A garage sale...and MW update

Well, it has been a while since I have posted and this is the reason...prepping for our garage sale that we had yesterday. Over the last few weeks, DH and I have been cleaning out our closet and our garage trying to clean out some of the clutter that we have accumulated since we moved to CA over 6 years ago (last time we did this type of cleaning was when we moved...as we were packing boxes...it is amazing how much clutter we did have and how good it feels when it is gone). Some of the items we knew wouldn't sell, we immediately dontated to an organization. The garage sale was organized by a real estate representative who did all the ad placements, put up the sale signs and even brought a half a dozen donuts to each of the garge sale paticipants (yummy)...all we had to do was put out the merchandise, price it and sell it. After 4.5 hours, we did make some money and didn't have too much to pack up for another donation :)

The garage sale was a fun experience for the whole family! DH enjoyed the haggling with some of the early customers who were looking for deals...Robert (older son) enjoyed keeping track of what sold and at what price (thus keeping a tally on the total amount we made)...and Matthew (younger son) loved dancing with the garage sale sign at the end of our street. We had a lot of comments regarding our "dancing sign"!

"Some garage sales had bright balloons marking their location...but a cute smiling young man really caught my attention." said one lady.

"I know that you don't have any old cookie jars because I asked that nice little boy...but there was something about the sparkle in his eyes that told me that I still needed to check out what you were offering." said another.

Matthew really knew how to bring in the traffic :)

When it was all over and things were cleaned off, I sat down to cool off and stitch for a while. I was able to finish up a motif on MW - which I am very excited about because it was very tedious. I think I like the more geometric ones that I can just stitch mindlessly, allowing for a rhythem of stitching and some meditation time. Anyway...here is what my MW looks like:

And this is the spot...the flower-like motif...that I finished up:

You might have noticed that I have not stitched any of the initals...I am debating whether to stitch the initials as per the pattern, making it more true to a "reproduction" of the "original" or stitch initals or names of my family. I will probably continue to think/debate on this while I stitch it - for it is something that I can definitely leave until last :)

Now that I am done with the flower-like, tedious motif and on to an easier geometric one...I have decided to take a little break from MW and stitch a quick design...Quaker Style Patriotic Heart Freebie. Here is a photo of what the design looks like - but note, this is not mine (I did started stitching it, but forgot to take a picture of it before starting this post. I will post a photo of it when I am done).

I stitched mine on 28ct white evenweave...so I will probably need to use an ecru color instead of white so that the design will show up...but oh well, it is a fun and quick stitch; something that I needed right now :)

hope everyone is having a good weekend!

remember...live, love, laugh and stitch often!

Lisa