Birth Announcement

DH reminded me that I often stitch a birth announcement for a new baby and was I going to do that for Claire? Of course! I have been trying to decide what design to go with. I saw one framed by Rensel Studio that I thought was lovely but it was for a boy. Someone had taken Shepherd's Bush's kit of Sailor Collar and added the baby's name and date. I have that kit in a drawer somewhere. I took it out and thought with just a few "pink" changes and omitting the boy and boats I could make it a birth announcement for Claire. So I started it. I get so disgusted with Shepherd's Bush charts as they are nothing but a list of Step 1, Step 2 etc. I spent last night looking for just the right alphabet for her name. I have a favorite alphabet from a very old copy of Cross Stitch and Country Crafts. I made a couple copies of it and cut them up to see if it would fit and how it looked. I didn't want to graph the whole thing out so this was the easy way. I hope I have the count and centering correct. I usually mess it up somehow. It's a talent I have. I really like it so far.
I did a bit of finishing on the Shepherd's Bush pincushion. I just have the scrunched up ribbon edging to sew on with beads and it will be done.
I worked on Vierlande Winders Keeper some. I got the first angel motif done.
I decided not to try to drive over to the Kindred Spirits Sampler Guild meeting that is today. I'd love to go but the weather scares me. Five hours of driving is not my idea of fun anyway.
I didn't get to reading yesterday. I am going to read some today. Really.
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The top photo is one we take whenever all the boys are together. The "leaning" picture. I think it come from some Monty Python skit. Anyway, here are the boys in my life.
It is great to be back home and to my regular schedule - stitch and more stitching. I finished the whole first page of the Vierlande Winders Keeper chart. Yeah! Now onto the next page. I feel like I have made good progress. It is kind of nice not to have to change colors all the time.

I started another Prairie Schooler chart on the trip. I have wanted to stitch this one for a long time. DH eats fish most of the time so this fits our lifestyle. I'd like to frame this when I am done.

The sun is shining and it's a nice day. We had snow all day yesterday.

I am trying to decide between an IPad, Kindle Fire, and a Nook. Let me know what you think.

I am hoping to get in some reading today. I went back to Cutting for Stone to see if I could get back into it. Death Comes to Pemberley has gotten just a bit boring.

I started a new medication that I hope doesn't kill me, make my hair fall out or give me Leukemia. Let's hope it gives me energy, makes me thin, younger and beautiful instead.

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The Trip Part 2

I learned a lot about having a new baby this trip. I had forgotten how hard it is to have no sleep and be responsible for keeping this wiggling, crying, pooping baby happy. I don't remember my kids being so difficult but maybe they were. Claire is only 4 weeks old and is so tiny. Son#2 and DIL were tired and not wanting any company so we only came over when invited. I got to hold the baby everyday and even feed her a bottle. But she was not happy or calm most of the time. The equipment they have for babies is astounding: co-sleeper, Mamaroo thing that moves in various ways, they haven't even used the crib yet. They can't take her out until she has her shots at 8 weeks so they are stuck at home. We wished we could have helped in some way.
I went to Eddie's Quilting Bee. It is mostly a fabric and sewing machine store. I wanted to get some Udderly Smooth hand lotion and a pair of scissors there as I had mislaid my thread cutter and didn't want to chew threads off. One of the things I wanted to do while I was there was get an In and Out Burger and I did that twice. Then on our last day we went to the Intel Museum. DH and Son#1 are computer people so they understood all the stuff. I just looked at the pictures and bought souvenirs.
I saw a little scissor fob made by The Inspired Stitcher and that was one of the projects I took on this trip. We had a lot of down time and I finished it.
Son#1 got some great pictures and I have a wonderful picture of me holding Claire as my screen saver.
I am back to working on Vierlande Winder Keeper and enjoying it very much. I am loving the posts on Thistle Threads about the casket class I will be taking. I am so lucky.
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And Little Nell was Tied to the Railroad Track....

I'm back! Whew it is great to be home.

When I last posted, we were concerned because we were notified that our plane would be late and worried that we wouldn't make the next plane to San Jose. We got to the airport and found that the plane was delayed 40 minutes (even more!). All we could do is sit and wait. I made a very bad decision at the time to eat a bag of SunChips and drink some Pepsi. Boy, would I be sorry later. Well, the plane finally showed up and they quick took off. The flight to MN is scheduled for 1 1/2 hours but it really only takes 50 minutes. So we made up some of the time. Oh yeah, on the way to the airport (only 5 minutes from our house) I realized I forgot my cellphone. I never use it anyway except for long distance. We couldn't decide whether to go back and get it or not. Eventually we decided not to get it as son#1 will have his cellphone. When we get to MN, we think have about 10 minutes to make the plane. So we quickly start walking 10 gates away. Then we hear our names being paged for the flight. So we start running! We are almost there when we see son#1 with a cart. He has tried to call us four times. But luckily we make it just in time. There are actually a few people who get on after us. What stress and worry! But we made it! The flight to SJ is soooo long. Halfway through the flight my stomach is killing me. I hate foreign bathrooms but end up going several times on the plane. ARGH. We make it to SJ. I am in great pain as we pick up our rental car and drive to the hotel.

DH gets me some Tylenol and we fall into (a very comfortable) bed exhausted. But we made it. Tomorrow holds the promise of seeing Claire.

On the plane I stitched on Twisted Oaks Garden Ball and the Shepherd's Bush kit. The light wasn't all that good but it gave me something to do.

Here is me, looking like death warmed over, holding Claire for the first time. I didn't want to stop holding her. More tomorrow!
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Last Post Before Leaving

We leave later today. We are leaving even later than we thought. Our plane's take-off time has been delayed by half an hour. This worries us like crazy because we only had 45 minutes between planes. Now we only have 15 minutes. Will our luggage make it? What if we don't make it??? We may be spending the night in Minneapolis. It's always something. I am just going to be optimistic and think that yes, we will make it and we will deal with whatever happens.
I spent a bunch of time last night kitting up some stuff to take. I have a small Shepherd's Bush kit that will be fun. I saw my friend Margaret start this Twisted Threads garden ball. She solved my problem with it. I bought the kit two years ago with all the threads but I didn't really like the different pastels fabrics it was stitched on. Margaret did it on a different material. Perfect. That's what I'll do too. Then for insurance I took some Prairie Schooler ornaments. I am half way through Death Comes to Pemberley. I bet I can finish it on the trip. So I am all set. The hair is cut, colored and even curled. I am excited to give Claire the sweet pink cardigan that Margaret's mother made. And yes, the camera battery is charged and ready to take millions of pictures of that sweet baby.
With all the excitement, not too much stitching got done yesterday. I took a photo of my Vierlande fabric next to white to you could see it is much darker that it looks in the other photo.
Thanks for all you good wishes for our trip.
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Packing

I am so excited. I'll be in California tomorrow. Today is all about getting ready. I have to be sure I have some things to stitch on the plane.

Surprising things came in the mail yesterday. I got the pre-stitching for Spring Fling. It is a Victoria Sampler design. It looks like it is mostly ribbon embroidery. It won't take too long to do. I'm sure I'll have it done by the middle of April. I could have it done by next week if I wasn't going on a trip. I am looking forward to that get together with stitchy friends. It will be a fun party weekend.

I am getting so excited about the Cabinet of Curiosities. It looks like our first project involves a small box with hardware. I love it. That will be so cool. Of course that isn't until May. I love the blue colors of thread that were specially dyed for us.

The brew pub was interesting. It just opened last week and they are still working out some kinks. They just had bar food. I indulged in one of my guilty pleasures: a hot dog. They do make their own rootbeer but they were out of it last night.

I'm plugging away on the Vierlande Winder Keeper. I am enjoying it very much. The fabric was overdyed by the designer and has copper mottling. (note: this picture doesn't show the color at all, it is much darker than in the photo) I sometimes don't like overdyed linen but this is fine. Since I stitch in hand, I like my linen to have some body and/or stiffness to it.

With our warm temperatures, the snow has mostly melted away.

Wishing you a great day!

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Anticipation

How can it be February?? I'm not ready!

I have been back to exercise two days so far. I am doing well and keeping up. I stopped by Barnes & Noble (because I had a gift card) and bought the strongest glasses they have! 2.75. One of the most important things for me to stitch is to be able to see what I am stitching. The Vierlande project is over 2 on 32. It shouldn't be a problem, even on a darker fabric. I just wanted to see if it made a difference. It does help a bit. I could see better before I got sick so I wonder if that had anything to do with it. I saw an advertisement on TV for a pill you can take for vision. I'm tempted. But I am not going to try anything new before our trip.

We are meeting friends at a brew pub tonight. That will be fun. It would be great if the brew pub makes their own rootbeer. Then we are coming back here to see our finished kitchen and to have cherry pie. I actually can't eat the cherries very well so I may make cupcakes too. We'll see.

I worked a bit on Vierlande and made good progress. I wanted to get to the deer and I did. I kept getting interrupted. Then it takes time to settle down and get back to where you were. It is like every interruption costs a half an hour in work.

It is time! Time to take down Christmas pictures and rotate to spring pictures.

I'm going to take a pair of shorts to California. I'm going to have an IN-N-OUT Burger. Looking forward to getting to know Claire.

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