More (not quite) mischief

The first thing that has changed with having Toby around is my wake up time. He's ready to get going around 4 am and I'm ready to get going around 8 am. (That's what unemployment will do for you...) So we've compromised at 6 am. I get up, get dressed and we go for an hours walk. This is good because I'm getting an hour of exercise in every day, and more exercise is more calories burned. Hurrah for burning calories! (I do continue to go to the gym in the afternoon/evenings.)

Toby telling me he's done playing outside and is ready to go back inside.  I couldn't tempt him to come down and play with the rope toy or the tennis balls anymore.

Playing tug-of-war with Brother B.  Toby will destroy a rope toy in a day or two.  We hide them from him when we aren't playing with him and give him a rawhide or nylabone to chew on when we're not playing.

I've been hanging out at the travel agency where the gal who helped me with the Italian/Greece trip works and loving it.  I've helped hunt down hotel rooms in Australia and Tahiti for clients.  I've research Italian bus trips for April, Baltic cruises for July, and German river cruises for September.  I've helped search for a cruise itinerary for some clients who had some specific ports they wanted to see and have generally loved every minute of it.  Too bad it isn't paid.  I've learned quite a bit about what it takes to do travel.  Too bad I don't have any substantial experience to get a position as a travel person for a larger company, nor do I have a client base to open up shop and do it on my own.  I stay there for about 4 or so hours a day in the mornings, and spend the afternoons looking for jobs in accounting.  (I do have a small nibble on a staff accounting job this upcoming week, but there really isn't much to report on it right now.  I need prayers and luck!)

Saturday evening was my high school's 20 year reunion.  I didn't go.  I went to Las Vegas instead.  You see, my favorite band was doing a show and I could either pay $50 for the dinner at the reunion, or $50 tickets to see the band.  The band won.

Saturday started early, around 5:10 am when my alarm went off and it was time to get up and get dressed for my Temple shift.  I was looking forward to getting back to the service, but less the wake up time.  My shift ended at 11:00 am and I rushed home, threw everything I needed into a bag and was out the door, in the car for the 6 hour drive south.  I had my camera with me and was feeling photography, so I took some pictures.  I will say that I pretty much help up the camera and pressed the button with out paying any attention to what was in the frame.  I was paying more attention to keeping on the straight roads.

I liked the look of the clouds more than anything. Big puffy rain clouds.

More clouds.

Clouds that are starting to look dark (to the left).

Storm clouds for sure.

Nice straight road... with rain clouds.

More straight road and more rain clouds.

So... Along this stretch of freeway the speed limit is typically 75 miles per hour.  There are a few sections of the road where you can go 80 miles per hour.  It's a speed demons dream, and I like to go fast.  The Fed Ex truck on the left was doing about 60 mph in an 80 mph zone.  This is not unexpected as the grade is actually up hill and he's pulling a fair load.  What is unexpected is the white Olds.  It is doing 61 mph in the 80 zone.  That's right.  Slow poke is trying to pass the truck at 1 mph faster than the truck is going.  Say it with me now.... ARRRRRRRGH!!  By the time we had eventually gotten around the truck, we were no longer in the 80 mph zone, there was a HUGE pile up of cars behind me, and white car DID NOT pull over to the right once he'd passed the truck!  Say it with me now.... ARRRRRRRGH!!  I believe that driving is not something you do passively.  You have to pay attention and keep an eye out on everything that's going on around you that includes behind you and on either side.  This guy was definitely not paying attention. I would have pulled his license if I could have.

Target vs. Wal-Mart.  Go Target Go!

More clouds and more scrubby central Utah landscape.

Starting to get into red rock country.

The hills to the left are igneous rock.  I think they are cool to look at.

Igneous rock in the foreground with sandstone/red rock mesa's in the background.

More red rock.  It's a sedimentary formation.

Red rock hills on the way into St. George.

A nice example of stratification and tectonic upheaval in the virgin river gorge.  And then I gave up with picture taking because I was into Nevada and the landscape is truly stark.

I think I must have gone through a time portal or something because it only took five hours to get to Las Vegas when it normally takes about six hours.  Yes, I am taking into account the time change between Utah and Nevada.  I was happy to arrive early because that meant that Retro Bakery was still open and so I picked up a half dozen of these beauties:

Oh baby!  And as a bonus, they were at a reduced price since it was quite close to closing time for them.  Amazing cupcakes for cheap!  Sweet!  Since I was so early, I went to my Aunt and Uncles house and dropped of my stuff.  We watched Olympic volleyball and ate dinner before it was time for me to wander off to the casino where the concert was going to be held.  I tell you, Nevada drivers are crazy when it comes to getting around the strip.  Cutting in, and getting out of line, and all sorts of bad driving behavior.  I was glad to finally make it into the parking garage and off of the streets.

Since I arrived late, I missed most of Cracker's set.  But that was okay, I didn't come to see them.  I had some nice tickets.  Fifth row balcony on the aisle.  I was pleased with my view. And since it was aisle, when the tall people with seats in front of me arrived, I was able to move so that I could see around them with out encroaching on anyone's space.

This is during the take down of Cracker's equipment and setting up of Big Head Todd and the Monsters set.  On the screen to the left and right of the stage is information about texting in a message to the screens that then scrolls along the bottom of the screen.  It was fun to watch the scroll.  I didn't text anything in, but thought about saying something like... "Better than my 20 yr hs reunion."

Big Head Todd and the Monsters played 7 or 8 songs.  Of those songs I recognized 2 songs that where theirs, and 1 song that they did a cover of.  The cover was of LMFAO's Sexy and I know it (or whatever it's called.)  They did it up with a blues riff and the crowed pretty much went nuts.

Next up was Blues Traveler.  They also did at set of 7 or 8 songs and I recognized 4 of their songs.  They were mixing it up with old stuff and then stuff off of an album that is due to come out sometime soon.  Their lead is an amazing harmonica player.  I did enjoy their set and the new stuff sounded good.

Here's a picture of the stage (a bit zoomed in) as they set up for the Barenaked Ladies, the band I came to see.  I enjoyed my seats in that I could also see off into the wings of the stage and see what the techs and roadies were up to.  I do love to see how things work.

The Ladies pulled off a great show.  It was a good mix of old a new cuts, big hits and lesser known songs.  They seem to have adjusted pretty well since the departure of Steven Page, but I felt he was really missed on some of the songs.  There was only one song that I didn't know, but they announced that it was new music.  I liked it, hopefully it'll be on the next album.  They did a lot of the usual stuff, an impromptu song, a song tease mix (where they squish lyrics from current songs together, usually done mostly a capella with one of the guys doing a beat box to keep time), a couple of songs 'unplugged', goofy dancing, and dodging the underwear, stuffed monkeys, and kraft dinner the crowd threw on stage.  I smiled, danced, and sang right along (but not too loud).

When it was over, it back in the car to Uncle N and Aunt J's house and finally some sleep.  For those of you keeping track, I got up at 5 am Utah time.  I got back to their house and to bed about 2:15 am Utah time.  Missing a 24 hour day by about 3 hours.  Good thing I didn't have to be up nearly so early today.

No stitching for me this past week.  Been busy with checking out the travel agency and walking the dog and all that good stuff.  Hopefully I'll get back to it next week.  I'm close to finishing off the first installment of the L*K mystery sampler, and I think the second part is due to be released pretty soon.  But most of all, I need a job.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

Can anyone tell me how to get the text description of the photo in the border? I've been using the text hash tag and putting it anywhere that I think will work and not having any luck. Thanks!

What I got up to July 16 - 22

I don't think my title is proper English, but I don't care. I should know better than to let a couple of weeks go by with out posting because it gets hard to get all caught up again. An further more, if I don't blog, I don't take pictures of my stitching!

Speaking of stitching, I worked away on the L*K mystery sampler for a few hours here an there. No picture, because I'm a lazy bones, but it's coming together nicely. LMS took a look at my satin stitching on it and said I was too critical and it looked fine, so I guess I'll leave it where it is. I'm glad she said it was fine because I really wasn't looking forward to ripping all that stitching out.

We has crafty stitchy night on the 18th. LMS and LBH came over as usual and we had a good time. LMS started in on Halloweenies by Plum Street Sampler and LBH finished up her first simple cross stitch and picked out her next project from all the random stash I had. I started out working on Garden of Love, but didn't get too far because the girls wanted a report on the Italy/Greece trip. I can't talk and stitch at the same time, and I did a lot of talking.

It was TUSAL day on the 18th, but I haven't managed to take a picture of the orts or their jar yet.  I might end up giving it a skip this month.  The weekend was also International Hermit and Stitch weekend, and while I did put a few stitches into the mystery sampler in the morning, I didn't really stitch on much of anything at all.

On Saturday, the girls (and their families) and I got together to go to a Bees baseball game.  They are the AAA affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels.  I grew to love baseball back when I was living in San Francisco and had a nice connection to some sweet tickets.  But I digress.  I had decided I wanted to go to a baseball game for my birthday.  LBH took on the project and we put a group together.  The blurb on the web page said we would receive a voucher for a hot dog, chips, and a drink, plus a cupcake for everyone in the group.  It also mentioned a visit by the mascot and a mention on the big screen between innings.  I didn't think the visit by the mascot would be anything much, as he'd come by a section of seats when I've gone to games before.

Well I was a bit wrong... first off, I was attacked by silly string!

As you can see it was not expected as I was trying to get some cash out of my wallet to go for snacks.  LBH's middle chile is the youngster in the font, the LBH's head, then me with wallet.  The back of LMS's head is there in the lower right.

Then I danced with Bumble to a song that was playing over the PA system as the next batter came up to bat.

(I don't know why it's coming up on it's side.  It was showing correct side up when I finished editing it.  The crazy grin is because I'm laughing.)  Then Bumble got a good portion of the section to sing happy birthday to me and signed a baseball for me.  Bumble's guide/protector/look-out then passed out the cupcakes to the group and they were off for their next birthday ambush.

Here I am with the girls.

Left to right: MD, moi, LBH and LMS.  In the case of MD and I, we've known each other since I was in second grade.  LBH, LMS and I got to be friends in seventh grade.  I don't have a googleplex of friends, but those I do have are keepers for sure!

The Bees lost the game, and the fireworks after the game were pretty cool.  I have to say that we had a great time and are already talking about doing it again next summer.

To finish off the night, my sisters dog was flying in.  The original arrival time was 11:30 pm, but because of equipment issues, he wasn't going to arrive until after 12:30.  The game and fireworks got over with shortly before 10:30.  What to do with 2 hours to kill?  Brother A and SIL K were having an open house, off we went to see if that party was still in swing.  It was.  I got to see their new house, has some snacks, chatted with them a bit and generally just killed time until it was time to go to the airport.

At the airport we located where we were to pick up the dog and waited for him to be off loaded from the plane.  I signed the paperwork and the lady said we could get him out of his kennel if we had a leash, which we did.  He was very happy to get out of the crate!  He is a bit skittish of machinery and tried to get as far away from a baggage carrousel as he could.  Brother B and SIL A decided to take the crate up to the parking garage in the elevator, I decided to take the stairs.

Across the main drop off/pick up road of the airport is a sky bridge with an area to walk down in the center and moving sidewalks on either side.  The middle bit was closed off (it looked like they were redoing the tiles on the floor), so the moving sidewalk was the only option but it was shut down and not moving.  I didn't think Toby would have any problem with this.  Wrong.  He hit the ground, legs splayed and in an attitude of 'I am no going across that, no way, no how.'  Hmm...  I got out a treat I had brought and tried to coax him across.  He wasn't going to move.  I was still trying to coax him along when Bro B and SIL A arrived (the elevator was ridiculously slow.)  Bro B scooped up the dog and carried him across the moving sidewalk. I took over carrying his side of the crate.

Here is Toby lounging in the kitchen the next day.  We think he's an Australian Kelpie and he's become my shadow.

That pretty much sums up that week.  Now on to documenting this past week!

Hugs & Stitches,
Kay

Another week has flown by!

Yes indeed it has. We started Monday off by attaching all the slats to the rails of the fence. I'd hold the level and the slat, Brother B would screw the slats in. We just need to get a latch thing for the gate and we're done... Aside from staining it...

I know it looks like the rails are slanting one way and the distance from the top of the slats to the rails is going another way. That's just a trick of the lighting and the angle I took the picture from. They really are pretty level. Not perfectly level, but a lot more level than what the picture would lead you to believe.

Now that we've got the fence all but done, I've been gathering other stuff in preparation for my sisters dog to arrive. We've got him a giant bed from Costco, a couple of nylabones to chew on, and a bag of dog food. I need to get some of the rope toys that he likes and I think we're pretty well covered. He gets to eat and drink out of plastic containers until his box of stuff arrives. He flies in on United next Saturday.

I went a bit crazy on Monday and couldn't stand it any longer, so I went up to Shepherds Bush to pick out some linen for the Lizzie*Kate Mystery Sampler.  I got home and cut the linen, put it on the frame, and away I went.  I am stitching 2 over 2 on 28 count Thunderstorm.  The satin stitches in the saw tooth border look okay in the picture, but I don't like them when looking at them not in a picture.  I'm thinking of ripping them out and maybe filling in with just x's.

The sad thing is, that means that Flower Power has been set aside for now. I really want to keep up with Very Scary, and get it done as soon as I can as the sections of the pattern come out. Here is Flower Power when I took it off of the stand. I made some good progress on those green stems!

On Tuesday and Wednesday I spent time at the LDS Employement Services taking their Career Workshop. They have helps with interviewing and writing up resumes and all that good stuff. It's always nice to go in and have a refresher on that stuff.

Wednesday evening I was off to Salt Lake to see the Sound of Music put on by the Hale Centre Theatre. It was good. The play pretty much followed the movie and there wasn't anything new or surprising about the play itself. I more enjoyed watching the staging and seeing what their set designer had come up with. He's very clever and you can tell he loves his job by the little details and technical tricks he puts into things.

We have three season tickets to the shows there, and I couldn't get anyone to come with me this time. Brother B flatly refused to go, SIL A was afraid of getting car sick, my two best friends couldn't come, and SIL A's Mom and sisters were unavailable as well. So I went by myself. I sat in the middle of our three seats and hogged the armrests on both sides of me. Since I had requested seats with extra legroom, I enjoyed that space as well.

It was my birthday this past week, and that means at my house it's Annual Homemade Ice Cream day. I got out the freezer, mixed up a batch of Tutti Fruity and away we went! I will confess that it was a bit of a loosing battle, being about 100 degrees outside. I was running out of ice faster than the freezer could chill the cream and what not. In the end, I had to give up with a nice slush, but I poured it into containers and put it in the freezer. After a bit, I had good solid ice cream. Mmm mmm good!

Having homemade ice cream didn't stop me there. A local cupcake shop sent a coupon for a free birthday cupcake. So I went over and picked up a Strawberry Lemon-aid, a Lemon, a Coconut, and a Red Velvet cupcake. Sugartastic!

On the evening of my birthday MD decided she wanted to take me out to dinner, so after meeting with Mr. Trainer (which was free for my birthday!) we went over to Red Robin for burgers. I discovered they have a petite size on their bacon cheeseburger, so that helped with portion control, but it's still a large burger, and then there's just more room in the basket for fries.

After dinner we went over to Cold Stone creamery for dessert. Even though I got the smallest size they have, it felt like a lot of ice cream. After it all, I felt like Violet Beauregard in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the Gene Wilder version). I needed to be rolled home by and Oompa Loompa.

On Saturday I put together an antenna to pick up over the air tv. We ditched satellite a few months ago because of the cost. I really want to see the Olympics, so I've been working on getting an antenna up for the event. The directions were clear for putting the antenna together, but one of the warnings was: Warning - Do not attempt to install if drunk, pregnant or both. Do not throw antenna at spouse. (I kid you not. That is actually printed on my instructions.) Anyway, now that I've got it all put together, I need to get it rigged up and co-ax running into the house.

And finally, on Saturday, I wandered off to the tatting guild meeting. I finally got the right Saturday! There was another gal there who was also learning, but she is much further along than I am. She was very helpful with her her tips and what she's learned so far. I worked for a while and made a large ring, just practicing my knots. Then I did the two little loops to learn how to do a join. Finally I attempted the simple butterfly in the learn to tat book I'd purchased. Other than forgetting where I was with the size of my picots, I didn't put my first knot close enough to the base of the previous ring when I started my next ring. It's a bit of a mess. I need to learn how to place my knots a bit better, I think. I'm also pretty sure I wasn't keeping track as to which side was the front. I need to figure out how to do that so I know what I'm doing when it comes time to do all that reverse work stuff.

I'm slowly getting caught up on all the blogs that I like to read. I haven't been leaving any comments as I'm so far behind on everything. I'm also working on getting my adventures in Italy and Greece typed up so I should post those one of these days. Hopefully sooner than later, but you never know.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

Catching up on the week

I finally decided to sit down with Flower Power and put some serious time into it. I woke up around 6 am on Saturday and figured I might as well get up. So get up I did and sat right down in the stitchy chair and got after Flower Power. As you can see from below, I finished up the flower I was working on. I've moved on and added some more green leaves above the flower, but haven't pictured them.

I found that there is a small tatting group that meets at a local quilt shop the second Saturday of the month.  I was so looking forward to going and meeting with them and figuring out if there is a better way to get the knot to flip from one thread to the other.  Off I went Saturday afternoon to meet up with them.  I wandered all over the quilt shop (it's a larger one) and just couldn't find them.  Disappointed I went back home.  It wasn't until the next day, Sunday, that I figured out that I'd gone down on the first Saturday of the month!  Duh me.  I shall try again next Saturday.  Maybe I'll have more luck.

Also on Saturday, Brother A was kind and drove 35 miles or so to the house with his truck to help us out with the fence.  He brought down a load of trash to take to the transfer station before coming over here.  Once here, we headed over to Lowes to pick up the slats we needed for the fence.  I think we stood in line trying to pay for the slats longer than we did in picking them out!  After we unloaded the slats, we helped Brother A load up his big, red, wheeled tool box into his truck.  We then threw in the old cement piers we had dug up and as much of the junk wood as we could.  I gave him a $10 to pay for the load fee at the transfer station, and he was off again.

The mail on Saturday brought the first installment of the Lizzie*Kate Mystery Sampler.  I didn't order the specified fabric because I didn't know what it was.  I know, it's a mystery and I don't know what the fabric is, imagine that.  At any rate, I read that it was to be a pale grey and I went 'Blah'.  I like colors and I like motled fabrics.  I really want to head up to Shepherds Bush to see what they've got.  They have the best collection of fabrics between the two LNS I could go to.  I'm ready to push Flower Power aside and start right in on this project.

Sunday came and I settled down to stitch on Garden of Love.  I'm thinking I need to whittle down my random WIPs, finish up some of the smalls I have going on... But really it's just an excuse to be able to start something new.  I made quite a bit of progress on it, and I'm starting to think that I just might eek it out with out having to go buy whole skeins of the other colors.  We shall have to wait and see, though.

I should mention that I had a lovely Independence Day.  SIL A's family came over early and they all went out to the hot air balloon fiesta that takes place in conjunction with the Freedom Festival that the city hosts.  At one time it was one of the largest Fourth of July festivals in the country.  I don't know if that is still the case or not, but they do party for about a week before the actual event. 

Anyway, after her family did the balloons, they came over here for a large breakfast of waffles, muffins, sausages, and scrambled eggs.  After we ate, they headed off to the Colonial reenactment village and were gone the rest of the late morning, early afternoon.  They came back and we had the usual hamburgers, chips, and salads for an early dinner.  Once that was cleaned up, they headed off to their town for the fireworks.

The culminating event for the Freedom Festival is Stadium of Fire.  (We've joked about it being Stadium on Fire for years...)  They always have several different minor acts and then one bigger act perform before the big display of fireworks goes off.  I think this year our big act was the Beach Boys.  Anyway, If I sit out in the street at the end of the diveway, I've got a direct view of the top of the stadium, and therefore all the big fireworks.  It's perfect.

A year or so ago, the state legislature changed the laws on the fireworks that can be sold to the masses.  It went from little fountains and sparklers that can't go more than 10 feet off the ground to big aerial type fireworks.  The new rule is that the ash and what not has to have burnt out before it returns to the ground.  As you can imagine, the whole state has pretty much gone crazy and buys the new aerials like they are going out of style.  As I was sitting out in the street (closer to the edge of the road, really... and no one was driving by at any rate...) I was treated to all the aerial fireworks that my neighbors had purchased.  I could look west, north, and east and see the fireworks allowed to the public, and farther to the east to the big boomers that the pros set up.  Good times, a great show put on by all, and super cheap for me!

I'm back on the serious job hunt.  I've let the temp agency know that I'm available again, plus I'll be attending a career workshop this week to help polish up the resume and my interviewing skills.  I'm toying in my head of taking a change of direction from accounting.  Based on how much I enjoyed planning out my vacation, and how ocd I can be about stuff like that, it was suggested by some friends that maybe I should check into being a travel agent.  Hmmm...  I contacted my travel agent and asked if I could come down and check out what it is, exactly, that they do.  She said that I could, so next week sometime, I'll go spend a lot of time with her.  It could turn into something I like, or I could realize right quick that it's not something for me.

I do believe that is everything from last week.  It looks like my sisters dog is going to arrive this upcoming Saturday, so Brother B and I need to finish putting up the fence.  I can't thank Brother B enough for his help on the fence.  He'll go out and work on it for a while even when it's far too hot for me to go out and work on it.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

And the Travelling Pattern goes...

It goes back to Italy!! I should have just dropped it off before getting back on that plane home.

I entered 1 - 6 into Mr. Randomizer and he selected #2 and that leads us to Chiara of The Grey Tail. Go visit her blog! It's lovely and she does wonderful stitching. She'll be very busy indeed with this traveling pattern and Madame Muriel visiting at the same time. (There were 7 comments but one was a duplicate so I pulled that one out.) (I meant to take a screenshot of Mr. Randomizer, but I forgot!!)

Thanks everyone for stopping by and commenting. It was a lot of fun to travel with the pattern. It was pure coincidence that the pattern came to me before my trip.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

Building a Fence

I still haven't managed to sit down and stitch since I came back from Italy. Instead I've been working on building a fence with Brother B. We started on July 2nd and dug up the cement piers that held the old posts. We worked in the mornings and the evenings, avoiding the hottest part of the day. By the end of the 3rd, we had all the old stuff dug up, and the new posts put in place.

We took a bit of a break on the 4th for Independence day, but were back to work on the 5th. We got all the rails hung. Funny thing... the space between the posts has been slightly less than 8 feet for all the other spans that we've done. (Here and in other parts where the fence has blown over in past years.) Except for that section next to where the gate will be. It's closer to a 9 foot span. Argh! We took our 2x4x8's back and brought home two 2x4x10's.

This morning I started to sort through the wood pile. When the fence initially came down all those years ago, Dad pulled the pieces apart and stacked them up next to the house. The idea was to use the pieces again when we put the fence back up. Over the years more stuff has been added to the wood pile so the old fence slats were closer to the bottom of the pile. You can see some of the other piles I was making to keep things kind of organized.

Here are the slats that we've uncovered that are still useable. (They are the tidy stack to the left.) There are about 30 of them. The rest of the slats have become split or broken in one way or another. More slats have been used to repair other bits of the fence as needed. Brother B did some math and figured that we need about 97 slats for the fence and the gate. I guess we'll use as many of the old ones as we can and then have to buy more slats... I wonder if we could just buy a roll of chain link and staple it to the rails... I don't think Dad would like that very much.

So today or tomorrow we'll be back at Lowes or Home Depot, looking at slats and trying to decide what to do/buy to finish up the fence. I think we are going to have to call in Brother A and borrow his truck to do some hauling. I don't think we can fit 90 some odd slats in my Honda Accord.

As to why we are putting the fence back up along this side; my sisters dog is coming to live with us for a while. She is finishing up some rotations in Medical School and will be away from her house for two months on a couple of those rotations. Since boarding her dog for that long felt a little cruel, he's coming to live with us instead. (Oh boy! Doggie pictures to add to the blog!!)

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

Don't forget the Traveling Pattern is ready to travel again! Go HERE and comment if you'd like a chance to stitch it.

What I bought

So I bought all sorts of random souvenirs while on vacation. Here's the run down of the fun things I brought back. I probably spent as much money on gelato while in Italy, but you can't take that home!

While in Florence I bought this cute little watermelon wallet and a purple and pink handbag. Both are just as cute as can be.

I love all sorts of pretty glass things, so I really went to town in Venice and Murano. This vase and little bowl have my favorite colors.

I also bought this purple ornament to go on the Christmas tree.

And I finished up the glass purchases with the larger fish paper weight for me, and the little fish marbles to give away to my friends. I bought a fish paper weight 17 years ago when I first visited Venice and thought he needed a friend.

We also ventured out to Burano, the lace island and I bought a cute table topper. Mostly because it was purple and the flowers reminded me of pansies. I don't think it was made in Burano, however. China is my guess. I also needed a fan because it was dang hot and humid.

I bought this cute little bowl in Santorini. According to the gals in the store it's a traditional type of ceramic work, decoration and glazing for the area. It's pretty. And a box of strawberry delights to share around. One of my favorite things I bought in Greece was a traditional type apple pie in Corfu. I was starving and that pie was delicious.

When I went on my first cruise I bought a Christmas ornament and a mug with the name of the ship on, so I had to do the same for this trip. I must say that the selection of ship branded items on NCL was not as cool as those that RCI had.

I need to work on writing up all of my adventures across Italy and Greece. Those will be forth coming.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

Traveling Pattern - Done and time for it to move on

Well, I stitched a little here an there, but mostly on the airplane and got Thankful for Ewe all completed. But before I show that off, lets see a few other places it went.

Acting as a cover-all to the replica David statue on the plaza in front of the Vecchio Palace in Florence. (We did see the real thing, photos weren't allowed.)

Next up, here we are in the Cinque Terre national park at the village of Manarola...

and in the village of Vernazza, which suffered from major flooding in October of 2011.

On a different day, the Traveling pattern could be seen at the top of the Dome of the Duomo.  It's only 460 some odd steps to the top...

Down at the Straw Market patting the boars nose (It's supposed to ensure you return again.)

And out at the Boboli Gardens at the Pitti Palace. (We were inside too but again, no photos allowed.)

And lastly, in front of a stitchy store that was never open.  We went by on all days at all sorts of times, at this address and a second address.  The annoyed expression on my face pretty much sums it up.  I wanted to get some European stitchy stuff!!

I forgot to haul it around with me in Venice, and finished up the stitching while relaxing outside on the Cruise ship.

Now for the fun part!  It's time for this pattern to travel on to a new stitcher!  Leave a comment on this post only (please include your e-mail address so I can contact you!) if you want to be next to stitch this cute little pattern.  I'll leave it open until Sunday night, July 8th and then Mr. Randomizer will do it's thing on Monday.

Hugs & Stitches,
Kay