I think Spring might be just around the corner...

Well, somehow we've managed to escape this year, without our usual St. Patrick's Day storm. It seems we almost always get one last storm, around the 17th, but not so this year! Hurrah! Today was above zero, sunny and you can smell spring in the air. After all, it is "officially spring" now, so I guess it's time. The snow is slowly going down, water is a-trickling down the sides of the streets...

Imagine my surprise this morning, when I received this lovely dish garden from my brother and sister-in-law who are currently vacationing in Florida. Tomorrow is my birthday, so this was an early gift! It is lovely and now sits on the kitchen table - I pitched out the scraggly poinsettia- it was time for it to go!

I should be showing you pics of my stocking in progress but you're going to have to wait another day or two. I have accomplished very little this week- it seems sometimes life just gets in the way! This has been a very busy and stressful week for Laura and of course, that always seems to involve me, somehow. She had 100 things to do for the first Grad event this week- Casino Night, so we've both been all over town, picking up prizes, etc. Yesterday I counted and rolled probably $500,000.00 - in Monopoly money, that is! Each Grad was given a roll of $5,000.00 when they arrived, and could purchase more if they wished. They played Casino games for 2 hours, then took their winnings to the Auction to bid on all the prizes - and there were some fine prizes too! The big one was the Prom package- including a free Tux rental, Spa and tanning services, corsage and bouttoniere, restaurant gift certificate, etc. etc. It was great fun, but we're both glad it's over. She had projects due this week, a costume fitting at 8a.m. today at Kings Landing, not to mention MAJOR deadlines looming for Yearbook. On top of all this, she found out on Wednesday that she was chosen to be the one applicant for her High School, for a major scholarship...which was wonderful but meant she had an essay to write on Wednesday night... so it's been quite a week. She works all day tomorrow and Sunday at Kings Landing at their annual "Sugarbush Weekend". She loves it, but I think she's ready to collapse into bed exhausted. I think it will be early to bed tonight. Why do things seem to all pile up at once???

Anywhoooo...I haven't gotten much stitching done. Because I work all over the stocking, not just in one area, I don't have much for pics yet. So thought I would share several of my stitch "samplers"' with you. I take one stitch and experiment with it - what happens if you stretch it out? stack it? layer it? reverse it ? etc. I'll share more of these with you, as I go on. Here today are the Buttonhole and the Chain stitches - these are mainly just the basic stitch and then variations of the stitch. It's a good exercise, and then when I'm working on a CQ piece, I can refer to them for ideas... I WILL be showing you my progress on the stocking SOON. I'm teaching a 2 day CQ class next weekend, so am determined to make swift progress in the next few days...

Piece,

Linda

"You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you." — Maya Angelou