The Tour Begins!

Excitement is in the air!  Sharon and I eat breakfast on the top floor of the hotel where we can see Edinburgh Castle.

  My room is very nice and has an interesting view.

 The bathtub hits me at mid-thigh so it is very challenging to get in and out without hurting myself.

You have to put a room key in so that the lights work.
This ceramic alligator is in the entryway to our hotel.

 I've emailed my roommate so she'll know our room number.  She has been in Scotland for ten days already. I am so antsy, I ask Sharon to walk up to the local Sainsbury's with me to get some hand lotion. We pass a sweet garden on the way.

 The tour group is supposed to meet in the lobby at 11:00.  My roommate Janet arrives.  We are from different states and have met twice so we are hoping that each other is a normal regular person.  I know that Janet is the most creative person  ever and has exquisite taste in all things nifty.  I can't wait until 11 to go down to the lobby.  So I walk through a bit early and see that bags for each tour member are being set up.  Yeah!  They give us our bags which have itineraries in them along with two name tags (one to wear around our necks and one to put on our luggage),  and an empty book with a thistle on the front to record our adventures in.  We are to meet the bus at noon to go up to Edinburgh castle. The castle actually is close enough that you can walk up there if you want.  Janet and I take the bus.  Since Janet has been here before she tells me some things to see.   I look to see what time it is on my FitBit and I find that my FitBit is missing.  I've lost it somewhere!  Oh no!  Well, I'll have to be careful about the time as we are supposed to meet in half an hour at the cafe for afternoon tea.  The castle is very old.

There a tons of people here.

 I wander around and see stuff.  I buy a pencil with a crown in it at the store.  Then I see where the cafe is.  Afternoon tea is wonderful.

 The views from the castle are beautiful.

 It is a lovely lunch.  We have a bit more time to look around before we go back to the bus for the ride to Holyrood Palace.  This is my first castle and it is fun to see all the history here.
Then we go on the bus to Holyrood Palace.  The Queen actually stays here once a year I think.  There is needlework and a casket to see here.  If I remember right, we couldn't take any photos but it was great to see the needlework.  I love the sweets bags.  It is interesting to see some of Mary Queen of Scots' needlework.  Some of it seems amatuerish to me.

 Princess Anne's daughter got married in the garden behind the Palace.

It is very nice to walk in the garden.  I picked up a piece of holly there.  I bought a hand towel in the store that says Buckingham Palace on it.

 Wow, seeing a castle and a palace all in one day.  Sharon and Janet and I walk around Edinburgh that evening.  We see the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter, The Elephant Cafe.

I can't believe I am actually here!

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Most Wonderful Tour Ever

I got back last night from my whirlwind tour.  The tour exceeded all my expectations.  It was fabulous!  I can't believe I actually got to go.  (Thank you Janet for getting us in!)
I would love to tell you everything right now but there is just too much so I will take it day by day.  Then you can take this tour with me vicariously.
I left on a Monday afternoon worried about everything!  Silly me, everything was fine and I handled it.  There were three flights to get to Edinburgh.  The first was the easy 25 minute flight to Detroit.  The difficult flight was the 8 hours overnight to Amsterdam (I waved to Edinburgh as we flew over it!) where we arrived at five in the morning.

I've never been in a foreign country airport and it was set up a bit differently than I am used to.  Luckily many people speak English and I was able to find my gate and the correct waiting room.  Reminder to self:  never eat on a plane.  The food sat in my stomach like a rock.  I'm not good at changing my bio-clock but this time I was determined to try.  I dozed off a couple of times on the plane but didn't really sleep.  I was a bit loopy when I arrived in Edinburgh which was an industrial looking building.  I changed my money at the first booth I came to.  Then I waited for a lady (Sharon) who had emailed me and wanted to share a taxi to our hotel.  I was hoping she would recognize me since I didn't know her.  We met up without any problem and got a taxi.  I could never drive in Edinburgh.  The streets are convoluted and I could never get used to driving on the other side of the road.  I would be lost in two minutes anyway.
Our hotel (Apex International) is very nice and the people at the front desk were wonderfully helpful even though we are way early (9 a.m.) to check in.  They let us store our luggage there and were going to notify us when our rooms were ready.  Sharon and I went exploring around Edinburgh.  We went up to the Royal Mile.  We were looking for the Writer's Museum.  We couldn't find it.  Turns out it was down and alley.

  There are many alleys in Edinburgh.  It was in a very old house.  Many houses have names over there.  I think this one was "Lady Stairs".  It had the most treacherous dangerous uneven stairs I've ever seen.  But we managed.  It has displays on Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson and Robert Burns.  You could see from the photos that Robert Louis Stevenson was brought up in a wealthy household and was well cared for.  The house was very interesting in itself.  It was quite old and had uneven stairs to trick any nighttime  intruders.  There was a woven tapestry of the three authors heads.

 I probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been so tired.  I was so pooped that I wanted to go back to the hotel and take a nap.  After a 2 hour nap, I felt much better.  I was ready to go in search of fish and chips.  Across from our hotel were a bunch of restaurants.

Sharon and I picked a pub and ate there.  I didn't know what to drink since I don't like beer or alcohol.  So I chose "Victorian Lemonade".

  It was so sour, I couldn't drink it. I got a coke instead.

 This area gets many visitors.  There were lots of people and tour groups walking around.

I stayed up as late as I could.  The tour officially starts tomorrow and my roommate will be here in the morning.  I'm terribly excited!
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Almost

I am almost ready for my tour.  There are things you have to do at the last minute.  In an hour I'm getting my hair done.  The last few clothes I want to pack are in the washer.  I worry about taking too much stuff and too large a suitcase.  We'll see how it all works out.  I am so edgy that I can hardly stitch.  I even went through stuff on a closet shelf last night cleaning out what I'll will never do.  That's how my nervous energy has afftected me.  If I got nervous more often, my sewing room would be a lot cleaner.

I worked on the rose petal.

 The first half is not very good but now I think I'm getting the hang of it.  I wanted to see if it was one of those things that takes forever.  But it doesn't.  It's going pretty fast.

 There is still a cornflower casket keepsake that I have never finished.  One of these days I'll get back to it.

I got just a bit more done on a large motif on the Quaker Bag.  As usual, I stitched and then ripped and stitched again.

I saw 11 wild turkeys and at least 6 deer when I walked this morning.  I wonder if I'll be able to walk while I'm on tour.  I'm taking my Fitbit just in case.
One more day!!
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RTFM

Son#1 has a shirt that says "RTFM".  It's computer talk that means "read the directions" in so many words.  That's what I should have done.  I printed out some of the instructions for Harmony last night and came across information on how to do the Or Nue part.  Too late!  I just finished it.

 I should have read it first and then I wouldn't have made so many rookie mistakes.  But alas, I learned by doing or rather I learned by doing it wrong.  But it is water over the bridge now as it is complete and it will do.  As I usually say, it isn't perfect.   But Yeah!  It's done now.  On to other things.  I accidentally clicked on Lesson 16 and saw how to work the Tudor Rose scissors fob.  It is soooo cute.  So I thought I would just try one petal and see how it went.  I didn't get very far before the clock struck eleven which is time to stop for the day.

Today I want to see how it goes.  I am so looking forward to talking with Amy Mitten when I'm on the tour.  I'm going to see if I can wheedle some information out of her on the next Casket Keepsake, Diligence.  I can keep a secret, really.

I got a corner done on the Big Mermaid!

I worked to fill in some stuff so I could see how the corner looked all finished.

 It is great.  I love it.
I really should put a few threads in the Quaker Bag.  I end up taking out half of what I stitch each time so it is a little frustrating.
I'd like to put a thread in Elizabethan Eights as well.  I read through the directions but still don't know why the bottom border is sometimes over four and sometimes over six.  I guess I should fix what I did wrong.  Sometimes when I time myself I realize that taking something out only takes a few minutes.
I've been walking this morning.  I started off when it was still dark.  Then I've been to the Farmer's Market for the last time this year.  It will be all over by the time I get back from the tour.  I got some caramels to tide me over.  Yum.
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Wouldn't It Be Nice

Wouldn't it be nice to finish off the Or Nue today?  I finished off one side and now I need to finish off the other side.

 It looks pretty good.
I put the chain on the purses.  The Mermaid Purse is all done.  To finish Off With Her Head I need some black dupioni silk.  I'll have to stash dive to see if I have some or if I need to look for some at the store.

Only three days until my trip.  I was a bit nervous but DH said to think of it like I was going to another needlework class.  I can do that.  No big deal.  Well, maybe I can do that.
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Chain

I just went to Hobby Lobby to get some chain for the Mermaid Purse and the Off With Her Head Purse.  This is what I got.  I think it will be pretty easy to attach to the purses.

I put the lining in the Mermaid Purse.  It is just glued at the top.

I kitted up a few things to take with me on my trip.  It will be fun to start something new.  I have a few Catherine Theron small kits.

I wanted to take Drawn Thread's Ricardo's Roses too.

 Who knows if we will have any time to stitch?  But I will be ready!

I got the bargello panel six done on Elizabethan Eights. I changed the colors just a tad.

 I noticed that the chart has a different pattern for the bottom edge of two of the panels.  I'll have to read the instructions to see why.  Of course I didn't notice until I had one of the panels done.  I'm trying to figure out if I have to go back and fix it or not.

Four days to go!
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