Weekend in Houston

I arrived in Houston on Thursday. Met the new baby Cassady and then off to the LNS, 3 Stitches. I picked up two Dinky Dye patterns with floss and some fabric. I could have spent so much more but I restrained myself.

Other than going to the LNS, the point of the trip was to meet my new niece and to spend Marly's birthday with her.

Friday the kids were off. In the morning Marly and I headed to the mall to do her birthday shopping. We left so early, at the request of her mom, that the mall wasn't open. So we went to Sonic and had French Toast Sticks and talked! We went to several shops in the mall but ended up in a store near her house, Justice for Girls. She picked out a brand new outfit to wear for her birthday on Saturday. That afternoon I took Marly and Parker to lunch and then we got some ice cream and went to the park to eat it and play. We ran around the playground playing chase. There was some excitement when one of the dogs escaped the house and I, along with their grandmother went chasing after the dog. We were so irritated. She ran faster and faster. Finally, the only reason we caught up with her was because the dang dog tired out.

Saturday, being Marly's birthday, we went to the Movie Tavern for the 9 am showing of Hannah Montana. They have a special where you pay for the movie and all you can eat flapjacks (pancakes). It was a cool thing to do. The movie was cute but kind of long. We then went to the tea room for lunch where Marly (and Cassady too) tried on hats. We then spent the afternoon at home opening up presents and then had a barbecue. The night ended with us all watching Bedtime Stories (ok, I must admit, I didn't last the whole movie! lol)

I stayed long enough Sunday morning to see what the Easter bunny had brought and to watch the kids hunt eggs several times. There was severe weather forecasted for the Houston weather and the Baton Rouge area so I left by 10 a.m. It took me forever to get home!!! The rain was so bad, combined with the wind, that you couldn't see anything. So frustrating. But now I am home, but in an empty apartment! Duke is at the boarder till tomorrow afternoon! I can't wait for him to get home!

Whew!

Ok, so the "big" meeting today turned out to be NOTHING! A week of worrying for nothing! It was basically a pep talk. "We appreciate your working here." "These are the plans we have for the future." "Even though you aren't with us at the main office, we still care." It was FIFTEEN minutes long. That was it!

On other news, I am off to Houston tomorrow to see my niece and nephew! I cannot wait. It's been exactly a year, I think, since I last saw them. I will also be meeting the newest addition to the family! I hope to come back with lots of pics to share! I also plan on making a trip to 3 Stitches, LNS in Spring, Texas! I hope to get some good stuff to share!

No finishes or updates to report. I've had a lot going on personally and did not spend that much time stitching. I know, shame on me!!!! But I hope that once I get back from Houston I can get some progress made!

Needle and Floss Exchange

Yesterday when I came home I had a package in the mail from Nancy. It contained the following flosses (along with a book of needles):

The picture really doesn't do the colors justice at all! They are all so bright and springy. The second from the left especially! It is such a deep rich purple. I love them all! Thanks Nancy!

Weekend Update

I have had an overall good weekend! The weather has been beautiful! With the exception of very little sleep on Saturday night, there's not a lot I can complain about!

On Saturday I spent the day with my mom. She went with me to New Orleans as I went to explore Acadian Corner, an LNS. I fell in love with this shop! I was flitting from one display to the next saying "I want this" "I want that." LOL! I finally had to tell my mom I needed to get out of there! I did pick up a few flosses and needles for the ILCS exchange of needles and floss and I picked up material for a new start, HAED pattern Mad Tea Party.

Sunday has been a lazy day. Mostly because I did not sleep well last night. I finished Twilight again and started to read Angels and Demons. That is a really good book so far. I haven't read much but it definitely has me intrigued! I also listened to the LSU baseball game where they beat Georgia (they took 2 out of 3 this weekend to win the series!). I also went out and got me a strawberry shake, yummy!

I haven't done much stitching as I would have liked this weekend but I do have an update on the Winnie the Pooh picture I am doing.

My Heart & Soul

Here's a picture of one of the pieces to my heart & soul. This is my little man, Parker. He is feeding his new baby sister, Cassady Hope. I can't wait till I get to Houston this week to see him, Marly Grace and Cassady. These kids are my life. And with all the confusion in my life right now, I need some time with just my kids and the simplicity of their lives!

I watched Casablanca last night for the first time. I'll admit it, I'm very behind on watching some of the top classic movies. I just watched Godfather within the past year! Anyway, the movie was interesting. I'm not going to say it's my favorite but it did bring up some interesting questions that apply to my life! Are there really people out there that are so selfless that they would let the person they love go knowing that it is the right thing to do? I honestly don't know if I, or anyone I know, is that strong that they could let the one person in the world who completes them to just walk away. Or not even walk away, Humphrey Bogart's character sent the love of his life away!

I need to get some stitching done today! I am behind on a few projects that I am so close to wrapping up! Off I go!

The Good, The Bad...and the ugly?

I know I am a little bit early on a weekly wrap up, but it's been one of those weeks!

This has been a good week and a bad week. The good parts were that the bad weather finally went away and we were able to clean up and start enjoying spring again. I was able to connect with My Sailor and have lovely nice long conversations with him (it's so rare we get the time to do that!). I've been busy working on some projects and have almost completed some of them! The bad, or not so good, part of the week was that a staff meeting has been called for our subsidiary next week and the COO, CEO, and human resource manager will be there to help with some "personnel matters." Nope, not a clue what that is. The theories are flying though!!! #1 theory: we are all being laid off. There are a bunch of other theories but to be honest, none of us know what it is about. But in today's economy, who knows? I'm amazingly calm about it though. I'm not so sure if that is a good or bad thing?

I will try to have some pictures to put up of completed projects (fingers crossed!). Maybe some pictures of my time with Duke. Hope to get out to the dog park or the levee to give him some time to run and play! That is if it doesn't still look very wet out there. There is nothing worse than wet dog and then having to give him a bath!!!!

Spring Weekend

This is how much I have completed on the picture for the baby. It's a pretty easy stitch and I do hope to have it finished fairly quickly. Now, I did go get that thread that I need to finish Buzz. I haven't worked on it yet this weekend, but I just might. Definitely at some time this week!

It was a very pretty spring weekend after a very terrible week of storms. It was bright and sunny outside. Once I cleaned off the balcony, Duke was able to spend many hours out there. He loves to watch the squirrels and the black cats that seem to populate the courtyard.

This is Duke's favorite spot when he isn't outside. He can stand on top of the sofa and see outside. I think this is where he hangs out all day when I am at work. Gives him a great view of everything!

New Addition/Project

There is a new addition to my friends' family. Welcome Cassady Hope Elizabeth who joins her siblings, Marly Grace and Parker! She was born Friday around 9:30 am. She is 19 1/2 inches long and 7 lbs. 13 oz. Cassady is a special addition to the family as she is being adopted. My trip to Houston will be very special now. I will get to meet my newest niece.

In honor of her birth, I am going to do a Winnie the Pooh picture that was in issue 210 of Cross Stitcher. I think it is just too cute and can't wait to see it! She will eventually get her baby blanket too. Once I get around to doing it! LOL! So many projects, so little time!

End of the Week

Yeah, the week is over! One more night of bad storms and we should have it behind us!!! I just hope that they can get the baseball games played this weekend!




This week I worked on Dragon Knot 2. I ran out of one of the threads in Buzz so I put it aside till I can get to the store.

Tonight I am going to start kitting up some other projects. :) I know, so bad. But I have some new magazines with some patterns that I am dying to do so I am hoping I have the stash for it already. But if I don't, I'm also going to put together some shopping lists. I am headed to Houston in 2 weeks and there is a LNS there that I adore. I'm hoping to get by it and purchase a few things!

Bad Storms!

Early this morning South Louisiana and parts of Mississippi had a terrible storm come through. I woke up around 1 am this morning to a horrible howling noise. Shortly thereafter I lost power. I didn't get it back till around 7 this morning.

Getting to work was fun! Lights were out. Roads were flooded. Debris was everywhere! When I got home this afternoon I took some pictures of trees that had fallen in the complex. Looking around the area, it was like a flashback to when Hurricanes Gustav and Ike had come through.

In the above picture you can still see the stumps that were left from the trees that fell during the hurricanes. The trees just behind it fell or were so damaged that they cut them down today.

I certainly hope that all the limbs/trees that were left to fall down are now down as we are supposed to have another round of severe storms tonight and Friday night. The day time is fine. Just overcast and dreary looking. Time to clean up before more damage occurs. I certainly hope that I don't lose power tonight too!

Great Weekend

I've been working on Buzz. He's 75% completed. I am hoping that I finish him up by next weekend! Then all I will have to do is finish him as a photo album. Maybe this can be an Easter present? Hmmm, I won't put a deadline on it because I will never meet it then! LOL!

This weekend was super beautiful here! Sunny skies, warm weather, not a cloud in the sky! I was able to take Duke to the dog park two days in a row. On Saturday he was so well behaved and played with the other dogs. On Sunday, he decided he was going to be a grumpy old man and be by himself. Should any other dog come by him, he snapped at them. We only stayed about 40 minutes. But in that 40 minutes he managed to get super duper dirty so he was whisked to the bath immediately upon our return home. He spent the remainder of the day, when not sunning on the patio, on the back of the couch.

The weather was so nice so I took the opportunity to start doing some spring gardening! I went outside and cleaned up my patio area and planted a bunch of new flowers. These are only some of my flowers on the patio. Many of them are from the past few years, having survived even the freezes of the past winter! But I have a few new ones. It was fun getting dirty. I so rarely do that.

Customer Service

So, we have a convention that is being held in another state. Way out west. It's next week. So all materials have to be shipped. The coordinator calls the shipping company several times to find out what the latest possible date is to ship something there at the cheapest price and that is today. So she sets up a pick up for today. They tell her the guy will be there between 12 pm and 5 pm. This isn't something new for our office. We do this kind of stuff year after year.

At 8:30ish this morning (well before noon), the guy comes to pick everything up. Of course the boxes are not ready (all 23 of various sizes and weights). The coordinator tells the driver that we were given a time of between 12 and 5, which he says he was not told. So, of course, the question comes up, can you come back? "I'll try." That's what the driver says. "I'll try."

Once he leaves, the coordinator gets on the phone with the shipping company. After a very long conversation, she sets up another pick up time of 11 a.m. Everyone in the office pitches in to get the boxes ready in just 2 short hours. The boxes are ready to go at 11 a.m. Does the driver come back? No, of course not.

Around 2ish the driver is back. He walks in our office and sees the 23 boxes and says "I can't pick all this up." Seriously all, he was not going to pick up our boxes. He wanted to send someone back. Did he not have room in his truck for it all? NO! He said he just didn't have time to pick them up. DID NOT HAVE TIME! He wanted us to put everything outside the office building so someone else could pick it up after 5 pm today.

One of our co-workers had enough sass to tell him no we would not do that and that if getting all the boxes out to the truck in a timely manner was the issue he didn't have to worry about it. Us, women, would get it out there. All 4 of us in the office loaded up our dollies (we each have one in our office because we are always moving things) and we had all 23 boxes outside for him to load in under 5 minutes.

The point of this rant? Where did customer service go? The man had a job, that he is paid for, should be thankful for in this economy, and because there were too many boxes, he didn't want to. That company is going to be getting an earful from our office!

Spring is here!

Today was a beautiful day! Ok, I admit, I didn't know that till I left work today, I was still able to enjoy some of it! Duke and I took a little walk in the business complex across from my apartment. Got a little sun and fresh air after 5 days of rain! It was so nice to move around, clear the head, and well, I think I actually got a little pink today! LOL! As you can see in the picture, the azaleas are blooming! It was 80 degrees today and it is supposed to be in the upper 70s to low 80s for the rest of the week!

Has anyone seen the new Passione Ricamo patterns? I am lusting after Spring Beauty Princess. I am trying to refrain from purchasing this one. I've never done one of these patterns, although there are some very beautiful ones. I might put this pattern and the fabric for it on my birthday list. I can hold off for 2 more months. My birthday isn't that far away!

LIfe Update

Wow! Time has been flying. It is the middle of March already! I feel like the world is just moving so fast these days! I've been working so much on different conventions that I sometimes don't know what day it is! But hopefully things will be slowing down and I can start focusing on things like reading, stitching, getting ready for spring!!!

I finished up a convention this past week that I had been working on for the past 3 weeks. It was a big one but since I wasn't the lead coordinator on it, I enjoyed it even more! But I have to say I was a "meanie" at times due to the amount of work stress going on! I have to thank my wonderful Sailor for putting up with me and being my support through it all! I don't know how I would have gotten through it without ya!

I found out this weekend that my cousin was accepted into MIT! Wow! That's a huge achievement. While he is happy with that, he is holding out for Stanford! I can't even imagine! I did well in school, all A's, but not well enough to even be looked at by either of those schools!

Getting excited about my trip to see the family in May for my cousin's graduation. I haven't been "home" in about 10 years. That's way too long to have gone with out a visit!!! So I will be making up for it. My mom, my sister and I will all be there. I can't even tell you the last time we were all there together at the same time. It will be great fun to see the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins again!

I hope to start having more updates on stitching to share. I am currently working on two mainly, Dragon Knot and Buzz. Although, I just might bring some other projects into the mix! Don't want to be bored!

Color the World Exchange

I participated in the color the world exchange on my I Love Cross Stitch group. The idea was to send items to your partner in their favorite color. I was partnered with Mary from Illinois. Today I received my box of goodies. There are some really pretty floss and a piece of fabric that makes me want to find the absolute perfect pattern to go with it so I can start stitching on it right away! It was definitely nice to come home to these surprises!

Buzz and Dragon

Despite spending the last 3 weeks working on a big convention (which thankfully ended today!), I was able to spend some time on stitching. Today I was able to finish the 2nd page of Buzz:

I also picked up Dragon again. I recently joined Our Friends' HAED SAL. If you want to see some terrific stitching on HAED patterns, this is the blog to read!!!! Anyway, despite being tired from work, I was able to get a little bit of stitching done on Dragon Knot:

Finally Finished!

I have finally finished Eeyore! Yay! I am so excited. Next payday I will go to the fabric store to purchase some fabric, hopefully either an Eeyore or Winnie the Pooh patterned fabric, to finish the back on it!

Weekend Update

This weekend, in South Louisiana, has been a sunny and hot one! I believe yesterday we reached 83 degrees and today we are on our way to that again!

I took Duke to the dog park. There were about 10 to 15 other little dogs in the little dog section and of course, I brought him there so he could play and wear himself out and he would have nothing to do with any of them! He would just ignore them and walk around the yard all by himself. I did manage to click a few pics.

I also have been working on Buzz this weekend. I completed 1 out of 4 pages. I'm hoping that it is a quick stitch. Since it's not a pattern that appeals to me, it is so hard for me to work on it!

Cup Cakes

Today at work we celebrated the birthday of a co-worker. Her actual birthday is Saturday but since she doesn't work on Fridays, we did it today. I went off to a local bakery this morning and instead of a cake I picked up some cupcakes. I thought this would be a much better idea because this way, there would be no left overs to deal with! I wanted to share some pictures of the cup cakes because they were just so cute!

Package in the mail!

Don't you love it when you come home and you have a package in the mailbox for you? I know I do. Today's package was full of the threads and pattern for Nora Corbett's Holly! I cannot wait to start it!!!! But I will not till I finish Eeyore! At least that is what I keep telling myself!



Speaking of Eeyore. I am so very close to being done. If I don't finish it this week, then I am just being incredibly lazy!!! As you can see, I just have the bottom right corner left to do. It's not really a bad amount. I'll try to work on it tonight while I am watching the finale of The Bachelor.



This weekend was relaxing but kind of busy. I was lucky enough to get my hair cut and colored on Saturday, followed by a trip to Hobby Lobby, and then a very exciting LSU men's basketball game. The weather also went from hot to cold in one day! Saturday started off in the 70s and by 5 pm it was 49 degrees!!! I loathe when it does that. Sunday was a pretty day with white fluffy clouds and bright sunshine. Duke enjoyed spending some time out on the balcony. HOWEVER, it was all very deceiving!! The wind was wickedly bitter cold and the temps were in the low 50s! I am so glad I decided not to go to the LSU baseball game!!!! On Sunday, I caught up with an old friend/boyfriend of mine from high school. We hadn't seen each other probably since sophomore year in high school. Through Facebook we were able to reconnect and it was really nice catching up with him and comparing notes on where we've ended up in our lives!!!



This week is going to be a very busy week at work. I have a mini-convention on Friday and then I am also helping another coordinator with her convention which is next week. And it's a big one! Over 600 participants. That is double my largest convention!!!! It's already kicking my butt! But I did hear from My Sailor today and he is once again, or at least I am assuming he is (I guess I should have gotten that clarified!), that he is back on land again! At least he is alive! :)

I hope to make some progress this week on stitching and hope to share that with all of you later! Have a great week!

Night at the Box

A night at the Box with my Dad and sister. The Box being Alex Box Stadium on LSU campus. That's right, it is baseball season! This season the LSU Tigers have a brand new stadium. My Dad took my sister and I there for the LSU - Southern game as we typically always go for my sister's birthday. Since she had been in town for mardi gras, we were able to continue the tradition this year. Here are some pics from the night:

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Today I stayed home from work because upon waking up, I had a migraine and my eyes were swollen shut! What a way to start off a Monday. So I got up and took some medication, laid back down and hoped that I felt better. 30 minutes later, I wasn't feeling any better. I called into work and went back to bed. I woke up around 10 and am feeling better but feel very very sore and there is no way I can get a pair of contacts in today!

I finished the book, Confessions of a Shopaholic this morning. Has anyone read this? I've been told by several people that this was a cute, fun read. Personally, I did not like it. I thought it silly and wanted to slap the heroine across the head several times. I don't believe that I will be reading any further in this series. I may go to see the movie though.

My next book to read is A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire. This is book 3 in the Wicked Series. It's about the Cowardly Lion of Wizard of Oz. I enjoyed the first book, Wicked, about the Wicked Witch of the East. It was a very interesting point of view. The second book, Son of the Witch, was not as good as the first. I'm hoping that this 3rd one goes back to the original storytelling of Wicked. There are rumors that with the success of this series that Maguire will be doing the Tin Man and Scarecrow's stories.

Now I am going to spend a relaxing afternoon stitching. I hope to get some progress on a few projects. Hopefully by this evening my head will no longer feel like a sledge hammer hit it!

Eeyore Update

I have been doing some stitching in the evenings. I am trying not to be lazy. Especially when I am so close to finishing and I have so many more waiting to be started! :)

Here's my update on the Eeyore:

Spanish Town Parade

Yesterday, my friends and I went to the Spanish Town Parade. This is a local parade for us. The theme was "Bayeux Bailout." This parade is a lot of fun to go to and very politically incorrect. But if you don't want to fight the crowds of New Orleans, it's a great alternative. Here are some pics of us from the day:

Stash and Valentine's Day

While I did not spend my Valentine's with that "Someone Special" I did have a good day. My daddy bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and then I indulged myself by buying myself a bouquet. I always like to have fresh flowers around and well, it's a luxury that I tend to have to live without. I had a wonderful lunch at a fancy french restaurant with my parents and then I headed off to see a movie.

On Valentine's Day, by myself, I saw.......Friday the 13th! Yes, on the day of love I went to see a horror movie! I LOVE horror movies. At times, I believe that they are so much better than a comedy. I can't tell you how many times I, and the audience, were laughing out loud! And proof that it isn't that bad of a movie, it was #1 this weekend!

I also did some indulging this weekend. I purchased the books, Night Huntress by Yasmine Galenorn and Confessions of a Shopaholic. I also purchased two cross stitch magazines. And the biggest indulgence of all, I purchased Nora Corbett's Holly pattern, some fabric from Silkweavers, and 2 HAED patterns: The Mad Hatter's Tea Party and Cinderella's Coach! I've already downloaded the 2 HAED patterns and will probably start kitting those up really soon. But I have to wait for the rest of my purchases to come in the mail! I'm very excited! Because what I need is one more project to work on! :)

Back to the Real World

I am back from New Orleans. The convention was a success. Few minor mishaps but nothing that the actual attendees saw. Just some "behind the scenes" stuff like me coming down with a 24 hour bug that kicked my butt! Nothing worse than being sick when away from home and having to work!!!! But overall everyone seemed satisfy. So I have a few more months to wrap up this one and begin working on the summer convention before worrying about next year's!

While I was gone my mom kept my baby. Part of the deal was that I would send him to the groomer for the day so she wouldn't have to spend too much time with him! LOL! He came back looking quite beautiful! At least to me he does! LOL!

My mom was also nice enough to come to my house and do some cleaning and stocking. I am totally overlooking the fact that my mom was looking into closets and cabinets in order to do this as I am eternally grateful for her picking up essentials like milk, bread, toilet paper, paper towels, etc. During convention time I tend to let everything slide and exist on the bare basics. She helped out a lot by restocking my pantry and bathroom. I think she even did some laundry.

Not much stitching happened the last week but I do have two progress photos that I had promised earlier on Buzz and Eeyore. I hope to get back into stitching as soon as I am rested. I took off today and have done very little of anything but doze on the couch!

And the winners are.....

In the Amore draw: Margie!!!!

In the Iris keeper draw: Lillian!!!!

If you send me your email address to mellee0525@yahoo.com I will gladly send you your new patterns!!!

Happy Stitching!

4th Page

I just finished the fourth page of Dragon Knot today! I wanted to get it posted before I headed to my parents for the Super Bowl. I will post other update photos on my other two projects but really wanted to get this one up! Only 12 more pages to go!