at home retreat

Now that my sewing room is all organized I had to christen it with a fun sewing day with my good friend April. April and I met a few years ago after she and her husband moved to Maine. Her husband and I work together and before I met her he always said how well we would get along because we have so much in common. He was so right. April and I talk pretty much every day, but because of a huge house remodel they were doing and everything going on around here she had never gotten over to see my new house. We had so much fun on Saturday. I got started on my Jo Morton sample for Jan's shop and she worked on some UFO's. (We also did a little shopping too, but we won't mention that.) I hope to get my sample finished this week.

I figured out how to get pictures of my kitties with my new digital camera. :-) I do laundry. They love warm clothes fresh from the dryer. They come running and lay on the piles while we are folding. Sometimes they will even burrow between the individual pieces of clothing. We generally end up having to refold at least some every load.

i loved my day off

I was a whirlwind today. Or at least a very stiff breeze. I took the day off because life was getting away from me. I had told my dad I would make some business calls that he had been having a problem with. He couldn't quite get the hang of the "press 1 for....". Sometimes navigating those menus is so confusing especially when you have never done it before. Well, with my work hours and their office hours I hadn't been able to get them accomplished. I had tons of other things that I wanted to get done so I decided that a day off would do me a world of good.

After the phone calls were accomplished my day was open. This is the before picture of my sewing room. It had gotten to the point I couldn't get anything done. I had a small area on the ironing board that I was using, but I had to move things every time I needed to use it. Same with my cutting surface. It's by no means completely organized, but I at least feel I can get going on the Jo Morton project for the shop and finish up at least the leaf quilt on the design wall. :c/

I also finished up the wool applique projects I promised pictures of yesterday. These were taken with my new camera. It takes much better close up shots than my old one. I have 14 days to decide if I like it so I am trying to take loads of pictures just to be sure. I did find one flaw, although I think it's probably me because it is supposed to take pictures really quickly in succession, but I tried to get some pictures of the kitties and by the time the picture would snap they would have moved. I ended up with a lot of pictures of Misty's nose because she would come to see what I was doing and Dusky's back because he would move on to something else. Maybe I should read the instructions?

a mother's day post

This was a very difficult Mother's Day for me. DS left on Wednesday, DD is currently living in Denver and this is my first Mother's Day without my mom. DH was amazing. He made it a Mother's weekend for me. We pretty much did whatever I wanted all weekend long. Saturday I spent most of my day either sewing or knitting. I got some more done on samples for Jan's shop. I should have them finished to show tomorrow. Very cute if I do say so myself. I am almost finished the first sock that I showed last week and since I can never seem to finish ANYTHING before starting something new I am about halfway up the back of a cotton sweater I'm making for a friend from work. :<\ It was a nice relaxing day.

On Sunday we went for a hike. We had originally thought to go to the White Mountains to hike and have a picnic, but with the price of gas we decided to stay closer to home. I found a trail very close to here that we didn't know was there. It touted views of the White Mountains from the top. Here is the cool bridge at the head of the trail. We made it to the top and this is about all we could see. I think that the description was written by someone who was there in the winter, without leaves, because all we could see was trees. It was a really nice walk though and it was good to get out.

We got back to the house for lunch and a shower as the phone was ringing from DD calling to wish me a Happy Mother's Day. Almost like they planned it, when I hung up with her DS called. It was the first time we had heard from him since the first night after he had left. He is enjoying his work and doing well. The ship is going to be in the yard for a week and he is going to work on it as well. They are leaving next week for Florida and then back. Most of the rest of the summer he is going to spend cruising up and down the Maine coast. He is going to be in port near where we live about once a week. We will be able to see him off and on. He is getting a kick out of the fact that the ship stops in the town where he goes to school. He's not sure what for as there really isn't much there except the college and it's ship. With the Freshmen and Juniors off on cruise the ship isn't even in port for 6 weeks.

We ended our weekend with a shopping trip to get a new computer. Just about 4 days before DS's Fasfa deadline our computer died a painful death. With everything going on we had neglected to print out a copy of the return when we filed. :resurrect it, but this isn't it's first hiccup and it's about 7 years old so we decided it was time for a replacement. While we were out I found a new digital camera. I haven't had a chance to try it yet. Tomorrow I will try to get some pictures and see how the new camera performs.

now you see him now you don't

Well, we were able to enjoy DS's company for 6 days. He flew out early this morning to meet a cruise ship where he is going to be working for the summer as a deck hand. Because of his broken leg back in August he was unable to do the summer cruise he was supposed to do for school. He decided he should get a job having something to do with his course of study and started applying to everything he could find. This cruise line had actually been to his school looking for summer workers. He had a phone interview on Friday and they hired him right then. We faxed his paperwork last night and he was on a plane bright and early this morning ready to start work today. Here he is all ready to go. I would like to say the messy room was due to his packing in a hurry, but honestly his room has always looked like someone picked it up and shook it like a snow globe. I guess he wasn't as anxious to get home as he was to get away from school. :oD

Last weekend was my friend's open house. I delivered an appliqued wool beehive mug rug for another sample, but I forgot my camera so I didn't get any pictures. :c\ It was the best day the shop has ever had. It would be amazing if I was able to say that I was good and resisted the urge to buy fabric on sale, but my willpower has never been very strong so I made my contribution to her bottom line. She had marked bolts that had been around for a while at $4.00 a yard and fat quarters were buy one get one free. I didn't go particularly overboard, but here is my haul. I'm so excited for her. She is so happy.

sample anyone?

Here are the first 2 samples DH dropped off at Jan’s shop today. He is on his way to get DS from college. He finished his last final about an hour ago. He’s all packed and ready to come home. He’s been so anxious. You would think he missed us or something. ;c)