The past 3 months in 30 seconds...

September....

Mom and Dad headed up to Oregon for Dad's 50th high school reunion.  I joined them for the first leg of the journey (in the motorhome) and we stayed at Seal Beach for 4 days.  While there we....

Went to the Getty Center

Went to the Getty Villa (my personal favorite)

(you can sort of see the backside of mom 

through the glass - in the red shirt)

Went to the Queen Mary for dinner one evening

and Mom and I had afternoon tea another day

and we went to the Long Beach Aquarium

Annie and I then headed home for 3 weeks of bliss, I mean 3 weeks of uninterrupted studying.  Oh, I almost forgot (don't tell Shawn) but  a friend came out to see me from Chicago.  We did the Zoo, the Midway, a walking wine tasting tour of Temecula, Food Truck Friday dinner, and a quick tour of Balboa Park before he flew back to Chicago

The 'rents got home and 2 days later I headed up to Utah for the Shepherd's Bush Retreat.  The theme of the retreat was home for the holidays, and it really was home for me.  The ladies at the Bush were my family for the 4 years I lived in Ogden.  It felt great to be back with them, and Teri put me right to work.  Oh woe is me, what a hardship it was to have Paulette Stewart all to myself for half a day (extreme sarcasm there).  Poor Paulette had to put up with a borderline stalker fan picking her up from the airport and acting as chauffeur for the day.

Mindi and Paulette, picture "borrowed" from Plum Street Samplers

Mindi and Jill, with Midge and Gidge,
picture borrowed from Plum Street Samplers

Yes, if you look closely you can see I was wearing my budha pendant on the day I picked Paulette up and took her on a tour of the Temple grounds.  You can't visit SLC without stopping by, its beautiful.

From Utah I drove down to Arizona to meet my parents in Sedona.  For some reason I can't seem to find the gazillion pictures I took, except for the few on my phone.  Oh well, I guess they're on the camera memory card and didn't make it to Dropbox or Picasa.

"Eat more Beef" at one of the artist colonies in Sedona

Typical pose for Annie and Dad in the evening when motorhome camping.

I also got a chance to stop by The Attic to drop off some donations for their charity auction and drool over all the samplers on the walls.  I tried really hard to not look, my budget was already blown.

Early October I went to Las Vegas for my annual geek fest, otherwise known as the SOE Fan Faire.  Its really just a chance to see friends I only see once a year and to have some fun going out to dinner.  Not quite as much fun this year on an extremely limited budget, not to mention I haven't played my geek game (Everquest) in about 9 months.  But, it was good to see friends.

We went to the Mob Museum

Had a "Dark Dining" experience (that's Shawn with me)

No, those aren't bras on our heads, just fancy sleep masks.

Somewhere in all that I did some stitching, a few exchanges, a few finishes, and ripped out half the backyard to prep it for artificial turf.  Pictures on all that next post, if anyone still reads this blog.

Gather, Gobble, Give

Charlene posted posted a progress pic of her Gobble, and has already stitched Give.  I really love the colors she's chosen.  Anyway, she posted a link to my blog about my finished series, and it was driving me crazy trying to figure out where I has posted them.  Duh!  It was a blog header pic last autumn, so they never made it into the actual blog and received a label.  This post is more for my own peace of mind!

Plum Street Samplers Gather, Gobble, and Give
Stitched on 36 count HDF linen with HDF silks

The photo was definitely altered with some color effects and textures.  The 3 pieces are still unframed and un-finish finshed, hopefully waiting on mom to do some quilting magic and turn them into a wall hanging.  Maybe I'll gently prod her by picking out some fabrics and setting them on the sewing machine.

Hmm, maybe I should go pull Ghoul out of my supply of charts I brought with me....

Speaking of photo editing, I finally got brave enough to use Photoshop Elements (which I've had for a year now) and made my own custom blog header using different layers, textures and clipart.  On a different test blog (for my current eCommerce class), I came up with a custom blog background and a header.  Sorry, that blog is private since its a real business and I don't want people getting the test blog confused with the real business blog.  Its a lot of fun!

Cleaning up

This weekend was a clean-up weekend.  You know those projects that you're so close to being finished, but there's either a problem you don't feel like tackling, or you got disgusted with the project, or you just forgot about it?  I've been sorting through all my WIPs for my upcoming move, and I finally got down to the bottom of my basket.

I got one small project finished, so all the flosses could get filed back into the system.  Another project got enough progress that all it needs is filled in with one color, so yet more silks could get un-kitted.

Last thing was major.  I finished Birds of a Feather Happy Hearts Sampler back in 2008 (well really it was January 2 of 2009, but I'm saying it was a 2008 finish).  I was in a relationship at the time and totally in love with the guy.  Yep, I was an idiot and stitched our names on the sampler.  Not just stitched them, but charted the inside of the intertwined hearts with our names over 1 and then filled in around them.  You guess it, we broke up a few months later.

For years that sampler has sat in a pillowcase.  I totally loved it, except for our 2 names.  My mom tried to convince me to just leave it, arguing that we had some good times.  That's very true.  I have more good memories from that 9 month relationship than from my 2 year marriage.  Maybe that's why I still left his initials on the piece.  We actually still chat, so its not like I want to throw darts at a picture of him.  I got past that phase.

Anyway, this weekend I ripped out all that over 1 stitching, re-charted the 2 hearts, and re-stitched the inside of them.  I had to get this done before I leave Utah so I could get it into Jill for framing.  I had some very definite ideas of what I wanted done.  Think Venetian carnival style harlequin diamonds and small checkerboard.  You know Jill, she likes to layer things.  We had a blast today at her studio planning this one out.

Birds of a Feather Happy Hearts Sampler, stitched on 36 ct linen
with HDF silk

I was also able to get another ornament done for the Challenge.  Yep, more collages.  Almost as time-consuming as beaded edges.

Plum Street Samplers Yuletide ornament from the 2011 JCS ornament edition,
stitched on 36 ct linen with assorted overdyed cotton.