February Ornament

Today I finished up my February Ornament:

Mill Hill Poinsettia Tiny Treasured Diamond

I just love these ornaments… they stitch up quick and easy and are so pretty when done. Next time I’m at my LNS, I may take a look to see if there are any other that I like. 

Since its Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d post a pic of the beatiful tulips (my favorite flower) that DBF sent to me at work yesterday:

Last night a friend and I went to see He’s Just Not That Into You.  This friend and I have read the book as a much needed reality check in the world of dating after divorce.   The movie was very funny but I was a bit disappointed by the ending since it seemed to negate the truths spouted over and over throughout the rest of the movie!

New Years Eve and Apple Rolls

I’m off work again until January 5. 

Today I had an e-mail from an old friend asking me for a recipe I used to make – Apple Rolls.  I sent him the recipe, then realized I had all of the ingredients on hand to make up a batch, so that’s what I did this afternoon….  These are rolls of sweetened bread surrounding apple slices that are coated with cinnamon and sugar.   The apples bake inside the dough and the cinnamon sugar melts and gets gooey. They are sooooo yummy!  I cut the recipe in half and ended up with these:

These are excellent with coffee or tea and will be breakfast on New Year’s Day.    (Edited to say… recipe is listed in the comments…)

I normally don’t make New Year’s Resoultions, but I do have a goal to finish stitching Alpine Seasons in 2009.  I’ve been working quite a bit on it the last week or so, and I hope to get quite a bit more done in the next 4 days that I have off work.  Look out for a progress pic late Sunday!

Four hours until the New Year here in Indiana…. off to stitch!

Merry Christmas!

I’ve been laid off work this week due to slow business and took the opportunity to go to Oklahoma to visit my parents and my brother’s family.  I left on the 20th and got back Christmas Eve.  After a delayed flight back to O’Hare, DBF and his son picked me up and we went to his mother’s house in Hoffman Estates for their family festvities.  We had a nice time, but didn’t get back home until 3:00 this morning.  Of course, we all slept late, woke up late, exchanged gifts with DBF’s son, then took him to his mother’s house.

We went to breakfast/lunch, then went to see The Curious Case of Benjamon Button, which I really liked!  We didn’t open our gifts to each other until around 4:30 this afternoon. 

While I was in Oklahoma, I only did a tiny bit of stitching, mainly because I wasn’t really into what I was working on, plus the lighting wasn’t the best.  I think I’m going to pull out my  Alpine Seasons and work on that a bit.  I’ve got more time off next week so should be able to get some good stitching in.

A while back,  I sent a note to my friend Susan’s mom, Shelagh, as she’d gotten sick.  When going through the mail this morning, I saw that I’d received a package from her.  She stitched a really pretty pincushion and sent a nice card.  I didn’t expect anything at all, so was really touched by what she wrote and her thoughtfulness:

Since I’m always losing my needles in the couch (between cusions and in the arm, where I usually sick my needles, I’m sure this pincushion will help.

So, I’m off through Sunday, then have to work a couple of days next week.  I’m feeling spoiled by all this extra time off over the holidays…

I hope everyone had a peaceful holiday with friends and family.

38!!!

I celebrated my 38th birthday last week with cards from friends, special treatment from DBF, and a visit from my friend Susan.

Susan visited me last weekend and brought me some lovely gifts:

I love everything – what a wonderful gift in a pretty little bag! She also brough a mini carrot cake (my favorite), which didn’t live long enough to make it into the photo. :p We went out to lunch and stitched at my house and had a lovely day.  I’ve always wanted a friend who I could stitch with, and Susan fits the bill perfectly!

DBF gave me an electric blanket (I LOVE IT!!!), an origami kit (expect to see pics in the future), the Rachel Ray vegetarian cook book and the Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging.  He also treated me to a lovely meal at Indigo, a newer restaurant I’ve wanted to try.  This is easily the finest restaurant in Elkhart County… a wonderful menu, excellent service, and live jazz.  Oh yeah, and I almost forgot, all of the tables had the cutest candle holders – maybe a sea urchen?

All in all – a great birthday!

Oh Christmas Tree!

I finally got my Christmas Tree out and set up.  I really wasn’t too excited about doing it and haven’t felt in a holiday mood, but then I decided maybe I wasn’t in a holiday mood because my Christmas Tree wasn’t up yet!

Here is the tree – the tree skirt was made for me by my grandmother:

I have several stitched ornaments on the tree that I thought I’d show pictures of… some were made by me and others were given as gifts or received in ornament exchanges:

There are a couple of other stitched ornaments on the tree, but I felt like this post was getting a little too photo intensive! As I was hanging my ornaments last night, I had the thought that I’d love to have even more stitched ornaments on my tree, and might try to stitch at least one a month in 2009, either to keep for myself or to exchange with others.

The tree has been up for two days now and the kitties have not destroyed or tampered with it in any way – AMAZING! It could be that I set up the vacuum cleaner (aka cat eater) next to the tree to discourage any sort of tree climbing or ornament batting. LOL. I should put some lights on the vacuum and a bow on top.

Thanks for looking at my tree and thank you always for the lovely comments that you all leave.

Labor Day Weekend Stitching

Saturday morning, I finished up my latest project, Little House Needleworks Thread Gathering:

I’m pretty happy with how this turned out. It is my first LHN design. I stayed up pretty late Friday and got up early Saturday to finish it up because I was excited to start my new project, Victoria Sampler’s Where Stitchers Gather. Here are all of the supplies ready to go. I just love the floss colors on this one…

I did actually get some work done on this over the weekend, but got home late from DBF’s family holiday thing today and I don’t feel like getting the camera out and uploading and stuff. I’m thrilled with how its turning out so far, so I doubt I’ll be able to contain my progress pic for too long, maybe later in the week…

Saturday I went on an emergency trip to a LNS, Needle Nest, because I found that I didn’t have the fabric I thought I did (wrong count) for starting Where Stitchers Gather… while I was there I looked through a whole bunch of Laura Perin designs looking for a couple that I saw on her website last week. I think its somewhat fortunate that they didn’t have the ones I was most interested in, as I have too much to stitch right now and am saving up for the marketplace at the Celebration of Needlework next month.  Anyway, I did pick up my first pair of stretcher bars for a canvas work design I have in my stash… to be started…. someday.

Wonderful Vacation

We got back from our fabulous vacation to upstate NY today.  We were very busy and active, plus spent a lot of time visiting with my parents, who are fun, and the rest of my extended family.  We arrived late in the afternoon on Saturday during a torrential downpour, did some grocery shopping, and settled in at the camp.  I guess I should explain that any cabin or structure in the Adirondack mountains, that is not a primary residence is referred to as “The Camp.”  In our case, “The Camp” refers to a house that we were staying in located on Lake George.

We arrived late on Saturday afternoon in a torrential downpour, did some grocery shopping, and generally settled in at the camp.

SUNDAY

Me, DBF, and my father attempted to summit Roger’s Rock following a path that started behind the camp and using advice from my uncle, who lives next to the camp.  We had a lovely hike, but never quite found the top of the mountain.  After showering and having lunch, DBF and I headed off to Burlington, VT to have a look around.  We visited Church Street, which is a cute little street with lots of shops… 

My favorite shop of all (that’s not me in the pic):

Somehow, I managed to get out of this store with exactly three white chocolate truffles.   Following our look around, I followed the recommendation of a friend to have dinner at American Flatbread- the yummiest flatbread pizza that I’ve ever had.

We walked around the Lake Champlain waterfront and looked around….  We were both really impressed with Burlington – seemed to be a clean, progressive city and also home to the University of Vermont.  I’ve included a picture of the only thing I did not like about Burlington….  some people think gargoyles are cool, I think they are creepy….

MONDAY

We attempted the Rogers Rock path a second time and finally made it to the top!  Amazing views of Lake George!  Totally worth it!

We spent the rest of this day visiting my grandparents. 

TUESDAY

We got up early and headed back to Vermont, this time to Stowe to do a canoe trip.  UMAIK did a great job organizing and it was a nice trip.  After we were out of the water, we had lunch in Stowe, then went on a pretty nifty glider trip from the Stowe Airport.  The pilot did a couple of banked turns and I seriously thought I would get sick, but managed to keep lunch down.  It provided some pretty amazing views of the Green Mountains in Vermont and the Adirondacks in NY, plus the town of Stowe itself.

While in Stowe, we also rented some bikes and rode the Stowe “Rec Path.”  A nice trail also recommended by above mentioned friend.

WEDNESDAY

We decided to go back to Burlington and bike the path that we scoped out earlier in the week.  I have to say that this is the most wonderful bike path I’ve ever experienced… the Island Line Trail.  We had a good bike rental experience from Local Motion (totally non-profit) where we were outfitted with some nice three speed bikes and helmets.  The absolute best part of this path was along a narrow strip of land that consisted only of the bike trail itself.   Beautiful views, awesome trail….  we biked around 21 miles.  We were so hungry when we were finished that we cleaned up and went and had more flatbread pizza….  Highly recommended!

 

The trail:

Mountain and lake views from the trail:

The end of the trail:

THURSDAY

Thursday morning DBF and I got up and hiked to the top of Cook Mountain.  What a tough hike!  There was a sign at the beginning of the trail that said “0.9 miles – 825 feet elevation gain.”  Wow.. short but very very steep with a rocky, rough trail.  The view from the top was another amazing view of Lake George.  Unfortunately it was a hazy day and the pics didn’t turn out very well.  The rest of the day was rainy, so we hung around at the camp and played cards through most of the afternoon with my family.  We play a game called “Pitch” – lots of fun.

FRIDAY

Fourth of July!  We started the morning with yet another hike… this time to Lost Pond.  We picked an easy hike to recover from the long bike ride and tough hike.  It was a short and easy, but very nice hike to a beautiful, pristine pond.

The view:

Check out the water clarity:

We went to the annual parade in Ticonderoga (near Lake George, and my home town), which was quite disappointing and not quite as good as the parades of years past. We went for a boat ride on Lake George with my aunt and had a cookout with my mother’s side of the family.  Dad, DBF and I walked downtown to watch the fireworks. The display was surprisingly good for such a small town and just when it seemed to be building up to the finale, there was an explosion where they were setting off the fireworks! One main explosion sent more explosives into the crowd, where it went off and injured somewhere from 3-5 people. Most injures were minor, but one of the people who was setting off the fireworks was cut and burned and airlifted to a Burlington hospital. Needless to say… at that point, the fireworks were over and no big finale. I’m just glad that more people weren’t hurt. Here’s the news story for anyone interested: WPTZ.com

One of the best things about the vacation was the wonderful view from the camp of Lake George…  we got up every morning and had coffee and breakfast on the porch and watched the lake.  We had lunch and dinners on the porch and entertained visitors there also:

As far as stitching goes… I got very little done. I brought M Designs Letter H and maybe put in about 25 stitches total… I’ll post a progress pic once I have more to show.

Vacation!

I’m leaving tomorrow for a week of vacation.  I’m visiting upstate NY, where my parents and I have rented a camp on Lake George.  So, we’ll be doing lots of outdoor stuff and visiting with my grandparents and other relatives.

Of course, I’ve started a small travel project to take along with me.  I’ll be stitching M Designs Celtic Letter “H”.  I started it last weekend and did a little more last night. I’m using waterlilies on this, and am trying to think about how I want the color changes to flow… I’ve kind of figured out most of what directions I’ll stitch in.  I’m sure I’ll be happy with it regardless as I like the design and the colors I’m using.  Anyway this makes a good travel project as I only have to carry around one skein of floss with me.  I think this will keep me plenty busy.

I have done a bit more of the border on Alpine Seasons.  I’m pretty certain that when I finish this section, I’m going to work on the mountain scenery in the upper left hand corner.  I really like doing the geometric borders and I can see that I might burn out on the mountain stuff as it looks like some pretty heavy counting.  I figure the next section of fun border can be my reward for finishing a section of mountains.  I took this approach when I did TW’s English Garden Welcome, except the center part was my reward for all of the confetti and backstitching in the rose border:

Teresa Wentzler’s English Garden Welcome

Anyway, I hope everyone has a good week and a nice holiday weekend….

Happy Father’s Day!

Here are just a few thoughts about my father:

• Always provided a roof, a warm bed, and three daily meals for his family. I never appreciated this until I grew up and had to provide those things for myself…
• Gave me the Heimlich maneuver at a mill picnic when I was a teenager and choking
• Brought home magazines for me when I was home sick from school
• Took me and my sister ice skating and kite flying on weekends… probably providing a much-needed break for my mother
• Worked full time and went to night school, but I never remember him not being there for us
• Spent countless hours of his free time tutoring me in long division and algebra
• Saved his family from bats that somehow found their way into the old farmhouse where we lived
• Drove me around the country for three summers in a row so that I could do college internships.  We drove to Seattle WA, Longview WA, and Denver CO. Those are some of my best memories of him
• Countless other things

Thanks Dad, for all of those things you did, and still do for me today.  I’m looking forward to seeing you and Mom in a couple of weeks. 

Memorial Day Weekend

We were fortunate to have gorgeous weather for the long weekend…  sunny and in the 70s.  I’d really wanted to be active and outdoors a lot and I think we accomplished that!  I’m a little worn out, but am happy that we took advantage of the time off.  I did manage to get some stitching time in too.

Saturday we went canoeing on the St. Joe River from Bristol to Elkhart.  We talked DBF’s son into going with us and had a nice time.  DBF and I have been canoeing before, up in Michigan, and have decided that was a nicer river and a better outfit that we rented from, but we still had fun.  Below are pics of the river, as well as the canoe we rented:

 

Sunday, DBF and I went on a 13 mile bike ride at the East Race Waterway in South Bend.  The east race also features the first artificial whitewater course in the United States.  They also hold whitewater competitions for kayaks and have even held tryouts for the olympics there.  We also rode around on the Holy Cross and St. Mary’s college campuses – both of which are located very close to Notre Dame.  St. Mary’s has a nice nature trail through the woods that was suitable for biking.

Sunday afternoon we went to a baseball banquet for DBF’s son.  They talked about the season (the JV team was undefeated), then gave out certificates and talked about each player’s performance.  DBF’s son plays second and third base and had the second highest batting average for the team. 

Monday was also a lot of fun.  We decided to go hiking at Love Creek County Park in Michigan.  This is about an hour from where we live and is a nice park with a nature center.  There is a network of several trails that take you though woods and fields… there are actual hills.  This is something to celebrate when hiking in this area, which is mostly flat.  Anyway, the trails are all really well-kept and clearly marked, along with maps that you can pick up to take with you on the hike.  There’s lots of flowers blooming right now – it was a really nice way to finish up the long weekend.  It wasn’t very busy this weekend and we didn’t see any other people for the 4+ miles that we hiked.

Love Creek – Picture taken from a bridge on the trail…

The path…

Trail marker – There are also trails in the park that are marked specifically as suitable for mountain bikes…

Finally…. celebrating Memorial Day in rural Michigan:

We honked….