Friends and Stitching

Karen passed on this award to me today. Thank you so much! I do treasure my friends here in this XS world. Many of you I would never have met or even known. How sweet is that? Can I tell you how much I love connecting with this group of XS friends on the net and in person? I truly do; oh, & I love XS, too. :)
There are many of you who have received this award already, so I'll try not to name you again.
Here's a description of this special friends award:

These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbon's of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these kind writers. When you pass the award along please include these guidelines. Choose eight friends to share this with.

So here's my list and I would love to include so many more......

Kathy K., Kathy H., Kelly, Sadie, Shelleen, Rene, Meari, Cameo, Gabi, & Donna.

I cannot lie - for those that counted the names, I confess - I named ten... (hanging head in shame - not really!)

I received a giveaway chart from Kathy K. this week. I think this is going to be a pass-along. Kathy signed and dated it and when I stitch it, I'll do the same and then post for a giveaway to the next lucky person. Isn't this such a cool idea? Wonder how far this one can go?

Kathy also included some of the GAST needed - thanks, Kathy! Note my little "helper" with the threads - yep, the demon Zoe herself. Though I must say, she is much improved since Indiana's death. Very strange, indeed. To say that she and Montana have "bonded" is really stretching it, but he's no longer afraid of her hisses and swats. Obviously, she hasn't bitten him yet. He's just a clueless pup who doesn't realize the utter seriousness of her attacks! LOL

I'm almost done with Ebb Tide and I do like the blue used in the Scotch and small Rhodes' squares. On with the border and it's a wrap.

And on a final note, my mom and I are going back to the retinal specialist today. She has dry macular degeneration which unexpectedly turned into wet (hemorrhaging) in her right eye. Mom's first injection in that eye helped tremendously, though it's been such a gradual change, she can't tell as much. The doctor literally had tears in her eyes when she saw the results of Mom's OCT scans, etc. She's a real keeper, BTW. After receiving that encouraging news, Mom's left eye suddenly seemed a little blurry. Since we're ultra paranoid now about any type of vision change, hoping it's not another hemorrhage, I called the dr. We don't think it's really anything wrong this time, but she wants to check her, just to be safe. My mom is ultra independent and an avid reader; to lose sight in both eyes would be a major blow, as it would be for anyone. But we're praying for the best. Hugs to all.

Love the Market!

Aren't these adorable? - they're supposed to be airline friendly, so we'll see.

What a fun weekend! DH and I don't normally go all out for Valentine's Day; just a small item or card or so. But this weekend we decided to go out to eat at an Italian Restaurant that we save for more special occasions. On the way there, he gave me a card - but it wasn't a card. It was a gift certificate to my LNS for my excursion there Sat. for the market stash! I think I'll keep him LOL.

Needless to say, it made my trip to the LNS much more fun, and yes, I did buy more stash. However, I picked up designs that aren't BAP's and can be stitched rather quickly. The surprise item that I had no plans to get - well, once I saw it and had the certificate in my hot little hands - the rest is history! I can't wait to start on this one. It's so pretty.

Some of the other stash included the new Blackbird monthly stockings and of course, the new JBW designs. Love these.

On the stitching front, I thought I'd have Ebb Tide done, but still not quite. Had a snag on one of the threads and changed a thread or so. I'm still not happy with the royal blue color, so I may take that out and put in a little darker. But I should be done in the next day or so, hopefully. DD and DSIL may come over tonight, so I don't know if I'll have much time to stitch.

At the LNS, I saw Kathy's Blue Bayou that is the companion piece. It is so pretty - I think I actually like that color scheme better, but the two should look well together. And since Kathy has been doing a ton of reorganization with her marvelous new cupboard, she decided to clean out and give away some items she doesn't plan on using. So, when she mentioned this lap frame she was giving away, I was thrilled! We had a great lunch, as always. :)

On the technology front, I had recently gotten the Blackberry Pearl, and the keypad drove me crazy. This weekend, I switched it out for the Curve. I hear good things about it, but I'm entering a new era in phones. The Pearl's keypad was soooo hard to get anywhere with, so I'm hoping this will be an improvement. Anyone else have one and have an opinion? Cuz if it's a pain, I'll take it back, too, and just stick with the regular kind of phone! But here's my new toy in the lovely shade of red that's as close as I could get to NC STATE! Almost looks like it could be a lethal weapon or something, doesn't it, but it's actually rather light.

You know, they say it's a dog's life, but I think I could deal with this myself. One of the things we always used to laugh about with Indiana was his completely covering the vents in the summertime. He stayed cool in the room while we smothered. This week had such beautiful weather we had to turn on the AC. I looked around a little while later and there was Montana. In case you can't see, the vent is underneath Montana.....Great minds think alike, I guess! :)


BTW, Indiana was about 70 pounds. The vet took one look at Montana at ten weeks old (18.6 #) and said nope, he's going to be about 80-90 pounds. We knew those paws were really big.....

As an addendum to this post, I've deleted the post about the domain name stealing, as the situation has been resolved and very nicely, too.

Showers and Stitches

My sister-in-law hosted a casual shower for my future DIL this
weekend. We had it at a cozy little brunch-style restaurant
and family members from both sides and a few close friends
came. DIL is such an endearing young lady. I've never seen anyone get so excited over a rice cooker and a crock pot! Lots of nice gifts and good time was had by all. She's having a small wedding party with her sister as the maid of honor (right) and my two DD's as the bridesmaids. Like I said, she's a sweetie. :) And of course, as we were all admiring the assortment of fashionable footwear, we decided to take a pic of those with the worthiest feet!

I did stitch some this weekend. I'm doing an SAL with my friend, Kathy, who's already 3/4 done with her Blue Bayou, which is a companion piece to my Ebb Tide. Thanks, Beth, for the giveaway. I figured I'd better at least start the piece before she finishes. LOL But here's my progress so far - hope to stitch some more tonight. These are pretty, but I did get tired of the Rhodes stitch. Really like this piece and the colors and how it's stitching up.

Still stitching on this January Bride's Tree ornament. Don't know why it's taking so long... maybe it's because I haven't spent much time on it.

Yes, and I picked up some stash BEFORE the Market - I know, bad me, but it's only two, and one of them is Rene's fault....JK!

We're having another gorgeous day outside, so I'm off to take the king of the household (puppy) out to play before heading off to work. Hope you all have a great day!