Happy Spring

In Northern California, spring time seemed to arrive a few weeks ago as all the flowering trees have looked like the one above - like someone had hot glued white pom-poms...or on the ones that have pink blossoms: pink pom-poms. In our neighborhood, all the trees seem to blossom at different times - so some of the streets have trees that have lost their blossoms and area already dressed in their summer leaves...but down the street from our house the trees just puffed out with their floral dresses, so we get to enjoy the colors. In addition to the trees, there are a lot of wild flowers that bloom on the hill side.

There are even wild California Poppies (the state flower) that show up. These are fun to watch, because they open their pedals in the morning and in the evening they close up. Also on the hill is some wild sweet clover that blooms in yellow and some purple...which is a beautiful contrast to the green of the grass. Nature certainally stitches a beautiful spring picture! But we have to enjoy it now! In about 2 months everything will be brown due to the lack of water. Here we have 2 seasons: green and brown!

This week we have been enjoying out evenings at home for the most part. Since Robert (older son) hockey season came to an end, we haven't had to drive down the San Jose for hockey practices for him. He has, though, started up with school track - which practices are after school. And even though Matthew (younger son) still has hockey practice, they take place at a rink near the house - so don't have to travel very far for those. So this has given us a change to rest & relax and catch up on life.

However, DH came home from the crazy hockey weekend with a very bad cold/cough - so I have been playing nurse: making sure that he rests (he has been coming home early from work to nap - which has upset my afternoon routine), gets plenty of liquids (I made some chicken soup for him to have for dinner), and has been taking his med (a combo of Sudafed and Mucinex). Little by little he is recouperating and therefore I am getting my afternoons back, which I found are good napping times because I have been feeling drained lately.

However, I do have some stitching finishes and an update to talk about (and will show photos soon):

1. Ornament Exchange - I have not only finished the ornament for Lisa V, but got it in the mail to her. So as soon as it lands in Australia I will post a photo of that finish.
2. Gift for Sister - I finish stitching "A Walk in the Park" and have mounted it on a little wooden cigar box. I just need to photograph it and get it in the mail. I am not sure if she reads my blog on a regular basis...but just to play it safe, I think I will wait until she receives it to post a photo
3. An Update - Mary Wigham came out of hibernation and I have put some stitching in last night. It felt so good to put needle/thread to the project, that I couldn't put it down...the desire to stitch was greater than my drive to exercise last night and stitching won...so I sat on my stitching butt and stitched.

Well, that is all the updates I have for you today. I hope to have some stitching photos soon to share with you the finishes listed above and an update on Mary. In the meantime, remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Dublin..........(Dublin, California that is)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

On the day where we find a little Irish in all, I hope a little luck find each and everyone of you!

St. Patrick's Day, back when I was in school, always brought out the meanies...if you didn't wear green you got pinched. And some of those pinches left black-and-blue marks for the next couple of days. Not quite festive for this holiday :)

At work we are having a St. Patrick's Day Pancake Party. I am part of the "A" team (A stands for Activity) and we plan a fun activity about once a month. People in the office have fun doing these and the lady who had headed up this committee, has been doing if for quite awhile and has things so organized that they really don't take too much work to do. I decided to participate as much as I can (for I only work part-time) in a way to get to know more people in the office and get involved. It has paid off.

I am finishing up my ornament exchange piece, which is a good thing because it has to travel "down under"...so I am hoping to getting it all finished over the weekend and sent. Keep your fingers crossed.

In the meantime, stay tuned for information regarding a PIF. Got to get a few things organized before I post it :)

Take care...and watch out for Leprechans! Lisa

January Ornament Swap received...now I get to show you the finish :)

I found out that my ornament I sent to Sharon for our 2010 Ornament Swap was received, so I get to share with you another finish - yahoo! I am so glad that she received it and likes it. Sharon now has 5 new ornaments to adorn her Christmas tree in 11 months (didn't we just take down the tree?).

The ornament was a design from the 2009 JCS Ornament issue. In the magazine, it was stitched all in white, but I decided to use some hand dyed fabric (I used blue food coloring and it turned a pinky/lavendar...go figure) and stitch it in a red theme. I used varigated reds as well as adding some Krenik blending filament in red. It was a fun stitch!

Looking at the calendar it is hard to believe that January is just about over. Next month both boys have a hockey tournament...in two different places during the same weekend. DH will be travelling with Matthew (younger son) to Phoenix and I will be travelling with Robert (older son) to Pittsburgh. It has been a while since we all have had to travel at one time - but that is the life of our hockey family. Any readers in Pittsburgh? When I travel for these activities, it is fun to see if there are any blog friends in the cities we visit for hockey tournaments.

Well...not much else going on...so I will end this posting for now. Hope everyone is having a good week!

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

Happy New Year (one day late)

Happy New Year to all. I hope that everyone was able to celebrate the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 in some fashion. Ours was a very quiet one, for we are in the middle of another hockey tournament, so we had just come back from Matthew's (younger son) hockey game Thursday late afternoon, had a little dinner, played a little family game, enjoyed our 9pm (celebrated the New Year on the East Coast) and then stared the bed time routine. I think that we all were in bed around 10:30pm.

As the saying goes...

EAT

SLEEP

HOCKEY

And that is about all we have done since December 27th...some days we even repeated that list a second time if there were 2 games or 2 hockey events in one day. But there are worse things in life that we could be doing.

2010 Goals and Projects

I haven't had much of a chance to read many blogs lately, but those I have read have started posting their goals and projects for 2010. One of my main goal (which unfortunately at the rink yesterday I broke) is to cut my sugar consumption down and eventually cut it out all together. What I am referring to is the large amount of candy and sugared gum I consume, especially when I am sitting around at the rink or at work. It is in those kinds of solutions where I am either "bored" or "focus" and just need something for my mouth to do - like chew. Unfortunately sugarless gums contain a faux sweetner called sorbitol, which I seem to be sensitive to and causes a lot of discomfort after I chew several pieces of gum. There have been many studies in health magazines, which say chewing gum can help you think or chewing a piece of gum after a meal as a dessert will help you know the meal is over and you will eat less. The problem with me is I go through a lot of bubble gum in one sitting...so I need to remember "everything in moderation" is ok.

That is one goal as it pertains to eating; another related goal is to work on adding weights, sit ups and push ups to my exercise routine.

And stitching...I would like to or have signed up for:

1. Finish MW by the end of the year

2. 2010 Ornament Exchange/Swap

3. Keep exchange signs up managable - continue with L*K

4. Finish Friendship RR - stitching on the remaining RRs and then as soon as mine gets back, finish it!

5. Continue to model stitch for CindyMae

I think those are nice simple goals to have - I am sure that I will have other projects that come up over the course of the year, but these are the ones that I would like to focus on!

I know that there should be other "life style" goals I should have that would cover family (extended and nuclear), financial goals and marriage. To cover all of those, I think stop procrastinating would definitely help in all facets of life.

In Closing...

I though I would add that above sub-title so those who skimmed the above, knew when I was getting ready to finish this post :) I have been working on MW when I allow myself to sit. I have finished another motif and started on another. I am planning to finish it and then post another photo Sunday as a closing to the week and the holiday break. I have 2 exchanges to get done and send out before the end of the month - one is the 2010 OSE (aka Ornament Swap Exchange) and the other is Round 3 of L*K. I also received a new pattern from CindyMae, which I am looking forward to stitching. It is a counterpart to "Catnap"...so those who are dog people stay tuned!

Have a great Saturday! Take care and remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch Often! Lisa