It was a finishing sort of day!

I spent most of the crafting time I had yesterday finishing off several projects. I love that feeling of getting things totally done. :-)

First up is the Thread Keep from Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers #38 - Summer Basket. I finished mine as a pin keep. I didn't take a snap of the backside but I used a really pretty BBD fabric that matches it perfectly.

Next up also from Blackbird Designs, is Loose Feathers #36, The Simple Things monogrammed pincushion. I LOVE the walnut base it's on - totally worth the price in my opinion. This is so far my favorite of the sewing accessories series.

Here are all the sewing accessories that have been provided for this year's Loose Feathers. According to Drema there are two to go in the current series and one I'm pretty sure one was supposed to be a bag to put all the stuff in. At least that was the information we got at the begining of the this series.Then I finished off the two ornaments I was working on as gifts. Yes, I'm late but better late than never! :-) They are from BBD (I see a theme here) from the 2008 Just Cross Stitch Ornament issue.

The last finish of the day was the sewing machine ornament I made for my sister. But I saw her last night and before I could think twice I gave it to her. I'm going to see her again today and I have already asked for a photo or to bring it with her so I can take the photo. I loved everyone's suggestions but the things I had on hand didn't match with the suggestions or because of the really weird size of the design just didn't look right. So I ended up taking my pincushion clamp I had been saving and covered it with the stitching. Now you won't know what I'm talking about until you see the photo but trust me, it's very cool. :-)

Now for the bad news, the reason I saw my sister yesterday and will again today is my mom is in the hospital again. In the late afternoon she started to have really bad stomach pains and we took her to emergency. Apparently she has another hernia in her stomach area that popped out. This is on a different side than the one that gave her all the trouble back in October. They pumped her full of drugs and tried to push it back it but that didn't work so today she is having surgery to correct it. Please keep her in your thoughts today.

House #11 finis

I finished up House #11 on the way home from work yesterday. Yeah! Only two blocks to go. I pulled all the silk I needed for #8 and the last block and will get going today. I spent most of last night going through my stash for my next project. I have four ready to go that cost me over $50 per project and a ton more that were less expensive. I think after I finish HoHRH, I want to go with something sorta smallish before I tackle one of the larger projects in my stash. And I would like to do some finishing work before I get too involved in those larger projects as they all are mostly projects with a ton of finishing (boxes, etc.). I have two Loose Feather projects that still need to be finished off that I would love to get to.

I have tomorrow and Friday off work (have an agility trial Friday, Saturday and Sunday) and I'm going to do some quilting. I have around 150 flying geese to finish up for my Thimbleberies Paint Box Stars quilt before I can start to assemble the blocks. Many of you will recognize this - an oldie but a goodie. I had been planning to make it for a man I was dating at the time but before I really got into the construction I realized that he was not "quilt worthy". :-) Yeah for me!
Here is the quilt I'm planing on next - I'm using an huge reproduction bird print in shades of taupe, teal and burgundy - it's very 1840's and it's from a collection that Harriott Hargrave put together called Birds and Basics. I attended a three day machine quilting class with her in Denver several years ago and just fell in love with reproduction fabrics. :-) It's from a book called Small Blocks, Stunning Quilts. Each one of those star blocks is only 3" square. I can't wait to get into it.

Here is the fabric in all it's glory. I loved it so much I bought 10 yards! I have enough for the stars quilt and one other I'm planning. I'll fussy cut it so the birds will go up each side and along the top.

There are a couple of other quilts from this book that are screaming out to me also. One is a log cabin quilt using 7/8 inch wide strips of fabric. I have already collected most of the fabrics that I need for that one. Over 16 yards in reproduction fat quarters! I love to just fondle them as they are so pretty.

almost!

My needles were smoking yesterday! Just the house to fill in and a little bird on top of one of the trees and this bad boy is finis! I'm pretty sure I going to move back up to House #8 rather than the very easy and quick last block. That way I'll just roll into the finish sometime in January. Only one month late. I think that is pretty good since I was thinking more like February or March. :-)

Then it is shopping in my stash time. :-)

it's a house!

I'm making fast work of House #11. I even dragged it to work today on the train in an effort to get this one done by Thursday. There is a chance I might make it!

I spent most of the weekend quilting but still don't have anything really to share. I did a few more blocks on an older JoAnn Fabrics block of the month quilt. I have two that I'm working on (and one already pieced and ready to be quilted) and as cheap as they are (and pre-cut) sometimes it's nice just to sit and piece. And they make great wedding gifts for all the nephews and nieces that I have. And I need one finished by March for a nephews wedding. I'd love to have all three that I own quilted and ready to go by then and I'll let him pick out which one he wants.

I'm also working on an older quilt from a Thimbleberries pattern using that line of fabric that was published about 6 or 7 years ago. It has over 300 flying geese in it so I've been just making geese for hours and hours and hours and haven't even begun to start putting the blocks together. But I wanted to get some practice in on geese because the quilt that I really want to be working on is a reproduction quilt with over 500 geese in it and I want those to be perfect hence the practice on this older quilt. And the geese for the new reproduction quilt are really small - 3/4" by 1.5 inches so there is no room for mistakes. :-) I finally have all the fabric that I need to get started but I'm making myself finish something old first. Such self control!

Merry Christmas!

From our house to yours have a great holiday!

and now for something completely different

The Houses of Hawk Run Hollow has returned! I started on House #11 yesterday and have made good progress. I still have House #8 and the last block to go but at least I'm back at it. I still need to finish my sister's Christmas gift and two ornaments but I should get there by Friday.

I decided that I really needed to finish up Houses before I start working on my Thistle Threads projects. I have further decided that 2010 needs to be the year of working on projects that I currently own. There will be a few exceptions like my BBD Loose Feathers and I'll let myself purchase things to complete something but for the most part I plan on working from my stash. We shall see how that goes. :-) I believe I have said this before. :-)

stockings and a gift

I finished up one BBD Stocking from last year's Just Cross Stitch mag and I'm almost finished with a second - these will be gifts. I need to make one for myself also as they are really cute!

Remember Maria from Florida, the kind lady that sent me a ton of Shepherd's Bush kits and charts back in the fall? I made her a little thank you for being so kind and she received it last week. I quilted her a little pin cushion and made her a scissor keep. She was very happy to get them. :-)

I'm way behind on everything right now. My Christmas cards still need to be mailed and I'm not done shopping. I have to figure out what I'm bringing for the Christmas potluck dinner my family always has every year and shop for that. And all I want to really do is quilt. :-) What I wouldn't give for a couple of days off work this week.

Sewing Machine finis

I started this little piece yesterday and just finished it up. It's from a really old issue of Cross Stitch and Country Crafts magazine. It was part of one of their stocking designs. My sister had a book from the publisher that had just the stockings in it and each page had some additional ideas from motifs taken from each stocking. This is from the Stitcher's Studio Stocking. She said if I was planning on stitching her something for Christmas she would love this. What a pain in the ass it was! I totally remember now why I stopped doing this sort of cross stitch - the kind with quarter stitches and three quarter stitches and top stitching on top of top stitching. :-)

It is suggested that it be a pin but my sister said no way she would rather have an ornament. But I'm not sure I want to do that either. I was thinking of maybe adding a quilted border from holiday fabrics and making a box lid and finishing off the box so she can use it to store stuff in. She is a crafter also and we always need more storage space. However I seem to think that I made her a box last year for Christmas with some sort of stitching on it so I hate to do the same thing two years in a row.

Any one have any other ideas? Maybe a pin keep? Or maybe a pin cushion with small quilted borders?

Twitter Bird finis

I finished up Twitter Bird last night. I did mine on 32 count Purely Primitive from Silkweavers using a Vikki Clayton premium silk called Tuscan Rose. Now onto the next one! :-) And this one is a gift so I need to get moving.

And now for my quilting friends. Santa has visiting the Fat Quarter Shop and he is giving something away to a deserving girl or boy. So hop on over the the Fat Quarter Shop's blog and check it out.

Dear Santa, this is what I want: Cinnamon 19th Century Reds fat quarters for all my reproduction quilts. Since I'm new to reproduction fabrics I hardly have any and I like colors that match your jolly red suit. :-)

another bird - almost

I have almost finished with my second bird from the Courtney Collection. I should finish by the time I get home tonight. :-) Both birds are on the large side for ornaments as most of mine from past years are are smaller - I should have done these over one. But they will still look nice on my tree. I need to get it out this year.

I like these so much I wish Courtney had been submitting birds for a long time. Not sure which ornament I'm going to start on next but I know I need to get the two done that are gifts. The problem is whenever I make an ornament as a gift, I like it so much I want to keep it. :-)

one down - ??? to go?

I finished up my first ornament of the season yesterday - it's a design called Turtle Dove from the Courtney Collection and was in the 2008 ornament issue from Just Cross Stitch. I did mine on an unknown laguna type linen using an unknown Vikki Clayton silk. I started work today on the 2009 ornament from the Courtney Collection - Twitter Blue. I'll post a photo tomorrow as I didn't get enough done this morning on the way into work to really show anything.

Over the weekend I did a bit of quilting. But again nothing to show. I went through my stash and pulled out three quilts that are in various stages of completion (all cut out and some blocks done). And managed to get some work done on two of them. I wish I had some time off from work in the next couple of weeks but I burned through all of my vacation time with my mom in Florida. Such a bummer - I know I could get a ton done if I had large stretches of time. The goal is to finish a couple of quilts before I go out and start spending $$$ on new fabrics. Which is really hard because I have some ideas for quilts and of course I don't have the correct fabric for. I drove up to a nice quilting store in Racine, WI on Saturday and spent at least an hour looking over all the new stuff. I fell in love with a line of fabric designed by the French General lady - it's in muted reds, greys and taupe. There is a quilt kit using those fabrics that I just have to have. Maybe in January I'll take the plunge. But as I said, I have at least a half a dozen other quilts ready to go or partially completed. And let's not even talk about the bin of completed tops that need to be sent out to be quilted. :-)

added the buttons!

I finished stitching the Big Zipper several months ago but I never added the ten buttons. Since I changed everything included linen, I could not use the big ones that came with all the kits. I ordered the replacements buttons right away but just got lazy and never put them on. Yesterday while going through my stash I came across the package and decided I needed to finish this bad boy off. So now it really is finished. :-)

Have a great weekend!

Evergreen finis

Evergreen Loose Feathers #17 - Design by Blackbird Designs

Recommended floss

32 count Silkweavers French Vanilla Swirl

I finished up Evergreen yesterday. I really pushed to finish it so I can move onto something else that excites me. I got a lot of really great advice yesterday on how to break my slump. I'm planning on going through my stash tonight and see what hits me the best. I do have a couple of gifts I need to work on and that might be why I'm not wanting to stitch as much. I'm not a fan of "have to stitch" but much prefer to stitch for my own pleasure. That might be the block.

It's official

I'm in a slump! I haven't put in one stitch in the evening in a week. I just don't feel like it. :-) But what I don't like is I'm not doing anything else except watching TV. I HATE just watching TV but it's seems like it's all I have the enthusiasm to do. I'm sure this will pass but I'm thinking if my desire to do my stitching is slowing down (as it does every couple of years or so) this would not be a good time to invest a ton of money into this hobby. So I'm rethinking my plans to join all three of the Thistle Threads university projects - especially since they cost $$$$ over the course of the three projects.

Of course this could change and I'll keep you posted. :-)

back to work

It was back to work for me today and I have to work the full week! That's a bummer when the last two have been only three days each. :-) The pugs are dragging from their long weekend at the trial and when I left for work this morning they had taken themselves back to bed already. Good thing I don't depend on them to earn our kibble. :-)

Here is my progress on Evergreen. About a third of the way done I think. I hope to have this finished by the weekend and then I need to get going on a couple of gifts and some ornaments for me.

Yeah for Aoife!

Aoife earned her very first AKC title on Saturday with a first place finish in Jumpers with Weaves! She was smoking. Today she competed at the open level and did great - it was a NQ but she was so fast! Clancy ended the trial also with a couple of NQ but he was very strong and fast and every trial I can see we are close to becoming consistent.

Back to work tomorrow for me - a good thing because four days of agility have worn me out.

a great day!

The pugs and I had a great day in Milwaukee! Clancy earned his first Excellent level Q - a first place no less! And he got a second place in Open Standard - only one more qualifying score and he will earn his Open Standard title. Then Aoife capped off the day with a first place in Novice Jumpers.

This is the first time in my three years of agility that any of my dogs got two Qs in one day. :-)

Yesterday Clancy was brilliant but one mistake in each of his runs kept him from the ribbons. And Aoife, well let's just say she had a good time. :-)

Two more days to go - I would LOVE to get a little more bling. :-)

good progress

I'm making really good progress I think considering I'm only working on this a couple of hours a day. And not much is going to happen for the next four days.

I'm going to be at one of my favorite agility trials of the year - Hounds for the Holidays in Milwaukee. Both Clancy and Aoife have a full schedule for all four days. My goals are a little more ambitious side this weekend. I'd love to get Clancy's Open Standard title - he still needs two legs. And I'd LOVE to get Aoife's Novice Jumpers title. She needs two also. But as always it's important to remember that matter what happens, I have the two best dogs in the world. :-) I should have lots of videos because I have a ton of friends there and we all pitch in to make sure that everyone gets all the videos they want.

Wish us luck! Hopefully I will be posting some blue ribbon photos over the next four days - I promised both pugs that they will be front and center if they earn some bling. :-)

Now it looks like something

Evergreen is progressing fast even though I didn't put a stitch in last night. I spent my evening looking at quilting books. :-)

Wintertide Sampler finis

Wintertide Sampler - design by Shepherd's Bush

32 Count Autumn Sunset linen from Silkweavers

Silks as charted

I finished up Wintertide Sampler over the weekend. I think it really turned out cute. It's amazing how the photos on these charts never do them justice. And I love working on band samplers. I have several more in my stash and I can't wait to get to them.

Over the past couple of weeks I've felt like getting out some quilting. After spending hours and hours looking at all the new stuff online and in stores, I went into my stash and pulled out some stuff that I have in progress. First up is a baby quilt that needed to be done 18 months ago as baby Ernie is now 18 months old. :-) And his little sister is due to arrive in January. :-) I don't even remember the inspiration for this top - I took bits and pieces from other patterns. It actually started out as a dog bed but when I was done it just looked so much like a baby quilt that I put it aside and picked out other fabrics for my dog bed. And I knew I would use it at some point as a baby quilt and many of my nephews and nieces are in that age group where they are having babies. I'm going to send this one out I think to be quilted as I'm not very good yet and very, very rusty in any case.

I have a couple of others that I think I'm going to work on the weekend's in the coming months. I must have a dozen or so that are kitted, cut out or partially sown together. And of course about a half dozen that are tops that need to be quilted. Some I put together just to practice my machine quilting skills. I think I'll take a stab at some of those also.

Here is my new start - Evergreen Loose Feathers #17 by Blackbird Designs. I love getting to these older Loose Feathers! This will be a Christmas pillow when I finished with it. I also have Peace on Earth ready to go. And I'm looking for Winter Delivery #5 and And To All A Good Night #11.

not much stitching going on

There hasn't been a lot of stitching going on. I've been sleeping on the train and at night, well, I just haven't felt the mojo. :-) I do hope to finish Wintertide Sampler before the day is out however. I have no plans to cook today and I'm still debating on whether or not I should take one of the seven offers for dinner today that have come my way. I would rather watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy (a Thanksgiving Day tradition for me) and eat a frozen cheese pizza. I have not had a cheese pizza for over a year now and I'm dying for one. :-) In my book, cheese pizza beats out turkey any day of the week!

Here is a series of photos from Aoife's last agility trial. I love to watch progression photos. :-) And I also loaded a ton more agility videos - the link to my YouTube account is to the left if you care to check them out. There is a really nice one of Clancy from our last outdoor trial of the season. He was booking. :-)

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

quiet weekend

I had a pretty quiet weekend and that's the way I wanted it. :-) I didn't much stitching done but I did get a lot of nice laying around done. I'm over half way finished with Wintertide Sampler and I hope to be finished by the weekend. No major plans for Thanksgiving. Just friends and family and I'm not cooking. And all the shopping I want to do on Friday is just for me. :-) I like that too!

Have a great week!

chilly

Here is Wintertide Sampler. I found an issue with this chart and while charted incorrectly (in my option), I really should have noticed it before I started stitching. The band right beneath the words, advent's nigh was charted one row shorter than it should have been so when I got the the g in nigh, the pulled work was right on it. And because it was a pulled row, I knew I could not take it out without the pulls showing. So I left it in. I'll be sure to watch for that sort of thing as I work through my stash of SB charts as I now have a ton of them. :-) Things like this drive me crazy.

The weather is firmly on the chilly side now and I have a feeling that winter proper is not far behind. And I still don't have a winter coat! Because of my weight loss, I have had to replace all my clothes and the coats have been left to last. But I need at least two - one for the days that get to a low of around 30 or so and a long down coat for the really cold days - the ones that are below zero. I'll start with the shorter one first and hopefully find a nice down one on sale. I'm thinking that the Thanksgiving sales might work out well for shopping. :-)

Quaker Heart finis

Quaker Heart - design by Shepherd's Bush

Recommended fibers

32 count Silkweavers Purely Primitive linen

Here is the finish photo for my Quaker Heart. I love how it turned out. I think I would like to make this into something rather than frame it but I don't know what yet. A heart shaped box would be pretty with this as the lid. :-)

Time to move my hoop on Wintertide Sampler. No time for stitching tonight as it's agility night and I need to go to work on some issues with both the pugs. :-)

That's my girl!

TWO first first place finishes for my Aoife! She was rocking over the weekend. I'm such a proud mom. She got a first place on Saturday in FAST (and by my figuring had the best FAST finish among all 78 dogs) and a first place on Sunday in Jumpers with Weaves. On her other four runs she was super fast but had a lot of consistency issues. It's mostly baby dog things and there is benefit to these things happening because now I know what to train and where our gaps are. Our next trial is December 3rd through the 6th. Both Aoife and Clancy have runs all four days. I have two and a half weeks to work on some stuff. It's kinda funny, right now it's the same sort of issues for both of them - weave pole entries and table issues. I sure hope she didn't learn these from him! :-)

I didn't have a ton of time for stitching but here is my new start - Wintertide Sampler from Shepherd's Bush. I LOVE to work on band samplers but I had forgotten how much. Kinda like I forgot how much I love to stitch Shepherd's Bush pieces. This is going to go quick I think. Last night I took some time to go through my stash and look for holiday/winter pieces. I want to make a couple of pillows for my couch like I have for fall/Halloween and make a ton of ornaments. I'll start on everything I pulled out when this is finished. I'm in the mood for winter stuff. :-) Because of all the money I'll be spending on my Thistle Threads University pieces next year I'll be pulling from my stash a lot in the coming months. But that's a good thing - I love everything in my stash that is ready to go. :-) And I'm excited to get to some of them.

I did finish Quaker Heart last Friday but never had time to take a final photo. I'll post it tomorrow for sure. :-)

Almost

I'm almost finished with Quaker Heart - there is a really funny looking jog on the outline of the heart that I wish I would have seen before I got to it. I would have "fixed" it before I got that far. To my eye it looks like I made a mistake but I stitched it the way it was charted. It's driving me crazy but here is no way I'm going to pull out as much stitching that I would need to fix it. I'll just have to figure out a way to live with it. I would have finished it last night but we had to take my mom back to the hospital. :-( I'll finish up on the way home from work but I didn't bring a backup project so I'll be napping for sure.

As I mentioned Mom went back to the hospital for a couple of hours last night. She started to throw up in the afternoon and when I got home from work my dad was in a tizzy. I called my sister and we very quickly decided not to mess around at all. My sister called a family friend who is a doctor with one of the local hospitals and he agreed to take over her care. So we spent a couple of hours while they pumped her full of fluids. Her blood work was ok but more tests are coming. They sent her home but we should know more today about what is going on.

This weekend Aoife and I have her second agility trial. This one is Saturday and Sunday so we have six chances for a ribbon. Wish us luck! We are going to need it, between vacations and my mom we have done almost no training and are very rusty. My goals are very simple for the weekend. Just have fun with my dog and be proud of her no matter what.

Have a great weekend! I hope to get caught up with blog reading this weekend. But with the hundreds of posts I have to read I think there is little chance of that.

Here is my progress on Quaker Heart - it's moving along nicely. I need to start back on my Houses of Hawk Run Hollow soon. If I push hard I know I can have it done by the end of the year as planned. I also want to start on some ornaments both for gifts and for me. I didn't make myself a single one last year and I'd like to make up for it this year. I only liked a couple from this year's Just Cross Stitch issue but I have many from past years that I still want to do.

Did you see this? It's the Thistle Threads Online University for Historic Embroidery Techniques. I have been wanted to learn how to do this sort embroidery for some time now. I have to admit I went a little crazy and signed up for all three. That is my stitching budget for an entire year! But I can't wait to get started. :-)

Thanks for all the commiseration over the wedding video. My friend Peggy does have a geek friend who is going to take a look at it. When I did further research I kept reading that if you manage to pull a deleted file from the hard drive, it doesn't play correctly. My video recorder records with a 16:9 ratio and if the files can be finagled off the drive they always show up in 4:3 ratio which squishes the video. But I figure at least we will have something to work with and maybe find some sort of file conversion program that will move it back to 16:9. At least I have a glimmer of hope at this point.

a lousy couple of days

I started on Quaker Heart by Shepherd's Bush before I left Jamacia but didn't get much done. This is going to go quick I think.

I got back into town late Monday evening. And nothing has gone right - starting from my first flight home. At the airport in Montego Bay, airport security didn't like the size of my Dovos so they confiscated my favorite and most expensive pair of scissors. I'm heartbroke over it. But I figure just because they were fine for US security they would be ok for everyone else. Far from it. And they didn't have a system in place to send them to me like TSA has here. They are just gone.

Then I worked from home on Tuesday and the bucket full of work waiting me was huge. As of now, I really haven't even made that much of a dent in it.

But here is the real killer - before I started work on Tuesday I needed to download the video I took of the wedding last Saturday. I wanted to get it to my friend Peggy before my work day started. I had a ton of old agility videos on it and I wanted to clean it up before I uploaded to YouTube. I already have a feeling that many of you know where this is going. Somehow when I was scrolling through the videos, I went from the oldest to the newest and I accidentally deleted the wedding. My video camera is a pretty new JVC and it has a hard drive. According to all the information I have been able to find both from the manuals and online, once you delete something from the hard drive on this model it's gone forever. But I did try to load several recovery programs and none of them could recover the video. I'm just sick over it. It was the only video the bride and groom had. Then a couple of hours later I was cleaning up my hard drive on my laptop and guess what? I deleted all my photos! Not only from my photo file but also from the recycle bin. I'm still trying to figure out how that happened. All my stitching not to mention pug photos are gone. Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed.

As The Crow Flies finis

As the Crow Flies - design by Stone & Thread

Recommended fibers

32 count Silkweavers Days Gone By

I finished up As the Crow Flies today while sitting at the pool. Such a pretty day. The wedding is tonight and I'll be getting ready shortly. It's on the beach and we watched a different wedding yesterday and it was so pretty so I'm sure Katie's will be just as beautiful. :-) I love the dress I brought and I'll make sure to post a photo of me and the Mother of the Bride (my friend Peggy).

Where I'm spending my Days

I made it! This is where I'll be spending the next few days. :-) I should have a stitching update soon. I'm almost finished with my crow project.

a new start

I really didn't feel like stitching on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow so I went through my stash and pulled out this guy! It's As the Crow Flies from Stone & Thread. I've had a couple of charts from this designer for over a year now and this is the first I've done. I really like it and it's a nice change of pace from what I've been stitching lately. I plan on taking this and a couple of Shepherd's Bush kits along with me on vacation. Speaking of vacation, I have a ton to do at work - way more to do than I have hours and I need to cook more before I leave so Mom has lots of good, healthy food to eat while I'm gone. My Dad considers canned soup a meal but right now Mom needs much more than that. I spent most of the weekend making meals and freezing them and I'll try to cook a bit more tonight or tomorrow. And I have to find time to pack. Right now I don't know how I'll get it all done. Oh and I have agility class with the pugs tomorrow also.

Thanks for all the lovely birthday wishes! I had a great one even if I felt a bit like Cinderella with all the cooking and cleaning I had to do. :-)

Happy Halloween!

Halloween - design by La-D-Da

28 count natural linen - one over one

Weeks Dye Works Floss

I finished up Halloween last night. Talk about quick! I wish I still had some time to get these on my spooky tree but my mind is already turning toward my Christmas ornaments. I didn't get many done for myself last year (did I even get any done?) and I've already made a list of what I what to finish. I also want to do a couple of pillows for the couch and that means I need to get going. For the rest of the weekend I'll start on my next block on HoHRH and work out what I want to do for my train rides and what I want to take on vacation.

Today is my birthday but because of my mom I don't have any plans. Usually I have dinner arrangements with family and friends but never had time to get anything together this year. So I'll just stay home a stitch with the pugs. :-) That will be as much fun. My poor babies didn't even get a party this year because I was in Orlando when I needed to be sewing. They were going to be pirates also. Next year for sure.