Breathe in...1..2..3..4...Breath out

Taking a little time to breathe this morning as I have felt like I have been on the "rocket-ship of life" lately - currently I have gotten off at the station, waiting to board the next rocket. But I find that I still have some time to make my connection, so I will update you on things...

The Computer seems to be on the mend...
Well, friends, DH wiped our little laptop's memory clean and rebuilt it from scratch. So, I am up and running again and can catch up with all of your blogs...as soon as I up date mine :) . However, my time spinning on the stationary bike - while typically the time I catch up on emails, blogging and facebooking - was spent by reading a couple of books I have had in my book stash for a couple of years and haven't taken the time to read. The first book was "Things I want my daughters to know" by Elizabeth Noble. Great book - sad though. About a mother who kept a journal while she was going through chemo, telling her daughters things that she never took the time to tell them. As the women are reading what their mother wrote after her passing, the book relates some of the writings to the women's lives they were experiencing at the time. It was definitely a good read and a tear jerker at the end! The other book: "Isabel's Daughter" by Judith Ryan Hendricks takes place in Colorado/New Mexico area and is about a daughter who was abandoned at birth by her mother and ends up finding out about her mother's life. Another good read! While it was nice to shorten my book stash, it is definitely nice to have the computer back!

Hockey travel...
I got back home this morning at 3am from a bus trip to Los Angeles (about a 7 hour drive) with Matthew (younger son), his hockey team and some other hockey moms & dads. We left at 2pm on Friday afternoon, as all the kids seem to have had the 1/2 day of school before the winter vacation. The boys sat in the back and the parents/coach in the front. On the ride down we watched: "Miracle on Ice," and "Remembering the Titans". Two very good movies to watch with a young hockey team travelling down to play 2 games. We arrived in Long Beach, at the hotel, around 9:30pm...checked in our rooms and headed off to bed. Saturday morning, after a good work out in the fitness room, I got Matthew up to enjoy breakfast in our room (brought a tupperware bowl of cheeriors, a bag of Hostess mini-muffins and Dannon yogurt with me...little money saving actions I have learned over the years). Because it is important to bond with the team, after Matthew finished up his 'breakfast brought from home' and I finished packing up the suitcases, he and I headed down to sit with the team and the parents to visit for a while before we loaded up the bus and headed off to the first rink for the first game. Saturday, the boys played two games at two different rinks...a nice lunch at Fudruckers in between. After the last game, which ended at 7pm, we loaded up, watched: "Despicable Me," and "Blind Side"...arrived back at the rink around 2:00am where I picked up my car and then headed home. While the bus ride down and back always has its time where it feels like "forever", the trip was fun and the boys played pretty well - even though they lost both of their games.

Next trip coming up...the evening of Dec. 25th the boys and I head back down to LA to the same hotel in Long Beach - both of them have tournaments down there. We will be down there until the 30th.

Winter Break...
As mentioned, the boys are on winter break and I am taking some vacation time off from my job...however, I don't see any relaxing in my future! In the mornings between now and Christmas Day, I will be working in *The Business* and in the late afternoons/evenings, I will be taking the boys down to the rink for a hockey clinic and team practices. *The Business* is going well and it is busy...lots of fruit arrangements to make between now and Christmas! Yahoo!

Stitching News...
Over the last few weeks I have been talking about stitching some "secret" ornaments. One, I finally finished and sent off to its receipient...and I heard that she received it:

The design is from Just CrossStitch 2010 Christmas Ornament edition.The design is called " 'Tis Red" and is by Lori Markovic of La-D-D. No...I didn't stitch it in red (the first time), but in a NeddleNecessities green overdyed color thread on a fabric from my stash. To finish it off I had some fun beeds from my stash of beads - from the days when I was beading. The person who received this ornament was Valerie of FogCity Dweller blog (my computer is still acting funny, so I can't get the link right now).

So, that is about it - that should catch everyone up for now. Take care and remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa

First week of summer vacation

With the boys out of school, I guess you can say that summer vacation has started. Nevertheless, with DH home, I will be able to keep my "normal" routine of getting up in the mornings, working out and then going into work...leaving Mr. Mom home with the boys in the morning. In summers past, when DH was working, I would flip my work hours to afternoon while the boys attended an afternoon summer camp. The boys will still attend an afternoon camp, which starts up in a few weeks...so I guess I will get those afternoons to spend with my DH :)

This week brings some travelling before those summer camps start. Robert (older son) and I will be leaving in a couple of days, heading to Minnesota. He is on a summer hockey team who will be playing in a tournament there. We are actually going in a few days early to spend some time with one of my sisters and her family...the rest of my family is on vacation in South Carolina and are "bummed" as they will miss us when we get to town. I am also trying to set up some "get togethers" with old high school mates (I grew up in MN) whom I have re-connected with via Facebook.

On the stitching side of things...I finished the other patriotic heart (didn't have time to take a photo of it this morning, but will try to do that soon) and started on my Ornament Swap exchange. The next exchange for this group is due to be mailed the end of July, so I thought since MW was kind of taking a nap that I would get a start on this exchange so that I didn't feel the need to rush it. It also makes it easier to pack small stitching projects for a plane ride than larger one.

Did you notice the subtle changes to the look of my blog? Blogger has come up with new design templates as well as an advanced way to change the look and feel of the blog. They even have 3 column layouts...which I tried and it just didn't look right; I probably need to play around with some of the font sizes and column sizes more if I want to go with 3 columns. Anyway, as I was searching through the pre-created background designs I found the one that had watermelons...and that is one fruit I eat a lot of! I love watermelon! At our local grocery store I have become known as the "watermelon lady" for I don't walk out of there without at least 2-3 large watermelons. And I have been known to help customers choose watermelons while standing in the produce section - I thumb the watermelon and listen for that hollow sound, then pick it up to make sure that it feels slightly heavy.

Well...enough rambling for today. Hope you have a great week! Remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch Often! Lisa

Happy June!

Can you believe that it is June already...the 6th month of the year...the year is 1/2 over...the holidays will be hear in less than 6 months - Yikes. This month brings the last days of school for the boys and graduation for each one: Robert will finish 8th grade/middle school - graduate and will start high school next year; Matthew will finish 5th grade/elementary school - graduate and will start middle school next year. They have this week to "suffer" through (meaning finals and any last minute papers or projects) and next week it is "just fun with school friends" (meaning they have end of the year activities - Robert goes to an amusement park and Matthew goes bowling) - then it all concludes with separate graduation ceremonies on Friday, June 11...I am sure that I will have stories and photos to share after this event.

Stitching News....

I saw on the Ornament Swap 2010 Blog that Lori received the ornament I stitched for her. I stitched an ornament from the Christmas Ornament edition of Just CrossStitch (I think that it was the 2007 edition...don't have that information right in front of me right now). It is a SamSarah design - I used 28ct evenweave fabric and used DMC thread called for. Lori received some beautiful ornaments...you will have to go to the post she wrote yesterday on the Ornament Swap blog to see her photos. 

I did make some time to put some stitches in MW over the long weekend, but the motif I am working on has been a little tedious for me...and my focus has been on:

1 - Preparing for the upcoming Garage Sale

Over the last several weeks, DH and I have been going through our closet and the garage - taking needed time to "weed" through all the stuff we have accumulated since we moved here over 6 years ago. Boy! The stuff certainly grew over the years. Now that we have determined which stuff we wanted to keep...which stuff was garage sale material...which stuff was donatable...and which stuff was just plain trash...it seems that our closet has grown in size and our garage can actually fit 2 cars :) The garage sale is Saturday, June 5...so yesterday I spent some time organizing it and pricing it. Friday DH said that he was going to get some tables to put up and I will put the finishing touches on it...before the garage door is thrown open to the public.

2 - Finishing the Garden

With all the weeding and pruning complete, it was time to check all the sprinklers and attack the flower bed...which was our duty on Sunday. DH got all the sprinkler heads tested and determined that we only needed to replace 2 this year - not too bad. So during our trip to Lowes, he got his sprinkler supplies and I went over to the gardening section and picked out 2 nice tomato plants, as well as 2 strawberry plants to add to our strawberry bed. In the afternoon, I had those 4 plants in the garden and the drippers all arranged. We don't plant a lot of produce in the backyard...just enough to feel like we do :) The last task of summer preparation of our garden, is cleaning out the humming bird feeder and putting out fresh nectar. I have a recipe (1 cup of sugar to 4 cups of water) that I use and our local hummingbird residents seem to enjoy it.

3 - Homework Task Master

That is right...over the weekend homework was being done in our house. It seems that weekend homework has been a part of Robert's schedule since he started 8th grade. But that is coming to an end, as mentioned above. He had to prepare for 3 finals, which he is taking today, and start writing a 5 paragraph paper which isn't due until a week from today (so I guess he will have homework next weekend as well).

Lastly, my mind seem to be preoccupied at some points about DH being at home now that he is finished with his previous job and is looking for the next endeavor. It is going to be very strange...odd...weird...going off to my part-time job in the morning and leaving him in the house...and then coming back home around 1pm to find him in the house. It is not a bad thing necessarily - having him at home - but it will be something that I will have to get use to until he finds the next job.

Well - still hard to believe that it is June. I hope that you all enter into the month with much happiness and health...and remember to:

Love, Live, Laugh and Stitch Often! Lisa

My new friend - the mailman :) and a new book to inspire me to think

Well the mailman was kind to me yesterday as I received a package from Amazon.UK. That box was carrying a birthday present for my soon-to-be 11 year old, Matthew. The boys have been reading a series of books written by authors from the UK - it is the Tunnel series by the Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams. Robert (older son) saw that Book 4: Closer was published...in the UK...and the US will not get it for another 3-4 months or so. As I did with the other books of the series, I did order it from Amazon.UK. Now, while it will be for both boys...Matthew, as the birthday boy on Monday, has the right to open up the wrapped book and read it first. :)

Also in the box was a book for me: "The Girl on the Wall" by Jean Baggott.
I spotted this book on someone's blog and started to investigate what it was all about - of course anything with needlework typically peaks my interest. When I saw that this was a book about a woman who recorded her life memories/history with her needlework I knew immediately that this was a read that I had to have. I started the book last night - for my bedtime reading - and we definitely engaged in the book just after reading the preface. The frame for this tapestry is interlinking circles ("the circles of life"); within each circle Jean has stitch memories from that period of her life...each chapter in the book takes ones of these circles and talks about what is going on in her life and the world around her. While I haven't gotten too far into the book, one of her reasons for the tapestry and writing the book, which she stated early in the first chapters, caught my eye. Throughout our lives, we typically live it "doing for others", for that is how we were brought up - so the questions that 'pops' in my mind are: what am I doing for me? what do I want? what am I going to leave behind?
Jean seems to have answered these questions for herself by going to school (something that she as a little girl wasn't able to do), specializing in History, as well as recording her history in needlework...she is doing this for herself and 'the girl on the wall' (a photo of her when she was young - her inspiration). 

Me? Well, I feel very good about my life right now (even though DH will be unemployed after next Friday - a new challenge...the next chapter in my book :)). I love being married and a wife/partner/friend to DH. I couldn't imagine my life without him. I love being a mother to Robert & Matthew. All 3 boys (DH included) definitely bring challenge and adventure, as well as love and joy, to my life. So those are the people who I "do for", which does take a lot of my time; but I do try and sneak in some "me" time...the early morning spins on my stationary bike while I catch up on my emails, facebook and blog writing/reading...there is my stitching which I do, when I allow myself to sit and relax...there is my reading in bed before I go to sleep. Life is an adventure - a journey - and right now I am in a pretty good place.

I am excited that I found this book and look forward to reading more of it tonight...and maybe I will have more inspiring things to write about...

Stitching News
I have put the finishing touches on the ornament I have made for Lori from the Ornament Swap and will be putting that in the mail soon. I have also heard from the Friendship Sampler RR ladies, and the last RR I need to stitch on is on its way to my house. After I stitch on it and send it home, I will be done stitching and just waiting to receive mine. Mine will probably be the last one home due to some issues early on, which I will not bore you with right now. I think that it is in the Netherlands...once it leaves there it should take too long to come home...keep your fingers crossed! I got a few stitches put in on MW yesterday - but not enough to really share with you today (maybe I need to find some "me stitching time" today:) ).

Hope you all have a nice Saturday - clear skies and cold temps here in Northern California.

Take care and remember...Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often! Lisa

Finally Friday...but wish that it didn't come so fast

First...I would like to say "Thank you" to all the Anniversary Well Wishes. DH and I didn't do anything special that day to celebrate, but we did acknowledge the milestone with special thoughts of our life together. As tacky as this sounds...he sent me a very special email recounting our life together and what it means to him. I was reading it while getting the boys ready for hockey and tears were developing in my eyes. Matthew looked over and asked why I was crying...I told him that I loved his father and he loved me. Matthew looked at me and said, "ok, whatever." Kids...got to love them :)

Well, we find ourselves at Friday - the last official day of the spring break (yes, we do have the weekend ahead of us, but I really don't consider that part of spring break). I did enjoy the time home with the kids...even though we still had evenings with hockey to run to. I did enjoy the opportunity to sleep in...but did jump out of bed this morning to get back into the routine as we do have some early morning things to attend to. 

Yes, it is Friday - which brings us the first day of Matthew's State Hockey Finals. His first game is today at 11am, but he has to be down in San Jose around 9:45am for warm-ups and stretching out. Yesterday I ironed on the letter "A" on his jerseys, for he has been chosen to be one of the assistant captains of his team - a special role. I wish the kids good luck! Go Tri-Valley Blue Devils Squirt A team...go Matthew!

Yes, it is Friday - which brings us to the day that Robert gets braces put on. I will be taking him to the ortho this morning (thus, missing Matthew's first state final's game); what a way to end Spring Break, huh? Well, this should have been done earlier...like way back in August so that we would have had most of the expense taken care of before DH was done with his current job (that is a subject for another post at another time).

And, yes, it is Friday - a day to show off some of my stitching to my blog friends. First up...I head from Lisa V, as she received the ornament I sent to her (Ornament Swap). Here is what I made for her:

I knew that she like snowmen and Prairie Schooler designs...so I stitched up this guy, using the colors it called for and Lakeside Linen (might be 32ct). I added a little Krienk Blending Filament to the snowflakes to put a little glitter on them...and then a little red flower button on the snowman's hat. It was a fun one to stitch up and finish.

Next, an update to my Mary Wigham...

I finished the flower motif (the one with a stem in GAST grape leaf and flowers in GAST berry cobbler) without frogging the little error and then went onto the squirrel motif and the little motifs around the squirrel. I am waiting to stitch the initial as per the pattern, because I am thinking about personalizing it with the initials of my family and maybe even the birth dates...but I want to finish stitching all the motifs first.

The squirrel area stitched up pretty quickly...so, I started the last motif on the top right-hand corner (not in either photo) - hoping to finish that this weekend before I have to put MW into hibernation on Monday. Monday is the day that I need to start kitting up two exchanges - Lizzie Kate and the Seasonal Exchange - for the upcoming trip to Washington D.C. I am going as a chaperon for Robert's 8th grade class. We leave next Wednesday at 3am in the morning...and I have a little organizing I need to do for that as soon as the weekend is over.

That is the Friday update, my blogging friends. This evening we are planning a Family dinner, something that we haven't done in awhile - thought it would be nice to grill up some meat and sit down as a way to end a relaxing spring break as well as have a little celebration of our Anniversary, a celebration of Robert's awesome 3rd quarter report card, a celebration of Matthew's hockey teams advance to state finals and just a celebration of what our life is - wonderfully blessed. 

I wish you a very happy Friday and may it be blessed with love, family and friends! Lisa

Still here and ready to share...

This weeks seems to be going by quickly - can't believe that my last post was last Friday; but it is holiday season and hockey season, so life has been a little crazy here in Durst Manor.

First (lets get a little hockey out of the way), last weekend was very trying for me - the mom/the wife. Robert (older son) participated in a special tryout, which was based on & for individual efforts vs. for a team (which to save you all from boredom, I will not try to explain the opportunity he was tryout for - just note that it was for a great opportunity, which he will have an opportunity to tryout for next year). Based on my note in the parenthesis, you probably guessed that he didn't get picked; however, he did get chosen as an "alternate" (to "fill a spot" if someone should not be able to go to the next round of tryouts the end of January).Let's just say that I had two sets of hurt male egos in my house - my upset child and my angry husband. After time and much consoling both, the house finally got to a "managable" level of emotion late Sunday evening. However, there really wasn't anyone here to console me so I did a little tear shed after everyone went to bed. I realized for the first time, that my children are getting to the age where things might not go their way and they will be sad, disappointed and "hurt"...the kind of "hurt" I will not be able to put a bandaid on it and "kiss & make better". This was a great learning and growing opportunity for us all.

Now for some "Show and Tell"....
I received an email from Heather saying that she received the ornament I stitched for her - for our personal ornament exchange; so without further ado, here is the ornament:

Lizzie Kate's "Chill Out"

Fabric: Lt. Blue Jobelean 28ct (?)

Thread: noted Gentle Arts or substitutions from stash

Stitched 1 over 1

(Heather posted a comment about how some designers seem to be creating designs that seem too large to be hung on the tree...so I decided to stitch 1 over 1 so that it would be "ornament size" LOL)

And...on the same day that Heather received mine, I received hers (perfect timing don't you think)

 

I tore into the package as quick as I could...isn't it adorable. It brought JOY to me and my Christmas tree! I love it! There is something special about hanging ornaments when they are handmade, especially from special stitching blogging friends!!!!

And here is a photo of both Heathers and Anglea P's ornaments I received for our personal ornament exchange hanging on my Christmas tree. Arn't they awesome!

I am so lucky and grateful for having participated with these women in an ornament exchange. Thank you!

One more day of work for me (I am off until January 4th, when the boys go back to school) and 1-1/2 days for the boys (they get out of school Friday at noon)...and then the holidays will really feel like they are here!

Thank you all for visiting. Hope your week is going well. Just remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!
Lisa

One Christmas Ornament Exchange Landed...

I heard from Angela P from Hooked on Stitches and she received the ornament I stitched for her...so I now get to show you one of the ornaments I was working on . This particular one is a Lizzie Kate Desgins "Deck the Halls" which I stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct light blue Linen (Jobelean?), using most of the Sampler Thread color called for (or similar colors from my stash if I didn't have the exact one). I used a 3" wooden hoop to finish it off, covering the hoop with green ruffles to look like a wreath...trying to keep with the "Deck the Halls" theme.

This week seems to have crept by slowly...thank goodness it is Thursday, which is like a Friday to me because I don't work tomorrow (Ya-hoo and "me" day). Yesterday I took Robert (older son) to the doctor because his cough he has had for several days seemed to be getting worse. Found out that it is bronchitis, for which we got some antibiotics. While in the dr. office, Robert got measured and he is officially as tall as me...and probably will surpass me very soon. Anyway...due to the outcome of the dr visit, we decided to keep him home from hockey practice (this was the first practice he has missed in a very long time) and he was able to get into bed around 8:30pm versus midnight if he went to practice (they had a late Wednesday night practice from 8:30-10pm...given that we live about 45 minutes from the rink and allowing time to switch out from hockey gear to street wear and then shower when arriving at home, it would have been very late).

Well, I won't keep you any longer - for I appreciate your visit and hope you do come again!

Remember...Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often! Lisa

 Happy December Everyone!

It is hard to believe that it is December already...but I guess we need to...BELIEVE that is. It is that time of the year to "believe in" and have "faith". The holiday time can be a good time for some and a difficult time for others. I hope that many of you can find a little bit of magic during this month to BELIEVE. For me, as mentioned many times, Holiday=Hockey tournaments, so while we do put up some holiday decoration (for both Chanukkah and Christmas...we are a dual holiday family) and enjoy the traditions & celebrations (8-days of Chanukkah due to the generocity of my side of the family and Christmas due to our own family traditions and DH's side of the family) much of the end of December will  be spent in a hockey rink.

 Well...last night I got to do a couple of Happy Dances!!! 

I finished the 2 ornaments I was struggling to finish. Unfortunately I cannot show them to you as they are for some personal exchanges.I plan on making a trip to the post office today after work so that I can get the ornaments and the RR in the mail before the Christmas rush starts to affect travel time.

Well...that is all for today! Have a good Tuesday and remember:

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often! Lisa

Don't forget to sign up for my Blogoversary Give-away...go to the bottom of the November 28th post to read about it and enter if you are interested in a $20 gift certificate to www.123stitch.com.

An apology...A Finish...An Weekend Hockey Update and a Blogoversary Giveaway

The title says it all, so let me start off with the apology! This goes out to Valerie of FogcityDweller...

"Valerie, my dear MW SAL partner, I didn't get a start on my MW as planned yesterday. I did spend Thursday evening, after our T-giving grilled meal, and got everything organized...just felt that I needed to get Sara's Friendship RR stitched so that I could get that in the mail in order to keep the RR's moving (as we are getting close to finishing it up)."

A Finish...Sara's Friendship RR
This week the mailperson delivered Sara's RR, and since many group members are getting antsy to finish this RR (as per "original" plan all the RR's should have been home by now).  I don't blame them, for I am anxious to get mine home and finished too (especially since I had to start over mid-way through) but life seems to get in the way of "orignial" plans most of the time. After getting all my MW supplies set up, I pulled out Sara's RR, picked my color and started to stitch my heart. I chose Threadworx Overdyed Floss #10342, which reminded me of the Fall colors on the trees outside right now (sorry about the blurry photo).

And here is the status of Sara's RR...

Now that it is completed I will be able to get it in the mail on Monday to the next person (Karen in AZ). Oh, yah...I have also finished stitching all the Christmas Ornaments for the couple of exchanges, but for some reason I have been fighting with my sewing machine during the finishing process...so I have taken a break from those; but will get back to them tomorrow evening probably (depending on what I need to do in preparation for back to school and work).

Weekend Hockey and Thanksgiving

As in some of my earlier posts, Thanksgiving holiday means hockey (the Regional Silver Sticks in San Jose, CA). Only Matthew's (youngest son) team is playing in this tournament. They have played 3 games as of this posting and have won all three. They have a game this evening and then probably the Semi-Finals & Champs (we hope) tomorrow. While most of the team families haven't been too keen on the schedule, due to having 3 very early morning games, it actually worked out nice for Thanksgiving. With a game at 8am, we were able to be back home for a noon Thanksgiving meal. Ours wasn't the traditional meal, for I each member of my family of 4 picked the protein of their choice out of the freezer (I had ordered a combo meat package from Omaha Steaks last month...pork steak, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, sole) and we fired up the grill. Aside from the proteins we had the mashed potatoes/gravy, Durst noodles, steamed green beans, mashed butternut squash and salad. Perfect size without any leftovers.

After awhile, with only us here in town, we have become grateful whenever we all are in town as we travel so much with both boys' travel hockey teams. It is a priceless moment when we can all sit down as a family at the table and have a meal - so even if we don't have a "traditional" turkey dinner for Thanksgiving, we have a wonderful Thanksgiving meal as a family. (Hopefully that all makes sense).

A Blogoversary Celebration and Giveaway

Happy Blog-o-versay to me...Happy Blog-o-versary to me!

Sorry, I just had to toot my own horn...LOL.

Today is my 1 year Blogoversary! Last October I found the blog community; spent a little over a month reading and commenting and finally on November 28, 2008 decided to start my own. Since then I have posted 179 times and have a following of 32 people. I have joined an RR with a group of wonderful women who I have come to know through their mailings and emailings. I have participated in the Year-Long Prairie Schooler Exchange and the Lizzie Kate Exchange, as well as several personal exchanges. I have met so many wonderful people by blogging and reading their blogs...now I cannot imagine my life without!

To celebrate and to show my appreciation, I have decided to host a Give-a-way....

And the Give-away prize is...

Drum Roll Please...

A $20 Gift Certificate to www.123stitch.com  

 To enter, just leave your name and email address in the comment section of this post only. If you want, you can spread the news, but it is not a requirement. I will let the sign ups go from now until Saturday, December 5. I will have one of my hockey playing sons pick the winner on Sunday, December 6 before they go to hockey practice.

Take care all...thank you for your support over the year and I am looking forward to our jouney together in the years to come!

Remember...Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch Often! Lisa