A New Start, a framed finish, and other stuff

Hello!!

I have so much to talk about today and I know most of it will dribble in your one ear and right out the other but I feel chatty today so I'm going to go for it. I had a busy weekend, starting with Last Saturday Stitching. It was another great time, several of our regulars were unable to make it but we managed (although it was very hard and they better not skip again) to struggle through without them. We welcomed a new stitcher into the group, E. was kind of quiet but I would be too if I was just thrown into the group all at once. We're a wild bunch, that's for sure!!

Sunday Amy and I worked on graduation announcements. Note to self: Ask the in-laws if there are any obscure relatives they feel must get an announcement before you order announcements. Yes, we are short a few announcements. Not sure what to do about it but we'll figure it out. We also worked on printing out her open house invites. We're doing a combined party with my nephew as they attend the same school and Jordan wasn't going to get to have one otherwise. I couldn't believe the amount of ink it took so we ended up removing the blue background and having all black and white. Much more printer friendly!


The next 2 weeks are going to be very busy leading up to graduation. Lots of cleaning, ordering of food, honors night, a journalism luncheon on Saturday, senior breakfast, etc......the best thing that will happen in the next 2 weeks though is.....after 22 years I will finally be done driving kids to school. I have always hated being on such a rigid schedule during the school year. You have to be at school at such and such a time and you have to be back at school to pick them up at such and such a time and when they were in 3 different schools at a time with 3 different start and end times, I thought I would go nuts! When other moms were complaining that they wanted school to start up again in the summer I was dreading the start of school. So for me, I am thrilled to see a light at the end of the tunnel. I know I will be sad that she is graduating and going off to college but there will be a little part of me doing a jig every morning and afternoon because I won't have to be somewhere first thing in the morning, I won' t have to put up with all the dumb drivers out there during rush hour and I won't have to scrape my windshield during the winter at the crack of O dark thirty anymore! The extra hour and 10 minutes in my day will be much appreciated also. It's the little things that make me happy and this is one of them. I will miss seeing the buffalo in the morning but if I get to missing them too much I can always drive out to see them at a time most convenient for me.

Last Friday the garage door installer arrived to install the new garage door. One man. By himself. Double garage door. I was a bit worried about how he was going to manage by himself and in the rain to boot but he did fine and now I don't feel like the slum house of the neighborhood anymore. This was the garage door before:

See the rotting spot at the bottom. Doesn't look as bad in the picture as it did in person. I was embarrassed. And here is the after:

A nice clean, non- rotting raised panel door. It's like jewelry for the house. And for the price we had to pay, I need to think of it as jewelry so I don't cry over what I could have done/bought with that money if my old door hadn't decided to turn ugly.

Abby is going through a tough spot right now. She was seeing a guy that lived 3 hours away in a small town and although she really really liked him, she couldn't see that the relationship was going to go anywhere given that he wasn't going to leave the family business and she couldn't see living in a small town. This weekend they broke up. They will try to remain friends but that's not always easy to do. Both of them are hurting right now but better now than later when the feelings ran deeper.

The exhibition at the shop is coming to a close. We've had a lot of people in to vote and tons of good feedback on it. Here's some of the entries:


I felt the need to start something that wasn't a difficult stitch. The 40 count gauze Papillon project was not an easy stitch and Golden Ice on black is also a challenge. So I looked at all the projects I would like to stitch someday and chose one that I thought would be fun and easy. I picked Sheperd's Bush Holy Night.


I was right. I'm really enjoying the colors and the ease of stitching on 19 count. Not a fabric I would want to stitch on all the time and boy do you use up the floss when you have to stitch with 3 strands but it makes for a nice change.



I wanted to share my framed Quaker Diamonds too. It's currently hanging at the shop but eventually I will bring it home and hang it in the family room. I really would like to change up the decor in the family room but I don't see it happening any time soon so I will settle for new pictures and I think Quaker Diamonds will be one of them.


Finally, here's my progress on Golden Ice. It's coming along nicely I think and although it is stitched on black and my eyes get a bit tired I am still enjoying the process.


I need to quit now, eat some breakfast and take Amy to the Dr. She has not recovered from the virus she had before prom so it's time to take her in and get an anti-biotic I think.

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Julie