Busy, Busy, Busy – But not with Stitching Projects -- September 8, 2008

The last few weeks have been very busy. My daughter and I attended Summer Crossing which is an older girl camping weekend. She volunteers and I teach embroidery and cross stitch to teens and I’ll be blogging about this later.

We then went on a very late summer vacation this year. Due to all of the family activities we didn’t go on vacation until the last week of summer vacation which was also during the Summer Olympics. We had a lot of fun but we all decided that we did not want to go on vacation this late in the summer again! It was hard to relax when we knew all of the school activities would start the next week!

You should see how many needlework projects my daughter and I both packed! It was so funny to see the bags, especially since she didn’t work on any projects and I only stitched for about one hour on one day. We also thought that Fay would come up the East Coast and we wanted to be prepared. LOL!

We did visit two quilt shops which are lot’s of fun with all of the fabrics and the colors. My DD wanted to try quilting, so we picked out the supplies for a beginner small quilt. She hasn’t had a chance to work on it yet but hopefully during one of the long weekends she’ll be able to start.

I should add that when we go on vacation we don’t sit around. We visit museums, have dinner, play putt-putt golf, etc. We don’t sit on the beach or by the pool, or at least not for long! Quite the energetic family!

This year my mother joined us for the first several days. We took her to an indoor water park and we had a wonderful time. The kids are old enough that I can turn them loose. My mother was the one who actually wore me out! She’s 70+ and she wanted to try everything! You think you worry about your kids but imagine trying out all of the water park activities with your mother and making sure that she has fun and doesn’t get hurt! The one life guard summed it up well when he found out her apx. age. “Hmmm… 70+ years old but the mind and spirit of a 7 year old”! Yep, that’s my mom! I finally had to put my foot down and tell her that she was not allowed to go on the water flume! I thought it would be too dangerous for older bones as you ride down a tube with gushing water flat on your back without a raft. She only pouted a little and then she was sliding down one of the water slides! My daughter was walking around with her at one point
and went by me mouthing “Help Me”! My mother was wearing out my daughter! :-)

Earlier in the week, my husband and the two kids took my mother river tubing. I didn’t go as I don’t like to be in the sun for that long as I burn very easily. I had told both of the kids and my husband to watch out for Mom. Well, they got to the river and my mother was first in her tube and down the river she went. The others couldn’t catch up and didn’t see her for the rest of the trip! :-) This is when I should add that DH, within the first five minutes, shredded the palm of his hand on a river rock. The cuts were not bad enough for stitches but bad enough that he couldn’t golf the rest of the week. He was not happy! LOL!

We had a wonderful time, and all joking aside, my mother is a lot of fun and enjoyed her first visit to a water park. My son has decided that Mom is, in his own words, “Awesome”, which is a great compliment from a male teenager!!!

I was only able to stitch for about an hour while they were river tubing. Among the many projects I took was a Heartstrings Bittie, “Pumpkin”. My goal was to stitch the whole project during the week as its only 2.75” round. Well I only stitched the stem, the star, and the black dots as you can see below;

Obviously this is a pitiful start especially since I didn’t meet my goal! :-)

Pat is one of my favorite designers and you can see the Heartstrings line at;
http://www.artistscollection.net/Artists_Collection/HeartStrings_Gallery.html

I have many of her canvases in my stash and I’m looking forward to stitching them all!

We came home from vacation on a Sunday and school started on that Tuesday. The first week or so of school is quite busy with paperwork and the starting up of various activities. Things are beginning to settle down now and I’ll have some more stitching progress to share with everyone soon!

I think I’ve caught up with all of my blog comments and emails.

Beth – I sent you an email about your Candy Swirl Santa question.
Coni – I left you a comment about a replacement for the “project that should not be mentioned”.
Everyone else - If you haven’t heard back from me, please let me know! Thanks! :-)

Thank you so much for visiting my blog!!!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow