Ocean City Stitcher's Jamboree

Hi all! Well, I've been back from my stitching weekend for a few days. I left Friday afternoon and arrived at the hotel around 3pm. After settling in my room, I went down to the Salty Yarns shop and ran into my friend, Denise. We did some browsing and shopping then settled down in the lobby to do some stitching before dinner. After dinner, a friend of Denise's joined us for more stitchy time. After a long day, and with the belly, I was definitely ready to call it an early night.

Our first full day included two classes. My first class was with Belinda from Blue Ribbon Designs. I really love taking classes with Belinda! She is super organized and provides a wonderful binder with all the charts and instructions for the projects she designed. For our class she designed a framed sampler with matching scissor fob and ort box. The classes were only three hours so there wasn't much time to get a lot of stitching done in class, most was learning finishing techniques and I also got the cord made for the finishing on my scissor fob.

After lunch and a nap, I had class with Theresa from Shakespeare's Peddler. I really enjoyed the creativity that she encouraged in class. Theresa designed a pincushion for class and gave us all the materials to get started in class. It is definitely a project that anyone can do anywhere! With just a few basic materials and some of your favorite cross stitched motifs, this can easily be done at home. After getting some basic starting instructions from Theresa we were able to spend the rest of class making the project our own.

This is the model that Theresa brought to class. Then my pincushion in class followed by a picture of some things I added when I got home. Some of the ladies in my class had some trouble with the project as there was not much direction for the piece. It was more about "thinking outside the box" and really making it your own. I really loved it though, it was alot of fun and a really good use of the short time that we had to work on it in class. After the class, I even went down into the shop and pick additional charms to add to my own pincushion; a seahorse and a scissors charm.

I didn't get a picture of Belinda's projects in class so I borrowed this pic from BRD's Facebook page. So far I have one side of the scissor fob stitched and am almost done the side with the house. Belinda designed this piece exclusively for the retreat so it will not be available for sale until about another year or so.

After classes were finished for the day, we walked the boardwalk and enjoyed pizza for dinner. The we went back to the hotel for more stitching. After awhile, I went back to my room for some quiet time, SNL on tv and more stitching.

More to come about the rest of my weekend!

Long Weekend

Just back to work after a long weekend. Yesterday, it was Columbus Day here in the u.s. I'm still having a hard time understanding how I get off for this day and not Easter....or other more important days of remembrance.

This past weekend was nice. Saturday, I went to a baby shower at a tea house for one of my friends. It was nice to have some girl time and to see my friend who was visiting from Ohio. I made her a cute diaper cake topped with a little elephant toy.

Sunday was football day. My husband had a friend over and we flipped through the games rooting for our teams.

Yesterday, I enjoyed my day off by sleeping a little bit late, then lounged on the couch with some stitching and a Netflix marathon.

I have three days of work this week followed by another long weekend as I am leaving Friday to go to the Stitcher's Jamboree at Salty Yarns in Ocean City. I'm really excited to get some quality stitching time to work on a few projects and learn from three great designers!!

Catching Up!

Posting from my new shiny iPhone 5! It's been alittle bit of an adjustment from my android phone, but all good!

Matt and I were away last week on vacation with his family in NagsHead, Nc. My mil and her bf are lots of fun, but I would not recommend going on vacation with your spouses 90 year old grandmother. What a nightmare! Highlights of the week included days of not working, time on the beach with the family dog, and seeing a baby sea turtle released into the ocean!

I am 23 weeks prego now. I have a sonogram on Monday. I have off work that day for Columbus Day so I'm really forward to having a three day weekend. Hubs and I will probably start the process of decluttering our spare room for the baby. There is so much stuff in there! I know there is a lot of stitching stuff that I just know I will never get to or was given to me that is just not my taste. More than likely, my friends here in blogland will benefit because I've been thinking it will be the perfect time for some giveaways!

Hope everyone is well and has a great weekend!!

Splurge

Yea, I did it. I caved. I went to the dark side.

I ordered the new Iphone 5.

Its so pretty!!

Plus, I was able to get it for a really good deal since I was due for an upgrade and had an additional credit on my account. I cant wait until it gets delivered!!

This weekend we've got big things going on! My 20 week sonogram is tomorrow. We will finally get a really good look at our baby and see if we are team pink or team blue!

I had a sonogram at 12 weeks but the machine was old so the picture wasn't great (plus it was down at my feet so I couldn't see much anyway) and the printer was broken so we couldn't get a picture to take with us to shoe off. Hubby took a couple pics on his phone, but that's all we've got so far. Hopefully, tomorrow we get some souvenirs!!

After our appointment, we are taking hubbys grandmother to a book signing. Her 90th birthday was last week and she loves Nora Roberts. Luckily, she lives in our area and owns an inn and a bookstore that she holds signings at on a regular basis so I'm hoping we can get her up close and personal for a signed book and maybe even a picture!

Its also hermitting weekend! Fingers crossed, I MIGHT get my sampler done this weekend!!

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Gettin' There!

I've been spending the last couple weeks working on getting the verse done on 'sweeter love'. I was the genius who decided to stitch my sampler on 40 ct. and later realizing the verse is stitched over one.

So, stitching over one on 40 ct can be quite challenging. I was just happy when I got one letter done a night when I worked on this!

But, the verse is FINALLY done and I'm SO close to a finish!

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Where You Been?!

Yes, it has been quite awhile since I've posted!! Almost three months!! I have no pictures to share, so I will try to make this as short and sweet as possible....

During my last post in May, I was anticipating our first wedding anniversary and our weekend trip to Virginia Beach. We had a great weekend down there! It was too cold for beach time but we enjoyed visiting the Aquarium. I really liked that place. The exhibits were wonderful and plenty. Well worth the money spent on admission, plus we went right when they opened so it wasn't crowded and we got to see how they clean the coral in the big tank and feed the fish. My favorite exhibits were the outdoor sea lion exhibit (which was really nice to hang out around since we got there a few minutes before the doors opened) and the sea turtles. The turtles were so beautiful and the tank is VERY large, I was able to get some amazing pictures.

I also made sure to fish out the LNS in Virginia Beach, Dyeing to Stitch. It was a nice shop in a row of other crafty shops that included a bead shop, knitting shop and a quilt store. When we arrived there was a bit of hub bub going on as a jewelry store in the shopping center had just been robbed so there were some police cars and detectives walking around to all the other shops asking if anyone had seen anything. I did like the shop, though I did feel the selection was a bit limited, but I would go again.

In other news.....the week after Memorial Day, we found out I'm PREGNANT!! Yes, it was a bit of schock for both of us as we had just decided only the month before "not to try, but not not try". We weren't going to become all stressful and baby crazy, but to feel blessed with whatever God gave us. I am due February 2013, so as of right now only 17 weeks along, but I am starting to sport a bit of a bump. It has been a very exciting summer for us getting used to the new changes occurring in our family. Hubby got a new job that has helped tremendously in the financial aspect of our life together, although I don't think he altogether "loves" it, but at the end of the day, it's just a j-o-b and in the long run will be so much better in our journey together and making a good life for our growing family.

I have felt very healthy during my pregnancy, no sickness at all, though those first couple weeks were a bit trying due to other symptoms I was experiencing. My dr's have been very pleasant and nice so far, although I am anticipating some stuggles down the road as I have some ideas and feelings about my birth plan and treatment during my third trimester that is probably not going to jive with "modern" treatment plans.

On the stitching front, I have to have seemed to have lost my mojo a bit. I did work a bit on my first Chatelaine project and kind of lost my steam. I've gone back to working more on my wedding sampler, "A Sweeter Love" by Plum Street Samplers. At this point, after being married a year, I'm just hoping to have it done before our baby is born.

This weekend is Labor Day weekend here in the US and I have a four day weekend. I plan on enjoying some much needed time at home doing some stiching and housecleaning. Hubby and I are also planning a trip to the zoo in DC on Labor Day when they open a new seal/sea lion exhibit.

Hope you all are doing well!!

Venetian Progress

I've made some progress on venetian the last few weeks. I finished the bottom and added some of the beads. Now, I'm working on finished the face and top of the design.

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