One Busy Weekend!
I hope everyone had a lovely weekend, and those celebrating Memorial Day Weekend, a lovely one of those, too! :o) As I enjoyed my time off, I made a conscious effort to be thankful of those who made it possible that I could spend it exactly as I did.
Over in SingularStitches Land, it was a busy holiday, but satisfyingly so.
Thursday Evening - DH and I left a couple hours early from work for a dinner and movie date. We saw The Da Vinci Code, which was really good. I listened to the book on CD a while back and it was similar to how I envisioned it, though I kept getting it mixed up with the Angels and Demons story line.
Friday - I took a vacation day!
In the morning, I curled up in the Ladies' Parlour with the kitties, some really good organic coffee and xstitched to classical music. I've never tried organic coffee before, but the one I picked up is really, really good. (but rather pricey) The brand is Caffe Sonora (Breakfast Blend flavor) and it's from the "Organic" section of our local grocery store. I look at it as an investment in Mother Earth.
DH was envious of my lounging about at home with the kitties, so he snuck out at lunch time and we spent the afternoon finishing up watching the second season of At Home with the Braithwaites and I stitched some more!
Over the course of the weekend, I was able to get to within a few stitches left of DMC #371 (the grass) to totally finish my RR piece!
Saturday - we got a lot of landscaping projects done. We (read: I) put a 21" ring of mulch around a tree in our front yard. (DH helped by transporting the sod and dirt to the back yard in the wheel barrow) I know it's 21" exactly, because being the engineering nerd that I am, I used a tape measure as I went around to make sure it was exactly 21". I was down on my hands and knees with a hand shovel filleting the grass because we wanted to use it for a bare spot in the back yard. Every so often, I'd come across a big white grub and was a number of local birds' best friend because I'd pick it up with the shovel and flick it into the street and then a bird would swoop down and get a gourmet treat (if you like that sort of thing). Also, I put a 9" mulch ring around the light post, and some mulch around the Black Eyed Susans I have around the mail box post.
From the right of our front porch, there is a slope down to the driveway. The original owners apparently loved landscaping, because it's three rows deep of bushes. A row of three Azalea bushes in the back closest to the house, then some red leafed, thorny bush (but very pretty) and a tree (all I know is that it gets little white flowers in the Spring, then waxy leaves and provides some privacy to the window in Ladies' Parlour), and then a row of four bushy green bushes along the grass line.
The problem is that at the bottom of this hill, along the driveway and the corner of the house, there is a bare area (with all I've listed, could there actually be an area bare of foliage??? ;o). When it rains, there is nothing to hold the soil, so it overflows out onto the driveway. I'm not a green thumb, so I try to use plants that are nearly impossible to kill. I bought three bunches of really pretty decorative grass and five small bunches of Black Eyed Susans. I still have to do some weeding, but wanted to at least get the plants in the ground.
DH also took "Margaret" (his name for the De-Thatcher attachment - that saucy minx) out for a spin behind the riding mower.
I was very painfully reminded of how muscles will vehemently protest when used more than they are used to. The muscles from the backs of my knees up to and including my bottom hurt. Saturday night, I was lying in bed and thought I might have w-a-y over-exerted myself, because I had pain down my left arm, until I realized that, since I'm left handed, the muscles in my left arm were also protesting! Doh! (Please feel free to laugh too! :o)
Sunday was spent at my parents' home with Mum, Dad, DH, my sister, her boyfriend, 3 cats and a ferret. The boyfriend, cats and ferret are my sister's. The cats and ferret also live at my parents' house with my sister and parents. (The boyfriend has his own apartment) We tend to celebrate holidays on days that are convenient for us, so a Sunday Memorial Day picnic it was! Mum spoiled us with lots of good food (as usual!). It was so fun to get together with everyone!
Monday was a day of organization. When I began cross stitching back in the late '80s, I kept my floss on plastic bobbins in divided craft keepers. When I got away from cross stitching in the early 2000's, I gave them to my Mum. Now that I'm back into it, I just can't ask for them back, because she uses the floss and it would be rude. So, off to JoAnn Fabrics I went at 9am, 10% Off Entire Purchase coupon in hand. All of their craft organizers were 40% off (Amazing! I never time things like that right!) I also picked up a bunch of plastic bobbins and a floss winder. From about 1pm 'till dinner time around 5pm, I gathered all of my floss that were already on bobbins and began winding colors that I didn't have on a bobbin and then put them all in numerical order in the organizers. My main motivation for this was to avoid that big pile of duplicates you see in the background.
Monday Evening, we watched a little of Rex the Runt (funny claymation but NOT for children) and I did do some patriotic stitching on my Summer Medley.
Over in SingularStitches Land, it was a busy holiday, but satisfyingly so.
Thursday Evening - DH and I left a couple hours early from work for a dinner and movie date. We saw The Da Vinci Code, which was really good. I listened to the book on CD a while back and it was similar to how I envisioned it, though I kept getting it mixed up with the Angels and Demons story line.
Friday - I took a vacation day!
In the morning, I curled up in the Ladies' Parlour with the kitties, some really good organic coffee and xstitched to classical music. I've never tried organic coffee before, but the one I picked up is really, really good. (but rather pricey) The brand is Caffe Sonora (Breakfast Blend flavor) and it's from the "Organic" section of our local grocery store. I look at it as an investment in Mother Earth.
DH was envious of my lounging about at home with the kitties, so he snuck out at lunch time and we spent the afternoon finishing up watching the second season of At Home with the Braithwaites and I stitched some more!
Over the course of the weekend, I was able to get to within a few stitches left of DMC #371 (the grass) to totally finish my RR piece!
Saturday - we got a lot of landscaping projects done. We (read: I) put a 21" ring of mulch around a tree in our front yard. (DH helped by transporting the sod and dirt to the back yard in the wheel barrow) I know it's 21" exactly, because being the engineering nerd that I am, I used a tape measure as I went around to make sure it was exactly 21". I was down on my hands and knees with a hand shovel filleting the grass because we wanted to use it for a bare spot in the back yard. Every so often, I'd come across a big white grub and was a number of local birds' best friend because I'd pick it up with the shovel and flick it into the street and then a bird would swoop down and get a gourmet treat (if you like that sort of thing). Also, I put a 9" mulch ring around the light post, and some mulch around the Black Eyed Susans I have around the mail box post.
From the right of our front porch, there is a slope down to the driveway. The original owners apparently loved landscaping, because it's three rows deep of bushes. A row of three Azalea bushes in the back closest to the house, then some red leafed, thorny bush (but very pretty) and a tree (all I know is that it gets little white flowers in the Spring, then waxy leaves and provides some privacy to the window in Ladies' Parlour), and then a row of four bushy green bushes along the grass line.
The problem is that at the bottom of this hill, along the driveway and the corner of the house, there is a bare area (with all I've listed, could there actually be an area bare of foliage??? ;o). When it rains, there is nothing to hold the soil, so it overflows out onto the driveway. I'm not a green thumb, so I try to use plants that are nearly impossible to kill. I bought three bunches of really pretty decorative grass and five small bunches of Black Eyed Susans. I still have to do some weeding, but wanted to at least get the plants in the ground.
DH also took "Margaret" (his name for the De-Thatcher attachment - that saucy minx) out for a spin behind the riding mower.
I was very painfully reminded of how muscles will vehemently protest when used more than they are used to. The muscles from the backs of my knees up to and including my bottom hurt. Saturday night, I was lying in bed and thought I might have w-a-y over-exerted myself, because I had pain down my left arm, until I realized that, since I'm left handed, the muscles in my left arm were also protesting! Doh! (Please feel free to laugh too! :o)
Sunday was spent at my parents' home with Mum, Dad, DH, my sister, her boyfriend, 3 cats and a ferret. The boyfriend, cats and ferret are my sister's. The cats and ferret also live at my parents' house with my sister and parents. (The boyfriend has his own apartment) We tend to celebrate holidays on days that are convenient for us, so a Sunday Memorial Day picnic it was! Mum spoiled us with lots of good food (as usual!). It was so fun to get together with everyone!
Monday was a day of organization. When I began cross stitching back in the late '80s, I kept my floss on plastic bobbins in divided craft keepers. When I got away from cross stitching in the early 2000's, I gave them to my Mum. Now that I'm back into it, I just can't ask for them back, because she uses the floss and it would be rude. So, off to JoAnn Fabrics I went at 9am, 10% Off Entire Purchase coupon in hand. All of their craft organizers were 40% off (Amazing! I never time things like that right!) I also picked up a bunch of plastic bobbins and a floss winder. From about 1pm 'till dinner time around 5pm, I gathered all of my floss that were already on bobbins and began winding colors that I didn't have on a bobbin and then put them all in numerical order in the organizers. My main motivation for this was to avoid that big pile of duplicates you see in the background.
Monday Evening, we watched a little of Rex the Runt (funny claymation but NOT for children) and I did do some patriotic stitching on my Summer Medley.
posted by Singular Stitches at 5/30/2006 08:48:00 AM
3 stitches made
