Glued To The News

Dear Friends,
I am keeping everyone on the East Coat in my thoughts as we continue to hear about the chaos that Sandy has caused.
The family in CT is without power and hear that it will hopefully be restored by Friday. They are inland, I haven't heard how it is on the coast.
Here we had lots of wind but it seems to have done nothing but bring down more leaves and some small branches.
Tonight I did the finishing on my October ornament for the Christmas All Year Long SAL.



This is Snowden from Heart In Hand. He was a kit that had been in my stash for quite a long time.



The backing fabric that I chose.
10 down and 2 to go! I don't think that I will stitch any Xmas ornaments next year, just Halloween!
Well that's it for now.

Hugs!

Chris
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Somedays I Love Opening The Mail Box, Other Days..Not So Much

But today was one of the good days.


 
A package from June over at Butterfly Wings blog. She recently had a giveaway on ornaments she has been stitching over the year. I was luck enough to receive one of them.



Look one card for now and one for December. I have put the December one up on my mantle and will open one day in December when I need some cheer.



OMG! Is this not one of the sweetest things that you have ever seen? I had emailed June to ask who the designer was when I saw a picture of this on her blog. I love the design and the colors. June I will treasure this!



Lovely backing fabric. Happy sigh.



This sweet needle minder was in the autumn card. This is now holding my needle on my current project.
If you check out June's blog you can see a fall piece in her header pic that I stitched last year. It is the pudgy bird on the right with the ribbon trim. June was my partner in one of the Stitched With Love exchanges.
Well I need to go gaze at the lovely ornament from June again.

I hope that everyone is safe, that you have power and can stitch.

Hugs!

Chris


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Lovely Colors

Here is my progress on the By The Bay SAL. I am loving these colors. The orange and that blue. Yum!
Is everyone ready for Sandy? Please be safe. I think that everyone has been getting ready so hopefully everyone will ride it out ok. Here we have had some wind and clouds, just a little unsettled but no rain.
Rich and I went out for a short walk in Franklinville today. We have wanted to check out a trail there.



In the parking lot was this. A plaque about a Revolutionary War incident involving David Fanning. He was a Tory that caused lots of problems in this area and some of the movie The Patriot was based on his actions.



Across the parking lot were these mill ruins.



I think the hunters can see me.



Happy birds..



Did anyone in the US watch 60 minutes? Did you see the segment on Asheboro?

That is about it for now. I have to get ready for the week.

Be safe Friends!

Chris
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A Trip To The South

Hello Dear Friends.
Yesterday Rich and I headed down the road to Fayetteville, NC to pick up some tools that Rich had purchased. I was surprised at the weather, it really turned foggy and cloudy. Everything is all stirred up with hurricane Sandy.
The drive was down the back roads past pumpkin patches and fields of cotton ready to be harvested. I was hoping to get some pics but that didn't happen.



One reason that I chose to ride along was this place...


This is a restaurant called Sherefe. It has middle eastern food, which you know that I love.



So Rich and I had a lovely lunch. Since this restaurant move downtown we walked around for a little while.



Fayetteville is a very old town and you see it in buildings like this one from 1790.



This is in the center of town. It was the original sight of the courthouse which burned an then this was constructed. It is the old market where slave auctions where held. Other Southern cities have structures like this. It is similar to Charleston's.



This pic is for Shirlee. The Polish pottery is so beautiful. I resisted buying any. I give pottery as gifts frequently but it is local since we live in an area famous for it.
After that it was time to head home. The GPS took us up through Sanford, NC so I got to stop and see my friend Susan at work. She took us on a little tour of the new building.



In this golf cart!!! Fun!
I managed a little stitching.



I have a few more branches. I hope to get a little further today.

I hope that everyone has a great Saturday!!

Chris
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Thankful

When I picked up the mail last night there was a wonderful envelope in the box. Inside that envelope was this wonderful giveaway from Krista at Just Stitching Along.



And inside was this..



The new Blackbird Design Feast of Friendship chart with all the fibers and a piece of linen.
Thank you Krista! I am going to look forward to starting this next month. Which is almost here. November is the time of year we we celebrate our veterans and Thanksgiving. I will be celebrating another birthday. I also will be celebrating my blogging friends with a giveaway. I am thankful for you all everyday.

Happy Friday.

Chris
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By The Bay SAL Start

Donna over at By The Bay Needle Art has generously designed a fall SAL for her followers. I enjoyed the summer one so much that I needed to start the fall one too.



This is a pic of the summer one.



Here is my fall start. This one is also designed for a 5x7 frame stitched on 28ct. I am stitching mine on 28ct Lentil linen from Lakeside Linens and the orange is from the Victorian Motto Sampler shop. The rest of the design is charted in DMC.
The 4th and final part of the design is released today. Why not head over to Donna's blog to check it out and to join in the fun.

Happy Wednesday!

Chris
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Enabling Alert!

Good Morning Stitching Friends!
  I found a new design that I wanted to share with you while I was cruising the Online Needlework Show.
   It is called A Wicked Plant by Barbara Ana. I purchased it at the Creative Poppy website.
If you go to there main page the have a $4 off coupon for first time orders.  They send you the file to print off. I love this one.

Hop over there and let me know what you think.

Happy Tuesday!

Chris
 

Hello Monday!

Hello Friends!
I hope that everyone had a wonderful fall weekend. The weather here was perfect.
On Saturday I finished stitching Snowden.



I think he is quite cute except the way his arms are positioned it looks like he is ready to yell "run!"
I will try and do the finishing on him this week.
I only stitched a little yesterday. I started the By The Bay SAL. I didn't accomplish enough to show hopefully.
I was puttering around yesterday organizing some stash and playing with these guys.




I am going to stitch more fall things next year. I love them.
Yesterday morning Rich and I went for a short hike and when we got to our regular spot we saw this...



It looks like the park service did some trail maintenance this last week and put this sign up. It is nice to see. I was so impressed when I was in Oregon with how wonderful the trail system was and well maintained. I am glad to see that some of that is happening here.
Well lunch is over. Back to work!

Have a great week!

Chris
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Wonderful Giveaway From The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

Hello Friends,
  I wanted to let you know about a wonderful giveaway from Nancy. You can read about it here http://victorianmottosamplershoppe.blogspot.com/.

Nancy's products are wonderful. She ships things the same day or next. Her generosity to the stitching community is amazing. Thanks Nancy!

Back To Our Normally Scheduled Programming...

Dear Friends,
Wow! Can you believe it is the last part of October already? Time is flying by. I have had a hard time getting back into a normal routine since coming back from vacation. There are a couple of reasons for this...
1. I HATE leaving the house in the morning when it is dark. I have just wanted to stay in bed.
2. My exercise schedule has been disrupted due to the Zumba studio moving locations. Actually they aren't holding any classes until Nov. 1. No classes for 2&1/2 weeks. Ugh! And after that the schedule is not going to work as well for me.
3. My pharmacist has been on vacation for the last 10 days so that left me with extra work.

So I am trying to shake it off and get back on schedule. Come on daylight savings!!!
This morning Rich and I ran some errands. I think the leaves here are just past peak here. There were signs of fall everywhere.



I finished the exchange piece and shipped it out so now I can finish Snowden. I looked through the stash for an ornament for November. The theme is reindeer.
Myra finishes another small Halloween piece for me and today was the first chance that I had to stuff the pillow.



The stitched piece was really too big to be an ornament. Isn't it fabulous?



This is the fabric that she used for the back. Since I live with 2 black cats it is perfect.
Speaking of black cats...



Someone is happy that I am home.
I have a big pot of Minestrone on the stove. It is perfect for a fall day.



I picked up this retro style tablecloth. The vintage ones are so expensive. I love fall.
Well I think I am going to go take a nap. I hope that you are having a perfect weekend.
Thanks for visiting and welcome to my new followers.

Hugs!
Chris
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October TUSAL

The leaves are probably just at peak here. I hope that you can see a little bit of color in the background.
I have been working on a fall exchange piece so I have not had much stitching to show.



I made a little more progress on Snowden on the flight home.
I have been busy with work, trying to unbury my desk and just get back into a normal routine.
Thanks for all your kind comments. I hope to catch up on them soon and on my blog reading.

Have a great week!
Hugs!

Chris
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You Know Vacation Is Over When....

- you get to long term parking and your car battery is dead.

- you are quietly sitting in your stitching in your chair and you notice that the cats are acting weird. You look over and say "is that a snake?"
Fortunately is was a little baby, and the Ranger(Rich) removed it and relocated it.

I hope that everyone I having a great week!

Chris


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21 Years & A Couple of Lighthouses

Happy Friday Friends!
This is another all travel post. It has been great hearing from everyone and their comments on the trip and the advice on things to see. It is very appreciated.
Today is our 21st anniversary. I am a very lucky girl.
So we hopped in the car and headed back to the coast. Our first stop was the Tillamook Cheese Factory...



I love factory tours.



The machinery is fascinating. I loved watching the cheese make its journey from large block to small pound packed blocks.



Yum!



Cute!
Then after having some of their ice cream. They have wonderful local flavors like huckleberry.
We headed to Meares Lighthouse.



This is what we could see on the walk down.



Look how cute. This is Oregon's shortest lighthouse, only 39'. We were lucky to be able to go up inside it. They only let 30 people a day go up. This lighthouse is no longer in service.



This is a Sitka Spruce that they call the octopus tree that is at the same park.



More beautiful coastline. Looking out towards see from this look out we actually saw( and heard!) gray whales. Amazing! What a gift.



This was the next stop, Yaquina Head Lighthouse. This one is still active.



This one is a little taller than the last one.



It was worth going up the stairs!
After that we found a small place by the beach for a late lunch/early dinner. I had some wonderful clam chowder.
So then we drove back to Portland. We have finished packing and are ready to leave early in the morning.
It has been an amazing trip and I hate to go, but I also look forward to being home.
Thanks for tagging along!

Chris
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Some Stash & Some Exploring

Greetings from Portland!
Another beautiful day here in the Northwest. It has been the most beautiful week, no rain and no humidity. Just clear blue skies.
This morning started out slowly. Rich and I headed over to the Alberta neighborhood to have breakfast at Helser's on Alberta. What a lovely place for breakfast.



I had biscuits with mushroom gravy and eggs on top and Rich had a Louisiana breakfast with spicy sausage and egg. Yum!
Then we spent quite a bit of time walking up and down Alberta checking things out. There are lots of restaurants, small stores and food trucks.



I like these permanent flags they have on the lampposts.



And all the garbage cans are made out of pieces of street signs.



I think the holes in the top are so you can just sit your empty cans there if people want to collect them for the deposits.



I bought some fun fabric for finishing at a store called Bolt. They are a great addition to my finishing stash.
For lunch Rich and I weren't hungry but we wanted to try this local place's ice cream..



I had one of the best ice creams ever. It was Pear wit Blue cheese. I know, it sounds weird but by oh boy!
After that we headed up the road to Multnomah Falls. I am glad that I didn't skip this one!



It was lovely.



We also saw this waterfall...



And this one. Gorgeous! There are soapy parks and hiking trails along the gorge.
Rich and I headed back to the hotel after the waterfalls but first I had to stop one lay time at Acorns & Threads to see if there was something that I just had to have. There was...



New stuff and fibers. I will check my linen supply at home to stitch these.
So, the day was not over yet. We went to the Mission Theater to hear some live music. Portland has these theaters where they show movies or have music and you can order your food and enjoy the show.



We had a nice time. The bands were entertaining.
Since we were down town we had to drop in for a last donut. Yum!
Well, I can't keep my eyes open.
Good night and sweet dreams!

Chris
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