Valentine lovelies

My two Valentine exchanges have come in and I have been thoroughly spoiled! The first one came when I was home from work - in the Hand Dyed Fibers Exchange, Vikki got my name and sent me a yard of ox-blood red linen plus chocolate! Wow!

You know how sometimes our SO sort of half listens, picks up only part of the comment and then acts on that partial understanding? DH doesn't do it often (it's more likely to be me many times), but when he does... I've stepped into a new role at work, and this one involves some travelling. Because of that, DH and I agreed that we would have our Valentine's celebration on Friday or Saturday instead of Thursday. The weekend before Valentine's, the package came for my 2nd exchange - DH had to sign for it, and realizing that it was the valentine's day exchange, put it up until we celebrated. In the meantime, the person who sent it was wondering why it hadn't been acknowledged. DH thought it was like the "do not open until Christmas packages".

Anyhow, he gave it to me on Saturday night with candle light, tablecloth, wine and a lovely dinner. Cindy's gift was more than up to the atmosphere - a beautifully stitched and finished purse filled with floss, french straight pins and wonderful goodies. Notes and postings went out today to verify that the package was received and is very much appreciated.

If Cindy ever decides to offer cyber-finishing classes - I'm her first student! Here's the link to her blog showing what she sent: http://stitchingcorner.blogspot.com/ and the photos:

Aren't these just fabulous? Each time I look at the goodies, I find myself smiling. See the little strawberry? It has holes in it and I think it's going to make a darling floss keeper. The straight pins are a French brand - I have some of this brand that I got at a quilting shop but they are so long that they don't work well for most things. These are absolutely the right size! And the floss - I have been playing with the idea of getting some of the Carrie's Colors next time I'm at a place where I can get it - and tah dah! Here it is!

The photos do not do justice to Cindy's work. This is the sort of thing that really inspires me to stretch out beyond doing samplers and having them framed. A great thought to carry me through winter!

Wacko weather!

Yesterday the high in West Michigan was 48 degrees - we got up this morning to 4 degrees. Due to the rain that fell before the temperatures dropped all the roads were iced up and due to the high winds (gusts of 40 mph) and dry snow, we had whiteouts. I worked at home today!

Exchange days!

I sent out a winter exchange a few weeks ago - I'm hoping that it has been received! There hasn't been a posting on SBEBB yet. I received a lovely frosty hued biscornu from Carol in New Hampshire on the 20th, as well as some lovely goodies. Carol is a wonderful exchange partner!

I'm working now on a goodie for the SBEBB Valentine's Exchange which is to be mailed this Friday. I'm on schedule for a Wednesday finish so I may be sending it out on Thursday. I also have a little something in process for a Valentine's exchange that was organized on the Hand Dyed Fibers Forums - it's to be mailed on Monday, February 4 (which is my mother's birthday). I'll probably send Mom's birthday present out on Thursday with the SBEBB exchange so that she receives it on or before her birthday. Yes, I have the present!

In addition to working on my exchange responsibilities, I have to do a small wall hanging from Marie Therese Saint Aubin's book representing Wilson - our fourth cat - for DH. As Wilson is all black, colors are easy and DH has selected the fabric he wants. I love the MTSA designs - so elegant! Because she suggests the shape of the cat rather than actually drawing the cat, they work up quickly.

Then I'll go back to my rotation on Marriage of the Minds and the 2004 Marquoir for DH plus a third project, yet to be decided. I have some spools of Vikki Clayton's new colors and I'm trying to decide which one I want to use in a project. I also got some charts for the AMAP smalls during the HDF's group buy, so I'm thinking one of those projects on the antique white linen that I got from Vikki. I like doing small projects right now.

This year I want to overcome my finishing fears - If I take my time, I can do a respectable job of finishing. If I rush, especially doing something new, I am usually disappointed. So I'm giving myself plenty of time to do the finishing on these latest projects.

snow snow and more snow!

We've had the strangest weather! Snow last night and today following temperatures of 52 last week! A thunderstorm last Friday! Bizarre - perhaps more attention needs to be paid to global warming!

On the stitching front - finished a small for the winter quaker exchange at SBEBB, started the Marquoir 2004 on the midas linen DH picked out - with HDF's Gandy Tango, I'm plugging along on "A New Beginning" - I'm almost half done! I'm 60% on Marriage of the Minds and need to start Sarabande again. I've signed up for 2 valentine exchanges - 1 at SBEBB and the other on the Hand Dyed Fibers forums. These will be fun stitches! I'll post photos of the winter quaker finish after I find out that it's been received.

I need to post here again!

It's funny how some things get neglected... I haven't posted here in a very long time - when I changed computers, the favorites setting didn't come over and I sort of forgot to go find it to book mark again.

Life has changed a lot and has stayed the same - a contradiction it seems, but it isn't really. What I mean is the specifics of what I do daily have changed yet the pattern remains the same.

I have a freebie Halloween design that is almost complete and need to finish for a Halloween Sweet Bag exchange. I've just signed up for a Winter Quaker exchange. I'm trying to complete the Marriage of the Minds still - I hit some section that is especially difficult or find that I've miscounted and have to rip out a huge number of stitches, so I get discouraged and park it for a while then come back to it. I won't have it completed for this coming anniversary - it took me too long to realize that I needed to plan out a number of hours each week on this in order to make the anniversary, so my target completion date is now year end 2007. I have finished a french alphabet sampler, some smalls, some exchange items and ornaments over the past year. I have Sarabande in process but it seems that the stitch-a-long at the semiLNS will not be restarting this fall. So I'll put that in a rotation. I also have A New Beginning in process, using mystery floss from detrius bags that are premiums from Vikki Clayton.

I've built my stash up to tremendously - almost too much stuff I think. Don't tell DH I said that! I am planning to sell somethings because my tastes have changed and some of those are no longer interesting. That's my winter project!

Wishlist

Today is a good day for a wishlist - mine is fairly simple.
world peace,
an end to hunger (which would be relatively easy if the billions spent on armaments were redirected toward food),
education for anyone who really wanted it,
a better environment,
a world in better shape than it is now for the generation to follow...

all of it is more easily said than done...

midlife musing

End of the Summer!
I've been AWOL for a while - some minor health issues that just wiped me out and then there is the summer... I still work but DH and DGS do not have school to occupy them selves. So I do the camp shuttle thing for GS, and I find it takes a lot of energy just to deal with the home havoc wreaked by DH's home improvements.

School has started for everyone. Life is good! I have made excellent progress on my ABC Rouge sampler. I have DSL installed which speeds up everything, and I've also started a couple of garment sewing projects with my new sewing machine. Started a stitch-a-long at a semi-local NS on Sarabande, which is just wonderful! The photo does not do justice to the colors of the threads! Very cool! when I have enough to show, I'll post a photo!