It was lost...now it is found!

OMG...it is amazing with all the stash I have, all the WIPs,  the stack of projects I have waiting to kit up and start, new samplers on their way...there has been this nagging feeling of an UFO - I project that was started years ago...a round robin that I shared with wonderful women all over the world - my Friendship Sampler (by Carriage House Samplings).

It's been a project that I have been searching for in my closet, in my semi-sortof-organized stitching corner, for months...probably even years.

Over the summer I remember taking everything out of my closet. Stacked it up on my bed; going through it; organizing stitching magazines that dated back to 1989; categorizing DMC and other floss as well as fabric. 

I could not, for the life of me find this round robin project. It was making me sick. Not only was the stitched piece MIA, but the little booklet that traveled along with the piece where everyone wrote wonderful things about themselves. I knew it had to be here, but after months of search and no luck of finding, I gave up. Chalked it up to being trashed or left behind some where.

However, today, while packing for Chicago - another hockey tournament weekend - I was looking for a cute pair of boots I knew were hiding in the depths of my closet. And lo' n' behold I found this:

A see-through zipper bag...a stitched piece...patterns...floss...Could it be, the Friendship Sampler?

YES!

YES!

YES!

OMG - Tears of happiness!

I found it! I found it! I am so happy and excited to have found this piece! It was in the strangest of places, so it is by luck that I stumbled upon it!

And the traveling journal was there too! I am so relieved! 

So, of course this is going in to my stitching bag I am taking to Chicago!

Until next time, take care and remember...

Live, Laugh, Love and Stitch Often!

Lisa

End of the week

Finish each day and be done with it.

You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can.

Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is Friday -

yahoo! And it has been a long, long time since I have had a Friday off...off of work, off without children in the house, off without any expectation from others to do "their things".

I can't report that I have done too much relaxing or anything really exciting - but I did sleep in until 6:30am (by mistake, as I didn't hear my 4:30am exercise call), I did go into *The Store* at 9:00am (I had an appointment with an advertising guy for DH & I need to start making our marketing plans for *Our Business*), I did go home at 9:30am and clean the bottom floor of our house (something that has needed to be done for quite awhile) and at 12:30pm, I was able to veg out on the stationary bike for a couple of hours while catching up on facebook, emails, reading/commenting on blogs and writing this new post.

Thank you -

I was so excited to read the comments on my last post - for thanks to all the offers to add hearts to my Friendship Sampler. I will be emailing those of you who offered to get your snail mail...what a fun way to complete this project :)

Last night -

I had to take Matthew (younger son) down to the hockey rink, but not for ice practice...his team was scheduled for "off-ice" conditioning. It is one of those things which I know is necessary for him to do and to be there to do, but it is hard to swallow the driving to and from the rink for the hour activitiy (it took almost an hour to get to the rink last night and 45 minutes to get home). However, once at the rink, I used my time wisely. I decided to sit in my car and stitch on Family Sampler...so with the car engine off and the battery on so that I could listen to the radio and turn on the over head light, I stitched...

I stitched for a little over an hour, while Matthew was out in the parking lot with his team - running ladders, jumping on big truck tires, shooting into a hockey net, etc. Just as they started to pick up the equipment to help their coach put everything away...the radio died and the overhead light went out...the car battery was dead. Yikes! Thank goodness that many of the hockey dads were out watching their kids, for I was able to catch their attention to "jump my car" to "give it the spark of life" again. It didn't take much to revive it, and we were on our way back home. How embarrassing :) Next time I decide to stitch in my car, I will bring one of those little battery operated stitching lights and use my ipod & headphones!

BTW...I was only able to stitch that floating leaf above the house in that time period. I was going to stitch the leaves on the tree, to the left of the house, but I realized that I never stitched all the branches...and the over head light in the car really doesn't give enough light to see very well. Oh, well...at least I was able to put the needle to the thread for a bit last night!

Well, my friends, time to end this for the day. Take care and remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa

Opt-ing out and UN-subscribing

YOU HAVE MAIL...

Has your email inbox become like your 'snail-mail-box'...filled with junk email? While I do actually get a lot of my communication from family and friends via email, much of the other stuff has been sale-emails, advertisement-emails, junk-emails...basically unwanted clutter. So, for the last 5 days I have been going through all my emails (carefully, for I make sure that none of it is viral) and "clicking" on the unsubscribe or opt-out button. Little by little, my inbox has had fewer "unopened" notices from the companies I do not wish to hear from in the last few days; but it is interesting to note how many times it takes to go through the unsubscribe process for some companies. While they claim it takes 10 days for the request to take place, they continue to litter your box with more ads - so I continue to go through the unsubscribe process again & again in hopes that I finally do not hear from them.

Stitching Update...
Well, aside from that minor new year's resolution of cleaning up my inbox clutter, I don't have much to report on my Stitching. Yet, while I was able to stitch on a few leaves onto the left-hand side tree of my Family Sampler while at the hockey rink on Tuesday evening, it isn't enough to show at this time. I am hoping to get some time today or tomorrow so that I have some progress to "show and tell".

Speaking about stitching and my goals...in a comment on my last post, Julie said that she would be willing to stitch a heart on my sampler...and she has the pattern. I was kind of thinking of asking some of you if you would be interested in helping me finish - the thought about having a piece of needlework with stitches from my RR group and many of you...well, it would be priceless...but I felt funny about it...anyway, Julie I would be honored to send my Friendship Sampler out to you so that you can add to a heart. Thank you so much for offering - I will get it in the mail today or tomorrow. If anyone else out there would like to help, let me know.

Last night's activity...

Last night, the hockey carpool was driving, so I was able to have a hockey free evening...however, due to one of our employees having to take the night off, DH asked if I could come in after dropping Robert off at the carpool pick up location, which is very close to *The Store*. When I first got there, there was an arrangement that needed to be made so DH could get it delievered before 7pm, it was...

Once it was made and wrapped, he left. With no more orders to produce for the day, I busied myself with the clean up procedure so that the kitchen would be ready for Thursday morning. There wasn't much to clean up, except for empting the trash, sweeping up and mopping the floor. Once done, my thoughts turned to the condition of our house...I wish my house was as clean as the kitchen in *The Store*. Oh, well...I know that if I wasn't at *The Store* I would have planted myself on the couch and stitched, so nothing would have been getting cleaned up last night :)

Tonight - I will be back at the rink with Matthew who has "dryland" or, also known as "off-ice" conditioning, with his team. They do some running, pushups, jumping rope and other conditioning activities outside in the parking lot of the rink. Thank goodness we live in California - even though the temps have been a little chilly (we have been waking up to temps in the 30s and heavy frost on the green hills; it does warm up to the low 50s by the afternoon), there isn't too many places where you could do outdoor activities in January at night without wearing heavy winter outer ware.

Well, that is enough for today my friends. I hope that the first week of the new year has been going well for you. Until next time...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch Often,

Lisa

PS...Melanie R, do you have a blog for I would love to read it...please let me know.

Christmas Eve day....

As promised, above is a photo of my Friendship Sampler RR, which has "officially" come home after all the wonderful ladies in the group have stitched their heart on it. For those of you who aren't aware of the history of this...here is the short version:

Friendship Sampler by Carriage House Samplings
 (the photo from the insert in the pattern)

January 2009, a group of 18 women sign up for a "round-robin" which was organized by a wonderful woman named Sara, who collected the names/addresses, created a mailing list and sent out monthly emails to make sure that we were stitching and mailing. Each of us purchased the Friendship Sampler by Carriage House Samplings, fabric of our choice and stitched the first heart before sending it to the person next on the list...then stitching on a member's RR and sending it to the next woman on the mailing list, etc...until everyone received their RR back with hearts stitched by all the members of the round robin.

February 2009, the end of the month was the first mail date...after we stitched the first heart on our own we all packaged up our RR and sent it to the next person on the list. Each of us has some sort of special instructions regarding how we wanted ours to be stitched (some wanted only reds, others blue, several neutral colors or just a request to stitch as per the pattern). The first 4 months seem to go well, but by the summer time two of the RRs were missing at one of the member's houses and we never heard back from her again. One of those was mine. While the other member decided to withdraw from the RR in frustration, I decided to purchase more fabric and start all over (that is why mine was the last to make its way home!). After being re-introduced in the group again, my RR travelled pretty quickly for a while, but again during the summer of 2010 it lost a little momentum. Some of the members got busy with life, which caused some of the delay; and sometimes it was just that it took awhile to swim across the ocean.

Nevertheless...it is home...and it contains all the hearts, names and home state/countries of those women who stitched on it. Now, I just need to add the last remaining hearts to finish it up :)

Well, it is Christmas Eve...
What are your plans for this evening? What traditions do you have in your household?

When I was a little girl...my family would go to St. Louis, Missouri where my grandparents lived to spend Christmas - something that was a little unorthodox for a Jewish family. But my grandparents loved Christmas and passed on the spirit of Christmas to me and my sisters. Our tradition was to go out to dinner on Christmas Eve, was to drive to my great-grandmother's house (she was my grandmother's mother and also lived in St. Louis), where we would enjoy a buffet of all sorts of food - meatballs,cookies, brownies and rice krispie cookies (I am sure that there were other things on the food table, but those were the things that I remembered the most). After everyone was stuffed, my sisters and I would put on our Santa hats and pass out presents to all the adults...for this was the night of the Adult's Christmas, our Christmas was the next morning when Santa came. For a long time, I believed in Santa...and felt that since Adults stopped believing that they had to celebrate their own Christmas on the Eve and purchase things for eachother. The kids, on the other hand, believed in Santa and were treated to the magic of Christmas the next day (assuming that we were good).

When my boys were younger...our Christmas Eves were spent at home: DH, myself and the boys. After a nice, quiet meal the boys and I would sit down and work on their Christmas letters to Santa (a little late, but they were young at the time that this tradition started). Under the Christmas tree was bare, until the "day of", so in their young minds they still had time to draw and write their wishes.

Today...our Christmas Eve seems to have evolved into almost another day at home. However, given our crazy schedule this week, it will be a nice quiet day at home for the boys - a "sleep-in-late-stay-in-your-pajama-day"...they have had hockey activities all week up to today - this is the first day without. But while they get to sleep in, I will be going into *The Store* with DH as we continue to work with our wonderful employees creating fruit arrangements for delivery and pick up today. Over 175 were created yesterday and we do have more to do today. In the evening, though, I am planning to come back home and fire up the grill for cheeseburgers and Italian sausages...something that the boys requested to do this holiday break, but we haven't had the time to do. So, I thought that this would be the perfect evening to do such a meal. I am hoping, that while *The Store* is open tomorrow until noon, that since we have no deliveries taking place on Christmas Day that DH can come home early and enjoy a sit down meal with the family.

Well, whatever the tradition you have in your household - I hope that you have a wonderful evening filled with lots of love and laughter!

Take care and remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa

The joy of brightening other lives, bearing each others' burdens, easing other's loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of Christmas. ~W.C. Jones

Somedays look the same

I'm up and spinning on this dark and rainy Wednesday morning. At 3:45am, the only thing on the tv to view is a repeat of the Jay Leno show...but the morning Early Today show will be on in 15 minutes. My days piseem to be running together during this Winter Break, with only little variations here and there...and I am just trying to keep focused on the "now" while trying to put a little planning of the future into the day.

The typical days I have experienced so far consist of getting up (hopefully early enough to get in my "drug of  choice" of a 2 hour-sweat-producing-stationary bike sping), showering & dressing, jumping in the car and heading over to *The Business* with DH. While he works on printing off any last minute orders for the day, I get the kitchen area ready to produce fruit arrangements and prep the strawberries (which are used in the arrangement plain or dipped in chocolate). Soon, our wonderful employees come in and start prepping the other fruit - melons, pineapple, grapes, apples, and oranges. Soon, there becomes a fruity chocolate aroma in the kitchen. Once the fruit is prepped, enough to make the number of arrangments for the morning, all the work stations are cleaned off and set up for production. Around 10am, the magic begins with hope that the mornings orders are wrapped and in the refrigerator quickly so that the drivers can begin their part.

The last few days, I have been able to put in morning hours until about 10am, then I have raced home to get the boys ready for a day of hockey clinic and practices. They have been pretty good about getting themselves up, fed and packed up before I get home. Then it is off to the rink for about 5-6 hours.

I have read some of my friend's posts about their kids getting out of school for the Winter Break, and within a few hours complain that they are bored...I guess I am blessed with all the activity as my kids don't have enough time to complain...and, while they are actually loving all their hockey activities & not being able to sleep in...they are welcoming Christmas Eve as a day "without" hockey so they can sleep in and have a "pajama" day. I am sure that with all the activities, a "pajama day" will feel good for them!

It is a crazy schedule, which many of you have commented on...and I am getting tired...and wish that I could have a day at home to clean the house and get caught up on all those things that I typically do when the boys' have school off and we are home. But, it doesn't look like I will have much of a chance for that this break. And I do need to find sometime to make the Chocolate Krinkle cookies that are tradition in our household - it is the cookie that we leave out for Santa. Maybe I will be able to get that done this evening after we get back from the rink????

Some exciting news on the stitching front...as you know I received my Friendship Sampler RR back around the first of November. However, since there was one more RR member that needed to stitch her heart on it, so I sent it out to her last week...and guess what...it arrived back here on Monday...it now is complete with every members' heart stitched on it. FINALLY, after almost two years - the RR started with the first round on February 15, 2009 - my RR is home; the last one to make the journey back! It is beautiful...I promise to get a photo of it posted very, very soon!

Well, that is it from rainy California! Hopefully Santa has an umbrella, 'cuz it looks like it will be a rainy Christmas here in California1

Take care, my friends, and remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa

November 19...It is Friday! It is Friday! Yahoo!

It is Friday...that means that the weekend is here!
It is Friday, Nov. 19...that means that I am getting ready to fly to Arizona with Matthew!
It is Friday, Nov. 19...that means Thanksgiving break begins (no school, time off of my job, 10 days to spend with the family).

It is nice that MY Thanksgiving break starts with a little weekend in Arizona...in a hotel where the housekeepers make the beds, straighten up the bathroom, take away the dirty towels and bring clean ones. It will be a short mental vacation, where I only have to make sure that Matthew eats well and gets to the rink on time (and since I am sharing a car with another family I don't even need to worry about driving); where I can show up at the rink and watch Matthew play (for I am not the team manager and therefore do not have any team responsiblities) and where I can pull out my stitching or a book because it is the weekend of my mental vacation :)

Honors Evening at Middle School...Congrats to Matthew!
Last night, was honors evening at Matthew's middle school. That is the night where the school honors the 3.0's and above. This year, with the new principal at the school, it was done much differently - more of a "free-for-all". For a comparison...when Robert (older son) was in middle school, The kids would line up in alphabetical order in 3 sections: (1) those with a 3.0-3.49, (2) those with a 3.5-3.99, and (3) those with a 4.0 had the honor of sitting on the stage. Each group was acknowledged by their achievement when handed their certificate.

THIS year, there was no stage...all the kids sat together on either side of a podium...in fact the 6th graders sat in such a way that girls were on one side of the podium and boys were on the other. When it came time to hand out the certificates, they were handed out in the order that the kids came through the door and checked in at the front desk...the school was so worried about having a child present when they called out the name, that the missed an opportunity to acknowledge the academic achievement of the kids. Well, I guess they did "half-a$$" explain that "if Academic Excellence is read before we announce the child's name, then they were a 4.0 student for 1st quarter".  Ok, so the first 50 kids that came up and received their certificate, there might have been some 4.0s in that group and the parents weren't aware of it.

I know...on an evening where my child was excited about his accomplishment of earning a 4.0, I shouldn't let the way the event was handled bum me out...but it is hard to; especially when so many teachers are upset about the way kids are handling homework - either turning it in late, not completed or not at all. So when you have kids that are conscientious about getting their homework complete and turned in (even if that means staying up late because they have hockey practice and don't get home until late). Make an example of those kids who are acomplishing the "basics" of school work; honor those kids who are taking school & their education seriously...maybe those who aren't will see these role models, know that it is achieveable and try for the goal of "Academic Excellence" next time. Oh, well, enough said...now for the official bragging photo:


Matthew receiving his certificate of Academic Excellence - a 4.0 1st quarter of 6th grade

 Mailperson left something in my mailbox...
February 15, 2009...the day 18 women from the US, Canada and The Netherlands, stitched the first heart and sent their sampler to the next person on the list...is basically over as far as this Round Robin is concerned. Yesterday, my Friendship Sampler came home for a brief visit (more on that in a moment).

My Friendship Sampler...94% complete

It is so exciting to have this here that I didn't even bother ironing it before I took the photo to show you all this lovely piece. Now, it is here only for a moment...the last woman to stitch her hear has a summer and a winter residence; and since I know that it would be ready to be mailed while she was in transition between the two places, I thought it best if it would come here and then I would send it out to her when she got settled in her winter place.  Pretty exciting to have it in my hands!

News from Robert and the Medicine Hat Hockey Hounds Tournament...
Robert and his team arrived safely on Wednesday evening in to Calgary. They were picked up by the Hilton Garden Inn airport shuttle service - the whole group at one time - and were greeted by a warm pizza buffet upon checking in. On Thursday morning, after enjoying the free breakfast, they all packed up and boarded the bus at 10:30am to start their 3 hour journey to Medicine Hat. Before checking into their hotel in MedHat, they stopped at Tim Hortons (where else would you stop when you go to Canada, eh?). Known for their doughnuts and coffee - Robert txt'd that he did enjoy a chocolate doughnut with his BLT and hot soup.

They got checked into the hotel and took time to get settled into their rooms (thank you Medicine Hat Lodge for arranging early check in) before they had to switch into their game day dress clothes (shirt, tie, dress pants, dress shoes) and head to the rink for their first game of the tournament...it was not a pretty one. They played a team called Nortre Dame, which I believe is a hockey team from a Canadian boarding school of the same name. The final score was 16-0...the San Jose Jr. Sharks were on the loosing end of the score. During a call to home, Robert said that the whole team didn't play well in the 1st...maybe it was due to being travel worn? But he also said that the whole team just didn't compete well with the team from Canada...for they were faster, strongers and took advantage of every mistake that the Jr. Sharks made (which was a lot).

Their next game is this morning and they are playing a team from Kamloops Canada. Good luck Sharks! Play hard!

Until next time...from Arizona...have a good Friday and remember -

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa

Good news on a Monday evening

My Friendship RR has made it back to the US from The Netherlands. Remember the Friendship Sampler RR? The round robin started February 15, 2009...which I had to start over and re-introduce another in July of 2009? Well, I had thought it might have been lost again for many of the women who participated in this group had received theirs back months ago...it was a round robin that should have been completed by the first of the year that seemed to go on and on and on; basically because life tends to get in the way of the best made plans. But anyway, tonight I received an email from Danielle who received it this afternoon...and there are only 1-2 more women after her to stitch their heart on it. So, it should be home before the holidays...right? My fingers are crossed - and toes too :)

Well, it is Monday evening and I did promise you a status photo of The Family Sampler...so, here it is:

Yes, I was able to make it up to the house, getting in all the windows...a little bit of the greenery...a start on the lamp posts...and some of the walls. It is coming along. This is such a fun project to stitch. As I stitched the date, I thought that this would be a wonderful anniversary present to DH and I for next April we will be celebrating our 20th Wedding Anniversary. I know that is still 6 months away...so that gives me plenty of time to get this stitched and framed :)

Today I worked on getting things ready for our upcoming trip for the boys' hockey tournament. It is one thing trying to get one's family ready to travel, but it is another to make sure that all the "i's" are dotted and "t's" are crossed for a whole hockey team of 14 year olds - - - but as a team manager, something that I have done for the last 7 years, I pretty much have this down to a science. Although, preparation for each travel tournament typically brings with it some sort of challenge or stressfull moment. Like not having an "official" signed roster or purchasing last minute tickets to a team event or worrying about making the plane flight home when the championship game is planned late Sunday afternoon (guess we will tackle that one when and if it occurs). Never a dull moment. I do plan to bring my camera and a laptop so that I can blog over the weekend....oh, but this is just Monday. I guess I still have some days to organize and pack.

Well, since I am just a rambling on, I will end this post for today. I hope your week has started out on a good note...like mine...and will continue to go well. Just remember...

Take a deep breathe,

Decide to enjoy life,

And cross a few X's!

Lisa