registering for the Sturbridge retreat that will happen next June, since one of Michelle’s favorite designers will be the instructor.  So yes – I definitely recommend going to Stitcher’s Hideaway if you haven’t gone.  It’s a lot of fun and a great, relaxing weekend of stitching.  The only thing I think I’d change is that I would have stayed the extra evening in the hotel afterward, just to stretch out and relax.  Without a hotel room to retreat to for a little lie-down the second day, I felt like I was a bit of a stitcher without a home. But hey, things to remember for next time.

Belinda’s going to be teaching next autumn up in Enfield, NH – and now I’m torn as to what I’ll do next year in the autumn.  Clearly I have to win the lottery so I can attend a couple of different retreats!  (is this how the insanity starts?)

Door prizes, our class kit, and Belinda's designs that I purchased

So… stash enhancement.  OH DEAR GOD(DESS) THERE WAS STASH ENHANCEMENT.

First, we all received a big gift bag on the first morning with lots of patterns and goodies in the bags.  I took photos of all of the stash enhancement and the retreat and put them up over on my Flickr Account for browsing.  Seriously – it’s a ton.  I’m overwhelmed.  And mind you – most of this I didn’t purchase. I only bought eight charts and the fabric that goes with one of those charts:

• Creepy Crawly (Blue Ribbon Designs) – I fell in love with the little keeper casket!
• Black Cats and Flying Bats (Blue Ribbon Designs)
• The Witches Wheel (Glendon Place) – which goes on the crazy orange tie-dyed fabric
• Ghool School (Glendon Place)
• Thine is the Trick and the Treat (Prairie Moon)
• Have an Ice Day (Raise the Roof)
• Jenny Bean’s Halloween Sampler (Shakespeare’s Peddler)
• Peaceable Kingdom (Teresa Wentzler) – in my never-ending attempt to collect her designs

Everything else was free stash – whether in our initial gift bags or via door prizes or via the freebie box in the back.  I’m seriously overwhelmed (and all in a good way).

So yeah – can I go back now?  I was having entirely too much fun!