France, Finishing, & Farms....

A hodgepodge of updates

1) My son is a "Frog"! okay not really, besides if so he'd really be a tadpole :) (bad Sammie humor, what do you expect??) His class studied France this year (did you know stained glass and the hot air balloon were invented in France?). On their last day each class performs songs from the country they studied for the school and parents. Here are some pix from last Wednesday's "Morning of Arts & Culture" from The Montessori Academy of Lancaster.... in pre-school handmade berets! :)

2) I'm done! It's over! WOOHOO to me.... one cross-stitch project that is. Dad's insignia piece is now at the framer's and should be on his way to him next month. Merry Christmas and Happy Father's Day you instigator! :) (PS- I spared you the big American flag frame Aaron wanted to put on it to remind you of your job! hehe)

3) These little piggies went to market... yesterday was the first day of our town's new Farmer's Market. It's small right now, but will grow quickly. Some stands ran out of products by 9:30! Everything sold at this market has to be produce no more than 30 miles from the town... We're LOCAVORES! we got some great pies, breads, grass fed meats, and yummy yummy tomatoes and strawberries.... I need to find a good vegetarian cookbook that describes different veggies and how to cook them, so we can experiment this summer... Aaron went around yesterday proudly telling everyone that he's going "vetrenarian" and "vegiturium"... Love him! It was neat to be out with the community, since we are usually in the store during town events like this. Some of our regular customers, even let us cut them in line at the stands, since they knew we had to get the store open by nine :)

4) In other news..... This is the week Aaron is taking his first "solo" trip. He and Todd are driving to Pittsburgh to meet his Papa, then he's off to Cleveland for the week... mom is going to be soooo lonely BUT also enjoy a few afternoon and nights of fluff reading and crafting! .... I had my follow up visit at my doctor's office... the good news is the back problem is not bone or disk related... just chronic muscle problems that I aggravated, and I'll continue to have lower back problems for the rest of my life... phew! I'll be taking a yoga class this summer to learn some more stretching I can do for it (and a belly dancing class... the best thing for a two left footed chunky gal like me!)... My garden is growing, SLOWLY. I killed our strawberry plants, a sage plant, and a tomato plant. Not too bad considering this is the first time ever I've attempted to grow anything. I did replace the strawberry plants with one that already had two small berries growing on it, so we'll see if I have any success in actually harvesting something other than leaves!...in store news- we're changing things around again! (SHOCK!) We bought 3 more bookcases, and will be shifting and expanding non-fiction this week (yep, that would be the same non-fiction section we culled down in January)

It's a Doggie Dog World...

For Mother's Day my boys took me to the local dog show.. of course we had to get there early to see the Rodesian Ridgebacks... below are shots of our adventures at the ring with the hounds (shocking to see how a well behaved dog couldbe... we don't have any experience with those!)

After seeing the Ridgebacks, we browsed the other rings, and did some shopping. PAris and Penny got new beds for their crates, some new chewies. Aaron picked out a racood furry squeaky toy for Paris. We now play "EEK! There's a Racoon In the House" and PAris loves saving us from the evil critter... of course he also sleeps with it it! He may be old, but he's a luv puppy at heart :)

Personal Beeswax...

Not mine!

Aaron and I went to see a show based on 4 of the JunieB Jones' books on Saturday. Aaron had been to plays before, but this is the first time with me. I LOVED it! He got so excited, that by the end he was dancing inthe aisle... he was the only one, so I silently slouched down in my chair shaking my head... but hey! it's great that a 5 year old loves musicals that much!

RETREAT...

... AND GET STRESS FREE! Okay, so it's impossible for a triple-Type A like me to be completely stress-free, but this comes close!This was one of the best weekend of my adult life! I spent 48 with fellow stitchers of every ilk (knitters, crocheters, needlepointers, cross-stitchers, and quilts) and guess what I did... STITCHED!

It was a weekend retreat sponsored by MANRA (Mid-Atlantic Needle shop Retailers) in Gettysburg. Here's my weekend run-down:

Friday... took a leisurley drive through southern PA while listening to some NPR podcasts. Arrived around 1ish, checked in at the retreat, and joined a table of shop owners for about several hours of stitching... now a side note: I have several projects in the works, most are gifts or a special secret one for the store, THEN last weekend mom brought me a very very special chart (a Hollins seal chart, that I remember buying 20+ years ago with my grandmother when I first started cross- stitching), so I was completely torn about what to bring with me. Both Todd and Aaron said I should bring the Hollins chart, and I did. So I started that on Friday (had to frog a bunch, cause I can't count!)... so anyway, I checked into my room at 3, then went back down to stitch some more, came up to refresh at 5, and joined a new table of ladies from Sterling VA for our evening activities (one is working on a gorgeous 2'x2.5' nativity scene). We had wine and heavy hors d'ourvres. Then had a 2 hour presentation by Doug Kreinik, showing us all their awesome metallic and silk threads, and all the great things that can be done with them. Inspiration struck me, and lets just say that my Hollins Seal is going to have a splash of sparkle! (just like me!!) We also got a kit with lots of Kreinik threads, so I'll be sharing my wealth with fellow stitcher friends :)

Saturday.... a Continental breakfast and lots of stitching... I joined my new friends again, one of which was teaching the two classes I was scheduled to take that day. So after about 3 hours of stitching I took my first class.... beginning crochet. I had taught myself from a book, and wanted to make sure i knew what I was doing.. well I was doing just about everything wrong.. but now I know, and I can start to make pretty things! after a quick deli lunch, I met with C again and she walked me through knitting a project I have (it's a secret... you'll see it here when it is done and presented to the recipient). She taught me to knit English style (I'd been doing a
wonky Continental), and now I totally "get" purling :) ... so a few more hours of stitching and a nice sit down dinner rounded out the day...

Sunday... I couldn't sleep on Sunday morning, I was too excited.... not to be going home (sorry honey!), but to stitch for a few more hours before packing up and checking out. Below are pictures from the weekend and my new BA-WIP (Big A$$ Work In Progress).

PS- anyone in the MD, DC, or Southern PA region... go to Keep Me in Stitches... these are the nicest shop owners (myself excluded, or course) that I've ever met!!!