Retreat part II and some finishes

Happy Saturday!

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and Dan is hard at work putting the new trim up in the library. What more could a girl ask for?? How about kids that are actually helping with the cleaning, the poop scooping and the grocery shopping. Yep, I have that too!! It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood folks and I am loving it!!

When last I posted, Mary had decided to stay at the retreat and everyone was up either eating breakfast or stitching and chatting. Poor Doreen was supposed to have been with us on Friday night but her plane was delayed coming home from California so she arrived early Saturday and then 3 other stitchers arrived to stitch with us just for the day. Here's the whole lot of us:

Front Row L to R: Julie, Merrilyn, Sue
Middle Row L to R: Stephanie, Mary, Lois
Back Row L to R: Mary Ann, Doreen, Sandy, Karen, Carole, Deb, Patty, Connie

Sue and Sandy stitching the day away!

As the day progressed, stitcher's started to finish their WIP's and cheering and clapping became a common occurrence.

Mary finished her Ink Circles project:

I finished Quaker Diamonds:
Merrilyn finished a Just Nan:
Mary Ann finished a Sweetheart Tree:

Carole finished a Lizzie Kate:

And although Patty didn't finish or even work on this project she did share it with us and I thought it deserved a picture too:

I thought she said it was a Carriage House Samplings but I don't remember for sure. What I do remember for sure is she is stitching it on 40 count linen!

We had Nora our innkeeper take small group pictures of everyone with our projects, both finished and those in progress.

Supper time came all too soon, some ordered out for Chinese and others opted to have a croissant sandwich.

Doreen celebrated her birthday on the Thursday before retreat so we had a cake for her. She's 29. Again.

The day ended slightly earlier than the previous night. Most were tucked into their beds by midnight. Sunday morning everyone was up early. Gotta get that last hour or so of stitching in before it was time to check out at 11:00! I think everyone had a great time and several expressed the desire to do it again in the fall. It was sad to see everyone pack up and head home but I know it won't be long before we do it all over again!

After I finished up Quaker Diamonds I started Antique Locks and Keys by Shakespeare's Peddler. I didn't care for the fabric and floss that they used so I picked something more to my taste. I chose Belle Soie Briar Patch for the floss and for the fabric, I chose Brash, one of the new fabric colors from Picture This Plus
This piece stitched up quickly and I finished it up the day after retreat ended.


I plan to have Dan make a frame for it with a wide bottom so i can hang keys from it, an idea I will happily admit I got from my friend Connie! It was brilliant of her!!

I also want to share a finish by Mary Ann. She stitched up Lizzie Kate's Chicks Rule before we went to retreat and then I finished it into a flat fold. I think it turned out pretty darn cute. We used it for the centerpiece at retreat.


And that pretty much finishes our adventure. We arrived home tired but happy with the weekend. Mary Ann and I talked all the way home about what to do to make it even better next time. The chair situation was BAD!! We'll have to have everyone bring a chair or perhaps rent some more comfortable chairs. We will book both houses next time as several who were unable to go this time would like to go next time. We have a couple of other ideas we're pondering too. We are working on something else for next April but I'll keep that to myself until we know what is going to happen for sure.

I hope everyone has a Happy Easter tomorrow!

Till next time, keep the needles flying!

Julie

Back from Retreat!!

Hello!

I've been back since Sunday but have not had a chance to sit down and do a decent job on a blog post so I just didn't post at all. Retreat was a blast! Well, there was one minor little uh oh but for the most part, everyone had a great time. Mary Ann and I arrived at the Roger's House about 2:30.


We checked in, chatted with Nora, our innkeeper, about what our needs were regarding a stitching area and before we knew it, the rest of the group were there! Things were going swimmingly until Mary arrived. As you come into the house there are 3 stairs leading up to the main floor and she missed the last step and fell. She says she heard and felt something pop as she fell and then her leg started spasming. At this point in the story I feel I must tell you that I have a confession to make. I'm a sick sick person. Here's poor Mary, writhing on the floor with pain and what do I do??? I take a picture!! I know, how rude of me. There's Connie massaging her spasming muscle, Carole bending over giving words of encouragement and Julie with camera in hand recording it for all time. I should be shot.

Mary was able to get up into a sitting position after about 45 minutes and from there we helped her to a chair. We all thought it was just muscle spasms and were hoping with ice and then heat that she would be okay by the end of the evening. Unfortunately this was not the case and after one last trip down the stairs to the powder room at about 10:30 that night it was decided that as long as she was already down the stairs we should take her on out to the car and to the ER. The first report from the ER was not good. The Dr. thought she might have fractured her pelvis when her hamstring muscle pulled away from it. Happily this theory was incorrect, turns out she had a severely sprained hamstring and they sent her home with Percoset, crutches, an order to not do any stairs and to see her family Dr. as soon as possible. The no stairs was going to be a problem. Just getting into the house required 5 stairs. There was no way she was going to make it up there. So.....here she is in a beautiful B & B, a gorgeous room just waiting for her and she has to sleep on the sofa.


She was a trooper about it though and before long was fast asleep. In the morning, Mary's sister was going to come and pick her and her mom Lois up and take them home. It's amazing though the recuperative powers of a drug induced sleep. Mary felt much much better in the morning and was able to move around more easily so the decision was made to call off the sister pick up and Mary and Lois were able to stay for the entire weekend. She never did make it up the stairs to see her room so next time Mary you can have your pick of rooms. You deserve it for being so brave this weekend.

Mary and Lois discussing the fall.

While Mary was off getting drugs the rest of us stayed up to wait for news on her condition. We stitched and chatted but all the while we worried about what they would find. It was after 2:00 a.m. when they got back to the house and close to 3:00 a.m. by the time we got her all tucked in and we could seek our own beds. Most of us were a bit wired and stayed up reading before we went to sleep so it was a very short night. I got up, showered and was headed down the stairs by 8:30. I thought I was going to be one of the first up but as I came down the stairs I could hear what sounded like a bunch of magpies chattering away! Turns out, I was one of the last up! Carole took the prize for very last one up though. We were getting worried about her so Merrilyn went up to check on her at 11:30ish and she was up but barely!

I think I will end my post here and post a part two tomorrow or the next day. It's a beautiful evening and I want to get out and take a quick walk. I hope you're enjoying the story so far, stay tuned for part 2!!

. Have a great evening!

On my way to Retreat!

Just wanted to pop in quickly and let you all know I am taking off for a weekend of friends, food and stitching! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I'll have lots to post about when I get home so hang tight.

Also, FYI I chose #3 and Dan has it all painted but I don't have time to take pics right now. I'll do it when I get home.

Take care!

Julie

Distracted!!

Good Morning!

It might be afternoon by the time I am done posting this but I assure you, I am starting it in the morning. I have good intentions but you know how that goes. I hope everyone had great weekend. I can't say that I got a ton done this weekend. Laundry and grocery shopping were the top two items on the list and they did get done but the rest of the list kinda went by the wayside. It's like this. I got distracted. I was at the shop Saturday till 4:00. Then Dan picked me up and we went grocery shopping. So far so good. We got home, unloaded the groceries, put them all away, I cleaned out the fridge and then made supper. Still on track. Ran the dishwasher, watched an episode of Fringe and threw together an egg casserole for breakfast Sunday morning. By this time it was 11:00p.m. so bed was calling me. Loudly. Sunday morning dawned bright and clear, I bounded out of bed anxious to start my day, okay, I'm lying. I rolled out of bed, hit the shower with my eyes still closed, did my hair and minimal makeup, sorted the clothes and carried the first load down the stairs. Threw them in the washer, turned on the oven, cleaned up the kitchen a bit, put the casserole in to cook and then sat down to read blogs, check email and play some games on facebook. I'm still on target at this point. First load of laundry gets done, I throw it in the dryer, go upstairs to get the next load, tell Dan breakfast is almost ready and he needs to get up so he'll be ready to head to Lowe's as soon as we eat. Wake Adam up, everyone eats, I throw another load in the wash and off we go to Lowe's. It's only 10:00 at this point. I'm doing good on the laundry and as soon as I return from Lowe's I'll start the cleaning. This is where things started going awry. Our mission at Lowe's was to pick out paint for the library. I adore the current color of the library. It's rich and cozy and very library like until you see it next to the woodwork and then it's like a sour note in a beautiful piano piece. Kinda ruins the whole thing. So in my head I have chosen a rich cozy very library like Olive green. It would look great with the woodwork, there is already olive green in the rug, and olive green in the dining room so this should be an easy pick. WRONG!!! That's the problem with having a vision already in your head. Number one, you rarely can translate exactly what is in your head and make it work in reality. Number two, people look at you funny when you say, I can see it so clearly in my head, they start wondering if you listen to voices in your head too. I try to ignore them most of the time. The voices I mean.....What's that? Nothing! I heard NOTHING! You didn't hear anything did you?

Anyway, I digress. To get back to the point......I plucked 10 different paint chips from several different brands of paint, weeded them down to 4 and had them mix up sample pots for me. Came home, gave Dan 4 paper plates and numbered the samples 1-4 on the cans and the chips. He started painting splotches on the wall while I started another load of laundry. So now my wall looks like this:

I sit down on the couch to study the samples. #1, like it but with the green in the dining room it's too yellow, #2 too bright, #3 is okay but not making me go ahhhhh, #4 too blue. What do you think Dan I ask? He liked #1. Hmmmm, yeah, I like #1 but look at it with the colors in the dining room. Now what do you think? He states that he doesn't think it has to work with the dining room. I state that I really think it needs to since they are open to each other. So there we sit. Pondering paint. While the day dribbles through our fingers. Back and forth we go. Finally at 2:30 I tell him to go sand and stain a piece of woodwork so I can see it with the woodwork on the wall. thirty minutes later he's back.


Okay, leaning toward # 3 from the left. But I'm not really feeling it. It just doesn't make my mouth water. Soooooo, off to Home Depot we go. Another hour later we are back with 2 more samples. Slapped those on the wall.....


Love the richness of the one on the end but hate it with the dining room. #5 is waaaay too bright. Crap. It's now 4:30. I was still sitting there wavering back and forth between the colors I liked and what went the best, watching the light changing in the room and hoping it would suddenly make one of the samples be what I saw in my head. Amy comes in and says, "You making anything for dinner?" WTH?? Does she not realize the decision I'm trying to make? How dare she interrupt my decision making process. I'll make dinner when it's time I say. Before 8:00p.m. she says? Of course I respond, don't be silly. Well you better hurry up then cuz it's 7:00p.m. now! WHAT!! Are you kidding me??? I've been sitting here staring at the wall for hours??? How did that happen? Dinner, dishes, the rest of the laundry later and I said screw it. I'll think about it tomorrow and went to bed. So......now my house is a freaking sty. My walls are blotchy. I didn't get much stitching in and I still haven't picked a paint color. Dan asked me this morning if I was picking up paint or if he was. I had to tell him I'd let him know. I wonder if he'd mind re-doing the dining room......

Till next time, thanks for stopping in and commenting. Love those comments!!

Julie

A Blogger Award Received and Passed On!

I am all giddy with excitement! I received a blogger award from Meari at Meari's Musings! Meari and I have emailed a couple of times and I am hopeful, that at some time in the future we might actually meet up in person, but I never expected her to give me an award. Thank you so much Meari, you can't possibly know how much this means to me.

The rules for the award are simple:
1) Accept the award.
2) Thank the person who gave you the award
3) Add a link to the person who gave you the award.
4) Put the award on your blog.
5) Write 10 things about yourself others might not know about you.
6) Pass the award on to 10 others.

Now to tell you 10 things you might not know about me. This is a tough one. I'm a pretty boring person all things considered but I will give it my best shot.

1. I'm left handed.
2. When I started writing, I wrote upside down and backwards.
3. I don't eat vegetables.
4. I didn't drive until I was 22.
5. My favorite sound is the creak of a leather saddleas you ride down a dirt road dappled with sunlight.
6. I didn't know how to cook until I was 20, married and starving.
7. I was attacked by drunken pirates while tubing the Niobrara River
8. I cleaned hotel rooms when I was in High School and was serenaded by a band member while cleaning his room.
9. I speed dated in college before speed dating was even invented. 5 dates, 1 night, no hanky panky .
10. I lived in a haunted house for a year and a half.

Pretty mundane stuff there!

And now to pass this award on to 10 other wonderful bloggers:

1. Margie - 3 Cool Pugs and Me
2. Nicole - Nicole's Needlework
3. Cindy - Lone Star Stitcher and her Ramblings
4. Shelleen - Shelleen's Musings
5. Andrea - Deep Fried Cupcake
6. Kim B - Stitchful Thinking
7. Staci - Snippets and Stash
8. Stef - Silk and Needles
9. Robin - RobinPich
10. Rachel - What Looks Like Crazy on An Ordinary Day

Thank you all for sharing your lives and your love of stitching with me!

Mostly good news for a change!!

It's hard to believe we are already to the 10th of March. Most of our snow has melted in the last week, leaving a swampy muddy mess behind but I'll take that over the dirty ugly snow that we have had for so long. The one big down side to that is all the muddy paw prints the dogs are leaving on my floor but a couple of damp paper towels under my feet and some graceful ice skating moves on my part and it's cleaned up in a flash! Spring is just around the corner and I am ready for it!!

One event that occurs in spring is Prom. This is a picture of an origami flower. A very special origami flower.

This origami flower was hand made and scented by a certain 18 year old boy who presented it to Amy before he asked her to be his date for Prom yesterday. Isn't that the sweetest thing you ever heard of? My sister was telling me that at one of the Catholic H.S. here in town the tradition is you can't just ask a girl to prom. You have to do something special. Her neighbor boy went with his friend to a girls house the other evening to post a sign in her yard asking her to prom. He wanted it to be the first thing she saw when she left the house the next morning for school. Only they didn't check the curfew time for Bellevue (10:00p.m.), and the girl's neighbor saw them, thought they were up to no good after curfew and called the cops. They got a 30 minute lecture from the cop on vandalism and their parents had to come and get them. How embarrassing it must have been for those boys. I'm kinda glad V. just made her a flower and presented it to her. Very simple, classy and romantic. Guess what I'll be doing this weekend? Yep, Prom dress shopping! Anyone wanna come?

The other piece of good news I have to share came in the form of a letter in yesterday's mail. The letter was to inform Amy that she is the first runner up in the Nebraska's Student Journalism of the Year 2010 competition. This is a very big honor and we are once again so proud of her and her accomplishments!

My FIL was sent home from the hospital but then admitted again when he had another incident of some kind. We don't know yet what is going on and it's kind of like that old game of telephone. By the time the information is reaching us, it doesn't bear much resemblance to what is actually going on. Very frustrating.

Anyone else watching American Idol this year? I have to say, I am mostly unimpressed. I do like Crystal and Siobhan for the girls although I highly doubt I would like an album that Crystal would produce. I could be wrong though. So far the boys haven't done a thing for me. Maybe tonight we'll see some improvement.

Guess I don't have anything else to say. Imagine that! Me with nothing to say. Must be coming down with something!

Have a great evening and a wonderful Thursday everyone!

Till next time

Julie

Thank God!

Happy Monday! I cannot tell you how glad I am to see a new week. Last week was the pits to put it politely. Our income tax refund went into the wrong account so we bounced a large number of items. Amy did not get her college scholarship to Drake so she will not be attending her first choice of colleges. Somehow the $60,000.00+ of debt that she would be graduating with did not appeal to her. Imagine that! The vets office called to say that Missy's ashes were ready to be picked up. No more deluding myself that she was just away on an extended vacation. Adam had his health screening and is most likely diabetic. And to finish off the week, Dan's father had a stroke. It was in the speech center of his brain and they do not expect him to recover much in the way of speech. Otherwise from what we hear he is doing as well as can be expected. They are currently down in Arizona for the month. I think Dan will fly down there when they are ready to come home to help his mom with the driving.

Now that I got all of the bad crap out of the way.....let's move on to brighter topics.

Ummmmm, hang on. I'm thinking. Uhhhhhhh......

Oh!! I got one! Abby got her mid-term grades, 3 A's and a B. Also a 94% on her practicum. I'm so proud of her! She is seeing a new boy, he's from out of town so the logistics are still being worked out. Side note: at the age of 22 are they still considered a boy or should I call him a man. For some reason I have a hard time with that one! So far he has made the 3 hour trip 3 times. Next week she is on spring break and she will be going home with her best friend who just happens to live in the same town as the new boy. His parents want to meet her. Now don't take this the wrong way but what's the hurry? They might decide they don't like each other after seeing each other for a week straight. I wouldn't mind meeting him but I'm not pushing Abby to bring him home either. And lord knows she isn't all that eager to bring him home. Someone has already ratted me out and told him I'm pretty scary. I like it when boys have a healthy fear respect for me. Keeps them on the straight and narrow if you know what I mean.

Dan started working on his," honey Amy is graduating and there will be a ton of people in my house in 2 months and here is all the things that need to be fixed, painted, repaired and cleaned before that date etc. etc. etc... list." He is starting with the trim in the library which never got finished 2 years ago. Unfortunately for him, this has only added to the list as I decided it needs to be repainted. While I love the color of the current paint, I don't love it with the color of the wood in there. It clashes. It will be easier to paint now while all the trim is off than it will be to paint after the trim is up. Am I right??? I need to pick a color so he can get that started. Most likely I will be going with an olive green. I've shown pictures of the library in the past but just to remind you:
I've been busy cleaning (purging) our bedroom. It hasn't been done in a while and desperately needs it. While I was working on our closet, I pulled out both my wedding gown and my prom dress. Both are taking up way too much real estate so I made the decision to send them to Goodwill. But first, since my prom dress was a Gunne Sax I thought I'd check on ebay to see if they were going for a price that would make it worth my while to list it. Surprisingly enough, some do sell for a nice amount but I couldn't find one that looked like my dress. While I was researching, Abby discovered the dress. What's this? she asked as she held it up. My prom dress I responded. It looks awful small she says. OUCH! That hurt. It's a size 11 I say. Are you sure mom? I think it would fit me! Abby, I repeat. It's an 11. You wear a 2. Snorting at me she trotted off to the powder room and to my amazement when she came back she had the dress on and it fit!! How come an 11 fits a size 2 body these days and how come I never realized how skinny I was back then? I always thought of myself as being overweight, even then. Now of course I truly am overweight but I would have swore on a stack of bibles I was fat then too! Never would I have imagined I was as small as Abby. N.E.V.E.R. But here's the proof, me back in 1978 before the TKE formal with Dan:

a week later with my boyfriend before prom:

and Abby, just the other night:

How freaky is that!! Now Abby won't let me send it off to Goodwill. She thinks it's kind of cool and is trying hard to come up with someplace she could wear it. She's such a girl!

In stitching news, I haven't touched the princesses in a month at least and I am very sad to report I am still plugging away at Quaker Diamonds. It just seems like this piece is never ending for me. Like the diamonds are making out and creating more diamonds for me to stitch when my back is turned or something. Progress is being made but it sure doesn't feel like it while I'm stitching on it!!

That's all I have for now and Dan just walked in the door and would probably like something to eat for supper so I best go figure out what that something might be.

Thanks for stopping in, listening to my long list of bad crap and commenting on it if you do! Till next time!

Julie