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I am VERY proud to announce that I've finished another project on my StRIP list!
At around 3 AM this morning, I secured the last button on JABC's Jingle All The Way. It is stitched on 18 ct Christmas Red Softana (Thanks again, Michelle!) with GAST in Shutter Green, Blue Spruce and Brandy. It will become an ornament for our Christmas tree!
I have two new finishes to report! It's true! I promise! hehehe
I'm a member of Tranquil Stitches and we just started out second "Mini Mystery Exchange". The first one was the Tiny Tuck Exchange, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
This time, our "assignment" was to stitch a piece for a little keychain. I received the honor of stitching one for Shirl, the owner of Tranquil Stitches. Shirl loves samplers, so I chose a "When this you see, remember me" design for her. She's already received the finished keychain, so I can post pics.
This past Saturday, I decided to stitch on the first UFO/WIP that caught my eye. My eye landed on Waxing Moon's You're My Sunshine. It was my first time to stitch on 32 count and/or opalescent fabric, and using the three strands called for in the directions, I had become discouraged. When I set it aside, I'd only finished about a fourth of the border.
However, when I picked it up again, I found it a joy to work on. Three short evenings later, it was done!
I think I'm done updating my blog for the night. That means it's time to work on JABC's Jingle All The Way. Good night, everyone!
Just when I thought my birthday was over, the fun continued :-)
After a slight shipping glitch, my mom was able to present me with my last birthday present from her. She gave me an awesome (and furry!) micro bead pillow, with a matching eyemask. Of course, both items are purple! I have to fight with my kids for the pillow, but they know the mask is not to be touched, except by me. I love both!
Then, just over a week ago, a package shows up at my house, from Down Sunshine Lane. Now I knew I hadn't ordered anything, so I was really puzzled as to what was in the envelope. To my extreme delight, sweet Jorja had sent me a Stitchaholic T-shirt! I love it and have already worn it several times. Even Steven agrees that it's very fitting! Thank you, Jorja!!!
This past Thursday, a package showed up from my oldest and dearest friend, Matt. We met when I was in junior high, as his dad was one of my teachers. We've been friends ever since. Matt is currently living in Hawaii and we all miss him like crazy. Thank heavens for email & phones! Matt spoiled me rotten with LOTS of Hawaii goodies! He knows my weakness for good Kona coffee and sent me three bags, along with Hawaiian tea, lotions, chocolate covered Kona coffee beans and some mad money. Now I simply HAVE to go stash shopping...darn...LOL! Thank you, Matt!!!
And, last but not least, I will soon have the fabric for Stoney Creek's The Lord's Prayer...all thanks to Sandy! She is truly a gem and a fabulous cross stitch designer to boot! She knew I was despairing over no longer being able to obtain this rather large (but odd-sized) cut of fabric from Silkweaver and gifted me with it for my birthday. Thank you, Sandy!
I've done some shopping with my birthday (& babysitting) money, but I'm also hoarding the majority of it until something calls to me. I have some ideas of what I might want to purchase, but I want to wait until something "talks" to me ;-) So the fun can continue until the stash money runs out...woohoo!
We had a wonderful Easter weekend!
On Good Friday, my mom took my kids to a nearby park while I ran some last-minute errands. After those were done, it was back to my house for some Easter fun!
We made a bunny cake, yarn "baskets" (which need some work...LOL), dyed eggs and ate entirely too much candy. Oh, we did eat dinner, but only to justify eating so many sweets...LOL
Saturday, my mom came over again :-) There was more eating, game playing and ummm, eating. The poor bunny cake lost his ears...hehe
Here are some pics!
Andrew, my handsome young man, on a slide at the park...
Annemarie, my beautiful blonde, on the balance beam...
Olivia, my beautiful brunette, on the monkey bars...
And last, but not least, my mom's fabulous bunny cake...
I must say, 30 isn't all that bad...at least not day itself...LOL
The morning of my birthday, Steven headed off to work, with plans to meet up with the rest of us for lunch. At 11:17 AM (the time I was born), my mom rang the doorbell and was immediately attacked by her grandchildren...hehe From home, we headed to one of my favorite restaurants, Summer Palace.
They had a great table set up for us, and while we were waiting for Steven, my in-laws and grandmother-in-law to arrive, my mom & Andrew headed back out to her car. They returned carrying my cake, balloons and a big bag of presents & party decor. Pretty soon, the table was all decked out for a party! And the cake...all I can say is WOW!
Once everyone arrived, it was present time! My children gave me "30th Birthday" themed gifts, including a magic wand (supposed to make me younger), a beaded necklace and a coffee mug. My in-laws gave me two wonderful books by different Christian authors. Steven had me order some cross stitch goodies and I'll be picking out a new griddle. He's so good about honoring my wishes for practical gifts, although he does occasionally sneak in a great surprise. My mom had already already given me with some "mad money" for a recent out-of-town trip and she'd ordered the curtains I'd picked out for my living room. At my party, however, she surprised me with a STUNNING Brighton organizer, to replace the wallet I've been carrying for 12 years. She knows I would never treat myself to something so wonderful and she picked out the perfect one for me! She had also tucked $30 into the wallet ($1 for every year) and had printed off oodles of family pictures, for me to put in my wallet. I was spoiled rotten and I loved every minute of it!
After presents, we ate and ate and ate. Did I mention that Summer Palace has the most fabulous Chinese buffet? All the traditional favorites, including several seafood dishes. Yum! None of us had any room for cake, so it came home with us.
Once lunch was over, everyone headed off to work and my mom, the kids and I headed for the mall. My mom wanted to take me to the Brighton store, to look at some other wallets. She wanted to make absolutely certain that I was happy with the one she picked out and I was. While we were there, I treated everyone to Cherry Limeades from my favorite little ice cream shop in the mall. They were delicious!
After a quick stop at my mom's house to pick up some things, we all came back to my house. We lounged around, talked, watched the kids on their bikes and such until Steven arrived home. He cooked for us that evening...all the fixings for yummy burritos. After we ate, we finally had cake and ice cream. We were all stuffed and vowed never to eat so much again (yeah, like that will happen...LOL).
We also played a couple board games and it was after 10 PM before my mom called it a night. We were all falling asleep at that point. It was a fabulous, fun-filled day...exactly what I wanted!
A little sidenote to the presents from Olivia's party...hehe
Andrew & Annemarie decided that they wanted to give Olivia her crab, but they gave us permission to pick it out. In keeping with the Little Mermaid theme, her new crab is named "Sebastian".
Of course, Steven still didn't have a crab at this point, so we purchased two new ones. Steven's happens to be a female, which finally has a name, "Boo". Suffice it to say, he wouldn't go for "Ariel"...lol "Boo" originally started out as "Blue", because her shell is painted that color. However, we know they do change shells every so often, so Steven shortened it to "Boo".
Now, to recap, we have (in the order they joined our family) "Hermie", "Two Claws", "Shelly" (our other female), "Sebastian" and "Boo". Our second crab ever, "Crabby", perished after a "shell fight" with "Two Claws".
A while back, after her first molt, Shelly abandoned her pretty little spiral shell, in favor of a "normal" round shell. Since then, she has molted again, just a few days after Two Claws decided to molt. Now, all three of our oldest crabs have been through at least one successful molt while in our care. Yay!
The two newest crabs have settled in nicely and now that there are five of them in one tank, we're noticing more activity overall. Everything we've read says they thrive in groups.
We gave them all a bath on Saturday night and really enjoyed watching them run around in the water. On Sunday morning, I peeked into the tank to see what they were up to and found that Two Claws abandoned his shell in favor of Shelly's original shell (the pretty spiral-shaped one). Now, Shelly has changed shells once and Two Claws has completed his second exchange. It gives a whole new meaning to the term "shell game"...LOL
I simply must remember to take some pics of them the next time my mom is here with her digital camera. They're alot of fun to watch and play with.
Oh my, it's been nearly 2 weeks since I posted to my blog. Amazing how the time goes so quickly.
Here goes my attempt to bring everyone up to speed on life in the Harris household.
March 24th was my baby's 5th birthday. I still find it difficult to believe that Olivia is 5! Where did the time go?
As much as I didn't want to, Steven & I had to leave her on her birthday. We dropped all three kids off at my mom's house and headed for Dallas. Steven's company hosts a regional meeting each March and it's a do-not-miss event. As for the kids, I knew they would have a blast with their Mum Mum ;-)
My weekend was wonderful all the way around. Steven sat in meetings during the day and I ran around shopping (a little) and enjoying some quiet time in our lovely hotel room. I can't remember the last time I lounged in bed, watched TV & read a book, all at the same time. We also ate out both nights, once at On the Border and the next evening at Medieval Times, courtesy of the company.
On Sunday, we were up bright and early and on the road home. We made several stops along the way, arriving home at 1 pm. We spent the next two hours finalizing preparations for Olivia's party, which was at 3 pm on Sunday afternoon. Her chosen party theme was The Little Mermaid. Here is a pic of the partygoers, cake, balloons, etc. It was a great party, with LOTS of Ariel-related presents.
Back row, l to r: Meme (my grandma-in-law, Ann), Me, Steven, Nana (my MIL, Martha) and Paw Paw (my FIL, Ray)
Middle row, l to r: Lindsay (niece) and Andrew (son)
Front row, l to r: Katelynn (niece), Olivia (daughter), Mitchell (nephew), Annemarie (daughter) and Mum Mum (my mom, Mickey)
The few days following the party were a blur as we all tried to get back into our normal routines. It's amazing how one weekend trip and a party can disrupt everything when you're a stay-at-home-mom...LOL
This past Thursday and Friday, I enjoyed the pleasure of babysitting two of my nephews, Mitchell & Malachi. Mitchell is nearly 4 and Malachi is 6-months-old. They're awesome little boys.
On Saturday, Steven spent a good amount of time doing yard work. He dug a trench between our walkway and driveway, which will eventually become a stepping stone path connecting the two. We chose to dig out a path, which will add some sand & gravel to, for drainage. The we'll place the stones and some topsoil. After that, we'll be planting some ground cover to fill in the spaces around the stones and install some solar-powered walkway lights. We also planted some seeds in two of our planters. I can't wait for everything to be finished and/or blooming!
As for today, there's not much going on. I'm enjoying some quiet time here at home, while the older two kids do their schoolwork and my youngest enjoys a movie.
Tomorrow, however, will be fun! Tomorrow...I turn 30! Ack! LOL
I'm looking forward to lunch with my hubby & kids, my mom, my in-laws and my grandmother-in-law at one of my favorite restaurants. After that, who knows? Perhaps a quiet afternoon of stitching? I'm also eagerly awaiting the arrival of my new living room curtains, which my mom ordered for me as my birthday present. They're so pretty!
Okay, I think that's it from my end...for now, anyways. Hopefully, my next update will be much shorter...LOL
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